The Wilmington morning star., 1940-07-12
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
WASHINGTON, July 11.-Gastronomical::

WASHINGTON, July 11.-~Gastronomical:
Capital gourmets have an ache, but it didn't
come from eating. Just the reverse, in fact.
Russian caviar is up 100 per cent in price when
you can get it at all. The fine French cham
pagnes are getting as scarce as bathwater in
Death Valley. The kegs of famous Holland and
Munchen beers are getting down to the spigots.
Mates herring, from Sweden, is soaring.
Olives from Italy, Spain and other Mediterran-
can countries are far from as plentiful or as
cheap as they used to be. The imported Dutch,
Danish and scandinavian cheeses no longer
tickle the nostrils when you swing through the
delicatessen screen doors.
The last shipment of spisbrod Swedish
bread to arrive here, came by way of Russia
and Japan. It's only a question of months now.
if things go on like this, that the best smorgas-
bord in the land will look as meager as Sum
days chicken on Tuesday morning.
Imported sardines are no longer Just hard
to get out of the can. it's getting so YOU
can't even get the cans. Polish hams are more
often a memory than a reality. One more win
ter, and people who salve their summers with
Rhine wine and soda will have to turn to gin
N tonic. Ancient eggs, bird nests, and kipper-
ed octupus still are coming through from China
but that's scant consolation. Oddly enough, the
gourmets are about the only ones who are
WCCPAAS' . . l tAOoC AAAAHoAt CAS WIN o1O
finding business isn't what it was before the
war; A lot of the delicatessen and fancy food
grocers will tell you it's a goodthing for
America. Maybe, they say, our high-hat food
connoisseurs will learn to ''eat America first
and like it.
Auricular: Don't accuse me of any drive to
shut up our Congressional shop, but l just
found out, and can't help repeating, that it
cost So, 200 a month in telephones alone to keep
Congress in session.
The annual telephone bill for the Capitol and
the office buildings there is $4,000 to $4,000
a wear. There are about 1900 phones in the
place, 1000 belonging to the Senate and 1,400
to the House. In session, the Senate spends
about ST, 900 a month more; the House s., 200.
That's on a basis of three cents apiece for
outside calls and one cent apiece Tor calls to
the government departments.
Fortunately for us taxpayers, there's no such
thing as overtime on Capitol calls. If there
we're, those congressman and Senators VINO
call up and have their mail read to them at
the breakfast table and sometimes dictate ALI
swers soon would double the naional dept.
Questions of the day: Why does nearly every.
one keep on referring to '"The Allies when
Great Britain no longer has any alliance with
anybody? Why hasn't someone done "a really
bang-up analysis of the propaganda in this war,
pointing out that the Allies with a little less
vigor, have applied the same technique they
used in the World war, while Germany has
done an about-face and by pulling out the two
important stops of fear and creation of internal
dissension, has been effective in nearly every
conquered country? What are our ladies (and
our fashion designers) going to do about the
absence Of Paris fashions? How long can Brit
ain hold out? What are the Willkie clan and
the New Deal going to find to fight about thai
won't seem too, too trivial in the face of world
events Con which they seem to be in such
close agreernent)2