The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-13
Bruce Cations
In Washington
star-News Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Contrary to what you may
have heard, nobody in particular is trying to
get the U. S. government to give Great Britain
the 50-odd Flying fortresses' now in the serv-
ice of the army air corps.
What is being attempted-especially by the
William Allen White committee-is to make
available to Britain the flying fortresses which
are now under construction for the u. S. army
The understanding is that about a dozen Of
these giant bombers are now ready for de-
livery, with approximately 70 more due to be
finished by Jan. 1. The White committee hopes
that the administration can be persuaded to
release the manufacturers so that these planes
may be sent to Britain; it isn't agitatlng for
delivery of planes now in service, nor is i
| asking that the famous bomb sight be turned
over.
Importance of these huge bombers to Brit
ain is that they would make intensive bombing
of Berlin and other German cities much easier,
because Of their long range and great carrying
capacity.
Memo: Look for a concerted drive this
winter to modify the neutrality law and
repeal the johnson act banning loans to
foreign governments which haven't paid
their World War debts. Understanding is
that before so terribly long the British
will run out of ready cash. A big push
to make credit available will then be in
order.
YOU'RE FIRED! HERE'S WHY -
Files of the social security board have
some odd bits of evidence on the reasons why
men get fired from their jobs.
Under the law, a discharged worker is en-
titled to unemployment compensation unless
he is fired for his own misconduct. Files Of
the board are full of hearings before the var
ious state appeal boards, in which divers ex'
workers have sought to show that they were
fired through no fault Of their own.
Prize case, perhaps, is that of a hotel ele'
vator operator who got let out for giving a
fellow employe the 'hot foot" He was held
not guilty of misconduct; his ex-boss, inciden
tally, backed his plea.
Less lucky was a warehouse employe who
called his boss a lot of bad names over the
phone while talking to a fellow employe; boss
was listening in. The Texas appeal board held
this was misconduct.
FIGURE THIS OUT
Because somebody made a mistake in arith.
metic, the U. S. Housing Authority has $500,
00O, 600 which it doesn't know whether it can
use.
Under the original act, USHA could lend
$500, 900, 600 on housing, making loans ur
to 80 per cent of the cost of any project; it
could also grant an outright subsidy not ex
ceeding 3 IL per cent of the total cost of a
project.
In setting up the subsidy appropriation,
however,, somebody figured it as 3 IL per cent
of the total loans instead of 3 IL per cent Of
the total costs. Thus, subsidy money was pro
vided to accompany only 80 per cent of the
total project costs. AS a result, UsHA ran out
of subsidy money before its lending authority
was exhausted. Potential loans of 500, 600, DOC
were thus frozen up.
Defense commission hopes to have the sum
ruled legal for use on defense housing. On that
sort of project, USHA can lend 100 per cent
of cost thus the entire sum could be used
pronto with no additional subsidy.