The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-04-09
labor problems was also thrown in Miss Perkins face.

labor problems was also thrown in Miss Perkins face.
 Miss Perkins, noted for her loquacity at Cabinet sessions, made a long defense of herself. She claimed that John R. Steel- man chief of the Cancellation Service, had told her he thought he could settle the Allis- -Chalm- CTS strike, and that Lewis had told Stee!man he would not stand for turning the coal negotiations over to the Mediation Board.
 ANTI-sTEELMAN
 Steelman also came in for some sharp discussion at the Cabinet meeting. One shot was to the effect that he seemed to be more interested in playing personal poli- tics with ATTL and C1O moguls than in averting labor blowups.
 The ore-time Alabama sociology professor has been criticized on this score in the inner circle for some time. It is charged that Steelman has loaded his staff with AFL and CIO men and built up such a powerful lobbying machine that he, not Miss Perkins, actually Is running the Labor Depart merlt.
 His influence is graphically shown in the Allis.C Chalmers and coal cases. Defense and Adminis- tration chiefs strongly urged prompt action in both, but Steel man was able to overrule theni- until, in the Allis- Chalmers case, they went over Miss Perkins head and she was ordered to call in the Mediation Board.
 BACHELOR MARTIN
 In being persuaded to remain as Republican National chairman, Joe Martin was willing to let the party leaders regulate his public life-but not his private life.
 At the meeting which decided his continuance in office, the party chiefs also discussed proposad to set up committees to study special political and economic problems. Mrs. Lindsay Pat terson, National Committeewonan from North Carolina, asked to be named chairman of 0 "matri- monial committeee to get Joe Martin a wife"
 Turning g beet-red, bachelor Joe demurred. He said: "I have
 too many other responsibilities" DARK ITALIAN EMBASSY
 Washington society in recent weeks seldom has bene more hec- tic and more gay. But seldom have the doors of the once gay italian Embassy been darker. There are several reasons for this, one of them being that members of the Embassy are not invited out any more; another that Italian deplomats do not feel very much like going out anyway.
 Prince C0l0nna, the very
 charming ambassador happens to
 be married to Q Greek wife, so
 his ideas on war with Greece
 can be left to the imagination.
 Other Embassy members have
 close friends in Great Britain,
 Greece and the United States.
 There is no enthusiasm about
 the war.
 Now banished from the United States is Admiral Alberto Lais, naval attache, involved in sabotag- ing the Italian ships seized in American harbors last week. For him departure from this country is especially heart-rending be- cause he not only leaves behind an American wife and daughter, but what most people do not know he has a son in the Italian navy. Thus father and son will be in Italy, with mother and daughter in the United States.
 Admiral and Signora Lais were among the few who still enter tained at dinner. Recently. among their guests were Assistant Sec- retary of State and Mrs. Breck- inridge Long, with Sam Reber of the State Department. Long once was Ambassador to Rome, while Reber was stationed in the Em- bassy there.
 After dinner the jovlal Admiral Lais took the gentlemen Into his library, where he talked about his country and about his hopes that the war soon would be over. "You see," he said with q slightly pa theteic smile. T am half Ameri- can"