The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-19

signals on the nature or these com" muniques in announcing the gen. eral policy of giving everything to the public, providing the "every- thing" conformed with two condi- tions-the news must be accurate and 1t must not give aid and com fort to the enemy. Naturally, a whole lot can be left unsaid under that latter condition, and under the first restriction, writers Of the con- munlcues are reluctant to put out anything they might have to take back later,
 The actual writers of the com- muniques say they are working tn. officially under one of these presi. dental passions for anonymity, but Gen, Alexander D. Surles for the Army and Rear Adm. Arthur J, Hepburn for the Navy put the final okay on their respective communi- ques before they're released, Some- times, where Q communique Involves information relating to both serv- ices, they get. together.
 In general, this policy seems to indicate that our communlqueS will be straight stuff. They may not tell ali there Is to tell, but what they do tell won't be baloney mustarded with hooey.
 FIRST WAR DECLARATIONS
 Declarations of war on the United States by Japan, Germany and Italy mark the first time major powers have taken thiS action, al- though the United States has been In eight warS-nine If you count the Revolution, 10 # you count the War Between the States. Only pre-. yiouS formal declaration of war against the United States was made by Tripoli In 1900. The catch or that statement is ether nations with which the United States has fought either did not take formal action in declaring war, or were content to declare that 70 state of war exist- ed," or some such diplomatic dodge
 The Presidents declSion to with. hold from the public the full cas-! ualty lists and merely to inform the next Of kin in each case iS slightly different from the practice Of the last war, though it iB common prRc. tice in oil countries engaged in the present conflict
 In the last war, there was c pub. iicatlon known as "The Official Bul- letin," which carried eaSualty lists itl full, and this publication was diS- tilbuted to newspapers and officials Of the government, and was posted in all post offices. A little larger than business letter paper size, the Bulletin was Issued by the Conl- Hittee on Public Information, Of which George Creel was civilian chairman. It varied in number Of pages from day to day, contained oil official orders on the war, oil coinmuniques, and in It's first Issue of May 10, 1917, the Bulletin stated It's purpose was "to inform the pub- lie as fully as military exigencies will permit, on oil subjects relating to the war"
 Some days there were no casualty lists, on others there were pages and pages of names, including all those who died ii1 camp during epidenicS. But mutual understanding, news papers agreed not to carry the cas. ualty lists, but they were open to- the public through the Bulletin.
 Thus far, there has been no indi- cation the Bulletin will Do revived. or Q similar publication iRSued for the same purpose:
 MORE STRIKES? 7
 Shift in the character Of labor disputes Is becoming apparent to federal labor conc!liators. Since the Wagner act was passed, most of the arguments have been organizatiohal wrangles over recognition Of unions and such issues. Before that time wage disputes were most common. Now wage disputes are becoming more frequent, and while the dec- laratlon of war by Japan had an immediate effect on stabilIzing the labor situation, a resurgence Of wage issue strikes is expected, particular, ly if the cost of living is not begged by price control.
 Another development labor ad- ministrators fear and are trying to check is a return Of the plrating of employees from one employer to another. There was a lot Of this competitive bidding for skilled laborerg at the beginning of the de- fense effort. Aircraft plants in par- ticular were accused of raiding older establishments for highly skilled machinists. Recently, this condition has been quieter, but now, with all the impetus to three-shift operation of war industries, the demand for skilled workers will increase and the old labor scouting expeditions may break out again.