The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1941-09-09
. BEHIND THE SCENES
IN WASHINGTON

convinced themselves thot
WPA Is O good thing and
necessary, with all its fouIts,
to keep the unemployed from
going hungry. Its defense
projects hove been q big help
and many Of its schools, hos
pitoIs, roads and sewers ore
permanent assets. But every
50 often, WPA comes up with
q project that makes you won
der. Lotest of these is q
writer's project to prepore q
book called "Americo Eots."
Eech chapter is TO describe q
meal typical Of some phase Of
American life political hor-
becue. church supper, Rotary
luncheon, clam bake, city
eofeterio, family reunion. And,
ne kidding, research Is to be
made to find the source of
such eostronomic traditions as
unite baked beans and Bos-
ton.
The "eroded rent" ideo con-
tinues to toke hold in U. S.
Housing Authority projectsu
for low income fomiIies, butV
there's no harm in trying to
sell the deo to your privote
landlord. Under this theory,
the rent you pay is not deter
mined by the size Of your
apartment, but by the size of
your income and the size of
the family.
Toke the case Of man
with q wife and four children.
The man was q steel worker
but during the depression he
had TO Toxic O Job as q garage
mechanic at Sl8 q week, ond
rent wos SIT q month. When
the steel mill opened up the
man got q Job at $22 q week,
or 81 100 q year, and his rent
wos advanced to S2l month,
although he didn't move to q
lorger apartment. When the
mans wife got Job as q
stenoeropher, the fomiIy in
come wos roised $500 q year,
bringing the family income to
$3.50 year. The rent was
roised to $33 q month.
SWEET BUSINESS
BY long distance telephone,
Cubo's Leading sugar men re-
Gently fought q couple Of fost
rounds, with the Cubon en-
bossy in Washington over Leon
Henderson's order slipping
price ceiling Of $3.50 per 100
pounds on Cuban raw sugar. A
member Of the Cuban Legation ,
coIIed on Undersecretory Of
Stote Sumner WeIIes to protest
that the Cuban mills couldn't
operate on q price below So rs.
Wire service reporters bulletin
ec the story to Havana and
in motter Of minutes the
sugar market reacted.
Havana called Washington,
and the Cuban ambassador
had TO issue q denial that the
subject Of sugar prices had
been mentioned at oil. Then
the wire services were asked
to kill the report. which they
did. But some Of the New
York trode popers, which hod
not been asked to kill the story,
ocrried the report in their next
dogs editions and the market
took another turn for the
worse. When one trode Paper,
hearing about the kill, called
the Cuban embassy to check,
four phones rang and rang un-
answered.
There wos O soyino in the
lost war that "Sod hos no love
for second lieutenonts," and
lis being revived in this emer-
eency. There is now no short :,
oee Of "9O-doy-wonders," as
the shovetois Of the lost frocos
we're ooIIed, and the present
plentiful supply is due to the
extensive reserve officers
training program carried on in
colleges throughout the coun-
try. Even with their better
troining, these young officers.
were still green, ond OF the
IS, 900 National Guard and
reserve officers, q good many
ho dnot seen duty with troops.
Consequently, blame for bad
morale is being placed on these
,Inseosoned officers.