The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-06-21

comMtttee has just scratched the surface of the huge SA2 billion de- fense program,
 The committee has not decided lhow much 1t will asl5 for to carry on its work, but 1t has Q very defi. nite program In mind and that proa gram promises fireworks. Just a couple of the lines 1t wants to inves. tigate will give the Idea,
 sP0TLr0HTs LABOR
 AND PROFITS
 The committee would like to have look at profits Of corporations with defense contracts. Labor is now clamoring for wage increases, largely on the basis of reported increased employer earnings, Are those claims juStifleds Truman believes there is no difference between a labor rack eteer and e corporation profiteer and he would like to go after both.
 Immediately ahead of the com. mittee is a look at the shipbullding program Most of the hulabaloo that has been raised so far has been with the Army, but the Navy and the Ma ritime Commission have been spend- Ing a few billions and one or two shipbuilding companies have pulp liShed earnings statements which might bear checking. How does the Navy let It's contracts Is there a concentration of expenditure herep And what about all these defense millions REC has been letting in contractsS
 What Senator Truman would like to have Is Q special Staff of inves. tigators, with men to follow the ord- nance program, the shipping pro. gram, labor relations, financing and all other phases of national defense. Then lot these investigatlve staffs bring out their material as 1t devel- ops,
 Sometimes, the committee has found, 1t takes three weeks of dig- ging to uncover the evidence pre-. sented In one three-hour session of hearings. The problems are intri. cate, the facts hard to dig out. That's what takes the money, and considering that billions of dollars the senate for maybe as much as are involved, the committee may ask $i00,000, if you please.
 Measuring accomplishments of the committee thus far. Truman admits, is Q matter of surveying intangihles. They've been able to put on the brakes In Q few instances, most i'm. portant of which was the manner in which contracts were let for camp construction. How anyone with common sense could have let eon- tracts involving millions of dollars in as sloppy Q way as some of the early papers were signed is some. thing the committee chairman has yet to understand. So 6 few gov- ernment officials feel that if nothing else has been done, the committees hearings have perhaps saved c couple hundred million dollars by making the contract signers be a little more careful.
 LOCKS BARN DOOR
 BEFORE, ETC.
 Bringing to 8 head the boils which were the coal strike and the San Francisco inachlnists' strike, by pub. llo hearings which put leaders of both disturbances on record, were psychological victories rather than exposures, but in these instances Truman has gone on the theory that it's better to keep man out of Jail that ih te "a aaud lalxsa khMpM a RhAN hA has committed crime. Focus at- tention on what 6 man, Q business or 6 union Is about to do wrong and 1t can usually be prevented.
 There have been numerous loose. end hearings, probing to Q limited extent operations of tho Ofiice of Production Management, suh-eon- tracing, shortages of strategic ma terials. The committee stuck its m. ger Into an extremely sore spot by It's feelers into the aluminium situa- ton, but. there's more work to be done on all these subjects, to say nothing Of ell the subjects as yet untouched. Rightly or wrongly, Tru. man believes the committee Will have c job to do right through tho defense effort, Just in checking up on what Is done with the billions congress appropriates.
 To Senator TEumans' credit, it can be said, he is trying to do this without chasing witches. Re confess ses frankly he was never cut out to be asi investigator, but he stuck his chin out last February, making 6 magnificent speech that opened up the whole question os bad procedure in government contracting and sub. contracting h his own state of Mis- souri. AS 6 result, he wished on himself tho Job of locking into these matters for the whole country, and he'll see 1t through.
 WARRINGTON ADDING MACHINE
 "Canned Willle," the Army enaer. gency field ration which used to he always tho same an every tn, VIII be put up on three recipes for this mans war, meat and vegetable stew, meat and beans, meat and vegetable hash. Nine million tins os the stun have been ordered, including extra cans which nave biscuits, sugar, cof.. fec and . chocolate bar for desert i. !. Tho depression doegn't ssEae to Do over for state unemployment betle.. iitA In April totaied 427 million, put the total for the first four months of ioAi was so million less than the siT4 million paid out the sisst -four months of lOl0, .PWA, which iluss mt be confused with WpA, has spent SC billion In the eight years q iw existence on s0,000 projects :, Aver. age weekly wage for Ali SiiailufActur- Ing industries In April was e2pi0, an up of i0 per cent over April, ie40 ., Highest wage wash machine tool lEl- duskgy, soW working sa hours s week ] f@K average ne *8isx0.