The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-10

1t can, but with automobile pro- duction curtatled, c. M. 0 now finds that the more 1t contracts, the more of It's own men 1t has to lay of.
 Trying to schedule fair prioritieS to the 5000 or more manufacturers now working on defense orders Is one of the toughest problems In Washington.
 Take the case of c boiler-maker with orders from well, say q na. val base, a locomotive works, . Shipbuilding company and 6 power plant. Priorities allocHtions might give the manufacturer material to finish the jobs in the order named, though all are defense projects. This manufacturer, however, be- lieving 1t impossible for anyone to schedule production for the entire country, became his own private priorities board. He found that work on the power plant was stopped waiting for boilers: the locomotive works couldn't use its first deliveries for month; the naval base would. mt need boilers for six months; the shipyards ways weren't even built. So this manufacturer decided to forget government prioritles and schedule the jobs as needed.
 
 THESE SPIES
 NOT SHY
 For most peculiar reason, Col- onel John Thomson of the Mar. ines and Colonel R. Townsend Heard of the Army have been sent on a confidential mission to over- haul and coordinate the intelli. gence service listening posts run by military and naval observers at- tached to U. S. embassies and tlega- tions. Military and naval intelli- gence offlces in Washington noticed their missions were in some cases sending in ail-too-similar reports on what the Germans and Italians were doing. Investigation showed that certain informerS, after pass ing on their reports to one branch of service, would then take them over to the other service, thereby collecting double pay. Army and Navy officers, not telling each other of their reports and anxious to score scoops, were thus being taken for a twin ride by their spies.
 Many people. have no doubt con. vinced themselves that WPA is Q good thing and necessary, with all it's faults, to keep the unemployed from going hungry. Its defense pro- jects have been Q big help and many of It's schools, hospitals, roads and sewers are permanent assets. But every SO often, WPA comes up with Q project that makes you won- der. Latest of these Is a writers project to prepare . book called America Eats" Each chapter is to descripe Q meal typical of some phase of American life-a political barbecue, church supper, Rotary luncheon, clam bake, city cafeteria, family reunion. And no kidding, research is to be made 70 find the source of such gastrononic tradi- tions as units baked beans and Bos- ton.
 SWEET BUSINESS
 By long distance telephone, Cuba's leading sugar men recently fought a couple of fast rounds with the Cuban embassy In Washington over Leon Henderson's order skipping @ price ceiling of $3.50 per 100 pounds on Cuban raw sugar. A member Of the Cuban legation called on Un- dersecretary of State Sumner Welles to protest that the Cuban mills couldn't operate on Q price below $3.62. Wire service reporters bulle- tined the story to Havana and in a matter of minutes the sugar market reacted.
 Havana called Washington, and the Cuban ambassador had to issue denial that the subject of sugar prices had been mentioned at all. Then the wire services were asked to kill the report, which they did. But some of the New York trade papers, which had not been asked to kill the story, carried the report in their next days editions and the market took another turn for the worse. When one trade paper, hearing about the kill, called the Cuban embassy to check, four phones rang and rang unanswered.