Imperial Valley press., 1942-07-23
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

on the more important wal neWS'
YOU may not have realized that
right at home the war has been
building up around you new super
governmental Sctup of over 20
commissions. committees and coun-
ellis which influence practically ev-
cry phase of your daily life. These
committees have wartime emer-
gency powers, and are created by
and with the consent of the gov
erned, but they do things to you
which you would never permit in
peacetime. The way they regulate
your daily doings is really something
to be amazed at. Just check OIL
the list as it hits your community
and as it hits you:
If you live in municipal
area. at the top of the heap
is the local Defense Council.
In a rural area il may be known
as the County War Board.
Your Defense Council runs
the Civilian Mobilization pro-
gram, where you and the men,
bers of your family have regis
tered for all manner of odd
jobs-for which you won't get
paid a cent from minding
other peoples children to be-
ing an auxiliary policeman.
If you are in an area open to
enemy attack, you may be must
cred into a Citizens Defense Corps
as an air raid warden or a bomb
putter outer Or. you may be re-
cruitcd in the Citizens Service
Corps. teaching people how to eat
right, or checking prices charged
by local merchants.
You have submitted to Draft
Board which takes your husband or
sons or brothers right out of your
family for duty in the Army.
Your men folk have, or soon will,
fill out forms indicating their spe-
cial skills. If those skills can be
used to advantage in war produc-
ton, the men may be politely re-
ouested, if not told, to go do this
-there-and like it.
There is a War Savings Stamp
Committee working on you to put
10 per cent of your pay into war
| bonds.
TRANSPORTATION TANGLE
In war production areas, there
will be transportation committees
having very definite say-so over
how you 60 to work. and when.
Hours for going to school, to fac
tory, to white-collar office jobs will
! be staggered to eliminate traffic
Jams on your transportation sys-
TEN. You are being urged to take
your neighbors to work, or ride with
them. These transport committees
may be regulating your comings and
goings. more and more as the war
moves on.
Salvage committees urge you
to save all manner of things
you formerly threw away. You
collect old iron, copper and
aluminium, donate all the old
rubber you can find, hunt thru
attic and closet for old rags,
save your kitchen greases, turn
in old toothpaste tubes, and in
some % metropolitan areas,
clean, flattcn and store your old
tin cans.
You must submit to the regu-
lations of all manner of rationing
boards Rationing boards for the
| purchase of a new automobile. Ra-
tioning boards for the purchase of
new tires or getting permission to
have your old ones recapped. Ra-
tioning boards fer sugar. In some
areas, rationing for gasoline. And
this is only the beginning. There
will be rationing of some Is other
! items
In war production areas, where
housing situations are critical, there
are rent control boards which limit
the amount local landlords can
charge you for rent.
In farm areas. committees may
solicit your services to help take
off the crops when harvest time
comes around.
UnoffiCially, the Rec Cross COM
mittees and the USO committees
may be soliciting you for everything
from pint of blood to a few hours
dancing with or dishing out dough-
nuts to doughboys.
Now all this plethora of COM
mittees, competing for your help. is
bound to create some confusion
when superimposed on your normal
local governmental machinery.
The Office of Civilian De-
fense is beginning to realize
that this confusion exists and
may get more chaotic. OCD is
making a suryey-all govern
ment agencies have to make
surveys before they get any
thing done-and il hopes to Co
ordinate all these programs
to repeat the most banal cliche
i'm official government lingo.
Anyway, the idea is to decide
which committees work Is
most urgent, and TO get il done
first.
But why do you submit to all
this? The answer. citizen, is that