The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-01-21

ureaDle wear and tear on the nerves
 of the people who have to follow
 him around and carry out his or
 ders. For instance-the mayor al- ways eats his lunch off of tray at his desk. Hence, on the three days
 week he is supposed to be in
 Washington running the Civilian Defense job, every one of his de- Dartment heads is expected to eat lunch off tray, too, so that if the
 mayor should get an idea to call up
 Joe and give him an order between
 bites into the minestrone, Joe will
 be there, breaking a cracker and
 drinking soup for good old OCD. This finally begins to spoil guys
 digestion and he can't sleep good
 nights. The organiza ton reacts ac-
 cordingly.
 AS for Mrs. Roosevelt, there are only two kinds of people in the country-t who think she is great stuff and those who think she should be censored or put in a de-
 tention camp for the duration of
 the war. She can't walk across the street without it being poison to some people and fountain of youth
 to others. There simply is no mid- de ground.
 NO REAL
 AUTHORITY
 All this atmosphere of seeming confusion is reflected right down to the smallest local defense council unit of OCD because of its form of organization. OCD has no real, na- tional, federal authority to do the job 1t is supposed to do. Instead, the responsibility is placed in the hands of state governors and county sher- ifs and city mayors, and you know what that means-local politics. So, if your local civilian defense effort ain't what you think it should be. not all the blame can be placed on Washington. A lot of the trouble might be placed right at home.
 I want to fight Germans and Japs and Italians" says Mayor La Guardia. q don't want to fight mayors and sheriffs." Yet fight mayors and sheriffs is what OCD has had to do to degree which few people realize. For instance
 The OCD has printed a really set of 45 handbooks covering every phase of civilian de- fense, meaning the actual defense of bombed areas. There are hand books for air wardens, blackouts, | protection against gas, first aid, fire protection and the whole works. Mil lions of copies of these books have been printed at federal expense for free distribution where they'll do the most good. Yet, under the crazy set up now in existence, the national of OCD can't send these instructions directly to the To- cal defense councils known to be functioning. Instead, OCD head quarters must send the pamphlets to state headquarters. state head quarters must send them to the mayors, and the mayors pass them out to the zones. T hope,' says Mayor LaGuardia pitifully, that they've been distributed"
 Some haven't been. They're still piled up at state headquarters. If your local defense council isn't on CiiC JCII, IilC ECU Ol dClIOIl is not to just sit there, but to pre- tend you're ali Eleanor Roosevelt | or Fiorello LaGuardi, as the sex may be, and start getting in peoples | hair yourself.
 SMALL
 STUFF
 Another bowl of grief which the OCD headquarters has filled with tears is the matter of getting the | mayors of neighboring cities to CO., operate. In some of the industrial areas particularly, the problem of defense can't be broken down into separate community jobs, but must be integrated for the whole region. In that case, the mayor of the larg- est community has been asked to head up the task But in all too many cases, the mayor and the po- lice chief and the fire chief of the suburb won't cooperate.
 No wonder LaGuardia confesses now that he gets little tired at the end of the day.