The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1942-10-31
. Clapper
WAT Abouf 70 TOUCH
Every Life at Home
Coffee Drinkers on
The Firing Line
Farmers. Labor and
Wages TO Be Hit
All Out War Back
OF the Lines
By RAYMOND CLAPPER

nN IN H HOAND &LftN I'm
WASHINGTON - For long
time We have been hearing. and
a good many Of US have believed.
that the country was ahead of the
administration and was ready 10
make sacrifices to any extent IL
only Washington would tell the
people what to do.
l hope all that was correct.
We shall soon see. Because the
government is moving in deeply
now In many directions.
Daily life in this country is go
ing to change swiftly now. The
war is about to reach into al
most every life in new ways
This. and the period Immediately
ahead, is the time when the will
lingness of people to cooperate
with the government Is really to
be tested.
Consider the changes that will
flow from some of the decisions
announced just this week.
Coffee, one cup a day after
Nov. IS. One pound each five
weeks. To a nation of coffee
drinkers, a nation that likes its
coffee above every other neal
time beverage, this is a blow such
as the tight tea ration was to the
English. Just a cup Of coffee for
breakfast. No second cup. None
for lunch or dinner. A lot of
people are going to have edgy
nerves for a while until they get
used to it. But perhaps they'll
sleep better at night. Anyway we
have to save shipping. There is
no use devoting ships to hauling
coffee when they might better be
carrying war goods that are real
ly needed.
Gasoline. Extra gasoline rations
will be denied to statesmen, 30
that Red Cross workers and some
others who need extra gasoline,
and who will have to use their
tires, can have both. That will
affect the livelihood of many peo-
pie, and change ways of doing
business.
Farm Labor. Manpower Chair
man McNutt is ordering all neces-
sary workers on dairy. livestock
and poultry farms to stay at their
present work. They may not go
into munitions industries to get
higher wages. They will be de-
ferred from the draft so long as
they stay in essential farm work.
Wages and Salaries. Increases,
except under a few specified con-
ditions, are prohibited. No one
may receive more than a net sal
airy of $4,000 a year. That will
dash the hopes Of pay advances
for millions of wage earners and
salaried workers and will force
changes in standards Of living
clear to the top of the higher
brackets.
Farm-organization leaders are
already complaining about some
of the conditions of the farm la
Dor freezing order. Labor lead
ers are Directing to wage restric-
tons. There is sniping at other
restrictions. The National Coffee
Assn. objects to the coffee quotas.
But read where Clark
Gable, graduating from officer
candidate school at Miami,
says discipline is the price Of
victory. What they will have
TO do before this war is over
is far beyond what any ci-
william will have to do. The
hardships In civil life would
seem like a featherbed to the
men In Guadalcanal now.
The time obviously has come
when civilians, however much they
argue and complain about the
conduct of the war, are called upon
to cooperate in home-front mea-
sures that are not going to be
too much fun. Restrictions are
going to hurt farmers, travelling
statesmen, coffes- drinking house,
holds. the luxury-income families,
and a good many businesses. II
Is about time they also began to
hit the featherbed labor practices
which require the hiring of use
less employees.
Anybody who really takes a look
at this war must know that II il
going to take just about every
thing we can throw into IL. There
ought to be no sympathy with
anybody who complains over hard
ships at home, because those hard
ships are so mild, after all, by
comparison with what those who
fight the war must endure. Read
the stories of survivors of the
Wasp. Read the first-hand de-
scriptions of any of the fight
ing and see If you don't think
most Of the complaints on the
nome front are too trivial 10 be
taken seriously.