Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1942-01-08

"And," said Willkie, in telling the
story to a friend afterward, "a few
days later there was Joe himself
voting with Roosevelt for a dec1ara-
ton of war"
Buy Defense Bonds
SHIP-BUILDING PROGRAM
The action of the house naval at
fairs committee in slashing the pro-
posed expansion of our two-ocean
navy was due chiefly to shortages of
materials and construction equip
ment.
However, Rear Admiral Samuel
Robinson, chief of the bureau of
ships, ran into blunt barrage of
questions about the worth of the
battleship under modern combat
conditions. Committee members
sharply suggested that in view of
the battleship's record in this war,
the navy might be wise to build no
more.
Robinson contended that this
would. be impractical, since the
United States needed battleships eff
our enemies continue to use them
for combat purposes"
"What is your honest private opin-
ion of the battleship?" he was
asked. "Do you think this type. of
ship is worth all the money it costs
and the time and labor required to
build them?" ~ 80 .
''I'm sorry, gentlemen, but it's not
my function to answer that ques-
tion," sidestepped Robinson with
smile. "Im not policy man. My
job is to build ships after it is de-
cided they are needed. However,
I have my own ideas about the bat
tleship.''
This drew laughter, and the adj
miral was pressed no further.
Robinson also was quizzed close
ly about the high cost of certain
vessels which the navy proposed
in the expansion program, chiefly
an aircraft carrier at an estimated
$85, 000, 1000.
"Higher labor and material costs
are the biggest factors" Robinson
explained. "For instance, we have
a new type of armor plate for our
ships which is far stronger than
that used by any other nation. It
costs $50 ton, three times as much
as the armor plate we formerly
used"
'How about the labor supply?"
"We have plenty of labor to carry
out our shipbuilding program" Rob-
inson said. 'Also plenty of facili-
ties Getting materials and ma
chine tools is our big problem right
now. However, the shortage doesn't
amount to a bottleneck. In fact,
production is running little ahead
of schedule and will be greatly ex-
pedited by next spring. ~
Buy Defense Bonds ..
.., CAPITAL CHAFF 49,.
The outbreak of the war obscured
the incident, but the house ate crow
in big way on it's action last sum
mer barring David LASER, former
head of the Workers Alliance, from
government employment. After. a
careful investigation, the appropria-
tons committee completely exoner-
ated LASER of any Communist af-
fliations. Representatives John Ia
Der, N. Y, j. w. Otter, Pa, and
Everett Dirksen, ILL.,, who made the
original accusation ducked the COM
mittee session when LASER was
cleared.
Puerto Ricans wryly recall that
U. S. navy's radio towers at Cayey,
Is miles from San Juan, were dis
mantled three years ago and sold
as scrap iron to the Japanese.
Office of Civilian Defense is pre-
pairing handbook on "What You
Can Do For Civilian Defense" Au-
thor of the handbook is Eleanor
Pierson, wife of Export-Import Bank
President Warren Lee Pierson.
Australians able Minister Richard
G. Casey drives about Washington
in British car with a transparent
top and right-hand drive.
Apparently not having enough to
do with the war, Representatives of
the Pure Food and Drug admins
tration now ask drug firms the CUES
ton: "How much business did you
do last year?"