The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1942-02-13

allied he had lost his hold on
the CLIO and figured he had
better chance to resume the role
of king maker" in a united
AFL--CIO front.
NOTE-Pro-la labor congressional
leaders have minated to CLIO
President Phil Murray that he
would be Well-advised moth to
send Lee Pressman, leftWing CLIO
general counsel, to Capitol Hill to
represent the CLIO before COM
mitteeS.
PARLOR PINK
The press conference at which
James M. Lands, executive di-
rector of the Office OF Civilian
Defense, announced the appoint
ment of Melvyn Douglas as head
of an OCD arts council was in
formal to say the least
When Lands made the an
nouncement a reporter asked,
who's Melvyn Douglass" Col
leagues informed him that Doug
las was a popular movie actor.
Hes my favOrite star" cOOed
a woman correspondent. "He has
played opposite Carlo three
times. thought everybody had
heard of him."
II don't go to the movies"
said the newsman, adding, "Mr.
Lands, why don't you bring
Douglas in here so this young
lady can get his autograph"
Lands smiled, but when an
other reporter asked if Douglas
was zone Of those parlor pinks?"
The OCD chief screwed up his
brow.
Not satisfied with this dodge,
the reporter later went to Doug
las office and asked the scree1
star "Are you a parlor pink"
"Well,' he said good ma turedly,
$50 that has come up again?
No; Pm just an ordinary fellow
trying to get along, and doing
what i can to help my cOun-
try in these troubled times"
SINKING U. s. TANKERS
The Navy is being more hush
hush than usual regarding the
sinkings Of oil tankers off the At
lantic coast. However, here are
a few important facts about the
situation which are not military
secrets.
First fact is encouraging. The
tankers sunk We're old, small and
slow. All of them were SLOW
All of them were 20 years old,
or over. and the largest Standard
Oils India Arrow, was 1927 tons.
On the surface, this would in
dictate that oil and gasoline losses
on the coast would be heavy
However, this is not the case. For
all of the big new American tank
ers have peen taken over by the
Navy. This was under an ar
rangement whereby the Maritime
Commission had lent the oil
companies around 100000 per yes
sci to build fast modern tankers
making 10 knots. This is so
fast that they can avoid sub
marines and also keep up with
the fleet.
However, these new tankers,
built in cooperation with the
Navy, are now with the fleet.
HEAVY LOSSES
Two other factors indicate the
Importance of the sinkings on the
Atlantic coast. One is an an
nouncement made by the British
last week that sinkings for the en-
tire Atlantic, including the East
Coast of the United States, had
been heavier in January than ever
before. The ether is the fac
that comprehensive .rationing OF
oil and gasoline for the East Coast
is now certainty. In other words,
oil and tanker losses have been
very heavy.
Reason for these losses is easy
to understand. 1t requires no
official explanation. AS every
one knows especially the enemy,
we had to rush various kinds of
shipping to the Pacific to replace
the damage Gone at Pearl Harbor.
Also we had large number of
warships busy conveying vessels
across the North Atlantic.
Hence we have been caught
shOrt-handed ON the East Coast.