Evening star., 1942-03-24

concerted view by the folks who live
outside Of the National Capital. On
the contrary, the letters come from
all sections OF the country. Some
typical communications make In
teresting reading. A woman IN
Troy, N. Y, writes:
To-day both foundries. which
have 90 per cent defense work.
closed down. The reason: A man
who represented the union died and
will be buried today. The men IN
both foundries voted not to work
In order to attend the funeral. MY
husband went to the big boss and
told him what he had heard was
going to happen Cthis was before
the men took . vote). He said,
What can we do7' My husband re-
piled that this is wartime and II
. general or . captain Is shot Tight
Ing or leading his men, the men
do not cease fighting to~bury their
ohicer. But the boss said nothing
could be done.
''Today's work would save how
many Of our boys? have two who
viii 90 and may never return. We
have nothing to protect them"
An indianapolis Case.
Then from Indianapolis comes .
letter addressed to . United States
Senator from Indiana, with . copy
to this correspondent. 1t reads, In
part, a. follows:
The other day . young man
eams into my once who, because
OF physical disability, cannot gets
into the Army or Navy. He had
Just completed an examination
qualifying him as an electrician.
Ono Of the plants being constructed
here in Indianapolis. for the purpose
Of manufacturing war supplies, IS
under the direction of a contractor
who is desperately in need Of elec-
tricians. He had lost quite q few
VI Ills C11RloyCD OCSodoC "a A1AA4eeAy
service, and he considered it rare
find to have a man who could prop
erly qualify as an electrician and
one, who In all probability. could
be with him indefinitely. This con-
tractor gave the young man, Of
whom I am speaking. Job, but
told him that It,, Of course, would
be necessary for him to Join the
A. F. L. union.
"The young man flled the neces-
sary papers but was promptly in
formed that favorable consideration
could not be given his application
to union membership until he paid
$3.50 cash. They would not even
permit him to take the job and pay
that amount Of money by INSTALL
ments. The result is that the young
man went back to his old job and
was forced to forget the time and
expense involved In preparing to
take the examination as an electri-
clan: the contractor, who was in
dire need Of his services, has to do
without: and the construction work
on the job in question was slowed
down just that much.
Sees "Vicious'' Hold.
In my opinion the Gestapo does
not have . more vicious control over
the German people. II some one
had told you 10 years ago that this
could have happened here, you
would have laughed at them. This
b but q single letter from an in
dividual but 1t expresses the true
feelings Of scores Of people with
whom I come in contact daily"
A third letter from . Midwestern
manufacturer says in effect that II
the American people want to pay
. 81, 900 900 900 bonus for time and q
half in building planes, ships, tanks
and guns, it's up to those who are to
pay the taxes or lend the money
to the Government to finance the
war program. But, he adds, the
naive statement that the law doesn't
prohibit more than 40 hours . week
Is in itself q gross misrepresenta-
ton of the real issue, which Is
whether all time above 40 hours