The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-11-21

the spirit Of free people every. where, whatever military expedi- ency dictated 1t. We hope that the occasion for such eX. pedieney will shortly pass"
 Stimson then read Willkie part of & telegram sent to the War Department regarding the military situation in North Africa, and reiterated his insistence that de- livery of the above po:,.ea oi ..is speech would do . grave injustice to your country"
 THE REVAMPED RELEASE
 Under the circumstances, Willkie bowed to the Secretary of War, went immediately to the Herald Tribune forum,fi called in the press and revamped the releases which had been given out some hours earlier to all newspapers. There lie found that the United States Government had taken the very unusual step of instructing the newspapers to hold up his speech.
 Later Willkie also learned that cabling his speech abroad had also been delayed. The delay Of an hour and a half was due to eht- ting from the speech the para graph that Willkie had eliminated at Stimson'S request.
 At 4 o'clock the next afternoon, Wiilkie was dumbfounded to read that the President of the United States himself had had released a statement in which he said that the temporary cxpedlency" with Admiral Darlan was justified soie- ly by the stress of battle" and would not be permanent.
 If Secretary Stimson was afraid Willkie's statement would under mine efforts In North Africa, he must have had shiVers over Roose- Velt's statement. For the Presi- dent went so far as to say that mo one in our Army has any authority to discuss the future government of France and the French Empire"
 Tn view Of this, Willkie's friends are completely mystified as to why Secretary Stimson called to suppress the Vichy portion Of Willkies speech. Whether Stim- son was speaking for the President, remains their secret. But the incident has created the impress gion that despite talk O. the "loyal opposition the Adminis- tration much prefers criticism of itself by itself rather than c-i- ticism by outsiders.
 NOTE-In view of the PreSi. dents statement, Willkle has now authorized reiea3e of the sup. pressed portion of his speech. GOVERNMENT COMPETES
 WITH GOVEkNHIENT
 When the Maritime CommIs- sion cancelled Andrew Jackson E.gglns' Liberty ship-buildlnJ plant at New Orleans, he had al 7 ready built a large storage lcf. at q cost to the government of $80,O00.--
 After the contract cancella- ton, the Maritime Commis- sion sold the loft to a private for $l6,O00 to be demolished.
 Later Higgins was given a gov ernment contract to build i,200 planes. Thus he will have build q lot of new buildings, and need ed the loft. He tried to get the private firm to quit tearing 1t down. Then he phoned franti- cally to the Maritime Commission. It replied that Q contract had been given and the contract would have to stand.
 Since the Government pays
 all these things, this means .
 net loss to the Government Of
 the difference between $S0,OOO
 and S15,OOO, or S65,00O.
 Also the Maritime Commission sold the piles driven into the mud on which the new shipyard was to stand, and a private firm began to pull them up. Again Higgins protested, said that these piles would be needed as foundation for the new airplane plant.
 Maritime officials said the mat ter would have to walt three