The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1942-12-31
\. H. sLICHT
From Here n Looks
Lie . Tough Year
But That's the Way TO
Help Win the War
Many Hungry Allies
Need Our Food
Some Loose Screws in
The Fern Program
By RAY TUCKER

vii fan across every American
home in 1e43 with a blackness
that vii make this years sacri-
fees seem infinitesimsL Officials
withheld the dark news lest it
mar the last happy holiday season
we shall enjoy until the day when
the order TO cease firing" 10
given.
Almost every dining table item
except potatoes and bread will be
placed on a strict rationing basis.
Certain articles of clothing viii
disappear from the market owing
to the Christmas buying spree.
increasing purchasing power and
shortages of textiles.
Transportation by railroad or
automobile will be sharply re-
stricted. Cars used solely for
pleasure driving will be picked
up by the authorities and held
for weeks or months. Sports,
particularly organized baseball.
will end or be drastically cur
tailed. Telephoning and possibly
writing nonessential letters will
be ruled out.
New taxes which President
Roosevelt will request at the
opening of congress will boost
the annual federal take TO APP
proximately forty billion dollars,
or about one-third of the ex-
pected national income. Besides
tipping the payments which every
citizen makes to Uncle Sam now,
the proposed levies will touch
many millions who are still
exempt.
The drain on our food and gas
cline stocks, which the North
African campaign entails. fur
nishes a tipoff on the troubles
which Turk around the corner of
the New Year. For in 1913 the
United Nations expect to go to
town with Uncle Sam heading the
triumphant parade.
Unless unforeseen setbacks
spoil our program, the Joint
Allied Command plans to capi-
talize on a complete Tunisian VIC
tory by invading Italy. the Bal
kans, possibly France and the
Scandinavian countries. We also
hope to reconquer vast portions
Of China. These expeditions are
counted on to carry Turkey,
Spain and Portugal into the anti
axis column and there are signs
that those neutrals are flirting
with Britain and the United
States. Should expectations be
realized, it means that we must
supply the liberated nations with
all the essentials of life which
they have lacked for so long.
Our country will become the pam
try. garage and warehouse of
democracy as well as its arsenal.
These moves-the feeding and
clothing of erstwhile enemies and
neutrality-suspicious. as much a
prelude of final success as ac-
complishments on the battlefield.
A capital which has struggled
through many silly strifes never
witnessed a more futile contro-
yersy than the argument that the
military" controls the two agen-
cies which are forging the fight
ing machine-the War PRODUCE
ton board and the Selective Ser
vice system. That distracting
issue was raised by legislators
and federal appointees for selfish
purposes.
Fact is that members of the
Hershey crowd have been bat
ting the brass hats from start TO
finish and they have won most of
the encounters. Although ap-
pointment Of Paul V. McNutt as
manpower lord was hailed as a
score for the "civvies, +" it is doubt
full whether he will buck the SOL
diery as stubbornly as his fellow
Hoosier has done.
WPB, of course. is stated by
industrialists and businessmen
Donald NJ. Nelson, William l..
Bait, c. z. Wilson, etc. So don't
be misled by charges that the out
fits assigned to produce personnel
and weapons have been Nazified.
Difficulties regarding sgricul-
tural supplies and prices derive
from the central fact that the
Office of Price Administration
has pursued an amazingly incon-
sistent policy on this increasingly
important front While Claude
Wickard. secretary of agriculture.
exhorts the reapers TO give Us
more food. Mr.. Henderson and
his professional assistants hav'
killed incentive by depriving the
producer Of a just reward for
extra labor.
Henderson has fixed wholesale
and retail ceilings with the most
modernized farm as a criterion.
Meanwhile. the need for edibles
for the armed forces, our allies
and the domestic population is so
acute that even marginal or
beiow-marginal lands must be
kept in cultivation. The 'inef-