Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1942-05-21
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Washington, D. C.
RRs VS.. SHIPS

KRIS vs.. SHlfS
It hasn't made headlines, but a
battle royal has been raging be-
tween WPB Car Donald Nelson and
Transportation Car Joe Eastman
over the freezing of steel for the
construction of railroad cars.
With less and less shipping NOV
ing along the coast, and more and
more traffic by rail, the question is
one of the most important facing
the country.
What happened was that the War
Production board froze all construc-
ton materials already on hand in
railroad construction shops. The In
tention was to transfer these materl-
ais for use in building other types
of cars.
However, Joe Eastman claims
that these materials, chiefly steel,
already had been bought and cut out
for certain cars, in certain shapes,
so the order merely will make the
materials go unused, with car shops
closing down.
Already, Eastman argues, certain
plants of Pullman Standard are idle,
at a time when all plants should be
used to capacity.
Meanwhile railroads are groanlng
with traffic Sugar is now being
hauled by rail as much as possible
from Florida to avoid submarines.
Oil is clogged up in the producing
fields for lack of railroad transpor-
tation. And with the sinkings of
several Chilean ore ships, more
iron ore has to be hauled from in
terror U. S. iron mines.
In view of all this, Eastman COM
plains bitterly that Nelson won't re-
lease the steel and let the car
foundries do the job.
INFLUENCING EUROPEAN
LABOR
Here is one inside reason why
Roosevelt leans toward labor.
Basically, the President always has
been pro-labor, and continues to be,
even though he has become fed up
with some labor activities in the
past year.
But in addition, U. S. war strate-
gists are convinced that the chief
hope of revolution in Europe comes
from labor. And most of the psy-
Geological warfare strategy being
devised here is aimed at influencing
labor in Germany, Czechoslovakia,
Austria and the occupied countries.
Although not generally known, the
nucleus of the old Social Democrat
ic party which tried to create real
republic in Germany is still intact.
When Hitler came into power, they
moved to Czechoslovakia. After the
Sudetenland seizure, they moved to
Paris. After the downfall of Paris,
they moved to the U. S. A.
Fifty Social Democrats from the
old Reichstag are now in this coun-
try cooperating with U. S. officials.
Furthermore, it is labor in the
European occupied countries which
is able to assemble or make radios.
German labor listens to the radio
far more than other classes. Some
labor groups even have published
very small underground" newspa-
pers on hand presses and these are
distributed by hand.
German labor resents the long
hours in munitions factories, the
small pay and the lack of food, more
than any other group. Also labor
is about the only group which was
not taken over completely by Hitler.
The Communists, his chief oppo-
nents, now have long been upder-
ground, but secretly active.
To European labor Roosevelt
always has been one of the
worlds greatest leaders. And
one thought in the minds of war
strategists is to show Europe
that the rights of labor here will
not be thrown completely over
board during war.