Imperial Valley press., 1942-04-30
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison.

WASHINGTON. Apr 1910 some
people in Washington. the eXplana-
| ton of why Pierre Laval is such
! a -know-Ws.at is fairly simple.
For years. they say. Laval was at
tornev in France for l. @. Farben,
the German dye trust which thru
its monopolies. patent pools and
cartels attempted to maintain a
Ssrangle hold on the worlds chem
ical business. Considering the close
relations between the German gov
eminent I'D IGjF., Laval has
been on the German payroll for
years. so what more could you eX-
pect.
Absut 10 million motor We
hicles in the IL states and the
District of Columbia go on
short gas rations May 10. That
amounts TO One-third the ma
tons motor transport.
The principal headache of this
initial gas rationing will come
when the school teachers who do
/ the registering have TO pass on
! the applications Of car owners who
| feel theY are entitled TO more than
| the minimum allowance. Every
car. owner will be given an "A
card emitting him to minimum al
/ loWance of seven units. The trouble
will come in classifying or handl-
] ing the appeals of motorists such
as war workers. who feel they Will
be entitled TO B-l, b.. or B-3 cards
of IL, is. and 10 units respectively.
School teachers are supposed to
know everything, but how they Il
be able to tell a B-1 from a B-3
without the help of algebra is the
unsolved problem on the black
board Main benefit of this interim
rationing is that it will serve as an
experimental registration TO deter
mine what bugs must be eradicated
from the permanent rationing plan
which Will go in effect July l.
We must avoid "scamping," the
Maritime Commissions Admiral
Emory S. Land told the Truman
committee investigating national
defense. and thereby he brought
back into current use a word that
hasn't been heard much in the war
production effort It's a good one
to revive What it means, of course
is to perform work in a haSty or
neglectful manner. Don't be a
scamp" has double meaning during
a war.
Admiral Land mentioned two
other indeterminate factors in
the war production effort. One
is IOafing and the other is the
slow down. No one can tell ac-
curately how much they are at
fecting war production today,
but they are evident. Strikes
are not serious now. Where the
damage comes is in the period
of let-dOwn after strike.
In the sloW-downs, what hap
pens is that someone on an as
Sembly line starts a Heyi Where's
the fire!" or a What you trim
to do-kill yourself?" movement
among the workers nearest TO him
When that spreads, the damage is
done Labor leaders and manage
ment alike are trying to figure out
ways to combat it.
A good many observers were
skeptical when the ARM public
relations staff started its program
of having soldiers make pep ia ks
to Workmen in war production
plants during the noon hour. In
few instances last winter, plant
managers baked at taking the time
out of the working shift to assem-
BILE big plant forces in cold yards
merely to have speeches made al
them. But the Army now main
tains that these pep talks do gooc
ard show definite results thai
wherever one Of these talks is de-
livered, production curves shoo
right up.
Con gres m en- like to make
speeches about somebody else:
shortsightedness in preparing foI
war criticiZing administrative OF
ficialS and others who couple
of years ago didn't take the step
neceSSar" to build up stockpileS anC
let contracts for munitions and wal
supplies. But one case which bounc-
es right back on C1ngress-on thu
senate no less-is the matter O.
patent law revision now being in.
VeStigated by Senator Bones com.
mittee, where hearings reveal how
war production has been hsmpereC
by patent pools and cartels.
Way back in September, 1910
Senator Wheeler, IS chairman o.
the Senate Committee on Inter.
state Commerce. introduced a res.
olution calling for an investigator
OF the German control of Ameri.
can patents
The resolution WIS passed
in October, and an application
was made to the Senate Com
mittee on Audit and Control, of
which Senator, now SUPREME
Court Justice James +. Byrnes
was chairman, for funds with
which t. conduct the inyesti-
CATION. The committee took no
action, and the investigation
never got started. Why, would
be hard TO determine. Maybe
Wheeler didn't push il hard
enough. Maybe the adminiitrl-
ton didn't want Wheeler to get
credit for it. Take your pick.
Anyway, if the Wheeler inves-
tigation had been held year anc
a half ago a let of the dirt" linen