The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-07-23

to rOOSt.
There is such huge surplus
of commissioned officers holding
down desk jobs on the home front
that hundreds will be sent back
to civilian life. Older officers with
reserve and national guard back
ground will be relieved first. There
has been no ballyhoo about it, but
systematic wedding out of such
officers already has begun.
An order has gone out that Of
ficers below the rank of briga-
dier general serving in the United
States shall be retired when they
reach the statutory age limit of
60 years. The statutory age limit
for a brigadier general is 81, and
for major general, lieutenant
general and full general, "a.
The order will lop off an esti-
mated 1000 officers in the United
States (only) who are about so.
They are chiefly majors, lieuten-
ant colonies and colonies who were
taken from reserve and national
guard inactive lists and placed on
active duty after Pearl Harbor.
. NOTE: Officers overseas will
not be retired even when over age.
General Macarthur, for instance,
has passed the age for retirement,
81, but will continue on active
duty.
FIFTH TERM?
Here is the latest fourth term"
joke going the rounds of the CAPT.
tai.
A friend called on a New Dealer
who had just become the father
of bouncing boy. He was ush-
cred into the nursery, where the
infant was engaged with the bust
ness end of a bottle.
what do you think of him?"
inquired the proud father.
HE sure is a fine-looking
boy" replied the visitor. Eyes,
sir, sure is. Have you ever
thought that some day he night
grow up to be PRESIDENT"
The New Deal father reared
DdCk IN rage.
"Say," he exclaimed, whats
the matter with ROOSEVELT"
VETO MYSTERY
Most talked of incident during
the closing days of Congress was
why the President took his adj
ministration leaders completely by
surprise and sent up his veto of
the anti-Strike bill without warn
ing them in advance.
They did not know the veto
message was coming until it ar
rived at sos p. m.
Here is the backstage eXplana-
ton of that mystery. Actually the
veto message was sent to Ed Hal
sey, secretary of the Senate, at
a little before o'clock, with in
structions not to deliver the mes
sage until 4:30 p. m, just a few
minutes before the Senate ad-
journed.
At 4 o'clock, White House adj
visers knew, Senator Tom Con-
nally, co-author of the Smith
Connally anti-strike bill was to
take a train to Canada. So the
strategy was to wait until he
had left to catch his train, then
have the veto message delivered
by Senate Secretary Halsey.
Halsey was supposed to keep
secret the fact that he had the
message. However, he made the
mistake of telling Senator Lister
Hill of Alabama. Senator Hill
was Acting Majority Leader in the
absence of Senator Barley and
supposed TO be fighting for the
President.
When Hill learned about it, he
instructed Halsey to bring the
veto message out on the floor
right away. Halsey understood
Ey this that Hill, the Admins
tratiOn leader, had enough votes
to uphold tre President.
But when the Presidents mes
sage was read, he was amazed to
note that Senator Hill led the
fight to override his chief in the
White House.
CAPITOL CHAFF
Milo Perkins, former director of
BEW and chief casualty of the
Jones-Wallace war, may be
drafted to become president of
Swarthmore college Here is
one tip regarding the source of
black market gas coupons. When
you get gas raticn book at the
OPA in Alexandria, Va, extra
coupons are pulled out and
dumped into the waste basket.
Wonder who cleans out the bas-
ket? One White House adj
wiser, just finishing Il political
survey of farm sentiment in Min
nesota, Wisconsin. Illinois and In
diana. has told the President that
E.a T. -