The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-12-16
Inside
Washington

ere lhcehseo over the public REL. rev.
items job on the so-called Day 's'a'
incident - the war departr,,a.,Va
Withholding of the news for l "
taree months. ''e'
AS result, Owl Official, il,
lieve, the case was "plavad" Ue'
TIE press out of its true norn "
tlons and a emendous f}r p.'
raised. Owl says it was NOT
piised of the incident until ~ ay'
public in general heard tbe ~. ~s
ry over the radio. ''
Owl officials believe The rrh,.
Got a wrong impression as y.
cub of the way the story ,leako ~
out and one representative of ~
agency expressed belief that Cow a.s
dwight D. Eisenhower had ont
ten some bad public relations ~ ~
wee. 'U'
incidentally, one of the best
marks in WASHINGTON came fp1s
a reporter following secretarv =.
War Henry L, stimson's press co VI
ference in which he annomca,
tEat he would ask for full ev
PLANTATION of the incident fron
Eisenhower. '''
Reporters were gathered in tbs
news room following the confeT
ence discussing the ramlfication,
of the incident in which patto0
had slapped shell-shocked soI
der in a Sicilian field hospitsI
One of the newsmen remarked
Everybody ir Washington is
eating turkey today and the war
department is eating crow"
stlmson admitted to reporters
that the war department had been
informed generally about tbs
slapping, but had taken no action
then.
Already crowded west coast ci.
ties are going to be buster than
ever from now on as the Pacific
campaign to crush the Japs gains
momentum. The Navy is trying 10
prepare for the situation by trans.
1errlng some construction work on
Warships and ot,lev craft 10 ne
atlantic coast. but this will be on.
y a drop in the bucket.
As the months 60 by. civilians
will find it more and more diff
cult to get accommodations nm
trains and planes heading for Cali.
fNrnia. Personnel of the armed
. forces, of course, will have prjori.
ty. The west coast will then gpt
taste of what the east has been
going through since the OPENING n
, the North African campaign
What makes the situation worss
i is the fact that the west coast
Goes not have the port facilities
= available to the Atlantic coast
That means that the good ports
> out west can expect Jams une-
i, qualed to date anywhere else.
Members of the House military
> affairs aviation subcommittee re.
,, turned from their two-week aerial
Inspection tour of South American
| air bases much impressed by
:, what they had seen. But pending
Z Z an official committee report, they
l were not talking for publication.
The congressman went as !ar
south as Rio De Janeiro, looking
) over air transport command bas-
y e.s. including the 'jump-otf'' aerial
port at Natal.
THE best thing about the trip
said one, was the fact that we
5 all got along SO well together dur
t ing two weeks Of travelling in the
same plane. There was no grum
: bling or gripping about haV,
0 ing to roll out at 5 am some
: r ornings."
Secretary of interior Harold
Il Ickes, who earned the wrath Of
E the War Labor Board for signing
} contract with the United Nine
: Workers while the miners were
on strike, also has the 0PA angry
for the easy manner in which he
promised price increases to the
operators.
The thing that happened is Just
what you could expect when you
6 turn price control over to guy
who is interested only in produc'
ton" one high OPA official snort
cd.
Ickes, interested only in MINING
clal, provided the miners WIN
! 81 so a day more pay and lAeq
: started battling for steep co1
price increase to compensate Inc
operators.
OPA baked and trimmed lck@
Price boost suggestion more 'IiaH
ii cents ton. The agency aSO
knocked down Ickes' glowing pre-
dictions of the increase in produ,c'
ton that would result from u'
new contract.
Ickes figured on a ! per ce''
boost in output with the Hllnels
working IS minutes Of their lJnc"
time. OPA is still laughing
THE miners don't have retI
low 1,,,o1, ,.;od ,, On OPA Official
said "Tbev ea+ off and on all dur