The Wilmington morning star., 1943-10-30
Washington
Column
BY PETER EDISON

cy-aoout-the-war playing around
the corners of your SNUG far.
pardner - wipe it off and loo,.
alive. For things on the home fron.
are headin' for trouble. in sor,.
sectors couldn't be much wore.
Just roll the bones and Don Won.
eyes at these seven black points.
deputy Fuel Administers,
Howard A. Gray frankly ,a,,..
that the coal situation is bad ~.
is likely to get worse.
Total coal production for N.
winter is estimated to fall Is r,;'
lion tons below the 665 r,iIl i',,l'
ton demand. Work stoppages c~.
production 30 million tons co,v .a'
sion OF oil furnaces to coal w..
winter increased coal demands I Sn
half a million tons. Best guess,
are that the country will Just bara'
ly be able to get by, but a seven.
winter, mine strike, a breat.
down in transportation. would co..
coal chaos.
PA tire shortage is here. and
a tle-up or a breakdown in r,b'
ber-borne transportation impendS
There will apparently be barely
enough passenger car tires avail.
able, but the truck tire shortsss
Tor the next nine months is "a,
ing to be acute. There is enon H
synthetic rubber in sight and tS h,
stockpile of crude natural rubbar
will hold out. But extra military
demands, loss Of manpower nm.
familiarity in working with syn.
thetic rubber. labor-managemsnt
differences, disregard of prone,
tire conservation orders, plus ths
extra heavy demands thrown ON
truck transportation to relieve rail
transportation, have combined IA
create this rubber crisis.
31The railroads got past tbai,
October peak of harvest transport
without a breakdown, but the OF.
flee of Defense Transportation has
a winter-long campaign ahead Of
it, further to load cars further
to speed-up turn-arounds, further
to cut and limit unessential "a.
senger travel. Faced with man.
power shortage of over lOo,MO men
and with rolling stock and road.
bed overloaded and in need Of
every bit of maintenance possible,
the railroads will be hard put to
get through the winter.
1.-The entire labor front is in
precarious position. Delays in set
ting the mine and rail unions
demands for increased pay have
not increased labor efficiency.
Strikes can develop in either in.
dustry. On the other hand, grant.
ing of wage increases to either will
bring A. F. of L. and C. I. o. I'm.
ions down on the War Labor
Board with further hammerings
to break the Little Steel Formula,
paving the way for general wage
increases which can lead only to
initiation.
5-senator Prentiss M. Brown
may have resigned from his job
just in time to save his reputa-
ton. Chaster Bowles has done
wonders in his three months in
office, but the OPA position is
still impossible. Its legal assign.
ment under the Emergency Price
Control act and presidential STA.
bilization orders is to roll bacl;
prices and keep them at the Levels
of Sept. Is, 1912. Yet it must do
this by showing a return to The
farmers Of at least parity or the
highest price between Jan. | and
Sept. Is, 1912. There is only @s
way in which that can be dgs
and that is through the m o.
subsidies. But Congress viii have
none Of subsidies, and withoa slo'
sides the costs of living must 81
up, creating more pressure Tor
higher wages.
| 6-Congress, since its return to
Washington in mid-September. has
done not one constructive thing
to improve the home front situ'
alton. True, it has held few in
vestigations which have spothgh''
ed some Of the weaknesses Or
controversial issues of the wars
sidelines, such as the Brewster
aircraft mess. but it has not sem
to the White House single piece
of important legislation.
Ton the all-inportant sublec'
of tax legislation. Congress at THIS
writing has reached a complete,
stalemate, playing politics and
talking about decreasing taxes
when the only obvious thing to 40
is increase them if the national
economy is to soak up the excess
spending power, escape initiation,
meet the costs of the war on az
least semblance of pay-as-|e'so
policy, and keep down to as 10"
a noin+ &c nose;h1e this inevitable