Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-07-30
WNU Service, Union Trust Building
Washington, D. C..

WNU SERVICE, OHiOn 1EuSt DuliuA6
Washington, D. C.
In the next few weeks decisions
will be reached which will affect the
length of the war and they will not
be made on the military fronts.
They will be made in small town
offices, leaning across fences, down
at the post office or the court house,
on front stoops, at the Elks club, in
the lodge rooms and after meetin's
of one kind or another in every
middlesex, village and farm in the
country.
They will result from conversa-
lions between the congressman,
home to mend their 1914 fences,
and their constituents. The nation
faces a crisis on the home front.
Unless it is solved in the common
sense American way, it is going to
prolong the war months, and per-
haps longer. Its presence has al
ready delayed the capitulation of It.
ally, according to some of the more
pessimistic pessimists around
Washington.
As success on the battlefront
grows, the efforts of those trying to
support a total war are being de-
feated on the home front.
Two Events
Two events mark the low in uni
fed effort for victory. One was
when a reporter, with no evil in
nuendo in his mind as far as I
know (and I know the MANI, asked
the President if he would make any
comment for background on the
statement that although things we're
going well on the battlefront, they
were not going so well on the ad-
ministration front (meaning home
| 'front.'. The President replied with
castigation of the press and radio.
Some of their representatives, he
said, were encouraging government
tai friction. He could have given a
blasting, rip-roaring answer which
would have encouraged the coun-
try. As it was, he made some OF
the men whose job it is to interpret
the news to the country, too mad
to be objective.
The second event which marked
the nadir in shoulder-to-shoulder eff
fort on the home front was when
congress came within an eyelash of
killing the use of any and all subsi-
dies which would have broken a
wide hole in the anti-infiation dam.
Let me state Immediately that I do
not believe that subsidies is the pam
acea for our imitation ills, but to
have wiped them out completely at
that time would have meant jerk
ing the one, webbing support we
did have right out from under the
price-control structure.
Since then the President has
pe1ked up and taken a positive
stand and congress on second
thought modified its berserk mood
and evolved compromise.
Now it is up to the people. If
the congressman are convinced that
they can afford to 60 national and
not be defeated a year from No
velnber; if they are convinced that
the people will support their votes
if they vote for what they think the
country needs and not to suit the
pressure groups that sit on their
desks all day, the crisis will pass.
Crnck-Down Necessary
The detectives are pretty clear.
In the first place, the President
has got to take the helm again. He
has got to crack down. He has got
to see that dissensions do not break
out. He has got to see to it that the
secretary of the treasury comes Out
with a clear-cut tax and savings
program which will absorb the in
fiation dollars. Congress will have
to support that program.
The pressure groups whose pur
pose it is to get their members
more money for products or wages
will have to be throttled. Thi:
means that the administration ha:
to be tough. Congress will have t.
have courage. The people will have
to support their elected representa-
tives.
The vast majority of Americans
are perfectly willing to carry thei
share of the load. They are no
willing to make sacrifices if the.
believe someone else is getting thu
benefit and Sinking their share
The farmer will work the skin of
his hands and take meager reward
if it's for the good of the countr.
and the boy he spared to join tn
army. But not if somebody tell