Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1943-04-08

successful businessmen who was born
and raised on farm in Iowa. Had
the plan been evolved by someone
who had been on the town all his
life it probably would have had
greater support in some quarters.
l do not know what the Ways and
Means committee will do with the
bill now that the House has dumped
it back in our laps. The President
has asked for 16 thousand million
dollars in additional revenues. The
Ruml- Carlson plan would have
brought in 3 thousand million more
in revenue than the committee bill.
Shameless Fraud.
l am wondering what steps the
Administration will take against the
officials of the Carnegie-Illinois Steel
Corporation who are responsible for
the delivery of $4,000 tons of de-
fective steel for American warship
and Merchantmen construction. The
testimony brought out by the Truman
committee divu1ged that part of this
defective steel had gone into the
construction of the tanker "Schenec-
tady," which broke in two after hav-
ing been launched at one of the
Kaiser west coast yards. Fortunately,
no lives were lost but that would not
have been the case had the vessel
broken in two on the high seas.
Those who are responsible for this
shameless and criminal fraud should
be prosecuted to the fullest extent
of the law. It doesn't take much
imagination to picture what would
happen to these business pirates if
they had pulled such stunt in one
of the totalitarian countries. They
would have been lined up before a
firing squad and that is exactly what
we should do. In plain words, they
are contemplate, unpatriotic sabo-
teurs who are more dangerous to us
than are the imported variety be-
cause they operate under the cloak
of loyalty and patriotism.
Small Businessman Suffers.
The problems of small retail bust
ness seeking to get share of the
dwindling stock of salable goods got
an airing in Congress few days ago.
Food stores by the thousands are
facing extinction at time when the
public has more money to spend for
food than ever before in our history.
The introduction of point ration
ing has dealt an especially hard blow
to retail grocery stores doing large
business in canned goods. Stores re-
ported declines in sales volume OF
20 to 40 per cent during the first
week of point rationing. OF course,
rationing is not the only cause OF
shrinking sales. Its introduction has
merely anticipated shrinkage IN
sales rendered inevitable by grow
ing scarcities of supplies. Moreover,
the purchase by government pro-
curement agencies of large proper
ton of the fruit and vegetable packs
as well as sugar, coffee and meat
leaves that much less for civilians
to buy
Several days ago, Washington
papers carried the news that the
War department will shortly release
large quantities of canned goods and
other foodstuffs for civilian use. This
indicates that the government in
over-buying has helped to create
scarcity, also to increase prices to
the consumer.
Confusion.
The bureaucracy in Washington
has given an excellent imitation OF
"of agin, on agin, gone agin, Fin
nigin." First, there was no sugar
to put up the huge crop of berries.
After most of the berries had spoiled
the OPA found there was plenty OF
sugar. Next, cuffs must be taken