The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-01

cN W 1dll 10 Hill
lion tons below the 665 million ton
demand. Work stoppages cut pro
duction 80 million tons. Conversion
OF oil furnaces to coal last winter
increased coal demands by half a
million tons. Best guesses are that
the country will just barely be able
to get by, but severe winter, a
mine strike, a breakdown in trans
portation, would see coal chaos.
"a tire shortage is here, and a
- tie-up or breakdown in rubber
borne transportation impends. There
will apparently be barely enough
passenger car tires available, but
the truck tire shortage for the next
nine months is going to be acute.
! There Is enough synthetic rubber in
sight and the stockpile of crude
natural rubber will hold out. But
extra military demands, loss of
manpower. unfamiliarity in working
with synthetic rubber, labor man
agement differences, disregard of
proper tire conservation orders,
plus the extra heavy demands
thrown on truck transportation to
relieve rail transportation, have
combined to create this rubber
crisis.
2-The railroads got past their Oc-
tober peak of harvest transport
without 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 passenger
travel. Faced with a manpoWer
shortage of over 100000 men and
with rolling stock and roa6bed over
loaded and in need of every bit of
maintenance possible, the railroads
will be hard put to get through the
winter
I-The entire labor front is in
precarious position. Delays in
settling the mine and rail unions
demands for increased pay have not
increased labor efficiency. Strikes
can develop in either industry. On
the other hand. granting of wage
increases to either will bring A. F.
of L. and c. I. o. unions 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.
E-Senator Prentiss M. Brown may
~ have resigned from his job just
in time to save his reputation.
Chester BoWles has done wonders
in his three months in office, but
the OPA position is still impossible.
Its legal assignment under the En-
Urgency Price Control act and pres
dental sterilization orders is to
roll book prices and keep them at
the levels of Sept. Is, 1912. Yet it
must do this by showing return
to the farmers of at least parity or
the highest price between Jan 1.
and Sept. Is, 1912. There is only
enc way in which that can be done,
and that is through the use of sub
sides. But Congress will have none
of subsidies, and without subsidies
the costs of living must go up, Great
ing more pressure for higher wages.
G-Congress, since its return to
" Washington in mid-Septemher,
has done not one constructive thing
to improve the home front situation.
True, it has held a few investiga-
tons which have spotlighted some
of the weaknesses or controversial
issues of the wars sidelines, such
as the Brewster aircraft mess, but
it has not sent to the White Houss
a single piece of important legisla-
ton.
ION the all-important subject of
tax legislation, Congress at this
writing has reached a complete
playing politics and talk
ing about decreasing taxes, when
the only obvious thing to do is in
crease them if the national economy
is TO soak up the excess spending
power, escape irritation, meet the
costs of the war on at least a
of pay as-we-go policy,
and keep down to as low a point as
possible this inevitable burden of
postwar debt.
What does it all add up to?