The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1949-05-04
Hastings Thinks
pv IA cTrNrc uAyru

ooiIle Oh the examples Oh Low
eminent waste exposed in the
Hoover Report are pretty shock
ing. The Air Force asked for
money to build 9l0 houses in
Alaska. The average cost of each
house would be $58,350. The
Army asked for more than. ten
million dollars to modernize some
MIG tanks at a time when it no
longer had any M-26 tanks. On
another item in the Army budget
the amount was increased by
thirty million dollars just because
of clerical error. These are just
! three examples affecting h e
armed forces. Yet when the
/ Hoover Report was mentioned to
Rep. Clarence Cannon, who heads
the House Appropriations Com
mittee which should be the
watchdog for extravaganza, he
simply brushed off the Hoover
Report, saying his Committee
was "two years ahead of Hoover"
That unfortunately is how the
Hoover Report is often being
received. Everybody is in favor
of it, not for themselves but as
applied to other people.
X II 4
During the last war, the Ameri-
can First and Third Armies were
supplied by $4,000 tons day
delivered through the port of
Cherbourg. The Berlin Airlift has
delivered more than $4,000 tons
in one day to Berlin.
4 X X
| While we dig into our pockets
for Marshall Plan money, some of
our good work is being undone
by the British and French. If Eu-
rope is to get back on its feat,
Germany must be in healthy
condition. In spite of how any
one may feel about the Germans
and war, the fact is that Ger
many Is the economic heart of
Europe, and Europe cannot pros
per without Germany. T. e
French particularly want to keep
the Germans down and they,
together with the British, are in
sisting that five important Ger
man steel plants be dismantled.
| A dismantled steel plant is no
good to anyone except as scrap.
This policy hurts the recovery
of all Europe and it makes it
more difficult to keep Germany
out of the hands of the Commun-
lists.
4 X X
The most expensive milk in
the world is mouse milk which
runs about $4,000 a quart. For
twelve years, in cancer research,
they have MIXED over 10000
mice and managed to get two
quarts together, From this they
have been able to definitely de-
termine that breast cancer in
mice is acquired from the mother
by the nursing baby. 1t is not
yet known for sure whether the
same holds true for people.
X y X
Serve yourself gas stations
have started in California and
are spreading fast to the rest of
the country. The average motor
list seems to like to put the gas
in, himself, and pay a pretty girl
who comes up on roller skates.
He likes even better the usually
4 cents per gallon cheaper cost.
The ordinary gas station pumps
about 10000 gallons a month.
The self-service station averages
100, 900 gallons a month and runs
as high as 400,000> gallons in a
month. The established gas deal
ers are up in arms to protect
themselves, and already ten
states have passed laws against
self-service stations, usually on
the grounds of fire hazard. Actu
ally the self-service station, ac-
cording to experience, is fully as
safe as the usual type. In Los
| Angeles q self-service stations
are operated and the Fire De-
partment has never had a call.
The big oil companies are not
taking sides yet. They want to
keep on the good side of their
own dealers but they don't want
to miss out on what may be a