Page 2 SOUTHERN OREGON MINER G eneral Friday, Nov. 22, 1940 Hook Posy Pad for Chair or Foot Stool Atlanta Armory Destroyed HUGH S. JOHNSON Washington, D. C. Washington. I). C. WALLACE TO PLAY STRONG ROLE DANGER OF ’INFLATION’ The greatest danger before us now ; is "inflation.” In barnyard Ameri­ can all that means is high prices. Since they are not as spectacular as the bombing of workers’ homes, they usually don't get attention be­ fore it is too late. War inflation is about the deadli­ est bearing of war upon the poor. Wages in war never have advanced as fast as the cost of living. The price of anything is mostly the cost of labor to produce it. The higher they go. the higher the cost of living. War inflation (high prices) is the worst bearing of war upon the help­ less. Germany is tombing the homes of England’s poor non-com­ batants and seeking to cut off the supply of milk to babies and food to adults. England is hell-bent on the same process—to blockade Europe and starve into submission even her most gallant defenders: France. Finland. Poland. I do not counsel otherwise. We, ourselves, invented war frightful- ! ness in our blockade of Southern A view of the early-morning tire that swept through and destroyed Mary Lee Abbott, of Boston, who ports and our destruction of food supplies in Georgia and the Shenan­ the 179th Field Artillery National Guard armory In Atlanta, Georgia. was picked from a howl of debu doah. It must make the wounds of The damage to the building and to equipment for thr army was esti­ ta ntc<« as the "Glamour Girl of 1940” Christ bleed again, but so it is and mated to be about $509,000. Pending investigation, authorities would by a committee of pulchritude ex­ not comment on the possible cause of the blaze. perts In New York. we must accept it But let's not be blind to a similar war of starvation against our own people—high prices. If they go too high they will destroy the practical living value of every insurance pol­ icy, social security benefit, wage, salary or pension in the United States. This is not because they will reduce those payments. They won’t But those payments will buy so little in a high price structure that they will become chaff. I hear that Wall Street pundits say that it will be only a “mild infla­ tion.” I honor the sincerity of their opinions but I suspect their knowl­ edge. Once you start this deadly process it is like a snowball rolling down hill. You can no more suffer it "gradually" than you can fire a gun gradually. It is a progress that feeds upon itself. With much actual experience in war inflation, I have made a study of this thing for years—from the beginning of history. War price in­ flation always grinds the face of the poor, not only during hostilities, but This picture shows Ludington, Mich., coast guardsmen rigging a Kate Sandor, employee of the for years thereafter. It lowers the buying power of their wages. It breeches-buoy in an effort to remove crew members of the City of Flint, United Railway Signal corporation also doubles or multiplies the cost flagship of the Pere Marquette Railway carferry fleet. The City of Flint of Woodbridge, N. J., shown in hos­ of war. not merely while it is going went aground during the terrific gale which swept the Midwest, and in pital after thr explosion which de­ stroyed the plant. on. but for years thereafter in the which 75 men were known to have perished on Lake Michigan. toil, sweat and taxes in which work­ ers and their children must pay for the vastly increased cost So far, we have only the symp­ toms of war inflation. But the germs are so plain that it takes no microscope to see them — terrific governmental spending and in­ creased debt and deficit capacity production, a sellers market and a desperate disposition for counter­ bidding in a congested market with expense no object. It has been said that high taxes will stop it. I shall write another | column on that. It is crazy non­ sense. Do high taxes of as much as 10 cents a gallon prevent the price of gasoline from going up as high as 18 cents in some states when it should be 6 cents? High taxes are not the answer. Mad as it may seem, I am for deficit financing of this war and not for higher taxes. This may come strangely from me. who hates personalized power, » 1 rs ■ 1 ? • but I am also for giving the Presi­ dent a complete power of priorities to stop competitive bidding and to ration production not to the longest purse, but to the most necessitous use. The latter can only mean sky­ rocketing prices. It necessary, I am for giving him complete authori­ ty over the price structure to pre­ vent its rising above reasonable lev­ els. Everybody knows it is high enough now for reasonable profit • • • TWO PARTY SYSTEM It is suggested that Mr. W llkie should be appointed to Mr. Koose- Father, mother, brother and sister joined the parade of the marines velt's cabinet and accept, I think down Constitution avenue, Washington, D. C., as the Fifth battalion, ma­ The big town "went to town" In a not. We must stand united in pre- rine corps reserves, marched to the Union station. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph big way to celebrate election night. paring this country for defense, but Smith, Elizabeth, 18, and Robert, 8, tramp alongside their own Henry Here 1* a joyous scene at Times that doesn’t mean that we should Smith, who is one of the contingent departing for a year’s training, prob­ square In the heart of New York’s give up the principal instrument of ably in the West Indies. white light district. our democracy which we are pre­ paring to defend—our two-party sys­ tem. We are not at war and even if we were, we would commit suicide for Americanism if we abandon the in­ stitution of political debate by re­ sponsible leaders of opposing schools of thought. For the present, I Mr. Willkie is the titular leader of the party of almost half of the Amer­ ican people. That half is in opposi­ tion to many of the policies of this administration. He now acts as their anointed spokesman and advocate. If he abandons that part, he would certainly be derelict in the duty he owes to them for their trust. • • • For about 160 years, the vice pres­ ident of the United States has been either a pure figure-head or else a trouble-maker in the family of his chief, the President. Tom Marshall, vice president un­ der Woodrow Wilson, is remembered only tor his remark: "What this country needs is a good flve-cent cigar.” Charles G. Dawes, vice president under Coolidge, became famous when his alarm clock allegedly failed to go off and he arrived at the Capitol too late to change a tie vote. Charley Curtis will only be re­ membered because of his social war to place his half-sister ahead of Al­ ice Longworth at dinner. And Jack Garner will go down in history be­ cause of his private refrigerator and his covert opposition to Roosevelt None of these vice presidents was an active worker for the head of his administration; many of them deliberately hindered it Now, however, for the first time In recent history, we have a vice president who will be a right hand of the President Wallace was trained under Roosevelt and can be counted upon to be a great asset, not a deterrent It is not supposed to be known yet but already Wallace has dis­ cussed ideas with the President whereby he will work on three im­ portant problems. They are: 1. To act as liaison officer be­ tween the White House and con­ gress. This is the most important job of all. 2. To act as a sort of ambassador- at-large in cementing Good Neigh­ bor relations between the United States and Latin America, especial­ ly where congressional affairs are concerned. 3. To formulate plans for shifting the nation’s industrial economy from armament to a normal basis, after the war is over. PATRIOT BUSINESS MEN Behind that irate outburst from the New England Shoe Manufactur­ ers association at the army's new method of buying shoes was an un­ told story of how a group of busi­ ness men working for the govern­ ment saved the taxpayers about $6.000,000. The manufacturers were indignant that the army, under Defense com­ mission guidance, had scattered its orders for 4.000.000 pairs of shoes instead of giving this juicy business, as in the past, to a few big firms. But by this new method the army was able to obtain shoes at $1.50 a pair less than they cost during the World war. A group of business executives, working devotedly in the procure­ ment division, in the past six months not only have saved the government several hundred millions on defense supplies, but have not disturbed market conditions or caused con­ sumer prices to zoom. The shoe deal was only one item in this re­ markable record, but it is a typical one. Because of the long battle in con­ gress over the Selective Service act, the army was not sure until the very last moment whether it would need shoes for 400.000 regulars, or for 1,000.000 additional draftees. So it was September 16 before Brig. Gen, Cln/ord Corbin of the quartermas­ ter corps rushed to the Defense com­ mission with his requirements. The procurement aces were all ready for him. For weeks they had quietly sur­ veyed the shoe industry. They knew the capacity of every plant, from the giants capable of turning out thousands of pairs a day to the smallest factory in a Boston loft. Also, they had carefully studied World war experience, when the price of shoes had sky-rocketed as a result of the placing of big orders with a few firms. So, discarding the army's system of asking for bids on the entire 4,000.000 pairs, the commission ex­ perts quietly asked every reputable manufacturer in the industry for a price on the number of shoes he was capable of producing. The re­ sults of this wily trading were re­ markable. During the World war, the army paid $4 a pair for shoes. Through the procurement division’s method of negotiated contracts, distributed among 25 factories from New Eng­ land to St. Louis, the army was able to get its 4,000,000 pairs of regula­ tion shoes at $2.50 a pair. Note—Chief of the procurement di­ vision is quiet-spoken Donald Nel- son, the former Sears, Roebuck dynamo. • • • MORE G-MEN Along with the speed-up in produc­ tion of airplanes and tanks, there is a much less-heralded speed-up in the production of G-men. J. Edgar Hoover is now turning out special agents of the FBI at the phenomenal rate of 40 a week. Formerly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had only 90 special agents, but a recent congressional authorization boosted the figure to 1,500. Hoover now has almost at­ tained that mark, with 1,340 trained and 160 more to be produced. liy RUTII WYETII SPEARS Citv of Flint Aground in Storm ‘Marching as to War’ 'IfOU Hi-Jinks in Gotham ’M Nazi Bombers Overhead Mr. Willkie so far gave away at the outset the greatest asset of his party—the strong opposition of mil­ lions to any involvement in Europe’s quarrels—that I sometimes wonder at his decision to run and his Phila­ delphia acceptance. There were preconvention candi­ dates who did represent that opin­ ion. He didn’t challenge them on that vital point then. If hi* beliefs on that question were those of so many people in opposition to this administration’s, he should have fought for them more openly. Alive After Blast! Panamanian Consul Vl/IIEN I made Hie sketch in Sewing Book 5 showing the method that our Grandmothers used for making original hooked rug designs, I forgot thut Grand­ mother did not wear silk stockings every day. There have been doz­ ens of letters saying, “1 would like to hook tho flower designs for which you give directions in Book 5. Will you please tell me if I cun use old silk stockings for these?” Silk stockings may be used for hooked rugs but they do not wear as well us woolen muterials. They are perfect for hooked chair pads, foot stool tops and wall hangings. All the popular stocking colors muy be dyed soft «recn, red and brown tones, without first remov­ ing the tan color. “While dye” should be used first if bright colors are needed. After dyeing, cut a strip uround and nround the stock­ ing spirully, making it from % inch to IVk inches wide according to how fine the work is to be. When your design has been marked as described in Book 5, draw the stocking strips through the burlup with a rug hook. a a • Flowers may be hooked In outline or In a ahacli-d effect, as shown here And here Is good new* tor all of you rag rug en­ thusiasts. Book fl la now ready for mail­ ing. There la still another lx>ok rug de­ sign In It: also a braided and a crochrUcd ruit and dozens of other things that you will want to make. Send order to: kiss. St TII WYRTM SI-KAUS Drawer IS New York Hedtord HIU* Enclose aoc for Books J and 4. Name Address INDIGESTION auy «lírrl lire llrsrl Oa Uurtxd IO UM XMaM* or ri,IX na, Ml lito * ui ** m « U-. fawn si th.. a,* tian >4 a.,trow »> Md wt rn-n oS >1-11 *>u TlllW Is Ml III rrw No lorollro Sol n.U of Ik- f.rUW- hrf i ilawilon. If t*w riHiT 1HMK tkowi'l ***** It.h-oo, l.u.<, rotore Saul* la u aaj laMlr* LHjt'lUU. Mawr Sadk. p*. Dominion Over Seif You can never have a greater or a leas dominion than that over yourself.—Da Vinci. CHILDREN’S CROUPY COUGHS “SPECIAL' HELP FOR D im to Chest Colds Rub cheat nnd throat with Mild Miw ti-roln (made