ANTI-INFLATION BILL IN U.S.

Southland Times, Issue 24864, 2 October 1942, Page 5

ANTI-INFLATION BILL IN U.S.

COMPROMISE REACHED IN SENATE (Rec. 7.15 pjn.) WASHINGTON, September 30. The Senate unanimously adopted a compromise farm bloc amendment, opening the way for the passage of the Administration’s Anti-Inflation Bill. The compromise measure directs President Roosevelt to fix ceiling prices for farm products and then to make adjustments in such ceilings as do not reflect increases since January 1941 in the costs of farm labour and other agricultural expenses. This satisfied the farm bloc senators, who then abandoned their formula for changing farm parity standards. The measure in its final form includes provisions not desired by Mr Roosevelt, but which are less than the farm bloc first proposed and which would have permitted parity levels to climb 12 per cent, above the present figures, costing the consumer 3,500,000,000 dollars (about £875,000,000) a year. CRITICISM OF U.S. Leadership Of Nation NEW YORK, September 29. The New York Herald Tribune makes an editorial comment on this statement by Lieutenant-General Brehon Somervell, Chief of the United States Army Supply Services: “We should quit fighting about who is to row the boat and who is to steer.” The newspaper says: “The general has missed the point. The only question is whether the boat is being rowed hard enough and

whether the proper course is being followed. The people realize that they are not doing all they could, should, or want to do. They are bothered because their leadership is not sufficiently vigorous. They deplore the mounting signs of inefficiency in the civil administration of the war; they resent the coddling of selfish groups; they are sickened by the bickerings in high places; they are fed up with the spirit of politics which as usual is permeating Washington. They are alarmed at the President’s unwillingness to create a Supreme War Council, they distrust the Navy’s official communiques and they accept with scepticism most of the statements from high officials. _ “They want the best men in the leading posts. They want an end of politics. They want to be told the truth about losses; they want to know what sacrifices are needed in order to lighten the burden of the men at the front. “The American people are not complacent. They are frustrated because their skipper in the midst of the hurricane tends to forget the main chance in the welter of confused advice ana personal rivalries.”