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BOBBY
SOX
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Marty Links
"I mint be gettinf older. I have a terrific desire to
know a man with a mustache!"
CROSS
TOWN
By
Roland Coe
"We gotta move next week?the building commission
?ays this place ia a fire-trap!"
NANCY
By Ernie Buihmiller
LOOK~HE'6
' SHOOTING 4
the apple 1
OFF the
Bovs headj
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HEY.'?
LET'S J
PLAY 1
DIS
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NOW YOU STAY
THERE?I'LL GO GET \
MY LITTLE BOW AND/
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I WONDER )
WHERE I S
WHAT TOOK YA W.
Jjso LONG
>? 1
MUTT AND JEFF
By Bud FUher
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f mutt is a^-n
sound sleeper
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time
will
(suCCESSjj
LITTLE REGGIE
By Margarita
DO
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I THE
' FISH
I
JITTER
By Arthur Pointer
REG'LAR FELLERS
By Gene Byrne*
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By Lea Kleii
SILENT SAM
By Jeff Haye*
1 lUJlome
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Refx&Ue*
is WASHINGTON
?By Wafter Shead
I WNU Con %ipomdmi
WNU WAsbimgioa Bureau,
If It By St.. JT. W.
OPA Will B? Continued
In Watered-Down Form
IS IT true what they aay about
OPA?
Are OPA policies sending business
firms into bankruptcy? Is it true
that production is being curtailed by
price control? What about subsi
dies? Shouldn't they be dropped?
Answers to these questions will de
. pend largely on your particular
point of view, upon whose "ox is be
ing gored" and, indeed, largely upon
your honesty.
For there is no question that, im
mediately aa OPA regulation is is
j sued, whether rood or bad ...
and there have been some bad ones
... the first question which arises
in the minds of many pedple is . . .
how can we get around that regula
tion? And there generally is a way.
What happens amounts to a vir
tual conspiracy to evade the orders
of OPA. This writer believes that if
the same folks would spend as much
time and energy in attempting to
make OPA work, in co-operating,
1 then this agency which has become
the one bulwark against rising liv
ing costs would function far better
than it does, battered, repudiated
and kicked around as it is by spe
cial interests and the congress.
Tn enii? .11 ik. j:
I *.? i spue ui ou uic uiuuaui iu*
rected against OPA, it is so popular
with the people generally that con
gress does not dare repeal the law,
and will extend it beyond June 30.
How it will be extended is another
matter. The same coalition of
Democrats and Republicans which
cut the heart out of the housing bill
in the house and which has made
ineffective every liberal piece of
domestic legislation yet offered, is
bent on stripping OPA of every pow
er it can possibly take away from
it.
Bonnet* Failure* Dwindle
Here are a few statistics which
may answer some of the criticism
directed against OPA. On the charge
concerning business bankruptcies,the
records show, according to Dun &
Bradstreet, there were 14,768 bank
ruptcies in 1939 and 13,619 in 1940,
before OPA. The first full year of
OPA control was 1943, when there
were 3,221 bankruptcies. In 1945
there were only 810. So it appears
to your Home Town Reporter that
those 810 firms which went bankrupt
in 1945 did so in spite of OPA, and
not because of OPA.
The National Manufacturers asso
ciation, the National Retail Dry
Goods association and others are
trying to persuade congress and the
public that OPA pricing policies are
responsible for existing shortages.
The fact is that (he record shows
that for the five months after V-J
Day, production was at a rate ex
ceeding that of any prewar year,
even of 1941 when defense produc
tion lifted output above real prewar
levels. In December of 1945 produc
tion output was 51 per cent above
1939, which can hardly be consid
ered as a production failure.
The committee for economic de
velopment says employment is at
the highest peacetime level in oar
history despite strikes and labor
management disputes. Payrolls and
earnings are now only slightly be
low wartime peaks and are rising.
What about subsidies? Farm or
ganizations are against them .
always have been. They came as
a wartime emergency and are still
being used in the reconversion emer
fvmno-vr Pon fKnti Km * dvnnnn<4 ? P#
course, they could be dropped. If
they were, this is what would hap
, pen. Food prices would shoot up 8
per cent at retail overnight, and
there is no reason to believe they
would stop there. On our 40 billion
dollar annual food bill that would
mean an increase of 3.2 billion dol
lars in the annual price of food.
The subsidy on food amounts to
only a billion and a half annually
| and it is paid in federal taxes large
1 ly by those with the most ability to
pay. The rise in food costs would be
borne alike by rich and poor.
Profit* 4 Time* Greater
What about the charge that profits
are being curtailed? The per cent of
gain in profits in 1944 over the 1938
to 1939 average in the retail field,
before taxes, was as follows:
Hardware retailers, 454 per cent;
small furniture stores, 185 per cent;
variety chain stores, 339 per cent;
men's apparel stores, 398 per cent;
department stores. 609 per cent;
chain groceries, 152 per cent; auto
dealers, 200 per cent.
The gain In profits before taxes
ta the In fins trial field shows the
same large percentages with all
mannfactartng showing a 454 per
cant average. Textiles and leather
shew a 734 per cent gain; metals
and products, C54 per scat; build
tag materials, 271 per cent; chemi
cals, 234 per cent; food, beverages
and tobacco, 244 percent.
Another complaint from some
businesses is OPA's cost-absorption
policy which if abandoned would, ac
cording to OPA, boost coot at foods
740 million dollars, none of which
would go to farmers.
Japan and the New Life
Go easy, Japan, will yaT You're
killing us with that contortionist act
and that changing-a-warrior-into-a
turtle-dove number.
?
Now you've come out for a new
constitution, a bill of rights, an
American style declaration of inde
pendence, freedom of speech, free
dom of religion, freedom of thought,
freedom of the press and freedom
of "the Chautauqua Salute.
You renounce war as the right of
the nation and yon east oat "the
BSC of threats or force in any form.''
And yon say "the maintenance of
land, sea or air forces win never
again be authorised by Japan."
?
But we can't help asking "Are we
supposed to take it in capsule or
powder form, and does it taste bet
ter in orange juice?"
?
There's an old adage that you
can't make a silk purse out of a
sow's ear, a baby-chick out of a buz
zard or a wax figure entitled "Love
and Kisses" out of a record of
Bataan.
?
We don't know which is the most
disturbing, a country that comes out
of a global shindig breathing red
fire and yelling "I can lick any man
in the bouse" or one that comes out
singing "Hearts and Flowers" and
with a passion for necking with the
conqueror.
?
Plenty of people think Russia
thumbing its nose at all comers is
more comforting than Japan
thumbing through a book of good
resolutions.
?
Never in history has a warrior
state changed faster to Old Mother
Hubbard with touches of Sun bonnet
Sue.
?
Freedom of speech, freedom of
thought and freedom of religion are
fine but not so fast, boys with the
freedom of back-slapping, freedom
of grease-bailing, freedom of kow
towing and freedom of fried mush!
?
It is great to change voices in
mid-character, but the speed is a
little dazzling.
The first thing we know you will
be renouncing jiu jitsu, talking back
to the phone girl and speaking 1
roughly to the cat.
?
You may even repudiate Japanese
wrestling.
?
Go easy, pu-leaze! The emperor
who never let anybody look down
on him now operates at eye level.
The potentate who never mixed with
the folks now gives autographs in
crowded department store eleva
tors and prefers an escalator to the
white horse. Fair warning, Nippon!
Don't come out for compulsory ra
dio crooning!
? ? ?
Mr. Hoover urges all housewives
to discontinue fried foods to save
fats. Fine! But what will the doctors
tell a man to stop eating when he
comes in with indigestion?
? ? ?
LINES IN ENVY
CAge Khan Weighed in Genu, Gets
$1 ^OOjDOO."?nem item.)
I sometimes am proud of my
racket
Quite often I think I'm the nerts,
I once made those uppermost
brackets?
(And never complained "How this
?ran
My friends I declare mil quite
hemrty,
And life emn be sweet, I declare.
Bat nobody throws me a party
And weighs me in (ems extra
rare!
I sometimes feel very top-doggy;
My line I announce is okay;
My path Isn't any too boggy?
The stuff that I get Isn't hay;
I stand pretty well, so I figure;
The angles all seem very nice;
My grip on my public gets bigger
But nobody weighs tne in "ice"!
?
The Aga Khan has what seems to
be a great racket. Once a year his
people stage a great show and weigh
him in diamonds, the proceeds in
cash going to his coffers. The other
day he tipped the scales at 243 V4
in Bombay and got over a mil
lion. Beyond all doubt he has a bet
ter argument than any other man
on earth against reducing.
? ? ?
PEACE OF EXHAUSTION
The General Motors strike is over
and there is much speculation on
which side won. To us it looks like
a tie in a fall out of bed.
? ? ?
The federal eemmnnications com
mittee announces that in Its forms
for new applications and renewals of
radio licenses it is working to
"check advertising excesses," par
tienlarty with respect to exasperat
ing commercials. What it means is
that it thinks the commercials should
end somewhere between the point
where the program begins and where
It ends.
? e ?
"Raise Auto Ceilings."?headline.
Pine! Bumps on our head are pretty
\4ANAGER Eddie Dyer of the
1 Cardinals has about all the
pitchers two teams could use. Your
guess would be that Eddie has noth
ing to worry about. But the first
section of any manager's job Is to
worry about something.
Two of Manager Dyer's worries
now are Johnny Grodzicki and
?MMMaaasa George Munger.
Johnny Grodzickl,
from Nanticoke. Pa.t
is an ex-paratroop
er, who is still
working on a shrap
nel wound in his
right leg.
George Munger, I
passing the offi-|
cer's school test in
the Pacific area,
has made such a
Eddie Dyer record the army
doesn't want to let him go. The
main point of this yarn is that
Dyer believes both men could have
been two of the best pitchers in
baseball.
"When I had Grodzicki at Colum
bus in 1941," Dyer says, "I thought
he was the best minor league pitch
er I ever saw. Six-feet-one, 185
pounds, he had what you might call
everything. That season Johnny won
19 games and lost 5 when his rec
ord might just as well have been
22 wins and 2 defeats. In addition to
a fine arm he had both head and
heart, but an uncertain right leg
due to a shrapnel wound which has
been healing slowly. But he is still
undiscouraged. In shape Johnny
might easily have been a 25 or 28
game winner.
"George Munger, in my book, is
one of the best pitchers in Cardinal
history. In his last season with the
Cardinals in 1944, Munger won 11
games and lost 3. But he was just
beginning to find himself. He is now
on duty in the Far East and I don't
know when we'll get him back. Mun
ger is another who might have led
the league."
These two are not the only cases.
The game through 1948 will give
you many others from other clubs.
Vets Will Dominate
The pennant races of 1946 will
feature largely returning players
from the service forces. Among
those I might mention are Bob Fel
ler, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams,
Tex Hughson, Joe Gordon, Bobby
Doerr, Bill Dickey, Phil Rizzuto,
Johnny Mize, Hank Greenberg, Dick
Wakefield, Spud Chandler, Charlie
Keller, Johnny Beazley, Howie Pol
let, Peewee Reese, Pete Reiser,
Country Slaughter, Terry Moore,
Dave Ferriss, Dom DiMaggio, and
[ many, many more.
It Is from this ex-service list that
yon will find the pennant winners
the leading hitters and the lead
ing pitchers. They will dominate the
double show. There will be others
who were not in service who will
play good ball.
Here is an example. In 1945,
Snuffy Stimweiss led the American
league hitters with a season's aver
age of .309. Yet it is the opinion of
many smart baseball men that it
will take a mark of .360 or .370 to
lead the punching parade this season
in the junior circuit. I put this
query up to six American league
veterans, including Bill Dickey and
George Selkirk, who know their way
around. There were four or five
others from American league clubs. ,
It was also their opinion that the
1945 winning mark of .309 wouldn't
finish in the first 12.
Pitching Won't Matter
"What about the better pitching
that is coming in?" I asked. "I
mean such men as Feller, Hugh
son, etc."
"This will make little difference."
one veteran answered. "Hitters like
Ted Williams, Wakefield, Green
berg, DiMaggio, Keller and many
others will still keep on hitting the
ball. Good pitching can wreck the
ordinary hitter. But it never wrecks
the true hitter who knows how to
swing a bat and get his hits.
"The National league with Phil
Cavarretta, Tommy Holmes and
| others was far ahead of the Ameri
can league last season. That won't
' happen again. Watch and see. The
American league will take back its
old spot as the harder-hitting
league, and it will have to face
pitching that is just as good."
? ? ?
S. American Baseball
No one can shake Larry Mac
Phail, the Dodgers' owner, loose
from the idea that baseball is head
ed for a big boom in Latin Amer
ica and that what we often call "The
National Game" will soon be the
national game of Mexico, Panama,
Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba and oth
er tropical spots.
"The answer is simple enough,"
MacPhail says with emphatic ges
tures. "The kids of these countries
are baseball crazy. It is the only
game most of them want to play. It
is the only game most of them care
to talk about. Their knowledge of
baseball today is amazing. I'm not
guessing about this, for I've been
in the middle of at least part of it.
"To my mind this will be the best
possible build-up for any good
neighbor policy for Latin American
friendship. Baseball could do mora
good in this respect than all the dip
lomats we could ever aaatmbli.