Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Russians had demanded at the Big Five Foreign Ministers Conference, now ended, that a coalition government of the Big Four, China plus the Big Three, be established for Japan, to replace the present government under General MacArthur when the military phase of occupation would end. The Russians premised the demand, communicated only in writing and not discussed, on the idea that they had a decisive role in the defeat of Japan—for six days.

General MacArthur warned Japan to maintain a hands-off policy with respect to Korea and to limit international official and business communications to pre-approved messages. He also announced that tight vigilance was being maintained on a hundred secret societies and other rightwing organizations in Japan which could stimulate vigilante action.

A rice riot had erupted in northern Japan, signal of approaching winter famine. Thousands of women were writing Premier Higashi-Kuni indicating their difficulty in obtaining food.

Secretary of Labor Lewis Schwellenbach had issued an ultimatum to the oil companies to settle their strike by 4:00 p.m. this date, the union having accepted a proposal under which workers would obtain a 15 percent temporary wage hike, with arbitration then to determine whether they should receive any more, up to the demanded 30 percent. Should the agreement not be reached, the Government likely would seize the refineries, now spread across fifteen states. Of the eleven companies involved, only Sinclair had thus far accepted the agreement.

Meanwhile, the number of idle workers across the nation rose to 423,000. Coal and oil accounted for 130,000 of the workers. Some 200,000 telephone workers nationwide were scheduled to strike for four hours on Friday. Dial telephones would not be affected. Fear not.

President Truman recommended nearly 40 billion dollars in military and war supplies cuts to the 105 billion dollar budget for the 1945-46 fiscal year.

In Kansas City, a destitute family of nine had been evicted from their home of three years. The father was scheduled for induction into the army in two weeks. The family had but $10 and could not afford even to rent a house at $15 per month.

The War Production Board indicated that the ensuing fortnight would determine whether low-cost clothing would soon increase in availability. OPA stated that there would be some price cuts in cotton, wool, and rayon garments. Women's wool suits, for instance, would drop from $29.95 to $26; men's overcoats, $37.50 to $35, the latter, following the advice of the letter writer of the previous Friday, being entirely sufficient of the male wardrobe.

In Detroit, the first game of the World Series between the Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs was won by Chicago 9-0, against the feared left-handed pitching of Hal Newhouser.

On the editorial page, "New Weapon" comments that, despite the commitment made at San Francisco to the United Nations Organization, the United States had signaled at the London Foreign Ministers Conference the determination to follow for a number of years power politics with Britain and the Soviet Union. But the conference had failed to work out how this partnership would operate.

Secretary Byrnes had been handicapped by absence of a cohesive American policy and by the distaste of the country for dividing the world into three spheres of influence.

It was expected, according to the New York Herald-Tribune, that Secretary Byrnes and the President would soon lodge a protest against the Soviet-controlled press monopoly in the Balkans, Hungary, Rumania, and Czechoslovakia, as well as in Albania and Greece, the latter within the British sphere. The protest would have the sanction behind it of a threat to cut off relief and rehabilitation aid to such countries which continued to impose restraints on the free press.

—Yeah.

"The Old Fight" comments that thus far the new superintendent of the state's mental facilities, in office for a month, had been received well by the Hospital Board.

"Special View" reports of the statements contained in a telegram authored by former Congressman Samuel Pettingill, now employed by an organization called America's Future Syndicate, in which he sought to explain the actual motivation behind the oil refinery strike. It was not for wages, he contended, but rather in quest of power, to establish a unified authority over oil alike that which John L. Lewis and the UMW possessed over the coal mines.

"With Prejudice" points out that Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi was preparing to initiate a 30-day filibuster to prevent passage of a bill which would terminate the Government's special rates on land-grant railroads and save the people thereby 24 million dollars, to be spent on renovating the Capitol. The bill had already passed the House, but Senator Bilbo had determined that it would cost between $700,000 and $800,000 per day, would net the railroads 250 million dollars per year.

The excerpt from the Congressional Record has Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon responding to Senator Homer Capehart of Indiana anent the full employment bill. Senator Capehart had stated that PWA and WPA had created jobs during the thirties in public works projects. Senator Morse countered that these programs had not, however, gone to create wealth. The present bill being considered did that.

The third installment of the series of reports by the State Planning Board provides details on livestock production in the state. There were a lot of cows and hogs and so on.

"Many chickens still reach the consumer alive but housewives in North Carolina, as in other parts of the country, are increasingly demanding that poultry be picked and even drawn. Gro[c]ery stores are obliged to provide this service in the case of chickens bought alive locally or else must buy chickens processed. It is highly probabl[e] that chickens leave North Carolina alive and come back to its grocery stores dressed."

Sorry. It must be the Bing Crosby.

"Any program to develop resources for a poultry packing and freezing plant should include ducks, and an increase in turkey raising."

Why?

Drew Pearson reports on the Administration's uncharted course in dealing with the labor dispute now being faced across the country in the wake of the war. The President had received two types of advice, to ignore the situation and let labor and management battle it out, or to set a policy to enable a wage increase to offset the drop in take-home pay after the cancellation of war contracts. He had determined to follow the latter advice.

Florida orange and grapefruit growers were concerned about their fruit, with the cancellation by the Army of huge orders and the release of several million cases of oranges, previously in storage, into the civilian market. With civilian wages dropping, demand for citrus fruit would also drop as it was the first thing workers curtailed.

Farmers were more prosperous than ever but were mad at labor for holding up reconversion, had also been disappointed that, thus far, there was no large return of farm labor. The unions did not want to lose membership to the farms, with consequent loss of dues.

He then provides statistics on 1944 wages.

Marquis Childs reports that replies to letters he had sent to every member of Congress indicated that a sizable majority favored immediate relief to the liberated nations of Europe. Only Senators Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska and Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi responded with a firm no, the latter citing the words of St. Paul: "Charity begins at home..." Mr. Childs had received only a twenty percent response rate from the House and so discounted that as a representative sample.

A perennial letter writer expresses the belief that many were afflicted with MacArthuritis, viewed him as an excessively verbose pain in the neck. He criticized Senator Wherry for providing unwavering support of the General.

Another letter writer encloses a quarter for a reprint of the late Tom Jimison's firsthand account of the Morganton State Hospital, published throughout the state in January-February, 1942. The editors note that others also still requested the reprints.

You may have your copy gratis.