There was no intention to feed the world indefinitely, but the root hog, or die concept was based on the invalid notion that people who had been so reduced by warfare in their midst that they had not the means with which to initiate basic subsistence could, of their own initiative, return to stasis—was as invalid as the laissez-faire principles which had dragged the country into the Depression in the Twenties, and left it there.

The Wagner Act had been passed when employers had a huge advantage in labor relations and sought with good intent to rectify the imbalance. But, it ventures, with time, matters had transpired to create too much power with the unions under the Wagner Act.

While recognizing Representative Ervin's unique position to speak candidly, his strong logic acted as a gauge of the weakness of his colleagues who measured their response by polls. His contribution stood as the greatest service he could provide and the editorial expresses sorrow to see his service end.

Of course, he would return, being appointed to the Senate to fill the term of Senator Clyde Hoey of Shelby when the latter would die in 1954.

And the rest, as they say...

Ms. Dix had responded by advising the Gob to fall in love with another girl.

The piece wonders what the Gob had in mind and whether he would settle for cash payment from the Government, such as in the case of alienation of affections. Or would he have the Government issue him a surplus WAC or WAVE as a replacement?

They have no other suggestions for him and advise that he go directly to Washington and consult with General Bradley, head of the Veterans Administration.

Prohibition had made more criminals than liquor had made more sots. Education was the answer to ridding the population of the influence of liquor, not prohibition.

In 1941, the National Coal Mines Inspection Act enabled annual inspection of the mines by the Bureau of Mines, but the mine operators were not compelled to implement the recommendations of the Bureau. It was usually only the smaller mines, however, which did not follow the recommendations.

Parenthetically, it might be pointed out, however, that under the law of negligence, the mine operators were made more subject to lawsuits if there were known dangerous conditions which they did not then remedy, effectively raising thereby their standard of care. So the Bureau did have real impact, even when mines did not follow their recommendations, even if the impact came after the tragedy and not preventative of it.

State inspections varied greatly, with political ramifications sometimes favoring the owners at the expense of miner safety. Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky had laws governing use of flame safety lamps to measure the accumulation of methane in mines down to one percent. But the Bureau standards set the dangerous level of methane at one-tenth of one percent.

On the previous December 26, an explosion in Pineville, Ky., had killed 26 miners. The mine did not have a dangerous accumulation above one percent as set by Kentucky law and thus the men were using the open flame carbide lamps. Under the Bureau standard, they would have been using electric lamps. Accumulation of gases had occurred during the preceding three-day Christmas holiday when the mine had been closed.

Thus, there was merit in the notion of the need for a comprehensive mine safety act with enforcement capability at the Federal level. There was also need for a miner health and welfare fund, but administered outside the UMW.

Mr. Pearson next reports, among a series of items regarding Washington, that Postmaster General and DNC chairman Robert Hannegan had submitted his resignation the previous week, but it had been turned down by the President, saying that he was needed too much for the fall elections.

The President had asked Secretary of Interior J.A. Krug to set up a committee from the Interior, Navy, and War Departments to coordinate oil issues, that which Harold Ickes had advocated when the fight had begun regarding the confirmation of Ed Pauley as Undersecretary of the Navy, leading to the resignation of Mr. Ickes after the President questioned his memory of a meeting with Mr. Pauley in which Mr. Ickes claimed that Mr. Pauley had, as treasurer of DNC in September, 1944, offered to raise $300,000 for the Democrats provided the Government would relinquish its claim to control of tidal oil lands in which Mr. Pauley enjoyed a direct interest.

The "Bring Back Daddy Club", comprised of wives and children of servicemen stationed abroad, were going to Washington May 13 to demonstrate, had vowed to remain until their husbands and fathers were released from the service.

UNRRA director Fiorello La Guardia was preparing to register protest to the White House regarding the policy of the State Department on issuance of passports, Earl Browder, previously convicted of passport fraud, having no trouble obtaining a passport to go to Moscow, while UNRRA members had been refused passports to Norway, White Russia, and China.

Throughout the period, Mr. Anderson had remained eerily optimistic, even at present stating expectations that the May-June wheat export goals would be met, along with the previously accumulated deficits of prior months. But the following week, it was reported that the U.S. had fallen 150,000 tons short of its wheat quota for the first week of May, 881,000 tons short since January 1.

Thus, just a day after his "cheery little tweet-tweet of Monday", Mr. Anderson had to backtrack and characterize the situation as "extremely grave".

Mr. Anderson's undue optimism had led the President into the same box, first stating in mid-April that the food situation was improving, then six days later saying it was worse than anticipated. The resulting "flips and flops" were freighted with meaning, causing enunciation alternatively of optimism, then instilling fear in the people, "until both the hope and the gloom come to seem only satiric footnotes to each other."

Then floating into this picture had come Herbert Hoover, an enemy of rationing, who corroborated the optimism of the White House by saying that the crisis would be short-lived, that it would last three or four months until the next harvest in Europe. So, instead of asking for Government intervention to establish some control and rationing, he set out on a fact-finding tour of the world food situation for the President. The result was that no Government action had taken place.

The same reactionary situation which had inhibited reconversion had affected the world food situation, "blotting out light abroad as it is trying so hard to do at home".

The U.N. had no power to force the hand of the Big Four powers. The effort of retired Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts and former Governor Harold Stassen to promote the idea of a world superstate with surrender of sovereignty of the member nations on international matters had fallen largely on deaf ears in the country, concerned as it was about retention of sovereignty while paying lip service to the concept of the United Nations.

The question arose as to whether lack of agreement was worse than compromise among the Big Four, which could inevitably lead to the same weakened form of agreement reached in Paris in 1919, causing ultimately the League of Nations to fail.

The editors respond by rehashing the argument presented several times in the column, and then asking the Banner what the problem was with a contested election for the position.