The Bakersfield Californian from Bakersfield, California • Page 18

Thursday, Fcbruory 15, 1945 Cbttorial of Pafeersftelb Caltforntan ALFRED HABBELL 1DJT01 AND FCSLIIHIB IBaluftfWo Californian fentcred in post office at Cnllfornla. an second class mall under tbe act of Congress March 3, 1879 MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to the use for tion of all news dispatches credited to It or not otherwise credited in thlc paper, and also the local news published therein. Tbe Bakersfleld Californian is nlso a rllcnt of the United and receives its complete wire service. i REPRESENTATIVES West-Holiday Inc. New Tork, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, i Seattle, Portland, Denver WASHINGTON, D.

BUREAU The Haskln Service, Washington, D. C. FOR HOME CONTROL THOSE who understand the problems that confront California insofar as the Central Valley is affected, there will be approval of the plan emphasized by Secretary Curran of the Central Valley Project Association, which provides for the appropriation of $5000 to study ways and means for the state to take over operation of its water problems. At present the Reclamation Bureau has very largely been in control and expects to continue in authority, according to the testimony of Stale Engineer Edward Hyatt who has just returned from Washington and who reports that a measure may shortly be introduced to set up a Federal authority in this state similar to the TVA. The people of California do not want more but less Federal authority in the conduct of their business and that sentiment widely prevails throughout the United Stales.

The realty which is now under control of Washington authorities has grown amazingly within the past few years. Not only that, but there is more and more evidence of the intent of Federal agencies to govern the production of oil as well as the distribution of water and to divert too many industrial activities. That is wholly contrary to the thought of the American people. What they want is less government in business and more business in government. -Some of the sentiment expressed relative to the proposed water treaty with Mexico is at variance with the views of the people of the Great West.

Which does not mean that we are not interested in the welfare of our neighbors. We are. But our first consideration has to do with the protection of our home people. It is folly to say that we can give away water resources which have been created by the expenditure of governmental funds in order to increase the acreage of irrigated lands in Mexico. When the latter goal cannot be attained except at the expense Of our own holdings it does not and cannot find favor with the arid states affected.

OUR OWN SAFETY FIRST WE receive continued evidence of the brutality of the Japanese in connection with the prisoners held by them on the Island of Luzon and elsewhere, as we note that even the nurses were victims of their cruelty, we have less and less patience with those who fear that some injustice is going to be done to Japanese here whose loyalty runs to their homeland without concern for the future welfare of this country. Our own nationals in Manila and adjoining areas were given treatment such as would not have appealed to the savages of America in our pioneer era. Homes were blockaded and subsequently burned and the latest report is that 1300 refugees and Filipino Catholic Sisters have been sacrificed in the war waged against non-combatants. 'So let us not worry too much about the rules and regulations that are essential to preventing espionage, not only during the war period but in the days thereafter. We are not going to make good citizens out of those who do not give their support today, nor never have in the period of the war, to this government which now controls them and which should control them very definitely in the future.

THE LIST NARROWS By carrier or mail (In advance) In postal zones one, two. three. per month, S5c; six months, 16.10: one year, JO.00. By mall in postal tones four to eight, per month, 05. HE capture of Budapest by Moscow after a 50-day siege represents one of the important developments of the war.

That city is a crucial point in a campaign which contemplates a movement against Vienna and from there on to aid the Russian forces gathered at the outskirts of Berlin, Dresden and other important centers which are the goals of the Russian drive. Notably, in the siege just ended so successfully 110,000 enemy troops were captured and 50,000 more were killed. The resistance was stubborn and the going most difficult for the Red Armies. That they succeeded is another evidence of the successful strategy of the Stalin military leaders. The Victory means a strengthening of the drive against Germany, a strengthening that will be most encouraging at a time when the Western forces are also making real prog- jttss in their effort to break the Siegfried 'The, record now is that the fall of Budapest marks the seventeenth capital liberated Allied armies.

The Germans now hold Wit six, The Hague, Copenhagen, Oslo, Prague, Vienna and Berlin. There is not lacking evidence that this number will be reduced to four at a time not too for distant. APRIL 25 APRII, 23, 1946, the -five-year Soviet- Japanese neutrality pact will expire. Under the terms of this agreement either signalor may terminate the agreement at the expiration of four years by giving such notice. Hence on April 25, of this year, cither Russia or Japan may serve such notice though it is extremely doubtful, of course, that Japan would terminate the neutrality pact.

It is not so doubtful, however, that Russia may serve sucli notice. Russia has become more and more outspoken blunt in references to Japan. When Germany has been smashed it is not at all unlikely that Russia may give us assistance against Japan in the Far East. Not unlikely, too, is assumption that President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill took up this matter prior to the Black Sea conference.

Both the United States and Great Britain hope for increasing assistance from Russia against Japan. The Japanese themselves have asserted that they expect the two big Allies to do their best "in the coming weeks to secure at least Russia's moral co-belligerency in respect of the Pacific war, if not her full embroilment." Thus the date in April may come to have some significance. Or again Russia may decide she has had enough of war, for a time at any rale, with the German defeat. AIR TRANSPORT WERE all pleased this month to learn the Burma Road, 1915 version, has been reopened and that motor convoys are now moving into China. Figures from China this week give index to the tremendous job being done by the Air Transport Command in moving materials into China over the Himalayas.

Last month 44,000 tons of vital munitions were conveyed to the theater during the four weeks, and all by planes which now fly at the rate of one for every two and a half minutes of time, including both day and night. The best delivery over the old Burma Road during one month was 22,000 tons of supplies. Though far greater amounts of munitions are now being delivered by air than by motor transport, nevertheless the opening of the Burma Road has been a great achievement for American forces in this theater, and among the unsung heroes of the road construction were Negro engineering troops pf America who have slogged through the jungles for months on end in their epic task of road building. BUT OBJECTING STILL HE Polish government in exile is dissatisfied with the findings of the Big Three relative to the future of its country. It emphasizes that even though it is not the stated purpose of the program outlined to deprive the alleged absentee government of an association with the regime which will control the Polish area when hostilities have ended.

However, the world will not be so interested in the findings of the present opposition of the rulers and officials of "exiled" governments. Rather, it is more likely to listen to the views of those who have participated in resistance to Europe's enemy. But maybe the objectors of today are among an old "ran away to live to plot another day." RANDOM NOTES The local public can render a real service to the nation by full co-operation in the paper-saving campaign to be launched here by the County Defense Salvage Committee. Merchants are going to give their assistance to the plans formulated and consumers can be helpful in accepting a somewhat lessened service in the matter of wrapping packages of merchandise. As an official of the defense organization says, "The patriotic shopper will show his willingness to speed the war effort by refusing to have his packages wrapped.

It is the goal to save a carload of paper a day here and if every shopper gets patriotic about saving paper we will accomplish the purpose of the drive." That is sound advice and there should be the fullest co-operation with the movement now in progress. Meanwhile the government, itself, can do something to stimulate popular interest in the saving of paper through a change of the method which now calls foi; a tremendous waste by its agencies of that necessary commodity. It would be enlightening to the average citizen to find that the waste that comes through official channels has'been stopped, that the useless literature which is widely distributed is a thing of the past. Public sentiment can-be greatly stimulated by such evidence of cooperation, not by the people bufby government authorities themselves. ERN YLE SAN once In a while you see or rend or feel something that you go head over heels about and can't quit talking about.

That has happened to me recently about two things. One is a movie, the other is a show. The movie is called "Fighting Lady" and was produced by the navy. The shows is a musical extravaganza on roller skates called "Skating Vanities." Let's get to the movie first. It has already gone into general showing in several cities and will eventually be shown everywhere in regular theaters.

If you ever see it advertised, for goodness sakes, go seo it. It is the story of life aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. It is in technicolor and it's all genuine. It wasn't produced in Hollywood from fancy sets. It was all taken by navy, cameramen right on the spot.

It Is as beautiful, and as thrilling, as anything I've ever seen. A good third of It was taken by automatic cameras in the noses of fighter planes. You diva on Japanese islands as though you were in the plane yourself. You can see your own tracer bullets shooting out ahead and fingering into Japanese planes. You see the Jap planes suddenly explode in a wave of red flame and see them twist down and down into the sea.

Not one or two isolated and faraway shots, but scorces of them, close up and vivid. And you see our own crippled planes come back to land on the mother carrier. You see them crack up, skid over the side, catch fire and burn on the deck. You see one poor fellow who ran out of gasoline when he was only 50 yards from the deck, and had to go in the water. "Fighting Lady" is a magnificent piece of work.

You'll know considerably more about what war feels like after you see it. "Skating Vanities" has nothing to do with the war. It is, rather, something to take your mind off the war. It is just a great big beautiful musical show and circus on roller skates. There are several big Ice shows touring the country, but "Skating Vanities" is the only one using roller skates.

It has just been on the west coast and Is now working its way eastward again. "You'd think that the grace and llthesomeness of dancing couldn't be accomplished on rollers, but it can. This show has 100 performers who are genii on wheels. They say it would be impossible to create another show of this sort, because there simply aren't another 100 outstanding 1 roller skaters in America. It took almost a year of combing the country to get enough skaters to start the show.

Marriage and the draft keep whittling down the cast, and they have to hold try outs in every big city they play, to dig up new skuters. night now three dozen of the old cast are somewhere in the armed forces. A dozen of the men now skating 1 have served in the army, and the rest are either 4-Fs or below military age. One of the exceptional skaters was a soldier in Italy. One of the 4-Fs has such poor eyesight he can't see where he's going, and the other skaters have to oall "right" or "left" to him as they skate along.

The star of the show is a magnificent little blonde creature named Gloria Nord. Like most great skating stars, she is of Norwegian descent. Her name was actually Nordskog, but that's too much of a mouthful for the show business. Gloria did a skating act in Betty Grable's "Pin-Up Girl," and as a result gets about BOO letters a week from soldiers overseas. She sends each one a pin-up picture.

She and her mother, who travels with her, do this themselves. Gloria eats supper about four hours before show- time, because she can't skate on a full stomach. One big problem in putting on a roller-skating show was to cut down on the noise, for rollers are noisy. This is done with a special floor of mnsonite, which the show carries with it and lays In sections. Also the skaters use skates with precision bearings instead of regular roller bearings, which also diminishes the noise.

One of the stars named Lew Testa won't use the precision skates, because he says he learned on the old-fashioned kind and damned if he's going to change. They hope eventually to put a small edition of "Skating Vanities" overseas to entertain troops. The catch right now is the floor. They have to have one that will remain the same in any climate. The masonite people are now working on a floor that won't get sticky or buckle or shrink under changing climates and temperatures.

As soon as they get it perfectedf I am going to learn to roller-skate and go overseas with the show as a clown. Xne Readers'Viewpoint EDITOR'S I.etttri should be limited to 150 words: ma; attack Ideas but not persons: must not be abusive and Hhould be written legibly and on one side of the paper. The Calirornlan is not responsible for tbe sentiments contained therein and reserves the fight to reject any letters. Letters must bear in authentic address snd signature, although there will be withheld If desired. BALANCE Editor The Californian: A league of nations to enforce peace, military conscription in wartime, compulsory military training in peacetime, compulsory service laws, compulsory health insurance and socialized medical care, unionization of labor, regimentation of industry and agriculture, bonuses, pensions, subsidies, loans and grants to special classes by central authority may do more harm than good because they prevent or hinder voluntary competitive co-operation.

Competitive cooperation is the essence of life and in nature all things compete by co-operating. Nature's plan is balanced and continuous. It is balanced by voluntary competitive co-operation. Whenever we do anything successfully we actually balance something with some other thing, so some condition with some other condition. We eat food to balance hunger.

We build roads to balance the traffic between two points and make the roadbed sufficiently strong to balance the maximum 'load. All machines that work are balanced. Justice is personified by a blindfolded lady with a set of balances. Our laws are designed to balance personal relations and contracts. Our courts balance contracts which the first and second parties can't balance.

We say "Live and let live" "Give and take" and we practice the Golden Rule. Ledgers are generally balanced; if liabilities are hopelessly greater than assets, they are balanced by bankruptcy. Everything is balanced according to the natural law of "Action and Reaction" (Newton). Our civilization is built on balance. Our mechanical, chemical and economic education is based on balanced conditions.

We only know how natural things work. We do not know why. Our nation is out of balance and does not work properly. The best way to balance a nation is to let the people balance it and keep it balanced by voluntary competitive We are now balancing our mistakes and extravagance the hard blood, tears, sweat and toil. (Churchill).

Force is always balanced by force. In physics, if two equal forces act in opposite directions and in a straight line, the resultant is zero. When two nations balance relations with force both are generally bankrupt and exhausted. Force is a two- edged sword. I believe that pence must be based on balanced foreign relations and balanced domestic relations.

Also, that a volunteer army and navy, well equipped and trained, will suffice for national security. A balanced nation is a secure nation. Governments should make the rules and umpire the game. The people should co-operate competitively. Politics should be based on natural laws.

FRED SIEMON. Route 5, Box FOR CHILDREN Editor The Californian: After reading letters about people who will not rent, or have room for children, I would like to give them a few reasons why. First I want to state the fact that I am very fond of children who have been taught to behave and respect other people's, rights, but I am sorry to say that so many parents do not take the time to teach their children to respect other people's property or rights. Here are a few of the things they do, and the reasons why property owners refuse to take in children: Children climb young trees and break them down, climb on housetops and ruin the roofs, drive nails In houses, porches and 'on the fences and tear them dawn, swing on gates and doors Ull they break them down, tear, out screens, break windows, crack nuts on the floors and furniture, mark on the walls and tear the paper off the walls, jump and play on beds with their shoes on, pull shades off the rollers and destroy them, ttsar down curtains, pick holes in upholstery then pull out the padding, stick gum all over the furniture, floors and rugs and many other things to destroy. If parents would teach their children to not do those things, I am sure there would be more room for children.

There is no job so essential for mothers as to stay at home and raise her children, establish a good home for them, that generally makes good citizens of them. Many parents say, "Oh, they are just children once, so let them have a good time." I have heard parents say, "Oh, they were so cute about it, they just, couldn't scold them and they were having so much fun." I have also heard parents say, "Oh, well, while they are doing that they don't bother me and we pay rent, so let the landlord do the worrying." The poor little children are not to blame for it all, the greater part of the trouble is the parents do not teach their children to take care of their own things either. So don't blame the property owners too much. BEULAH PATTERSON. WALLACE ECONOMY 7 Editor The Californian: Some more reasons why I think Henry Wallace would not make a good secretary of commerce.

In his appearance before the committee the first thing Wallace proposed is loans to small businessmen. As a profes sional do-gooder Wallace would turn the department of commerce into a welfare agency instead of a more or less statistical service which was the original setup. His idea would be to use it to control and regiment the economy of the nation. Can you imagine the money that could be wasted in subsidizing small bust nesses, than which no other segment of our national economy has a higher mortality rate. Another reason is that Henry is not consistent, too er ratic.

He practiced a scarcity gram in the little pig deal, then ao cuses big business of following a scarcity program. Each speech he makes has to be followed by an ex planatory 'speech. One day he says big business are Fascists and the next day he says only 5 per cent are Fascists. His publicized "Bottle of milk for every Hottentot" he says was just a joking remark he made to Madame Litvinov. Another son: F.

D. R. had to take him off the South America deal because it was being messed up and had to liquidate him as running mate last November. F. D.

R. ought to know. I saw 250,000 bushels of government wheat dumped on the ground in Los Angeles out in the rain. I saw the potatoes dumped on the ground in Bakersfield. Wonder if that an offshoot of Henry's ever-normal granary.

If it isn't it is a part, nevertheless, of the rob-Peter-to-pay- Paul economy we have had for the last 12 years. Why did F. 1). R. nominated him then? Only to pay a political frankly told us so.

DIOGENES. CAMP FIRE COUNCIL Editor The I would like to express to you the appreciation of the Kern County Council of Camp Fire Girls for the publicity you have given us in the last year and for the fine consideration your staff has shown us at all times. We, who are responsible for the work of this organization, are cog nizant of the interest you have shown in the development of Camp Fire in this community and feel we have benefited greatly by your terest. May I add my personal word of appreciation; Sincerely yours, MRS. A.

S. President, Kern- County Council Camp Fire Girls. From the Files of The Californian TEN YEARS AGO (The Californian, this date, 1935) Theodore Strong presented his third organ concert in Bakersfield last night to a capacity crowd at First Baptist Church. Miss Florence Swan, bride-elect of John A. Hamilton, was ot honor at a party given by Mrs.

Kenneth Armistead last night. Nominating committee of Bakersfield Council of Parents and Teachers will meet with Mrs. M. J. Meadows Tuesday.

Sidney E. Bateman, only living man associated, with Thomas Edison at his famous Sunberry, electrical plant, is a resident of Bakersfield. Victor Svimonoff spoke on "Soviet before members of -UO Club today. TWENTY YEARS AGO (The Calitornlan, this date. 1925) Miss Gladys Hardesty became the bride of Jewett F.

Voorhies Saturday afternoon. Movie stars are now shooting a film near Lebec. Included in the group is Fred Thompson on his horse Silver King. Poppies are already attracting scores of motorists to the Edison and Bear mountain areas. Attorney -E.

J. Emmons will address Taft Busjnessmen's Club Thursday. F. L. True is a candidate for City Council.

It. E. Galloway reports that $1000 of the $5000 Salvation Army goal has been contributed in the first few days of the drive. A thief stole eight bottles of medicinal whisky from Dr. Leland W.

Ellis' office last night. THIRTY YEARS AGO (The Californian, this date, 1915) 'Headlines: England's Food Blockade Effective; Italy to Choose Between War and Revolution. W. A. Howell who injured his knee last July and who has been in San Francisco for several months is still confined to his bed.

Bellevue packing house owned by Kern County Land Company started operations Sunday by killing 30 head of cattle. Speaking on "The Conservation of Bakersfield Resources," Judge Howard Peairs addressed Presbyterian Men's Association last night on the project of a boulevard and park along Kern river. FORTY YEARS AGO (The Californian. this date, 1905) After a lengthy debate the Senate in Sacramento today refused to pass by a vote of 21 to 14 Senator Ralston's constitutional amendment providing for woman suffrage. The marriage of William H.

Fenneman and Miss Mary K. Williams was solemnized at the home of the bride's parents last night. Hereafter textbooks will be free, a bill having passed the Senate to that effect by a large majority. On last Sunday a woman who is rooming with Mrs. Elder on Baker street in Kern City disappeared, leaving behind her a 3-weeks-old baby boy.

Citizens are worrying for fear they will eat their bread dry since learning of the organizing of a new butter trust with a capital of $17,000,000. FIFTY YEARS AGO (The Californian, this date. 1S86) Kern county will be the seat of extensive dairying operations with capital from Illinois coming to establish a creamery. There was a landslide near Keene which delayed a passenger train six hours last night. Thomas Brady was robbed last night by unknown parties.

He appeared before Justice Fox this morning to tell hiff story. Editorial note: The Daily Californian will not give its consent to having another railroad built through this valley unless the managers agree to build it to Bakersfield. Al Griffin, revenue collector for the district, is now in town. SO THEY SAY It may be that we need some form of legislation to keep our war work' ers on their jobs. It seems most likely that this would take the form of an overall regimenting of 000 James M.

Mead (D-N. If the fundamental differences be tween the United Nations will not stand public airing we had better find out before we enter into a per manent M. Landon. The need of more men by the army will mean a further squeeze on the supply of civilian workers, with real effects to show up in late January or Whiting, WPB official. Measured in terms of effectiveness, the army is under strength.

What we need are 7,700,000 highly effective of War Henry L. Stimson. What can it profit a man to gain the whole world and come to his property with gastric ulcer and Steinbeck in "Can nery Row." It's now an engineer's roads and keeping them open- In this weather oiy weasels, halt tracks and tanks break down before the men Robert Evans of Davenport, Iowa, with First Army in Belgium. PEN SHAFTS Sugar has again disappeared from some restaurant tables. XXXX marks the sopt where they've cut down.

A Colorado woman has had 31 operations, but you get only one guess as to what she talks about. If you're interested, a toy manu facturer says the jumping rope is still tNo. 1 favorite with little girls. If you're not interested, skip it! We've seen the advance showing of 1945 bathing suits. There really is a shortage in some materials.

Wintertime politeness consists of a man getting up in a street car to let a woman sit down and freeze. If you insist on doing things by halves, wait till the watermelon season. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY Thou believest that there is one God; thoit doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. James The German Is the discipline of fear; ours is the discipline of faith will ews ews -(By PAUL MALLON)- WASHINGTOX, Feb. forty billion dollar RFC job which Mr.

Wallace reached for and missed, was next to have been tossed by the White House crowd to Marriner EC- cles, federal reserve chairman, who at least knows something about the nation's financial base of capitalistic operations. Eccles declined at once, saying he wanted to keep his present post. At a meeting of the top men around Mr. Roosevelt (Jimmy Byrnes, Marvin Jones, et al) it was decided all would get behind Fred Vinson, Kentucky ex-congressman, who has been an unostentatious assistant to Byrnes, directing economic stabilization. Vinson could no doubt be confirmed as senators generally have given him a good calibre rating since he proved his common sense and showed quite a bit of ability as chairman of the tax sub-committee in the House.

There, he was always a strong Democratic partisan, generally going along with the New Deal, although carefully saving himself from any charge of radicalism. He is not as free a money tosser as the Wallace crowd might like, but on the other hand they could hardly object to Kim. Coming up from a small town lawyer to his congressional job, he found It insecure because his Kentucky district was always apt to go Republican. The White House gave him a judgeship on the court of appeals, from which security he resigned to help Byrnes, at White House request. In his present war task he has been rather hardboiled in seriously doing what F.

D. R. has told him to he wolud no doubt preside over the Jesse Jones financial dynasty the same way. Some inside work Is being done, however, to get someone with more experience in finance to do Mr. R's bidding in RFC, and some rather formidable people are trying to get Joseph P.

Kennedy back in the government. Here is as good a man as the New Deal ever had, whose career has been an ironic tragedy. He was ridden out of the London ambassadorship because he approved the Munich appeasement, which Mr. Roosevelt also approved, but with recrimination. Fanatics have carried out a hate and smear campaign against him since then without any justification, sometimes calling him "Fascist" or worse.

He was for Munich because he knew Britain was not prepared for war and neither were we. But what will gall any sense of justice is that he has given more to the war than any of those public deceivers who have made a good war business out of running him down. He has suffered one son killed, a son-in-law killed after six weeks of marriage to his daughter, a second son so seriously injured ramming Jap destroyer he has not yet recovered. Three of the highest military decorations have come to the family. A third son is in the navy, and a Is doing Red Cross work in France.

The son who was killed was carrying a rocket bomb across the British channel, aimed at Nazi munition dumps In France, when it exploded prematurely off the French coast and blew his plane to bits. Tou never hear these things, only the sly curses of agitators, living and fattening off the war by selling bitterness and hate against good Americans for high fees. If there is a more ironical example of the nature of American politics today, I have not heard it. The story explains why so few big men care to enter public service. No one' else is better fitted by or politics for the Jones job, but Kennedy probably will not get It.

Fervor of witnesses appearing, for both Wallace and Aubrey Williams (nominated to head RE A) ran to the skies. Here were two men dropped by Mr. Roosevelt for the campaign. formerly youth administrator and WPA deputy, not been popular and left the government before election. Like Wallace he was considered radical and much of a load on the administration.

Yet immediately after election both were named for bigger jobs than they had lost, and many men and women flocked to the Senate to claim the good of the country required their services (presumably only between elections.) The answer to this enthusiasm, as the listening senators made it out, was that in commerce Wallace would control 130,000 jobs while rural electrification is planning an expansion for postwar which would also give the harassed radicals (chased from government by the Dies committee or the pre-election trend political events) a good place to return and alight for longer than the duration. Congress will block the whole plan. The- Wallace program to dole 60,000,000 jobs by shoveling out federal funds ten times faster than WPA ever did, is how popular and the Williams appointment is in dire jeopardy. Congress is convinced these steps could bring socialism faster than anything else. The government could finally own all business by the process of lending it more and more as banks acquire business by lending processes.

While Congress has been unable to furnish any affirmative leadership to make managed capitalism work, it is certainly now again becoming a roadstop against the push toward socialism. (World copyright, 1(45, by King features Sjn- Inc. All rights reserved. Beproduclioo in full er In part itrlctly prohibited.) I asking ton -(By PETER EDSON)WASHINGTON, Feb. all the proposed reforms of Congress, those which would seek to change the relationships between Congress and the people are most controversial.

Basis for the belief that some change is needed is the fact that congressmen have to run too many errands and do too many petty chores for their constituents. This is supposed to keep the congressmen so busy they don't have time to legislate in the national interest. Yet if all these tasks like helping their people get jobs, pensions, war contracts or settlement of claims against the government were taken away from congressmen and given to some other agency, there is possible danger that the whole system of representative government would be weakened. After all, congressmen are elected to represent the people of their district in Washington and look out for their interests. If congressmen don't look after the interests of their constituents, they don't get re-elected.

Most of would-be for office every other years makes Yet it is seriously proposed that all routine requests for Information sent by voters to their congressmen be turned over to an "Inquiries Service" set.up in the Library of Congress. That might ruin one of the congressman's best contacts with his people. Since the federal government can't be sued without its consent, anyone with a claim against the government must have his congressman introduce a private bill for his relief. These private bills make up about half the number of acts passed by Congress each session. Some are relntroduced year after year.

The claims committee which handles them is usually swamped. To remedy this situation it is proposed that the claims committee be abolished and this work turned over to the claims division in the department of justice for all claims of under $5000. For bigger claims, relief could be sought through the United States Court of Claims. To relieve Representatives of the necessity of running for office so frequently that it amounts to all the time, it has been proposed that their terms pf office be lengthened from two to six years, like It would take a Constitutional amendment to put this over and the chances are slim. It can be argued that forcing representatives to run for office every other years makes them watch their step and behave better, keep in closer touch with their districts than if they were cut loose for six-year terms.

Other ideas for improving the relations between Congress and the people range all the way from having Congress hire a press agent to doing a much better editing job on the dally Congressional Record and putting Congress on the radio. This last is particularly intriguing. To watch visitors come into, the gal. leries, linger a few moments, then leave In disgust gives a faint Idea of how fast listeners might spin the dial if they happened to tune in on the congressional frequency. At the other end of the scale, there is the thought of how congressional spellbinders might be tempted' to make political speeches for- home consumption if they knew they were on the air and it wasn't costing them anything.

The whole question of Improving relations between Congress and the people really boils down to a problem for the electorate, not to a problem for Congress. It is the matter of choosing better congressmen. It has been proved time and again that most people don't know who their congressman is. Too few good men want to make public service a career, considering the risks too great. Questions an Answers -(By THE HASKIN SERVICE)Q.

How can relatives find out the exact location of the graves' of soldiers who lose tbelr lives In battle? M. R. A. The war department says that the bulletin entitled "Information for Emergency Addressees, Next to Kin and Beneficiaries of Deceased Military Personnel" states that as soon as military security will permit, the quartermaster-general, who has jurisdiction over such matters, will furnish the grave location of these honored heroes to the next of kin in each case an-? upon termination of the war will communicate with the families concerned relative to the return of the to this country. Q.

Is it necessary for a man to enlist in the navy In order to obtain training at thu diving school in Washington, D. I. A. In order to obtain training at the navy deep eta. diving school In Washington, D.

it is necessary to enlist in the navy and a request for deep sea diving school training through the commanding officer. There is no guarantee that after enlistment a man will be selected for this training. Q. What are the duties of message centers of the marine A. The headquarters ot the United States Marine Corps says that every marine division has a division message center, and every regiment has a regimental message center which works under the division message center.

A message center handles incoming and outgoing messages and distributes them throughout the const mand. Q. What provision is made by the government for a child whose father has been killed in E. A. When a member or former member of the armed forces of the United States dies of a service-connected disability, his widow, children and dependent parents may file a claim for pension with the Veterans' Administration.

In correspondence, the veteran's full name, birth date, rank or grade, and serial, service or file number should be given. Q. How can' one find out definitely whether or not A soldier at one time reported missing, a prisoner in R. K. A.

Inquiry should.be made at the provost marshal general's office, war department, Washington 25, D. giving the soldier's full name, rank and serial number. A check will be made to -determine whether he is a prisoner of Japan, and Information will be the of letters or packages to him. Q.How many hospitals has the Veterans' B. A.

The Veterans' Administration says that of November SO, it had hospitals St.OOO beds. In addition, work in progress or 11,000 beds, and funds have been authorised for more. Q. Is the rank of general of the army permanent or O. L.

A. The rank is temporary. A rttdtr nr itt tba to ftet to vriilni HUcnfltfcl CilHomiiB lorooMtitt UUMU. is. Wuktattta t.

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