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ener ae nee 38 N. E, Dodd estimates there is a 36-mil- lion-ton grain demand for the current fiscal yeac and that there are only 26.5 million tons of export supplies. With- out government control, wheat will not go where it is needed. Private traders and governments would coms into our market and undoubtedly bid the price up so that our people would have an enormous sum added to their already ex- cessively high food bill. This is not mere idle speculation. At the present time Sweden has placed an order for 20,000 tons of wheat for July 1, the date of expiration of the Export Act. _ In other words, Sweden is betting that the law will expire. Sweden, not being a “starvation” country, was not allo- cated wheat, but because she has money she-plans to buy it as soon as control is lifted. If we were to remove export controls, other countries would undoubt- edly set them up. And inevitably we would be unable to get what we wanted and needed from them, while they could come into our market and buy what they pleased. EMOVING controls would mean the end of the International Emergency Food Council and would be equivalent “to by-passing the United Nations. The function of the IEFC is to channel com- modities which are in short supply into afees where they are needed. Member rations exchange information about their food and other commodity needs. They also exchange information about production, capacity and supplies in the various countries. Then 2 general plan is worked out so that each country cao get what it needs. Senator Taft is finding out that it is not so easy to get rid of controls. And he may be beginning to see that uni- lateral and selfish action by the US will hurt his own country. He may even be beginning to suspect that we are not " self-sufficient; and, in fact, in thie long run ate more dependent on the rest of the world than it is on us. This admit- tedly is a rosy view of Taft. ; At any rate, whether Taft likes it or not, he lives in one world, as do the rest of us. And he will inevitably find out that he can’t sink the international boat <ithant drowning a lot of good Repub- Fo Semarang sme et =e won ‘ t eevee penne ipa = se we ape gee sOutiiuanaiiaiaieadie: ateatameeee ee ee NEW REPUBLIC Battle of the Books UST a year ago, two justices of the New York State Supreme Court “enjoyed a lesson in the language of radio criticism as practised by the en- tertainment industry's “bible,” Variety. At issue were an injunction suit; then a four-day trial, in which the contes- tants were Martin Stone, Plaintiff, and Station WHN, New York, Defendant. Plaintiff alleged that Defendant, by put- ting on a program called “Books on Trial,” was engaging in unfair competi- tion as well as violating the law of confidential relationship. Over a six-year period, Stone had built a program called “The Author Meets the Critics,” which he had just moved from WHN to a competing station in New York City; and WHN had promptly come out with another version of literary radio called “Books on Trial.” Mr. Justice Eder, who denied the in- junction -suit, ruled that “time is of the essence’? and remanded the case for speedy trial. Mr. Justice Botein listened for four days, and dismissed the action. In both instances, a prominent role was played by Variety's verdict, which had already weighed both shows critically. Variety's judgment that “a guy's hep” was relevant became a matter for jurid- ical determination. The court had to rule, with a straight face, on the com- petence and materiality of a Variety decision that “with the plug cut down to kneepants, show should move smoothly to well earned Hooper.” The case is about to pay off as far as radio, and radio’s relationship to litera- ture, are concerned. For next month, “The Author Meets the Critics” moves into the big time. Up to now, it has been heard only in New York (for the last year on WQXR) and over one- third of the Mutual network’s string of one-lung transmitters. In May the show goes to NBC. At a very good time for this type of show (Sundays, 4:30-5 p.m.), large blocs of listeners will be able to hear prominent authors battle te -eltlesT paere And, Ny ca on pnmanns em ee Radio Att gbecause of the lessons-learned in Stone v. WHN a yeae ago, Stone and NBC ate preparing to make this new big- league book show an exciting pack- age: — Stone had Jost the WHN action be- cause, among other considerations, the court had accepted the trade reviewer's judgment that The Author Meets the Critics” was “‘essentially a round-table discussion, while ‘Books on Trial’ [was} a dramatization.” Now the new show will combine the forum and drama techniques. Some scenes out of the book under consideration will be dramatized, so that the listener may have his appe- tite whetted and at the same time know what the shooting is about. Then the critics will shoot. The critics will be not only from New York, as has mainly been the case until now, but from any- where NBC's lines can reach—and that’s most of the USA. Awe of some of the people and books that have appeared on both New York shows in the last year may give you a better idea of what's in store. Stone’s show has featured author Blea ; nor Roosevelt (Jf You Ask Me), J Roy Carlson (The Plotters), Theodore White .and Annalee Jacoby (Thunder Out of China) and Charles Jackson (The Fall of Valor). Araong the critics have been John Mason Browa, Lewis Gannett, Irwin Edman and Bennett Cerf. “Books on Trial” has tackled Howard Fast’s The American, with Hamilton Fish attacking and Louis Nizer defending; Louis Fischer’s The Great Challenge, with Earl Browder lined up against Edgar Ansel Mowrer; and Russell Lord's The Wallaces of lowa, which was attacked by Washing- ton Times-Herald editor Frank C. Wal- _ drop and defended by Stetson (South- ern Exposure) Kennedy. If the new show, jells (they don’t always sound as planned, alas!) this one should be as exciting as “Information Please” was some nine years ago when its cock first crowed to sloganize, “Wake Up. America!” Toe a Sag ery om 7