Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 April 1949 — Page 22

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"PAGE 22 _ Thursday, Apr. 28, 1949

TT 410, Snsamapath Fg Ere EEE AE ; ' County, 5 eents & for dally ot ea Dy AFIe , week, pL Rs Uexiso, daily, $1.10 month. Sanday. So & Copy. Telephones Blley 865) Give Light and the People Will Pind Thaw Owe Wey

3 — ' wer —- The Only Chance ee QEN, GEORGE of Georgia, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, says Congress could avert a tax inerease this year by cutting 5 per cent from the “reducible” spending items in President Truman's budget.

.+ If such cuts are made, the Senate will have to do the A job. > wills Ron Lo The House has passed all nine regular appropriation bi'ls, totaling nearly $31 billion—only about 1 per cent less But the Senate, so far, has acted on none of these bills. - If it takes them up one by one, instead of considering each ~ in relation to all the others and to probable government income, it won't cut them 5 per cent. It probably will make them bigger than the House did, that being an old Senate “ habit. : £ : What the Senate should do is clear: It should determine, as accurately as it can, how much money present taxes will bring in next fiscal year. It should fix that amount as a ceiling on spending. Then it should cut all appropriation bills enough to keep their total below that LA a Ee. ==IN OTHER words, it should adopt—and stay within--a legislative budget. In fact, both House and Senate are required, by a law Congress passed in 1946, to do just that. The law never has been complied with fully. Some members of Congress—Ilike Rep. Cannon of Missouri, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee — contend that the pro“cedure it requires is “useless” and “futile.” ; But the procedure that votes a flock of separate appropriations before finding out whether, when they're all added together, there will be money enough to pay the bills, is foolish and reckless. “ This year, the date set for drawing up the legislative t is May 1. If it is drawn up by that date, the Senate | ~ will have it as a guide in considering the appropriation bills. Whether the Senate will be wise enough to use the guide— to cut the outlays already voted by the House-is another

on. : HE ~ That, however, is the only apparent chance there is for cutting the “reducible” spending items. And the alternatives to cutting those items are both things the country + cannot afford—either a federal deficit or a tax increase which, in addition to the present heavy burden, could turn - the current recession into a serious depression, Lifting the Blockade Russia's offer to lift the Berlin blockade, if the Western powers will reopen discussions of other German prob- ~ lems in the Council of Foreign Ministers, promises to remove one major point of friction between the East and West. ~ . The blockade has been costly to both sides and lifting ~~ jt will be mutually beneficial. Viewed in this light, the apparent meeting of minds between the Soviets and the West on this problem does not necessarily forecast the early settlement of other differences., Howevér, no harm and much good may result from * peviving the Council of Foreign Ministers, where these dif- : ferences can be aired. And if the Soviets have any other 50-50 proposals in mind, they will be welcomed. Ey at 3 » » ” AMERICAN fofcials say the pending agreement will not interfere with plans for establishing a West German government under the new occupational statute agreed to by Britain, France and the United States. There is no reason why it should. ‘When a West German government is a going concern it will be time enough to take up the larger, more complicated problem of a government for a reunited Germany. gos ~ Meanwhile, if the Berlin agreement materializes we should be thankful for small favors, for the airlift alone is . costing our taxpayers $3 million a month, ‘

‘Partisans of Peace’ HE “World Congress of the Partisans of Peace” — a . Communist-front rally staged in Paris — maintained that the threat to peace came from American capitalists and was directed against the Soviet Union. ; ~ When O. John Rogge, an American speaker, said that United States leaders did not want war and suggested that the threat to peace grew in part from the Soviet Union's own policies and rose from mutual fear, he was greeted by boos and catealls. , : 7 The same treatment was accorded Harvey Moore, a British delegate, when he told the Congress that, if it believed in peace, it should favor a compromise in the Chinese war. A war the Communists are winning apparently wasn't -4 . considered a threat to peace. rg + When Garry Davis, self-styled “citizen of the world,” asked to be heard, he was told the Congress was not “a ‘market place where anyone could offer his wares.” Another delegate who had not obtained permission to speak was ejected from the hall when he rose and asked for the floor. : Sp. ose “partisans of peace,” as so often happens when organizations with names like that assemble, proved themselves simply partisans of Soviet Russia. ;

A Break for the Boys ~~ WJOW comes the season when pictures of “queens” of : © every sort flow over the city editor's desk. And in the budding’ spring, the schools produce them by the hundreds. One phase of the “queen season” in the eity: editor's life is that they usually are pretty and popular. “For too many years and in too many schools all the . : have been able to do is to look at the pictures and 1) ey were the ones who were taking her to the prom

~~ "Now comes Arsenal Technical High School with an ~ idea which makes infinite seiise to those of us in the male

.{ For these reasons: ‘

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+» By William P.

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Emi wom eos mys | Pact Doubtful |

Russia Seen Standing in . Way of Peace Settlement | WASHINGTON, Apr. 28 — While a new, Fast-West Big Four conlerence has now become almost certain for next summer, with Germany #8 the No. 1 item on the agends, no one seems optimistic enough to expect an early settlement.

dl 5 be the last thing Russia wants, her protestations to the contrary patwhhstanding. Political snd economic chaos (has been her most effective Second, while Russia will urge 2 unified Germany under a single government in Berlin, _#he. will veto any properly supervised national sisctions indispensable to such a ;

military and, police organizations in setual control of the country. : 5

‘Free Hand for Reds FOURTH, Russia will demand a freé¢ hand for the Communist Party in Germany and a full share in the federal government in Berlin. This could be. expected to lead to the early transformation of Germany into another Poland or ‘Czechoslovakia, : To diplomats familiar with past East-West negotiations, it is too much to expect Russia suddenly to agree to a democratic, free Germany now or in the near future, Completely free, nation-wide elections, it is reliably reported, would disclose not more than 10 or 15 per cent of the population favorable to the Communists. Few believe Russia has the slightest intention to permit any such demonstration of weakness, = Russia, however, has much to gain and nothing to lose by the present move. For her, the Beriin blockade has proved to be a terrific boomerang, It gave rise to the airlift, a show of Allied power which astonished the world. And the courter-blockade imposed by the Allies has hurt Russia and her satellites far more than the Berlin blockade hurt the West, A new top-level Big Four meeting ‘Would be worth virtually any price Russia would be called upon to pay. Russia needs a new forum for her propaganda. Delegates at the United Nations now yawn when Soviet spokesmen bellow at Uncle Sam and the West as “warmongers.” And such hoaxes as the recent “peace” gatherings in New York and Paris are altogether too transparent.

Big Four Conference

A BIG FOUR. foreign ministers’ conference’ at thid time would provide a néw and timely sounding board for the Kremlin's drive against the Atlantic Pact, further Marshall Plan ald, our national defense program and the strengthening of Europe. Washington rightly is favorably disposed toward meeting Moscow half way. OMelaldom Appeary pleased over the new turn. The West

all, just how sincere: Russia reilly is about peace, z » ' Many feel, however, that the American deleRation should be most carefully selected. In eddition to experts learned in the art of internatiofial negotiation, it should have at least one John I. Lewis capable of pinning back the ears of Russia's battery of Vishinskys. But, it is observed, perhaps the most impaortant thing of all is for Washington to wateh its step, keep its fingers crossed and its powder” dry. In 1939, while Stalin and Molotov talked peace with the British and French in their front parlor, in the back room théy were secretly drawing up a war pact with Hitler -and Von Ribbentrop.

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In Tune With the Times

Barton Rees Pogue

ANTICIPATION

Anticipation scorns the drab today, And seeks within the archives of the mind - For portents that tonforrow will be gay— A visit from an old-time friend, & kind And loving deed, a gift, bequest, perhaps acclaim, Which relegate today to distant lands 5 And yesterday to unremembered n : . But reaches for the future with both hands.

It is a nuptial vision of a home: A baby's face reposing on a breast; Career, foreseeing fame’s aspiring dome; A prayer, valeing merciful request. - Anticipation answers hope's appeal By making it seem equal to the real.

~-CASPER BUTLER, Kokomo.

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TRUMAN APPOINTMENT . . . By Marquis Childs Senate Blockade Termed Unfair

WASHINGTON, Apr. 28—It is now nearly ® threé¢ months since President Truman sent to the Senate the name of Mon Waligren 10 be chairman of the National Security Resources Bodrd. The Senate Armed Services Committee, by a majority of one, voted to keep the Wallgren nomination in the committee, which means that the full Senate cannot pass on it. - This has stirred the President's resentment. He has got his Missouri stubbernneiés up and, in effect, he has told those who inquire that he hasn't the slightest intention of withdrawing

the Wallgren nomination, In fact, he will leave

it before the Senate until the paper it is written on rots away. : The President feels, according to his close associates; that the action of fhe Armed Services Committee is not merely unfair but perhaps unWhen the law provides that nomination shall be confirmed by the Senate, it means the whole Senate and not merely a handful of men on one commitiee.

Complaint Has Merit IT SEEMS to me that this complaint has genuine merit. Whatever one may think of the Wallgren appointment, and I Qappen to think very little of it, the whole Senate has a constitutional right to approve or reject it, Instead, six Republicans on the Armed Services Com-

mittée, plus one Democrat, Ben. Harry F. y of Virginia, have set up a road tiock to hold the nomination back. In recent years we have heard the Executive denounced over and over again for encroaching on the legislative branch of government. But in the mdtter of presidential appointments it begins to look as though the Congress were determined by one means or another to sabotage the President's appointive power. Another instance is the appointment of John

Carson to be 'a member of the Federal Trade Commission. Before Mr. Carson could present

him with

. his views to a Senate committee, 8 well-planned against

smear campaign was directed the connivance of certain Senators. The National Security Resources Board has heen without a full-time chairman for nearly four months, since the resignation of Arthur M. Hill, who was the first head of the board. John Steelman, one of the President's advisers, has been acting chairman but he has been able to give comparatively littie time to the job.

- cials named by Mr. Hill have resigned and they

"departed. Mr. Ballew, who had been with the

and every element for possible war—-or it is a

During this period the staff of the board has pretty well deteriorated. Most of the top offi-

have not been replaced.

Three Members Resigned

KENNETH D. JOHNSON has resigned as general counsel. Vice Reginald Gillmor has resigned. So has E. T. Grether, director. of the Economic Management Division, who has gone back to the University of California as dean of the Graduate School of Business. * The inquiring reporter is told that the board's remaining 250 employees—this includes stenographers: aiid messengers—are still working on plann and co-ordinating other government departments for a war mobilization plan. But without any active leadership at the top, it must be pretty academic. When Mr. Waligren was appointed, Mr. Steelman named to the board as 350-a-day specialists two mien who had been associated with Mr. Walgren when he was governor of the State of Washington. These men, Jack Gorrie and Jack Ballew, stayed about six weeks. Then their initial contracts ran out and they

plasterers’ union before he becamé Mr. Wallgreén's budget officer, seemed to officials of the board distinetly unhappy in his role as §50-a-day . expert.

Job Overrated? : A FORMER Wallgren associate, John Davis is still with the board. He is said to be working on task force and organization problems. One reason for the resentment felt at the White House is the belief that those who set out to block Mr. Wallgren deliberately overemphasized the importance of the job, It was built up to tremedous proportions and then Mr. Wallgren was put alongside it and failed to measure up. ; "But as I sée it, either it is a vitally important assignment—evolving *an over-all plan for mobilization integrating business, government

$14.000 a year sinecure. If it is the former, then Mr. Waligren's qualifications’ are dubious, or certainly they have not been made clear. If it is the latter, then the job had better be abolished. But the Senate is evading its duty

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“0 do neh agree with « werd that you say, but | will defend to the desth you right™te say W." Keep letters 200 words or less on any subused will be edited but content will be preserved, for here the People Speak in Freedom. ‘Strength of Character Needed’ By M. K. 8, City. : ; the mark & mile every ‘ime they open their mouths to guarantee a solution for the people who are “walling over ailing.” Medical science does not have, nor ever will have,

swers, Am I belittling doctors? No, I have a great deal of respect for them and what they

“ean do. But the public, particularly the politie cians, have oversold themselves on what the marvels of medicine can do. Individuals are still responsible for themselves as wholé human beings. Just as they have been for a very long time. : % Every member of Congress needs to read thoughtfully what clear-thinking writers such as Betsy Barton in “The Long Walk,” Gen. Omar Bradley in “What You Owe Your Country,” and Charles Life” have to say about people in general. Federal control is not the answer, : tion between our complaining citizens and the 470,000 divorces acquired yearly in this country, and the $9 billion spent on liquor, and the mad rush for material things. The simple truth is too many people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. There is 50 much that money cannot buy. * It is like Gen. Bradley said: “The nation’s strength is not in its treasury statement but in the national character of its people.” 80 is the nation’s health. What people's lives are like does not rest primarily with the medical profession. That depends on us. Dull as it sounds, instead of increasing the length of our years, we

of them. : i + 4*-¢ -

‘Christianity Our Only Defense’ By Richard H. Shufflebarger, Martinsville, Ind.

A recent letter in Hoosier Forum states that America “must see military strength for her protection.” It cites the Atlantic Pact as a protective measure against Soviet aggression. . This i# regarded by most people today &§°& prudent and realistic position, but is it? 2 The Atlantic Pact is a military alliance. But what is the record of military alliances in the

told that by building great military force in + this country and Western Europe we shall have peace, because the Soviet will then be afraid:to ‘attack. What about the “peace by force” théory?

onastration of the truth of Jesus’ words: “For

How can it be claimed that atomic

They can slaughter people and make God's earth a desert—is this what is meant by “security”? No, the only answer to absolute weapons is absolute Christianity,

What Others Say—

w+ WE feel that exclusion of the Iron Curtain .. eountries from all contacts with us is not the wise way to bring recovery. There are millions in those countries longing for the day the curtain shail be rent and the light allowed to go through again.-—Foreign Secretary Ermest . Bevin of Great Britain. ey ® * ¢ 5 “TF TO be resolute is io be hostile, then aliall have to endure the slanders of cdll us hostile. For their slanders are pressions of angry resentment from “denied their plunder.-Army Chief of Staff Omar. Bradley.

* ¢ 9 IF THE welfare of the world and the eratie nations of the world were af stake would not hesitate {0 make that decision again. ~ President Truman, on his decision to use the atomic bomb to ent the war with Japan. ? * 4

It

IN Hollywood when a girl is referred to as well groomed they mean she's been married several times.—Arthur Lake, motion pleture actor. : £ — ee ow

IT IS now clear that in the world of today we can no longer rely on our geographical position to preserve our security and peace.—Secte-

in failing to pass on Mr. Waligren’s nomination.

tary of State Acheson.

All the an

Lindbergh in “Of Flight and -

Don't ever think there isn’t a direct connee-

need most of all to improve the useful quality =

past? Have they ever brought peace? We are .

Has it ever worked? Isn't all of history.a dem-

all who draw the sword will die by the sword“? bombs, ~ guided rockets, poison gases, etc., can “protect”?

Farm Price Puzzle

BRANNAN PLAN ... By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, Apr. 28-11 the class will pull up & chair a Pay close attention, an attempt will be made pu. the and plicable, Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan's new farm plan, that is. When this Brannan plan formula is written into law, it is claimed that it will be presented on one page and will be easily understandable. That may be something of an: over-statemént, though this problem may be no worse than figuring out an income tax return.. Incidentally, the present Aiken bi price-support formula takes three and a half pages of law to spell out, and plenty of people can't understand that. objective of the Brannan plan is to raise the average per capita farm income. For 1948, this average was $909. The first question is, how much is it to be raised and how do you figure how much to raise it for the year 19507 ~~ . ar Here you have to delve into a few statistics. You begin with Bureau of Agricultural Economics figures on cash receipts from farm marketings over the past 10-year period. They varied from $8,000,000.000 in 1939 to $31,000,000,000 in 1948. The 10-year average is $21,000,000,000.

Dollar Not the Same

. throughout this 10-year period, however. ‘In térms of real purchasing power of the farmer's dollar, this 10-year, 1939-1048 average farm fricome is calculated to be $18,200,000,0000 Never mind how this calculation is made. It's too complicated. This $18.2 billion is considered the base below which the farmers’ income should not be allowed to fall. This is the stabilizing factor of the Brannan plan. If must now be translated: into terms of 1049 or 1850 dollars, to reflect how much the farmeers’ costs have gone up over the past 10 years, . . To do this, the base income figure is multiplied by the “parity index” figure. This parity index is stated as a pércentage of prices paid by farmers for their cost of living and cost of farming operations, including seed, machingry, taxes and interest. The average of 1939-48 is considered as 100. On that basis, the index | today stands at 144 per cent of the a h ~The base figure of $18.2 billion multiplied by 1.44 gives roughly $26.2 billion. This is the “national income farm support standard.” Under the Brannan plan, cash receipts from farm marketings would not be allowed to fall below this standard, in 1950 dollaks. E «© The problem now is to convert theses national totals into average support prices for individual:commodities. The first step in this process-is to deterinine what's called the “price support" factor.” This $s.done by dividing the above calculated national * farm income support standard by the actual 10-year average of cash receipts. In other words, divide $26.2 billion o¥-$21 billion. The answer comes out 1.25. 3? gi md

Av @ Prices : : ear average price for each commodity is pow mul. tiplfed by this price factor, This gives the support standard price. Take a few typical examples. - The 1940-49 average price for corn has been $1.17 per bushel. |

THE purchasing power of the dollar was not the same |

SIDE GLANCES

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COM. 3008 BRA SERGE ELE 0 BEG. U. 8. PAY. Orr "If you want your garage cleanad, Mrs. Jones, we have a special cut rate this week—don't miss the huge saving!"

prives are now higher than the calculated support standard prices. So the Brannan plan would have no effect. The present price of corn, however, is 11 cents & bushel lower

this hypothetical case, the difference would have to be paid for by + Nobody has yet stuck his neck out far “how much this plan would cost. :

Barbs— Ai - MONTE CARLO, planning to add the American game of craps to its gambling repertoire, sent its director to Reno to learn ~ the game. He should have brought a barrel to go home in. : dr ¢ ¢ ¢ : A CALIFORNIAN built a house on the

enough to estimate

Bu as . Hn ] Multi by the factor 1.25 the ‘world, At Tech's annual “Junior Day" supper dance there a. ha A nite A es tHe Muppet in per bushel, be a king ag well as a queen. : Ho | Mulupiying by the factor 135 gives the wupport standard price : oe to us, na : B= } % for _This comparison Nustrates how the Brannan plan would oh ” Sh : Fa ; 1 work, and how it would not work. Wheat and cotton market fo NT 3 ww 24 * : Fa aT . E » s . s = . % ek 5 3 3 =, = :

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truck. Homs, fieet home!

By Galbraith |

than the calculated support standard price of $1.46 a bushel. In

‘income of $100 million a year. |

‘ disability grants had gone to 88,350 coal miners, miners’ widows,

chassis of an old financing

COAL CONTRACT . . . By Fred W. Perkins

Mine Funds Spent?

WASHINGTON, Apr.-28—Coal operators, expecting a demand from John L. Lewis that they increase their pe | to the Uniteq Mins Workers welfare and retirement fund, are planning ask for a detailed statement on how the man : collected have been spent. y Billion Siteady 80 far as can be learned, no operator has yet obtained such a statement, with the possible exception of Eara Van Horn, the operator member of the fund's three-man board of trustees. Mr. Van Horn has been as reticent as the other two members, who are Mr. Lewis and Sen. Styles Bridges (R. N. H.).

Newspaper inquiries run into a blank wall on the subject, even ( J R

though the Taft-Hartley law prescribes that the results of annual audits of such funds “shall be available for inspection.”

$104 Million a Year :

IT APPEARS, however, that the fund ia now disbursing about as much as it is taking in, and possibly a few millions more on the yearly basis, That is indicated by the statement of a r utho! that the expenditures now total about $104 Sepousivie dn ny The fund is financed from a tax of 20 cents on each ton of coal mined. Of the recent 600 million tons annual production, about 500 million are figured in the assessment category—for an

The soundness of the fund has been questionsd on the basis of the apparent lack of large reserves to provide for future emergencies—such as a sharp drop in coal production. - * How much money is in the fund reserve has not been stated authoritatively. It is assumed that there must be some reserves, me that 3 bolstered by recent reports, as yet unconfirmed, that mine worker money was being used to purchase a large share stock in a Washington Bank, - par 3 : ot Mine worker statements show that more than 12,000 miners are now receiving retirement benefits of $100 a month for a total of $14,400,000 a year. However, the } single phase of the big program is the payment of disability benefits. As of Dec. 31, it: was stated that in the preceding 20 months

orphans and other dependents. Such payments are $60 a month for miners, $20 extra for miners’ wives, and $10 for each child or other dependent. SET : Death Payments ON THE same date $1000 death payments had been sent to 10,489 widows and other survivors of miners. These payments are made to the survivors of miners who die from natural causes as well as to those of victims of mine accidents or disasters. - In addition is a large health, hospital and medical care

project mow operating through 10 area offices in coal-mining

eral as his greatest accomplishment and to wish to leave it as x monument to his presidency of the union, plans further extension of the fund’s benefits, To carry them out he-will have to increase the income, : ‘ a

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