Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 May 1949 — Page 20

> "PAGE 20 Thursday, May 26, 1049 ERE CE ETE TR toe and

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Political ‘Economy’ Tr CONGRESS follows the House Appropriation Commit. 7 tee’s recommendation in the matter of European recovery program funds, at least one spending proposal will get a really big cut. . President Truman originally asked—and Congress earlier this year authorized—$4,355,200,000 for ERP in the 12 months beginning next July 1. _ Later, in view of falling prices, he scaled it down to $4,198,200,000. § A House Appropriations Subcommittee, after extensive hearings, reduced that about 414 per cent, to $4,015,900,000. And the Appropriations Committee itself, on the theory that prices probably will fall 10 to 20 per cent nfore before all the money is spent, has now voted to make the reduction 15 per cent, bringing the amount down to $3,568,470,000. i ‘4... 8 2 a wu» ; PAUL G. HOFFMAN, administrator of the program, says that so deep a cut would mean a “serious loss of momentum” in European recovery. Mr. Hoffman is one gov- + ernment administrator who knows the value of other peo- ! ple's money. We respect his opinion because we know that ‘he, as a businessman, is strongly and sincerely opposed to _: extravagance and waste. ~~ However, if Congress intends to practice stringent _economy—as it should intend—the ERP is not entitled to special exemption. But the performance of Congress, until "this bill came along, justifies no conclusion that stringent ‘economy is going much further. i us big domestic appropriation bills have aver“aged less than 4 per cent, and the Senate is now busily boost~ a ioe this week passed without a record vote, a bill authorizing $40 million to buy land and prepare plans - for construction of at least one new postoffice or Federal building in each of the try’s 435 congressional districts. "This was done amid pious protestations that the bill is not a “pork barrel” but a wise bit of public works planning

against possible depression and unemployment.

yy 8» 8» YET THE fact remains that the House was promising ‘a new government building to each Congressman’s district. Whether they're necessary or not, log-rollers will see to it that those buildings get built soon, and they will cost “hundreds of millions. : Last week the Senate hiked to $751 million a $593 million appropriation, previously passed by the House, for “Army civil in other words, for rivers and harbors projects to be built by the Army engineers. It did this . despite the opposition of the liberal Democratic Sen. Douglas of Illinois, who charged that the bill was loaded with “pork” and advocated cutting it by $300 million. © The European recovery program, on which depend many hopes for world peace, seems to be in fbr treatment quite different from and much sterner than other spending proposals. But, of course, Europeans can't vote for Amer"lean Senators and Representatives. :

PR ST ARM

Communist Strikebreakers

WE ARE 80 used to having Communists pose as cham- © " pions of trade unions in this country that it is news + when they are used as strikebreakers and join forces with armed company police. © “+ It happened in Berlin, when several thousand transport workers struck against the Soviet railway administration to back up a demand that they be paid in West German marks, several times as valuable as the Soviet-sponsored . eurrency. . Laka : After rejecting the workers’ demand, the Russian management threatened all strikers with permanent discharge. It then brought in Communist strikebreakers and company police and attempted to take over the railways. Police fired into the unionists picketing the elevated stations, and in the bloody fighting which followed several persons were , killed and more than 1200 injured. Peace was restored when the Western Allies ordered Soviet troops and the Soviet-controlled railway police out of the strike-bound stations in the three western sectors of Berlin. The Reds promptly withdrew to their sector.

” ” » re ” ” ONE station had changed hands four times, and the British authorities finally intervened when it was captured by a mob of small boys, 8 to 16 years old, after they had driven out the Red police by showers of rocks. Such resistance to a Communist police force was inexplicable to the Russians, “We never have strikes in the Soviet Union,” a Red army captain said. “Why are these Germans causing so much trouble ?” : The Red police were blamed for the disorders by Brig. Gen. Frank J. Howley, the, American commander, who joined the British in notifying the Russians that the Western Allies wouldn't stand for “any more hooliganism.” The single fact that German workers dared to demand that the Russians pay them in American-backed money indicates the decline of Soviet prestige as a result of the Berlin blockade. Moreover, the workers further demonstrated their confidence in the Western powers when they called for Allied intervention, Repercussions from this situation are likely to be felt throughout Europe.

One Doctor's Diagnosis

RAY into the family doctor, and he talked about—as most ) people were talking about—the strange case of the erack-up and suicide of James V. Forrestal. , “Any high public official, who is conscientious, as Mr, tal was,” said the doctor, “is subject to pressures not known to ordinary fellows like you and me. The pressures are relentless and unending; they follow him to bed at night. Ho can't go out and get tight and let his hair down as other men can? He can’t go on a vacation like other folks. All his worries and troubles pile up inside him. If there's no outlot, there comes an explosion. People ought to be more con-

, | DEFENSE . .. By Jim G. Lucas

Admirals Seen In ‘Near Mutiny’

Some Are Accused of Open Defiance of Secretary Johnson

WASHINGTON, May 26—The new Secretary of Navy, Francis Matthews, faces a tough job

super-carrier, it was learned today. Adm. Louis Denfeld, chief of Naval operations, is excluded. Pentagon sotirces says he has grown in Mr. Johnson's estimation since

the carrier can tion, and now probably is in line for tment when his two-year expires Dec. 31. Tt is reported that Mr.

tion work. Lo It is no secret, however, that Mr. Johnson and Under-secretary Stephen Early have lost patience with the majority of the Navy's Washington admirals, although they ha so far to hold their tounges until Mr, Matthews has a chance to “re-establish law and order” ‘Smear’ Campaign © BPECIFICALLY, top Defense Department men are angry about what appears to be a nationwide ‘‘smear” campaign against the Air Force and the B-38. Newspaper editors are being deluged with material attacking both the Alr Force and its principal weapon. They trace this to the Navy League's Public Information Division, recently set up in Washington with an announced $500,000 goal to “educate” the public to “understand” the Navy. John L. Sullivan, then Secretary of the Navy, and the Navy public information director spoke at thé kickoff juncheon here in February. Instead of educating the public to understand the Navy, defense sources say, the campaign is directed at misrepresenting the Air Force and the joint chiefs of staff.

‘Leaks’ Forbidden

THESE sources say the Army and Air Force are living up to rules laid down by Congress which forbid unauthorized “leaks” and public brawling. The Navy, they say, isn't; it ine sists it is bound only by Naval regulations which allow considerably more freedom. Mr. Johnson is reported to feel that the

Navy has failed—despite public statements—to

give first priority to anti-submarine warfare in its drive to save the supercarrier. He is sald to be equally determined to force the admirals to give full attention to the submarine project and to “work as a member of a team.” Sources close to the Johnson-Early office say these are not isolated incidents of Navy disobedience, They charge that many admirals are “openly and defiantly” critical of the secre-

tary to the point of insubordination.

In Tune With the Times

Barton Rees Pogue

HOOSIER CORN CAN'T BE SHOCKED

_'The nickel and dime may not be as good the dollar but they go to church more often , - money doesn’t grow on sprees . . , when a man goes to a resort hotel for a change and a rest, the bellhops get the change and the hotel gets the rest . . . time was when to get on the stage all a girl had to show was her ability . . . men still die with their boots on but one is on the accelerator , , , early to bed and early to rise

middle age is that time in man’s life when he'd rather not have a good time than have to get aver x + + + Alcohol preserves everything but ++ +» BOmMe co-eds pursue learni others learn pursuing. y Bing while

~RUSTY BLANCHARD of OF Waterloo. * * o

OLD LETTERS

Time yellowed, now, like ivory, Its séript so quaint and prim, . Each little envelope still holds Some sheets whose ink is dim.

One by one its message yields Of hope and work and tears, : Of mother-love and pleasures — all So common through the years.

A queer one deeply etched with black Had bridged the miles apart From absent ones, so seldom seen, With a cry from a grief-torn heart.

But romance hirks within this one— A love as young and gay, Btarry-eyed and unafraid As though it lived today.

When I lay the last one down Their joys and griefs I feel; Itis the world in which I live That seems, right now, unreal,

~LEONA BOLT MARTIN, Kokomo.

won't help you much if you don’t advertise . . ,

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FEDERAL SPENDING . . . By Peter Edson

U. S. Subsidy Costs Zoom Upward

WASHINGTON, May 26—U. B. government subsidies paid to private business and the farmers for the 15 years of 1934 through 1948 total more than $14.5 billion. This figure comes from a new Budget Bureau tabulation. It does not include the cost of the food and cotton stamp plans of 1939-43 nor the school lunch program of 1936-40 and 1947-49. They would boost the total .by another $643 million. Grand total is more than $15 billion, or over a billion dollars fa year. This new subsidy total does not include the programs for grants in aid to the states. In 1947 Sen. Harry ¥. Byrd's Joint Congressional Committee on Expenditures issued a Budget Bureau tabulation on that, It showed 85 of these grants-in-aid programs in operation in 1945. For the 12 years, 1934 through 1946, such programs cost the taxpayers nearly $30 billion. Add $13 billion of direct subsidies for this period and the total is $43 billion, or $13.5 billion a year on the average. Not included in either of these tabulations are the indirect or hidden federal subsidies. They go for such things as crop insurance losses, low grazing fees on public lands, postal deficits, aids to aviation, flood control works, public power developments, housing developments, government loans to business, payments to veterans and pensions. They would run the figures much higher, if included in the totals.

‘More Subsidies Expected

THE Senate has just passed a new Federal Aid to Education Bill. It calls for grants in aid to the states of up to $300 million a year. The new Brannan farm plan is under consideration. It will cost unknown millions of dollars. In the offing is a federal health plan of uncertain specifications and size. Before any of these things goes through in final form, it is important to know what federal subsidy programs have been in the past and where they are today. : The U. 8. government got into this direct subsidy business in a big way in the early days of the New Deal. It was completely a depression, farm-relief program then, It ran from $300 million to just under $1 billion a year from 1934 to the start of the war. Of the 40-odd programs classified as subsidies in the new Budget Bureau tabulation, only nine are not of direct benefit to the farmer, He has had 11 out of every 15 subsidy dollars.

A Treasury subsidy program for reduction of interest on farm mortgages ran from 1936 through 1946. Total cost, $334 million. Reconstruction Finance Corp. subsidy programs began in 1942 and ran through ¥948 for a total cost of over $3 billion. Its peak expenditures were $1.2 billion in 1946. RFC paid the consumer-subsidies on butter, coffee, flour, sugar and meat.

Keep Down Living Costs

MAIN purpose of these subsidies was to keep down the cost of living so that wages could also be held down as part of the war-time antiinflation program. Cost of these subsidies was over $2 billion for the five-year war period. Three-fourths went to the meat industry. The New Deal's Maritime Commission subsidies began in 1938 at $4 million. They rose to $82 milliop in 1946. Total Maritime Commission subsidies, 1936-48, were $390 million. Of this amount $50 million were operating subsidies, the rest construction subsidies. Most of these subsidies can, of course, be charged up to war costs and to keeping the American merchant marine on the high seas. . Government subsidy operations have been considerably reduced since 1948. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1949, and for the fiscal year of 1950, Budget Bureau estimates of subsidies to business and the farmers total $500 million a year. There are only a dozen direct subsidy payments now in operation. Soil conservation payments will be about $227 million this year. Sugar act payments will be $70 million. Export subsidies on farm products will be $33 million. Estimated total, $330 million.

Losses on Price Supports

COMMODITY CREDIT CORP. has no direct subsidy programs. Its losses on price support programs for cotton, eggs, potatoes and wool will be about $190 million. On corn and wheat, CCC hopes to make about $600,000 profit this year. These figures dq not Include the school lunch program, for which $75 million has been appropriated this year. Maritime Commission construction subsidies will cost around $8 million this year, with no operating subsidies budgeted. Next year it is expected that construction subsidies will drop to $2.4 million, while operating subsidies will rise to $34 million.

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Keep letters 200 words or less on any sub. used will be edited but content will be pre.

‘Freedom Can Be Destroyed’ By BR. W. Wood : = . In reference2 to the local laundry and { cleaning “deal” I submit the following: There are two organized methods by whi the American way and free enterprise can b destroyed. : ° One: By the organization of small, secre groups, remote-controlied, that try to muscle to many decent attempts to make life bette for human beings for the basic purpose o _seeing through confusion that nothing is ac complished. The result they hope will brin about earlier the day when chaos and desp. will be widespread. If this hope and plan come about, these secret groups will then rev _ themselves and try fo give orders without th knowledge, consent and participation of th citizens, who will be in the bondage of a powe and an authority ‘that cannot be challenged This is a “boss government.” Two: By the organization in secret of som business men and labor leaders together tq systematically ‘insure peace and profits” ir any given industry without the knowledge! consent and participation of the employees Deals of this character result in bondage tq an authority that cannot be challenged by ; discussion and elections, Such deals in Europ resulted in ‘boss governments” and in th destruction of a free society. A tornado or a creeping flood both destroy. In our American. Republic we have a demo “eratic method by which, after free and ful discussion of facts and ideas, we are able td vote free from fear and make our choice. Th is the hard way and often the inefficient way It has produced a society and a way of lif that fs the envy of the whole world, to peoples living in fear and poverty. Let every thinking citizen challenge at once any situation ‘thal appears to deny this process of the right of choice lest his own loss of choice follows. The real authority is in the hearts o people who are not afraid to challenge or tq chose when they see this “boss disease” appear Whether it appears in a Communist or a busi ness man or a labor leader, It is a disease as old as mankind, It has appeared in every ag and in every society. It appears when men forget or neglect that divine quality that is in every human being which calls for the digni of the right to chose. ¢ 4 o

‘Horseplay at Spy Trials’

By Hortense C. Wordeman real It is good to note that more people are becoming incensed over the horseplay at the trea. son trials. We have had Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally and now Judith Coplon, as a suspect, and in all cases there has been much wisecracking * and levity. . When a man is on trial as a traitor there is a definite coldness and severity, but the fact remains that treason is treason, and the sentence should be the same in either case,

our country as a man. ; . The case of Judith Coplon reminds one of the story of Lt. McMillin a short time ago, who was connected with the American Embassy in Russia and who was taken in by a Russian female spy and thereafter disappeared. He, too, was far too young and inexperienced to trust with important matters of state, and so was Judith Coplon.

ments, where they can do no harm to our coun try. The confidential and highly important posts could and should be filled with older men and women in whom the sterling and necessary quality of loyalty has been tested by years and experience.

A woman capable of doing as much harm to

p There surely must be thousands of jobs for youngsters to fill in our government departs

What Others Say—

THIS House (House of Representatives)

George H. Christopher (D.) of Missouri & o

Jean-Paul Sartre, writer. ¢ & 9

battle for Shanghai is the Stalingrad of the entire war.—Lt. Gen. Chen Ta-ching, National ist commander of the Shanghai garrison.

wastes more time than any place I was ever in in my life, and yet it is harder to get a little of it here than anywhere else I know of.—Rep.

THE world can very well do without litera~ ture. But it can do without man still better.— French Existentionalisty

THE entire Nationalist army knows that the

TAX ON TRUCKS . . . By James Daniel

Cash for Highways

WASHINGTON, May 26-State Highway Departments are preparing for their greatest road-building program in history-— and they've got to have more revenue from road users One way of increasing highway revenue has been suggested by the California Public Works Department. It would charge truckers and bus lines a sliding scale of fees, in proportion to the use they make of the public roads. ‘ The California “ton-milé” plan has been widely circulated among state legislators and is getting considerable attention. Truckers' organizations oppose the ton-mile concept as an attempt to impose punitive taxes on their industry, They prefer the present licensing system with its flat registration fees according to class of vehicle, They contend the ton-mile idea is being promoted by railroads.

Roads for Trucks

CALIFORNIA'S proposal grew out of a 1947 analysis of a ar's road-building projects to learn how much they would cost it built for lighter commercial vehicles and passenger cars only, It was found that 105 projects, scheduled to cost $43,600,000, could be bullt for $35,700,000 if engineers did not have to consider vehicles with loads per axle exceeding the state limit of 18,000 pounds by more than half, The saving would be possible by using 10-foot instedd of 12-foot lanes, seven-foot instead of eight-foot shoulders and lighter bridges with less overhead clearance than truckers.are demanding. The California fact-finders concluded that this additional cost of $7,900,000 should be pald by the heavier trucks and busses that required it. This was 22 per cent of the road-building bill,

All Highway Users

THE remaining 78 per cent of the cost would be apportioned among all highway users on the basis of the actual operation, Taking & year's figures, they found that “heavy trucks and busses generated 45 per cent of the total ton-miles of heavy traffic on the highway system.” Applying this percentage to the balance of the highway cost, and adding the $7,900,000, they concluded that heavy trucks and busses should be assessed with $23,965,000 of the construction bill--55 per cent of the total road program for 1948, The Federal Roads Administration has opposed the ton-mile concept. : However, federal officials do say that only eight in 100 of the nation's trucks are in the heavy-weight class, and that only three in this eight are in the excessive-weight group which is blamed for most damage to highways and produces the agitation for raising size and weight ceilings, Some truckers argue that the gasoline taxes, coupled with the present license fees, already result in truckers being taxed according to their use of the roads, | ! Federal officials aren't so sure, They point out that the curve of gasoline consumption, and hence gasoline taxes, rises Jess steeply than the curve' of weight. The higher the payload

‘siderate of men who hold big jobs.”

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goes, the less gasoline relatively is required to move it, they say.

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SIDE GLANCES By Galbraith

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GOPR. 1940 BY NEA SEWIOR, ING. YT, W. RDO. Wi B PAT, OFF, "I can't ask my wife to keep the bills down—she always brings up that $250'| lost in the stock market twenty years ago!”

Barbs—

«AX DODGERS, says a banker, are a menace to good gov ernment. And how about the tax spenders? @ Lid

Bb AN Oklahoma auctioneer was found unconscious in bed from Perhaps he talked in his sleep. ¢ 9 GIRLS prefer expensive scents—advertisement. Anyway, in preference to million-dollar a . ?® ©

PERHAPS some women carry their years lightly because

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they've droppel so many.

‘LABOR. ..By Fred W. Perkins

Tobin ‘Error’ Cited

WASHINGTON, May 26—Truman Democrats in Congres are blaming Secretary of Labor Maurice J. Tobin for a misster that reduces the already slim chance of repealing the Taft Hartley law in this session of Congress. Secretary Tobin, possibly not forseeing the legislative sna that has developed over a new labor law, selected two leading administration Democrats as government delegates to-the gen eral meeting of the International Labor Organization, whic will open in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 8 and cont{nue thre or four weeks. The selections are Sen. Elbert D. Thomas (D. Utah), chai man of the Benate Labor Committee, and Rep. Augustine Bj Kelley (D. Pa.),. member of the House Labor Committee an chairman of a subcommittee that has been directing the figh for Taft-Hartley repeal on administration terms.

Cost Vote in Senate

SEN. THOMAS is sponsor of a bill to restore the old Wagne Act with a few changes. His absence from Washington will no only force a shift of the Senate leadership on this measure, bul will cost one vote in the Senate-—-and the fight is so close ther that even administration spokesmen admit every vote will b needed. Selection of Mr, Kelley for an overseas trip is regard even more seriously. Thé House is closer than the Senate o this issue, but the really delicate situation is in the House L bor Committee. That body has been dividing 13 to 12 on a ministration-backed measures, and the loss of Mr. Kelley's vot according to Rep. Adam C. Powell Jr, (D. N, Y.), an influentis committee member, may prevent the committee from report! out any further attempts at labor legislation during this session

‘Cleared State Department

APPOINTMENTS of Sen. Thomas and Mr. Kelley have nd been formally announced by the White House, but their nam are on lists that have cleared the State Department and bee furnished to the International Labor Organization's Washin ton office. The White House refuses any comment on the matter, whic raises the possibility that President Truman may decide not make these appointments on the ground that the legislators be of more value in Washington to administration aims. Mr. Kelley served in similar gatherings at Montreal 1946 and at Geneva in 1047. Sen. Thomas has served on se eral occasions. ; Mr, Kelley says that if he goes to Geneva he would ho himself ready to return to Washington—a 19-hour trip by plan «if hix vote is vitally needed in the House Labor Committees. Delegates to ILO gatherings, while nominally selections o Me President, m practice always are chigssn, by the Cl 0 Labor,

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