Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 January 1950 — Page 18
os Manager Thursday, Jan. 5, 1950
PAGE 18
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re A Lp . Fd tor "gtndar, andar, bi » Deas ally * Stay i LT Ea Telephone Ri ley 01 Give LAght ond the People Wii Ping Show Vn Woy
State of the Union
PRESIDENT TRUMAN has outlined to Congress a program which, despite certain additions and subtractions, closely resembles the one for which he asked just a year ago. Although much of that program was not enacted in 1949, Mr. Truman now reports that the State of the Union continues to be good. And, although he surely knows that much of that program is most unlikely to be enacted in 1950, his message was good-tempered and largely free from recriminations. This session of Congress clearly has no intention of repealing the Taft-Hartley Act, adopting the Brannan Farm Plan or writing any form of compulsory health .insurance into, law. Administration leaders probably have doomed the civilrights proposals by choosing for a first test the fair employment practices bill which, of them all, is the most controversial and the most certain to invite maximum opposition. As to these matters, and some others, Mr. Truman doubtless was speaking for the record and to the votes by union members, farmers and other groups in next November's congressional elections. He did not repeat last year's request for compulsory military training, but did ask—and should get—an extension of selective service. With the exception of another year of rent controls, he mentioned none of the anti-inflation powers which he held he must have a year ago, nor did he bring up again the idea of Ruveriment Futhority to build steel plants. ,
I LN RH A
affairs and our Fresponuibilitier in the task of seeking peace, Mr. Truman said not one word about what is happening in China. This startling omission speaks volumes. Most Americans share the President's determination to meet the challenge of communism; to co-operate with other democratic nations in extending the benefits of the democratic way of life to millions who do not now enjoy them, and thus to preserve mankind from dictatorship and t Fra all such efforts can come to nothing, and all the money spent on them be worse than wasted, if communism, having taken China, moves on and takes all Asia. Yet that, precisely, is what we face because Mr. Truman anid his State Department have persistently minimized this growing menace and persistently tried to make the American people believe that it is unimportant to them.
RD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ ] Bditor Business
RFC Expected fo Write-Off Large Loans fo Lustron
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5—-The RFC is about to write off the Lustron prefabricated enameled steel house as a §20-million loss, according to reHable reports, The cut-off date is said to be this week, in time to present the end of the Lustron venture as an accomplished facet to inquiring congressional investigators.
An RFC official tipped oft the news when he said RFC advances to the Lustron Corp. of Ohio had been shut off and amounts previously
_ loaned were. overdue.
Three Alternatives IT 18 reported that Carl G. Stranlund, company president, has roughly three alternatives: ONE: He can obtain private financing and g0 on with plans to sell $44 million worth of enameled steel houses in 1850.
TWO: He can surrender his interest to the RFC, which could sell the plant to a manufacturer of steel goods similar enough to take ad-
-. vantage of the accumulated $17-million tax
“write-back” rights of Lustron. THREE: He can sit tight and let RFC foreclose. This might destroy the “write-back” asset, The Lustron venture was started in 1948 with RFC funds on the grounds prefabricated steel houses would contribute to lessening the housing shortage. The RFC advances have now mounted to“§37.5 million and would increase to $49 million if>current Lustron applications for funds should be granted. .
Approved by Truman THE original decision to finance the Lustron venture was made on the “approval” of Presi-
. dent Truman expressed in a letter from John R.
GOOD AS the State of the Union is, according to the
President, his program “necessarily requires large expenditures.” So he wants mere tax revenue, amounts and sources to be specified later. ¥ The fiseal policy he ecommanis, he says, “ig the quickest and safest way of achieving a balanced budget.” There is a quicker—and, we think, a safer—way. It would be to reduce spending and get the government back to living within its income—now! The record of the last 20 years is filled with promises - of balanced budgets, to be achieved by deficit spending for future prosperity. Few of those promises have equaled Mr. Truman's forecast of a trillion-dollar annual national ~ production and a real inéome of $12,000 or more for the average family by the year 2000 A. D. “4 But ‘American who live and pay taxes in 1950 have much cause to feel that that glittering goal will most surely be reached if their government returns to the road of Solvency and stays on it. :
}
Study—Then Act
HIS session of Congress seems certain to widen the cov erage and increase the benefits of the government oldage insurance system. A Truman administration bill for that purpose, passed in the House by a 333-to-14 vote last October, is slated for early hearings in the Senate Finance Committee. The bill is an overdue step in the right direction. It proposes to add about 11 million workers to the 35 million now covered, and to make pension payments to retired workers ‘more nearly adequate in view of present and probable future living costs. » ® . » - . BUT it would leave millions of workers—chiefly’ farmers, farm laborers and self-employed members of certain professions—still uncovered. And it would leave a great number of those covered at a disadvantage as compared with other workers whose unions have won or expect to win employer-financed private retirement pensions in addition to government pensions. In the past the Senate's attitude toward Social-Welfare measures has been more liberal than that of the House, and it is possible that the Senate will now vote for wider cov-
erage than the House bill carries. : Sw . » . . @ ~. ~ ,
WHAT it has to deal with, however, is not a simple issue. The need is for a fair, comprehensive and workable program of old-age security which will be within the ability of the country to support, now and in years to come. Bernard M. Baruch, Sen. Taft, Cyrus Ching and many others have urged thorough, thoughtful study of the whole subject. We hope the Senate committee will undertake that task. The recent trend has been toward development of unbalanced and overlapping programs, public and private, which could lead to confusion and disappointment. : This session of Congress should act to improve and strengthen the basic government system. But it should first ake certain that it knows sxely what it is doing.
Mave That Mountain ~
Rano Moscow boasts that Russia will have the first atomic electric power station. A Wis biti but we wish the Russians would quit bragstart producing. It's been months since Comrade promised to move mountains with atomic energy, still waiting for hing to bring one of those overut of the Us and show the world 4 dil:
Steelman, presidential assistant, Washington support of Lustron has now cooled, it is understood, as a result of a market survey which argues the company couldn’t make a profit. It is reported this survey shows that Lustron houses, selling in the $10,000 to $14,000 price class, couldn't find enough buyers in 1950 to permit profitable operation. Lustron has to do $46 million worth of byat., ness to bi
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Loss for U. S, pe «
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ticipated and. that, to prevent lom of
“to their security.
American prestigé at home and abroad, Of course, the public must now be sold on the idea ming dociment wet ot. tended or ..a 8 a..." =n 55.84
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money putting them up. But the Mar ket is said to be too narrow to support the volume necessary to make money,
Lustron people are understood to be planning a smaller house for the $8500 price class, and a stripped-down house of the larger size, But the projected sales volume still wouldn't be enough, it is reported.
Limited Territory THE Lustron market fs said to lie in the territory around Columbus, O., in which Lustron houses can be erected at prices $500 to $900 less than comparable conventional houses. This area includes Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, southern Wisconsin, southern Michigan, western Pennsylvania, Jowa and in a few cities elsewhere, whers special bullding conditions exist Elsewhére Lustron prices are equal to or greater than prices of conventional houses.
This market has absorbed 70 per cent of all Lustron houses sold, It could absorb nearly 4500 Lustron houses in 1950, but this would not be enough to run the company on a break-even basis, Volume would have to get up around 8500 to do that,
Bince only 40,000 houses of the $10,000-814.-000 price class will be built in this area in 1950, market analysts just don’t think the 230 Lustron dealers can sell 8500.
AT THE CROSSROADS
I stood at the crossroads one evening And looked from the East to the West, While I thought, this way, should I take it Will lead where the sunshine is best; Where the flowers grow winter and summer And the waves kiss the warm golden beach, But I turned to the East in a study As. the road wound around. out of reach. ..
I knew at the end of East's journey - There were bright lights aglow in the dark, And a snow settled over a city To ermine each tree in a park; The road to my left leading Northward Had a hunter's retreat at the end, While the one to my right traveled Southward. Where a winter of summer I'd spend, 80 I stood at the crossroads one evening And pondered which way I would go, Bhould fate ever toss me a million "And I wanted to spend all my dough.
~Opal McGuire, 814 Broadway.
LABOR UNIONS . . . By Fred W. Perkins
Red Power Fades
5—Mark up this accomplishment in the clean-up department: Communists have been booted out of in-
WASHINGTON, Jan.
.fluence in. American organized labor,
- theories on the why
‘out of the AFL and founded the Committee for Industrial’
SE , he made use of ; tne etlous Sap offered by the
They will stick around, no doubt, for quite a while on the fringes of the labor movement, and will make noises like they amount to something. But the day when they had much to say
POLL ON ISSUES
By Peter Edson
Editors Back U. S. Defense Plan
X WASHINGTON, Jan. 5—U. 8. national defense and bipartisan foreign policies now in effect are in general supported by large majorities of American newspaper editors. These results
_ are outstanding in a poll of over 700 newspaper
editors recently conducted by this column. While the 345 editors replying indicated that from 60 to 70 per cent of their papers were opposed to the Truman administration's domestic policies, the ratios were almost exactly reversed on key questions dealing with foreign relations. “There must be no retreat from our place as a world leader,” as the Youngstown, O,, Vindicator summed it up. There were, of course, some vigorous exceptions. The Huron, 8. D. Daily Plainsman regards the bipartisan foreign policy as “a negation of the democratic tradition, a blindfold for the Republicans, and an iron curtain between the public’and the mistakes of government.” A big majority of the editors still support the United Nations. One of the questions asked them was, “Do you feel that the United Nations is doing all it can to preserve peace?” Sixty-four per cent answered “Yes.” Thirty per cent said “No," with six per cent giving no opinion,
UN ‘Ineffective’
«STILL. the New York World-Telegram calls. the United Nations “ineffective.” The Waynes-
boro, Pa., Record-Herald says “Scrap it.” A number of editors feel that the United Nations could do more if it had a police force to carry out its decisions. Others think the United Nations could do more if the Russians were not so contrary. But as the Alamosa. Cal, Courier points out, “The U. 8. is now spending $400 on armaments for every dollar it spends on the United Nations. If the United Nations could be made
. more effective, then we could abolish needless
spending on arms. And once the cold war is stopped, the budget- “balancing problem would not be so great.”
The editors are three-to-oné in favor of con-
tinuing the Marshall Plan aid to Europe for an-
SIDE GLANCES
.Germany at this time?”
18 per cent “Yes,”
other two years, though many believe the amount should be gradually reduced. Another key question on the making of foreign policy for 1950 was, “Do you favor rearming Answers from the editors were 67 per cent “No” to 28 per cent “Yes,” with five per cent expressing no opinion. “Stop preparing Germany to be. winner of the next war,” said the Gainesville, Ga., Times, speaking for the majority.
Rearming Germany
THERE were many reservations from -editors who think rearming the Germans must come eventually. “Not yet, but I suppose soon, God forgive me” says the editor of the Freeport, Ill, Journal-Standard. “Yes, reluctantly,” says the Kokomo, Ind., Tribune. Still others, like the Morgantown, W. Va. Post, qualified their answers by saying that Germany should be rearmed only “on ® limited scale, undeg control.” The Durham, N. C., Sun favors rearming Germany * eR only. Two questiohs on further military aid to China got an even sharper turndown from the editors than the question of aid to Germany. The first quéstion was ‘Should the U. 8. give more aid to Nationalist China?” The ‘answers were 76 per cent “No,” with six per cent expressing no opinion.
The Hagerstown, Md., Mail advised, “Wait °
for the Jessup report.” There was plenty of opinfon similar to the Montgomery, Ala. Advertiser’s expression that the U. 8. “should have given more aid In the past,” but that—as the Muskogee. Okla., Phoenix Times-Democrat comments —“It's too late now.”
Oppose Troops in China
THE next question was, “Would you support the dispatch of U. 8. troops to China to fight communism?” The answers came back 84 per cent “No,” to 11 per cent “Yes,” with five per cent expressing no opinion. There were but few qualifications on this one. The Bakersfield, Cal, Star said, “Favor use of Chinese mercenaries under U, 8. officers.”
By Galbraith
lengthy study
By Talburt
a YA it has hech —y comment.” What else could be said when caught in a deliberate falsehood? The view that Formosa has no stra. tegic importance is not supported by any Army, Navy or. Air Force officer of any standing now in the Pacific or with any extensive experience there. Congress can ascertain this fact by calling on Gen, Douglas MacArthur, Lt. Gen. A. C. Wedemeyer, Adm. A. W. Radford, Adm. Charles M. Cooke or Adm. Oscar C. Badger. Scripps-Howard’ s Clyde Farnsworth in Tokyo just two days ago was told by offi. cers in Gen. MacArthur's headquarters and in the headquarters of the Far East Air Force that Formosa was. of “prime concern” to them. He also was told that the State Department had not sought Gen, MacArthur's Yiews on te subject.
THE individuals omaniibie “for this dishonest propaganda should be exposed and removed from office for betrayal of
public trust. Presumably, they are the same striped pants “strategists” who, when they
wanted to write off China to the Communists, told us China was of no strategic importance because our Pacific defenses rest on the Japan-Okinawa-Philippines line. That line will be breached and flanked and become of little value to us if Formosa falls to the Reds. Any layman can satisfy himself on that point by looking at the map. The Japs used Formosa as the stag. ing area for their conquests. of the Phil-
This Island is 475 miles north of the Philippines and 780 miles southwest of Japan. It is only 400 miles southwest of Okinawa. It has a self-sustaining economy, with substantial food surpluses, oil and gasoline refineries, abundant coal, 70 Jap-built air strips and good harbors which can serve as submarine bases. Yet, according to the State Department document, the Ameriean people are, to be told that it “is in no way especially distinguished or important.” Congress should intervene in behalf of the American people and fix responsibility for this lying propaganda before the State Department hands over the rest of Asia to Moscow on the excuse that it is “not important.” A few persons masked by anonymity should not be permitted to betray the government and the people.
Hoosier Forum
“l do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your ri ont to say it."
“Error on Decatur County’
By Marcella McDermit, 3761 N. Meridian St.
In your story of Dec. 23, concerning the location of the Watts trial, you stated that the trial could not be held. in ‘Decatur County... because that county does net allow Negroes to reside there, This is entirely in error. There has always been one or more Negro families living in the courity for the past 40. years. At the present time I know of three Negroes residing in’ the county. I think it is presumptuous to publish such a statement about any community, particularly when it applies to the “model city of democracy,” which as you must remember is the county seat of Decatur County, (Editor's note: The story referred to quoted directly from the petition filed by attorneys for Watts and set out the same reason they pre-
sented to the court for Rot venuing the case to Decatur County.)
FUNDS LACKING . .- By Earl Richort
Pension Troubles
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5—Drastic action to place the tottering pension funds of Illinois public employees on a sound financial basis has been recommended by a special state commission after
The Illinois Public Employees Pension Laws Commission
is” gone. It has taken a long time to bring this about.
» . . THE fight goes back 30 years, to just after World War 1 when Soviet Russia first began to take a hand in American labor affairs. One of the of this interference was that the Communists planned to gain _on: trol of American labor by wrecking it, and then to set up a dictatorship over it in the orthodox Russian manner. Another theory, backed by what Soviet authorities have said, is that they considered the labor unions only a means to an end. Intent on spreading communism throughout the world, they regarded labor or ganizations as a ready-made system of pipe lines. EE J » - THE first few years of this effort were marked by the fight against it by Samuel Gompers,i
first president of the American’
Federation of Labor. After his death in 1924 the fight was intermittent—and also the Communist Infiitration had its ups and downs, Peculiarly, the Communists were placed in position to bedome powerful by one of their foes, John L. Lewis. When he ‘pulled his own union, the United Mine Workers, ‘ind a group of others in sympathy
‘vention when Communist inter-
When this committee was transformed into the Congress of Industrial Organizations, a few known Communists anda number of fellow travelers. Gbtained positions of influence, and they stayed on to plague Philip Murray when he succeeded Mr. Lewis as CIO president. : ~ . ~ MR. MURRAY tried for nearly 10 years to control this influence. Jt began to come to a head in the 1048 CIO con-
ference was denounced. His efforts were marked by dismissals of Lee Pressman as CIO general counsed, and of Len De Cuax as publications chief. Many critics thought Mr. Murray moved too slowly. Obviously one of his motives was to avoid the risk of losing enough membership to threaten A break-up of the CIO. He 3 ; made up this year for his ap- [8 parent hesitancy, and with con-. al vincing - backing struck with full force at the CIO convention In early November, | » . » THE biggest of the leftish unions, - the United Electrica,
Gallon
over this field. The new IUE Workers, was expelled. So, f already has made substantial practical purposes, was the inroads into the UE memberFarm Equipment Workers ship. Union. The UE's leftish leaders
HOPR, 1900 BY NEA SERVIOE, NG. T. WM. REO. WA PAT. OF.
“The boss just presented me with this new cure for colds! Could that be a gentle hint—no more days off?"
took part with a Soviet and other delegations in forming
, the World Federation of Trade
Unions. About a year ago the CIO saw the light and with-
found that most of the 161 s
funds were practicallyJdinsolvent and that decisive action was necessary if they were to survive, The commission's report is being studied in other states
where pension problems are
similar, » LI AMONG major points, the commission recommended that
* rates of employee contributions
be increased. It found. that current employee pension payments ranging from three to six and one-foubth per cent of salary were insufficient to pay a reasonable share of the pension costs, Cost of the pensions to the city and state average 11.2 per cent of the individual's annual salary.
Sharp criticism was directed © at a policy of paying four per
cent interest on an employee's payments into a pension fund when it is impossible for a fund to earn such a high rate of interest on the pension moneys it invests,
, 0» ~ IT ALSO recommended that no interest be pald on pay-
ments into a pension fund -
.withdrawn by An employee. “Pension funds,” said the com-
tate and city-maintained pension
was said, the membership of the boards of trustees of small funds outnumbers the partici. pants. . LJ IT 1s sald 1 no pension increases should be given fb persons already retired because this weakened the pension structure financially. The commission said it recognized that many pensioners were in need but that this was a problem of
public welfare and should be
met through public welfare laws, ~ The commission also urged compulsory retirement—it said that just setting up a pension system for workers at a specific age would not induce aged employees .to retire. It sald though that compulsory retirement should be fixed at a sufficiently high age so as to prevent the too early removal of persons of exceptional tale
ents and specialized capabili-
ties. > » » THE commission backed the principle of pensions for public employees but said
~~Albert : Fitzgerald, Julius Emspak and James J, Matles— are now engaged In a bitter .to preyent their memSt of about 400,000 from
. » . : THE end result is not yet certain. The leftish unions will _fry to maintain themselves, but
drew. This year the CIO took
part with the AFL in The commission urged con- It was contended. # with other “free” labor organ« - solidation- of the various pen- ' “The true test of the soundizations in a com “sion funds, It recommended ness of a tor world | ‘to represent ths creation of a
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