Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 April 1950 — Page 16

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The Case of Owen Lattimore

F' the Senate committee investigating Sen. McCarthy's charges against the State Department wants to find out how the United States was induced to abandon China to the Communists, it will have an excellent opportunity to go into that subject when Owen Lattimore takes the stand. Prof. Lattimore was one of the Far Eastern “experts” upon whom leftists in the State Department relied for advice and propaganda support when they were working to withdraw American support from Chiang Kai-shek. He first came into the policy picture when President Roosevelt appointed him American “adviser” to Chiang in 1941. Then during the war he served as deputy director of the Office of War Information, in charge of Pacific operations, when the OWI followed a line well to the left of the State Deparment on China policy. ‘ ys =» CR MR. LATTIMORE accompanied Henry Wallace on his mission to China in 1944, when Mr. Wallace returned with ‘the report that we were “backing the wrong horse” in + China-—meaning that we ought to Bet behind ‘the Chinese "Communists;

all iatters rt Yo —— Although he has enjoyed back-door priviionts at the State Department the past 10 years, Mr. Lattimore fortunately hasn't been so successful in selling his ideas with respect to policy elsewhere in Asia or in Europe. His books reveal that he regards the Truman doctrine in Greece and Turkey damaging to world peace. gC ? “8. THE Marshall Plan, he. held, should have been channeled through the United Nations so that Russia and her satellites might have participated in the program. In 1945, he urged the establishment of a government in Japan which would be “left of center and at least liberal enough to be friendly with Russia.” In 1949 he, foresaw “an inevitable demand” that Japan break: away from America in order to come to terms with Communist China. He apparently viewed this as a wholesome development. “By withholding raw iron ore and supplying Japan only with pig iron and other semi-processed materials, China would have absolute power to cut off the revival of Japanese war industry,” he remarked. He did not seem to be alarmed at the prospect that this might leave Japanese industry at the mercy of a * satellite of the Soviet Union. Quite the contrary. " oa . .

IN CHINA, he said, “wherever the Communists have

taken over they have increased food production, controlled -

distribution, and stabilized prices, successfully breaking -the old cycle of recurring shortages and famines.” That conclusion, published last year, is subject to modification now that 50 million persons in Red China are confronted by one of the worst famines in the country’s history. Every Senator should read Mr. Lattimore’s book, “The Situation in Asia,” published in 1949. In it he found Asia turning to communism because the progress made by ‘the

Soviet republics of Asia has inspired “awe and wonder.”

The same people, he inferred, were turning against the United, States because they didn't. “cannon fodder.”

Uncle Joe couldn't have handled the seh jork better himself.

Doing Something About It

E are glad to see that the president of the Marion County Commissioners has promised to try to do something about the waste of taxpayer's money in purchasing governmental supplies. bro A story in The Sunday Times disclosed some, —— prices under the present three-month contracts for food, prices that were higher than the open market quotations. These contracts, based upon an outmoded -purchasing system, bound the County to higher prices than those obtained by the Marion County Tuberéulosis Hospital which has been operating under a new law providing for buying supplies on the open market.

THE modernized law for the hospital was. passed. by ..

"the legislature after a purchasing scandal was exposed by The Times several years ago. Passage of a law establishing open market purchasing for other institutions will be necessary before much can be done in the way of reforms in the County Commissioners’ antiquated and wasteful buying system. - But until that can be accomplished some reforms can be made in the present system by tightening up on specifications and eliminating trick bidding whereby contractors - can take unfair advantage of the government on prices. Fred Nordsiek, president of the Commissioners, has started an investigation to overhaul the bidding procedures and reduce some of the costs. It is a long overdue start in the right direction.

Could Lose by a Sneeze ONE death and one resignation have reduced thie British Labor Party's majority in parliament from six to four. The margin over the rival Cehuarvative Party is now 313 to 207. . With things at this pass in Britain, halt a dozen Labor ites f. to wear their rubbers on a wet London day could spell finish for Prime Minister Attlee’'s government. +. Winston ‘Churchill might put it this way: Never will _ 80, many people pay so much attention to the sniffles of » few. ma

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want ta be used. as ..

progressing as fast as All the talk would indi-

cate. there is some hope.

But for the first time in several months

The worsening world situation hs — to frighten at least ol toy pity

yet practicing it

Bernal M. Bafuch. have 30 remind all concern: 0 dangers of drift’ in the | of a treacherous war, Gen,

more i preparedness has sobered many

in Washi ngton. ons

Credit to Vandenberg MOST credit 8 to the ailing Republican Arthur V berg. He started

to revive the bipartisan system—of which he .was the co-builder with Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Sen. Tom Connally. The response of President Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson has been joud, as far as it goes. They have named a publican, & Kentucky, as chief adviser to Acheson at the May meeting of the Atlantic powers in London. They are calling in other prominent Republicans for informal policy consultation. But they have not yet recreated the spirit of machinery necessary for adequate results,

Causes of Disunity

BOTH sides are to blame. The McCarthy mishandling of the loyalty investigation has highlighted and increased partisanship, but did not start it. There are several causes of disunity—personal, political and psychological. One is the personal Teud between some members of Congress and Secretary Acheson. . This is due partly to his alibis for bankrupt

-case and partly to his cold manner and alliged high- hatting of Congressmen.

tion year. vantage against the other, the Republicans trying to make a popular issue and the administration trying to prevent that.

Party Strife

ALMOST as important is the chaotic condi-

tinn inside each party. Republican “isolationists” and “internationalists” are fighting over party control. And among Democrats the administration is unable to maintam ‘party discipline. Perhaps even more destructive than these obvious causes of disunity, and contributing to them, is the lack of preparedness psychologcally. There is an attitude of anything-goes-in-peace-time, of business-as-usual, politics-as-usual, feuding-as-usual. Washington is just beginning to be aware that this is not peace-time, but a crisis: when weakness and disunity may invite aggression by a ruthless enemy.

THE PORTRAIT

Somewhere beyond the stars our course is plotted By the Being who is in supreme command, That we may take the time we are allotted To help design the portrait He has planned.

We are given golden threads of hope and promise, . And silver threads of sorrow, pain and tears. And we must not prove to be a “doubting Thomas. Or the portrait will betray our lonely fears.

Let our finished work be strong with love and friendship, Let every stroke be strong and brave and true; Then when we are summoned home on that last, long trip, We can say, “Dear Lord, I've done my best for You.”

SPRING RAINS

I'm never cowed by a thunder storm, Just build a fire to keep me warm; Draw the blinds and lock the door And read a book down on the floor Behind the sofa, that's strategy: For if lightning strikes, it can hunt for me.

COLD WAR... By Marquis Childs

Reds’ Spy Network

WASHINGTON, Apr. 4—In this phase of the cold war, the Soviet Union must have in the United States a very effective espionage network. Only the most innocent-minded or wilfully

blind fellow traveler could doubt tHat.

The difference lies, insofar as the difference has a reasonable in what to do about it.

and more or less objective base,

Two elder statesmen, Henry L. un and

ATIVE.

ex-Sen. John Sherman Cooper of

- Politics is dominant because this is an elecEach party is maneuvering for ad- .

"bombers. -=eDorothy Mae Parke, 15-N- Edgehill St:

——

TERN,

GEL AA LY 4

= CHitia policy, Partly to Nis comment on the Hiss ~~

more than $45 billion on her armed forces this year, United States intelligence sources say. That exceeds our entire federal budget. for the current fiscal year.

-QOfficially; the Soviets say they are spending --—

79 billion rubles—slightly more than $15 billion —on national defense. That is 19 per cent of the total Soviet budget. But competent military sources here say it is closer to 240. billion rubles—or about $45 billion at the present rate of exchange. That's 58 per cent of Russia's budget. Russia’s military expenditures are carefully hidden, they say. For instance, atomic research comes under education. Aircraft is carried as industrial production. Strategic roads and construction and maintenance of military bhses appear as civil works. New armaments industries are listed as capital investment,

32 Per Cent of Budget

WE ARE spending $13 “illion—or 32 per cent of our budget—for national defense: In any comparison between the two programs, however, it must be borne in mind that 25 per ‘cent of our military budget is payroll. - Russia's salary scales are puny by comparison. Reliable military sources here give this breakdown of Russia's war machine: ARMY-—Russia has a standing army of four million men, 75 per cent drafted under universal

military training. One million are called up:

each year. However, many are used on housing projects, roads, dams, and other public works. She can count on another two million from her satellites. An estimated six to eight million boys are being trained in the all-volun-teer society for co-operation with the Army. The boys enlist at age 15. AIR FORCE—Russia has 600,000 military airmen. (We have slightly more than 400,600). The Sixth Soviet Air Army is being converted into a strategic air force. Russian Air Force deserters report there are 44 airfields in eastern Siberia—opposite Alaska. Fifteen are big enough to handle four-motored planes. According to them, Russia has 1200 military planes in Siberia, but so far no heavy bombers. Last year, Russia built 12,000 military planes. She now has 19,000 in service and 10,000 in reserve. Of that, 10,000 are fighters, including 2500 modern jets and 200 land-based torpedo However, Russia has only 400 heavy {B-29-typeé)-bombers, and. is- producing only .20

SIDE GLANCES

WASHINGTON, Apr. ¢—Russia will spend

a , month. We regard’ the B29 as a medium bomber. j

Better Jet Fighter : SHE HAS . transport (7000 military

.and 3200 civil aviation) to carry 100.000 para-

troopers on one operation. She is producing 200

jet fighters a month—eight models in all, The ’

MIG, Russia's best jet, reportedly is better than our F-80 or F-84, but our F-86 is faster. NAVY—Russia has a larger submarine fleet than Hitlér's at the start of World War II. She has launched 200 guppies and snorkels since 1945. She launched a new model—type 26, about which we know little—in 1948 and since has added “several.” All told, Russia has 300 submarines, including 200 new models. However; she has little shipbuilding industry. Her four largest yards are still out of operation, She has announced she will build three aircraft carriers, but work has starfed on only one. Russia has about 700 ships of all types. Some are American ships on loan.

She has been trying to buy 47 pre-war United -

States merchant ships at surplus -prices, but recently doubled her offer. Her Navy consists of a mosquito and submarine fleet for costal protection, manned by approxunately 500,000 officers and men.

‘About Equal’

GUIDED MISSILES—Russia and the United

States are “just about equal” in the production °

of guided missiles and rockets. . The military sources say the quality and volume of intelligence reports on Russia's war machine is improving. Red deserters are a big help. More than 16,000 have deserted since 1945, including six generals. In addition, 30,000 refugees cross into our zone of Germany every month. Our military intelligence files are described as “massive and volumnous, but by no means complete.” In the economic field, our knowledge of Russian potential is ‘encyclopedic, but with glaring blanks.”

‘What Others Say—

I BELIEVE that we should have a plan (for atomic defense) set aside in a closet. It should be of such a nature that it could be put ‘into effect as soon as danger becomes imminent.—Sen. Edwin C. Johnson D) « of Colo-

_..xado..

By Golbraith * Co)

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eo to i rms . In 1950 for insecticides alone. No estimates are

to get a little easy money from the government: and, in turn, pay it out for insecticides, etc., in the long run, who gets the benefits? Most of those things are manufactured by big corpora

plan for what it is worth. Like all such measures for poking. fun at real dirt farmers, it is financially beneficial to big land owners only,

*VMost of the Farm Bureau officers we know mow of are big land owners. + farm

The averagé :80-acre ngaged in diversified 5 B

orchard, poultry, feed lots and pasture, I -atleast one non-supported crop is used in a 4-year rotation, that leaves 12 to 15 aces each for two price-supported crops. After the farmer takes out next year's seeds, feed for stock and poultry kept for breeding purposes and home

“consumption, pays risk imsurance, local taxes

and extra costs of storing, the net cash he might gain by hanging the rest onto the government would hardly buy tickets to the basketball tournaments.

‘Facts Not Clearly Stated’ By Sen, Harry F. Byrd, Virginia I am taking the liberty of replying to your

' editorial comment regarding the vote by Sens.

George and Millikin and myself on the so-called

farm bill Because I think the editorial did not .

clearly state the question on which the vote was taken and that it did not take into account all of the cost factors which were involved.

The editorial referred only to provisions in -

the bill increasing cotton and peanut acreage. It was completely silent on the fact that the highly important objective of the legislation was to’ do something about the - potato situation which was approaching a national scandal. The vote referred to.n the editorial was on 8 conference report which, although increasing cotton and peanut acreage, would prevent wasteful production of potato surpluses by withdraw ing support prices from them unless marketing quotas are established. A vote against the report in effect would have been a vote for cone tinuation of the scandalous potato situation. The editorial said the bill will add at least $100 million to the cost of supporting farm prices this year. Former Secretary of Agriculture Clinton W. Anderson is now a member of the Senate, and he is the authority for the following estimates: If additional costs result from the cotton provisions of the bill they will not exceed $15 million; the cost of the peanut provisions will be at least $75 million, making a net reduction in costs of $55 million. Cotton and peanuts are not highly perishable crops and therefore losses on these loans should be relatively small unless there is a substantial decline from present market prices. These were the agricultural program conditions, the legislative circumstances ‘and the estimated reduction in costs which influenced my vote on the farm bill which the editorial -griticized. +

FARM NEON ... By Earl Richert

Lowering Egg Price WASHINGTON, Apr. 4—What 39 when the government lowers dts price props on a farm product? : The answer, as provided by the current experience on eggs, is: ONE: The government saves money. - TWO: Consumers get the product cheaper—although not as much cheaper in most places as the lower government price floors

to 30 acres. are taken = by buildings, lawn,

have in this country valid and

tested means of countering an alien spy system.

That is one of the functions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It seems to me significant that the FBI contributed largely to- the exposure of the British atomic spy, Klaus Fuchs. The military establishment “has a counter intelligence system with somewhat the same function, and there is the highly secret work of the Central Intelligence Agency. : toms May eye Mra myiasis THE McCarthy technique 's aimed for the most part at trajtorous thoughts. We have seen in recent weeks how indiscriminately it smears and besmirches and we have seen, tog, how it -divides and dis-

tracts Americans at a critical }

‘moment in history. A striking study has just been published, called “Treason, the Story of Disloyalty and Betrayal in American History.” The author, Nathaniel Weyl, has done. a service in putting this business of treason in the lofig historical perspectjve. It is not exactly new in our national history. There were traitors = during the Revolutionary War, some of them, like Aaron Burr, getting into the history books. The Civil War saw the Copperheads and the riots against the war in-

cited in several large Eastern cities. During the Spanish American war, a co!

general of the U. 8. Army was an agent of the Spanish secret service,

. BUT Mr. Weyl makes it clear that no foreign power has ever had an instrument of infiltration and such as the Soviet Union has “in_the Communist parties

~the world. He suggests that

~tween the Soviet Union. and. ol

intelligence

probably four fufctioning

~ Soviet underground rings in

this country, three of them political’ in nature and centered in Washington. Mr. Weyl

“The Comintern apparatus was instructed to recruit influ ential government men—either in key jobs or destined for them later. The central objective was to push these agents forward into. strategic _positions of government power. In a future period of crisis be-

the United States, it was thought that. their services would be invaluable.” EJ » - IN the conclusion: of his book, Mr. Weyl makes what seems to be an important point 4about the concept of treason under the American system with its freedoms. The American guilty eo trayed not merely a ruler, a government. He has betrayed freedom itself. It is this that compounds the crime of those intellectuals who have surrendered mind and conscience to totalitarian communism. “There is also,” Mr. Weyl writes, “a more personal and immediaté failure of democracy: ‘The truancy of the ine telleétuals from the Phflosophy of individual freedom.

_ totalitarian a

faith and an absolute truth;

_ they: want to be absolved from the painful function of moral choice, not realizing that with-

out such choice creativity is-

impossible. In short, theirs are

minds too tender and téo tm-

mature for the hard philosophy Biol fryadom, h

Sq MAY be much: later by than iiost

In the early 1930's there were * the clock of his history.

treason has be- -

nw “This is three straight nights your sister has talked about how

nice it is to travel by plane—she won't have to tell me right out it's time to pack up and go home!"

of us realize. The atmosphere

created by the charges

McCarthy in the Senate is reminiscent of the

people who resisted Mr, Roose‘velt's every effort to help Britain and France stand up

against the Nazis are now

* feuding on similar issues. Their motives may be somewhat different this time. They are, or some of them, the

party.

ho seein 10 belong 34 8 ov) war party. ;

_=spearhead of a kind of war

There are even some

SURELY those responsible for the feuding must. see that

it is doing more harm than

good. For one Hiss case end-

‘ing in conviction in the courts,

it has produced several hundred misfires, sowing doubt and division and misery.

would warrant. THREE: Producers get. less and hence voluntarily make plans to curb production — which means less government buying to support prices in the future. Ld = CONGRESS late last year ordered eggs off of the list of commodities which must be supported at 90 per cent of parity (th@ ‘so-called fair price). And the Department of Agriculture began the 1950 season by lowering its price floor

~-under.eggs from. 35 10.25 cents...

a dozen in the Midwest—where it does virtually all its buying to hold up egg prices. Egg prices always are much higher on the East and West coasts. The 25-cent floor in the Midwest is supposed to maintain an average national price of 37 cents a dozen to egg producers this year. This is about 75 per cent of parity. : ss z's THE lower price floor hasn't reduced government buying as sharply as might have been exBut that's because

started off the year *

farmers with huge laying fidcks and the weather has enabled record n. :

So far this year the govern-

. ment has purchased 18,660,000

pounds of dried eggs as against 20 million pounds in the first three months of last year, (Three dozen shell eggs make

~ one pound of dried.)

Many, both in and out .4¢"

government, were slow to un-

derstand the threat of communism at home and abroad. Surely no. one can have any illusions. To pursue the method of public feud is to further the kind of division in this

“country that is both tragit and

dangerous.

But with the government

.both paying less and buying

fess, expenditures for egg price support are about $7 million: less than last year. The government is paying 96 cents a pound for dried eggs as against

$1.26 cents a pound last year.

This price includes the price paid to farmers plus the processing costs. 1

AGRICULTURE Department

officials say the big result of ‘the lower price floors is that .

farmers are cutting laying flocks. This should mean greatly reduced government support buying by next Jan-

uary, they say. If producers.

cut laying flocks sharply, it could also mean higher egg prices for consumers. Départiifent- officials say that, generally speaking, egg prices to consumers are running about eight cents a dozen

that egg consumption is very.

high. -

Cs = 8 Ad THE lower government floor

also has encouraged commercial storage concerns to buy more heavily than last year: * Department officials say that if it hadn't been for this increased commercial buying they “would Bae had to buy .more eggs this Year than last because of the heavy production, Advocates of a flexible pricesupport system have contended that price floors should be lowered to discourage overproduction -—~ which the government must buy. The Anderson farm law, now in effect, provides a schedule of this sort. It will

be applied to basic crops next

year.

Barbs

MAYBE Frbases “was short on days because March was so windy it Blew in shead of time.

SCIENCE says a snail's .

pace is about 15 feet per hour, if he keeps going that long— and the Sunday driver in front of you usually does. a

WHEN "the modern ee . jlushes YOu JU: BEV 10 1AM her word for it. Eo!