Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 September 1950 — Page 10
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TT he Indianapolis Times
i. a
HENRY W. MANZ Business Manager
5 SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE
PAGE 10
Sou a STs iy dor dill and I%
rem a lh ER dhs
Be 0 Singer” Neon, Telephone RI ley 8551 Give. LAghs ans the Peopie Will Ping Thew Uws Woy
Saturday, Sept. 23, 1950
—_—— the UN
ECRETARY OF STATE ACHESON'S program to put
some muscle into the United Nations General Assembly should, if adopted; enable the United Nations to deal with many situations in which its hands now are tied by the Soviet veto in the Security Council. "The plan does not answer all the problems raised by -~ Communist aggression. But it does offer a sound foundation on which to build the machinery needed to deal with future Korean situations.
It is refreshing to see the United States assuming the
leadership in a matter of this kind.
” » . " THE big-power veto does not apply in the General
Assembly, and by authorizing the Assembly to meet on 24 hours’ notice, instead of the 14 days now required, the American proposal would permit the organization to act when the Security Council has been stalled by a Soviet veto. Supplemental to this is the idea of establishing a roving United Nations commission to study world tension spots, and advise the parent organization on developing situations. Commissions of this kind have proved very useful in the Greek, Palestine and Korean situations. A watch-dog commission of world-wide scope is sound preventive medicine.
" - ” » ” ~ THE plan for an international army, under which each member nation would be expected to set up a special military force which could be called upon for prompt United Nations service, represents a laudable goal. But unless a firm deadline is set for the formation of such forces, with some penalty provided for the failure to meet it, the response is likely to be as slow and fragmentary as were the responses to the general call to arms in the Korean emergency. It would seem more realistic to provide for immediate creation of a less ambitious police unit of one or two division strength directly under the United Nations, and supported by and responsible only to it. Such a force could hold the line while the member units were being assembled. In many cases it might be adequate to cope with minor disturbances without the necessity for a general mobilization.
Repeat Performance
PRESIDENT TRUMAN said his administration is. work: ~ ing all the time on plans to deal with the rising cost of living. : He will act as soon as he can, he said ; but things must be done in a orderly manner, so the mistakes made at the .beginnin, wort} be r. Truman's desire to avoid mistakes is commendable. we to many observers of the Washington scene for the last 10 years or so, events since Korea have seemed very like watching the revival of an old tragi-comedy. - The actors, or a lot of them, are new. But they go through the same old gestures and declaim the same. old lines,
FIRST. came the same sort of official BEIT heard in early 1940, that an adequate defense effort could be made without seriously disturbing the national economy or creat. ing grave inflationary danger. Then as prices started up, the same exhortations to voluntary restraint by sellers and buyers of materials, goods and services. * Next, with military apropriations mounting the same * solemn pronouncements from government economists that direct government controls were not needed—that higher taxes and other. fiscal policies would prevent surplus purchasing power from bidding. prices up. -And, following close, the same failure to impose taxes high enough and adopt other fiscal policies strong enough to do the job. Then the first reluctant admissions that, maybe, a few “selective” price controls might be needed—and the more reluctant advice to labor to be careful in its wage demands." And the prompt response from union leaders, as a new wave of large wage increases spread through industry, that
.wages must keep up with prices. = . . ~
THIS time, we haven't yet seen the next act: The alarmed admissions that an infl#tionary spiral is getting out of hand; the discovery that “selective” price controls won't work; the futile attempt to make them work by adopting more and more of them. And the play's climax, is. still to come: The belated effort to clamp ceilings on all prices and enforce rollbacks; the somewhat less vigorous effort to stabilize wages at new levels; the realization that what was tried too late should have been done at the start.
But, clearly, that climax is approaching. And there isn’t much visible reason to hope that the play won't end,
as it did last time, in a triumph for the villain inflation.
No Escape Hatch 3
PAUL ROBESON; whose love for Russia is deeper than
his baritone, is going to sell his 15-room house in Con-
necticut and take a smaller place. As his wife explains it, “singing is Paul's bread and butter and he’s unable to get a hall in this country. He's had numbers of offers for concerts in Europe, but the State Department won't grant him a passport.” > ——. We'd feel sorry about that passport denial if it weren't
— for the fact that the document works both ht ways—he could
get back into this country.
Real Knack for It pet visitors, who rarely are at a Sos for ‘words, recently Gescribed traffic conditions in New York as a : ““helter-skelter’” Rp an “extraordinary muddle” What a gift— running those words bupee to bumper you can almost see
rid War II—the travail and trial and errors~
CONTROLS . .". By Earl Richert
Price Lids on
Metals First
Serious Inflation Peril Seen in Some Products WASHINGTON, Sept. 23-—Selective price
controls, when they come, will be imposed first
in the industrial field—on’ 'such products -as copper, lead, scrap steel, rubber, etc. It is in this area that the administration is most deeply concerned over rising prices, '. There is no such concern at the moment over food, or even high-priced cotten. The mood of top-level officialdom - has changed so much in recent weeks that selective price controls .now seem inevitable. does it seem to be a question of “if,” but “when.” No longer do officials cite all the reasons why the economy can take the Korean War and
rearmament in its stride with only limited curbs. .
Need for Contras
NOW, the dominant viewpoint is that we are in such a serious inflation that selective pricewage controls will be needed, even on top of much tougher credit curbs and a tax increase well above the $7 billion suggested by Sen. Walter George (D. Ga.) for next year, ~ “Inflation is not around the corner-—it is here right now,” says Chairman Thomas B. McCabe of the Federal Reserve Board. “Inflation is the greatest danger facing American labor,” says Labor Secretary Maurice Tobin, ‘Leon Keyserling, chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, cites the terrific inflationary momentum in an economy which will show an increase in its gross national product of from $10 to $12 billion in the third quarter over the second quarter of 1950, Mr. Keyserling always has sald selective pricewage controls might be necessary.
Downturn Expected v
PRICE-WAGE ceilings on selected commodities are not likely until after the election, possibly not until the first of the year. The people who would run the new price-wage agency have not yet been named. Some government officials expect a temporary economic downturn if peace comes in Korea. But they feel the huge military program will make any dip short-lived. ‘And inflationary forces will remain dominant for a long time. The following price rises are cited to show why price ceilings likely will be needed in these fields: In the week ending Sept. 14, copper prices had risen 4% per cent in a month and 27 per cent in six months; lead prices had risen 33 per cent in a month, 39 per cent since Korea and 56 per cent in six months; scrap steel at Chicago had risen six per cent in a month and 43 per cent in six months; rubber prices had risen 102 per cent since Korea.
Plenty of Food
ON THE food front, administration officials disagree with Gov. Chester Bowles of Connecticut, former OPA administrator, who has urged price ceilings on meat and major grains. The official view here, as expressed by Agriculture Secretary Brannan, is that the country has plenty of food and no price controls will be needed. Wholesale prices of food for the week ended Sept. 12 were 6.3 per cent below the post-war peak, showing no need for price controls, according to top officials. Pork prices, except for bacon, have already dipped as the time for the seasonal decline in meat prices approaches. New York wholesale prices of pork loins, from which come pork chops and roast pork, were 57.9 cents a pound last week, down five cents a pound from late August. Cured hams on the same market were down about four cents a pound.
Below 1948 Level
BEEF PRICES, while higher than last year, are still slightly below the 1948 level. Lamb prices are lower than a year ago. Government officials are counting on tough credit regulations on housing, yet to be announced, to cut building sharply, take the strain off building materials and thus hold those prices in check. On the soaring textile front, no way is seen to deal with the fantastic foreign wool prices unless a government subsidy program is started. No one is talking seriously of that yet. It is hoped that cotton prices can be kept from going higher by limiting Marshall Plan-financed ship-
_ ments abroad.
FOSTER'S FOLLIES
PENSACOLA, Fla.—S8ix-year-old Judy Dollar swallowed a dime. The hospital released her with the dime still inside. Doctors said it would do no harm,
When youngsters named Dollar go swallowing dimes, It’s not quite as strange as you think Such kiddies are just keeping up with the times; They don’t want to play with red ink.
With creeping inflation, with which we are faced, The worth of our money, as such, : Brings problems which have to be quickly erased. Is 10 per cent increase too much?
AIDED BY U.S. . . . By William H. Stoneman
Eye on Sucker Trade
PARIS, Sept. 23—Racketeering European landlords specializing in the American sucker trade are being aided, abetted and
enriched by the United States government.
It evens helps them to evade taxes, something for which it
tosses its own citizens into quad.
At this moment Marshall Plan officials are reporfed to be
considering more or less seriously though not seriously enough, the possibility of put-
No longer
can be paid in local currency.
ON AND OFF . . Truman Cabinet Changes Quickly
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23—No President in recent history has changed cabinet officers as rapidly as Harry S. Truman. Mr. Truman has been in office five years and five months now and already has had 37 men serving under him in cabinet and sub-cabinet rank (the sub-cabinet being the Secretaries. of the Army, Navy and Air Force). That means there has been a top-level change on the average of more than one every
two months since Mr. Truman took office April .
12, 1945. It far outstrips the record of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR started out with a fresh cabinet of 10 men and then made 15 changes in 12 years in office—or a little more than one a year. The changes in Mr. Truman's cabinet, of course, include the replacements of the cabinet members who were serving under Roosevelt, But it is interesting to note that not one member of the original Truman-picked cabinet
"now remains in office. Two of the original
Roosevelt cabinet, Harold Ickes in Interior and
Frances Perkins in Labor, remained in office '
throughout the long Roosevelt tenure—more than twice as long as Mr. Truman has now served.
Truman and His Cabinet AND, as far as “inherited” Cabinets go, Calvin Coolidge also inherited one from President Harding. Mr. Coolidge served almost exactly as long as Mr. Truman has now served and he had only 18 men serving under him in the Cabinet, counting the Harding holdovers. By contrast, Mr. Truman has had 31 men
serving under him with full cabinet rank, not
counting the Secretaryships of the Army, Navy and Air Force which have been in effect since passage of the unification law in 1947. Historians have written much concerning the troubles Lincoln had with his cabinet. But, statistically at least, the records indicate Mr. Truman is having more. Mr. Truman has had 22 men serving in the seven Cabinet posts which were in existence during Lincoln's time. Lincoln had only 14. Lincoln had a lot of trouble with military affairs too. But He had only two men serving as Secretary of War and one as Secretary of Navy during his tenure of a little more than four years. Mr. Truman, by contrast, has had six men charged with the responsibilities of our military. Before unification, they were War Secretaries Henry L. Stimson, Robert P. Patterson and Kenneth C. Royall and Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal. After unification, they were For-
“SIDE SpE
By Earl Richert
restal, Louis Johnson and now Gen. George Marshall. Consider what’s happened in the War Department. Roosevelt's War Secretary, Mr. Stimson, continued in office until he resigned in September, 1945. Undersecretary Robert Patterson succeeded him and served until July, 1947. Then came Mr. Royall who continued in office as Secretary of the Army after unification and resigned
in April, 1949. Then came Gordon Gray, who .
stepped out in April of this year to be succeeded by the current Army Secretary Frank Pace Jr. Five men have been running the War Department within a five-year period.
Tyler Sets Quite a Record
ONE has to go a long way back in history to find a record matching Mr. Truman's. But, as is usually the case in history, it can be found. John Tyler, Who succeeded William Henry Harrison to the presidency, set quite a record for himself. In the space of less than four years, President Tyler had four Secretaries of State, four Secretaries of the Treasury, five Secretaries of War, two Secretaries of the Navy, three Attorneys General and two Postmasters General. They included holdovers from the Harrison Cabinet. Here's the Truman record, counting the Roosevelt holdovers: Four Secretaries of State, three Secretaries of the Treasury, three Secretaries of Defense, three pre-unification Sec-
retaries of War, three Attorneys General, three '
Postmasters General, three Secretaries of the Interior, three Secretaries of Agriculture, three Secretaries of Commerce, three Secretaries of Labor, and six post-unification Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, two in each service. Some of the frequent changes in the Truman cabinet have resulted from entirely normal causes—desire to retire, promotion, death, etc.
Accompanied With Fireworks
BUT a number of them have been accompanied with fireworks, such as the firings of Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and Commerce
" Secretary Henry Wallace. Defense Secretary
Louis Johnson stepped down gracefully as did Interior Secretary Julius Krug and Army Secretary Royall. But Navy Secretary John L. Sullivan went out with a blast at Secretary Johnson for scuttling the Navy's super-carrier. And although he said nothing at the time, former Secretary of State James F. Byrnes has been letting the country know of his Slgagieriant with the President's policies,
A
" do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right fo say it.
‘Accept the Challenge’ By S. R. House, Box 727, Indianapolis. “To Rep. Earl Wilson:
I answe! a smearing letter of yours in The Times on A a1 and expected a reply in the same manni t as you see fit to write me a
personal letter deriding my views, I gladly accept your challenge on the basic facts and will rely upon the truth to see me I keep informed on taxation and debt which you state is almost $2000 per person. I agree with these figures except that you forgot to state | that the interest on all national debts and state debts amount to as much as the debt itself. The interest is what you in Washington forget to tell about. Also, the same thing that makes a bond good is what makes a piece of paper money good. One draws interest «ld the other does no IF the government can issue one they ean issue the other, but those you misrepresent don't know the difference, so you issue the bond, or cause them to be. This puts me in mind of Presi-
* dent Hoover who sanctioned debt money to feed
stock, but ‘would not stand for the same thing for starving people, You refer to the wastrel government. Let me quote some past history: Under President Harding we had the Tea Pot Dome scandal. I have
"been in this oil field which was given away by
Albert Fall, one of Harding's cabinet members, The almost pure gasoline taken from this naval reserve (the people's oil) I am sure has been more than our present national debt. Wastrel government, again: “$23 Billion of credit was taken from the people during the depression, which in fact was their farms, businesses and homes.” You referred to the “blood stained war profit money passing through hands in Washington.” But you did not mention the 96,000 suicides, nor the millions of our youth who could not pass physicals for the Army whose health was ruined because of the depression, nor communism, which the depression was the basic cause of. ¢ & ¢ THE southern states have been Democrats ever since the Negro was freed. They never got over the Republicans freeing the slaves, The southern coalition of Democrats with the Republicans today reminds me of Mussolini joining hands with Hitler. I have been against all the foreign handouts, but when you and other Republicans spout out your tirades about the Democrats, like Hitlers, without getting down to basic facts, then I think you are abetting the very thing you scream about and are for it, which in the end makes you worse than the ones you talk or write about.
‘Jenner Attack Disgraceful’ By John C. Hazlitt, 21s8 St.; Indianapolis.
The attack on Gen. George C. Marshall by Sen. Jenner was the most disgraceful thing I have ever heard of. Whatever Gen. Marshall's political capabili~ ties are,’I am in no position to say; but his record as a soldier and as a faithful American is unquestionable. It is true that soon there will be an electiory and in the meantime there will be mud slinging; but to attack a grand old soldier like Gen. Marshall, as to his Americanism, is inexcusable. Sen. Jenner obviously is irresponsible, and speaks before thinking. He, under no circumstances, should be returned to the United States Senate when his re-election comes up. This slandering of good, loyal Americans in the name of politics must stop. Control of the House and the Senate by the Republicans will never be if they keep resorting to these defaming tactics.
What Others Say—
THE first phase of the American war with Russia was the cold war which led to the Korean War, or second phase. The third phase would be an all-out match with atomic bombs, and the fourth and last phase--occupation.— -—Lt. Gen. James M. Doolittle, famous World Wars I and II pilot.
ALL the expenditures for military might and economic recovery will not do the job of converting the world to democracy until people of the world are made to recognize the justice of our cause.—Edward W. Barrett, director of Voice of America.
IF I were a minister, after leading my congregation in prayer services, I would invite them to the rifle range for practice in firearms. —Dr. Elwoed C. Nance, president of U, of Tampa.
WE don’t always have complete confidence’ in the absolute knowledge, omniscience and wisdom of the people who advise him (President Truman). They are very fine people... but only human.—Paul H. Douglas (D. Ill), v. S. Senator,
A VERY large meal is an escape mechanism, It means one is gorging himself in order to have & sense of security and power.—David Rice, psychologist.
ABIA is the vast arena in which the vast forces of communism are concentrating for the kill.—Sir Gladwyn Jebb, United Kingdom delegate to United Nations.
=! Galbraith HEAVY USERS . . . By John W. Love
{5
Need Power Stations
TWO OR three years ago the makers of electricity thought: their big expansions would be drawing to a close in 1950, but now they are in another surge of building generating stations. It isn’t war or threat of war that’s doing this, thotgh the threat might pile on still another wave of expansion. This year's increase in the projects of the electric power companies is due to the phenomenal demand for electric-
at Hartford, Conn, over 28 years ago and there are now
and “vehic-
ting an end to the gyp-game by which both the United States and French treasuries among others are being taken for hundreds of thousands of hardearned American dollars every year. - LJ - THE STORY IS THIS: Marshall Plan officials stationed in Europe are given tremendous housing allowances, running up to $3000 a year in the ‘case of top of-
Hclals. They are also given general
“cost of living” allowances on the cockeyed theory that itis more expensive to live in Europe than in Washington, D. C. Actually it may cost half as much. Because this money comes out of “counterpart funds,” known to American officials as “Chinese money,” they have been notoriously sloppy about dishing it out.
“COUNTERPART” is the
money put by European governments in their own currency to match the amount of dollars received by them in the form of Marshall aid. In principle it is supposed to used, in agreement with American officials, in bolsterIng the local economy. But 5 r cent of it is set aside for
paying the administrative exEe the Marshall Plan in . Espen
where those
money is spent.’ wo . ”
This 5 per cent is far more than necessary. So some Mar-
shall Plan officials. in Europe _
have actually been breaking their necks in an effort to use up the balance. The latest stunt they have cooked up is to advertise the Marshall Plan like high-octane whisky in the newspapers and magazines of Western Europe. . - 2
OTHER high-ranking of-’
ficials will tell you privately that this “wild spending of counterpart is equivalent to sabotaging ‘the Marshall Plan. Any one of them can think of a dozen good things to do with any spare counterpart to strengthen the economies of
© the Marshall .Plan countries.
The first result of the Chinese money complex has been to fix a scale of allow-ances-which is frankly exor-
- bitant.
The second has been a failure to check with reasonable care the manner in which the
- ~ OTHER government audi-
tors have been shocked to dis-
cover that Marshall Plan employees in Paris, for example, have never been asked to produce receipts to show that they
are actually paying the hizh
rents for which most of them receive government compensation.
This is where - the United ° is Btates Government has been
COPA. 1960 BY NEA SERVICE, WC. T. NG 8 a. ore. "Sorry, bud—you're underweight!"
conniving with racketeering landlords. Many of these people rent furnished apartments or houses to Marshall Plan employees “for § $250 or om a meath,
BECAU SE they do not Jhave,
to provide receipts to “their ~ tenants there is nothing to prove that they are knocking
- Sif these Sremenious Suis, 43d
they pay no income tax on them. If they had to provide receipts they would have to, pay income . taxes and the -taxes would be so high that the gouging would cease to pay.
Then it might actually become
Jossibia 10. Tent & hioUse or an
apartment in one of the European capitals for a price that -4n ordinary eitizen ean afford. Nr ae ae
pe
ity from homes, offices and industry. Mn - .
THE stroller through Gen-
eral Electric's “more-power-to-
America” special train which is filled exclusively with industrial “apparatus, soon sees why the power consumption in factories is going up. One of the heavy users of current is high-
Ed
frequericy induction heating, > :
method by which _pleces metal are raised to cherry red or hotter, for tempering, forg, ing and such work. The oldtime blagksmith couldn't get 50 his heat to go into the fron, but running current through
— {t uses nearly all the heat, with
smoother and faster handling. The size of the pieces heated is going up — it is now about double what it was at the end of the war.
ANOTHER big consumer power is welding. Its -uses continue to expand. Among the . welders on the train is one insulated with: the new silicone, toa strange bouncing plastic f diverse uses, among fast polish for automobiles, ‘The head of the train. is a General Electric-American Lo-
comotive diesel. Appropriately,
per cent of -
just back of it, is displayed ~
equipment for generating and tting ‘electrical power.
six in use, three built since the war, )
” ” . THESE are the most efcient prime movers on earth. They have a thermal efficiency _of 35 per cent compared with 28 percent in the diesel and 7 per cent in the steam locomo-. tive. Mercury at over 900 degrees is used as the steaming fluid in’ place of water,
- - » IN transmission of power
_ there is much emphasis on high
voltages. To handle currents of terrific pressure calls for large and strong insulators and other accessories. One of these is a new circuit breaker which interrupts the current when trouble occurs on the line, In a twentieth of a second oil is shot across the space between the contacts to break up. the arc or lightning-like spark by which
the current would otherwise
of sump.
Barbs—
WE imagine that the suntan loving gals are trusting
that men will prefer bronse
this summet.
THE bathroom 13 the most se says a doctor. rs
With t feated-in-t) and second 8:15. The T poned play: a H-t0-3 sc Columbu Hemsley is Moulder, 2 hander, ag Riddle w ond win in petition. H
"on the roa
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PLAYO AMER (Final Columbus “ir a (Fina Rochester .. vs Baltimore .. LEAGI