Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 April 1951 — Page 10

“The Indianapolis Times

A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY Ww. SR President : Editor Business Manager

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pl r Telephone RI ley 5551 Give ight and the People Will Find Their Own Way

bh a : -

Mr. Truman's Secret jpRasitet TRUMAN says that he, and. nobody else knows whether he will run for re-election in 1952. He'll tell the rest of us in due time. We'll have to wait and wonder—and, somehow, the prospect of that waiting = period isn’t too pleasant. _ We went through one such “period in 1940, when the question was whether FDR would seek a third term. There . was another before 1944—would he tr}. for a fourth? Now comes still another. It seems fairly obvious that, if Mr. Truman's secret is his alone, he hasn't slammed: any door. Should he see fit later to change his mind none but he will know it. Nobody can accuse him of going back on his word: Anyway, he might be unwise to say now that he positively won't run again, thus Wegkening his control of his party.

s A SHREWD ‘Zuess might be that if, say, a year hence fis administration has survived without too many wounds the present period of scandals and blunders, if everything is then going fairly well and Mr. Truman's chances of reelection look good to him—he could be persuaded to accept another nomination. Meanwhile, however, a season of speculation is upon us. The pundits will bore us with their profoundly reasoned - guesses as to Mr. Truman's intentions. At every press conference, the Washington correspondents will ask trick questions in hope of leading him into an unintended revelation, and he will parry with coy evasions. No, it isn’t an altogether pleasant prospect. But there’ Ss ‘this consoling thought—it probably is the last such period ‘we'll have to struggle through. The new anti-third term amendment to the Constitution doesn't apply to Mr. Truman. ‘But after he leaves the White House, it will be pretty safe ‘to assume that every President who survives his first term will do his best to get a second, and certain that no President who has been twice elected can try for a third.

D-Day for Dawson FULBRIGHT of Arkansas, head of the committee Saini the Reconstruction Finance Corp., ought to follow through with a good idea suggested to him the * other day. : \ : The idea: That the committee set aside a special day ‘to hear the testimony of Donald S. Dawson. Mr. Dawson is one of President Truman's top administrative assistants. His special field at the White House is personnel; that is, he advises the President on appoint‘ments of federal judges, district attorneys, postmasters ‘and other important officials. Mr. Dawson used to be personnel director of the RFC. The Fulbright committee has charged that he appears to ‘have exerted potent influence on that big agency's lending ‘operations. His name has bobbed up fgam and again in ‘the Investigation.

IT WAS Mr. “Dawson who obtained for the President from the RFC files, of which Mrs. Dawson is custodian, copies of more than 700 letters written by members of Congress. That seemed an obvious maneuver to chill enthusiasm for the investigation among Senators and Representatives who might not care to have made public evidence of how they used influence in behalf of loans. It was Mr. Dawson who was cited as having occupied on three occasions “complimentary” quarters in a $30-a-day ° Miami Beach Hotel which got large loans from the RFC. He was cited; also, as a close associate of E. Merl Young, the. former RFC examiner who skyrocketed from ags to es and whose wife, a White House stenographer, | got that $9450 mink coat which was paid for by a lawyer Tepregenting applicants for loans.

THE FULBRIGHT committee has politely” invited Mr. Dawson to testify about these matters and others, if he cares to do so. He has not responded. The President told ‘his news conference this week he had no thought of firing Mr. Dawson, who was sitting near him- at the time. Mr. Truman said he had never suggested to Mr. Dawson that he should testify. But, Mr. Truman added, it would not ‘be necessary for a congressional investigating committee ‘to subpena anybody at the White House whose testimony “it believed to be required. ; The Fiilbright committee must know ‘that Mr. Dawson's testimony is required. It should insist that he testify and fix a day for hearing him. It should not merely invite him—it should notify him that he is. expected to appear.

The Reds Out-Smart Us STATE DEPARTMENT officials contend that Communist . offers to send food grains to India on an exchange basis have put this country on the spot. Rather, we would say, the Communist governments have demonstrated what chumps our State Department officials are. They want to give our - grain away to India while at the game time we are paying cash for such Indian products as manganese, chromite and jute. Red China has offered India a limited amount of rice and cori in exchange for jute. We can outbid Red China on that basis, for we could supply all of India's food needs and accept in exchange all - the manganese and chromite India has to sell. That is the way congressional opponents of the State Department program want to do business, and the way we should do business. It“is conceivable, indeed probable, that the current States and Russia will be resolved by an economic or political collapse of one side or the other, barring an actual shooting war. We could be the ones to go broke first if - we persist in giving away our products, especially to countries which refuse to ally themselves with us in this life-and-death struggle. Russia is giving nothing away. On the contrary, Russia is reducing her satellites to. economic serfdom by taking from them everything she can. Sooner or later this may produce a political explosion which will redound to our : biel But that may not happen soon: enough to save 1 from economic disaster if, we continue to be Uncle Sap.

ld

RAGS TO RICHES . . By

st

WASHINGTON, Apr. 2—A White House

stenographer’s $9540 mink coat his become

~ the Reconstruction Finance Corp...

"The mink-coated SenoEr apes is Mrs. Laur-

etta Young, wife of E, Merl Young, the fabulous rags-to-riches phenomenon of the Fulbright Committee's investigation.

Mr. Young is a mousy little man whose testi-

mony before the committee has been delivered with the injured air of one who can't quite grasp what the fuss is all about.

His influence—or reputed influénce==with the

big names of government, and his friendship with a slick-haired Washington attorney, have made him a key. figure in the committee's revelations,

Sign of the Times

TOPSY-TURVEY WORLD

Charles arb ie. rh

- RFC Mink Coat Is ble of Merl Young's Rapid Rise

Look at much of what has been disclosed and up pops Mr. Young, an unobstrusive Missourfan who 2 years Zgo a working for [TH Ba as—a§ 08 a= af ite in i senger. The mink coat—or the natural royal pastel mink coat, as it’s known in the trade—is somewhat symbolic of Mr. Young's rapid rise, too. Few. assistant messengers ever have achieved what he has in so short a time. : Actually, the public's first knowledge of the coat didn't come from the Fulbright Committee, but frpm Rep. Pat Sutton (D. Tenn.), who

told the House one day that he had heard the

coat had been a gift from an RFC borrower. * °

THE FULBRIGHT Committee took it up from there, since Mr. Young is a former RFC

By Talburt

ES

By Frederick €. Othman

Where's the Cotton Shortage?

WASHINGTON, Apr. 2—Some time ago I penned a little essay, quoting the highest possible authority, about the world-wide cotton shortage and the imminent possibility of shortages in sheets and shirts. =

PS So from haberdashers aH over the land I

received bitter communications suggest- ° ing’ that my author- - ity (who happened to be Secretary of Agriculture Charlie Brannan) was nuts. And go, said they, was I, for writing such drivel. They said they never did have so many shirts for sale. And it wasn't long before the department - store owners “began to write, in style a little more dignified, that if my bride needed some sheets they had £m, in white, pink, lavender, and also striped. This was a worrisom thing. But Mr. Brannan kept on insisting that there was, too, a cotton shortage. He still says so. At the end of this year he told the House Appropriations Committee, we'll have less cotton on hand than in memory of the oldest man, or 2.5 million bales, as compared with 10,469,000 bales carried over in 1940. He was so convincing about it that I rushed out to buy six new union suits. You can call this hoarding, if you want, but once I spent two weeks in a nudist camp on an assignment from my editor and I can report that there is nothing mere uncomfortable than no underwear, My haberdasher wondered if six wére enough. Wouldn't I maybe like to buy a couple of dozen? His shelves were full of union suits and also shirts, shorts, pajamas, and nightshirts, both

SIDE GLANCES

©COPR. 1961 BY NEA SERVICE. NC. T. M. REG. U: 8. PAT. OFF, . "You're starting to get excited too early, Ezra—you'll butst e

Jo blood vessel before th

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the eloction next year|"

long and short. It had been a long time, said he, since he'd had bigger stocks of cotton goods. Or fewer customers. de personally thought the prices he had to ask were too high. He also was thinking of canceling some of his orders for more merchandise. This situation, it turns out, is typical of what's happening across the land. Stores everywhere are loaded, with cotton goods and if there's any hoarding being done, it's not by their customers. This may be because we wearers of union suits are weary of hearing the powers-that-be cry, wolf. It may also be because we're fresh out of spending money. > So there's a cotton shortage everywhere, except at the stores selling cotton. This is reaching back to the mills. Some of these have shut down some of their spindles. . Others are talking reluctantly of lower prices.

Too Much on Hand 2

have been listening to the government, too. The records indicate that last month they wove 20 per cent more cotton than they did in the same month last year—and 40 per cent more than in 1949. They weren't going to be caught by any shortages. Now some of them apparently are to be caught by surpluses of their own making. It is a topsy-turvy world. The fact that the cotton growers intend to plant 16 million acres of the fluffy stuff this year isn’t making the owners of yard goods feel any happier. Fact is, the only shortages of cotton materials are in the lines, such as heavy tape and duck, directly used by the military. If the Army ordered more shirts and sheets, of course, this might change. Perhaps Brannan knows something he’s not talking about. : All T know is that I've got to apologize to all the merchants I made angry. Later on I may have to apologize to Brannan. As of now I'm glad I don't own a haberdashery, or a cotton mill, either.

By Galbraith DEAR BOSS . . = Pathos and Humor in Congressman’s Mail

WASHINGTON, Apr. 2—Hoosier Senators and Representatives returned to the Capitol today after the Easter recess and heard President Vincent Auriol of France address the joint session of the House and Senate. During the week-to-10-days absence, the office staffs kept busy sending out baby books and doing the 1001 things that

Senators and Representatives must do for thelr constituents. ‘Dick Prickett, who is secretary to freshman Rep. E. Ross Adair, (R. Ft. Wayne), took time out to make a compilation of a single day's mall from the Fourth District. This is what he found. os » " A SERVICEMAN, who had

been injured in a fall while

cupied Germany and who had been discharged because of “his wife's illness,” wanted the Veterans

and a disability pension.

A farmer wanted a draft deferment for his son,

or riore.”

7 \-

_Rosenbaum’s law firm had represented the

Jacobs Co. Mr. Windham is a former RFC em-

.employee, are friends. Mr. Dawson's name re-

“individual?

Administration to finance his. medical treatment

The wife of a reservist who who had been recalled to active duty demanded that “all “reservists be released from military service who had previously served for three years

A librarian wrote asking for the excess profits tax to raise the bapnd copies of the Congres- §8 to §0 bijllons; (3) increase D. Roosevelt Jr.

‘examiner and already had been named by the gestion and with the approval of the RFC, Luse yep tom as "apparently having influence tron, manufsetiurer of protabricatad hotises, bare :

es COWRA. 4

es mony d losed that Mr. Y pough went b: ot the -coat from a New York furrier last fall. agency's biggest loser. The price was $9540, including tax. Later the ~~ While Mr, Young was on the Lustfon payroll purchase, less 10 per cent discount, was trans- he also was getting $10,000 a year from the: ferred to the account of Mr. Young's slick- Jacobs Co. Carl Strandlund, Lustron ‘president, haired lawyer friend, Joseph Rosenbaum. x later branded Mr. Young as a “doublecrosser” and charged before the committee that Mr,

Young and Mr. Jacobs were part of 8 conspire atorial ring which was determined either to get control of Lustron or. wreck it. i: Mr. Young still works for the Jacobs Co. ae its $18,000-a-year Washington representative. ® ©

MR. YOUNG also was friendly with RFO Director Walter Dunham, and was identified by Mr. Dunham as one of a “social clique” which used him in official matters. Others named by Mr. Dunham included Mr. Jacobs and Mr, Windham, Mr. Young's employer and business’ associate. Testimony dealing with the Tetiass CRSe-

involving a $10 million RFC loan to the Texe mass Petroleum Co.—also got around to Mr,

Down es the Years

York furrier in obtaining approval of a $150, 000 RFC loan in the préceding May. However, the loan was not disbursed because it was decided that the company’s collateral security was not adequate. Mr. Rosenbaum paid for the coat but he explained put up the cash as a loan to Mr. Young and holds security for the loan. : One odd thing developed in the testimony. An official of_the firm which had sold the coat said that when the purchase was transferred to Mr. Rosenbaum’s account, the sales slip showing that the purchase originally was for Mr. Young’s account had been destroyed. Mr. Young and Mr. Rosenbaum had other business associations which have turned up in RFC hearings. For example, Mr. Young bought from Mr. Rosenbaum one-half interest in an option on the stock of the Atlantic Basin Iron Co. a firm from which Mr. Young later borrowed $33,000. That was when he was financing his, $52,000 home in a fashionable residential area here. On another occasion, Mr. Young borrowed $8500 from Mr. Rosenbaum and his father, L. N. Rosenbaum, to buy stock in a Flint, Mich, brewery owned by George Fitzgerald, Democratic national committeeman from Michigan. * @ ‘MR. YOUNG also got an interest in the Commercial Insurance Agency when it was organized here. He gave a note for his share. The money was put up by Mr. Rosenbaum, Rex Jacobs, president of the F. L. Jacobs Co. of Detroit and James Windham, an executive of the

Se

ployee who quit shortly after the Jacobs Co. got a $3 million RFC loan, to go with Jacobs at more than double his RFC salary. The Young-Rosenbaum dealings finally provoked Sen. J. William Fulbright (D. Ark.), .chairman of the investigating committee, to ask of Mr. Rosenbaum: “You seem to be subsidizing Mr. Young. Isn't it true that you do that because of Mr. Young's influence with the RFC and the White House and that he knows many very important people?” But Mr. Rosenbaum insisted that his dealings with Mr. Young had been as a friend and as a business associate. The committee showed, however, that Mr. Young seemed to know his way around the White House and the RFC. He has a White House pass so that he can meet his wife-after work every day. It's been rumored that he is related to President Truman. But Mr. Young says this isn’t so and that he never said it was. Mr. Young and Donald Dawson, the President’s personnel adviser and & former RFC

Young. Ross Bohannon of Dallas, whose law firm represented Texmass, swore before the committee that Mr. Young had offered to help along the loan application for an $85,000 fee.

- Mr. Young denied this and testified that Mr, Bohannon had offered to hire him and Willlam M. Boyle to “watch out” for the loan in Washington. Mr. Boyle, an attorney, now is chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Mr. Young is well known around Democratic headquarters, which frequently -arranged for

out-of-town businessmen to talk things over with RFC directors. He did some fleld work for the Democratic Party during the 1948 campaign, including a trip to the southwest. That was while he was on Lustron’s payroll, so Lustron picked up the bill for his campaign trip expenses. That's the highlighted story of how a stenographer—even though of the White House— got to own a $9540 mink coat that soon became as familiar to many Americans as the White House itself.

peatedly has figured in the Fulbright Committee's investigation, but so far he has refused to testify. > oS » AT THE RFC, Mr. Young is well known. He is a friend of RFC Director Willlam Willett, who has been criticized by the Senate investigators for showing favoritism in RFC matters. Mr. Young also got his $18,000-a-year vice, presidency with the Lustron Corp. at the sug

F—

“I do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right to say it"

‘Fun bor Children’ bake cakes ‘and knit (Times Mar. 29). You : eat 'em, don't you? I bake cakes and knit and MR. EDITOR: am just as good a red-blooded Ameri It is a well known fact that your paper is , ¥ Tejiean as one of the few that is ever ready to back the You are. 1t's just as silly for me io say, Nobody worthwhile, the good or even the seemingly ponte a sun M ne and says: ‘Hey, Bub, you simple acts associated with the daily lives of Lr ne, tha! cake’ ldo} because 1.1ike Indianapolis citizens. e cakes,” as it is for you to say: “Nobody We have every kind of day and week in the Joins a gun at me and says: ‘Hey, Bub, you books . . . candy, flower, tomato, safety, ete. eh Pay that horse.’ I do it because I want Why not a “fun for the kids week” during 8 1s beside the point, spring vacation? It's been a tough year for * 9% the kids. They worry as much as their elders, IT WAS not the intention of the Senate Can't motorists slow down and be careful Crime Investigating Committee to stick a gun for once without orders to do so? Can't tax- in anyone's back. If you are the kind of a guy payers forget about their precious grass for a you say you are, work every day, go to church, few days? pay your bills, own your home and car, don't S$ oo ut owe anybody, mind your own business and : WHAT GOOD is a bicycle to a child when have a couple of bucks left to play the horses, it's against the law to ride on sidewalks and you should be granted that privilege. Nobody's he is always in danger riding in the ‘streets? going to investigate you and I wouldn't call What fun it would be to really ride a bike . . you a “white livered species,” like you did when or I en an D0 ER ; sing 3 RY stepped over into our line and tried to poke 8 . ck ¥ «+s0r to hop a un at th 20 te Hae of te da p e things we women like to do.

I don’t believe you mind your own business iS Xe have to alt Sa the boy next door when you stick your nose in our cake and think s nds and feet in some frozen waste- you should be y lands before we recognize him as a worthehile fioprysed Df aks TO) Ie Yen) of

Our generals have said that tod your lite, om Duncan. at to ay’s —N y 3 3 ‘soldier can't take it.© How can he when he 113. Walter Haggerty, Oi

knows so little about grassy hills, ravines, and 0 BE YOURSELF

walking miles? His experiences have to do with cement, bricks and stop lights. IF YOU want to be popular... and not left We spend millions of dollars doing things for on the shelf . . . practice my philosophy . . . the children, yet we deprive them of the most and always be yourself . . . most everyone this needed, least expensive and simplest things in day and age . . . will copy ‘from a few . . . belife . ... sunshine; fresh air, good old fashioned cause they are afraid to try... something that's exercise and the chance to live as children’ strange and new . .. In word or deed It's just should . . . as children. the same . . . the great majority . . . will fotlow —Just a Mother, City. what the others do .: .. from A all through to Z ...but every once so-often you. : . encounter someone who .'. . seems to stand above the crowd . .. because of what they do ... now you can all do better and . . . you'll feel much better

too . .. If only you will be yourself ... and to yourself be true.

‘Now See Here, Boy’ MR. EDITOR: Now see here, Tom Duncan. I blew my top when I read that letter you wrote the other

day about being a “white livered species” if you =By Ben: Burroughs.

By Dan Kidney

individual income taxes by continue his equitable means on incomes many. over $4000 per year to raise Tagg Aggie 8

$415 billions. THE MOTHER of a son One protested the sending gsked that he be permitted to of troops to Europe by the . “pemain-in the United States” President without congres- instead of being sent overseas sional authorization. with the troops because of her

studies in Ger-

sional Record of the preceding 8-8 8 ill health. Congress. AN EDITOR of a religious Another constituent sald, "A postal employee requested publication expressed —opposi- “I “recelved the governapproval of the legislation in- tion to readjustment of postal ment booklet on infant care creasing compensation of the rates. which you sent me. Thank you postal workers. A pathetic letter from a very much. I haven't read it

mother whose son was re-

through yet, but already I have come across the answer to one problem.” “Incidentally, I have ‘addi- " tional DOK, MP —Adairpost card request to 433 House Office Building, Washington, D. C,, will bring a free copy by return Thal”

What Others Say

YES, there is an imperialism FIRST, stud In the world today but it is tHe Ara Serer y a not American imperialism. It make it at prices they are able comes from the East. It 1s a and willing to pay. , . . This most subtle type of imperial- will take energetic salesmansm, using all the: Communist ~ ship as well as cheap productactics of infiltration to per- tion. . . . It is the challenge mit a vicious minority to domi- = confronting ‘the business nate and thwart the will of statesmanship of Britaif.— majority. ~—Rep. Economic tion AdminIstrator Paul v

. # '® n ANOTHER: PERSON protested “we are already paying too much tax on ‘cars. We

ported missing in .dction in Korea wondered if the military authorities had received any other word about him.

change left over to buy gas.” A business firm was interested in selling prefab homes to the government and wanted a conference with officials’ of. the Office of Defense Mobilization. “Officials -of —a labor union cited three points in. a program for more tax revenue: (1) to close loopholes in the present law to raise $4 to $5 billions; (2) increase corporation taxes and strengthen

- individuals and co-operatives. A student wanted government employment so he could

copies of that pay.

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