Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 April 1951 — Page 16

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A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER

- ROY Ww. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ President :

Editor Business Manager

PAGE 16 Wednesday, Apr. 25, 1951

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Telephone Rl ley 8851 Give Light end the People Will Fina T'hewr Own Woy

A Time for Reflection T WOULD be well if there could be at least a 48-hour moratorium on public statements incident to the Mac-

* Arthur controversy—a period that could be devoted to

serious study and reflection by everyone concerned. This country is at war, and let's not forget it. That is grave and awful business. The present is not a time for hysteria, smear campaigns or personal recrimination. Gen. MacArthur has stated his case, and he did it with dignity and restraint, abusing no one. The questions he raised are not issues in a political campaign but matters of vital concern to the American people. They should be regarded in that light—and not as an attack on the Democrats or as political ammunition for the Republicans. President Truman fing been temperate in what he has had to say on the subject, and his side of the controversy

deserves thoughtful consideration. = Ed = » tJ »

THE overriding question with which we are concerned is Communisfaggression—and whether the measures we téd are adequate to meet the challenge. This demands a searching examination of the American position in all parts of the world, by the appropriate committees of Congress. One of the MacArthur critics says the General will be asked why he believes Russia would not move elsewhere—

say in Iran or Europe—if the Korean War were “expanded” -

by bombing the Red supply bases in Manchuria. What could be more ridiculous than to pose such a question, that only the Kremlin can answer? Gen. Lucius D. Clay, who knows the Russians better than most people, believes Russia will go to war “only in accord with the program which has been developed by its leaders, and even then only if conditions are propitious.” It also is his opinion that our present superiority in atomic weapons may suffice to prevent war with Russia for the time being. E That is an informed guess, based on sound military considerations. But mere guessing isn't going to help us. The immediate problem is how best to get out of the war in Korea in which we are presently involved, and then

how to Prepare against the larger war which threatens. #” ” = “

QUICKENING events onthe Koresh front may decide

the issue there. Bullets speak louder than words, and bullets may determine whether the advocates of “limited war” were right or wrong. Meanwhile there must be no lag in the preparations to meet a bigger war. Those who say we will be ready to meet a Soviet attack by 1953 offer small comfort in face of the possibility

.that it may come sooner than that. Instead of talking in

terms of 1953, or even 1952, we should be asking ourselves how much more can we do right now, and during the remainder of 1951. Gen. MacArthur knows war.as few Americans do. His views can be of great service to his country in this emergency, if the Democrats and Republicans will forget their differences long enough to hear him out. Our other military leaders also should be heard, particularly those who know Asia and the Pacific area. But the emphasis throughout should be on the immediate situation and the war which may come—not on past mistakes which canhot be recalled. ” . " =

= » ASIA has been the neglected front, to be sure. But what can be done now to make the best of a bad situation? What areas can be saved that are vital to American security, either because of their geographic position or their natural resources? What manpower is available to

‘support an anti-Communist position? Would our resources

be spread too thin by attempting to defend both oceans? Or :s such thinking a half-way retreat to pre-1941 isolationism? These are among the questions to be examined, in the search for a balanced, adequate defense program. What

‘his been done belongs to history.

Tom-Tom Heflin HERE was a mixed reaction around our office at the news of the death of former Sen. Tom Heflin of Alabama. Most of the staff under the age of 40 had little or no recollection of him. And most over 40 were surprised at the news; so long had “Tom-Tom"” been off the front pages they thought he had passed away long ago. For the benefit of our younger readers we will repeat the opinion we expressed often and at much greater length when Tom Heflin was such a controversial figure in the "20's: He was a breast-beating demagog who fanned the flames of religious and racial bightry-esnd did his country no good. ; Having thus violated the rule of de mortuuis nil nisi honum—which we regard as a hypocritical rule anyway— we make amends to the extent of adding one bonum to our ~ditorial comment about Tom Heflin. When not politicking,

he was, personally, a very engaging fellow. He was by far

the best raconteur in the Washington of his day. He had the gift of narrative and imagery. No one who ever sat in

on an evening of Tom's story-telling will forget it. EJ td » i « n ~

THE story we liked best was when Tom told how “Pvt. John” Allen of Mississippi and his doctor framed up on Mrs. Allen, a teetotaler, in arranging a ‘‘cure” for one of Pvt. John’s hangovers. The doctor gave Mrs. Allen a large medicine bottle filled with bourbon, with strict directions on how to bruise the mint, crush the ice, add the sugar and pour in the medicine. It was a story that took 20 minutes in Tom's ornate telling, and we have space here only for the climax—when Pvt. John, propped up in bed, grasped in his shaking hand

the frost-encrusted glass, buried his nose in the spray of mint and slowly sipped the julep. As Tom put it:

+ “The amber fluid flowed over the velvet folds of his stomach like a dewdrop sinking into a rose.”

Tom Heflin, of course, voted and talked dry. But we-

uthor of that sentence learned int julep not from a book,

always suspected that the the soothing qualities of a i

BAPTA I Ch EL 5 MM 0 0 RP Hay

LABOR AND DEFENSE

WASHINGTON, Apr. 25—Organized labor's trek back into the administration's Defense Mobilization Councils is beginning, but one of

_ its top spokesmen will not be there.

George M. Harrison, who occupied the highest post held by a union man in the defense setup prior to the mass withdrawal two months ago, said he would not resume his post as chief lieutenant to Economic Stabilizer Eric Johnston. Mr. Harrison said “a multitude of other duties” would take all his time. In addition to being president of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks at a salary of $25,000 a year, he is a vice president of the AFL and a member of the United Labor Policy Committee. In 1948, when the AFL officially was not in partisan politics, he organized and led a labor league for the Truman-Barkley ticket.

~Unworkable Ideas”

ANOTHER reason for Mr. Harrison's retirement from official life is that he is known to believe some anti-inflation policies under the Defense Production Act are unworkable. That applies particularly to the price-control effort. Mr. Harrison was regarded as the probable choice of the United Labor Policy Committee to move up from the Johnston office and become a top-level adviser to Mobilization Boss Charles E. Wilson. Next Mbnday has been mentioned as the

probable date when the union chiefs will make

a formal peace with the administration. The step could have been taken last Monday, when their Policy Committee discussed for more than two hours the progress made in bringing the administration to terms. But it was decided to wait a week before calling the war off. . In the meantime a committee will make certain of some matters still indefinite. A main subject in this category is the future relation-

ship between organized labor and Mr. Wilson.

A union spokesman said his group “wants to make sure that organized labor will be used for effective participation and not merely window dressing.” There are a few lesser items still undecided, and the union men are striving for a “package deal”—trying to get everything settiled at one time.

Offers Still Open

THE union committee on the general situation is composed of William Green and Philip Murray, presidents of the AFL and CIO: and George Meany and James B. Carey, secretarytreasurers of the two organizations. Other committees have been named for divisions of the subject—all to report next Monday. In Mr. Wilson's office it was said that his repeated offers of a top advisory post to organized labor is still open, but that he still insists the union representative must work a five-day week instead of just dropping in occasionally. This collides with the disinclination of important union officials to give up their labor connections. They say it is easy for a business man to get a leave of absence from his concern, but the same doesn’t apply to a union official. Rumors are current that Mr. Wilson is so displeased at the undermining of his board authority—with apparent White House assent— that he may resign. These rumors are denied by Wilson aids. But an AFL leader said today:

SIDE GLANCES

__OQPR. 1981 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REG. U. 8. PAT. OFF.

"These are the happiest years of our lives, Dad says— | wonder if he's sure about our ages!"

The Indianapolis Times How About That, Mac? -

OH, YES GENERAL ... ANOTHER AMAZING DEVELOPMENT DURING YOUR "ABSENCE: WAS THE

By Fred Perkins Harrison Won’t Resume Post

“A labor adviser in Wilson's office isn't so important now that the President's Advisory Committee on mobilization policy is in operation.”

Depends on Trend

FROM results so far the union men believe the board has provided for them a means to override Mr. Wilson. They did so in getting Mr. Truman's approval for an enlarged Wage Stabilization Board with widened authority over labor-management disputes. Mr. Wilson's tenure .is believed to depend on whether this trend continues. The Labor Policy Committee decided to name six members to the new wage board, but not to do so until next: Monday. This leaves the wage

board inoperative, to the disappointment of Mr,

h

By Galbraith

Johnston who is under pressure from scores of wage cases demanding settlement. The delay tied in with the union leaders’ plans to make certain of all phases of their victory before they sign the peace treaty’Mr. Truman is promoting.

CADILLACS AND DISHES

NATIONAL DEFENSE .

. By Earl Richert

People Are Relaxed—But Threat Of re Inflation Remains

WASHINGTON, Apr. 25—The country is now enjoying a sort of economic “Indian summer” after going through one of the most rapid inflations in history. Prices have stabilized and a buyer's market has returned in many lines. How long will it last? : Not more than four or five months, say most top government economists. Then they look for another upward pressure on prices. Such government big-wigs as Economic Stabilizer Eric Johnston and Leon Keyserling of the President's Council of Economic Advisers are warning of more inflation ahead. Official guessing is that it will come this autumn when real shortages of consumer goods show up as a result of the rearmament program,

Depends on Stalin

THEN, says Mr. Johnston, it will be more difficult than ever to control inflation because there will be a tendency to bid up the prices of scarce items. This outlook, of course, is vac on the’ ‘assumption that the war will not expand beyond Korea. Any new move by Stalin & Co. would set off a new round of scare buying and more inflation overnight. Prime purpose of these official warnings is to keep the public sufficiently concerned about the danger of more inflation so that Congress will vote the higher taxes and additional controls believed necessary to check further inflation. But it’s hard to stir Congress and the public from {ts present relaxed mood. And this mood is understandable considering that the Treasury now has a $4.5 billion surplus, inflation is halted, department stores are holding big sales, new autos are in good supply, used car prices are down, television sets and many clothing items are a glut on the market and purchasers with cash can get sizable discounts on such items as electric ranges and washing machines at many stores. The present complacency is not good, says Herbert Stine, economist for the Committee for Economic Development, a private organization. Mr. Stine, who early last winter predicted a Treasury surplus for fiscal 1951 when the government economists were predicting a $2.7 billion deficit, says it is imperative that Congress vote enough additional taxes to balance the budget next year (beginning July 1).

‘Make It Legal’

' MR. EDITOR:

"What fools men can be. You can't stop gambling except by one process. Legalize it , ,. tax . let the U. 8. take the rakeoff. Take exces-

. sive taxes off the poor working man and the

small businessman. One on page ihside you fight gambling but on the front page you say an Indianapolis family

" hit the Irish Sweepstakes. ~Is that common

sense? Why let foreign countries take our money when Uncle Sam can use it?

To stop graft, legalize all forms-of-gambling.—

How can politicians and police take graft from something legal? Run anything underground and you have crooks. Bring it above board and stop graft and yes, even murder. Prohibition proved that. —Mrs. W. A. Collins, City.

By Frederick C. Othman

More of the Dawson Story—

WASHINGTON, Apr. 25—Travis Fletcher, chief investigator of the State Department's private private-eye department, says the only dishes he ever owned he bought on sale for $4.95 the complete set at a People's Drugstore. Never, adds he, did he accept a complete service of imported British Wedgwood china from some London highbinders in the multi-million-dollar, international surplus property racket. Mr. Fletcher soon will have the opportunity to swear it upon his oath before the House Executive Expenditures Subcommittee, This may sound like tricky-track stuff for Congressmen to be worrying about, but they consider it important—or at least as important as the free food freezers that wound up in the kitchens of half a dozen federal moguls here a couple of years ago. So they had before them John Maragon, the one-time habitue of the White House executive offices and ex-employee of the perfumer who handed out the cold wok Only now John was

talking about anoth his bosses, the mysterious George Dawsén, who managed to get his clutches on nearly $14 million worth of U. S. Army trucks in Europe after the war. John testified that he worked for Dawson only until he learned that the latter was a crook. At that time—it was 1948—Mr. Fletcher was chief sleuth of the Foreign Ligeiaation Commis-

major problems -of the day based on a writing man’s firsthand studies in this country and abroad. Blair Moody goes to the Senate by appointment of Michigan's Democratic Gov. G. Mennen Williams. : Mr. Moody is no politician being rewarded for party service. His leaning is to a liberal position on economic and social questions and, like his illustrious predecessor, he will never let partisanship set a course contrary to what he thinks right for the country. The new Senator's greatest conviction today is on the need of the U. 8. to get militarily strong with all speed and to check inflation on the home front so as to put the country in the best possible posture to resist communism. :

” = » MR. MOODY'S appointment takes from Washington

press corps the nearest thing it had to a human dynamo. His

ings.in this country and overseas, the speed with which he

THE NEW SENATOR

Blair Moody's a Tough Bundle of Energy

sion. The details, as related by Maragon, were a little vague. He was having breakfast here at the Shoreham Hotel, in any event, with Alland Braithwaite, who functioned as Dawson’s paymaster. . “It was the 25th of March,” said John. “And Alland said, ‘Don’t bother talking any more with Fletcher, because he has an understanding with us.’ He said, ‘John, you'll laugh at this, but Fletcher had a weakness. He'd always wanted” to possess a set of our famous English Wedgwood china. George was tickled to death. 80 I (Braithwaite) bought him a set of it.” So John passed lightly over the dish incident and turned to a dinner de luxe in New York, where Dawson and friends were entertaining one Joe Major of the War Assets Administration of Washington. It seems that Major had been of assistance in selling some large electric generators to Dawson.

Slipped Him $100 “WE WERE eating.” John continued, “and Major turned to me and said ‘Who's going to pay my expenses to New York?’ ” John said he called one of Dawson's assistants out to the anteroom for a discussion of this financial problem. They decided that $100 should take care of Major. The assistant crumpled five $20 bills and John said he slipped them to his bureaucratic dinner partner, : Then, he continued, there was one William Ryan, who was in charge of surpluses in Bermuda. After Dawson bought most of those, Ryan went to work for him and at still another dinner Dawson handed Ryan several thousand dollars to buy two, or three, or four Cadillacs. John couldn't remember exactly how many. And I suppose we never will get the straight of the Dawson story. He's in England, safe from congressional subpenas and for whom he bought Cadillacs, dishes, and no telling what all else probably will be a continuing mystery.

By Charles Lucey

Hoosier Forum—‘Tax Gambling’

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

He looks upon a balanced: federal budget as the crucial item in determining whether we will have more inflation or avoid it. He thinks

more inflation can be avoided if Congress will vote enough taxes to keep thé government from going into the red when the big defense bills start coming in. “The tough thing,” Mr. Stine said, ‘is that the people won't take action unless you scare

When Will They Return?

them. And if y you scare them enough you'll set off the buying wave and inflation that you're seeking to avoid. But we know one definite fact —that present tax revenues aren’t going to be sufficient to pay for the defense program.” There is general belief here that the public now is fairly well immunized to war scares and that it will take something major to set off a new wave of panic buying. “Mike DiSalle (the Price Administrator) is just plain lucky,” said one top government official. “For a few months anyway he'll be getting a lot of credit for something (checking the price rise) that he actually had very little to do with, He probably could retire this summer with laurels.”

sASsssNaTRe IRAN RALl

‘Changed Her ‘Mind’

MR. EDITOR: -Timég (Apr. 15) carried a letter from Congresswoman Cecil M, Harden which was critical of President Truman's act in relieving Gen, MacArthur of his command. Only last summer she joined Sen. Jenner in his attack on Gen. Marshall, and she gave as her reason for voting against permitting Marshall to become Secretary of Defense the statement that she believed the military should be subordinated to civilian authority and that a military man should not

be in a Pgsitios to usurp. civilian authority

~Jack H. Mankin, Lebanon.

MR. EDITOR: So Gen. MacArthur has come home, and has conquered everybody in America, apparently, His speech on Thursday was wonderful; the candenced voice, the poise, the oratory. But wasn't that last part just a little corny? It might be rather pleasant for an old soldier just to fade away, on a pension of $18,000 a year, which is what the government will pay him for the rest of his life... . —Mrs. H. C. Robinson, S. Meridian St.

MR. EDITOR: : . + « The whole world just cannot be out of step but MacArthur, Hé thas been away from the world picture a long time and you must allow for his long years in the Orient before you give too much weight to his plans. He can be wrong, too, you know. He was last December, —F. M., City.

MR. EDITOR: . + « If half of the Republicans were just half as smart as they are dumb, there would not have been one bit of fuss about Truman firing MacArthur. I place the blame on the GOP for not joining hands with Truman and giving him support to fight a war. , ,. ~—M. L. W,, City

MR. EDITOR: The line forms on the right for those who wish to enlist in MacArthur's “China War.” Of course, if you disobey orders you will be Shot instead of receiving a hero's welcome home. . —A. P, City.

SOFT BREEZE

THE BREEZE that whispers sweet and low «+ + « soft lullabies of love . . . makes me rest so easily . . . like a contented dove... . this fan of God blows care away . .. and gives strength to my heart . . . it serves to help me on my way ... as each day gets its start... it shortens the long hours . . . and if it fades away , . . the world just doesn't seem the same . . . and it's a dreary day . . . for just as boats that skim along . . . depend upon its blow , . . to touch their sails with magic . . . that makes them move and go ... so it pushes all of us .., and it’s so very true... to say a gentle blowing breeze . . . blows happiness to you, -—By Ben Burroughs

WEDN

far-flung journalistic wander- -

WASHINGTON, Apr. 25—The U. S. Senate will be a livelier place with one of its fine old mahogany desks occupied by Blair Moody, 49-year-old newspaperman named to succeed the late Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg. The new Senator carries into his job a supply of highvoltage energy, an tmaginative mind and a keen grasp of the

moves, his capacity of easy access to high government officials here and heads of state elsewhere, are legend with fellow newspapermen. As a reporter of the Washington scene, Mr, Moody found time to do an exacting and frequently exclusive job of writ. ing for his own newspaper, the Detroit News, run his own radio show, get to Europe once a year, write a book and many magazine articles. Thirty years ago at Brown University he was a star halfback (plus earning Phi Beta Kappa scholarship hotiors) and he still moves like a man galloping downfield with a ball under his

.arm,

Yet such journalistic velocity has not precluded study periods given to diligent probing of the knotty problems of government.” When he first came to Washington in 1933, his own city of Detroit was in extreme economic distress. He became

a careful student of forces at

work in the depression, explored labor, management and

production fields, wrote of the

®

successes and failures in trying to reduce paralyzing unemployment. His reporting here led to a well-regarded book, “Boom or Bust.”

” o ” WORLD WAR II and conversion of Detroit's mass production industry to arms output turned him to new specialization in this field. Later in the war he was in Europe and the Middle East as war correspondent, with foont-line experience at Anzio and elsewhere in the Italian campaign. After the war, Mr. Moody covered the San Francisco United Nations charter meeting. With the advent of the Marshall Plarr and other overseas aid programs, he devoted much of his writing to the need to bolster this country’s democratic friends in an economic way: as a base to create political strength for resistance to communism. Mr. Moody went to Greece and Turkey to study development of the first foreign aid programs and in succeeding years touched base in all of Europe save Russia in describing economic and political forces at work in many countries. When a congressional ttee made the first

exhaustive surveys on which

Marshall Plan aid was based,

he went along in a joint role of consultant and writing man reporting back to America. Later in Europe he traveled with Paul Hoffman, Economic Cooperation Administration head, in studying recovery progress. -. 2 ” @ NO Washington newspaperman has had wider acquaintance among the officials of government, industry and labor whose decisions have much to do with making America tick. Most of them he knows on a first-name basis. Mr. Moody has an instinct for what makes political sense that goes back to coverage of city hall in Detroit in that city’s hectic 1920's. He has covered all the presidential campaigns of recent years and in 1948, when nearly everyone was forecasting President Truman's defeat, he reported accurately the signs that pointed finally to a’ Democratic victory, In Michigan, he is on intimate terms with Walter Reuther and the top labor leaders just as with Henry Ford II and General Motors President Charles E. Wilson. His friendship with Gov. Williams goes back to the days when Mr, Williams was an unknown young aid to Frank Murphy when Mr. Murphy was U. 8, Attorney General,

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