Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 December 1951 — Page 12

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A SURIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER

ia WAL R LECKRO HENRY W. MANZ ; ROY W. HOWARD ALpS NE

PAGE 12 Monday, Dec. 3L 1051

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Sra dally, $1.10 a mon LAO 100 a copy. Telephone PL aza 5551 Give Tioht and the People Willi Find Thelr Own Way

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Mr. Acheson's War

THE FRENCH government has complained that the United States is six months behind schedule in the delivery of military supplies to French forces fighting in Indo-China. "It also declares that France will be Thable to finance from her own resources her share of European rearmament while at the same time financing the war in Indo-China. So it is suggested that one or the other be financed by the United States. Many Americans may wonder how we became involved in this Indo-China business in the first place and why it should now be considered our baby. Well, Secretary of State Acheson can tell all about it.

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IN THE spring of 1950, a meeting of foreign ministers was called in London to discuss ways and means of forming and financing the army for the defense of Western Europe. En route to London, Mr. Acheson stopped off in Paris and let himself be talked into furnishing American supplies for the French forces fighting the Nationalist rebels and Communists in Indo-China. The war was going badly for the French at that time, as it has most of the time since, and was becoming increasingly unpopular in France. Hence the desire to unload some of the burden on Uncle Sam. _ Now, less than two years later, the French would like to have us take over the whole business—at least to the extent of financing it. They have intimated more than once, however, that they could use some American troops as well. If we do not take over the financing, and the war is lost, it is a safe assumption that we will be blamed for losing it. This simply goes to show the unnecessary trouble we borrow when we spread ourselves too far in playing the role of | tie fat boy with the ne of candy.

We Will Survive

AMERICA ENTERS the year 1952 with a mixture of confidence and apprehension. There is confidence because American production and the American system gave our people during 1951 a high standard of living, at the same time we were fighting a small war in Korea and preparing for a greater war if it should be forced upon us.

The .United States has inherited and accepted the leadership of the free world. That fact, despite the difficulties and the stumblings has given our people the confidence. that America will.lead the world to a safer future, however long and rocky the path ahead.”

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THERE IS apprehension, because the threat of another world war is depressing to a peaceful people whose memories of the last great conflict are so fresh, and because thought-' ful Americans know that the prospexity we are enjoying today is not a good prosperity. It is too artificial. . We have an administration which is spending far more money than it is collecting in taxes, and which has placed third-rate men and incompetents in high office. In the cynical atmosphere that such-a policy -encourages, there have been scandals that have disgraced our government and shaken the faith of our people in it, at a time when national unity is so essential. One hundred years ago this nation began another New Year with a combination of prosperity and crisis.

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; THE RAILROADS were beginning to push westward in 1852, and the settlers who could not wait for the railroads pushed vest in wagons—or walked—and cleared farms and built crude homes with their own hands. Any man among them who possessed $10 in cash was considered well off, and they had never heard of an income tax. But these pioneers were prosperous far beyond the dreams of the peasants of the old world, because they owned their own land and their homes and they were free.

America had troubles, too. “Uncle Tom’ s Cabin,” just published, had restirred in the north demands for the abolition of slavery, Feeling was so high on both sides that many feared war was near, despite the Clay-Webster compromise and President Fillmore’s own efforts for peace. However, the civil war was not to occur until several years later. And unnecessary though it was, it did serve to unite the nation that we have today. America survived that tragic era.

Americans should have no lack of confidence that we can survive the present one.

Russia Is’ ‘the Red Culprit

HE FOUR \ameriegn airmen ransomed from Red Hun.gary report that they were held and questioned by the Russians in ‘Hungary for 14 days before being turned over to Hungarian authorities.

Now that this has been established, obviously Russia should be made a co-defendant in any case which the State Department takes before the United Nations or the Internationl Court of Justice. However, it is noteworthy that only Hungary has been metnioned in the reports published of the action the department is considering. Since our fliers were arrested by the Russians in the first place, the latter could have turned them over. to the Americah authorities, rather than to their Hungarian puppet regime, So Moscow was in fact the major offender.

Nothing will be gained by ignoring Russia's role in this

situation, just as nothing has been gained by overlooking Russia's part in the Red aggression in South Korea. All that is contemplated anyway, it seems, is an indictment of Hungary's conduct before the “world bar of public opinion"—to borrow a term from the State Department's lexicon. This being the case, let's be honest with ourselves and indict thé masterminds in the Kremlin as well as their

stooges in Budapest. If the State Department hasn't the

stomach to do iy it ‘had better drop the Matter sr altogether.

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METAL . . . By Peter Edson

Rush to Get Into Aluminum Line

WASHINGTON, Dec. scramble going on now in the copper and brass industries to get the aluminum business. Gompanies that don’t make this switch face the prospect of their processing plants having less and less metal to chew on. World supplies of copper are getting no greater and the price is going up. Before World War II copper was 12 cents a pound. Today it is 24'; cents for domestic, 271; cents for foreign metal. On the other hand, aluminum was 16 cents nefore the war. The two metals were equal in price at the 14-cent level, But today aluminum is 19 cents a pound—&514 to 71% cents less than copper. And one pound of aluminum will in most cases do the work of two to three pounds of copper. 80 competition is a simple problem.

Anaconda Copper Oo. has jumped into the aluminum business by backing Harvey Machine Co. of California in its successful bid for a government power allocation from Hungry Horse dam. It will supply a 100-million dollar, 72,000ton aluminum plant to be built at Kalispell, Mont. The two other major U. 8. copper producers ate Phelps- -Dodge and Kennecott. There have been opportunities, particularly since the start of the Korean War, when they might have gone into aluminum production. Department of Justice's anti-trust division has wanted to keep copper and aluminum industries competitive. But the defense agencies

-invited the copper people to get into the picture.

They showed insufficient interest. Now it may be too late, unless the government decides on a further aluminum expansion program.

Production Problems

ON THE SIDELINES, anxious to get- into aluminum production, are a number of smaller companies. “80 far they haven't been able to handle financing and production problems. They all want government loans and public power allocations. The power just isn't available and the most Defense Production Administration seems

< willing to offer financially is rapid tax amortiza“tion.

Olin Industries, a small scale aluminum producer in a government plant during the war, would like to get back in the game, but big. One of Olin’s subsidiaries, Winchester Arms, is typical of the companies bothered by the problem of decreasing copper supplies.

American Smelting and Refining, Apex

Smelting of Chicago, Spartan Aircraft of Okla- .

homa and Arnold Troy, a New York aluminum extruder have also made passes at getting into primary aluminum production. So far none has been able to/'raise the 100 million dollars which C. E. Wilson says it takes to start a business today. The government's present aluminum expansion plan to be completed by 1954, will add 677,000 tons a year to the pre-Korea production of 727,000 tons. Of this 1,404,000 total, Aluminum Co. of ‘America will have about 41 per cent, Reynolds Metals 29 per cent, Kaiser Aluminum 25 per cent and Harvey-Anaconda 5 per cent. While ALCOA's monopoly has thus been broken, it is still claimed there isn’t enough competition yet, and not nearly enough production. There are now some 17,000 aluminum processors. ’

Keeps 'Em Going JESS LARSON, Defense Materials Procurement administrator, who started the present expansion program, wrote into all contracts that two-thirds of the new production must be sold to these small processors for five years, to keep them going. Whether there is a further expansion program to take in the copper prodficers and some of the other hopefuls, is now in tHe hands of the new Office of Aluminum Administration, headed by Samuel W, Anderson, in the Defense Production Administration. It was Anderson—a former New York banker—who worked up the

‘deal to put the Anaconda-Harvey combination

into aluminum, There is no danger and no possibility that the transition from copper to aluminum, which has been going on gradually for a number of years, will be completed overnight. If the industry converts six per cent ‘a year, metals experts think it will be doing well.

There is plenty of bauxite, the ore from which alumina is made. But in addition to lack of electric power, the bottleneck to greater aluminum production are shortages of natural cryolite, which gomes from Greenland, and is about exhausted. Cryolite is used in reduction of the ore. A synthetic eryolite can be made of sulphuric acid and flurospar, but both of these materials are in short supply.

Some metals "experts think America's best bet is to rely on Canadian aluminum production. Canada now has 900.000 tons annual aluminum production in Quebec Province. Another 750,000 tons production can be made available in British Columbia by 1956. But that may be too late,

Whistling Through the Graveyard

31—There's a big

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‘] Can Get: It for You or Whalesate!

I read in your paper a quotation crediting Margaret Truman with saying that Ireland is the most’ beautiful country in the world. This may or may not be more Irish propaganda.

Frankly, I doubt that she did.

Margaret has always been too much of a diplomat to make such a statement. I also doubt that she has the right to make such a statement. Has she seen all of the countries in the world, or even all of the United States? My only excursion abroad has. been. just across the Mexican border, but I have seen a great deal 'of the United States and I find it hard to believe that any country could be more beautiful than America. The Irish have never been a people to hide their light under a basket. It must be true that if people say a thing often enough, it is generally believed. A good many people in America without any Irish blood in their veins help the Irish toot their horns, much to the delight of the Irish. < oe <* THE IRISH in all walks of life...the newspaper man, the cop on the beat, and the entertainer, have never passed up an opportunity to

Views on the News

By DAN KIDNEY PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S first White House caller upon his return from Independence was Eleanor Roosevelt, but they didn’t discuss “house cleaning” or what happened to the white rabbit the President expected to pull out of Judge Tom Murphy's Serby hat. o> oo CHINESE REDS are sending 500 dancing girls to Tibet to try. and make the

Monks throw away their prayer wheels. . > > %

ALTHOUGH it was the Christmas season, Henry (The Dutchman) Grunewald turned out to be the ‘“forgotten man” so far as his high-placed official Washington friends, were concerned. ob 0 ‘SEN. ESTES KEFAUVER should take out one of those $50 gambler’'s licenses when he announces for the Demoeraiie presidential nomination.

LOOKS BACK

Mrs. Roosevelt «ooo rabbits

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The fil Times Talburt Salutes Confused '51 With Best Cartoons of Year]

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Another Basketball Fix

HOOSIER FORUM—‘The Irish.

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

boost the Irish. The words “fighting spirit” and “the Irish” have almost become synonymous. And it has come to the point where people are expected to howl with glee whenever. an Irishman is introduced to a crowd. There is nothing in history, aside from Irish propaganda, to indicate that any ‘nationality has an edge on courage, brains, beauty, beautiful music, ete. That is including America, and no one can say that America is made up exclusively of Irishmen. I have quite a few Irish friends and I admire them for their courage, etc., but no more so than any other nationality. Frankly, I suspect that a lot of good old Irish spirit is made up of a lot of things, including propaganda, nasty dispositions and plain old “spirits.” Let me say here that I am part Irish myself and my husband’s great-grandmother came directly from the “old sod.” We also have our share of fighting spirit, but we are quite sure that our fighting spirit stems just as surely from the Scotch, German, etc., as the Irish in'us. —Fighting Mad,’ City.

‘Take Up the Whip’ MR. EDITOR: ’ One hundred and fifty years ago the largest nations were using “dollar diplomacy” to placate the Barbary pirates. Our little country, in righteous indignation, adopted the slogan, “Millions for defense but not one, cent for tribute.” From the halls of Montezuma. to the shores of Tripoli our Navy and our Marines made it stick. Now, four American citizens, while on a peaceful mission bringing supplies to our legation, are captured by force of arms. They, are tried on the eve of Christmas. They spend the holiday in a Hungarian jail. Well meaning but misguided Americans are submitting to blackmail in the sum of $120,000 to ransom them. . “- IN THE meantime, do we clap irons on Hungarian nationals in this country? On the contrary, their legation is open for the holiday and they have a merry Christmas. “Oh,” but one says, “that is the Christmas spirit. Return good for evil. Turn the other cheek also.” Is that so? He who proposed that theory also grabbed up a whip and laying it across the backs of the money changers, drove them from the temple, And did He repudiate the action? With Calvary the alternative, He hesitated not an instant. By the grace of God and the bloed of our people, this our beloved country is still the temple of freedom, but they are maintaining within it a “den of thieves.” —John Henry, 20 Ee Archer St,

By Frederick C. Othman

“1951 Not So Bad—I'm Still Alive’

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31—I might as ‘well be honest about old nineteen fifty-one; it could have been a lot worse. For one thing I'm still alive. I mean a black marketeer from Brooklyn threatened to shoot me for an essay I did about him. He didn’t. No wonder I'm pleased. This was the year, in fact, that I didn’t even get sick, except once in Spain when confronted by a dash of octopus, stewed in its own'ink. I had a couple of hangnails and one bad cold, I must admit, but nothing meant enough to send me to bed. The powers-that-be almost tripled the taxes on my beaten-up acres in Faitfax County, Virginia, but I can’t worry about that. After ali, it was only money. This money business, though, is a problem. A real estate fellow wants to pay me three times what my small farm cost me four years ago and here I am about to turn him down on the theory that what would I do with all those dollars? Light 10-cent cigars that cost me 20? This was the year that I succumbed with misgivings to a television set. It has been more pleasure than otherwise; most memorable program I yet have seen on the 20-inch screen was Newscaster Walter Cronkite maintaining his dignity with a fly on his nose. He carried this off magnificently until the fly eventually went away.

PR

THIS SOUNDS as though I'm damning the new medium of communication 'with faint praise. Not so. Some of the shows are danged good. I even have received some laughs from Milton Berle, while Mrs, O:, who keeps the machine in her bedroom, says it is the finest thing invented yet to put a girl to sleep. She's a diplomat. Says this effect is not so much from the program “content as, from the fact that staring at one spot makes her eyes feel heavy, Mechanical difficulties around our ultramechanized house have heen minor, except for the time when the garbage chopper~upper somehow got tangled with the automatic dishwasher and sprayed the .plates with macerated egg shells and orange rinds. The manufacturer of the equipment said this could not happen. Impossible. Haw, Our poodle produced seven pups,

The hens

At the Little End of the Horn

started to lay at long last and in 1951 I consumed more omelettes than ever before, not bad, either, when you consider the’ price of meat. This was the year that my 80-year-old father and mother took their fjrst airplane ride to visit us. Marco Polo never had a bigger thrill than did they 20,000 feet up and I basked in their reflected joy. o> <>» oe IT MAY BE of interest only to newspaper reporters, but this also was the year in Washington when everything happened in civilized fashfon by daylight. Not once did I have to pound the typewriter in the small hours. I'm still pinching myself. ! There was plenty of news here this year, meaning a wide assortment of subjects from which I could choose. The piece that pleased me the most contained no news at all; it concerned a Justice Department attorney so cautious he wouldnt tell me where he was born, or even When, All year nobody presénted me with a necke tie. Not once did I stumble on the ice. The roof sprung a leak, but it turned out to be only a plugged-up gutter. None of my checks bounced. I ripped the fire extinguisher off the wall one night, but it was a false alarm; just a blazing leak in the leakproof water heater. You get the idea. For a fellow who is made happy by small things, 1951 wasn’t such a bad year, not bad at all. In a kind of negative way.

TURN ABOUT

WE'VE ‘ALL encountered troubles . . . and needed the advice . . . of someone who could lead us . . . and help us break the ice . . . but when we air our heartaches . . . and tell them how it goes . . . they turn about and give to us , + Some of their choicest woes + « «+ the conversation goes on . . . and neither one is eased . » and when it ends its brutal end . + not one of us is pleased . . . but even as we listen . . . to the other guy . our troubles seem to lessen . . . and leave us with a sigh . . . now the moral to this story

« + « is one that's ‘tried and true . . . there .

always is somebody else . . . who's much worse off than you. ~~By Ben Burroughs,

Letting the Cat Outof a Soloplie Bag

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Among My Souvenirs

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