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HUmingtott JHflnting S’tar North Carolina’s Oldest Daily Newspaper Published Daily Except Sunday By The Wilmington Star-News R. B. Page, Publisher_ Telephone All Departments 2-3311 Entered as Second Class Matter at Wil mington, N. C. Post Office Under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879 _ “SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY CARRIER “ IN NEW HANOVER COUNTY Payable Weekly or in Advance Combi Star News nation 1 Week .$ -30 $ .25 $ .50 1 Month . 1-30 1.10 2.15 l Months _ 3.90 3.25 6.50 6 Months . 7-80 6.50 13.00 j Year . 15.60 13.00 26.00 (Above rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of Star-News) _ SINGLE COPY Wilmington News .-. 8c Morning Star . 8c Sunday Star-News .luc Bv Mail: Payable Strictly in Advance 3 Months .$ 2.50 $2.00 $ 3.85 6 Months . 5 00 4.00 7.70 x Year . 10 00 8.00 15.40 (Above rates entitle subscriber to Sunday issue of Star-News)_ WILMINGTON STAR (Daily Without Sunday) 3 Months $1.85 6 Months $3.70 Year $7.40 MEMBER "OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS" ■ The Associated Press is entitled exclusive ' ly to the use for republication of all local news printed in this newspaper, as well as all AP news dispatches._ • SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1947 ----- l Star Program State ports with Wilmington favored in proportion with its resources, to in clude public terminals, tobacco stor age warehouses, ship repair facilities, nearby sites for heavy industry and 35-foot Cape Fear river channel. City auditorium large enough to meet needs for years to come. Development of Southeastern North Carolina agricultural and industrial resources through better markets and food processing, pulp wood production and factories. Emphasis on the region’s recrea tion advantages and improvement of resort accommodations. Improvement of Southeastern North Carolina’s farm-to-market and pri marv roads, with a paved highway from Topsail inlet to Bald Head is land. Continued effort to attract more in dustries. Proper utilization of Bluethenthal airport for expanding air service. Development of Southeastern North Carolina’s health facilities, especially in counties lacking hospitals, and in cluding a Negro Health center. Encouragement of the growth of commercial fishing. Consolidation of City and County governments. GOOD MORNING Do what good thou canst unknown, and be not vain of what ought rather to be felt than seen.—Penn. Higrh Hopes Dashed It was hardly expected the public reaction > President Truman’s invertibrate position .1 prices and his appeal to American house ives to waste less food and buy food less travagantly would be clamorously favor le. It was a flimsy utterance at best, and grieves us the more because we had high jpes that the President would show the quality of leadership he used in pinning back John L. Lewis’ ears when the miners’ tycoon proposed to shred a contract with the United States government, and also when he boosted the stock of the Good ghbor program during the recent Rio ^rence. ^ut we had not expected the nation’s usewives to be so outspoken in condemn l the Chief Executive’s recommendations a United Press poll indicates they are. The concensus is that the high cost of living compels them not only to buy the cheapest foods but also so sparingly that waste is out of the question. Rather, they say, their families are more liable to leave the table with appetities unsatisfied when the last crumb has been consumed, Says one New York housewife: “I haven’t oought any meat, eggs or butter for about two weeks. When you eat less meat you eat more bread. I don’t oven throw out the crusts.” And another, in Kansas City, de clares: “I've been feeding my family hash since before last Christmas. I hardly need a garbage pail except for potato peelings.” So it goes. The situation, of course, is not like it is in Europe’s destitute countries. But the average earnings of American work ers of all grades do not provide either for extravagance in buying or for waste of food. It’s Passing Strange 3 This story going the rounds of the news papers about an eighty-five-year old man in . northern Ontario who has always worn ' woman’s raiment because his mother de cided to raise her sixth son as a daughter, . and who finds no discomfort in long skirts, is reminiscent of an incident told by General Custer’s widow in her book on The Last Stand. There was a “woman” cook in the fron ••■ tier post, she says,—a burly creature, who shaved in secret daily, wore calico dresses, spoke in a falsetto voice, and prepared marvelous meals considering the quality of the supplies available. Finally “she” took sick and died, when the Army doctor re vealed what he had known all along. The 'cook was a man. ; Unable to make his way in a man’s world, • despite his strength, he decided that he ,’cculd better make a livelihood as an imita tion woman in an Army kitchen. There is this difference between the Canadian and the Army cook. Whereas the latter voluntarily masqueraded as a woman ■■■■■■ "* — ■ " because he vai a misfit, the former could easily have abandoned the style of clothing his mother chose for him as a child, when the mother died. That he did not is the more remarkable in that he did a man’s work as lumberman, farmer, construction hand, railroad fireman—all tough jobs, and always in bustles and bonnets, crocheted cuffs and frilly sleeves. Not so hot in either case, is it? It Could Be Eisenhower One of the correspondents who has been looping the loop on the Pacific coast with Senator Taft writes that the most potentially formidable, the most popularly discussed presidential prospect along the line of march is General of the Army Dwight D. Eisen hower. Not especially solacing for the Ohio Sena tor, is it? Well, he went west, as Horace Greeley advised young men to do some generations ago. He wanted to discover, how he stood out in the right hand of the Con tinent. Obviously he is learning plenty. This correspondent who has sharp and seeing eye says there is a strong Eisenhower for-President boom in the making, “lhe materials for it are visible at every hand. It has begun to take form and substance in the past two weeks.” It would be wrong, however, the corres pondent explains, to state there is as yet a strong Eisenhower political tide “running above the surface.” It is beneath the sur face “and it is plain that the politicians de tect it, feel it, and are talking a lot about j it.” As he puts it: “There is as yet apparent in this part of the country — and probably not elsewhere except in Kansas — no significant organi zation support among republican leaders for General Eisenhower’s nomination. “There is apparent significant and substan tial responsiveness to the Eisenhower talk. There is resistance to it which comes from the feeling of republican leaders that they would really like to nominate a candidate who has come up through the party ranks. But there is manifest receptivity to it by republican leaders who are quickly con vinced that in General Eisenhower they would be winnning the election in the same act.” What are the republicans liable to do about this? It would seem that as they have no avowed or other potential candidate who could sweep the country in the forthcoming presidential election they would be eager to fix upon General Eisenhower as their obviously strongest prospect. As the General has said that he wants nothing to do with politics, but at the same time adds that he has known men to change even their religion, he centrainly has not closed the door to the nomination. Wheat Or Meat j Herbert Hoover suggests that we restrict use of wheat for animals and save it for humans as a step toward feeding a starving world. This is good enough advice from the cost viewpoint, because bread is the cheapest human food. But from a nutritional stand point, Mr. Hoover is on thin ice. Proteins are absolutely essential to health, strength, growth. Wheat is not a complete protein itself. But feed it to cows, hogs, sheep hens, and it comes out as the complete pro tein, in the forms of meat, fowl, milk, cheese and eggs. The only complete protein that can be produced without grain is fish. Unless we propose to live on fish, in view of the draught-caused corn shortage we must feed wheat to animals to get the proteins that make the difference between lowest-level subsistence and “healthful, zestful, produc tive living. Up To Russia Undoubtedly, it is trite to say that the United Nations faces its greatest crisis. Everybody—even the diplomats who tried hardest to hide their concern—is saying that the UN has been pushed to where it must put up or shut up. It’s trite, but it’s true. It’s so true, and so important, that it can’t possibly be re peated too often. The more sincerely one hopes that the UN eventually will succeed, the more it becomes his duty to insist that the world peace organization must abso lutely find some way—and soon—of set tling international arguments without ex ploding atom bombs. We don’t have to ask whether the UN ex periment was worth while. It was more than that. It was inevitable. There had to be a table around which spokesmen for the nations could sit and substitute words for bullets. We provided such a table. It is the United Nations. As of now, the UN is not functioning. With her veto, Russia is stopping dead every ef fort to attack a potential cause of future war She has the Security Council stymied. The General Assembly has no veto, but neither has it any power to take positive action on other than procedural matters. Now the United States wants to build up the Assembly to fill some gaps left by the Council’s impotency. Unfortunately, the possibilities along this line are very limited. The Assembly can remain in permanent session through a standing committee, and it can provide special committees—which Russia forbids the Council to do—to watch aggression.. These expedients can make the Assembly a better sounding board for the world’s conscience. But, as the battle proceeds to build up the Assembly in hope of saving the UN, we must keep in mind practical things. There is no way to give the General As sembly any positive powers without revis ing the UN charter. Such revision is subject to exactly the same veto that Russia has in the Council. It is not conceivable that the Soviet Union will withhold that veto against a move to get around the veto. If Russia would co-operate to the extent of not vetoing such a charter change, site would co-operate to the extent of not abus ing her Council veto. And then the charter change would be unnecessary. The crisis confronting the UN today » not basically procedural. It can’t be resolved by tinkering with the machinery. It can t-3 stated simply: The non-Soviet powers have compromised and backed water until their back's are against the open sky. One more step and they totter over the cliff. Russia presses forward. She refuses to concede or com promise. We, and those who share our viewpoint, have made a stand under Secretary 6f State Marshall. The crisis is here. It involves one vital question: Will Russia bull it through and break up the UN? Or, discovering that we have backed as far as we can go, will she play ball for world peace? Last OP A Prices BY ARTHUR KROCK WASHINGTON, — When the President next Monday meets with the leaders of Congress to discuss “world problems” good manners will doubtless prevail as usual. Therefore, there will probably be no dispute over the respective responsibil ity of the two major parties for existing high prices of food if these prices come into the discussion. The debate on this point to which Senator O’Mahoney and Senator Taft have challenged each other is not likely to have its prologue there. But the cost of food in the United States, even if the conferees confine themselves to a survey of needful European calories and the means to supply them, will be strongly in the minds of those gathered in the White House. .And, since there is poli tical dynamite in the subject, the prophecy seems safe that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats will say anything after ward, or agree to any communique, that may explode it on their own premises. Outside, however, the argument over re sponsibility will continue to rage, led by representatives of labor unions and other groups who are pressing for a renewal of compulsory controls and rationing and are blaming Congress, while excusing the ad ministration, for the rising scale of food prices. The system of voluntary rationing which everyone now expects the President to call for, with government assistance, may suDaue xor a wmie me aemanus ior compulsion. But it will not end the politi cal argument. In this space, in ihe issue of Sept. 23, one phase of this was examined—compari sons of the last prices for certain food stuffs under OPA with prices being asked last week for the same viands. And it was pointed out that these comparisons (prime beefsteak 64 cents a pound then, $1 now, etc.)- were deceptive fcr several reasons One reason is that most of the OPA prices in that period and for some time before wrere meaningless because the shelves in retail shops were empty of the articles. Another is that in numerous in stances the black market prices at that time were as high as or higher than at present. And it was briefly noted that heavy government subsidies were required to enable the OPA to fix prices of certain foods, even though these foods were unob tainable by the consumer. i Some details of those subsidies will help to demonstrate the fictitiousness of the OPA prices now being quoted as an argu ment for the return of that agency and its controls. To fix the true OPA prices the cost of the subsidies to the taxpayers, the con sumers, would have to be pro-rated and added to the paper prices set by the agen cy. For, though the consumers did not pay this impost in the shops, if they were able to obtain the items on which the prices were published, they paid it to the tax-gatherer . The Roosevelt administration came most reluctantly to price-fixing and rationing and adopted a broad system of controls only after the inflationary pressures of emergency and war were already power ful. Up to that time its economic policy had been to force up the price-scale for both goods and services, and it was very difficult to put a check on the conse quences. But this became necessary, politi cally and otherwise, and, knowing that ra tioning and price controls (of food espe cially) would not halt the war-born spurt, the administration adopted the subsidy program. ! Acording to the Byrd report and other sources, the government in fiscal 1942-1946 spent about $5.5 billions in direct subsidies to keep down prices, about $4.4 billions of which was used for foodstuffs. In fiscal 1946 alone these subsidies am'ounted to $1 billion, of which $869 millions was for food —all coming out of the pockets of the taxpayer-consumer. Of the total bill for these artificial price restraints about $1.7 billion was used for meats, at an average of approsimately 5 cents a pound—pork, 4.4 cents; veal, 3 cents; beef, 4.9 to 5.9 cents; and lamb and mutton, 6 cents. These subsidies lapsed between the time President Truman ve toed the first OPA extension bill and. after signing the second, reinstated meal con trols. But they were resumed for the sev eral weeks that followed before the Presi dent abandoned all controls, meat included. The butter subsidy cost the taxpayer $185 millions, at 12 and 15 cents a pound. That on dairy production and fluid milk cost $1,220 millions—1.3 cents a quart on fluid milk by retail. That on flour was about $364 millions, or 1 cent on every loaf of bread. To make the comparisons of OPA prices with present ones mean anything at all, the amounts per pound, per quart and per loaf given above, and per case on eggs, must be added, because that is what the articles actually cost the consumers who paid for them in these two ways, one di rect and one indirect. And. to clarify the current dispute over who-dun-it, with ref erence to the upward surge in uncontrolled nrices. it is necessary to insert the fact that the government is still subsidizing many farm products. Since both parties are equally responsible for this extension, the political debaters rarely mention it. Yet even when the subsidies under OPA are added, the fact remains that for a long time before the agency died it was pricing foods which could be obtained in the black market only.—New York Times. Quotations I do not agree with the Russians and I am in favor of safeguarding our interests, but I do not want to go to war for our oil interests or those who have interests in German cartels—Rep. Adolph J. Sabath (D) of Illinois. If the UN is mature enough it should handle all world affairs, but we believe the UN is a baby in swaddling clothes without the power to act. I don’t believe it is caoable of acting at this tiros.—Paul H. Griffith, former commander, American Legion. The Congress has conceded that Its re ductions may prove excessive.—President Truman. “SCOURGE OF THE GRIDIRON” The Good Investment BY JOSEPH ALSOP ROME.—Here in Italy, it is easy to foresee and describe the consequences of American inac tion in the present world eco nomic crisis. If we do not promptly meet the challenge, Italy’s barely reborn freedom will meet an early death. And thus will be set in remorseless motion a chain of events which must end with political and strategic disaster, utter, com plete and irretrievable except by the terrible expedient of war, for us in the United States. It is less easy, yet equally important, to estimate the ef fectiveness of the remedies which the United States can of fer. Yet after exhaustively con sulting all available authorities, this correspondent ventures the opinion that Italy is a present ly good investment in this in evitably risky world. Reams of statistics could be offered to support the statement that the Italians have already achieved a triumph in post-war reconstruction. In every minis try in Rome, they give you sheaves of figures — and very moving figures too — showing bridges rebuilt, transport links reopened, factories restored to production, and farm output brought up by the unrelenting labor of the Italian people. But it is immeasurably more con vincing, since fallible human nature has a tendency to reject statistical proofs, to visit one of those areas in Italy which were scenes of almost total desolation hardly more than tjiree years ago. Salerno, the site of the bloody Salerno landing, was one such. Yet on that enchanted coast to day there is hardly a sign of the outpouring of blood, the carnival of destruction, which so recently occurred. More an cient history is immeasurably more conspicuous. L;ke a dream of the glory of Greece, the honey - colored temples drowse at Paestum among the oleanders. Domed house roofs and pointed windows in the little fishing villages recall the Sara cen dominion. And in Salerno’s Capital Notebook BY PETER EDSON WASHINGTON, — Mrs. Ed ward S. Barber writes the club news for the Arlington Sun, a little weekly suburban newspa per published over on the other side of the Potomac River. Mrs. Barber likes to mix in a few of her own ideas along with her club notes, however, and recent ly she swung a few fast lines at Universal Military Training. Day after the paper came out, she got a call from an Army colonel at the Pentagon, which is also in Arlington. The colonel didn't complain about the item, but he did* invite Mrs. Barber to go to Fort Knox, Ky., and see for herself just how won derful UMT is. She accepted, got a two-day trip in an Army airplane, and the on7y expense to her was $3 for one night’s lodging. ■While there, she srid she met a lot of other people who had been brought in on Army planes to admire. Most of them came away convinced. Congressman Forrest A. Harness of Indiana calls this “lobbying against Congress with taxpayers’ mon ey.” Dr. Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish Commerce Minister, was in Washington recently, and he told a story of how European recovery is all balled up. In Paris, Myrdal had dinner with Jean Monnet, French eco nomic expert. Near the end of the dinner Monnet said, “I’d like to offer you some good Camembert cheese. But you see we are exporting all our French cheese to build up balance of trade credits. So I can serve you only this improrted British Chaddar cheese." A short time later Ur. Myraai was in London, where he had dinner with Herbert Morrison, who is in charge of planning for' i British economic recovery. “I’m sorry I can offer you only this imported French Camembert,” said Morrison. ‘‘As you know, we are exporting all our Brit’sh moCp cheese to build up our for eign trade balances.” ‘Vhen Myrdal was made sec retary of the United Nations Economic Committee for Eu rope, it was generally believed that he would support recovery oolic’es which were in line with Russian idea--. But in re ent conferences w’ti American offi cials he gave some surprising slants on the situation. L _ The Marshall plan for Europe will fail, Dr. Myrdal said in ef fect, because it concentrates its attention on western Europe. What it should do is promote the recovery of eastern Europe. Myrdal’s argument was that, traditionally, western and east ern Europe have always traded. Eastern Europe supplied the food, western Europe the manu factured goods. The Myrdal theory was that this natural re lationship must be restored be fore there can be recovery. The reason this surprised American officials is that it re flects what they have tried to do since the end of the war. But they have been blocked at al most every turn by Soviet op position. They have had no success in trying to get the Russians to agree to economic unity for eastern and western zones of Germany and Austria. They had no better luck trying to open up the Danube for trade naviga tion. They tried to bring Russia in on the preliminary Paris con ferences on the Marshall plan, but Molotov would have none oi it. Then the Russians browbeat the eastern European countries into boycotting the meeting of the 16 western European coun tires. And Myrdal complains nothing is being done to aid eastern Europe. One of the main Republican lines of attack against co-opera tive business enterprises is that they escape federal income tax es. and so have an unfair com petitive advantage over private business. Co op defenders come back with the argument that the profits—if any— of co-operative enterprise go to the sharehold ers as dividends These share holders must pay income taxes on the dividends. Then the co-op officials add the kicker that one of the prin cipal tax reforms advocated by private enterprise is the repeal of legislation levying direct in ~^r>e- }axes on corporations. Whatict s the difference, ask the co-cps, between advocating the abandonment of all business in come taxes .and continuing the present laws, which exempt co operative enterprises from di rect income taxes? In both cases, it’s the one who gets the dividends who pays the taxes. cathedral, although the fore court with its borrowed Roman columns still shows some signs of shell fire, the guide points happily to mementos of the great Pope Hildebrand and the superb mosaics of the time of Ferdinand of Henenstauffen. Salerno and the countryside j are restored again. The scars | of war are cleaned away. The i peasants labor to make 10 | square yards of arable earth by building 10 square yards of wall to hold the land against the mountainside. The figs, the lemons and the oranges are fruiting in the sun on every tar | race. The lights of the fishing I fleets twinkle numerously in every bay at dusk. And only the empty resort hotels, vacant because none but Americans can afford to travel, hint of the catastrophe of bankruptcy that ■ menaces western Europe. The lesson is extremely sim ple. The Italians work. They work in the factories of Milan and Turin, in the smiling Tus can countryside, or on t1^ sharp s’opes of south Italy. By work they have got their country go ing again, so that industry M pro duction has risen from 25 per cent of pre-war to 70 per cent, while farm output has increased from 60 per cent of pre-war to 80 per cent. This national production must provide, however, for a popu lation increased bv nearlv three millions s;nce 1940. so that the level of individual life is still far below what it was in the pre-war period. It is, in fact, something like an internment camp. The ration of 200 grams of bread a day provides the bulk of the individual Italian’s suste nance. The trimmings—the oil, fish, fruit, cheese and scraps of meat — are obtained in tiny quantities at staggering prices on the black market, or often from relatives who own farms. It is because the level of life is still so low that the commu (Continued on Page Ten) Babson Views" bam pr;Ctj kaSLS'Kt -During the past 24^^. have been flying over the'51 farming area of the S^t West. I have not things vvitn my eves k ,8H heard things with'mv e“'> Let me first say that u!' are not being fooled bv high prices. Thev knn,- s' $2.90 tor wheat and corn is not going t,= hold V01 remember that. thvou«w3 U. S. history, only during / directly after wars, have r 1 ers made much moron- v* over, the wise ones are using their profits to zet „ ^ debt, to buy for cash L"4' chinery, and lay up a good £ balance for the future They also tell me 'that , thougn farm prices rise t ’* ally during boom timf^1 when prices fall, thev roil, ail at once. This i's farmers get panic sir? when they see prices berm , fall and all farmers try to Tm! at once. They admit they 7 now playing the same Eam! with wheat and corn as \ vestors, in 1929, played Ji stocks and bonds. Among reasons for hi.i prices are: i-s'‘ (1) Exports to Europe but ing 1946 more than 15,000 000 tons of food were shipped ‘1 Europe. Heavy movements 0! foodstuffs to Europe will (J tinue due to its poor crop con! ditions. (2) Poor U. S. Weather C 3 ditions. The American »rL harvest will be 15,000,000 tom under normal, due to spring floods and unsatisfactory KVo\v ing conditions, with a constant! iy increasing population. (3) Wasteful American Eating Habits. Americans have alv/jvj been the most wasteful people in the world when it come- to food consumption. H’gh con sumer income has increased this wastefulness. (4) Putting So Much Grain Into Liquor. The eight billion dollar liquor business consumes huge quantities rf grain for [brewing of alcoholic bevercpe', ! Despite starvation abroad, this “non - essential” industry con tinues uninterrupted in the pro duction of liquor. (5) Increase In The Currency From $7,000,000,000 to $27,000. j000,000. The tremendous in : crease in currency since before the war has greatly stimulated the power of the Amer'cm pub lie to purchase food products. There is good reason to be lieve that large amounts of grain are held on the farm, This is not just a case where farmers are gambling that prices will continue tn i.se above present inflated level. Gram farmers are full” v -e that, there is nn e.’ ■ !' -,t chance that Dersonal mcevne taxes may be reduced in 1948, The farmer asks himself the quost'on: i “Why should I sell my grain now and par an income tax nj the proceeds at the 19*7 r?> when I can wait until 1948 and take advantage of a new tax law more favorable to the tax payers?” Certainly with an election year coming up, poli ticians will look with great favor on some sort of reduction in personal income taxes in 1948. There is much talk in the newspapers about distributor! and processors of food product! taking advantage of the present squeeze in food prices and sys tematically gouging ih» consumer. Quite frankly, I thin< this is plainly propaganda. F fact is that in most instances the farmers’ percentage prot't margins today are no greater than normal. What nan hap pened is that, due to a higher dollar volume of business, tax normal profit margin produce! more dollar profits. Hence, don’t blame the farmers. The real villain in the pic ure is unprecedented demand »r farm products both at home, where consumer income ^ •5 i never been so high, and ■■ _ I Europe where famine condmo.. ■ are so prevalent. ___ A Hero Hanged An Editorial From The New York Time? When a nation drapes itself in the robes of justice to mur der its foremost patriot, as Bul garia did to hang Nichola Petkov, it not only commits a shameful crime., It makes a mistake. In the free world out side it breeds horror and re vulsion. Among its own people it sows seeds of resentment which some day will yield a crop of bloodshed to drench the savage band that rules the land today. The “crime” for which Pet kov was tried was devotion to the freedom of his countrymen. That, of course, was not the charge. He was brought into a packed court on the trumped up charge of plotting to over throw the Communist govern ment by force — a ridiculous charge because he had no force other than that of his own rugged personality and no hope of help from the democracies whose principles he had fol lowed from the beginning of his career. Bulgaria is a peasant country. Petkov led the peas ants. When King Boris infringed on their rights he opposed the thrcne. When the Nazis in Bul ga.r,la, *inally collapsed he was calied into the coalition govern ment which opened the gates to lles' ^en a new and ruthless tyranny was imposed from Moscow he opposed that, » steadfast but hopeless fight against H.