Evening star. [volume], September 13, 1946, Page A-10, Image 10

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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Jfotmtg §Staf
With Sundty Morning Edition.
, WASHINGTON, D. C.
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Shooting at the Moon
When the responsible heads of the
municipal government’s depart
ments submit budget requests which !
exceed by $59,000,000 the amount of j
money now available for expenditure j
there must be something wrong with J
the budgeting system.
There is. One thing that is wrong
Is that an extraordinary amount of
buck passing is inherent in the
method by which Congress appro
priates for the District. Each de
partment head, therefore, wishes to
go on record as having suggested,
In his own preliminary budget re
quests, every conceivable form of I
expenditure. When some scandalous
condition is revealed later on, due
to lack of appropriations, the de
partment head knows that unless
he can show that his previous re- j
quest for funds was subsequently |
denied he will inherit a substantial
part of the blame. The tendency of
each department head, therefore, is
to throw everything, including the .
kitchen stove, into his estimates and !
let the Commissioners and Congress
do the throwing out.
Another thing that is wrong is
that the department heads are
asked to make their estimates with
out any knowledge of the potential
revenues available for expenditure.
Their estimates, therefore, are often
unrealistic, more like letters to Santa
Claus than budget items. Part of
the unreality associated with the
preliminary estimates this year is
undoubtedly due to the public dis
cussion of Engineer Commissioner
Young’s six-year plan of capital
Improvements, together with the
resourceful efforts of the Commis
sioners to think up new ways in
which to tax those Washingtonians
who are taxable. The resulting
Impression has been that the Dis
trict is going on a spending and j
taxing picnic and no department
head wants to miss the straw ride.
The results of all this contribute
to poor budgeting. The Commis
sioners, for example, faced with the
necessity of eliminating as much as \
$50,000,000 from the preliminary
estimates, must necessarily become j
more arbitrary than is advisable in
deciding what to keep and what to j
discard. Some highly desirable
Items are discarded along with the
window dressing. And the effect of
the same process is revealed later
on in congressional review of the
estimates and the final appropria- j
tions. It is to be hoped that some I
day the District's budgeting will j
start with the department heads, J
that th’ey will be assigned tentative j
ceilings and asked to assume more |
Individual responsibility in selecting
what can be done within reasonable :
limitations. A better buiget, it is
believed, would be the result.
Trieste As Test
While diplomatic tensions else- !
where wax and wane, the contro
versy over Trieste and the province
of Venezia Giulia, of which Trieste
Is the port metropolis, continues
chronically acute. And the reason
for this chronic crisis appears to be
of more than local significance. So
tied in is it with the whole diplomatic
tug of war between the western
powers and the Soviet bloc that |
Trieste may be regarded almost as a
touchstone for the entire world situ
ation. Its repercussions certainly
reach far, including the evolution of
the United Nations.
The outstanding aspect of the con
troversy is the obvious determina
tion of Yugoslavia not to accept the
plan for the internationalization of
Trieste tentatively proposed by the \
Big Four. The Yugoslav government
has announced roundly that it will
not sign a treaty embodying that
proposal, while its representative at
the Paris Conference does everything
possible to sabotage the proceedings
by tactics varying from nullifying
elaims and crippling amendments to
filibustering speeches intended to
drag out the proceedings inordi
nately.
If all this were merely due to the
tntransigeance of an ultranational
Istic Balkan government, it would be
an annoyance that could be over
come by concerted action of the
great powers. Unfortunately, it Is
crystal clear that the Tito regime is
% mere pawn of Soviet Russia, and
that the ebullient Marshal would
draw in his horns at a word from
Moscow telling him to pipe down and
be amenable. The logical deduction
that Tito is acting as Moscow wants
is supported by the evidence of sup
port by Russia and other members of
the Soviet bloc.
Again, there appears to be ground
for the suspicion that the Soviet tac
tics over Trieste are intended to
further Moscow’s aims on other is
sues. Undue prolongation" of the
Paris Conference would engender
pressure for another postponement
ef the General Assembly of the
United Nations, thereby striking a
blow at its prestige and adjourning
attempts at other settlements which
Moscow appears to prefer leaving in
confused abeyance. The over-all pic
ture looks a bit like a gigantic Mos
cow filibuster, of which Trieste
forms only a part.
No Wage Control
The face-saving language with
which the Government's capitula
tion to the striking AFL seamen is
clothed will not serve for long to
conceal the fact that wage control
is a myth.
What the Truman administration
has done in this latest maneuver
is to buy off the maritime strikers
by approving wage increases which
the President's Wage Stabilization
Board previously had held to be
inflationary. The ruling, drafted
by Stabilization Director Steelman
and approved by the President,
affects directly only the relatively
small amount of money involved
in the dispute between the AFL
unions and the WSB. Of itself, it
would have no serious inflationary
effect. But this surrender is just
a beginning, for the CIO maritime
workers will demand—and receive—
comparable wage increases, and by
that time it will be perfectly ap
parent that while the President and
his aides may talk bravely about
wage controls, the fact is that there
are no controls which can be or
will be enforced in the face of
any strong and determined union
challenge.
In practical effect, this ruling
publicly proclaims that employes
can receive any wage increase which
their union can persuade or force
an employer to pay. There is no
“ceiling" on wages. And a Govern
ment operating agency such as the
Maritime Commission, provided its
control extends to less than half of
the industry, can match the private
pay rates, with the taxpayers
making up any difference.
Consequently, all that the Gov
ernment undertakes to control are
profits and prices. An employer
and a union can agree on any wage.
But an employer may not. without
Government approval, increase the
price of his product or service to
cover the higher costs. If he sells at
a price higher than that fixed by
the Government, even though the
buyer may be willing and anxious to
pay the higher price, the seller can
be sent to jail.
There is, of course, nothing new
in this. The maritime strike settle
ment, in addition to discrediting the
WSB, merely brings out more clearly
the inequities of the so-called
stabilization program, and under
scores the main reasons why it has
not and will not work.
The most convincing evidence that
this country is following the good
neighbor policy in foreign affairs
is the vicious gossip being spread by
the neighbors.
The OP A insists that there will be
no raising of rents. Other Govern
ment agencies also are preventing
the raising of houses.
Bulgaria Scraps the Crown
By a virtually unanimous vote, the
Bulgarian people have decided in a
referendum, held especially for the
purpose, to transform their country
from a monarchy to a republic. The
result was a foregone conclusion, not
only because the Communist-domi
nated regime which controls Bul
garia wanted it that way but also
because there is virtually no mon- j
archical sentiment even among those
elenhents which oppose the present
government on other grounds.
Unlike Greece, where royalism Is I
a living force, or Yugoslavia, where
the native dynasty is a national I
symbol among the Serb element, the \
crown never acquired a deep emo- j
tional hold on the Bulgarian people. !
To begin with, Bulgarian national
life was much more completely j
smashed by the Turkish conquest of |
the fourteenth century than was the !
case with either the Greeks or the j
Serbs. When the Bulgarians were !
freed from the Turks by Czarist
Russia less than seventy years ago,
they were an oppressed and back
ward peasant mass, over whom were
placed foreign rulers, as a result of
agreements arrived at between the
European great powers.
The first of these rulers, Alexander
of Battenberg, was ousted in a few
years, largely as the result of Rus
sian intrigue. Another German
prince, placed on the throne in 1887,
founded the dynasty which has just
been ejected by popular acclaim. Its
record has, on the whole, been a
sorry one. The founder. Ferdinand
of Saxe-Coburg, a machiavellian
personage with vaultir^g ambitions,
made two capital mistakes which
cost his country dear and eventually
cost him his throne. First, after
having led the coalition of Christian
Balkan states in the triumphant war
against Turkey in 1912, Ferdinand
quarreled with his allies over the
division of the spoils, tried to grab
his share by force, and was soundly
beaten by them, thereby forfeiting
the headship of the Balkan Slavs to
Serbia. To avenge that defeat, he
joined the Central Powers in World
War I, only to find himself on the
losing side, with himself forced into
exile and Bulgaria reduced to a
minor factor beside a Serbia now
expanded into Yugoslavia. His son
and successor, Boris III, repeated the
blunder by joining the Axis in World
War II, and died under mysterious
circumstances shortly before its
close, leaving the throne to his son,
the child Simeon, even now only
nine years of age.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria had fallen
under the complete control of Soviet
Russia, which has established a
hand-picked regime of its own, all
opposition being ruthlessly re
pressed. Belief is widespread among
informed observers of Balkan affairs
that the scrapping of the crown in
Bulgaria, closely following similar
action in Yugoslavia, Is the prelude
to the establishment of a Federated
Balkan People's Republic, Commu
nistic in character, including pri
marily Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, but
ultimately Albania and at least
Northern Greece if that last can be
effected despite the Western powers.
Thus, the elimination of the Bul
garian crown may well be of far
more than domestic significance, as
merely another step in a Balkan
transformation Inspired by and
directed from Moscow.
Mr. Roberts as Churchman
When Owen J. Roberts was named
to the Supreme Court by President
Hoover in 1930, the last paragraph
in the official biographical sketch
of him distributed to the press read:
“He is a communicant of the Prot
estant Episcopal Church.” Nothing
more was required at that time to
describe his interest in religion. His
life had been spent principally in
the practice of law and the teaching
of it in his native Pennsylvania. At
the start of his career on the highest
tribunal in the land, it was his pro
fessional training and experience
that mattered.
But Justice Roberts’ role as a
churchman was not undistinguished.
Christianity always had been a
major factor in his philosophy. His
retirement in 1945 gave him oppor
tunity to devote a larger share of
his energies to the cause of religion.
Perhaps the Washington Federation
of Churches had encouraged him in
his “support of the wider Christian
fellowship” by the presentation of
its annual award for outstanding
work by a District layman. He al
ready was senior warden of Saint
John’s Church at Lafayette Square.
In any case, Justice Roberts has
devoted his talents increasingly to
religious activity since he gave up
his place on the Supreme bench. It
therefore is not surprising that he
has been elected to serve as presi
dent of the House of Clerical
and Lay Deputies in the Triennial
General Convention of the Episcopal
Church at Philadelphia. The first
layman ever to be named to preside
over the body thus described, he
was an obvious choice. In Wash
ington especially the news is appre
ciated due to tire fact that the late
Very Reverend Ze Barney Thorne
Phillips, rector of the Church of
the Epiphany and chaplain of the
United States Senate, was president
of the house during five conventions
prior to his death in 1942.
Senator Pepper calls for an end
to “rooster fighting” in international
relations. Perhaps this a polite way
to say let's stop the crowing.
Administration leaders are deter
mined to balance the Federal bud
get. One sure way to get a balance
Is to halt departmental juggling.
This and That
By Charles E. Tracewell.
"BRYANT STREET N.E.
“Dear Sir:
‘‘One of your correspondents seemed
to hate the English sparrow.
"He is all wrong about that little, in
telligent, friendly bird.
"In the first place, the sparrow' does
not eat peanuts.
"He is friendly with all birds; no
sparrow ever drove away any bird, but
he eats and bathes with starlings and I
robins.
"However, the murderous grackle, !
whom this person seems to like, why,
all the birds fly away when the grackle !
appears.
"Many the poor little sparrow they !
have jumped upon and picked to death.
"Once I saved a sparrow from the
big black grackles when the sparrow
was being held under water by one in
my bird bath. This was when I lived
in Silver Spring.
"I saw it just in time, the little spar
row was all but gone.
"The grackle is a pretty bird to look
at. so black and shiny and slender of
build, sometimes shining blue and green
in the sun, but he is, to other birds,
even the blue jay, murderous.
"The sparrow is the most intelligent
of birds, not omitting, of course, that
beautiful and saucy fellow, the jay.
"He and the squirrels used to cause
me to laugh at their antics. The jay
would fly down for the peanuts I
placed for the squirrels, and watch his
chance to grab one, then would take it
away, and I have seen them pick up
a dead leaf and hide over a peanut,
then fly away.
"The poor maligned starling, too. is
a friend of all birds, and he and other
birds used to use the bath together.
"I have never seen a starling dive at
another bird when feeding, in fact, I
have seen the starling feed the young
Of a sparrow, w'hen it appeared to have
no mother.
"I have had lots of pleasant hours
watching the antics of the squirrels and
birds, and miss them where I now live.
"Very respectfully, K. I. M.”
i i *
One may feel fairly certain that if
the common sparrow were a compara
tively rare bird, it w’ould be accepted
with acclaim by numerous nature lovers
who now profess to despise it.
It is its large numbers which make
it unacceptable, but what are we to do
about that, in a world where increas
ingly large numbers of things are in
the news?
Bigger and better is the slogan, and
sparrows live up to it, too.
They never heard of Malthus, but
they follow his doctrines very well.
More and more sparrows there must
be to keep up with more and more Rus
sians, more and more Chinese, more
and more Yugoslavs, and so on.
A Spanish revolutionist, a literary
man of some note, once wrote a book
called “The Revolt of the Masses,’’ the
thesis of which was that the keynote
of modern society was numbers, that the
common people had at la6t taken over
the places and positions which formerly
belonged to certain persons by birth
and education.
English sparrows do not read, but
they enjoy life to the full, and make the
best of things as they come up, some
thing which modern Americans, for all
their education and organization, must
somewhow learn to do.
Sparrows are not such birds as dreams
are made of, it is true. They are
truculent, scrappy, full of fight and
ginger; they are gregariou-s, they push
others around, and never give up.
Some might think that a pretty good
description of an American. But unless
we are careful, we are going -*o let the
Russians take our traits away from us.
How would we feel, as Americans, to be
out-bluffed—and out-fought—by some
other race?
’ a
Letters to The Star
Sees Agreement on Tyrol
A Hopeful Sign
To thp Editor of Th# 8t»r:
In the darkness that Is enshrouding
International relations, every glimmer
of light should be saluted. By their
agreement on the South Tyrol, the
Italian Premier, Alclde de Gasperi, and
the Foreign Minister of Austria, Dr.
Karl Gruber, have ignited a beacon
the general significance of which should
not be lost on us.
Most instructively, the signing of that
treaty coincided with a debate of the
Paris Peace Conference on a Yugoslav
proposal aiming at securing contractual
protection for a small southern Slavic
minority in Hungary’. The Yugoslav
amendment was opposed by the Czechs,
who think that the solution of the
nationality problem lies in adapting
races to state frontiers by mass depor
tation. But it was also opposed by us
and the British. Gen. Bedell Smith
said absorption of racial minorities
appeared to be better than their per
petuation, and Lord Hood advocated
assimilation. The Yugoslav delegates
warned that an attempt at absorption
would start international friction.
The rare opportunity of applauding a
representative of Marshal Tito should
not be missed. Impressed by the suc
cess of our American ‘'melting pot,”
Gen. Smith was prone to overlook that
in Europe's long history practically
every race has been wronged by every
other race, and that in an atmosphere
of mutual resentment It would be im
possible to say who should be entitled
to assimilate whom. Frontiers there
have changed perpetually, and no bound
ary can be considered sacred surd legit
imate. For example, if the 7,000,000
Czechs were authorized to absorb 3,500,
000 Sudetens, others could claim that
80,000,000 Germans should be allowed
to absorb the 7,000,000 Czechs.
This example is sufficient to prove
that deportation is even less suitable
than assimilation, because history
marches on: suddenly the boot is on
another foot, and the results are de
portations and new deportations.
The only promising solution is really
the one demonstrated by Dr. Gruber
and Signor de Gasperi. It would be
quite misleading to describe it as toler
ance toward a racial minority. The
correct term is equality, or, as Henry
Wallace once called it, ethnic democ
racy. The idea is by no means new.
Almost three-fifths of Switzerland are
German, yet no one has ever heard of a
French or an Italian minority in Swit
zerland. They are all Swiss in complete
racial, linguistic, cultural, economic and
political equality. Those old enough to
remember old Austria know that the
same situation obtained there until
she was dissected. There were no mi
norities; no minority rights, but equal
ity.
‘‘Your example.” wrote Mr. Byrnes to
De Gasperi, “should be an inspiration
to the delegates meeting in Paris.” Two
equally and highly civilized nations
have shown to the world that Satan
can be dethroned.
DR. ROBERT INGRIM.
Segregation Deplored
To th« Eduor of The Bt»r:
President Truman's pronouncement
against racial prejudice and discrimi
nation is great on the surface, but I
will never believe he is sincere unless
he begins to set an example for us plain
everyday Americans to follow.
Does the President expect the butcher,
the banker and the department stores
to let down the racial bars as long as
"The Law* of the land upholds and
even promotes segregation of the armed
forces? Has Mr. Truman condemned
our Mississippi Representatives and
Senators who now are in office because
several millions of citizens are denied
the right to vote? By press and by
special radio broadcasts Mr. Truman
could plead for the abolition of segre
gation. RICHARD TYNES.
Praises ‘Only One Try*
To the Editor of The 8t*r:
I cannot commend too highly your
course in visual Instruction regarding
District of Columbia Traffic Laws now
currently appearing in your splendid
paper under the heading "Only One
Try."
The combination of "eye-appeal'’ and
"quiz" generally is recognized as the best
and quickest method of teaching, and
the lessons thus learned are not so
readily forgotten as they so often are
following a hasty reading of the regu
lations, when the same are available, In
the uninteresting and closely printed
official form.
I hope you will continue this series
until all of the important regulations
have been covered, and then make same
available in pamphlet form for general
distribution to the public.
I believe that you or one of your
"live-wire" advertisers will see adver
tising value in such a pamphlet, and at
the same time recognize an opportunity
for the rendering of a genuine public
service. DAVID WIENER.
Spinster’s Letter Commended
To the Editor of The Star:
I was interested to read the letter by
Spinster, telling of the babies that have
been smothered to death by taking the
advice of some doctors, who don’t know
as much about the care of babies as
mothers do.
Before me are five notices cut from
The Star, telling of babies smothered
to death by being placed on their
stomachs in their cribs.
I should think all mothers should
know better than to take such advice,
If their doctors don’t know better than
to give It! H. B. BRADFORD.
Urges Minding Own Business
To the Editor of The Btar:
It seems to me that we continually
are groping down the wrong road to
peace. With the news headlines knock
ing Russia and every commentator
grinding out hatred of communism,
we certainly are not striving for the
peace that the world so sorely needs
from now on. What If Russia's way of
government isn’t, in our estimation,
near so good as our old democratic
form of government, it doesn't help our
cause to spend our time abusing their
system, which might so much more
profitably be spent quietly minding our
own business.
PERRY F. SKINNER.
Still Mad
From the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Apparently we are not entirely a
forgiving people. It has been interesting
to watch the British loan debate and
sea how many Congressmen are still
mad at George m.
Ml
This Changing World
By Constantine Brown
Unless there Is • complete change of
heart among the leaders in Moscow, It
looks as if the present debates at the
“Peace Conference" in Paris and at the
Security Council in New York will serve
only one purpose—to gain sufficient time
to complete the Slav military prepara
tions in the Balkans and set the match
to that powder keg again.
While modem diplomats are calling
each other names -which just miss being
unprintable, military preparations be
hind the iron curtain are proceeding at
a feverish pace.
Latest reports indicate that King
George of Greece, when he finally de
cides to return to his homeland, may
step into a hotter situation than he
has bargained for.
Greece is the only Balkan country
which is not in the Pan-Slav bloc
formed soon after V-E day. Yet Greece
is of great importance to the U. S. S. R.
as the key to the Eastern Mediterranean.
By brilliant diplomatic manuevers Rus
sia has managed to obtain control over
the Adriatic through the creation of
the two puppet states of Yugoslavia and
Albania.
But so long as Greece is not in the
fold, the control over the Eastern Medi
terranean can not be complete even if
Moscow were to accomplish her aims
in regard to the Dardanelles.
This explains the violent outbursts
and unfounded charges brought by Rus
sia directly and through her satellites
at the Security Council sessions in New
York. The Russians are not opposed to
royalty in principle. They still main
tain King Michael in Romania. But
they do object to the refusal of the
Greek people to dance to Moscow's tune.
According to high officials in Wash
ington. the Slav bloc, supported by the
U. S. S. R., will not confine its activi
ties to mere name calling, but is ex
pected to change from words to deeds
in the near future.
A Yugoslav force estimated at between
90,000 and 120,000 men is reliably re
ported to be concentrated in the Vardar
Valley, ready to march on Salonika to
support the claims of the new Macedo
nian republic against that vital Greek
port. A 'Macedonian armv" composed
of former Bulgar and Yugoslav guerril
las, to which have been added a number
of Greek Communists, has been trained
and equipped by a Red Army general
for at least eight months. That force
is said to be In good fighting trim and
will spearhead a Slav offensive as soon
as Marshal Tito is ordered by Moscow
to give the signal to advance.
A newly organized Bulgarian army
also is reliably reported to be concen
trated on' the Greek borders. The Slav
bloc already has put forward Bulgaria's
claim at Paris for an outlet to the
Aegean Sea.
In the west the little Albanian re
public is reported to have been trans
formed into an armed camp. Russian
officers have been sent to drill the new
army and acquaint it with modem war
Implements such as tanks and arttllerv
of heavy caliber. Large quantities of
wrar material are being rushed to the
country from the large Russian stock
piles.
Although the total population of that
new Soviet satellite is under 1,000,000
and despite the drastic purge of Col.
Gen. Enver Hoxa. the Russian-imposed
leader, the Albanians have managed to
raise a military force of at least 150,
000 men. They are reported by eye
witnesses to be well equipped and pro
vided with good winter and summer
uniforms. Considering the dearth of cloth
in Europe, the question has been raised
in some official quarters in Washington
as to whether these new uniforms have
been made out of lease-lend supplies.
A * * *
In Greece, the Communists, who are
a part and parcel of the general con
spiracy, are biding their time. They
are expected to stage major domestic
troubles in synchronization with the
march of the Slav forces toward their
objectives in Macedonia and Epirus.
The presence of some 40.000 British
troops in Greece is hardly a handicap to
these plans. The British and Greek
forces are probably sufficient to frus
trate the civil war and could possibly
defend Macedonia. But the fact that the
entire might of the U. S. S. R. is behind
all these movements makes the picture
even gloomier.
On the Record
By Dorothy Thompson
Mr Byrnes' speech in Stuttgart was
aimed at checking the U. S. S. R. in
Europe, but it suggested no way to do so.
The only way this can be accomplished
is to build the European nation. The
German question is insoluble within the
European political framework of the last
century. Europe has been the victim of
the peacemakers of two wars,vwho go
on repeating their mistakes as though
possessed of the twin devils of ignorance
and stupidity.
After World War I European states
men, besotted by virulent nationalism,
themselves contributed to the Balkani
zation of Europe and thereby to this
recent war and to the terrible danger all
Europe is in. Today, all Europeans are
caught between two titanic power com
plexes—the u. S. S. R. and the United
States. Gen. de Gaulle saw and expressed
this fact in his recent speech, without
clearly drawing from it the logical-con
clusions. Apparently, he still thinks
Europe can be saved by a "strong”
France allied with Great Britain. It
cannot. It can only be saved by the
coniplete recreation of “Europe’’ herself.
Where Europe begins and ends has
always been debatable. Is Romania
part of Europe? It is questionable. Is
Greece? Is Yugoslavia? Certainly all
of the latter which was once contained
within the Austro-Hungarian Empire
is. Is Poland? Historically and cul
turally, yes, as far as Western Poland
is concerned, and the award to Russia
of Poland east of the Curzon Line wmuld
have been justifiable if it had clearly
set the European limits eastward.
A cultural historian would probably
say that Europe ends where Byzantium
begins—w'here the churches of westeri/
civilization end. Austria, Czechoslova
kia, Hungary 8nd Poland have fought
through centuries from encroachments
into Europe from the East, whether the
armies were those of the Ottoman
Turks, or of the great conquerors, like
Genghis Khan, from the steppes of
Central Asia.
* * ¥ *
France. Germany, Italy, Spain, the
Netherlands. Belgium. Switzerland are
as much part of western civilization,
whatever temporary aberrations may
have overcome Germany, as is Great
Britain or the United States. They have
been, indeed, its cradle and its flower.
But they have been undone by the
disintegration of Europe since the 18tn
century into a series of national sover
eign states who have progressively de
stroyed the economic and cultural unity
previously existing for centuries. It is
hard for any of us to remember that
prior to World War I any European could
travel anywhere in Europe without a
passport, or work in any country without
a permit, while customs frontiers were
all but nonexistent. Credits in French
universities were equally acceptable in
Italian or German, and vice versa. Thus
there existed, even up to that war, a
remnant of that European unity which
reached its peak in the high Middle
Ages.
The progressive rise of the national
state compartmentalizing Europe within
its narrow room into hostile racialisms
and camps was not progressive but ret
roactive. leading to internecine wars,
until today all Europe lies prostrate be
tween two non-European titans, thun
dering at each other over her bleeding
body. One of them, however, is con
tiguous to her on an open frontier: The
Soviet Union.
Not *a single one of the problems
vexing Europe during the last century
can be solved within the framework
of existing European national states, one
of the worst of these being the ''minor
ity" problem. Even so otherwise hu
mane a person as Mr. Sumner Welles
sees no answer to this except the whole
sale transference of populations. If
he will take another look at Greek
Macedonia, scene of such a "solution"
under far more humane conditions than
exist today, I believe he will change his
mind. The transferred Greeks were
never loyal citizens but members of a
Diaspora and are now willing, subversive
agents for Bulgaria. People have greater
attachments to landscapes and ancestral
homes and villages than they have to
governments, and there is no "orderly”
or “humane” process by which they can
be bodily and involuntarily lifted from
one sovereignty or another by reason
only of the language they speak.
* * * * *
For centuries now a European solu
tion of the “minority” problem has been
achieved in Switzerland precisely be
cause Switzerland is not a national, I
tribal state, but a multinational state
with absolute equality for all. The
“Ladeinlsch '-speaking peoples are only
1 per cent of the population, but they
are not a “minority." They have ex
actly equal autonomy to the German
speaking Swiss, who are the most nu
merous.
Prance, Germany, Italy, Spain are
cultural realities and political anachro
nisms. The United States and the
U. S. S. R. are modern continental
states—the first a melting pot, the sec
ond a multinational state. The melting
pot concept is not applicable to Europe.
The multinational Soviet idea would
be were it not, perhaps by reason of
its Russian origin, despotic and totali
tarian and therefore in conflict with the
deepest European tradition and spirit.
But Europe will be organized one
way or another—freely, by itself, or as
Nietzsche foresaw in the last century, by
the knout of its great neighbor—as it
was almost so organized by Hitler.
Or it will decline and fall into an
archy. carrying with it most of western
civilization, and probably the U. S. S. R.
as well.
Europe can recover without Germany
but it cannot recover without the Ger
mans of Europe. A federal Germany
in a federal Europe, free of both the
U. S. S. R. and the United States, is
the only solution against a division
which will one day be a battle line. No
workable United Nations can be estab
lished with the world divided into two
titans, the rest of it a power vacuum
gravitating as satellites to one or the
other.
(Relynsyd by thy Byll Syndicate, Inr )
Two New Deal Fallacies
By Raymond Moley
The stock market break has already
turned a bright light on a basic fallacy
in New Deal economics. The shattered
pillar under the New Deal house of
magic is the idea that modern industry
has no need for outside savings. And
no smearing or recrimination, such as
Congressman Sabath’s charge that the
break was caused by Republican fat
cats, can restore this ruin. It is gone
and gone forever.
American industry is, said the domi
nant economic wizards of the New Deal,
mature. It produces its own capital.
It doesn't need to borrow. It has a
sufficiency within itself. Candidate
Roosevelt himself set the pattern in
1932 at San rrancisco, when he said,
“Our Industrial plant is built: the prob
lem just now is whether under existing
conditions it is not overbuilt.” One of
the most pretentious of all the afore
said wizards supplied that sentence. Its
echo rang down the whole corridor of
Roosevelt rule, until the war required
an expansion of the alleged overbuilt
plant at a cost of $20 billion or more.
X> X- X.
The learned boys who made the rec
ord of the Temporary National Economic
Committee in 1938-1941 filled volumes
with elaborate rationalizations of the
mature economy fallacy. It Is em
balmed in 37 volumes, 17.000 pages, 3,
300 exhibits and 43 monographs. It cost
$1,070,000 to make that record.
One factor is clear in the present
market decline. Industry, which was
supposed to supply Its own capital, and
specific Industries named over and over
by New Dealers as self-sufficient have
tried to get capital and have failed.
There was a great to-do by New Deal
economists about such giants as General
Motors and Westinghouse. Such com
panies, they said, would never have to
I look outside for money. As late as
November, IMS, Ganaon Purcell, then
■ 4
chairman of the SEC, said that big
companies would not need much out
side financing. But General Motors at
the end of 1944 had a working capital of
$903.4 million. At the end of June this
year it had $552.2 million. It had to go
into the new money market. Westing
house recently announced a $30-million
offering of stock. Since the break, it
has postponed this offering. Columbia !
Gas was to receive bids on an offering of
$97.5 million in debentures. This has
been reduced to $20 million.
The fact now appears, therefore, that ;
industry, especially the big companies,
do need outside money. This proves an
expanding economy which New Dealers
have denied.
The failure of the public to buy new
offerings opens another issue, long sub
ject to the contempt of New Deal poli
ticians and economists. That is the
New Deal attitude toward investor con
fidence in our economy. Mr. Roosevelt
himself used to deride any attempts to
identify such an intangible. But this
element of confidence is a very real and
decisive element in sustaining pros
perity. It is now quite apparent that
it does not exist among those whose
savings are remaining in money and
Government bonds. And these savings
are very great. The reasons for this
are many, but, in the main, they root
in lack of a firm belief in Government
policies. We now know that savings are
essential to business expansion. And
we now know that the way to put that
money to work is to allow confident
expectations that working money can
get decent wages.
If opponents of the economic minds
who still dominate the administration
fail to take advantage of present rev
elations of the fallacy of New Deal
economics, the future is without hope.
(Released br The Associated Newspapers. Ine.)
*
Wallace Talk Is Blow
At Truman and Byrnes
Foreign Policies Repudiated by
Commerce Secretary
By David Lawrence
Henry Wallace's speech, presumably
In support of the candidacy of Messrs.
Mead and Lehman for Oovernor of
New York and United States Senator,
is an amazing document. If It doesn't
lead eventually to ths resignation of
Mr. Wallace as Secretary of Commerce,
It will be because President Truman
is calloused to the humiliation he suf
fers In seeing a complete repudiation
of his foreign policies by the Secretary
of Commerce In his cabinet.
For Mr. Wallace not merely accused
Great Britain of insidious maneuvers
that he thinks may bring on war with
Russia, but he also accuses Secretary
Byrnes of the State Department of pur
suing a "get tough policy” with Russia
which almost everybody in Washington
for several months has supposed was
In accordance with Instructions lrom
President Truman himself.
The Wallace speech will confound
every one who has assumed heretofore
that American foreign policy had at
laat become nonpartisan and that Sen
ator Vandenberg and the Republicans
generally were supporting America's
Policies as expressed by Secretary
Byrnes in his long and tedious nego
tiations with the Russians in various
International conferences since V-J day.
Drags In Gov. Dewey.
Mr. Wallace drags in Gov. Dewey by
the most laborious method. He refers
to a speech made several years ago—
in fact, during the war—in which Mr.
Dewey said he favored a Brlttsh-Amer
lcan military alliance. That’s the sole
peg on which Mr. Wallace now hangs
the address in which he savs such an
alliance means making Britain "the
key to our foreign policy" and that “we
must not let the reactionary leader
ship of the Republican party force us
Into that position.” Then he adds In
the same sentence, as If there were a
direct connection between the two
things, “We must not let British bal
ance-of-power manipulations determine
whether and when the United States
gets Into war.’’
This is a rather devious way to Involve
Gov. Dewey and the Republican party
in the alleged provocation of a war of
which Mr. Wallace thinks our ally,
Great Britain, may soon be guilty.
He adds:
"Make no mistake about It—the Brit
ish imperialistic policy in the Near East
alone, combined with Russian retalia
tion, would lead the United States
straight to war unless we have a clearly
defined and realistic policy of our own "
There is no evidence that President
Truman has been a rubber stamp as to
British policy in the Near East nor any
suspicion that the Republican party
favors the British policy in that part of
the world. So, for the sake of some un
explained political purpose. Secretary
Wallace, though a member of the cabi
net of the President, has questioned the
motives and purposes of the govern
ment of Great Britain. Even if he be
lieves it, such Indiscreet criticism cannot
come from a member of the Truman
cabinet without making the task of
Secretary Byrnes more complicated.
“To prevent war.” continues Secretary
Wallace, "and insure our survival in a,
stable world, it is essential that we look
abroad through our own American eves
and not through the eyes.of either the
British Foreign Office or a pro-British
or anti-Russian press."
Speech “Approved."
But James F. Byrnes, a Democrat, is
Secretary of State—not Gov. Dewey or
any other Republican. If Mr. Bvrnes is
not looking at things through American
eyes, then Mr. Wallace's criticism must
necessarily be against the present Sec
retary of State.
The newsmen at the White House
have been told that President Truman
approved the Wallace speech in advance.
This seems incredible. If Mr. Truman
read it carefully and still approved,
then he is transparently more gullible
than he appears to be. Maybe for pur
poses of the political campaign In New
York State, Mr. Truman is allowing a
member of his cabinet to become more
pro-Russian than he himself has been.
The Wallace speech assumes that
communism and democracy are merely
two rival philosophies that can get along
together in the world. Mr. Wallace
favors giving Russia a free hand in her
sphere of influence if Russia will keep
hands off our so-called sphere in Latin
America. Such a bargain is exactly
what the Soviets have been aiming at.
When Mr. Wallace learns that com
munism as an abstract philosophy la
not the issue but that brutal totali
tarianism is the concrete action that has
robbed peoples in the Russian sphere
of their “four freedoms," maybe he will
regret his outburst at Madison Square
Garden. Foi the speech is mischievous
and troublemaking and can only em
barrass the President and the Secretary
of State in the relations of the United
States with other countries.
(Reproduction Rlthto Reserved )
What Do We Care?
Prom the Toronto Qlobe end Mtll.
This question of respect for the law
is not a trivial technicality, nor is it
an “instrument for the oppression of
the masses,” as the Communists are
fond of asserting. It is fundamental to
the structure of an ordered society—our
own. or any other variety. The deplor
able thing about the present situation
is the unbelievable apathy and Indiffer
ence of the public. To all intents and
purposes, they give tacit approval to the
destruction of their institutions, and
the organs of opinion and expression,
through which the public will is made
known, are largely silent.
The Cycle
Youth, plants the seed and manhood
stores the grain,
Works for a wage and hoards its hard
earned gold
Against some future time of wind and
rain
Or for that bitter winter of the old.
Youth builds its house and fits it out
with pride
And manhood gathers, In those shel
tering walls,
Treasures he has collected in his stride
That men have guarded in ancestral
halls.
But his possessions may become a load
Too heavy for an aging back bear;
Age learns to scatter wealth along tht
road
And finds how blessed It may be to
share.
Youth draws unto itself, but age lets go
As leaves drift down when blasts of
autumn blow.
ANNA IL nUESTLST.