Evening star. [volume], June 15, 1948, Page A-8, Image 8

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Alii ” TUESDAY, June 15, 1948
A Good Bargain Goes Begging
The Government stands to lose an* ex
cellent bargain by the single objection of
one man to a simple little bill which has
been before the House for several years.
South of Alexandria, along the river
aide of the Mount Vernon Memorial High
way, there are two tracts of land. The
Government owns one of them, purchased
for about $10,000. A large section of it is
under water. The Smoot Sand & Gravel
Co. owns the other, purchased for about
$100,000. If they were both owned by the
Government, the Interior Department
would retain them as parklands and pre
vent threatened encroachment of com
mercial development along the parkway.
The Smoot company is willing to deed
its tract of land to the Government, re
taining dredging rights to its own under
water property and receiving in return
dredging rights along the Government
land front. The company wants the gravel;
the park authorities want the land. The
bargain has been examined in detail by
the Interior Department, the Park Service,
the Park and Planning Commission and
by a House committee. All of these
approve it.
It would have been passed some time
ago except for the objection of Represent
ative McGregor of Ohio. He wants to
know what the Smoot company will get
in the sale of gravel from the Government
property. This may be substantial. But
the land that the Government would re
ceive in return is also valuable, not only
in terms of money but as a further means
of protecting the Mount Vernon Memorial
Highway. Mr. McGregor may have his
own opinion as to the merits of the Gov
ernment’s case. But he is a minority of
one. And if* he continues to block this
transaction, the opportunity to acquire the
land will be gone for good.
That would be a great loss. The Gov
ernment invested millions of dollars in
building the Mount Vernon Memorial
Highway. It is one of the beautiful park
ways of the country, a fitting approach to
a national shrine. If the Smoot land is
acquired now, future generations will be
thankful for the foresight which made it
possible. If we lose the bargain, by con
tinued objection, we shall be very foolish.
Tor the loss will be irretrievable.
Red Counter-Moves in Germany
Moscow’s political and psychological
counteroffensive to the Six-Power London
Agreement over Western Germany is being
rapidly stepped up. The latest move in
the game is the announcement of an alter
native program for all of Germany by the
presidium or steering committee of the
Communist-dominated People’s Council of
the “German People’s Congress.” This an
nouncement, in turn, coincides with the
People's Congress petition for German
unity, which is made the basis for the
People’s Council’s 'claim to speak for all
Germans.
The entire structure behind this accel
erating propaganda offensive is essentially
phony. To begin with, the “German
People’s Congress” boils down to a series
of stooge parties in the Soviet zone, the
chief of them being the SED or “Socialist
Unity Party of Germany.” The SED is the
result of a shotgun marriage between the
Socialist and Communist Parties in the
Russian zone. This unnatural union is
repudiated by the Socialists in the Western
zones, and the SED is not permitted to
function there by the Western occupational
authorities. In Western Germany, the
Communists have to sail under their own
colors.
Nevertheless, the SED proclaims Itself
the champion of German unity and is the
mainspring of the German People’s Con
gress, likewise restricted to the Russian
zone and composed of the SED, plus some
Communist-front groups. The petition
which has been circulating for German
unity is being so loosely conducted that the
results, while numerically impressive, are
statistically worthless. Forbidden in the
American zone, though permitted in the
British zone with mediocre response, it is
a “must” in the Soviet zone, where 90 per
cent or better of the population have re
portedly signed up in customary totali
tarian fashion.
It is on the basis of this dubious plebi
scite that the People’s Council has put out
its counterprogram to the London Agree
ment. This' eight-point program is a
demagogic catch-all, promising all sorts
of things, including an affirmation of Ger
man unity by the four occupying powers,
the liquidation of the Anglo-American
bizonal area, renunciation of the trlzonal
setup provided for under the London
Agreement, and the negotiation of a “just
peace” by the four occupying powers, cul
minating in an all-German government
which would pave the way for the with
drawal of all occupying forces from the
Belch. There is even a promise that the
Germans would have the right to “discuss”
the problems of all frontiers, this being
bait for German hopes of recovering at
least some of the lost eastern territories.
This program is obviously a Moscow
Inspired Communist trick. Yet it is sprung
at a moment of uncertainty among the
Western Powers and general disappoint
ment at the London Agreement even
among the Germans of the western zones.
This disappointment is due to broad con
cessions made by Washington and London
to Paris in order to get France in line. But
those concessions, while alienating the
Germans, have not reconciled the French,
who threaten to balk by refusing to ratify
the agreement. Thus, Washington and
London may fall between two stools. And
even if the French reluctantly ratify, their
assent will be unwilling and their attitude
will not be genuinely co-operative.
It is against this unfavorable background
in the west that the Soviet counteroffensive
is being waged. There will undoubtedly be
other moves made in the campaign to
undermine or stymie the London plan and
to win German popular support for the
Communist alternative.
Strikes and the Atom
It is gratifying that an agreement has
at last been reached in the protracted
labor-nlanagement dispute at Oak Ridge
National Laboratory. But though the
settlement does away with the possibility
of a strike at this time, it does not do
away with the possibility of strikes in the
future. What it still leaves unanswered is
the basic question whether the law should
empower unions to stage walkouts in a
field as unique and vital as our atomic
energy project.
In itself, the Oak Ridge dispute was not
spectacular. Its points of argument were
the usual economic ones and it involved
only about 875 members of the Atomic
Trades and Labor Council of the American
Federation of Labor. What made it excep
tionally important, however, was that if
it had developed into a strike, it would
have deprived the laboratory of electrical,
plumbing and other types of maintenance
essential to research and development. In
other words, by walking out, a relatively
small number of workers would have been
able to shut down key operations.
The whys and wherefores of this have
not been explained in detail. But our
Atomic Energy Commission, though speak
ing in guarded generalizations for reasons
of security, flatly declared during the dis
pute that a work stoppage would ‘‘impeeil
the national safety." That is to say that
if a strike had taken place, it would have
forced the suspension of activities indis
pensable to the production of fissionable
materials, and in that way it would have
weakened the United States in the effort
to strengthen itself defensively.
Happily, this particular threat has now
been removed, but the fact remains that
we have no assurances against similar
threats in the future or against the danger
that such threats may be carried out to
the point of paralyzing our atomic enter
prise. Apparently the AFL union at Oak
Ridge chose to stay on the job because it
got the most it could hope to get and
because it could not overlook the warning
of Federal conciliators that a strike would
be "unthinkable.” But next month or next
year will other unions in this field show
similar restraint? Will they, too, act as
if they realized that when men work on
the atom they cannot stage crippling walk
outs without endangering the Nation?
The truth is that nobody can do business
as usual in this field. The private enter
prises operating our nuclear-fission plants
are not free agents. They are merely
contractors functioning under strict reg
ulations. Though they are charged with
management responsibility, the Govern
ment is the real boss. Similarly, the
unionized atomic workers are not quite
like workers unionized in nongovernmental
industry. They are more like Federal em
ployes, who are not allowed to strike, but
they are still in a class by themselves. In
fact, as far as labor relations are con
cerned, the atom has created a kind of
twilight zone, where the exact status and
rights of worker and manager alike have
yet to be clarified.
Certainly the settlement of the Oak
Ridge dispute does not offer the necessary
clarification. There are likely to be similar
disputes in the future in our revolutionary
and vitally important atomic project, but
there is no custom, precedent or law for
bidding them to develop into strikes. At
the moment, the only deterrents are com
mon sense and a patriotic r6gard for the
safety Of the Nation. The question that
still needs to be answered is whether Con
gress can or should act now to ban such
strikes before one of them occurs and
creates a crisis.
The Czechs Under Gottwald
Klement Gottwald has just assumed
office as President of Czechoslovakia be
cause he could not prevail upon Eduard
Benes to approve the new constitution
drawn up by the Communists. Rather than
do that. Mr. Benes resigned. He could not
bring himself to lend his great prestige to
the terroristic fraud that has been imposed
upon his countrymen. So he stepped down,
counseling “tolerance, love and forgive
ness” and voicing a poignant belief "in a
beautiful future for our beloved republic."
In time, as all free men must hope, his
counsel may prevail and his faith be
vindicated. But Czechoslovakia today is
not the Czechoslovakia that Eduard Benes
helped to found. It is not the fine democ
racy he served so well for seventeen years
as Foreign Minister and eleven as Presi
dent, What happened to it under Hitler
has happened to it all over again. There
was a brief interlude of freedom after
liberation from the Nazis, but then the
Communists wormed their way in, and
conspired treasonably, and finally, with
the help of the Soviet Union, seized power
last February. Since then the independ
ence of the country has ceased to exist,
and individual liberty has been whittled
away to the vanishing point. Terror, dic
tatorship, complete subservience to the
Kremlin, the liquidation of political oppo
sition—these are the things that Gottwald’s
regime has brought to the Czechs. These
are the things that account for the suicide
of Jan Masaryk, for the refugees lucky
enough to escape westward across the
border and for such personally tragic
events as the Benes resignation.
“Tolerance, love and forgiveness" are
not in the philosophy of the Gottwalds.
Czechoslovakia’s future will not be nearly
so beautiful as Its past until something
occurs to 'undermine the new tyranny at
large in the world and until men with the
spirit of freedom in their hearts and minds
have the vigor, the opportunity and the
(
courage to take over. Eduard Benes
belongs to the company of good democrats
whose names and records will remain as
an inspiration to that end.
Good Old Joe
One hardly knows whether to laugh or
cry at President Truman’s remarks last
week about Premier Stalin. Mr. Truman,
it seems, got “very well acquainted” with
the Russian dictator in 1945 as they con
versed—through interpreters, of course—
across the banquet and conference tables
at Potsdam. “I like old Joe,” Mr. Truman
tells us now. “He is a decent fellow.”
Unfortunately, as the President sees it,
his old friend is a prisoner of the R>lit
bureau. “He can’t do what he wants to.
He makes agreements and, if he could, he
would keep them. But the people who run
the government are very specific in saying
that he cannot keep them.”
Good old Joe—he smokes a pipe. Was it
his fault, after all, that he seized total
power in the Soviet state, despite Lenin’s
express wishes to the contrary? What if 1
he did build history’s most ruthless polit
ical machine, climbing to the driver’s seat
over the piled corpses of friend and foe
alike? He looks so fatherly, when the
lighting is right.
And he makes agreements. To dispose of
Leon Trotsky, for instance, he made one
once with a couple of other Politbureau
members named Zinoviev and Kamefiev.
They were even closer friends of his than
President Truman is. They were going to
run the state with him after Trotsky was
out of the way. Could Joq help It if he
was compelled shortly to tighten his per
sonal hold on the reins by disposing of
Zinoviev and Kamenev, too?
Of course not. He is a decent fellow, and
his eyes crinkle around the edges when
he smiles. How painful it must have been
to this kindly old man as, by his orders,
the Russian kulak class was exterminated,
some 15,000,000 Soviet citizens thrown into
concentration camps and his followers
(including members of the Politbureau)
subjected to a blood purge so severe that
i nobody but Joe himself was sure of his
safety. Poor old Joe . . .
Americans can point with pride, at least,
to the evident fact that their chief of state
is bossed by no underlings. There is prob
ably not another responsible official in
this country—or anybody even remotely
acquainted with the Russian system, for
that matter—who agrees with Mr. Truman
about Mr. Stalin. Good old Harry—it is
strictly his own idea. It should be kept
that way.
All Moscow’s contentions to the contrary
notwithstanding, democracy must be the
better way. Consider some of the saviors
it puts up with, and survives.
The old-time burlesque show that was
tolerable after six beers is succeeded by
the B gang film, only to be endured by
the customer full of popcorn.
As the world grows smaller and the
Navy’s flat-tops grow ever larger, who
knows—eventually we may have hard
surfaced oceans.
Always a solemn moment in a Middle
East crisis is the great power arising in
the fulness of its strength to go out and
see a man about some oil.
Figuring in the news as the father of
triplets is an ex-trapeze performer, now
working as a dishwasher without a net.
This and That
By Charles E. Tracewell
"BRANDYWINE STREET.
"Dear Sir:
“A* a lover of all animals, large and small, It
goes without saying that I read, with great
interest, your This and That Column in The Star
every day.
"As my attention is focused just now on
turtles, and as these fascinating little reptiles
are traveling here and there and everywhere in
and about Washington, I am inclosing a poem
about the box turtle, the truth of which I
learned from several years of observing them in
my turtle run in our back yard.
"Sincerely yours, F. H. B”
• • * •
TURTLE TEACHER.
The golden marked box turtle
Though denied the power of speech,
And looked down on by human folk,
Has a lesson true to teach.
While on its earthbound journey,
This fascinatig rover.
Never goes around a thing.
But always, up and over
Whatever obstacle it meets
As it travels through the day—
And it never gives a backward glance—
Just continues on its way. F. H. B.
• • • •
Small “turtles” are living by the thousands in
local gardens, and they always And friends to
help them. t
Not that they'ask for help.
As Mrs. B. says, they cannot talk much, but
they manage to get along, anyway.
The help offered may not be much, but at
times it may save the creature’s life.
Ordinarily, a turtle does not seem to make
much differentiation between a lawn and a
street.
It calmly proceeds, and if on the lawn, ail
right: but if in the street, a passing car may
run over it.
Hence the friend of these odd living things
will a#e to it that he always picks up a turtle
and lifts it back to the lawn.
After that, he will emulate the box turtle,
and look not backward!
If he does, he may see the creature start
out again, to get to where he was going before
being so rudely picked up! He, like man, is
stubborn.
• • • •
The bath is a favorite sport of turtles in
summer.
Hence one way to help them is to provide
small sunken bowls into which they easily can
crawl.
Since such bowls or basins are ,bird favorites,
also every small garden should have two or
more.
Such a turtle bath may be made by sinking a
large saucer of some sort in the earth.
Ordinarily such bowls will not be more than
two Inches deep, just the right depth for
birds—and turtles.
If surrounded by a small border of stones,
not too regularly laid, with a planting of some
low grower, such as ag era turn, this bath pleases
Mr. Turtle no end.
• • • •
He likes to come into the shade.
Slipping easily over the edge, he sinks his
hard body beneath the surface film.
Did you know that all water has a "film” on
its surface?
It is different, in an electrical way, from the
rest of the water.
Actually, this surface film may be seen to
break, When a sudden stone is thrown into it.
Our wandering turtle breaks the surface, and
may lie relaxed in the water for 10 minutes or
longer.
. That head, so serpentlike, sticking out, re
minds the watcher of what he may have read
about ancient days, when the world was young,
and men so uncivilized that they had no atom
bombs, no buzz bombs, no machine guns, not
even gunpowder I
•
Letters to The Star
Wages for Postal Workers
' To the Kditor of The Stir:
Workers in private industries now are receiv
ing their third wage increase since the end
of the war. These raises were granted to meet
ever-rising living costs and to reward the work
ers by higher living standards for increased
productivity due to technological improvements.
Postal workers, although they have increased
their efficiency during the past generation by
new technological processes such as soning of
the mail, eliminating duplication of work and
by many other methods, have not received an
increase in their real wages since the year 1935.
They received only one permanent money in
crease in their salaries in the year 1945 to
meet the then mounting living costs.
According to a recent survey made by the
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
1 cost of the annual budget of a worker In Chi
cago with a family of four, Increased from $2,
793 in March, 1941, to $3,293 in June, 1947, a
f rise of $489 or 17.5%. This budget does not
take into consideration the pension deductions
of postal workers. The entrance salary of a
postal clerk is $3,100. After pension deductions
of $126, he receives $1,974 annually for liv
ing purposes. After ten years of service, he re
ceives a salary of $3,100. After pension deduc
tions of $186 he has $2,914 annually for living
purposes. The family budget'provides nothing
for savings. The entrance salary of a postal
clerk who has a family of four is $1,306 below
the annual budget requirement, and after ten
years of service he receives $368 below the
budget requirements.
Is it the American policy that a postal
worker is supposed to work faithfully for his
government his entire lifetime and accumulate
no insurance, no savings bonds and no home?
Or is it the public policy that only bachelors
should be employed in our post offices?
When our Congress can appropriate billions
for European relief, it surely should adjust
i postal salaries to meet the present high cost of
living by increasing their salaries $800 annually.
By enactment of this raise, Congress would not
increase the Yeal wages of postal employes but
merely adjust thepresent wages to the 1925
Standard. ffiCHARD J. SAVERTNIK.
Helen Hayes’ Minorities
To th« Editor of The Star:
Within the past week Helen Hayes has ap
peared in the public press making the claim
that “the people of Washington have proved
beyond a doubt that they are behind Actors
Entity in its fight against racial discrimina
tion. For 13 straight performances 9,100
Washingtonians from many stations of life and
all races and colors have sat side by side in
the Olney Theater in nearb? Maryland.”
Of course, Miss Hayes has a right to her
opinion. “Every man to his own taste,” as
the old woman said when she kissed the cow.
But Miss Hayes’ logic is terrible. I hope that
she is a better actress and business woman
than she is a logician. Otherwise, she is head
ing for the poorhouse. I never before saw
so many illogical conclusions reached in one
paragraph. If you accept her figures as cor
rect, this 9,100 is a small minority. How does
she know to what station in society a mem
ber of her audience belongs? And I doubt
very much if all races were represented there.
When will these minority clamor-babies
learn about democracy and majority rule? The
majority of Washingtonians positively have
not backed nonsegregation. Right or wrong
is another question. These impatient chil
dren should study history, history and more
history—the history of the slow progress of
the democratic movement. Nothing at all has
been handed to any one on a silver platter.
No worker ever has been fed with a golden
spoon! If the clamorers will study the slow
and painful progress of the democratic move
ment I believe they will quit trying to tear it
down in favor of minority rule.
LAURA K. POLLOCK.
Who Teaches Penmanship?
To the Editor of The Star:
Your recent editorial entitled “Calligraphic
Error,” pointed out the need lor better pen
manship. Your view is wholeheartedly in
dorsed. But where can any person except an
elementary school child learn better penman
ship, and learn to improve his own handwrit
ing? There is a definite need for instruc
tion, or materials for self-instruction, in im
proving the handwriting of persons beyond
the fifth grade, and especially for adults. The
writer has diligently sought for the satisfac
tion of this definite need, but without avail.
Perhaps your readers can supply the informa
tion. P. 1L
Responsibility to AH Men
To the Editor of Th* Star:
May I express admiration for The Star’s edi
torial on Joshua Loth Llebman? As a man
who took his responsibilities seriously such a
tribute was deserved. Attention should be called
also to his last article in the Atlantic Monthly.
In reading that article the spiritually-minded
of any faith cannot fail to sense more strongly
their personal responsibility to all men.
CATHERINE COBLENTZ.
Exemption for Reservists
.»the Editor of The Star.;
Your forceful editorial of June 7 on the draft
bills with its plea for early passage as "must”
legislation was excellent. However, there was
one important, and to me, glaring omission
from the editorial’s brief summary of the major
piovlsions of the bills. If the draft bill story
is as important as The Star’s extensive cover
age over the past few days Indicates, it is
unfortunate that the level of reporting on this
stoiy fell far below The Star’s usual standard
of accurate and full coverage.
Apparently neither the reporter nor the
editorial writer had taken the trouble to read
these bills, for I cannot understand otherwise
how both would have missed completely the
importance of the provisions of the bills which
give draft exemption to all persons who are
members of National Guard units or other
active reserve organizations—a matter of vital
importance to men of 19 and older.
Under the draft bills, teen-agers who are
now planning their post-graduate careers, are
subject to the danger of having their plans for
the future seriously retarded by the two-year
military service requirement of the bills. How
ever, under the very provisions of the bills
which The Star failed to mention, membership
in a National Guard or other active reserve
organization here in Washington removes this
danger completely. Such membership entails
only two-hour’s spare-time duty each week
with pay, right here In Washington, and is
insurance against the loss of two years out of
one's future.
How did The Star miss it? L. B. M.
Editor’s Note: The Star in its news
columns repeatedly has mentioned the pro
vision of exemption for members of Na
tional Guard and other active reserve
units.
Richard B. Magruder’s Dikes
To tko Editor of Tho aur:
There is a background story related to the
disastrous Columbia river floods now in pro
gress, and It may be of Interest hereabouts.
About 40 yean ago, when I waa a young
reporter an the Kelsonian, at Kelso, Wash.,
there came to our town a talented en
gineer with a large vision. His name was
Richard B. Magruder, and he waa one of the
large family of that name long settled at
or near 8andy Spring, M«L He hat
•
Letters for publication must bear
the signature and address of the
writer, although it is permissible for
a writer known to The Star to use
a nom de plume. Please be brief.
completed a diking project at the mouth
of the Sacramento river in California, and
had a plan to protect the immensely rich
delta lands adjacent to Kelso, where the
little Cowlits River empties into the mighty
Columbia, about SO miles north of Portland,
Oreg. The Identity of his financial backers
I never knew, but he set out to buy some
thousands of acres of farmland west of the
Cowlits, Intending to dike, ditch and resell.
His plan was frustrated by the settlers there,
most of whom were Finnish-Americans who,
under leadership of a farmer named Ben
Sheppardson, got hold of the idea that they
could do their own reclamation, refused to
sell their land, and then set up their own
local improvement district and bflilt their own
dikes and ditches,- with appurtenant pumping
stations. Thereupon Engineer Magruder
crossed the Columbia river to Clatskanie,
Oreg. (which by the way is pronounced
Clats-ka-neye), and there developed the sort
of project he had intended to build on the
^Washington side.
When the Finnish farmers began to make
progress upon the construction of their dikes,
and when Mr. Magruder was building at
Clatkskanie the idea of protecting other lands
along the Columbia spread rapidly. The lower
part of-Kelso was protected by what is known
as the Coweeman Dike. The city of Longview,
built by the Long-Bell Lumber Co., was pro
tected in part by the very dikes the Finnish
farmers built, and by others as well. The town
of Woodland and its rich surrounding farms
were inclosed. And the whole diking enterprise
began in the mind, purpose, vision and energy
of a Maryland man of 'good Quaker stock,
the same late Richard B. Magruder.
As I write, the dikes in the negihborhood
of Kelso are still holding; those at Woodland
and Puget Island have collapsed. The tragedy
is tremendous; the losses incalculable. Still
it may be appreciated that in the more than
30 years since these projects were completed
the areas have had protection which was not
available before, and in normal seasons the
dikes have saved crops and homes to the
value of millions.
It may be added, as a matter of general in
formation, that there is high-water in the
lower Columbia every year during late May
and early June, not as a result of persistent
spring rains, but from melting snow in the
high mountains of Eastern Washington. British
Columbia, Idaho and Montana. When the
rivers having their sources in these mountains
run off at practically the same time, a flood
such as that of this year results.
PETER F. SNYDER.
Mr. McLemore’* Words Echoed
To the Editor of The Star:
Congratulations to Henry McLemore for his
words of appreciation of Gen. MacArthur. It
is time some newspaper expressed gratitude to
one of the greatest generals of all time.
MRS. G. B. W.
‘Dozens of Cars Are Stolen’
To the Editor of The Star:
Recently our car, a new Plymouth sedan, was
stolen from the parking lot of a motion picture
house in a fine residential neighborhood. Two
very courteous policemen took necessary in
formation but later told us that "dozens of
cars are stolen every day.” In other words
the loss of a car is "all in a day’s work’’ to our
local policemen and no special effort can be
made for its recovery. But if "dozens of cars
are being stolen daily,” isn't it time that a
concerted effort be made to check this? A
robbery of a service station yielding $44 will
get a front page spread. Isn’t the theft of a
*1,700 car bought with the earnings of two
working women worthy of some attempt to
prevent such occurrences?
ETHEL S. SAMPSON.
Points on Palestine Platform
To the Editor of Tht Star:
Without delving into the international com
plexities of the problem, the Palestine diverg
ence of opinion and interests—per se—can
best be analysed by examination of the five
basic points of the platform of the Zionist
movement and the corresponding Arab re
plies.
1. The Jewish people for centuries have lived
in Palestine, were thrown out, and now want
to return to Zion. ^
Answer: What th# Jews say is true, but the
Arabs have been in Palestine for over 1.000
years. By virtue of Jewish reasoning, the
Norse should rule all of Europe and the United
States should give its land back to the Indians.
2. The Jews have been persecuted the world
over from time immemorial. Over 6,000.
000 were slain by the Nazis.
Answer: Palestine is a very small country,
only slightly larger than the State of New
Jersey. Ihe distribution of Arab and Jewish
populations In 1920 and in 1947 was as follows:
1920—70,000 Jews and 700,000 Arabs; 1947—
700,000 Jews and 1,200,000 Arabs. If the United
States between the years 1920-1947 had per
mitted Jewish immigration in the same ratio
as have the Arabs, there would have been ad
mitted the hypothetical number of 50,000,000.
The land of Zion will neither hold nor support
the tremendous yiflux of Jews.
3. Palestine is the Holy Land for the Jews.
Ariswer: It is also the Holy Land for the
Christians and Jerusalem is the third most
sacred city for the Mohammedans.
4. The Balfour Declaration, a two-edged In
strument of British policy, says in effect that
England will support a national homeland for
Jews in Palestine if the arrangement does not
interfere with the people already there.
Answer: The Jews see the first part of the
declaration and forget the second, while the
Arabs see the second half and are inclined tp
Ignore the first.
5. The Arabs are a backward race. The
Jews came and in a few years, conquered
malaria, built irrigation ditches, roads, hos
pitals, modem buildings, etc., and raised the
standard of living.
Answer: Yes, but the Zionist economy Is un
sound. The modernizing was made possible
only by financial contributions from Jews all
over the world. The Arabs, admittedly unpro
gressive, are a self-sufficient and independent
people. Wooden plowshares with which they
have tilled their land for so many centuries
will be used in the same satisfied manner for
many centuries to come.
To say that the Palestine Arabs are lacking
in a justifiable cause for their objections to
Zionism is to conclude that in all cases, deci
sion should be based not on equity but upon
power of conquest. J. LATHAM BERRY.
On Liking ‘Old Joe’
To th« editor ot The Star:
So President Truman’s gentle voice is calling
Old Red Joe! He likes “Old Joe”! Whether
his statement indicates stupidity or mere hy
pocrisy, it is disgusting. Franklin D. Roosevelt
also liked and trusted Old Red Joe, as he said
more than once. That is why he gave Joe so
many testimonials of his liking. That is why
the Russians are nSw in Germany and why
the world is ih such a mess.
Old Joe’s hands are red with the blood of
millions and Mr. Truman cannot whiten them
by ignoring the evidence of history.
ANTI RED JOE.
The Political Mill
Will Isolationist Tail
Wag Republican Dog?
Lowest Form of Its Activity Seen in
Attempt to Smear Vandenberg
* By Gould Lincoln
Is its isolationist tail going to wag the Re
publican dog? This is a major question which
the Republican National Convention/ meeting
in Philadelphia next week, will answer. The
answer will come in the writing of the Repub
lican Party platform and the nomination of
candidates for President and Vice President.
The isolationist tail of the GOP is exceed
ingly active. One of the lowest forms of its
activity is its present attempt to smear Senator
Vandenberg of Michigan, Republican chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
who frequently has been mentioned as the
most likely presidential nominee if the party’s
national convention becomes deadlocked over
Messrs. Dewey, Taft, Stassen and various
favorite-son candidates.
The attacks on the Michigan Senator have
increased for two reasons as the opening of the
convention has drawn closer. First, those Re
publicans who are opposed to the bipartisan
foreign policy which has beerf built up under
the Vandenberg leadership in the Senate, have
viewed with alarm the growing sentiment for
a Vandenberg nomination ’which has extended
from one end of the country to the other.
Second, supporters of some of the other presi
dential possibilities have not been averse to
seeing a monkey wrench thrown into the
Vandenberg-for-President machinery.
One of Smear Efforts.
One of the smear efforts is to paint Senator
Vandenberg as a copy of President Truman—
the choice, to be sure, of the Democrats for
the Republican presidential nomination. The
total absurdity of this proposition lies in the
fact that the Michigan Senator himself has
been responsible for the present foreign policy
of the United States. It was his effort which
put backbone into the Truman administration:
which turned this Government from a former
policy of appeasement of Soviet Russia. This
effort began as far or farther back than the
meeting of the United Nations in San Fran
cisco to write a United Nations Charter, and
was continued at the London meeting of the
new, organization. It bore fruit when the Se
curity Council of the United Nations got down
to work in New York—and has continued to
do so.
In the successful framing of this loreign policy
—called bipartisan—Senator Vandenberg has
done a masterful Job for the Republican Party
and for the country. The G. O. P. in Congress
and out has looked to him as its leader on
foreign affairs, especially as he has been in a
key position as Senate Foreign Relations chair
man. There arises, however, a sudden smear
campaign to belittle him. He is, the smear
artists say, too old and too ill to be President,
notwithstanding the reports of his own phy
sician. He is, however, less than two months
older than President Truman. It may be re
called, too, that when Franklin D. Roosevelt
was first running for the Democratic Presi
dential nomination in 1932, all kinds of pre
dictions were made that he could not last two
years in the White House. Yet it was morp
than 12 years later when Roosevelt died—still
in the White House.
Grist to the Isolation Mill.
The recent action of the House of Represen
tatives, clipping nearly $2,000,000,000 off the
European Recovery Program appropriation, was
seized upon as a weapon to beat Senator Van
denberg and his presidential chances over the
head. It was all grist to the isolationists’ mill.
It looks, now, however, as though this was Just
another fight which the Michigan Senator will
win, and nearly all of the money will be re
stored to carry out the program of relief and
reconstruction which had been promised by the
United States Government. Senator Vanden
berg's demand that this action be taken, made
to the Senate Appropriations Committee, bore
immediate fruit. He promptly was backed in
his stand by Gov. Dewey of Npw York, Harold
E. Stassen of Minnesota, and Gov. Warren of
California—all of whom are among the leading
candidates for the presidential nomination.
Senator Vandenberg repeatedly has insisted
he is not a candidate for the presidential nom
ination. There exists, however, a widespread
desire for his election—a desire which undoubt
edly will have its influence on the balloting in
Philadelphia next week. Indeed, unless the
smear efforts of his opponents are successful,
an impasse in the convention because of Dewey
and Taft strength could easily be resolved by
the nomination of senator Vandenberg. The
Michigan delegation, 41 strong, will vote for him
on the first ballot, and probably keep on voting
for him as long as that possibility exists.
So far as the writing of the Republican
platform is concerned, the isolationists will get
no joy out of it. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge,
Jr., of Massachusetts, has been made chairman
of the Resolutions Cofhmittee of the national
convention. He has been a strong right hand of
Senator Vandenberg in the drive for the foreign
policy of the United States.
Answers to Questions
A reader can get the answer to any question of
fact by writing The Evening Star Information
Bureau, 310 Eye street NX, Washington -• D. C.
Please Inclose three 13) cents for return postage.
By THE HASKIN SERVICE.
Q. How much money is lost each year in the
United States as a result of floods?—L. M.
A. The losses have averaged $110,000,000 an
nually in recent years, according to Twentieth
Century Fund surveys.
Q. What alphabet do the Russians use?—
H H
A. The Russians use the Cyrillic alphabet
based upon Greek letters, with others added.
This, alphabet was, according to tradition, the
invention of Cyril, missionary to the Slavs
in the 9th century. It is one of the three
dominant alphabets in the w’orld. the other two
being the Roman and the Arabic.
Q. Why was the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
chosen as the place for Jews to mourn and
pray?—G. R. C.
A. The wall served as a buttress of the old
temple area. When Solomon's Temple fell into
the hands of the Moslems, this fragment of the
old wall marked the nearest approach that
the Jews could make to the holy site.
Q. Has any one ever determined how much
energy is used in seeing?—V. W. A.
A. According to Dr. Charles Sheard of the
Mayo Clinic, 25 per cent of bodily energy is
used in seeing.
Obiter Dictum
Fishing that New Hampshire stream
Where swift shadows dart and rare,
Sag. did Daniel Webster dream
Of the Dartmouth College Case?
Did his eyes like embers blaze
Thus because the master’s brain
Kindled with inspired phrase.
Framing his reply to Hayne?
By that overhanging tree,
Kill-all arching in his hand,
Was he scheming history—
* McCulloch versus Maryland?
Did he plan his triumphs there?
Maybe so—but this we doubt.
Having matched, like him, the rare
Mettle of New England troutf
HAROLD WILLARD GLEASON.