Evening star. [volume], July 25, 1948, Image 38

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

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EIGHT PAGES
WASHINGTON, D. C., JULY 25, 1948
T wo T argets of U. S. Barbs
Pledge Their Allegiance
Peron and Franco Are Potential American
Allies Despite the Diplomatic Wallops
They Have Received From Us
By Constantine Brown
Argentina's President Juan Peron and Spain's Generalissimo Fran
cisco Franco have recently made clear that in view of the grave threat
to our western civilization they would range their countries on the side
of the western democracies in the event of war with Russia.
It is a strange commentary on our relations with these two
countries that their governments have been the targets of a relentless
campaign in the united States, re
sulting in barely “polite" govern
mental relations.
On July 6 President Peron, speak
ing to a group of Brazilian students
visiting Buenos Aires, stated cate
gorically that if war broke out
between the United States and
Russia. Argentina unhesitatingly
would take her place by the side of
the great North American Republic.
Target of U. S. Attacks
On the same day the Argentine
Ambassador to Brazil, Juan Isaac
Cooke, held a press conference at
the Embassy in Rio de Janeiro and
declared that "in the event of an
American-Russian war my nation
will fight on the side of the United
States, because the defense of the
American continent will be at
stake.
President Peron has been the
target of violent attacks in this
country, not only from the so-called
'•liberal'’ press and commentators,
but also from the State Department,
some of whose people—imbued with
ideologies emanating from Moscow,
at one time did their utmost to bring
about a break between the two
American republics.
The official reason for the ire of
high State Department officials, sup
ported by some White House ad
visers, was that Gen. Peron had been
pro-Nazi since Argentina had re
fused to join the other western
nations in declaring war on Ger
many.
Behind this argument, which was
bound to be popular while this
country was at war, was a powerful
Soviet intrigue to confuse our situa
tion in South America. Only re
cently did this objective of the U. S.
S. R, become evident, after the
attempt to break up the Bogota
Conference by provoking a revolu
tionary, outbreak in Colombia.
Men in high position in the State
Department put this country far
out on a limb when Gen. Peron was
running for President by interfering
in the Argentine election campaign.
A Blue Book lambasting Gen. Peron
wrs published a few weeks before
t. Argentine people went to the
polls'. This effort to defeat the
Argentine strong man boomeranged.
Peron Not a Liberal
Until the. United States Govern
ment interfered so obviously in the
politics of the great South American
republic there was a chance that
Gen. Peron would be defeated. But
as soon as the American Govern
ment issued the Blue Book the
Argentine people—proud Latins—
elected the man who had been made
the target of attacks by American
Government officials.
Moreover, the Argentinians knew
w hat only very few people in Wash
ington knew, that the man who was
behind our anti-Peron policies was
a Spaniard who had served as chief
of the Republican Army's intelli
gence in the civil war. He was dis
' covered by his own superiors to be,
in fact, a Russian agent and was
removed, but the Soviet representa
tive in Madrid forced his reinstate
ment under the threat that Russia
would withdraw its support from
the hard-pressed Republican armies.
All these things were known in
Buenos Aires and the fact that he
had a hand in American policy to
ward Gen. Peron caused surprise.
Gen. Peron was villified in many
American newspapers and on the
radio and frequently was slapped
down by our own Government. But
now, when the situation has become
dramatically critical, Gen. Peron has
emerged as the first Latin American
leader to pledge his country's full
support to the United States Gov
ernment and its people.
Gen. Peron is by no means a
liberal. We have described him as
a dictator. He is just that, in the
old sense of the word. But not if
we compare him with thd modern
dictators, such as Joseph Stalin.
Marshal Tito and the other Red
chieftains behind the iron curtain.
The title of dictator was bestowed
on Gen. Peron by the Soviet Union
and its sympathizers in this country,
in the same way that Moscow
labeled as Fascists such men as Sen
a tor Vandenberg, John Foster Dulles.
Admiral William F. Halsey and
many other Americans.
important Talk W ith Franco
In May of this year Gen. Franco
received Myron Taylor, President
Truman's special representative to
the Vatican, in a two-hour audience.
While nothing was published about
this important interview, beyond the
fact that it was held, it is known to
some highly placed Washington offi
cials that the possibility of an armed
conflict between Russia and the
western nations was discussed.
Gen. Franco, whose chief crime in
the eyes of the western nations was
to have been a consistent Commun
ist-hater, is reported to have said
that he was convinced that a war
between east and west was in
evitable.
Believing that this was no simple
struggle for power, but a crusade by
the east to replace western civil
ization with an Asiatic dictatorship,
f Gen. Franco placed at the disposal
oi the western powers everything
Spain has—bases, raw materials and
manpower. He emphasized the great
itrategic importance of the Iberian
Peninsula, which he considers as the
only part- of Western Europe which
Is capable of resisting Red attack
tor any length of time. He offered
his co-operation with no strings
attached.
Our poor relations with the Span
ish government also are1’ "mfide in
Moscow.” The American Govern
ment in 1939 hastened—with almost
the same speed that it showed in
recognition of the State of Israel—
to extend official recognition to Gen.
Franco's government after the col
lapse of the Republican regime.
Within 48 hours the State Depart
ment sent Freeman Matthews—now,
American Minister to Sweden, but
at that time a Secretary of Embassy
in Paris—to Gen. Franco's headquar
ters at Segovia. He was given six
hours to pack his striped trousers
and take over as Charge d Affaires
for the United States at the seat oi
the new regime. The officials of the
Embassy attached to the fallen
Madrid government — who were
known to be sympathetic to that
regime—were quickly ordered to
other posts or recalled to Wash
ington.
Stalin’s Plan Opposed
Despite the pressure of manu
factured public opinion in this
country, the American Government
maintained friendly relations with
the Franco regime throughout
World War II. It was only in 1946
that this Government,, allegedly
obeying a resolution by the United
Nations Assembly, ceased to main
tain an Ambassador in Madrid,
leaving the Embassy in charge of
minor officials.
This reporter can disclose for the
first time—from an unimpeachable
source who attended the Potsdam
Conference—how the U. N. As . m
bly was maneuvered into pussing
that resolution.
Prime Minister Stalin, who was
on his best behavior at Potsdam,
raised the question of Spain and de
manded from President Truman
and Prime Minister Churchill—his
'dear friends and associates"—that
an end be put to the Franco regime.
It was evident to all who were
present at the closed session that an
economic blockade unquestionably
would cause a revolution in Spain.
Both President Truman and Mr.
Churchill opposed Mr. Stalin’s sug
gestion. They maintained that after'
all the Franco question is a matter
for the Spanish people t« decide by
themselves, and it was not up to
the Allies,
Pressure Put on Delegates
Mr. Stalin became ugly and
threatened to disrupt the whole
conference. Finally alter lengthy
discussion he yielded to the for
mula presented by the western pow
ers, to withdraw their chiefs of
mission from Madrid as an indica
tion of their disapproval of El
Caudillo. But in order to make
this tr/easure more spectacular, and
not to have it appear as a move by
the Big Three alone, it was agreed
that the matter should be sub
mitted to the U. N. Assembly and
sufficient pressure should be put
on the smaller countries’ delegates
to nut it through.
When the Assembly met a year
later the whole thing had been well
organized and the resolution to
withdraw the ambassadors and min
isters of all members was approved
The Argentine alone defied the edict
engineered by the Big Three, and
sent a new Ambassador to -Madrid
a few months after the United Na
tions had excommunicated Spain.
The U. N. decision boomeranged
in Spain as much as the attempt to
defeat Gen. Peron had done. The
Spanish people, who had begun to
think things over in the spring and
summer of 1946 and wanted to get
rid of Gen. Franco, rallied around
,the head of their government. All
the plans engineered by the sup
porters of Don Juan, the pretender
to the Spanish throne, with the
quiet help of the British were aban
(See BROWN, Page C-5.)
Cost of Food Shoots Off the Chart
America's Middle Class Feels the Squeeze Most as theDeadly Cycle of Inflation
Presents a Challenge Government Cannot Ignore.
INDEX
CONSUMERS’ PRICE INDEX
FOR MODERATE INCOME FAMILIES IN LARGE CITIES
1935-39*100
ALL ITEMS
60
world WAR
1913 1915
U S ENTERS BACK TO NORMAL
1920
Aowu&iM'fSm xo’s
1925 1930
DEPRESSION
1935
[ -WORLD WAR | I
U S ENTERS
1940 1945 1948
The measure of today's inflation is indicated in this
chart of the consumers’ price index in large cities, including
Washington. The basic chart was prepared by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics icith figures for the last year and a half
added, using BLS data. The peak on June 15 this year teas
an index of 171.7. The index includes the cost of food, clothing,
housefurnishings, fuel and other family budget items. The
biggest rise has been for food, with meat topping all foods.
By Chalmers M. Roberts
The keyword of the peacetime
1930s turned out to be “depression.”
In the same history books, it ap
pears today, the keyword of the
peacetime 1940s will be “inflation.”
After World War I people talked
about the high cost of living and
HCL was a combination of Jetrers
pregnant with - meaning for the
American family. In the 28 years
since the post-World War I price
peak we have learned a lot of eco
nomics terms, probed deeply into
the t relationships of prices and
wages,, public debt and currency
circulation and many another re
lated subject. But we still seem to
have with us the familiar cycle of
"boom and bust.”
Reds Hope for Bust
The Communists, alter poking
their noses into Karl Marx's dis
section of capitalist economies, tell
us the present boom leads inevitably
to the great bust they, and appar
ently the men in the Kremlin, are
hoping for so they can take over
a nation of malcontented citizens,
ready to turn to any Cure-all.
Americans who reject the Com
munist thesis feel that the boom
bust cycle is not inevitable, that the
peaks and valleys of such cycles can
be leveled off, that capitalism, with
some controls exercised by the Gov
ernment, has been, is, can be and
will be the most productive of all
economic systems for the greatest
number of people. We are inclined
to disagree among ourselves, of
course, on the extent and type of
Government controls on our econ
omy. This November's election will
measure, in a way, our feeling on
that question.
This week, as Congress meets
once again at President Truman's
call, the same question is brought
into sharp focus. The President has
called the session to deal with the
high cost of living as a first and
foremost problem.
Grim Evidence in Figures
The cost of living figures released
on Friday by the Labor Depart
ment's Bureau of Labor Statistics
are the grim evidence. The cost of
food in Washington has shot off
the graph, reaching an all-time in
dex peak or 215.4 (the years 1935
1939 are considered the normal 100),
up 48 per cent since the end of
OP A in June, 1946 and up 129 per
cent since August, 1939, the last
prewar month.
But you don’t have to be an
economist or look at Government
figures to know that we re in the
boom phase of the boom-bust cycle
and that the high cost of living is
all around us. Most of us are call
ing it “inflation” as we called the
bust part of the last cycle “depres
sion” though “deflation” would have
been the comparative term.
Our experience with the great de
pression of the 1930s led Congress
to pass what is known as "the Em
ployment Act of 1946." This act
created the Council of Economic Ad
visers to the President, a group of
three men, together with a support
ing staff, whose job it is to study our
economic system, know where it's
going, send up warning signals
when there’s danger ahead. The
council prepares the President's
semiannual economic report to Con
gress, the latest version of which
will go to the Capitol within a few
days.
‘Some Gain—Others Lose’
Here are some passages from the
last report under the subtitle “Why
Inflation Is Dangerous,” w’hich are
worth reading today:
"During the course of an infla
tionary movement there are many
who find it difficult to think that1
anything is wrong. There is a ready
market, every one is employed,
wages are good, production is high,
profits are good, and industrial
capacity is being expanded.
‘’There are some, indeed, w’ho find
real merit in the situation. They
say that the cure for specific short
ages is still higher prices. They ex
pect that these will stimulate larger
output and restore balance. But this
is a vain hope. The stubborn and
intractable fact about an economy
already operating at peak levels is
that output cannot be expanded ex
cept by slow' degrees.
Luxury Items Hit
“Nor are the immediate conse
quences of inflation as favorable as
superficially appears. Some people
are gaining at the expense of ethers.
The heavy weight of higher costs of
living bears down upon the millions
of families who are unable to keep
up with advancing prices. Economic
relations degenerate into a hectic
struggle to catch up or keep ahead.
No firm basis can be established for
orderly and stable progress. *'
“But what most fully justifies
every effort to halt an inflation is
the certainty that, if it runs its
course unimpeded, it will spread
in its wake the disaster of falling
markets, unemployment and busi
ness losses * *
There is a ready market: Yes. for
many things. But not for all. Peo
ple are too pressed to pay for food
to have money for the flood of
goods now coming out of our indus
tries. First to be hurt are the lux
ury items—furs, books, jewelry, en
tertainment. The book and station
ery business is off 33 per cent from
last year; movies and the theater
are in a postwar slump with film
. box office sales off 7 to 12 per cent.
The ready market is disappearing
for many things, it could evaporate
j over night for even the still hard
| to-get new car.
Every one is employed: We are at
peacetime highs for jobs. But there
are layoffs in those businesses al
ready hit. Others will follow/if
other businesses also are depressed.
Wages are good: Yes, we are now
In the so-called third round of post
war wage Increases for our great
mass-production industries. But
the men and women who receive
the increases know now how illusory
are mere wage increases.
Production is high: Every business
index tells this. Even housing fig
ures are colossal in raw num
bers. But who can afford to buy
a house or rent an apartment in a
newly constructed building?
Profits are good: Not just good,
but tremendous, even after taxes.
But they don't buy anything any
more, say the people who get the
dividends.
We have a new crop of wheat
millionaires, of new industrial mil
lionaires. of industrial workers earn
ing comparatively fabulous sums
even considering the bite inflation
has taken out of the dollar. Plenty
of people are making a killing out
of their dividends.
Middle Class Pinched
But, as the economists put it, ‘‘the
heavy weight of high costs of living
bears down upon the millions of
families who are unable to keep up
with advancing prices.”
In this group is the great segment
of our population called the middle
class or the white-collar class, a
group of relatively greater numbers
and importance here in Washing
ton than in any other city or in the
Nation as a whole.
Government wages and salaries
have not and cannot keep up with
the rising cost of living. They do
not drop w'ith deflatiort the way
industrial wages do, of course, but
that is of little consolation in times
like the present.
These are the people who, during
the war years of good pay and fair
ly stable prices, found pleasure in
books they never bought before.
Today they buy few, if any. They
cut down on their magazine sub
scriptions, don’t go to New York to
see the newf plays, find it hard to
dig up the dollars for a symphony
concert, give only a token, if any,
gift to the charity calls constantly
made upon them.
Thrift a Lost Virtue
These are the people who no
.onger have War Savings Bonds, who
no longer are having deductions
made from their pay to buy new
bonds, who have stopped paying
cash and started buying on time
Thrift is a lost virtue; the problem
Is to make ends meet. A psychia
trist could w'rite a book on the fam
ily problems in America today aris
ing from the current inflation.
Production and more production
we have been told, is the answer
But production is close to, if not at,
, the peak of our current capacities
and the stores are full of the out
pourings of our factories. There is
no difficulty in obtaining a washing
machine today; the problem for the
millions of housewives who would
like one to end the drudgery of the
laundry tub is how to find the
money to pay for it.
The answer, from the producer's
and the distributor’s point of view,
is to sell it on credit. The news
papers are, full of advertisements on
how to buy the fanciest kind for
$35 down and less than $1 a week.
This is called consumer credit.
“In the process of inflation,” said
the President's economic report,
"one of the most potentially danger
our sources of excessive demand is
the expansion of credit. This applies
to consumer credit, commercial
credit, real estate credit and credit
on .securities.”
There is outstanding today a very
large volume of consumer credit
although ther^ is* an argument over
whether it is excessive, considering
the growth of our population and
current income levels. The President
has asked for the power to control
this type of credit (through the Fed
era! Reserve System by saying that
the washing machine, for example,
can't be sold with less than a third
down in cashi. This authority ex
pired last November.
Real Estate Dilemma
Real estate credit presents one of
our most complex dilemmas. The
reason the present vast number of
housing units—homes and apart
ments — are being built is cheap
money, with Government backing.
The money market began to tighten,
however," partially because Congress
failed to renew one part of the
Government housing loan guaran
tee setup before it adjourned last
month. Today the trend is toward
large cash dowm payments, higher
interest rates and shorter-term
mortgages—all making it tough for
the already hard-pressed prospec
tive buyer. Despite an the high
sounding phrases of the real estate
lobby, however, there simply is no
i decent new housing available at the
price most Americans can afford to
pay.
Yet to get an even more vast hous
ing program under way would take
I much Government pump priming,
which in turn would increase the
demand for housing materials,
many of them still in tight or short
supply, with the inevitable further
rise in costs. If the Government
stands aside, the prices may even
j tually come down because there
I won't be any one left able to buy a
house on the only terms at which
they will be available. That might
bring lower prices but what would
I the millions of new families do
| for shelter meanwhile?
I Also caught in this web of infla
i " (See (BOOM-BUST, Page C-5.)
Socialists Are Heartened
As England Fares Better
British Government Thinks It Is Gaining
Strength With the Voters While the
Nation Shows an Improvement
By Glenn Williams
LONDON.—Increasing British prosperity, propped by United State*
financial crutches, heartens Britain's Socialists celebrating the end of
their third year in full power.
The government, more confident of its probable fate before the voter*.
Is determined to carry on its slightly lagging schedule of public owner
ship projects, and already is planning its platform for elections tint*
tively set for May, 1950.
The'Labor cabinet which took over
the management of Britain's affairs
on July 27, 1945, has had tough sled
ding.
Britain lives by international
trade. The trading accounts were:
totting up in the red before the war.
Lost markets, sold investments, and
war’s wear and tear on an already
declining industrial machine left a
legacy of myriad basic troubles.
There's improvement all along the
line noticeable now, but problems
are still present.
Must Raise Exports
The biggest is the trading deficit,
still running on at the rate of more
than one billion dollars a year.
That’s the hole that British work
ers, helped by American food and
machinery, must plug in the next
four years.
British production is now 11 per
cent higher than it has ever been
and 30 per cent above the 1946 level.
Despite rising production, Britain
has been trapped by prices for food
! and raw materials that have climbed
j faster than the sales prices of Brit
ish exports.
Britain’s leaders know they must
raise exports another 50 per cent in
the face of increasing buyer resist
ance. The price of failure to mod
ernize industry and raise its export
output is hardship and perhaps eco
nomic collapse.
Both Sir Stafford Cripps, the na
tions economic chieftain, and For
eign Secretary Ernest Bevin have
warne^i that American aid will not
allow any sudden betterment of •
Britons’ way of living.
One sobering thought to them is
that Congress will have to approve
the money for American aid every!
year.
The danger of runaway inflation
seems to be gone. Retail sales are
running at high levels, but the
people are having to dig into the
family sock to keep buying. j
Lower Classes Better Off
They have cashed a net of more
than 5.000,000 pounds’ ($20,000,000) j
worth of post office savings certifl-1
cates since Sir Stafford brought in
his “disinflationary” budget last;
April. Main feature of that budget
was a sharp increase in taxes on
unearned incomes and considerable
lowering of taxes for the lower and
middle' classes.
The middle class voters held the
balance of power at the polls, and
Labor Party politicians have in
creased the ardor of their courtship
of these votes noticeably in the last
several months.
The lower classes, especially the
workmen whose average earnings
are only about five pounds ($20) a
week, are probably better off than
they ever were before the war. The
middle classes have been feeling the
squeeze of fixed incomes and rising
prices. .
Now things look a bit better. Prices
are coming down for some things.
Price controls have held the line
with only small upw’ard slips. One
reason for that is rising food sub
sidies. which now amount to 470,
000,000 pounds ($1,880,000,000) a
year.
Housing is much improved. In
every town and city from London to
Scotland the train traveler can see
housing projects nearing completion.
Industrial production in general
is reaching record peaks. Automo
biles roll off production lines faster
than ever, although car making here
has not reached anything like De
troit's speed and efficiency.
Steel flows from mills at more
than 15,000,000 tons a year, an all
time high. Talk of “bottlenecks”
and ■ “priorities” is seldom heard
now.
Miners Hitting the Target
Britain's slowly but steadily In
creasing stall of coal miners Is hit
ting its target. After six months
of this calendar year, they were a
bit ahead of schedule on their goal
to dig 211,000,000 long tons this year.
Reorganization of the coal mines
is underway. More and more ma
Politicians Reminded to Keep Feet on Ground and Away From Mouth
Pity the'poor politician.
From now until the election in November he will be haunted by
the fear that he may say something inadvertently that may cost him
his election. Or that he may do something to lose votes. Or, even,
that he may be guilty of an error of omission.
James G. Blaine neglected to say something and it cost .him
the presidency.
Charles Evans Hughes neglected to do something—and there was
no reason at the time for him to do it—and it cost him the presi
dency also.
Farley’s Tongue Slipped
James A. Farley in his book, “Behind the Ballots," remarked that
“there is no business on earth where a mans words are held against
him to the same extent as in politics.”
Mr. Farley spoke from experience. An infelicitous phrase got him
in trouble with Kansas.
The magnifying-glass scrutiny of utterances of political figures
already is under way. One of the results was heard in the Democratic
convention keynote speech of Senator Barkley of Kentucky.
Referring to Hugh D. Scott. jr„ representative from Philadelphia
and new7 chairman of the Republican National Committee. Senator
Barkley cited this statement Mr. Scott is reported to have made: “We
(the Republicans! are the best stock. We are the people who repie
sent the real grit, brains and backbone of America.”
This w asn't the first time Mr. Scott had heard those words turned
against him. His service in the House was interrupted in 1944 by
defeat amid Democratic taunts of “snobbery” and resentment in his
own party because of that definition of Republicans.
Mr. Farley’s unfortunate experience came during the 1936 presi
dential campaign. Speaking in Michigan he made a mild attack on
the record of Alfred M. Landon as Governor of Kansas. He pointed
out that the problems of Kansas were those of a “typical prairie
State” and that it had benefited from the spending and agricultural
policies of the Roosevelt administration.
By Francis P. Douglas
The word “typical” was unfortunate; the Republicans made it
appear to be a derogatory term.
It drew a memorandum to Mr. Farley from Mr. Roosevelt. Mr.
Farley in his book quoted the President as writing: "If the sen
tence had read, ‘One of those splendid prairie States,’ no one could
have picked us up on it, bqt the word ‘typical’ coming from a New
Yorker is meat for the opposition."
Jt is not necessary that a candidate or other politician make a
statement that in itself can be used against him. If it can be construed
without too great yiolence to the original text so as to put the author
in a hole, that is enough, and that is an ever-present danger.
A1 Smith was as skillful a campaigner as is met with in politics—
until he fell in with the Liberty League—and his opponents usually
left the field with scars. Ogden Mills was the Republican nominee for
Governor of New York in 1*26 when Mr. Smith was seeking re-election, j
Mr. Mills lost votes by an injudicious statement which iCtr. Smith took
out of its context and turned against the Republican nominee.
Mr. Mills had said of A1 Smith: "He cannot be trusted either in
public or private life.”
Smith Made Mills a ‘Villain’
The New York Governor quickly followed that up at a political
meeting in the Bronx, angrily challenging Mr. Mills to produce any- j
thing to backhp his statement. He went on:
“Twenty-seven years ago I knelt beside the altar in St. Augustine's
Church and in the presence of God Almighty promised to care for,
honor and protect the woman of my choice. And if I suddenly was
ushered tonight before the Great White Throne I would be prepared
to establish that I had kept that promise. Let the Congressman
(Ogden Mills) lay his own private life beside my own.”
A reading of the full statement would have demonstrated that
Mr. Mills meant no aspersions of Mr. Smith's family life. But it was
related that Mr. Mills, hekring Mr. Smith's speech on the radio, went
white at the realization of what the cost to his campaign might be
from the opening he gave his opponent.
The astute Henry F. Pringle in his book, “Alfred E. Smith, a
Critical Study,” published shortly after that campaign, referred to
Mr. Smith's action as hardly fair to his opponent, and added:
“It was, of course, very effective indeed. * * * Mills seemed not
only a villain but an ass, for the fact that Smith's private life is above
reproach is as much an established truth in New York as that there
is something funny about Flatbush.”
Another example comes from another part of the country.
Oratorical Flights Dangerous
Arthur M. Hyde, who was Governor of Missouri and then Secretary
of Agriculture under President Hoover, was rated one of the biggest
guns in political oratory in a State where almost everything goes in
politics except eye-gouging in the clinches. But he gave the Democrats
of Missouri an opportunity somewhat similar to that Mr. Mills gave
Mr. Smith.
In the mid-1920s Harry B. Hawes was the Democratic nominee ,
for re-election to the Senate and Gov. Hyde's help was enlisted by the ,
Republican nominee. Gov. Hyde, who was from the west side of
the State, earned the fight to Mr. Hawes' home grounds in St. Louis.
, Back at the beginning of World War I Mrs. Lily Busch, the
mother of the then president of the Anheuser-Busch brewery, had
been caught in Europe by the outbreak of hostilities. Mr. Hawes, an
attorney, undertook the delicate task of getting her back home through
the warring nations. He was successful.
Gov. Hyde alluded to this in criticism of Mr. Hawes' professional
attainments. What he said was at once interpreted by the Democrats
as a criticsm of Mrs. Busch, and the Democrats saw to it that their
versidn was carried through the wards of South St. Louis, where
brewery workers—mostly Republicans—are" a large percentage of the
population.
Republican South St. Louis voted for ftarry Hawes.
The result of these hazards is that politicians get pretty careful
of what they say. Many eschew flights of oratory to any altitude
(See POLITICAL. SLIPS, Page C-2.)
chines are being used in the pits and
production is rising, but costs are
rising, too. The National Coal
Board lost nearly $100,000,000 on its
first year's operations.
There are still stringencies.
Probably the greatest is electricity.
The government already has fore
cast dimouts and heating shutdowns
for next winter. The reason is vast
ly increased demand coupled with a
shortage of generator capacity
brought on by wartime neglect.
Steel was to have been nationalized
in the present session of Parliament.
The government decided to wait a
year because it did not want to risk
disrupting rising production.
Delay in introducing the steel bill
handed the Conservative! a politi
cal guillotine because they control
the House of Lords.
The government now has called a
~^7See SOCIALISTS, Page C-5.)
Summertime
Breeds Crime
More Cases of Violence
Result When Tempers
Rise With Heat
By J. Edgar Hoovar
Director of the FBI.
The “good old summertime” Is the
season when millions of Americans
take to the mountains and the sea
shore for needed rest and relaxation.
It also is a season when crimes of
violence run rampant and thou
sands of our citizens are maimed,
murdered and raped.
It may seem a little ddd that
the bright vacation time of gayety
and laughter also is the time of
year when dark violence stalks the
land. But there is no arguing with
the figures.
Last year in the United States,
there was a felonious homicide com
mitted every 38.8 minutes, a rape
every 30.6 minutes and an ag
gravated asssfult every 7.04 minutes.
More of these were committed In
summertime than in any other sea
son.
Major Classifications
In frfct, an analysis of crime In
American cities over 25,000 in popu
lation during the past five years
clearly indicates that such crimes
of violence regularly go up during
the summer, down in winter.
Generally speaking, crimes can be
classified into two major types: Of
fenses against property and offenses
against persons.
Offenses against property are
usually premeditated. A criminal
plans a theft, robbery or burglary
as carefully and as fully as possi
ble, trying always to give himself
maximum opportunity to escape de
tection. Hence, a heavy percentage
of such offenses are timed for eve
ning hours when darkness blankets
the scene of the crime and covers
the route of escape. It follows log
ically, therefore, that more offenses
against property are planned for
the winter months than for the
summer months because in the win
ter there are more hours of dark
ness. The sneak thief and the back
alley thug have longer working
hours in December than in June.
me winter montns, moreover, en
courage personal and social habits
which lend indirect assistance to
night prowlers. With fewer people
out on long winter evenings, the
marauder runs less risk of being ob
served by passersby. Families who
might spend a good portion of
summer evenings in their yards will,
in winter, be indoors, usually with
windows dow»n and shades drawn,
leaving prowlers ample opportunity
to sneak through alleys and desert
ed streets in search of easy prey.
Open Cars Invite Thieve*
Crimes of violence, on the other
hand—offenses against the person
are frequently not premeditated.
They are impulsive, resulting from
explosive tempers, irritability and
uncontrolled passions. These are
the crimes that occur with greatest
frequency during the summer
months.
The only noticeable deviation
from these trends is with such petty
larcenies as thefts of articles from
automobiles and thefts of bicycles,
which are most frequent during the
summer.
This latter item can be accounted
for readily. In the summertime
there are more cars and bicycles
left out unlocked and unattended
than in winter. Even people who
habitually lock their automobiles
on hot days to leave window’s down
and doors open to avoid the dis
comfort of returning to a car that
has been tightly closed up and
standing in the sun for several
hours.
Many petty thefts from automo
biles occur at beaches, resorts and
other places where many cars and
crowds of people collect on hot days.
With throngs of people millihg
around, a thief has a fairly good
chance to prowl through an open
car without being noticed. More
over, the automobiles on such oc
casions are more likely to contain
articles attractive to thieves. Fami
lies on week-end or vacation trips
are likely to have their cars loaded
with outing goods and sporting
equipment.
There are many physiological and
even psychological reasons for the
(See HpOVER, Page C-5J