The Chicago star., July 03, 1948, Star Edition, Page 2, Image 2

About The Chicago star. (Chicago, Ill.) 1946-1948

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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THE CHICAGO STAR, JULY 3, 1948
Bus Co. retreats on
plan for fare boost
By RALPH IZARD
Chicago's last ten-cent ride—
aboard buses of the Chicago
Motor Coach Co.—was temporar
ily saved for the people Wednes
day.
A petition before the Illinois
Commerce Commission to in
crease these fares to 15 cents was
withdrawn by the company. Of
ficial explanation for withdrawal
was the company's inability to
complete the case within the 11
necessary months from date of
filing—or by July 9. Other and
more lucid explanations were
given off the record in City Hall
and by the Chicago Park Dis
trict.
The bus company, owned by
the New York City Omnibus
Corp., pays nothing to the city
for the use of its streets. And
nothing more to the state than
the fees for the license carried
by each bus and the fees for its
[The Chicago
ft <rwii«*i a»u puDnsned WEEKLY
by The Chicago Star Publishing
Co., Inc., 166 West Washington
Street. Chicago 2, 111. Phone
RANdolph 0580.
Cable address: Chistar
Frank M. Davis Executive Editor
Carl Hirsch Managing Editor
William Senneit General Manager
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
(Except Canada
and foreign) 1 Year $2.00.
Entered as second class matter
June 25, 1946 at the post office at
Chicago, 111., under the Act of
March 3, 1879.
Postal regulations require that
all new subscriptions for military
personnel stationed overseas must
be accompanied by a written
request from the person to whom
the subscription is directed.
drivers licenses.
* * *
SOLE beneficiary of the cor
poration’s operations—aside from
bond and stockholders is the
Chicago Park Commission. This
arrangement dates from 1917,
when the motor coach company
began to operate sight-seeing
buses through the city’s parks.
Under this compact, the bus
company pays to the park com
mission 3.5 per cent of its gross
receipts, based on the percentage
of travel on boulevards cared for
by the commission. This sum has
never gone as high as $250,000
annually. For the last three years
it has ranged from $238,000 to
$240,000.
But the company has routes on
State, Wabash, Van Buren, Jack
son blvd., Adams, Monroe. Madi
son, Washington, Randolph and
Wacker drive.
For the maintenance and re
pair of these thorofares it con
tributes not one penny to the
city finances.
* * *
AN ORDINANCE which would
compel the New York City Om
nibus Corp. to contribute to the
upkeep of those city streets on
which its buses run was passed
by the City Council Dec. 17, 1946.
Motor coaches of less than 30-
passenger capacity would, under
this ordinance, pay to the city
3 A of one penny per revenue
mile. Buses of 30 to 39 passenger
capacity would pay one penny
per revenue mile, those able to
carry 40 and more, 1.5 cents.
But ever since the passage by
the City Council this ordinance
has been tied up in litigation.
Currently it is before County
Judge Ulysses Schwartz. Mem
bers of the City Hall legal staff
explain their inertia in this case
by saying that they are inade
quate to handle it—in numbers,
that is.
Our heritage
By Frank Marshall Davis
64'TW7’ he:n a lon S train of
W abuses and usurpations
. . . pursuing invariable the
same object, evinces a design
to reduce them under absolute
despotism, it is their right, it
is their duty to throw off such
government and to provide new
guards for their future se
curity.”
These are strong, fighting
words. But the author, Mr.
President and members of the
un-American committee, is no
Communist. Nor can he be sub
jected to a loyalty quiz.
The author is Thomas Jef
ferson. In his own handwriting
it is part of the draft of the
: Declaration of Independence,
Moneybags
STEP up and meet some
new American “money
bags.”
The new dollar elite, accord
ing to Life magazine May 31,
is none other than the U. S.
labor movement. Citing the
assets of the 32 “top” unions
in the country, Life says they're
worth the grand total of $224
million.
Sounds like a lot of hay until
you take a look at some other
bales like these:
In 1947 General Motors alone
raked in a profit (after taxes)
of $299,773,000. That same year.
Standard Oil of New Jersey
made off with $268 million after
taxes.
single corporations—in
one year—walked away with
more sss than America’s “top”
32 unions could amass in a life
time.
That’s Life:
Cominform
LOOKING for, trouble the
American press found it
this week in the charges
brought against Yugoslav Com
munist leaders by the sister
parties that make up the Com
inform.
Yugoslav officials were
charged with bureaucratic
methods, failure to elect mem
bers to the leading committees,
with a false policy toward the
peasants, appeasing Western
imperialists and many deep-go
ing theoretical fallacies.
While serious, the charges
were blown up to fantastic pro
portions in the typographical
flurry in the American press.
Wiser observers—not so anx
ious to read the collapse of so
cialism into every inner dispute
—concluded that the Commu
nists would settle the matter in
due course.
the most momentous document
in American history. It will be
here July 4 aboard the Freedom
Train.
* * *
CHICAGO will see Freedom
Train on the anniversary of
the revolutionary birth of our
great nation, at a ume when
the precious, priceless freedom
for which our forefathers bled
and died faces the threat of
strangulation by the Mundt-
Nixon bill.
And if that is not ironic
enough, remember that Free
dom Train also contains
the Emancipation Proclamation
which liberated the Negro peo
ple. And yet Mayor Kennelly
did not see fit to name one of
foo vn.'tlkg.
Chiang's little helper
THOSE now touting the
Dewey - Warren marriage
of convenience as a “liberal”
Republican combination might
do well to ponder the ticket’s
first campaign promise.
In their opening broadside,
the GOP standard bearers
promised all-out support to
China’s fascist dictator, Chiang
Kai Shek, in his losing battle
to crush the Communist forces
who have won the support of
virtually all democratic Chi
nese.
As for Warren, much is be
ing made of the fact that should
he become vice-president, he
would take a $5,000 per year
salary cut from his present job
as governor of California. But
for some reason, our hearts re
fuse to bleed. We can’t be
lieve Wall Street would allow
one of its major spokesmen to
wallow in poverty on a mere
$25,000 per year.
Huk victory
WITH the death of Presi
dent Roxas ) Gen. Mac-
Arthur’s buddy, demoocracy
seems to be infitrating the
Philippines while “The Pipe”
reigns supreme in Tokyo.
Luis Taruc, who had a price
on his head under the Roxas
regime as leader of the pa
triotic Hukbalahaps, was seated
in the Filipino congress at Ma
nila last week after amnesty
had been granted all Huk fight
ers. Taruc had been elected in
1946.
this city's more than 400.000
Negroes to ike Sponsors' Com
mittee, slacked with Big Busi
nessmen and bankers.
Are we to assume therefore
that the rulers of America in
tend that freedom shall belong
exclusively to the economic dic
tators and their handy men, the
old party politicians? That the
rest'of us must feast on the
smell of freedom and not its
taste?
* * *
IF SUCH is the decision, let
us reject it.
It was the plain people, not
the moneyed men and aristo
crats, who purchased liberty
and equality with privation at
Valley Forge, who underwrote
freedom at Gettysburg, on Iwo
Jirna and at the Battle of the
Bulge.
Let us keep it by reviving
our faith in democracy through
seeing the documents that have
made America great. Let us
visit Freedom Train and read
again the immortal words of
Jefferson, the shining words
our Tafts and Rankins want us
to forget.
* * *
LET US read again the Bill
of Rights which the Mundt-
Nixon bill would turn into a
useless scrap of paper and let
us come away determined to
protect those freedoms guaran
teed by our Constitution.
We need she Freedom Train.
Most of all, in these troubled
days we need the strength to
fight and add to our rights so
that freedom will be more than
documents hauled around the
nation.
Freedom Train will be here
five days. But let’s keep its
spirit here with us forever.
'Red' YWCA
LATEST victim of the na
tion’s Anti-Red plague,
spread by the disease carriers
of the Thomas - Rankin un-
American committee, is the
YWCA. It is reported from
New York that support is be
ing withheld by prominent con
tributors until after a thorough
investigation of “Communist in
fluence.”
The YWCA, oordinarily a
“safe” organization, became
suspect as a hothouse for radi
cals a couple of years ago when
officials announced there would
be no more segregation. Pre
sumably, this made the YWCA
disloyal and un-American, since
“the best people” practice prej
udice and discrimination. Must
it now restore its previous jim
crow patterns to become “re
spectable?”
Klansman
ALL that J. Parnell
Thomas, head of the
House un-American committee,
had to do was open his mouth
aand yell “reds” and the news
papers came running to make
with the big headlines.
Bui Ihey kepi pretty mum
early this month over a charge
made by O. John Rogge, for
mer assistant to the Attorney
General, that Thomas had been
a member at one time of the
vicious Ku Klux Klan.
Rogge, who was also prose
cutor of the wartime sedition
cases, made his charge before
the Senate judiciary committee.
He also declared that he has
conclusive evidence to prove
Thomas’ membership in the
Klan and he called for a
Congressional investigation of
Thomas.
But the press didn’t think the
story “important.”