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Council of
Searches for
STRASBOURG is an ancient French city, two miles west of the
Rhine, that was captured first by: the Romans. Since then it has
been fought over many times. Metropolis of the Alsace-Lorraine dis
trict, it has changed hands four times since 1870, f
A fortnight ago, this historic embattled city became the scene of
a new effort to bring unity and peace to Europe. Twelve nations
linked in the Council 01 Europe beia
their first meeting there. The city and
and hi 11th Century cathedral were
decked with flags of the member na
tions and with the green and whlta
banner of the European movement
The idea of continental unity is not
new. It goes back in one form or an
other to the time of Charlemagne.
This latest attempt stems from a uni
fication conference at London test
May arising from a European move
ment launched by Winston Churchill
two years earlier. The London confer
ence created the Council of Europe
and picked Strasbourg as its capital.
Seek Political Unity
The Council of Europe is an at
tempt to unite the continent politi
cally. Since World War 'IL the Euro
pean Recovery Program, backed by
American food and dollars, has at
tempted to unite western Europe eco
nomically. Trie Western Union and
the North Atlantic Pact are means to
unite those nations on a military
basis.
The Council is composed of a Com
mittee of Ministers and a consultaT
tive Assembly. The Committee of
Ministers is composed of one delegate,
the foreign minister, from each mem
ber government.
The members are Britain, France,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxem
bourg. Italy, Ireland, Denmark, Nor
way, Sweden, Greece and Turkey.
Iceland also has been, admitted.
Paul-Henri Spaak, former Belgian
premier and former president of the
United Nations General Assembly,
was elected president of the Assem
bly. Federation, Pro and Con
The Council is not a government
Its powers are sharply limited. Dele
gates have the power to discuss com
mon problems, except defense, but
have no authority to act for their na
tions. They can only recommend ac
tinn. .,
Some would like to see the Council
develop into a United States of Eu
rope. Others, however, do not think
Europeans are ready yet to sacrifice
sovereignty for unity.
Some see the Council evolving into
a European parliament which would
produce a real continental govern
ment with decisive powers.
The goal is for some framework to
guarantee liberty, peace and security
for millions of Europeans.
Churchill said: "It is not against
any race or nation that we rangeour
selves ... it is against tyranny.
Western Germany, which last Sun
day elected its first government under
the Bonn constitution, was proposed
for admission at the next meeting of
the Council assembly in 1950.
Education
New Teaching Aid
At Pennsylvania State College is a
new electronic teaching aid. boon to
the overworked teacher with a stack
of examination papers to correct. It
was perfected after,two years by the
Special Devices Center, Office of
Naval Research.
A class of 40 faces a large movie
screen. On each student's desk is a
small signaling device with five keys.
Students never speak. A screen voice
states the problems and asks the
questions portrayed on the screen.
Students answer by pressing one of
the keys.
At the end of the class, a student
may step up and look at his grade on
the examination. Each individual
answer was electronically recorded,
the score was added and the average
computed. .
For the teacher, it is like marking
43 examination papers of 50 to 100
questions in one second.
The robot also is said to eliminate
another teacher worry: cheating. The
small black answer box on each desk
has an opening large enough to insert
one hand, palm down, Angers slightly
spread. Under each finger is a key.
Cache
Engel Short Now '
E'er since Sigmund Engel, 73, of
Chicago, was arrested June 25 "on
charges of swindling widows whose
love he courted, jailers wondered
about his apparently bottomless source
of ready cash.
Cook County, DL, jailers found $35
In Engel's possession last week. Since
Jail rules prohioit prisoners' keeping
more than $8 the rest was placed to
his credit Two days later jailers (
found $134.70 in his possession.
Authorities decided on an all-out
probe to discover, if possible, Engel's
source of supply. The prisoner was
stripped and all his clothes were
closely examined.
Investigators found the seams of )
Engel's underwear a bit bulky. They
carefully ripped them open. Out came
74 S100 bills, tightly rolled into a
long thin flexible pencil. The prison :
physician had to prescribe a sedative ;
for Engel and order him removed to '
the jail hospital.
At the time of his arrest Engel was j
quoted by police as ' saying -women ,
ha ve given him millions of dollars
over a 50-year period, but he stoutly
insisted that be bad done nothing?
illegal.
Europe
Unity
ote
King AbdaUah of Trans-Jordan
accepting an invitation to
visit Generalissimo Franco, in
Spain: "The Soviets show the
same enmity toward Franco and
me. Both of us are good for our
countries." ?
Housing
Controversial Man
The United States has more home
owners now than at any time in his
tory. They represent 53 per cent of
the population while 47 per cent rent
their living quar
ters. .
About one in
every seven new
dwellings author
ized in the last
three years has been
a rental unit Build
ing of single family
dwellings has been
on the decline so
far this year with
rental-type units
showing an in-
TIGHE WOOD'S crease.
9 Almost half a mil
lion new homes were started in the
first half of 1949, according to es
timates of the, National Association
of Home Builders, This is about
30,000 less than during the first six
months last year. I
As federal housing expediter, Tighe
E. Woods has been very much in the
news recently. As rent control direc
tor, he has been a target for both
landlords and tenants.
To show the private building in
dustry what could f be done for the ,
man with a small income, Woods
used his own funds to build a small
house for $6,750 at Fort Belvoir, Va,
to serve as a model for military hous
ing. i
i A fortnight ago he told a Senate
subcommittee that f James V. Hunt
central figure in a probe of Wash
ington five percenters, "sort of in
ferred he had a hand" in Woods'
appointment as housing expediter in
December, 1947. Woods was said to
have issued a previously denied con
struction permit for the Tanforan,
Calif., race track four days after a
conference with Maj. Gen. Harry H.
Vaughan, White i House military aide.
A Nw Attack
Last week Woods came under a
new attack in the Senate. Sen. Harry
P. Cain (R-Wash) charged Woods
had violated the law by urging direct
government loans for his private low
cost housing venture. Cain demanded
that Woods resign;! saying:
''In my opinion you have, by ac
cident or design, used the influence
of your high office in an effort to
make money as a private citizen.
The senator said Woods has violat
ed a federal law against government
officials or employees lobbying or
trying to influence Congress unless
called upon to do so.
Sen. Cain cited a letter Woods sent
to Rep. Brent Spenre (D-Ky), chair
man of the House Banking Commit
tee, reporting that the Federal Hous
ing Administration would not insure
a mortgage on the low-cost home
without requiring changes in it that
would boost the price above $6,750,
including the lot i
That is why he urged direct gov
ernment loans. Woods letter ex
plained, to force other lenders into
$5,000-to-$fl.OOO houses at reasonable
rates of Interest f
GREAT OAKS FROM
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B-36: Are U. Si Strategic Ejggs in One Basket?
THE Congressional investiga
tion of the B-36. America's
biggest bomber, is at midpoint -At
issue is this country's basic se
curity and aerial strategy in the
next war, if there should be one.
On one side of the controversy is
the Air Corps, committed to strategic
bombing by long range, land-based
planes. On the other is the Navy, de
manding super aircraft carriers de
signed to service strategic bombers
too.
Another facet of the dispute, quite
apart from service rivalry, is how the
B-38 came to be classed as this coun
try's sole reliance in the strategic
bombing field. There have been
charges of irregularity in procure
ment of B-36 contracts There were
rumors that Secretary of Defense
Louis Johnson and Air Secretary
Stuart Symington were involved with
Consolidated Vultee, manufacturers
of the giant B-36
Flamaed Before Fear! Harbw
The first order for one experimental
B-36 was given to Consolidated Vul
tee Corp. in 1941, shortly before Pearl
Harbor.
In 1943, the order was increased to
100, but later that same year em
phasis was shifted to the B-29 after
the North African invasion provided
bases from which the smaller B-29s
could operate. The B-29 Superfortress
went on to become the backbone of
American air attacks on Japan, cul
minated by the atomic strikes on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The first B-36 was not flown until
after the war. In 1946 and 1947 a dis
pute raged within Air Force councils
over failure of the giant craft to pet
form up to its rated capacities.
Top-Level Decision
In 1948, a board of senior Air Force
officers made a top-level decision to
keep on with the B-36 because its
bugs were being ironed out and there
was hope of the big bomber's event
ually carrying out its designer's
claims.
The B-36 is twice as large as the
B-29. It has a wingspan of 230 feet
and weighs 278,000 pounds. It was
designed to fly 350 mph at 40,000 feet,
carry 10,000 pounds of bombs to tar
gets 5,000 miles away and return.
In January of this year, the Air
Force cancelled millions of dollars in
contracts for other types of planes
to order more B-36s.
Stopped Werk aa Carriers
In April, the first act of Johnson,
newly appointed Secretary . of De-
Age
New Research Project
Must elderly people be put on the
shelf, their usefulness gone?
It's an increasingly important prob.
lem as science and health push Amer
ican longevity tables higher and
higher.
The Loyal Order of Moose will set
up a new laboratory this fall to find
out It will be called the Moosehaven
Research Laboratory for Gerontology
and Geriatrics at Orange Park, Fla.
Gerontology is the scientific study of
old age. Geriatrics is the branch of
medicine dealing with diseases at
tending old age.
Dr. Robert W. Kleemeier, assistant
professor of psychology at Northwest
ern University, will head the labora
tory staff. The project is expected
eventually to suggest answers to the
problems of how to utilize fully the
capabilities of elderly persons.
The Moooe already are probing at
the other end of the age scale. The
organization operates a laboratory for
child research at Mooseheart, 111.
UTTLE ACORNS GROW
B-36 -29 B-17 fifi
Cbw 40,000 ft. 3S.000 ft. 31,000 ft. 17. MO ft.
SMf 10.000 mi. 4.100 im. 1,100 ml 317 tm.
H-fpmmm 11,000 Up. S.tOO 1. 4,000 p. 305 Uf.
ftb 1m4 10.000 . 3,000 Sm. 3.000 Hm VtuU tmht
tnfimt 4 4 1
WiM 130 ft. 141 ft. 103 ft. 3S ft.
tMtlt 143 ft. ft. 74 ft. 30 ft.
Crw 14 10 1
121
fense, was to halt construction of the
Navy's super carrier. That cancella
tion sank the Navy's last hope of
maintaining a strategic air arm and
left the Air Corps and the B-36 alone
in the field.
In May, Rep James Van Zandt
(R-Pa), a Naval Reserve officer,
called for an investigation. He
pointed out that Johnson had been a
director of Consolidated Vultee be
fore he entered government service.
Van Zandt recounted rumors that
Floyd Odium, board chairman of
Consolidated Vultee, had contributed
heavily to the Democratic presi
dential campaign in 1948.
Inquiry Ordered
Chairman Carl Vinson (D-Ga) of
the House Armed Forces Committee
ARMED FORCES: Three in One
Real Unification
Two years ago Congress folded the
Army, Navy and Air Force into the
National Military Establishment It
was the much-heralded unification act
but difficulties ex
perienced by James
V. Forrestal, first
Secretary of De
fense, showed that
service rivalries
still persisted.
This summer
Congress passed an
amendment to the
National Security
Act, revamping and
strengthening (at
least on paper) the
two-year-old unifi
GfcN. BRADLEY
cation law Last
week President Truman set about im
plementing the new law.
Under it, Louis A. Johnson, Sec
retary of Defense, is given more
power over the three service branches
by subordinating authority of the
Secretaries of Army, Navy and Air
Force, who no longer are members
of the National Security Council.
The new law creates a chairman
of thetfoint Chiefs of Staff and de
fines the departments of Army, Navy
and Air Force as "military depart
ments within an "executive" depart
ment the Department of Defense.
Bradley Heads Joint Chiefs
TJie President named Gen. Omar N.
Bradley as the new chairman of the
Martial
Better Halves
Fat men make the best husbands,
and school teachers the best wives.
That's the advice of Dr. James F.
Bender, director of the National In
stitute for Human Relations. Ad
dressing the final summer convoca
tion of Buffalo State Teachers Col
lege, Dr. Bender said:
"The fat man is the least likely to
want a divorce. He is a tender and
faithful lover and he is more easily
persuaded to wash dishes and get up
at night to look after the baby.
"School teachers love children and
they make good mothers. . . . Teach
ers are well adjusted personalities as
a rule and are less inclined to be
neurotic than the average American
woman.''
Furthermore, Dr. Bender said, after
a woman , has been lecturing in class
all day, she returns home at night too
tired to talk. This, he said, is "sheer
heaven?" to most married males.
(AXX Sight Rescrrcd. AP tirwsfftitr)
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decided a full inqury of the B-36 was
in order. Public hearings opened Au
gust 9 in Washington.
Air Force spokesmen stoutly de
fended the B-36 and its performance.
Symington on the stand took per
sonal responsibility for the entire
B-36 program and denied that poli
tics or any consideration "other than
national security" had any bearing
on its development.
These were some of the endorse
ments by Air Force leaders.
LL Gen. Curtis E LeMay: "The
B-36 can fly any mission I can con
ceive for if during its lifetime. (If
war came) I would ride the first one
myself."
Gen. George C. Kenney: The air
plane sold itself to me after its early
weaknesses had been corrected. I
Joint Chiefs and the Senate speedily
confirmed the appointment. Gen.
Joseph L. (Lightning Joe) Collins was
appointed to fill Bradley's old post as
Army chief of staff.
Much depends upon the ability of
Bradley to get top brass in all three
services to forget their rivalries and
work together. Under the law, Brad
ley does not have a vote. His power
derives principally from his access
to the White House (authorized by
law in case of deadlocks) and from
his own personal prestige.
Gen. Bradley seems an excellent
choice for such a crucial post. He was
field leader of the American forces in
the invasion of France and strategists
have ranked him as a master tacti
cian. Current Strength '
The nation's armed forces currently
have a strength of 1,600,000. The Army
is the largest with 658,000 officers and
enlisted men. Of these, about 250,000
are based outside the continental
United States, principally in Germany
and Japan.
The Navy and Marines have 534,000
while the Air Force is listed at 420,
000 men.
The Army, as presently constituted,
has about ten and one-half active di
visions. The Air Force has 59 skele
tonized air groups, which shortly will
be reduced to 48. The Navy has about
800 ships in active service.
mi urn- .
!j PROPAGANDA The Soviet press maintains American children
ar underfed. That Is the theme of this cartoon from the maga
zine Crocodile: Principal: "If Jack did not prepare his lesson
'make him go without lunch-'. Teachor: "That's hardly an effac
tive punishment. He goes without lunch every day anyway."
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would use it on night missions, send
ing out 100 bombers and expecting
to get back 100 bombers.'
Recess of One Week
The Air Corps wound up its case
last weekend. Hearings were recessed
to permit a subcommittee to go to
California to question Gen. Henry A.
(Hap) Arnold, retired Air Force
chief, as well as some plane manu
facturers. Rep. Van Zandt, whose remarks
touched off the probe, said he had
asked for an explanation but hadn't
yet been accorded an answer. He said
Chairman Vinson "evidently is en
gaged in a whitewash job."
On Monday, when the Washington
hearings are to be resumed, the Navy
will take the stand and tell its side
of the story.
Dates
Monday, August 22
President Truman addresses
Veterans of Foreign Wars, Miami,
Fla.
Tuesday, August 23
Birthday (66th), Gen. Jona
than M. Wainwright.
Wednesday, August 21
National Student Congress
opens, University of Illinois.
Friday, August 26
Anniversary (29th), Woman
suffrage.
Davis Cup Challenge Round
(tennis) opens at Forest Hills,
N
Y.
Sunday, August 28
Final National Encampment
of the Grand Army of the Re
public, opens in Indianapolis.
In Short...
K ported: Belatedly by Chinese au
thorities, that 15,000 persons within
a 60-mile radius of Shanghai lost their
lives in a typhoon July 25,
Killed: 6,000, by the Ecuador earth
quakes a fortnight ago, which did
$66,000,000 in damage, almost triple
the annual budget of the country.
Crashed: A commercial transport
plane in the Atlantic Ocean off Ire
land, killing nine with 49 rescued.
I
Reds Lose
Germany
A TOTAL of 24,490,752 westerh
Germans went to the polls
last Sunday in their first free
elections since the Hitler coup in
1933.
The Herrenvolk handed Com
munism its fourth major defeat in
western Europe since the end of the
war. Communism had taken a beat
ing previously in French, Italian and
west Berlin elections.
Western Germany rebuff pushes
Communism back of the Elbe River
where it is propped up by the Red
Army.
German voters gave the right-wing
parties a mandate to direct the new
federal republic for the next four
years.
Conservative Coalition .
The conservative Christian Demo
crats (Catholic) and the Free Demo
crats between ' them won 191 seats
of the 402 total in the Bundestag
(Parliament). The left wing Social
Democrats won 131 seats.
The Free Democrats, who favor
the enterprise system without reser
vation, plan a coalition- with the
Christian Democrats for a controlling
bloc in- Parliament and formation of
a conservative Cabinet.
The Social Democrats, who want
totiationalize big industries, closely
resemble Britain's ruling Labor
Party.
German Communists trailed the
major parties, rolling up only six
per cent of the vote and winning only
15 Parliament seats.
The first political deal of the new
west German state is expected to see
Dr. Theodor Heuss, Free Democratic
leader, become first president of the
republic when Parliament meets at
Bonn, the provisional capital, on
September 7. Dr Konrad Adenauer,
Christian Democratic leader, is ex
pected to become the state's first
chancellor. ?
Dr. Mann Reports
Author Thomas Mann, back in the
U.S. after his first visit to Germany
since Hitler exiled him 16 years ago,
expressed concern over German com
plaints that they were better off under
the Fuehrer than they are today.
The Nobel prize-winning novelist
gave this first-hand report:
"I did not speak to one decent and
honest German who was not deeply
concerned about the increasing na
tionalism in his country.
f "Widely responsible for this state
of mind is the strange fact that Ger
mans do not realize and do not want
to realize the causes of their actual
conditions.
Dr. Mann said he saw no solution
to bitter suffering of the German peo
ple until there is a final understand
ing between east and west
Medicine I
Polio Prevention
One way to double early polio care
facilities was recommended last week
by a score oi medical and public
health authorities It is to cut the iso
lation period for early polio rases
to one week longer only if fcVer
persists.
Polio patients are isolated at first
sign of the disease to prevent its
spread. But medical studies indicate
the disease is communicable only dur
ing the first three or four days bef&re
symptoms appear, and for two or
three days afterward.
Authorities conclude isolation ! is
necessary only for a week or as long
as there is fever. Fever rarely lasts
more than a week.
Some states have been isolating
acute polio patients for two weeks,
some for three or four. The average
has been two weeks.
The one-week isolation was decided
upon by the National Conference; on
Recommended Practices for the Con
trol of Poliomyelitis, sponsored by h
National Foundation for Infantile
Paralysis.
The conference also came put
against quarantine in a new polio
code being sent to health officials in
all states and territories. Quarantine,
the group says, is of unproven value
and its effects may be bad rather than
good.
Theaters, circuses, fairs, swimming
pools or beaches should not be closed
if they are properly operated, the
code advises, but attendance of chil
dren at such places should be dis
couraged. Sidelights I
Big Ben, famed London clock atop
Parliament, ran late last week. Re
pairmen found it was running four
minutes slow, attributed it to "swajms
of starlings sitting on the hands hold
ing them back." f '
In Detroit, an engineer devised a
new type brassiere two cups with
adhesive around the edges ideal, for
suntan dresses. One national adver
tisement swamped him with over 160,
000 orders. Postal inspectors came
around to investigate complaints from
women who sent in money and heard
nothing. They learned he bad con
tracted with two firms to make th
gadgets and had hired 45 girls td fill
mail orders. The engineer and I his
staff were working night and day and
'still were nearly 60,000 orders behind
with more pouring in every day. Inti
mating a demand for 500,000 weekly,
the engineer is now looking for tome
reputable concern to take "this head
ache" off his hands. i
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