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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 1949)
i. : . i . V v - i i All i i) jau j. ... , . - -rwn . if? ,-4 FIRE Freochmen near Bordeaux fire which killed 85 persons, cut evacuation of many towns and Britain Wants Not Advice From U.S. ENGLAND is in dire financial straits but proud, haughty Britons are sensitive to criticism from the United States. Britain's economic chief. Sir Stafford Crippsand Foreign Secre tary Ernest Bevin are to confer in Washington September 6 or 7 with U.S.' Treasury Secretary John W. J Snyder and; Secretary of State Dean Acheson about the empire's economic crisis. Preliminary talks among their technical aides have al- .ready begun. Meanwhile Britain is seething with . resentment. Declared one Labor mem ber of Parliament last week: "We would rather take the risk of civilizing Communism than being kicked around by the unlettered, pot bellied money magnates of the Unit ed States. Decency and not dollars will save the world from war." War Insurance The feeling in a sizeable segment . of the British public is that Ameri cans have forgotten the heroic role they played in the last war and that the present economic crisis stems di rectly from that struggle, Britons argue that America may need their country badly in the next world war and 'that it is to American advantage to get Britain back on an even eco nomic keeL There has been criticism in Con gress of British fiscal and political policies. There is certain to be more. .Why, ask Congressional critics, should American capitalist dollars continue to underwrite costly British socialist experiments? Why haven't British sterling bloc policies been re vised to permit, free world trade without crippling tariffs and duties in the colonies? What about unilateral treaties such as the recent Britishr Argentine treaty on beef A Customs Union? Some Washington economic experts even go so far as to predict that Brit ain cannot survive as a world power without completely unhmdered ac cesr to American markets They think the time will come when the only way to keep Britain alive will be to join it with the J S in a customs union, sharing a common currency and a completely integrated economy. Since the war, America has granted Britain a $3,750,000,000 loan and ex tensive Marshall Plan aid in 1947, 1948 and 1949. The belief then in tome reluctant sectors of Congress was that dollars would buy time for reconstruction and that Britain would do the rest by itself. There is a different feeling now in those legislative circles. Trey believe now that dollars alone will no longer solve the British problem. These critics say Britain must drastically revise its industrial system, currency valuation and foreign commitments before there can be any real hope for a healthy economy. They want the pound devalued from its present rate of $4 P3 to some substantially lower sum. They want emphasis on technical rather than political revamping of heavy industry ; and an end to social experiments un- til the economic crisis is ever. .. Canada Sits In Canada is to sit in on the economic talks, too, as a vastly interested third J party. Diplomatic experts believe it may f take the highest type of statesman- 4 . ship to prevent th conference from hurting instead of 'improving Angle- American relations. v Some believe that the best that can i be expected of the forthcoming Wash- I ington parley is possible agreement ' on some short-range measures and perhaps a decision to meet again shortly for another look at the em- Bire' economic thermometer. f Sidelights n North Tonawanda. N ' Y, a New York Central locomotive is cooking j pickles. It was leased by a pickle firm after the plant steam boiler blew up J and a 13.000 batch of dills was inl clanger of spoiling. f In Portland, Ore Becky a cat with unorthodox ideas, is motnering f our t baby birds, orphaned by other felines, i In Kennewick, Wash.. Bud Allen, ; radio entertainer, stopped talking I after 110 hours of continuous broad- f casting, by doctor's orders. He was i. raising funds for a proposed $100,000 ij hospital. . " I iau ireMs u ft- frantically ret H out hose against a forest a swath 20 miles wide and 30 long, forcing villages. More than 1,500 troops fought it. Dough Dates Monday, August 29 President '. Truman to' address 31st annual American Legion convention, Philadelphia. Wednesday, August 31 Birthday !i(69th). Dowager Queen Wilhelmena, Netherlands. Friday, September 2 American; Bar Association con venes in Sti Louis. Saturday, September 3 National (Air Races open at Cleveland, ij Anniversary (25th), Chinese civil war. ft ort Baseballs & Bottles I Last Sunday at Philadelphia, the New York .; Giants were ahead (strangely enough) 4-2 in the 'ninth inning. A Giant batter bit a fly ball on which the. Philiy center fielder apparently inside a shoestring catch. Umpire George Barr ruled the, ball ,had hit the ground first, however, set ting off a barrage of bottles, overripe fruit and paper wads from the stands. Shouts of "Kill the umpire" filled Shibe Park. Missiles tell in a steady rain faster than attendants could clear them off . the field. Two umpires Were hit. One! man was seen to hurl as many as 109 bottles while girls fed him ammunition. j The Phils' management tried to quiet the crowd with announcements over the public address system but they were drowned out. 1 After 15 minutes. Chief Umpire Al Barlkrk declared the game forfeit to the Giants by ;a score of 9-0. He said he acted for the "good of the people, baseball and the players," It was the first major league forfeited game in seven years, s Barlkrk said he recognized it wasn't the Phils' fault that the crowd couldn't be controlled. He said, how lever,' that it I was the responsibility of home club to provide adequate police protection. Bob Carpenter, youthful owner of the Phils, declared that if the club were fined as ja result of the fracas he would demand that Barr, an 18-year veteran umpire, "undergo an eye test" Sp : 1 : . - J- i - I" , M NO LETOOWN AT 81 -Physical cvltvrlst Bernorr Macfadden fs greeted in a hay field by kit wife after taking his first parachute fump. He says h did H to prove "growing old is nonsense." ATOM BOMB The familiar smoke plume with Its deadly rain of radioactivity is just be ginning' to form i In this photo taken at the U.S. supersecret proving grounds on Eniwetok atoll in the Marshall Islands. Tests were made in 1948 but pictures were just released. YUGOSLAVIA: Is Tito Headed for War? ALMOST a year ago when the Russian "peace offensive'' first became apparent, there was spec ulation . that the Kremlin might be taking the heat of! the cold war to concentrate on certain in ternal problems. Paramount among those problems was the defection. a few: months earlier, ) of Yugo slavia's Marshal Tito. Tito had the temerity to refuse complete subservi ence to .Moscow. Adherence to Party discipline is a cardinal tenet of Communism. Vio- v la tors of that prin ciple were not only read out of the Par ty but frequently liquidated. Tito, as a rugged individualist, became a dangerous symbol from Moscow's point of vie at. He was a potential crack in the Iron Curtain beyond which the hostile capitalistic world had to be held at bay. Nothing that has happened since has served to undermine that theory. That crack may be widening. For the first time Tito was praised from within the Iron Curtain. An east German Communist group composed of Marxists of long standing an nounced the formation of a Free Communist Party (FKP) pledged to fight for nationalism against "Soviet imperialism." The new party imme diately wired its sympathy and sup port to Tito. " Diplomats in world .capitals have been keeping a close watch on de velopments ever since i Tito was expelled from the Com inform. The Trends Gobble, Gobble Housewives were given a hot tip this week for the : home plate at Thanksgiving- and Christmas time. The Agriculture Department says turkeys should be more plentiful and cheaper than in former years. The 1949 crop, statisticians say, will be the second largest in the nation's history and the biggest since the war 41,107,000, to be precise. The increases this year, compared with the short supply in 1948. range from three per cent in New York State to 121 per cent in Arkansas. V V J 4 A GOOD BETI strategy patently was to incite Tito's overthrow from within bis own country. Moscow Takes the Lead The difference now is that Moscow itself is pressing the issue instead -of leaving it to the satellites. The current war of nerves was ini tiated last weekend when Russia warned Yugoslavia in i diplomatic note that it was prepared to take "effective measures" to protect the rights of Soviet citizens within Yugo slav borders. The stern Soviet note was like a sinister echo across a decade. It had the ring of Nazi propaganda before Adolf Hitler marched protective troops into Austria, Poland and a U.N. Arable Land Russia, alone of the world's major nations, is not participating in the United Nations Scientific Conference on Conservation and Utilization of World Resources. Now in session at Lake Success, the conference is surveying global short ages in food, forests, fuels and energy. Scientists say it is a start toward establishing the resource potential of every country, raising the world's standard of living and thereby laying a foundation for preserving peace. Agricultural experts of 50 nations estimate the world has only about four billion acres of arable land to feed and clothe its two and one-quarter billion people. Much of the land is mediocre and growing worse while population is increasing by 20 million a year faster than ever. Religion Onward Christians The United States has 79,576.352 church members and about 60 per cent of these are Protestants, reports The Christian Herald, unofficial Prot estant publication, in its annual com pilation of religious organizations. The survey shows that last year's religious membership gain was 2,190, 164 as compared with the end of 1947. There ; was little change indicated in the relative strengths ox the na tion's faiths. The report said: The U.S. is about 60 per cent Prot estant, 33 per cent Roman Catholic. 6 per cent Jewish and 1 per cent divided among such groups as Rus sian and Greek Orthodox. Spiritual ists. Buddhists and others." The nation's 222 Protestant denom inations totaled 47JS57.203 members, a gain, of 1,407.527 from lat year. Pre ponderance of Protestant strength 83 per cent is in 31 larger denomi nations. Total of Roman Catholics was 26.075.697, an increase of 807,524 from last year, as reported by Catholic sources. The biggest Protestant denomina tions is the Methodist, with 8,651,524, i. - : , JgfK- SALUTE host of other little neighbor nations. The London press noted the diplo matic threat was in the very lan guage of Hitler's "exhausted pa tience." The conservative Daily Mail recalled Hitler's words: "My patience is exhausted. I must march to restore order." A Calm View But the British foreign office took a calmer view. Whitehall said the Russians want Yugoslavia to think she is in danger of attack. Diplomats conceded that the Kremlin would in cite, if .possible, a Yugoslav revolt against Tito and that it would look with favor on any attempt to assassi nate the marshal. Whitehall ruled out any likelihood Survey Through Neutral Eyes The American worker is much bet ter off than his Russian counterpart, according to a neutral Norwegian survey. The Economic Cooperation Admin istration (Marshall Plan) has issued a booklet comparing tabulations of fact-finding trips to the United States and Russia by separate delegations of the Norwegian General Federation of Trade Unions. It shows: The average American worker earns a loaf of bread with five min utes work; it takes a Russian two hours. An American bays a pound of meat with half an hour of labor; a Russian needs a day. An American can boy a woolen suit after 25 hours of work; a Rus sian needs two months to earn enough rubles. The Norwegians reported their visit to the United States gave them "greater confidence in the ability of democracy to solve its problems." They said: "The country is still wrestling with many great problems. Its economic life is unstable. Its social life is com plicated by racial prejudices and fric tions. The country is still in the melting pot (stage). But it is moving ' forw- rd culturally, socially and eco nomically." The Norwegian fact-finders said they thought American social secur ity inadequate, especially in the mat ter of health insurance. They said certain areas appeared to be lacking in social and economic development ; The booklet quoted Norwegians as ; reporting on the Soviet standard of living: The average wage is1 sufficient only for absolute necessities of life, i The ordinary family can hardly live; on the husband's .earnings alone and ; women are forced into heavy indus try, such as street and construction work, dock hands and factory jobs. ) There is hardly a country where the government so consciously keeps.' the standard of living down in order! to ensure a speedy reconstruction as in the Soviet Union STORM Billboards Sn Shanghai bear mute witness to fury of a July 24 typhoon, which killed 29 persons, made 200,000 homeless. Water up to six feet deep surged through streets. It was the city's worst typhoon since 1915. iMiicvilla Cnrir-irwl FROM A SATELLITE that the current Moscow-Belgrade dispute would progress to a shooting war, despite mounting tension. VS. Aid fer Tito The current American policy has been o do business with Tito, not because his brand of communism is less objectionable, but because Tito represents a revolt against Moscow within the satellite sphere. Last week the U.S. granted Tito per mission to buy a three million dollar steel mill at Pittsburgh. In Paris, Eugene R. Black, Jr., American president of the World Bank, said his organization was con sidering a loan to Yugoslavia, but a much smaller one than the. 250 mil lion dollars Tito has requested. Quotes Bernarr Macfadden, 81-year-old physical culturalist, on mak ing his first parachute jump: "It was wonderful coming down." Fred Allen, comedian, com menting on ban on giveaway programs:: "They've been giving away ice; boxes on radio for years. But when they started giving away deep freezers in Washingtpn, that started this upheaval. ; Down in Washington, they didn't even have a pro gram." i AERIAL: The B Aid to the -Enemy I think one of the greatest dis servicet tOi the country has been given by these anonymous charges against the B-3S which hare resulted tr dragging out into open view these figures on performance that should be highly secret. . . . All that gives information to the enemy and the consequences are obvious." Gen. Carl Spaatz. retired chief of the Air Force, made this statement last week to the House Armed Serv ices Committee investigating charges of irregularity in procurement of the intercontinental bomber. Previously Spaatr testified that it was his opinion that if it weren't for In Short . Reported:; By the US. State De partment, that it wuuld twitch from military to civilian control of occu pied Germany by September 15. Threatened: By &a!ta, to th;ow out the British : and offer their strategic Mediterranean port U the United States as a! naval base unless it gets a slice of j Britain's EKP (Marshall Plan) funds. Announced: September 1 closing of two-thirds of the rent control offices in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana. Kentucky and West Virginia, because of a Con gressional pit in appropriations. Congress At Work A YEAR ago President Truman pleaded for a Democratic 81st Congress. Voters gave it to him but Mr. Truman has had in different success with it Congress has gone along with his foreign policies but the Adminis tration has been the target of heavy . sniping for its "curse on both your houses" attitude on China. Tbe Sen ate ratified the Atlantic Pact but its corallary the arms-aid program faces heavy pruning from economy minded legislators in both houses. On the domestic front, the Presi dent's average is not prepossessing. Congress passed a rent control bill but hamstrung its effectiveness by cutting appropriations. " Labor Set Back Congress' turned thumb? down on Mr. Truman's key labor proposal to repeal the Taft-Hartley Law and scuttled the Brannan plan for farm subsidy payments. It approved reorganization of the State Department and further unifica tion of the armed forces but a federal aid to education program appears stalled by a religious controversy. Civil rights, expanded .social security and a federal health insurance pro gram apparently must await tbe next session. j ? Mr. Truman's inflation c r.trol pro gram, a key campaign issue, ; was outdated by the business recession. He has given the Republicans what many of them believe will be their chief 1950 campaign ammunition by endorsing deficit-spending - To augment the continued high level of government spending, he or dered the government to buy what it could in areas where unemployment was rising. : The Senate filibuster on civil rights last spring snarled the legislative calendar, creating a terrific jam from which senators have not yet recov-S55 ered. Senate Democratic Leader Scott Lucas threatened grimly last week to keep Congress in session until Thanksgiving, if necessary, to dispose of important legislation. Holiday Plans The only break for senators will be the weekend holiday over Labor Day. The House is far more advanced with its legislative work than the Senate. House leaders made plans for a vacation until September 21 for members. Neither chamber can' quit for more than three day at a time 4)less the other approves If the Senate had turned down the vacation resolution, the House could have held informal sessions twice weekly with an understanding that no business would oe transacted. It could do that without Senate ap proval, s ' - 36Probe the B-36 and the atom bomb,' Russia could subdue "practically all of Europe and Asia in a relatively short time. Spaatz told the committee that in December, 1946, or January. 1947, he decided to continue a contract for B-36s. I He said he made this decision be cause "the results to be obtained from possession of an intercontinental bomber were so enormous as to jus tify going ahead and taking the chance of failure, just as wac done in developing the atomic bomb which this plane was designed to deliver. Spaatz was the first of a string of generals to deny that outside pres sure of any kind had influenced Air Force decisions to develop the; giant B-36. The former commander also made it a point to urge restoration of funds for a 70-group Air Force. It would be very dangerous. Spaatz said, to hold the national protective umbrella to 48 groups beer use "soma of our friends in Europe" had! made certain plans on the bans of an Amer an 70-group Air Force4 I This 70-group force,' Spaatz add ed, "should not be built at the ex pense of the program of arms aid to Europe." ; Rep. Walter Norblad (R-Ort) re vealed the California phase of the B-36 investigation! bad produced nothing to substantiate charges against the huge bomber. M- : ! i ! - '-?r, -.4 i v i ; ' 5' " rf-. H ' - 11 y 1 t r K 1 1L a . . Utilf'JjUUJl-