Capital A Journal
An Independent Newspaper Established 1888
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4 Salem, Oregon, Tuesday, January 24, 1950
Mr. Truman's "Red Herring"
A jury in the federal district court in New York City,
after listening to evidence for a month, has found Alger
Hiss, one of a gallery of bright young left wing "liberals"
that influenced the New Deal, guilty of perjury in denying
the espionage stories of Whittaker Chambers that named
him as one of the high placed Soviet spies in the American
government. It stamps him a traitor to his country in
its critical hours.
Though Hiss was ultimately prosecuted vigorously, and
successfully under the Truman administration, the presi
dent himself belittled the charges repeatedly. Two days
after Chambers told the house un-American committee
that Hiss had stolen state department secrets for him, and
confessed that he himself had been a communist engaged in
RDvincr for Russia. Mr. Truman on Aug. 25, 1948, condemned
the investigation as a "red herring" designed to divert atten
tion from the refusal of the republican 80th congress to enact
anti-inflation controls for which he had called a special ses
sion. The president also said that no congressional committee
would be given loyalty check records on any former or
present government employe. A week Liter as the special
session was about to adjourn, Mr. Truman returned to the
attack. He said the investigations were red herrings with
a strong odor and promised to prove during the presiden
tial campaign just what they really were.
The investigation bogged down finally when Chambers
and Hiss each stuck to stories so utterly conflicting that
one of them had to be an extraordinary liar. The commit
tee closed hearings and hoped the justice department would
bring perjury charges against someone.
Hiss then sued Chambers for $75,000 on charges of slan
der after the former spy had repeated on the radio his
committee testimony that Hiss was a communist, prelim
inary hearing of that suit obtained from Chambers new
documents which he said incriminated Hiss.
The committee issued a subpena against Chambers de
manding any other evidence he might have. On the night
of December 2, Chambers at his Maryland farm gave com
mittee investigators the "pumpkin papers" microfilms of
state department documents. They led ultimately to Hiss'
indictment and conviction. State department officials ad
mitted on December 7 that the microfilm evidence indi
cated that department codes probably had been broken by .
foreign nations.
In the last week of December the president said he had
not changed his mind about the house investigation "it
still was a red herring."
Chambers first told his story to Assistant Secretary of
State Adolf Berle in 1939 when the Stalin-Hitler pact on
Poland was signed, asking him to place it before FDR so
that Soviet spies could be removed. Nothing was done
about it and the microfilm spies remained in their jobs for
Chambers was characterized as a liar in the '"highest cir
cles." Other stories were investigated by the FBI and
till nothinor was done, but Hiss was finally eased out by
Byrnes and made president of the Carnegie Peace Founda
tion. Hiss, according to Chambers, was not the only red her
ring." There were a lot of them who had wormed into
high places, particularly in the state department. How
much Hiss and the others influenced the failing FDR to
whom he was an adviser at Yalta, where world peace was
lost by concessions to Russia, will always be subject to
conjecture. And how much these "red herrings" were to
blame for our betrayal of China to the communists, and
our desertion of Chiang at Formosa is any one's guess.
Matthews as Johnson's Goat
How Defense Secretary Johnson must squirm as more
and more details are revealed of the disgraceful ousting of
Admiral Denfeld as chief of naval operations last October.
On the hot seat of public attention, however, is Johnson's
secretary of the navy, Francis P. Matthews of Nebraska.
Matthews is trying to get out from under charges made
that he is either "untruthful or incompetent." Those
charges were leveled by Senator McCarthy who quoted
Matthews' testimony that no commission had been given
Denfeld for a second term as chief of naval operations de
spite the fact that McCarthy had a photographed copy of
such a commission. Matthews then discounted the com
mission since Denfeld got it through "irregular channels."
McCarthy had raised the question whether Denfeld was
legally ousted and Admiral Sherman legally appointed to
Bucceed him. At the time of the ousting, it was not known
that Denfeld already had a commission to succeed him
self. Matthews claimed the commission had been "irregu
larly placed" in Dcnfeld's hands by the naval aide to Presi
den Truman. The president had signed the commission.
So had Matthews.
When McCarthy said Matthews was incompetent, the
description was about the same used by Matthews to
describe Denfeld. So, for "the good of the country," Den
feld was bounced. Matthews had been in office but a
matter of months when the obnoxious episode affecting
Denfeld took place. Therefore, Matthews should not be
made to bear the brunt of all criticism that is deserving
to be heaped on those involved in the stinking mess around
the office of the chief of naval operations.
Because Matthews was Denfeld's immediate superior in
civilian capacity, Matthews happens to be the main target
of criticism. Senator McCarthy, however, should demand
an explanation from Defense Secretary Johnson who ap
pears really responsible for the ousting. All indications
indicate that he pursuaded President Truman to fire Den
feld after the admiral said the navy was being slighted in
unification of the services. Then Johnson had Matthews
carry out the shameful assignment.
Johnson Is to blame, not his administrative assistant,
Matthews.
Youngster Has False-Teeth Troubles
Seattle, Jan. 24 W) Guiding a lively 3H-year-old young
ster through dinner is no picnic even under normal circum
stances. Any parent knows that.
Which is why Mrs. E. L. Koff is happy to report that son
Timothy doesn't make any fuss when she takes out or puts
in his false teeth.
The artifical chompers were Installed as a temporary meas
ure after dentists removed 11 of the youngster's 20 teeth.
A new set of his own should grow in within two or three
7 tars.
BY BECK
Recollections
l STOP THAT WHINING ABOUT FETCH IN'
IN WOODALL FALL YOU COULDN'T
v WAIT TILL THE BEAUTIFUL SNOW ,
CAMS.. AND SNOW MEANS COLO I
, WEATHER ..AND THAT MEANS
MORE WOOO FOR THE STOVE.
I HAVE TO TAKE THE
I WITH THE (
IN THIS WORLD.
RSnSsronwri'i
I ( CA. AND SNOW M6AN5 COLD I HCK l
L Iffk. VWPATUEO Aajr) THAT MEANS J rl HA
i!! il l MORE WOOO FOR THE STOVE. I : l i .i
ii'P-Wlil YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE I j II I L '
'--H tdL?J to BAD WITH THE 60OD Mf !!! Hi 1
PEARSON AND -RUMAN-BRYNES FEUD
President Truman's recent "do - as - he - damn - pleases"
crack at Jimmy Byrnes climaxed a long feud which has
been told in detail by Drew Pearson. Byrnes was among the
first to fly to Truman's side after FDR's death on April 12,
1945, later becoming his secretary of state.
But in March, 1946, Pearson told bow this friendship
was fast cooling and how Truman wanted General Marshall
to become secretary of state. Then, on June IS, 1949, Pear
son reported further inside details regarding the Truman-Byrnes
estrangement.
Byrnes then wrote Truman a letter, and Pearson, on
Dec. 17, 1949, quoted Truman as replying (in reference to
Byrnes' Dixiecratism): "F no.v know how Caesar felt when
he said 'Et Tu, Brute?' " Whereupon Byrnes, according to
Pearson, wrote back, telling Truman, "I am not a Brutus
and neither do I consider you to be a Caesar."
BY CLARE BARNES, JR.
White Collar Zoo
KRISS-KROSS
Lower Slobbovia,
Alias Crooked Finger
ByCHRISKOWITZ,Jr.
Think you had troubles during the recent snows? Then pity the
people who live in the Crooked Finger district, east of Silver
Falls park. They really learned the hard way what discomforts
Old Man Winter can bring.
In the first place, roads in that area, blanketed under a layer
of snow, became!
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Powerful Officials Tried to
Block Crime Networks Probe
(Ed Note: Another of Drew Pearson's series of columns on
national crime networks and Costelloism.)
By DREW PEARSON
Washington One year ago two justice department lawyers,
Max Goldschien and Drew O'Keefe, began studying a stack of
crime reports three feet high gathered from various cities of the
U.S.A. Thus, very slowly at first, began the current probe of the
nation's far-flung gambling networks. ,
Actually,
1 m p a s s a ble
Bulldozers were)
dispatched to;
u, it t-
scrape the snowfe. J
off roads. Thei. .
U..tlVn- B A if V"
their
bit too low and
1
Crooked Finger is truly the
Lower Slobbovia of Marion
county.
Byung Choll Koh, the Korean
student who leaves Willamette
university for George Wash-
the.
federal govern
ment cannot in
vestigate gam
bling. It has the
power to Inves
tigate narcotics,
white slavery,
immigration vi
olations and in
come taxes, but
although the
public doesn't
realize it, these
Drew Pearson
couldn't get his undercover
agents inside it even though
an ex-policeman was the eleva
tor operator, and even though
newsmen had no difficulty gain
ing access.
Furthermore, not many of
Fresno's largely law - abiding
citizens realized that the 32
houses of prostitution in the city
paid an average of $175 per
girl per month to the police with
about $5,000 to the powers that
sers icil . ,w K. iJ j"s
blades aKA i' fOl ington U Thursday, is pretty
scraped off all1
the gravel as
well. Result;
JVIud. Chrif Kowllt, Jr.
One unfortunate chap got his
car stuck along Bridge Creek
handy with a table-tennis pad
dle. His long list of accomplish'
ments along that line include
the national championship of
Manchuria.
It was a dark day in Marion
road, near Drake's crossing, just county circuit court yesterday.
before the big snows came, wo, mere weren't any particu
When the blizzards finally sub- lar grievances over the ver
sided, he went to fetch his car diets; the darkness came when
and found nothing but a 20-foot 'he lights went out, due to a
snow drift. He hasn't seen any- faulty fuse box.
thing of the car for two weeks. Judge George R. Duncan, a
He fears that bulldozers, Cater- dozen jurors, four lawyers,
pillars, trucks, etc., have been plaintiff, defendant and specta
driving right over his car all tors didn't let the lack of light
the time, gradually crushing it slow them down,
to pancake shape. Louie duBuy, the radioman
Another resident up Crooked electrician who operates a shop
Finger way peered out of his only a half block from the court
farm house window one morn- house, was summoned to appear
ing and discovered a giant-sized ln, curt- H threw "ght ,n 'he
bulldozer sitting smack in the situation after about 15 minutes
middle of his strawberry field, f sk,1Ied tinkering with the
He still can't figure out how the Iuscs-
are closely meshed with the be in order even to get started,
great gambling syndicates, until To take over an old lease on a
the organized world of the na- house of ill fame cost as much
tion is now integrated and di- as $35,000; so it was cheaper to
vided in about the same way start a new house for $5,000.
that a railroad changes crews Meanwhile, cheaper gambling es-
and engines at division points, tablishments paid at the rate of
Two powerful officials have about $150 a month for police
tried to block this investigation, protection.
One was inside the U. S. Treas- One gambling house, the Club
ury in wasmngton, tne otner Alabam, was even owned by
Lieut. S. A. Meek of the police
force.
high up in the state of California.
Probe Gets Results
thing got there.
Bertha Pinco, who teaches pl-
"It wouldn't be so bad " the ano and voice at SaIenVs Mer.
farmer said, "but the bulldozer lam danci studi , , former
brought several hundred pounds d si with the Na,
of rock in with it." The ma- Uonal 0pera company of Lon.
chine finally J"3 J don. She learned her warbling
squeeze out of the field but the at the Rova. Academy of Music
gravel remained behind.
in Dublin, Ireland, Now operat-
In addition to all that, about jng private studio in Port
a dozen families in that terri- land, she travels to Salem each
tory were marooned for two Saturday and Monday to teach
weeks. at Merlain.
o
MacKENZIE'S COLUMN
Reports From Red China Tell
Of Higher Prices and Taxes
By FRED HAMPSON
(For DeWItt MacKenzle. AP Foreign Affairs Analyatr
Hong Kong Fresh reports filtering out of Red China tell of
more belt-tightening, higher prices and stiffer taxation.
Predictions of last summer are materializing into a winter of
woe for China's common man. Even the communist press and
radio have stopped trying to keep it secret.
Reports!
reaching the As
sociated Press
from the Yang
tze Valley, site
of such great
cities as Shang
hai and Nan
king, say large
shops are get
ting smaller and
small shops are
disappear ing;
communist pa-
Mr i 'nmwn
Frfil llampson
of officials there that north Chi
na farmers are paying at least
20 per cent of their production
in taxes. He said it takes the
taxes of 30 farmers merely to
feed and clothe one soldier, ex
clusive of ammunition. The ex
pense has become a perplexing
problem because of the many na
tionalist troops shifting over to
the Reds.
Nan said Russia had sent 300
miles of rails and 50 technicians
pers carry daily notices of clo- to help restore damaged rail
sures because of lack of business, roads.
Doctors and hospitals are also Reports from both Nanking
hard-hit. The American Mis- and Shanghai say the Chinese
sionary hospital and University public is' becoming increasingly
hospital affiliated with Ginling convinced that Chairman Mao
college in Nanking are reported, Tze-tung's main purpose on his
"selling their medical supplies mission to Moscow was to get
on the open market to pay their quick relief and extensive eco
staffs." nomic aid, including large cred-
its for railway rolling stock.
Eight million persons are des-
tituto as a result of "large-scale One source says, "so far as it
natural disasters," according to is felt, China has not received
announcement of Communist much material help; the much
Premier Chou En-lai, which re- publicized Russian - Manchurian
cently appeared in Red news- barter agreement of last year
papers. has turned out to be only a local
He estimated that last sum- arrangement. '
mer's floods in north and central Another report from Red Chi
China inundated more than 14,- na says people are asking what
000,000 acres and forced 40,- Moscow's price will be, "will
000,000 persons from their Mao's regime be asked to sacri
homes. In Hopei province alone fiee its dominant position as the
more than 4,000,000 acres were leading communist government
flooded and 10,000,000 persons of Asia and accept a secondary
left homeless. role under the Kremlin?"
Chou's directive to all city This source continues, "we
governments suggested putting cannot answer now, but one
refugees into factories and hand- thing seems certain: There is a
iwork, but it is well known large and influential group in
throughout Rod China that fac- the communist central commit
tories are in financial difficul- tee who by no means Is subser
tles and handicraft industries are vient to Russia and will not
no better off. give up the paramount position
. Nan Han-chen, member of the the Chinese Reds have won
communist people's bank of through 20 years of struggle in
Nanking, recently told a group which Russia did not help."
Despite this, however, the
probe began to bear real fruit
when, last week, 16 members of
a California narcotic gang were
indicted.
Leader of the gang Is Joe
Sica, and his arrest illustrates
how closely organized crime is
integrated from coast to coast.
Sica is a New Jersey boy and
part of the original Costello
gang, having trained with Willie
Moretti, the gambling king of
New Jersey. Moretti has been
Frankie Costello's No. 1 man in
that area.
General Vaughan, the Presi
dent's military aid, has admitted
under oath that one of Costello's
partners, Bill Helis, the Golden
Greek, contributed through him,
Vaughan, to Truman campaigns;
while John Maragon has admit
ted under oath that he worked
for another Costello partner,
Phil Kastel.
Coming to California, with
that state's wartime growing
pains, Joe Sica became Mickey
Cohen's bodyguard, then gradu
ally climbed the ladder of crime
until he is now southern Califor
nia's No. 1 hoodlum. Like Mick
ey, he runs a haberdashery shop
on Sunset Boulevard (under the
sovereignty of good - natured
Sheriff Gene Biscaluz, rather
than the tougher Los Angeles po
lice) and also operates a health
club as a blind for a bookie
joint and a narcotics center.
And, as the gangster star of
Mickey Cohen waned, Joe Sica,
the boy from New Jersey, be
came more potent and has more
or less taken Mickey's place.
Being ambitious, Joe was not
satisfied with the sovereignty of.
Los Angeles alone. Up the rich
central valley of California are
some of the wealthiest farm
lands in the world, and an old
stamping ground for Sica. Once
he served as bodyguard for Joe
Cannon, the gambling king of
Fresno, while one of his nar
cotics runners, Alex Berry, was
pilot of Cannon's private air
plane. So Joe Sica became narcotics
king of the central valley. Pine
Lake Lodge, just outside Fresno,
for a time became the headquar
ters for the mob, with 11 tele
type machines bringing in news
of the racing world (Pine Lake
Lodge is now purged of the mob
and under completely new man
agement.) Official Naivete
Diagonally across from the po
lice station in downtown Fresno,
operated Joe Cannon's swank
gambling joint, the Plantation
Club. Not many of Fresno's
overwhelmingly law-abiding cit
izens connected Cannon with any
outside mob, and ex-Police Chief
Ray T. Wallace, when asked why
he didn't close the Plantation
Club, naively replied that he
Police Chief's Holdings
The police chief responsible
for keeping order in Fresno at
that time was blue-eyed, heavy
set, likable Ray T. Wallace, who
received a salary from the city
of $450 a month.
Not many people in Fresno
probably took the trouble to in
vestigate Chief Wallace's prop
erty holdings, though such in
vestigation can be accomplished
merely by looking up the coun
ty tax asessor's records. This
columnist did look up the rec
ords, and was surprised to find
that the police chief or his wife
owned some 16 ranches or par
cels of land totaling 1,742 acres.
This does not include three
lots in the city of Fresno, two
ranches recently sold, a hotel
and restaurant on G street, and
the "OK Rubber Welders," a
tire- recapping establishment
that is owned in partnership
with Wallace's son.
These were some of the facts
confronting courageous Gordon
Dunn, the Stanford University
athlete, after he found himself
elected mayor of Fresno last
April. These facts also may
have been one reason why he
promptly fired Police Chief Wal
lace and Lieutenant Meek, own
er of the Club Alabam, and re
buffed the proposals of his cam
paign manager, Robert Franklin,
to open up the city.
Crackdowns Approved
Mayor Dunn also clamped
down on a long string of tawdry
hotels and houses in Fresno's
red-light district, and, in addi
tion, cracked down on every
gambling club in Fresno. A
few citizens, who consider gam
bling and houses of prostitution
proper ways of keeping migrant
workers' money in town, have
complained. , But the vast ma
jority highly approve.
Probably Mayor Dunn didn't
dream, at the time, how ramified
was the network of California's
underworld. Nor did he realize
that he was acting in advance
of one of the biggest narcotic
arrests in recent history. But
three months later, an Armenian
named Abe Davidian. speeding
up the central valley In the dead
of night, was caught with one
kilo of heroin, enough to last
the Fresno underworld for
months. He was driving so fast
that part of the heroin blew in
to the back seat of his car and
had to be collected with a vacu
um cleaner.
That midnight drive later
brought the arrest of Mobster
Joe' Sica and 15 others, showing
how closely the world of nar
cotics, prostitution and gam
bling is knit together.
Still to be shown, however, ii
the identity of the big boys who
give the protection near the top,
(Coprrliht io
Efficiency Expert
POOR MAN'S PHILOSOPHER "?
Elderly People Feel More Fun
In Life Between 1900 and 1910
By HAL BOYLE
New York VP) Look backward 50 years look forward 50
years and which period would you rather live in?
The right answer to that lies in what kind of a world is being
made right now, from day to day and year to year.
But as the century rolls into its 50th year many elderly people
dou b t fu 1 wHssm'Kmmmtai
of security Is probably just the
glamor that memory usually
throws over the past. But there
is also undoubtedly a hard ker
nel of truth in these reminis
cences. In the world of 1900 to 1914
America was a young self-confident
giant just realizing his
power, certain he could stand
alone and whip all comers be
cause he had always done so.
But in ths world of IPSO
it is more customary for her con- America is midrilp-appri einnt..
temporaries to complain that even stronger in adulthood, but
this is a lazy, pleasure-seeking realizing now the responsibility
generation. I asked her why she 0I his power and that he does
thought as she did. And her an- n't stand alone.
swer surprised me even more.
"Well, we didn't have all the
labor-saving things around the
home that young wives do now,"
she said. "But I think we had
more real
uiose oays man ! eBm u. . invading his homeland and held
h, ..mi-.. Mh iih only 8 vaSue contempt for Eu
to live, and I dont think they faecause u
had to worry so much about t! ,., ., , ,... ' e
are
that life today
holds as much
fun or security
as it did be
tween 1900 and
1910. My moth
er is one of
these.
"I think
young people
today have a
much harder
time of it than
we did when I was a girl," she
told me. This surprised me, as
Security in 1900 for the aver
age American meant a home, a
job with opportunity for ad
vancement, and a chance to edu-
o , , cate his children. He had nA
didn't seem to have ,,Atna M. um?,,J .,
what would happen next."
And she added placidly:
"I really feel sorry for the
young people today, and I
wouldn't want to trade places
with them at all."
ting mixed up in battles.
Today the age old insecurity
caused by poverty and unem
ployment has been reduced in
the United States by a half cen
tury of social progress unknown
before in history. But the new
insecurity created by two world
Other people her age tell me wars has increased tenfold. The
that they are sure they got a shadow of the atom bomb hangs
bigger kick out of life than as heavily over the American
young folks do now, because home as it does over the Rus
they had more real zest for liv- sian.
ing. They say they have found it is hard to see how America
the subway no real improvement or the rest of the world, for we
over the horse car. And they are all knotted together in that
are even more certain that pic- problem, will ever know real
nics and hayrides held more so- security again until we learn, as
cial enjoyment than an evening h. G. Wells said, that "our true
at the movies. nationality is mankind."
"We used to enteftain our- if the goal is reached in 50
selves," they say, "we didn't years, then the world of 2000
look to others to entertain us so will be as much fun and as safe
much-" to live in as that lost world our
Some of this fun and feeling mothers loved as girls.
Capital jkJournal
I Using In the London Bi&?TL
4 fTO
A stMnlM-laAlr arhnm
Using In the London
Tlfaes for an appren
tice tried to tell all the
bad features of the
work. But the $80-a-week
Job still seemed
so attractive that 1,600
young am appuedl
Ancient Rome's "SI
Qui" notices were the
Want Ads of that time.
Never Saw Diploma
Detroit, Jan. 24 (P) One member of the suburban Grosse
Polnte high school graduating class never attended school
a day In his life and won't be able to receive his diploma
at graduation exercises next Thursday.
Karl Fredrickson, 17, was stricken In childhood with an
Incurable disease. He never could go to classes but got his
high school education from a tutor.
The Detroit board of education ruled this fall that Karl
had completed graduation requirements and should have a
diploma.
But th plucky youth never will sm it He died last OoC t.
T.H. SaL V. a FBI M.
Your Ad Will Get Results, Too. Dial
Result Number 2 2406