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About Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 1950)
Capital Adjournal An Independent Newspaper Established 1888 ' GEORGE PUTNAM, Editor and Publisher ' ROBERT LETTS JONES, Assistant Publisher Published every afternoon except Sunday at 444 Che mekefa St., Salem. Phones: Business, Newsroom, Want Ads, 2-2406; Society Editor, 2-2409. Full Leased Wire Service of the Associated Press and The United Press. The "Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all news dispatches credited to it or otherwise credited in this paper and also news published therein. SUBS IRIPTION RATES: By Carrier: Weekly, 25c; Monthly, $1.00; One Tear, $12.00. By Mall in Oregon: Monthly, 75c; 6 Mos., $4.00; One Year, $8.00. V. S. Outside Oregon: Monthly, $1.00; 6 Mos.. $6.00; Year. $12. 4 Salem, Oregon, Wednesday, February 15, 1950 Wildcat Federal Loans One of the many reasons why the federal government is financing in the red are the operations of the Reconstruc tion Finance corporation in loaning millions of dollars to promoters of industrial and housing corporations, without security, loans that could not be obtained either from banks or insurance companies. Finis was written today to a loan of $37,500,000 to the Lustron corporation of Columbus, O., and foreclosure follows. It follows similar proceedings for a $7 million loan to the Walthan Watch company taken last week. The RFC was organized under the Hoover administra tion at the start of the depression when bank loans, be cause of financial stringency could not be obtained to sal vage or refinance responsible industries and prevent their bankruptcy. It was a constructive effort, conservatively managed, and attained its objective. There were few losses, the loans were eventually repaid, bince the war, however, it has been a different story. Lustron was organized by Carl G. Standburg, whose original investment, it has been charged in congress, was only $1000 of his own money. Its object was the mass production of prefabricated homes for the postwar mar ket, but the $10,000 tab was too high for most would-be purchasers. The company got its first assistance from RFC in 1947 under the veterans emergency housing act, since expired, which encouraged government assistance to the home building industry. The loan was scheduled for full repay ment in 10 years. Lustron never paid any interest or principal, and as late as last month was asking for additional government help. RFC has finally called a complete halt, ordering its legal counsel "to take whatever steps are necessary" to recover as much of the loan as possible. The Waltham Watch loan was to refinance an old estab lished concern with a large payroll, and intended to be utilized to install modern machinery for production to meet competition. This money seems to have been spent largely to pay up previous indebtedness to banks. An investigation of these "wild government ventures" looms in congress and may lead to the RFC's winding up its affairs in an age when money is plentiful and there is little difficulty of financing sound enterprises. .Time to Compare Notes The coming of warmer weather brings out the requests for funds as well as buds on the trees. , Salem is gradually learning the proposed cost of city improvements as suggested for 1950. The school board has a program for bonds that will amount to $3,755,000 figured over a period of two or three years. The city itself has in mind an improvement pro gram that will amount to some $4,000,000 in the form of sewage disposal, drainage and airport improvement with a 10-year-range in mind. And then there is the program to take definite steps to figure a way to build an auditorium for the city. Individually, the ideas behind the proposals are com mendable. But how much can the taxpayers afford to pay 1 When lumped together, these proposals will add up to a tax figure that could well scare the average taxpayer. As a result, the logical procedure for these groups interested in another few mills of the tax dollar would be to consider their total demands in light of the voter's hesitancy to go for anything but a minimum tax increase. This would mean joint consideration by the school board, the city, and the auditorium association of the total de mands. After all, that's the way the taxpayer will consider the bond issues at the polls in May. The voter will take a careful look over the ballot. Unless paring to the bone has been done by the groups pushing the measures, all bond proposals could suffer. Paring to the bone will not be sufficient, however. A pay-as-you-go approach to any bond proposal will be essential to win acceptance. The public still doesn't know how much these proposals might cost. The sponsoring groups haven't presented the suggested bill yet. So there is time for sponsoring parties to compare notes so as not to make the bill so large all con structive proposals will suffer. Russian-Red China Pact The long negotiations between the Kremlin and the Chi nese Reds are reported concluded, and the inevitable sur mise is that Russia got whatever she wanted in the line of military and naval bases in Red China and commercial con cessions in return for promised military aid and equipment. The Chinese Reds, reports assert, are to assume the lead ership in southeast Asia. At any rate, Red China seems to have come formally into the open as an ally of Soviet Russia in war and peace and probably be absorbed, bit by bit, into the Russian empire. The Nationalists are waiting to see whether the Reds get active Soviet aid in the Chinese civil war in other words, help for the invasion of Formosa and Hainan island. They won't have long to wait. Tao Hsi-Shtn, one of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek's closest advisors, predicts Chinese Red Leader Pao Tze Tung's return to Peiping will be followed by a big purge of all elements, communist and otherwise, not considered 100 percent pro-Russian. Wang Shih-Tseng, minister without portfolio at Taipai, said the pact was only a "smoke screen for an all embrac ing secret agreement. The whole thing is aimed primarily at the United States." Japan is rported to be the real target of the pact and a communist peace offensive looms. Offensives are already under way in Indochina and adjacent countries and the out look is as dark to the Allies as it is bright to the Reds. Barrels Join Flying Saucers Halifax, N. S., Feb. U.R) Now It's Hying barrels. Capt. William Crowell of Dartmouth, N. S., reported today he had seen an object late at night rushing through the air with a trail of fire. "The barrel-shaped object exploded in a brilliant burst of blue and orange flame," he said. Crowell's report was supported by Doreen MacDonald of Enfield, N. S. "I saw a flaming object roar through the night, and then burst into pieces and disappear," she said. Dominion publio weather offloe experts thought tha object waa a meteorite. BY BECK Life's Little Lessons , ' I tT ASK'NS YOU TO PIX A 5.S - 5 L I V. B6NT NAIL IN MY SLEDt pf 'Z-i WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND Absolutely No Way to Figure Final Cost of Frightful H-Bomb By DREW PEARSON Washington Atom scientists have secretly informed the con gressional committee on atomic energy that there is absolutely no way to determine the cost of the frightful H-bomb until it is built. However, they have further testified that the new bomb would cost a lot less , BY CARL ANDERSON Henry Drew Peartoa Remaking John L. Lewis Washington's rough-and-tumble news photographers, who have seen about everything, are flabbergasted at "the new John L. Lewis." In the old days when Lewis was asked to pose for a picture, the answer was a snarl or a view of his back. But today, when the boys clamor "just one more," Lewis is as sweet as a fairy godmoth er. He will even make gestures. Credit goes to his new public KRISS-KROSS After It Was All Over, They Agree 'No Place Like Home' ByCHRISKOWITZ.Jr. A couple of Salem boys did a luxurious job of running away from home recently. Not content to just pack up a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter and hop aboard a freight train, these enterprising youths set up living quarters in a heated room. For four days,- 1 E camped in a' small horse: barn at the state fair grounds. They equipped!" their "cabin ' with cots, sleep ing bags, alarml clock, shelves, mirrors, etc. They placed a grille over a five-gallon can for a cook stove, LAIL I The boys had decided home was a pretty nice place. than original es timates, which ran into billions of dollars This is be cause a great deal of equip ment now used for making atom bombs can be r e u s e d or easily converted to t h e produc tion of H-bombs. Officials of the atomic energy commission also have informed the committee behind closed relations expert, Justin McCar- doors that the hydrogen bomb thy, wh has convinced Lewis can be made for considerably that the way to make friends less than the estimated $2,000,- and influence people is to be 000,000 cost of the original atom nice to the photographers, bomb. The Other Lewis . The atom chiefs revealed', in Sitting in session with the fact, that all they would need coal operators, however, Lewis to get started on production of 's another man as witness the the H-bomb is $80,000,000, "yu -are -a-liar-by-the-clock" chiefly for special facilities and charge hurled at George Love, new laboratory equipment. president of the Pittsburgh Con- This $80,000,000 is already solidatioI Coal company, well on the way to congression- What inspired this piece of al approval, being included in verbal gunplay was Love's testi the $450,000,000 deficiency ap- mony at the fact-finding inquiry propriation bill that passed the that Lewis had declared during house last week though only a negotiations with the operators few house members knew they that he had 400,000 coal miners - n jp II eMJy I DOCTOR WALK DOCTOR. CRAVW. Chris Kowlts, Jr. Chatting with numerous old friends around downtown Salem yesterday was Spec Keene, ex Willamette U. athletic coach, now athletic director at OSC. . . . New fad among several prominent local businessmen: wearing of big, plastic, false noses. Some look quite authen tic .. . While Willamette uni versity was celebrating its 107th and somehow got hold of some anniversary last Thursday, stu- smudge pots to use for heating dent body prexy Russ Tripp was the premises. celebrating his 23rd . . . Floyd Their "hideout" was complete Hastay, superintendent of ditto . . . they even attempted to machine section for state offices, throw cops off the trail. Evi- is rated a top-flight baker of dently sensing that police would angel foor cakes. Rating is of search the fairgrounds for them, good authority, for it comes from the runaway boys wrote a note those who have eaten Hasty's saying "Billy we have left the prize oven product, fairgrounds for good," and sign- ed their names. The note was Four Salem women visit Port placed on another building at the land, plan to catch 4:30 bus back fairgrounds. to Salem. Get to bus depot at Police, finding the note, were 4 o'clock, stand in lobby and only assured more than ever start typical female conversation, that the boys were somewhere Dispatcher calls out four times on the grounds. A few minutes over public address system that later, the well-stocked "hide- Salem bus is loading. Women out" was discovered. keep on talking and miss bus. OPEN FORUM Governor's Stand on 'Mansion' To the Editor: For Governor McKay to find time and show the consideration to answer in person the many requests he re ceives to participate in the events staged by the people of his state, is a trait of democracy to be looked upon with favor rather than disfavor. So it seems to me bricks are being tossed at him when bouquets are due. ' The gentleman in our state- occasions rather than building luiuseii a mansion wnn uie iuji- were voting for H-bomb funds Taft Applauds Harry When President Truman ad dressed congress recently, Sen ate Majority Leader Scott Lucas, sitting beside Senators Ken Wherry of Nebraska and Bob Taft of Ohio, had to do the ap plauding for the republicans, "in the palm of his hand" and urged the operators to bid for their labor. Love was referring to a closed-door meeting at which Lewis charged that the operators were controlled by "bankers" who wanted to make "slaves" of the miners. When Love insisted that Lewis offer some specific proposals Finally he whispered to Wherry: !F a iT"! 1 ?.act' the "After all, this is the president " of the United States. You ought "This is our bargaining tech- to applaud whether you mean nique. it is a poor, poor ining. it or not. Wherry moved his hands po litely, but Taft kept his folded. Finally Lucas nudged Wherry again and asked him to suggest that Taft applaud, too. Taft ig nored this, until Truman came to his appeal for a national sci ence foundation, which Taft has but it is the best we have. Our labor is what we have to offer. You cannot work the mines without men." Then Lewis extended a cupp ed hand and added: "I have 400,000 miners. What am I bid?" However, last week when POOR MAN'S PHILOSOPHER Traveling Salesman Glad Rainy Days Not in His Line of Goods By HAL BOYLE Baltimore (U.R) The traveling salesman stood at his hotel win dow and looked out at Baltimore in the rain. "Why is it all cities look alike in the rain?" he thought. "Look out at any city when it rains, and where are you Baltimore? St. Louis? Milwaukee? Boston? Portland? Denver? Munich or London? Thcyppaw this trip because it was too im portant, you agreed right away to go. You always do. ..." The salesman puffed his cigar . . . and read on: "It's no excuse for you to say you have to earn all the money you can now, so you can quit work early and we can enjoy life. I want to live my life now, not when I am an old woman. Just remember that. . . ." are all the same." He glanced down at the wet street, where the water had collected in pools, making a sodden rosary. "And the people," he thought, "they all look the same. Rain does it to them, too, lJLJ Hal Borl endorsed. At this mention, Taft Love said that Lewis had 400,- clapped wildly. 000 miners in the palm of his Then he turned to Lucas and hand. the mine boss said it was remarked dryly: "I want you to an "infam"sT lie" and added or ,, . , , ,. , ... emphasis, "Mr. Love, you are a know that I have complied with jjar jjy the clock." your request." (copyruht isso) British Labor Party Shies Away From Credit to Marshall Plan (Editor's Note: Here is another dispatch by the Washing ton manager of the United Press, who is in Britain to cover the general election.) He put away the letter and picked up the phone. Better The salesman went back and send along some flowers, he scribbled a note to his boss. "Old Cradge is still with us, Bob," he wrote. ."He gave me thought. "Yes, a dozen the long-stemmed ones," he said. "And a lot of trouble, but he finally card Wine .T at home. See you in three days." He hung up the phone and thought, "maybe that'll sound ended up by giving us his usual order so well, I think I'll make the other two stops you mention ed before I pull back in." mu.t. u i ui. t.. too mushy to her. You never can ... i, , t.,,1 , 1 tell what they'll think. But if office happy, he knew. But about T, . . . . - . ,, ,., that nthr thin rtr,o iotw 1 d Just naPPy anniversary, househouse has, for years, con- payers' money, is that to be ducted his own private business frowned upon? I don't think so. very successfully. Upon taking Fact is, we like the idea of over the reins of the state of our state affairs being piloted Oregon, he has guided us with by a man who is such a true equal intelligence and sound adherent of democracy, judgment. More power to you, Governor! If he sees fit to keep in per- Stay the way you are) sonal touch with we, the peo- MRS. NAN LOU THOMPSON pie, by joining us upon our gala Rt. No. 3, Riverdale Pk., Salem MacKENZIE'S COLUMN Landed Aristocracy in England Has Been Fast Disappearing . By DeWITT MacKENZIE ((A1) Porelzn Affair Analyst) Britain's experiment in socialist government represents not only an economic leveling off process but it involves a social re adjustment aiming at the ultimate elimination of class distinctions. Socialist Prime Minster Attlee made a brief and tempered ref erence to "class society" yesterday in a speech preparing for the coming general By LYLE C. WILSON London, Feb. 15 (U.R) The American dollar has become a red hot issue in the British election. Winston Churchill's conservatives are trying to make the la bor party admit publicly that it would have been in trouble except for Marshall Plan aid. The liberal party hammers away the same. that other thing the letter from his wife. The salesman moodily pulled it from his pocket and read it again: "John, I can't take much more of this your going away all the time. It was hard enough to stand while the children were young. But since they are going, I just get so lonely I can't go on this way. ..." love' well, she might , The salesman left the thought unfinished. He looked out the window again. "Rainy days, rainy days," ha mused. "Thank God, I don't have to try to sell rainy day to people." Across the way, in tha cornica of a weathered building, ha saw two pigeons hudled, feather to at theme. But the labor party hasn't much to say about that issue. Its platform does not men tion American aid at all. Its campaign ora tors don't talk about it much, either. Lyle C. Wilson more old, and not from this campaign. Under hammering from the opposition, Prime Minister Clement Atlee a few days ago expressed pride in the Marshall Plan and gratitude for it. But labor campaigners do not wish to impress upon voters at election time the idea that any thing other than the labor gov ernment legislation made pos lit a cigar and feather' out of the rain's reach to the window 1,1 wonder," he thought, "if election. He said Britain's conser vative party still believes in: government by "a pri vilified! class" but thatle under his labor (Socialist) gov ernment "we: are moving awnv frnm trim , . ,. DeWlll U1U iuiii;i:Jiiuii t A l unavoidable imposition of heavy income and death taxes, turned many of the aristocracy into wage earners. The landed aristocracy, as this column has pointed out be fore, is rapidly disappearing, and was disappearing before the So cialists came to power almost five years ago. However, tha term "gentle man" still has a very distinc- of class society." ence to, I take it, was the fact tive meanin8 to a large rcent' that prior to the comparatively aKe of the aristocracy of Britain, recent rise of "labor" to power A gentleman is born and not in England, it was the function made- That is to say, he comes of the aristocracy to govern. from the upper classes. A tradesman's son, who may This prerogative was based have acquired the same educa partly on a subconscious theory tion as the aristocrat, is not and of "divine right" but more prac- never can be a "gentleman", tically on the circumstance that Obviously this is a matter of the aristocracy was the only ed- terminology but it can be a very ucated class. And by that same sticky one. token of education the aristocra- To illustrate: When I was cy was the only class which had living in England I knew an of the franchise. It was tha widen- f ice in which two men had work ing of the franchise, of course, ed in close contact with each which was responsible for the other for thirty years, yet they birth and growth of the labor, weren't on speaking terms, or Socialist, party. Why? Well, because one was a There has been a great change graduate of England's famous In the social structure of Eng- and aristocratio public school of land during the last generation. Eton while the other (and by Curiously enough this change far the more brilliant) was edu- has been due largely to the con- cated In an ordinary council servative party which, by tha school. Conservatives and liberals tell sible the social services, free the voters the labor govern- benefits, comparatively 1 o w ment's socialist program would Prices, food subsidies and full have been swamped by unem- employment which generally are ployment, sub-marginal diet and Popular with the British people, economic stagnation but for aid Between them the conserva- from overseas. 'lves and liberals are making What they demand is that Sl,Ma?h11J ""U V"6 labor's leaders frankly acknow- . fod and employment ledge the effect of American c """ aid and, more important, ex plain how the will prevent economic disaster when the Marshall Plan ends in 1952 So far labor hasn't answered that British campaign platforms are called manifestoes. The lib eral party manifesto for the na tional election on February 23 says: 'The generous help we have received from our common wealth partners and the United States has helped us immeasur ably, but it will not long con tinue. "We are living beyond our means. Unless we practice thrift and get full production, lower rations and mass unem ployment are inescapable when American aid ends.'1 Churchill is slugging harder than that He told American authorities during the war that when peace came Great Britain would be bankrupt. He holds now that only American aid prevented bankruptcy and en abled labor to carry on its so cialist program. The conservative party cam paign guide quotes half a dozen big shot laborites on how the Marshall Plan saved Great Brit ain from disastrous unemploy ment and Industrial decline. But tha quotations all are a year or The salesman went restlesslv and looked out at the rain for a homing pigeons still have to go while. Then he came back and on delivering messages after read some more from the letter: they've finished raising their "You keep saying I'm your youn8- whole life now, but I think your The salesman turned away, job is your whole life, and al- "r11 he if they do, their wiveg ways has been. You knew our don't understand why," ha said anniversary was coming up, and ou' loud. how I feel about anniversaries. And he began to pack his grip. But when Bob said 'he didn't Pittsburgh tomorrow. Rain or want to send a younger man on shine. Life in Socialist Britain London, Feb. 15 (if) Life among tha upper classes In so cialist Britain: "Wanted," said an advertisement in the personal column of today's Times, "a West end (Mayfair) resident who will house eminently presentable grass-widower in spacious luxury for six months. No bother; social asset; very little cash. Write Box A-1188." f Serving Solem ond Jl ' FSI Vicinity as Funeral ( I JA I fr Jki Director for 21 Years I " 3 I II ' . 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