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THE NEWBERRY SUN, NEWBERRY. S. C Presidential Veto Poses Problems Roosevelt Said, ‘I Forbid’ 631 Times for New Record By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON.—“I forbid!” said President Truman. He said it 74 times to the 79th congress while Democrats were still in control. The score for the Republican-controlled 80th is not quite complete at this writing. Every American president is permitted to say he forbids, but he has to say it in Latin. The word is "veto.” Of course the congress can say “So what?” right back, as they did so emphatically this session in the case of the Taft-Hartley labor act, but they have to say it two-thirds strong, a strength they aren’t always able to muster, as history has shown. Why the founding fathers were so#— generous with presidential power, which they never conceived as ex. panding to its modem breadth, we don't quite know. The veto is writ ten down in Roman law, but Latin is a dead language. In England, the crown has a veto power over parliament, but it is almost as dead as Queen Anne, since it hasn’t been used since her time. It seems to have flourished on American soiL In fact— "We ought to call it National Veto Week,” House Majority Leader Halleck is report ed to have re marked when the third presidential veto in one week of June bounced back into the lap of the 80th con- gress. Others studying head lines “President Nixes Tax Cut,” “Truman Vetoes Labor Legisla tion.” “Wool Bill Turned Down,” shook their heads and opined that Harry S. Truman was the veto- ingest president yet. Nonsense, said capitol old-timers. Harry Truman, according to the record, has been very sparing of his veto, and has a long way to go before he attains the really big-time veto statistics racked up by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt (who had more time than anybody else to ex ercise his thumbs-down power), Grover Cleveland (the veto runner- up), and Ulysses S. Grant. “Why,” the old-timers grunt, “when FDR was president, it seemed as if we had a veto on something or other almost ev ery day.” And the record shows that he said, “I forbid," or achieved the same end by the pocket method in 631 instances. (A “pocket veto” comes about in this way: The president has 10 Baukhage days, not including Sundays, to act on any bill. Congress sends a bill to him. If congress adjourns be fore the president’s allotted 10 days are up and he still hasn’t acted on the bill, it cannot become a law. That is considered a "pocket veto.”) Cleveland, during his two terms in office, used his veto power 584 times, and was overridden only twice. The majority of the Cleve land vetoes were personal pension bills, many based on utterly ab surd claims growing out of the Civil war. At first, Cleveland’s forthright refusal to permit these myriad, lili- putian treasury raids infuriated Civ il war veterans. Later, however, the GAR came to consider him its friend. Ulysses S. Grant, a poor third to Roosevelt and Cleveland, ve toed 92 bills, was oveitldden fonr times. All told, the veto power has been used more than 1,833 times by pres idents. George Washington started it off by killing two important acts— one having to do wit)i legislative or ganization; another which would have reduced the size of the army. He was not overridden. There were eight other presidents who never experienced a veto upset by con gressional action—Madison, Mon roe, Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Lin coln, McKinley and Harding. On the other hand, there were several presidents who scorned the veto entirely: John Adams, Jeffer son, John Quincy Adams, Van Bu- ren, William Henry Harrison, Tay lor, Fillmore and Garfield. Perhaps because all was harmonious be tween executive and legislators in those days. Perhaps because, as some students suggest today, a sus tained veto is a contradiction of the principle of majority rule—a rule of a minority of one-third of either house plus one, plus the pres ident who is not supposed to have a vote. (It takes a two-thirds vote to kill a veto.) FIRE’S TRAGIC AFTERMATH . . . The tragedy which invariably fol lows in the wake of fire is typified in this picture of Mr. and Mrs. Allen Tate of Chatsworth, Calif., standing in the charred ruins that once was their home. A brush fire that swept the area destroyed many houses, Including some under construction. NEWS REVIEW Mine Pact Draws Fire; New Aid Parley Opens Historic Trees Threatened For years now I have walked back and forth to my labors under a Gothic roof of green, formed by the interlacing elm branches which, since Civil war days, have made my street one of the world’s most beautiful avenues. Today there are some rude gaps in the raftered ceil ing where huge branches have been ripped away by the wind and storm. But now there is a threat of greater devastation for our and other elm trees, ancient and historical, cr merely beautiful, for the dreaded dutch elm disease has descended upon America—two cases of viru lent infection have been discovered within the District of Columbia alone, and no cure is known. My generation found nothing exotic in the idea of the village smithy under the spreading chestnut tree. Today the smith would have a tough job finding a chestnut tree under which to build his smithy, even if you could find the smith. For, thanks to the infamous chestnut blight, a horsechestnut tree in this country is now almost as rare as a horse. Must the elms go that way? I talked this question over with a member of the American For estry Products Industries, Inc. (a private industrial association). He said: "A recent house action re duced the federal appropriation for the control and research of the Eu ropean beetle and dutch elm dis ease to $51,000. If the cut is ap proved by the senate, it means the end of the dutch elm disease lab oratory in Morristown, N. J., where the department of agriculture’s bu reau of entomology and plant quar antine has conducted extensive re search into the control and possible prevention of the insect and fungus. An elm, according to official classification, is a “prized shade tree in the northeastern and central United States.” But passing over its esthetic value, consider that its “wood is used for variety of pur poses—especially slack cooperage, market and bushel baskets, for heavy crating and for veneers. . . But what does an economaniac care for all that? Consider the White House grounds, for instance. In these quiet 18 acres there are something less than 350 trees comprising some 90 species. The two great magnolias planted close to the rear portico were placed there by Andrew Jack- son. Nearly every president plant ed a tree—there is the Benjamin Harrison oak, the Harding beech. the Coolidge birch, several species set out under Hoover. Maples predominate, but the elms are next, and many have historic memories. Just southeast of the south portico is an elm said to have been planted by John Quincy Adams. There are others planted by Lincoln and McKinley. Under these trees history lives, hot for beauty nothing surpasses the high arched clois ter, thick-tapestried in summer, stark but graceful in silhouetted line In winter, which roofs my avenue. A wilting and partly defoliated 30-foot American elm severely af fected with dutch elm disease. BETRAYED: Mine Pact Rep. Fred A. Hartley (Rep., N. J.), co-author of the Taft-Hartley la bor act, has charged big business and big labor with betraying the public in negotiating the latest John L. Lewis coal mining contract. Hartley’s attack followed shortly after southern coal operators fol lowed northern and midwestern op erators in signing soft coal con tracts with the 400,000-member Unit ed Mine Workers. He told the house that “at least one clear violation of the law” was contained in the contracts, referring to the section providing for a “checkoff” from the miners’ wages. The Taft-Hartley law, he said, permits a checkoff only for union dues, but the contract calls for a checkoff of initiation fees and union assessments. Hartley added that other sections of the contract “vio late the spirit and intent of the law.” Noting that the contract afforded a “prime case history of the evils of industry-wide bargaining,” he said that there was evidence of “collusion between the mine opera tors and the UMW with the inten tion of violating the law.” R.S.Y.P.: Paris Parley Pro-Communist Hungary turned down its invitation to attend the Paris conference on European re construction as 17 other nations lined up to participate in the talks, first step in carrying out the Mar shall plan for aiding prostrate Europe. - The conference, previously boy cotted by Russia on the grounds that the Marshall plan will be a foothold for American intervention in the internal affairs of Europe, will attempt to set up a scheme whereby Europe, with the aid of American dollar credits and sup plies, will be able to lift Itself from its economic morass by its boot straps. In addition to Hungary, four other Communist-inspired governments— those of Poland, Yugoslavia, Ro mania and Bulgaria—also refused the invitations sent out by Great Britain and France. As the dead line for replies approached, Finland and Albania had not yet been heard from. FARMERS PROSPER NAVY RESIGNATIONS GROW Higher pay and a more satisfac tory home life are the two main lures which have drawn the most bright and capable young career officers from the navy and army into civilian jobs at what is called “an alarming rate” during the past year. In the last 10 months more than 1,700 naval officers have resigned commissions won at Annapolis to take higher paying civilian jobs. During the same period, the army lost only 259 West Point officers via the resignation route, but they are men whom the service can ill afford to spare. Both farm assets and farm in come have expanded tremendously since the outbreak of World War II, according to a late report released by the National Industrial Confer ence board. Total assets increased about 90 per cent from 53.7 billion dollars at the beginning of 1940 to 101.5 billion dollars six years later. Gross income from agriculture shot up 124 per cent over the same period. That income, plus government payments, totalled about 11 billion dollars in 1940 and only a little less than 25 billion dollars in 1945. Virtu ally all the gain was registered by income from agriculture. Gov ernment payments were not changed during the years covered by the report. Cash receipts from farm marketings rose from 8.3 bil lion dollars in 1940 to a very con siderable 20.8 billion in 1945. Real estate was by far the largest item among farm assets, rising from 33.6 billion dollars in 1940 to 56.6 billion in 1946. ROMANCE: Royal Road Princess Elizabeth, 21-year-old heiress presumptive to the throne of England, and Lt. Philip Mount- batten, 26, former Prince Philip of Greece, are formally engaged to be married this autumn, probably in October. King George VI and Queen Eliza beth cleared the road to royal ro mance by giving unqualified approv al to the match and announcing the en gagement in a tra ditional court circu lar. Lt. Mountbatten is a second cousin to the king and a great - grandson of Queen Victoria. As the husband of Prin cess Elizabeth, he will be Britain’s first prince consort since Queen Vic toria’s husband. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. He cannot become king, but probably will be given a dukedom shortly after the wedding. King George is expected to ask parliament to increase Princess Elizabeth’s income and perhaps give her husband a special allowance. OIL EXPORTS: Supply Russia A special export license for the shipment of petroleum products to Russia was granted by the depart ment of commerce hours after Rep resentative Weichel (Rep., O.), chairman of the house merchant marine committee, demanded the license be refused. Weichel previously had tele phoned William C. Foster, under secretary of commerce, urging him to halt the movement of 248,000 bar rels of petroleum being loaded aboard three tankers on the West coast. INDEX HIGH, TOO Gain Shown in Farm Incoi WASHINGTON. — Farm income during the first six months of 1947 was 30 per cent higher than that of the corresponding period last year, it was revealed in the agriculture department’s monthly review of farm income. Farmers netted $11,700,000,000 from the sale of their products dur-, ing that period, with the total increased to about 12 billion dollars through government payments, the report showed. Largest increase was 70 per cent registered in sale of meat animals. Cash receipts from dairy products were up 30 per cent from the cor responding period last year. Cash receipts from crops were around $3,800,000,000 in the first half, or 20 per cent above the cor responding period last year. Most of this increase was in grains and tobacco. Preliminary estimates for June show that farmers received about two billion dollars from marketings, an increase’of 30 per cent from June, 1946. Receipts from livestock and their products were up about 50 per cent on the same basis of compari son. “Demand for meat for domestic consumption and for export con tinues unusually strong,” the agri culture department’s statement said. “Meat animal prices in mid- June were about 50 per cent higher on the average than a year before.” The declining wheat prices are expected to continue into August or September. “Because of the very large export demand, however, the price decline will be less than is usual when a very large crop is marketed.” Prices paid by farmers for their needs in June averaged 230 per cent of the 1910-14 average. Prices paid for feed advanced to the highest level since last August. In general, the statement conclud ed, the index of prices paid by farmers is expected to continue at high levels in the next few months. Home Touin p£pOPT£P IN WASHINGTON WALTER SHEAD, WNU C No Labor for Labor S ECRETARY OF LABOR Lewis B. Schwellenbach, a sad-faced man at best, is more mournful than ever these days. For the former U. S. senator, judge and law school dean finds himself heading a department of labor with little to do about labor and, as a matter of fact, with little to do about any thing. The long gray stone building on Constitution avenue, which houses the cabinet agency set up to pro mote the welfare of the workers of the nation has been fast emptied of its agencies. First the U. S. em ployment service was turned over to federal security. The retraining and reemployment administration to help veterans also was trans ferred to security. The Taft-Hart ley bill makes the national labor relations board an independent agency and the federal conciliation service also is divorced from the department. The labor standards bureau has been made impotent by lack of appropriations. Left for Schwellenbach to op erate with an under-secretary and three assistant secretaries are the women’s division and the bureau of labor statistics. • * • When members of congress get bach to main street at the end of July they will be asked by veterans what hap pened to their 3J0 bills introduced; by housewives—what has happened to prices; by farmers—what happened to the farm program; by school teachers —what happened to the teachers fed eral aid bills; by veterans and tenants —what happened to the housing pro grams and by the taxpayers — what happened to that six billion dollar appropriation cut. • * * No Uncertainty Here Labor will not have to ask con gress what happened to labor. They know. The portal-to-portal pay bill and the omnibus Taft-Hartley bill are on the ’law books. Labor calls the measure a “slave labor bilL” Industry dubs it a “Magna Charta for labor.” 'And in the meantime, the president, who vetoed it, and the NLRB who must administer it, say they will give the measure a fair administration to make it work. It is almost certain, however, that some provisions will be declared unconstitutional. • • • The national council of farm cooperatives doesn't want any tinkering which will change the purpose and operation of the farm credit laws. Witnesses told a senate committee considering H.R. 3756, already passed by the house, that the bill would “seri ously damage” the present sys tem by making it a direct gov ernment lending agency. • • • As adjournment of congress nears, the senate civil service com mittee still is playing politics with appointment of some 700 postmas ters which have been awaiting con firmation for six months. It may take a last-minute log-rolling to get them through, if at all, before the gavel sounds for congressional re cess. ‘Sneak Attack’ A PARADE of witnesses, lobby ists, attorneys and big guns of the private power industry have been testifying before the house in terstate commerce committee in behalf of a seemingly innocent measure introduced by Congress man William J. Miller of Connecti cut. This bill, however, is not innocent. In effect it would take most of the huge power trusts from under con trol of the federal power commis sion by repealing important provi sions of the law creating the com mission. Opponents of the meas ure brand it a “sneak attack” at the governmental policy of power regulation. There is no denying the fact that the private power interests are finding the 80th congress a sympathetic one in their at tempts to evade the anti-trust laws, to slap down public power which is giving cheap electricity to millions of users. • • • Action Delayed The first six months of the 80th congress finds nothing done on Pres ident Truman’s proposals for health Insurance, universal military train ing or river valley developments, although in this latter category the record-breaking floods along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers have given added proof of urgently needed action. Likewise, there has been no action on federal aid to the needy, anti-poll tax or anti lynching legislation. MASTERS IN HANDCRAFT . . . Two Indian girls (left) from Arizona show their handiwork to other Girl Scouts at the first world conference to be held by the Girl Scout organisation In the U. S. since 1937. Girls from the Americas, Europe and the Far East gathered at Camp Baree, near Tyrone, Pa., to discuss youth’s part in world affclrs. Fire Chief at 90 Still Heads Force He Formed in 1920 FLORA, ILL.—Still head of the volunteer fire department which he organized 27 years ago, 90-year-old “Uncle Fay” Yeck, ranks as one of the oldest, if not the oldest, fire chiefs in the nation. Recently appointed by Mayor Leo Allen to the job for four more years, Yeck admits that his years are numbered but his seamed brown face showed little concern as he predicted: “I don’t think I’ll last out my term.” The white-haired chief has helped fight most of the blazes in this southern Tllinois oil town for the last 60 years. Despite administra tion turnovers, he has held the post of fire chief since he organized the Flora volunteer department March 26. 1920. When the volunteer fire de partment was organised to 1920, Its equipment consisted «f a two wheel hose cart with a reel and 150 feet of hose, the veteran chief recalls. The city paid a dollar to the drayman who would haul that cart to a fire “and how the three or four draymen in Flora would race to earn that dollar.” he adds. Next advance in equipment was an old steamer. Regarding this ma chine, Yeck relates: “The fire would be out, or else the place would bum down before they’d get up steam to get it there.” The 30 volunteers include the mayor, police chief, a bank cashier, theater owner, game warden, a bar ber and an undertaker. They fight fires without pay “because they’re all good hearted fellows, I guess.' “They enjoy it, though. Espe cially those pinochle games at their meetings every month over the fire house.” Uncle Fay’s office is a little desk under a stairs, where he works from 8 to 5 every day, but “I’m subject to call at all hours like a country doctor.” He has two pumper trucks, "one’s 13 years old; the other’s 8. Both as good as the day we got ’em.” Although a tiny gold badge on his vest is inscribed “E. D. Yeck,” the genial chief explains that his name really is Edwin Dufay Yeck “but folks around Flora just call me ’Uncle Fay’—especially the kids." Yeck, who came to Illinois from Sistersville, W. Va., as a lad of six, recalls that there were only three stores in Flora when he arrived there. He spent his early years in farming, then was a barber for 50 years. He Listens to All Legislative Wrangle- Lets Out One Yelp ANNAPOLIS, MD.—Oniar, an in dependent who sits in on the Mary land legislative sessions, has taken the floor only once—and that was when somebody stepped on his taU. He raised the point of personal privilege from his seat on the aisle next to C. Clifton Virts, 36-year- old Frederick attorney, who lost his sight in a dynamite cap explosion when he was nine years old. * Omar, a cross between a chow and a German shepherd, is a gradu ate of the seeing eye school at Mor ristown, N. J. Like his master, he is a freshman at the present ses sion. Virts, a Democrat, and Charles M. See, Allegany county Republi can, who also is blind, have formed a coalition for going over the bills, with See’s wife doing the reading. Vet Housing Project Will Be War Memorial SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Plans for a new type of community war memo rial—in the form of a rental hous ing development for veterans—have been approved by the city council. The city will assist in the formation of a corporation to be known as the San Jose War Memorial foundation and will sell 20 acres of land to the foundation at a nominal sum. Pro ceeds will reduce the city debt. yLVIATION NOTES Airport Chatter More than 1,000 private planes will converge upon University of Illinois airport at Urbana-Cham- paign August 4 when the Flying Farmers of Prairie Farmer Land gather for two days of meetings and demonstrations of agricultural and flying equipment. Governors of Illi nois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michi gan, the area covered by the organ ization, have been invited. Crop dusting demonstrations with a heli copter are scheduled as one of the convention features. . . . Flying Farmers Day will be a headline attraction at the annual Farm and Home Week scheduled at Louisiana State university August 12-14. Air- minded farmers throughout the state will be invited to fly their planes to Baton Rouge to partici pate in the program. . . . Second annual reunion of the Order of Fi- flnella (ex-Wasps) is scheduled at Ponca City, Okla., August 24-27, under auspices of the Piper Mid- Continent plant and the Chamber of Commerce. Approximately 150 ex- Wasps are expected to attend. . . . A long hotel strike in Phoenix, Ariz., took a new twist when the hotel management used a helicopter to deliver food and beverages over picket lines. • • • Flying Eggbeater Several distinctions are claimed for the unique commuter service offered by a helicopter, which oper ates between Boston’s Logan air port and the roof of a downtown garage. The flying eggbeater, as the plane is known, is the only helicopter in scheduled passenger service in the world; is the only one landing regu larly oa a roof of a building; it flies on the shortest airline route in the world; it charges the highest rate per mile, and it flies at the slowest speed of any scheduled passenger plane. The distance is about two miles as the crow flies, and its mechanical cousin, the helicopter, flies. Consid ering that the fare is $3.50, tax in cluded, passengers are paying at the rate of $1.75 per mile. But the purpose of the helicopter service is not to save money or to go fast but to save time. • * • Another First The nation’s first aerial cleaning service is operated by Wayne L. Troutner of Winslow, Ariz. Daily when his Stinson Voyager glides to earth on remote northern Arizona landing strips, Indian natives—both young and old—cry a greeting “Ka- Ya - Pa - Ne - Sha,” meaning "the cleaner who flies.” Since inaugurat ing the aerial pick-up and delivery service to the widely scattered trad ing posts, ranches and resorts, Troutner has more than doubled the volume of business for his Wins low plank ‘KA-YA-PA-NE-SHA’ Indians Greet Flier ‘Neck Breaker’ Walter Bullock of Minneapolis, Minn., is lonesome for the first time that he tried to break his neck. It was back in 1916 at Newport News, Va., that the veteran pilot stepped into a ramshackle plane and flew it. The plane had no instrument board, being operated with only a switch and throttle. It was made of bam boo and the engine was strung up at the back of the wings behind the pilot. As he wants the thrill of such a risk again, Bullock is build ing a similar plane—and will fly it] Grandma SPEARIN'... SOME FOLKS insist on plant!* thorns, and then expect to gather roses.* Os' THEM TWO WORDS — "Table- Grade”—sure tell a heap o’ thing* ■bout Nu-Maid Margarine. Yep, Nu-Maid Margarine is mad* ’specially fer the table. As fine * spread as money can buy. US' SOME FOLKS never have learned that you can’t borrow trouble. You gotta pay fer it... In worry.* Ur* 'BOUND OUR HOUSE, every body’s plumb crazy 'bout the way vegetables taste when they’re seasoned with Table-Grade Nu- Maid Margarine. It don’t surprise me, cuz anything that tastes a* good as Nu-Maid all by itself is Bound to make other foods taste better, too! *f 5 US' will be paid upon publica tion to the first contributor of each accepted saying or idea for “Grandma Speakin’.’ r Address Nu- Maid Margarine, Cincinnati 2, O. 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