The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, May 07, 1948, Image 2
THE NEWBERRY SUN. NEWBERRY. S. C.
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Washington Digest?
Is This Where We Came In?
War Department Thinks Not
By BAUKHAGE
News Analyst and Commentator
“Just now Washington isn’t as warlike as it sounds. The
emphasis is on defense, not offense. However, there are con
flicting views on what we ought to do ...”
That sentence just about reflects sentiment here as I write these
lines—a sentiment that has changed rapidly in the last few weeks, days,
hours, and may change still more before these lines are printed.
That sentence also reflected the
sentiment in Washington eight years
ago. (I found it among my clippings
> of the column
i| which appeared
| early in October of
If 1940.) 1 had just
come back from
the war depart
ment which then
was located on
[ Constitution a v e-
nue. There wasn’t
any Pentagon
building then. I
had been inter-
vewing an officer
on the subject of
"our new citizen army.”
•‘According to many letters I get”
(1 wrote) “what a lot of people v/ant
to know is why we need a citizen
army in peacetime?”
A lot of people are asking that
question again today. The answer
which I reported to you in this col
umn eight years ago was this:
“Speed is what counts in an
army today. We aren't calling out
these boys to fight anybody. We
are calling them out to train them
so they’ll be ready if we ever need
them. The United States can al
ways raise a big army if war is
declared. But neither we nor any
other country can raise a trained
army overnight. And a lot can
happen in the night these days.
What we want to do is to train
these men for a reserve . . .”
It was a year and three months
after I wrote those words that some
thing did happen, not in the night,
but in the early morning, over Pearl
Harbor. We didn’t start it. The
Japs did the deciding. They decided
that we had to go to war.
The Lesson’s Over,
No Time for Recess
Today we have more to say. We
have learned a great deal since
December 7, 1941. We have learned
how to fight a global war and win
it. The question is will we do the
things which will prevent a global
war?
That will be something if we do.
Meanwhile the wheel seems to
have made the circle and some of
the boys who were learning squads
right in 1940 are wondering if this
is where they came in. I had a
chance to think about that on another
trip back from the war department
recently, or 1 should say the depart
ment of national defense. It’s a
longer journey now than it was to the
old “temporary” World War I build
ing on Constitution avenue. The
Pentagon sprawls geometrically over
310 acres across the Potomac in
Virginia. The message I brought
back was very much like the one I
reported eight years ago.
It was a reassurance that the
request for three billion more dol
lars for national defense is what
the military men say is the mini
mum peacetime expenditure to
prevent war. In other words, de
fense, not offense. It was pointed
out that if it were necessary now
to prepare for actual conflict, the ,
cost would run closer to 50 billions
than three.
I was most heartily assured that
the United States did not want war,
that no encouragement whatever was
being given those few persons who
urged “preventive” action. With less
certainty, but advanced as an honest
opinion, was the statement that Rus
sia did not want war, either.
“There is no reason, as far as
we know now," one official told
me, “why war cannot be avoided,
provided a reasonable balance is
established between the military
forces of the two countries. Now
we are in imbalance.”
It was noted that Russia and her
satellites now have under arms near
ly twice the number which this
country and the anti - Communist
countries of western Europe could
put in the field.
It is well to remember too that the
Russian Red army is mobilized; it
is largely concentrated in eastern
Europe, whereas American troops
are thinly scattered over the whole
earth. Russia has never really de
mobilized, she has more combat
planes and men to man them; she
has a greater land force; a numeri-
cally-superior artillery.
We are strong in bombing planes,
but she has a stronger defense in
fighter and interceptor planes. She
is believed to be producing from
75,000 to 100,000 planes a year. We
produced 1,700 military planes of
all types last year.
But “our biggest shortage is in
equipment,” said a veteran officer.
One might go on at great length. I
won’t. I have rehearsed the sad
story of “redeployment” ever since
I first heard it from a general’s sec
retary, who, like most of the rest of
us, thought it was “reemployment.”
In case you have forgotten, the
United States army, the greatest
military machine in history, was
"redeployed” out of existence and
under such pressure from mothers
and wives, and at such a breakneck
speed, that in many cases it didn't
leave a pile of scrap behind it to
mark the spot whence it melted and
dribbled away. The Red army didn’t
re-deploy. It is still largely de
ployed.
And so here we are again!
Panicky Outlook
Is Not Justified
One might become exceedingly
pessim Stic, one might grow panicky.
But, as I think over the interviews,
as I recall the faces of those men
charged with our nation’s defense,
as I ponder the words, the tone of
voice, I must say the net impression
of the contacts is to make me feel
more hopeful than I had felt before.
It was only three years ago, in
April, 1945, that this high point of
Russian - American camaraderie
was reached when IVlaj. Gen. Emil
F. Reinhardt of the U.S. first army
greeted the major general com
manding the Russian 58th infantry
division at a meeting of American
and Russian units at the Elbe
river in Germany.
I had been pretty depressed when I
began the round of calls in the var
ious little cells that open onto the
endless corridors of the Pentagon
offices, large and small, with maps
on the walls, the men in uniform
or civilian clothes at desks.
When I left, I had the feeling that
here were men who were looking
at the task before them coolly and
calmly, neither obsessed with a
certainty that they were moving
into another inevitable conflict nor
Indifferent to the possibilities that
such might be the case.
“We anticipate no belligerent or
provocative move on the part of the
Russians. We don’t pretend to be
able to say what their plan is, or
whether they have one. In any case,
it is not our move. Whether there
is to be peace or war depends upon
the men in the politburo. We have
no way of knowing what their next
step will be. We doubt if they have
made up their minds . . .”
And then one official came back
to the remark I quoted before:
“Personally,” he said, “I do not
think Russia wants war. I am cer
tain that we do not.”
As I say, I went out past the re
ception desk, through the high doors
and out to where the quiet river
holds the city in its tranquil em
brace. It looked no more turbulent,
no less peaceful, when, during the
war years, I used to come out that
same door with my notes interpret
ing the latest strategic war in Nor
mandy, the breakthrough at St. Lo,
the Battle of the Bulge, Patton’s
tactical miracles.
Washington is calm. The other
day as I opened my closet door, I
noticed my trenchcoat with the faded
blue patch with “war correspondent”
on the shoulder. It didn’t give me
a turn. After.all, we have just won
the greatest victory of its kind in
history—the completion of the plan
to aid Europe. That and a few
bloodless steps which caution and
not desperation dictate are enough
for now.
* • •
Even clergymen are able to think
fast in a crisis, even though those
who are prone to sleep through inter
minable sermons may be inclined
to doubt the assertion. But up in
Cambridge, Mass., a policeman was
induced to tear up a speeding ticket
when a clergyman he had stopped
explained, “You have to be fast
these days if you want to save
souls.”
• • •
June is the “dew month” in Ja
pan. In this country, we insist,
every month is “due month.”
CANDIDATE.. .Harold E. Stassen
(left), ahoen here with Sen.
Joas>h R. McCarthy (Rep., Wig.),
paid a surprise visit to Wash
ington in quest of ‘most recent'
developments in the defente pro
gram.
* IF WE DON’T WIN IT’S A SHAMC’...Employing a atiff-armed,
overhand pitch. President Harry S. Truman, a southpaw, toased
the firat ball at the opening game between the New York Yankees
and the Washington Nats at Griffith stadium in Washington,
thereby officially opening the 1948 major league baseball
season. It was the first burling the President had done since
he pitched his hat into the political ring by stating he was
actively seeking Democratic renomination.
CHILDREN...Wear ing native
Austrian costume, five-year-old
Emmy Mattesich prepares to lead
the Austrian delegation in gi
gantic children’s parade that
opened the National American
Overseas Aid-United Nations
Appeal for Children drive in
New York.
SCROLL OF THANKS TO ITALY...Day after the vital Italian
elections residents of South Philadelphia’s Italian colony
g athered to offer thanks and to celebrate the defeat o f the
immunists. Part of the celebration entailed the signing of a
2)0-foot scroll,, thanking the Pope for his part in swaying th«
Italian people to vote for democracy.
AULD LANG SYNE.. .Cherubic as
ever, Winston Churchill shakes
hands with Mrs. Eleanor Roose
velt as she leaves his home in
London after having lunch with
him and his wife.
EXPLORER...Mrs. Edith Ronne
is the first woman to land on
the Antarctic continent--not
that many women ever clamored
for that honor. She is wife of
Cmdr. Finne Ronne who conducted
the Ronne Antarctic research
expedition.
ALA9(A WANTS IN. ..People of Alaska are serious about getting
their territory accepted as the 49th state in the union. Ilere,
Victor C. Rivers of the territorial senate of Alaska speaks to
a gathering in the main street of Anchorage to present a force
ful demand for statehood. Anchorage doesn’t have the climate
for an outdoor tea party, but citizens there have dug damn into
American history for their battle slogan: ’Taxation without
representation.' Remember?'
CLOWN...While John L. Lewia
was having his troubles in Wash
ington, John (Tubby) Tftomes im«
proved the shining hour in
Pittsburgh by looking like John
L. Lewis having trouble in
Washington. Thomas has been an
amateur clown for 30 years and
says he often has beam mistaken
for tbs UMW leader.
KRUG SEEKS NAVAJO REHABILITATION.. .Navajo Indians Descheenie
(left) and Sam Ahkean, chairman of the Navajo tribal council of
ohiprock, N.M., display a map of their non-productive land to
Intenor Secretary Julius Krug who has proposed to move 5,050 of
the 12,000 poverty-stricken Navajo Indian familiea off their
arid, reservations to more productive lands. Krug wants a 90-
mllion-dollar appropriation to promote agriculture and indus
try on the reservations.
u
Jt&l
IPhiHipr
NEW CAMPAIGN TECHNIQUES
It seems to this department that
the candidates for the presidency of
the United States are overlooking a
great asset for commanding public
support. We refer to the contest
mania or something-for-nothing epi
demic. It is hard to interest anybody
in anything today unless it has a
give-away angle. And yet not a can
didate for the votes of the American
people has come out with a prize
contest of any kind!
*
The party chairmen are asleep,
too. Not one of them has leaped to
the mike and announced to the vot
ers that by giving a reason in 25
words why they are for so-and-so for
president they can win an airplane,
a couple of sedans, a completely fur
nished house and a trip to Sun Val
ley.
*
Here Is Harry Truman, hard-
pressed to sell himself for renomi
nation and it doesn’t occur to him
to get the jump on all the others
by a doubie-or-nothing routine.
And he needs only a good radio
master of ceremonies, a nation
wide hookup and a few mink coats,
grand pianos, television sets and
electric ice boxes. It’s a natural.
“Simply complete the sentence ‘I
like Harry S. Truman because
... * in 25 words or less . . . AU
answers, heaven knows why, be
come the property of Harry S,
Truman.”
*
We don’t know how the Democrats
are fixed financially, but they prob
ably could toss in a couple of hun
dred thousand dollars for awards of
$10,000 each, together with a round-
the-world cruise, a yacht and two
watches for every American’s wrist
It might be a good idea to pick the
old jingle idea for a contest. Com
plete the following limerick:
There was a young man from
Missouri
Who said “It is up to the jury
To say if they wish me
To stay in or dish me.
Nothing can make the public forget
things such as inflation, global war
threats, the high cost of living, and
labor troubles, like a limerick.
Governor Dewey’s advisers are re
ported urging him to run on a give
away program patterned something
on Queen for a Day, where every
contestant just states what she wants
most in life and is given it fast. This
would tie up the female vote, which
is most important.
Taft is reported hard to interest
in a contest. He’s old-fashioned
enough to think the people are fed
up with the idea of getting things
free, and is said to feel that mil
lions would vote for Hank Wallace
rather than get sucked into another
contest to have the house painted
inside and out, win a fishing
schooner and be given a broom
ride up and down the rainbow.
. • •
Judging from the newspaper and
newsreel photos of private planes
tangled up with the roofings, tree
tops and telegraph poles, plenty of
planes now are being flown by driv
ers whose applications to drive autos
and motorcycles were rejected for
unfitness.
TELEVISION REACTION
Some airwave folks are not for
me,
I am inclined to flee ’em;
But this I know through video—
I’d rather hear than see ’em!
Paul Hoffman, head of Studebak-
er, has been named head man in the
direction of ERP. As any Stude-
baker fan can testify, this assures
the European relief a new front. And
it notifies Europe that the doctor will
not come by horse and buggy.
* • •
“NEW YORK STARTS WAR ON
EIGHT MILLION RATS.”—Headline.
*
This headline may have account
ed for the extreme nervousness
noticed in racketeering circles.
• * •
Eastern railroads are asking an
other fare increase. They have heard
a rumor that the public has a dime
left.
• * •
The U. S. Golfers association
barred Babe Didrikson from the
National Open on the ground that,
like the Elks smoker, it is for men
only. It is our notion that Babe
would have made quite a few of
the contestants face the question,
“What makes you think you are
Can You Remember—
Away back when the Democrats
bac. things their own way?
* * *
“The big one broke my tackle.”
—President Truman at Key West.
You just don’t seem able to hold
the line, Harry.
• » •
Gov. Jim Folsom of Alabama,
sued in a parentage, action, says
“it is all politics.” This is the first
time we ever hear of a stork throw
ing a hat into a ring.
Post Office Deficiencies
rpHE HOUSE POST OFFICE com-
mittee has been sitting on a
confidential report on the Cleveland
post office which may lead to a
wholesale streamlining of big city
post offices throughout the country.
Congressman Rees of Kansas,
chairman of the house post office
committee, has been holding the re
port close to his bosom, even refus
ing to let some of his colleagues
see it. However, it may help to trim
down the 345-million dollar total de
ficit that the government is stuck
with this year.
The Cleveland post office was se
lected for an exhaustive efficiency
study, but spot checks also were
made at Cincinnati, Detroit and Buf
falo. As a result of the survey, con
gress will be asked to earmark $50,-
000 for overhauling a section of the
Cleveland post office, and if this is
successful, the system will be adopt
ed throughout the country. Annual
savings for the nation are estimated
at 72 million dollars.
Trundle Engineering company,
hired to make the Cleveland sur
vey, found low morale, high absen
teeism, excessive sick leave, poor
supervision and weak discipline.
Transit time consumed too much
of the earners’ day, greatly reduc
ing delivery time. Deliveries were
more frequent than the majority
of patrons needed.
A fleet of obsolete trucks, requir
ing excessive maintenance, in
creased the postal bill. Mounted
carriers drove their own automobiles
and were paid high fees, the experts
found. Total cost of delivering a
13-cent special 'delivery letter, for
example, amounted to 20.5 cents.
Special delivery messengers also
spent approximately one hour every
day filling out Form 3951, a special
delivery receipt record not consid
ered necessary.
The Trundle company recom
mended sweeping steps to abolish
these defects. It urged a tightened,
more equitable personnel policy, a
morale-building program, a six-day
40-hour week for carriers instead of
the present five-day week. It also
recommended replacement of the
obsolete truck fleet, purchase of
modem shop equipment to service
new trucks and government-owned
automobiles for mounted carriers. It
also advocated that "serious consid
eration” be given to boosting special
delivery rates.
Underground Activities
A COMMERCE DEPARTMENT
EMPLOYEE was being quizzed
by a loyalty Investigator about a
young lawyer in the same depart
ment.
“Does he belong to any under
ground organizations?” asked the
investigator.
“Yes.”
“Which o^e?” The investigator
leaned forward eagerly.
“The National Speleological so
ciety.”
“What do its members believe
in?” asked the puzzled prober.
“They specialize in the study of
caves and underground caverns.”
Stassen’s Campaign Funds
A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE WON
DERED where Harold Stassen’s
campaign expenses were coming
from.
The ex-Minnesota governor, not a
wealthy man, has spent the last two
years touring the length and breadth
of the U. S., with campaign head
quarters set up in several states.
Naturally, this takes money. The
matter of who is putting up the
money is important to the voting
public.
Most of Stassen’s backers, it can
be revealed, are blue-chip busi
nessmen, including some of his old
Minnesota neighbors. Several of
the group, it should be noted, have
progressive ideas and enjoy excel
lent relations with labor.
* * •
U. S. First in Berlin
CoL Alexander Jelisarov, Russian
delegate on the allied control coun
cil of Berlin, forgot one important
fact when he boasted that the Rus
sians alone liberated Europe and
that if the British were worried
about Berlin, “Why didn’t they get
there first?”
He forgot that, three years ago,
American troops were in Potsdam,
the suburb of Berlin. Suddenly,
the day after President Roosevelt’s
death, they were ordered out, back
to the River Elbe.
The order came after vigorous, al
most savage protests by the Rus
sians claiming that the Red army,
not the American army, was to oc
cupy Berlin. This commitment ap
parently had been made at Yalta.
If American troops had remained
in Berlin, the present dynamite
laden situation in that city might
have been different.
However, although we can’t turn
back the clock, it is important to
recall that at that time the U. S.
was leaning over backward to co
operate with the Russians—not slap
ping them down as claimed by the
boys around Henry Wallace.
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