Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I Washington Di9est; Ghost of Latvia Recalls Memories of Better Days By BAUKHAGE News Analyst ami Commentator WASHINGTON—At the end of one of those few pleasant summer days which Washington gives us, I was walking homeward from a mission in a part of town which I hadn’t visited recently. I found myself in a neighborhood which seemed to produce a slightly nostalgic feeling. The street took a quick up-turn and, for a short block, was quite steep. Most of the houses were new but there was one with a colored glass window such as graced many a home that I visited as a child. Such win dows were usually on the staircase landing, at the turn, and when the sun shone through them it tossed a handful of iewels on the carpet. I always wanted to pick them up. That, I thought _s I walked along, is nostalgic —childhood memories. But I was wrong. Soon I realized^ that the memory which the stained glass window evoked was much more recent. But it did stir ghosts, the ghost of a man and the ghost of a nation, for there is no reason why dead nations, which really never quite died, must not live on in some form. And Washington is not without such disembodied sov ereignties. I had seen the man whose memory the multi colored window had stirred for the first time when he was descending • stairway with just such a window behind him. He was Alfred Bil- manis and he died in July of this year. He was the minister of the republic of Latvia which had “died” eight years ago but according to the state department was and is of such corporeal quality that, along with its sister republics of Lithu ania and Estonia, it still possesses diplomatic representatives who are recognized on equal terms with those of living nations. It was in Angnst of 1940 that the Red army marched into the Baltic states and they became by force majenre, territorially a part of the C. S. S. R. But the three little democracies were prepared politically, if not diplomatically. A month or so earlier, by due process of parlia mentary law, a decree was pro mulgated which made the Latvian minister to London chief of the Latvian state if the Russians took over her territory. Today Charles Zarena, minister to Britain, re mains the head of the diplomatic corps of the republic of Latvia. Bilmanis continued to serve his ghost-government in the United States after the Russian seizure. Up to then he had helped to keep th bonds firm between us and his little country whose people reached the shores of the Baltic back in the early days of European history, along with the only two other re maining groups which are at least liguistically, if not ethically, re lated to the Latts: the Finns and the Magyars. The last president of the free republic of Latvia, Carl Ulmanis was American trained. He lived in Nebraska where he waited in exile and worked for his country’s inde pendence. He studied agricul ture and when he reti'rned to Latvia in that hopeful heydey of Europe’s new republics after World War I, he carried back ideas. One of them was the 4-H clubs. Latvia was 60 per cent agricul tural and among its population of only two million, the 4-H movement grew, adapted of course to its new environment, to 40,000 when 1 heard of it last before the iron cur tain descended. There were interchanges of visits between the countries and, when ever the big 4-H encampment took place in Washington, the little Lat vian legation echoed to the cheer ful chatter of American children who drank lemonade and heard the big, smiling man with the expres- sivi ruddy hands, tell of his coun try and show pictures of the chil dren there at work on their proj ects or going through their folk dances in the gay costumes of their land. t The American kids looked at the paintings that covered the walls—for Bilmanis was quite a collector. They were allowed gingerly to try the great chair which Napoleon had taken back to France from Moscow, ex amine the delightful little ivor ies, the china and the other objets d’art which filled the legation. And then, one by one, they tripped up the stairs to look at the life-size model of the Latvian girl in the traditional robes of the country, wearing the symbolic necklace made of great discs of amber. Amber had been a Latvian article of export since the earliest traders from the Mediterranean made their way to this northern land, for it was a much admired ornament for the ladies of ancient Rome and Greece. A good neck- is being turned into the coffers of the Kremlin. I can well imagine what happened to the 4-H organiza tions when the Reds stepped in— they are about as closely akin to the Communist youth as the boy scouts were to the Hitler jugend. But if we are to believe all we hear, Latvia is resisting communization. Only this week I received a copy of the Baltic Review, printed in Sweden. Here is one paragraph: "With the coming scholastic year war games will be introduced as an obligatory subject in the schools of all the constituent Soviet republics, writes ‘Cina.’ the organ of the Communist party in Latvia. The paper goes on to say that the international situation demands that children be taught the art of war as early as possible. Military discipline should be instilled in them even before they come to school. Their toys should be model tanks and planes and so-calld children's ‘mechanos’ or building boxes should consist of parts whereof these objects oan be con structed. The author relates about his trip to Russia to study Soviet education and military training and remarks that in this respect the Baltic republics are very backward as yet. Pupils of seven and eight in the schools of Moscow had dis played quite surprising knowledge as regards military matters. Ten year olds had been experts with the rifles and girls had been as competent as boys. Even tiny tots four and five had known the rudi ments of military drill. How useful this proficiency may be in a gueril la war, exclaims the author.” What is going to happen to the next generation in the U. S. S. R. itself and in the countries dominated by her? Listen to this further extract from the Baltic Review: Communists’ Ideas About Education “Every Soviet school manual, every work of fiction for children and young people, every periodical for the rising generation is a man ifestation of a war-like spirit worthy of the Huns of old. Innu merable are the glorifications in them of all sorts of heroic exploits of Soviet people during World War II., to enter a military school is represented as the highest aim of every Soviet boy and 80 per cent of the pictures show guns, tanks, infantry or cavalry exercises. Pic ture books for tiny tots exhibit children playing with rifles, tanks and grenades, every game taught to the young has a military pur pose. The little bit of space that is left over from these aggressive and ALFRED BILMANIS . . . ghost of a nation . . . bellicose writings is used to extol the merits of the Communist party and its leaders, Lenin and Stalin. All this literary production exudes such a hate for the whole world, for the bourgeoise, imperialism and capital, that the books of the Hitler jugend seem mild nursery rhymes in comparison.” That is not the kind of a state of which Alfred Bilmanis dreamed. He hoped one day to return with his valuable pos sessions and build a museum in his own restored country. Though he continued to serve as minister, his funds ran low and he had to part with many of his things. However, he did save some of the paintings, Napoleon’s chair and the lady and her beads. Perhaps someday others ma. realize his dream—some happy day—when freedom in Europe is lace was supposed to be worth an ! returned and the ghost republics of Arabian mount. j the Baltic become real once more If there is any amber being col- for the people who inhabit lected on Latvian beaches today it them. EDUCATOR . . . Defeated in his earnest and industrious at tempt to get himself nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, Harold Stassen was not averse to taking another kind of job—as president of the University of Pennsylvania. HOOT MON ... Sir Harry Lauder, internationally famed Scottish comedian, had enough lung power on his 78th birthday anniversary to celebrate by play ing the bagpipes. According to reports, Harry will be the next subject in Hollywood’s intermi nable series of life stories. SEAFARERS . . . Dale Nord- lund (left) and Leopold S. Topor-Taperek stout-heartedly set sail from Seattle in a 24-foot cutter bound for Warsaw, Po land. NOMINEE . . . Lt. Col. Arthur W. Wermuth, the one-man army of Bataan, won the Republican nomination for marshal of Wich ita, Kas., and then left for a short fishing trip, possibly prov ing that politics is a tiring pro fession. With the U. S. army on Bataan, Wermuth killed 116 Japs. CHIMP AND CHUM . . . Four teen-month-old Denis Lomax of Dania, Fla., isn’t kidding. Some of his best friends really are monkeys. His current best buddy is "Rojo,’* a seven-week-old chimpanzee. % THE NEWBERRY SUN, NEWBERRY. S. C. BEAUTY—AND THE BERLIN BLOCKADE ... Cut down on a woman’s food rations and she’ll put np with It more or less cheerfully. But interfere with her beauty treatments at your peril. That is why the Russians, with their blockade of the German capital, have been making rabid anti-Conununists out of Berlin’s women. There has been no electric power to run the beauty shops, and coiffures now are created out-of-doors with a backdrop of bomb blasted buildings. LEATHERNECKS HAVE TWIN REVIEWERS . . . Roger and Bobby Ehrler, six-year-old twins, nattily uniformed and resplendent in glitter ing brass, are shown reviewing the Brooklyn marines of the 14th signal company just before they sailed on the USS Mount Olympus for a two- week intensive summer training period. The twins, who hail from Jamaica, L. I., are unofficial mascots of the marine company. LIGHT AND SET, FAIR LADY . . . Polly Ellen Pep, first queen of the hobos, is assisted from her royal chariot by Bozo, crown prince of hobos (left), and Hobo Bill as she arrived in Chicago for a strictly non-energetic convention the knights of the road held there. Proving that chivalry is not dead but travels in empty boxcars, the crown prince laid his coat on the sidewalk so the queen would not have to soil her dainty brogans right away. TAKING OFF THE WRAPS . . . Since the end of the war there have been many pictures showing how military and naval planes were being given protective coverings to preserve them while in storage. Now the process is reversed. What with crises and an expanding defense pro gram, planes now are unpickled. Here, at Litchfield, Ariz., naval air facility storage depot, a big plane depreserving program is under way. Trouble in Red Army DEPORTS have leaked out ^through the iron curtain that an anti - Communist movement may have sprung up inside the Red army. According to uncensored reports, anti-government tracts have been circulated among Russian soldiers and have even shown up on the streets of Leningrad. Pamphlets published by “anti-Communist or ganization in the Red army” also have been picked up in Vienna which is partly occupied by Soviet troops. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Kuzma Ro manovich went so far as to com plain in an article in the Soviet Army Journal recently that disci pline has sunk to a new low. He demanded a tightening-up against laxity in the army. Uncensored diplomatic advices also indicate that the Russians are reaping political repercussions in eastern Germany. One bloc of Ger man Communists has appealed boldly to the Soviet military ad ministration to abandon the Berlin blockade. As a result of thi£ unrest in the Soviet zone, Russia has ordered a purge of the Russian-sponsored So cialist Unity party and one of the party leaders in Saxony, Herr Schliebs, bitterly castigated some of his co-workers at a recent con ference in Bautzen. One reason for the unrest in the Soviet zone has been a general economic breakdown. “After three years of systematic exploitation,” a report from Sax ony says, "conditions in the east ern zone have reached their lowest standard yet." • • • The Hobo Basket Rough - and - tumble railroad men have been passing a collec tion basket from freight train to freight train across the country to raise money for crippled kids. Dubbed the “Hobo Basket,” it was started on its journey six months ago by three southern railway yard clerks in Birming ham, Ala. Other trainmen trans ferred the basket from caboose to caboose until it had traveled through most of the 48 states. Now it is heading back to Bir mingham in a basket pasted with messages from hardened rail road workers and with more than $8,000 inside. Potential Air Lift The vitriolic battle ove ■ the 70- group air force has been pretty well forgotten. However, biggest proof that Secretary for Air Sym ington was right and Secretary of Defense Forrestal wrong about the importance of air power is being demonstrated around the clock in Berlin today. However, without detracting from the magnificent job being done by the air forces over Berlin, now might be a good time- to demon strate army-navy coordination. It happens that the navy has the biggest air freight carriers of either branch of the service —the Mars flying boats. Now operating to Hawaii, they carry 05 tons each, about ten times the cargo of the DC-3s, main stay of the phenomenal air lift into Berlin. Flying the short 200-mile hop from Hamburg to Berlin, the Mars boats would need little gasoline, therefore could carry more than 35 tons of freight. They also would have the following advantages: Greater lift per gallon of gas; few er planes in the air corridor with less traffic congestion; the trip from Hamburg to Berlin (200 miles) is less than the present flight from Frankfort to Berlin (300). So the navy might get a little practice at unification by augment ing the army over Berlin. • * • North-South Football Champ Pickens of Montgomery, Ala., the man who is trying to build up North - South understanding through sports, once had to solve a complicated problem involving President Truman’s home state. Pickens stages a football game every December between an all- star team from the North and an all-star team of the South. One year the question arose as to whether the University of Missouri was in the North or the South. A hot debate followed, partly because the star Missouri play er was named Jefferson Davis and the South wanted him on its team. However, -vhen Pickens consulted the map, he found that Columbia, Mo., home town of the university, was north of the Mason-Dixon line; so Jefferson Davis came to Montgomery, Ala., cradle of the Confederacy, and played for the North. Pickens has organized the Blue and Gray association to which he charges $1 membership and which anyone can join, in order to pro mote North - South understanding. With the proceeds he plans to builji a football stadium as a shrine to those who wore both the Blue and the Gray. UPhiHipr THE AMERICAN SMILE Something has got to be done about the American smile. It has gone far enough. We hereby come out for federal smile control, and quick. Any party promising it gets our support. * Desperadoes who kill unarmed people in cold blood appear in the newspapers smiling; kidnapers of little children grin at the reader from ear to ear; young women ar rested on one charge or another pretty themselves up and register happiness and delight from the po lice wagon. • The other day two bankers, a fa ther and son, whose bank had been ruined by the thefts of $62J)00 which was used to bet on horse races, ap peared in the papers walking right into the cameras with the smiles you would have expected only on men who had just made a hole in one or hit the jackpot in a radio contest. • They were not sickly grins— there was nothing of the forced smile about ’em—they were the Form No. 1 smile worn by movie heroes, candidates for public office, beauty contest winners and winning baseball pitchers! The elder banker, 72, had started and built up a big bank. The son with him was one of the top offi cers. Their bank was gone and their private fortunes swept away, they said. Another son was in the hoosegow for looting the institu tion. * We have been trying to figure it out. Obviously the old man and his unscathed son were deeply hurt and very unhappy. No man can feel like smiling in such a situation. Yet they grinned in technicolor. There must be some explanation. Do the photographers work a spell? Are they hypnotists? * Do their cries of “Come on, now, a nice big smile—and walk right into the camera!” mes merize people? Or, as has been suggested, do their lawyers (who always manage to smile, too) instruct clients to smile, on the theory that anything re motely resembling a serious ex pression these cockeyed days suggests complicity or outright guilt? * It seems to us that any lawyer reasoning this way is strictly south paw. On the other hand we would think that they would instruct cli ents in a firm voice, “Lissen, what ever you do for the photographers, don’t act as if you had just made a double play at the Elks clam bake!” There was a time when Ameri cans could smile or not smile, all depending on conditions. - » But for the past few years the smile has become epidemic, compulsory and routine. You can’t tell by a man’s newspaper photo whether he has just been taken by the bloodhounds for sticking up a train or solved a “Stop the music” riddle. * Governor Dewey! President Tru man! Put something in your plat forms, will ya? • * • TO BILL BENDIX You’re a darned good actor But to tell the truth, I look like Citation If you look like Babe Ruth. • * • The engineers who run the cool ing systems in 128 New York movie houses are on a strike. In keeping with the modem tendency to make the public sweat it out. • * • YE BROADWAY BUGLE Walter Winchell has switched from Jergens to Kaiser-Frazier at $650,000 a year. We hope a lot of women don’t get confused and Ay rubbing their skins with coupes. . . . “Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Amer ica and all the Kaiser-built ships at sea!” . . . Rebecca West says that if you leave Hank Wallace alone he sabotages himself. ... If that Farm er Brown disc was good Henry Wal lace would be promising it to all voters. . . . We think Judy Garland did a magnificent job with Fred Astaire in “Easter Parade” and that the funniest movie bit in years is the episode where a headwaiter illustrates how to make a salad. Who is he? • * • EKE CLAY SAYS: Gig Puddicombe, who set tire to the ’phan asylum, shot up the town hall id robbed three banks, has attributed all to a lack of vitamins in his baby- ■sod. He has been put on probation ith permission to report by telephone tiring the hot months. Lem Whipple missed one edition of the newspaper today and so don’t know who is premier of France at the mo ment. He also lost out on the weather forecast, the tide and the latest price of automobiles Deal the Bread! The company cook brought in a plateful of extremely thin slices of bread and butter, which rather dismayed the hungry outfit. “Did you cut these, sergeant?’ r asked one. “Yes, I cut them,” came the stem answer. “Okay,” replied the soldier, “I’ll shuffle and deal.” Send for a Doctor Traffic Cop—Get along with yon.. What’s the matter with yon any way? Motorist—There’s nothing wrong with me bat my engine is dead. Ambitious Hobo Mrs. Jones (to tramp at the door)—Are you really content to spend your life walking around the country begging? Tramp—No, ma’am, many’s the time I wished I had a car. Out of Season "A moth must lead a dreadful life.’’ "Why?” "He spends the summer in fur coals and the winter in bathing suits.” Cold Climate A woman about to leave for New Zealand was advised to pro vide herself with very warm cloth ing. “Why?” she asked. “Oh, it’s awfully cold out there, don’t you know!” replied the ad viser. “It’s the place where all the frozen mutton comes from.” Wage Earner Teacher—What is it that comes in like a lion and goes oat like n lamb? Johnny—It’s father, when he brings home his wages. Corn Sqaeezin’s Tourist (in mountains)—This is a wonderful place. I’m sure 1 can get plenty of ozone here! Native—Yes, stranger, all you have to do is to leave a jug and a half dollar at the side of the road; go away for five minutes and when you come back the money will be gone and the jug will be full. AICUUC makes folks NIL WO sleep all night! 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