I WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Truman, MacArthur Would Accept Presidency "if the People Call"; Great Powers Confer on Palestine I Relented by WNU Featurta (EDITOR'S NOTE 1 Whrn (pintail are oipreeted la thaee kIum, they an those at Weetcra Newepaper Ualea'e aawa analytla and aal airttsarUy ml this aewepaper.) ejo Itjw ftysy fw ljw j rj 'n GS- m e- ' tjs '&A$x' ;1f mf I cbj j kse : ra jf i .kl .. ... ..i ' -M The United States ia experiencing a steady increase in population. popula-tion. From a range of 2.1 million to 2.3 million in the 1930s, the births rose to 2.9 million in 1943. They totaled 2.7 million in 1945 and then sharply rose again to about 3.9 million in 1947. This sharp rise in births has had the effect of increasing the population some 4.4 million persons since 1945 and 13 million since 1939. PRESIDENCY: Announcements As far as grabbing the spotlight was concerned, President Truman and Gen. Douglas MacArthur stumbled stum-bled all over each other with their coy and almost simultaneous announcements an-nouncements that they would accept a presidential nomination if the people peo-ple called them. The declarations by the two men, coming wjthin just a few hours of each other, were perhaps a symbolic prelude to a similar but greater clash of personalities and political forces which it is now possible might develop later this year. Mr. Truman said he would run for a full term as chief executive if the Democrats would nominate him; and MacArthur opined that he would accept the presidency "if called by the American people" but would not actually seek it. Taking note of the fact that petitions peti-tions have been filed in Wisconsin putting his name in the primary there on April 6, MacArthur issued this sonorous statement: "While it seems unnecessary for me to repeat that I do not actively Beck or covet any office and have no plans for leaving fiiy post in Japan, I can say, and with due humility, that I would be recreant to all my concepts of good citizenship were I to shrink because of the hazards and responsibilities involved from accepting ac-cepting any public duty to which I might be called by the American public." Republicans, however, were going easy in their comments on the general's gen-eral's willingness to accept presidential presi-dential nomination, confining them, for the most part, to peripatetic remarks re-marks about what a highly regarded figure MacArthur is. Sen. Ralph Flanders (Rep., Vt.) said, "1 think General MacArthur would be doing the country a dis-I dis-I service if he left the job he is in I until he has put it in such shape he I cm leave. That's the place the Lord Dut him." Other politicians were wondering about the spot that the Lord and Harry Truman was putting them on. Southern Democrats, despite Mr. Truman's announcement of his candidacy, can-didacy, were not budging an inch from their stand opposing him and his civil rights program. Some of the southern states, notably Mississippi, Missis-sippi, went right ahead with their plans to prevent their electoral votes from going to him. NEW ATOM: Thorium Already well beyond the awesome threshhold of the atomic age, nuclear nu-clear scientists are continuing to step deeper into the contradictory wilderness of creation and destruction destruc-tion that appeared when the first atomic blast burned up the night and the sands at Los Alamos, N. M. Latest step is the manufacture of the first small pieces of a new kind of atomic bomb and fuel metal, according ac-cording to an announcement by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, ulomic scientist. Where formerly the extremely rare metal uranium 235 was the nly practicable substance through which atomic energy could be produced, pro-duced, there now is a new metal, known as uranium 233, made by changing the heavy metal thorium into uranium. This new form of uranium does not exist naturally on earth, nor is it known to exist in the stars. Dr. Seaborg reported that a small fraction of an ounce actually only a few hundred milligrams of the thorium metal has been made in the Hanford, Wash., uranium-graphite, chain-reacting atomic piles. CONSULTATION: Holy Land Leading experts on global anatomy anat-omy were getting together in a consultation con-sultation to determine whether there was any conceivable way in which they could perform a painless bisection bisec-tion of Palestine. Russia, France, China and the U. S. had been requested by the United Nations security council to hold one of their famous conferences to study how partition of the Holy Land into independent Arab and Jewish states might be effected. Britain, too, had been asked to participate par-ticipate but declined the invitation, although consenting to sit in in the role of advisor. As the consultation got under way, the United States was reported report-ed ready to seek big power agreement agree-ment on a new conciliation effort in Palestine. Warren R. Austin, chief U. S. delegate, said he felt the talks should deal primarily with the question ques-tion of "peaceful settlement." But while U. N. delegates might talk in New York about a peaceful settlement, Arab military forces on tho spot in Palestine had vastly different Ideas. Arab Commander-in-Chief Fawzi el Kawkji publicly issued a vow to free Palestine from "the Zionist menace whether it takes one month, one year or a generation." ' Red-haired El Kawkji, the Arab chieftain who had led anti-British and anti-Jewish revolts in 1936 and 193D, had just returned to Palestine after an absence of nine years. He came back, he said, to fight "partition, "parti-tion, intrigue and Zionism." "We came here to fight anyone who stands for partition, be they British, Jewish or an international force." What the United Nations conferees, con-ferees, none of them eager to apply international power in the Holy Land, could do against this kind of gun-waving local zeal was a problem prob-lem which so far had them completely com-pletely baffled. KUIIK: Solution One of the major problems of the uneasy peace what to do with the Ruhr, Germany's prime industrial section wns solved when the U. S., Great Britain and France agreed in a series of conferences at London that they would place the Ruhr under un-der international control. It was decided also that the economic eco-nomic and industrial assets of western west-ern Germany, perennial breeding ground for German war machines, would be enlisted in the Marshall plan for European recovery. Moreover, the western powers agreed that western Germany should have a federal form of government, gov-ernment, providing adequate central authority but protecting the rights of the various states. Indicative of the manner in, which statesmen of the western powers are thinking now was the fact that Germany Ger-many will be represented in the international in-ternational control of the Ruhr but that Russia very probably will not. Recognizing the importance of the Ruhr to the recurring surges of German aggression, the conference communique pointed out that "the purpose of this international control would be to ensure that the economic eco-nomic resources of this area should not again be used for the purposes of aggression and that there should be adequate access to the coal, coke and steel of the Ruhr for the benefit of extensive parts of the European community including Germany." The communique urged the "necessity "ne-cessity of insuring the economic reconstruction re-construction of western Europe, including in-cluding Germany". EDUCATION: And Religion In a ruling that, for good or 111, could stand to affect the moral stature of this and succeeding generations gen-erations of Americans, the U. S. supreme court declared unconstitutional unconstitu-tional the use of publie school systems sys-tems to help any religious group spread its faith. Religion and government, the decision de-cision said, "can best work to achieve their lofty aims if each is left free from the other within its respective sphere." The ruling upheld a protest by a self-professed atheist mother, Mrs. Vashti McCollum, that a system of religious teaching in Champaign, 111., schools breaks down the wall between church and state. She contended con-tended that her son was "embarrassed" "embarras-sed" by the religious instruction. Delivering the main opinion, Justice Jus-tice Black held that under the facts shown the compulsory education system in Illinois "assists and is integrated with the program of religious re-ligious instruction carried on by separate religious sects." He said pupils legally required to go to school for secular education are released re-leased from some of that legal duty on condition that they attend religious re-ligious classes. "This is beyond all question a utilization of the tax-established and tax-supported public school system to aid religious groups to spread their faith." It was an issue that parents as well as all other U. S. citizens would do well to consider. There were two facets which would bear reflection: The supreme court's decision con firmed a long-standing and honorable honora-ble theory in the U. S. that there should be no interference between church and state and no influence exerted by one on the other. The ruling would seem to safeguard the nation against the two extremes of a state-controlled church or a church-controlled state. But at the same time, the broad language of the decision failed to recognize the historical importance of religion in creating civilizations and forming and molding nations. Western civilization grew out of the Christian church. Divorcement of the cause and effect now could be dangerous. FINNISH: Aid to Russia It was with no clapping of hands that the government of Finland decided de-cided to accept the proposal of Prime Minister Josef Stalin of Russia Rus-sia to discuss a treaty of mutual military aid. Russia, which needs military help from Finland about as much as the U. S. needs a five-year plan, put the proposal of a discussion to Finland's President Jugo K. Paasikivi within a week after it had swept Czechoslovakia Czecho-slovakia into the Soviet orbit. Having no alternative, Paasikivi accepted the "invitation" and appointed ap-pointed a negotiating delegation of seven members, including one military mili-tary expert, government officials and parliament members. Soviets say they want a binding treaty of mutual military assistance against future German aggression. Talks presumably were being held en that basis, but it was the task of the Finnish negotiators to do all th-y could to prevent Finland from being chained to Russia in a military mili-tary treaty. There was little doubt in the minds of Finnish leaders that this was Russia's first step in a campaign to gain as complete control over that little northern nation as it now holds over the Balkans. And in the final analysis the Finns probably would capitulate in the stark interests inter-ests of self-preservation.