| OCR Text |
Show SCANNING THE WEEK'S NEWS 0 Main Street and the World Judge Thomas F. Murphy to Direct Administration's House Cleaning SCANDAL Thomas F. Murphy, a New York federal judge, will ' direct President Truman's non-partisan commission which will attempt to clean up the present administration before the coming election cam-J cam-J paign. Murphy is an old hand at investigations. He formerly directed g the criminal section of the U. S. attorney's office In New York and prior to being elevated to the bench, served for a time as commissioner of New York's huge police force. As things now stand, the President is taking personal charge of the cleanup campaign. However, administration critics, as well as some of its supporters, believe that corruption in government as revealed in the past few years has ruined the Democratic party's chance of re-election. The postwar rash of investigations started when evidence of skullduggery skull-duggery was revealed in the disposal of surplus war property. Almost immediately afterwards a probe was started of "five-percenters" men who peddled influence and obtained juicy government contracts for a fee. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was next In the headlines for finagaling loans. This resulted in a shakeup in the agency and the naming of a single new administrator, W. Stuart Symington. Even Democratic Demo-cratic National Chairman William J. Boyle figured in the probe and resigned re-signed as a result. The R.F.C. scandal was still making news when the special congressional congres-sional tax investigating committee plowed into the Bureau of Internal Revenue, resulting in sensational disclosures of "tax fixing" and influence in-fluence peddling. It was evident the President had this sordid history in mind when he announced he planned to establish a special house-cleaning agency, and that wrongdoers will be ousted "no matter who they are or how big they are." The President's action, however, is not likely to lessen the criticism of his administration. To the contrary, it could mean a fresh wave of embarrassing exposures, particularly if the probe is pushed as vigorously vigorous-ly as the President says he intends. And if the probers show any signs of heel-dragging, there will be plenty of Republicans ready to prod them along. It would seem, then, that the people in the home towns of America can expect further disclosures of corruption in government, perhaps more sensational than already revealed during the past few years. One GOP strategist has summed up the situation pretty well: "If this thing really gets rolling, it could make Teapot Dome look like a tea party." TRUCE TALKS The Korean peace talks hit a snag of vital Importance Impor-tance and interest to home towners who have relatives fighting in Korea the exchange of prisoners. The Communists refused to list the prisoners, prison-ers, or even to say how many they held. Until they do, the UN has refused re-fused to talk on the subject of prisoner exchange. It may be the Communists will change their tactics and produce the prisoner list before this reaches print. If they do, the UN will then be concerned about the location of the camp and the exchange method. There are 11,000 Americans and 1,500 British and other UN troops missing in Korea. Under the head of "allied missing" (but not UN) are about 89,000 South Koreans. UN forces hold 165,000 of the enemy, of whom 18,000 are Chinese. When the prisoners are exchanged, and they must be before there Is any final peace in Korea, less than 4,000 can be expected to return, UN officials believe. One UN report recently estimated that nearly 8,000 UN soldiers have died of wounds or atrocities. This would support the general figure of less than 4,000 still being alive. THE BUDGET Within the next few weeks the people In the small towns of the nation will hear what the government expects to spend during dur-ing the fiscal year beginning July 1. The budget is about ready for formal presentation to congress. Advance reports indicated it may be about $83,000,000,000, although President Truman has spent considerable time trying to prune it below $80 billion on advice of political aides. Even an $80,000,000,000 outlay would be the biggest in history, except for the two peak years of World War II, when spending passed $95,000,-000,000. $95,000,-000,000. The spending this fiscal year, which will end next June 30, is expected ex-pected to be about $70,000,000,000. A number of factors directed the President's pruning attempts: (1) Military spending must be kept within bounds to retain public support; (2) This year is a presidential campaign year and federal spending, deficits and indebtedness will be an issue; (3) Prospects for a new tax increase to match the rising budget are very dim; (4) Never before have taxes been as high as now. CEILINGS CUT Price ceilings on cattle hides, calfskins, carpet-ings, carpet-ings, and rugs have been rolled back by the government. The roll-back amounted to 5 cents a pound on cattle hide and 18 per cent (10 to 15 cents a pound) on calfskin. The reduction in hide ceiling is not expected to have any effect on the market price of leather or oh shoes and other goods made of leather, price officials reported. Leather and shoe prices have been depressed and are lower than existing ceilings. Meanwhile, a threatened shortage of tires next summer has been averted by the government's decision to stop allocating American made general purpose rubber. James A. Newman, vice president of the B. F. Goodrich Company says the elimination of government restriction on the consumption of new rubber should make it possible for tire manufacturers to produce at least 71,000,000 passenger tires in 1952, or approximately 5,000,000 more than the probable production of 1951. BRITAIN TO PAY The British government has announced payment pay-ment of $176,200,000 on United States and Canadian loans. The payment has an ironic twist since the British have asked the United States for another $600,000,000 in economic help during the next six months. Britain owes the United States $4,350,000,000 and Canada $1,185,000,-000. $1,185,000,-000. She has until the year 2000 to pay off these debts, incurred after World War II had ravaged the British economy. The first installment due on the American loan made in 1946 amounts to $138,500,000. Of this, $87,000,000 represents interest. i i "t- ( f . - This is the first picture released of the nation's newest tank, the giant T-36. Ordnance officials say it will outslug any land-fighting machine ma-chine ever built, although they will not reveal any statistics. They even photographed it blacked out against the setting sun to safeguard military mili-tary security. '' |
