OCR Text |
Show KaJ Ur) DREW PEARSON JmimA -X. fc , Dress Rehearsal for War PIGHT MILES out of Frankfurt, - Germany, at the Rhine-Main airport, is a place the G.I.s call "Boom Town." It Is called that because be-cause a new town has sprung up overnight, with the carpenters' hammers still making as much noise as the airplane motors all because of the Berlin airlift. One thing about this airlift which most people don't realize Is that It's an air force rehearsal rehears-al for future possible eventualities. eventual-ities. And the top air people are quite candid about this fact. Furthermore, if the diplomats succeed in raising the Berlin blockade, block-ade, the air force does not intend I to abandon its installations. Boom Town will stay right on just in case the Russians tighten up their economic eco-nomic grip on Berlin once again. In the briefing room at Rhine-Main, Rhine-Main, a pair of snowshoes are tacked on the wall memento of the 54th Troop Carrier squadron based at Elmendorf field, Anchorage, Alaska. Those snowshoes are symbolic sym-bolic of the manner in which the air force has abandoned all other tasks in all other parts of the world to break the Berlin blockade. There might also be other symbols trom Albrook field, Panama, Bergstrom field, near Austin, Tex., and Ilickham field. Hawaii pilots assembled from all parts of the earth, getting experience in a theater where they may have to operate with life-or-death determination In the future. That is why the army, in calculating calcu-lating the cost of the airlift, reckons reck-ons only the cost of gasoline and supplies. The cost of pilots' time, they figure. Is a good investment. Bradley's Inspection Tour BEST INDICATION that the western west-ern powers don't anticipate early hostilities in Europe despite the tense state of the Moscow talks is that army chief of staff, Gen. Omar Bradley, plans an extended vacation vaca-tion trip. General Bradley is combining vacation va-cation with business on a one-month tour of American outposts in the Far East. Although nobody will confirm con-firm it, it's considered likely Bradley Brad-ley will take to Japan another invi-tion invi-tion from President Truman . to MacArthur, asking the Allied Far Eastern commander' to come home and receive a hero's welcome. Mac-Arthur Mac-Arthur has indicated that if he returns re-turns home from Japan it will not be until after the November election. elec-tion. Note U. 5. diplomats predict Russia's Rus-sia's next zone of intensive operations will be the Far East the area Bradley is visiting. Seek Small Town Vote DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMEN Melvin Price of Illinois and Frank M. Karsten of Missouri got a lecture lec-ture from President Truman on the importance of the small town vote. Calling at the White House, Price and Karsten assured the President of their support next November. Whereupon Mr. Truman gave them a homely discourse on the coming campaign. "I'm not worried about the election," elec-tion," he said. "We're going to win, that's sure. I know that's sure because be-cause we're right and they're wrong. "I'm going to make it a rip-snorting, rip-snorting, back - platform campaign cam-paign to what Taft calls all the 'whistle stops,' " the President continued. "Taft calls them whistle stops, but I call them the heart ot America. When they count the whistle-stop votes, Taft may be in for a big surprise. I think the whistle stops will make the difference between victory and defeat." Mr. Truman also expressed confidence con-fidence that he would carry much of the farm vote. He said that Republican Re-publican opposition to the world wheat agreement would play into Democratic hands. "We have our biggest wheat crop in history," he said. "The Russians have their biggest bumper wheat crop in history. The farmers know that if there isn't some agreement to protect them, all the farmers will be hurt. I am going to explain this to the farmers in the campaign." Condemn Housing Frauds AN ALL-OUT CRACKDOWN on housing frauds against veterans was ordered by Atty. Gen. Tom Clark and Housing Expediter Tighe Woods at a conference of U. S. district attorneys at-torneys from 21 key cities. "I want you to put these housing frauds at the top of the list when it comes to prosecutions," ordered the attorney generaL Equally vigorous was Woods, who has expanded his Investigating Investi-gating force from 15 to 300 men. He told the district attorneys in their closed-door session tha while he would leave the legal justification up to them, he wanted to emphasize the government's govern-ment's moral obligation to do something about housing violations. |