Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS truman asks more aid for china wallace victory worries W democrats senate Us tentative budget cut EDITORS NOTE when opinions are expressed in these columns they are those ot of western newspaper union news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper SUPPORT ft i a tl though hough it was obvious that his heart in it president truman presented congress with a request for million dollars to be sent to china as a prop for the foundering economy of chiang kai nationalist government white house and sta state te department sources admitted that the request was something less than a half measure and claimed that the president had acted under pressure from the republican congress which has insisted that the U S must support chiang against the communist revolution in connection with the european recovery plan at best the million dollars is a token gesture just a chip in relation to the vast amount of timber that would be needed to restore the r fass derelict of chiangi Chi angs governs r 2 theory behind this latest extension of aid which will be used to finance chinese imports of cereals petroleum coal fertilizer and so forth is that the money will enable chiangi Chi angs government to free other resources for purchase of arms and ammunition to continue the fight ii against the communist guerrillas but that is more of an idle hope than a valid theory because the government forces despite their american arms and equipment are being bested consistently by the communists chiangi Chi angs government army has no morale no will to fight and that condition is the inevitable result of the continuing corruption and venality 0 chinese political officials who also have operated to keep china economically prostrate thus the U S policy in china committed to support chiang is on the rocks it is manifestly futile to keep pouring dollar aid into what has come to be the biggest operation of them all the state department is wan wondering dering whether it has any alternative except the extreme one of sending american troops to china to do the actual work of stopping the communist guerrillas BUDGET CUT indifferent with little discussion and a good dep d 0 of outright indifference the sV s 2 adopted a resolution to cut P president PreST r lf d dent e n t Tr pans fiscal 1949 budget by 25 billion dollars how much significance the senate resolution would have in the final analysis was questionable in view of prevailing uncertainties which might affect both sides of the ledger the 25 billion dollar reduction would leave an estimated 10 billion dollars for tax cuts and debt reduction republicans therefore were feeling increasingly confident that an income tax slash of up tip to 5 billion dollars could be enacted brevity of the senate discussion and its lack of apoplectic oratory was li in direct coh contrast to last years strident contest over the budget c 0 ittzes I 1 recommendation of a 6 P dollar cut in the 1948 b democrats made no effort to block the proposed spending slash which had been recommended by the house senate budget committee it still requires house adoption biggest bug in the senates budget recommendation was the fact that it probably embodied a number of inaccurate estimates republic republican can sponsors of the measure admitted that accurate estimates of budget needs were impossible at the time sen styles bridges rep N H chairman of at the budget committee compared the estimates with a pro pre game guess at the final score but sen alben barkley dem K ky caller called the procedure a step in the dark most profound uncertainties arising in the budget estimates were the result of the recent commodity market drop which might possibly affect government tax revenues and also the annual personal income rate not one senator was willing to commit himself with finality on what future developments along these lines might be PLANETARY martian life after having given rise to much idle speculation and ria I 1 nonsense nonsense among recent generations one of the minor riddles of the universe iverse whether cheter life iffe exists on the planet mars finally finalli got a tentative answer with wit h scientific reticence dr gerard P kuiper director ald observatory at mt locke tex offered a timorous reply yes maybe he made bi his disclosure after taking a peek agthe at the red planet aided by a now naw infrared infra red spectrograph as it whirled to within 63 minion million miles of earth closest it will come in two years but if there is life it exists in the most primitive of forms dr kulper kuiper ai aided ded by astronomers from the universities of chicago and texas came to the conclusion that probably lichen the hard moss like growth found on ion rocks rock s in the U S was present on mars weather conditions although colder than anything earth knowd knows would support such life dr kuiper said studies have shown that the I 1 temperature rang ranges es from a few dej de grees above freezing point to an estimated 80 degrees below zero mars marg he added evidently has polar ice caps composed of water HO however wever the ice ic e caps retreat as muchas as miles a day indicating that they are very thin possibly not more than one eighth ot of an inch thick climate of the planet resembles earth at an elevation of feet he explained one comforting deduction is to be made mada from this latest scientific evidence anything resembling human life or even such malevolent life as H G wells visualized apparently cannot exist on mars so apparently those flying disk originate there THE JOLT election democrats were puzzled not to say frankly alarmed over the astonishing toni shing victory of leo isacson american labor party nominee in the special congressional elect election on for new yorks district the jolt was especially severe because isacson had been prominently supported by henry wallace avowed third party cand candidate bdate for the white house and the bronx election had been viewed as a testing ground for wallaces power to win votes moreover the election apparently was no fluke isacson with tawes tallies had amassed more votes than his three opponents combined karl democrat got dean alfange liberal party and joseph de republican 1482 in the first stages of shock political observers took the elections results as a significant straw in the wind wallace had campaigned vigorously for isacson particularly attacking policies of the truman administration with respect to palestine however no one was generalizing too much on the strength of that factor because the bronx district brict congressional has a heavy jewish population nevertheless the democratic candidate had been expected to win hands down because the district has sent members of that party to congress consistently through the years said henry wallace with great elation this proves that the so called third party can become the first party in 1948 WHAT ELSE BUT north temperate zone postal employees in koma N Y frankly admitted they were at a loss to interpret the letters NT in place of the zone number on mail addressed toa local schoolboy so they asked the boy it was just as simple as anything explained the youngster he had been answering advertisements and in giving his mailing address he merely abbreviated north temperate in the zone number space CAT FEET first a dream like the fog that that comes on little cat feet carl sandburg honored and honorable free verse poet and voluminous biographer of lincoln was creeping into the sena senatorial race in illinois A hitherto almost imperceptible brij supporting sandburg as a possible candidate for senator picked up considerable impetus with the release of a public opinion pill indicating that he might become a popular choice over t the h e democratic candidate paul H douglas D au glas and the republican candi SANDBURG date sen C way 1 land brooks on the the whole sandburg unaffiliated with any political machine look looked pretty good on paper the poll s snowed owed him drawing a solid 54 per cent among the independent voters interviewed ewe d As far as the question of how a poet can turn into a politician is concerned those favoring him say he is a good man he understands the common people and is educated and well informed about the coun arys needs the opposition claims he is politically inexperienced and since he is a writer is an impractical dreamer and an idealist but sandburg the poet once wrote the republic is a dream nothing happens unless first a dreams dream IRELAND new premier even to members of the eire assembly who had helped defeat him it was strange to see eamon de valera premier ot of ireland tor for 16 years sitting quietly on the opposite side of the house as leader of the opposition in his place as premier was john A costello former attorney general whom the assembly had voted into office after a new six party coalition had taken control of the legislative isla tive group as a result of the P previous elections costello in a dignified speech to the assembly explained his sudden emergence as pr premier aler of ireland 1 I consented to this nomination at the request of a number of parties who felt that the interest of the country required that there sho should uld be an inter party government and that the premier of that government should occupy a position in political life detached from the c controversial 0 n trover sial bitterness of the past the inter party government whose choice costello was is compounded of six political parties of apparently divergent ideals republican united ireland labor national labor independent and farmers just how long a government made up of so many diverse components would last was the subject of much speculation in ireland in their present cooperative mood the parties of the coalition may carry on for a year or two but few were prepared to give the government a much longer span of life SURPLUS biggest ever tax payments on record high income and reduced government s spending pending haven have brought trie laie governments budget surplus up to a whopping for the current fiscal year treasury records show that amount is well over halt half of the he t 74 binion billion dollar surplus president truman had predicted would be on nand fiand by june jun and aad it i is s by far the largest surplus the government ever had on hand biggest full year surplus which the treasury ry has recorded up to this time was about billion dollars amassed in the coolidge aan administration in is more than 20 years ago the current surplus kurpius is more more than double the billion dollars on hand at this time a year ago the last fiscal year 1946 47 ended with a million douar dollar surplus according to td treasury records government spending generally exceeds income in april may and june surplus funds are being used to cut down the national debt now s standing at 2547 billion dollars NURSE SHORTAGE mass recruiting fails mass recruiting of nurses which it had been hoped would solve the inadequate supply is not working out well american nurses association reports miss ella best executive secre tary of the association said that almost four out of every 10 recruits drop out before their training is com completed plated that is a tragic waste of time e effort and money she said miss best pointed out that professional fess ional nurses favored the so called negative recruiting method in which the prospective nurse I 1 is S more carefully select selected tM and given a thorough grounding on what she reasonably might expect in her professional fess ional career GRAIN GAP not closed never a man inclined to extremes ot of optimism secretary ol of aari culture clinton anderson has yarned carried that although the world grain situation has improved considerably this year it has not yet caught up with world needs he predicted moreover that next years demand against the united states supplies will be about million bushels of wheat and million bushels of coarse grain not only that said anderson the high demand for U S grain probably will continue for from three to five years and he expressed the hope that an international wheat 1 agreement would be in effect by that time to assure a continued export market thereafter in presenting a detailed analysis of grain developments in the past year anderson 1 defended department of agri culture export grain buying practices and said that th at the average price paid by the government has been less than that paid by major milling companies 2 stated unreservedly that the government will continue its policy of remaining out of the grain market until a more stable condition is established and that future export buying will be designed so as to have as little effect on prices as possible predicted the government will I 1 3 purchase between 30 million and 50 million bushels of new crop wheat next june from the early crop movement meat supply As far as meat supply is con ceded berried the situation is reasonably alarming reported the department of agriculture developing further its now familiar theme that the nation 7 faces a meat shortage of considerable sid erable proportions this spring livestock numbers on farms and ranches declined last year to their lowest level since 1939 tiie the depart ments crop reporting board announced noun ced ted numbers have fallen steadily since sinca reaching an all time peak on january 1 1944 BAD TIME to buy farm V it if you are thinking of buying L farm now dont do it was the warn ing prof L J norton university of illinois agricultural economist gave to young farmers attending the farm and home week program at the university regardless of what happens to or tomorrows prices we a are re close to the peak of the present price cycle he said adding that debts should be kept to a mini mum 11 i jhaj jj norton pointed out that to start in 11 farming as an owner now requires excessive capital and he advised against such a course 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