Show WEEKLY NEWS revolt in colombia interrupts american conference soft coal strike ends GOP candidates vie in Pr primaries imarie S by BILL staff writer REVOLT bogota it was a peaceful early afternoon iff bogota colombia and the inter american conference was droning along in customary style in the capitol building on the plaza bolivar then with the firing of four assassins bullets into the body of jorge elicier gaitan popular leader 01 61 colombians Colom bias liberal party one of the worst revolts latin american has seen exploded into violence during the first afternoon bogota descended into a state of complete anarchy mobs prowled the streets burning and Igo acting ting scores were killed the residence of president ospina perez was attacked and windows were broken before army troops drove away the crowd above the confused clamor of the throng could be heard shouts of down with the government down kith ith the conservatives three days later as the riots simmered to a halt person were dead many others injured downtown bogota was a welter of destruction st colombia had broken relations with soviet russia and the inter american conference had almost cracked up with delegates uncertain as to whether they could continue on the face of it the revolt was a sudden eruption of violent sentiment of liberal party followers against the conservative government in power immediate result was the formation of a new coalition cabinet equally composed of liberals and conservatives big question was how much communists had to do with the bogota riots US secretary of state george marshall who with other americans in bogota got through the riots unscathed scat hed claimed the revolt was communist the occurrence goes beyond colombia it is of the same definite patterns as the occurrences which provoked strikes in france and italy and the colombian government in severing relations with russia declared that a communist insurrection had touched off the mob fury finally it was announced from bogota that the inter american cah conference would resume so that communism could not triumph over colombia ambia and the rest of the nations of L ahe the hemisphere SETTI settlement LEMENT coal strike john L lewis exactly in the position of a man mah who had asked friends out to dinner and then found he pay the check but he was verging merging on some such situation half a million soft coal miners started to straggle back to work after a 28 day strike when lewis informed them that the fight for a month pensions had been won but lewis himself had to appear before federal judge T alan goldsborough to answer a contempt of court charge lewis was cited for contempt by goldsborough old olds abo borough rough jils his 1947 nemesis ne on 1 J the e grounds that he ignored an april 3 court order to call call off the strike apart from the contempt of court citation settlement of the coal strike was distinguished mainly by a slightly marvelous amalgam of political action and expedient compromise beginning of the end came when speaker of the house joseph martin rep mass moved into the dispute by persuading lewis and ezra van horn a mine operator to meet with him in his office martin then su suggested that sen styles bridges rep NH be named the third member of the board which administers the miners welfare and re lewis and van horn are the other two members at a subsequent meeting of the three bridges proposed a plan that would give a month pensions to 62 bearo fd miners with 20 years of service who retired after may 28 1946 the date on which the miners welfare fund was set up bridges plan was accepted and the strike called off actually lewis in approving the new hampshire senators proposal had descended several notches from his original demands politically the most fascinating aspect of the affair was how joe martin managed to take the play away from the administration in arranging for a settlement the way it was joe martin could be b sure of one thing his good offices in paving the way for a settlement of this serious coal ceaf strike would boost his stock as a presidential dark horse considerably in this election year CONTROLS cold shoulder the jeering specter of 0 price wage and ration controls was invoked again by president Tr council of economic advisers which called for nationwide discipline to prevent inflation under the impact of the new defense program As usual this advice rattled cheerlessly among the stony hearts of electioneering electioneer ing congressmen in its report covering the first three months of 1943 the council denounced the tax cut law as inflationary tio nary and recommended new taxes it if the planned defense spending is not offset by reduced government costs in other areas republican dominated congress received rather happily the councils call for reduced government spending but maintained a glum silence on the subject of selective price wage and ration controls congressmen indicated that they want to study possible inflationary effects of the preparedness program and foreign aid spending under the marshall marshal plan before they give any serious consideration to resurrecting economic controls although the council admitted that foreign spending coupled with a big defense outlay will not swamp our economy nor require us to pass from free enterprise to regimentation it added that some rather systematic and vigorous discipline must be exercised EDITORS NOTE when opinions are ar e pressed expressed 1 in these columns they are 1 t those h ose of western Mews newspaper paper union news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper PRIMARIES wisconsin ins presidential primary election to choose delegates to the republican national convention in philadelphia on june 21 was regarded as usual as a straw in the wind but this year the political breeze was a shifting one for harold stassen ex governor of minnesota a hard thorough campaign waged by himself himsel f and his volunteer supporters up and down the state paid oft off nobly when wisconsin voters granted him a total of 19 of the states 27 delegates to the GOP convention gen douglas macarthur took the remaining e ight eight to run a poor second despite a flamboyant publicity drive carried out by his backers notably the hearst newspapers which was built around the theory that he be is the only man equipped to deal with russia gov thomas E dewey of new york drew a complete blank in wisconsin where he had been the republican favorite in 1940 and again 1 in 1944 As a result of the wisconsin election stassen was catapulted into public consciousness as a leading contender for the republican nomination it was certain that his victory there would be reflected in the other primaries to follow and that he had gained considerable stature in the midwest it was difficult to tell which of the two losers dewey or macarthur had been hit harder by his defeat dewey who received no delegates might siem seem to be in a position similar to that of wendell willkie in 1944 when he withdrew from the GOP race after losing ignominiously in the wisconsin primary but the new york governor previously had beaten stassen in the new hampshire mary and also he had the full slate of new york delegates pledged to him it was on macarthur who had claimed wisconsin as his home state that the axe of public disfavor appeared appeared to have fallen with greatest force there was a corollary to the wisconsin primary however voters this year worried by developments at home and abroad were not going to be stampeded into voting for an idealized favorite son whom they were asked to take on faith more to corne come from wisconsin the election year wind swung to the plains of nebraska where seven leading contenders in the republic republican ean presidential race fought jt it out in a free for all match with stassen again emerging as the big winner after nebraska the battlefield shifted to pennsylvania and massachusetts chu on april 27 A total of delegates to the GOP convention was at stake on may 4 harold stassen was to carry the fight to sen howard tafts home arena the state of ohio it was no secret that taft was worried over which way his fellow ohio ans might go and a good showing by stassen would hamper materially tafts white house ambitions in his second pitched battle with governor dewey new hampshire was the first stassen was slated to invade oregon tor for that states GOP primary on may 21 while results of the oregon primary were not expected to be conclusive they would serve to provide a first sampling of west coast opinion final state presidential primary on the republican side occurs in california on june 1 earl warren is unopposed as the states favorite son tor for the GOP nomination ATOM BOMB no secret t k secretary of defense james forrestal put a name and a definitive edge after a fashion to all the restless postwar fears americans have been experiencing he did it by announcing to the house armed services committee that russia knows how to make the atomic bomb more specifically the ru russians asians possess the knowledge of how to put the bomb together but so tar far do not have the industrial capacity to capitalize on that knowledge russia does not yet have an atom bomb but the days of U S monopoly of A bomb production are numbered forrestal said he told the congressional a committee that he got his information from dr vannevar bush chairman of the US research and development board during durina the course of his testimony regarding a two year draft of men 19 through 25 the defense secretary answered queries with 1 I said they do not have the atom bomb I 1 did not say they do not have the secret of the acomb bomb 1 I am informed by dr bush that the scientific knowledge and technical procedure involved in the manufacture of the atom bomb are known to russia thus US russian relations on the atomic level had developed to the point where there w was s only one unknown quantity how soon would the soviets acquire the industrial capacity to produce atom bombs secretary Fori Fo estal admitted he know TREATY finns russ russia had what it wanted from finland a buffer state to the northwest the two nations signed a 10 year treaty of mutual assistance which binds finland to fight within its own borders in the event either country is attacked finland and russia stated the pact would battle side by side to repel aggression by germany or another state allied with germany the treaty circumspectly failed to mention any other state by name despite the tact fact that Fin lands delegation virtually had been commanded to appear at moscow to sign a treaty with russia premier josef stalin beamed expansively after the agreement had been concluded hailing it as a treaty between equals and he said 1 I would like to see us pass from a long period of mutual distrust against each other to a new period in our relations to a period of mutual trust actually the finns got a better deal from russia than they might have hoped for their nation had not been forced into a tight arbitrary military accord with the soviets nor had finland lost its sovereignty although it was brought firmly into the bloc of states along dussias Rus sias exposed western flank FIRE LOSS inflated losses from fire in the US in 1947 reached a new monetary peak of slightly less than million dollars but there was an objective way of looking at that searing total that made it beem seem not so ba bad d figuring it according to the value of the dollar in 1926 previous peak year for fire loss the destruction in 1947 came only to million dollars pointing to the tact fact that building costs have increased more than per cent since 1926 national fire protection association reported that if the 1926 loss is accepted as per cent destruction caused by fire reached a low point of 47 percent in 1937 and progressively increased to 73 and per cent in the 1 past three years other factors to be considered in evaluating fire losses said are the growth of US population from million in 1926 to million today and the consequent increase in number of homes factories and stores to accommodate the expanded population citing specific accomplishment stated that for many years flammable roofing material ranked third among the principal causes of residential fires and was the major causes of conflagrations in the last six or seven years however enforcement of building codes and increasing use of fire resistant materials has cut the number of root roof fires inore more than 50 per cent and has sharply reduced the danger of conflagrations flag rations while the figures clearly indicate that tire fire prevention experts are not waging the losing nevertheless asserts that the loss is unnecessarily high as 90 per cent of all fires can be prevented simply by exercising common sense italian style A 0 i US ambassador to italy james clement dunn right peers benevolently at an italian worker in taranto as he tastes grain that was among the foodstuffs delivered aboard the relief ship to bring food to italy EDUCATION nearly halt half of the world war II 11 veterans who entered special education and training programs under the GI bill of rights have abandoned their courses veterans administration says more afore than completed their work however of them under the GI bill and the rest under the rehabilitation program for disabled veterans ve about completed courses below the college level were graduated from colleges and siti e esl s t finished on the job training programs and 1000 completed on farm training |