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Show 4 l i t i i ruiT'iri i i rn i it-nn:'i"tni'ini FORWARD MARCH By H. S. Sims, Jr. lliiiiiiiiMtillliiiiilliiii'iii'illiilliiliiHIIIiiilllllllliiiUllllliNlllllltlllllllinilll INVESTIGATE THE WARS . . . Roscoe Drummond, commenting comment-ing on the Pearl Harbor investigation, investi-gation, says it is raising issues that .will be used to 'lull America back into the same state of isolations isola-tions is sleep-walking which prevailed pre-vailed beween World War One and World War Two." The Christian Science Monitor staff writer says that those who desire this result "are counting on it to bring postwar isolationism isolation-ism back to life and determine the 1948 Presidential election." The newspaper man asks the pertient question, 'Was Roosevelt partly to blame for the Pearl Harbor disaster?" and adds this this question should receive the fullest answer but that it should not be confused with "the subtle and isolationist-repeated assertion that, after all, it was the President Presi-dent of the United States, and not Japan's aggressions in the Pacific, Pacif-ic, that brought on the war." We think that the investigation should thoroughly explore the responsibility re-sponsibility of all officials, beginning begin-ning with the late President and going down the line. If any one was guilty of negligence then the people should know the facts. There should be no whitewash and no effort to "protect" anybody. any-body. We are willing to go much further fur-ther and suggest that the entire conduct of the war should be investigated in-vestigated by a competent committee, com-mittee, even if. it takes five or ten years to go into all phases of the struggle. There should be a way to determine whether there was cooperation between the services, not in general, but upon particular particu-lar battlefields and in specific campaigns. What About Pipelines? During the war the Government Govern-ment built two pipelines from Texas to Ilinois and thence to the Atlantic Seaboard. They were properly called 'Big Inch" and "Little Inch" and cost around $250 million. They moved immense quantities of petroleum and gasoline and speeded the war effort considerably. Now that the war is over, the two pipelines are not operating and the question arises as to their disposition. The Surplus Property Prop-erty Administration favors their transfer to private hands. The ing costs and price ceilings along the ine. But in spite of perplexities, the world moves. We read of many new frozen foods even ' pies and cakes being turned out in quantity. quan-tity. Yesterday I saw a promised postwar product a fountain pen that writes for years even under un-der water without refilling! A small thing, yet cheering because - it proves that the new and better things talked of during the war really are in the making. And that the world of tomorrow is here now, or will be when labor and management begin pulling together. RFC and the Petroleum Administration Adminis-tration for War want the lines operated. Nobody suggests that the Government continue to operate op-erate them. If the Government can sell the pipelines to private industry at a fair rice, most of the American people would favor this course. Some would favor turning the lines over to private operators even at a tremendous loss. We think that the public, which owns the lines, should be protectee: and that, if necessary the lines should be operated by the Government. |