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Show VV.fKlY NFWS W41VSS Masaryk's Death Crystallizes Red Menace as U.S. Prepares to Act; Spring Rash of Strikes Breaks Out ' Reli-ud by WNU rtur ' (EDITOR'S NOTEi Wkm .plnlont art tipremd In th eol-inn-, thfT r tho" f WnUn Nwippr Union's nfwi n.l7iU mni Dot nmiurilr -I tnl newippT. TREATY: 50 Years Communist expansion was going to meet a roadblock If the nations of western Europe had any voice In the matter. Britain. France and the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) Lux-embourg) nations adopted a 50-year 50-year treaty for a political, economic eco-nomic and military union of western west-ern Europe in an out and out move to check the communism that threatens their independence. Delegates from the five countries coun-tries completed their efforts after more than a week around the conference con-ference table. The alliance was a direct out-growth of the union of western European nations suggested sug-gested in January by Ernest Bevln, British foreign secretary. The treaty was believed to bind the nations to mutual assistance in the face of aggression, mutual aid in the economic field, co-operation in improving their living sttndards and a measure of coordination co-ordination of colonial resources. It was just a beginning, but a good one. In the eyes of U. S. government leaders the alliance was not only a desirable but nec-cesary nec-cesary element if the Marshall plan for recovery Is to work at all. SAY UNCLE: Palestine People continue to ask the Arabs and Jews of Palestine to stop their futile wrangling. France. China and the United States sent an appeal to the Jews and Arabs of Palestine and also MASARYK: Death in Prague Whether Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakia's Czecho-slovakia's foreign minister, took his own life or was liquidated by the Communists really didn't make any difference. The Communist government had announced that he had leaped to his death from a first, second or third-floor window (U. S. newspaper news-paper readers could choose their Dwn version) of the foreign office !n Prague. Later reports by "highly authoritative authori-tative persons" insisted that Masaryk Mas-aryk had been murdered by Communists. Com-munists. An alleged "eyewitness" testified ttiat he had seen Mas-aryk's Mas-aryk's body after its reported fall :o a concrete pavement and that it ' bore no evidence that the foreign fore-ign minister had died in such a nanner. Supporting the murder theory was the fact that Masaryk was reported re-ported to have met President Ed-ouard Ed-ouard Benes the day before his ieath, and the two were said to nave planned something the Com- munists wished to prevent. Unidentified Czech officials who lave escaped from Prague reported re-ported also that president Benes was a prisoner of the Communist regime. But whether Jan Masaryk, son of the founder of the Czechoslo-vakian Czechoslo-vakian republic, had been murdered mur-dered or goaded to suicide by his intolerable position, one thing was certain: Communists had killed him just as surely as if they had nut n nistnl tn hi head and nulled STRIKES: Miners Widespread strikes in the nation's na-tion's soft coal fields were touched off by John L. Lewis' latest foray into the national scene, a demand for $100-a-month pensions for his miners. The United Mine Workers leader had asked rank-and-file "reaction" to his charge that coal operators to the six Arab state members of the United Nations, asking them to take steps to promote a truce in the Holy Land fighting. There was no real confidence among delegates of the three nations na-tions that their request would be heeded. Russia, the fourth country coun-try taking part in the big power talks on Palestine, refrained from Joining in the appeal because the Soviets have taken the typical stand that there is no need for the had "dishonored" the 1947 contract by failing to grant pensions. And his miners produced the exact reaction re-action he wanted as almost 200,000 of them in 11 states quit to support sup-port Lewis' stand at the very outset out-set of the difficulties. It was not a strike in the technical techni-cal sense of the word. Lewis, in all his power, simply had nodded his shaggy head and his men, quick to catch the signal, walked away from their Jobs. The current mine contract does not expire until June 30, but it provides that the miners need work only as long as they are "willing "will-ing and able." Impact of the soft coal walkouts showed first in the nation's steel industry where output is threatened threat-ened if the shutdowns continue for any length of time. Many of the closed mines are "captives" whose entire output goes to the steel companies. r - r - the trigger. If Masaryk took his own life it was not just because he was seeking seek-ing an escape, but because it was '.he last service he could do for his country throwing light, by his awn destruction, on the terrible, destructive force that is communism. commun-ism. NERVES: Warlike The alternate, ostentatious flexing flex-ing of muscles by the United States and Russia was, it appeared, shifting shift-ing in status from a cold war to a war of nerves. There were the unmistakable signs of the military preparing to reassert itself. Many reserve officers of-ficers had received letters pointing point-ing out that, although they were not being called to active duty Immediately, they would do well to prepare themselves for such a Dossible eventualitv. big powers to consult with the Arabs and Jews. Most observers thought the truce appeal looked like wishful thinking. For one thing, no group among either Arabs or Jews in Palestine Pal-estine is in a position to control its dissident members and thus guarantee guar-antee a truce. Moreover, the idea of a military truce does not bear upon the heart of the problem. The United Nations Na-tions is still committed, on paper, to partition, while the Arabs adamantly adam-antly continue to reject that proposal pro-posal and the Jews assert just as strongly that they will accept nothing else. ACCIDENTS: Women's Accident rate among girls and women has been reduced by about one-half in the past 35 years as a result of modernization of the Amer- j ican home, according to statistics compiled by Metropolitan Life In- . surance company. j Illustrating the reduction in home hazards, the statisticians said, are the shift from oil lamps and gas for lighting to the electric light bulb, replacing of the traditional coal stove by the modern gas or electric range, and use of central heating instead of stoves and fireplaces. Packers Fraught with an even greater Immediacy than the mine walkout, walk-out, however, was a nationwide strike for more pay by 100,000 members of the CIO packinghouse packing-house workers. The strike went off as scheduled sched-uled despite an urgent request by President Truman asking the packing pack-ing companies and workers' representatives rep-resentatives to maintain the status quo without Interrupting negotiations negotia-tions until April 1, at which time a board of inquiry was slated to report re-port to him on conditions of the strike. In reply to the President, the union un-ion strike board rejected his proposal pro-posal because, it said, the packing pack-ing firms would not agree to placing plac-ing even their wage proposals into in-to effect during the negotiation. As the strike began, government govern-ment records indicated that the entire en-tire nation would come to feel the curtailed meat suddIv after the In the Pentagon building in Washington, army planners were working late at their desks. Procurement Pro-curement officers were reported to be showing great interest in cement ce-ment factories, since cement is vital in building underground shelters shel-ters and fortifications. Russian troops were said to be massing in eastern Germany, but no one would venture to say whether this was true bluff, a threat of retaliation to the Marshall Mar-shall plan and union of western Europe, or a show of force intended in-tended to influence the coming elections in Italy. But President Truman himself precipitated pre-cipitated the worst outbreak of war jitters when he publicly proclaimed pro-claimed that his faith in real world peace had been shaken. In this crisis the U. S. government govern-ment was stressing these points which embodied administration policy for meeting the situation: 1" The European recovery plan hmM h nurri'nd nut nrnmntlv 2 The U. S. encourages forma- tion of what Marshall called a political association in western Europe Eu-rope as the first step toward restoring re-storing stability. 3 Spread of Communist govern- ments anywhere in the world, including China is opposed by the American government which will do everything in its power to block communism. 4 The U. S. will continue to work for world peace wherever wher-ever possible. Finally, any estimate of the situation sit-uation must include this inescapable inesca-pable conclusion: Neither Russia nor the U. S. wants war now; and, more important, neither could afford af-ford to fight one. This particular decade continues to be a period worked by a shifting of forces and consolidation of strength where it will do the most good if and when the real showdown comes. first week, with some areas more severely affected than others. GOVERNMENT: Expensive Total per capita cost of running the federal government for one year has zoomed $201 since 1939, according to a report by the Tax Foundation. It now is about f"!70 a year, compared with $69 in 1939. Total estimated expenditures for the fiscal year 1948 are 3.7 billion bil-lion dollars. War and its aftermath after-math accounted for almost 23 billion bil-lion of that. But the blueprint for 1949, said the foundation, registers an increase. in-crease. It quoted President Truman: Tru-man: "In the fiscal year of 1949, 79 per cent of our expenditures reflect the cost of war, the effect of war and our efforts to prevent a future war." |
