Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS U S carries fight v to communists fis As congress SoEi gress approves foreign aid income tax out becomes a y by bill staff writer EDITOR EDITORS S NOTE when opinion opinions are expressed in these columns they ore are those of western newspaper union a news analysts anal and not ly of th tb a news FOREIGN AID in motion with president truman s signa ture on the 6 foreign aid bill the massive potent forces of western capitalism moved into ac tion against russ an communism for the beginning of a t banic long range clash of strength to observers in the U this inter play of forces had all the ingredients of an epic poem the power of good striving mightily to overcome the power of evil with the fate of a large segment of mankind depend ing on outcome of the struggle there was an epic quality too in the manner in wh ch congress seem angly impelled by a strong sense of 0 urgency raced the bill through tor for final action the house approved it with a vote of to 75 after less than 15 minutes of explanation and the senate followed up swiftly with a voice vote two days after passage of the measure pres dent truman meshed the gears of the global aid program by ordering the reconstruction fi fl nance corporation to advance billion dollars at once that action released U S dollars reconstruction supplies and in some cases arms to 15 european nations as well as tur key western germany trieste and achna ch na the overall 6 aid pack age includes 43 4 3 billion dollars tor for the european recovery program million dollars for military assist ance to greece and turkey mil lion for china and 2 million dollars for trieste all ali of it is iq aimed at areas where comman ats are sharp ening their sword of aggression an ill starred movement in the house to include aid to franco spa n in the bill was defeated before it had tune time to do much damage to U S prestige and moral stature abroad As the aid started to move the situation abroad stacked up some thing like this buss russ a s seizure of czechoslovakia its new pact with finland and pres sure on scand anavian nations the soviets arbitrary action in berlin all pointed to the fact that moscow was trying to bring about a show down in europe before the euro recovery plan began to work effectively on the other hand the rapid pas sage of the foreign aid measure the proposal to return trieste to italy and the stiffening of american will in beri berl n seemed to indicate that the US U S while not fore ng a show down was nevertheless willing to have it as soon as poss me ble few persons familiar with the situation thought that a showdown with russia necessarily meant war but it did involve acceptance of a risk of war U S leaders were will ing to take that risk on the theory that the likelihood of a shooting war is less now than it might be in the foreseeable future REDUCTION tax a measure president truman s veto of the income tax reduction bill was crush angly overridden by both houses of congress to 88 83 in the house 77 to 10 in the senate and U US S citi CAI zens sat back to gloat over the first major tax cutting measure passed in nearly 20 years in his now characteristic I 1 d rather be right than be president role mr truman had stubbornly affixed his veto to the bill protest ing that it mainly would benefit per sons with incomes of 5 or more encourage further inflation and sap the nation nations s strength at a time of international danger examination of the new tax ture indicated that the president was right in his first contention at least that the law would be of greater benefit to persons with high incomes than to those in lower brackets heason reason for that is that 12 6 per cent of 3 is considerably less than 5 per cent of a mill on cuts in tax rates as provided by the new law range from 12 6 per cent in the lowest brackets to 5 per cent in the top level most interesting aspect of the tax cut development was the question of what motivated mr truman to veto the bill he ile was aware that enough members of both houses were sup porting tax reduction in this election year to override his veto hence that his veto would be a gesture of fu tilita that would place him on record as opposing the popular will mr truman must have been aware also of the strong possibility I 1 mad U a nobody seemed to be mad at anybody when gov william M tuck of virginia and president truman met at convocation exercises at wi ham liam and mary college williamsburg va to receive hon lion degrees of doctor of laws mr truman exchanged a cordial handshake with governor tuck vociferous leader of the southern states rebellion on the president s civil rights program that next year congress safely through the elections will boost fed eral income by re imposing some version ot of the wartime excess profit tax in view of these but in escapable realities the pres dent s veto of the I 1 tax bill s amply did not fit the th e preconceived pattern of political action m an elect on year rather it looked more like the deliberate driving of another nail in his cal coffin in his veto message mr truman contended that increased defense and fore agn aid measures might make it necessary for congress to raise taxes next year in the case of the income tax he said nearly 40 per cent of the on would go to individuals with net incomes in excess of 5 who const tute less than 5 per cent of all taxpayers also the president continued while national income is high every effort should be made to reduce the size of the billion dollar public debt he was beyond doubt sincere sincere in his objections but they fell on deaf ears in congress APOLOGIA from russia even as russia officially ex pressed regret over the nate british soviet plane crash over berlin which cost 15 lives plain people all over the world began to see more clearly how although no nation is seeking war now a war could start accidentally A pilot of a russian fighter plane had buzzed a british plane carrying 14 passengers gers as it was landing in berlin the transport crashed in the russian zone where the wreck age lay for 12 hours before the bodies were permitted to be moved tension in berlin eased somewhat when british officials accepted the russian apology and canceled plans to assign fighter plane escorts to all an air transports coming into berlin the official british account of the crash quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the russian fighter pilot was frolicking when he bit hit the big plane while the tighter fighter pilot undoubtedly had not been ordered to harrass the brit sh plane it was equally alpar ent that he and his cohorts had not been forbidden to do so aside from the number of lives lost the disturbing part of the inci dent is that it was in a manner of speak ng an aggressive action an overt act of deliberate provocation and it is just such incidents as that that world leaders fear might one day touch oft off the conflagration NEW START chinas chiang hopelessly lost in the political and economic confusion of china gen chiang kai shek leader of the republic in one capacity or another since 1927 was casting about for a new role in the tragedy of the far east afflicted externally by communist armies and internally by the venality of black n arke and corrupt gov eminent officials chiang has been in the pos t on of a man attempting to build a house on a pile of soggy refuse now however anere was a report out that chiang had decided to quit the presidency of china but there also were indications that far from going into he would re main as strong man by becoming premier A spokesman for the china s governing party said that the generalissimo was determined to free himself from the presidency in order to lead a ho v war against the increasingly powerful chinese communists according to latest reports chiang was arg ng that dr hu shih be elected president former ambas to washington ha hu shih now is president of peking bunners ty PALESTINE trusteeship studiously ignoring the groups and individuals who threw up their hands in horror when the U S reversed its position on partition of palestine this nation went right ahead with i s avowed plan for a united nations trusteeship of the holy land D sc losing some of the details of that plan warren R austin ameri can delegate to the U UN N told se carity council members that the united states favors send ng foreign troops to palestine to keep order it if and when that becomes n necessary ces sary under the trusteeship formula unmistakably implied although not stated outright was U S will bigness to send american troops to the holy land provided other na eions would join the parade also another provision was that the num her of nations supplying troops be specifically limited actually there then was little optimism that the fratricidal strife in pales tine or the causes producing it could be effaced by the ent of im posing a U UN N trusteeship |