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Show THE LEHI SUN, LEIII, UTAn Know Your Congressman To Make Democracy Work BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W, Washington, D. C. The time of the singing of candl dates has come, and the voice of the mock - turtle is heard in the land. The representatives representa-tives of the people peo-ple are about to assure you that you have been well - represented, represent-ed, and that they would like to continue con-tinue to do the representing. And who are you to say no, if you don't know exactly how well your represent t - atives in the house of representa tives or in the senate have carried out your interests? Issues are being joined, there are sharp cleavages of thought these days. And if you don't take the trouble to vote for the men in congress con-gress who are voting the way you want them to, you have no right to lambast congress. True, it does take some trouble to learn to read your congressman's record cor rectly. A simple statement by a candidate that he voted for the X bill (the one you wanted passed) doesn't mean too much. A number of energetic organiza tions are out to tell you how to read the lawmaker's records. One organization is the National Citl-xeos' Citl-xeos' Political Action committee which reminds voters: "A favorite device of congressmen congress-men is to vote for a series of mangling man-gling amendments, or to procrastinate procrasti-nate with investigations or recommittal recom-mittal Then, having partially or completely wrecked the usefulness of a bill, they may vote for the final versioa Don't take these votes at face value." In other words, don't be satisfied with the record of the final vote. See how your congressman voted on the amendments. The NC-PAC literature concludes with a warning that any voter, whatever what-ever side he is on, may well take to heart: "When your congressmen start promising in their forthcoming campaigns, check their past voting records very carefully. Don't take it for granted that if they voted or a measure, they were for it, and fought for it. Perhaps they helped cripple it first." Disguise Enmity To Legislation That is true, and with a little investigation, in-vestigation, youwill learn that a lot of congressmen, whose real views and activities you really wouldn't subscribe to at all. may have been voting in favor of some of the bills you would like to see passed. Later, when he is soliciting solicit-ing your support, he will point with pride to these measures, omitting to mention the fact that he helped to emasculate them carefully before be-fore hand. You will also find sometimes that although he has loudly shouted down a bill (which you didn't like, and, secretly, he did), he did not actually work against it. Perhaps, finally, he even voted for it if there was no roll call. Another way in which a congressman congress-man can fool his constituents is to offer an amendment which appeals to his particular locality, but which he knows can't possibly go through. That appeases the constituents constit-uents and, at the same time, doesn't hurt the congressman with the particular interests with whom he may be friendly. They know, as well as he does, that the whole thing is just an empty gesture. Kill Bill With Recommittal The vote to "recommit" is a favorite fa-vorite trick, and usually reveals the true sentiments of a senator or congressman. con-gressman. Not much attention is paid to these votes. When a bill is "recommitted," it is sent back to committee, supposedly for reconsideration. recon-sideration. Actually, recommittal usually means the measure is pigeonholed pi-geonholed forever. On the other hand, when a powerful power-ful comrnittee pigeonholes s bill you would like to see passed, and your congressman is willing to sign a petition to try to get it out, you can be pretty certain he is sincerely working to get it through. Of course, what goes on secretly In committees Is most important, and can usually be found out, for the newspaper and radio correspondents corre-spondents make every effort to BARBS . . by Baukhage After all that batting around in congressional committees, OPA, as expected, came out battered rather than bettered. The Supreme court controversy boils down to what is roally only a difference of opinion . something which is taken for granted among Individuals, and which is said to make horse-racing interesting. J report the inside facts. This is not difficult for the reporters, since committee members whose efforts were defeated are usually willing to divulge the machinations of the majority if there were any machinations. ma-chinations. Admittedly getting all this information infor-mation takes time and trouble on your part But that is the price you have to pay for the kind of government govern-ment you want The government makes you take time to figure out your income tax and to do a lot of other little chores, but it doesn't force you to inform yourself on how your government is being run. How ever, the information is all there, if you care to take the trouble to get it. Reports of public hearings, as well as the record of what happen on house and senate floors, are avail able for the asking. That is a part of your congressman's job report ing to you. As Lowell Mellett says in his "Handbook of Politics": "The true test of a member of congress is not the good bills for which he voted, but the good bills he voted against plus the num ber of bad bills he voted for." Nobody can ever take democracy awar from you you have to give it away, by default. And such "de faulting" is no rare occurrence. With in the last few months, I know of four organizations which discovered there was a Communist in their midst Furthermore, that Com munist, using his own energy, and taking advantage of the indifference of the other members, had gained a key position in the group. As soon as the rest woke up and realized the real purpose of measures taken under what amounted to this man's minority rule they threw him out. You know, "eternal vigilance. . . ." Knowledge is power.. Know your congressman, don't knock him. Ike Leaves Secrets Untold The final report of General Eisen hower to the combined chiefs of staff, which has at last been re- leased, is a splendid example of terse and comprehensive exposition. exposi-tion. Into less than 123 pages is compressed the epic of the great est military operation in history, ex tending from D-Day to V-E Day. It is unfortunate, for the sake of mystery lovers, that the document does not go into detail concerning one phase of the invasion which has rightly been called "the greatest deception in history" the clever ruses which caused the enemy to make his fatal miscalculations. The Germans knew that the Al lied landing must be made somewhere some-where within a relatively lim ited length of shore-line, but despite this, they were completely deceived as to where that landing was to be. The result was that the Allies were able to get a toehold which they might never have been able to secure, se-cure, had the Germans guessed the prospective location of the real beachheads. Obviously, the natural place for a landing would be in reasonable proximity to Calais, where the English Eng-lish channel is narrowest Actually, the nearest beachhead was established estab-lished more than a hundred miles farther to the west, but the whole German 15th army remained, immobilized immo-bilized in that locality until 'it was too late. But even after the landings were made, the Germans were not sure they were the main objectives. This was because of a five-prong plan of deception, all the prongs pointing to simulated diversionary attacks by land, sea and air, away from the actual invasion area. One simulated attack was at Cap d'Antifer, northwest of Le Havre, far to the east of the invasion area. There, planes, ships and balloons moved in, gradually producing echoes on the German radar warning warn-ing instruments similar to the approach ap-proach of a convoy. Another fake landing was staged In the direction of Boulogne, still farther east, with 16 ships and accompanying ac-companying planes. The steady patrolling of the skies was taken by the Germans to be the air cover cov-er of an oncoming armada. Far to the west halfway down the Cherbourg peninsula, and at various vari-ous other points, dummy airborne invasions were carried out The Germans finally decided that the real thing was approaching Boulogne, and opened up with all they had. Meantime, the actual invasion in-vasion forces crossed the channel without any interference by air or sea. It was a grand fake. see A Case for The Forsaken 'R' As a midwesterner born, I have battled many years for the letter "R." Therefore I was overjoyed to find further distinction for the "Rs" as. against the -R-nots." It was in that strangely intriguing "Book About a Thousand Things" by George Stimp-son Stimp-son (whose "Book About the Bible" I have mentioned before in these columns) that I learned that "R-and "R-and "L" are the "last and most dif ficult consonants added to speech " WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS- Atomic Blast Bring Confusion of Opinions; Results of Both Are Studied Released by Western Ntnrun., ninn - (EDITOR'S NOTE i When opinions r . .. uiuud ptw, analysis and not necenarlly of mis newspaper. i r t f i I y i , ' ' - I - 4 - BOMB RESULT . . . Pictured is her superstructure damaged by OPA ENDS: Lid Is Off When President Truman vetoed the OPA extension bill, declaring it was not a true "price-control' measure, the house of representa' tives passed a resolution extending OPA for a 20-day period. Then the senate balked. Result: No OPA. The reaction was immediate in cattle, hogs, grain and dairy products. Prime cattle shot up to $22 a hundred pounds on the Chicago market for an all-time high within hours. Two-dollar wheat was seen for the first time since 1925. Milk went np about 2 cents a quart. Women in Washington, D. C, reported butter at 94 eents a pound. Many merchants all over the United States, however, pledged a hold-the-line policy. In a few cases, prices were lowered to . "start healthy competition." But generally prices began moving up, despite President Truman's appeal to hold down inflation until a new price con trol bill could be passed by the con gress. In view of the situation, Senate Majority Leader Barkley warned that two or three weeks probably would be required to get even a temporary continuation resolution through the senate. The 20-day ex tension passed by the house will have, passed before then. The ma jority leader told President Truman the senate would attempt to work out a permanent law instead of a temporary makeshift. Some Prices Lower Many businesses just sat tight, or advertised that OPA or no OPA they would keep prices down. Some rents were raised immediately, but many landlords waited to see whether prices stay on an even keel or go into a spiral. There were many reports of lower prices. A landlord in Phoenix, Ariz., gave his 27 tenants ten-ants free rent for a week, and declared he would then lower the rates. In Milwaukee, Wis., a men's clothing merchant announced an-nounced a straight 5 per cent reduction in prices. Automobiles have become a big question, although manufacturers generally stated that prices will not be increased more than a nominal amount. The used car market, how ever, became dizzy in some parts of the nation. Prices went up from 25 to 50 per cent with removal of the price ceiling. as the first increases were an nounced, a frightened public poured telegrams into Washington demanding the renewal of price con trols. Congressmen were swamped by bushels of wires and letters Many manufacturers and some of the bigger businesses immediately began reassuring the public that wild inflation would be avoided. ATOM BOMB: Results Are Armipd The wrath of the atomic bomb was unloosed, but goats kept on eating, eat-ing, palm trees waved their fronds, and birds still flew over Bikini la goon, io many eye-witnesses the pyrotechnic display was . colorful and gorgeous, to others the whole show was a dud. Arguments have already started and will continue for weeks and months, or pvpn years. Is atomic energy so frightful fright-ful as we supposed? Is the mnrt. I era battle-wagon still mistress of the seas? But five ships were sunk, 6 were wrecked, 25 were badly damaged, and possibly all the rest of 73 in the FREIGHT RATES: Up in Some States Several Middle West states regulatory regu-latory commissions have approved new freight rate increases on intrastate in-trastate commerce similar to the general boost authorized by the interstate in-terstate commerce commission. Kansas and Missouri have placed in effect temporary increases, the same as authorized by the ICC. Nebraska Ne-braska granted increases except on sugar beets, beet sugar, final molasses mo-lasses and wet beet pulp. and End of OPA sxpressrd In these columns, Ihsy are those of the heavy cruiser USS Pensacola with the atomic bomb in Bikini lagoon. naval fleet bear scars. However, not a capital ship was sunk by the atomic blast, although havoc wrought by the bomb's might was evident on every hand. Fires raged aboard at least eight of the vessels, including one ship two miles from the target center. Vice Adm. William H. P. Blandy, task force commander, says there is no reason to believe be-lieve the day of the carrier and destroyer is done. So the navy isn't convinced that the atomic ' b6nfb has put it out of business. The long-haired boys, the scien tists who built the bomb, haven't said a word. They're carefully checking the thousands of instru ments used to measure the bomb's might. They're going over Bikini atoll with a fine-tooth comb to find ni 1 1 1 1 T C t nrlnai hqnnanAd A Ion want time enough to assemble their tacts and observations. jluc uuhiu expioaea ciose enougn to the target to be considered a good hit. No lives were lost that is, Human lives. And two more tests in shallow and deep water will be made; Meanwhile millions of peo ple all over the world are wonder ing what atomic energy will have to do with their future, in peace or war. RUSSIA: Cuts Prices On July 1, when the OPA had ex pired in the Unjted States and many prices were rising, the Moscow Mos-cow radio announced that consum er goods prices throughout the So viet Union would be cut an average of 40 per cent. The price cuts were ordered by the Soviet ministry of trade. Some typical examples of reduc tions, the broadcast reported, in cluded: Shoes, 42 per cent; wool textiles, 45; silk textiles, 50; cotton fabric, 38; dresses, 43; toilet soap, 46; aluminum alu-minum ware, 54, and paper and cardboard products, 35 per cent Present prices were not given. TOM SAWYER: Tom Sawyer not Mark Twain's character, but a real boy in Indian apolis was one of five youths held by police for trespassing. He is 19 years old. Sawyer and his comnaniona wpto arrested for swimming in a private gravel pit at four o'clock in the morning. They had to get up early 10 caicn mm. MOTHERS . . . Glad to hear the atomic bomb test was over were Mrs. Caroline Swancutt of La Crosse, Wis., and Mrs. Jenny Wood of Bordentown, N. J., mothers moth-ers of Major Woodrow P. Swan-cutt, Swan-cutt, pilot, and Major Harold H. Wood, bombardier, who took the atomic bomb over Bikini in "Dave's Dream," a superfortress. INDIAN FORTS Throughout the Great Plains region re-gion and the western part of the United States are several old frontier fron-tier posts, or forts, which were built from 50 to 100 years ago during dur-ing Indian insurrections. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower has decided to abandon some of these old forts because there's no longer any danger of Indian attacks. IF ! U I j - x . I ie&W f 5 ' if TAX RISE: Prices Soar ' In Washington, John W. Snyder, secretary of the treasury, told a news conference that an increase in tax rates may be asked by the administration next year if there Is sharp inflation in prices following the ending of OPA. The additional tax would be levied on individuals and corporations when congress meets after the first of next year. Mr. Snyder gave flat assurance, however, that the' administration would propose no new tax levies during 1946. The U. S. treasury, Mr. Snyder Sny-der stated, bad over 14 billion dollars cash balance, but has temporarily halted Its program of retiring the public debt through cash redemption of maturing ma-turing securities. To redeem these securities now would add to buying pressure. The treasury treas-ury has taken this step, it was learned, as an anti-inflationary step. Mr. Snyder clung to his promise, given upon taking office a few weeks ago, that he would "try hard" to balance the 1947 budget But he added that "we're going to have pretty tough sledding" to achieve the goal because there have been "elements injected into the picture we weren't looking for." SCRAP PLANES: Sell for Less Airplanes cost a lot of mones when they are new, but when the government sells the scrap the price is down. For $3,900,000,000 worth of scrap war planes the government received apparent high bids totaling total-ing $6,582,156, or some three billion dollars less than cost. Sale of these scrap planes will vir tually clean out such government aircraft, except for another 15 mil- lion to 18 million pounds of aluminum alumi-num scrap now in Hawaii to be sold in August. The surplus bombers, fighters and other tactical ships sold for scrap are located at five air fields in the United States. The fields will be leased to buyers for $1 per year while scrapping operations are in progress. CONGRESS Tribute tO FDR The late Pres. Franklin D. Roose velt was brave, steadfast and a man who "saw the facts and faced them," said John G. Winant, for mer ambassador to Great Britain, who spoke at the solemn service on July 1 when President Truman and members of the congress paid tribute trib-ute to the departed leader's memory. mem-ory. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. FDR's widow, attired severely in black, sat directly behind Mr. Truman. With her were Josephus Daniels, secre tary of the navy in World War I her son and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Elliott Roosevelt Winant concluded his tribute with these words: "God give ns heart and will to take this nation forward as he meant to take it to a new, more daring future, a new world of peace." HOMES: 406,V00 Started Wilson W. Wyatt. national h. ing expediter, is confident that the 1946 goal of 1,200,000 housing units will be met. He has also rennrtp that 406,000 dwelling units have been started so far this year, this fieure representing approximately 34 per ceni oi tne goal. The housing expediter, in his first report to the nation on the hous ing program, said that "prices for new homes and rentals are still tnn gn 10 nt Pses of many veter ans. He called for the erection of more rental housing and promised that all construction will be carpfni. ly inspected to insure both good quality and fair prices. He strongly implied that unlp. price controls are restored the vet eran, more than anyone pIsp m be the victim of the housing situation. situ-ation. ' PROFITEERING: A special senate committee invp.,. tigating the national defense n gram began an inquiry into waste and profiteering in war production and brought up an, amazing story of a iuuiuis war-Dorn conmanv , first find. The Erie Basin Metal Prodis corporation of Elgin, nr. wh, never had more than 30 employes received $44,879,000 in war contracts, con-tracts, the committee was told. A government auditor and three army officers testified that the army gave Erie Basin a $3,000,000 contract v fore the company was organized and advanced nearly $1,000,000 before be-fore the contract was signed. ine story was embellished sn what by an account of a ilfinnn party given at the Drake hotel in cnicago Dy rie Basin and charged as production costs. SENATORS: Higher Paid A year ago members nf house of representatives voted themselves a $2,500 annual expense account At that time the senators refused to give themselves a sim-iUi sim-iUi expense account But changed their minds about it and recently voted themselves similar auxiliary funds. Members of both houses of . gress get a salary of $10,000 a year plus secretarial help. DIRECT FROM BIKINI: An Eye Witness Account Of Atomic Bomb Blast I Damaire from tht atnmin light carrier USS Independence VII VA1VI3IU1M By WALTER A. SIIEAD WNU Washlnfton Correspondent. ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN, OPERATIONS CROSSROADS.- From a military standpoint the ex- plosion of the fourth atomic bomb was a huge success but as a spec tacle worth traveling 8,000 miles to see it did not live up to its advance billing. From the standpoint of ef ficiency and precision the plutonium bomb was dropped squarely in the target area. The advance weather predictions held true. It was dropped on time to the second. The air drones were sent through the cloud area and shepherded back by tfteir mother ships. The boat drones were sent into the area of radio activity and brought back via radio control. The cameras clicked and the instruments built especially to measure the results of the blast worked. out to those of us here aboard the Appalachian, who had been orientated ori-entated and lectured day after day ror tne past two weeks, who had interviewed scientists and scien tine writers, the bomb burst and the atomic cloud were a disappoint ment. The recapitulation of the damage snowea tne troop transports Giliom and Carlisle sunk; the destroyer Lampson capsized; heavy damage was done to the submarine Skate, the light cruiser Pensacola, the carrier car-rier Independence, the Jap cruiser Sakawa, and the German pocket Daiuesnip Prinz Eugen. Light to negligible damage was caused on the Jap battleship Nagata, the battleship bat-tleship Nevada, the oiler No. 160 and LCM No. 1. Small fires were started and later extinguished on the destroyer Wilson, the Pensacola, the transport Briscoe, the Nevada, the carrier Saratoga and transports Niagara, Bladen, Banta, Butte, Cortland, Bracken and Faun and the battleship New York. Heaviest damage was caused on the Independence Inde-pendence and the fire which burst into flames on her stern was more dramatic to watch than the bomb burst insofar as this writer was concerned. con-cerned. Because the atomic cloud did not reach the heights achieved in previous previ-ous drops was not consiWprf . reflection upon the. efficiency of the uuniD. reasons for the relatively low cloud given were that water absorbed ab-sorbed much of the heat energy and the difference in atmospheric struc- iuie caused a slower rise It may be that those ff HO ntliA stood along the starboard rafl of Anpaiacman were expecting too much. We had been led to believe be-lieve from many sources to expect -na aim aaventure and excitement. excite-ment. Let me assure you there was no drama and certainly no ex-citement. ex-citement. I confess that as I pulled iuzea pjasuc goggles over V"- aWdy tl aia feel excited and tense as I awaited the blast It came as I saw it, well above It mlTV hvge orange "bU-II "bU-II might have been a fireworks display on the Fourth of July 1 though not near so dazzling! I watched the cloud appearing like nothing more than a huge cherry ice cream soda. Cream white on the surface but deep inside the hues were pink and rose, and it boiled and seethed up through a cumulous natural cloud which hid It from our view I felt a slight "pft" to my ears but felt no heat blast Seconds later the sound of detonation detona-tion came like a distant peal or roll of thunder that's all, but then we were 18 miles away .J6? ?i!Ues after Wast the cloud had mushroomed up to a height of 26.000 feet and was ap. proximately 12,000 feet across the Precision Marked Operations Crossroads ?t. u a tt A , ave's Drem" took to the dawn sky on Kwajalein Atoll, the long-planned and vast machinery machin-ery of the Army Air Forces role m Operations Crossroads began to move with the precision of a great war missioa The operation had been planned. torill of anticipation for they were dealing with the force of atomic hnmh tct K i. . ...., .uaa a bihiwu nere as iha is pictured burning shortly Jul top. The trade winds soon broke it up and It was pushed westward where it gradually leveled off and dispersed as our ship steamed slow-ly slow-ly along the seaward side of Bikini island. , We could see the ghost fleet L the lagoon through our binoculars Fire amidship showed on the Sara, toga. The Salt Lake City was ablaze. There appeared to be la small fire aboard the NevadaThese fires made a smoke haze over the lagoon, but it soon cleared away and as I look toward the lagoon now there is little indication of a fire anywhere. We are changing course now, following fol-lowing the Mt. McKinley, Admiral Blandy's flagship, apparently with the intention of entering the lagoon. Television receiving sets in the ward room of the Appalachian registered reg-istered the blast from cameras installed in-stalled on the island, then they went out of commission. The carrier Independence likely suffered more damage than any other oth-er capital ship to its superstructure superstruc-ture and all planes which were atop its flight deck were carried awav. There was superficial or superstructure superstruc-ture damage to other ships of tha 73 in the target fleet but to me the pathos of the thing was emphasized when I saw the sturdy masts of the old Nevada brilliant fa its oranea paint standing there still staunch and true despite the atomic bomb.? There was no wind, no waves and no thunderstorm. No trees were damaged on the island. There wa no tidal wave and no earthquake. In fairness there was no prediction from the navy or army officials that any of these things might hannen. The navy frankly said they didn't know what would happen. These wild predictions were made by scientists sci-entists or scientific writers. Also in all fairness to the officers of joint task force No. 1. the bomb, which- looked to small to the lay writers, may actually have been big. Scientifically of course there ca be no adequate judgment of the results re-sults until the instruments have been read, the damage on the various va-rious ships actually determined and measured. In the light of the objectives, ob-jectives, the navy and the army had in mind the actual effect of the bomb on naval construction, navy and army material, armament ordnance ord-nance and other equipment J Admiral Blandy, commander of the task force, issued a statement in which he said he was highly pleased with the whole operation; with the bomb drop and with the efficiency ef-ficiency of the bomb. There are several sev-eral aboard the ship who saw the Nagasaki bomb drop and the drop at Los Alamos, N. M. They declared de-clared this bomb appeared to be smaller, judging from the flash and the atomic cloud which in the case of Nagasaki soared to a height of about 55,000 feet ! There is no doubt that the force of this terrible energy is like nothing ever known on earth before but the distances out here are so great that the energy was dispersed and dissipated over a vast area. For instance, at Nagasaki the area of total bomb damage was in six square miles, or an area of about ft mile and a half radius, while the distance of the Nevada from the shore of Bikini lagoon was about three miles. And the lagoon itself i 10 miles across and 25 miles long. It must also be remembered that as this story is written for trans mission in time to get it to you there has been no actual assessment- of the real damage. There may b more as we enter the lagoon and can visually assay the damage. energy. The schedule for every one of the hundreds of planes and ships had been timed to the second. Everybody Every-body knew just what to do as tc command plane headed for the target tar-get area of Bikini lagoon. E The vast network of communications communica-tions was set in motion. The weather weath-er man had said, "This is the day, , and General Ramey bad said, "Let Go." Then the planes began t roll. ! j: |