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Show j WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS 1 Soviets Express Desire for Peace, Agree to Discussion of Differences; U. S. Seizes Railroads-Strike Off I By Bill Schocnteen, WNU Staff Writer (EDITOB'8 NOTE: Whea plnleas are eiprf urd la thes eolnmat, tkey ar tkot f Hestera Newspaper laioa'a aewt aaalysts sad aal aecvssarily ! this aewepaper.) OVERTURE: Peaceful All of a sudden the air between Washington and Moscow was filled with talk of peace and desire for cooperation. co-operation. Exactly what had happened to bring about the quick flow of the milk of human kindness between the U. S. and Russia was not clear. Certainly there had occurred no basic change in the potentially explosive ex-plosive relationship. It began with a U. S. statement of position, voiced by Bedell Smith, ambassador to Russia, in the presence pres-ence of Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov. Smith, apparently speaking officially, offi-cially, suggested that the way is clear for a discussion of differences with Russia. Said the U. S. ambassador: am-bassador: "The present state of U. S.-Soviet relations is a source of grievous disappointment to the American people. As far as the United States is concerned, the door is always wide open for full discussion and the composing of our differences." Russia's reply, as broadcast by the Moscow radio, expressed a positive attitude toward Improving Soviet-American Soviet-American relations and stated that Russia "is In agreement" with a U. S. proposal for "discussion and settlement of existing differences." Although these developments received re-ceived a big play in the press and radio of both nations, indications were strong that the aura of mutual hostility separating the U. S. and Russia might not be dispelled by the willingness to "compose our differences." differ-ences." Neither side had modified its foreign for-eign policy. Rather, each had emphasized em-phasized it in the exchange of notes. The U. S. statement said, in part: "The concern and the determination of the people of the United States have been Intensified by the Inexplicable Inexpli-cable hostility of the Soviet government govern-ment to the European recovery programa pro-grama measure which in its inception in-ception and subsequent developments develop-ments is so obviously only a measure meas-ure of American assistance for reconstruction re-construction on a co-operative basis , without menace or threat to anyone." any-one." In their reply the Soviets contrasted con-trasted what they termed military threats against the Soviet Union with the Russian government's pursuit pur-suit of "a consistent peace policy." At least there was a definition of terms and a preliminary agreement agree-ment to talk things over. Whether or not any good would come of it was, at this stage, problematical There was a suspicion abroad that Russia, balked in its ambitions to expand into western Europe by the European recovery program, might be ready now to try to make some kind of deal ALL ABOARD: Trains Run U. S. economy escaped being a victim of railroad paraplegia at the eleventh hour when three rail brotherhoods broth-erhoods yielded to a restraining order brought against them by the government and called off their Impending Im-pending strike. Events leading up to that climax had run a course which has become familiar to strike-weary Americans. Negotiations between the railroads and the three dissenting brother-' brother-' hoods engineers, firemen and switchmen had been fruitless. As ' the strike deadline approached they 1 remained miles away from any kind of agreement on wages and working conditions. By that time President Truman had built up a full head of steam and he opened the throttle wide. The U. S. could not stand "a nationwide nation-wide tragedy" such as the rail strike would be, he said. Acting under the sanction of a 1918 law which authorizes the government govern-ment to take over the railroads during dur-ing the time of war (U. S. is still officially, in a state of wartime emergency) Mr. Truman seized the entire vast notwork of tracks and trains in the name of the federal government That move paved the way for a court order restraining the unions , from striking for eight days. Federal Fed-eral District Judge T. Alan Golds-borough Golds-borough issued the order and the nation's trains kept running, for the time being, at least Possibly proving that there is no wind so ill that it doesn't blow up some good for somebody, one of the major Influences leading to cancellation cancella-tion of the rail strike was John L. Eastern Hotspot jT JAPAN : CHcCLJ " Latest area to emerge as a pivotal point In the world-wide drive against communism is southern south-ern Korea where about seven million mil-lion registered voters went to the polls to elect 200 representatives to what Is known as the Korean national assembly. Prior to the election, Communist -trained agents were reported to have been attempting to stir up trouble In the V. S. sone to Influence the balloting. Lewis, who didn't have a word to say about it. But Lewis had set the pattern. The rail union leaders Alvanley Johnston Johns-ton of the engineers, D. B. Robertson of the firemen and A. J. Glover Jr. of the switchmen were uncomfortably uncomfort-ably aware of what happened to the mine chief when he disobeyed an injunction in-junction to call off his soft coal strike. They knew that If they disobeyed Judge Goldsborough's restraining order they would be exposing themselves them-selves and their unions to whopping big fines and possible Jail sentences. It was becoming apparent that the government had hit upon a hard-fisted hard-fisted way of delaying crippling strikes. With labor unrest destined to grow this summer, that method, though far from Ideal might come to be the basic formula for inducing induc-ing arbitration and settlement of strikes. DIXIE: Anti-Truman Although President Harry Truman had not held forth publicly on the subject of civil rights for some time now, the echoes of the civil rights program he advanced earlier this year were rattling around like sabers south of the Mason-Dixon line. Alabama voters had expressed themselves as being anti-Truman. In the state's primary election they had given majorities to candidates pledged to cast electoral votes against the President because of the civil rights Issue. It was the first concrete Indication Indica-tion that a bolt from the regular Democratic party nominee might not be unlikely next November if the nominee (like Mr. Truman) is committed to supporting the civil rights program. And In Jackson, Miss., a "state's rights" Democratic rally was key-noted key-noted with a flat prediction that President Truman would not be reelected re-elected because he Is not acceptable to the nation or the southern Democrats. Demo-crats. Gov. J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina defined the South's stand when he told the rally that the South is not in revolt against the Democratic Demo-cratic party but against its present leadership. Spark that kindled the political fire in the South was Mr. Truman's espousal of proposals to pass federal fed-eral laws outlawing lynching, poll taxes, job discrimination and segregation segre-gation of races. Legislation like that Governor Thurmond asserted, would violate the historic principle of the right of states to determine their own attitude toward such matters. mat-ters. So far it was only talk, but anti-Truman anti-Truman feeling had crystallized in the South to the point where party leaders were badly worried. If the Dixie Democrats carried their defection de-fection to the ultimate point of nominating their own candidate, the big-wigs might as well throw In the sponge for the '48 elections and start looking to 1931 UNCERTAINTY: j Who Won? Just about all that anyone J sure of when the smoke from we Ohio primary elections had c'ra'r-1 waa that Sen. Robert Taft haj won 44 delegates to the Republican national na-tional convention and that Harold Stassen, the wolf at Taft's door, had captured nine. How those results should be Interpreted In-terpreted promised to be a thoroughly thor-oughly argued question by the time the Republicans convened in Philadelphia Phila-delphia to nominate a presidential candidate. Many held the opinion that the Ohio primary resulted in. If not an outright defeat for Stassen, at least a brusque check on the Minneso-tan's Minneso-tan's heretofore snowballing campaign. cam-paign. Stassen had competed with Taft for 23 of the state's 53 delegates. He won nine and Taft took 14 of those 23. In a pre-election statement, state-ment, Stassen had said that the Ohio contest could be accounted a victory for him only If he won a majority of the 23 disputed delegates. Thus, by his own estimate, Stassen Stas-sen lost In Ohio. He lost, however, to a "favorite son" candidate strongly strong-ly supported In his own state by Ohio's powerful political organization. organiza-tion. It was hardly a victory for Taft to shout about In the final analysis the G.O.P. election race had not changed much. It was Taft and Dewey teaming up to force Stassen into the rail with Sen. Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan coming up fast on the outside. FARM ISSUE: Truman's Rather hard put for a good, earthy Issue to play upon In his coming campaign, President Truman has hit upon the farm problem as the vehicle to carry some of his convictions con-victions before the public. He began by planning a message to congress on the subject of long-range long-range agricultural legislation. The idea was originated by the retiring retir-ing Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson who opined that such a plea to congress would put the Republicans Re-publicans "on the spot" The message which Mr. Truman was preparing would ask for an "adequate appropriation" to continue con-tinue the government farm program, "particularly on soil conservation," according to Alben Barkley, senate Democratic leader. Barkley acldulously recalled that the President had asked In his budget message for 300 million dollars dol-lars for soil conservation in the coming fiscal year, and that congress con-gress had cut that sum to 223 million. mil-lion. Many U. S. farmers would be inclined to agree. 'X' for Taft -s t 1 3 r 1 II " i Vii Sen. Robert Taft'a presidential star once again waa In ascendancy ascend-ancy following the Important Ohio primary election of S3 Republican Repub-lican national convention delegates. dele-gates. He won 14 of the 23 eon-testa eon-testa In which Harold E. Stassen waa a strong disputant. WHEAT: Big Crop Word from the department nt agriculture was that the U. S. would produce the third largest wheat crop in history this year. The department stuck to that prediction pre-diction even though it had reduced Its estimate of the important winter wheat crop by 14.5 million bushels from the April 1 estimate. Except In parts of the southern great plains, the crop made good progress, it was revealed In an official offi-cial department report As of May 1, prospects were for a total of 1.117 billion bushels of wheat Largest crop was 1.36 billion bushels last year. Production In the 1930-45 period averaged 890 million bushels. Department of agriculture estimated estimat-ed the fall-sown winter wheat crop at about 843 million bushels, a decline de-cline of 14.3 from Its April 1 forecast fore-cast No official estimate of spring wheat was available, but a guess was that average yields should produce pro-duce 272 million bushels. PLANT LIFE: Appetites Atomic scientists have learned that some plants, like human beings, be-ings, are finicky eaters. This new knowledge, Important commercially. Is the result of exhaustive ex-haustive tests with radioactive Isotopes Iso-topes of phosphorous. Now science can tell a farmer who spends $30 to put phosphate fertilizer fer-tilizer on his land whether the plant only fables or takes a bite big enough to repay his expense. |