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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS : 0. S. Barries Fight to Communists As Congress Approves Foreign Aid; Income Tax yt Becomes a Reality By Bill Schoentgen, WNU Staff Writer (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those et Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily ot this newspaper.) Who's Mad? NEW START: China's Chiang Hopelessly lost in the political and economic confusion ot China, Generalissimo Gen-eralissimo 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 marketeers and corrupt government gov-ernment officials, Chiang has been in the position of a man attempting to build a house on a pile of soggy refuse. Now, however, there was a report out that Chiang had decided to quit the presidency of China. But there also were indications that, far from going into retirement, he would remain re-main as Kuomiatang strong man by becoming premier. A spokesman for the Kuomintang, China's governing party, said that the generalissimo was determined to free himself from the presidency in order to lead a "holy war" against the increasingly powerful Chinese communists. According to latest reports, Chiang was urging that Dr. Hu Shih be elected president. Former ambassador ambas-sador to Washington, Hu Shih now is president of Peking university. ': " ' i I 'is r " j ; - ;j - A i i ' - ; . : : - ' - ' v.- ' '. FOREIGN AID: In Motion With President Truman's signature signa-ture on the $6,098,000,000 foreign aid bill, the massive, potent forces of western capitalism moved into action ac-tion against Russian communism for the beginning of a titanic, long range clash of strength. To observers in the U.S. this interplay inter-play of forces had all the ingredients of an epic poem the power of good striving mightily to overcome the pfwer of evil, with the fate of a large segment of mankind depending depend-ing on outcome of the struggle. There was an epic quality, too, in the manner in which congress, seemingly seem-ingly impelled by a strong sense ot urgency, raced the bill through for final action. The house approved it with a vote of 318 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 President Truman meshed the gears of the global aid program by ordering the reconstruction finance fi-nance corporation to advance 1.16 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 China. The overall $6,098,000,000 aid package pack-age includes 4.3 billion dollars for the European recovery program, 275 million dollars for military assistance assist-ance to Greece and Turkey, 463 million mil-lion for China and 2 million dollars for Trieste. All of it is aimed at areas where communists are sharpening sharp-ening their sword of aggression. An ill-starred movement in the house to include aid to Franco Spain in the bill was defeated before it had time to do much damage to U.S. prestige and moral stature abroad. As the aid started to move, the situation abroad stacked up something some-thing like this: Russia's seizure of Czechoslovakia, its new pact with Finland and pressure pres-sure on Scandinavian nations, the Soviets' arbitrary action in Berlin all pointed to the fact that Moscow was trying to bring about a showdown show-down in Europe before the European Euro-pean recovery plan began to work effectively. On the other hand, the rapid passage pas-sage of the foreign aid measure, the proposal to return Trieste to Italy and the stiffening of American will in Berlin seemed to indicate that the U.S., while not forcing a showdown, show-down, was, nevertheless, willing to have it as soon as possible. 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 willing 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. 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 its avowed plan for a United Nations trusteeship of the Holy Land. Disclosing some of the details of that plan, Warren R. Austin, American Ameri-can delegate to the U.N., told security se-curity council members that the United States favors sending foreign troops to Palestine to keep order, if and when that becomes necessary, under the trusteeship formula. Unmistakably implied, although not stated outright, was U. S. willingness will-ingness to send American troops to the Holy Land, provided other nations na-tions would jqin the parade also. Another provision was that the number num-ber of nations supplying troops be specifically limited. Actually, there was little optimism that the fratricidal strife in Palestine Pales-tine or the causes producing it could be effaced by the expedient of imposing im-posing a U.N. trusteeship. Nobody seemed to be mad at anybody when Gov. William M. Tuck of Virginia and President Truman met at convocation exercises exer-cises at William and Mary college, Williamsburg, Va., to receive honorary hon-orary 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 federal fed-eral income by reimposing some version of the wartime excess profit tax. In view of these unpretty but inescapable in-escapable realities, the President's veto of the tax bill simply did not fit the preconceived pattern of political action in an election year. Rather, it looked more like the deliberate driving of another nail in his political politi-cal coffin. In his veto message, Mr. Truman contended that increased defense and foreign 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 reduction would go to individuals with net incomes in excess of $5,000, who constitute 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 253-billion-dollar public debt. He was, beyond doubt, sincere in his objections, but they fell on deaf ears in congress. APOLOGIA: From Russia Even " as Russia officially expressed ex-pressed regret over the "unfortunate" "unfortu-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, as it was landing in Berlin. The transport crashed in the Russian zone where the wreckage 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 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 hit the big plane. While the fighter pilot undoubtedly had not been ordered to harrass the British plane, it was equally apparent appar-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 incident inci-dent is that it was, in a manner of speaking, 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 off the conflagration. REDUCTION: Tax Measure President Truman's veto of the income tax reduction bill was crush-ingly crush-ingly overridden by both houses of congress 311 to 88 in the house, 77 to 10 in the senate and U.S. citizens citi-zens sat back to gloat over the first major tax-cutting measure passed in nearly 20 years. In his now characteristic "I'd rather be right than be president" role, Mr. Truman had stubbornly affixed his veto to the bill, protesting protest-ing that it mainly would benefit persons per-sons with incomes of $5,000 or more, encourage further inflation and sap the nation's strength at a time of international "danger." Examination of the new tax structure struc-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. Reason for that is that 12.6 per cent of $3,000 is considerably less than 5 per cent of a million. (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 was aware that enough members of both houses were supporting sup-porting tax reduction in this election year to override his veto; hence, that his veto would be a gesture of futility fu-tility that would place him on record as opposing the popular will, Mr. Truman must have been aware, also, of the strong possibility |