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Show j WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS 1 Einstein Calls Arms Race Suicide; i Truman Asks Gl School Abuse End; Bigger Cities Launch War on Crime I - - (KDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of tbis newspaper.! ' . 'TV I - . 'rT COAL DISPUTE: Strikes vs. Courts If the recent coal strike did nothing noth-ing else, it may have set in motion mo-tion forces that will bring about a determination for all time of the power of the courts of the land to deal with big walkouts. It is true that John L. Lewis, under un-der pressure of the law, capitulated capitu-lated and ordered the miners back to work; but when he gave the order the miners were defiant and no one knew whether they would return to the pits in sufficient numbers num-bers to ease the production situation. situa-tion. THE BIG QUESTION in the minds of most Americans was: What can be done about it? If the miners didn't want to work,' who could make them return to the pits? In this still-free land, men can work or quit without penalty under the law. But could their union be punished because its members mem-bers quit as a- group, since the law says a union is responsible for the acts of its "agents." If that were the attempted remedy, the question surely would be raised: Were the miners acting as individuals in pursuit of their individual in-dividual rights in working, or must they be regarded as "agents" of the union in their decision? It was a torturous question and one certain to provide a classic case for the courts.. Of course if Lewis and the operators, oper-ators, under order of the court to resume bargaining, were to reach an agreement, the question would become a moot one. But under the recurrent stress of coal strikes and usually at a time when coal stockpiles are lowest the result may be the writing of some new law, or court-decision approach 'to break up the continual crises which hamstring production and ' mtrib-ute mtrib-ute to widespread unemployment and consequent suffering. A-Test Chief TRUMAN BUYS FIRST POPPY . . . Mrs. Marie L. Shcehe, Rockville, 111., national president of the American Legion Auxiliary, Aux-iliary, pins the first 1950 poppy on President Truman's lapel at a White House ceremony. The Legion poppy sale, proceeds of which go to disabled veterans, begins May 27. if n -,u - jrf ARMS RACE: Suicide Road A solemn warning that an arms race between the United States and Russia beckons annihilation was issued by Dr. Albert Einstein. Appearing on a television show, Einstein, hailed as the world's greatest mathematician and one of the great physicists of the world, declared the arms contest now underway un-derway is assuming "hysterical" proportions on both sides. ONE of the chief contributors to the final development of the atomic bomb, Einstein declared that "the means to mass destruction are perfected per-fected with feverish haste behind the respective walls of secrecy. The H-bomb appears on the public horizon as a probably attainable goal and its accelerated development develop-ment has been solemnly proclaimed by the President." Then he uttered the punch line: "Armed security is an illusion if successful, radioactive poisoning of the atmosphere and hence annihilation an-nihilation of any life on earth has been brought within the range of technical possibilities." To implement that conclusion, he said: "The ghostlike character of this development lies in its apparently appar-ently compulsory trend. Every step appears as the unavoidable consequence conse-quence of the preceding one. In the end, there beckons more and more and more general annihilation." FEW MEN could speak with more compelling authority on that subject sub-ject than the white-haired, brilliant-eyed, brilliant-eyed, venerable scientist who has contributed so much to the sum of man's knowledge. But each time civilization has been wont to attempt annihilation through war, there has been little disposition to listen to those voices who would cry out a warning. Gl SCHOOLS: Abuse End Asked The fantastic, preposterous elements ele-ments in the Gl school program had just about run their course. Ballroom dancing, bartending, even a lot of individual flight training by ex-GI's who would never own an airplane or have occasion to need one, were on the way out, apparently, apparent-ly, as part of the accepted Gl school training program. NO LESS A FIGURE than President Pres-ident Truman himself handed congress con-gress a catalog of abuses under this year's 2.75-billion-dollar Gl education program and urged the legislators to clamp down. Mr. Truman asked specifically for legislation to prevent "inferior" "infer-ior" training of that type which is likely to do the veteran little appreciable ap-preciable good. His report showed that 7S1 million mil-lion dollars already has been added to the estimated cost of the Gl schooling program for the current fiscal year ending June 30, and attributed this to increased enrollment enroll-ment for trade, vocational and other schools below college level. THE PRESIDENT declined to say just how much might be saved by a careful scrutiny of the program, pro-gram, but hinted at a billion dollars. dol-lars. Among others, the report made these points: 1. Enough poor-quality training Is in evidence "to warrant serious concern." 2. The states which under the law have the say-so about approving schools and courses lack uniform standards. 3. Some states approve schools of a type which would not be approved in other states. As an example, it is said that some states qualify barbers in 11 weeks, others require two years. Crime A CHECK-UP With 14 metropolitan newspapers newspa-pers taking a careful scrutiny of its operations, and the federal government gov-ernment opening a conference on what to do about it, U.S. crime appeared ap-peared to have fallen on evil days. Not for decades had the boys who deal in shady enterprises has so much publicity focused upon them. Names were being called, police officials were getting the lifted-eyebrow lifted-eyebrow treatment, wire services were ripping telephones out of bookie joints and, all in all, it appeared ap-peared to be a real blow into which the craft of crime was wallowing. THE PRESS would be the real instrument of exposure, granted that officialdom in cities included really wanted to clean up the undesirable un-desirable conditions. For example, New York city's fabulous Frank Costello, often called the king of the rackets, was the first target of the newspaper series. Costello was referred to as a "fellow so unbelievable unbe-lievable he might have been dreamed up by a Hollywood script writer." The story attempted to link him with top-flight gambling activities over most of the U.S. - One significant line in the first of the newspapers' series was this: "Gambling can't operate for any period unless the police let it operate. op-erate. Nor can the other rackets." THAT was so obviously axiomatic axioma-tic that there could be no argument with it, and honest cops over the nation had to take the rap with the hand-held-out boys when blame was being shuffled around for lax law enforcement. The slot machine termed variously vari-ously the "one-armed bandit" and other unprintable names was the target for a special government inquiry. in-quiry. It was indicated that their menace is so fully realized that the federal government may step in to help the state control them. There is an ironical contradiction contradic-tion here, however, because the federal fed-eral government licenses slot machines ma-chines and accepts revenue from that source. If the federal government govern-ment should outlaw them, it would go a long way toward insuring efficient effi-cient state control. INDONESIA: Uncle Comes Through The United States, continuing its efforts to stop communism by strengthening local nationalist regimes over the globe, approved a loan of 100 million dollars to the new republic of Indonesia. THE MONEY, according to reports, re-ports, was to be used by Indonesia to finance purchase in this country coun-try of industrial material and equipment equip-ment for reconstruction of the Indonesian Indo-nesian economy. It was reported that funds from the import-export bank, which made the loan, might be flowing to Indonesia Indo-nesia in a matter of weeks for purchase pur-chase of railroad cars, trucks and similar equipment, but that a longer long-er time would be required for such items as heavy machinery. THE INDONESIANS, numbering 75 million people, are faced with a major task of restoring production to an economy not yet recovered from the effects of wartime Japanese Jap-anese occupation. The funds from the United States would go principally to repair of war-damaged port, railway, highway high-way and processing facilities and replacement of damaged transportation transpor-tation facilities. The loan was the largest since the import-export bank agreed to lend Israel 100 million dollars several sev-eral months ago. Maj. Gen. Robert M. Lee will be in command of the air force units taking part in new atomic weapons tests to be held at the Eniwetok atoll proving grounds this spring. MISSILES: U. S. Trailing United States Senator Johnson (D., Tex.) is claiming that Russia, is far ahead of the United States in development of guided missiles and has called for an immediate review of this nation's guided-missiles guided-missiles program. JOHNSON ASSERTED that the United States is lagging as much as two years behind the Russians in this field of warfare and added: "If guided missile warfare should begin within the next two or three years we at our present rate would be very feeble participants. For a push-button war, we have neither the push nor the button." HE STATED . that the nation's missile program is a "minor, almost al-most obscure item" in the defense budget. 'Maybe So' According to a California Democrat Dem-ocrat who might know. President Truman has been thinking about the 1952 presidential election. George Luckey, Los Angeles, vice-chairman of the California Democratic central committee, has reported that he put the question up to the President during a White House visit and got "maybe so" for an answer. "He said 'maybe so,' " Luckey told reporters. "He said that if we have the same team together again, maybe we can do something." some-thing." Luckey said by "team" the President Pres-ident meant those who supported him in 1948. While Mr. Truman has never declared openly that he would be a candidate for reelection in 1952, he has never flatly ruled out ths possibility. ASIA: Secret Talks Some indication of the significance signif-icance of Asia in developing world affairs could be had in the report that 17 American envoys had held a secret, three-day parley in Bangkok on the tumultuous problems prob-lems of the continent. They were attempting, reporti said, to find means of strengthening strengthen-ing United States policy in an area already half-Red and half undecided. unde-cided. ' |