OCR Text |
Show j WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS n Gov. Dewey Breaks With Top GOP Leaders on Arms Aid to Europe; Farm Aid Needed to E(ill Rackets (EDITOR'S NOTE : When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I Hitch-Hiker JAPAN: Progress Toward Treaty Preliminary steps for a peace treaty between the United States and Japan appeared successfully completed with the announcement that the basic points of a defense agreement to be guaranteed by American power had been agreed upon. Japan has become more important impor-tant to American security since tht Communist plan of conquest in Asia became clear. The proposed peace treaty hinged on future security measures in Japan. The security guarantee includes stationing of U.S. armed forces in and about the country. No time limit will be specified and U.S. troops might be stationed in Japan for many years. And while the arrangement lasts, an attack on Japan, would be considered con-sidered the same as an attack on the United States. American policy has leaned heavily heavi-ly toward a free and strong Japan as a balancing factor in the Pacific. The United States does not want to place heavy economic or financial burdens or major commercial disabilities dis-abilities upon Japan. In this respect, however, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand may not agree fully with the United States. BIG-FOUR: Meeting Proposed The United States, Britain and France were reported willing to hold a meeting of the Big Four foreign ministers in Paris sometime during March. Whether or not the Russians would consent is another matter. No one is willing to make a guess. One of the main problems of such a meeting would be to get the four nations to agree before the meeting took place on just what they would talk about. Britain and France appeared ap-peared willing to have deputies of the Big Four meet and work out an agenda. The United States wanted want-ed to list some of the topics that should be included. The United States wants to talk about the rearmament of western Germany, eastern . Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Communist satellites in the Balkans. Russia would never consent to such an agenda. It became apparent from the approach ap-proach of all four governments that nobody expected much to come out of another Big Four meeting. They may meet but it will produce nothing except more frayed nerves and propaganda blasts. BUDGET: Congress Accepts Dare President Truman in presenting his budget to congress said it was a good tight one and dared the legislators leg-islators to trim it. Evidently congress con-gress is going to accept Mr. Truman's Tru-man's dare. Several Democrats and Republicans Republi-cans at least have promised to do so. Senator George of Georgia, chairman of the powerful senate finance committee which will handle han-dle the tax bills to pay for the budget, bud-get, said it could be cut $5 to $6 billion "without harm." Senator Bridges of New Hampshire, Hamp-shire, ranking Republican on the senate appropriations committee, termed the President's program "as full of water as a field of melting snow." He urged the senate to squeeze the "water" out. On the other hand. Senator Mc-Mahon Mc-Mahon of Connecticut asserted talk of a $6 billion cut in nondefense items was "fakery it can't be done." Whatever Mr. Truman's motives for making the dare, he certainly stirred up opposition in congress. The battle may be bitter before it is over. Engineer DEWEY: Breaks With Top Men The hints at a serious riff in policy within the Republican party during the past few months took on definite form when Gov. Thomas E. Dewey took sharp issue with such top G.O.P. leaders as Taft of Ohio, Wherry of Nebraska, and former president Herbert Hoover over the defense of Europe. In one of the bluntest statements ever made by Dewey, the New York governor said it would be "utmost "ut-most of folly" to depend upon sea and air power to protect the U.S. against Communist aggression. He added, "Anyone who thinks you can defend the United States or any substantial sub-stantial part of the world with any two out of three branches of the armed forces, is ignoring every lesson les-son of history." He then urged faster mobilization and sending more American troops to Europe immediately. He said he felt the deployment of troops was no business of Congress. This viewpoint is the exact opposite op-posite of Taft, Wherry and Hoover who have repeatedly demanded no more American troops be sent to Europe without prior approval of congress. They have also urged placing our faith in defense on overwhelming over-whelming sea and air power. Thus develops the serious riff within the Republican party that could have far-reaching results within the coming year. Politically it could mean that Dewey is dead as a possible G.O.P. standard bearer bear-er in 1952. On the other hand, if Dewey's thinking is the expression of the majority ma-jority of the Republican party, it could mean Taft, Wherry and Hoover will be stamped isolationists and doomed to ultimate oblivion. In this connection, it was interesting interest-ing to note that Dewey said, "Any isolationist speech is an aid to Stalin." FARMERS: Must Help Curb Rackets With the government's order limiting the number of slaughterhouses slaughter-houses that will be permitted to operate op-erate and the amount of livestock they can butcher, it became apparent appar-ent it is going to take patriotism down on the farm to keep meat off the black market. While big and middle-size slaughterers slaugh-terers who provide most of the steaks and chops for the dinner table will be licensed, several hundred hun-dred thousand farmers who usually butcher a , few hogs, sheep, for their own consumption or for local sale are exempt. While these farmers right now don't account for much of the meat eaten in the United States, they are a potential headache for price controllers. con-trollers. During World War II many farmers sat up their own barnyard barn-yard slaughterhouses with no more equipment than a tree, a rope, an ax, and a butcher knife. It wasn't very sanitary, but plenty plen-ty of racketeers were willing to buy the meat at fancy prices and truck it into the cities for sale at even fancier black market prices. Price control officials are afraid that some farmers exempted from the slaughtering regulation might be lured into illicit butchering by the prospect of easy money. The job of keeping check on the farmers would require an army of enforcement enforce-ment agents, and is impossible under un-der present conditions. For that reason it will take a lot of patriotism patriot-ism down on the farm if present slaughter regulations are to be enforced. en-forced. HOLLYWOOD: Unpleasant Publicity Hollywood, that land of make-believe so often in the headlines, appeared ap-peared in line for considerable more publicity, but of an unpleasant nature. na-ture. The new avalanche began to roll when the house un-American activities activi-ties committee announced plans to investigate certain Hollywood actors that would "inevitably" 'lead to a revival of the communism-in-Holly-wood case. In 1947 the committee investigated Communist influences in the movie capital in long and sensational hearings hear-ings with the result that 10 writers and directors were convicted of contempt of congress for refusing to say whether they had ever been Communists. All went to jail. The new hearings may do considerable consid-erable good, but as in all such investigations, in-vestigations, some innocent people can expect to be hurt. William J. Newton, Jr., who first made headlines last August when he landed a seaplane at sea beside the "iron curtain" liner Batory and got Into trouble with the FBI, is shown (left) as he was interviewed by correspondent corre-spondent Frank Conniff, after he turned up in Korea. Newton said he had hitch-hiked 12,000 miles to "kill some Communists" to clear his name of the taint of communism. The 8th army gave him a physical, turned him down as unfit. . PRICES: Reach Record Level The American public found itself in a strange position, one which it did not entirely understand and which presented frightening possibilities possi-bilities for the future. The situation began to develop some weeks ago with the enactment of price-wage controls, which most people believed would halt the cost of living spiral. Shortly after the "freeze" went into force, numerous loopholes in the plan were made known by which many foods could jump from 5 to 200 per cent. Later the gullible public was told by the bureau of labor statistics that wholesale prices reached a new record rec-ord high. despite the "price freeze". The main increases were in prices of food and farm products. This, of course, caused immediate rumblings in labor's ranks. In turn, Secretary of Agriculture Brannan defended farmers against the charges that farm prices were "unreasonably "un-reasonably high". Economic stabilization administrator adminis-trator Eric Johnston, who has the most thapkless job in the United States today, issued a statement saying that prices may advance a few more months and finally level off in midsummer. The average American had no desire de-sire to see any one group of the nation's na-tion's economy farmers, laborers, manufacturers unjustly bear the greatest burden of price and wage controls. But the average American was worried about how far he could stretch his pay check without drastically dras-tically lowering his standard of living. liv-ing. He wanted to know if he could stand it until the midsummer level-Ing-off took place? KOREA: Reds Counterattack With stunning force and typical blood-curdling methods, complete with suicidal charges, bugle-blowing, bell ringing, whistle-tooting, and drum-beating, Chinese Communists Com-munists launched a counterdrive against U.N. forces in central Korea. Ko-rea. The counterattack stalled the U.N. advance that began late in January and which had approached Seoul. Eighth army officers reported elements ele-ments of nine Chinese divisions and six Korean divisions were used in the counterattack. At full strength this would mean as many as 150,000 to 200,000 men. However, heavy casualties had been inflicted on the Communists since the U.N. offensive began. Officials claimed Red casualties, by ground action alone, totaled 80,121. Some military observers believed Communist armies in Korea had been hurt so seriously in recent weeks they could not continue an offensive for a long period of time. Others, however, were cautious with their predictions, remembering the overwhelming manpower available to the Communist cause. Morale was reported high among U.N. troops during recent weeks as they pushed slowly toward the 38th parallel. Joseph H. Fitzsimmons, engineer en-gineer of the Pennsylvania railroad rail-road commuter train that met disaster at Woodbridge, N.J., was recovering from injuries received in the crash. He reportedly re-portedly admitted that he was speeding at 50 miles an hour at the time of the wreck over a stretch of track where speed was supposed to be a maximum of 25 miles per hour. The wreck death toll was 83. Approximately Approximate-ly 500 injured. IRAN: Red Gift to Royalty Joseph Stalin's gift of a $150,000 mink coat and a desk set studded with black diamonds to Iran's Shah of Shahs and his new bride caused a number of lifted eyebrows in diplomatic circles. It is not unusual for presidents, kings and even dictators to send each other presents on important occasions, but Stalin's gift to the Shah of Iran was viewed with deeper deep-er meaning than mere respect for the head of one state to another. |