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Show Reads Right Meaning Into Barkley's Break With FDR By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1618 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. Continually I encounter evidence of the Importance of semantics, as I have mentioned before In this column col-umn the Importance Impor-tance of words, of their meanings, mean-ings, and of the necessity that the meaning In which the speaker or writer uses them Is the same attached at-tached to them by the listener or reader. 't T t -i LI ,ri (. A few days ago " I received Baukhage a letter from a listener lamenting what she called "one of our greatest troubles today" lack of faith In our leaders. She then described her "consternation" "conster-nation" when she heard Senator Burkley'a "gushing and flowery talk" nominating Franklin Roosevelt Roose-velt for President in 1944. after hearing the senator's famous "revolt" "re-volt" speech sharply criticizing the President's veto message in the tax bill the previous February. To Washington, there was nothing Inconsistent in those two performances perform-ances at all. What happened wag this: two persons who had-worked together in a common cause fell out. Amends were made, and still loyal to that cause, the man who had been affronted registered his complaint, and then, feeling that the virtue of his position had been recognized, took up his labors in the common cause again. Perhaps that explanation would latisfy my disillusioned listener, had it not been for the fact that she not only misinterpreted the significance of Senator Barkley's speech, but actually put into his mouth words that he didn't use. She said that Barkley had said that the President was dishonest, and that he (Mr. Roosevelt) knew he was dishonest. I Now, by Interesting coincidence, aomethlng had recalled that speech j of Mr. Barkley's to my attention only a day or so before I received the letter. let-ter. A loyal toiler in the Democratic party had remarked to me that the aenator from Kentucky, having served as majority leader longer 41 . . . . um.i any man wno nas held that job In the senate, had increased tremendously tre-mendously In stature in the eyes of aupporters and opponents. And, my friend explained, it was his "revolt" "re-volt" of February 23, 1944, which marked the moment when Barkley began to wax In the favor of opponent op-ponent and supporter alike! As a result of the coincidence the letter and the remarks of my friend I reread the revolt speech. Nowhere in it did Senator Barkley Bark-ley accuse the President of being dishonest. But it is easy to see how a listener might have missed the shades of meaning in the speaker's speak-er's words. However, those words correctly interpreted, I feel certain, cer-tain, reflected precisely the feeling of the senator. Had he wished to go further, he could easily have dene so. Resent Personal Slap at Congress There were two especially sharp passages in Barkley's talk. The President had charged In his mes-age mes-age (vetoing the tax bill) that "it is squarely the fault of the congress of the United States in using language lan-guage in drafting the law which not even a dictionary or a thesaurus can make clear." There was a biting, personal flavor fla-vor m that sentence which congress as a whole, and Barkley individually and as majority leader, could not help resenting. Barkley said: "If it (the above : itatement) was made by anybody ' who ever sat in a tax committee meeting, it was a deliberate and unjustified mis-statement in order to i Place upon congress the blame for ' universal dissatisfaction with tax complexities and In order to pro- ' duce the illusion that the executive i departments have in vain protested against this complexity." j Here one can see that Barkley is defending the integrity of the congress. con-gress. He did not spare his anger at the affront. But, since he knew c FDR had never sat in a tax com- i mlttee meeting, he wasn't placing the onus entirely on the President. c There was one other sharp riposte c In which Barkley came still nearer t I to making, but did not actually make, the "dishonesty" charge He said the President used a method of calculation "which obviously obvi-ously was handed to him by a mind more clever than honest." It was natural to assume that some White House advisor had produced pro-duced the data, and in all likelihood, that some literary aide had written the veto message. Indeed, one of the columnists omnisciently announced an-nounced at the time that it was the work of Judge Rosenman. : As a matter of fact, I can state with absolute certainty that that was one of the few speeches which ' President Roosevelt, who was good and maH hannncn , i , - -w. tuiijjicaa naa re- i fused to give him the tax bill he ! wanted, wiote himst'lf, inditing1 the entire philippic with his own hand. Whether Senator Barkley would I have replied with greater or less vigor had he known the actual au- i thorship, I do not know. The fact I remains, however, that he said what I he meant and meant what he said ' Nowhere did he call the President I dishonest. He did establish his' own independence, and that of con- I gress, and probably did the President Presi-dent a favor by warning him against allowing his emotions to get the better bet-ter of him. In Barkley's delivery of the speech, and his nomination of Pres- j ' ident Roosevelt less than six months i I later, there was nnthino i i. i ent Certainly nothing which, when understood, should shake the pub- : lie's faith in the public man. j Brakes Save President Truman Very little publicity was given to something that almost happened the day Secretary of State Byrnes departed de-parted for the foreign ministers conference con-ference in Paris. Something which might have given us a new President. Presi-dent. Mr. Truman, in order to emphasize empha-size the importance of the mission rode with Mr. Byrnes to the airport to seu the delegation off. There was no motorcycle escort, and while the car was moving along Constitution avenue at a fair speed, there came very near to being re-enacted an accident similar to that which cost General Patton his life. A truck dashed out of a side street toward the official automobile. FnrtnnatL ly the brakes of the Presidential car held. The party had a bad shake-up, but that was all. i It might have been otherwise. The newly appointed and not over popular popu-lar Secretary of the Treasury Snyder Sny-der might have had to move next door. After the secretary of state, who shared the near-miss with the President, the secretary of the treasury is next in line of succession. succes-sion. This is not the first time Mr. Truman Tru-man has taken risks. But he is by no means the only President who has worried Secret Service men to whose care the lives of the Chief Executives are entrusted under the law. Three times, newsmen, trying to : keep up with Presidents, have been 1 in serious automobile accidents. 1 A certain amount of speed is de- ! SlVpH Qf tirviop ,uAn - , , ... ( ... a piesiaennai party is passing through strange territory but, as a rule, the White House chauffeurs who are specially picked men, "loaned" by the army, if left by themselves, lean to the safe and not the sorry side. At least one President was forced to change his automobile habits. President Hoover had a fishing lodge at Rapidan in Virginia, some 85 miles from the Capital. Hoover believed that time was money. He was always a hard worker, and when he'd finished fishing, he wanted want-ed to get away from there and back to his desk. It was a job for the Secret Service men and newsmen to keep up and keep on the road. Those mad chases were the subject sub-ject of considerable conversation by the correspondents and also their wives. It was not considered a choice assignment. Finally there was a bad accident that sent one reporter to the hospital. After that, the presidential car proceeded at a more normal pace. The Alexander Hamilton institute says savings during 1946 will be considerably lower than last year's. Fine, if it reduces inflation pressures; pres-sures; but if it goes too far and the consumer doesn't consume, the producer pro-ducer can't produce, and we are back to 1929 once more. ! ! RAIL RATES: Grant Increase Pending decision on the railroads' requests for permanent freight rates increases of 25 per cent, the Interstate Inter-state Commerce commission granted grant-ed the carriers a general boost of 6 per cent but excepted certain basic commodities, including mnn products. prod-ucts. Because they mostly haul manufactured goods requiring more handling, eastern railroads were allowed al-lowed an additional 5 per cerit hike. In authorizing the new rates, the ICC declafed that the carriers had shown that increases were justified because of higher wages and material mate-rial costs and declining revenues from freight and passenger traffic. In addressing the ICC, railroad officials of-ficials stated that operating costs soared 1.2 billion dollars since 1939,. and the recent 18 cents an hour wage increased added an additional 800 million dollars to their payrolls. While rates for all commodities were boosted 6 per cent, tariffs on agricultural products and livestock were set at 3 per cent. The same rate also was placed upon low grade products of mines, such as sand, gravel, broken rock and slag. MEAT: More Coming! With the settlement of OPA legislation, legis-lation, farmers were expected to loose a flood of cattle onto the market mar-ket and again fill up larders grown barren in recent weeks as a result of reduced slaughtering. Department Depart-ment of agriculture officials declared de-clared farmers had withheld stock to be in a position to cash in on any changes in pricing regulations encouraging higher bidding. Despite heavy marketings, the volume of meat available to consumers con-sumers still will be limited because of government set-aside orders to packers for relief shipments overseas. over-seas. Packers must reserve 25 per Cent Of TVirlr rtrrtHnin TT o purchase, 40 to 60 per cent of all but the best grades of beef, 40 per cent of utility grade veal, 20 per cent of mutton and 50 per cent of lard. While heavy marketings might lead to lower prices for beef, pork costs would remain the same under un-der federal regulations, it was said. The government has promised to support hog prices near present ceiling ceil-ing levels but is committed to uphold up-hold cattle below top levels. Pig Crop Because of a big spring pig crop of 52,324,000 head 324,000 over government gov-ernment goals U. S. pork production produc-tion will be maintained at high levels lev-els during the fall and winter but expectations of a small fall pig crop darkens the outlook for the spring and summer of 1947. Realization of a small fall pig crop will contribute to a sharp drop in per capita consumption of meat during the next 12 months, government govern-ment authorities revealed. While Secretary of Agriculture Anderson had predicted a decline in the annual an-nual rate from 145 to 133 pounds, the smaller fall hog litter would bring the total down to less than 130 pounds. A shortage of corn and feed and a somewhat less favorable relationship relation-ship between the market price for feed and fattened hogs has influenced in-fluenced farmers' plans for a smaller small-er fall pig crop, the department of agriculture said. At 29,100,000 head, the indicated fall litter would be sharply under the 1945 crop of 35,-144,000. 35,-144,000. ' WAR REPORT: Ike Tells All Following publication of Ralph In-gersoil's In-gersoil's controversial book. "Ton ill N Secret," in which General Eisenhower Eisenhow-er was charged with favoring British Brit-ish Field Marshal i Montgomery during European operations, opera-tions, the war de- ' partment released Ike's own 100,000 word report setting lurin ai lengxn ae-Gen. ae-Gen. "Ike" tails on the continental conti-nental campaign. Taking credit and responsibility for the military movements of the Allied armies, Eisenhower played up his role as field commander and indirectly hit at insinuations that he I served mainly as a polished poK- I tician in smoothening relations be- tween the U. S. and British forces I In what amounted to an answer I to Ingersoll's charge of favoritism to Montgomery, Ike stated that it 1 was agreed that the British should I spearhead the invasion of Germany from the northeast because the bulk of Nazi forces were stationed there; the enemy were launching their morale-lifting flying bombs from the territory; the big Belgium port of Antwerp was needed as a supply base, and Belgium air bases were sought. Assuming responsibility for the German break-through in the Ardennes, Ar-dennes, Eisenhower disclosed that U. S. forces had been massed for Bradley's drive on Cologne and only four divisions left to cover the wooded iLitel sector. Though account ac-count was taken of a possible German Ger-man counteroffensive, Ike asserted that it was felt the Allied forces could stop such a drive. WAR SURPLUS: Probe Sales In the midst of charges that the War Assets administration was mishandling mis-handling sales of surplus property and counter-charges that the accusations accusa-tions were of a political nature, a house committee headed by Representative Repre-sentative Slaughter (Dem., Mo.) undertook a "full blown" investigation investiga-tion into WAA operations. Senator Wiley (Rep., Wis.) pressed the charges of WAA mismanagement, mis-management, asserting that commercial com-mercial interests are obtaining surplus sur-plus property ahead of such legally legal-ly established priority claimants as vets, educational institutions and government agencies. Of 200 million mil-lion dollars of radio equipment disposed of to date, priority claimants claim-ants have received only 2 million dollars worth. Wiley said. Lashing Wiley for politics, Lt. Gen. Edmund B. Gregory, war assets as-sets administrator, stated that priority claimants are given a crack at purchases, but if they do not bid within a certain time sales are made public. Some material is held exclusively for vets, he added. " ATOM CONTROL: JJ. S., Reds at Odds American representatives on the United Nations atomic energy control con-trol commission pressed ahead for the development of effective measures meas-ures for outlawing destructive use of the new material even as the Russian Rus-sian government stood by its counter-proposal preserving the veto privilege. As wide a split on atomic control con-trol existed between the U. S. and Russia as on political issues, is-sues, with America favoring an International instrument for checking on atomic use and the Reds insisting on the right of Individual countries to police atomic development within their own borders. Reflecting high Russian governmental govern-mental opinion, the official Communist Com-munist organ "Pravda" called the U. S. control plan a plot to monopolize monopo-lize atomic production. While other nations would be restricted from developing de-veloping atomic energy, Pravda said, the U. S. would maintain its output and release the secret of processes only in gradual stages. Gradual release of the secret as effective control is being set up, however, constitutes the nub of the U. S. plan, with popular and congressional opinion in this country strongly favoring such a policy to prevent a premature exposure of the prize scientific discovery of the age. By not assuring as-suring adequate safeguards, it is felt the U. S. may give the secret away and then possess no voice in its use. Russian insistence on maintenance main-tenance of its veto power in any U. N. atomic control plan reflects Soviet suspicion of majority action under the leadership of an Anglo-American Anglo-American bloc against the USSR and the desire to guard against such a development in U. N. councils. DKAFT: Neiv Version Approximately 300,000 G.I.s stand to be released from service as a result of provisions of the new draft act passed by congress extending conscription until March 31, 1945 Half of the number are fathers. Discharge of the 300,000 will be accomplished through a clause in the new law stipulating that no man may be inducted for more than 18 months and that all men who have served that long are entitled to release re-lease upon request. Whipped up after lengthy discus-sion discus-sion of draft extension in both houses the new measure sailed through both chambers when Secre tary of War Patterson revealed that the army would suspend inductions during the next two months to per mit volunteers to fill quotas ith congress having approved of nav boosts for enlisted personnel and officers, it was felt that intensive recruiting could fill most f le army needs. B While all childless men 19 through 44 are subject to induction, substan tial numbers of inductees are "x pected to be drawn from the 20 in 29 year age bracket because of th cancellation of wartime deferment. War vets with at least six m service are exempted. ,luI"hs HOMEMAKERS: American housewives are conn erating with the government's llT ine emergency campaign a , of the Homemakers GuUd of Am"7 ica disclosed. 01 Amer" Some 70 per cent of the , questioned have changed or planning to change eating habit.T reduce directly wheat and fat cn sumption. Less than 4 per cent not familiar with the ZLTZV gency campaign. The remainder they will continue meal i y according to supplies planning |