| Show i Truman Purge A Aimed Ined at Restoring Party Machinery 1 By BAUKHAGE r rd r News acs Analyst and Commentator t t Service 1616 Eye Street NW Washington D D. D C. C WASHINGTON D D. D C. C Before C.-Before Before the Paris Peace conference even got r I the underway we learned that rules committee which heard so much heated orR oratory or or- was as R f. a tory story powerful as the I powerful rules A Y r committee of the ther r 4 i t. t house of It wasn't until f a-f after t e r the p primary primary r i- i mary returns w were were- ere in and kz Representative tive N r Truman hater Slaughter of Missouri Missouri Mist Mis Mis- t a member member member mem mem- ber of the rules committee was realized real defeated that most laymen re the importance of that battle and why the President stuck his neck out as far as he did in helping helping helping help help- ing to beat him I can see the President now as ashe ashe ashe he looked up with that pert birdlike birdlike birdlike bird- bird like glance he has just has just enough of ofa a smile to make you try to listen sympathetically and say that if Slaughter laughter was right he the President President President dent was wrong Think what Slaughter could have said if he had been elected I But he was defeated and the day after the primary the real significance significance significance sig sig- sig- sig of the battle became clear Never in American history has any administration been up against the situation which developed when I the Roosevelt honeymoon ended I Iam Iam Iam am not arguing how or why that situation came about But the fact is we have had a situation where party lines meant little and the old age-old principle of majority rule I the theory on which congress as a working body is organized has been violated Outstanding example was the rules committee There were five southerners anti administration anti Democrats Democrats on on that committee and with Slaughters Slaughter's help they could tie up the vote and tie up any legislation legislation legislation legis legis- lation Truman asked for i Now maybe the fact that the adI administration administration ad ad- I ministration couldn't get its legislation legislation legislation legis legis- lation before congress or couldn't get it passed when it did was a good thing I am ain not discussing that I merely say that what happened happened happened hap hap- is not a good thing for the two-party two system And as the situation situation situation situ situ- i grew more acute congress wasn't a working body I Lets Let's take the testimony of a thoroughly loyal Republican member member member mem mem- I ber of the committee and acting minority leader Representative I Michener of Michigan If the Democrats Democrats Democrats Dem Dem- I retain control of the house Michener said the absence of Representative Representative Representative Rep Rep- Slaughter will permit the rules committee to function the way it was intended to function namely the legislation of the party in power will be sent to the floor That didn't mean Michener wanted wanted wanted want want- ed the rival party's legislation passed Jt It simply meant he knew that Slaughter teaming up with the anti-administration anti Democrats and the Republicans was able to tie the vote and stymie action And that isn't two-party two govern govern- I f ment 6 6 6 Power Air-Power Big Killer in War This has been an aviation year The first peacetime year that America has been acknowledged as mistress of the air as well as of the sea and the land It has been a time of reminiscence of recapitulation as well as forecast and foreshadowing I remember the interview I had with a certain army official during during dur dur- ing the war His impatience smashing the ordinary rules of censorship censorship censorship cen cen- had revealed the secret t of the bazooka kept confidential long after it was in use and the details o of which Germans had long since learned to their sorrow The bazooka functions on the rocket principle The officer pointed to an old print on his wall It was a picture of American soldiers discharging a rocket projectile in the War of 1812 Why then if the rocket principle principle pie was known to us in those early days did we not develop it as the the Germans did I asked The reason the rocket was neglected in the Civil war period I was told was because ordnance experts were concentrating on the development of the breech- breech loading firearm and the perfection of rifling the making of spiralled grooves inside the barrel which gave the bullet or projectile a twisting movement and kept it from tumbling head over heels This increased range and racy The emphasis was still on the rifleman rather than the artillery and such statistics as we have indicate that the infantry in the Franco Prussian war of 1870 wounded 10 times as many men as the artillery did Undoubtedly the bayonet claimed many By 1914 15 however artillery produced one-half one the wounded showing the rapid advance which in part made experts forget th the rocket again Artillery according to the old definition definition definition def def- is served group mounted firearms of caliber greater than that of small arms This definition could easily be made to include the firearms shells or bombs carried carried carried car car- ried by planes or contained in the war-head war of a rocket I mention the effectiveness of artillery in in the latter sense not t to belittle the doughboy who is really the ultimo ratio but because because because be be- cause the projectile either carried in a plane or by propulsion in a rocket is what might be called the definitive weapon The point is we did not develop the rocket in the Civil war because we felt we had something better loading breech-loading rifled artillery and small arms And again the rocket was set aside by a decision arrived at before we engaged actively in World War Var II when our experts both in the army and out of it including the great industrialists industrialists industrialists indus indus- who could gauge our production production production pro pro- capacity felt the airplane was a superior weapon We Ve did not entirely neglect study and experimentation on the rocket rock rock- et during the war however and now we are probably farther advanced advanced advanced ad ad- in this type of artillery than any other nation We also have learned to project our artillery artillery artillery artil lery by br means of the drone airplane On August 7 the dones droned their way from Honolulu to California One of them dropped a bomb The rest landed successfully A plane with no pilot can bomb a nation that far distant without risking human life Is s This the Army Mr Jones In World War Var I when YMCA and Red Cross canteens were established right up into the zone of the advance and even nearer the front some of the old timers of those days wrote to the editors insisting that the Civil war was won on salt horse and likker I recall that phrase in one of the letters and we were just softening the boys Well it didn't soften them too soft fore for Chateau Thierry and the Argonne Then came World War II and some of the veterans of the earlier war raised their eyebrows at the USO turkey dinners at the front fronton on Thanksgiving ice cream instead instead instead in in- stead of beans salmon corn willy or nothing But soldier you aint heard When they say This is the army Mr Jones to you future GIs you'll hardly believe it Did you hear what Field Marshal blood sand and ald green for the Normandy hedges Montgomery had to say He believes enlisted men in the British army ought to live like other folks Bedrooms not barracks You x ou had your breakfast in bed before goes the warning song but you wont won't have it there any more Maybe not But if Monty has his way British soldiers can read in bed And what about those tricky uniforms uniforms uniforms uni uni- uni- uni forms American soldiers are going to wear Blue like the boys in blue who said good-bye good to Blue Bell And perhaps two note with a lighter light light- er shade for the trousers And overcoats AND CAPES You arent aren't in the army now Mr Jones Youre You're in grand opera And then there is that terminal leave pay bill passed by congress I suppose to pacify the fellows who got out of the army without knowing what they were going to miss Almost three billion dollars dumped into GI packets to even them up with what the officers received received received re re- re- re for furloughs they hadn't taken |
