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Show ; WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS r Pressure 'Out' in Berlin Controversy; British Welcome Lilibef s Princeling; Farmer Priority Looms in Legislation By Bill Schoentgen, WNTJ Staff Writer (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union' new analyst! and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Day of Judgment ? Current Events ? You probably will recall that the V. S. had a presidential election (sounds o screaming) a few ago. It was the biggest upset since Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over the lantern in Chicago, and it will take its place as one of the most unusual in a long line of distinguished American elections. The subject merits a few questions which merit a few answers. Do you know them? 1. Mr. Truman is the first native na-tive of Missouri to be elected President. In what two states were the largest number of Presidents born? 2. In this election four southern south-ern states voted against the regular regu-lar Democratic party. How many southern states deserted the party par-ty in 1928? 3. Seven vice-presidents have succeeded to the presidency on the death of the chief executive. How many of these, besides Mr. Truman, were elected to a full term as President in their own right? 4. When does the President's term of office begin? And when do those of senators and representatives? repre-sentatives? 5. There are nine men in Mr. Truman's cabinet. Other Presidents Presi-dents elected recently have had 10-member cabinets. Why the difference? ANSWERS 1. Virginia eight (Washington, Jefferson. Jef-ferson. Madison, Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Wilson); Ohio seven (Grant. Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Ben-jamin Harrison, McKlnley. Taft, Harding). Hard-ing). 2. Five. Texas, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee voted Republican. 3. Two. Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Cal-vin Coolidge. 4. President's term begins January 20, those of senators and representatives representa-tives on January 3. 5. Under the armed forces unification unifica-tion act of 1947 the cabinet positions of secretary of the navy and secretary of war were eliminated and just one office secretary of defense was added. MILLENNIUM: Very Unfunny When a radio comedian backs off from laughs, the event rates in news value with the man-bites-dog item. But there's method about $16,000 worth weekly in Arthur Godfrey s madness. Godfrey is the guy who has ordered his musicians not to laugh at any of his jokes. , THE RED-HEADED radio comic explains wistfully that his musicians musi-cians used to laugh at his jokes, sing with him and "have all kinds of fun." But that's all over now, Godfrey says. He adds that union rules provide that if his musicians laugh at his jokes, or join him in songs, they will come under an additional union, the American Federation of Radio Artists. And that, says Godfrey, would mean an extra cost of $800 to $900 a week for each musician. His men would sing choruses and they'd kid each other, the comedian says, but now "if they open their mouths to sing they come under AFRA's jurisdiction. That . adds the extra salary." PRESSURE: Polite 'NO' Sore point in all the Berlin controversy con-troversy continued to be the Soviet blockade of the ex-Reich capital. The Big Three Western powers still blamed Russia for continuation of the crisis through perpetuating the blockade, and President Harry Truman Tru-man had given emphatic evidence that he planned no further discussions discus-sions with Russia on the subject until the blockade was lifted. Following his return from a Flori-di. Flori-di. vacation, the President went into a full-dress review of American foreign policy with Secretary of State Marshall and W. Averell Har-riman, Har-riman, U. S. ambassador-at-large in Europe. The gravity with which United Nations leaders viewed the Berlin situation was evidenced in the efforts ef-forts of U. N. Secretary General Trygve Lie, and H. V. Evatt, general gen-eral assembly president. THESE TWO made urgent appeal ap-peal to chief executives of the four big powers going over the heads of these nations' U. N. delegations to 1 do so to bring the Berlin dispute to an end and thus bring about world peace. This appeal was without avail. The United States, France and England Eng-land said "no," politely but firmly. I They declared the issue' must remain re-main in the hands of the U. N. security se-curity council until the Russian blockade is lifted. Russia reacted as usual, blaming the Western powers for the stalemate. Evatt and Lie argued that the dispute dis-pute cannot be settled within the cramped confines of the security council and should be aired in the wider fields of the general assembly. assem-bly. AGGRAVATING the situation was the coming winter with its consequent con-sequent obstacles to the air lift. The Russians appeared content to wait out this phase of American aid to Germany in the apparent conviction, convic-tion, or hope, that bad weather would so impair air lift efficacy as to make it negative in the battle for Germany. If the situation were to be resolved re-solved by diplomatic means, American Amer-ican thought and procedure on the question would carry top weight with the Big Three. Under this setup, President Truman's Tru-man's evident intention to spurn discussion of the problem unless the Berlin blockade were lifted, would indicate the United States was prepared pre-pared to continue the "cold war" with the Russians, and to bet with the elements that the air lift would continue to be efficient and that Premier Stalin and his Communists would have to come to terms in the end. PRESIDENT TRUMAN reiterated reiterat-ed that he planned no American mission of any sort to Moscow, and that he and Secretary Marshall were in accord on all questions. The President would stand for no pressuring in discussion of the Berlin Ber-lin question, even if it came from top chieftains in the U. N. PRIORITY: For Farmers The man with the hoe put the "X" where it counted November 2, and, as a result, America's farmers are to reap a share of President Truman's Tru-man's smashing victory at the polls. Even now, administration chiefs are moving to give the nation's farmers top priority over labor in any legislative program coming up for action by the next congress. THE FARMER'S reward is to come immediately not in the future fu-ture and the outlook is that labor may have to stand behind the farmer farm-er when awards foi a part in President Pres-ident Truman's triumph are to be handed out in a legislative program. Best friend of the farmers when the plums are to be passed around is Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan. No doubter of where cred it for Mr. Truman's victory belongs, Biannan already has assigned Louis M. Bean, department economist and election forecaster, to prepare charts and graphs to show the President Presi-dent that he owes his election primarily pri-marily to the farmers. THAT ISN"T all that will be done to insure the farmers a fair return oi their investment in Mr. Truman, for top level planners are drafting a new "flexible" price support program pro-gram to go into effect early in 1949, instead of 1950, as would have been the case under the Republican Aiken farm bill. Add to this the fact that Senator-Elect Senator-Elect Clinton Anderson D.. N M.), No Hairshirt Here 5 : ' V " i Hideki Tojo, former prime minister min-ister and top war lord of Japan, was found guilty of wartime atrocities atro-cities by an allied tribunal in Tokyo and was sentenced to death by hanging. He is the last survivor sur-vivor of the Infamous Hitler-Mus-solini-Tojo axis. former agriculture secretary, took a direct hand in supervising drafting of the new measure and personally will introduce it, and it becomes evident evi-dent the farmer's happy place in the administration sun is most assured. BASIS of Brannan's contention that farmers elected Mr. Truman: if it weren't for the farm states in the agricultural west, the II industrial indus-trial states on the Atlantic seaboard that voted for Governor Dewey would have swung the election Ri-publican. Ri-publican. How will farmers fare under the administration plan? Here's the projected program: To protect the farmer against anticipated an-ticipated crop price fall-offs, he would be given a flexible price floor that would protect growers, but would not burden U. S. taxpayers with an extended permanent subsidy sub-sidy of farm surpluses. PROVIDE adequate storage facilities facili-ties for farmers in corn and wheat belts to prevent loss of bumper crops. Extend reclamation and soil conservation con-servation benefits to more farmlands farm-lands and provide an increased rural electrification for more farmers, this to be sponsored and paid for by the government. This, then, is an extension of the benefits which farmers may have felt were imperiled in the Dewey program, and for which they felt they were voting when they cast their ballots for President Truman. WELCOME: Infant Rex For hours the solemn-faced constable con-stable had kept his vigil in the chill of the November night. Impassive in the fact of the huge throngs that pushed against the gates he guarded, guard-ed, he waited for the word. At last he saw a royal page, garbed in blue, walk stiffly from a palace doorway. The page strode to the constable's side, bent over and spoke in a low voice. ' THE CONSTABLE'S face lighted, he walked quickly to the iron railing against which the crowd was densely dense-ly packed and declared exultantly: "It's a boy!" Then throwing his head back, he shouted: "A prince has been born." To Princess Elizabeth, heir-apparent to the throne of England, and her consort. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Ed-inburgh, had been born a son. A prince by a special royal decree of King George VI issued several days before the birth of the child. Their young prince was born just six days short of the royal couple's wedding anniversary, November 20. THE NEWS that Elizabeth's child was a son told the usually stolid Londoners what they wanted to hear that the royal heir was a child who might someday be their king. Into a world of crisis and unrest, aii age of a dwindling empire for Britain, was born a princeling whose future as a potential ruler is fraught with imponderables. Both he and his mother would oe cut ofT the line of succession to the throne should a son be born to the king and queen; monarchial governments, gov-ernments, even of the benevolent type, are fading from the world scene; the contracting empire's dimensions di-mensions are subject to speculation, but even were these things nonexistent, non-existent, there Is the last and greatest great-est imponderable- of them all the atomic bomb. REFUND: Pay Up If you're an ex-GI and figure to cash in on those service insurance dividends next year, make sure you're squnre with the Veterans' administration or you're likely to get left in the cold. VA says it may withhold all or part of the checks of two groups of veterans those who have received re-ceived overpayments for education or training subsistence and those who have defaulted on GI loans. A picture of carefree contentment, content-ment, President Truman accou-tered accou-tered himself in casual shirt while tripping lightly through his postelection post-election vacation at Key West, Fla. He whiled away the drowsy hours by formulating the broad outlines of bis administrative policy pol-icy for the next four years, and paused for a moment to turn down a proposal for another Big Four conference at this time. NEW LIGHT: From Isaiah New light and interpretation may be thrown on the Old Testament by discovery of the complete scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. All 66 chapters of the book, with only a few portions missing, have been found. One of the most dramatic Biblical discoveries of all time, the scroll was brought to light recently when four of the oldest Hebrew manuscripts manu-scripts thus far known were found in a cave near the northern end of the Dead Sea. Scholars date the Isaiah scroll as early Maccabean, or second century cen-tury B. C, which would make it the oldest Biblical document yet to be discovered intact. THE DISCOVERY of a complete Isaiah scroll, dating back a thousand thou-sand years before the oldest one known, promises scholars ah opportunity oppor-tunity to seek new meaning from the Bible, and to determine by comparison com-parison the extent that errors may have found their way into Biblical manuscripts with the passage of time. Bible scholars point out that the Book of Isaiah, like all of the Bible, came down to us as the result of many copyings by scribes who would moke additional scrolls as the old ones wore out. |