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Show I WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Korea Military Picture Improved; Senate Passes FJobilization Bill; Nation's Farmers in Tine Shape' KDITOR'S NOTF: When opinions are expressed In these columns, thej are those of Wetitern Newspaper Union' news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Victories I AvjL S. KOREA PEACE: The- Is Still Hope The belief that there is still hope for peace, perhaps for only a short time, but still respite from worldwide world-wide war, is growing in many quarters. quar-ters. The hope is not one for permanent per-manent peace, but one of time, based on the belief in high diplomatic diplo-matic circles that the Russians are not ready for all-out war at the moment. Diplomatic circles call it the "calculated risk" of war or peace. It is based on three major assumptions: as-sumptions: (1) Russia fears the effects of American atom bomb attacks. 2) Russia does not possess an adequate stock pile of atomic bombs. i (3) Russia's industrial potential is still too weak in comparison with that of the western allies to risk a major conflict. The first two of the assumptions are, of course, mere guess work. But there are statistics to back up the third. For instance, America's steel production for 1950 is expected to exceed 71 million tons. Great Britain Brit-ain will produce around 16 million tons and the rest of western Europe approximately 24 million tons. Thus, the allies will produce a total of 111 million tons, compared with Russia's 22 million. Russia also lags in the production of oil, another of the top essentials for war. On these assumptions western Europe is planning a three-year rearming program. If the program is successful peace may be prolonged, pro-longed, but the world will be divided di-vided into two great armed camps. RAILROADS: Strikes Close Steel The brotherhood of railroad trainmen train-men and order of railway conductors conduc-tors went on strike against three terminal railroads,-disrupting several sev-eral of the country's steel arteries in the midst of the Korean war. However, with the steel industry pressed to capacity to meet the needs of the stepped-up munitions program and the booming civilian economy, many sources predicted that President Truman would seize the lines. The unions singled out key terminals termi-nals in Louisville, St. Paul and Chicago Chi-cago and Republic Steel's switching terminal at Cleveland for the first 1 display of pressure. About 1,000 men walked out for five days. Approximately Approxi-mately 30,000 workers, including steelworkers, were made idle. Negotiations between management manage-ment and union representatives, with presidential assistant John R. Steelman taking part, produced no progress in the first 24 hours. Observers believed the government govern-ment would take drastic action before be-fore the situation deteriorated and crippled the nation's vital steel production. pro-duction. INTELLIGENCE: Headed by Smith Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, former ambassador to Moscow, was named by President Truman as director of central intelligence. He will succeed Rear Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter around the end of September. The agency's job is to gather and analyze reports fron diplomatic, military and all other sources. Some members of congress were not surprised by Smith's appointment. appoint-ment. There had been demands in congress con-gress for a shake-up of the agency since the Korean war. Some legislators legis-lators contended the United States' was caught flat-footed by the invasion in-vasion of South Korea by Communist Commu-nist troops. General Smith, now 54, has had a long military career, which includes in-cludes service as chief of staff to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower in World War II. Later he became ambassador ambas-sador at Moscow. Johnson KOREA: Picture Changes As the Korean war went into the third month military observers were inclined to comment "the picture has changed." And from available information it seemed the Communists Commu-nists had lost the power to mount great offensives involving thousands of men. North Koreans launched one attack at-tack in force, its objective the city of Taegu, temporary capital of the South Korean republic and supply terminal for U. N. forces. It failed. In some of the bloodiest fighting ef the war, U. S. and South Korean troops smashed the offensive, held Taegu, and then proceeded to smash bulges all along their lines. One of the most spectacular operations oper-ations of the Korean battle was the concentrated air attack on an assembly as-sembly area at Waegwan, involving 88 B-29's each loaded with 40 500-pound 500-pound all purpose bombs. The load was dropped in a rectangle IVi miles long and 3V4 miles wide. General MacArthur, commander f United Nations forces, in a report re-port to the security council said: "The ground fighting continues to be of a most savage character." Our outnumbered forces face an enemy with "almost fanatical determination. de-termination. The whole operation has assumed the character of a major campaign." He went on to ask for troops from other members f the United Nations. To date the number accepted for action in Korea included Thailand 4,000, the Philippines 5.000, Turkey 4,500, and the United Kingdom 7.-500. 7.-500. It will be several weeks before they can be brought to battle. Military observers agreed that the picture had changed, but added that it will be "a long and hard winter in Korea." FARMERS: In Fine Shape In a major speech at Carlisle, Indiana, Secretary of Agriculture Brannan asserted that the nation's farmers are in "fine shape" and took the opportunity to put in another anoth-er plug for his farm plan. Said the secretary: "Even allowing allow-ing for increases in military food requirements we expect to have enough food so that civilians can continue consuming as much as in the past two years." Farmers worried about possible economic controls of agriculture were reassured when the secretary said there are grounds for hope that such controls can be postponed for a considerable time or perhaps avoided entirely "unless the emergency emer-gency .becomes much worse." Talking up the Brannan plan, the secretary said we need a program which "solidly protects farm prices Id case of a sudden slackening of demand" yet "puts an abundance of milk, eggs, and other perishables In the hands of consumers at attractive at-tractive prices." Brannan added that the present program of sliding-scale price supports sup-ports fail to assure support on some f the most important commodities and offers no incentive for necessary neces-sary production shifts. WHEAT: Highest Level The agricultural department has fixed price supports for 1951 wheat at the same level as the 1950 crop 90 per cent of parity. The department said 72.800,000 acres of wheat may be planted. If yields are average, this acreage would produce 1,150,000,000 bushels. This year's crop is estimated at 996,000,000 bushels. In fixing the wheat support at the highest possible level, Secretary of Agriculture Brannan said: "In view of the world situation, it is imperative that our supply of bread grains be maintained in strong position. Ample supplies will be a major factor in assuring reasonable rea-sonable food prices to consumers and our ability to meet our international interna-tional food obligations. "We believe the wheat-production and price-support programs have been developed to protect the interests in-terests of both producers and consumers." con-sumers." The price support announcement had been expected, since Brannan is required by law to announce supports sup-ports in advance of planting; winter wheat planting starts this month. Only farmers who keep within acreage-allotment limits can get price supports. CASUALTIES Toll Is Heavy The shattering realities of the Korean conflict reached into many American homes as the conflict went into its third month. More than 2.600 families in the cities and small towns and on the farms of the nation have been notified of servicemen killed, wounded or missing in action. At the same time, a military spokesman said that Korean Communists Com-munists had lost 50,000 killed. U.S. troops won victories on nearly all fronts in Korea during dur-ing the eighth week of the conflict. con-flict. The big Communist push i (1) on Taegu from the north was driven back; South Korean troops recaptured Pohang and Klgy (2) ; another bridgehead (3) across the Naktonj; was beaten back; American forces flattened the bridgehead (4) in the Yongsan area. HOME -FRONT: Mobilization Bill The senate, by a vote of 85 to 3, passed a home-front mobilization bill which would give President Truman power to invoke wage-price-rationing controls and other anti-inflation curbs at any time. The bill then went to a senate-house senate-house conference for the ironing out of differences between the senate sen-ate measure and the bill passed earlier by the house. In one point the bill was a defeat for the administration since it directed di-rected the President to put wage and price controls into effect simultaneously simul-taneously and virtually across the 'board if he invoked them at all. The President has maintained he sees no need of wage-price curbs or rationing at this time. Further, the administration requested authority au-thority to control commodity speculation, specu-lation, but neither the house or senate sen-ate versions contain such authority. Both bills contain an anti-hoarding provision prohibiting the accumulation ac-cumulation of excessive supplies of goods designed as scarce. The administration suffered another setback in that its plea for retention of the provision which would let the President fix controls on selected commodities meat, for example; in advance of any general controls program, was defeated. AMERICA: Angry People Americans have never liked the evasive tactics and double-talk used by diplomats. That such a dislike still persists in the minds of average av-erage Americans was indicated by the increasing number of letters to national leaders and members of the United Nations demanding that Soviet delegate Jacob Malik be thrown out of the security council. The letters asked why prolong the arguments in the security council? Why not expel the Soviet delegate, the people in the small towns of America wanted to know? In answer to these questions Warren War-ren Austin, U.S. chief delegate to the United Nations, made the following fol-lowing statement: "Our objective is peace. We do not find peace by throwing out the person with whom we must make peace. "We must be firm in our principles. princi-ples. We must be strong. But we must also be patient. "In the United Nations, we must keep trying to convince Mr. Malik and his government of their errors and of our peaceful intentions. Through the United Nations we can reach the peoples of the Soviet Union and of other countries. "It is not the people, it is the 'ruling circles' that we encounter here. That creates a force of public pub-lic opinion, backed by moral authority au-thority that opposes aggression and even the Soviet dictatorship cannot ignore such a force. "It is a strain for us to listen to the deceit that the Russian spokesman has poured out. But truth will prevail. Meanwhile, it is better for diplomats to get nervous indigestion than for young men to get shot." That, Americans agreed, was straight talk and to their liking. Suspect No. 8 A stocky 33-year-old American electrical engineer, who fled to Mexico when the F.B.I, began nabbing nab-bing suspects in the Klaus Fuchs spy ring, had been arrested and charged with passing defense secrets se-crets to Russia. Identified as Morton Sobell, he was the eighth American rounded up and charged with passing defense de-fense secrets to Russia. F.B.I, officials of-ficials said he is a radar expert. i i ' ( T Defense Secretary Louis Johnson John-son (right), confers with Sen. Tom Connally, chairman of the foreign relations committee. Johnson has been under increased in-creased attack by foes of the administration and some Democrats Dem-ocrats for the way he handled his office during the year be-. fore the outbreak of fighting in Korea. POLITICS: Election Crossfire The American political picturs cleared somewhat with one definite trend in the spotlight: the voter faces a furious election year partisan parti-san rossfire. The issue will be U.S. foren policy. The bipartisanship in foreign policy poli-cy as existed before the Korean war is a thing of the past. From now on voters will hear charges and counter-charges on U. S. foreign policy by congressional candidates. This trend is indicated by recent EcDublican attacks, the counter- |