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Show , Economic Highlights Happenings That Affect Dinner Pails And Pay Checks' The current Congress certainly certain-ly hasn't made any spectacular achievements, but it hasn't done as bad a job by any means as its critics contend. In justice to the Republican majority, it must be pointed out that this is the first time the GOP has had control of either branch in fourteen years, and it lias naturally had plenty of organization troubles. On top of that, this Congress had to put into effect the sweeping Reorganization Reor-ganization Bill, a job with many headaches. It has had to act on an abnormally large number of Presidential appointments of which some, such as that of Mr. Lilienthal, resulted in-lengthy argument. In spite of all this, it . has made a good start on the tax reduction bill though there are deep rumblings against it in the Senate, and forecasts of a Presidential veto if it passes in the House form. It has made progress along the complex road of labor legislation, and it has done some very serious studying of Mr. Truman's budget. - There will be real fireworks when Congress gets around to considering the Administration's program for aid to Greece, Turkey, Tur-key, and other countries which Mr Truman fears will fall into the expanding Russian orbit unless un-less wo take strong counter steps It is obvious that, once one accepts t the premises on which this program is based, we will be committed to a policy whose end cannot be foreseen. As Walter Lippman has phrased it, we will, in effect, be continuing lend-lease. The British situation makes the problem especially grave. England is using up her "hard .money" resources at an alarming rate, and it is not achieving sufficient export business busi-ness to anywhere near offset this. Economic pressure forced Britain to announce that she must pull out of Greece and economic pressure may force her to pull out of Germany, which is still another heavy drain on her slender and dwindling resources. re-sources. Once that happens, it is obvious that only the U.S.A. or the U.S.S.R. can step in. The roots of the issue go deep indeed deeper, perhaps, than millions of Americans realize. The case for American imperialism imperial-ism has been best summed up in a rinwprful and hiehlv controver sial book called "The Struggle for the World," by a professor of history at Columbia. Its basic thesis is that wars of limited objectives ob-jectives are no longer possible, and that world domination is the only possible goal. It proceeds on the assumption that a form of war . between us and the Soviet Union has been underway for two years. And it holds that we must gain and hold allies by any and all means open to us, regardless regard-less of the risks and the costs, and must build our strength in every direction, if we are to escape es-cape the Communist juggernaut. Those who believe in this doctrine doc-trine freely admit its dangers even to that of war. But they insist that there is no other course open to us in a world torn between two ideologies which are diametrically opposed in every particular. There are very few isolationists isolation-ists left in Congress, but there are many members who believe we must follow a cautious middle-ground policy for the time being at least. However, the Republicans, such as Senator Vandenberg, with the greatest reputation's for knowledge of international in-ternational affairs, are in basic agreement with the frankly in- ternationalist views of President Truman. They differ over details, de-tails, but not over main principles. prin-ciples. And it is reported that the very influential Senator Taft is moving toward this point of view, and will vote accordingly. Practically all of the Democrats, of course, will accept the White House lead. In this modern world, the diplomats and the military men walk side by side. It is not entirely en-tirely coincidental that some of our top representatives in the field of foreign affairs are soldiersGeneral sol-diersGeneral Marshall, General Gener-al Walter Bedell Smith, and General Clay, for example. In every international discussion, the possibility of the use of mili-1 tary force colors the talk. It is no secret that the atomic bomb is one of the principle worries j of the Russians, and that their scientists aided, it is reported, by very distinguished nuclear physicists brought from Germany Ger-many have been given every possible resource in an attempt to perfect one. This, too, presents a serious problem to Congress, which must ultimately make the final decision as to the control and use of atomic energy in this country. In short, it becomes more and more difficult to separate our domestic do-mestic policy from international policy. Such questions as our national budget, trade relations, and the proposed military training train-ing for young men, all have, rc-percusions rc-percusions of one kind or another an-other throughout the world. Ex-Presldent Ex-Presldent Hoover's report on his tour of Europe, in which he pointed to the chaos that confronts con-fronts the old world, is still another an-other indication of the. gravity of the situation and of the enormous enor-mous responsibilities we are asked ask-ed to accept. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the questions with which the President Presi-dent and the Congress are dealing deal-ing now. |