Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS ANALYSES house group approves two year selective service bill palestine situation worsens as hope for agreement ebbs by BILL staff writer DRAFT BILL oe Q jie way ya ibling ding to the pressure of the times congress was putting its hand gingerly to the business of passing a selective service act which would give the nations armed forces a total manpower of slightly more than two million in two years the house armed services committee had approved the measure after hearing defense secretary james forrestal term it an excellent one and passed it on to the floor of the house for debate thus for the first time since before the war congress was facing squarely the momentous issue of a national draft that this was happening during the hair trigger days of an election year only served to underline the apparent urgency of theatter approved by the armed services committee the bill would raise total authorized manpower 1 of the armed forces to army air force navy and marine corps require registration of men 2 from 18 through SO 30 with those from 19 through 25 liable for two years service exempt e most veterans from I 1 3 fur further rt service but those under 31 would have to register allow seizure of industrial plants 4 by the government if they refused to give top priorities to armament orders As it stood the draft plan was conceded to have a good chance of passage at this session of congress but complications were being threatened by the senate armed services committee which seemed inclined to combine a universal military training measure with the draft bill the committee was waiting tor for army secretary kenneth royall roy all to recommend details of a bill to call 18 year olds for a years training they would be taken in addition to men procured through the draft As a combination that look so good to many republicans rep walter G andrews rep N Y chairman of the house armed service committee called the idea utterly foolish inconceivable and not called for t clouds in the east 0 IRAQ mm N 11 EG ly I 1 I 1 1 SAUDI M THE ARAB LEAGUE amateur and professional military experts now are weighing the pros and cons of war in the holy land palestine is completely encircled by arab states except for its mediterranean coastline numerals indicate estimated fighting strength of the various arab states jewish forces in palestine are said to number about JERUSALEM confused time was running out in palestine and with it the hope for averting a jewish arab civil war for possession of jerusalem in the waning days before great britain removed her troops from the holy land upon expiration of the british mandate on may 15 palestine had become a savagely confused moribund state bitterly the united nations trusteeship council virtually abandoned its efforts to devise an effective plan to safeguard jerusalem from ravishment by the warring factions delegates could not hit upon a scheme that could be enforced nor was any arab jewish agreement in sight which might result in a truce necessary to give any U N plan a chance like a little boy watching his father trying to get his kite out of a tree the council looked hopefully to jerusalem where the red cross was doing its best to bring a halt to the fighting As far as the threatened invasion of palestine by neighboring arab states was concerned no one seemed able to sum up the situation accurately jews were insisting in the face of denials that syrian and lebanese armies had invaded northern palestine and the british were reported to have rushed troops back into the country to deal with what they called a seriously deteriorated situation still an unknown factor in the rapidly climaxing events was wily old king abdullah of trans jordan commander of the finest army in arabia the spike helmeted arab legion he had been talking big about invading palestine from the east he had been talking too about making himself king of palestine experts were not discounting the role abdullah and his power politick ing could play in the drama in the end he could turn out to be the catalytic agent that might bring the unregenerate events in palestine to a reasonable if not a happy conclusion EDITORS NOTE when opinions are expressed in these columns they are az those of western newspaper union news analysts analysis and not necessarily of this his newspaper OLEO TAX fight ahead one of the most pressing problems members of congress have had to decide this year is whether their political bread is spread with butter or oleomargarine it is further complicated by the fact that they might in choosing one or the other be letting the gravy get away from them for good or ill however the houss house of representatives made its decision jt passed by a vote of to a bill to repeal all federal oleomargarine taxes which have been on the books for 62 years those taxes are itemized as follows 10 cents a pound on colored oleo 14 cent a pound on uncolored a year on manufacturers on wholesalers of colored oleo on wholesalers of the uncolored product 43 on retailers of colored oleo and 6 on retailers of uncolored even it if the federal taxes were repealed it still would be against the law to sell colored oleo in 20 states nevertheless the house had rid itself of the matter and now it was up to the senate where a battle royal was in prospect reason the oleo tax issue has a stiff fight ahead in the senate is that senators are elected by voters of entire states rather than by voters of districts within the states as are most representatives the result in afi this case is a split in the sentiment of constituents of many senators for example big northern states such as illinois wisconsin michigan and ohio are composed of consumer cities and producer farms the country districts include dairy farmers and soy bean growers consumers in cities want repeal of the taxes and so do the soy bean men whose product is used in manufacture of oleo the dairy farmers naturally want the tax to remain the dairy interests are strong their supporters in congress have been able to retain the oleo tax by the simple process of shelving any repeal bills in con committee it happened to the current bin bill in the house agricultural committee but a petition circulated among house members forced the bill on to the floor where it was approved it is far from certain however that similar tactics would be successful in the senate and there is a good likelihood that the bill will not get through the upper house this year at least BIG russian russia put some big four planes into the air over moscow for the annual soviet may day parade and managed thereby to instill a modicum of uneasiness in the hearts of U S military experts at last reports they were awaiting more detailed reports ot of the planes from U S observers in order to gain it if possible a new insight into soviet airborne army equipment it is likely the experts thought that at least some ot of the planes were the soviet TU 70 an aircraft bearing close resemblance to the american 1329 13 29 assumption has been that the russians copied many of the features of the five B known to have been forced down in soviet controlled areas during the war reported to be a hybrid transport bomber the TU 70 has a passenger capacity of 72 this probably could be increased substantially however if the plane were used strictly as a troop carrier it if its performance compares with that of the wartime B 29 it could carry troops and land as far as miles from its home base it if those estimates can be considered reasonably accurate the U S military experts have this headache to plague them TU would put alaska within easy range for an attack by commando type russian forces bent upon seizing airfields there object lesson 4 e PY CZ 0 A z just to prove that the old greenback aint what it used to be rep kep helen gahagan douglas dem calif purchased 1736 worth of groceries and toted the slim load onto the house floor to show her colleagues how prices have inflated since OPA controls expired in hi 1946 mrs douglas has introduced a price control resolution in the house COVENANTS just paper in a decision which may produce more extensive reaction than any designed civil rights legislative program the U S supreme court handed down a decision that in effect outlaws so called restrictive covenants which bar racial or religious minorities from buying or occupying property in in many areas throughout the country declaring the decision chief justice fred vinson held that enforcement of restrictive covenants by state or federal courts was a violation of the amendment that amendment adopted in 1868 reads in part no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the united states nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws the supreme courts decision did not declare that restrictive covenants as such are violations of the constitution but by ruling that it is unconstitutional for the courts to enforce the covenants it reduced them legally to mere scraps of paper for the most part covenants are agreements entered upon by real estate promoters and buyers of land or homes purchasers agree not to sell their land or homes to persons barred by the covenant terms of the agreement running from an average of 25 or 60 50 years to perpetuity THE BREAK colombia not quite a month after the abor tive revolution in april swept the capital city of bogota into turmoil and caused damage throughout the republic the government of colom bia formally severed diplomatic relations with russia that the tha break breah was a direct result of the revolt reportedly communist I 1 led and inspired no one bothered to deny officially however no mention was made of the uprising foreign minister eduardo angels note to the russian charge daf faires said simply that colombia considered that there were no ties which warranted a continuation of diplomatic and consular relations between the two countries in concordance with the diplomatic action the colombian government began to its troops and re 1 1 organize administrative machinery to strengthen its hold and pre venti further outbreaks by cc leading members of the I bartys central committee berth bath national and departmental were ar rested it began to look like a trend in latin america last year brazil and chile bluntly broke relations with russia now colombia had followed suit and judging from the political tone in other republics of the hemisphere it was possible that moscow soon might lose other acquaintances south of the border KEYNOTER green when the republican national con bention swings raucously into the wind in philadelphia in june the first voice to be heard holding forth at length from the quarterdeck quart erdeck will be that of gov dwight H green of illinois he has been selected as keynoter tor for the political shindig and as such will be charged with getting the convention oft off in the right that is is to say in the direction which the old guard GOP leaders want it to go green was picked by the conventions arrangements committee which also recommended speaker of the tha house joseph martin rep mass as permanent cha chairman irmam |