Show WEEKLY MEWS ANALYSIS soviets express desire for peace agree to discussion Us S seizes rails unions obey order to cancel strike by BILL staff writer OVERTURE peaceful AU all of a sudden the air between As ivington and moscow was tilled filled with mth talk of peace and desire for cooperation exactly what had happened to bring about the quick flow of the milk of human kindness between the U S and russia was not clear al certainly there had occurred no basic change in the potentially explosive relationship N it began with a U S statement of position voiced by bedell smith ambassador to russa in the presence of soviet foreign minister V M molotov smith apparently speaking officially suggested that the way is clear tor for a discussion of differences with russia said the U S ambassador bas the present state of U S soviet unions is a source of grievous appointment is to the american people As tar far a as the united states ls Is concerned the door is always wide open for full discussion and the composing of our differences dussias Rus sias reply as broadcast by the moscow radio expressed a positive attitude toward improving soviet american relations and stated that russia is in agreement with a U S proposal tor for discussion and settlement of existing differences although these developments received a big play in the press ani and radio of both nations indications were strong that the aura of mutual hostility separating the U S and russia might not be dispelled by the willingness to compose our differences neither side had modified its foreign policy rather each had emphasized pha sized it in the exchange of notes the U S statement said in part L the concern and the determination of the people of the united states have been intensified by the inexplicable hostility of the soviet govern ment to the european recovery program a measure which in its inception and subsequent developments is so obviously only a measure of american assistance tor for reconstruction on a operative cooperative co basis without menace or threat to anyone there was a suspicion abroad that russia balked in its ambitions to expand into western europe by the european recovery program ay be ready now to try to make V t tyas e kind of deal ALL ABOARD trains run V U S economy escaped being a victim of railroad paraplegia at the eleventh hour when three rail broth yielded to a restraining order brought against 0 them by the government and called off their im pending strike events leading up to that climax had run a course which has become familiar to strike weary americans negotiations between the railroads railroad and the three dissenting brother hoods engineers firemen and switchmen had been fruitless As the strike deadline approached they heined seined miles away from any kind greem on wages and working conditions by that time president truman had built up a full head of steam and he opened the throttle wide the U S could not stand a nationwide tragedy such as the rail strike would be he said acting under the sanction of a 1916 law which authorizes the government to take over the railroads during the time of war U S is still officially in a state of wartime emergency mr truman seized the tha eastern hotspot k 0 4 WM SEA OF JAPAN APAY dokea latest area to emerge as a pivotal point in the worldwide world wide drive against communism is southern korea where about seven million registered voters went to the polls to elect representatives to what is known as the korean national assembly prior to the election communist trained agents were reported to have been attempting to stir up trouble in the U S zone to influence the balloting entire vast network of tracks and trains in the name of the federal government that move paved the way for a court order restraining the unions from striking for eight days federal district judge T alan goldsborough issued the order and the nations trains kept running for the time being at least possibly proving that there is no wind so ill that it blow up some good for somebody one of the major influences leading to cancellation of the rail strike was john L lewis who have a word to say about it but lewis had set the pattern the rail union leaders Al vanley johnston of the engineers D B robertson of the firemen and A J glover jr of the switchmen were uncomfortably aware of what happened to the mine chief when he disobeyed an injunction to call off his soft coal strike they knew that it if they disobeyed judge Golds boroughs restraining order they would be exposing themselves and their unions to whopping big fines and possible jail sentences it was becoming apparent that the government had hit upon a way of delaying crippling strikes with labor unrest destined to grow this summer that method though far from ideal might come to be the basic formula for inducing arbi arbitration and settlement of strikes EDITORS NOTE when opinions are expressed pressed er in these the columns they are those ol oi western newspaper union news analysts and nd not necessarily ol of this newspaper FARM ISSUE Tr rather hard put for a good earthy issue to play upon in his coming campaign president truman has hit upon the farm problem as the vehicle to carry some of his convictions vict ions before the public he began by planning a message to congress on the subject of long range agricultural legislation the idea was originated by the retiring secretary of agriculture clinton anderson who opined opened that such a plea to congress would put the republicans public ans on the spot the message which mr truman was preparing would ask for an adequate appropriation to continue the government farm program particularly on soil conservation according to alben barkley senate democratic leader barkley acidulous ly recalled that the president had asked in his budget message tor for million dollars for soil conservation in the coming fiscal year and that congress had cut that sum to million mr truman feels strongly that mi million ion dollars is the minimum for the work barkley said many U S farmers would be inclined to agree soil conservation was important now and de stilted to grow in importance in the immediate future it would make a good issue WHEAT bi big 9 crop word from the department of agriculture was that the U S would produce the third largest wheat crop in history this year the department stuck to that prediction even though it had reduced its estimate of the important winter wheat crop by million bushels from the april 1 estimate except in parts of the southern great plains the crop made good progress it was revealed in an official department report As of may 1 prospects were for a total of 1117 billion bushels of wheat largest crop was billion bushels last year production in the 1936 45 period averaged million bushels department of agriculture estimated the fall sown winter wheat crop at about million bushels a decline of from its april 1 forecast no official estimate of spring wheat was available but a guess was that average yields should produce million bushels generalizing on overall over all crop prospects the department said satisfactory progress of spring farm work delayed by wet weather in march was possible during most of april in virtually all of the country east of the rocky mountains DIXIE anti truman although president harry truman had not held forth publicly on the subject of civil rights for some time now the echoes of the civil rights program he advanced earlier this year were rattling around like sabers south of the mason dixon line alabama voters had expressed themselves as being anti truman in the states primary election they had given majorities to candidates pledged to cast electoral votes against the president because of the tha civil rights issue it was wa the first concrete indication that a bolt from the regular democratic party nominee might not be unlikely next november if the nominee like mr truman Is committed to supporting the civil rights program and in jackson miss a states rights democratic rally was key noted with a flat prediction that president truman would not be reelected because he Is not acceptable to the nation or the southern democrats gov J strom thurmond of south carolina defined the mouths stand when he told the rally that the south is not in revolt against the democratic party but against its present leadership spark that kindled the political ire fire in the south was mr Tr espousal of proposals to pass federal laws outlawing lynching lunching lyn ching poll taxes J job ob discrimination and segre gation of races legislation like that gov governor arnor thurmond asserted would violate the historic principle of the right of states to determine their own attitude toward such matters there was talk at the jackson rally of holding a national nominating convention of southern democrats at birmingham it if the tha regular democratic convention nominated president truman so tar far it was only talk but anti truman feeling had crystallized in the south to the point where party leaders were badly worried it if the dixie democrats carried their detection lection to the ultimate point of nominating their own candidate the big wigs might as well throw in the sponge for the 43 48 elections and start looking to 1952 RETURN not yet gen douglas macarthur addicted though he may be to the classic historic concept of withdrawal and re turn as a means of gaining public support and following will not return to the U S to campaign for presidential nomination he is one of his spokesmen announced noun ced keeping himself on the leash in tokyo as supreme commander of the allied occupation powers brig gen courtney whitney government section chief flatly denied that macarthur has any plans at present to return to the united states faced with reports that the general was thinking of fur furthering his political ambitions in the states general whitney said you can tell your friends to lay odds that it wont happen macarthur will remain at his desk and continue to administer the occupation with refreshing candor whitney added that he planning to return to the U S either to handle mac arthurs campaign hou housing sing shortage to the accompaniment of vociferous objections by various parliament members the british government disclosed in the house of commons that it is spending to alter and modernize the town house of princess elizabeth and prince philip labor party members criticized the move on the grounds that thousands of britons need homes more than the princess does PLANT LIFE appetites atomic scientists have learned that some plants like human beings are finicky eaters this new knowledge important commercially is the result of exhaustive hau stive tests with radioactive isotopes of phosphorous now science can tell a farmer who spends 50 to put phosphate fertilizer on his land whether the plant only nibbles or takes a bite big enough to repay his expense by using radioactive phosphorous as a tracer in phosphate fertilizer for instance scientists can tell the amount each plant takes one of the facts revealed during tests in north carolina was that corn liked the phosphate from fertilizer tor for a time then would switch to the phosphate which had been present before fertilization in maine the potatoes preferred the tha fertilizer phosphate all the time in other cases plants always preferred the phosphate already present in the ground xa X for taft sen robert tafts presidential star once again was in ascendancy following the important ohio primary election of 53 republican national convention delegates he won 14 of the 23 contests in which harold E stassen was a stron strong disputant uncertainty who won just about all that anyone was sure of when the smoke from the ohio primary elections had cleared was that sen robert taft had won 44 delegates to the republican national convention and that harold stassen the wolf at tafts door had bad captured nine how those results should be interpreted promised to be a thoroughly argued question by the time the republicans convened in philadelphia to nominate a presidential candidate many held the opinion that the ohio primary resulted in if not an outright defeat for stassen at least a brusque check on the tans heretofore snowballing campaign stassen had competed with taft for 23 of the states 53 delegates he won nine and taft took 14 of 0 those 23 in a pre election statement stassen had said that the ohio contest could be accounted a victory for him only it if he won a majority of the 23 disputed delegates thus by his own estimate stassen lost in ohio he lost however to a favorite son candidate strongly supported arted in his own state by chios powerful political organization it was hardly a victory for taft to shout about even though he had won a decisive majority of the contested delegates the tha very tact fact that stassen had been able to command ral nine ne one sixth of the states total number of delegates would be bitter tea for him to swallow in the final analysis the GOP election race had not changed much it was taft and dewey teaming up to force stassen into the rail with sen arthur of michigan coming up fast on the outside |