Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS US producing atomic bomb on assembly line basis states output at all time high seeks ore supply maybe the atomic bomb the worlds most fearful weapon maybe the bombs effectiveness for destruction st has been over ampha sized maybe it mean anything at all but if potential enemies of the US could squeeze any comfort from those maibes maybes ma Irna ybes they were welcome to it for the united states had announced that its atom bomb production had reached an all time high in the first six months of this year and production is now on an assembly line basis IN making that announcement the atomic energy commission also announced that enormous enor tonnages ton nages of low grade uranium ores have been located in this country and could be used to produce A bombs in an emergency if foreign supplies of high grade ore were cut oft off all these disclosures were contained in the commissions sixth semiannual semi annual report to congress pointedly enough the report made no mention of recent to level secret conferences relative to sharing information with britain and canada it did have a lot to say however about the problems behind those confer conferences enc e s united states dependence pen dence on high grade uranium ores from canada and the belgian congo THE REPORT revealed that reserves of semi processed ores are being built up steadily to assure continuity of production research is being pressed on new extraction methods to cut the cost of processing the low grade ores which abound in this country and actions have been taken to improve and make more certain the supply of ore from abroad this latter statement which was not explained presumably referred to later negotiations with britain and canada for a agreement on exchange of atomic information and division of uranium ore EDUCATION bicker strife the proposal for federal aid to education was getting nowhere fast its proponents realizing all the while upon what thin ice they skated had believed the plan had been handled with sufficient tact and skill to win some hope of its final approval but at this stage of the game that appeared to be nothing more than wishful thinking THE explosive issue made doubly volatile by the injection of the religious issue by a bill offered by representative barden D NC and by the public row between francis cardinal spellman and mrs eleanor roosevelt threatened 1 to kill the proposal entirely the barden bill would exclude catholic and other nonpublic non public schools from all federal aid because mrs roosevelt in some of her syndicated columns h had a d argued for separation of church and state cardinal spellman accused her of being anti catholic she denied the allegation and pointed to her record as proof WITHOUT any attempt to argue the relative merits of each viewpoint capitol observers were generally agreed that these developments had done nothing to help the plan for the federal government to assist in school programs by giving financial aid the proposal without the added controversies was sto stormy amy enough in itself inasmuch as there had been much hue and cry to the effect that federal aid to schools would mean ultimately federal effort to control the choice of what would be taught in the schools it appeared that this obstacle to the proposal might have been hurdled but when the religious issue was injected the fate of the plan was seriously jeopardized house approves ed 1 to r s N note ot e tv hen opinions are e expressed 1 p resse d 1 in n these thes e columns they cahey are those of western ne newspaper per unions news anal analysts cysts and n d not necessarily ess essa rily of this newspaper new newspaper new justice XA X A 9 WA M U S attorney general tom dark clark smiling so broadly here hesitated but a short while before accepting president ident tru mans offer of appointment to the united states supreme court bench sen J howard mcgrath D RI was to succeed dark clark as attorney general EXCISE TAXES A little longer there appeared very little likelihood as the congressional session waned that federal wartime excise taxes would be killed the improbability of such action was indicated by rep john W mccormack house democratic leader FOLLOWING a conference with president truman the congressman reported the president himself had made a request concerning excise tax repeal on freight for instance to help lower basic business costs but mccormack said he believed that subject could not be brought up without bringing on a flood of efforts to repeal all wartime excess taxes 1 and that the house democratic chieftain said simply would not do he pointed out that to repeal all such taxes would mean the loss of approximately a billion million dollars in revenue you cant lose that much revenue without further unbalancing the budget and without levying other taxes he concluded WARTIME excise taxes include levies on sales of most jewelry railroad tickets furs and a long list of other items these are separate from the permanent taxes on such products as liquor and tobacco A leader in the fight to bring about repeal of the wartime excise taxes is the US chamber of commerce calling for repeal of all such taxes the organization argues that to do so would stimulate business and increase income tax yields vet hi pension like hike additional benefits to total 2 million if measure enacted veterans of world wars I 1 and 11 II and the spanish american war stood to benefit to the tune of an additional million dollars a year if a bill passed by the national a house of representatives is approved bythe senate WITHOUT a single dissenting vote the house passed a mc measure sure raising veterans pensions and disability payments by that figure annually there w was a s another possible hurdle for the measure however even if it should pass the senate for house action on the bill was taken despite objections from the white house whether this means that president truman would have the political fortitude to veto such a bill if it ever came to him is an interesting conjecture the logical supposition is that he would not particularly if he entertains any ideas of seeking a second term in 1952 to indicate the potential weight of the veterans vote as interpreted by house members despite the fact that there was no opposition a roll call was ordered and members got on the record as approving the measure THE VETERANS administration estimated that the first year cost of the proposal would exceed 1125 million dollars it made madd no estimate of costs in subsequent years principal provisions of the bill increase from to rate of pay for total disability increase monthly payments to widows and dependents of wartime casualties full compensation for world war I 1 veterans with disabilities presumed to be service connected instead of the present 75 per cent additional pay for dependents 0 of veterans with service connected 50 per cent disabilities at present such payments are made only if the disability is 69 6 per cent I 1 ARMED UNITY up to truman final action on the bill strengthening unification of the armed services was up to president truman but there was no doubt that he would affix his signature to the measure in speedy fashion BY a lopsided vote of to 7 the house gave final congressional approval to the measure in a bid for greater efficiency and economy in military operations the bill which was sent to the president for his signature sprung directly from the recommendations of the commission headed by former president herbert hoover THE citizens committee tor for the hoover report headed by dr robert L johnson president of temple university immediately hailed adoption of the bill as paving the way for savings of at least a billion dollars a year and maybe more |