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The Star-News can not be responsible for currency sent through the mails. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND ALSO SERVED BY THE UNITED PRESS (SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 1947) Star-News Program State ports with Wilmington favored in proportion with its resources, to in clude public terminals, tobacco storage warehouses, ship repair facilities, near by sites for heavy tndustry and 35-foot Cape Fear river channel. City auditorium large enough to meet needs for years to come. Development of Southeastern North Carolina agricultural and industrial re sources through better markets and food processing, pulp wood production and factories. Emphasis on the region’s recreation advantages and improvement of resort accommodations. Improvement of Southeastern North Carolina’s farm-to-market and primary roads, with a paved highway from Top sail inlet to Bald Head island. Continued effort through the City’s In dustrial Agency to attract more in dustries. Proper utilization or fcSluetneninai air port for expanding air service. T.)e\elopment of Southeastern North Carolina’s health facilities, especially in counties lacking hospitals, and includ ing a Negro Health center Encouragement of the growth of com mercial fishing. Consolidation of City and County governments. GOOD MORNING He that hath no rule over his own spirit lg like a city that is ' rcken down, and without walls.—Proverbs 25.28. * * * Man who man would be must rule the •mplre of himself—Shelley. “Maginot Line” Attitude Are too many Americans letting theii confidence and admiration of science, certainly through no desire or fault of its own, lull them into a “Maginot line” attitude toward the problems oi national defense? Secretary of War Patterson, writing in the current issue of the Saturday Evening Post, indicates fear of such a situation. “Perhaps the most popular and cer tainly the most misinformed argumenl against (the universal military training plan) is that war, in this atomic age will be decided by a few technician: pushing buttons. This is strictly £ vision of the cocktail-party scientist You will find no such opinion among the top scientists and military men who developed the atomic bomb.” Few ideas are more dangerous thar the one that the atomic bomb, the bes' example of our scientific headstart ii war weapons, will keep this country safe from the remainder of the world It will not. But a real national defense program based on a sound Regular army, in a tional Guard, Reserve and universa military training, will. Unless th< American people see that it is effected their country will eventually becomi a bright attraction to a stronger on< writh dreams of world domination. If, on the other hand, the Unite< States maintains a respectable military strength, chances of attack are slight Peace lies in our fighting might actual and potential. Those contending we are safe be hind the works of science and then Letter To The Editor Can U. S. Gamble Again On Old Plan For Germany? To the Editor: In dealing with Germany, the United States cannot afford to in dulge in wishful thinking. To pre tend that Germany is flat on her back and will remain so, is to gamble with our future security. Yet Mr. Herbert Hoover, in his recent reports, intimates hat Ger many is no longer a menance to our freedom and peace. As a mat ter of fact, he goes much further than that and states that the pres ervation ot Germany's -heavy in dustrial potential is the prerequi site for the recovery of Europe. But history shows that Ger many's industrial potential has produced the very opposite effect. Instead of increasing European prosperity. Germany’s industrial concentration has been used since Bismarck as an instrument of po litical. economic and military ag gression. It has stunted the indus trialization of some European na tions and has committed others to serve as raw-material reservoirs or dumping grounds for Ger many’s notorious marketing prac tices. We should not forget that the United States as well,' was a vic tim of the ruthless and dishonest trading practices of Germany. We, too, were forced to make enor mous sacrifices both in lives and in money to fight off tne German octopus. As a matter of fact Mr. Hoover recognized the German danger way back in 1918, when he helped write an introduction to a book entitled “The Future of Ger man Industrial Exports.’’ This is what he said in 1918: “Let the manufacturing, the banking interests and the laboring and professional classes of al] na tions be warned in time to devise antidotes and counter attacks to tht Machiavellian devices of a class gone mad with lust of con quest, deliberately plotting to fat ten itself upon the life blood of other peoples even after the war. Let us consider in making peace what protection we can give to the commercial existence of the freed nations. . One year later, Mr. Hoover changed his tune and worked for all-out American aid for the revi val of Germany’s industrial pow er. According to Mr. Hoover, this was necessary and “a good bar gain because it saves the United States enormous expenditures in Europe. . .” In his recent reports to the President, Mr. Hoover voices the same concern for the American taxpayer although he discreetly passes over the fact that the gov ernment has already begun to re build Germany to the tune of one billion dollars in the next three years. Ol course, this is only a starter and Mr. Hoover does not bother to estimate the final costs oi his “bargain.” It is safe to say, however, that once we have com mitted ourselves to the rebuilding of Germany, we may have to un derwrite the complete program. This is a blank check bearing no date for repayment and containing no obligations on the part of the recipient. Mr. Hoover’s magnanimous ges tures to our former enemies are already showing results. This can be seen in the deliberate sabotage which is being conducted by the Germans in obstructing the pro duction and distribution of food. General Clay, head of AMG, Minced no words when he said on April 14, 1947, that the Germans had mishandled the food crisis and that cooperation among the Germans to increase the food sup (Continued on Page Eight) Liquidating The Taxpayer, Too Excessive public waste is disgust ing but people become hardened to it in war. They tolerantely ignore wanton ex travagance because they understand their country is fighting for its life and it is no time to question dollars rushing off tc help achieve victory. With restoration of peace, however, most return to a normal attitude to ward economy and rightfully expect those handling public funds to do like wise. But apparently there are some officials who are either incompetent or, as far as money is concerned, as wildly wasteful as if we were still in a great emergency. It is not necessary to go beyond Wilmington to see results of this woe ful lack of judgment or sympathy in digging into the public pocketbobk. Sometime ago the U. S. Maritime commission established a reserve fleet lay-up basin here. Ships entering it are stripped of most of their removable appurtenances, such as instruments, linens, tableware, china, stores and other articles. It is best that these materials not be stored with the vessels and, shortly after their removal, are sold as surplus property. The financial re turn on these goods averages about 10 per cent of the original cost. Later, within a few days to weeks, many of these ships so stripped are withdrawn from the reserve fleet for sale, charter or general agency operations. When removed from the reservoir, they are reequipped with the same type property recently taken from them and this must, in great part, be purchased on the open market at- regular prices. Often, while this is going on, fully or partially equipped vessels are coming up the Cape Fear river to be processed and placed in the basin. This practice, also involving consid erable labor and transportation costs, simply transcends all bounds of com mon sense. What is it costing the taxpayers? Early last week, a member of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries committee, accompanied by counsel and an investigator, visited the Maritime commission’s office in Norfolk. They spent the day discussing operations there similar to those carried out here. And the member, Rep. John C. Brophy (R-Wis.), has reported to his chair man that “we found one situation in volving large and unnecessary costs to the government which I feel must be corrected immediately.” Rep. Brophy went on to report that “we have the names of ten ships on is no need of the manpower reserve universal training would provide want this nation to run the risk of another war. They are apparently anxious for it to court a fate that befell France in its blind belief In the Maginot line as security against a possible enemy. What’s The Pitch? We were astonished and a little , disappointed at the lack of attention ■ the experts paid to the political symbol i ism of President Truman’s performance at the opening of the baseball season ; in Washington. Last year, when he and the left (or i Wallace) wing of the Democratic Party ■ were much closer buddies than they , are today, the President tossed out the first ball with his left hand. This year , he launched the season with a high, hard, right-hand heave. Then, as if in I a gesture of compromise, he took an i other ball and threw it from the port , side. This left-hand throw, it was re : ported, was neither as fast nor as ac : curate. We were certain that the deep-doom I ed political prophets would go to town ' with all sorts of interpretations of that . highly significant pitching perfor , mance. That’s why, being modest and a little awed by crystalgazing commen ■ tators, we waited until now before : mentioning it. which this (stripping, storage, removal and refitting) has been done which re quired open market purchases of ap proximately $20,000 per vessel, or a total of $200,000 for the ten ships. In other words, the Maritime commission is selling as surplus the same type of property which it is required to buy back shortly thereafter on the open market.” On the basis of his report and pre suming that the .same procedures are being followed at all the commission’s anchorages, one is able to get an idea of how much money is being wasted here. Friday’s Shipping News listed six “lay-up ships” being “refitted for duty” in this port. Therefore, applying Rep. Brophy’s Norfolk findings, $120,000 is being thrown away today. And this is just one of nine reserve fleet sanc tuaries. Hew is this extravagance nationally ? A press release arrived yesterday from the commission’s office in Wash ington. It said “the sale and chartering of government-owner merchant ships has lowered the total of vessels in re serve fleet anchorages to the lowest point since last June, when 1,262 were immobilized. During the month ending April 15 . . . 116 (ships) were with drawn, leaving a total of 1,336, com pared with the record high of 1,742 last December.” So, using the $20,000 estimate for re-fitting each ship, the government wasted $2,320,000 in 30 days. To a layman, it may appear that a pitiful lack of coordination between the various branches of the commis sion is responsible for this. But there is one man Vice Ad miral W. W. Smith, chairman of the commission—who may be able to give a reason for this costly business. Congress owes it to the people to summon him and others, if necessary, into public hearing and formally dis close more about this ridiculous squan der. Perhaps other matters will develop in which questioning will be advisable. The war-time Maritime commission was a builder and turned out a “bridge of ships” with a speed that surprised the whole world, especially the enemy. The present commission is considered primarily a liquidator but the estimated waste of $2,320,000 in handling 116 ships in one month would indicate it will be well on its way to liquidating the American taxpayer before its job of returning the Merchant fleet to normal is completed. A Gift To Be Watched John L. Lewis’ United Mine Work ers have made a bid for the independent National Federation of Telephone Workers union in the form of a $100, 000 check payable at the “convenience” of the organization. It has been accepted and may be tne step leading to the taking over of the NFTW by the AFL, through Mr. Lewis. This situation is based on the same principle Mr. Lewis often used while in the CIO. There one craft, entirely different from another, would share its war chest with another union. Many a UMW dollar helped finance some of the larger automobile walkouts. And, of. course, there were always definite obligations when the money was passed. The important question, however, is whether the country’s telephone work ers want to come under the dominance of Mr. Lewis. Many are suffering financially through the current strike, the biggest they’ve ever attempted. Suppose they were called upon to walk out as frequently as Mr. Lewis orders his miners? That’s something for them to consider and, for their own benefit, pass their conclusions to the higher-ups who grabbed up Mr. Lewis’ “gift.” A boost from anybody always sounds much better than a boast. f A VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS_ The Gallup Poll Fear Of Another Big War Continues To Climb Throughout United States 'T Seventy-Three Per Cent Be lieve Conflict Likely Within 25 Years By GEORGE GALLUP Director, American Institute of Public Opinion PRINCETON, N. J., April 26.—Fear of war is rising throughout the United States. More than seven in every ten voters polled by the In stitute say they think another war is likely within 25 years. Five out of every ten think it may come within ten years. This nervous attitude about present world conditions, with no peace settlement among the ma jor powers, underlines many other basic American attitudes on cur rent issues. It explains, for exam ple, the large public vote which polls have found in favor of peace time military training. It explains the c o u n t r y’s catutious attitude toward reducing the army navy budget. It is closely related to the public’s dissatisfaction with the progress of the United Nations organization to date, as reported last week. The fear of war is shown in the following poll results, includ ing a trend over the past two years. Do you think the United States will find itself in another war within, say, the next 25 years?” No Yes No opin. Mars., ’45 _38% 45% 17% Mar., ‘46 _69 19 12 Aug., ’46 _65 16 19 TODAY _73 18 9 The latest poll also asked a seperate but comparable cross section: ‘‘Do you think the United States will find itself in another war wuthin, say, the next TEN yeart?” The vote was yes 50 per cent, no 38 per cent, no opinion 12 per cent. IF SUCH widespread fear of war exists then why, some ob servers ask. do the people want to folow a “tough” policy with Rus sia? Won’t the current fears sooner or later make the Ameri can people want to soften their tone toward the Soviet? The chief reason for the cur rent attitude toward Russia ap pears to be that the American people remember with distaste the bad experience they had with ap peasement in the 1930.'. Appeasement of Hitler, Musso lini and Hirohito dij not prevent war. The feeling is very wide spread today that an opposite policy is no more likely to lead to war than appeasement. The current mood or temper of the people is summarized in o n e statement from a voter polled four weeks ago by the Institute. He said: “If we let Russia get away with her aggressive policy she’ll start reaching out for more and more, and then we’re bound to have a war on our hands. Dictators never know when to stop if you appease them.” When General George Mar shall took office as Secretary of State, an Institute poll found the weight of opinion throughout the country in favor of a firmer policy' toward Russia than that followed by his predecessor, James F. Barnes. Today’s polling finds a high uni formity of attitude among all groups in the population. Veter ans, young, middle - aged and older voters, Democrats, Republi cans, men, women — all think another war is likely within 25 years. Religion plays an important role in the lives of Lelandites, and no less than five churches serve the ommunity. They are the Holi ■ess, the Presbyter’an. Zion Meth odist, Elah Baptist, and the Ee lam First Baptist church. , Around Capitol Square ‘We, The People’ Deals With Costs Of Schools By LYNN NISBET Wilmington Star-News Raleigh Bureau RALEIGH. April 26. — The cur rent issue of “We, the People” magazi- has its feature story about the cost of the public school system for the year 1945-46. The tables and graphs presented and the explanation of them disprove several common beliefs about the schools of the state. In the first place, while the state carries ma jor part of the load it is not true that the “state entirely supports the public school system.” In the second place, the idea that ex penditure of dollars determines the excellence of the school is re futed. PROPORTION — Last jrear the operation of the nine months pub lic school system cost $53,864,852, of which the state paid $43,871, 169 and the local units $9,993,683. On percentage basis this is 81.45 for the state, 18.55 for the county and city units. The state’s par* of the money comes from the gen eraj fund through legislative ap propriation; that supplied by local units is derived from court fines, dog and poll taxes, special proper ty tax levies, and in some instan ces personal or corporate do nations. VARIANCE — There is wide variance in the proportion of total school cost paid by the state and local units. Among the county units the ratio runs from 4.59 per cent paid by Yancey county, to 36.67 per cent paid by New Han over while in the city units the variance is from 4.40 per cent in Fairmont to 45.93 per cent in Durham. Comparable variance is found in the amount spent per pupil enrolled. Among the counties per pupil cost is highest in Cam den with $98.09 per child and low est in Halifax with $50.01. It is a coincidence that among city ad ministrative units the high and low in per capita cost are the same as the high and low in local contribution. Durham was tops with expenditure of $92.41 per pupil, while Fairmont was lowest with $47.97. For the starte as whole th( average per pupil cost was $65.37 — $68.00 in city units, $64.37 in rural schools. EFFICIENCY — Because of many factors there is little con formity between amounts spent and efficiency of the schools. This is especially true with respect to the state’s part of the cost. Where local communities have supple mented state funds the schools are better and there is much closer fidelity to the idea that more money should produce better op portunities. In rural schools the items of transportation and build ings have large bearing on total operational cost, and under the system of distributing state funds poorer communities get relatively larger share than wealthy ones. For example, it costs a lot more to keep a child in school nin months in Camden or Pork coun ties, than it does in any of the larger cities; but none will be so foolish as to say the schools in these counties are better than those in Charlotte, Greensboro or Asheville. EQUALIZATION — Educational opportunity is far from equalized over the state as whole, but some effort in that direction is made in distribution of state funds. That is why the state pays 95.41 percent of the cost of the schools in Yan cey county and only 54.07 per ient in the city of Durham. As a rule the cost of operating schools s much higher in the far east and the far west, whereas the concen tration of population and wealth is in the central part of the state. FAIR — Some thoughtless citi zens of the richer counties see in this method of distribution dis crimination against them. The magazine article points out that only 43 counties pay into the gen eral fund of the state as much as they get back in school money alone, while some of these pay four or five times as much; but it is also noted that the big cities are merely collection cen*e ■« and the money they collect in sn'es ant income taxes was actually earned and originally spent in neighboring communities. By way of illustration the story says: “Johnson, Wake, Chatham, Frank lin, Warren and many eastern counties, whose people trade in Walter Winchell Newspaperman Vs. Newspaperman Some of the most interesting! newspaper yarns have been in spired by newsboys who nailed the hides of competitors to their type writers. Occasionally, the conflicts went from word-slinging to bare knuckle stuff. When James Gor don Bennett sparked the free swinging style of journalism, the craft’s rough and tumble era reached its peak. . .The fabulous Bennett often engaged in fisticuffs with rivals and made no secret of the battles. As soon as the slugging ended he would rush into print with a standard headline: “Bennett Thrashed Again!” The fierce struggle for scoops (and the attempts to prevent com petitors from getting them) has re sulted in many tangles. Years ago one New York news paper went so far as to hire sharp shooters to shoot down another gazette’s carrier-pigeons. Editor E. W. Howe once ran a searing editorial about a publisher who was mixed up in a drunken brawl. . .When the target wailed the attack had hurt the cause of journalism, Howfe snapped: “Be cause a newspaperman is in a po sition to give criticism that doesn’t mean he is immune from it. And every reporter knows that the wages of sin is publicity!” One of the fightingest editors (at the turn of the century) was named Alvin S. Peck. He turned out a crusading gazette (in the West) at a time when a man’s best friend was his six-shooter and editors were forced to defend their opinions by shooting straight. Peck killed 11 men beiore he was finally shot. The Times wasn’t always nam by-pamby. Years ago it pounced on an editorialist with; “His edi torials are libels that should have paralyzed the fingers that penned them!” A politico supported by the World once committed a blunder. The rival Tribune smugly assert ed: "We will leave the explanation of this to the World.” The World then commented: “It would be a great deal better for the readeri of the Tribune if that newspaper left all matters to J1 World to explain!” During the Spanish - Amencan war Big Town gazettes had a ^ culation war of their own. at ^ attempt to grab readers the -■ ■ ' World printed an incredible ^ tions a day. _ . And the N. Y. Journal topPe that by printing 40. One of Greeley’s feu ‘ had a tremendous eife.c u£t history. He engaged in a - ^ tussle with a publisher naI?e .ve H. Seward. Greeley nevei I on his foe. . .Years later Seward > ^ into politics and looked *. j cinch to cop the GOPresiu nomination in I860. Ho''eitj0c Greeley’s influential opp^.Jlied ruined his chances. Tbe editor supported another cat. and played a major role m j,ia ring the nomination for—ao coin. About a century ago t h e ^ was a morning newspaper . .. went in for sensational new-. (Continued on Page Fi'f) Moscow Retreat The World’, Great Riddle BY DEWITT MACkEV,, AP Foreign Affairs Anal, That was a grand K St which Prime Minister Stal■ in the Kremlin to mar'- ,/ giv* elusion of the dead!ockedV°r'‘ power conference, and h'ci