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" FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1947 Star Program State ports with Wilmington favored in proportion with its resources, to in clude public terminals, tobacco stor age warehouses, ship repair facilities, nearby sites for heavy industry 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 resources through better markets and food processing, pulp wood production and factories. Emphasis on the region’s recrea tion advantages and improvement of resort accommodations. Improvement of Southeastern North Carolina's farm-to-market and pri mary roads, with a paved highway from Topsail inlet to Bald Head is land. Continued effort to attract more in dustries. Proper utilization of Bluethentha! airport for expanding air service. Development of Southeastern Nortn Carolina’s health facilities, especially in counties lacking hospitals, and in cluding a Negro Health center. Encouragement of the growth ni commercial fishing. Consolidation of City ao'1 County governments. GOOD MORNING For my part, I am not so sure at bottom that man is, as he says, die k ;i'r of nature; he is far more its devastating tyrant. I believe he has many u learn from animal societies, older than his own and of infinite variety. —Romain Rolland. Pomp And Circumstance Princess Elizabeth, heir apparent to the crown og Great Britian, yesterday became the bride of Lieut. Philip Mountbatten and the shriveling Empire was agog over the nuptials. In London flags were fluttering on all buildings, scaffolding had been raised for stands along the way between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, where the ceremony took place, and barricades created to held the populace and visitors back. Nothing else that could happen, less than outbreax of a war, could hold equal interest with this marriage in London c-r, for that matter, in the tight little isles. Though the event was to be largely a family affair, just about all the royalty left in the world was in the Abbey when the Archbishops of Canterbury and York per formed the rites. King Michael of Romania, King Haakon of Norway, King Frederik and Queen Ingrid of Denmark, Queen Frederika of Greece, Princess Juliana and Prince Bern hard of Holland, Prince Charles — regent of Belgium — King Peter and former Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, Prince John and Princess Elizabeth of Luxembourg, Prin cess Eugenie of Greece and Don Juan of Spain, were listed among favored guests in the pageantry. Among the missing were the exiled King Leopold of Belgium and King Paul of Greece, who is recovering at home from typhoid fever. Also the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were absent. In addition, among the guests were the foreign diplomatic corps and the mem bers of parliament, the Cabinet and other dignitaries. Nothing like it has happened since Queen Victoria wed Prince Albert, who gave his name to a coat which enjoyed dis tinction throughout the world for many years. Considering Britain’s economic situa tion and political unrest, coupled with world turmoil, the fact that the nation can pro ceed' with the customary pomp and cir cumstance accompanying a royal wedding can well be accepted as evidence that there will always be an England, as the war song declared. Misguiding Japan A short time ago, a number of govern mental bureaus combined to send a special health mission to Tokyo to assist in the for mulation of a new national health program for Japan. According to Representative For est A. Harness of Indiana, who Is chairman of the sub-committee investigating publicity and propaganda in the executive agencies, “All members of this mission are well knowr in the United States for their persistent agi tation for a nationalized system of socialized medicine to be acheived through a program of complusory health insurance.” Mr. Har less said further that “the real purpose of the Mssion is not to assist Japan in working out her basic problems in health and welfare, but to force upon that country a compulsory system of socialized medicine.” This charge, coming on the heels of evi dence to the effect that certain appointive government officials of some importance have been using public funds to promote socialized medicine, is an extremely ser'.ous one. Socialization of medicine—or any pro fession or industry—is in direct opposition to American principles and traditions. All the available evidence including findings of national public opinion polls, leads to the belief that the great majority of our citizens are opposed to it. Yet, if Mr. Harness and others in a position to know are correct, an American official mission will attempt to force it in one form or another on Japan. Is it not possible for our government to lend its aid to promote public health prac tices without seeking to socialize medicine? Up To The Common Man While there is little probability that Con gress, at least during the present extraordi nary session, will implement with legislation President Truman’s proposal for price con trols, there is no reason to doubt that Con gress will closely watch price trends and unless there is some evidence that they will rapidly be downward-bound approve meas ures for forcing them to lower levels. To this extent we may believe the Presi dent’s message is destined to have a definite effect upon prices even though there is no evidence of immediate and desired results. The republican leadership in both branches of Congress is divided on controls. Senator Taft, for example, declares attention will be given only the less controversial proposals in Mr. Truman’s program. That is to say, the joint Economic Committee of which Mr. Taft is chairman will devote its time to these matters. But this does not necessarily mean that all republican mem bers in either branch will be bound by Mr. Taft’s decision, or even that the gentleman from Ohio will not change his mind before the special session closes or merges with the regular session scheduled to start in Jan uary. He has been known to do this in the past. The point that deserves emphasis is that because pressure from back home is grow ing, the members in both branches are more aware of current inflationary tendencies and the encouragement of these tendencies is given by the ascending price spiral than they have appeared to be in the past, are more liable to take the reins out of the hands of Senator Taft and his particular group on Capitol Hill if there is no indication that business in general and labor in particular have no intention of remedying the nation’s economic illness without specific legislation. Inflation is no more welcome to republi cans than democrats. The great masses of voters, sometimes disrespectfully called col lectively the common man, feel its pinch grievously and independently of party af filiation. And in the last analysis it is this common man who rules Congress whenever, in the aggregate, he uses his collective in fluence to force Congress to do something for him. It is he who will make the final decision on inflation. Very definitely he wants it brought to an end. One commentator puts the matter well when he writes: “Congress cannot casually turn aside the President s recommendations and at the same time calm ly watch prices continue to rise during the next few months.” Britain’s Object Lesson The Briitish municipal elections, in which the Conservative party made startling gains and the Labor party suffered equally start ling losses, may indicate a sharp change in the attitude of the rank and file of English people toward the principles of socialism The Labor government cannot blame this reverse on the austerity program Mr. Churchill and the other opposition leaders have said time and time again that austerity is necessary to the economic salvation of Britain, and so it has not been a major politi cal issue. It is much more likely to suppose that legions of British voters have come to the conclusion that socialism has failed to live up to the claims made for it, that social ism is sapping the resources and energies of the nation at an alarming rate and that, under a government which puts the attain ment of a complete socialist state before any other consideration, the sacrifices of austerity are in vain. If that is becoming the British point of view, it is built solidly upon logic. Britain has socialized her vital coal industry—and production is much less than under priyate ownership, and there has been no noticeable change in worker dissension. She has social ized the Bank of England and other instru ments of domestic and international finance —and her economic position worsens daily. She is threatening to socialize electric power and other basic enterprises—and this has caused widespread fear and uncertainty which have contributed • to her economic doldrums. The Labor government has creat ed an enormous, self-seeking bureaucracy which has strangled English enterprise in red tape and mountains of regulations, and it has been guilty of monumental failure in the administration of British affairs at home and abroad. If, as the municipal elections indicate, a substantial proportion of the British people are weary of socialism and regimentation, it is an object lesson for this country. Free enterprise, whatever its faults, is the only system yet devised which permits maximum economic development of a nation and still assures the liberties of the people. That is one fact we must never forget. The nation simply will no longer stand for the continued concentration of financial control in a few hands and in one place. —Cyrus Eaton, Cleveland industrialist. * * * Congress should appropriate funds to carry the nations of western Europe through the forthcoming winter. Give them also enough to provide for the planting of their 1948 crops and after that let them paddle their own canoe. —Rep. Harold Knutson (R) of Minnesota. » * * Our national welfare demands a national policy of “Stop, look, and listen.” —Ernest T. Weir, chairman,Rational Steel Corp. As Pegler Sees It By WESTBROOK PEGLER (Copyright, King Features Syndicate, Inc.) NEW YORK — If the working-people, the wage-earners, of the United States, have sufiered any loss through the adoption of the Taft-Hartley law, the blame must lie with the great, greedy bosses of the union movement. They had the power to reform the unions, to stop the persecution of indivi duals, and the harassment of communities by unnecessary and oppressive strikes. They could have abated the robbery of millions of workers through assessments for causes in which they had no interest, for expen sive insurance and for undisguised rackets. But, throughout the Rooseveit administra tion, they refused to drop their selfish poli tics and answered every criticism and warn ing with the monotonous cry of “labor baiter.” , ., t Actually, the only important baiters ol labor during those years were not the Na tional Association of Manufacturers nor any of the journalists or candidates, but some of the presidents and vice-presidents of unions, Jimmy Petrillo by now has convinced him self that he actually does serve his “boys but, a few years ago, he openly smirked about his holy mission and the enormous proportion of Saturday night saxophonists in his American Federation of Musicians. The union did nothing for them. It merely preyed upon them., compelling these clerks, students and carpenters, men of a hundred occupations, to buy membership under him and pay their dues and fines and submit to his tyrannical discipline so that they might earn a few extra dollars on week ends Jimmy’s powers are really terrible. Other union bosses have the same powers, but Jimmy’s are written out for him in an article of his constitution which permits him to rule absolutely by whim, subject to no challenge or appeal. The cruel gangsters of the Hodcarriers’ and the Operating Engi neers’ unions and some of the machine poli ticians of the teamsters exercised pratically the same despotic authority but they had to go in for subterfuge and terror, not that this emoarrassed those who ruled by these methods. Jimmy s was uie oniy union wno&e loung ing fathers had had the gall to spell out the proposition that unionism was a tota litarian racket and it was significant that his most alarming excesses began after he hired Joseph Padway as his general counsel. 1 paid my respects to this parasite on the body of American labor when he died a few weeks ago but I have always been willing to add that the most arrogant of the dicta torial profiteers in American unionism was also the cleverest shyster in union law. Pad way was not necessarily a fine lawyer, although he did have his points. He handled a class of clients who always had a great ad vantage under law and could pay off judg ments, if they lost, by the painless process of levying assessments on the faceless peo ple who carried the cards and did the work. This gave Padway an advantage over law yers for the other side. I say it was signifi cant that Jimmy really started to go to town only after he hired Padway, because Padway was the legal adviser of the entire American Federation of Labor. His ruth less thinking directed the great A. E. of L. in many of its policies throughout this time and his guidance was that of a man with absolutely no regard for the community. So, in the end, and in time for him to see what he had done, the Taft-Hartley law was adopted. Padway collapsed in the seiz ure that took his life as he bellowed to the convention of hJ misguided client, the A. F. of L., that the l»v meant slavery. There is no question that Padway and William Green, John Lewis, Philip Murray, Dan Tobin, Petrillo, Reuther and Fay, the merciless thug now securely filed away in prison at last, were strong men in union ism. The criticism of these bosses is that they either misused their strength, meaning their force of character as well as their follow ing in goons, to oppress the real workers of the United States, or failed to use it in the> interests of reform. Green could have been a great American by now, or Murray, or any of the others, who had been wise and hon est enough to say, five or six years ago, “the union movement must make peace with the people and the law of the United States and serve the community in which it lives.” But they missed their opportunity and now the whole lot of them are reduced to howling to the rank and file worker that he is a slave in chains and bleeding from the blows of the knout. But the worker looks at his wrists and sees no bands and he takes inventory and finds no wounds. un me contrary, ne ueguimug iu icor ize that he can now appeal to the govern ment to protect him from his union .This is a new freedom that already has stirred in many men of the teamsters’ union a spirit of revolution against Dan Tobin, president for more than 30 years, a longer reign than most kings have enjoyed. It is dawning on the rank and file that they have rights under unionism which they never even dreamed of in the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt un der the Wagner Act, unmitigated. The ma jority of the union members are of such an age that they began working under Roose velt and never knew any other condition than the denial of fair trials under law, the large arbitrary fines and assessments, the expensive suspensions and the blast of a whistle in the mouth of some criminal rac keteer, calling out a thousand American citizens without a strike vote. The majority of the union workers of to day never realized that they actually had rights. But they believed, because they had been raised that way, that unions were a private government unto themselves with no responsibility to the nation or the various states. This is where unionism under Roosevelt and the new deal tricked and oppressed American labor and finally so provoked the people, including labor, that they turned on the bosses. And this is where Senator Taft, whatever his future, showed honesty, force and integ rity to the chagrin of other candidates for the republican nomination. On his western trip, Taft was saluted with picket signs calling him a rat. This was an organized display of the brutal vulgarity of an element which for so many years had enjoyed a warrant from Roosevelt to boss and abuse not only American labor but whole areas of homes and industry and to vilify decent men for daring to fight back. Quotations The time has come when we must count it a privilege to be among those who would be as bold in the pursuit of peace as we were daring in our recent months of battle for survival. —John L. Sullivan, secretary of the Navy. * » * I am convinced there would be infinitely greater assurance of production volume suf ficient to check inflation Tf taxes were re duced at the coming session of Congress. —Earl O. Shreve, president, U. S. Chamber of Commerce. * * * American imperialism wants to dominate the universe. . _Jacques Duclos, French Communist sec retary. * * * The German people must understand that they cannot create an independent and uni fied Germany out of sharp contrast be tween the big powers, but only out of the still possible unanimity among those big powers. _Theodore Plivier, writer. * * * Nationalization has prov^ a faiJiUa‘ . —Winston Churchill. FLYING AUTO tiowoo you GETirOor OF MG#? . The Reuther Victory # ■ -■ , ■ ■ ■ — By STEWART ALSO? WASHINGTON — It is diffi cult to overestimate the real meaning of Walter Reuther’s overwhelming victory at the United Automobile Workers’ convention in Atlantic City. For the Communists have lost their last chance to dominate or deep ly influence an important seg ment of the American labor movement. In so doing, they have lost their last chance to dominate or deeply to influence the whole American political left. For without a solid, unas sailable base in the labor move ment, the communists ire re duced to comparative political impotence. And this in turn will have a profound impact on the national polticial scene. Only two or three months ago. there existed a serious possibili ty that the communists might extend their influence to unions to represent about half the mem bership of the entire CIO. Yet with Curran’s recent victory ini the maritime workers, and 1 Ruether’s success this week, the whole communist position in the CIO is threatened. It is threatened, for example, in national CIO headquarters. The hand of CIO President Philip Murray, who detests the communists, but who has hesi tated to move against them for fear of splitting his beloved CIO from top to bottom, is strength ened. So is the hand of James Carey, CIO secretary treasurer, and Reuther’s chief ally at na tional headquarters. And the position of CIO counsel Lee Pressman, the communists’ friend at court, has thus become exceedingly precarious. Reuther has never troubled to conceal his sentiments towards Pressman. One close observer of the CIO has remarked that it would sur prise him if Pressman lasted three months. Bringing In The Sheaves By PETER EDSON WASHINGTON — Houston Harte, Texas newspaper pub lisher, sends in a report from his San Angelo Standard and Times that gives the best pic ture yet of what’s happening down on the big wheat farms. The big operators come rejoic ing, bringing in the sheaves, all right. But they aren’t sending those sheaves to market. First, in the hope of a price rise and, second, because they want to beat the income tax collector. From a third to a half of the wheat raised in the Texas Pan handle is still being held on the farms, say Mr. Harte’s report ers. The little town of Vega, Tex., population 500, is said to be rolling in dough. Eight fami lies alone raised from 50,000 to 200,000 bushels of wheat apiece. Putting the average at 100,000 bushels, it represents a potential gross income of $300,000 at to day’s $3 a bushel price. But, since the income tax laws are so rigged that the most a man can keep and show a profit on is around $29,000, these big farm operatofrs are selling only about 10,000 to 20,000 bushels. This nets them maximum return after taxes. Any wheat sold over this maximum would net them only about 25 cents income on the bushel. .wie rest ui me crop is Deing stored on farms or warehoused until 1948, which is another tax year. Every empty building is said to be stored with wheat. Wheat - filled quonset huts line the railroa.d tracks. Two big new elevators are being built in Vega to hold 75,000 bushels. This Texas situation is appar ently true of the entire wheat belt, right up to the Canadian border. When Tom Campbell of Montana, biggest U. S. wheat farmer, was in Washington re cenlty, he told -President Tru man that he was holding 600,000 bushels of wheat*. The U. S. Department of Ag riculture Crop Reporting Board says that, as of Oct. 1, over 628 million bushels of wheat—nearly half the 1947 harvest of 1.4 bil lion bushels — were still being held on farms. This is the latest report available. These big farm operators, who are not selling their wheat now, are, of course, playing a smart game. Planting weather throughout the w i nter wheat belt has been too dry, which is bad. Next year’s crop may be much smaller than this year’s all-time record high. Ifrfhe next crop is off, the price jp bound to be higher. So the farmer who holds has everything to gain and nothing to lose. It has been generally report ed, and the belief is widespread, that it is the governments’ crop loan policy which is responsible for today’s high wheat price and for much of the wheat hoarding on farms. Commodity Credit Corporation reports'indicate this isn’t so. It is the tax law—not the farm loan policy — that is principally to blame. As of Oct. 1—again the latest report available—CCC had made loans of $37.75 million dollars on 20 million bushels of 1947 wheat. While this sounds like a lot of money and a lot of wheat, it is only 1.5 per cent of this year’s 1.4 billion bushel crop. In years past, the government has made loans on 500 million and 600 mil lion bushels. The average of the 13,000 loans made so far this year is for $2750 on 1581 bushels of wheat, obviously no big farm er operation. As a matter of fa