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Big Spring Weekly Herald from Big Spring, Texas • Page 6

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Big Spring, Texas
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A Bible Thought For Today-- Unselfish service to the young, the weak, the poor, is always blessed. Our aim should be service and not solely personal gain from our work. "That the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou doest." Deut. 14:29. Pardon The Confusion, But Don't Forget Probing The Solons, Too You may have heard that all has not been well in the operation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the agency responsible for fair and impartial collection of our federal taxes.

Come to think of It, you probably haven't heard much of anything else lately. Well, all hands agreed that something should be dons about it. A great many competent critics said one of the main things to do was take the bureau out of politics. Each of the 64 collectors is a political appointee, and they wouldn't be human if they'd didn't make some effort to string along with their political sponsors, guides and currycombers as far as their consciences would let them. Some of them had very elastic consciences; some were, of course, honest and conscientious.

Well again, Mr. Truman this week submitted to Congress plan to take the bureau out of politics and make it honest. He would abolish the existing 64 districts and set up In their stead 25 regional tax collecting offices, each under a dislrlct commissioner to be selected under Civil Service. This got an instant reaction out of. Congress.

Some senators and representatives objected because their states would loss a district office, since there would be only 25 to be distributed among 48 states. Some Democrats objected because making the office a Civi! Service deal would deprive them of patronage. Some Republicans objected because adoption oE this plan would deprive them of a good talking point against the administration--they want to keep the tax scandals alive for political purposes. One GOPster introduced a bill for a investigation of "corruption" In the executive branch of the government. (It would be a sacrilege, of course, for anybody to suggest that Congress itselC ought to be investigated for meddling In tax collection matters in behalf of friends.) So, we have a bad situation; we get a suggestion how to remedy the bad situation; Congress immediately shoots it full of holes.

Some regard the proposed changes as an Interfersnce with their patronage; some would hate to see the matter solved because it would deprive them of something to bellyache about. Is that good for the country? Listen, You Have Only Two More Weeks For Qualifying Your Vote We know you may grow weary of hearing about it--but have you paid your poll taxes? Of course, we wouldn't wnnt to hurry you, but there remain exactly two weeks in which to attend to this highly essential chore. For your Information, there are about 5,000 people who haven't got around to this matter yet. That means that we will have to average more than 450 per day to come up to the expected voting strength. Translated Into terms that will affect you, It means that every day the number falls unrer that, the lines toward the end get that much longer.

You might be caught in one of them--and there's absolutely no sense in waiting that long. Certainly you want to qualify as a voter--you certainly do if you are any part of a good citizen. Well, the poll tax receipt (or exemption certificate) Is thing which determines it whether you like It or not. This is to be a tremendously important year--elections for almost every office in the land: School trustees, city commissioners, all county and precinct officers, most district offices; state offices; congressmen; and even President. If history repeats itself, there could be an election or two on bonds and special issues like last year's wet-dry vote.

Why not stop putting it off? Go on and get your poll tax paid. Be equipped to act as a good citizen. Merry-Gp-Round--Drew Pearson Churchill Receives Advice From Sen. Green On A U. S.

Of Europe WASHINGTON. It didn't leak to the press, but at the President's first luncheon for Winston Churchill, the 77-year-oM prime minister got some friendly advice from the only guest older than he. The. adviser was 84-year-old Sen. Theodore Francis Green oE Rhode Island, who, despite his age, is even more active than Churchill, and who during the luncheon gently told the P.M.

about moves toward a United States of Europe made at the Strasbourg conference. Green recently served as co-chairman With Paul Spaak of over. the consultative assembly of the Council of Europe, attended by 14 U.S. senators and congressmen, plus delegates from all parts of Europe. And the Rhode Island senator was quite eloquent in describing the pleas for unity made by the delegates and their disappointment over British opposition.

Most U.S. congressmen attending the Strasbourg conference came away determined that future American aid to Europe should be tied to a proviso that Europe unite. Even conservative Democrats Gene Cox of Georgia and Howard Smith of Virginia made speeches praising European unity and criticising British aloofness. Diplomatic Senator Green did not bear down too hard on this during the President's lunch for Churchill, but tried to get his point across by saying: "Your delegate Robert Boothby did as well as he could with the limited material he had." Churchill grunted. "Good man Boothby," he said.

Then with pride in his own political party, he added: "He's a Conservative." Senator Green's hint, however, had no effect upon the Churchill-Truman conferences that followed. The prime minister paid nothing more than lip-service to European unity. During the Strasbourg conference, British Delegate Boothby in opposing a United Skates of Europe argued: "The finest unity the world has ever seen was that between Churchill a Roosevelt when they met together to decide the problems of the world." To this Congressman Frazier Reams oE Toledo, took exception. "I have had the greatest respect for both Mr. Roosevelt and Mr.

Churchill," he told the Strasbourg assembly, most of Eastern Europe is littered with broken pieces of the policies they left behind." Diplomats who watched the venerable British statesman in Washington couldn't escape the impression that Churchill still believes the problems of the world should be settled between two men only. Diplomats who watched Churchill in other conferences alsn remembered, however, how obstructionist he could be when Roosevelt would not yield, and how some the decisions he insisted upon completely upset the peace of the world. Here ere some of them: ERROR IN CHINA Meeting with Chiang Kai-shek and FDR in one of their famed conferences (Cairo in 1943) Roosevelt felt the urgent need of strengthening Chiang. His army had been fighting the Japanese longer than auy other. Already he faced desertions to the Communists.

So FDR urged an Allied campaign over the Burma road to rescue Churchill was vigorously opposed. He would hear none of it. Instead he wanted an Allied campaign to retake Britain's old possessions--Singapore and the this Chiang got sore, threatened to pull out altogether, and it took a lot of persuading by FDR to keep him In Cairo. To placate him FDR proposed that Britain give up Hong Kong, make it an international port under he U.N Churchill's reply: "I was not made prime minister to liquidate the British Empire." returning empty-handed, faced Increasing defections, to the Communists Real fact is that for Chiang, Cairo marked the beginning of the Hong Kong, stm British, supplied the Communists with part of their gas and oil to oppose us in Korea. ERROR IN GREECE At Casablanca, Churchill got from FDR a promise that the Mediterranean was to be a British theatre, with all commands and political decisions clearing through British hands.

This meant not only a British top commander for Allied forces in Italy--though most of the troops were American--but it meant that not even a telegram could be sent in the Mediterranean theatre without a British. One result was gross mismanagement in Greece. Churchill backed the wrong leaders, got the country involved in civil war, eventually sent a telegram that shocked the not hesitate to act as if you were in a conquered city," Churchill wired the British commander in Athens. "You should not hesitate to open fire on any armed male in the Greek capital who assails the authority of the and dominate Athens." this policy failed. It failed so miserably that London gave the United States peremptory notice it was turning the future of Greece over to us Since then we have been running Greece--at a cost of about one billion dollars a -year--some of which could have been saved if we had followed the old adage, "An ounce- prevention is worth a pound of cure.

1 IRAN AND EGYPT-Diplonwts a recall the manner in which Churchill secured frdm Roosevelt full control of policy in Egypt, Iran and the Middle Enst. The result of that policy, partly spelled out in Egyptian riots and closed British consulates in Iran, is too fresh to need repetition the manner in which American wartime commanders backed up British supremacy, may have been forgotten. Gen. Benny Giles, lecturing U. S.

newsmen who criticized British policy in Cairo in 1343, said: "Gentlemen. I have noticed that you have been writing political news. You are war correspondents, and you will write nothing critical of British policy in the Middle East" New Bed Companion LONDON (AP)-You smokers can take your pipe to bed if you want--an without any danger of setting the place on fire. This Is the claim of a London pipe manufacturer whose new "Hurricane" pipe is equipped with a plastic cap. The cap pivots for tobacco lighting and prevents ashes being blown about by the wind or clothing being burned by lighted tobacco.

The cap has six holes which allow air to penetrate into the pipe bowL "You've Heard The Hour-Glass Figure World Today--James Mar low Politicians Could Stand To Put A Bit Of Life In Their Words These Days WASHINGTON UP) If our politicians weren't so pale around the participles we might all have a quickened sense of up and doing. Maybe we couldn't stand it if they changed their style. But it would be a switch from the present diet of prim prose which moves along steadily like a sidewalk where no flowers grow. The politicians talk of the "defense program" when, by adding just a few drops oJ purple in the Inkwell, they could be telling us: In this hour when the western people gather around to warm themselves at the fire of their common heritage, at great cost in wealth and sweat they sharpen their sprees against an angry bear. They talk of "election time" when they could be saying this is the year when grizzled men, locking their cabins in the high sierras and hanging up their nets in M.iino, trudge off to choose a candidate.

When President Truman asks for a tax Increase, a senator, simply because this is an election year, says "nothing doing," when," Just because it is an election year, he might endear himself to the "voters" with this: "My people stagger now under the crushing burden of taxation. Let no man add one farthing to the load they bear. They cannot pay. Nor shall they pay. I will never permit it." Strong men have never been moved to tears or tearing up the furniture by the literary style of Mr.

Truman or Senator Tnft. They just put one word after another, like a man walking down the street left, right. And while General Eisenhower is reported to have an Impressive sentence structure -he apparently has no intention of exposing it to the critics any time soon. He's indicated he won't talk to get nominated. Although President Truman's recent message to Congress, en the State of the Union and on econom- ics, were clear they never tingled.

It would, of course, take some doing on the part of any man to make a 25-page economic report get up and dance. Winston Churchill might have been able to needle it a bit. The first sentence in that econ- nomic message said: "The past year has been marked by great gains in our basic economic strength." Churchill, who rolls words around in his mouth to enjoy the full juices of the gerunds, might have proclaimed: "In this dark and glowering year, beset by the encroachments of die enemy, we have moved with the dignity befitting our ancient lineage. We have not done too'badly. Indeed, we have prospered mightily to the astonishment of our foes and the warm comradeship of our staunch allies." The next sentence in the President's economic message said: "These gains have enabled us to move forward toward our security objectives with far less strnin upon the economy than would otherwise' have been possible." It's a cinch Churchill would never let "security objectives" get into any speech of his, which might have gone like this: "Our advancement has provided us with the bastion upon which we stand and from which we shall progress to the end we a mightily fortified western land, secure against all OUT enemies.

And although the strain has tried us sorely it has diminished neither oar strength nor our unconquerable ability to endure, no matter what may befall us in the troubled times ahead." Maybe' the Churchillian prose sounds good because we only have to listen to it once in a while. Maybe he just saves it up for us because he knows we're not used to it. Notebook-Hal Boyle Put Magic In Marriage Just By Losing Weight This Day In Texas By CURTIS BISHOP Refused the aid of Federal troops by President U. S. Grant, Governor E.

J. Davis on this, day in" 1874 walked out of the state capitol, and Texas had one governor instead of two. Davis, defeated by Richard Coke in the regular election, did not accept defeat gracefully. Instead he determined to make a last stand. First he charged his opponents with illegal voting.

Then he claimed that under the constitution he was entitled to serve until April 21, when his four years of office would have expired. Equally determined Texans had inaugurated Coke and Lieutenant Governor Hubbard in the midnight hours of January 14 and, for three days, there was confusion in the capitol house as Davis and his Negro troopers held the floor of the building while the Senate and House, pro-Coke, maintained possession of the upper stories. When Davis moved his troopers Into the building, one loyal Democrat is said to have warned him: "Let a Negro trooper fire a gun and the next shot will be aimed directly at your heart." When Grant refused to support him in office, Davis retired without bloodshed. A few weeks later the Texas Legislature sent their thanks to Grant for his refusal. By ED CREAGH (For Hal Boyle) WASHINGTON Mad at your Wife or husband? Thinking of going home to mother or father? Convinced, after giving it a fair trial, that you plucked a persimmon in the garden of love? Wait, friend.

There's hope for you yet. An easy-as-pie new formula, just published in "This Week" magazine, tells how you can put the magic back into your marriage --if you live. The secret: lose weight. A ot just a few pounds from around the hips. Lots of weight.

Pounds and pounds. Get to be scriwny, in fact. Thin down to the point where you'll have to walk past twice to cast a shadow. This is the conclusion to be drawn from a survey called "Predicting Success or Failure in Marriage," by E. W.

Burgess and L. S. Cottrell Jr. They make no bones about it: skinny, bony people have happier marriages than their better- paid neighbors. The happiest husbands and wives, say the authors, are likely to be 15 pounds or more underweight, which seems to show once and for all that malnutrition does more than psychiatry can to justify woman's ways to man.

Well, maybe. But it doesn't work out that way among the people in our neighborhood. It may be just coincidence, but the only couple within three blocks who regularly slug it out at the of an insult are thin, pale people. And the most contented couple, on the other hand; are a man with a Charles Laughton figure and a woman with the approximate girth of a beach cabana. They hold hands in public after 15 years of marriage and they don't care who sees them.

The wife in this case started worrying about her weight, a few years back, and went on a diet. She lost weight, all right. But she also lost her good disposition. One night, watching her husband tie into the potatoes and gravy, she threw a salt shakei at him. He was so outraged that, for the first time in his life, he went out and got Around The Rim-The Herald Staff When President Presents Medal, He Does So On Behalf Of People Last week a father refused to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor awarded hit deceased son for gallantry in Korea.

The reason was the father did not think President Truman "worthy to confer" it. It was the first time Jn the nation's history that our highest military award had been rejected. If for no other reason, the father owed It to the memory of his son on behalf of a grateful nation to accept this medal. The son's name should be listed among other Medal of Honor winners for all to see and be thankful for this one boy's gallant contribution to national defense. But, alas, this rejection does not end at this point.

In no sense do we deny the father's right to his opinion, be it good or bad, about a politician-elected President. In every national vote, there is always a segment of the population who will not accept a Presidential selection, having voted for another man. Such a view is certainly one of personality, and we respect it. On the other hand, no man acts to award a medal, be it the highest prize the land or the Jowest award, in his own personal name with only himself as the judge of who should get such awards loaded. When he came home, she wouldn't let him hi.

He went to a hotel, phoned a lawyer, and it looked like the end of their romance. But his wife ate a couple of cream puffs to soothe her nerves and felt so much better that she went downtown and apologized to her husband. They went on a second honeymoon and there hasn't been a cross word between them since. She weighs in at 187 today, a gain of nine pounds since Christmas. No, starvation doesn't really seem to settle the problem of man- and-wife discord.

"Feed the brute," the wise old wives used to say. And if good living thickened his waistline, at least that made him less attractive to other women. As for thd man, any honest wife will tell you that he seldom takes a good look at her and when he docs, he sees her as the shy, slender girl he married, though she may by this time have all she can do to squeeze into a size 32 skirt. Search Reduced For Crewmen Of Missing Vessel SEATTLE Ifl--With hope all but gone, the Coast Guard today reduced Us search for the freighter Pennsylvania and the missing crewmen to a one-cutter basis. Aerial search was halted last night for the 45 or 46 crewmen who now have been unheard from for nearly eight days.

The only search for the crewmen today was being conducted on a limited basis by the cutter Yocona of a Calif. Meanwhile, Coast Guard officials said they plan a full dress inquiry into the tragedy, including particular investigation of the ship's previous voyage. On that trip, from San Francisco to Japan, the Pennsylvania was forced to turn back after being 2,500 miles out and have repairs made to a split in her starboard side. All medals are presented only after combat commanders are told by eye-witnesses of heroic deeds. From this point, further combat-zone officers in higher echelons must pass the recommendation for such awards to still higher echelons until we reach the Department of Defense Itself.

From here, medal awards recommendations are determined and the President of the United States generally accepts the verdicts as rendered by his military leaders and advisors. In no event, according to the way such awards are presented, are political considerations involved. The President, be he Harry Truman or Joe Doaks, humbly awards the Medal of Honor In the name of the people of the United States as its chief executive, the President. It cannot be denied that this is the case as regards Mr. Truman's presentation.

I'm sure that the entire nation joins me in saying that we, the people, award this medal to the father's son, as a token of our grateful appreciation for services rendered the nation. Since all of us, individually, can't present 140,000,000 medals, the President does the honors. Please, sir, accept this medal from we, the people? --FRED GREENE. Business Outlook-J. A.

Livingston Ike's 'Reluctance' Is Big News, But There's Nothing Wrong In It The Wall Street Journal raises an interesting point--or query-- about General Eisenhower. A copyrighted article from Paris, given unusual prominence because it carried a two-column front-page headline In contrast to the Journal's one-column custom, declared that Ike is a "reluctant candidate." What's wrong with that? To be worthy of the Presidency, a man doesn't have to drool for the job. His reluctance can be his greatest virtue. Circumstances-- and Robert A. Taft--have forced Eisenhower to change from a man who in 1948 had no Presidential aspirations to a man who has no alternative.

Everything Eisenhower stands for Is wrapped up in the G. O.P. nomination. He helped liberate Europe from Hitler. He believes that-a free Britain and a free Europe are essential to the economic freedom and military safety of the United States.

He believes that the U. S. must participate openly in organizing the non- Communist world to contain Soviet Russia. That applies to economic as well as political participation. In brief, Eisenhower is internationalist In outlook.

Robert A. Taft isn't. Nor for that matter, is the Wall Street Journal, if I interpret the publication's editorial policy, correctly. Eisenhower feels, as do Senators Lodge, Duff, Saltonstail, Morse, and a good many other Republicans, including Governor Dewey, of New York, that a reversal or a major change in U. S.

foreign poKcy would be extremely dangerous. To them he's the only man who can wrest the nomination from Taft and then go on to win the election. Eisenhower's supporters gave him this choice: Go after the nomination yourself or Taft will get it. So Eisenhower, to protect all that he fought for in World War II, agreed to run, if nominated. Eisenhower isn't unique.

Many a man has taken a job because of a sense of duty. Is there any higher test of fitness? An employer doesn't hire somebody because he's available and anxious, but because he's qualified and can be persuaded. Nor does a good man take a job just because it's open or is offered. He must feel he can bring something to it. Eisenhower doesn't relish the idea of a military man as President.

In rejecting Republican overtures in 1948, he said: "The necessary and wise subordination of military to civil power will be best sustained when lifelong professional soldiers abstain from seeking high political office." Yet, that doesn't mean that Eisenhower ought not to run for office. The mere fact that he said what he said --that he recognizes the desirability of having civilian leadership--is distinctly in his favor. Furthermore, being a civilian is only one desirable qualification for the Presidency. Of far greater importance is policy--having a policy you believe in-and being able, as a leader of men, to carry out that policy. Today the Republican Party Is clearly riven on foreign affairs.

Taft would make different decisions on international problems from either Trtfman or Eisenhower. So, to protect his work, his life work, Eisenhower agrees to let his supporters- offer his name to the Republican convention. He's reluctant but willing. Is that an asset or a liability? Politicians argue his reluctance Is a liability. He's not on hand to make deals before the convention and thus tie up gates.

On the other hand, it's an asset too: He's overseas building the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He's doing what he feels must be done and what, presumably, he'll continue to do If chosen President. What's wrong with that? Salvage Axis Ships GOA, Portuguese India. (--Two sunken merchant vessels of the wartime A i powers have been salvaged by a Goa firm. The German S.

S. Drachenfels and Italian Anfora have been brought to the surface recently. Both ships were scuttled by their crews in a spectacular episode at the time of Goa's carnival celebrations in February, 1946. The ships took refuge in the neutral waters of Marmagoa harbor early in World War II. Crews of the vessels set off noisy explosions in the 1946 scuttling.

Police captured crews and Portugal ultimately repatriated the men. Uncle Ray's Corner POCKET GOPHER At NEXT MEAL in (ft POCKETS Pocket Gophers Great Diggers The greatest engineers in the animal world are beavers, but they do their work above ground, or in the water. When we come to underground workers, it seems that the prize should go to gophers, often called "pocket gophers." They may be described as the greatest diggers among all animals. may think of the mole as a rival. The mole is an excellent digger, and is very rapid, but it works just under the surface of the ground.

As it goes along, it makes a little ridge, the widely known molehill. Gophers perform a harder task. They dig into solid ground, and make tunnels which are hundreds of times as long as their bodies. Almost 100 kinds of pocket gophers are known. They differ in length--some are only six or seven Inches long when full grown, but others measure 12 or 13 inches.

The average weight is about three fourths of a pound. When a gopher sets to work on Jts digging, it us es its long incisor teeth and the long, sharp claws of its front feet. More of the digging is done with the claws than with the teeth. When too little headway can be made with the claws, the teeth are employed. If a rocky area bars the way.

the gopher turns the tunnel In another direction. The tunnel may be only an inch and a half in diameter, or it may have a width of two or three inches. The larger and fatter a gopher is, the wider' the tunnel it must make. There is the problem of what to do with the soii which is loosened. This is solved by the animal.

It turns a kind of somersault inside the tunnel, then heads back toward the opening. Using its front legs as if they were arms, it pushes a load of soil ahead of it. The soil is left on the surface. In time there may be a mound, around the six t'- 12 inches thick and with an area of several square feet. For NATURE section of your scrapbook.

Tomorrow: More About Gophers. Ten illustrations by Frank C. Rape appear in the picture leaflet. PEOPLE AND CUSTOMS. If you want a copy, send a self-addressed envelope faeanng a three-cent stamp to Uncle Ray in care of this newspaper.

The Big Spring Herald Published Sunday mominit and veekdiy afternooni excrpt Saturday by iwuwom AFFILIATED NEWSPAPERS. KC Entered second class matter Jclv la the space the as Jan. 1952.

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About Big Spring Weekly Herald Archive

Pages Available:
5,624
Years Available:
1935-1954