St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 20

1 2C ST. LOUIS TOST'DISPATCH, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1948 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH St. Louis Slum Cily Inappropriate at all since most of the next bomb's victims probably would be the sort of people who patronize delicatessen stores away from the bright lights the little people of the world. Founded hv JOSEPH PULITZER l-ih li, JJ7J Thr Pulitirr Publishing Co.

Ttl'fnf Aii'tH MAm III) 111! Oluc Sr. flj THE rOSTDISPATCH PLATFORM I know that my retirement will male no difference in ita ranliniil mriplri; tli nt it will alwaya fight for mifrrt ami reform, never tolerate injiiMire or corruption, alwayi fight ilcinnnof of alt partieft, nrvrr belong to any parly, alwnyi oppuar privileged rltiura ami piihlir never lak ympulliy Hiih ttie poor, atwaya remain lr-volril to lie pulilie Kelfare; never nilihfird kiiIi merely printing nctvn; alwnyt lie drnMirally imle-penitent; never le afraid to ettark vrnnp, whether by predatory plutocracy or pred.itorv poverty. JOSEPH PULITZER. April 10. 1007 St.

Louis has a sordid distinction. Only five American cities among 108 have a greater percentage of dwellings with outdoor privies and lacking private baths. We are that close to absolute bottom in decent housing. The Federal Housing Administration and the Ilurcau of the Census have Issued a study which shows that only Birmingham, Memphis, Chattanooga, Montgomery and Shreveport--alI Southern cities are worse off than St. Louis in sani-itary facilities for its The ugly fact is that one out of every three St.

Louis dwelling units has no bath or toilet. Even many rural areas make a better showing. It would be bard to Imagine a report more unpalatable to a civic body than this one, yet to tls credit tin St. Louis Chamber of Commerce has not only seriously taken it up. George C.

Smith, president of the chamber, is making certain that the report gets wide public attention. This week's issue of the chamber's publication, St. Louis Commerce, gives the disgraceful details. It shows that although New York has almost 10 times as many dwelling units as St. Louis, our city has 3400 more units than New York without running water and 1000 more than New York with toilet but without bath.

In other words, New York has slum sections but St. Louis is a slum city. There is no question about any of this. The Comprehensive City Plan, issued by the City Plan Commission last year, discussed it t.ll under the subject of housing. It said: We cannot truthfully say that St.

Louis is a good place in which to live when We spend $4,000,000 general tax funds annually to maintain our obsolete areas. (This sum represents the difference in cost of governmental service and tax collections annually in these areas.) We have 33.000 dwellings still dependent on outside privy vaults. (The central business area alone has 2438 outside toilets.) We have an additional dwellings where toilets are shared by several families. We have 82,000 dwellings in structures built before 1900. How has this condition come about? Why does St.

Louis rank last among 14 communities with 200,000 or more dwelling units? The Comprehensive City Plan, which actually Is the fulfillment of a request made on the Plan LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE Getting Back on the Track By its 7-to2 decision In the DiUe case, the Supreme Court goes a long way toward correcting its 5-to-4 ruling last May in the Harris case. The Harris decision was the one which sustained what Justice Murphy called "use of the odious general warrant or writ, of assistance, presumably outlawed forever from our society by the Fourth Amendment." In each case the question was the validity of a search by officers of the law. Harris was convicted of draft evasion on evidence accidentally found In his home by FBI agents who were searching for mail fraud evidence. The Supreme Court's approval of this conviction was so astonishing that the Post-Dispatch said it could not stand that Chief Justice Vinson's majority opinion had put the court "out on a limb which would break off." The defendant in the Dilte case was arrested and searched because he was in an automobile in which police had been told a transfer of forged OPA coupons would take place. The record showed that police had no warrant for DiHe.

For this reason the Circuit Court of Appeals at New York set aside his arrest as without "probable cause" and his search as illegal. Justice Jackson soundly handles the fact that forged coupons were found on DiHe: "A search is good or bad when it starts and does not change lis character from its success." Docs this not mean that some offenders will go unpunished? At times, but there is a more important consideration. To quote Justice Jackson again: The forefathers designed our Constitution to place obstacles in the way of a too-permeating police surveillance, which they seemed to think was a greater danger to a free people than the escape of some criminals from punishment. In a period of political tenseness such as we are going through today, it is all the more urgent that every 'proper protection be afforded the individual that searches and prosecutions be conducted with careful regard for historic guarantees. It is regrettable that Chief Justice Vinson again votes against Supreme Court protection for the invoked human right.

Without opinion, the Chief Justice stands by his Harris decision while Justices Reed, Douglas and Burton now reject the so-called "appeal to necessity" of the searchers and prosecutors. Thus, while the court gets back on the track with respect to unreasonable searches, the difference is further widened between the Chief Justice and a constant protector of Bill of Rights guarantees such as Justice Rutledge. lispp Iff i iJLI'VVi Vft-flTCSM' life Ar Alw J.J Tim! Who I. ike Inflation To the I'M il it or Ilia 1'iutt I innli'h Your cilitotinl, "Up to the GOT," commented nn the feeble nnd wholly In-niliviintp nt i I fl.it Ion Mil recently by I'ongress. There Is no hope, lis you sny, thnt Industry will bring inflation to a tut it hy voluntary control, rnninly because it Is ngalnst the Interests of industry to do ho.

Though Indiiht i in I lenders, like mnny rt hern of prestige, Including ninny members of Congress, may give lip service to the fact that Inflation in liad. privately they oppose nny means tiy which It mny he clu cked. The bnsli renson for this in nri extraordinary opportunity to make luge profits from nn ndvnncn In priced. When it come to a real Mhowdown, the possibility of a well-filled purse takes precedence over the national welfare. Just nt the moment a frenzy of speculation has seized the country.

Until thin wear off hy natural causes wo can expect little relief from Inflation. A the splint of Inflation continues, vh! l.i ceitaln If the Marshall plan goes Into effect, nil owners of tangible property will profit enormously. Doubt less a majority of the members of Congress have Investments that will Increase In price, Back of these Is a vnst iu ray of constituent who will likewise; pi of it; farmers, hiiHlnes men, merchants. In ice. Industrie which make a business tif producing nnd processing, hoarders, holders of inventory, grain, livestock and commodity speculators, investors in common stocks and many others who.se holdings will Increase In money value lis prices advance.

Never before was there so targe a stock of perishable goods In cold storage, never before was the situation so favorable In all lines of business to reap profit. Naturally Investor recognize this and they nlso recognize that In order to Insure these profits, our ex-poits must greatly exceed our Import. The passing of the feeble nnti-lnflation law indicates that those who would suffer from Inflation lack the prestige to back up their protests against high prices. ARTHUR JOBSON. Marceline, Mo.

TIIKKK GO Till: SNOWBALLS Between Book Ends Must 1929 Repeal Itself? Old fears haunt America in 1948, says New Dealer; although the nation and the world need all manner of goods and services, there is a blind desire for a return to normalcy; ideas are resisted, but necessity will overcome the old order and bring a new prosperity. The Mirror of Public Opinion Thurman Arnold, Former U. S. Assistant Attorney Grnrral, iu the Harvard Husiness Iteview American Frontier Romance STORMY WIND FULFILLING, bv Stephen Edward Rot. (Dorranca A Philadelphia The 40 years of armed strife between the Connecticut Yankees and the Pennsylvani-ans in the Wyoming valley in Pennsyl- vania Is the background for this romantic novel.

The author has managed to weld fiction and history without compromising the latter. He give an Impressive picture of the struggle of the little settlement on the Susquehanna River, "beyond the frontier," to establish holm Now in 1948 the curtain rises on what appears to be the same old show. The 1929 crash still haunts our feast like Hiinquo'a ghost. Kvery economic problem which bothered us through the long years of the depression is still on our doorstep. Industry For Poles to ltcmnnlter To th Editor of tha Prmt-PlnnRtrh: Stanlsl.iw Mikolnjczyk says: "Simply assume you are a Pole that you are still possessed of your love of personal liberty, your feelings on the right of man.

Apparently this philosophy was recently synthesized to appeal to the American reader. Surely the ex-Premier' memory of the Polish grab of the Teschen area of Czechoslovakia in ITirtH (after Hitler took the Sudetenland) has lapsed conveniently. I-rft him who has not sinned first cast a stone, Mr. Mikolnjczyk! GENE SACKS. Commission by Mayor Kaufmann, answers these questions in words that children can understand.

The only housing policy St. Louis has had is to abandon old areas and to move to a fringe of new areas. This has been done successively over the years until obsolete and blighted districts embrace half the city's residential area. The earlier homes have not been modernized and equipped with conveniences and sanitary facilities. On the contrary, they have been allowed to deteriorate steadily.

Yet then? owners have not pulled them down to make way for new dwellings. They have preferred to get all they could from renters who could not afford to move to the new areas. And so in 1948 St. Louis stands 105 among 108 American cities in bousing. That Is the price of allowing the grasping real estate owners and operators to run this side of the city's life as suits their own pocketbooks.

The City Plan says exactly what has to be done. The obsolete areas must be cleared and reconstructed. This is both economically and socially necessary. If it if not done, most of St. Louis will be brought under the blight.

Mr. Smith could not be more right than he is in his statement of this problem: To say that housing is the challenge of St. Louis for 1948 is to make a gross understatement. It's the challenge for at least the next decade. Now that the business community has had the filthy facts set squarely before its eyes, a bold program for transforming the city through slum clearance and modern housing should at last take form.

Those Ladies of Bologna There's just no way of telling what will get under some people's skin. For example. Dr. Francis Scott Smyth, dean of the University of California's medical school, has just ordered wallpaper pasted over the murals in the school's lecture hall. This despite the praise won by Artist Bernard Zakhelin's pictorial history of California medicine.

Dr. Smyth explained that faculty members had complained that the murals distract their students. Well, if that's true, it must have been a blessing in disguise when wartime bombs ripped through the famous Sixteenth Century carved ceiling of the anatomy lecture hall in Bologna's If a picture parade of stiff California men-in-while can keep students' minds off surgery, what must have been the effect of Bologna's fine female figures? Why, they floated over the lecturer's head with no more than a star or two of the constellations they symbolizedstuck here and there to a finely modeled elbow or an even more intriguing knee! And yet Bologna's students have been famous for centuries for their learning. In a Delicatessen Store The window of a delicatessen store on Broadway between Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth streets where the lights are not so bright of tEptf and create even a primitive way of life under every privation; to defend these homes from the ho-1 1 1 Indians and against the claims of an antagonistic government. The Wyoming Massacre, the Sullivan Expedition and the duel between the radical John Frank- in America is a vast system of absentee-own ership concentrated in fewer hands thnn ever before in the world's history.

This sprawling corporate bureaucracy is afraid of production which it does not control. It Is Incapable of utilizing the vast wealth of the twentieth century industrial revolution. The country is desperately short of electric power, but 1 1 7' msT'- i lin and the conserva. WI tive Timothv Plcker- Tliurrnan Arnold Out With Si.lc Tax Tn th Kitltor of ttic Posl-Pliratrh: It seem to me that a concerted effort should be made by nil the citizens of Missouri to put nn end to the 2 per cent hale tax. Llk the tax on the the put pose for which It wa originally Intended has since become unnecessary.

The tax was for relief nt a time when there was considerable distress In our state. Today, the citizen of Missouri continue to pour In many millions of unneeded revenue where it Is a temptation to men with sticky fingers to play with it or to waste It. Elimination of this nuisance tax would mean an Increase in the net Income of every citizen, at a time when It is sorely needed. Much extra bookkeeping and loss of time could be eliminated on the part of every retailer, and some expense saved our taxpayers by eliminating unbilled official who supervise the collection of this nuisance tux. Every newspnper, every business man, anil especially every housewife In the tate can add to this list of reasons why vc should eliminate the state sales tax lor all time.

I- D. BROWNE. Kxaminers, or Monopoly Apologists? What is the mission of the examiners for the Maritime Commission in the investigation of Alaskan freight rates? Are they disinterested searchers for the facts or are they apologists for the shipping monopolies? j- Two months ago the case against the monopolies of Gilbert W. Skinner of Seattle was fully documented at a federal hearing. It was shown that his shipping companies are authorized to charge rates twice those to Honolulu although the distance from Seattle to Honolulu and from Seattle to Nome are the same.

Gov. Gruening of Alaska put it this way: Alaska is handicapped by excessive maritime transportation rates the highest in the world in fact, imposed by what has become virtually a one-man owned absentee shipping monopoly, a monopoly fostered by unseen men in distant federal agencies. In the face of facts and statements such as these, the federal examiners have again called on the Maritime Commission to uphold the rates of the Skinner monopolies. No wonder Philip Eden, CIO economist, says that Skinner has more influence than 90,000 residents of Alaska! The Maritime Commission should reject the recommendation of its examiners. If necessary, it should conduct its own Investigation.

When other applicants are asking the opportunity to engage in shipping at lower rates, the commission cannot justify the preservation of the Skinner monopolies at excessive rates. Here is another argument for statehood for Alaska. So long as Alaska is a territory, without Senators and Representatives to look out for its interests, greedy men will seek to victimize the helpless residents. The Liberals Leave allace ilfr. Wallace has issued his depressing invitation to disaster at a moment when progressives of every political faith are engaged in a desperate battle for the preservation of political and economic freedom for all people everywhere.

We reject his invitation. With these blunt words Americans for Democratic Action, an anti-Red group of progressives holding membership in both major parties, refused to have any part of Henry Wallace's presidential campaign. And with equal positiveness other organizations and individuals many of whom once looked to him for a measure of leadership are pointing out the folly of his course. The New York State CIO has just done so. The editors of The Nntion, America's oldest liberal weekly, refused their support even before he made his announcement.

Another repudiation came from Dr. Frank Kingdon, co-chairman of the Progressive Citizens of America. And each day sees the list grow longer. The A.D.A. statement was signed by the organization's top officers: Wilson Wyatt, Leon Henderson, Franklin D.

Roosevelt and Mayor Hubert II. Humphery of Minneapolis. These men know Wallace. "We regret the personal tragedy involved in his action," they said. "But we cannot allow private sorrow to distract anyone from the ruthless political actualities which inspire the third party movement at this period." And what are those actualities? Why nothing less than the desire of American Communists to create chaos and confusion.

These people would welcome the wildest reaction in Washington in the hope that it would be the prelude to their rise to power. They are following the international Communist line; they are not interested in American democracy. They ate not really interested in Henry Wallace. Timolhy PirVenno tng, patriot both, provldo ampin mntctinl for the Interplay of forces that shaped America. One hundred and fifty years ago, the Husquch.inna was the only means of access to a vast region in which the Six Nations of Indians roamed at will.

But hardy settlers from Norwich and Saybrook, did not falter In malting their home there against hopeless odds. Driven to desperation, John Franklin, in defiance of Pennsylvania, tried to set up a state within that commonwealth. When Deborah Preston, a Yankee girl, fell in love with David Pennypacker of Pennsylvania, the resulting impasse could only be resolved by a stormy wind. Here is a good story, its history accurate and convincing, with character rent people, not puppet; ft romance and narrative well sustained and it prearntntlon of the political situation as vivid as the portrayal of human virtues and evil traits. Love and loyalty, greed, jealousy and treachery are cleverly interwoven and brought to a logical The descriptions of the manner of living, the locality and the people are most vivid.

There is much of real human nature, suspense end romance in the narrative. WILBUR R. McKFJE. realization that only America ts capable of restoring economic order in the world, iim thnt American business cannot do It without the expenditure of vimt sums by the Government. Just as we nre preparing to return to normalcy, the Marshall plan destroys our hope that government can be put back to its accustomed role.

The world desperately needs goods. Our traditional economic organization has no way of bringing the supply to those who need it. All this was true In 1920, but nobody knew it. Today we realize that an industrial revolution offering to the world new wealth beyond any former dream has destroyed our isolation. We Move Keluclantly Reluctantly, with fear and misgiving, we are being forced into a vast project to furnish good to starving peoples.

The commit merit seems too overwhelming to tin possible of accomplishment. Yet the fear of Russian expansion ha pushed us into the position of again being the arsenal of the democracies except that It Is an arsenal of food nnd production Instead of wen pons. We enter that period with a split personality trying to return to the nineteenth century while we move forward In the twentieth. Of course there is a threat to our Industrial nnd political organizations, frozen us they nre to the Institutions, ideas and methods of a nineteenth century world. In the face of coming change no investments appear to be safe.

Centralization of economic power is greater than it in 1929. to trade nnd to new Industry nre renter, Vnnt Invent incut depend on the continuance of this concentration nnd thcue barriers to trade. That is the reason why the 1929 crash is still a recurring nightmare why our thinking constantly jumps back to it after almost 20 years. Half of our economic thought is devoted to speculating when the next depression is coming. Fear's Intolerance In the face of this fear we are attempting to prop up the fnmlllnr institutions ns men nlvvny do In time of change.

We want normalcy more thnn ever. Socialists are taunting us with our failure to make our so-called capitalistic system a dynamic and expanding force and cheerfully predicting that the whole world will soon conform to the socialist ideal. We are trying to purge the Government of such seditious thinking. This is the intolerance of fear. Yet even tolerant men, who do not think Ideas are destroyed by suppression, realize that If Socialism is coming, America as we know it is gone.

Out of this confusion the new institutions of the twentieth century will finally emerge, a did those of the nineteenth cen- tury, not been use we nre able to plan them but because the dynamic energy and vigor of our people will burst the shackles of obsolete forms. Today we realize thnt our responsibilities nre not limited to national thnt we must become the industrial leader of the world or perish. new power developments might destroy the dominating position of private industry. Me short of transportation. Yet if the of nir transport should follow the of the development of the nu-tomohile, present Investments might bo jeopardized by competitive struggle.

The New Orthodoxy We are desperately short of medical service. Yet the present vested interests in that chaotic field stand in the way of any plan for the widespread distribution of medical care which interferes with the narrow Interest of established groups. And so on wherever we turn. Historical analogies are unreliable. Yet there is a striking similarity between the present chaos, intellectual and economic, and the confusion that followed the Reformation.

Before the Reformation the medieval church had become a hierarchy of economic institutions that had caused Europe to freeze into a consistent pattern of absentee ownership and restricted production. Its power was derived from established faith in a static order. Today men pin their faith nnd owe their loyalties to a hierarchy of business Institutions with cathedrals not at Rome but in New York. These institutions appear to have power. Yet that power is shackled by the beliefs and habits of the nineteenth century.

The impelling faith of today Is that investments must be secure. That faith makes modern industry incapable of supplying the goods to create order out of the economic chaos of Europe, or of stimulating competitive development of industry in the outlying areas of our own country. Government Must Help In th'e Middle Ages political government was supposed to he the temporal arm of the Church. Interference with the Church by political government was heresy. Today we are desperately trying to convince ourselves that political government is only the temporal arm of vast business empires which follow the great principles of revealed economic truth.

And so we find Congress trying to restore political government to its proper place by reducing government expenditures and removing government controls. Yet at th yery outset of that program comes tha Ilus-l'assing lllues To the Killtor of th Fnt-Il-pntcti: The Public Service Co. should supply the Florissant busses with a defroster to use on the people Who live east of Grand avenue. After waiting 10 minute on a cold morning for a bus to take them to work, you find the bus Is so crowded It cannot even stop. How about a few more busses on this lino? If the busses cannot serve the people properly, how about putting- back the street cars? I know the cars did not make any better time, but at least when one did come you were pretty sure of getting on it.

TWO FLORISSANT RIDER3. fers the only comprehensive exhibit in Manhattan of the sources and uses of atomic energy, reports the New Yorker. In addition to pictures of atomic bomb bursts over Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Bikini and a map showing all known sources of fissionable male-rial, there are samples of pitchblende, vanadium and caronite on display. The exhibits were assembled by the store's owner, Maurice Paul, who definitely is not using them to sell "atomic hamburgers" or anything of the sort. It is not a stunt, but the result of the storekeeper's thinking about what is the world's fro.

1 problem. Mr. Paul has become something of an expert on the subject. He has become acquainted with F.lnsteln and other atomic scientists, and be distributes thousands of leaflets about the atom and what it might do to all of us. Perhaps a delicatessen store is a somewhat Incongruous sounding board for such a warning.

However, since most of the world's politicians seem to have gotten over the scare that hit them on Aug. 6, 1945, one ought to be grateful that it Is stilt remembered somewhere. Indeed, on second thought a delicatessen store does not seem Operation Crossroad Analyzed BOMBS AT BIKINI, by A. ShurcKff. (W.

H. Win 1 Ntw York Answers to just about all the privileged questions on the atomic bomb explosions at Bikini are contained in this official Joint Task Force One report on the two big blasts. Even those who followed closely the newspapers, the radio and the magazines at the time will benefit by reading this excellently illustrated and simply wriU ten book. For the first time the Immensity of the problem of summarizing the wealth of ship-dnmnge data I put Into perspective and the solution given in plain language. Other major matters on which there was unbounded speculation also are cleared up In a few words.

Oddities abound ror Instance the goat which was photographed by closeup auto-mntlc motion picture camera Just a the shock wave struck hi ship. The pictures later showed him munching hi bay without missing a munch a the blast bit and debris flew all about him. Whiteside Calls the Plays To the IMllor of r-o-t-nitpntrh: From time to time It is my good fortune to notice tetter on your editorial page sent In by James P. Whiteside of Forlslell, Mo. 1 enjoy his common-sense epistles that are so nicely sprinkled with wit nnd wisdom.

I am sure my feelings are shared hy many, so for our sake please do not neglect printing anything he sends tn. It Is strange to me that one hidden away Vn the hill as he Is can grnsp the world's "double plays" so accurately. BERTRAM LOUIS. KNOUGII TO DO. frnm th Arkntmiia flazrtt.

lilesscd are the peacemakers on earth for they shall never be out of a Job, a-rr-.