The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 14

FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 19, 1945 I TO RIALS Frank R. Kent FIGHT IN MASSACHUSETTS Job Insurance Reforms prescriptions are concerned. The easy discretion of the administrators of the act would be confined. But as an additional guide to the administrators it is proposed that the Legislature state clearly that unemployment insurance is really insurance and not a sort of bank deposit which the insured may withdraw for a "vacation." This would be a statement of the obvious, but experience shows it is necessaryInterviews with applicants for benefits have disclosed that they received information from administrators which was presented in such a way that they inferred that they must collect what they had paid in every so often or they would never be able to get the money. They believed that the 1 per cent of their wages paid in was a bank account, not an insurance premium.

They were like the soldier who ate his emergency ration so he would be sure to have it. The proposed simple amendment of the law should be coupled with a tightening up, of the administration which cannot be accomplished by a California statute. The United States Employment Service now has the function of trying to find jobs for all applicants before they can be certified for unemployment benefits. It has obviously failed in this function. The employment service should be returned to the State and then the California Employment Stabilization Commission would control it exclusively under the law as it now stands.

When the abuses of the act are cleared away it undoubtedly will be found that both employees and employers can have their unemployment insurance premiums reduced. Under good management it should be possible to establish a reserve level for the insurance fund calculated on the total number of persons covered and the honest case load expectancy. When the reserve was at this level all premium payments could be suspended until it fell below. This arrangement would sharpen the interest of every premium payer in efficient administration. Gov.

Warren has been invited to sponsor' several reforms in the administration of the California Unemployment Insurance Act, and some changes in the law itself, to prevent the abuses which have converted the insurance into a dole or endowment and put a premium on idleness. The invitation was made by Alvin E. Hewitt, executive vice-president of the California Manufacturers Association, in the last of a series of public letters on the flagrant violations of the spirit of the act which have been allowed or even encouraged by its administrators. The purpose of the law is clear and admirable and has the general assent. It has been stated clearly by the California Employment Stabilization Commission: "To lessen the hardships to the involuntarily unemployed.

To stabilize purchasing power and thus halt the spread of employment and the economic disruptions which it causes. To assist employers and workers in prompt employment of persons seeking work." It is obvious that the number of involuntarily unemployed should be small when jobs are going begging and employers are advertising for men. And it is obvious that there is no depression and thus no need to stabilize purchasing power and halt the spread of- unemployment. Yet there are thousands receiving weekly unemployment benefit checks. The law says that an applicant may be certified for benefits if "suitable employment" cannot be found for him or if he is unemployed "for a good cause." That is fair language to the casual eye, but it has been found in practice to be too flexible.

It is too easy to find good cause for unemployment and too hard to find suitable employment. Now it is proposed to amend the language to accomplish the intent of 'the act, which is to provide "benefits for persons unemployed no fault of their own." With this bit of legislative touching up, the act could stand, so far as its benefit he was already in uniform and abroad with the Army. And there he staj'ed until the war was over. He saw a lot of action; he made a good record, and he came back with as little publicity as he had when he went away. Naturally, he wants to get back into public life.

Everybody in Massachusetts knew that, and everybody expected him to take the first chance. It is not exactly break for Sen. Lodge that the first chance i3 in running against Sen. Walsh. The other "strong Republi.

cans" in the State had no burn, ing desire to run against Sen. Walsh. Sen. Lodge himself certainly would have preferred something easier. For Sen.

Wralsh is recognized as the best vote getter in Massachusetts. He has been Lieutenant Governor, Governor and now Senator for four terms. He never has been beaten in an election. Yet, somebody had to run against him and Mr. Lodge was the indicated man.

If he had said, "Oh, no, not me," he would really have closed the door on his career, as Sen. Saltonststall will be renominated in 1950 and there would have been no other opening for Mr. Lodge. SIGNIFICANT CONTEST So there he is in there contending against the most pop. ular Democrat In the State, an experienced and effective campaigner with a well-organized machine.

Though friendly enough personally, the fight will be without gloves and the con. trast between the two is strikingthe old man against the young one; the one going up, the other going down, as dif. ferent, physically, and in most other ways, as men well can be. It is one of the most significant contests in the country, and the interesting thing is that the belief that Mr. Lodge will win is very much stronger now than it was two months ago when the odds seemed heavy against him.

Right now it 13 said to be about an even bet, with the Republican trend on the Increase. Should this prove true, and Mr. Lodge be elected, he almost cer. tainly be his State's "favorite son" in the 1948 convention, the one sure thing about which gathering is that no candidate will have a majority on the first ballot. As Mr.

Lodge's friends see it "he has everything Mr. Stassen has and a good deal more." Copyright. 1346. McNaugbt Ejndicat The reason there are so many Republican candidates for tne 1948 Presidential nomination this year is because the of election are so very much better than they have been foib years. A few months ago the field seemed limited to about five.

It is necessary now to enlarge it. New men have become available. Still others will be. For example, if, in November, former Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

should defeat Sen. David I. Walsh in Massachusetts, undoubtedly he must be classed among the possibilities. Mention of him in this connection already is being made. Certainly, he has many candidatorial assets youth, brains, character, good looks, a good voice, a good record, an engaging personality.

In addition he has an extraordinary family tradition of public service. Sef en of his ancestors have sat in the United States Senate. And his course in the war was as unusual a3 it was commendable. HIS ARMY RECORD It will be recalled that Sen. Lodge resigned his seat in the Senate to go into the Army.

There was not the least need for him to do that No one thought he should. He had just been elected. The chances all were that he could continue in the Senate for as many terms as he wanted. To resign looked like the end of a promising political career and so he was told. His seat could not be held open for him.

There were other strong and popular Republicans in Massachusetts. Sen. Saltonstall, elected in 1944, i3 one of them. Once out, it is not easy to get back in Massachusetts. Notwithstanding all this and notwithstanding, too, his desire to stay in public life, Sen.

Lodge resigned. Nor did he, as easily he might have done, capitalize or advertise his resignation. There was no publicity about the "patriotic young statesman sacrificing- his career to fight for his country." There 'was no I "hero stuff" about his departure. There were no pictures taken, no radio farewell to his constituents, no speeches or parting gifts, no Senatorial reception at which he received the congratulations of his colleagues, no "tributes." HIS ONLY CHANCE In brief, Sen. Lodge did not behave like a politician; he behaved like a gentleman.

When his resignation became known An Atom Sizzles Over Washington Walter Lippmann. GERMAN POLICY Redin Is Acquitted While Mikhailovitch Is Shot Leeside LEE SHIPPEY It seems probable that history will record a different verdict in the case, at least, of Mikhailovitch. A posthumous vindication will not restore, his life, but it can clear his name; and it may write that his death was a political assassination like so many that have taken place in the Balkans. Was he execued because he collaborated with the Nazis or because he was a Serb and a patriot? That is a' question still to be answered fully and which may be debated for a long time. But from present appearances the existing Yugoslav regime has taken upon itself a heavy burden; it is stained with the blood of a probably innocent man.

The acquittal of the Russian naval lieutenant, Nicolai G. Redin, in Seattle on 'charges of spying is in considerable contrast with the brand of justice obtainable in Communist countries as evidenced by the result of the Mikhailovitch trial in Yugoslavia. The Seattle jury gave the benefit of the doubt to the prisoner and set him free. The Communist court appears to have brushed aside all doubt in the Mikhailovitch case, refusing even to hear mitigating evidence. Mikhailovitch has been shot in an indecent hurry, on what amounts to mere suspicion; Redin, on the other hand, was given all the breaks.

exercised through the Communist party, which seeks to absorb and dominate the Socialist party, and let us be sure to realize through powerful elements of the German army and the old bureaucracy who have nothing material to lose from Communism and everything to gain in power and influence by collaboration with the Red army and the Soviet state. BYRNES' DANGER The elements upon which the Soviets are counting are disciplined, centrally directed, and strongly nationalist. Federalism is just what suits them least since it decentralizes their power, which is exercised from Berlin, to dominate all parts of Germany. That is why Mr. Molotov is saying just what all the German nationalists of the right and of the left want to hear when he says that there must be no German federalism unless it has first been approved by a plebiscite "throughout Germany." That would be a plebiscite run from Berlin, and such a plebiscite would never approve a federalism which decentralized the political power of Berlin.

Mr. Byrnes will have to be very careful to distinguish clearly between the central German government which Mr. Molotov has suddenly discovered is "urgent" and the central administration which he and Gen. Clay have been asking for. We have never made it clear that what we want is not the central government of a unitary Reich but a federal government.

And so when Mr. Molotov comes along with his central government, which is the opposite of what we want, we are in imminent peril of being trapped and beguiled by his ingenious use of our favorite words. Copyright, 1946, New York Herald Tribune sia, large reparations theoretically due in the future can easily be washed up. Meantime, though reparation payments may be a burden upon the German standard of life, they are also links between the German and the Russian economy. The more German industrial machinery is installed in Russia, the more will German science, technology and expertness be needed to maintain and repair and replace and improve it.

In my preceding article I said that the proof was complex and cumulative that Mr. Molotov's policy was to rally Germany to Moscow and to exclude the western powers from effective influence in the settlement. We have examined two cardinal elements of the Soviet policy on territory and on reparations. We must now examine Mr. Molotov's political and constitutional plans for Germany.

After a year of discreet silence, in which Mr. Byrnes and Gen. McNarney and Gen. Clay have been doing most of the talking for a central administration, Mr. Molotov says that "it i3 becoming particularly urgent as the first step toward the establishment of a future German government." CENTRAL GOVERNMENT This announcement is accompanied by contemptuous opposition to what we have begun to do in our zone, and what the British and French rather belatedly are now talking about doing in their zones: namely, to reconstruct Germany as a federal union of German states.

Mr. Molotov is for a centralized government but without federalism unless by "a plebiscite throughout Germany the German people express their wish to transform Germany into a federal state." Naturally. The Russian political influence inside Germany is The House Should Insist That May Testify Fully the Mississippi." But adds it 3 nice to know at least one Holly, wood barbershop is "for men only." NATURE'S MYSTERIES Oh why, oh why, do hedge and lawn And weeds and snails a-many Show such ambition in hot week3 When gardeners haven't any? JOSHUA LITTLE, TO RISE AND SET ONLY As I get it, the idea is to keep the Constellations out of the sky only long enough to make it sure they'll quit being falling stars, COINCIDENCE By odd chance, the working" model of a Constellation, laid open so the passing crowd could see the motors whir, the lights shine, the berths and everything, which has been attracting crowds before the windows of a downtown airline office, seemed to get out of whack just about the time the great planes were grounded, and parts had to be taken off for repairs. SUSPECT A big Ice cream factory burned one of the hottest davs this Rep. Andrew Jackson May could perhaps give an adequate explanation of his transactions with munitions companies which have been unearthed by the Mead committee.

He may be entirely innocent of wrongdoing. certainly he has as yet given no exonerating explanation and hey has every appearance of trying to dodge his duty to testify'fully before the Mead committee. There is some doubt as to the committee's ability to compel him to testify. There is, however, no doubt that the House of Representatives can compel him to testify, or at least can expel him if he does not. The power of either house of Congress to expel a member has no strings to it; it iswithout qualification, except that two-thirds of the members must join in the expulsion vote.

Additionally, either house may punish its members for "disorderly behavior." The power to expel has seldom been exercised, but "the fact that it is not often used has not impaired it. May either ought to appear before the Mead committee, waive immunity and answer all questions fully, or forfeit his office. If he cannot explain away the damaging evidence presented he is unfit to be a Representative. The force of Mr. Molotov's appeal to the German, nation to look to Moscow may seem to be contradicted by his demand for a long occupation and large reparations.

But the Soviet policy is shrewdly calculated and there is no contradiction, once we understand that Mr. Molotov's immediate object is to create a situation where the Germans will not look to the western powers and must look to Moscow for the fulfillment of their national ambitions. He has, as I sought to point out in a preceding article, done this on the vital subject of Germany's frontiers. In the west it is now Russia which is the protector of the territorial unity of the Reich; in the east it is Russia, and Russia alone, which can restore the territorial integrity of the Reich. It is, moreover, Russia which may restore it by doing again what Russia and Germany have done before, what Mr.

Molotov has done before namely, by making another partition of Poland. A SINISTER MASTERPIECE The leverage on the Germans of this sinister masterpiece in diplomacy is bound to be immense: at the expense of Germany's two hereditary enemies, France and Poland. Mr. Molotov has fixed the situation so that German territorial unity, which all Germans will desire, is entirely dependent on collaboration with Russia. The reparations which Russia is demanding only give added weight to her leverage upon the Germans.

No doubt the Russians want and need immediately for their own reconstruction all they can get out of Germany. But this will strengthen and not weaken their political hold upon, the German nation. Russia will be the power that the Germans must look to for ecpnomic relief. Russia will be the power to whom they will be grateful for easing their burdens. Just as they must look to Russia for the return of their lost provinces, po they must Jook primarily to Russia for economic free-dom.

A RUSSIAN1 PRINCIPLE The Russians are operating on the very tough principle that the nation which begins by taking the most will then have the most to give up. They know, what we perhaps are too tender-minded to realize, that the Germans will not be thinking sentimentally and gratefully about what we saved them from having to surrender but concretely about what the Russians can give back to them. We must remember, too, that in the settlement of a war the hardest decisions to revise later are boundaries. There is almost never any way of changing a seriously disputed boundary except by force, which includes the partition of a weaker country. But reparations are flexible and easily altered as expediency may dictate.

Thus the Germans will understand that if and when they really come to terms with Rus Election of Talmadge Is a Backset for Georgia A couple of years after the other World War a friend of mine whose income was better than $1000 a month was given a stock market tip by a man with, whom he was piaying golf. He acted on it and made a lump of money in a few days. He had worked up gradually from poverty to prosperity and sudden money dazzled him. In a few months he couldn't keep his mind on the business which had made him prosperous because it kept reverting to the ticker. He couldn't be bothered about that because he was making more than ever before anyway," in a more exciting way.

His un-watched business went to pot and suddenly the market turned on him. For two or three years he tried desperately to get back on top but kept getting further in the hole. The strain broke -his health and when he died young his friends had to chip in to pay the funeral bill. Just one case of many. There were thousands like it in 1929.

But I can't help recalling it when I see a lot of new amateurs getting speculation fever. Looks as if there's a fresh lot of suckers after every war. J. FULLER PRUNZ SAYS One of the worst sufferers from inflation is the ego. MODERN SLAVERY Hot weather always reminds us that no other creature clings to slavery more tenaciously than man.

While women go about in short-sleeved or sleeveless upper garments, thin almost to the point of dazzling the eyes, most of us still feel almost undressed if we are not wearing coats. While they wear short skirts and frequently go stockingless we wear trousers to our shoe-tops. We like to imagine we are more logical than women and are lovers of liberty, yet we are such timorous servitors of custom we tremble at thought of any departure from it Now and then we acknowledge what simps we are, as I am doing now, yet we let years and gen-erations go by and do nothing about it Just try to imagine a banker, doctor, business exec or floorwalker going to his work in a shirtwaist and you'll not argue this point. Or, if you can think of a sound reason for wearing coats in hot weather won't you please tell me? For years I've alibied I had to have my coat because of the things carried in its pockets, but the soldier boys in sun tans proved a man can carry plentv without wearing a coat. WRONGS AND RIGHTS H.

G. Hawley asserts a local appliance store displays a gadget made in Hollywood, priced at "49 cents, or 69 cents west of The victory of Eugene Talmadee in the Senatorial Perquisites "which prevents majority rule. Carmichael was supported by Gov. Arnall, who has made the State, generally speaking, an excellent chief executive, and by the best newspapers of the State and by the more enlightened and progressive of 'Georgia citizens. But Talmadge raised the demagogic issue of "white supremacy" and swept the backward regions.

As in Mississippi, the result is partly to be accounted for by the intrusion of carpetbag influences into the campaign. The people of both States naturally resent any attempt by outsiders to instruct them in what to do. Georgia Democratic gubernatorial primary, which presumably insures his election in November, condemns that State to suffer more than it probably deserves. It is only a half-truth that people invariably get the kind of public officials that fit them and it would be a libel on Georgia and Mississippi to say that either State is typified by Eugene Talmadge and Theodore Bilbo. In the case of Georgia, at least, a majority of the voters tried to choose James V.

Carmichael, but their, will was defeated by the "county unit" system, a scheme week. To the kids of thrifty parents that looks like sabotage. PREPAREDNESS Alan Berry, public relations chief for the U.S. engineers here, has been transferred to San Francisco temporarily to do a special job and is taking his bed roll with him, just in case neither money nor influence can get him lodgings. THE TIMES-MIRROS COMPANt NORMAN CHAXDT.ER Pretident and Pabliihtr MARIAN OTIS CHANDI.ES Chairman of to Board PHILIP CHANDLER Vics-Pre-tident and General Manager L.

D. HOTCHKIS3. Editor RICHARD Q. ADAMS. SecreUTT HARRY w.

BOWERS. Treaiuxer Los 3ngcles Cfmcsf" EVERT MORNING IN THE YEAR DAILY FOUNDED DEC 4. 1881 "i F-AS HARRISON GRAY OTIS. 1881-191 HARRY CHANDLER. 191J-1944 OFFICES Timn Baildin, Flrit and Sprin CSS) Waihi niton OHice.

1217-1219 Rational PrM Club Bid. (4) NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE WillUnn. LawTeac It Creamer Office. 360 North Michigan A. (' New York Office.

285 Madiaon Aranoe (17) Detroit Office. 8-238 General Motor Bide. IS Ban Franciaco Office. 681 Market Street 51 1 The Time eamrat be res sensible fer mwrfM" MuwiHi, We Bayaeat te aatofarJJ MEMBER OF THI ASSOCIATED PRE rhe Anoclatrd Prest It etcluiitelr entitle" jj the me (.. republication of ail newt oil!" credited to ft or not otherwise ere1iteo raper end else the local newt trabllsoed All rlithte of republication of apecial aitpatcS" nereis are elao reserved.

A THOUGHT FROM THE BLBI-B He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and their hands they shall bear thee vp, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Matthew iv0 6. Meat Prices as a Lesson in Economics frigerator in my office," confesses Sen. Saltonstall, "requires more seniority than I have." While ice is delivered daily to the Senatorial chambers, it also melts daily. "I have not yet found who Is responsible for emptying the water out of the bucket," explains the Back Bay Senatpr.

"As a junior Senator, I have taken on this duty myself." Sen. Saltonstall also has learned that he can have his picture and photographs framed, he can have his shoes shined and his hair cut as often as desired, and he can exercise in a lavish gymnasium and swim in a pool. In addition, he is entitled to plants and shrubs from the government's botanical gardens. Just as wearing a cap with gold braid on the visor is the privilege of the Navy's senior officers, so are these miscellaneous perquisites the right of a U.S. Senator.

Reading Mr. Saltonstall's words to his fellow Harvard graduates, one gets the impression that the junior Senator from Massachusetts would trade these dubious offerings of paternalism for the Congressional pay increase provided for in the La Follette-Monroney reorganization bill. The Portland Oregsnlan Leverett Saltonstall, class of '14, writing in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, tells his fellow graduates that the most amazing feature of his Senatorial career to date has been the unusual perquisites which are his. The junior U.S. Senator from, Massachusetts cites, for example, the' fact that he is allowed to make 26 long-distance calls a month to any place in the land.

All other calls come out of his own pocket. "Just why this figure of 26 I do not know," he confides. Mr. Saltonstall also discovered that a Senator is allowed 15,000 letterheads a month, provided he lists on the letterhead the full, membership of a committee to which he is assigned. Any government telegrams which are exactly the same must be 10 words or less.

"That is why some constituents receive short telegrams," says the Massachusetts Senator. "To keep an important message so compact is quite a nice little problem in the art of word-juggling." Most astounding of all is the Senatorial perquisite of six bottles of White Rock and two of Poland water each day. These are sent to his office in a bucket of ice. "To get an electric re Housewives who proved they are not the easy touch which O.P.A. drum-beaters presumed and the bid-fashioned law of supply and demand are driving meat prices back to reasonable levels.

The finger-pointers gleefully cried "see!" when meat prices soared on the demise of OPA, and they triumphantly forecast $1 hamburger and $2 New York cuts. The tune is changing now. Meat is flowing into the slaughterhouses and down the supply chain to the corner grocery. It wias just as the president of a large meat packing company asserted: "If the average housewife expects, her meat prices to come down she must refuse to be stampeded into paying runaway prices for meat. If people insist upon paying 90 cents to $1 per pound for steaks, prices will stay that high." A few greedy packers, wholesalers and butchers are learning the hard way the truth in the old saw: "Never underestimate the power of a woman.".