The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 14

1ft Trim ib im ie ie ie ip a ir ttiimies ie hd ir a n. ipaeie With the Rest of the World as It Is- Edit Oi Ti Shratrt Times aa Independent wsaaacr. It arints tha news Impsr-O tialiy. I ippru what It believes ta ba right. It tppiM what It believes ta ka wreas.

wltbaat rera ta aar paimc. Ray Tucker Questions and Answers THE FALLACY OF FREEDOM FROM WANT Recent celebrations of Texas Independence Day, commemorating the rebellion against Mexican rule, fonnd many speakers in the Lone Star State pointing H.S.T. of Charlotte. N. ask.

whether administration foreign experts and observers look for any concrete arrangement for settling tha German and Austrian problems at next week'a Moscow conference. Answer: All four capitals involved Washington. London, Moscow and Paris are frankly and openly skeptical. Russia has shown no inclination for setting up a futura government In Germany and Austria, fcr fixing the amount or kind cf reparations or for solving the Ger-man-Poland-Russlan border difficulty. She lnsls's on keeping aa economic and political grip on Central Europe and Austria, which flanita her satellite nations in the Balkans.

Before leaving for the Soviet capital. Secretary Marshall said that meant to pursue the aamt policy as that enunciated by Mr. Byrnes at unsuccessful meetings of the foreign minister. That program was not agreeable to Russia then, and the powers Seem to be farther apart now than ever before. certainly joop I 76 HAVE? FRIENDLY yWWmt It Ik I JV aXai wgga, ment or the later Dewey statement swayed any votes in the New York gubernatorial election, or that these and other statements on Palestine by Truman, Dewey and Senator Taft will have any decisive effect on the Jewish vote in the 1948 election if any one, or any two, of these three should be in the presidential race.

Jews are not that gullible. The point we make is that it is only 'in recent years that presidents of the United States openly and as a general practice stooped to using the prestige and dignity of their office for what at times seemed to be personal, partisan, politically selfish gain; and we know of no case in history where a president used a delicate international situation as a sounding board for a statement which obviously had domestic political aspects, regardless of just how the statement was meant. Any coincidence in the timing of the statement during a vigorous New, York gubernatorial campaign hardly could have included ignorance by the president that he and Governor Dewey at the moment were and are the leading possibilities for the presidential nominations of the two major parties in 1948. On the other hand, it is quite true that international problems can have a place in an American state political campaign and that the president of the United States always has a right to discuss international problems as he sees fit and when and where he sees fit Also, no one will believe that the Truman statement actually endangered chances of settling the Palestine problem by Britain. Britain has been muddling that problem for about a quarter of a century now and Churchill himself recently charged in parliament that the British government which includes his own regime, whether he meant it that way or not has betrayed the Jews.

And, Mr. Bevin sometimes is far too blunt in his phraseology for his own good. He is by no means guiltless in the whole affair. The White House formally stated, after Mr, Bevin's outburst, that Mr. Trtiman had not intended his statement to be considered in relation to any political campaign and that he had made the same statement back in 1945.

But, regardless of intent, the statement and its timing were interpreted nationally as having a political campaign tinge and the statement was rushed right into the New York state campaign, where the Dewey-Mead gubernatorial race was beginning to reach its peak of activity. In view of all of this, the explanations either are a bit foggy and fishy, or else the president once again was poorly advised. The Luciano case is even more repellant in some of its seeming use of the high dignity of government office on a rather low political plane. Luciano had besn caught, convicted and sent to prison by Governor Dewey when the latter was a New York prosecutor. He was pardoned by Governor Dewey under a provision of deportation to Italy.

A few weeks ago he showed up in Cuba. The normal procedure, if this government acted at all, would be a friendly notification to the Cuban government that Cuba was harboring a dangerous criminal of past affiliations in murder, white slavery and drug peddling. Instead, the Truman administration formally and of out that the same Jeffersonian principles oi ireeaom under republican form of government fired the patriots of both the American Revolution in 1776 and the Texas Revolution in 1836. It was centralization of government dictatorial government in London that aroused the patriots of the American Colonies. It was centralization of governmentdictatorial government in Mexico that brought the patriots of Texas to arms later.

In a lesser way, last November's elections werj a ballot rebellion against centralization of government at least benignly if not viciously dictatorial in many ways in Washington in recent years. The task before the nation now and probably for some years to come is to recapture precepts of liberty that have been destroyed or damaged by Washington centralization, and to maintain adherence to the original concepts of republican form of government and its tenets of democracy and freedom. Whatever good or ill reay have come from recent Washington administrations, the greatlst ill has been the attack on national moryrfe and the public conscience through the philosophy that the function of government is to be all things to all individuals and that it always can do better what the individual should do for himself. In many ways and in many places public conscience has been destroyed or anesthetized by the solemn and often hypocritical edicts from Washington that if the individual is not well off whether the cause be his laziness, his indifference or his incompetency the great federal government will see that he has income, comforts, happiness and pleasure. Terhaps the ultimate in this philosophy has come in economic theses covered by high-sounding, beautifully-idealistic, and perhaps sincerely meant phrases such as Mr.

Roosevelt's "freedom from want" in the long-forgotten promulgation known as the four freedoms, and in the phrase "full employment legislation" in relation to compulsory pro-vidin-r of jobs, by the government, for everyone. What too many have failed to realize is that progress itself is built on want; that if there is no want, then progress and civilization must cease. It is because, in considerable part, that some people have more than others, or some people want more than they have and have the opportunity to seek it. that humanity advances. That, of course, deals with basic philosophy of the factors involved.

On the more material side of labor not have been especially enthusiastic, but he followed the lead of Herbert Hoover, his secretary of commerce, who is the most flood control minded man ever to occupy either the White House or a cabinet post. Hoover and others prodded Coolidge and he was a strong supporter of waterway development. Then came Hoover's term in the White House, and then Roosevelt. It is true that the latter was John Temple Graves New Cars and Old Ones Question from R.A.S. of Houston.

Texas: Do you regard Russia's grudg-lrg approval of American trusteeship of the mandated Japanese Islands aa a hopeful sign? Is Stalin becoming more reasonable? Answer: Unfortunately, no. Tha Kremlin originally fought tha scheme, but finally accepted it in a guarded and cleverly worded statement. Moscow said that she yielded he-cause the U. S. had made the heaviest sacrifices in defeating Japan an entirely different line from her piopaganda In Pravda and Izvestla.

Tiiey continue to credit the Red Army with that conquest. It looks as If Stalin were buildln? a future case for holding territory where his forces, not American, victors namely, in Poland, eastern Germany, Austria and Manchuria. Our Pacific Islands are except from the security standpoint. His are valuable acquisitions In an economic, industrial, diplomatic and, agricultural way. I W.W.C.

of Middletown, N. wonders why New York dairymen ara fi.ied for buying their own products to maintain prices, while the government spend millions of dollars annually for the same purposes. mentions the calculated destruction of potatoes and ether farm commodities at a loss to the taxpayer and consumers. Answer: The seeming Inconsistency Is due to the existence of two different sets of laws. The antl-lrust statutes rule out such purchases by private purchasers aa restraint of trade.

The price-fixing laws, which wera written by the farm bloc at a tirr.a when they thought that post-war surpluses- would depress the market, require the government to buy, stora or even destroy such products for two years after the end of the war. "Carriages without hows Khali go minded more -toward water projects from the somewhat socialistic viewpoint of government power production than toward general flood control and water navigation. Never And Occident (ill the world with jobs for wage earners, it is utterly impossible for everyone to be at work in fact many won't take jobs available because economy cannot be operated that way in a land of free enterprise and free chance for woe While she was about It why didn't theless, he was a willing supporter of water development. Now, the combination of a president who does not see Old Mother Shipton predict some thing, too, about airplane accidents water development with the vision of others, ard a congress that has pledged itself to budget cuts withcut knowing where to put the knife, bids fair to wreck much of the good and railroad ones, and hotel tires? I suspect It was because. In her prescience she knew no other accident situation would compare with the that has come through long years of labor by those with vision to understand that flood control and waterway prog automobile.

When you read of rail ress are essential foundations for future national progress. road wrecks, you are shocked but you know every wreck means new solicitudes for an equipment and system thp.t won't break. When you read of LABOR LEGISLATION. STILL NEEDED airplane accidents, you know each Too many people seem to misunderstand the John L. spur scientific attention to eventual triumph over the weather which is Lewis case in which the Supreme Court has upheld the con the principal cause.

When you read viction of both Lewis and the United Mine Workers for both civil and criminal contempt of court in violating an antistrike of people burned in hotel fires, you injunction. kuaw every such piece of news puts authorities and builders more on the alert for laws, precautions, materials and equipment that wlU be better The case and the decision solve just one phase of the field of labor, problems and do not in any way lessen the need for federal legislation in many other sectors of safeguards. ficially announced that if Cuba did not deport Luciano, this nation would declare an embargo on drugs to Cuba, thus shutting off at least temporarily the needed supplies for hospitals and doctors. At the same time, William J. Donovan, former head of the Office of Strategic Services and, though a Republican, a bitter political foe of Dewey, issued a statement denying that Luciano, in a deal for his pardon, secretly had aided the United.

States in its war invasion of Italy. There could be no coincidence in Republican Donovan, foe of Dewey, timing his statement with a Truman administration statement about drug embargoes; nor could the threat of the latter have been promulgated formally without the president's advance knowledge. The whole intent was, of course, to throw a national spotlight on Luciano as a gangster and to remind the nation that the famous arch prosecutor, Dewey, pardoned him, and that Luciano now was operating again at our shore even though not within our boundaries and thus to reflect on Dewey. For the benefit of all, the official records show that Dewey stated long ago that he was unconvinced as to any war aid to thjs country by Luciano, that Luciano had served the part of his term necessary to become eligible for parole, that the parole board recommended the parole, but that Governor Dewey then agreed to let Luciano out of prison ONLY if the federal government operating then under President Roosevelt agreed to deport him and that deportation necessarily involved pardon rather than parole. And of course, again, it is pure coincidence that Mr Truman and Mr.

Dewey may be opponents for the presidency in 1948; but whether they are or not, it is time now, to end use of prestige and dignity of office White House, governor's mansion or anything else in a manner to lessen respect for the office and stature of the occupant. A FINE GIFT FOR EDUCATION Contributions to the cause of higher education spread their benefits endlessly and without boundaries. The multi-million dollar contributions of and Mrs. R. H.

Cullen of Houston to higher education have centered in Texas so far as plant construction and operation are concerned but But when you read of accidents to the carriages without horses, your shock and sorrow have no balm. For these accidents, accounting for more deaths in war and peace than any Question: Do j-ou still think that there will be tax reduction and what kind? Answer: Yes. there will be soma pocketbook relief 1847, and it may made retroactive to January 1, 1D47. I doubt of the original Knutson plan for a 20 per cent cut "acres the board" will nrevail. There ara more voters In the biacket, and they will probably get the chief benefits.

Tentative schedules contemplate a 20 per cent slice for them, 15 per cent for the $5,000 to $10,000 bracket end 10 per cent above that figure. thing on earth, come of human fail field. The one issue determined is that when the United States government has seized and is operating a plant or industry, federal courts can issue antistrike injunctions affecting that plant or industry and violation of such injunction is contempt of court, punishable by fine andor imorisonment for individuals, and by fine for the union itself. Under existing law, courts specifically are forbidden from issuing antistrike injunctions in private operation of business or industry and the Lewis case has not changed that in any way. ures of breakdowns or deficiencies In human character, and the necessary Improvements are not In sight.

A great cause of postwar traffic accidents, for example, Is the length. breadth and insolence (especially in solence) of commercial vehicles. An Of course, determination of the issue of strike against a government-operated plant or industry, regardless of real other, 6urely, is the co-existence of so many old cars and new ones. The Impatience of fast-going new ones with slow-going old ones Incites weaving. chance-taking, bullying.

Impatient wrong-doing. The fault is ownership, is highly important and is a new milestone in the field of labor relations. But, too many people may be inclined to think that the Lewis case decision applies in all with the new car people, but there Is fault, too. In some of the old car drivers who have developed a habit strike fields, which it very definitely does not. Thus, it is very disquieting to notice in recent Washing of sloth, sleep and indifference to a world ao slowly going by.

ton news dispatches that there seems to be less and less likelihood that congress will reallv get down -into the heart Question: O.S.T. of Lancaster. asks how legitimate is the criticism that the Republican leadership in congress has engaged In too mucn squabbling and stalling In framing a legislative program. Answer: It all depends on tha viewpoint. But there are a few factors which, the bosses reply, ara overlooked by the critics.

In the first place, there were so many new and inexperienced members on both sides of the aisle that the mere fact of physical organization of key committees was especially difficult. It was made more complicated by kinks In the Monroncy-Le, Follette law, which provided for radical revision of the ancient legislative machinery even before the two bodies could get down to any kind Tiie devil, they say. can quota Scripture for his purposes. Many who of legislative needs in the field of labor relations at this ses rsad George Korgsnstern's Just-pub' sion. The appeasement clique may find itself with added power through lack of pressure from a public that does not nshed book, "Pearl Harbor The Story of the Secret War," will say understand the limited scope of the Lewis decision and is deluded into further quiescence by labor leadership's intelli the devil can quote the ten million word of Pearl Harbor testimony for his purpose, too.

Mr. Morganstcrn evcrv person to advance as far as his own steam and his own willingness to try will take him. Competition the spark plug of material progress creates some unemployment, at least temporarily. Freedom from want, full employment In the 'sense of government guaranteed jobs for all, can come only as the final and complete step toward totalitarian government and dictatorship. And when that condition comes, freedom and liberty, and initiative of enterprise are lost.

Slavery to poetical government replaces freedom for the individual. The South itself had full employment at -one time slavery. That is the only form of full employment that can exist. One of the strongest speeches in the Texas Independence Day celebrations went deeply into these problems, although not exactly in the manner in which we have discussed them above. That speech was by Federal Circuit Judge J.

C. Hutcheson, at Houston. His words bear especial weight because of his place in the federal judiciary, which deals particularly with maintaining the constitutional foundation of republican fcrm of government. Here are a few excerpts from what he had to say: "The talk about freedom from want has caused me much anxiety When you say the government must feed everybody you are proposing the destruction of the very principle on which this government was founded Who is going to furnish all those things for us, unless we do it ourselves? Your ancestors. did not look to the government to plan for them and give them this and give them that The government should never do for the individual what the individual can best do for himself The state exists for the individual, not the individual for the'state If the government is made to rest on the consent of the governed, which was the rallying cry of the Texas revolutionists, we will be all right." These are strong, wise words.

They come at a decisive hour when the threat to the original concepts and precepts of our freedom and liberty is great not because of enemy guns, but of domestic indifference; and because, perhaps, the national conscience has become far too dulled by the constant roar of those who would have the nation believe that progress can come only through a paternalistic government on which the people must lean, instead of through a serving government over which the people themselves always are s-overeign. DIGNITY OF HIGH OFFICE Two events of recent days leave a bad feeling in the hearts of those who delve beneath the surface for both of them clearly indicate a willingness to lower the prestige of the White House and the dignity of the post of president of the United States in the cause of purely partisan political benefit. One of these events took place months ago but came to widespread attention only when British Foreign Secretary Uevin brought it out in parliament a few days ago. That was the charge by Mr. Bevin that President Truman hampered Britain in her handling of the Palestine problem and did so in' order to try to sway votes for his party's candidates in last fall's elections.

The other was the manner in which the United States entered into the deportation from Cuba of "Lucky" Luciano, onetime New York gang leader cf the vilest type. Mr. Bevin's charge was that Mr. Truman's campaign-period statement last October demanding immediate admission by Britain of 100,000 Jews into Palestine hampered British negotiations then under way and that Secretary of State Byrnes told him that the president was issuing the statement because he feared Governor Dewey of New York, then campaigning for re-election, would beat him to it, make a similar statement, and perhaps gain votes among New York's Jews at the expense of Truman-backed candidates. "I really must point out," the British foreign secretary told parliament, "that in international affairs I cannot settle things if my problem is made the subject of local elections in the United States." We raise no issue here of the Palestine problem itself.

Nor do we believe that either the Truman state drives constantly at Franklin Roose velt as villain of his piece. If the author shares the point of view of of work. There is also the usually forgotten fact that the G.O.P. is tackling questions which had to go untouched the good is not confined there by any means. For this reason their latest gift should be of interest to everyone concerned with bettering the facilities and the standards of education of those who will form the populace and guide the welfare of this nation in the future.

To their many previous gifts, running into quite a few millions, the Cullens now have added $800,000 to the new Baylor university school of medicine, now under construction at Houston. No one from Baylor solicited them for the gift, according to Houston reports. They were aware that the school was short $400,000 for one building and $400,000 for equipment for it, but everyone assumed the Cullens had done enough. Then, Mr. and Mrs.

Cullen were present at a banquet at which Dr. Eben J. Carey, dean of the medical school at Marquette university, Milwaukee, discussed the national need for more colleges to train doctors and nurses. The Cullens were so impressed that they announced shortly afterward that they would donate the entire to finish the Baylor work. Thus, the influence of Marquette, in Wisconsin, is felt in Baylor, in Texas, just as the jnfluence of all that is good in and for education always spreads itself far beyond its own local environs.

during the war and depression yeara labor controls, taxes, foreign trade. The Chicago Tribune (and he Is one of its editorial writers) his error Is understandable. The Tribune, isolationist always and always antl-Britlsh, had so little patience with the war that was already going on In the world before Pearl Harbor that Its editorial writer must have found it easy to consider the Japanese situation in a sort of vacuum. Looked at like that, this country tinder Roosevelt did some strange things, no doubt. etc.

They cannot be solved And there are those who think that congress should give more careful consideration to major legislation than It has In recent years. When the late F.D.R. was sending reform bills to Capitol Hill at a breathless rate In the early New Deal era. the howl was that con But Mr. Morganstern has dona a real service.

Ha has made the Pearl Harbor testimony readable by giving It a plot, even If a bad plot. gress was legislating too blindly and too hastily. Postmaster Dewey D. Prater, of Millport. has an Interesting avocation.

He spends his spare time mailing unaddressed letters to people whose faces are well known. He has In submitting questions to Mr. Tucker, kindly address them to 6308 Hlllcrest Place, Chevy Chase, sent hundreds of letters all over the gent decision to keep the peace on the labor front for the time being. The Wall Street Journal, usually very well and accurately informed through its experienced and capable Washington bureau, published a lengthy dispatch -from that bureau a few days ago stating flatly that there is little hope for more than patchwork labor legislation in the present session of congress. That was before the Lewis decision.

Both Republicans and Democrats in congress especially the former will be treading on very dangerous ground if they are satisfied with patchwork labor legislation. Such a course will be especially dangerous for the Republicans because of their majority, and for G.O.P. leadership, particularly Senator Taft. Senator Taft deliberately took the labor committee chairmanship instead of the foreign relations chairmanship when he was entitled to either and could have had either. If, as labor chairman, he could guide congress through strong, but thoroughly fair-to-labor, legislation his chances for both the Republican presidential nomination and for election in 1948 would be greatly enhanced.

His seniority in congress as well as his chairmanship in the labor conmittee opened the way for Mr. Taft to increase his stature in the public mind, to prove himself to be of the strongest presidential timber. To do this necessitates a strong course in labor legislation, a course that would bring enactment of laws that would not take from labor any just right but would prevent rampant and roughshod riding over the rights and welfare of the nation by a small clique in its leadership; and which would give to management fundamental rights denied it and granted to labor by present law. But, if the course of Senator Taft is one of weakness in leadership on labor legislation, he may as well kiss goodbye to any hope he has for either the G.O.P. nomination or election if he got the nomination.

And if the course of the Republican majority is one of weakness in labor legislation, it may as well kiss goodbye the bright prospects last fall's elections gave it for presidential victory in 1948. Nothing can do so much to enhance Democratic chances in 1948 as weakness on labor issues by the G.O.P. congress in 1947 unless, of course, Mr. Truman gets himself messed up in the labor issues with vetoes or too many speeches or statements on the appeasement side. All in all, it looks very much now.

as if 1948 victory is going to the party political leadership that is smart in 1947. country with nothing on the outside envelope but a picture of the ad dressee, and has had an amazing sions against letting the thrifty own the earth, as Mr. Dykers puts It, by not buying luxuries But what about the log-rolling to get this or that Item off tha luxury list or high on the necessity? number of safe arrivals. The first lettei Mr. Prater ever so addressed was to Publisher Blrney Imes of The (Sht $hrrurport (Bhntfl Columbus (Miss.) Commercial-Dispatch.

It flew to Mr. Imes like a homing pigeon. Inasmuch as Mr. Prater is himself a postmaster I suppose he can make It all right with (Founded June 1. 18T2) Robert twins, Publisher 1S0S-1931 Entered at the United States Pottoffica.

Shrveport. Louisiana. second-ciasa matter. Issued Morntnai. Sunday, by Tha THE BUDGET AND WATERWAYS Expressing full agreement with Senator John H.

Overton's recent statement that any further reductions in federal flood control funds "will jeopardize the lives and property of the entire Mississippi valley," the Memphis Commercial Appeal calls on President Truman to restore some $30,500,000 of flood control funds actually appropriated by a previous congress but which the president ordered frozen as an "economy" move which actually is hardly even a gesture in the economy direction. That same plea has been made in both these columns and those of the Commercial Appeal more than once in the past, but we gladly add our endorsement to repetition of it by the Memphis paper. Flood control projects are being, handled rather roughly in proposed budget reductions. Perhaps some of them should be. But there is no reason to jeopardize life and property, especially through false "economy" involving ending of projects already under way and for which money already has been set aside.

Budget cuts do not have to dig that deeply, and the president holds it in his power to soften the incision simply by a stroke of the pen nullifying his past freezing of appropriated funds, a step which certainly was questionable at the time and now appears even more so. Unfortunately, Mr. Truman does not seem to be "flood control minded." He is the first president since War I not a strong supporter of waterway development. Harding may his fellow postmasters for the trouble to which he puts them. And he is proving what Intelligent and cosmopolitan postmasters have.

Times Publishing Company, No. 408-410 Marshall Street John D. Ewina L. A. Mailhes Charles A.

Hazen Editor and Publuner General Manager Managins Editor Associate Editor Chairman Knutson, of' the House Donald Ewinc Ways and Means committee, has had MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS an interesting proposal for a substi The Associated Press Is exclusively en tute for the income tax from John R. titled to the use for republication of all news, dispatches, credited to It or not Dykers, Jacksonville, insurance man. it Is for a consumers, or sales. otherwise credited In this paper and also the local news published herein The Branham Company, national advertising representatives. Offices in Nev York, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, St.

Loms. Kansas City. Dallas. San Francisco. Loa Angeles, Charlotte, Portland and Seattle, tax graduated according to the degree to which any given article Is a luxury or a necessity.

He calls it the "Flx-Your-Own-Tax Plan." For necessities the tax would be low. For luxuries the tax-payer would pay through the nose. Supplementing the tax would ba Inheritance tax provl- 6HKEVEFORT, LA, MARCH 8, lS4r.