The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 14

BROOKLYN -EAGLE, THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1949 14 National Whirligig RAY TUCKER'S Heffernan Says Some Signers of Non-Red Oath Need Checking for Good of Labor fW 'H)u I III BHIHll" I Hull mniIIM, HHl.w "I I'I'I 1 11WM1 I'Hll I 'i N'f" I V'vV- i 4 Mayor O'Dwyer A And the yi Draft LETTER The most undiscussed, behi nd-t he-scenes question at Washington on the eve of the end of the 1949 fiscal year is how the gov There is riiuch talk of the anti-Communist affidavit in the Taft-Hartley law. Some unions with reputed pro-Communist leadership have signed the affidavit. The trend indicates that more and more ujiion officials will be signing it. The question now comes up: What is being done to check the validity of some of these signatures? No case is on record, as far as we know, where any union official ha? been questioned on the matter. The XLRB has made no move to investigate any of them.

No other agency has the power to do so. Stiff penalties are attached to a false affidavit on this provision of the Taft-Hartley law. Some unions which are commonly looked upon as pro-Communist have signed or are preparing to s'gn the statements. Are they all bona fide? After the faux pas of the Eisler case wherein the No 1 Communist, had been tion of any union leader who in the past has been held suspect of Communist affiliation. The provision of the law that demands the loyalty oath will be meaningless if nothing is done to check the authenticity of the signers.

No witchhunt- is involved. But the reputation of the labor movement is at stake. The refusal of some right-wing union officials, particularly that of Philip Murray to sign this affidavit, has given the Communists an opportunity to by-pass the law and still be in good company. It is reported that Murray is now ready to sign in order to protect the rights and benefits of the steelworkers under the Taft-PIartley law. When Mr.

Murray has carried out this action we are confident that no right-wing unions, except that of John L. Lewis, will be left as opposed to the procedure. If there is any indication that little heed will be given to the affidavits, the more venturesome Communists who feel that their record is clear may attempt to sneak in without notice. recommend the possibilities of this situation to the FBI and the loyal American labor leaders. Those who have signed the affidavit to date and those who will sign it should be given a good once over.

The Commies have made fools of us long enough on too many issues. There is no reason why another door should he opened to them by carelessness on the part of the keepers of the kevs. 7 in the country for 2 years and then slipped out without paying the penalty ot the damage he had done to American life, the public has a right to be suspicious on the enforcement of anti-Communist laws or regulations. We think that the union leaders of American labor have the obligation to scrutinize the signees of this anti-Communist affidavit and challenge the ac DRIFTING Why Dr. Fishbein Was Muzzled NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS LETTERS TO THE EAGLE By ERNEST LINDLEY What Should Government Do For Production, Employment? Every further drop in the production indices is helping to create a new set of public issues or, perhaps one should say, to revive an old set of issues which have been moribund for a decade.

These center on the role of the Federal Government in maintaining maximum production and employment. There was no doubt in most minds of the sincerity of Mayor O'Dwyer's desire for retirement and in another sense there is no doubt of the sincerity of the draft movement. It is not necessary to go into the motives behind the demand of party leaders that O'Dwyer accept a nomination which under present conditions is tantamount to an election. Their job is to assure a party success. The situation, localized, is not dissimilar from that of the Democratic-New Deal party in '44 when the leaders could think of no one but President Roosevelt, the ailing chief who was so soon to expjre.

Rut back of the present movement is an honest respect and fondues for the Mayor. As to the Major himself, he has an excellent press and his chance of failure of reelection is one in a hundred. It is an odd circumstance but I first met William O'Dwyer at the funeral services of Bird S. Coler when the present Mayor had just been elected to the district attorneyship. And although the circumstances of a period in the political career of New York's first controller and Brooklyn's fourth borough-president were very different, Coler's experience may be worth recalling.

Dick Croker was still the hardhanded boss of Tammany, and Tammany was still the power supreme in New York politics. Coler had earned his high reputation by figthing Croker. As his term drew to a close Croker sternly decreed that Coler should not be nominated for mayor although the party rank and file was demanding his nomination. There were numerous conferences in Democratic Cluhs. One morning in the old auction room in Wil-loughhy St.

where Hugh McLaughlin and his lieutenants foregathered James Shevlin, McLaughlin's most trusted aide, said to me, "If you will meet me at my home tonight I'll tell you who the next candidate for mayor will be." Croker, bowing to the demand for a respectable candidate, had asked Shevlin to get the then most noted independent Demo-cratic leader, Edward M. Shepard, to accept the nomination. Shepard had refused unless Coler promised to support him. About 1 o'clock the following morning Shevlin came up 8th Ave. and said to me, "Coler has written a letter to Shepard and Shepard has consented to run." Coler, a banker, "went back to Wall St.

and honest men" as he put it. But his action under the circumstances and the crushing defeat of Shepard in the election, caused David B. Hill, the State leader, to pick Coler for the gubernatorial nomination. That was in 1802. Coler carried the metropolitan district by what was then a record majority hut he was counted out in some of the Northern counties.

No one who had any knowledge of politics doubted his election and the late Justice Stapleton always referred to him as "the only uninauguiated governor of New York." Mayor O'Dwyer may yield to the tremendous pressure brought to bear on him, or he may seek improved health in a year of retirement, before getting on board the Albany train. "Disinflation" is coming about much more rapidly than most of the economists Government and private-anticipated. Some of them are now using, unblushingly, the word "recession." The anticipated Spring pick-up did not materialize. Industries which many did not think would feel the pinch of deep end. Some of their more extreme utterances and the association's plan to assess all members $2.5 for a huge fund to fight "socialized" medicine have created a bad public reaction.

Faced with heavy weather, the association apparently found it expedient to make a concession to a strongly adverse public opinion. Dr. Fishbein has accordingly been muzzled. He will continue as editor of the Journal, but he cannot speak for the association on controversial matters. This disciplining of Dr.

Fishbein hardly will accomplish the purpose of improved public relations, if this is what the association has in view. If he did not present accurately the position of the medical profession on this controversial question, why was he not silenced earlier? And in what respect do his views differ from those expressed by other officers of the association? The solution of the problem of an adequate public health program, or of "socialized medicine," as the doctors prefer to call it, cannot be reached through a 53.500,000 high-pressure publicity campaign or through the silencing of Dr. Fishbein. Adequate medical care, including both the services of physicians and hospital care, is now beyond the reach of millions of Americans because of its high costs. Until this condition has been changed the issue and its attendant controversies will persist, with or without the highly articulate participation of Dr.

Fishbein. The sudden fierceness with which the American Medical Association has turned upon Dr Morris Fishbein, long accepted as an authoritative spokesman for the organization, is difficult to reconcile with considerations of elemental fairness. As the editor of "The Journal of the American Medical Association" for many years, Dr. Fishbein has been the consistent and ardent champion of the practices and policies of organized medicine in the United States. No one has been more vigorous or determined in the fight against President Truman's health program.

His views have not as a rule reflected public interest as viewed from outside the medical profession, but, they have been unfailingly faithful to the profession's position on this issue. With unflagging zeal Dr. Fishbein has fought every suggestion of a departure from traditional practices that might le.ad to Government influence in medicine. He has been 100 percent with the profession, not with the Government and not with the public, except to the extent that he interpreted established medical practices as being beneficial to public, interest. It can hardly be charged that Dr.

Fishbein has been more vehement, more extreme or more uncompromising in his opposition to the President's health program than other leaders of the profession. Most of them have gone off the ernment can combat an economic decline that seems to be heading into at least a minor depression. While no specific plans have been unfolded because both official economists and the politicians refuse to face the facts, they have quietly prepared three entirely different programs for cushioning a fall. President Truman blithely dismisses the problem in his public talks, although he has asked his Council of Economio Advisers to prepare him a formula entirely different from the anti-inflation courses he proposed in the presidential campaign. His concern accounts for the Administration's willingness to compromise on the Taft-Hartley Act, to delay Senate action on the North Atlantic Pact and for his new agreement to let Congress wind up its work and get out of Washington as quickly as possible.

Publicly, Mr. Truman still maintains that the nation's economy is in a healthy state of "disinflation," despite increasing unemployment, buyers' resistance, the flight of capital from Wall Street and other investment markets into seeming, ly safe but low-return government bonds, and many other indications that the postwar boom has busted in a big way. Frankly, the White House professes to believe that another ten percent drop in the economic activity and level-wages, prices, purchasing power, etc. would be a constructive rather than a dangerous trend. The economists who have dinned this theory into Presidential ears insist that there should be and can be a further drop Without any serious repercussions as in 1929.

It is generally agreed in Administration circles that the government cannot stand by in the event of another depression, and adopt a laissez faire attitude, permitting the country to go through the wringer in the hope that all will come out right in the wash. Washington's economic, financial, political and foreign policy decisions now outweigh the effect and impact of all other pressures on the national economy and standard of living. Although President Truman still maintains that there is no cause for alarm, a feeling not shared by his more conservative advisers at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board, here is the course he will pursue until and unless conditions become far worse than they are now: First, he believes that the country will be better off on a slightly lower level, at least 10 percent below present status, and possibly 20. He thinks that the use of his present authority, together with new powers he has asked from Congress, will steer us out of the gathering storm. He would stimulate credit as the Federal Reserve Governors have done in recent weeks.

He would maintain purchasing power through foreign spending and construction of public works. He would pour out more funds through his proposed health, housing, farm and federal education program. If unemployment becomes threatening, with seven or eight million unemployed, he would fall back on the work relief program of the early New Deal days. Incidentally, although he still insists on an increase in taxes at his press conferences, he has not mentioned the idea to his Congressional Monday morning quarterbacks for at least two months. Many presidential pals, however, think that this program falls short of staving off a recession or depression.

They look to the government alone as the only power which can keep the national economy on an even keel. Included in this group are such usually obedient Administration men as Leon Keyser-ling of the Economic Council of Advisers. Senator James E. Murray of Montana and Representative Brent Spence of Kentucky, chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee. They are formulating a long-range anti-depression program such as not even the late F.

D. young New Dealers Harry Hopkins, Robert A. Nathan, Harold L. Ickes. "Tommie" Corcoran and Ben Cohen, even Henry A.

Wallace ever dared to propose. Warns of 'Martyr' Tag On 3 Jailed Communists To the Editor of the Eagle: A giant Communist rally "for civil and human rights" will be held at Madison Square Garden June 28. Although none of the three Communists sentenced to jail in Federal Court last week will he there, they will doubtless be lionized, perhaps called martyrs, to provide a source of propaganda for months to come for the Communist party. Interest in the trial of the 11 Communists has been lagging and the comrades have found it hard to raise money recently. The party now probably will call for more sacrifices ami shake down its members for a day's pay or more to replenish its coffers.

The party is hard hit for funds. The five -month -long trial has taken plenty, and thousands of party members are quitting, with a consequent drop in income. There also is the matter of loss of $23,500 in bail forfeited when Gerhart Eisler ran out on the Civil Right Congress, a front organization It behooves our non-Communist citizens and organizations, particularly our trade unions, to remember this when they are approached by Communist fund raisers and give them the brush-off. I wouldn't be surprised to find' more disturbances like that in the courtroom. The comrades are getting desperate.

fear the overwhelming 'evidence piling up against them. FRANKLIN J. ANDERSON. use them will find themselves in an awkward position if this recession becomes serious. For it is most unlikely that the people of this country will ever Egain tolerate for any length of tmie a large number of unemployed.

Laissez-faire suffered its deathblow politically during the Hoover Administration. Even Mr. Hoover was finally compelled to take a few steps to try to check the great depression. They were too late and far too feeble. The experience is too recent to have been forgotten.

Mr. Roosevelt was vigorous and bold. His program was largely improvised, however. It was never fully co-ordinated, and in many respects it was too feehle, at least for the deep depression in which it was brought into play. Although we experienced a large measure of recovery, the depression did r.ot vanish until the second World War put the American economy on a full-production basis.

Much was learned from the experiences of the New Deal, however. From a political viewpoint, perhaps the most important thing that was learned is that a great majority of the American people want and expect the Federal Government to take measures to relieve unemployment and promote production. The important question is what measures shall be taken. recession until Autumn are already gripped by it. The prevailing view in Washington is that the decline will level off before the end of the year, paving the way for a new forward surge of production without another unhealthy rise in prices.

This is all guesswork, however, as economists' forecasts must always, in large part, be. The possibility that the decline will become really painful cannot be ruled out. If this occurs, great questions will arise: what measures shall the Government take to- stimulate production and A hill representing the thinking of some of the New Dealers in the Administration has been introduced by Senator Murray of Montana. It is called, informally, the Economic Expansion hill. It is intended to holster the Employment Act of 1PMS which created the President's Council of Economic Advisers and declared it to be public policy to promote maximum production and employment.

It would authorize the Government to taKe a variety of measures to expand investment and production. Already the Economic Expansion bill is being attacked as socialistic or as evidence of a design to regiment'the American economy. Some of its features would work in that di-lection. But the subject is too important to be dealt with by labels and epithets. Those who Unhappy Plight of a Good American Washington.

He may be a crook, a spy, a wife-beater or a bigamist. He may have a lifetime of criminal or anti-democratic activities to his credit. If his skin is white, he is acceptable in the best environments. He may be diseased in mind or just two steps ahead of the ape in mental power. But if his skin is white he is a first-class citizen.

If the Creator permitted some coloration to creep into the pigment of his body, he becomes a social outcast in the city that symbolizes American democracy. Does it make sense? Dr. Brady Says: GRIN AND BEAR IT By Lichty TRIAL By EDGAR A. GUEST If everything could pleasant be And never had we care to know, Were all from disappointment free. How should we stronger grow? Did every hope and dream come true, With courage never once required, Then we could idle all day through And never once grow tired.

But had this life been fashioned so, Carefree from birth to end, If grief were never ours to know, Then few would need a friend. Were trial unto us denied, The years an endless round of bliss, The joy of self-respect and pride And triumph we should miss. The evil and the absurdity of Jim Crow prejudice has been nowhere so forcibly brought home than in the case of Dr. Ralph Bunche. Here is a man who has served his nation and the cause of world peace in an exemplary way.

He has held responsible positions with the National Government in Washington. Taking over a very delicate task, when Count Bernadotte was assassinated, he steered Israeli-Arab negotiations to a successful and peaceful goal as acting mediator for Palestine. He is an honored and respected representative of the United States of America now engaged in work with the United Nations. Dr. Bunche could render valuable service to this country as an Assistant Secretary of State.

Unfortunately, it is his conviction that he cannot accept such a position and maintain his self-respect and dignity as a man. Dr. Bunche's skin happens to be dark rather than light. In the human society that exists in the nation's capital this accident of nature disqualifies him from the normal relation-hips that such a position would require. We can' best put the situation in his own words.

He has been quoted as saying, "Living in the nation's capital is like serving out a sentence for any Negro who detests segregation and discrimination as I do and I know of few if any Negroes who don't. "It is extremely difficult for a Negro to maintain even a semblance of human dignity in Washington. At every turn he's confronted with places he can not enter because of his color schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, theaters, bars, lunch counters and rest rooms not to mention widespread job barriers." Any white man who has the money to pay for services in such places, or shows a respectable appearance if no fee is required, has full freedom in The Value of Compromise That very able thinker. Dr. Harry Gideonse, president of Brooklyn College, remarked at the Berkeley Institute commencement that the ability to compromise is essential for the achievement of ideals in a "practical workaday world." He said the "only way you can live in a civilized community of individuals and nations is by accommodation and adjustment to each other's values." By compromise.

Dr. Gideonse explained, he did not mean giving up higher values for lower ones. The Brooklyn educator struck a note which needs to be applied in so many of our present-day conflicts of human values. Many, seemingly insurmountable barriers to settlement of disputes can be overcome through the spirit of give and take. It is all well and good to have fixed ideas of one's own but not a closed mind to another's belief.

Compromise is a powerful force for good if used properly. QUESTIONS ANSWERS How to Gain Weight I am naturally slender and thin. I desire very much to gain weight. What would you suggest? J. P.

P. Answer That you send stamped self-addressed envelope and ask for pamphlet How to Gain Weight. Wheat Germ Many Super Markets now carry packaged wheat germ. Since most of your readers are not likely to go to a miller or a farmer for plain wheat, why not suggest that they get wheat germ and substitute it for one-third or one-half the white flour In recipes? Mrs. H.

B. J. Answer A good idea. Thank jcu, Ma'am. Special recipes and instructions are given in the cook book to end all cook books Adelle Davis', "Let's Cook It Right." Warm Milk Mother takes milk from refrigerator and lets it stand in a warm room, on the table, sometimes for an hour or more before she is ready to use it.

Will not harmful iiacteria multiply under these conditions? M. F. C. Answer Not enough to matter. Don't offer me cold milk.

If I can't have it fresh from the cow before it cools, I want it at least warmed uP- From the Eagle 25 Years Ago June 9, 1924 Justice William B. Carswell, y.tting in the crininal branch of the Supreme Court, today had a borough attorney arrested and brought before him for not appearing at 10 a.m., the time set by the jurist to proceed with a case. BROOKLYN EAGLE iTriue Marit taju iround'd by line Vtn Anden IB 1MI THE BROOKLYN DILV t-fV FRANK SCHROTH Editor. PublUhw CROWELL. SrtUry-TreurT lull Bids 34 Jonrton 8t tiro 1, t.

TELEPHONE MAln 4-M00 Subscription ratn mall for tha Brooklya Cacl Id th United 8ttf. on year, IIS 00 Entered at Brooklyn O. --J ia a 3d Claia UaU Matter Easier Terms From the 3t. Louis Post-Dispatch Still easier terms are to be offered for the installment purchase of automobiles. Easier to get into, that is.

BUY U. S. SAVINGS STAMPS AND BONDS Pacifism is a false doctrine because "Christianity is no mere sentimentality, but a fight for a good cause," the Rev. Charles William Roeder, chaplain of the 13th Coast Defense Command, declared at services in the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church. "No question about prices dropping I offered only $10,000 toward anew gym.

and without further shopping around they granted me an honorary degree.".