The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-07-06
On Capitol Hill
BY GEORGE L. KNAPP


the cornerstone of the National Cancer
Institute Building. DR.. Thomas Par
ran, Surgeon General of the United
States, took part in the ceremonies,
and stated the facts in shorter space
than anyone else:
"Nowhere in the world will you find
in a single structure, the equivalent
of what is here provided, in physical
equipment and resources, solely for
scientific research in a specialized field
of medicine"
The initiative was taken by Senator
Bone; and he did something that never
was done before. He got the names
of all SO Senators on his bill. Two were
absent, Gerry of Rhode Island and
Smathers of New Jersey; but they
asked to be put down when they came
back. The Institute will be at once a
center and an exchange of research;
and it's value, though obviously great,
is unguessable.
Cancer is the second greatest cause
of deaths in adults; and it is increas-
ing. The bedrock reason for that in
crease is that more people now live to
a cancer age than ever before. Senator
Bone spoke and worked for the Amer
lean people when he led the attack on
a disease which kills almost one person
out of ten now living.
X X X
The Federal Power Commission is
Issuing National Electric Rate Book.
1t will have 1,5O0 pages, give rates
of more than 10000 communities in
$4,000 schedules. In fact, it will give
the residential, commercial and indus
trial rates of all privately or publicly
owned utilities in all communities of
l GOO or more in population.
The FPC has been getting out these
state volumes separately. Now, they
can be secured singly or together The
mere setting of rates together shows
what sweeping reductions should be
made. For examples, take first the
difference in residential rates for 25
kilowatt hours per month in two large
cities of New York:
Buffalo, $1.13.
Queens Borough On. Y. c. $191.
A difference Of 50 per cent But in
towns of $500 to 10000 population,
that difference is far greater. Look:
Penn Yam, $0.75. Walden, $2.75.
A difference of 260 per cent. And
the Walden charge is double what any
rate ought to be.
X X x
"The housing loans," said Nathan
Straus the other day to the House
Banking and Currency Committee,
represent a profit to the government,
because under the U. S. Housing Act,
all loans must be made at higher
rate of interest than the rate at which
the government itself can borrow. The
USHA has made loans to local hous-
ing authorities at an interest rate of
from 3 to 312 per cent. The USHA is
obtaining money from the public by
selling it's own bonds bearing interest
at the rate of about l 3/S per cent.
"The difference between the rate at
which the USHA borrows money and
the rate at which the USHA lends
money to local housing authorities
represents net profit to the govern
ment."
Mr.. Straus is to be congratulated; !;
and so is Uncle Sam. 1t is easy to say
good things for a housing act. But to
say something, in four sentences, that
sweeps out of the door all rational OBJ
jections to the housing act is some
thing like a masterpiece who cannot
afford to be ostracZed. 1t is easier
and more profitable for them to be
good, to avoid offending the Stalinists,
than to be honest
| regard the formation recently of
Committee for Cultural Freedom as
healthy sign that the dictatorship
of the totalitarian Left is being thrown
off. That committee, comprising men
and women as different in their po-
litical views as John Dewey, Ferdin-
and Lundberg, Dorothy Thompson,
James Rorty and Albert S. Coolidge,
came out for the "inviolability of ere
ative and intellectual freedom" no
matter who violates it or where. Our
| pfOlSSSlOldl liberals refused 10 JOIN
it. Those critics who pretend to be
independent but actually follow the
party line" refused to join it. The
National and The New Republic were
as vehement as the New Masses and
other openly Stalinist organs in at
taclling the committee.
What was their objection to it? Only
ths-that the committee refused to
make an exception for Russia or for
Stalinists here and abroad in con-
demning the persecution of free
thought. The committee has served
as sort of touchstone of the SINGER
ity of those who talk of freedom, but
wink an eye when their own crowd
violates it.
X
Those who have not lived under a
modern dictatorship of the German OF
Russian type are inclined to think of
it in terms Of older types of tyrannical
government. They imagine that it is
just old-fashioned absolutism such as
that of the Romanoffs or HohenZoll-