davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1946-06-22
This Changing World
By Constantine BYoscn

Gen. George G. Marshall, President
Trumans special envoy to China, is re-
ported disheartened by the attitude of
the Yenan representative, Gen. Chou
En-lai, who, while insisting on an "in-
definite truce" is rejecting the Amer
ican representatives further arbitration.
Ever since Gen. Marshall went to
China, after the resignation of Am
bassador Patrick j. Hurley he has
leaned backward to prove to the war
ring factions that the American Gov
ernment was not interested in their
struggle aside from its desire to see the
internal strife settled. He made it
clear to both Gen. Chou and General
issimo Chang Kai-shek that the United
States wanted the official government of
China and the Communist faction at
Yenan to end their controversy so that
their people would have chance to heal
the wounds inflicted by Is years of al
most continuous wars.
In his attempts to effect a settlement
Gen. Marshall has frequently appeared
to favor the Communists. He realized
that both Gen. Mao Tse-tung and all
the other Red leaders were supersensi-
tive and his efforts would have been
jeopardized by any action which might
be interpreted as showing hostility to
the Communists.
Last winter, soon after Gen. Marshall
took over the job of unifying the
Chinese government, he agreed to pro-
vide the Communists with some Amer
ican officers to train their troops Ac-
cording to the agreement reached at
Chungking the National Army was to
be composed eventually Of 40 divisions
of Chiang's troops and 10 Communist
divisions.
Gen. Marshall, who had been given
wide powers by President Truman,
ordered number of American officers
to 60 to Kalgan and start instructing
the Communists in modern warfare
training. This action was taken on a
temporary basis, until Congress could
approve the setting up of a permanent
military mission to rejuvenate the
Chinese armies.
AT present there is a plan to deacti-
vate the entire American military force
in China. This will mean that in the
Evening star., 1946-06-22
'DownhiIl PuIF

One can look far and not find a
shabbier or more disgraceful politi-
cal performance than that of the
House conferees who have succeeded
in sabotaging the draft. With ref
erence to those Senators and Rep
reSentativeS on the conference
committee who wanted to live up
to their responsibility to the country
by making some provision for the
ultimate induction in case of need
of the 18-year- DID,, Chairman Mcy
of the House Military Affairs Com
mittee has been quoted as saying
gleefully: I've got them by the
tail with doWnhill pull They'll
take a 19year-old base or there'l
be no extension of the draft"
In one sense Mr.. May was right.
He has succeeded in pulling the
others down to his level of states
manship. But it is hard to under
stand why he should be gloating
about it.
His success was due, first, to an
attempt to misuse the proxy of the
absent Representative Andrews of
New York, and, next, to the refusal
of the House conferees to vote the
Andrews proxy after the latter, in
response to message from Senator
Gurney, had clearly expressed his
desire to be recorded as voting for
the 18-year draft. Representa-
tive Dewey Short, who had joined
forces with Mr.. May, has attacked
Senator Gurneys action in contact
ing Mr.. Andrews, who is on his way
to Bikini, as "reprehensible" and
dirty Presumably Mr.. Short
means by, this that, even with a
vital national issue at stake, the
proprieties demand that a Senator
should stand aside and not interfere
while he and his House associates
are hitting below the belt. But Mr..
Short will find that he and his asso-
ciateS cannot cover their tracks by
heaping abuse on Mr.. Gurney, for
the record is clear that they and
they alone are the ones who have
been guilty of "reprehensible" and
dirty tactics.
AS matters stand, the only hope
for the maintenance of an adequate
Army lies in the possibility that the
higher pay rates which have been
voted will lead to very substantial
increase in the number of volun-
teers. This is a very thin hope,
however, and the strong probability
is that Mr.. May will live to discover
that it is not so much his colleagues
that he has been dragging down the
hill, but the security and the best
interests of his country.
Evening star., 1946-06-22
The Political Mill
By Gould Lincoln

The Hobbs bill, designed to prevent
racketeerlng by any one-Where inter-
state commerce is nvolved-Whether
he holds union card or not, has final
~ passed the Senate, after years of
knocking at the door of the upper house
This measure grew out of a decision
handed down by the Supreme Court
the present court in large part-which
virtually held that members of the
teanlsters' union, headed by Dave Beck,
a friend of the late President Roosevelt,
could not be prosecuted for compelling,
by force of threats, farmers in New
Jersey to pay full days pay to mem
bers of the union before the farmers
could deliver truck load of farm pro-
duce in New York City. A case was
brought before the court under the
terms of the general Federal anti
racketeering act, the Copeland Act
So strongly did the late Chief Jus
tice Stone feel in this matter, how
ever, that he wrote dissenting opin-
ion in which he held, to all intents and
purposes, the majority of the court
was permitting highway robbery The
Hobbs bill-ofTered by Representative
Hobbs of Alabama-specifically amends
the antl-racketeering law so that it can
no longer be construed not to cover
these practices by the teamsters' union.
1t was passed by the House over
Whelmingly-onlyt to be pigeonholed in
tine Senate Labor Committee. Clearly
the administration was opposed to it.
1t was passed in succeeding Congress
by the House-and this time it was
referred to the Senate Judiciary Com
mittee and there it remained until it
was offered as an amendment to the
recently vetoed Case bill-it became
section Z of that measure AS an
amendment to the Case bill it was adopt
ed by a vote of 50 to % in the Senate.
After the veto of the Case bill, the
Judiciary Committee at the instance
of Senator Hatch, Democrat, of New
Mexico, reported the Hobbs bill to the
Senate. It was Senator Hatch who
yesterday called the measure up for
action in the Senate itself. He had
first notified the Senate leadership, and
both the supporters and opponents of
the measure, that he intended to de-
mand consideration of the bill. With
out debate, and without a roll call, the
measure was passed and sent to Presi-
dent Truman
President Truman, in his veto of the
Case bill, remarked that he sympa-
thlzed with the "objectives" of Sec
tion THE Hobbs bill He added, how
Evening star., 1946-06-22
Lux Federal Accounting

Inc picture OF Reconstruction
Finance Corporation bookkeeping
given to Congress by Controller Cen
eral Lindsay Warren bears little re-
semblance to that presented when
the RFC was in its early days. When
1t was created on January %, 1882, as
bank and industrial recovery aid,
the RFC had capital stock of $780,
100000. Until it's New Deal expan-
sion days it had to account for no
more than $1,7OO,0OO 900 in loans and
investments, not too difficult book
keeping task. During the remainder
OF the 40s the corporation continued
to grow by leaps and bounds as it's
powers and responsibilities were en-
larged, and later, when war clouds
began to gather, it started to branch
out in the newer and fast-develop-
ing fields of the defense program.
Instead of millions for Industrial
recovery the agency found itself
called upon in recent years to dis
pense billions for defense and for
war itself. 1t Matched brood of
defense plants and other subsidiaries
with feverish speed. AS it's activities
multiplied it was inevitable that
difficulties should arise in keeping
tab on all its offspring. Viewed
against this background it is not
greatly surprising that the General
Accounting Office has charged that
lax accounting practices exist at the
RFC. 1t is disturbing, nevertheless
to learn that the RFC structure has
mushroomed to such gargantuan
proportions that it no longer has
adequate accounting control of it's
manifold agencies and operations.
According to Mr.. Warren's interim
report to Congress, the ramifications
of the corporation are such that
auditors of the GAO have failed to
get a complete record in eight
months of efforts. He points out
that there is no central repository
at RFC headquarters for subsidiary
books. The RFC, he asserts has no
accounting control over it's $7,O0O,-
1000 investment in defense plants
and ther properties, nor over the
$800,O00,000 it has invested in de-
fense materials and other supplies.
It is added that the corporation
lacks accounting control over many
other affiliates involving millions of
Federal funds.
No private corporation, of course,
would tolerate such loose account
ing methods. nor would the stock
holders tolerate them. If the lax
procedures are attributable, as in
dicated, to wartime haste, it is high
time that steps were taken to regain
effective bookkeeping control, now
that the war is over. Controller
General Warren has proposed a
logical remedy-the integration of
the scattered RFC agencies and &C
tivities under single effective con-
troll. Congress should see to it that
Evening star., 1946-06-22

Bridge Outlook Briqhter

The proposal to eliminate the
Highway Bridge bottleneck finally
has emerged from it's own bottleneck
at the Capitol, thanks to unani-
nous action yesterday by sub
committee of the House Interstate
and Foreign Commerce Committee.
The subcommittee, after many
months of delay, voted in favor
of the Commissioners plan for two
four-lane bridges to replace the
venerable, congested span which
extends on the line of Fourteenth
street across the Potomac to the
network of Virginia roads leading
to the Pentagon, the National Air
port and points South. In approx
ing the two-bridge project, the sub
committee apparently has killed off
for good the alternative proposal
for one six-lane bridge, which was
vigorously opposed by local traffic
authorities and highway planners.
Having overcome its most difficult
obstacle, the two-bridge plan has
a good chance of passage at this
session of Congress If the Senate
and House give this project the
prompt attention it deserves. Unless
final approval of the plan is forth
coming before Congress adjourns,
there will perforce ensue months of
additional delay during which the
all-important preliminary engineer
ing studies and blueprint making
must be held in allegiance. This
preliminary technical work takes
time. Congress should give the
planning engineers the "go" sign
now, so that when the appropriate
time for actual construction arrives
there will be no cause for added
postponement of this vital traffic
relief undertaking.
Evening star., 1946-06-22

ever, that it had omitted language car
ried in the anti-racketeering law which
sought to safeguard union members.
This was the very language upon which
the then Associate Justice Byrnes-now
secretary OF State-had pounced when
ne wrote the Supreme Courts decision.
Notwithstanding this objection, it would
oe surprising thing-and disastrous
should the President veto the Hobbs bill.
Yet that is what labor leaders and
labor dominated members of Congress
would like to have Mr. Truman do. This
Is one measure, however, that in all
probability could command the neces-
sary two-thirds vote in both Houses
TO be put through over a presidential
veto. That being the case, a presi-
Dental veto would be for one purpose
to help to square the President with
those labor leaders who bitterly at
lacked him when he urged Congress to
give him power to draft into the mill
tary service workers who strike in
Government-seized plants. Such a veto
OF the Hobbs bill would be companion
piece OF the Case bill veto.
For 10 days the Presidents emer-
gency labor bill has languished in the
House, after having been drastically
amended by the Senate-Which struck
out the labor draft provision. Obiec-
ton was made to taking it from the
Speakers table and sending it to con-
ference. Apparently the Rules Com
nittee is in a position to bring it to
the floor. Strangely enough none of
the Presidents supporters-the ad-
ministration leaders in the House
have so far taken steps to get this bill
before the House.
A suspicion has grown up that the
White House would be just as well
pleased-perhapS better pleased-if the
measure should be allowed to die. 1t
would, it is suggested. aid materially in
aligring labor again with the admins
tration If that course was followed. On
the other hand. should the bill be fl
nally passed and sent to the President
he would have to sign it. thereby adding
new fuel to the fire which leaders of
organized labor recently built under
him.
At one time it was vigorously pro-
posed, by some Republican and Demo-
cratic supporters of the Case bill to
place provisions OF the Case bill in the
Presidents emergency bill. That, ap-
parently, has been abandoned by the
Republicans at leaSt-who would rath-
er see Mr.. Truman sign the emergency
Dill for obvious political reasons.
Evening star., 1946-06-22

near future all officers and men will
return to the United States In order
to fulfill the promises given in the name
of President Truman, Congress has been
asked to approve measure whereby at
least 1,G00 commissioned officers could
be detailed as instructors to the Chinese
armies.
All this is predicated on Gen. Mar
shalls insistence that China ceases to be
divided into political spheres. The
Kuomintang and the Communists must,
according to the enVoy's views, amalga-
mate their forces and end their rift.
On the surface Generalissimo Chang
has not placed any real obstacles in
Gen. Marshalls path. Underneath he
and his close collaborators have shown
a good deal of skepticism about the
prospects of the success of the grandiose
plan. They have told Gen. Marshall
that the Communists aim at a COM
plete control Of the government and
the country and that whatever conces-
sions they may appear to make are
only OF temporary nature.
Chang attempted to prove his con-
tention by pointing out the number of
agreements reached with Yenan. All
were given out to the world accompa-
MED by fanfare of fine words and
noble sentiments but eventually they
amounted to nothing. Chang is said
to have repeatedly emphasized to Gen.
Marshall and those who preceded him
that the road to Yenan makes a detour
via Moscow and until Russia is fully
determined to cooperate sincerely with
her wartime Allies there will be no
real peace in China.
However, Gen. Marshall continued his
efforts, assuring Chou that the United
States had sufficient means at its dis
posal to see that Chiang's cooperation
would be sincere.
But on Thursday Chou proposed an
unlimited truce to replace the present
agreement which has just been extended
for eight days, and also demanded that
Marshall remove himself from the pic
ture as a "conciliator." This appears
once more to confuse the entire situa-
tlon and to have thrown it back where
1t started several months ago.
Evening star., 1946-06-22
Wur Memorials
From the Lincoln County News.

From the Lincoln County News.
With Memorial Day approaching the
thought of suitable war memorials to
honor those who gave their lives in.the
war is stirring in the minds of those who
came back and those who stayed at
home. No monument to the memories
of our honored dead should be con-
sidered that will not be useful and be
real lasting value
In the Damariscotta region what more
suitable memorial could be given than
donation to the Recreation Center The
veterans of Richard r. Wells Post have
done a great service in presenting the
center to the region. If it is to becoms
increasingly valuable for all, youth, vet
Grams and every one, more funds must
be given to complete equipping the
center and to build those bowling alleys
which will provide recreation for young
and old.
AS individuals or groups what more
fitting memorial can be made? A plaque
or scroll giving the name of the hero for
whom the gift is made will be lasting
memorial and the gift will make life
more pleasant for those for whose fu-
ture happiness they made the supreme
sacrifice
Evening star., 1946-06-22
Politics and the Atom
By George Fielding Eliot

The military factors involved in the
American and Soviet proposals for the
control of atomic energy must be ana
lyzed in the light of political objectives.
War itself is merely the seeking of po-
litical objectives by violent means. Mill
tary power in time of peace is the chief
support of the statesman: The factors
of such power are the blue chips at the
international poker table
From the immediate, cold blooded
viewpoint of military calculation. it may
be said that the United States possesses
a tremendous military advantage which
it is being asked, by the Soviet plan, to
give up forthwith. The exclusive pos
session of atomic weapons by the United
States Tor rather, to be precise, by the
American. British and Canadian govern
ments) gives those powers an unanswer-
able counter to the preponderant Rus
sian land power on the Eurasian con-
tinent. It must not be forgotten that
the conquest of the whole of the Eur
asian continent by the Russians would
so upset the future balance of the world
as to constitute threat of the first
order of magnitude, not only to world
peace and security but to the actual
safety of the rest of the world from
Soviet domination.
But there must also be considered
those Russians who are sincerely
anxious about Russian security, who
would be willing to accept co-opera-
tive world if they could be sure that
our intentions toward them and their
way of life were honest and friendly.
if they could be as certain that the
capitalist world was not out to destroy
their system as we would like to be
that the rulers of Russia are not out to
destroy our system.
X
So the military analysis of proposals
for atomic control boils down to this:
If we on our part arc to give up our
present advantage in possession of
atomic weapons, We mt ave guaran-
ties and safeguards. T guarantees
must extend not only to system
of control and inspection as a.all assure
us that no other power is going to
attempt, surreptitiously, to eyade the
atomic control agreement; they must
also extend to reasonable assurances
that the Russians. with the brake of
the atomic threat removed, will not Use
their predominant land power to make
themselves the masters Of the Eurasian
Evening star., 1946-06-22
Moscow's Loon to Poland

There was trace of the SNUG
self-satisfaction attributed to the
cat who had eaten the canary in the
statement made by Polish Ambassa-
dor Oscar Lange as he left the State
Department after a courtesy call on
Acting Secretary Dean Acheson prior
to his departure for consultation
visit to his government in Warsaw
Ambassador Lange told his inter-
viewers that Poland is mo longer
interested" in the $90.000,000 loan
blocked by action of the State De-
partment early last month in con-
sequence of refusals or evasions of
the Polish government to comply
with terms on which the extension
of the loan had been based. Those
breaches of agreement included such
matters as failure to publicize the
terms in the Polish press, censoring
of news dispatches of American cor
respondents in Warsaw and refusal
to make known trade arrangements
with other nations. Behind those
specific derelictions, however, was
the more fundamental failure of the
Warsaw government to live up to the
Yalta agreement promising free
elections and respect for American
investments in Poland. The War
saw regime having failed to heed
the warnings of the American
Ambassador, the State Department
suspended loans and credits to Po-
land early in May.
Ambassador Lange now informs US
that Moscow has extricated his gov
ernment from its economic Difficult
ties by granting it financial aid
much greater than that which we
promised to extend. This Soviet as.
sistance includes cancellation of in
debtedness incurred by Poland in
the latter's rearmament, indemnifi-
cation of losses through Britain's
failure to return Polish gold reserves
and an open credit account for pur-
chases by Poland of goods in world
markets essential to national re-
construction.
The logical deduction from such
munificence from Moscow is that
Soviet Russia cannot be adjudged
as needing the vast loans and credits
which it has sought from this coun-
try for more than a year. Originally
pitched at $60O0,0O0, 900, the request
is reported to have been reduced
to around $1,OOO,OO0,OOO. But why
even that figure? Our State De-
partment currently is questioning
Moscow on reported plans for sup
plying Argentina with machinery.
trucks and other scarce equipment
IN return for Argentine products.
The departments interest in this
deal has been intensified by the pos
slblllty that much of this might be
material furnished to Russia by the
United States which would, of
course, violate the lease-lend agree
ment made during the war. But
Moscow high finance may not be
deferred by such judicial niceties"
IN economics any more than it SEEM
ingly Is in politics and diplomacy.
Evening star., 1946-06-22

continent and thus upset the power
balance of the world to our lasting dis
advantage.
1t may be doubted whether any salts
factory agreement for the control of
atomic energy can be negotiated except
in an atmosphere of increasing rather
than diminishing confdence-confidenc
that forcible solutions of international
problems will not be sought by any
participating state, confidence that the
negotiations are not being directed
toward the obtaining of military
advantage for subsequent use in defiance
of the spirit of the agreement itself.
Such an atmosphere will come into
being only as result of acts. 1t cannot
be created by words. And the acts can
not be all on one side. For example:
If the United States and Great Britain
accept the Russian proposal that all
atomic weapons be destroyed, it is rea-
sonable for them to ask at the same
time that the Russians withdraw all
armies of occupation from non Russian
territory in Europe. except the army of
occupation in Germany, the size of
Which-together with the size of the
other Allied armies of occupation
might be fixed by mutual agreement.
1t is reasonab1el to ask that the Rus
slams permit the return of normal po-
litical life in Poland, Romania, Hungary
and Bulgaria, and come to terms ON
overall solutions of the German and
Austrian problems. It is reasonable to
ask that the Russians join with the
western powers in putting pressure on
Marshal Tito to demobilize the greater
part of his overgrown Yugoslav Army of
100000 men. an event which would, of
course, be followed by British evacua-
ton of Greece. 1t is reasonable to ask
that the Russians come to an agree
ment which will permit reasonable
settlement of the political future of
Korea and the evacuation of that coun-
try by both Russian and American
troops.
These acts-partly political, but very
largely military-Would be evidence of
good faith on both sides In the atmos-
phere thus created the discussion of the
vital problem of the control of atomic
and other mass-destruction weapons. or
their total abolition, could go forward
with fairer prospects Of success than
are now apparent.