davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1946-05-27
On the Record
By Dorothy Thompson

Suppose they should propose that the
Government create a fund for insur-
ance, pensions, recreation, and the edu-
cation of their children out of seven
per cent tax on all farm products to
be added to their price. and, until
their demands were met, should strike
refusing to send drop of milk, a grain
of wheat. a pound of meat, or basket
of fruit to any market.
Then very soon, miners, railroad men
auto workers, and all the population of
America except farmers would die of
famine. Would that be the exercise of
right?
Has surgeon the right to lay down
his scalpel in the middle of an opera
ton? Has kindergarten teacher the
right to walk out on brood of babies?
May fireman refuse to rescue people
trapped in burning building?
The whole concept of rights" pre-
sumes the existence of code relating
rights to righteousness. The most sub
lime concept of righteousness is ex-
pressed in book, which you, John L.
Lewis, are accustomed to quote. and
"AiASii ID liloic 1dIilllldI 10 your miners
than to most other workers. And if
you will listen to the words of the only
one whom you call your Master, you
will hear.
He who loveth his life shall lose il,
but he who loseth his life for Ny sake
shall gain it, and, Bear y. one an
others burdens and thus fulfill NV
law"
Ihls country, as a peaceful family,
can produce enough for all including
miners and railroad men. But it can
not produce anything as a warning
jungle in which each group is reaching
into the pocketbook of every other
group and yelling about its rights. The
right to live is precedent to all others.
the duty to contribute to sustaining
lie is its logical complement and the
llle OF each depends upon the labor of
all
This is true-absolutely
released by the Bell Syndicate, 1nc)
Evening star., 1946-05-27
Charter Commission Bill

If practical difficulties imposed
by prospects of early adjournment
of Congress were not so evident
Washingtonians could take greater
satisfaction in the tWelve-to o-tWo
vote by which the Senate Judiciary
Committee (three members not vot-
ing) ordered a favorable report last
week on the McCarran bill to incor-
porate the Federal City Charter
Commission
Aside from the merits of the semi
autonomous local government pro-
posal outlined in the bill, every one
should welcome an opportunity to
bring the subject of voteless Wash
ington to the floor of the Senate for
a clarifying debate. Were it not for
the proximity of adjournment the
opportunity would seem closer now
than it has been for many years. AS
it is, the measure will have to take
it's chances in the pressure of busi-
ness at.the tail end of long session.
It is time that this measure or
some measure like it reached the
floor in both houses of Congress for
theefull discussion it deserves. 1t is
believed that a majority of the men,
bers of both houses of Congress is
conscious of the unhealthy condition
which denies all participation in
their Government to residents of
Washington, and, in the abstract,
favors it's removal. 1t is the pro-
cedure which provokes chief dis
agreement and confusion. Debate
on the question would tend to en-
phRsize and narrow the objective
a grant of suffrage to Washingtoni-
ans that does not destroy the con-
ception of Washington as the Fed
eral City, properly under the Ma
tion's control as its seat of govern
ment, but which gives to the Wash
ingtonian effective voting partici-
patton in his Government.
Evening star., 1946-05-27
Pictures to. ENGLAND

Two hundred and thirty canvases,
representing two centuries of Amer
ican painting, have been sent to
London for exhibition at the famous
Tate Gallery in compliance with an
invitation from its trustees received
many months ago. This means,
briefly, that the British public will
have an opportunity to discover for
itself what has been happening to
art in the United States since 1746.
Latter-day productions-some of
which. obviously, could have been
brought into existence almost any,
where on the face of the earth
may mot please every visitor to the
Millbank. The average Englishman
is conservative in his esthetic opin-
ions, If not in his political and social
views. Britain never has had
"modernist" revolution. Her rad
ical' geniuses have been few. With
the possible exception of the Welsh
man Augustus John, nobody in
England has tried to paint merely
to express himself. British artists
generally have endeavored to inter-
pret values infinitely more important
than any individual.
Beauty as such has mattered to
them. They have worked under the
inspiration and the discipline of
that great inclusive school of graphic
masters which iourished in the
Victorian Age-Lord Leighton, Sir
John Everett Millais,< Sir Edward
Burne-Jones, Sir Lawrence Alma
Tadema, Sir Edward ]. Poynter,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Holman
Hunt, George Frederick Watts, Will
liam Quiller Orchardson and the
rest. Accuracy and fidelity in draw
ing, faithfulness in color, devotion
to nature-these were sacred prin-
ciples to the forerunners of the
English artists of the present era.
Imagination, the power to dream
and to make the dreams come true
on canvas, they possessed in guam
tity and strength enough for their
purpose. They were poets and
philosophers as we'll as painters.
And their idealism, their romantic
realism, their realistic romanticism,
their hopes and. above all, their
stimulating industry have come
down to their heirs unspoiled.
But America probably does not
understand this. Such names as
those of Harold and Laura Knight,
Glyn w. Philpot, Sir Frank Short,
w. Russell Flint, Henry Rushbury,
F. Cadogan Cowper, bod Proctor, Sir
Evening star., 1946-05-27
Aging Cars and Safety

Results of the first weeks check
up by police on the mechanical con-
dition of automobiles involved in
violations or accidents indicate that
approximately one out of every six
cars on the streets of Washington
today is potential menace to the
safety of drivers and pedestrians.
1t is not news, of course, that auto
mobiles are growing older (the
average age of today's cars is esti-
mated at about eight years.. What
is disturbing about the situation is
the apparent indifference of many
car owners and drivers to the fact
that such vital safety appurte-
nances as brakes and lights and
windshield wipers and horns can be
repaired at moderate cost-certainly
at a fraction of the cost of a So
journ in the hospital or the in
tangible costs of a single fatality.
Inspector Arthur Miller reports
that of 500 cars which failed to pass
inspection, 65 lacked proper lights,
81 had defective brakes, five had no
horns and the others had sundry
defects, from imperative wind
shield wipers to broken or missing
bumpers. Most of the troubles were
of type that could have been read
lily eliminated by alert and safety
conscious operators. Many of the
accidents in which the tested cars
had been involved probably would
never have occurred if their owners
had given proper attention to the
condition of the vehicles. The cur
rent campaign, which is to continue
for several weeks, will be we'll
worth the energies of the police if
1t will serve to alert car owners
and drivers to the urgent necessity,
in this era of aging automobiles,
OF keeping their cars mechanically
fit to operate on the public thor
oughfares.
Evening star., 1946-05-27
This Changing World
BY Constantine Brown

The Presidents proposal to induct
strikers into the Army recalls the 1910
railroad strike in France.
The then Premier AriAide BRAND
ordered a general mobilization and by
that order the "cheminots" railroad
mem were automatically called to the
colors In France, as in the rest of the
European countries, military service is
compulsory for all able-bodied male citi-
zens who, after having served period
of l8 months to years on active duty,
remain in the nations armed reserves
or militia until they reach the age of As.
Thus by ordering general mobiliza-
ton, France compelled the railroad men
to report automatically to their units.
To avoid dislocation which would have
been as bad as strike, the French war
Office on instructions from the premier
ordered the railroad men mobilized on
the spot.
Army officers were sent to the various
centers to take command and the men
were exempt from even wearing the
uniform. But they were subjected to
the customary military rules which pro-
vided long Jail sentences in the event
they disobeyed orders.
The strike collapsed. But so did the
BRAND cabinet. The walkout occurred
in the middle of October; it was crushed
within three days, and BRAND was
Evening star., 1946-05-27

God has had mercy on this great
land. May we never know His wrath!
1t is rich in coal; oil gushes from it's
wells; IN its factories stand slaves,
ready to work for mere subsistence
machines, capable of turning out for
all of us what 100 years ago were the
luXuries of kings. On 100000 farms,
men plough and sow and reap, in cli-
mates and soils that produce the tangy
apples Favored by frost, and the juicy
oranges sWeetened by a sub-tropical
sun; there is hardly a food grown
anywhere which is not producible in
this country. And no armies have tram
pied its corn or devastated its grooves.
Our sons lie under little crosses, row
on row, from Burma to Cologne: their
bones dissolve on the floor of the sea;
in hospitals from Maine to California,
they take first trembling steps on legs
of steel; they wear new faces pieced
on them in pain; they trail their hands
along old words in braille. Blind boy,
can your fingers find the word "sacri-
fice?" Dead boy, does a whisper pass
your skull that the country from which
you Tended destruction is destroying
herself while her people scream for
rights! Rights! Rights!
The rights are all mortgaged The
rights of each are mortgaged to the
rights of all.
A strike is simultaneous organized
laying down of tools. Through the use
of tools we live. Should all American
workers lay down their tools, all Amer
leans would die.
Does any conceivable right include
the right to kill?
Farmers are workers who own their
own tools. Farmers have grievances
Though they and their families are 10
per cent of the population they have
only l3 per cent of the income. They
work a 70-hour week and bear the
burdens of capital, labor, and of nature
itself. They suffer many casualties
from their occupation and have recrea-
tional handicaps. They, too. have the
right to organize.
Evening star., 1946-05-27

produced by two. We built the greatest
merchant marine and the greatest air
fleet In the world.
we now have promised large pay
ments to foreign nations-some to the
tune of 100000, 900, in the form of
our contributions to the Breton Woods
organlzatlon-the international fund
and international Bank There also is
payment of $3.50 900 900 to Britain.
1he minimum requirement of these
contributions and other loans officially
was eValuated in January, 1916 at
Sl7,0OO,O0OO0 while other estimates
indicate that the total of such sums
due from US may reach an amount be-
tween $4,000 100000 and s29 900 900 600
during the next five or six years.
Bernard M. Baruch has warned the
Natlon and Congress that before grant
ing sucr huge payments we should take
national inventory" This, of course,
Will take years and will create intricate
questions in the principles and theory
OF accounting and in decisions regarding
loans, which greatly will be Influenced
by our own opinion concerning our
wealth.
Our national income and gross pro-
ductlon figures are used much too in
dlscrlmlnately for important forecasts.
Moreover we need more than ever a
completely new setup for evaluation of
our national wealth and of all the as
sets of the United States.
* xx
A significant proposal contained in
President Trumans full employment
bill is for the setting up of a three-man
council to draft from year to year a
national budget, comprised of the Gov
erment budget, as well as the whole
puget OF private sales, employment and
consumption of the Nation. Why not
entrust some of our best experts with
the task OF seeking more reliable basis
Tor the appraisal not only of our ma
honal wealth, but also of the real i'm
pact of national production and the
limits to which it can be maintained
when reccnversion is over and foreign
demand satiated?
We need a much better foundation
for our Judgment about what we can
afford in loans and outright gifts abroad
and in wage and price levels at home.
1t is essential to the country that we
have accurate and realistic measure
ments of our real performance and our
real wealth and, therefore, of our lend
ing power for the decisive decade ahead
of us.
Evening star., 1946-05-27

George Clausen. Francis Dodd, W.
G. de Glehn, R. Aiming Bell,
Maurice Greiffenhagen, Sir John
Lavery, George Henry, Gerald l..
Brockhurst, A. J. Munnings, Sir
William Orpen, L. Campbell Taylor,
T. c. Dugdale, Vivian Forbes, L. M.
Glasson, Sir D. Y. Cameron and
Charles Ricketts, are totally unknown
to the majority of people on the
western side of the Atlantic, yet
each of them spells rich and COM
pelling achievement. One result of
the American show at the Tate in
London should be a representative
exhibition of British pictures at the
National Gallery in Washington.
Evening star., 1946-05-27
World Fumine
From the Wall Street Journal.

From the Wall Street Journal.
Former President Hoover (afterl MAX
ing hurried tour of Europe to estimate
its minimum food requirements, has
pointed out that 1.-The problem is essen
italy problem of the next 120 days"
How long would it take to re-establish
food rationing in this country? How
secure against legal attack and other
forms of resistance would it be if it
were hurriedly set UP by executive order
under the discredited Second War Pow
ers Act, which is soon to expire? And in
any case, how effective could it be ex-
pected to prove in practice?
None of these questions can be re-
liably answered in advance. Each Of
them involves risk of failure which it
is unnecessary and inadvisable to take
1t Is better to ask our people to enlist in
humanitarian cause than to attempt
to compel their submission to a probably
bungling regimentation.
Evening star., 1946-05-27
River Valley

We palked in the glory OF miduestern
summer,
Where once the lone cottonpood
hardly dared stand.
And marked the tall greenness of oak
and elm, branches
As tar as keen vision could measure
the land.
We saw the broad uaUey as lerel as
mater,
And tairer than Eden's brief holdino
IN pa,Un;
AboUe far sky thinly fecked uith
1Uhite laces,
And blue as the bluebeHs that ri,o
up the daUn
And oh, the bright gold OF the ,uheot
IN the ualley,
The song OF the combine on meado1o
pure air,
The riDer's slo,D stDirl as it fingered to
listen,
And leaDe fair portion OF lies uin.
t1ge there.
EMIR r. ZIMMERMAN.
Evening star., 1946-05-27
Our National Wealth
By Rayn MoIer.

The other day Secretary Of the Treas
ury Fred M. Vinson, through no fault
of his own, was placed in a bad spot
When, as member of the Truman
cabinet, he was defending the granting
of the British loan before the Senate
Committee on Banking and Currency,
Representative Howard H. Buffet of
resources of the United States were
After some hesitation, the Secretary
stated they were $500 900, ,000,000
Is it possible that our national wealth
which, according to the most accurate
estimates We have was about 1907 000,-
100000 in 1922 and 5000 900, 100000 in
1888. has now suddenly doubled? We
have detailed accounts for the 1888
figures. For instance, land then was
more than half the total national
wealth. Has the value of the land
doubled? Our public utilities comprised,
in 1888. about one-seventh OF the en-
tire national wealth. Has the value of
our public utilities doubled?
Without explaining this, Secretary
Vinson may have followed another line
of reasoning. He said our gross ma
tional production, which was between
$4,000, 100000 and $4,000 100000 dur
ing the last years before the war, ex-
ceeded 5000 900 600 900 during the war
and at present might be at an annual
rate of $50, 900 100000.
Mr.. Wilson's argument could be as
follows: If a concern produces goods
worth $50 ,0000 100000 or S9O,OO0.0O 900
with assets valued at 5000 900 900 900,
why shouldn't the value of the assets
of the concern, when producing double
the former figure, also be doubled? 1t
is even probable that in such case the
profit before taxes should not only
be double, but much higher than that
This argument has only one bad flaw
The loans and other obligations which
we are contracting now will be in fixed
dollar amounts, which will remain the
same. regardless of whether our ma
tional income or our national wealth
is high or low. If our national gross
output remains at the unprecedented
wartime high, at $19O,000 900 0O0- $780,
100000, 900 year, then Secretary Vim
sons calculation would be right and
even conservative.
However, if our national gross pro-
duction, as cautious observers expect,
should go down after reconversion is
over and pentup demands are satisfied,
the Nations wealth might look COM
pletely different. We would still have
the same productive capacity as now, or
perhaps greater. But in a slump only
part of this capacity would be used
and the value of the total resources of
the United States would no longer be
$600,00O 900 900, but very probably much
less. One important fact is obvious
the means of appraising national wealth
are antiquated. We have no realistic
national balance sheet.
During the war the Government spent
much more than our prewar national
wealth-probably about $780, 900 900.
Since that is so, did that have any
effect on our national assets? We in
creased our national wealth by building
complete new war industry, which in
itself swallowed an investment of over
$25, 900 100000. We improved the eff
cheney of our agriculture to such a de-
gree that the volume produced before
the war by three persons was, In 1945,
Evening star., 1946-05-27
Key Peace Instrument

AS 1t DeglnS lCS llTSL SESSION. III lIllo
country, the United Nations Eco
nonlic and Social Council takes up
task basically more important than
that of any other major agency of
the U. N, including the Security
Council. The latters job is to deal
with international disputes threat
ening the peace, but whereas this
involves primarily kind of policing
work, the responsibilities of the Eco
nomic and Social Council go deeper,
calling for nothing less than a great
and unprecedented world effort to
eliminate or reduce the conditions
that cause the disputes.
In other words, as President Tru-
man declared in his welcoming mes
sage to it, "the Economic and Social
Council mobilizes the constructive
forces of mankind for the victories
of peace to achieve freedom
from want, to encourage production,
help to open up transport and clear
communications and to assure
higher standards of living" through
out the world. Human misery, un-
employment, industrial and agricul-
tural depressions are among the
prime causes of those frictionS that
breed armed conflict among nations.
Accordingly, to the extent that they
can be mitigated, to the extent that
they can be replaced by an ever
increasing area of prosperity around
the globe, the terrible possibility of
another major war can be made
more and more remote.
Looked at in this light. the Eco
r1onic and Social Council is self
evidently an agency of topmost sig
nificance. It's chief objective, in eff
feet, is to create a climate in which
the Security Council will have fewer
and fewer troubles to police. To this
end, with its eighteen member-na-
tions elected by the General Assem-
bly,, it will coordinate the work of
Its several affiliates within the U. N.
These include the International
Bank the international Monetary
Fund, the Food and Agriculture Or
ganization, the Civil Aviation Or
ganization and the Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organizati ton
all designed either to promote
prosperity for peoples everywhere or
to labor for a fuller recognition, in
President Truman's words, of the
dignity and worth of the individual
human being.
1t Is one thing. of course, to pro-
claim such program, and another
to put it to work. Looking at the
world as it is at the moment, the
too-easily discouraged may see little
IN the picture promising the degree
OF cooperation that will be needed
II the Economic and Social Council
Is to succeed. Yet the fact remains
that this is the first agency of it's
kind in history, that it is already in
action, and that a great company of
nations stands behind it, pledged to
support it to the full. There was
nothing like it after the First World
War; if there had been, the course
OF international events might have
been much happier. In any case, we
have 1t now, and with it, given the
good will and earnest participation
of all powers concerned, we may we'll
attain-no matter how slowly or
Evening star., 1946-05-27
Mr.. Lewis Sits Tioht

This week begins with a torrent
OF not unexpected criticism of the
President because he has had the
courage to act firmly in the national
interest. And it also begins with
omlnous indications that strong la
Dor groups are still bent upon chal-
longing the authority and the power
of the Government.
Once again the bituminous coal
miners are on strike. The President
and his aides have been unable to
persuade John L. Lewis to accept
the principles of a new contract,
and the mine leader has refused to
lift a finger to keep the members of
his union at work. AS result, the
miners are striking against the Gov
ernment, and in this situation may
lie the severest test of the emer-
gency legislation requested by Presi-
dent Truman to cope with strikes of
this kind. Hardly less threatening
is the word of open defiance which
has come from President Joseph
Curran of the left-wing CIO Ma
tlonal Maritime Union, who saws
that the June Is strike of the mari
time workers will take place regard
less OF what kind of repressive leg
lslatlon they pass in Congress-"
In the face of these challenges.
there are those who condemn the
President for asking that the Gov
ernment be empowered, in the in
terests of all the people, to assert
and maintain its authority. Boast
ing that I'VE are the worlds richest
labor organization" A. F. Whitney
of the Brotherhood of Railway
Tralnmen, one of the two rail lead
ers whose arrogance and intransi-
eence forced the break with the
President, says that his union will
spend all of its 47-million- dollar
treasury If necessary to defeat Mr..
truman IN the next election. In
New York a group of 1900 CIO Off
clalS, indorsing charge by another
left-Winger, Michael J. Quill, that
the President has committed trea-
son against the people," called for
the defeat of the emergency legisla-
tlon. And from the other side of
the political fence, Harold E. Stas-
sen, who aspires to the Republican
presidential nomination, calls the
bill "totalitarian in character" and,
with other things, says that it would
permit the Government to break
and destroy any union"
That, in the first place, is mis-
statement of fact, for the bill gives
the President not the slightest power
to break or destroy any union unless
and until union resorts to strike
against the Government in an in
dustry affecting the entire economy
of the United States. Should that
siuation arise the Government would
have power to break the offending
union But the significant fact is
SAAoo eAAS SttOASC VAlCii WOu1o VIC UG-
tween breaking the union or rather
breaking its strike and permitting
the union to break the Government
and destroy the Nations economy.
Mr.. Stassen and Mr. Whitney and
all of the others are blind, indeed,
if they think that kind of unionism
will be tolerated by public opinion in
this country. 1t will not be tolerated
because it cannot be tolerated, and
there is small chance that the people
will be sWayed in their support of
the President on this proposition by
threats from union leaders with mil
lions of dollars of their members
funds to spend or by public state
ments which smack of political op-
portunism.