The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-11-26
|Merry-GO.ROund

wAsHrNoToN Nov ae-washngton ls no town for Che naive but well meaning Assistant Secretary of state Bin Benton learned the other day.
 Benton, recently retired as chairman of the board of Encyclopedia Britannica and now in charge Of the State Departments goodwill program, hes been having his troubles with Congress Some of the more bSckwocds Congressman cant understand why N s important to sell America to the rest Of the world, especially it costs money They haven't learned that selling peace through friendship lots cheaper than fighting wars with battleshps
 One such ls bull-voiced Congressman John Taber of New York soon to become Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, which will give him death grip on Bentons appropriation, Recently Ben. ton invited Taber to dinner and explained the State Departments cultural relations program to him The next day Benton told friends he had completely won
 shortly thereafter, however, Acting Secretary Of State Dean Acheson got wthering phone call from the New York Congressman,
 What is that fellow trying to descending me the Encyclopedia BritannicaS" Taber thundered 'fs he trying to bribe with set of books just before his appropriation comes up before my committee7
 What want to know" continued Taber, lis were these books sent me with the approval of the State Departmente"
 Acheson, having no prior knowledge of the inci- dent said he couldn't answer What had happened pedia Britannica Company, had sent presents of the books to several Congressmen, including Taber. The others took it. as it was meant, friendly gesture But not Mir. Taber. He is now expected to knife the State Departments entire appropriation for good will abroad
 
 One thing Che strlkng miners don't realize is that they are working for industry which will soon be as out of date as the old sten-wheeer of Mark Twains Mississippi River days Unfortunately what they especially don't to realize is that their present strike is hasening the end of the coal indus try.
 A brief news item from the little town of Lous- vile, N Yp tells part of the story Its l50 families have converted to oil, making it the first completely oil-heated town in the US.A. Others are bound to follow, Some industries had started converting to oil even before the strike. Natural gas piped East will further cut down coal consumpton-especiay as coal becomes more expensive and more uncertain
 However, this only tells part of the story. The rest of the story began on Aug B. l945, when bomb was dropped on Hiroshima Scientists have been working ever since on the problem of harnessing atomic energy, Already Poland is constructing an atomic energy power plant In the United States the first atomic power plants should De completed in two years.
 Naturally the coal steel and oil interests are not anxious to encourage this Nor the big power companies, whose water power installations would be scrapped. These incidentally the same interests which have blocked the of natural gas in the big inch and little inch pipelines.
 Science however, can be retarded. but not stopped And when atomic energy is used a wide scale sci- entists estimate it will be much cheaper than coal or oil When that happens coal mining will be just as obsolete as the journeymen wagon builders of 1900. And unfortunately fo the coal miners, the more un-