Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-05-17

but he said not a word about greed
and priviiege-and crime-in his
home bailiwick of Kansas City or in
the White House itself. Mr.. Tru-
man himself spoke in behalf Of Mr..
Tom Pendergast on the Senate floor
after Mr.. Pendergast's conviction in
a Federal court, as Senator Fergu-
son pointed out this week.
Senator Ferguson inquired also
regarding the privileges represented
by Mayor Curley of Boston, par
doned by the President for mail
frauds: of those four members of
the Capone gang, paroled after
year in the penitentiary; of John
Maragon, the friend of Gen. Harry
Vaughan. What about the vote
frauds and ballot-stealing cases in
Kansas City. quietly passed over by
the Department of Justice? q,
Silent On Self-Reliance.
The President busily told the
people in the West of the tremendous
progress made in that section in
the II years since 1882. From Mr..
Truman's Western speeches, one
would think that the West began
II years ago, but as Senator Mill
kin said this week, THE President
neglected great opportunity to pay
deserved tribute to the free Ameri-
can men and women who made their
danger-ridden trek to that part of
our country. whose unsubsidized
bivouacs and pioneer cabins were
the citadels of their dauntless hope,
courage and independence, who set
tied the lands, utilized the waters
of the stream, built up their herds,
opened the mines and oil fields and
developed superior civilization
long prior to II years ago."
1t will be hard to persuade the
West that it was New Deal hand
outs rather than liberty and self
reliance which laid the basis for
their progress.
Until Mr.. Truman attempted to
make political issue out of rec
lamation, 1t was bipartisan policy
founded by Republicans when they
were in power. The Republican
80th Congress actually appropriated
so per cent more money for rec
lamation than any previous Con-
gress.
1t is somewhat hard to see why
the President wants all the addi-
tional spending and power he de-
mands, for he tells us that the
country today has reached a pros
perity beyond the dreams of avarice
and that he and his friends created
this prosperity. One would think
that he would leave we'll enough
alone. But he knows as we'll as any,
one that there is something false
about the economic prosperity re-
sulting from war, imitation and
huge debt. The 10-year improve
ment in income of which he boasts
came about not from the New Deal.
but from the war.
People Full OF Fear.
In spite of their present income,
the people are full of fear and ap-
prehension about the uncertain
basis of their prosperity.
Even more, the people are con-
cerned with the throat of a third |
world war. I am myself hopeful
that it will never occur, but it is |
the foreign policy of the Democratic
administration which has made it'll
possible. BY our constant building
up of Russia, by the pro-Communist
attitude of Wallace and Hopkins,
eliminating in the secret agree
ments of Yalta. confirmed at Pots
dam, we have placed Russia in al
position where Is it a threat to the
world.
BY the pro-Communist policies of
our State Department. we have per-
mitted Russia to take over all of
China and threaten to absorb the
entire Far East. BY the time Sena-
tor Vandenberg was able to reverse
that policy in Europe, the Russians
were established in Berlin and
Prague and Vienna whence they
could shut us off from Eastern Eu-
rope and threaten the safety of the
West.
Our foreign policy is still full of
contradiction. We loan money to
Tito, and we refuse to loan money
to Franco. We defend Indo- China.
but we do not defend Formosa. Our
taxpayers feed Germany while we
dismantle their plants and create
unemployment.
| The President talks glibly of peace
being assured by the reduction of
tariffs and the International Trade
Organization. This ITO agreement
Is opposed by nearly every one who
knows anything about it, because
it reduces our tariffs and ties our
hands, but gives every other nation
countless loopholes through which
they may avoid any obligation to
admit American goods. But certainly
the administrations free trade policy
is no insurance of peace.
Free Trade Is Pipe Dream.
The Democrats came in in 1918
and passed the Underwood tariff for
revenue only. Within four years,
we were in World War I. In the
thirties, We adopted the Reciprocal
Trade Agreements program, and by
l941 we were in the World War II.
Whatever the arguments for free
trade, it is pipe dream to imagine
that 1t will make the Russians less
likely to start an aggressive war.
One thing is certain: The election
of Congress subservient to Mr..
Truman will remove all the neces-
sity he feels today to consult with
Congress on foreign policy. 1t was
the imaginary mandate from the
election Of 1913 which led him to
abandon the so-called bipartisan
policy and go it on his own. I don't
believe the people want a Congress
subservient to Mr.. Truman in for
eign policy any more than they do
in the domestic field.
And so we face in next Novem-
Der fundamental issue. Shall we
turn the country over to Mr.. Tru-
man and rubber stamp Congress,
or shall we elect a Congress that
believes in liberty and Americanism
and sound fiscal policy? Even
Democratic Congress with strong
Republican minority can be that
| bind of No,rrees t,,& s,,s& - -