Newspaper Page Text
The President and
Horseshoe Pitching
President Truman has decided to
build a horseshoe pitching court on
the White House grounds. This
should make America feel better.
Much of the trouble that the world
is in today is due to the fact few,
if any, rulers have been horseshoe
pitchers.
•
There is something about horse
shoe pitching that keeps a man cool,
eases his nerves and lessens the
chances of his doing anything cock
eyed. We had a few horseshoe pitch
ers among our earliest Presidents,
and their administrators were the
most peaceful in history.
»
Perhaps in these troubled times
of irascibility, frenzied disputes,
hair - trigger decisions, impa
tience, with the other fellow’s view
point and the itch to settle every
thing overnight, horseshoe pitching
may save civilization!
»
Had Adolf Hitler ever gone in for
pitching horseshoes the yen to con
quer the world would never have
developed. In your wildest dreams
can you picture Mussolini fooling
around with a horseshoe?
On with the horseshoe stuff,
Harry! You’re no genius in states
manship. You are not the wisest
ruler of the day. But nevertheless
when the atomic bomb crisis agitates
the great men of the earth, when
potentates on all sides are shout
ing at one another and when so
many big men have so many hot
ideas for causing trouble, it will be
good to know that you spend a little
lime each day out behind the While
House pitching horseshoes.
* * *
Circus Memories
The circus is back in New York,
and thousands of big city kids will
be thrilled no end. But we pity the
kid who never knew the circus in a
small town. Back home in our boy
hood it was the event of the year.
The first flush of posters on the bill
boards kindled our imagination. . . .
we were sleepless for nights before
the great day . . . and we were up
at 3:30 a. m. the morning the big
show arrived. ... It was always
unloaded in the freight yards down
at Long Wharf off Water street, and
what a thrill it was to hear the
locomotive whistles and then see
the circus trains pull in, unload
and start on the five-mile trek to
the circus grounds, which used to
be in Elm City park back of the
Hubinger mansion.
After the unloading had pro
gressed an hour or so, we hustled
to the grounds to see the tents go
up. . . . The rat-tat-tat of the stake
driving crews . . . the rumble of
the wagon wheels . . . the smell of
tambark and hay . . . the aroma
of lamb chops and boiled potatoes
from the cook-tent . . . oh, boy!
We generally managed to get a job
leading a pony in a parade and got
a free pass to the show.
• • *
The “O” hits been knocked out of
"UNO" which now becomes officially
“f './V.,’’ which makes it sound like an In
dian grunt. Now if they would only take
the “/V” out it seems to us it would per
sonalize its message tremendously.
• . .
A head of the Mexican baseball
league threatens to complain to the
American ambassador about an
American baseball player who has
quit the league. The matter may
get before the United Nations se
curity council. Which is a line idea.
It would give the organization ter
rific press notices, especially if any
delegate walked out.
• • «
General MacArthur recommends
that the Japanese adopt the A.B.C.
alphabet. The Japs are satisfied
that they were nuts to stage the re
cent war and they may be ready to
admit that the Jap alphabet drove
them crazy.
•
But we still doubt that the Japs
will seem any less warlike because
they spell, “Does the cat see the
rat?” our way.
»
Soon we shall he hearing of the worthy
citizen who started life on u shoestring
and ultimately acquired a furnished room.
•
Isn't it about time the book clubs
began selecting the book clubs of
the month?
* • *
Laugh of the Year—The announce
ment, with a sober face, by OPA
enforcement agents at this late date
that wholesale butchers have been
forcing retailers to make “tie-in’’
purchases!
• • •
PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN
“This is an outrage,” he declares
When in a subway jam;
“There ought to be a law!” he
screams,
“What do they think I am?” . . .
His squawks are terrifying, oh,
They can be heard a mile—
But at lire race track he will stand
And take it with a smile.
» « *
The old league of Nations is now
closing in Switzerland. It is surpris
ing everybody by a display of firm
ness in this procedure.
wßt..\ jp? ./■/ i T ■ •
■ MBpl ’ '
''Z'wßm •& Ism I 'My ' toSSSfafv
“ALABAM” PRESENTED TO TRUMAN . . . Future Farmers of
America, and 4-H clubs, presented President with an Aberdeen angus
bull calf as proof that Alabama can raise cattle as well as cotton.
Left to right, Dorothy Fuller, Birmingham, Ala.; Max McLaughlin,
Blue Springs, Ala., state president of Future Farmers of America;
Luther Fuller, Birmingham, and Billie Smith, Fosters, Ala., president
of 4-H clubs of Alabama.
• . .
SNIPERSCOPE REVEALED AS SECRET WEAPON ... A soldier
presses the handgrip to turn on the light of one of the U. S. army’s
most carefully guarded war secrets. The device permits a soldier to
see at night by means of an invisible light, infra-red radiation, which
casts a beam but cannot be seen by the enemy. It is mounted on a
.30-calibre carbine.
SOLD THE FIRST POPPY . . . Betty Lou Hall, 4, daughter of Infantry
man Arthur A. Hall, who was killed in action in Europe, traveled from
the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Home for Widows and Orphans
at Eaton Rapids, Mich., to the White House, where she sold Presi
dent Truman the first 1946 buddy poppy to inaugurate the annual buddy
poppy sale conducted by the VFW for relief work.
<_
jS| flOliff|p«
ELECTION RETURNS—AMERICAN STYLE . . . Just as any Amer
ican couple would sit before the radio to get late returns on election
night, Emperor Hirohito, the debunked mikado, and his wife, the
empress, sit before the radio and get the latest results of Japan’s first
democratic election. They are shown at the summer palace at
Hayama. Returns continued all election night. Reds filed objection
to results.
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL, PERRY, GEORGIA
ft «>
MODELING FOR MOPPETS . . .
Tiny tots staged their own fashion
show at the Children’s Aid society.
New York. Latest creations in
children’s clothing were shown by
the little models, including Mary
Panico, front.
ifa. vy,„sM>,. ~
iter
111 y ' jI
■,'■•*/
BRITISH CHAMP .., Bruce Wood
cock, British empire heavyweight
champ, working on favorite Ameri
can ice cream cones. He arrived
from England for fight with Tami
Mauriello at Madison Square Gar
den.
|pp * IgM
=i
W-Hf | M
CHAMP NEWSBOY . . . Believed
to be the best trained monkey in
the United States, “Kip,” a chim
panzee from Dania, Florida, plays
the role of newsboy at a Miami
street corner. Sales soared that
day.
■hßßßH||f '^H|||
>\
NEW SWIMMING RECORD . . .
Ann Curtis, 20, University of Cali
fornia co-ed, defeated Brenda Rei
ser, Portland, Ore., and estab
lished a new American record in
the 220-yard free-style event at
Seattle recently.
SipF <"■" :
i|L *» ■
HEADS U. N. SECURITY COUN
CIL . . . Dr. Hafez Ifif Pasha, as
he assumed chairmanship of the
U. N. security council, replacing
Dr. Quo Tai Chi of China, He has
just been made leader of Egyp
tian delegation.
Nations Must Submerge
Sovereignty for Peace
By BAUKHAGE
News Analyst and Commentator,
WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W.,
Washington, D. C.
HUNTER COLLEGE, THE
BRONX, N. Y. These notes are
being jotted down in the basement
of a room that once sounded to the
dull staccato-thud of rubber-soled
gym shoes as the girls came trip
ping downstairs from the floor
above to scamper into the show
ers, pull on their bobby socks and
other strange accoutrements which
distinguish the modern female col
legiate.
It is during a lull in the session
of the security council of the
United Nations. There are no bobby
socks present but there are some
rather solemn-looking females here
in the “press lounge” along with
their not-quite-so-solemn male coun
terparts, snatching a pause that is
supposed to refresh. I hear the
rapid flow of French, some gutteral
Slavic, sing-song Chinese and liquid
Spanish. In a corner is a tele
vision set which, at the moment, re
veals America’s representative, the
white-haired, handsome Mr. Stettin
ius, scratching his left ear. He is
speaking and his words come over
the loud speaker. The camera
moves and we see the delegates
one after another, some listening,
some whispering —for Stettinius
has stopped and the loudspeaker is
translating his words into French.
I have just gone over these notes
and others that formed the basis
of later broadcasts from the studio
which looks down on the council
chamber. I am seeking in them an
answer to the question which has
been asked of me many times since
I have been here in New York, a
question that perhaps you would
ask, too, if we could reverse the
sound waves and let the listener
speak and the speaker listen.
Is the United Nations really go
ing to get anywhere?
First, let me admit that as I
write we are walking a tight-rope
stretched between two crises, either
of which might wreck us or might
be forgotten by the time these lines
reach the printed page.
And, of course, the rock upon
which the United Nations may
flounder is the veto. Most people
don’t understand the veto. Briefly,
it is the right of any of the Big
Powers, the permanent members of
the executive council, to say “ho”
to the discussion of any matter
which said power doesn’t want
raised.
Power Politics
Still in Force
In other words “power politics” is
still in force and the only advance
we have made is that compromise,
which is the basis of all democratic
action —is the only possible solution
of controversial questions. The un
democratic alternative is the use of
power, which in this case may be
exercised without the will of the
majority. The right of the veto is,
as was brought out in a recent
University of Chicago .round-table
discussion, really the insistence/ on
the expression of national sovereign
ty; the sovereign right of a nation,
if it gets mad enough, to promul
gate the organized savagery of war.
We can, it is true, never hope
for any permanent peace until we
are vailing to yield that sovereignty
to a higher authority which ex
presses the will of the majority of
all peoples.
The United Nations at present has
not been granted that authority.
But there Is hope which I have
watched grow as international pro
ceedings move forward under the
impetus of a will to peace and the
implementation of ever - growing
publicity which creates the under
standing to bolster that will—lt is
this: as the United Nations con
tinues to discuss those matters
which are not affected by the veto,
as it deals with social and economic
problems, as it plans to do, such a
strong public sentiment can be
built up behind it that nationalistic
world-minorities cannot stand up
against it.
There is that hope. There is an
other. Atomic energy.
As Chairman Corbett of the de
partment of political science of
Yale university put it:
“When it comes to that . . . (con
trol of atomic energy) ... I think
that the discrepancy between the
legal situation in the UN (he refers
to the power of the veto and the
nationalistic insistence on sov
ereignty) and the actual needs of
international collaboration are go
ing to become so glaring that we
are going to have to make a di
rect attack upon this problem of
the veto.”
BARBS . • . by Baukhage
Would an army-navy air corps
merger mean that the army ground
forces would be allowed to wear
those rakish caps you can sit on—
the kind the air corps wears? I
doubt that the air corps would stand
for that.
• ♦ *
Have you invited the “invisible
guest” to your table? If you don’t,
he’ll starve.
The key word to that remark is
“glaring.” The “needs of interna
tional collaboration” must glare in
the light of pitiless publicity. The
light of understanding must be
shed upon the truths of what an
other war will mean and it must
be more than light. Heat must be
generated until the glare becomes
incandescense. World sentiment
must rise to the degree at whiph it
creates the energy necessary to
bring action.
Peace must become dynamc.
Positive Thinking
Of Youth Needed
If you lean back in your seat here
in this fabricated conference room
of the security council of the United
Nations, and forget you are just a
reporter, you get an almost awe
some feeling that you are witness
ing a major operation which will de
cide the life or death of some great
and beloved person.
It is all so new, so strange. So
much depends on success. Not the
life of a single person, but the lives
and happiness of thousands.
It is hard to convey the atmos
phere of the tragic solemnity that
ft
~y;- '
Camera snaps Baukhage at
Hunter college with Iranian flag
in background.
surrounds this place when we strip
it of its outward casualness.
I hope that the importance of this
part of the great experiment in cre
ating world sentiment against war
is getting home to the people.
I wonder how much of the sig
nificance of the part public opinion
plays in the success of this effort
was impressed on that gathering
of students in Portland, Ore., early
this month. In the first youth con
ference of its kind, representatives
of 31 colleges in the northwestern
states and British Columbia gath
ered to discuss the control of atomic
energy and preservation of peace;
the promotion of social and econom
ic welfare; the promotion of the wel
fare of backward peoples; the pro
motion of world-wide human rights;
and the establishment of effective
means for the peaceful settlement
of international disputes. Dele
gates will carry back to their re
spective campuses resolutions the
conference passed; the student bod
ies will vote on them, and thus pro
vide a poll of more than 30,000
“thinking youth”; many of them
veterans of this war, half of them
21 and voters—the generation which
must benefit or suffer from the re
sults of efforts of the United Na
tions.
This is a positive approach in con
trast to the negative credo of paci
fism which has been taught in the
past. Pacifism says DON’T FIGHT.
Well, that’s all right, if it’s your
religious conviction. But, when war
arrives, conscientious objectors
can’t stop it. Perhaps they can stop
the one AFTER that. But it’s the
next one we want to prevent now.
Fire prevention stops more fires
than firemen can. Removing the fire
men won’t help. Somebody has to
be put in their place.
Let’s hope the young people can
carry back to their campuses the
message General MacArthur gave
to the world recently: that nations
must yield their sovereign power to
make war—that sovereignty must
rest in an international body, and
incidentally, if the people who write
me asking what they can do to
work for peace really mean it, they
might organize similar youth con
gresses in their own communities.
Get youth thinking they are the
ones who have to do the fighting.
The difference between a meat
legger and a bootlegger is negligi
ble. Both represent a victory of the
stomach over good sense and good
citizenship, and a violent pain in
the purse.
• * *
The United Nations council de
cided they would have to keep the
purr in Persian, even if they had
to give the Bear the air.
