Newspaper Page Text
Newsmen Argue
A-Bomb Results
While They Wait
By WALTER A. SHEAD
WNU Correspondent.
(F.DITOH'S NOTE: This dispatch was j
filed from the atomic homb lestin# area
only shortly before the first test homb was
scheduled to be dropped.)
ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN—
BIKINI ATOLL (Via Navy Radio)
This reporter does not intend to
delve into the scientific aspects of
this atomic bomb test, leaving that j
to the scientific writers and the sci
entists themselves. This test is pri
marily a military experiment to de
termine how the United States navy j
and other armed services can figu- i
ratively “keep its powder dry” in
the face of any future atomic war
fare.
The experiments however by their
very nature and the various tests
which are to be made of atomic en
ergy will produce by-products of
knowledge in the fields of biochem
istry, biology and medicine.
Further knowledge will be gained
also in the fields of radio, photogra
phy, geology, fish life and all the
sciences which apply to ocean life.
Many Conjectures.
A tour of this ship and a visit to
the staterooms where the newspa
per men are housed conjectures on
the outcome of this bomb test meas
ured only by the number of news
paper men aboard. This is almost
true of the scientific writers them
selves, for most all have different
viewpoints on the possible develop
ments.
These conjectures run the gamut
of total destruction by tidal wave or
earthquake of the entire task force
in the vicinity of the bomb down to
the theory that the bomb might even
prove a dud forecasts of the destruc
tion of the atomic bombs dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made
by the scientists connected with
Uncle Sam’s military establish
ments were fairly accurate and this
reporter is willing to discard the
more fantastic conjectures and
string along with some of these
more conservative forecasts.
Earthquake or Tidal Wave?
In the first place Bikini lagoon,
where the bomb will be dropped, is
roughly 25 miles long and 10 miles
wide and the water averages 100
feet in depth and one scientist lik
ened the dropping of the bomb into
such an expanse of water and air to
a spark from a welder’s torch
dropped into a 30-acre lake. Scien
tists admit that the bomb may
cause a slight earthquake and tidal
wave but that in comparison with
nature’s earthquakes it will have no
destructive violence and will only be
recorded upon seismographic in-
U.-S.#SB
HAWAII
OUAM •
LONELY REEF . . . Far out in
the Pacific. Bikini atoll holds the
97 ships of the "suicide licet.”
struments. The release of atomic
energy at the given point of the
bomb burst will in the opinion of
these scientists release heat and en
ergy at that spot of a nature never
before experienced upon the surface
of the earth but its effects will be
confined to a relatively very small
area. One scientist declared that
the radio activity released from the
bomb, if absorbed by living tissues,
would result in chemical changes in
the proteins of (he tissues, in some
cases of sufficient intensity to kill
the tissues and in other cases like
ly to produce a new kind of living I
tissue or a new variety of organ. It
is a well-known fact that X-rays I
have created this phenomenon in I
living tissues and the radio-active
rays from the bomb are practically
the same as X-rays. Thus a man
who comes in contact with these
radio-active particles may well be
come sterile and be chemically
changed as to other characteristics.
On the other hand, some scientists
predict a tremendous tidal wave as
result of dislodging a huge landslide
along the slope of Bikini atoll which
rises some 14,000 feet from the floor
of the ocean. Another predicts the
bomb will crack open the ocean
floor and let the water into the
molten matter beneath the floor re
sulting in a tremendous volcanic ex
plosion. These predictions, howev
er, are generally discounted.
Are Sworn to Secrecy.
This reporter anticipates plenty of
action and plenty to write about
when this bomb is dropped by the
B-29 over the target array of naval
ships. The most dramatic will be
the second test when a bomb is
detonated below the surface of the
water in the midst of what is left
of the target ships. The handicap
under which the lay members of
the press work is, however, that we
will not know nor will we be told
whether or not these bombs explod
ed at full efficiency or whether or
not in fact they were duds.
PROCLAIMING THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC ... A solemn and historic scene as the supreme court of
justice in Rome, in view of the nationwide referendum, proclaimed Italy to be a republic thereby ending the
monarchist reign of the House of Savoy. Outbreaks occurred when the monarchists questioned the refer
endum in which the Italian people voted against the monarchists form of government. Former King
Humbert, in Portugal, has not given up hopes of regaining his throne.
' liiS Hi ? y
U. S. BROOD MARES TO EUROPE . . . Destined to be shipped to Europe, these three hundred mares are
being vaccinated and loaded into stock cars at Des Moines, lowa, to go to an east coast port of embarka
tion. This is the third group of horses to be exported by a Des Moines exporter. Reportedly destined for
Poland, they were purchased from farmers in Illinois, Minnesota and South Dakota.
FOUR GENERATIONS OF SWEDISH SUCCESSION . . . Rarely have
four members of a royal family, each in direct line of succession to the
throne, been photographed together. King Gustaf of Sweden is holding
his great grandson, Prince Carl Gustav. Looking on are the baby’s
father, Prince Gustav Adolf, left, and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf.
“HALL OF FAME” . . . Baseball Commissioner Albert “Happy”
Chandler, left, shakes hands with New York’s governor, Thomas E.
Dewey, in front of baseball’s hall of fame building, following Governor
Dewey’s dedication of a plaque installed in memory of former com
missioner of baseball, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Placques have
cen dedicated to outstanding baseball heros.
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL, PERRY, GEORGIA
MISS ATLANTIC CITY 1946 . , .
Blondt Betty Jones, 21, profes
sional model, who has been ac
claimed Miss Atlantic City of 1946,
as she received her crown. She
will be hostess at Miss America
pageant in September.
FRANZ VON PAPEN . . . Former
German foreign minister and
World War I head of German spy
system in the United States, Franz
Von Papen, as he appeared before
tribunal at Nuernberg, Germany,
trying war criminals.
Reads Right Meaning Into
Barkley’s Break With FDR
By BAUKHAGE
News Analyst and Commentator.
WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W.,
Washington, D. C.
Continually I encounter evidence
of the importance of semantics, as
I have mentioned T
A few days ago
I received Baukhage
a letter from a listener lamenting
what she called “one of our greatest
troubles today”—lack of faith in our
leaders.
She then described her “conster
nation” when she heard Senator
Barkley’s “gushing and flowery
talk” nominating Franklin Roose
velt for President in 1944, after
hearing the senator’s famous “re
volt” speech sharply criticizing the
President’s veto message in the tax
bill the previous February.
To Washington, there was nothing
inconsistent in those two perform
ances at all. What happened was
this: two persons who had worked
together in a common cause fell out.
Amends were made, and still loyal
to that cause, the man who had been
affronted registered his complaint,
and then, feeling that the virtue of
his position had been recognized,
took up his labors in the common
cause again.
Perhaps that explanation would
satisfy my disillusioned listener, had
it not been for the fact that she not
only misinterpreted the significance
of Senator Barkley’s speech, but
actually put into his mouth words
that he didn’t use.
She said that Barkley had said
that the President was dishonest,
and that he (Mr. Roosevelt) knew
he was dishonest.
Now, by interesting coincidence,
something had recalled that speech
of Mr. Barkley’s to my attention only
a day or so before I received the let
ter.
A loyal toiler in the Democratic
party had remarked to me that the
senator from Kentucky, having
served as majority leader longer
than any man who has held that job
in the senate, had increased tre
mendously in stature in the eyes of
supporters and opponents. And, my
friend explained, it was his “re
volt” of February 23, 1944, which
marked the moment when Barkley
began to wax in the favor of op
ponent and supporter alike!
As a result of the coincidence—
the letter and the remarks of my
friend—l reread the revolt speech.
Nowhere in it did Senator Bark
ley accuse the President of being
dishonest. But it is easy to see
how a listener might have missed
the shades of meaning in the speak
er’s words. However, those words,
correctly interpreted, I feel leer
tain, reflected precisely the feeling
of the senator. Had he wished to
go further, he could easily have
done so.
* * *
Resent Personal
Slap at Congress
There were two especially sharp
passages in Barkley’s talk. The
President had charged in his mes
sage (vetoing the tax bill) that “it
I is squarely the fault of the congress
of the United States in using lan
guage in drafting the law which not
even a dictionary or a thesaurus
can make clear.”
There was a biting, personal fla
vor in that sentence which congress
as a whole, and Barkley individually
and as majority leader, could not
help resenting.
Barkley said: “If it (the above
statement) was made by anybody
who ever sat in a tax committee 1
meeting, it was a deliberate and
unjustified mis-statement in order to
place upon congress the blame for
universal dissatisfaction with tax
complexities and in order to pro
duce the illusion that the executive
departments have in vain protested
against this complexity.”
Here one can see that Barkley is
defending the integrity of the con
gress. He did not spare his anger
at the affront. But, since he knew
FDR had never sat in a tax com
mittee meeting, he wasn’t placing
the onus entirely on the President.
There was one other sharp riposte
in which Barkley came still nearer
BARBS . . . by Baukhage
The old ever-normal granary
seems to be subnormal. At least, 1
government agriculture experts tell i
us we’re scraping the bottom of t
the bin. t
** * 1
President Truman is bothered by
the same congressional legislative
“horseless riders’’ that used to t
plague FDR—a bill he doesn’t want f
attached to one he does. a
to making, but did not actually
make, the “dishonesty” charge.
He said the President used a
method of calculation “which obvi
ously was handed to him by a mind
more clever than honest.”
It was natural to assume that
some White House advisor had pro
duced the data, and in all likelihood,
that some literary aide had written
the veto message. Indeed, one of
the columnists omnisciently an
nounced at the time that it was
the work of Judge Rosenman.
As a matter of fact, I can state
with absolute certainty that that
was one of the few speeches which
President Roosevelt, who was good
and mad because congress had re
fused to give him the tax bill he
wanted, wrote himself, inditing
the entire philippic with his own
hand.
Whether Senator Barkley would
have replied with greater or less
vigor had he known the actual au
thorship, I do not know. The fact
remains, however, that he said what
he meant and meant what he said.
Nowhere did he call the President
dishonest. He did establish his
own independence, and that of con
gress, and probably did the Presi
dent a favor by warning him against
allowing his emotions to get the bet
ter of him.
In Barkley’s delivery of the
speech, and his nomination of Pres
ident Roosevelt less than six months
later, there was nothing inconsist
ent. Certainly nothing which, when
understood, should shake the pub
lie’s faith in the public man.
♦ * ♦
Brakes Save
President Truman
Very little publicity was given to
something that almost happened the
day Secretary of State Byrnes de
parted for the foreign ministers con
ference in Paris. Something which
might have given us a new Presi
dent.
Mr. Truman, in order, to empha
size the importance of the mission,
rode with Mr, Byrnes to the airport
to see the delegation off. There was
no motorcycle escort, and while the
car was moving along Constitution
avenue at a fair speed, there came
very near to being re - enacted an
accident similar to that which cost
General Patton his life. A truck
dashed out of a side street toward
the official automobile. Fortunate
ly the brakes of the Presidential
car held. The party had a bad
shake-up, but that was all.
It might have been otherwise. The
newly appointed and not over popu
lar Secretary of the Treasury Sny
der might have had to move next
door. After the secretary of state,
who shared the near-miss with the
President, the secretary of the
treasury is next in line of succes
sion.
This is not the first time Mr. Tru
man has taken risks. But he is by
no means the only President who
has worried Secret Service men to
whose care the lives of the Chief
Executives are entrusted under the
law.
Three times, newsmen, trying to
keep up with Presidents, have been
in serious automobile accidents.
A certain amount of speed is de
sired at times when a presidential
party is passing through strange
territory but, as a rule, the White
House chauffeurs who are specially
picked men, “loaned” by the army,
if left by themselves, lean to the
safe and not the sorry side.
At least one President was forced
to change his automobile habits.
President Hoover had a fishing
lodge at Rapidan in Virginia, some
85 miles from the Capital. Hoover
believed that time was money. He
was always a hard worker, and
when he’d finished fishing, he want
ed to get away from there and back
to his desk. It was a job for the
Secret Service men and newsmen
to keep up and keep on the road.
Those mad chases were the sub
ject of considerable conversation by
; the correspondents and also their
wives. It was 'not considered a
choice assignment. Finally there
was a bad accident that sent one
reporter to the hospital.
After that, the presidential car
proceeded at a more normal pace.
♦ • •
The Alexander Hamilton institute
says savings during 1946 will be
considerably lower than last year’s.
Fine, if it reduces inflation pres
sures; but if it goes too far and the
consumer doesn’t consume, the pro
ducer can’t produce, and we are
back to 1929 once more.
The famine in Europe may stimu
late an exterminator for the rodents
and pests who destroy enough grain
to feed most of the hungry. While
the cataclysm is away the mice will
Play.
♦ * ♦
It’s getting so that deposed royal
ty is having almost as much trouble
finding quarters as the returned vet
erans.
