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LIKE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
WASHINGTON. The American
people are now beginn.ng to realize
that the road to peace after war is
never easy. Beating our swords
back into plowshares sometimes is
more difficult than forging the
swords of battle.
But one encouraging milestone on
the road to peace now is under
way in New York where the smaller
nations of the allied world, who for
months have had to sit and take it
from the Big Four, now debate on
an almost equal footing.
Many may have forgotten it, but
this issue of free debate caused a
bitter battle at the San Francisco
conference. Molotov then wanted to
stifle free debate. He proposed that
the general assembly of the United
Nations not even be permitted to
discuss or to criticize decisions of
the big powers sitting on the secu- i
rity council.
Australian Foreign Minister
Evatt, .spokesman for the little
powers, opposed. He went fur
ther and demanded that the gen
eral assembly under the recog
nized principles of democracy I
have the power to overrule the
security council. He was re
buffed, not only by his own
“mother diplomats” from Lon
don, but also by the isolationist
grounded senators of the U. S.
delegation.
In the end, the general assembly
was given the power to debate, dis
cuss, criticize, and recommend—but
not to carry out. That is what it is
doing at the present sessions.
Behind the iron curtain, public
opinion still is tightly controlled.
When it is decontrolled, then we
need no longer worry about war be
tween the USA and the USSR.
Meanwhile, the sessions in Now
York are like the first struggling but
healthy debates of the Continental
congress and of the United States
congress which grew therefrom.
They won’t achieve much at the
moment, but they should pave the
way to great and hopeful things.
• * *
HARRY TRUMAN’S PRESS
If Harry Truman could place an
ad in the papers, probably it would
read something like this:
“Wanted—Good press secretary;
willing to work long hours; must
be practicing newspaper man, not
afraid to say ‘no.’ Low salary, but
private car and plenty of prestige.
Call National 1414 or write H.
S. T., 1600 Pennsylvania avenue,
Washington, D. C.”
I There are few weaker spots
in the White House staff than
Truman’s press aides. Vener
able Charlie Ross, the Presi
dent’s secretary, simply isn’t
filling the bill. Personally one
of the finest gentlemen in Wash
ington, Ross is by nature an in
trovert; doesn’t get around
much, is a poor spot-news re
porter and a complete failure as
a press agent.
Newsmen who cover the White
House sometimes are genuinely
alarmed at Ross’ ineptitude. They j
claim he doesn’t read the news
papers regularly, doesn’t even keep
up with the White House direc
tives. Frequently, White House
newsmen have asked about stories
which were on the front page of the
morning paper, but Ross shows he
simply has not read the papers.
• * *
EXIT ‘52-20 CLUB’ |
The “52-20 club” is folding up for
many veterans and Gen. Omar
Bradley, the Veterans’ administra
tor, is deeply concerned over their
ability to readjust themselves.
The “club” is composed of un
employed vets who receive relief al
lowances of $2O a week for 52
weeks. The year is now up for
many ex-servicemen who have been
riding this gravy train, the worthy
ns well as the idlers. Many more
who climbed aboard in the first few
months following V-J Day also will
be cut off soon.
Of 1,800,000 claimants on the
rolls last April, only 40.132 had
exhausted all their claims up
until August. However, between
now and the end of the year
from 150,000 to 200.000 will'join
them. Veterans’ administration
is fearful many will be unable
to find jobs.
General Bradley has never liked
the “52-20 club,” believing it subsi
dized idleness. Many veterans
found it more comfortable to live on
the $2O-a-week dole than to work for
a living, although some, including
the disabled, made an earnest ef
fort to find jobs.
Now that the relief train is reach
ing the end of the line, Bradley
fears that they will have a tough
time readjusting themselves to a
life of industry.
• * *
MERRY-GO-ROUND
Some people relish reports that
they’re in the big money, but not i
Henry Wallace. A report that he
was to get $75,000 from the New |
Republic drew a quick denial. He’s ,
getting a little less than his cabinet ,
salary, which was $15,000. . . . Wal- \
lace will remain in Washington this i
winter, then move to New York. He |
has bought a farm up along the
Hudson. . . . Wallace aides didn’t j
want him to become an editor,
thought it would put him on the spot
once a week.
1
.... p £ JR
MORE NAZIS FACING TRIAL . , . Here are some of the topflight
members of the Nazi regime who still face trial for the part they
played in the Nazi gamble for world power. Top left, Field Marshal
General Albert Kesselring; top right, Field Marshal General Erhard
Milch, who was Goering’s air deputy; bottom left, Col. Gen, Von
Dcm Bach Zelewski, chief of the “Super-Gestapo,” and, lower right,
S. S. Obergruppen-Fuehrer Otto Ohlendorf, chief, Nazi secret police.
Jinil
■ ST"; / ~ J
lip ; HKHJHr I • mm ;
.iHLv., » BMm;
UNIT CITATIONS AWARDED 5 CARRIERS . . . Secretary of
the Navy James Forrestal awarded unit citations to five aircraft
carriers for inflicting “terrific losses” on the Jap navy during the
war. The ships commended were: Cowpens, Enterprise, Hancock,
Langley and the Wasp, Forrestal is shown at left. The five other
men shown are officers of the aircraft carrier. Wasp.
MAGatit \y IN W I) -VII N <oI I 10E . . Men appear for the
first time in 40 years on the campus of the Florida State College for
Women, Tallahassee, Fla. Jerome Allen, is the target for vulpine 1
whistles emanating from coeds.
FANCY PANTS! . . . Six-months-old Nancy Sue Fohn, daughter of
Mrs. L. J. Fohn, San Antonio, Tex., wears an expression that says
“Yup, it has come to this,” as she scoots around the house in her
new. gaily-decorated three-cornered pants. Material shortage brought
about the startling change. Mothers in San Antonio took advantage
of sale of hand towels, hence the labels, “Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,
etc.,” and in the case of twins there is always the “his” and her.”
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL. PERRY. OEOROTA
U.:.. !
BLIND EAGLE SCOUT . . . First
Boy Scout in history to become
an Eagle Scout, although totally
blind, is Ronnie Sanders, IC, of
Culver City, Calif. In addition to
fire-making the youth had to learn
to save a drowning person and
earn 21 merit badges.
HITLER BELIEVED ALIVE . . .
Lt. Col. W. F. Heimlich, Colum
bus, Ohio, army intelligence offi
cer, who directed search for Adolf
1 Hitler. He believes that the for
mer Fuehrer and his mistress are
still alive and in hiding.
MAT BE AMBASSADOR . . .
Monica Milne, 28, daughter of a
London surgeon, has been named
Britain’s first woman diplomat
with an appointment to the per
manent staff of the foreign of
fice. She may become England’s
first woman ambassador.
■■ wltP*
FOR WORLD PEACE . . . Study
of President Harry S. Truman as
he opened the United Nations gen
eral assembly in New York, wel
coming the diplomats of 51 na
tions.
GOLFING AT ONE HUNDRED
. . . Nathaniel Vickers, 100, of
Forest Hills, N. Y., w’ater color
ist, architect and golfer, celebrat
ed his 100th birthday anniversary
with nine holes of golf. Modera
tion in all things is his code.
German Education Must Be
Recast in Democratic Mold
By BAUKHAGE
Neivs Analyst and Commentator.
WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W.,
Washington, D. C.
WASHINGTON.—Whether we are
going to have two worlds or one,
one of the battle _______—
grounds on which i •
the will be I
democratic forces
of old Germany,
the Prussian edu- Baukhage
cational system.
When congress meets it must con
sider the report of the mission of
educators who were sent to the
American zone by the state and war
departments to study education in
Germany. They came back with a
careful and detailed study, includ
j ing a description of conditions and
I a set of recommendations which, if
they can be carried out, will have
a vital effect in building democracy
in Germany.
Perhaps an educational system
based on the American model may
not be sufficient to democratize
Germany but I think it is no ex
aggeration to state that without such
a system, democracy never will be
achieved in the Reich.
I had the privilege of attending a
conference presided over by William
Benton, assistant secretary of state
in charge of public affairs, at which
Chairman Zook and members of the
educational mission were present.
I came away deeply impressed, not
only with the factual data present
ed—(l was familiar with some of
the data)—but also with the impor
tance of the program as a means
of determining whether democracy
or totalitarianism will dominate
western Europe and perhaps the
world.
System Mixture of
Master, Servant
We know how Germany’s history,
her political and social institutions,
have all tended to create a peculiar
I type of thinking which has resulted
in a caste system with a strange
mixture of super-ordination and
sub-ordination on the part of the in
dividual German. The superfi
cial and erroneous explanation is
that the German is half dominating
and half servile. There isn’t space
here to go into German psychology
but there was one point in the edu
cational mission’s report which was
emphasized by their chairman and
echoed by Assistant Secretary of
State Benton, which partially ex
plains this phenomenon. It reveals
perhaps the greatest single factor
! that can block democratic evolution
in Germany. This factor, the mis
! sion says, “has cultivated attitudes
! of superiority in one small group
| and of inferiority in the majority of
; the members of German society,
i making possible the submission and
j lack of self determination upon
j which authoritarian leadership has
thrived.”
The bars go down on the path of
| democracy for the German child in
' the fourth grade of elementary
i school. It is here that the fortunate
| 10 per cent who are to be the “su
j periors” leave the unfortunate 90
j per cent, for at this point—when the
: children are about 10—those who
expect to attend the universities and
prepare for a professional career
are set aside in secondary schools.
It is largely the financial or social
position of the parents which forms
the basis of selection for these sec
ondary schools. The overwhelming
majority of pupils, a large pro
portion of whom deserve university
education because of their ability,
finish elementary school and then go
on to vocational education. This
makes a fundamentally “undem
ocratic division of the educational
stream.”
Until they are 10 years old little
Fritz and Johann have studied and
played together in something ap
proximating the comradeship of two
American boys, though one’s father
owns the bank and the other’s runs
a tailoring shop. But when they
j leave the fourth grade, their ways
| part and each year from then on,
j the wall between them grows high
er.
| Dr. Zook’s voice was filled with
: real emotion when he described one
of the many experiences he had
j when the mission visited the Ger-
BARBS , . , by Bank huge
It’s time to quit making children
study maps that they have to re
color with their own blood.
* • *
Someone says it’s a fine commen
tary on radio that its most success
ful comedians are the ones who kid
the silly commercials. Well, re
member the Ford jokes—they did
streamline Lizzie eventually.
1 man elementary schools. It Wa ,
practice to ask the fourth S a 7-
■ children: “What are you enin t 5
be?” And without the slightest L*
itation they would answer- "Butrii'
er, baker, clock-maker, cobbler’’ 0 :
whatever it may have been, nev
dreaming that it could be anvthl
else, because their way already had
been chosen for them. This revel?
tion. Dr. Zook said, was as heart
breaking to him as when again and
again, four out of five of the chil
dren answered “no” to the question
Did you have any breakfast toi
day?”
Contrast the life of these children
with the American children who
spend eight years together in the
grade schools, many of them four
more in high school, where all com
pete on equal terms, where ability
can be assayed, where ambition can
be estimated.
School Plant Hit
Hard by War
This is only one facet of the prob
lem with which the educators who
must guide German education will
have to deal. There are a great
many physical difficulties, too. In
the first place, there is a dearth of
buildings, of teachers, of equipment.
Many of the school buildings
are rubble. Many have been
requisitioned for various uses
by the military government. In
the winter there is the question
of heat—this winter probably
will be one of the worst—and
this is one of the most difficult
problems to overcome because
of the shortage of coal in the
American zone.
As to teachers, more than one
half of the Germans were dismissed
because of their participation in the
Nazi setup.
There are few books. There is a
paper shortage because there is no
machinery to make paper. There
is no machinery because there is no
steel. There is no steel because
there is no coal. And so the vicious
circle continues, affecting the whole
question of supply and equipment.
There are, on the other hand,
some things on the credit side. For
instance, the fact that the Germans
have an inborn respect for learning
and after a generation behind the
“iron curtain” they are literally
starving for information concern
ing the rest of the world. I can
testify to this from my own con
versations with a number of the
young people, as well as the older
ones, who had had at least a glim
mering of the world before Goeb
bels.
It is generally admitted that the
first two objectives of the occupa
tion forces have been realized more
fully in the American zone than any
where else. I refer to denazification
and demilitarization. These are im
portant but negative. On the positive
side, democratization lags. We
know very little about what is hap
pening in the Russian zone but a na
tion that has progressed as far in
moulding the minds of its own peo
ple, undoubtedly is not neglecting
its efforts in Germany.
The recommendations out
lined in the mission’s report in
clude similar projects for the
future, as well as various other
steps extending beyond the
schools themselves and operat
ing through the parents and
teachers organizations and other
groups. There is no intention to
superimpose upon the Germans
any system against their will. So
far there has been excellent co
operation and educational circles
in Germany are enthusiastic
about the steps already taken.
They hope that trained educa
tors will come to Germany; they
would be only too glad to send
their people to this country for
instruction. They may not know
what democracy is but there is
plenty of evidence that they
want to find out.
Presumably the report as for
warded to the secretary of state will
receive his approval, and congress
will have the opportunity to pass
upon the whole program but, as the
report concludes; “The development
of this program is not the responsi
bility of the government alone.
Equally, if not more, important is
the intelligent backing of the
American people in the reorienta
tion of the German people. We have
committed ourselves to a program
in which education plays a critica
role. There must therefore be no
turning back in our support of that
program so vital to the enduring
peace of the world.”
“The Iceman Cometh’’ has mace
a great hit on Broadway. Now “
you could get a plumber like that
when you want one.
• » *
The Monsanto Chemical company
has invented a doodle-proof table'
cloth. It has a plastic protection
like the inside of unbreakable wind
shields.
