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MORE DUPLICATION
WASHINGTON. President Tru
man is a sincere, hard-plugging ad
vocate of unified armed services, but
he should persuade his army to obey
the policy of its commander-in-chief.
At present the army is building a
special wing to Walter Reed hos
pital at 12th and Dahlia streets in
Washington which will exactly dupli
cate the navy’s.
This wing is to take care of the
President of the United States.
Simultaneously, the navy also has
a floor of its Bethesda Naval hospi
tal reserved for the President. It is
all set to take care of him at any
time. However, medical officers
have changed in the White House
and a navy doctor isn’t in command
any more. The army now runs the
show.
Roosevelt, always partial to the
navy, appointed Adm. Ross Mcln
tire White House physician. But Tru
man, who served in the army, se
lected Brig. Gen. Wallace Graham
as White House physician.
And of course an army doctor does
not like to practice in a naval hos
pital. Therefore the army medical
corps, wanting to avoid the humility
of sending the President to a naval
hospital, authorized a new wing to
the Walter Reed Army hospital.
Thus, at the expense of thousands
of feet of scarce lumber, tons of
strategic metal and several thousand
bricks, the special wing for the
President is being built.
• • *
U.S, VS. U.S.S.R. DEMOCRACY
Secretary of State Jimmy
Byrnes has been telling the fol
lowing story about the differ
ence between democracy in Rus- I
sia and the United States.
“An American soldier,” he re
lates,. “was talking to a Russian
soldier in Berlin. The American
said that in his country, he could
go to Washington without a per
mit, go to the White House, wait
his turn, get in to see the Presi
dent and tell him that he doesn’t
like American foreign policy.
‘That’s democracy,’ said the
G.I.
“ ‘That’s nothing,’ the Russian
soldier replied. ‘ln my country
I can go to Moscow, knock on
the door of the Kremlin, walk in,
wait my turn, see Stalin, bang
on the desk and say, “Mr.
Stalin, I don’t like Truman’s for
eign policy either!” And noth
ing would happen to me. That’s
real democracy.’ ”
♦ • ♦
SUPPRESSED REPORT
While President Truman and oth
er high government officials con
tinue their enthusiastic- support of
the now Philippine government of
President Roxas, there remain
locked in the files of the White
House and Attorney Gen. Tom
Clark two copies of a report which,
if made public, has explosive power
nearly as great as that of the sup
pressed Rogge report.
The Philippine report was written
by a special investigator sent to
Manila last winter to determine
what action should be taken against
islanders who had collaborated with
Jap occupation authorities. Inside
fact is it pins guilt on nearly all the
leaders of the present Philippine ad
ministration. Documentary evidence
of collaborationist records of a large
part of the present senate, cabinet
and President Roxas himself is in- <
eluded.
The charges include such crim
inal acts as aiding the Japs to wipe
out patriot guerrillas, conspiring to
seize food from famished Filipinos
for use by the Jap armies, in addi
tion to the declaration of war against
the United States in 1944.
Although the vast majority of the
Filipinos hated and resisted the
Jap*, corruption spread through the
top layers of political and industrial
leaders. Result was that the justice
department investigators recom
mended that the most important col
laborationist clique be tried not in
the Philippines, where it would be
difficult to find a native court com
pletely free of bias, but in San Fran
cisco.
Reason this recommendation was
never acted upon, officials say, was
largely Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
• * •
UNDER THE DOME
Speaker Sam Rayburn doesn’t
want the job of minority leader. . . .
Southern congressmen are not en
thusiastic over continuing the lead
ership of Massachusetts’ John Mc-
Cormack and they have the votes to
put him in or out. . . . One fixture in j
the capitol regardless of political |
turnover will be the Rev. James i
Shera Montgomery, the house chap
lain. Appointed by the Republicans
in 1921, he was continued by the
Democrats.
* * *
MERRY GO ROUND
All cabinet members are strength
ening their legal staffs, knowing they
face the most exhaustive series of
congressional investigations in the
last 20 years. . . . Retiring Speaker
Sam Rayburn tells friends that he
will serve in the house only one
more term. Sam has been a con
gressional fixture for 35 years, now
wants to retire. . . . Nine members
of the new senate are former news
paper men and publishers; three are
teachers. Sixty-four senators
nare lawyers, the largest group.
- v . Hf ''tOTafi
THREE NEW U. N, MEMBERS . . . Seated in front of the dais at the
U. N. general assembly are the representatives of three nations ad
mitted to membership in the United Nations. They are shown as
they listen to Paul Henri Spaak, center on dais, as he welcomed
them to the fold. Left on dais is Trygve Lie, secretary general. At
right is assistant secretary Ivan Kevno. Seated in front are Oesten
Unden, Sweden; Thor Thors, Iceland, and Aboul Hosayn Aziz, Af
ghanistan, new delegates.
WINNERS OF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE ... Dr. John R. Mott, New
York, left, secretary-general of the World Student Christian feder
ation, and Miss Emily Greene Balch, Wellesley, Mass., president of
the International Wopien’s League for Peace and Freedom, who were
awarded jointly the 194 G Nobel Peace prize by the Norwegian par
liamentary committee of the Nobel awards commission. Four other
Americans won awards in physics and chemistry.
WELL-DRESSED SOLDIERS . . . Clothing for use in heavy winter
conditions is being tested at “Task Force Frost,” Camp McCoy, Wis.
From left to right are Pfc. George R. Deal, Big Stone Gap, Va., in
ski mountain boots, gaiters and cotton parka with liner; Pfc. Alvis
Goins, LaFollette, Tenn., in Arctic shoes, overwhite trousers, parka
and winter mask; Pvt. Eugene Tranthan, Springfield, Mo., in mukluks,
pile lined parka overcoat; G.I. in air forces parka B-7; and Pfc. Robert
Wentermute, Newton, N. J., in sleeping suit.
TWIN NURSES CARE FOR TRIPLETS . . . Student nurses and twin
sisters, Georgette, left, and Colette Dussault, St. Albans, Vt., hbld the
Skicke triplets, all boys, born at the Brady Maternity hospital, Albany,
N, Y., to Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Skicke. The triplets are the first chil
dren born to the Skickes. All are in excellent health and thriving. So
far they have not expressed themselves about their good fortune in
having the twin nurses take care of them.
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL. PERRY. GEORGIA
OFF TO COLLEGE . . . Roy Fox,
11, complete with bag and Rhode
sian college hat, is shown in Lon
don ready to depart for Rhodesia
to attend Fairbridge college at In
duna. He is one of 700 recruited
from British families.
‘JIMMY’ WALKER DIES . . .
James J. Walker, New York City’s
most colorful mayor, who died as
the result of a blood clot on the
brain. The ready-witted politician
and former song writer was ill only
three days before he passed away,
-
Hi
,slk a
SIGNS COAL ORDER . . . Federal
Judge T. Alan Goldsborough,
Washington, D. C., who signed
temporary order restraining John
L, Lewis, head of the UMW from
terminating the Krug-Lewis agree
ment and calling a strike of all
soft coal mine workers.
\ ■ c
\ lIIiJK*
! \ !
FIRST G.I. BABY IN JAPAN . , .
To Mrs. Melina Rita Dugas, wife
of Chief Gunner’s Mate Robert J.
Dugas, Milwaukee, Wis., goes the
distinction of giving birth to the
first child born to navy personnel
in Japan.
CURES BY MUSCLE POWER . . .
Mrs. Estrid Dane has won fame
throughout England for her cures
of baby deformities. She does it
by a series of exercises in which
the baby’s own muscle pull is tha
factor. Infantile paralysis is
among her cures which include
most children ailments.
j GOP Sweep Frees Truman
Of Burdensome Program
By BAUKHAGE
News Analyst and Commentator.
WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W.,
Washington, D, C.
WASHINGTON. There is a feel
I of Christmas in the Washington air
which is prompted by more than the
j evanescence of the joyous spirit of
Noel just try
Ito get onto a P* 1
; Connecticut ave- F jp :
1 nue car headed i I I
i for the F street %w|p|§r •
shopping district.
ing, the chief ten
ant is, believe, ■ *%
Missouri Christ- jk> * ’
mas among his
friends. Baukhage
Whether he
spends the holiday beneath his own
rooftree or the one which Uncle
Sam so generously provides, it can
be said that it will be a far merrier
occasion than a year ago. He will
i be among his friends as well as
his family, and as one of his official
circle put it, with his “professed”
' enemies (the opposite party) in pow
er his “unprofessed” enemies (offi
cially his friends) having no further
opportunity to toss brickbats or
bandy threats about his head.
I recall another crisp, cool winter
day last February a year ago, when
we wended our way to the Presi
dent’s weekly press and radio con
ference. Bemused pansies (I re
corded in this space) showed frost
bitten faces in the garden of the
White House grounds.
We were discussing the difficulties
and differences which President
Truman already was encountering
at the hands of his own party in
congress.
“Congress has to be realistic in
an election year,” I quoted some
one as saying, “They are facing
real issues. And the President’s pro
gram isn’t realistic.”
“Whether or not it is realistic,”
another member of the group re
plied, “it isn’t his program. He in
herited it. It’s New Deal and New
Deal is Old Hat now. It doesn’t rep
resent Harry Truman’s ideas at all,
but he has to go through with it.”
As we look back, it is plain
enough that whether it was New
Deal or what it was, the program
of the President was one that the
people rejected on election day, the
moral obligations of the past, the ef
fect of the pressure groups, the
ukase of the party of bigwigs were
swept away and Harry Truman,
who didn’t want the job that was
thrust upon him when death com
manded, was made a free man.
The President’s satisfaction
springs not from any spirit of “I
told you so” hurled at his alleged
supporters, not from any lack of
loyalty to a cause well lost. It was
; simply the weary but happy flood of
relief of a man who, having attempt
ed what he knew was an impossible
task, saw that task ended, and
friend and foe forced fairly into the
open.
War Terminated
Honeymoon With Congress
My mind goes back to another
scene shortly before the death of
President Roosevelt. I sat in the of
fice of the vice president talking of
days when the caissons went rolling /
along and both of us many miles
apart rode beside them. We
talked also of the then forthcoming
San Francisco conference of the
United Nations and Mr. Truman’s
theme was what he felt to be his
function. Paradoxically enough—as
it turned out later—it was helping
establish liaison between congress
and the White House, complement
ing the highly successful effort of
Secretary of State Hull which re
sulted in the forging of a bi-parti
san foreign policy. And in so short
a time, after Mr. Truman became
President, that liaison between
Capitol Hill and 1600 Pennsylvania
i avenue snapped in twain, never to
[ be reunited.
! Three months after the President
; took office I recorded: “The politi
cal armistice in Washington will
i end shortly after the President’s
(Truman’s) return from Berlin—
by that time domestic discontent
will be crystallizing, the honeymoon
j will be on the wane. . . .”
; And I then had the temerity to
predict that if . . . “the Japanese
war should end . . . within the
year . . . President Truman will
be stripped of the protecting armor
of the Commander-in-Chief. Then
1 | 0
BARBS . . . by Baukhage
Madamoiselle, magazine for
smart travellers, advises, “Take
along a spot remover” even for
the pleasure spots.
* ♦ ♦
Five years ago, says the Aircraft
Industries publication “Planes,” al
titude was measured in feet. Now
it’s miles. How about applying the
same measurement to prices?
the slings and arrows which even
Roosevelt’s enemies were wont to
deflect to congress and other g ov
ernment agencies will be aimed
squarely at the man in the White
House.”
That prophesy required no gift
of the occult. Mr. Truman knew it
then—or I wouldn’t have.
From now on the President is his
own man. The legislation he of.
fers, whatever its fate may be, will
be moulded to suit his own heart’s
desire. He has fought the fight to
the best of his ability, assailed from
the right and the left and the rear
as well as the front. Now he will
write his own ticket, be it good or
bad. Few Presidents have had such
an opportunity or faced a more
severe test.
* * *
Presidential Bee
Hums in Capitol Dome
Washington withdraws from offi
cial activity for the holidays with
out getting any real impact of the
advent of the new regime. There
has been the preliminary hurly
burly of reorganization on Capitol
Hill but the same old faces are
evident and the same old voices
speak. The active Republican lead
ers in both houses of congress have
been so much in the limelight for
the last year anyhow that they
merely appear to be stepping up,
rather than stepping in. It all seems
quite routine and casual.
There was just a touch of the
excitement of the beginning of a
new era when house and senate
steering committees had their first
meetings and made their first offi-
Senator Taft
Politically Cautious
cial statements concerning legisla
tion and policy. Most of the steps
had been foreshadowed and the
change of venue was not fanfared.
The last 14 years make up the
longest period of lean years that
any party has suffered. I witnessed
the end of two 12-year drouths
through which the Democrats thirst
ed; close of the one that began
with William McKinley and ended
with William Howard Taft, when
Wilson accompanied the “new free
dom” to the White House. And the
next, another 12-year period, when
the New Deal followed Hoover’s
exit.
The Democrats had only a short
interlude at the pie-counter between
Taft and Harding and their return
in 1933 came in the midst of such
a domestic crisis, with the mad
days of the NRA following on the
heels of the bank holiday, that our
attention was diverted from poli
ics. But what the Democrats did to
the Republican officeholders “wasn’t
good,” as one Republican put it
recently. He added: “We are going
to do the same for them.”
Congress begins with the Repub
lican Presidential plum within eas
ier reach than any which have dan
gled in many a year and it is no
wonder many hands are reaching
hopefully for it. In fact, Senator
Vandenberg early sounded the
warning that more thoughts should
be concentrated on the responsibil
ities following the victory of ’46, and
less on the possibilities of ’4B, for
the good of all concerned.
The battle between the Taftites
and the anti-Taftites began even
before election and the Ohio sena
tor himself is so determined that
this time he will win the nomina
tion that he leans over backward
to avoid criticism. He refused to
go on a broadcast for even a three
minute statement of Republican
policy and he took off for Central
America shortly thereafter.
In order to avoid noise, the Pull
man company has developed a head
bag made of cloth-like paper. Now
if they’ll get a nose-bag for the
snorers.
* * *
Why is it that when a party is
sure it’s going to win a presidential
election, it tries to pick a candidate
with the least popular appeal?
