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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1945)
EDITORIAL - COMMENT 3o A . .. .*■*——“*' •- ' ■ ■ " ’I ) J o o o $ COM**10 h ERIC HASS UU*»*itU WEEKLY PEOPLE Releas d by Calvin's News Service * 4 £ “ “ Reading W. E. B. DuBois’ “Color and Democ racy” was for me a tantalizing experience. The volume traces each of the viciously barbed branches in which mankind is trapper back to a single root. The monstrous crimes of colonial oppression, in spired racism, planned ignorance, unnecessary pov erty and the scourge of war are shown to be conse quences of a social order in which ruling class ma terial interests and competitive forces reign su preme. It exalts democracy and “the unloosing of the energies and the capabilities of the depressed.” It raises to first importance the need for industrial democracy, the need, that is, for a set-up in which the actual worker has a voice in the organization and conduct of industry. It carries the reader to the very bring of the solution-then turns him a bout, as though in a game of blindman’s buff, and marches him back into the brambles. DuBois’ studied effort to disavow a revoluntarv solution to the great questions confronting man kind often comes dangerously near intellectual snobbery. The conclusions he adduces concerning the capability of capitalism, he says, “are not the ranting of revolutionists,” but the clear conclusions of reasonable men.” But are the same conclusions, when reached by revolutionists—that is, by men who seek a fundamental social reorganization.. “ranting”? Would they be less reasonable from the lips of a Marxist than from the lips of Dr. Du Bois’ “reasonable men”? • Dr. DuBois is a distinguished scholar. As such he is ternally engaged in accumulating facts and evidence and complaining that facts and evidence thus far accumulated are “incomplete.” But, in the field' of social science, facts and evidence are inexhaustible. They can never be complete in the sense that no more corroborative evidence is left to unearth. And meanwhile historic forces move at an increasingly rapid tempo. They refuse to wait upon the scholar while he annotates his find ings with new statistics. 1 do not wish to be misunderstood, i believe the research worker and sehoalr performs a vital role, and that facts, facts and more facts strengthen the cause of social and human emancipation. But I also believe that when you see the head of a rat peeping out of one hole and the tail of a rat stick ing out of another some eightinches away, you can safely conclude that the body of the rat is between, j And you can act on this conclusion. There is more evidence of the cukpability of cap italism to be gathered by scholars. But that which we now have at hand, indeed, that which Dr. Du Bois lias adduced in “Color and Democracy”, suf fices to convince any reasonable person that colon ialism, racism, war and class oppression are inher ent in a system where a numerically small class monopolizes the means of production. It follows logically, therefore, that, to abolish these evils, the system of class rule must be uprooted. In effect, Dr. DuBois rejects this logic by pleading again for reliance on the very instruments which have betray ed us in the past—world organization, and increas ing measure of State control, etc., etc. Dr. DuBois, has, I think, performed a meritorious service in stressing the war-breeding nature of col onial imperialism. But colonial imperialism, as , Lenin demonstrated, is a consequence of capitalist concentration. It is not a question that can be solved within the capitalist system, and to assert that it can is to put the cart before the horse. The oppressed colonial slaves of the world may help to strike the blow that will ultimately set t!(?m free. Indeed, I hope so, But that blow will fall, when it falls, not in the colonies, but in the great capitalist nations themselves. And the hand that will cut the Gordian knot will be the hand of an enlightened and united working class aiming for its own eman cipation from wage slavery. _ j IT'S GETTING LATE / ^=======^ Draft Touchy Issue For Nation's Politicoes I Fear Strong Reaction Against Military I Service Evsn as Occupation Needs Point Up Requirement for Large Army. By BAUKHAGE Neuis Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street NW, Washington, D. C. One of the administration’s hottest political potatoes is a matter that nobody likes to talk about—even the opposition. It is military service. Not universal military service next month or next year but any old kind of military service today and tomor row, right up to election day, 1948. The problem has many facets but it has one, awesome nub — the vet eran vote. There are several danger signals which the Democratic ad ministration is watching with some trepidation: the criticism over con tinuation of the draft which the President has given his complete and unqualified support; recurring complaints of discontented soldiers and their families appearing in ra dio, congressional, national commit tee and other Washington fan mail, which add up to a resounding de mand for more and quicker dis charges, and finally, a growing fear that the feeling which used to be called isolationism is cropping up in a new form—“anti-militarism.” The administration doesn’t dare make any move to permit a drastic reduction in the armed forces now. Military experts think it will be the middle of October before any such move can be contemplated. By that time they think the danger of any serious outbreak in Japan will be over, or there will be evidence that one is coming. Await Jap Reaction To Occupation The full impact of the occupation of Japan will not be felt until American soldiers are deep in the heart of the country. Before that, the reaction of the Japanese people and the influence of the military leaders as opposed to the influence of the emperor, cannot be gauged. Suffice it to say that the surrender terms as well as the surrender it self came as a shock to the Japa nese people. Many Americans fail to realize that a relatively small American army landed in Japan in an area in which there were no Japanese except those permitted to be there ! by the authorities who arranged the surrender. There was no contact with the general population or the military. Scattered over the rest of the country is a powerful Japanese army, as yet fully armed, in defense positions, strengthened when the Japs completely reorganized their home defense against invasion after the capture of Okinawa. Dis regarding the thousands of Jap anese sailors now on shore, the air force, the supply troops and others, it is known that on Hokkaido there were two full divisions. (A Jap divi sion is between 15,000 and 20,000 men.) On Honshu there were 44 divisions and 7 brigades (a brigade is roughly half a division). On Kyu shu 14 divisions and 7 brigades. It is estimated that we would have 500,000 men in the islands by the middle of September. That is against a Japanese army (not count ing the sailors, airmen and others) of well over a million. That is why there can be no sharp reduction in American troops until we know what, if anything, is cooking under the cherry trees. Ana men wnen tnat question is answered we have the question of occupation. It has been estimated that to police Germany, Japan and Korea and perhaps parts of China will take 1,200,000 men. Where will they come from? Where will 300,000 come from for that matter? Already a sharp re version against military service has begun and if it follows the curve after the last war recruitment on a basis of voluntary enlistment is hopeless. At its low point the army after World War I numbered 130, 000 men. I well recall the story of one of my officer friends whose regi ment, stationed in the middle west, dropped so low that men themselves voted to spend their post exchange fluids for a recruiting campaign. With a band and a company he paraded the countryside for a week. He got just three recruits and two of those were rejected as physically unfit. As one officer remarked bitterly to me: “How are you going to get a man to join the army for $21 a month (the basic peacetime pay) when Uncle Sam will pay him $25 a week for not working at all?” (He referred to the unemployment com pensation called for in pending legis lation.) That’s the position the administra tion is in when the cry to end the draft arises. Vets9 Attitude Bears Watching The complaints from the veterans is another matter. They are not so much concerned over who gets into the army as who gets out. A lot of them are marking time right now, later a lot will be sent overseas in the boresome jobs of policemen. Why shouldn’t I get out now and get a start in business? Why shouldn’t my husband come back and support me in the manner to which I have been unaccustomed since he joined up? Why shouldn’t my boy get back to school where he belongs? Why shouldn’t my sweetheart be allowed to come home and marry me like he said he would? And some day sonny and daddy and lover will come back. And they’ll join a veteran’s organization and they will vote at the polls; ah, there’s the rub! Now we come to the third point which is really the most insidious, the one which has to be'handled the most delicately. We may have learned in this country that an ocean is no longer a barrier against , the enemy. But we know there is I another barrier which separates our maritime states from the heartland of the nation bordering the Missis sippi flood plain. That part of the country forgot its so-called isola tionism and threw its whole heart into the war. But the war is over — on paper anyhow. It is time to put the hand back to the plough again. There is need of stout arms and strong backs in the fields, and though Japs and the Germans may require watching, why not let George do it? That is a natural feeling and clever politicans would have little trouble in turning it to account, by raising the cry of militarism, of im perialism and all the other isms which men whose barns are their castles and whose meadows are their empires, dislike. Such a senti ment could be turned against one administration as well as another, but it so happens that the mid dle west is naturally somewhat Re publican in its leanings normally and the Democrats are now in the saddle. . One very keen political observer who has watched the way of the voter for many years said to me the other day: "If there were a Presi dential election tomorrow Truman would win it.” And when you con sider the matter coldly there are good reasons for the statement. The Republicans have had one healthy issue after another knocked out from under them. Truman has giv en business its head, he has sat on l the OPA, he has released one con trol after another, he has most soli citously deferred to congress, he is j on the way to break up the war agencies and get the business of government back into the old line departments. Such is the picture as of today all clear except for one little cloud in the sky. not much bigger than a serviceman’s hand, but there is thunder and lightning in that cloud and if the circumstances were such that its bolts of wrath were directed at the administration it would not even take, say a Stassen, to win the Presidential race on a walk. By next February—barring unex pected developments—all soldiers in Europe except those in the army of occupation and the minimum re quired to dispose of the army’s sur plus property will have been re-, turned to the United States, Maj. Gen. C. P. Gross, chief of transpor tation, said in an announcement by the war department. Return of American forces in the Pacific will be completed next June, according to present estimates! More than 1,750,000 men are sched uled for return from the Pacific theaters, while approximately 2,000. 000 remain to be returned from Eu rope. Some 150.000 other troops also are to be returned from other overseas theaters. BARBS . . . by Baukhage The Mexican government has turned its German prisoners free and invited them to become citizens if they wish, with a thousand peso stake in a plot of land if they want it. • • • And now they pick cranberries by machine. But it still takes a deft human hand to roast the turkey to go with them. Business Week magazine says it is rumored that Kaiser is going to turn out prefabricated moving picture theaters at $8,000 complete. Holly wooden frames? • • • According to YANK, the army magazine, Jap chow is worse than that served in American outfits where the cooks are recruited from the motor pool. __ I American Ship Losses Small in Pacific A total of 200,058 ship tons of cargo were lost at sea by the army in the war against Japan, with 31 vessels sunk and 2 vessels damaged while en route from the United States to the Pacific theaters. Army cargo shipped to these areas in the 44 months of the war totalled 43,520.000 ship tons. Those supplies lost at sea, therefore, represented only 0.46 per cent of the total amount shipped. When losses in the Pacific are added to the previously announced 537,656 ship tons of cargo lost on outbound moves from the United States to the European, Mediterra nean, Middle East, North and South Atlantic and Latin American areas, a total war loss of outbound army cargo at sea of 737,714 ship tons is obtained. JkectHHm ^oum H&pjvUesi Ein WASHINGTON | By Walter Shead I WNU Correspondent K WNU Washington Bureau 1616 Eye St.. N. W Future of Cotton □HAT is going to happen tc King Cotton, mainstay ot more farmers than any other crop? And more farmers are affected by what happens to cotton than by what hap pens to any other crop. Up to one third of all farm residents in the country live on cotton farms and they’re the lowest income group in agriculture. Not only these cotton farmers, but every farmer, every resident of the thousands of home towns from the East to the West coast and from top to bottom of the country, is interest ed in cotton . . . for cotton in peace time accounts for four-fifths of our total textile yardage. According to recent statistics re leased by Secretary Clinton P. An derson of the department of agri culture, the gross average farm in come of cotton farmers in the 10 years ending in 1942 was only $865 a year, as against more than $2,000 in other parts of the nation. Why, then, with cotton an all-im portant crop and selling at prices well above parity should income of these cotton farmers, a third of all farmers, be so much lower than the average of other farmers? The an swer is found in the agricultural practices of the South for the past hundred years, and includes (1) a one-crop system of farming, (2) lack of conservation practices which has driven the center of the cotton king dom from the southeastern states across the Mississippi to the South west and (3) cotton surpluses which have in the past demoralized the market. Tough Competition While the department of agricul ture is not pessimistic over the fu ture of cotton in the immediate post war year3, it is obvious, they point out, that great care will be neces sary for cotton to hold its own in an increasingly competitive field. In the first place cotton produc tion in this country has decreased, whereas foreign production has in creased. In 1920 for instance, we produced 13 million of the 21 mil lion bales of cotton produced in the world. In 1940, the last year for world statistics, we produced only 12 out of 29 million bales, and our production in 1943 dropped to 11 mil lion bales. In spite of this drop in production other competitive com modities have soared in common usage replacing cotton. Rayon, ny lon, spun glass and other newer de velopments of textiles are boring into the cotton market. U. S. rayon production 10 years ago amounted to only 10 million pounds, whereas last year rayon had grown to 724 million pounds or the equivalent of 1,700,000 bales of cotton. Paper products en tering the market formerly held by cotton . . . towels, tissues, napkins, window shades, plastic and twine, in 1929 was equivalent on a pound for-pound basis of a million bales of raw cotton. The Commodity Credit corpora tion in the department of agricul ture is the godfather of the cotton crop and the haven of cotton crop farmers. It is the Commodity Credit corporation which supports the mar ket price for cotton, by buying up surpluses, and providing substitutes for cotton exports. Through August 18, 1945, the CCC had purchased on its Cotton Purchase Program (sup port price program) 2,465,087 bales of cotton of the 1944 crop at an aver age price of about 22.31 cents a pound, involving approximately $250,000,000. In addition it had pro vided a 4-cent per hundred pound subsidy for its export program in volving 592.176 bales of the 1944 crop. Favorable Outlook Secretary Anderson in a recent address before the New York Cot ton Exchange pointed out, however, some favorable factors in behalf of the postwar future of cotton. He pointed out that during the war thou sands of cotton farmers had started soil conservation practices and di versified farming; there are con stantly being discovered new uses for cotton; the department has just announced discovery of a new cot ton fabric which will not mildew nor rot which will be used extensively in yards, threads, packaging and bag ging; demand for cotton in other countries will be at a new peak, al though world carryover is at an all time high; in the U. S.. despite a cancellation of 80 per cent of war orders for cotton products, slack will be taken up by the tremendous backlog of civilian demands. "American cotton will face not only large stocks on hand ... it will face as well the need for better farm practices if it is to hold its place in the world market,” Secretary An derson warned. He said, however, that he is depending on co-operation and American “know-how” and an increased export market to bring cotton “marching home from war.” In this connection it will be inter esting for cotton farmers to note that the Commodity Credit corpora tion has been placed under the new Production and Marketing adminis tration in the new U. S. D. A. set-up. DDT: Urges Careful Use Housewives who find use for DDT, the powerful new insecticide known to chemists as dichlorodiphenyl trichlorethane, are cautioned against placing the poisonous powder where it might be mixed with kitchen sup plies, by Dr. Morris Fishbein of the American Medical acceptation. “In large doses DDT is poisonous to human beings and to a good many animals.” Dr. Fishbein said. “When DDT is properly used, these poisonous effects are .controlled.” The Omaha Guide + A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER JL Published Every Saturday at 2)20 Grant Street OMAHA, NEBRASKA—PHONE HA. 0800 Entered as Second Class Matter March 15. 1927 at the Post Office at Omaha, Nebraska, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. C* C- Gallowvy,.„. Publisher and Acting Editor All News Copy of Churches and all organiz ations must be in our office not later than 1:00 p. m. Monday for current issue. AH Advertising Copy on Paid Articles, not later than Wednesday noon, proceeding date of issue, to insure public ation SUBSCRIPTION RATE IN OMAHA ( ONE YEAR . $3.00 ] SIX MONTHS . $1.75 \ THREE MONTHS .$1.25 i SUBSCRIPTION RATE OU1 OP TOWN i ONE YEAR . $3.50 ’ SIX MONTHS . $2-00 1 National Advertising Representatives— INTERSTATE UNITED NEWSPAPERS, Inc l 545 Fifth Avenue, New York City, Phone:— l 1 MUrray Hill 2-5452, Rav Peck, Manager j —-WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS_ Round UpJapaneseWcr Leaders; Hog Slaughter Shows Big Dip; British Seek Financial Aid ■ ■ ■■■ ■ ■■■■ Released by Western Newspaper (EDITOR’S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these columns, thev are those ol Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) With Britain seeking extensive American financial assistance, consul tations get under way at state department with leading conferees including (from left to right) Leo Crowley, foreign economic administrator; Lord Halifax, British ambassador; William Clayton, assistant secretary of state; Lord Keynes, British economist, and Henry A. Wallace, secretary of com merce. JAPAN: Round Up War Lords With high Japanese war leaders taking their own lives as the Ameri can net gradually began to tighten around them, the Nipponese govern ment of Premier Higashi - Kuni as sumed the responsi bility for rounding up suspected war criminals in an ef fort to head off a mass suicide wave. Hideki Tojo Japan’s No. 1 war lord through out most of the Pacific conflict be fore enemy reverses forced his re tirement, ex-Premier Hideki Tojo led off the suicide wave by attempt ing to take his life as American troops arrived at his country resi dence outside Tokyo to arrest him. Though Tojo misfired, former war minister and. army chief Sugiyama used better aim to kill himself, and ex-welfare minister Hoizumi also succeeded in taking his life. Having first professed full respon I sibility for the war before trying to shoot himself, Tojo shut up tighter than a clam following an improve ment in his condition under the watchful eye of American medics. Refusing to talk on his sick-bed, the ashen 61-year-old former Japa nese kingpin declared that he would not answer questions without docu mentary reference. Meanwhile, capital circles re vealed that Tojo and other sus pected Japanese war criminals would have their unhappy day in court before a four-power military tribunal similar to the one trying Nazi overlords in Germany. Representatives of the U. S., Brit ain, Russia and China will comprise the tribunal, which probably will sit in Tokyo and, as in the case of its European counterpart, try foreign government leaders on the unprece dented charges of conducting wars of aggression. In addition to trial on the novel 1 count of carrying on aggressive warfare, Japanese will be tried for such crimes as racial persecution, torture of helpless people, and mur der of captured military personnel. Though not questioning the goal of bringing Nazi and Japanese over lords to justice, many eminent American lawyers have opposed the procedure for trial, declaring that it establishes a precedent for kangaroo courts which might be used against Allied personages in the future. SLAUGHTER: Hogs Dotvn Though slaughter of cattle and sheep during the first eight months of 1945 hit new tops for federally inspected plants, butchering of hogs dropped off severely, resulting in a continued tight meat situation. Only with an improved hog situation in creasing the overall supply of meat did marketing experts look forward to an end of rationing. With August slaughter at an eight J year low, the eight month hog pro I duction totalled 26,821,667, away be low the 50,352.226 mark for the same period last year. During the early part of September, hogs con tinued to trickle into leading mar kets, with shipments commanding ceiling prices. Partly offsetting decreased hog slaughter were record butcherings of cattle and sheep for the first eight months of the year, with 9,071,406 cattle killed and 13,960,594 sheep. At 4,152,779, the calf total was the sec ond largest on record. FOREIGN AFFAIRS: British Ask Aid In the U. S. to sell this country on the feasibility of offering financial assistance to Britain, Ambassador Halifax and Economist Keynes de clared that a prosperous Britain, getting its great exporting and im porting machinery going at full blast, would help assure the stabil ity so necessary for postwar peace Should Britain fail to secure suf ficient aid to rebuild its industry and obtain raw materials for processing into finished goods, Messrs. Halifax and Keynes pointed out, the whole intricate system of exchange among nations would be affected, leading to social disturbances the world over and another outgrowth of isms. Thus, in approaching the U. S. on a basis of mutual concern, the British came over as prac tical statesmen and not as beg gars. Further, they disclaimed any intention of seeking an easy way out by negotiating interest bearing loans, but rather stated that they were opposed to any type of debt of a burdensome nature which, like World War I obligations, would have to be eventually repudiated. In shying from the idea of an in terest - bearing loan, the British left the way open for an outright grant, which would be strongly bucked here, or a long-range interest-free advance. shape Italian Ireaty While the British talked dollars in Washington, D. C., the Big Five council of foreign ministers con tinued discussions in London con cerning the future political and ter ritorial makeup of postwar Europe, with the diplomatists occupied with drawing up an Italian peace treaty. Foremost of the problems associ ated with an Italian treaty was the disposition of the country’s North African colonies, with the British reportedly frowning on the Ameri can proposition for permitting the Italians to retain their territories under a United Nations trusteeship. As the eternal jockeying for protective boundaries and rich interests cropped up, the Brit ish were said to favor Italian retention of only western Libya while taking for themselves eastern Libya covering Egypt and Italian Somaliland fronting the gateway to the vital Red sea leading to the Suez canal. At the same time, the French re portedly sought a slice of north western Libya from Italy to strengthen their own Tunisian holding. But if the disposition of Italian colo nies posed a big problem, so did the readjustment of Italy’s European borders, with France out for a re adjustment of the Alpine boundary and Yugoslavia hot for annexation of the strategic Istrian peninsula with its rich port of Trieste. As the meeting progressed, the Big Five were said to have considered a com promise under which Italy would re linquish the peninsula jutting into the Adriatic sea but retain Trieste itself. With U. S. and British pressure for free and open elections in Ro mania and Bulgaria already having forced the communists’ hands in those countries, Yugoslav and Greek rightists next came to the fore at the foreign ministers’ conference to request intervention in the political affairs of those Balkan states to assure a fair and peaceful democratic representation. RELIGION: Courses Challenged Traditional American separation of church from state was the issue Mrs. Vashti McCullom of Cham paign, 111., raised against the Cham paign school board in her suit to halt voluntary religious instruction in the public schools in the com munity. With both Mrs. McCullom and the board prepared to appeal to the Su preme court in event of their loss of the decision, the suit promises to affect similar instruction in 1,856 communities in 46 states. North Da kota and New Hampshire are the only states without such religious courses. In bringing her suit as the inter ested party, Mrs. McCullom stated that as the only pupil in his class not enrolled in the voluntary 30 min ute per week instruction in the Prot estant, Catholic and Jewish faiths, her 10-year-old son Terry had suf fered acute embarrassment. As a result, she said, indirect pressure had been brought to bear against the youngster to take the course, regard less of his inclination, on public school property maintained by tax payers' funds. In countering Mrs. McCullom’s charge, the school board pointed out that the courses were outside of the school curricula and purely volun tary, with the representatives of all of the principal religious denomina tions conducting and financing the instruction. Aside from the state constitution and statutes involved, federal inter vention hinged on the first amend ment to the U. S. Constitution, which provides: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free ex ercise thereof” . . . and section 1 of the 14th amendment to the Con stitution declaring . . . “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Mother of three boys and wife of a University of Illinois professor, 32 year-old Mrs. McCullom said that while she realized the suit might harm young Terry, her deep con viction on separation of church from state inspired her action. Plan Jobless Benefits Though the senate finance committee worked out a broad postwar unemployment benefit bill, the solons turned down Pres. Harry S. Truman’s recom mendation that jobless com pensation be raised to a maxi mum of $25 per week. Instead, the committee bent to the task of shaping a measure which would authorize the fed eral government to contribute funds toward extending the time of state unemployment payments 60 per cent. Benefits now range from $15 for 14 weeks in Ari zona to $28 for 30 weeks in Con necticut. Both federal and maritime workers would be made eligible for unemployment compensa tions under the proposed bill, at the rate existent in the state of their employment. In addition, workers who mi grated to war production cen ters would be allowed up to $200 for transportation expenses back to their old residences or new job locations. Money would not be advanced for the ship ment of any household effects, however. STRIKES: Hit Radio Heading up a wave of strikes, leaving over 100,000 workers idle, was the walkout of engineers of the National and American Broadcast ing companies partly paralyzing ra dio programs and forcing executive technicians to take over operation of the controls. Though the strike ostensibly was over wage demands, informed in dustry sources said the walkout was a flareup of a dispute between the independent engineers’ union and Jimmy Petrillo’s American Feder ation of Musicians, AFL, over which of the two should represent the em ployees who turn the records for transcribed broadcasts. While the war labor board or dered the radio companies to deal with the engineers over the record changers, the AFM’s jurisdiction over the so-called “platter jockeys” has been recognized in Chicago, Washington, New York and Detroit. Because the big chains feared Pe trillo might call his musicians out on strike if they dealt with the en gineers over the record changers, it was charged, they have been stall ing on the negotiations. ..1