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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1948)
1 CASS COUNTY'S NEWS pa per SECTION 2 NEA TELEPHOTO UNITED PRESS SERVICE The Plattsmouth Journal ESTABLISHED 1881 rViMishffl spmi-weeklv, Moniiuvs nnd Thurs days, at 409-413 Main Street, Plattsmouth. C;is ronntv. Nt.raka. RONALD R. FURSE Publisher FRANK H. SMITH Editor VERN WATERMAN .-Advertising Manager Helen E. Heinrich, News Editor. Merle D. Furse, Plant Superintendent Harry Wilcoxen, Manager Job Department Tntprpfl at the TVtof f Ire at riattsmouth. Nebraska n Kffnnrl rlass mail maMer in er oorinnre with thf Act of Congress of March S. 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATE: S3.50 per year in Cass and adjoining counties. $4.00 per year elsewhere, in advance, by mail outside the city of Plattsmouth. By carrier in Platts month, 15 cents for two weeks. EDITORIALS JOURNAL HITS A PEAK Thanks to the splendid co-operation of the people of Cass County, The Plattsmouth Journal today has reached the highest point in its paid circulation history. More papers are being de livered to Cass County bonafide subscribers each issue than ever before. Using the newspaper's yard stick in readers prr copy, we believe we are safe in saying that over 12.000 people read each issue of this news paper and more are being added to the list each passing week. The publisher of The Journal expresses his thanks to the hundreds of readers that enable us to make this statement. We will endeavor to make your Journal larger, better and more com plete as time goes on. WANT AN AUDITORIUM? Recently there has been considerable agita tion for an auditorium or other municipal build ing in Plattsmouth. That there is a need for such a structure in the city leaves little room for ar gument. Not a day passes but what the communi ty is cratched from the list of cities being se lected for conventions or entertainment due to the lack of proper facilities. Right now is an opportune time to secure that needed building. A. little prodding on th? part of the women folks of the community and some effort on the part of hubby, .Plattsmouth is in line for a structure to cost up to $300,000 to be known as an armory. When completed the building can be used for community affairs as well as the Plattsmouth National Guard unit. Wishful thinking and taking it easy will not get the job done. According to our information appropriations have been made and the money allocated. Actual construction hinges on the or ganization of the unit within the city and its activities. Why delay? Enlistment in a local National Guard Unit here would be but a matter of min utes according- to good authority. Let's get this project underway without further discussion. Plattsmouth needs this unit and the unit needs Plattsmouth. DON'T VOTE FOR A PIG IN THE POKE Not one person in a thousand now a resident of Plattsmouth would cast a blank ballot in the coming city election and allow others to mark the square to indicate who should serve him in the next two years, but that is exactly what could happen if the movement started last week on a write-in campaign were to succeed. With Mayor Clement Woster emphatic in his statement that he would not accept the office even if their was a remote possibility that a write-in campaign could succeed, it would be up to the members of the city council to name an j cting mayor until the next city election one year trom this date. Plattsmouth voters are too well versed in their city politics to give even the lightest hope to any backers of such a movement. It is well the matter has been dropped. Consumption cf canned baby food has jumped annually from 13 pounds per child under three years of ago to 45 pounds in the past seven years, Cornell University farm economists estimate. DOWN MEMORY LANE TEN YEARS AGO J. M. Quackenbush, formerly of Nuckolls County, was named to succeed D. D. Wainscott as county agent . . . Plans were being formulated for start of "Junior Baseball program to be spon sored by the American Legion, with Fred Herb rter, chairman . . . Local Bethal No. 24 of Jobs Daughters were honored by presentation of traveling gavel to reigning queen. Miss Frances Clcidt . . . Everett Pickens opened new rock quarries at Gayer farm south of the city . . '. Iowa-Nebraska Light and Power employees held taes meeting and dinner at Stewart Cafe . . . Major General Stanley Ford, commander of the Seventh Corps area was received as a Master Mason at Omaha by Grand Master W. A. Robert son of the lecal lodge. TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO Judge Allen J. Beeson was honored on his birthday with a dinner planned by his family to which were invited Charles E. Martin, Judge A. . Duxbury, L. L. Wiles, Dr. F. L. Cummins, A. H. Duxbury, L. L. Wiles, Dr. F. L. Cummins, bertson and William Baird . . . G. E. DeWolf, former superintendent of schools here wa? re elected to head the schools at Creston,.Iowa. Furse's Fresh Flashes The elderly treasurer of a local Ladies Aid society entered the bank the other day to "de posit the aid money." Henry thought she said egg money and remarked, "Wonderful how well the old hens are doing those days." He still can't understand why the lady left in a huff. 3 A local high school girl can figure out only one reason her grandmother studies the Bible so much. She thinks the little old lady is cram ming her finals. Some people will do anything for money except work. It's "funny hew you never get too old to learn some new way to be foolish. The man who hits the ball over can take it casv around the bases. the fence Just read the other day where gas exploded in a man's lungs killing him while undergoing an operation. Maybe it's unwarranted uneasiness, but it's got us worried about the g-as on our stomach. A guy applied for the life guard position at Ivlerrit's Beach the other day wno is six feet eight inches tall. He said he couldn't swim, but he could wade to beat the devil. a Flipper Fanny, our dainty little contour twis ter, says it used to be bad enough walking back lrom motor car rides, but this business of para chute jumping is getting on her serves. Our washer woman says she ain't seen her neighbor girl's fiance, says it ain't been in the wash vet. THE PLATTSMOUTH, NEBRASKA. JOURNAL Thursday, April 1, 1943 PAGE ONE VOTE y DEM" W 31 I. W- DEMOCRATIC COLUMN Prepared by ATTY. FRANCIS M. CASEY Democratic County Chairman Plattsmouth, Nebraska MiRRY- GO- ROUHP By DREW PEARSON (Copyright, 1948. By The Bell Syndicate. Inc.) WASHINGTON COLUMN New Report Gives Finger-Tip Picture of U. S. Business BY PETER EDSON NEA Washington Correspondent DREW PEARSON SAYS: IMPOVERISHED NAVAJOS OWN URANI UM TREASURE; LEWIS SEEKS SHOW DOWN; CENSORSHIP BEFRIENDED MAC- supporting statistical tables prepared by the President's Council of ARTHUR. YCr ASH ING T ON (NEA) A quick picture of U. S. business con ditions is revealed in a new series of some 20 charts and WASHINGTON. It now looks as if the poverty-stricken Navajo Indians, trying to scratch a precarious living from the wastelands of Arizona and New Mexico, may own one of the most priceless pieces of property in the USA. For some time our chief worry in the produc tion of atomic energy was the fact that all unr nium deposits lay outside the United States. However, it now appears that the Navajos have been tending their pitiful flocks above a hidden atomic treasure. For, upon the Navajo reserva tion in the upper corner of Arizona and New Mexico, the Vanadium Corporation of America has been quietly extracting uranium. Further details regarding this operation must remain a military secret. However, one amazing fact can be revealed. So far, the Navajos haven't received one penny for the uranium taken from their land. Instead, the profits have been raked in by the Vanadium Corporation. The price which the Atomic Energy commis sion is paying the Vanadium Corporation for uranium is also secret, but a member of the joint Congressional committee on atomic energy predicted thrt the metal may become almost as precious as diamonds. Since the richest deposits are all outside the United States and could be cut off in case of war, this domestic supply be comes all the more valuable. Economic Advisers. First of the series, ready April 1, wi.l be issued It is a strictly limited circulation 'affair. Only 100 copies of the I acts, such as the concealing of committee members, when three Senators Hatch of New Mexi co and Connally of Texas, demo crats; with Ball of Minnesota, republican objected. Truman yielded to their objection and withdrew the criticsm of Mac Arthur. The two censored paragraphs read: "Censorship is an insult to the patriotism and intelligence of the American people. In the past, it has led to many unwise first issue are being printed. Copy number one will go to the Presi dent's desk. Other copies will go to the heads of government agencies, their top economists and planners, and the Joint Congressional Com mittee on the Economic Report. No use for any private citizen to try to buy, beg. borrow or steal one, because they aren't for sale, says Chairman Edwin G. Nourse of the Council of Economic Advisers. But the value of "Indicators" will probably create some demand for their wider circulation. They pull together in one 10-by-15-inch booklet all the basic but scattered data every well-informed business expert wants at his finger-tips. The Council's intention is to revise the charts monthly and on a faster schedule than is possible for the more detailed Commerce, Labor, Agriculture or Interior data. In January and June the charts will be issued as part of the President's semi-annual report on eco nomic conditions to Congress. The other 10 months of the year, i 'Economic Indicators" will be issued separately. YT7'HAT the first set of charts reveals factually and without interpre tation is a still expanding economy. Consumer prices the cost cf living index are still going up, though wholesale prices leveled cfT in February. Personal income of individuals is approaching an all-time high of over $210,000,000,000. Installment buying, charge accounts and other consumer credits have risen above 513.000,000,000. This is 50 per cent above a year ago, a third greater than prewar. Industrial production has been rising since January, 1947, to an Index number above 190, as compared with 100 in 1939 and 247 in November, 1943. Construction continues its usual winter decline, but is higher than mid-summer, 1946. Other charts cover production in various industries, expenditures fo" new plants and equipment, strikes and lockouts, bank deposits, purchasing power, corporate profits, consumer income and spending, savings, average earnings, stock prices, cash farm income, prices re ceived and paid by farmers and the parity ratio. y- - t . i . r .T- : t ; . - : i i ij r . . inn r ,l ;.:.,:., , . , ... v,ircuuuiuu oi economic inuiicmns ib ueing neiu uuvwi tJ iuu But the Navajos, sitting on one of natures . , ., . AJ - . . - , . J . . I romes because Council ot Economic Advisers has no money to eointo the publishing business. In spite of the limited edition, this is not the most exclusve of the government's publications. That honor is The Budget existence. jackpots, so tar naven t Deen joie to collect a cent. Reason for this again is largely obscured bv secrecv, and only part of the story can be I reserved for a series of hand-made, colored charts called " told within the limits of national security. I in Operation." Only six copies of this work are in existei desk drawer. This rpilE President keeps copy number one in his top is the book which Mr. Truman held up for reporters to see at a recent press conference when he wanted to show how the cost of living had been rising steadily since the end of the war. Other copies are held by Budget Director James E. Webb, Nourse, Treasury Secretary Snyder, Acting Chairman Marriner S. Eccles of Federal Reserve Board. The sixth copy is a "floater." Charts in the book are revised monthly. While one copy is being brought up to date the floater is Mibstitutcd so no holder will ever be without his book. "The Budget in Operation" was originally prepared by Bureau of the Budget to deal with government finances only. Then a few charts on general business conditions were included. Then Budget Bureau began duplicating a cheap reprint cf the general economic charts for wider circulation. For one thing, uranium does not exist in its pure form on the reservation but must be ex tracted a.s a by-product from vanadium. The only leases to dig for vanadium on Navajo terri tory six in all are held by the Vanadium Cor poration. Theses leases specify that the Indians will be paid 10 per cent royalty on all mineral compounds except vanadium compounds. In the latter case, the royalty is stipulated as 10 per cent of the vanadium oxide, a metal used to toughen steel. Since uranium is part of the raw vanadium ore until processed, the company con ceivably might get away with paying royalty enly on the comparatively valueless vanadium oxide, not on tne omcr raw vanadium out ot Lewis's striking United Mine j and the military commanders 1 which uranium comes. j workers members ,the mine la- j responsible were severely repri- . However, the Indian service takes the view that j bor boss intends t0 fight it right j manded. But the manner in urainum is a separate metal apart from vanadium, ; up to the Supreme Court. I which General MacArthur's therefore is subject to the full 10 per cent royal- i "This is not so much a fight ! bombers were also caught nap-! ty fee. But the amount of uranium taken from against mine operators," Lewis ;.ping at Manila and burned on the the reservation is unknown to the Indian service told an intimate. "It's a fight ground was censored, which hasn't anv record of a single rovaltv d&v- ag-ainst the Taft-Hartley Act. I : Three hundred planes, sent to ; want a snowdown and I won i : manna at gveat sacrmce xo u. o. give up until I get one." h air forces in other arer.s, were MacArthur's Censorship lost as a result. MacArthur had . When Harry Truman was been demanding that planes be ; K,;rm,n v, cn War i sent him irstead of going to be- ment on the grounds that its uranium project is j Tnvestigatin-g cfttee he came ' 'eaguered England, at that time , near blasting one piece of war- unmercnuiiy pounaea Dy time censorship. If he had. it air attacks. would have cast a somewhat But though MacArthur had a different light on one of his special . warning that the Japs present political opponents were attacking, while Pearl Har- Douglas MacArthur. But he bor didn't, he left his 300 planes didn't. helpless on the ground. Wartime censorship sometimes The Truman committee, dis- operated in a peculiar manner, covering this fact, devoted two facts known to the enemy, and even the dissemination of dis torted information. For example, the Japanese knew perfectly well the destruction they had wrecked upon our airplanes in the Philippines, but for two years the War department requested that it be kept secret from the public that 300 planes were des troyed on Philippine airfields a number of hours after the at tack on Pearl Harbor was known. "The loss was only recently made public, and there is at least a suspicion that part of the reason for requesting the com mittee to consider the informa tion 'secret' as the desire to avoid resentment by the public of the loss of 300 planes which would have been so valuable to the defense of the Philippines." Merry-Go-Kound Quoth ex-Congressman Maury Maverick after returning t0 San Antonio following several months in Los Angeles: "I love my worst Texas enemy more than my best California, friend." . . . Payne Ratner, ex-Governor of Kansas .recently dropped in to see Capt. Howard Yeager, ef ficient aide to the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Louis Denfield, asked Yeager to use his influ ence with his father,in-law. Roy I Bailey, publisher of the Salina, Kansas, Journal, in favor of Sen. Arthur Capper. Ratner admitted Kr.nsas didn't have much of a choice between Capper and his G.O.P. primary opponent, Andy Our Republican opponent (identity unknown) wants the public tc think back onlv a few years ago. and recall the many luxuries thev enjoved, and the manv freedoms of activity to which they were privileged and compare them with the present. He particularly re fers to the past 14 years. This brings to the writers mind ono thought, namely that May. 1948. marks the 15th anniversary n the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. During these 15 years of the FDIC. 404 banks failed. 3 of which were merged and re opened without any help. The remaining 401 banks had depositors r-umbering 1.319.427 and their loss wrs less than one-eighth of one per cent. Now, compare this with the good old times that the Re rublicans want to recall, particularly the so called prosperous GOP vcar of 1926 when 1.000 banks folded in one year with the result ant wiping out of the life savings of thousands of families. Now ho has the audacity to talk about bankruptcy and swift bankruptcy m that. Now it appears from where I sit that you will go bankrupt sooner when y u lose a thousand banks a year than you v ill when you lose 404 banks in 15 years. What do you think about that Mr. Republican? Do you want George to answer that one too? We all know the Republican propaganda for having- claimed big reductions in government; but let us take a peek behind tho p-opaganda curtain and see what actually happened in the 80th Congress. The House of Representatives adopted a resolution p vomiting to cut the President's budget by six billion dollars. When the matter went to the Senate, the Republican maionty ivanklv admitted that they could not cut the budt fix billion but said they would cut it by four and one-half billion dolkrs and adopted a resolution as such. But what happened. Did thev reduce the budget bv six billion dollars? No. Did they reduce Ihe'budget four and one-half billion dollars? No. They went through the form of reducing the budget by phony deductions. Now I am not going to stop my argument here as a Republican would with generality, but I will cite an instance which shows that they m t .-eased the costs of government rather than decreased. The Re riblican Congress voted to reduce the appropriation for the Bureau of Internal Revenue by eight hundred million dollars. Was this a l eduction? No. This was the amount of money that had been over p.'id bv taxpayers and was due the taxpayers in the form of re fund. So wh; thev actually did was to postpone payment ot an honest obligation. The Law makes it clear that if these tax refunds are not paid they draw interest at the rate of 6 per cent. As -i result of this bit of trickery to make the public feel that they had ac tually reduced the budget, you and I as taxpayers must pay th" interest penalty. There is nothing in the world that will bankrupt anyone cuicker than high interest rates; and after pulling this little trick, thev now want to condemn the Democratics for squandering. I'll sav this, the Democratics did spend a lot of money, but it was spent lor useful purposes. It was not spent in the form of interest in an attempt to make phony cuts look real. Of course this all happened in 1947, but what about 1948? The Republican Congress makes a current boast that they will pare the President's budget two billion five hundred million, but what have they done to date about keen ing their promise. I'll tell you. The Republicans have to date passed bills which would add five hundred million dollars to the Presi dent's estimated expenditures; and that is exclusive of the recent if ouest by the War Department. REPUBLICAN COLUMN Prepared bv A REPUBLICAN Desiring a Continuation of This Column plied Captain Yeager; "My is the Navy, not running father-in-law's politics." job my ment to the Navajos for uranium. Yet the Vana dium Corporation is known to have been extract ing it for several yea-rs. The Vanadium Corporation declined all corn- top secret. But the Atomic Energy commission in formed this columnist that on the amount of royalty payments no secrecy is involved. LEWIS WILL FIGHT John L. Lewis has told close friends that he is set to go to the Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of the Taft-Hartley Labor Act. Lewis firmly believes that the Taft-Hartley jobs by injunction if a strike endangers the nation's welfare is unconstitutional. Therefore, if an injunction is obtained against Well here we go again folks we are still being taken for a r'de on the Democrat Merry-Go-Round. In typical Democrat style he spokesman for the Cass County Democrats attempts to answer sr.me'of the propositions put to him in the Republican column two weeks ago, and has failed to clinch any of his points. We also note that there were several he felt were better left unanswered. In his attemDt to answer the question of the withholding of the data on the loyalty investigations, he begs the question by try ing to make -it appear that we are accusing President Truman of being a Communist. H- has no answer to the point we made that it is refused to members of a Congressional committee yes even Democrat members. If the men who make our laws and shape our destinies arc refused information, how can they arrive at judicious conclusions protect our interests? Answer the question Mr. Cacy. In answering my point on the Democrats taking credit for the ir nation for he did take credit for the three dollar corn, he at- Schoeppel," but claimed Capper ! tempts to slip around the edge and try to justify it on the basis that was the lesser of two evils. Re- . the price of farm machinery was higher. Why was it higher?. BE- CUSE THE SAME INFLATION. FOR WHICH 1HL x AM, CREDIT. WAS THE REASON WHY THE PRICE OF FARM MA CHINERY WENT HIGHER. As the cost of living went Xip -to the working man, due to higner prices for corn and other 'farm pro ducts, the working man sought and gc wage increases which caused the prices of manufactured goods,, farm machinery, radios, etc., to go higher so you see it is still your hot potato. It is also interesting to note that he does not quote from the "World-Herald or any poison propaganda sheet" placing the World vleraM in the same category as a propaganda organ a newspaper that has been known as a Democrat paper since the davs it was established by the late Democratic Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock. Don't you fellows even trust your own Democrat newspaper? To lend credence to his remarks he quotes from the Congres sional Record, and accuses the Republicans of too much talk and '.oo little action. He tells us that the Republicans have been in rower in Congress since January 3, 1947 and haven't done much to remedy the situations they ha.ve talked about. Does he recall that : number of j-ears ago sixteen to be exact. Franklin Delano Roose velt told the American people that ONE-THIRD OF THE NATION vAS ILL FED. ILL CLOTHED AND ILL HOUSED. The infla tion of the Democrats has not alleviated these circumstances, and Irday MORE than one-third of the nation is all housed now who har been talking for some time and doing little I say that if in sixteen years the Democrats have been unable to do something bout the situation HERE is conclusive proof of MUCH TALK AND LITTLE ACTION. The Democrats like' to pose as the saviour of the Farmer. In o-,. ,..u r,r,A -rrT ,s M.i, a iqa Thp fh; ht from bhanenai. cmna. it oo mrj a Hi.-.6 . - - buTni on "th! ;iromd Perl cops oi "the rt wWe type j w carrying 24 members of an, Paid this tax. It was later declared unconstitutional and should Harbor was known to the world and circulated confidentially to I oil tanker crew. (Continued on Page Three) p ALASKA ANCHORAGE GULKANA M CANADA KETCHIKAN 4 PACIFIC f EDMONTON OCEAN Jii EATTLE o"MtLES400 UNITED STATES one of tne Northwest Airlines DC-4 crash that cost the lives of P ,on-rmng wcrks ,o return ,o their; in ,hTch U S- paragraphs to it in a quarterly ; 30 persons on a chartered p.ane