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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 20, 1948)
TD-OE PEAITTSyaDUTIH JJaDQMNM. XEA TELEPIIOTO UNITED PRESS SERVICE ca?s county XEWSpaper SECTION L" The Plattsmouth Journal ESTABLISHED 1E81 fiiMishd sfml-wccktv, Momlavs nrt Thur dsys, at Main Strt. l'lattsmouth. fiisv fount v. Nebraska. RONALD R. FURSE Publisher FRANK II. SMITH Editor VERN WATERMAN .Advertising Manager Helen E. Heinrich, News Editor. Merle D. Furse, Plant Superintendent Rarry Wilcoxen, Manager Job Department fVff.rf.( 8t tii Poptnfflc at Plattsmouth. Nebraska n" scfnn'l rlas mni' maM-r in 80-crVr,-t- with the Act oT Congress of March . 179. SUBSCRIPTION RATE: S3.50 per year in Cass and adjoining counties, S4 00 per year elsewhere, in advance, by mail outside the city of Plattsmouth. By carrier in Platts month, 15 cents for two weeks. EDITORIALS ROBBING MISSOURI On of the marks of a rising civilization is the abili'y of a people, by community action, to soften the blow for those who have been hit by econo mic adversity. The United States, in recent de cades, has taken tremedous strides toward eli mmauns hardships. However, there isa point be yond which society cannot go. It is a tragic fact that human nature tends' to take merciless ad vantage of humanitarian ideals. A startling- ex ample of this is shown in a report on the Missouri Unemployment Compensation Law. For over ten years, the people of Missouri have been insured against unemployment. And yet dur ing the past five years', while there have been far more jobs than workers. Missouri paid over fifteen million dollars to workers, not veterans, who claimed they could not find work. The re port fiows that these claims could not be valid, that payments were unwarranted if the law had beer, properly administered. Durmg the war. from July 1. 1942 to July 1, l(.'4r. nearly fourteen million dollars' was paid out of the unemployment fund. This was during a time when the entile country was begging for work ts to man the country's industrial machine, and when the chairman of the War Manpower Commission stated, "We are at the bottom of the manpower barrel." Fig-ires show that in Missouri, between 1940 and 1945. there were two hundred thousand more jobs with three hundred thousand fewer workers available to take them! During October 1946, sixty-three thousand help wanted advertisements appeared ir, St. Louis papers. At the same time in St. Louis, there were over four thousand new claim- filed for unemployment aid, and a weekly average of 13,741 persons on the "payroll" of the unemployment fund. A s'late wide survey of 236 companies revealed tiu.t the Industrial Commission paid over a mil lion dollars in unemployment compensation to form?r employes of these companies from July 1. 134G to July 1. 1947. During this same period the.se "36 concerns reported that 42 per cent of the 15. OOu former employes who were paid out of work benefits would have been rehired if they had applied for their old jobs'. But they were paid unemployment compensation. The tragedy of Missouri is that at a time when unemoloyment is at a minimum, unjustified claims are destroying the employment fund. The day may arrive when people legitimately out of work will be unable to get necessary assistance from the state. The humanitarian objective of un employment laws' will be defeated by the inherent tendency of human nature to get something for nothing while the getting is good, unless the peo ple awaken to the danger. And Missouri is not alone in tr.is respect. The threat exists in every level government today. YOU CAN'T EAT GRASS Close to half the land of this nation would be useless for food production if it weren't for the breeders and raisers of livestock and the packers, who start meat along the channels that end at the dinner table. You can't eat grass. By itself, it adds nothing whatever to the food supply. Meat animals, on the other hand, thrive and grow on it. Inedible grab's becomes edible meat that keeps the coun try's larders full. Our meat animal population must be kept at a high level if we are to supply our own needs and maintain our foreign exports. We can't turn our m- at supply on and off like a faucet. There's no miraculous assembly line that will produce an animal ready fcr the packers in a few minutes. It takes more than a year to grow a marketable hog. and two to three years' to grow a beef steer. Any considerable decline in our animal population would take a long time to make up. The only sound policy for American agriculture, in the words of the Secretary of Agriculture, is "or ganized, sustained and realistic abundance." Meat animals, which are the farmer's chief source of cash income, are also the backbone of a tremendous competitive industry which pro cesses the product for a profit of only a fraction of a cent per pound. Meat is a staple item in the American, diet, and the whole process of pro ducing it begins on grass-land, a great portion of which is useless for anything save the feeding of livestock. DOWN MEMORY LANE TEN YEARS AGO Mr. and Mrs. Fred I. Rea attended graduation of their son Richard W. Rea at Great Lake, 111., training station .... Lo Kinnamon delivered j Furse's Fresh Flashes j "Arise Anoint Him: For Ts s He THE PLATTSMOUTH, NEBRASKA, JOURNAL uirsdav. May 20. !4Jj I Av'E Samuel 1:16 The CIO not only moves as fast as lightning but it has proven that it can strike more than once n the same place. After a woman gets somewhere around forty, the m:st lingering handshake she will ever get is from the automobile salesman trying to sell her husband a new car. The government will never dare to limit the employers to forty hours per week. It takes longer than that jus't to fill out the reports. If some of the marriages we keep out of the paper were published at the time of the cere mony there would be less counting on the fingers. A Plattsmouth man says he has done h'.s best to give his children a religious' education in their habits around heme, but somehow whenever he Xinished saying "grace" at the table they always at least had one knife in the butter and a hanc on the biscuits. The government has set aside a million dollar this vear to spend on grasshoppers. The idea i good, but the money won't last long because we have jearned you can spend a milhon dollars or. grasshoppers almost as quickly as you can on blond s. fine sixteen foot skiff of his own design and mak ing toh group of Malvern. Ia.. sportsmen .... J. M. Quackenbush, newly appointed county agent appealed before Chamber of Commerce . . . . Breakfast was served at the Country Club to members and their guests with a flag touranment as pa :t of the program. . . . I TWENTY ONE YEARS AGO Plattsmouth girls were honored at Wesleyan. Helen Wescott was named by the sophomore g-i'ls as the most representative girl student of the class. . . . Miss' Marguerite Wiles, senior, was select d for a part in the annual class play . . . . Miss Nora Soennichsen arrived from her home in the northern part of Schleswig. Germany to make her home with her sister, Mrs Claus Jor genatn .... Mrs. Philip Fornoff departed for Brooklyn. New York to reside . . . Joe Thomson and si--ter. Miss Anna departed for Oklahoma to make their home. "Joe" was toll keeper at the Platte bridge for the past ten years .... MERRY- GO- ROUND Br DREW PEAKSOP Copywright, 1948, By The Bell Syndicate, Inc.) DREW PEARSON SAYS: MURDER OF AMERICAN COMMENTATOR IN GREECE LINKED TO RiGHTWING GREEK j GOVERNMENT FRACTIONS; GEORGE POLK WAS SEVERE CRITIC OF GREEK RIGHT ISTS; POLK WROTE THAT GREEKS WERE TRYING TO REMOVE HIM. WASHINGTON George Polk, the American news commentator, whose Bullet-pierced, bound up body was' found in Salonika bay, wrote me a letter before his death about his troubles with the Greek Government. Based on this letter and otherwise, evidence points to the probability that rightist forces within the Government were re sponsible for Polk's murder. In the first place, only the Greek Government had aechs to his broadcasts. Only they knew how critical he had been of Greek Rightist attempts to sabotage the American reconstruction program. The Greek Guerrillas, on the other hand, had everything to gain from the interview with Polk which he sought. In iddition, all sorts of obstacles had been plac ed in Polk's path. The Greek Government did not want him in Greece and did everything possible to get him out. Here is' a sample of Greek ob struction: "During the past four days, I've been trying to make arrangements for flying to Salonika." Polk wrote. "I've been to the foreign ministry press section, to the Greek Air Force headquarters, to the Greek commercial air line, and to the Govern ment air travel priority department. Today, after four days of leg work and innumerable telephone calls, I have not succeeded in making any ar rangements. "Everything is' tied up in red tape. The airlines will not say whetehr they have a seat or not. First, I've got to produce a priority, but I can't get the priority until I give the seat number and fight number and date of the plane I will take. So, back and forth I've been like a tennis ball. The plan is to make me fret myself into a tizzy or perhaps give up the trip. Yet if I made an is sue of all this red tape, everybody would blandly say that Polk is simply 'impatient.' " POLK WAS A BATTLER George Polk was a fighter, whether as news paperman or in the service of his country. During the war as a navy pilot he was in the thick of the battle of Guadalcanal, broke his back in a crash landing, came home to fight for unification of the Army and Navy. One of the thing-s that griped him was his memory of an Army pilot sinking in the water with the Navy refusing to rescue him until it cleared with the Army. In Greece, George fought the grafters and the Rightwmg extermists. An article in Harper's" magazine told a revealing story. In writing to me, he told how reactionaries in the Government sought to discredit American newsmen who were critical. Apparently he had some premonition of trouble, for he said: "The rightwing is trying to get a number of us discredited or removed from Greece." "Royalist 'Ethmos" has denounced 'irrespon- -I ' IM , e V f? 7 if if I J WASHINGTON COLUMN Private Power Lobby Tries To Thwart TVA Expansion BY FETER EDSON KEA Washington Correspondent TT'ASHINGTON (NEA) The private industry electric power " lobbv thinks it has won a big victory. It has succeeded in per suading the House Appropriations Committee to knock cut an item c $4,000,000 to start construction on a Tennessee Valley Autr.errty steam generating plant at New- Johnsonville. Tcr.n. If both House and Senate uphold this action, further devel err" er.t of the TVA project admittedly one of the greatest rf New Dei accomplishments will have been dealt an irreparable blow. The issue is not as local as it may sound. If TVA is stopped m its tracks, every other public power project in the country will be set tack. The all-important question is. therefore, what the private power industry has to ofier as a substitute" Are there any private utility companies with plans all drawn, re-dy and wciting to go a and do what they don't want TVA to do? Purcell L. Smith. Washington representative of the Naticnr.T As-rci-Etion of Electric Companies, admits there are rot. They have plans. But they also want TVA to have no plans. He says that, "if any private industries in the Tennessee vaV.ey r-i more power, or if any towns or cities in the crca reed any more power, they should either go build those power plants themselves or else make "a contract with some private utility company to build arrd operate them. In short, private industry in this case has no reuciy substitute for public power. THERE are good reasons why private utilities are rot ready to jump in and do this job. Ar.y private power company that would go into the valley and try to sell electric current at TVA rtes Wuu-i find itself in trouble. It just couldn't compete. What the issue boils down to is that private utilities don't want to go into an area and build electric generating capacity t..o far ah ad of actual demand. The private power industry must wait until it l.us an assured market before it builds new generating plants. The TVA power development has be-en built vn just the crPos'.te theory. It has built new ciams and power plants well ahead of im mediate demand, anticipating future growth. The Oak Ridge atomic energy plant. Monsanto chemical.-. Reynold- metals and other big industry and var plants were l 'cattd in tr.ii region because cheap TVA power was available. Aluminum Com pany of America, which was m the area even before TVA. was able to expand its plants because excess power was waiting. Mary smaLer industries and farm co-ops have tic. eloped for the same rtascn. 'T'HESE industries are now anticipating that they power, says TVA chairman Gordon CL.pp. It new demands that TVA wants to build the New Onp of the arguments used by the power lobby to w ..I is to defca Stamp Honors Swedish Pioneers SWEDISH PIONEER CENTENNIAL - " ;c is -it-: - -Bl 'if v- -'jMpcf ew A new 5-cent commemorative postage stamp will go on sale June A f honoring the 100th anniversary of the coming of the Swedish pioneers to the middle west. Blue in color, the stamp has 12 stars, representing the midwestern state? settled by the Swedes. It will La placed on sale first in Chicago. sible correspondents' who write "unfavorable and misleading' stories about the Greek Govern ment," George continued. "The attackk upon correspon dents is being made by the Roya list political group known as the Populist party. Under leadership of deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Constantino Tsaldaris. keev Populist mem bers throughout the government appear to be implementing a carefully devised offensive. Greek Ambassador Criticizes "As an illustration of the method of attack, consider a let ter concerning me written by Greek Ambassador Vassili Den dramis. an ultra-rightist support er of the Ts'aldaris clique Strangely enough, Dendranus wrote to CBS president Frank Stanton complaining about my article on Greece in the Decem ber 'Harper's Magazine.' Dcn dramis is smart enough not to write to "Harper's because he knows the magazine probably would publish the letter, thereby enabling me to answer his charges in print. "However, my case up to the present is rather mild compared with the attack being made ag-ainst other out-spoken reports on the scene. The ministry of foreign affairs has just written to the 'Christian Science Moni tor' complaining that their cor respondent in Greece. Cemstan tine Argyris. is guilty of using offensive language in dealing with Greek Government officials and also is guilty of drunkenness at interviews. Knowing Argyris as well as I do and having the highest respect for his profession al and personal attributes I know this charge is a lie. '"Another correspondent who has drawn Gree rightwing fire ; is Ray Dan?el of the 'New York Times." He arrived in Greece un accompanied by his wife and when his articles proved dis- : pleasing for the rightwing poli-; ticianr.- they spread malicious s'lander about Daniel. "Yet another reporter who had provoked the Greek rightwing is J Homer Bigart, of the New Yorkj neraia lriDune. At the moment, being a newcomer in Greece, Bi gart is getting the 'treatment" that others of us already have had. In particular he is being de nounced by name as a commun ist: he is b' ing ridiculed for "looking at things upside down'; he is being refused interviews by persons' he needs to see for news purposes such as Foreign Min ister Tsaldaris. The 'New York I Herald Tribune' has been de inounced by Royalist 'Embros' for 'bad faith in publishing un truths'." "Someone will get Hurt,, "John O'Donovan. of the Lon don 'Observer,' is sharing Bigart's 'treatment.' Two other reporters. Stephen Barber of the London 'News Chronicle' and his wife'. Mary Barber, of 'Time' Magazine, recently encountered a little more effective rightwing retalia tion. At Ioannina they were pre vented for some time from pro ceeding to Konitsa because ef and this chargv was made to the-m in person being 'commun ists'.' "Another correspondent who has encountered news gathering troubles is Fred Sparks, of the ' 'Chicago Daily News.' In fact. 1 Sparks has written a bitter story ; about his experiences at being ' denie-d routine press' privileges ; while trvma to cover the Konitsa j battle. "The pattern of the rightwing's attack on the other American j corrt nponcients here is clever j public denunciation plus of- j ficial obfuscation There is no- j t!ung so tangible as rnsorship or j blunt refusal to allow a reporter to vis'it the civil war areas, in- ' stead, there is a clever plan of ! , making- news work in Greece as difficult as possible for critical correspondents. "In addition, now that so many correspondents are writing such critical stories on the dominant rightwing faction of the govern ment, there are a number of vague hints that somebody is , f shinned from Coast a Lira. likely to get hurt.' " j Centra! America, arrive d there Poor George didn't know, when ! t() hs, transferred to rail trans he wrote these prophetic lines. uortation for Omaha, the final ! destination. r.ced more meet these ..:ie ph.r.t the steuru t- e?e ..e -ruii-ies and farmers' co-ops, which use 40 rcr cent ni power. The power lobby does not claim that TVA h. s crouch ear' :.y t- meet the future demands of all its cirtomcrs, including the b:- in dustries like Alcoa. Reynolds and satisfied with TVA power because it's ehc. plant project is that TVA already has ample generating cepaeiT? take care of its "preference" customers for years to come. Ti- i preference customers are the government war plants, ri to, which .e p-: cr than pov. c. CO'. . V generate themselves or buy from private utiaties. What the private power lobby wants is to reduce TVA rower op erations to a mere by-product of navigation and Moo i-r ! de velopments, or else require that all public power be s Id wholesale "at the bus bar"' to private utilities, io they could then sell it ta reUii customers at a profit. This would admittedly be a nice business lor the private rower companies, if they could get away with it. - Coffee Comes To State by Water Route The port of Nebraska C the scene of much activ past week when a cargo xicuntt t :ty ieond o; Vt It i- aci Orlt ifls. was the N o? . : s r.a that he was to be the man who would get "hurt."' His murder, however, may be the cause cele bre which will bring to the sur face the ugly scandals of Greece scandals which the American people very much need to know about. Tf, that end. this column will soon publish further reve lations regarding- dynamite-Laden Greece. A new elevator control system developed by Westinghouse gives button-pushers on all floors' of a j building an even break. Called j wa;. unloaded from Inland selectomatic, the control provides : (.rway barges in to three ra unitorm service xo an noois e en . Cars j-or tnc during rush hours. j f(,r deliverv There was more than 100 tons ef the coffee in the shipment, it being packed in 150-pound bags This coffee unloaded for Ne braska City made the entire journey from Costa Rica by the water route. It was hau'.t d to New Orleans by steamer and then loaded on the barges for the journey up the Mississippi river tc, St. Louis and thence up the Missouri river to the Una! destination. The coffee at Nebraska City Wat- hoad journey to Omaha at the Paxton and for Examination For Postmaster The civil s rvie-e c r is announcing the h--. examinations f : tie" p- postmastt r at N- i v. ceipt of a;.; -hi ;.:.: on Jura- 3. ;4S. The ( xarr.-a-i .rs - :" at the Am-ncan L-:-i. Weeping Water. The P' Sitien of postrr.a. the saiarv of 2 5"t. The dat- for the , the competitors will the admission ca: d. cants after tin date of rece :pt rf a.; phc 1 Gallagher wholesale house street ! roasting. The final step of r.e Missouri Tnsta!lation of modern lirhtinr. reduces fatal traffic ac- : .journey was over uue :u.s0 after dark by more than Pacific railroad. 50 per cent, according to the j The reason for the unloading Streen and Traffic Safety Light- ; at Nebraska City was due to the ing Bureau. - fact that Omaha so tar has no Lavs 4-Yoik PELHAM. N. H. owo.r) by Brun . J. Pe'ham marie ;, C; for itself by h- in tour yo'.Ks. The ecu ounces ltnu was II ; cumferenc- Use Journal Want Ads ' FUNNY BUSINESS By Hershberger OUT OUR WAY By A. R. Williams i 1 SAID TH' SHERIFF OF BLCODy J 1 . K - A w s - ' ' .. . ! ! BASiM . AEl ZOMY AMD I'M CHECK IM - 1 . " rT. ( U?OW A COUPLE OF EV1KATOU6H J VV : C ' - It ' fl " ' JP ! V LOOkiM' COWPOS ThiOT JUST X ) - g . g;".' S'ACCnEKED IM--OME HAD YOUR o " "x.- , - '"''-. ... j :; APrRESS OMHIM (H-HV ) - - , - -w : C J . - . " Ts "' THiS f ED, PAVE. TOWN I C r - ei . ' I AKPS--ONE OF THESE ) v' 7 r ' -4 V-1vl FELLERS LOOKS V ' c V kjj ' A ' home tin zTTr-- He said it was monotonous, so we traded places!