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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1948)
TIME (PUOTSIMMlUTQu JJdDTONM. UNITED PRESS SERVICE NEA TELEPHOTO CASS COUXTVS NEWSpaper SECTION 2 . I The Plattsmouth Journal ESTABLISHED 1821 PuMished soml-Wffklv, Mondavs and Thurs days, at 4 09-4 13 Main Strft. I'lattsmouth. cvtss Countv. Nebraska. 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 Frtfr1 at t'np Postofflce at Plattsmouth. Nebraska a second class mail matter in uc rnrSoTice with the Act of Congress of March S. 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATE: $3.50 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 REALLY SHARING THE WEALTH! Every radical attack on the American economic system is based on the old gag that, under capi talism, "the rich get richer and the poor get chil dren." And every advocate of communism or any other totalitarian system argues that is offers the only -oad to a division of wealth and a higher standard of living for the masses of people. One of the best answers to that a!l-important question was recently gi-en by the Reverend Ed ward A. Keller, CSC, is is director of the Bureau of Economic Research of the University of Notre Dame. Father Keller's study is called. 'The National Income and its Distribution," and is written in language any layman can understand. Here are some facts he has correlated: First of all. the rich are not getting richer. In 1917. Americans with a personal annual income of S25.000 or more got 7 per cent of the nation's entire income after taxes. By 1928 they were petting 11 percent. But in the latest year for which complete figures are available. 1944, they got only 1 rer cent. Their dollar income was almost SD. 000,000. 000 in 1928. while it was less than S2. 000.000.000 in 1944. If that is' true, where is the money going to? Father Keller answers that also. Americans mak under $5,000 a year, the voun to which most fam ilies belong, have immensely improved their po sition. They received 87 per cent of our total per sonal income in 1917, 77 per cent in 1929 and 90 per cent in 1044. The dollar figures are still more impressive. The undor.$5,000 Americans received a total income of S47.000.0O0.6OO in 1917, and $140. 000.000 000 in 1944 a gain of nearly a hundred billions in one generation! Another catch-phrase is that the owners of in dustry the stockholders get an inordinate share of earnings, while workers don't get enough. Here to th? figures tell a remarkable story. In the 17 years from 1929 to 1946. national income rose 93 per cent. Eut corporate dividends went down 14 per cent! As Father Keller puts it. "Taking our ecenomy as a whole . . . the main item of cost of production of all goods and services is labor cost (90 per cent), while cost for the use of tools is a relatively minor cost (6 per cent)." Capitalism gives more peoole maximum econo mic progress with the largest possible degree of personal liberty for all. Americans can well be proud cf their capitalistic system. Most of the "ism" seek to 1-ve off of it while working to destroy it then what would they have to divide? Nothing but their own poverty until new capital cou'd be saved. PLANNED CONFUSION It is apparent that the restoration of price con trol will be a major political issue this year, and that it will cut across party lines. To the uninitiated, the idea is obviously ap pe::linir. It suggests the economic Utopia of a low cost of living coupled with the highest famliy in comes we have ever earned. It is difficult to puncture so pretty a balloon as this. Yet it is necessary to report that no econo mist if reputation thinks that price control would work, or that it would create anything except chaos. It has been an utter failure in Europe even when the toughest police state methods have Ven used in an attempt to make it a success. Manufactures and farmers refuse to produce foods and commodities on which an arbitrary low price deprives them of profit. Scarce items including many basic necessities can be purchased only :n the black market at fantastic prices. The big money is earned by racketeers and gangsters' The shelves of leg-itimate stores are bare, and the liv ing standards or workers decline. High prices in this country are the result of ir resistible economic and governmental forces. They aren't the fault of retailers, manufacturers, or any other of the special groups which are singled out for criticism. That will still be true whether they go up or down in the future. Price control hore would mean our acceptance of a totalitarian" device which has never succeeded, and has been a depressive influence wherever tried. DOWN MEMORY LANE TEN YEARS AGO Mr. nd Mrs. Wayne Twitchell of Seattle, Wash., were guests of Miss Amelia Martens . . . Nearly 100 relatives met in the twenty-fifth annual fam ily gathering of the Cook family held at the home of Mrs. Caroline Cole on June 19 . - Members of the congregation of Eight Mile Grove Lutheran church surprised their pastor Rev. and Mrs. A. Lentz on their 15th wedding anniversary . . . Mr. and Mrs. Fred Kingsley of Los Angeles were quests of the E. H. and C. C Weseott homes; Mrs Kingsley was the former Para Love. Furse's Fresh Flashes There is still a demand for scrap iron but that's no reason for motorists to try and cash in on it. The sponger is a fl'ow with a proposition that won't hold water. The later you turn in the less you turn out. A Connecticut man was hit by three autos in succession. He should have signaled for a free catch. Aren't husbands who rebel at the price of wo men's hats failing to consider their entertain ment value The only nice thine- about a flood is that it makes you feel glad that you contribute-d to the Red Cross. In the old days Indians prized corn for its color rather then its taste. In this day and age the white man goes by its kick. . The parole system is what lets a criminal pay his debt to society on the installment plan. An eastern judge reports that most people can be trusteed but we still prefer that a lot of them pay cash. When we were younger about the worst thing you could call a political opponent was a "liar" and then you had to be pretty careful he wasn't a better shot than you were. With the present campaign still having six months to go, candidates have already been called a "Hitler," a "Com munist Stooge," a "Hindenburg," and a "crack pot." At the present rate, by the first of August you'll have to forbid your children from listen ing to the political radio speeches. TWENTY ONE YEARS AGO Mis" Verla Becker was hostess to a number of school friends and members of Phi Beta Phi sorori'y at her home . . . Weeping Water and Union were visited by burglars entering the Chris Elgard hardware store at Weeping Water and Rhin ?nd Green grocery and store of Mrs. Mable Reynolds at Union . . . Ladies Aid Society of Lewiston gave a birthday dinner at the country home of Mr. and Mrs. John Toman honoring Mrs. John Toman and Allen Vernon . . . Miss Grace Linder held rectal of her piano and violin pupils at Murrav. Why Do They Call It "City of Brotherly Love?" TH PLATTSMOUTH, NEBRASKA, JOURNAL Thursday, June 24. 1948 PAGE ONE - ----- 0mM Mh i A MEBKY-GO-RCUUB Br DKXW PEAXSON (Copyright, 1948, by The Bell Syndicate, Inc.) DREW PEARSON SAYS: GOP NATIOAL CHAIRMAN CARROLL REECE REBUFFED; WARTIME PROMISE BROKEN: MAJORITY OF REPUBLICANS REALIZE U. S. A. CANNOT LIVE ALONE; DEWEY AIDES BUCK PRECEDENT. PHILADELPHIA The sweet smell of victory is in the republican nostrils. Delegates are flush ed with the air of impending- triumph. The White House and 1.000.000 or so jobs seem just around the corner. They can almost stretch out their hands and touch the treasury department. And they can hardly wait. The tension is something terrific. The city of brotherly love is seething with excitement. It's the liveliest convention the republicans have staged in three decades. And if it were up to the 5 050 delegates, alter nates and others assembled here, they'd vote right now to dispense with all the keynote speeches, yard and yards of old-fashioned oratory, and pet right down to the job of nominating the candidate. They are on pins and needles waiting for the first balloting to get started tonight. SALTY CARROLL REECE Meanwhile the backstage fireworks' have been poppine. Saltv GOP National Chairman Carroll Reece is a chivalrous southerner, but he lost his temper with a lady during the battle over Geor gia. The Taft-Dewey forces were arguing hot and heavy over which of the Georgia delegations would be seated. Reece. supposed to be neutral chairman, but openly a Taft man, vociferated that the Taft delegates were qualified. Col. R. B. Creager of Texas backed him up. Mrs. Dudley C. Hay, Michigan's" gracious na tional commiteewoman and secretary of the GOP national committee, didn't agree. She made a speech favoring Dewey. Whereupon Reece hit the ceiling, charged the Dewey forces were trying to browbeat the nation al committee, claimed Dewey people had threat ened him in his office. If he hadn't known how to control his temper, proclaimed Reece, who comes from the Tennessee mountains, he would have pulled a gun on the Deweyite. When the vote, 48 to 44. showed Dewey the victor, Peece proceeded to bawl out Mrs. Hay, said he was foine to try to defeat Mrs. Hay for re-lection as national committeewoman from Michigan. t "Don't worry Mr. Reece." sweetly retorted Mrs. Hay, "when this convention is over you won't be national chairman." Four years ago this convention met in an at mosphere of unreality. The greatest invasion arm in all history had crossed the English Chan nel 21 days before, stormed up the coast of France. Across another ocean, the U S. Navy was edging closer to j Japan. Even the CFhicago hotels ! in which the republicans met were hounted by the ghosts of j air force trainees who had lived : there a few months before. j There were those who had said j Franklin Roosevelt would never i hold an election in wartime, that j the U. S. A. would simulate tne dictatorships it was trying to de feat. But despite the sombre at mosphere, the conventions and the elections' were held. Today three short years after the war's end the old-time poli tical vaudeville is back. The war is pretty much forgotten. The promises of new homes for vet erans made so glibly when the boys were overseas, have been sidetracked by one triumphant wing of the republican party. Post-war profits are zooming,-, also prices and inflation. Income, especially for white-collar vork ers and lower-bracket groups, is proportionately down. A lot of wartime promises have been frogotten. One GOP Lesson But not forgotten is one all important lesson learned bv the Rural School Costs in State Has Increased Cost of operating: rural schools! scik.ui uuuus. a . in Nebiaska has increased 98 per j th" elementary grades, have in- creasea nom soo.jj-j w ciou.uo ; cent during the past ten years while the expenditures of city schools have risen only 56 per cemt. State Superintendent Wayne O. Reed said today. During the same ten vears, en-1 rollment of the rural schools has ; dropped 46 per cent while that of city schools has declined but j 26 per cent. , The period used for the study. Reed said, was the 1936-37 school WASHINGTON COLUMN Without Criticism, Congress' Record Would Be Far Worse BY TETER ED SON NEA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NEA) The spectacle of Sen. Robert A. Tilt of ' Ohio co-author of the Taft-Hartley Labor Relations Law telling Congress in effect that it ought to go home on strike in protest sgiirit President Truman's criticisms, is really one for the took. Taft accuses Truman of wanting to suppress the democratic process cf American government. But wait a minute. Isn't the right to criti cize in free speech the very basis of democracy? It's as much Tft'i right as it is Truman's, and vice versa. It is regrettable that there is no evidence cf teamwork in the mud slinging match now going on between President and Congress. Eut when the scores are added up at the end of the session, it will be interesting to note how much good this brawl may have accomplished. The President isn't the only one who has been pasting Congress. j The nation's press and radio newsmen have been laying it on pretty ! thick, just by giving a factual record of what's been oir. oa du.va here in' Washington. And they're getting results. TF the President had remained silent and if the newspapers and radio had been asleep at the switch, the wreckage of this Congress would be far worse than it's going to be. By continually hammering at Congress in the best traditions of free-speech democracy, a lot cX changes are being made in these final weeks of the session. For instance: A thoughtless resolution to sabotage the present United Nations organization and set up a weak rival might have been ap proved by Congress if it had not been criticized by t!ie State Depart-' ment and an aiert press, and if more rational substitute measures had not been brought forward by Senate and House Foreign Affairs Com mittees under Chairman Arthur Vandenberg and Charles Eaton. The Reciprocal Trade Agreements program might have been com-' pletely crippled by the Ho;:se if the President, the State Department,' the press and radio had not aroused the Senate to corrective action.' The same forces have been hard at work to modify House slashes in Marshall Plan recovery funds. Even GOP Presidential Candidate Dewey, Stassen and Warren joined this criticism of Congress. Aid to Fascist Franco Spain might have been included in the Euro pean aid program by the House if an aroused public opicicn had not protested and it the Senate had not corrected the error. There would have been no aid for displaced persons and other anti Communist refugees if Congress had not been criticized ir,to legislating I after sitting on this issue all last year. Ihere wcuid have oeen no selective service legislation this year if there had not been repea'ed pleas from the President for ur-iversal' military training, backed by demands from the press. been made er.tia! veto. The long fight to repeal federal t.ixes on oleomargarine would never have got any place if there had not been constant prodding of Congress. Senator Taft's own long-range housing bill would have been buried and forgotten by the House this year if public pressure and criticism had not been put on Congress from every direction to do something. Many another measure well descrvinc concessional attention this citv schools, which includes high j vear will be pigeonholed unless Presidential and other needlin? forces Congress to come brick after the GOP convention. Whatever gets crowded through before the convention will be an offset to the een eial criticism that this has been '"the worst" Congress. And it will be a dividend well paid off on Truman's western speaking tour. Take away the right to criticize Congress or the President, and the country will be sunk, good. If Senator Taft should by chance ever become President, he'd probably find out the other half cf tit iwt .in a hurry. i year as compared with the 1946 1 47 school year, the latest avail I able. i During thi' period the per pu I pil cost of rural schools based on average aaiiv attendance in creased from S62.69. to S182.33 The 4 HIGHLY discriminatory and unfair tox cut might have law last year if it had not been checked by a Preside gone and for all schools it has from $67.28 to S162.47. j In the 1936 school year the rural districts spent a total of' S4.536.551, but in 1946 spent J $8,977,011. The city schools m 1936 spent $15,988,316 against S25.006.105 in 1946. In the last decade the number 60 of rural schools has shrunk from l Reed pointed out that the un 5.922 to 4.551. a drop of 1.371, favorable cost ratio between city whereas the number of city anoV and rural sehooSs is even greater village Schools has declined only because expenditures of high schools are included in the opera tion costs of c:tv scheols. the noint which the American ! people will be watching most, not only now but on election day. They do not want war again. Dewey-Go Round "Destiny," said Dewey's friend Paul Lockwood. in 1944. ''waits on no man. Bv 1948 an Eisenhower will come out of the air. This is Dewey's year." 1944 was' Dewey's year for the GOP nomination, but net for the election. Never that tho tt Q a r;nt livp ! has the republican party alone. In 1940 on the eve of the re publican convention, Arthur Vandenberg denounced president Roosevelt's action of putting American military supplies at the disposal of England and France. Next day Thomas E. Dewey criticized FDR'S "stab in the back" speech against Mus solini after he invaded stricken France. Today at Philadelphia, is Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, jr., chairman of the GOP platform committee. He is the grandson of the Mas sachusetts Senator who defeated Woodrow Wilson and the league of nations. Young Senator Lodge, however, no more thinks' like his renominated a previously de- I feated candidate. However, his cohorts are determined to break this precedent, and the next 48 I hours will tell the story Here j are the men whose patient years l of building ud Tom Dewey will I crash or succeed this week: I Closet man to Dewey is his t secretary, able, amiable, bluff. I hard-working Paul Lockwood. I An ex-New York newspaperman. ' Lockwood guided Dewey through the early maze of political pit falls which threatened the young racket-buster. He ids what Louey Howe was to Franklin Roosevelt, and if his young protege makes it this week, to Paul Lockwood will go a large share of the credit. Political mentor to the youn grandfather han his grandfather Buffalo's heavy thought of flying the Atlant c. dwln F Appearing befo e young Lodge s , chairman of the New platform committee the other day i committee. Born J UI ill was a Cleveland law-ver, Putman, with what the Lodge would have called elder re- rman immigrants, Jaeckle waxed wealthy on the job of col- a '-- !: i . v.... v 1. K voluntionary proposal. U ith him chrPwries't I though not most diplomatic up '; state GOP leader. He would like to forget, however, that he once editor of the was Nat Howard Cleveland news. Neither are crackpots . Both reoresent strong, conservative interests. They Droposed that the republican party go on record in favor of planting the seeds of world government. Specifically, they prooosed a formula world law and world law forcemcnt. Their idea, put forward by a group of Cleveland businessmen, educators and others calling themselves "workers for world drew up the incorporation papers of the German-American bund, and he has tried to atone for it by helping to found the national conference of Christians and t . 101 IJews en- 'VI t-ilfelrlSK Shswn Hr Sttlmn Pol Struct Comtmers' new 115.000 vol? trcr.smtssio I .-hi in nor?'tes3 N-brcka, tynic.il cf cen-strcH--i uneer wcy BlfMjllwt CvaMinws' st?wid system. . - - -- . Herbert Brownell, who came out of Nebraska to practice law in New York, was Dewey's cam- : U ; p,,nnnccfnl Udigii manager m julmiui race for governor in 1942, con tinues at tne steering wneei now. , security," would make old Henry Long a member of the New York Cabot turn over in his austere Legislature, h? helped put 6rave- through the racket-buster's cri- However, 300.000 people have ' minal-reform bills, signed their petition endorsing j RUS5;ei Sprague, as smooth the broad principles cf world as the oysters in his father used government, and young senator to hoist frcm Long Isiand sound. Lodge, listening gravely to the i&- Dewey's chief backstage ope- ; plan, didn't seem to consider it rator. Born and bred in New ! revolutionary. j york politics. Sprague has been I That is the big-gest change that GOP boss of Nassau county. Long j has occurred among the top lead- Island, for year but has little ex- , ers of the republican party. It is perience in the big political world ' still a point of big controversy ; outside. Except for George Me with the Jchn Taber-Chicago Tri- j dalie, he is the oldest of the young t bune wing of the party. And it is men around Dewey. His age, 61. Synilrolic of NeLrasVa's progress since the organization of Consumers Pultlie Power District are the massive transmission lines and other electrical facilities now under construction ; throughout the state. Low electric rates and greater electrical advantages, made possihle by state-wide public jtower, have encouraged greater in dustrial expansion and increased use of electricity in homes and ' on farms until the once existing power surplus has been absorbed.-1 With an extensive construction program of over fifteen million dollars, Consumers Public Power District is rapidly build ing new facilities to bring more power to the communities it serves and greater benefits to NebraskAus, . I