St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 12

ST. LOUIS TOST'DISPATCH, MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1944 PAGE 2B ST. LOUIS P0SFDI5PATCH Founded by JOSEPH PULITZER Dtitmbtt 12, 1871 Publuktd by Tht Pulitzer Publishing C. phone Ad Art it MAin 1111 1111 Olive St. (I) THE FOST-DISPATCH PLATFORM I know that my retirement will make no difference in iti cardinal principle; that it will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, alwaya fight demagogues of all parti, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain da-voted to the public welfare; never be satisfied with merely printing news; always be drastically independent; never' be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.

JOSEril PULITZER. April 10, 1907. The President has emphasized that the making of the peace must be a non-partisan undertaking, and has proceeded carefully to avoid any charge of political motives. "We fought to make the world safe for the Democrats" was one of the bitterly humorous quips, paraphrasing Wilson's slogan, that' gained currency after the last war. May there never, after this war, be occasion for such a gibe.

tee Oil Subsidy, Not Oil Inflation The price control extension bill, having been subjected to the Bankhead cotton amendment and other lethal changes in the Senate, Is now being given over to similar indignities in the House, starting with an amendment by Disney of Oklahoma to increase the price of crude oil by 25 cents a barrel. The battle over the price of crude oil has been fought out purely on the issue of whether the price line is to be held. On both sides of the question, it is agreed, that an additional 35 cents a barrel for crude oil should be made available to producers as a means of keeping low-output wells in operation and returning abandoned wells to production. Secretary of the Interior Ickes has led the fight to accomplish this purpose by an outright increase in the price of crude oil. Stabilization Director Vinson has opposed this inflationary method.

OPA has drawn up a subsidy proposal which would achieve the same desirable ends, but avoid the undesirable concomitant of an outright price rise. Its plan calls for a $50,000,000 annual subsidy, which would amount to a premium of 35 cents a barrel on crude oil the same amount as is now proposed in the House. Obviously, the oil price problem is exactly the sort of quandary for which the subsidy method is intended and for which it Is the most perfectly adapted. The alternative, as Representative Mon-roney of Oklahoma says, would be a precedent to price increases in steel, electricity and other items. Short of that, it would be another direct act of inflation, for the consumers would have to pay the increase in the price of gasoline and other petroleum products.

LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE We Can Save Lives. What are "free They are temporary refugee camps affording asylum for those who have fled the racist Nazi wrath or have been forced to hunger and homelessness by Nazi occupation. One of the biggest, yet least discussed, issues in the country today is whether or not the President will approve creation of free ports in time to save many anti-Fascists of Europe who are our friends. Mr. Roosevelt was not too specific on the Issue in hia cablegram to Robert Murphy outlining a plan for giving emepgency shelter at Fort Ontario, N.

to refugees from Yugoslavia and Italy. Although he spoke of "real possibilities of saving human lives," he made no mention of what we Intend to do about the death-sentenced Jews in Bulgaria, Hungary and Germany itself, and other doomed beings in Axis Europe. These are some of the objections, voiced with an "unbelievably inhuman iciness by those few Americans who have no feeling at all for the Indescribable suffering of others at the hands of our enemies: Refugees brought in under the auspices of the War Refugee Board, outside the immigration laws, might stay on. Not enough of them can escape to make free ports worth the trouble of setting them up. Free ports should be established closer to Eu-Tope, saving us the trouble of furnishing two-way passage.

The President shouldn't sponsor such a project 60 close to election time. We are doing enough for Europe by fighting there. These are arguments distorted by the blindest ignorance and prejudice, and these are the answers to them: The asylum of a kind of warehouse for humanity is little enough to offer those who face death as the alternative. There is nothlngiln the free port idea that contemplates making the United States their permanent home. The proposal need not disturb our immigration laws.

Those ing the plan consider provision for the return of refugees a part of it. The underground railway through which Negroes escaped from the South during our Civil War has its counterpart in Europe. Many persons would be able to escape if they had some place to escape to. Also, from time to time the Nazis have offered passage out of the country to Jewish children if other countries would make the necessary arrangements through the Red Cross and similar organizations. There should be free ports in Turkey, There well may be if the United States indicates, by its own humanitarian action, that the principle is indorsed here.

However, there are few other countries that can handle the temporary housing and feeding problem as we can. There is plenty of passage room in returning supply ships to carry thousands of refugees. Since when does an election year decide whether or not a man shall act as a humanitarian? We are not doing enough by simply fighting in Europe so long as it is within our power to save something from the wreckage of human lives. Not since the days of Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes has war been waged, at home and away from home, as the Nazis wage it, setting out to debilitate whole nations and exterminate whole races with a lust for destruction and murder. If we are truly, by contrast, civilized, believing in the sanctity of human life, we have no choice except to shelter the victims of that lust.

We house, feed and even pay Nazi prisoners. Can we do less for Nazi enemies? ir 5gr tMm For a Heallliy Nation To the Editor of the Fot-ttpatrh: This year thousands in the United States will die of tuberculosis and many will become permanent invalids "and charges upon the communities in which they live. Much of this great waste of human life could be prevented if these people could receive hospitalization in the early etages of the disease. After this war we will have the military camps, the necessary equipment and supplies as well as the trained personnel with which to isolate and treat the victims of tuberculosis as veil as all others suffering from highly contagious and infectious diseases. If we could prevent the razing and destruction of our abandoned military camps after this war and use them for the purposes outlined here, we could save upward of 50,000 human lives annually at a minimum cost to the taxpayer.

We have been spending $50,000,000 a year to eradicate the cattle tick and more millions for the control of hog cholera, while leaving the victims of our infectious and contagious diseases largely to the mercy of charity. It looks as if the life of a cow or a hog is of greater value than that of a human being. It is the opinion of this writer that if we can dip the cattle from Florida to the Rio Grande of Texas and examine the hog pens of the country, we can give the population a physical examination at least twice each year and provide isolation and treatment for those found to be the victims of a dangerous disease. We should make this a healthy nation, ene worthy of the great sacrifices our young men and women are for us abroad. PETER J.

CUNNINGHAM. West Palm Beach, Fla. Scene: A Balcony The American private who spoke his piece from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia had better take care. About speaking from a balcony there is something habit-forming that does not pertain to speaking from other footholds: from pedestal or stage, platform or pulpit or dais. A far lesser man than the American soldier might well have learned as much before indeed, instead of hurling his Mussolinian rhetoric -into the Roman air.

To speak ex cathedra from the chair is bad enough. It may unhappily prove to be the first false step on the primrose path to pontification. But to speak ex maeniano from the balcony is immeasurably worse, particularly when the balcony is the Venice Palace's. When the architects of the good world get down to business, as they must do one of these days soon, it should be among their first concerns to do something about balconies: to design them exclusively for love scenes, blue in moonlight; to render them forever unfeasible for the delivery of state papers. FOR FIVE AND FOR VICTORY To Make the Missouri Serve Postivar Role for Gen.

Giraud Is Possible, a Briton Writes The Mirror of Public Opinion The regional approach to the valley's development is approved by Iowa newspaper, which would not toss, the problem completely into Federal Government's lap; TVA, the prototype, works, editorial says, and the states that are involved would not dream of seceding. From the Des Moines Register A German woman was arrested for saying she had run faster than Rommel ran in Africa. This was an unwarranted aspersion. No one could run faster than Rommel ran in Africa. A Question for Senator Clark To the Editor ot the Post-Dispatch: "Independent Voter" in a recent letter In this column would have us believe that Senator Clark has been working for years on our river problem.

Even if it were true that Clark has been looking for a solution of the flood problem since he romped in swaddling clothes, it would not in the least cause rome of us to believe that any scheme lie would evolve would redound to the benefit of the commonweal. His vote for the McKellar amendments to the TVA, which would have driven the entering wedge to wreck that highly efficient and utilitarian public agency by making it a political football, causes us to arrive at this conclusion. The press and some very eminent engineers have recommended the TVA plan as a pattern for the control and utilization of our flood waters. Surely, Mr. Clark cannot be expected to create that which he would destroy.

ANOTHER DEMOCRATIC VOTER. The Home Front Meets the Test The great test our armed forces are now meeting in the early stages of the invasion has brought quick response from the people at home. Strikes have practically stopped. There has been a marked decrease in absenteeism and tardiness at war plants, and production has gone up. There is good reason to think that the record in the St.

Louis area is typical. Some plants report that absence of workers has been reduced as much as 50 per cent and that tardiness is negligible. The morale of all those engaged in turning out the materials of war, here and elsewhere, is of a high order, based as it Is on the deepest feelings of patriotism and loyalty. The Battle of Liberation has only begun. The men who fight it are superbly equipped, thanks to the genius of American industry and the skill and devotion of American workers.

But the intensity of the battle uses up equipment in vast quantities. It is now the job of American workers to sustain the flow of replacements and of new supplies so that the battle may be won quickly and decisively. There should be no more faltering on the home front In this critical period. "Glrand and the African Her nr." bjr C. Ward Price.

(Macmlllan New York.) History, which is being made faster than books can be written and published, appears to have by-passed Gen. Henri Giraud. Whether he will again be found in mid-current of world news or of French politics, no one can now predict. His controversy with Gen. Charles de Gaulle is not the news that it was a few months ago, but the record of it demands preservation, and the author, a special correspondent and editorial writer of the London Daily Mail, has made an effort at fairness.

He suggests that as, after the Franco-Prussian War, "It was of advantage to France to have a Conservative statesman. Marshal MacMahon, at the head of the Government," Giraud may "exercise his Conservative and traditionalist influence'' on the national fortunes. Of more Interest at the moment, and worthy of a permanent place In the annili of military adventure, is the story of Gl-reaud's military career and his escapes from the Germans In two wars. Winston Churchill, also an escape artist on occasion, called Giraud "that gallant warrior whom no prison can hold." The late Porfirio Diaz of Mexico, and the first Napoleon at Elba, are others whom their captors found difficulty in confining. The preliminaries to the Allied landing in Africa, and the Darlan episode, are told at length in the book.

Relating the summary execution of Adm. Darlan's assassin, the author cites suspicions of certain Frenchmen, but expresses no personal opinion except to suggest the likelihood that Darlan's death may rank in French history with the mysteries of the Man In the Iron Mask and of the lost Dauphin. CARLOS F. HURD. In the case of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which naturally is looked to for lessons in this discussion, it is time for the early reaction of pure suspicion to be replaced by something else, in the light of experience.

The TVA "works." The states Involved In it would not dream of seceding from it. There Is even a prompt reaction within the states against schemes to "pollticallze" the management, es evidenced by the opposition to Senator McKellar's recent patronage scheme. Not a Duplicate of TVA How much of the TVA practice could or should be applied in another region is a quite legitimate question. It needs to be noted that nobody is proposing adoption of the complete TVA pattern. On the, electric power side of any new regional river development, the familiar contentions of the private power Industry about "unfair competition" would be entitled to full airing, though not necessarily full acceptance.

Innumerable other points of argument are bound to arise as the discussion goes on. Looking to the future, however, there is not the slightest doubt that the Missouri Itlver problem and others like It are coins to be tackled. Flood control, the prevention of erosion, in some cases irrigation, in some cases navigation and, inevitably, the generation of by-product power will be part of tomorrow's picture. The real question is not whether but how. We may as well start facing up to it, not in the spirit of finding reasons for not doing anything adequate but definitely in the spirit of finding ways for doing adequate things most wisely.

Through Cherbourg: 1917-18 In that other time, at the gray dawn, troopships stood off the vast harbor of Cherbourg. There were then no unfriendly guns ashore; instead, a joyous people who mixed tears with their smiles as they welcomed the Yanks, swinging and singing through the old city's narrow streets, out toward the famed British rest camp. The crossing of the Channel was rough, as now. Coming from Southampton through the dark, the Boldiers from America had slept but fitfully on the crowded decks. On the trek to camp, under heavy pack and on empty stomach, there were no enemy snipers, no hostile planes overhead, for then our French and British allies held that coast open for our entry.

In the picturesque countryside, perhaps near the points from which American heroes today are battling toward the city and its spacious docks, there was "rest" under British auspices; little circular-floored tents for 12, and marmalade for breakfast. If it is necessary today to approach Cherbourg from the land side and under the blistering fire of the Cermans, It is possible to hope that soon the flow will be reversed, that again the great transports will move slowly through the harbor's early morning mists to the unloading docks, and that brave, strong young men from St. Louis and Wichita will push inland toward Paris and Berlin. A few weeks ago, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch printed a remarkable editorial about the problem of -the Missouri River.

Because we regard it as a first-rate presentation of the fundamentals of the Missouri River problem, we reprint the whole of that editorial. It is well worth being thought over by everybody in Iowa, whether In the western or eastern half of the State. It is well worth being thought over pen-mindedly. The Register Is not prepared to plump for any detailed formula of dealing with the Missouri River problem or with the related and more or less similar problems of other streams of this area. But, particularly with the experience of the recent flood conditions in front of us, the Register does not for a moment hesitate to say that it is greatly impressed by the Post-Dispatch's approach.

Radical Action in Order In the first place, since every informed person knows that it is perfectly feasible to "do something about" recurring floods, it is neither humane nor economic nor rational to let such flood disasters as those of this spring go on and on endlessly. From the standpoint of this region, flood control on the MIsmouiI and other streams needs to be tackled radically. In tjie second place, we can see no adequate answer (refutation, that Is to ny) to the argument that, In the cae of, a river like the Missouri, the solution must be approached regionally and through integration'. Thirdly, the regional principle In dealing with problems that by their nature override state boundaries, yet which are quite capable of being handled at an intermediate level, without being tossed completely into the lap of the national government, is in our judgment a thoroughly sound principle that ought to be much more generally employed. Problem of Local Control Apart even from the enormous advantage of getting urgently necessary things done, it should have, when soberly considered, a practical appeal to all who are really troubled by the seeping away of local powers from political units that can't do anything about problems to the national unit at Washington, which obviously can.

In other words, the doing of interstate regional things by Interstate regional procedures Is a conservative concept as well as a practical one. And organization by regions is in fact no novelty at all, but in numerous ways and fields, from the Port of New York Authority to the districts of the Federal Reserve Bank System, is a fixed, approved part of our American structure. The Sever Bequest To the Editor of the Post-Dispatch: The decision of Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Graber, issuing an opinion in favor of the claims of St. Louis University to the income of Mr.

Sever's estate, is greatly to be deplored. For it is not carrying out the spirit of the law or adequately considering the letter. Citing the rule of cypres, the Judge claims, as every one of us knows, that the estate is not sufficient to establish and maintain a large technological school. But Mr. Sever knew that as well as we do.

His wish was to begin a foundation, to get started a technological school, which would then be maintained and supported by the community. The geophysical development proffered by St. Louis University is splendid and important, but it is contrary to both wish and will of Mr. Sever. He employed, and carefully, the words "technological and a minute study of the interior of the earth's forces is not more than one small angle of both physics and geology.

Washington University already has an engineering school whose graduates rank with the top names in the world. It, plus Mr. Sever's foundation, plus the support of hundreds of industries in the Middle West which have already expressed willingness to support an expanded technological school in this area, would carry out a well-known intention. EDNA WAHLERT McCOURT. Mmv.

Chiang, Chinas First Lady hlna'a riral Lady," by Halo (U. A New York.) The story of Mme. Chiang Kai-shek Is told by Helen Nlcolay from acceanibla sources of information and is a compilation of such information rather than an analytical study. It is presented In simple language for younger readers, but in its very simplicity it has also an appeal for older persons. The life of China's First Lady is depicted from her early days as the child of Christian parents, her school days in America, and' her brilliant college career at Welles-ley, then her return to China to become a leader in the political, intellectual and spiritual movements that preceded the war.

The story of her triumphal tour of America, her appearance before Congress and her return for a visit to Wellesley is effectively and appealingly told. Quack Cure for Black Markets The American Automobile Association tnakes a specious argument when it asks for larger allotments of gasoline as a means of squeezing out the gasoline black market. People who either sell or buy in the gasoline black market are people who put their fancied needs above the real needs of their country. If the Automobile Association thinks a few gallons of gasoline one way or the other are going to make any difference to thoso who are unmoved by patriotic duty, it is naive Indeed. For traffickers in black-market gasoline, for traffickers in their country's fate, the proper treatment is punishment and disgrace.

Let all of us, including the American Automobile Association, give our best efforts to seeing that they are treated properly. And Now a Russian Drive It has been taken for granted for months by military leaders and armchair strategists alike that the invasion of Western Europe, when it came, would be accompanied by a new Russian drive from the East, to help catch Hitler's alleged fortress in a giant nutcracker and pulverize it into surrender. Now the Russian drive, or at least a Russian drive, has been launched on the Karelian Isthmus, with Finland as its immediate objective. This, if successful, will knock the recalcitrant Finns out of the war, account for many Nazi troops now occupying their country, open the way to liberating Norway and expose Germany to new attacks from the North. Hitler promised early in his career never to get Germany into a two-front war.

Now the Germans are forced to fight on three fronts: the Channel, Italy and on the East, not to mention the devastating air war. And the Russians have proved that, with the grand strategy now under way, they can speed up the ultimate knockout. A speaker on the man-power shortage had to send a substitute because of the man-power shortage. The puzzling thing is that the audience always seems to manage to get there. tee Will Rogers on Treaty-Making Will Rogers, breaking Into fame in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919, spun his lariat, chewed his gum, looked at the floor, squinted at the audience and commented in his dry Sooner accents on President Wilson's then current mission to the Paris peace conference: "They only took one Republican along, and they jist took him to argue with." The wisecrack summed up one of the major mistakes that wrecked American approval of the peace treaty, and had much to do with the course of history.

The present administration has taken that costly lesson to heart, and is moving heaven and earth to avoid a repetition of 1919. As related in the Sunday Post-Dispatch by Charles G. Ross, Secretary Hull is upsetting tradition by his series of frank conferences with Senators of both parties, and his discussions of the peace plans now are being extended to a House committee. SLOT MACIHNE.SCANDAL From the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Two Plain Dealer reporters have uncovered information that a number of firms in Columbus are illegally engaged in various phases of the manufacture of slot machines at a time when war regulations prohibit the use of metal for such articles as lawn mowers and household gadgets.

Slot machines are bad enough In peacetime. Wherever the authorities permit them to operate, racketeers sooner or later take over, leaving a trail of bribery and corruption. But the manufacture of slot machines in wartime Is an outrage which will offend all law-abiding citizens who are willing to put up with shortages to help the war effort, but will be shocked at the disclosure that metal needed for the war has been diverted to make one-armed bandits. The public will expect prompt action on the part of the War Production Board and the Department of Justice to crack down on this racket and to punish those who have violated WPB regulations. Biography of an Early Scientist "Tha Ufa and Worke at the Honourable Robert Hoyte," by Louie Trendiard More.

(Omford taJ-vrmlty Frees, New York.) The title of Boyle's beat-known work, "The Sceptical Chemist," has become synonymous with the seventeenth-century British natural philosophy and scientific Investigator himself, and it was in this role that Boyle advanced the transition from alchemy to science. Neatly divided into a purely historical section and a section evaluating Boyle's written works and his contributions to science, this biography is carefully documented and thoughtfully written. Of special Interest, aside from the excellent treatment of Boyle's life and works, is the picture of Ireland in the CO years or so following 1588, when Boyle's father held the title of the Great Earl of Cork. St. Louis' Unclean Streets To the Editor of the Post-Dispatch: My business takes me to several of the larger cities of the country.

St. Louis could really take lessons in street cleanliness from all of them. So many streets in this city are covered with rubbish of all descriptions, including glass, nails and jagged pieces of iron. This disgraceful condition exists In the face of the plea to conserve rubber. How the people of the City of St.

Louis are able to drive their cars through this mess of blow-out obstacles is beyond me. Something is wrong with a citizenry who will stand apathetically and let this rubble pile up in front of them, day by day. J. S. WILLIABOUGH.

Pittsburgh. I.