St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 14

PAGE 2B ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1946 3 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Anti-Slum Prospectus Feundti by JOSEPH PUUTZER. 9 on seeking the union's consent In such an Instance as an abdication of the authority of management. To Ford, being the young man that he is, it was only common sense.

Somehow we think young Ford is going to win his battle for high-volume production. He is going about it in the right way. Decent 12. 1171 The Pulitter Publishing Ca. TelepNene Aidriu MAin II I 111! Olive St.

(I) THE POST-DISPATCH FLATFORM I know that ny retirement will mike no difference in in cardinal principle; that it will always fi(ht for progrcta and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare; never satisfied with merely printing news; always be drastically independent; never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory pin-tocracy or predatory poverty. JOSEPH PULITZER. April 10, 1907. Republicans for the British Loan "Politics stops at the water's edge," says one of the most venerable of American maxims, and there arc few better peacetime applications of this patriotic principle than in the discussions of the loan to Britain. To make this a party issue, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans opposed, would be deadly.

For the opposition to attack the policy because it is an Administration proposal could be disastrous. So it is reassuring to know that Senator Wherry of Nebraska, the Republican whip and personally opposed to the loan, has discovered that about half of his party colleagues in the Senate are supporters of the proposal. Coupled with the fact that Democrats are divided about 2 to 1 for the loan, this shows that there is a good chance for the Issue to be considered on its merits, and not on partisan lines. This is entirely as it should be. The debate soon to begin in both houses thus will be based on the real issues, not on any desire by either side to make political capital of the proposal.

Since facts, not politics, will be involved, there is a greater chance that opponents of the loan can be convinced of its necessity and thus can be persuaded to vote In its favor. An Administration check indicates a favorable majority in the upper chamber. An important point about this is that it will be a bipartisan majority; thus attesting approval of freer world trade by members of both political groups. The issue is far too important for its support to become the exclusive property of one party, for it is an issue of vital import in world affairs. Americans are still convinced that "politics stops at the water's edge." LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE "ftp" ww" mi nm i.

Shoe on the Other Foot To the Editor of the The people who are saying hard things about Soviet policy would gain a better understanding of the situation if they would put the shoe on the other foot. If the Soviet Union 1) possessed the secret of the atomic bomb and (2) were doing its best to keep it from us, meanwhile (3) building up a stockpile of the bombs, (4) maintaining an army larger than ever before in its history, and (5) a navy larger than all the other navies cf the world combined, (6) proposing to continue the wartime draft and (7) introducing universal compulsory military training in time of so-called peace And (8) allowing her army and navy officers to talk openly of attacking us before we should have time to recover from our war effort and perhaps learn to make our own atomic bombs, (9) carrying on a press and radio campaign to foment suspicion and hostility toward us, (10) seizing and holding military bases along both our frontiers (Iceland, Greenland, the islands of the Pacific), (11) sending a naval expedition into northern waters for special training in Arctic warfare, (12) maintaining armed forces at our very gates (United States Marines, planes and ships in Manchuria, United States troops and anti-Soviet armies in India, Germany, Italy, Greece) And (13) proposing for 1947 two years after the war a military budget greater than that of any other country, with a higher percentage of expenditure for military purposes than was made by Germany or Japan when they were actively preparing for war, and (14) if the Greek Catholic Church were offering to lead a holy war against us, and (15) if Marshal Stalin officially sponsored a public ceremony at which a former Prime Minister who had twice tried to" overthrow our Government and our economic system was highly honored and in his address urged an alliance between our two most powerful rivals What would they think of Generalissimo Truman and Foreign Commissar Byrnes If they did not work night and dy to see that the United States had friendly governments in every capital from Canada to Argentina, and if they did not move heaven and earth to discover the secret of the atomic bomb? Let us try to see ourselves as others see us and this does not mean only the U.S.S.R. SCOTT NEARING. Jamaica, Vt. The slum-removal and redevelopment sketch for the Grand-to-Fourteenth and Market-to-Olive area will, we imagine, leave thoughtful citizens with somewhat heightened hopes colored by serious questions and some reservations.

That radical measures are urgently needed to rid the city of its far-advanced decay is beyond dispute. Nor is there any dispute that the Plan Commission is now dealing with an area of greater urgency than the less central ones it has previously sketched. This area needs first treatment because its status so directly affects downtown trade and property values. As the commission envisions it, moreover, its redevelopment will go far to abate the traffic congestion which also pulls the business district down. The commission has avoided the error of a too-little plan, which would be fatal to the purpose.

The territory enclosed in the boundaries should be large enough to resist the blighting influence of the ugly growths north of Olive and south of Market. It will have the better chance to preserve such an integrity, too, because the sketch wisely provides for the super-block system of development. Super-blocks make for better use of the space and. by closing superfluous streets, isolate it from the depressing influence of through traffic. They make it possible for the new buildings to look inward on broad areas of grass, recreation space and other clean buildings.

Final step in preserving integrity, the area can include its own schools and other neighborhood facilities. On the other hand, however, the sketch is detailed beyond the basic data which must govern the direction of development, and is therefore to that extent a work of fiction. A considerable part of its detailing, moreover, is questionable. Most fundamentally, the preliminary prospectus lacks estimates for the cost of land and its preparation. Cost will dictate the character and intensity of building.

Yet the draftsmen have imagined the space improved almost exclusively with large apartment buildings of a uniform three stories. In doing so, they Ignore the near-certainty that land costs toward the downtown end will enforce taller buildings, whereas lower costs near the western end may tolerate two-story and even one-story construction. Indeed, such gradations of height and character are to be sought, for too-close uniformity would only repeat the unlovely drabness which mars so many apartment and single-family neighborhoods elsewhere in St. Louis. The draftsmen also show a highly questionable bias in planning for almost exclusive middle-class occupancy within a comparatively narrow rental scale and income range.

A good plan should vary from a few very expensive de luxe apartments at one extreme to at least one well-designed public housing project at the other. On social grounds, too large an apartment area devoted to one income class, even if it be the very rich, becomes a sort of physical and cultural "slum." Economic grounds, too, argue for diversity. The city will have to subsidize the redevelopment to some extent by relief from taxes to public housing and temporary relief to limited-dividend corporations. Under the new Missouri housing law, in all probability, and with Federal aid under the proposed Wagner-Ellender-Taft formula, it will be called on to deal in land at a loss. Such costs are unavoidable.

They are the essence of self-interest, since the expenditure will both recover lost property values and scale down the inordinate expense of servicing slums. However, subsidies should be kept as low as possible. They can be minimized by a good proportioning of low-rent, middle-rent and fully-taxed high-rent apartments in the area. Once the housing shortage is past, moreover, a diversified development will have the best chance of maintaining full occupancy. Against the peculiar attractions which the city cannot offer in competition with the suburbs, for example, it is extremely doubtful that so large an undertaking could keep filled with suburban-minded and -moneyed people, which is to say a very large sector of the "upper middle" class.

Another very acute question is what disposition will be made of present residents in the district. Perhaps the draftsmen consider it premature. Nevertheless, it will, we are quite sure, have to be answered before the Board of Aldermen will approve any reconstruction. It is surprising, therefore, that a prospectus for public housing and other housing outside the area is not offered at the same time that the redevelopment sketch is made public. None of these remarks Is offered in an obstructive spirit.

On the contrary, this newspaper deeply and sincerely shares the redevelopment ideal. The point Is that the specific outlines are important, they will involve great outlays, they will either achieve the Ideal or, leave uncorrect-ible mistakes behind. It is an occasion, therefore, when citizens of the larger community should be spurring, questioning and helping the professional planners to complete their work and to do it well. Good Advice for Congress A laggard Congress should heed the recommendations of Mr. Truman's top economic advisers who warn of an "explosive Inflation" if measures to guard against it are not passed.

They urge Congress to extend the Price Control Act; to extend the companion legislation for price subsidies; to extend the Second War Powers Act so the Government can prevent hoarding and so it may control scarce materials; to adopt the Patman housing bill; and to supply funds for the stabilization agencies. This five-point program is necessary to prevent prices from running away and to stop current inflationary trends. It is needed to bring about a prosperity, in the words of the President's advisers, "far beyond anything we have ever dreamed of in the past." The country's experience after the First World War, when controls were immediately lifted, shows that to do so is like playing with dynamite. The National Association of Manufacturers and others who contend that the elimination of price controls will bring about increased production would engage in the most reckless kind of THE HITCH-HIKER Twelve Autocrats of Legislation TJi Minor Pwbltc Opinion Members of House Rules Committee "wield perhaps more power than any other half-dozen congressional committees writer says; they decide what bills shall be considered and when; these Solomons of the House have hindered progressive legislation. Vance Johnson in the Chicago Sun Smith's Freedom of Speech To the Editor of the Poet-Dispatch: You called Gerald I K.

Smith a "Fascist, a rabble-rouser, a race-hater, an evil figure." These are exactly the words which would also describe Hitler. The soldiers who helped bring an end to Hitler and Nazism are the same people who, as veterans, attempted to break up the Smith meeting, an action which you condemn. Since our democracy provides free speech to Smith (as did the pre-HItler German democracy to Hitler), how can he be prevented from spreading his vicious propaganda except by the method employed by the veterans? LOUIS BERGER. The County Zoning Issue Unless a wisely drawn zoning regulation is established in the unincorporated areas of St. Louis County, one may only expect continued lawless development It is disturbing, therefore, that the County Court, at the apparent beckoning of speculative real estate interests, is threatening ill-conceived amendments to the County Planning Commission's proposed measure, which seems to have general support among the people.

The difference centers on size of individual lots. Where the commission proposes districts with three-acre, one-acre and half-acre mini-mums, the court wants a uniform minimum of 20,000 square feet, or about one-half acre. Similarly, the commission sets up 7500- and 6000-squ are-foot districts for more intensive development, and the court wants to bring them all into one district with a 6000-square-foot minimum which, be it noted, is a very small lot indeed. The court argues that the commission's more stringent minimums will unduly restrict residential expansion. True enough, they would limit the areas in which speculative subdividers can pursue their classic course.

However, they should be limited. Otherwise, the end of the present wave of house-building will leave half-built derelict subdivisions to the profit of no one but the speculators. Purchasers will be stuck with rapidly declining values and the agencies of government with the load of providing services where they are grossly uneconomical. It has happened before right in St. Louis County.

It is extremely important, we think, that the court reconsider its position. Otherwise, whether the formality of a zoning regulation is or is not established, only trouble lies ahead. Life Story of a Teacher And Her Prolonged Quest TurMlt cf rinJr.tnIlnf" bjr Either Clondmaa Sunn. (McmIIla New York.) Casual observation of the title might convey the Impression that this book la heavy and philosophical. Not so.

This Is the autobiography of a distinguished teacher of English. It is the story of her search and eventual attainment of educational understanding. Esther Cloudman Dunn is the author of ueveral books on Shakespeare, has taught at Bryn Mawr College and is now professor of English at Smith College. Her quest for understanding begins with the Sunday afternoon of her earliest childhood in the late '90s when friends and relatives gathered at her home to listen to recitations of poetry by the forthcoming generation. The search leads through school, the university, high school teaching And to England, where she lived in the atmosphere of her favorite authors and was the first person to take the doctorate In English literature at the University of London.

For some 19 years now, the searcher has taught at Smith. That Miss Dunn has achieved understanding through a pursuit of her literary Interests, none who read this book will deny. The grace, ease and beauty of tha style In Which she writes is splendid testimony. She has not only mastered her authors, but, like them, has mastered the vehicle of expression which they used. This gives the book universality of appeal.

Any who love good English will enjoy this book. There were many disillusionments in the pursuit. Coming to her first high school teaching position full of enthusiasm for Shakespeare and Milton, she found that her first task was to learn to keep order In a room full of 14-year-old animal spirits that "had been turned out to grass all Not succeeding In any other way, it was necessary to fight like with like. "I still can see the gigantic proportions which a small freckled nose assumed as It was brought nearer and nearer to my ready fist. I feel now the soft, warm Impact of my thrust." Her first successful understanding was built on a bloody nose.

The pursuit follows a new road in college teaching. Here is "the personal discovery and conquest of ideas, the only kind of education that matters." Here education is less pugilistic and more creative. Miss Dunn's book will be especially Interesting and stimulating to her fellow-teachers. W. E.

KETTELKAMP. Washington University. Twelve autocrats sitting around a baize-covered table in the Capitol, consider themselves the all-high Judges of what Is good and bad for the United States. A shake of their heads is frequently enough to kill a bill which would contribute to the general social advancement of the nation. A nod from them can start the wheels of progress turning backward.

These 12 are the members of the House Rules Committee. They or the seven who comprise the majority wield perhaps more power than any other half-dozen congressional committees combined. Virtually all legislation must pass through the Rules Committee before it receives House consideration. The committee has been a constant thorn in the side of both the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations. It delayed passage of the Wage-Hour Act, back In the '30s, a whole year.

It has denied the House opportunity to vote on the fair employment practices bill for more than eight months. It set the stage for emasculation of the President fact-finding bill by producing a curious rule which made the restrictive Case bill pending business. Committee Curbed Only Once Ever since It became a standing committee in 1883, there have been attempts to curb the Rules Committee. The only successful attempt was a product of the 1910 House revolt against the late Speaker Cannon, and cost the Speaker the Rules Committee chairmanship. It is significant that the House Rules Committee was the one congressional sore spot untouched by the LaFoIlette-Mon-roney Joint Committee on Congressional Organization in its report recently.

The "streamliners" could not agree on that point. There are virtually no limitations on the powers of the Rules Committee. It can follow the experience and wisdom of legislative committees which have studied proposed legislation at great length. Or it can ignore them entirely deciding on the spur of the moment and on the basis of prejudice and little else. It decides what bills shall be considered and when.

It decides how much debate shall be allowed and the manner in which bills may be changed on the floor. The House, by majority vote, can repudiate the Rules Committee and a majority can circumvent It when it refuses to act. But the practical effort or present procedure is to leave the committee's pretense to omnipotence almost unchallenged. Eight Democrats and four Republicans comprise the committee. Four of the Democrats are Southerners: Representatives Cox Smith Clark (N.

and Colmer Two represent border states. Only three Representatives Sa-bath Slaughter (Mo.) and Delaney (N. represent large cities. Of the eight, only Sabath, Delaney and Representative Bates (Ky.) can be counted on to go along with the Administration on most issues. Cox and Smith are ultra-conservative or reactionary.

Colmer, Clark and Slaughter all can be described as conservatives. A G.O.P.-Southern Coalition The four Republicans Representatives Allen Michener Halleck (Ind.) and Brown (Ohio) are arch-conservatives. On virtually all issues the four Republicans and Cox and Smith can be counted on to be together and usually Colmer, Clark or Slaughter will go along with them. Members of the Rules Committee consider themselves the Solomons of the House. Technically, the committee is charged only with providing an orderly flow of legislative traffic.

But it does not operate that way. At its hearings members always are more interested in what a bill will do than in how much debate it should require. They want to know whether it Is good or bad from their point of view and it is not unusual for them to reach a decision in one hour completely contrary to that reached earlier by a legislative committee which spent months digging Into the issues involved. The essence of all this is that the Rules Committee cannot thwart completely the will of the House. But too many members find it convenient to hide behind the Ineffectiveness of the committee system and thus avoid taking positions that they otherwise couldn't avoid.

Too many have vested interests of their own in committees to go along with discharge petitions. They may favor strongly some bill which is rotting in a committee, but they fear that the time will come when they may want to kill off a bill themselves by inaction. Challenge to Macleay et al To the Editor of the Post-DUpateh: The Mississippi Valley Association is urging the building of a number of dams on the clear-water streams of Missouri, particularly on the Black River and the upper White River. I wonder how much real thought this association has given to the matter. I question very much if, as Missourians, they know what we have in Missouri and what would be ruined forever by the building of these dams.

I think they need considerable education and, if given the privilege, I would like to conduct a tour for members of this organization through the Ozarks and show them what we have and why It should not be despoiled. I doubt if any of them have ever been south of Highway 40. I have read practically everything that I can find in the newspapers on this subject, and I have yet to see one good, sound reason why such dams should be built. If there are any good reasons, I would like for the Mississippi Valley Association, or any other association for that matter, to have them placed in public print for the benefit of us all. C.

C. VAUGHN. Brentwood. Dr. Truman Prescribes Support for Truman on the Draft By way of underscoring and emphasizing what President Truman said in his Army day address about the necessity for continuing the draft in order to "make the victory secure," the testimony of military chiefs is cited as evidence of the necessity for keeping the nation's armed forces in a strong position.

Secretary of War Patterson, Chief of Staff Eisenhower and Gen. Spaatz agree in viewing with concern the prospect of further military disintegration because of congressional inaction and obstructionism. They agree that national prestige and national capacity to make America's voice respected in world affairs are at stake in the settlement of this problem. As for immediate issues, there are the prospects of discharging some 100,000 fathers from the Army and of stimulating voluntary enlistments if the draft is continued. On either long-range or short-run considerations, a year's extension of the draft is vital.

As Mr. Truman said: "Tyranny must be rooted out from the very soul of the enemy nation before we can say that the war is really won." And as Secretary Byrnes said a few weeks ago: "Weakness Invites aggression." Let Congress take note, forget Its political fears and make sure that America will not descend to military weakness and international impotence. Henry Ford JI There Is something about Henry Ford II, the 28-year-old head of the Ford Motor that appeals to the ordinary citizen not charged by inheritance with responsibility for a vast Industrial empire. Perhaps, as revealed In the Ford interview published Sunday with a Post-Dispatch reporter, it is only the fact that the Fords don't have enough closet space at their Grosse Point (Mich.) home that lends the common touch to young Ford. One way or another, Ford seems to have kept a close contact with homely reality.

In directing negotiations with the United Automobile Workers' Union, Ford showed a lack of prejudice and a knowledge of union politics that was useful both to the Ford Motor Co. and to the public interest in industrial peace. Under his new contract with the union, Ford now hopes to achieve a sufficient volume of production to justify both low prices for Ford automobiles and high wages for Ford workers. Our hopes are with him. He has taken his plea for high-volume production directly to Ford workers, in the form of a letter mailed to each of them.

Before he mailed the letter, however, Ford sought and obtained union approval. Another Detroit executive might have looked From the Detroit Tlews An Anthology of Reflective Writing 'The Trratur Chrt," Edited by 1. Donald idunt. E. r.

DoltoB a New York.) Concern over mankind's new problems, and over the aggravated form its old ones have assumed, is causing people to stop and think, says Mr. Adams, former editor of the New York Times Book Review and now its literary columnist. So he has gathered a collection of some 300 contemplative pieces, from a wide variety of writers, to help this healthful process along. All the selections are short, few of greater length than one small page. Sources range from the Bible through the great essayists down to such moderns as E.

B. White and John Steinbeck. Many are extracts from long works, and Mr. Adams has done an expert job of selection and editing. Each meets the requirement set by the compiler: "the kind of writing that sets up fermentation, mild or violent, in the reader's mind." This thought-provoking book Is the first of a series of reprints, in attractive format, of material selected for its lasting value.

Dirtiest, Rattiest City To the Editor of the Poit-Dlapatch: Why wait? Why dally? Why all this bickering? Why all this dissension? Why all this useless talking, wasting of words and energy of men who should be up and doing when the life of a helpless baby is lost because of rats (ugh). Why photograph and publish in the papers the filth and rottenness of our alleys and backyards, exposing to the public the condition of our city, unless something is to be done to correct the evil? Words, words, words is all we have got so far. Action is what is needed. This comes from a woman who has lived in our largest cities San Francisco, 20 years in New York. 20 in Chicago, and now discovers St.

Louis to be the dirtiest city she has ever known. MRS. B. F. RHODUS.

Mexico, Mo. at the waistline and otherwise blur the lean, hard look of the well-conditioned, tells us to avoid fats and so on down the list to "Eat more fruit." This ii more than a coincidence. It is a bargain. In doing for others we are doing for ourselves. And the directions cost us nothing.

There are 39 suggestions In President Truman's list on how to save food, ranging all the way from "Avoid fats, boil and broil, don't fry" to "Above all, no three-layer cakes." There were included "Lay off pastry," "Limit yourself to one roll or one thin slice of bread," "Substitute oatmeal for wheat" and "Eat more fruit." The strange thing is that the White House doesn't ask $5 for the prescription. (Maybe It doesn't wish to appear to be practicing medicine without a license.) For the President's advice is exactly thatof the physician who, taking note of our distressing flabbiness, our tendency to expand FUTILE GESTURE. From tho Naahvlll Tenneuetn. "Is it legal for a millionaire to bequeath his estate to the United States Government?" some one asks. Yes, it is legal and virtually unnecessary..