St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 4

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1946 PAGE 4A ST. LOUIS POST-OISPATCH Education's New Role House Military Committee should extend its Inquiry into Army courts as far as the inside of Army prisons. As long as no one knows about injustice, nothing can be done about it. Founded by JOSEPH PULITZER C.r.mWr 12.

17 PkhlUMca' ty Tie Pulitzer PwblMhinf Co. TUfrlonf AddrtM MAin lilt till Olive St. (I) THE POSTDISPATCII TLATFORM kit I knew that rny retirement will snake no difference in it cardinal principles; that it will always fight for pragreit and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogue of all parties, never belong to any party, always eppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare; never be satisfied with merely printing news; always be drastically independent; never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory pju-locrary or predatory poverty. JOSETU rULITZEkl. April 10, 1907.

Needed: Utility Dispute Machinery If statutory mediation, delayed action and emergency board arbitration is good policy for railway labor disputes, why do we not extend the statute to include telephone strikes, such as the imminent one which threatens to cripple communications nation-wide? Would not such an arrangement have prevented the recent electric-power strike in Pittsburgh? Is it not abundantly clear that stoppages of other public utility services are just as deadly as railway strikes to the conduct of organized human affairs? In suggesting analogous treatment for all essential services, we are aware that the railway disputes machinery is not so good as some of its more ardent proponents believe. Experienced students have pointed out, for example, that a large part of the Railway Labor Act's success must be credited to the facts that the awards are generally liberal to labor, that the White House has boosted awards when the unions were not satisfied and that the bill for the wage adjustments can be readily shifted to consumers. It is well known, too, that railway labor under this law has been able to install elaborate featherbedding provisions for which the public also pays. These frailties, however, do not argue against public intervention in disputes which threaten to stop essential public services. They simply argue that Congress and the White House should try to profit by experience under the Railway Labor Act, perhaps improving that law at the same time that the principle of public intervention is extended to other utilities.

In the last analysis, the public must pay public service wage increases in any event. But the suffering public has no desire at all to pay still more by being deprived of transportation, communica- tion, light and power and the essentials of existence which depend on their uninterrupted LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE The impressive ceremonies surrounding the inauguration of Arthur Holly Compton as the ninth Chancellor of Washington University have brought to St. Louis a galaxy of brilliant educational talents, such as the city has rarely if ever seen before. Our citizens have profited perhaps more than can now be realized by the round table on the unending search for knowledge, and the ceaseless problem of its positive application, to which it has listened in these last few days. The motto of Washington University, "Per Veritatem T'is" (Strength Through Truth), might have been adopted by common agreement as the theme of all the visiting educational leaders, and that of the new Chancellor himself.

Each, like President Conant of Harvard, held up the scholar's function as one of high relevance to the age in which he lives and to the future of civilization. Gone is the ancient concept of the academician as living in a world to himself, in some remote ivory tower, and devoting himself to pursuit of aloof abstractions. The example of atomic research appealed to many of the speakers, in view of its vast importance today and of Chancellor Compton's close connection with the project that so dramatically shortened the war and brought with it such compelling new problems. This originated in an apparent abstraction, the formula scribbled down by Einstein, but it has swollen into consequences that involve all the world's states, all industry and the overwhelming challenge of mankind's ability to live at peace. The humanities have lagged far behind science, but it is the hope of Chancellor Compton that under his direction there shall be an era of progress at Washington University in the development of social thinking.

No more, under his concept, can there be justified a wry jest like that of Will Rogers: "There is nothing so stupid as an educated man, if you get off the thing that he was educated in." Rather, the goal of Chancellor Compton and his colleagues as stated here this week is the broad definition laid down by John Milton three centuries ago: I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war. Men of science from the universities and laboratories have shown magnificently what they can do In the offices of war. It is a splendid augury for Washington University that the new Chancellor formally begins his administration with so complete a demonstration that the role of education must be that of teaching man to perform, with justice, skill and magnanimity, the oftentimes-more-difficult offices of peace. A Mississippi Credo To ths F.rtltor of the Post-Dlspateh: I rend your "Profile of a Dixie Demi-pogue" with considerable disgust. Subsequent Indorsements of your tirade have been unadulterated venom against a much maligned minority namely, the Southern white man.

The people of Mississippi could, like Harold Ickes, "be mistaken." But If this is to remain a country with freedom of speech and religion, we have a right to our opinions and to speak them even on the floor of the Senate. If everyone hnd the name and the same Jrhovah. then the freedoms ould no longer be necessary. Most Southern people believe In local self government. We do not aspire to meddle in University City or in Tel Aviv, both of which rather effectively discriminate against the residence of Negro or Arab.

No city In Mississippi refuses any citizen a home within Its gntes, however "filthy" those gates may We do not believe in class or religious legislation. We do not believe that movie directors, cotton pickers, loan sharks or hairdressers should be chosen on a percentage basis by religion andor color. We believe that such legislation would accentuate rather than relieve existing conditions. We believe that vicious minority-baiting by anyone at any time renders a great disservice to our solidarity as a nation. Some of vis unreconstructed Rebels believe It is high time for all minorities labor, management, brass, Jew, Negro, Republican and "Miserable ptan" to realize that none of us Is nearly as "filthy" as we are painted by yellow journalism, which, after all, must dig up and dish out all the dirtiest dirt.

This is what makes us minorities think-we are minorities. In short, we believe there Is so much evil in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that it hardly behooves any of us to condemn, en masse, in toto and unequivocally, any state and all her citizens. A not too "Miserable Mlsslsslppian." JAMES IL MELVIN. University City. SPRING TONIC Poor Approach to Traffic Congestion On the basis of the judgments reached by the veteran traffic engineer quoted In today's Mirror of Public Opinion, St.

Louis is approaching wrong end foremost the problem of its increasingly congested streets. So far, all the emphasis has been on building more and wider thoroughfares, speeding the pace of traffic and forbidding the parking of cars on major streets. There has been little thought on the vital phase of providing more parking space. An idea was offered two months ago for building two 1000-car garages in the downtown area, but nothing more has been heard of it. And apparently there is slight if any official interest in creating more parking space in the key business areas which are the focal point of traffic.

A no-parking rule for crowded streets, such as has been suggested here, is of no avail unless other parking space is provided. "The problem is just moved from one street to another," Engineer Willier says. All and all, his views offer a budget of sound advice to the city officials still grappling ineffectively with a growing problem. From the New York World-Telegram. A Book of Railroad Yarns Parking: Key to the Traffic Puzzle Speedier movement of more cars is not a solution to congestion on city streets, expert says; basic problem is to find space for autos after they arrive downtown; municipal lots are suggested, to be built with aid of tax collected from business houses if necessary.

The Mrrror Pbhc Opinion By Arlene Wolf, Associated Press Feature Writer The Ileal Point The point system which the New York Stale Housing Division has set up as a means of selecting 1300 tenants from among 21,000 applicants is an interesting device intended to introduce an air of warmth and fairness into the business of telling 19,700 service men, and their wives and children, to go sit on a tack. Points are awarded on the basis of wives, children, service-incurred disabilities and inadequate present housing arrangements, a method of scoring which is superficially convincing, but which involves a fallacy large enough to drive a five-room portable bungalow through. The fallacy is, of course, in assuming that desperation can be measured by counting noses, measuring wall space, and the like. Of course it can't, any more than love of home can be weighed on a scale. One man with a wife, three children and an average inadequate housing arrangement might be only middling desperate, while another in the identical circumstances might be very desperate indeed.

What's more, it's a highly individualistic matter what a man is most driven to desperation by his wife, or his children, or cramped quarters. The only really fair way to deal with 21,000 applicants is to select 21,000. A point system may help to minimize injustice while the housing authorities, who should have the biggest kind of a hump on, get about completing the job. But it's making the places to live in come out even with the veterans which in New York as in St. Louis is the real point.

Housing Suggestion To ths Editor of the Post-Dispatch: Perhaps this is an idle thought. Apparently the Coliseum at Jefferson and Washington is unoccupied. Could it rot be temodeled into apartments, with the stores reopened, not only for emergency housing, but for permanent structure? Thus it would serve as both emergency housing and as a "blighted downtown area" project. JOE NEUMANN. Stelle's VA Checkup Idea The American Legion has just adopted a plan for checking up on the Veterans' Administration, which is a good enough idea on its face.

But the plan comes from National Commander John Stelle, whose intentions usually have been strictly political. The Legion's executive committee has backtracked fast from Strlle's attack on the trusted Veterans' Administrator, Gen. Omar Bradley. Yet the committee has ordered a monthly canvass by 13,400 Legion posts of what the Veterans' Administration is doing locally. That could mean a grassroots check on veterans needs.

But, judging by Stelle's methods in Illinois politics, it also could mean a bush-league Gestapo. The Veterans Administration was bungling enough before Gen. Bradley took it over, but the Legion did not seem very dissatisfied in those days. Criticism arose after the General reorganized the agency, discarded some Legion-favored politicos and ordered hospitals built where they were needed, instead of in small towns where politicians wanted them. Gen.

Bradley became unpopular with the "professional" veterans, who had had their own way, but he became more popular with veterans themselves. Ex-service men know that Gen. Bradley is working hard at a hard task. They will demand that he get fair treatment. If the American Legion makes a responsible survey of veterans needs, that will help Gen.

Bradley. But if Stelle tries to use this survey as a political club to hold over the Veterans' Administration, he will have trouble wielding it. The way the Russian spies were caught in Canada was very appropriate, it being redhanded. town area to work, shop or for recreation. If a shopper has to spend half an hour cruising around In congested traffic looking for a place to leave her car, she's going to avoid shopping downtown, and do all the purchasing she can in small community centers.

Lack of business then will force downtown merchants to move to where the business is. Empty buildings mean lower property values. That means lower tax revenues, and a decentralization of downtown areas that is a threat to business. Some stores in St. Louis and Los Angeles have tried paying the parking charges of their customers.

But such plans aren't a solution, Willier says, because there is not enough space conveniently located. A step In the right direction, Willier feels, is the passage of enabling acts in 10 states which empower a central business district authority to collect taxes from generators of traffic merchants, stores, etc. to operate off-street parking facilities. However, nothing yet has been done to get any construction under way. A central commercial trucking terminal such as one mentioned for New York also would take enormous loading trucks off the streets and substitute smaller carriers which would unload in the terminal.

Need for Municipal Aid It also has been suggested that the municipalities subsidize or supply parking areas at nominal charges through the use of city land. Municipal aid, Willier believes, also is called for in over-all city planning, which should attempt to separate wholesale from retail districts, and thus cut down traffic snarls in each. In addition, the traffic engineer suggests, the staggered hours plan he originated while war transportation administrator and director of the traffic engineering department of Houston, which later was adopted as a nation-wide model by the. ODT, would help. It calls for staggered opening and closing of stores, business houses, theaters and other traffic generators in a given area.

Who should ray for the parking facilities is a question still to be settled. But whether they are municipally financed, or financed by the generators of isn't the point. The point is that unless something is done, and done quickly, the whole economy of cities throughout the country will be affected just because there isn't enough room for the customers. Rogers E. M.

Whitxer in the Chicago Sun Book Week. "Headlights and Markers: Aa Anthology of Railroa Stories," Edited by Frank P. Donoyaa It. and Robert Selpb Henry. (Creative Ace Presi, New lark.) The problems that haunt the collector of an anthology of stories about railroading and railway men are the problems that haunt the collector of stories about football or flying or any other of the rather special and highly technical human occupations.

To begin with, nine-tenths of the material at the anthologist's disposal is not literature by even the most Ignoble standards. Second, what remains after the winnowing falls quite clearly into three patterns the out-and-out adventure story, the story in which what pass for characters are no more than Implausibly disguised Rover Boys grown up, and the dialect comedy. This can be, understandably, a disheartening prospect, but it has not dismayed Mr. Donovan and Col. Henry, of whom I think it can be said that they have done their very best.

The 17 stories they have chosen cover as wide an area as possible. Some of them first appeared in publications designed only for the profession; others appeared in magazines as various in their points of view and publics as the old Atlantic and the Saturday Evening Post. Some fairly familiar names bob up in the list of authors, too Marquis James. Thomas Nelson Page, Frank L. Packard, Octavus Roy Cohen and Doug Welch.

Pattern or not, there are good stories In this assortment: Marquis James's "The Stolen Railroad Train," a factual tale of an almost incredible adventure of some Northern spies in the Civil War; "A Little Action," Harold Titus's neat example of how to make a decent story out of a professional man's technical problems; Doug Welch's "Mrs. Union Station," which treats of the difficulties of being married to a railway buff, and which is an enormously funny story in any company. These three are all for the general reader. The rest are successful more or less only as they impinge upon the interest of more specialized groups. Everyone, I suppose, has his own anthology in mind.

Mine would include most of the pieces in "Headlights and Markers," but would also contain samples of the work of two of the most accomplished preaent-day writers of short stories: say, one of Edward Newhouse's cold-blooded tales of the hoboes riding a Denver A Rio Grande Western fruit drag (you see how easy it is to get caught up in the vernacular?) in the Colorado mountains, and, for relief, one of Wolcott Gibbs's stories about the earthy afternoon of a couple of fauns he once encountered in the Long Island Railroad yards. I think that I would probably want to add, besides, some stories that I am afraid have not been written about the railway man, not as the hero or the buffoon of a story, but as himself. Though one may easily suspect that his favorite literary devices were caricature and Mark Twain, in his wholly admirable "Life on the Mississippi." made living characters out of his professional steamboat men. The railway man needs a friend like him. "Rest Publicity Agent" lo the Editor of th Post-Dispatch: Now that we are observing National Brotherhood week, many of us find our conversational vocabularies enriched with words of tolerance, creed and color.

Thinking along such lines myself, this thought comes to me: What have we ever done in St. Louis to immortalize the famous Negro composer, William C. Handy? What single man has done more than he to put St. Louis "on the His "St. Louis Blues" has been carried to the far corners of the world, touring the war, wherever GI Joe went, he gave geographic value to the name.

Thousands of dollars were spent to lutter up Aloe Plaza with the erratic wotks of Carl Milles. What could have reen more appropriate than a statue of Handy In this same spot, facing Union Station, so all visitors to our city might see the man whose musical creation is most often associated with the name of St. Louis? What has caused this oversight? Surely color has not tainted our appreciation. Let us use National Brotherhood week as a starting point to revive a just Interest in St. Louis's best "publicity agent." JEANNE CARPENTER.

The United States Is approaching its traffic problem via the wrong road. The solution to the nation-wide city traffic jam is not the speedier movement of more cars it's parking the cars after they've arrived in busy downtown areas. That's the conclusion of Thomas E. Willier, traffic engineer and former professor of transportation at Yale, who has been studying traffic problems for almost 20 years. Millions of dollars of Federal and state funds are being spent for construction of new highways and access roads to large cities.

All these roads will accomplish, says Willier, is to bring more traffic into a busy area in less time, thereby making the tie-up worse than ever. With more and better access roads, he explains, there will be more drivers looking for parking space in the same downtown areas more drivers cruising' around the block for longer periods because they can't find the space, and creating more traffic as they cruise. Dismal Snarls Everywhere With the end of the war and lifting of gasoline restrictions, cities across the country headed into the worst downtown traffic jams in history. A Mew York Times survey of 2S key cities disclosed dismal snarls everywhere. Chicago's traffic engineer, for example, reported more than 100,000 motor vehicles entering the Loop area daily, with 17,709 available parking spaces instead of the 85,000 needed.

Philadelphia's parking problem is so acute that a ban was put on parking on mid-city streets between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. for a 90-day trial period. Detroit reported a shortage of 2000 car spaces In the downtown area in 1944. Atlanta needs between 2000 and 3000 additional parking spaces.

In New York, Willier says, it is estimated that the average speed of traffic cross-town is nine miles an hour, traveling east to west, and 10 to 12 traveling north to south and half the time the car is standing still. The solution, Willier believes, lies In constructive instead of restrictive measures. "We. tell people they can't turn on a red light. We prohibit parking on some streets, designate express streets and put more policemen on duty to enforce the new restrictions.

But the problem is just moved from one street to another the people who would have parked in the restricted areas seek parking space elsewhere." Off-Street Parking Needed The primary answer Is the construction of off-street parking facilities, the traffic engineer suggests facilities placed where the driver wants them, and at a price he can afford. But first there must be surveys surveys to determine the available supply of parking space, and how efficiently it is being used, and then additional surveys to find out the demand for parking, and the rate of parking turnover. A woman bent on an all-day shopping spree, for example, needs more parking hours than one who dashes downtown just to buy new shoes for the baby. There's a definite economic aspect to the problem, too: People come into a down An American Army Dachau The commander of the notorious Lichfield detention camp in England a virtual American Army Dachau has been suggested for promotion by the War Department. A letter printed on this page today asks, "Is it the policy to reward a commander with such a record?" An even more pertinent question Is whether Congress can leave the Army to be final judge of its own injustice.

What happened at Lichfield is shocking. Court-martial witnesses tell of one prisoner killed, others beaten with clubs, some even shot at. Newsweek magazine reports testimony that a guard punched a soldier in the stomach, where he had been wounded, until the prisoner collapsed. What has happened in the court-martial is not encouraging. One guard has been sentenced to three years of hard labor.

Ten other men await trials which will add to the tale of terror. Col. James A. Kilian, the camp commander, has been accused of perjury and intimidation of witnesses. But he has not been tried for anything, nor has anyone else in higher authority, despite testimony that a General told guards, "You're not tough enough here; you're running a hotel." Luckily, when the War Department offered the promotion of Col.

Kilian among 349 other officers, an aler newspaper discovered it. The whole promotion list was held up. By that time, however, the War Department had proved either ignorance of its own affairs of justice, or brash-ness beyond words. Moreover, Lichfield may be no exception as to cruelty in Army prisons. George Fielding Eliot has told in his column of bitter tales of a "Black Hole" at LeMans, and of men staked in the sun at Casablanca.

Perhaps there is no substance to these stories, but the public does not know. The War Department does not seem to know, either. That is why Congress must investigate. The Promotion for To the Editor of the Post-Dlnpatch: A War Department promotion list included Col. James A.

KUlan, notorious commander of the Lichfield "concentration camp." It seems to me that it be in order to inquire who in the department would recommend a promotion for a man under suspicion of complicity In ouch an affair. There is certainly ample testimony of brutality and sadistic cruelty at Lichfield, while KUlan was commander. Is it the policy of Gen. Elsenhower and the War' Department to reward a commander with such, a record? JAMES E. STERNER, Ex-Infantryman.

Mexico, Mo. A Special Law for Petrillo The bill just passed by the House, with Senate concurrence expected, seems pretty sure to realize its objective of curbing the rough-and-ready tactics of James Caesar Fetrillo, boss of the American-Federation of Musicians unless Petrillo thinks up some new dodges not specifically mentioned in the bill. Little public sympathy will be wasted on Petrillo, for his. arbitrary restrictions on radio stations, record producers and sponsors of musical performances in general have become notorious, but the thought must rise to many minds: Why is it necessary to have a special act of Congress to control the doings of one labor leader? This evident necessity, recognized in the passage of the bill by big majorities, shows that our labor legislation is inadequate to deal with the abuses in which a small minority of ruthless union chiefs are prone to engage. Now, it might be asked, will we need a special law to cope with any other grasping labor leader who comes along? What is obviously required is a broad and definite statute that will handle all the abuses that sporadically beset the field of labor relations.

That would avoid the necessity of flattering the next Caesar Petrillo by means of a law dedicated expressly to him. A HAMLET A WOULD From tha Pittsburgh Press. The hamlet of Vienna, was a miniature world for a moment. They had a sad trial there the trial of a 15-year-old boy for killing his father. School was dismissed so pupils could visit the courtroom.

Mothers attended with babies and lunches. Hawkers sold hot coffee. Vienna became, proportionately, as hectic as the international scene. But the editor put his finger on what really matters. Said he: "If Vienna must be known at all, let it be for our good, everyday, ordinary folks and our good hound dogs." That's a touch of statesmanship.

If we're going to get any place, we'll have to think of the good, ordinary people and perhaps of our good dogs. They are in the majority. Hotel Fire Escapes To the Editor of the Post-Dispatch: As a transient in your city, I notice a great laxity in safety measures for hotel fire escapes, which have no means of guests reaching the ground except by jumping from the last step down 10 or 15 feet. Then they would have to Jump on automobiles, as parking is permitted under fire escapes. WALTER A.

YORK. TIMES HAVE CHANGED. From ths Kauu City Star. Remember the fellow who used to tap all the beams and measure the cubic feet of closet space before deciding to buy a house? His son checks on whether the jllace has four walls and, if possible, a roof..