Capital Comment
STOUT, JONATHAN
Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT Can UNRRA Stay Out Of International Politics. WASHINGTON, D. C.—There in considerable un•uiMM here over the question whether UNKltA (United Nations Relief...
...The democratic and progressive forces of this country have two men in the field, Roosevelt and Willkie...
...Republican two-yeai -olds have been showing their speed, and the experts have filled square miles of newsprint with comment and prophesy...
...The long comparison between Lincoln and Roosevelt served only to prove thst the little governor is in need of a couple of good courses in American history...
...And that's what Menshikov is there for...
...He repeated ancient phrases about economy, efficiency, and free enterprise that we heard long ago from Harding, Coolidge and Hoover...
...The leaders of the various Communist Parties of the Latin American countries promptly responded to the rail for the meeting originally scheduled for February 15...
...Now...
...It stirred a little storm at the time, but nothing much seemed to come of it except thnt Secretary Stimson got heckled by some representatives of the Negro press a t one of his peace conferences...
...All the party has got to dp—and apparently they've thought of it already—is to put Rivers in a glass rase and ship him around the states of New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kentucky...
...There wat hsrdly a word about winning the war...
...It seems to be all set . for a return to political dominance...
...Between the Thursday night of the dinner and the Sunday following, Rivers made three public appearances in behalf of the Republican Party...
...Menshikov came to the United States last November as a member of the Soviet delegation to the first tension of UNRRA at Atlantic CHy...
...Also, the two organizations gave Ibanez $2,500 each to distribute in relief t< the victims of the Cut a n masascre of a year ago last September...
...Their real leaders the conservatives dare not run...
...But that, apparently, is not the way it's going to work in other countries...
...It has endless money to devote to the manipulation of public opinion...
...The joint mission gave Ibanez, who is also vice-president of the CTAI...
...Within the next two tftfa* 1INRRA Director General Herbert H. Lehman wlrMmnounee the complete staffing •f his organisation...
...Thomas E. Dewey of New York might deny it it is just possible that Justiue Rivers served another important pin pose bearing directly upon the actual selection of the Republican nominee...
...Shenanigans OF Lombardo Toferfano There's skulldruggery going on in Latin American labor affairs...
...AN EDITORIAL The Candidates of the Conservatives *I*HE past week has been filled with preliminary try* outs for the great presidential sweepstakes to be rjui next November...
...But little pebbles can cause wide ripples...
...The lines are being laid already...
...power Is the setting up of the leM offrea »ad the selection of their personnel in all parts of the world where UNRRA will administer relief and rehabilitation, an onVial UNRRA spokesman told The Now Loador this week...
...i hose who rebuild will Ws to make the pattern of gcvffiaumL" And that's exactly what's nosing the worry here...
...The first of these placed himself on view in Washington, and the most friendly newspapermen were obviously embarrassed by his popr showing...
...At Deputy Director General chars* of th« Bareaa of Areas, Menshikov's sphere of juriadir - Hon and...
...For that matter, where could the Republican Party get one...
...When that a—anacssstat k made it will b* revealed thai the rasrl organisational reins <»f power at Mm relief areas already root irmly in the crip •f Menahikov...
...Negro troops with Gen...
...It was reported here that Jacob Potofsky of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union was influential in Carrillo's behalf in the CIO...
...Indeed, Bricker capitalized the opportunity...
...The contrast between these liberals and the conservatives is striking...
...Then last week, the Soviet Union aurpriaed UNRRA by making a claim ferretetf...
...Anil although Gov...
...W Menshikov...
...Cai illo also visited Nelson Rockefeller, Administrator of Inter-American affairs...
...He was so feeble that by the time the Governor had taken the train back to Columbus, the only polite thing to do was to forget the whole matter...
...One of the outstandingly keen observers is Ernie Johnson, Washington correspondent of the Associated Negro Press...
...They dare not nominate a man who would pose the basic questions...
...When Dewey became N. V. County District Attorney he put Rivers on his staff as assistant...
...Perhaps there will be another report on that situation soon...
...At least technically, Menshikov will have only two luperiors—Lehman and the latter's Senior Deputy Dimeter General, Sir Arthur Salter, representative of Great Britain...
...Their hope it that the voters, being tired of tsxes and rationing and war controlt, will succumb to the soporific effect of Republican slumber songs...
...f "Now, getting down to the nitty-gritty, where on earth could Dewey get a better emissary than Rivers for the purpose of collecting votes among Negroes...
...He wants to cooperate with other nations —but without, surrendering one bit of our sovereignty...
...And the long arm of the Kremlin is pulling the strings...
...There could be but one top place on the program—and that went to the avowed candidate most favored by the Congressional delegation...
...They fear a contest on the issue of unfettered capitalism vt...
...Who Is VFROFJLF to Get the Ne9ro Vote ? Speaking of Negroes, there is the problem—in this year of grace and ballots—of who's going to get the Negro vote...
...Tat question therefore has arisen: How do Menshikov great powers fit into that picture...
...Cxechoslovakia...
...Willkie was the major target...
...They are planning to put up a colorlett candidate...
...In November Rivers was elected by a substantial majority to a full teini...
...Tat principal areas of U NRRA...
...vj-«i imsi in hit ucgiiiunig—win rt»»**i eastern Europe, the Balkans, China, IndoCMaa and the East Indies...
...They prspeae to let no outsiders in...
...WjhjR te troubling...
...New Jersey...
...Thomas Girdler's name would be a liability at the head of a ticket...
...The bill authorizes an appropriation of $80,000,000 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, and such turns as may be necessary for each succeeding year...
...The fact emerges that the conservative forces of this country have only third-rate candidates...
...Or J| the local relief machinery (which, as Sir Arthur jW»W sagaly observed, is the business end of the gun) j* "> each of those countries into the hands of the ** Communists by appointment from on high...
...The uneasiness focuses on the appointment of Michail Alaxeyevich Menshikov as Deputy Director General in charge of the Bureau of Areas...
...Ho used to be an Assemblyman there, and was co-sponsor in lyil2 of a bill which gave Harlem its first two members of the Municipal Court...
...And that Justice Rivers, a Dewey man, should have been accepted is also by design and indicative of sentiment...
...Rivers failed to list a lot of shortcomings he might have charged against the Administration...
...8, 1941, in the Philippines...
...Senator Guffey of Pennsylvania called it the 'unholy alliance.' "On the national scene, Rivers is a new face...
...Here we have something to think about...
...Whatever may be said about their theories, actions, views, programs, they sre both dynamic figures...
...Ht did whatever he bad to do to win the war, and in the election of 1864 the voters approved of his policies...
...Bat, they added, they don't want UNRRA to distribute the relief...
...something that tne Kremlin's boy, Lombardo Toledano, so far has failed to achieve in the way of labor recognition in the United States, which carries tremendous prestige in South America In tact, the l 10 and aKL jointly requested Ibauei' to go to Bolivia Mini make a survey for them of what is really going on...
...Prince Whipple, crossed the froxen Delaware River in the same «*t with Gen...
...The objective, of course, is the defeat of Roosevelt...
...Governor Dewey will soon be sorry he ever brought up the subject...
...The impression from start to finish wat that the real war is against Franklin D. Roosevelt...
...namely, to put on a show that would attract the attention of Negroes to the GOP standard...
...AH of which is a perfectly realistic commentary en the Russian estimation of the politicsl power laberent in the relief distribution machinery...
...It sits st the heart of things where the vital decisions are made...
...Their ttrategy is to sidestep this issue...
...Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York this week introduced a bill giving permanent authority to the Secretary of Agriculture for operation of the school lunch and milk programs throughout the country in s move to "safeguard the health and well-being of the nation's children...
...Carrillo then reported that Otis Mullikin, labor adviser in the State Department, had put his blessing on the Montevideo meeting, and the CIO fell in line by asking Martin Kyne of the United Retail and Wholesale Employees Union to go as delegate...
...Charles E. Wilson, of General Electric, is an intelligent, capable executive, but no one suggests putting him up...
...It was like an old liturgy which a devotee recites in his sleep...
...rtson at New Orleans, at San Juan Hill and in the w»rld War...
...To a nation approaching the crisis of the greatest war of the ages and facing crucial domestic problems, he had r.ot one inspiring word to say...
...If the affair was a slap at any one, it appears that Mr...
...Last year, a vacancy occurred in the City Court and Gov...
...Frank Capra of the Sfwial Coverage Section of the Army Signal Corps, "* Mm is to be used in Army orientation courses and "leased for public distribution...
...The AFL didn't answer...
...An historical background for the picture traces the ' * of the Negro soldier from Crispus Attucks, the •Mlave hero of the Boston Massacre, to Robert Brooks, 'f»t American soldier of the Armored Force to die in •to War on Dec...
...John W. Bricker of Ohio and Gov...
...So there must have been more than a passing reason why Justice Francis K. Rivers of the City Court of New York did the unusual last week...
...observers here is a recent remark ¦ait hy Sir Arthur Salter...
...Greece, France and China...
...But the immediate task igj to beat Willkie...
...Spesking at the conference *al hero by the Cooperative League of the U. S. A, hJstlJlBla month ago, Sir Arthur dropped this salty Wtofreslisn, ' *h •* distressed countries those who relieve will rthttiM Tt>...- —J ~.:u "aaoa...
...Governor Bricker perpetrated a perfect Hardingism...
...And this is not the end of it...
...He was cordially received by both the CIU and A Kl...
...This week •n official preview of the latest Army motion picture, "The Negro Soldier," portraying the historical role of Negro Americans in this and previous wars was given "> the auditorium of the Pentagon Building...
...Having achieved respectability for the Toledano's Montevideo meeting, Carrillo's operations in the United States now serve to put Ibanez's forthcoming visit to Bolivia under ToledanoV jurisdiction and shifts the spotlight from Ibanez to the Kremlin's puppet at tha head of the CTAL...
...With regard to fending off the third World War, for example...
...for instance, set up field offices non-Communists in Poland, Austria, Yugo...
...That is, he wants to cooperate but not to cooperate...
...fcmrian efforts currently to establish a Soviet hegemJJ Wtr, and local Communist activities in Fiance, PB" Europe, the Balkans and China are too well¦jp to require further detailing at this time...
...This is what he had to say—and it had a lot of oalt in it: "It isn't every day that a Negro speaks from the dais in the grand ballroom of Washington's Mayflower Hotel...
...Beside Roosevelt or Willkie, his littleness is grotesque...
...dramatic sequences, the film shows such Negro k M » « as Peter Salem of Bunker Hill...
...Dewey named Rivers to the unexpired term, the first time a Negro ever had held a judiciajppnst of such rank and salaiy $17,000 anywhere in the nation...
...WASHINGTON, D. C.—There in considerable un•uiMM here over the question whether UNKltA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administtation) can itay out of international politics and stick to rfhef or whether it is so set up already that it must heroine inevitably an instrumentality of international power politics...
...Vice-President Henry A. Wallace is also a fine liberal who has both brains and vigor...
...The occasion, of course, was the annual Lincoln Day dinner sponsored by the Republican members of Congress...
...And the CIO turned it down, saying they had not received enough notice...
...Juet tarn the stuff over to them and they'll do the rest, keeping the distribution machinery irmly in the hand* of the home talent...
...Michigan and Maryland, and sit bark...
...Certainly, Dewey welcomed the gesjure...
...t J h a t Brickner should formally start his boom in*Washington was by design and indicative of sentiment in the Congress...
...The antiWillkie field has narrowed down to two, presumably the best that American conservatism can offer...
...He, too, is looking forward rather than back...
...when politicians draw up a program such as was done at the Lincoln Day dinner, it is never by accident that an individual is placed on it, with due care to proximity to limelight and relationship to underlying issues...
...and I thought I'd like to discuss it with an expert...
...Industrially and financially, the status quo fsction was never more soundly intrenched than it is now...
...What he did—and this was done very delicately — was to admonish his fellow Republicans to beware of temporary accords with dissident Democrats in Congress on issues which could only alienate the affections of those Negroes whom the party is wooing...
...The conspicuous pair are both governors of great states, John Bricker and Thomas K. «Dewey...
...The Soviet Union now has liberated areas, the Rsaaiaas pointed out in their claim for relief...
...the public interest...
...It seems that Justice Rivers had one particular assignment to perfom...
...Bernardo Ibanez, leader of the Chilean Federation of Labor and Socialist member of the Chilean Parliament, was here recently...
...Realistically, of course, there is considerable question—as in the case of every Soviet representative in international cooperative efforts—whether Mensaikov's technique of operations will be amenable mW&M by anybody but Stalin...
...hut not in New Yolk...
...Recalling the quotation of Sir Arthur Salter's political realism, the question troubling many minds in Washington is whether America and Britain, therefore, are to finance Stalin's efforts to establish Soviet hegemonies T Tea Army a nd Ntflr* Publicity A year ago last December it was revealed here that Arsvy brasa hats had suppressed a study by the Army Historical Section from official records giving the story of the contribution and heroism of Negro soldiers in >H of America's wars...
...Latin American Workers Federation), a greater importance and prominence than is now enjoyed by Lombardo Toledano, who is president of CTAI...
...And the State Department couldn't turn down the Mexican ambassador...
...It was noted that while Carrillo boaster] of the results of his visit to the State Department and the CIO, he had nothing to say about his visit to Rockefeller, whose sophistication has risen to respectable levels in the past two years...
...Washington...
...he might learn that Abraham Lincoln went further than Jtooteveil in overriding restrictions on federal power...
...It is learned reliably here that Constaiitine Oumansky, Soviet ambassador to Mexico, an old GPU agent, ordered Toledano to i all a special meeting of the executive com in it tee of the M A I . in Montevideo to start the ball r o l l i ng on a ciimpaign to get the Latin American n un tries of Central and South America to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and also to discuss the Bolivian ami Argentine situations...
...Kxcept to point out that the War Department has failed to protect Negro soldiers from insult, injury and downright homicide while wearing the United States uniform...
...Rut Toledano needed some window dressing from Ninth America, so he cabled back that the meeting was now set for February 21...
...d in such case what <re the prospects for relief parts of the native populations which are ™*" to be or have a record as being anti-Communist ? TW importance of these questions is indicated by "* Russia is handling its own internal relief problem...
...So much for that angle...
...Then, on Saturday night, came Governor Dewey's long-heralded Lincoln Dsy address...
...To lead a chorus in that sort of music Governor Dewey would be perfect...
...There's skullduggery going on in South American labor affairs...
...On Monday night Wendell Willkie formally announced his candidacy...
...That is, about winning the war against the Germans and the Japanese...
...The United States and Britain, according to UNRRA'a official spokesman, are contributing the bulk of the money, food and supplies to be distributed in relief and rehabilitation...
...But—and what a lui' it is!—this faction has no candidate with brains and personality whom it dares to present to the voters...
...de under supervision of Col...
...But he may have his uses...
...They trust to the people's war weariness—as they did in 1920...
...Other names notwithstanding, it would appear that the struggle is going to narrow down to Willkie, Bricker, and Dewey, with the real pull coming between Willkie and Dewey...
...th« beginning of the UNRRA conference at City, the Soviet representatives had kept mum ,l»ut Russia's relief requirements...
...To afford recognition to the next desired individual, however, and at the same time make a grandstand play for the votes of Negroes, could have been done no better than by the selection of Justice Rivers on the Lincoln Day program...
...At the same time Toledano sent his right hand man, Alejandro Carrillo, to Washington, Carrillo pulled a fast one on the State Department by getting the Mexican ambassador to ask for ^ n appointment for him...
...Then the hand of the Kremlin got busy...
Vol. 27 • February 1944 • No. 8
