National Reports
JR.", "SIBLEY S. MORRILL, RALPH W. PORTER, CHARLES O. LERCHE
NATIONAL REPORTS Postal Savings End to Benefit Banks By Sibley S. Morrill Amid all its talk about the Post Office deficit, the Administration appears bent on turning a billion dollars over to...
...Stiff opposition to outright liquidation, however, led the Administration to back the present discretionary measure...
...Griffin himself is doing most of the talking, but so far he hasn't taken on Talmadge openly...
...Gene Talmadge was elected Governor four times...
...Both U.S...
...When the State Adjutant General was fired for "inattention to duty," he refused to go quietly...
...The letter asked "if the American Red Cross is going to take the responsibility before history for this mutilation of one of the most beloved literary monuments in the world or will it take steps, thoughtfully and considerately, to correct this infringement of a special and temporary program on general and permanent public and historical interest...
...Mrs...
...with the odds right now in his favor...
...He has industriously cultivated the real seat of political power in the state, the courthouse gangs in middle and south Georgia...
...The State Capitol began to buzz with rumors that Griffin was looking for someone to run against Vandiver...
...Some 2.5 million persons have approximately $1.7 billion on deposit in the system, which last year showed a $6.5-million profit...
...He was "right" on segregation, the county unit system, and suppression of the AFL-CIO...
...Senator George, for example, was kept in Washington for many years after his own state organization had dissolved...
...Members of the Thoreau Society are wary of the "20-year plan...
...At the same time, the bond interest rise would enable the system to contribute all the more to reducing the post-office deficit...
...The commissioners have agreed to halt work on a 100-foot flat-top concrete bathhouse until the Society has drawn up a list of 25 historians, naturalists and specialists in woodland to advise on preservation of the pond...
...Vandiver and his supporters (not identified) have been his targets...
...on February 26, Deputy Postmaster General Maurice H. Stans said: "The Department urges enactment of this [liquidation] bill on the grounds that the need for the system no longer seems to exist...
...As late as 1956, Postmaster General Summerfield advocated legislation to permit investment of the system's present 5-per-cent cash-reserve fund so as to swell income...
...Its Save Walden Committee has requested Fisher to look into the exact provisions of the 1922 deed under which the area became a public reservation, and request the commissioners to halt further alterations in the property...
...Vandiver maintains his position as a much-injured party, and wants to talk about the "issues": race, civil rights, school segregation, and the Supreme Court...
...Italics supplied...
...Talmadge's spot in the Senate is secure for many years...
...And now his independence has reached full flower...
...One school of thought is that he'll take on Senator Russell in 1962, but this is not getting many takers...
...Undaunted, Griffin has kept up his succession of removals...
...Yet today the Postmaster General—who is prepared to raise rates on ordinary mail to cover his deficit—urges the end of a money-making unit whose scope he wanted to expand only yesterday...
...An open fight is very doubtful...
...The Thoreau Society, which is leading the fight for tradition, says it has nothing against more swimming at Walden Pond, but it is willing to go to court to restore what it considers to be damage done in the building of a new beach there by the Middlesex County commissioners...
...Instead, they quote from the Hoover Commission's 1955 report on "Business Enterprises," which recommends liquidation of the system for the following reasons: "(a) The demonstrated lack of interest by bankless communities, (b) the ample security of guaranteed bank and savings-and-loan deposits, (c) the higher interest rates on savings offered by numerous private institutions, (d) the higher interest payable on Government savings bonds, (e) the statements quoted above [opposing the system] of the Comptroller General, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Postmaster General, (f) the expense to the Government in operating the system, and (g) the burdens of responsibility on the Government as a result of conducting a $2-billion savings bank...
...The organization promised to take care of things while the chief was gone...
...The major speculation around town is about what he wants for himself...
...But Talmadge had reckoned without Marvin Griffin...
...Then, with no warning, Governor Griffin shattered the political calm...
...Bankers attempt to pass this off as "taking money from one pocket and putting it in another...
...even if his power in state political life were to evaporate, he would not be turned out of his Senate seat...
...Nobody is paying any attention to Lawson, whose job as Highway Commissioner gave him considerable political influence in his own right by way of his contact with the county organizations...
...the doublecross is not unknown in Georgia politics...
...in the nine-man primary in 1954, the organization passed the word very late in the campaign that "Griffin is the man...
...The controversy boils down to this: Shall the public interest be served by the opening of a new beach on the shore of Walden Pond, or shall the site of Thoreau's hut be "restored" to its pristine state of the year 1845, when it was occupied...
...Although done under cover, the endorsement was enough...
...One of the charms of Walden has been its rural setting...
...The pressure of public swimming made it necessary to set apart a place where the children could be taught, but they didn't have to take down the whole hillside...
...Always outspoken, he has reached new heights (according to his supporters...
...Since then his relations with his mentor seem to have been cordial...
...The first to offer himself was Revenue Commissioner T. V. Williams, whose availability evaporated in the wake of the disclosure of the "voluntary" enforcement fund he had received as a gift from the wholesale liquor dealers...
...Concord Citizens Rally To Save Walden Pond By Ralph W Porter Concord, Mass...
...House Resolution 5883, already recommended by the Post Office and Civil Service Committee, would give the Administration authority to liquidate the system when either its deposits have shrunk to less than a billion dollars for a 30-day period, or the Postmaster General has determined that the costs during any fiscal year have exceeded the profit...
...Hosmer says she would like to see the area turned over to the Massachusetts Department of Natural ReGriffin Plays sources...
...The authors of the report to Congress, therefore, must have been fully acquainted with the main burden of its argument: "The decline in the 1930s of bank interest rates on savings deposits below the Postal Savings rate provided a new basis of criticism of the Postal Savings System as an institution directly in competition with private banks...
...Washington observers insist that Postmaster General Arthur E. Sum-merfield would soon find ways and means of proving the system unprofitable...
...Since 1913, it has totaled well over $200 million, and in this period the system has been in the black every year except one...
...The biggest question is how Talmadge will react to Griffin's challenge...
...Law-son is personally an attractive, honest and relatively efficient public servant, although Georgia's highways are a national disgrace...
...I am all for the beach," she says, noting that the Red Cross conducts swimming classes there for children...
...Piously declaring war on administrative "dead-wood," he made a number of removals from the state payroll, concentrating on the National Guard...
...Griffin, however, is fooling nobody...
...But other state bosses, like Huey Long, Harry Byrd and Georgia's own Tom Watson, had been able to control their home machines while in the Senate, and the lure of the toga took Talmadge away...
...He had some solid assets: a magic name, exceptional political skill, considerable administrative ability, and real intelligence...
...The state's unchallenged kingpin when he took the Senate seat, he now sees his machine split and Governor Marvin Griffin emerging as a potential rival for his position as boss...
...Private banks have been seeking elimination of Postal Savings for years...
...The authors of the final report to Congress failed to mention the "competitive" argument, obviously for fear that liquidation would be doomed if the public knew how private bankers were to profit from it...
...This had to be done, lie insists, to make room for a hairpin road leading from the highway down to the waterfront which an ambulance could use...
...If they refuse, Fisher has been asked to seek a court injunction to stop the work...
...Most observers expect that Talmadge will make a strong undercover fight against Griffin and Lawson...
...The Talmadge name is usually considered unbeatable in Georgia, but he has been out of the Governor's chair for two and a half years, and out of the state for seven months...
...Brennan plans to reconstruct the hut Thoreau built on the site discovered several years ago by Roland Robbins, archaeologist of Lincoln, Massachusetts...
...Present Day Banking 1954, official publication of the American Bankers Association, made this revealing argument: "Discontinuance of Postal Savings should increase Government revenue, because all banks are Federal taxpayers and it is expected that most postal deposits would be placed in banks...
...At a recent meeting, the Society secured the services of attorney Frederick G. Fisher Jr., of the Boston law firm of Hale and Dorr...
...Herbert B. Hosmer of Concord, vice-president of the Thoreau Society, chairman of the Save Walden Committee, and a Red Cross board member, made it plain that the Society fully approves a new swimming beach...
...Such a road already exists, however, on the beach that is a short distance from the new one...
...He owes his office to Talmadge...
...Griffin won a comfortable majority of the county-unit votes, despite the fact that his share of the popular vote was only about 30 per cent...
...When Vandiver refused to speak at an armory dedication because the Governor had "horned in" and insisted on attending the party, Griffin sarcastically remarked that "if he [Vandiver] was through using my army, I'd like it back again...
...Griffin Plays While Talmadge Is Away By Charles O. Lerche Jr...
...Incidentally, Williams has now closed all the wholesalers for "flagrant violations" of the law, which, as the Atlanta newspapers pointed out, he wasn't so concerned about when they were giving him the fund...
...This action was taken after the County commissioners stated that the cutting and bulldozing was done at the request of the Red Cross's Concord chapter for its swimming instruction program...
...It is one of the great Congressional enactments...
...Forces in the town that want the site preserved "in its natural state" are lining up against the "improvement" moves...
...he is quarreling openly with the Talmadge machine over the succession to the executive chair...
...Griffin is taking his self-appointment as kingmaker quite seriously and is overtly bucking Talmadge...
...they are not a breed to bite the hand that feeds their political futures...
...are watching the fight's development with ill-concealed amusement...
...True, some doubts were expressed around Atlanta about the wisdom of "Hummon" going way off to Washington and leaving only the hired help to mind his store...
...Originally, they note, the Administration sought passage of a bill which would have made liquidation mandatory in 30 days...
...During World War II] Postal Savings deposits continued to increase at an accelerated rate...
...his lack of sophistication conceals a burning ambition and political shrewdness...
...But another section of the Hoover Report is rarely quoted...
...Talmadge is weaker now than he was two years ago, and Griffin is incomparably stronger...
...The "anti-Talmadge faction" in the state had been dissolved, and the state's whole power structure headed up in his organization...
...Savings which had taken flight to the Postal Savings System during the banking crisis remained there because of the higher interest [2 per cent] and continued to show a moderate rate of increase...
...Seeing the ruling group start hatcheting each other is a welcome change from the usual diet of "the Georgia way of life" that forms the staple of political discourse in the state...
...The difference between the interest the system receives from bonds and that which it pays to depositors, plus its operating costs, is the profit...
...Italics supplied...
...This, he maintained, would increase earnings by "approximately $2 million per annum...
...Talmadge rose to the top while still in his late thirties...
...When Republican President William Howard Taft signed the Postal Savings Bill into law on June 25, 1910, he said: "I am as pleased as Punch...
...his critics would use another word) in dealing with his favorite subjects of race, states' rights, and the Supreme Court...
...Thomas B. Brennan, chairman of the Middlesex County commissioners, admitted that some 200 trees have been felled since building began...
...In 1955, this profit amounted to $10 million...
...Yet the Government is borrowing money from Postal Savings at the rock-bottom rate of 2 per cent, and would have to pay much more if it were abolished...
...He has concluded an alliance with the influential Roy Harris, who backed another candidate for Governor and was inclined to be critical at first...
...Its cover bears the notation, "IMPORTANT: This is a study made by a task force for the Commission's use...
...On the other hand, if Postal Savings is eliminated, the taxpayer will not only have to make up the profit thus lost—in excess of $6.5 million last year—but he will have to pay increased interest on the money the Government will now have to borrow elsewhere...
...Atlanta The informal opening of the Gubernatorial campaign in Georgia—a good 14 months before the primary—has raised some questions about the political future of Senator Herman Talmadge...
...If he loses, however (and it is by no means impossible that Griffin will pull off his coup), the most likely outcome would be a compromise whereby Griffin would play his role in state politics without interfering with Talmadge's position on the national scene...
...This ancient New England town is up in arms over the onslaught of axes and bulldozers which destroyed hundreds of lofty trees that once shaded the shores of Walden Pond...
...He is relatively mild on racial questions, and in general would under normal circumstances make a fairly strong candidate...
...since 1953 they have redoubled their efforts...
...Chapter 499 of the Acts of 1922 gave the Middlesex County commissioners full power and authority to "care for, protect, and maintain the Walden Pond state reservation in behalf of the Commonwealth...
...they can see where it could take away the natural setting which visitors from all over the world come to see...
...With Williams killed off, the Griffin organization found another man willing to make the run, State Highway Commissioner Roger Lawson...
...It creates an epoch...
...Finally, in 1952 a survey of the system made by the General Accounting Office [said that] inasmuch as the prevailing rate of interest paid on most savings accounts is lower than that paid by the Postal Savings System, a condition that is the reverse of that in 1910, the Postal Savings System is now competitive ivith private and commercial savings facilities...
...Mrs...
...Administration officials do not use such bald arguments...
...It scares them, they say...
...In fact, in a letter to Representative Tom Murray (D.-Tenn...
...More likely is a hope that, with Lawson in the chair from 1958 to 1962...
...What has distressed and alarmed citizens, she says, is the wholesale bulldozing of the hillside between the main road and the waterfront...
...The Governor is a puzzling character...
...Townsfolk and lovers of tradition everywhere resent this new invasion of modernity into a region whose peaceful serenity was made famous by Henry David Thoreau...
...According to a minority report signed by seven members of the House Post Office Committee, this "could well be a maximum of $25.5 million...
...Instead he accused the Governor of dismissing him only because he was supporting Vandiver...
...Griffin and his personal clique have been capitalizing on the political potentialities of the Governorship all that time...
...Griffin could come back as Governor in the latter year (Georgia's constitution prohibits only successive Gubernatorial terms, but places no limit on the number of terms a man can serve...
...It does so by reinvesting its deposits in Government bonds that pay more than 2 per cent...
...With the Senator in Washington, though, he has become another man...
...Titled "Staff Study on Business Enterprises Outside the Department of Defense," it was published a month after the report to Congress...
...With his candidate located, Griffin moved against Vandiver...
...Opponents of Postal Savings are likewise embarassed by the fact that it is one of the few Government agencies actually making money...
...His election to the Senate seemed an appropriate next step in his career (some of his Southern supporters are seeing him as Presidential timber either in 1960 or 1964), and there was no apparent reason why he shouldn't leave the state...
...Now the battle is out in the open...
...Vandiver, confident of election, had delayed the announcement of his candidacy...
...The Society has asked the American National Red Cross to throw its weight behind the demand for restoration...
...County officials, however grateful they may be to Talmadge for past favors, are now beholden to Griffin for state funds for highways, schools and welfare...
...Atlantans, deprived of anv real role in settling the dispute in spite of their great stake in it...
...NATIONAL REPORTS Postal Savings End to Benefit Banks By Sibley S. Morrill Amid all its talk about the Post Office deficit, the Administration appears bent on turning a billion dollars over to private banks, at a cost of $30 million a year, by abolishing the Postal Savings System...
...Brennan says the commissioners plan to replace trees and grass in the fall as part of a 20-year program...
...Is this the difference between "modern Republicanism" and the old-fashioned kind...
...So far the Senator hasn't struck back openly...
...Up to a few weeks ago, it seemed a sure thing that Lieutenant Governor Ernest Vandiver would win nomination and election with no opposition...
...This is particularly true now that the interest rate on Government bonds has been raised to a maximum of 3% per cent...
...Senators smiled on him, and Georgia's important Association of County Commissioners was said to be in his corner...
Vol. 40 • August 1957 • No. 33
