THE WEEK IN REVIEW
THE WEEK IN REVIEW ADISPATCH from San Francisco to The Progressive as the historic conference of the United Nations entered its 4th week summarized the situation at mid-week in these...
...Deepening Rift On Poland A report carried by the Chicago Tribune that Marshal Stalin had written sharply to Prime Minister Churchill and President Truman regarding the controversy over Poland created a national stir...
...Violence...
...Truman that he "doubted" the possibility of cooperation between Russia and the United States...
...The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, largely ineffectual thus far, was bobbing around in the news this week...
...Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden took a more promising view of conference progress...
...The trouble is that the chairmanships of the committees have been distributed as if they were badges of the Legion of Honor...
...UNRRA...
...Organized labor has been sharply critical of Government estimates of cutbacks and unemployment...
...Red Tape...
...Preliminary compromise formulas were being worked out this week in an effort to reach an early settlement on these outstanding issues...
...The conference has got itself bogged down on procedure," Miss Wilkinson declared...
...Sens...
...In New York Herbert Hoover recommended that authority over American relief supplies for Europe be transferred to the War Department if UNRRA did not disentangle itself from "power politics" and start foodstuffs flowing to Europe...
...Elmer Davis, OWI chief, said the policy had been inaugurated to keep the Germans from getting the idea that the U. S. was divided on policy to be followed in Germany...
...Wayne Morse, Oregon Republican, lashed out last week at the censorship ban imposed by the Army and the Office of War Information in Germany, asserting that he was "opposed to the adoption of fascist devices in governing conquered fascist countries...
...Another dispatch to The Progressive, from a sage and seasoned American correspondent, expressed the conviction that Anglo-American-Soviet relations were better before San Francisco than they are now...
...and the dispute over trusteeships for strategic areas and colonial peoples acquired by the victorious nations, such as proposed American acquisition of Pacific bases seized from Japan...
...Warning From A Delegate Meanwhile, delegates to the conference itself continued to wrestle with the details of organization...
...Dispatches from U. S. correspondents indicate that the blackout of news in areas of Germany occupied by the Russians is almost as complete as when the Nazis were in control, while many controls of a non-military character are still invoked by Anglo-American military officials who seem to have developed a permanent habit of issuing censorship orders...
...Pre-war freedom in seeking jobs will be restored to some workers, but general removal of wartime controls will not be ordered until Japan is defeated...
...He absolved Administrator Herbert Lehman, saying that the latter was being "hampered by politics...
...The Senate this week gave unanimous approval to a major 2-point Rural Electrification Administration program which authorizes appropriations of $520,000,000 for REA projects and reestablishes the REA as an independent agency...
...5. There will be a few new automobiles in 6 to 9 months, but no volume production for many months afterward...
...Soviet Russia is determined to build her own security first, regardless of all public pronouncements on collective security...
...7. The War Production Board has flashed the green light to manufacturers to resume production of a variety of civilian items provided they can get the materials and manpower...
...Philip Murray, president of the CIO, for instance, predicted last week that cutbacks and cancellations of war production "will be considerably deeper than officially stated...
...THE WEEK IN REVIEW ADISPATCH from San Francisco to The Progressive as the historic conference of the United Nations entered its 4th week summarized the situation at mid-week in these words: "Conference wrangling on details is misleading...
...Most informed observers knew that one big reason for McKellar's surrender was the realization that Lilienthal has the militant support of most of the public and the press in Tennessee...
...Morse dismissed Davis' "excuses and rationalizations" as "most unconvincing...
...The Tribune story, on which the question and answer were based, did not make the statement in quite the way implied by the State Department...
...There will be no general lowering of taxes, but some adjustments will be made to speed tax refunds to business and provide assistance for small companies during the change-over period...
...I favor firm controls over Germany," he said, "but not the adoption of dictatorial methods which violate the principles in defense of which we are fighting this war...
...The official order banned all American newspapers, magazines, and books in Germany...
...2. Food shortages and controls will be maintained...
...Among the developments projected by Vinson and other Federal officials were these: 1. A million and a half workers will lose their jobs within the next 6 months, and 3,000,000 more workers will be out of their present jobs in the 6 months following...
...Even a well meaning member of the League of Women Voters can appreciate the fact that the objectives of both Powers have not much to do with international organization designed to preserve a just peace...
...Shortages of trucks, parts, tires, gasoline, and manpower will continue to limit store deliveries...
...The circulation of American papers and periodicals would be a great demonstration to the German people of the vigor and strength of democracy in action, Morse declared...
...Stopping off in Washington enroute to London, Eden conferred with President Truman and emerged from the White House to report that the San Francisco conference was not discussed "because it seems to be getting along very well under the able guidance of Secretary of State Stettin-ius...
...Henrik Shipstead, Minnesota Republican, won his fight for revamping the agency by getting Senate acceptance of his amendment to take the REA out of the Department of Agriculture and restore it to its former independent status...
...Despite the use of voting machines Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, N. J., and his entire slate of city commissioners were swept back into office by a 3 to 1 margin in the municipal election...
...9. There will be gradual relaxation of manpower controls in all areas except those where labor is scarce...
...Included in the total were 15 shooting attacks, one attempted dynamiting, 3 arson cases, and 5 threatening visits...
...The War Relocation Authority reported to Ickes that its records from January through April showed no suspects brought to trial in any of the 15 incidents classified as shooting attempts, all of them occurring in rural areas of California * * * REA Program...
...the clash over fitting regional arrangements, such as the inter-American system of the Western Hemisphere, into the worldwide system of the United Nations...
...Freedom of the press is still snarled in reams of red tape in Europe...
...The patronage-hungry Senators surrendered with poor grace, issuing a statement in which they accused Lilienthal of "unscrupulous double-dealing...
...Clothing supplies will remain scarce...
...They said the TVA chief was still "personally and politically obnoxious, offensive, and objectionable to each of us," but they were giving up the fight against him in order not to buck President Truman...
...Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes disclosed this week that 24 incidents of violence or open intimidation directed against persons of Japanese ancestry returning to California, took place in the past 4 months...
...Most of the committees are moving far too slowly...
...Among the items are tools and equipment for public utilities, heating, and farms...
...4. The ban on horse-racing and the midnight curfew have been repealed...
...6. Some radios may be available within a year, but present plans indicate that very few will be made for civilians...
...The Great Powers have agreed not to widen membership of the security council, or to permit any amendment which would deprive one of the Big 5 of its veto power over the major activities of the rest of the world organization...
...Unless the situation is cleared up, the conference •will fail...
...Names And Notes In The News Censorship...
...shotguns, toys, sun-glasses, musical instruments...
...As for the 3rd great Power—the United States —her plight is the most discouraging of all, for America seems not to have any foreign policy at all...
...Fred M. Vinson, director of War Mobilization and Reconversion, revealed the general outlines of what the nation might expect during the next 12 months or so, but nowhere in his comments were there any indications that a forward-looking master plan for reconversion was in the making...
...The Tribune story said Stalin had declared frankly in his note to Churchill that there is no possibility of cooperation between Great Britain and Russia and that the Red leader warned in his note to Mr...
...Said Grew: "In reply to a question, the Acting Secretary of State said that he knows of no communication from Marshal Stalin which would confirm a press report that there is no possibility of cooperation between the Soviet Union and her Western Allies...
...Ellen Wilkinson, British delegate who, with leading British and Soviet delegates, has now left San Francisco for good, warned the conference before she left that it may fail if it does not extricate itself from the tangled web of procedure...
...Conference attention during the past week was focused on 3 major issues: the attempt of the small and medium nations to break the stranglehold which the Big 5—Britain, the U. S., Russia, China, and France— would have over the security council of the proposed world organization...
...Nylons and silk stockings cannot be expected in any large quantities "until well after" Japan is defeated...
...This dispatch was filed a full 24 hours before reports from Washington disclosed a deepening rift over the Polish issue and Foreign Economic Administrator Leo T. Crowley abruptly announced a cut of Lend-Lease aid to Russia through Europe, hastening to point out that this action was necessary "so that American resources will be distributed in such a way as to make the utmost possible contribution to victory in the major war which we have still to win...
...This wrangling conceals a far deeper antagonism than either the delegates or the press care to discuss out loud...
...Food supplies will be 10 per cent less than in 1944...
...Hague...
...8. Price and rationing controls will be continued, as will wage stabilization policies...
...Home-Front Prospects The end of the war in Europe has intensified the need for a bold, clear-cut plan of reconversion and reemployment, but the nation has still only a patchwork of temporary expedients...
...Then it will level off at about two-thirds of the current rate...
...3. Motorists who hold A-cards will get 9 instead of 8 gallons of gasoline a month...
...In 3 months, war production will be cut 10 to 15 per cent from current levels...
...Great Britain's driving purpose is to preserve and extend the Empire...
...Whatever the specific terms of the Stalin notes to Churchill and Truman, there could be little doubt that the Soviet Union has no intention of backing down on Poland, or of telling us fully and frankly the nature of the charges lodged against the 16 Polish underground leaders who were arrested after being invited to diplomatic negotiations in Russia...
...Meanwhile, Lehman himself declared that UNRRA is not authorized to aid Germany and would send no food to that country...
...Acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew would not comment officially on the story, but he did issue a statement denying the report that Stalin had all but washed his hands of his Anglo-American Allies...
...Surrender...
...On one issue the outcome was clear: The smaller and medium nations have definitely lost their battle for a greater voice in the councils of the proposed world organization...
...Kenneth McKellar and Tom Stewart, Tennessee Democrats, this week abandoned their fight against confirmation of David E. Lilienthal as TVA director...
Vol. 9 • May 1945 • No. 21
