THE WEEK IN REVIEW
THE WEEK IN REVIEW PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S week was packed. He appointed James F. Byrnes as Secretary of State. He sent the San Francisco Charter to the Senate for ratification. He accepted Secretary of...
...When the bill went back to the House for concurrence, a group of Southern Democrats blocked action on it...
...By certifying that local slaughterers are operating under sanitary conditions...
...We British working with you know from first hand experience that this is so...
...Cocktails...
...The American people are in the pleasant predicament of having to learn to live 50 per cent better than they have ever lived before...
...In his Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion report, Vinson urged Federal agencies and business to hasten plans for reconversion so that they will be prepared if Japan falls quickly...
...Many of these scientists, now in Allied custody, believe that within 50-100 years man will be able to conquer gravity and harness the rays of the sun...
...Vinson proposed lifting the national minimum wage to 50 cents an hour...
...He declared that the country's "vast reservoir of liquid assets"—230 billions—could be a "self-starter" for our postwar economy...
...We were finished and you came along and gave us a helping hand...
...He added that Britain would have "to get out of that position" because it does not want to be "dependent upon anyone...
...He accepted Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius' resignation and appointed him United States representative on the Security Council and chairman of the U. S. delegation in the United Nations General Assembly...
...After much press speculation about his stand, Sen...
...A just and lasting peace cannot be attained by diplomatic agreement alone, or by military cooperation alone...
...Another prediction of the German scientists is that within the next 5-10 years rockets will carry a ton of mail across the Atlantic in 40 minutes and make regular passenger runs by 1960-'70...
...As this issue went to press, the fate of the Fair Employment Practices Commission, which starts this fiscal year with no funds, and whose appropriation is a rider to the War Agencies Appropriations bill, was still uncertain—and doubtful...
...He said that defeat of the Axis was due to its 2 "great mistakes": Germany's attack on Russia and Japan's attack on the United States...
...It is a tremendous debt that we can never repay...
...He will go with Truman to the Big 3 meeting near Berlin this month...
...more meat can be moved in interstate commerce and purchased by the Army, thus relaxing present Federal inspection requirements...
...The Associated Press reported from San Francisco that as many important tangles between Security Conference delegates were straightened out over cocktails as there were over conference tables...
...After a 3-day Senate filibuster, led by reactionary Sen...
...Only A First Step' In a dramatic, highly staged setting, Hollywood-like with its spotlights, newsreels, and cameramen, representatives of 50 nations this week signed the San Francisco Charter, fruit of 9 weeks work...
...Burton K. Wheeler, Montana Democrat, announced that he would probably vote for the Charter...
...Nazi Tricks...
...In his new job Anderson will have more authority than his predecessor, Claude Wickard, for President Truman has placed under Anderson the War Food Administration—which a House subcommittee last week accused of wasting millions of dollars through inefficient purchase and storage of food...
...We all have to recognize—no matter how great our strength—that we must deny ourselves the license to do always as we please," the President said...
...Unless we are all willing to pay that price, no organization for world peace can accomplish its purpose...
...Byrnes, like Cordell Hull before him, has had little previous experience in foreign affairs, other than accompanying the late President Roosevelt to the Yalta conference...
...Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and by social injustice...
...Paying tribute to officers and men of the U. S. Army, Monty declared, "They have been magnificent...
...Bounty...
...The guiding principle of justice, Truman said, must be carried out "not by words alone, but by continued concrete acts of good will...
...I make that statement as one who intends to support the Charter brought back from San Francisco," Sen...
...While he stressed the urgency of the current armaments program, Vinson said that the drop in munitions production, with increases in unemployment, will be rapid from now on...
...Warning...
...Rejection...
...Vandenberg said he would support the Charter "in the deep conviction that the alternative is physical and moral chaos in many weary places of the earth...
...Robert M. La Follette, Jr., Wisconsin Progressive, warned that any short-cutting of committee procedure would hurt the cause of those who want the charter ratified...
...The new OPA measure, a compromise which threw out the Wherry and Dirksen amendments, also provides that OPA prices must allow processors of beef, lamb, and pork a reasonable profit...
...Barkley's proposal for a $250,000 FEPC appropriation instead of the $599,000 requested...
...He said that inferior goods were made in Germany, stamped "Made In America," and sold to the South Americans...
...It is rather the duty of these powerful nations to assume the responsibility for leadership toward a world of peace...
...Not ever...
...The Office of Price Administration announced that 2,500,000 automobile tires will be allotted in July for B and C ration card holders...
...La Follette said...
...Pope Pius XII warned this week that "strong, violent reaction" may sweep through war devastated countries and that men of judgment and leadership "should protect the masses against themselves...
...Speaking to a group of American Army officers, Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery last week declared that Britain was finished in 1941 and could not have survived had it not been for America...
...Ration...
...Then the Nazis would follow up with a better product marked, "Made In Germany...
...That is the price which each nation will have to pay for world peace...
...And what a reasonable price that is...
...Vinson's Domestic Charter In a domestic report, War Mobilizer Fred M. Vinson outlined a "postwar economic charter for a steadily rising American living standard," with recommendations for modernized tax laws, aids for small business, labor, and farmers, an anti-monopoly program, expanded social security programs, and public works...
...They heard, and applauded, President Truman's declaration at the concluding session that the Charter was "only a first step" to a lasting peace...
...Tom Connally, Texas Democrat, and Arthur H. Vandenberg, Michigan Republican, the 2 Senate members of the American delegation at San Francisco, reported back to their colleagues this week with speeches urging prompt ratification...
...Only the defeatist can scoff at this inescapable fact that we must build our economy on that basis...
...Sens...
...Food And OPA All the speeches, editorials, conflicting explanations, and predictions have not yet improved the meat situation for a nation irritated by meat shortages and the appalling extent of black markets...
...No one nation, no regional group, can or should expect any special privilege which harms any other nation...
...Names And Notes In The News Things to Come...
...One scientist predicted that the sun's rays could be converted into electrical energy and, by radio control, used to kill human beings instantly, kindle forests, and wipe out cities...
...In speaking against a suggested resolution that would have brought the Charter before the Senate without hearings, Sen...
...Alben Barkley, Kentucky Democrat and majority leader, expressed hope that committee and floor hearings would require no more than 2 weeks each...
...In a campaign speech to British voters Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, "We are living largely on the bounty of the United States who are lending us an enormous sum of money without interest in the shape of goods and food we need...
...The FEPC is the agency set up by the late President, and recently endorsed by Truman, to eliminate racial or religious prejudice by employers...
...He addressed the concluding session of the San Francisco conference...
...But they have no right to dominate the world...
...The German Communist Party issued a manifesto in which it rejected a soviet system for Germany and came out for a coalition parliamentary government and the development of free enterprise and the profit system...
...Bob Warns Against Short Cuts The drive was on ("I want to say to the United States: do it first," President Truman urged) in the Senate for early confirmation of the San Francisco Charter, on which hearings before the Foreign Relations Committee will begin July 9. Associated Press polls show a total of 67 Senators, more than the required two-thirds, who will vote for the Charter, and so far there is no indication of organized opposition...
...Byrnes is a regular party man with long political experience—whose hopes for the 1944 Democratic Vice Presidential nomination were lost to his friend, Truman...
...Everywhere he was anything but silent...
...Under the new law extending OPA for one year, Anderson will have veto powers over OPA food orders and authority to permit unlimited slaughter of meat...
...Assistant Secretary of State William F. Clayton appeared before the Kilgore Committee investigating Nazi economic strategy to tell of Nazi trade tricks in South America...
...Meanwhile, Bowles announced that 750 extra OPA agents are cracking down on meat violations "with everything we have until the black market has been licked...
...As the new Secretary of Agriculture, Clinton P. Anderson, New Mexico Democrat, took his post this week, he promised to' improve the situation as quickly as possible but warned that there was no magic wand he could wave to increase the food supply...
...After the announcement, with the release of the President's smooth "Dear Ed" letter, of Stettinius' fate, the appointment of Byrnes, the 66 year old South Carolina Democrat, was no surprise...
...Congress, too, has increased Anderson's control over food by the amendments to the new OPA legislation, passed at the 11th hour last week and flown to the President in Missouri for signature...
...Filibuster On FEPC Congress this week completed action an a $38,620,-904,581 allotment for the War Department and a $1,-100,736,922 Labor-Federal Security Agencies bill, as well as the $3,300,000.000 deficiency bill providing funds for OPA, Lend-Lease, Navy, and other agencies...
...The deadly power and precision of future science predicted by the Nazi scientists who developed the flying bombs, would out-Wells H. G. Wells' visions and make the next war one of total annihilation...
...Chester Bowles, OPA Administrator, called the legislation "a good act...
...After America's entry into the war, he said, "victory was certain...
...The charter recognizes this fact, for it has provided for economic and social cooperation as well...
...If any nation would keep security for itself, it must be ready and willing to share security with all...
...Out of this conflict have come powerful military nations, now fully trained and equipped for war...
...Debt...
...Informed Capitol Hill observers predicted weeks ago that the important Secretary of State post would go to the former Director of War Mobilization, Supreme Court Justice, and Senator...
...Theodore Bilbo, Mississippi Democrat, the Senate adopted Sen...
...How high business men aim," Vinson said, "how resolutely they act will be an important factor in building a bridge from the present wartime peak to steady high levels of employment and production, with subsequent profit to all hands...
...Physically, he crossed the country, flying from the state of Washington, after a brief rest, to San Francisco, then home to Missouri, and finally back to Washington...
...A national income of 140-150 billion dollars, compared with 89 billion in 1939, is "imperative," Vinson said...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 28
