The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 109, Ed. 1 Monday, October 4, 1954 Page: 6 of 12
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t A THE ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS
b-A Abilene, Texas, Monday Morning, October 4 1934
/titling down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedi-
ence of Christ;—II. Cor. 10:5.
Thinking is creating with God, as thinking is writing with the
ready writer; and worlds are only leaves turned over in the
process of composition, about his throne. — Henry Ward
Beecher.
. HE REALLY MEANS IT
Secretary Talbott Goes to
Bat For Air Force Gripes
So It's Human After All
"And now a message of the utmost
importance to everyone . ..”
As television grows up from the blue
jeans and bobby-sox stage into long
skirts and upsweeps, she gets prettier
and has less character
The time was when, if lucky, you
could see some remarkable things. There
was one half-hour program which the
show's star spent in resigning his job and
bitterly listing his gripes against the sta-
tion personnel and sponsor.
There was the cherished moment at
the climax of a costumed murder mys-
tery when a fascinated audience, coast
to coast, saw a button fly off the hero’s
coat as he declaimed too vigorously for
his moth-eaten garb. Electrons marsh-
alled by the genius of mankind func-
tioned to perfection and the clatter as
the button rolled across the set was
faithfully reproduced across the nation.
Alas, the slipping necklines, the un-
moored petticoats, the disremembered
lines, the charming smiles aimed at the
wrong camera, the trembling hands
which spilled the sponsor’s beer. Gone.
Gone,
But not quite. •
Early morning viewers, the other
dawn, got in on a fantastic bit of human
drama.
When an 11-year-old voyager who had
hitched a boat ride to England, on 17
cents got back. TV naturally welcomed
him with a hero’s telecast.
In the course of it, the interviewer
asked him why he had gone away and
this time got the $64 answer.
“Grandmother threw a knife at me.”
the boy casually replied.
You could have heard a TV show’s rat-
ing drop until the boys mother recov-
ered enough to instinctively act like a
mother. She grabbed his arm and gave
it a good shaking. .
In TV today anyone acting like a hu-
man being is bound to bring forth a
shower of querulous memos as surely as
an advancing warm front brings forth
"general precipitation.”
* A boy acting like a boy and a mother
like a mother is worth about a gross of
pink memos and a quire of blue ones—
maybe even a snarling telephone call.
Television’s danger is the same one
which made radio as gossamer as a ghost.
The bumbling, stumbling, error-prone
human being is OUT. He says the right
things at the wrong time. Nothing must
keep life from shining flawlessly like
the enamel coat of the samples in a re-
frigerator commercial.
All young women are beautiful All
men are divided into good guys and bad
guys. All machines work when the but-
ton is pressed. Murders aren't messy All
clean cowboys, shaven detectives, curly-
haired juveniles and soft-spoken, hand-
some young men arise triumphant Life
is like that .. that simple
Maybe. Then again perhaps the ridicu-
lous Spike Jones obbligatos of the Hu-
man Symphony are what keeps folks
living each day as if it were a tremend-
ous adventure, makes them courageous
enough to keep their inferiorities caged
and to sustain the signs and shouts of
doom that engulf them.
The bov stowaway’s mother held a
press conference a few hours after the
telecast She explained carefully to the
pencil pushers that the knife was “only
a little rubber one ” Further, if she did
throw it, “it was all in fun.”
Mar the boy, the mother and the
grandmother live to ripe old ages and
make a tremendous fortune manufactur-
ing little rubber knives which will be
sold in the dime stores Somehow they
should be rewarded. After all those
hours of squinting at that faultless, lumi-
nous. balefully gleaming TV tube they’ve
given us evidence that there’s someone
alive in there.
"And now a pause for station morti-
fication."
Obsolescence of Arms
An old and grave dilemma which fac-
es our nation's military planners was
once again brought into focus by two
recent news reports.
In news report number one, the Brit-
ish Royal Air Force came out with its
wartime history which blames the Ger-
man air defeat on a blunder by Hitler’s
generals. It concludes that the Nazis
had aircraft designs which were better
than those of the Allies, but the Luft-
waffe high command failed to press their
development.
When World War II began, the Luft-
waffe’s stockpile of planes was the big-
gest and best in the world. But while
Britain, the U.S. and Russia went on to
newer designs, the Germans continued
to fight with their mass supply of old
ones. The planes which had won in
1940 were still expected to do so in 1943.
And this, to the RAF, was Germany’s fa-
tal error.
News report number two came from
the U. S. Naval Department which warns
that the U.S. fleet is in danger of “bloc
obsolescence" A basic problem, the Na-
vy declares, is that most of our present
fighting ships were built during World
War II and their useful lives will soon be
over. An example is the U S S. Missouri,
our best-known ship of the war, which on-
ly a few days ago was sent to our grow-
ing “mothball fleet.”
At present rate of expansion, the nav-
al power of Russia will begin outdating
our own by 1958—and will rank supreme
in the world in roughly another decade.
To prevent this from taking place, we
will have to build hundreds of ships in a
massive 10-year program costing $28,-
000.000,000.
These reports, taken together, point
up the vital question of just how far it is
safe to go in building up stockpiles of
weapons. The grave dilemma is this: A
nation that’s not well armed is an easy
prey to aggression. But a nation which
arms "to the teeth”—and stays that way
for years—is flirting with serious haz-
ards.
In building a massive arsenal, it may
fatally strain its basic economy, or be
lulled into false security Then when the
actual battle arrives, it may find that its
pile of equipment are suddenly out of
date.
The problem has never been greater
than it is in America today. It lies at
the very core of debates over size of our
Air Force and Navy Should we take the
planes of today and out them in mass
production so our Air Force becomes the
largest? Or would this result tomorrow
in an oversupply of inferior weapons?
And how should we rebuild our Navy—
en masse or a bit at a time?
The experts admit there are no safe
answers There also is no consolation in
the fact that our possible enemies are
faced with a similar problem For if
shooting starts, they will start it—which
means they can gear their arsenal build-
ing for definite times and locations.
The lesson learned from the Germans
is clear, and worthy of notice: that a
stockpile which grows too large is load-
ed with hidden dangers.
But we seem to have no other choice
but to keep our backlog of arms con-
stantly even or ahead in relation to those
of our possible foes. For it’s better to
have a gun that is old than it is to have
no gun at all.
MATTER OF FACT
OTHER VIEWPOINTS
Special Privileges for Vets
New York Herald Tribune:
It to difficult to reconcile President Eisen-
hower’s criticism of the latest veterans pen-
sion increase with his signature on the bill that
gives it effect. The measure (H. R. 9962) op-
posed by both the Veterans Administration
and the Bureau of Budget, raises by 5 per
cent pensions to veterans with permanent and
total non-service-connected disability and to
dependents of such veterans. The bill “is in-
consistent with the principles of our pension
system and tends to perpetuate inequities
Look to Canada
• Paso Times:
This is somethin? that really ought to
shock the American people: 1
Out of the Canadian finance minister’s of-
fice the other day came a story that to al-
most unbelievable to this era of deficits, sub,
sidies and behind-the-eight-ball operation of
governmental finances is checking his books
for the last fiscal year the finance official
makes the startling discovery that his budget-
ary surplus came to four times what had
born anticipated. Instead of $10 million to the
Mock. Canada had $45,797,0001
Such should bring back sweet memories in
this country. Particularly do we call to mind
the period during the late 1800s when this
country enjoyed similar miseries of solvency
Rs great was the flow of cash to Treasury
coffers (a fact that R created e strain on
banks and was to a large extent responsible
for development of the modern banking sys-
tern.
Maybe the Conafomo enn dhow w haw to
at reese
' Always Hoping
Gamy Stuff From Recent Book
By JOSEPH a STEWART ALSOP
WASHINGTON. - Rewriting his-
tory with a special bias is getting
to be so common, nowadays, that
no one worries much about it any
more. Every so often, however, a
rewrite comes along that is really
too gamy aad harmful to pass un-
challenged.
Such is "The Hydrogen Bomb"
by James R. Shepley and Clay
Blair, Jr. This extraordinary at-
tack on the American scientific
community has already been pub-
lished in a national magazine. It to
said lobe due for a wide reader-
ship But before you accept the
Shepley-Blair thesis that most
American scientists are soft to-
wards communism, if not worse,
just give a few minutes’ thought to
the following series of startling
contrasts
THE BOOK, page 26: “For a
man who once claimed political
naivete, 'Dr. J. Robert) Oppen-
heimer demonstrated 1 remarkable
talent for getting himself involved
in 50 or more political jobs.”
THE FACTS: The Gray board
specifically found that Dr. Oppen-
bheimer never courted government
employment. "Dr. Oppenheimer.”
wrote Gordon Gray, "served his
country because it sought him.”
THE BOOK, page 40: “Because
Oppenheimer did not like (Dr. Ed-
ward Teller) personally ... Teller
was denied a specific job in con-
nection with the development of
the atmoic bomb "
, THE FACTS: At Lee Alamos in
wartime. Teller served in the Theo-
retical Division under the respected
Dr. Hans Bethe. Bethe testified un-
der oath that Teller arbitrarily re-
fused to work “on the main line"
of war-time atomic research, and
that he-Bethe, not Oppenheimer
— was therefore forced to give Tell-
er another assignment.
THE BOOK, page 48: "Soon
after the war Oppenheimer propos-
ed abandonment of (the Lee Ala
mos) laboratory... aad was
widely quetad as suggesting that
the U. S. ’give Los Alamos back
to the Indians'."
THE FACTS: On the specific
ground that this was the only way
to hold the laboratory together. Op-
penheimer infuriated his fellow,
scientists by initially supporting
the May-Johnson bill for military
control of the atom. The phrase
quoted is torn, all bleeding, from
the context of a post-war discus-
sion about transferring the great
laboratory to a different perma-
nent site, where the scientists
would be more comfortable in the
end. Oppenheimer opposed the
transfer because he thought it
would do more harm than good
THE BOOK, page 51 "Turning
to another goal, Oppenheimer was
the dominant author of the
lieve this book, you have to believe
that the following men were either
plotters or dupes: President Eisen-
hower’s Ambassador to Germany,
Dr. James Bryant Conant; the
President’s chief scientific adviser.
Dr. Lee Dubridge: Adm. Lewis
Strauss’s chief scientific advisor.
Dr. I. I. Rabi; two leading busi-
nessmen. Hartley Rowe and Oliver
Buckley; two other prominent
scientists. Enrico Formi and Cyril
Smith: and of course the grand
scientific Svengali, Dr. Oppenheim-
er.
1946 Acheson-Lilienthal Plan
international atomic control.
for
As
originally written, the plan
did not deny the Soviets the veto
power."
THE FACTS The Acheson-Lilien-
that Plan contained no provisions
that would have given the Soviets a
veto. Nonetheless. Oppenheimer
publicly suggested adding a spe-
cific provision to guard against any
Soviet attempt to create a veto
where none existed. This he did
shortly before Bernard M Baruch
took over the control problem. He
then worked closely with Baruch
and with Baruch’s successor,
Gen Frederick Osborn. Gen. Os-
born testified as to the “hardness”
of Oppenheimer’s approach to the
Soviets, and Baruch offered to do
so.
Just a Sample
These excerpts from "The Hy-
drogen Bomb" were purposely se-
lected from statements about a sin-
gle individual within the narrow
space sf 25 pages. Incredibly
enough, they are a representative
sample. As Dr. Bethe has said,
"Listing all the untruths in this
book, would make another book."
No one who to Ml able to make
an independent check should rely
on any statement this book coo-
tains.
What is most false of all, how-
ever. to the theme or thesis of
the book, that there was a sinister
and evil plot behind the old debates
about the hydrogen bomb, the tee-
tical use of atomic weapons, and
continental air defense
The thesis to inherently ridicu-
tons, is the first place. In the case
of the hydrogen bomb, if you bo-
By DOUGLAS LARSEN
NEA Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON -(NEA) —The
other day Secretary of the Air
Force Harold E. Talbott strode
into his office waving a letter,
obviously in an advanced state of
irritation.
Despite a neat, conservative
business suit, a 'carefully-clipped
mustache and other marks of re-
strained dignity, Talbott still looks
like a tough guy with a temper
and his temper was showing at
ot a sergeant to Germany. Her
husband had gotten his transfer
orders and they had shipped aU
their possessions back to the
States and given up their house.
But his orders were suddenly can-
celled and the whole family had
to move into a hotel, at great ex-
pense.
Talbott sent a personal order
cancelling the cancellation, allow-
ing the sergeant to move on as
planned.
The Secretary has soaked up an
the moment awful lot of first-hand knowledge
tops everything," he about the gripes of airmen, offi-
tops ever, i ng, cers and wives from visits ^ close
to 200 bases. He has learned that
about 50 per cent of all the irrita-
“This L___
shouted, "Imagine this guy writ-
ing a letter saying that airmen
had no need to buy refrigerators
and toasters”
Aides bussed around him try ing
to soothe the ruffle.
“I tell you what I’m going to
do," he stormed. —I’m going to
denounce this guy by name in my .
next speech, and don’t think I’m
afraid to do it.”
Tabott had just come out of a
meeting on post exchange prob-
lems in which this letter from a
private merchandising outfit had
been read, complaining about un-
fair competition Talbott hit the
ceiling because it struck a raw
nerve. Trying to improve morale
and living conditions in his serv-
ice has become a fetish with him
He literally pounds the table
when he says, "We can build the
best airplanes in the world but
they’re only as good as the men
who maintain and fly them.”
"And I propose to do everything
possible to make the Air Force
a popular service and one that is
sought after by the best young
men in the country,” he adds.
This could be public relations
talk. But it happens that Talbott
is dead serious about morale and
is personally attacking the prob-
lem at all levels, as the govern-
ment expression goes.
Letters Prove It
One of Talbott’s aides opened
the right bottom drawer of the
Secretary’s desk "Read a few
of these and get an idea of some
of the problems he handles per-
sonally.” be said
The one on top was from a col-
ored lad who had been in a college
AF ROTC program, but who had
to drop out of school because of
finances. He had tried to enlist
in the Air Force but was having
difficulty in the regulations. Tal-
bott personally, eliminated the
technicality.
Another letter was from the wife
tions are of the type which the
service itself can cure, and has
done something about them.
Twice A Mouth
At an Air Force base in Ohio
he first heard an airman gripe
about always being busted at the
end of the month and running into
debt After collecting more evi-
dence on that complaint Talbott
ordered that all men in the eon-
ice be paid twice a month.
“I’m sure this’ll end the silly
business of having to stretch a
single pay check over a 30-day
period," he says.
At a reception at an AF base
in the west he overheard a moth-
’ er complain because her busband
was being transferred in the mid-
dle of her children’s school se-
mester. After a deeper look into
that one he has now ordered a
policy on all Air Force transfers
to avoid this conflict as much as
possible.
He has worked just as vigorous-
ly getting Congress to do its part
to improve life in the Air Force.
He has helped to still Congres-
sional complaints about extra
flight-pay. And be talked the leg-
islators into raising the re-enlist-
ment bonus from >1440 to $2000.
He s going to work on new leg-
islation of the same nature when
Congress comes back to town.
His big concern in this regard
to housing.
"Men's families have got to
have decent places to live and the
men in barracks have got to have
good, comfortable quarters if they
are going to want to stay in the
service,” he says.
As a parting shot he adds:
"And I bet when we get the fig-
ures we’ll show that the improve-
ments we have made in living
conditions have made the divorce
rate in the Air Force lower than .
in any service, too”
But it is not enough to say" that QUICK, QUIET MOVE
this kind of thing is just silly. The *
solemn presentation of this thesis
of the universal plot by two ex-
perienced Washington correspond-
ents is a grave warning signal A
slow poison endangers our society.
The poison is universal, know-
nothing suspicion and distrust. If
we do not soon take an antidote-
preferably an emetic—our once
generous and vigorous freedom
will end by freezing into s sort of
mindless catalopsy and impotent
conformity.—(New York Herald
Tribune Inc.)
Civil Defense Offices
Settle in Battle Creek
SOU’
An An
way ou
hatch
says 1
“This
The
Lt. Co
Seattle
7 Pt
By’
SAN
Seven
new o<
here t
Edw
Franci
ribs
of boy
day pt
Albert.
Lam
he ord
a "tar
the ch
The
gervel
while
the gu
in the
guests
The
dump!
In a
old gi
and b
boys b
ing on
aad anomalies," the President said as he
signed it for “humanitarian reasons.”
Veterans with service-connected disabilities
deserve the best the country can possibly give
them. And in fact Congress voted them as in-
crease in compensation at this last session.
But toe non-service-connected disability pen-
sion to something else again. It implies that
men and women who did their duty as cit-
izens. voluntarily or through the draft, and to
doing so were in no way injured, rate some
special kind of treatment Tins to a preposter-
ous theory in a democracy, especially in one
that boasts so large a proportion of veterans
among its citizens, and one that has so broad
a social security and welfare system as sure
The national veterans’ organizations reflect
credit neither on themselves nor on the vet-
erans they claim to represent as they lobby
for bigger and better privileges for everyone
who happens to have worn a uniform. Pen-
sions are only one aspect of this matter Free
hospitilization tor non-service-connected eases
to another Veterans’ preference to the Civil
Service to still end her. A little torn pressure
for “more gravy”: a little tone nonsense about
the toyshy of the American Civil Liberties
Union or the patriotism of the Girl Scouts: a
little more thoughtful attention to the respon-
sibilities and obligations of the veteran as a
eitizen—these would constitute a welcome and
beneficial change. -
GRIN AND BEAR IT
By Lichty
RUTH MILLETT
About People
The woman in the jewelry store
was returning the earrings her
husband had given her to mark
a wedding anniversary and care-
fully selecting something she
thought was "in better taste."
How can a woman be so certain
of her own good taste that any
time it differs from her husband's
she is sure that hers is good and
his to poor?
And bow can a wife be so in-
considerate of her husband's feel-
ings that she thinks he won’t be
hurt by her deciding that the gift
he chose for her to mark an an-
niversary isn't what she wanted?
“Feelings” Ahead at “Things”
How can a woman fail to see
that if she is so unappreciative sf
her husband’s gifts that she
rushes right downtown to find a
better bargain or something
“more suitable" that to time he
will grow to dread ever having
to buy her a gift or will de what
so many husbands do, simply
hand her a check or a bill and
say, "Ruy whatever you like "
How can a woman expect her
husband not to see that she is
more interested to ‘‘things” than
to his feelings for her if she is
willing to exchange the gift he
has picked out for her himself?
And finally — if it comes down
to a question of "taste "-whs to
showing the poorer “taste,” the
man who selects a gift that isn’t
quite right or fashionable, or the
woman who shows her lack of ap-
preciation for the gift by taking
it hurt to exchange it for some-
thing else? -(NEA Service, Inc.)
By KENNETH 0. GILMORE
NEA Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON -(NEA) —One
of the government’s vital agencies
has quickly and quietly slipped
out of town—to the surprise of
many Washington officials.
The Federal Civil Defense Ad
ministration has speedily com-
pleted a massive move from the
capital to new lodgings in the
Percy Jones Army Hospital at
Battle Creek, Mich.
More than a million pounds of
equipment was tracked 600 miles
to the new location to two weeks
The General Services Administra-
tion did the job for $160,000.
But the nation’s nerve center
for attack and disaster to present-
ly tn a state of mild confusion,
for a lot of unpacking still has to
be done
The exodus to Battle Creek
would not have been carried out
so hastily had not Congress waited
a trip to Mars science-fiction story
and the life of Davy Crockett,
filmed on location in Tennessee
All the legal tentacles have been
unloosened aad Dan Duryea to
new to San Francisco making 11
new installments to his China
Smith telefilm series Dan and
Producer Berate Tabakin are
working at top speed to complete
the first batch so he can report
to MGM for his starring role with
Barbara Stanwyck in The Ma-
rauders " Then bell start another
series of 11 home screen C. filers
A Beverly Hille psychiatrist. Lee
Guild tells it, told a famous TV
comic he was nuts and should
be in an institution instead of run-
ning around loose in front of the
cameras.
The comic's reply. “I'm funnier
this way."
Jack Benny says motion pictures
on TV are like furniture—either
early American ar old English
until the last minute before ap-
propriating funds for transfer.
But before the official vote was
tabulated, elaborate moving plans
were being readied. The FCDA
departed so suddenly that many
a red-faced beaucrat had to be
told the agency was no longer to
Washington.
KMs la Scheel
Around 270 employes decided to
stick with the FCDA and live at
Battle Creek. Settling these fam-
ilies in homes in time for the
youngsters to attend the opening
of school after Labor Day was a
major problem
An SOS was sent to the Battle
Creek Real Estate Board. The
area was combed for homes and
now meet of the strangers from
Washington are in suitable living
quarters
On the first day of business at
Battle Creek, the FCDA was called
on to handle an emergency. New
England had just been hit by a
devastating hurricane and Presi-
dent Eisenhower asked Val Peter-
son, PCD Administrator, to carry
out safety measures
Storm Takes Care Of
This meant long distance calls
to governors of all New England
states, assignment of additional
personnel to the storm area aad
preparation of detailed damage re-
ports The job was done at the cost
of some shattered nerves. Secre-
taries and switchboard operators
were new, file cabinets were mis-
placed and numerous crates still
had to be opened.
Decentralization to an important
part of the country's civil defense
program. Thus FCDA authorities
decided to set an example and
leave Washington, which to a high-
ly critical target area. The law
does not allow new government
buildings to be constructed, so the
vacated hospital was selected
Peterson is keeping an office
open in Washington at the General
Services Administration and 30
members of his staff will remain —
to keep in touch with develop
ments here
B behooves the American people. I think, to
give Mr Eisenhower a Democratic Congress
and hope that we can save him from the mis-
deeds of his own party. —Former President
Truman.
Ax
“My campaign shall be on a high patriotic level...
no dirty politics, no personalities . . . just a deep con
cern about the American vote! ..."
In Hollywood
Ry ERSKINE JOHNSON
NEA Staff Correspondent
HOLLYWOOD —(NEA) —Hol-
lywood on TV: The Walt Disney
“touch” made his theater movies
world famous and blueprints for
his new ABC TV Disneyland se-
ries indicate his home screen
ideas will be just as entertaining
-and delightfully different
Promised and hoped for Disney
ideas on the show, debuting, Oct.
27:
A screwball symphony called
Marwan er”S
phone pad film biographies at
Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck:
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The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 109, Ed. 1 Monday, October 4, 1954, newspaper, October 4, 1954; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1653245/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Public Library.