THE MICHIGAN DAILY, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1951 Butler Campaign IT NOW APPEARS certain that the cam- paign of newly elected GOP Senator John Marshall Butler of Maryland will be carefully scrutinized by the Senate before he can rest securely in the seat he wrested from Millard Tydings last November. Under the circumstances, in which Butler swept into office on the coattails of -the "big lie" with all its evil implica. tions, such an investigation is entirely In order. K I' 1, The campaign literature which played an important part in Butler's successful fight for ex-Senator Tydings' seat can only be described, as Senator Clinton Anderson put it, as "scurrilous." The Republican ace- in-the-hole in these political documents was a photograph of Tydings chatting with former Communist leader Earl Browder. This damning picture, the supposedly conclusive proof of Tyding's intimacy with the Communist party, turned out to be a fake, made up of separate pictures super- imposed to, form a composite. The job, incidentally, was handled by the Washing- ton Times-Herald, an outpost of Col. Mc- Cormick's reactionary .journalistic empire. As might be expected, at the bottom of this calumny was our old friend, Senator Joseph McCarthy. Continuing his re- lentless search for the perfect lie, the Senator made the necessary arrange- ments for the picture, in addition to making substantial contributions to the Butler campaign fund. In all fairness to Butler, he was per- sonally opposed to the use of the photo- graph. But he did not prevent its use, and therefore must take the responsibility for it. Technically, the Senate is questioning only excessive campaign expenditures by Butler. While it is true that Butler did Editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. NIGHT EDITOR: BOB KEITH spend $70,000, a little more than twice the amount Tydings used, and that $10,000 of contributions are not accounted for by Butler, this in itself would certainly not be enough to justify his removal. The real issue the Senate will debate is not whether the expenditures were excessive, but whether they were excessively corrupt. Thus far the only noteworthy corruption brought out against Butler is the flagrant use of the McCarthy technique in his cam- paign pamphlets. The red smear of Tydings was attempted by the familiar "whitewash" bleatings, and also by such insidious meth.. ods as whispering about Mrs. Tydings, daughter of Joseph Davies of "Mission to Moscow" fame. The most blatant dishon- esty, of course, is the fake photo itself. The Senate should do some soul-search- ing before it comes to a decision in this matter. Just how much dishonesty and corruption is permissable in a campaign? Senators are understandably reluctant to set a precedent of unseating their fellows at the drop of a hat. As Senator Taft re- marked, "If mere distortion and misrepre- sentation of fact were to be the basis of refusing a Senate seat, there would be, few of us left." But Democratic Senators are determined to make an issue of this affair, against the personal wishes of Tydings himself. They are rightfully alarmed by the increased use of the lie as a political weapon, and have chosen this campaign to make their stand against such corrupt practices. Whether or not Butler is actually un- seated, the investigation will prove valu- able in two respects. As regards Butler personally, the inquiry will attach a much-deserved stigma to his name. The fact the Senate feels it necessary to ques- tion Butler's campaign is a strong rebuke to the freshman lawmaker. And in a larger sense, the investigation will serve to focus the public's eye on the problem of combatting gross distortions of fact during campaigns. 'A fight must be made against McCarthy-like tactics. This is probably the best place to start. --Crawford Young ON THE 'Washington MerryGooRound WIT RE aW PEARSON ,o WASHINGTON -- Only a handful know it, but the raging arguments between President Truman and Sen. Robert A. Taft could have been avoided. A few weeks after his big election vic- tory in Ohio in November, Taft sent word THOMAS L. STOKES: Wilson's 'Big Show' WASHINGTON - Defense mobilization director Charles E. Wilson's first press conference started a half hour before the new 82nd congress convened at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue a mile away, but it ran a little beyond the time of the opening sessions, at the Capitol. U I So that a reporter who wanted also to see the new congress assemble was a bit behind schedule. On the way to the capi- tol the thought occured that congress, anyhow, is now a sort of side show to Mr. Wilson's big show downtown. His job is to put the nation's productive machine- ry into high gear and, in hundreds of oth- er ways, because of that first essential, to arrange our way of life for us. it to the White House he would be glad to sit down with Mr. Truman and talk over the problems of defense with the view to reaching a closer cooperation between the administration and the GOP leadership. - Senator Taft's position, as expressed by such nonpolitical members of the adminis- tration team as Undersecretary of Defense Robert Lovett, was that he had not made up his mind on foreign policy and wanted to hear all sides. In fact, friends of Taft said that he was so anxious to attain the stature of invalid Sen. Arthur Vandenberg, that he was willing to drop isolationism if he could be shown it was against our best interests. This was reported to President Truman by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, also by Secretary of Defense George Marshall. They urgently felt that the Senator should be invited to the White House. The White House staff, however, argued against it. Sensing some political trick, most of the presidential advisers felt that Tru- man should not open his doors to Taft un- less the Senator agreed, in advance, to sup- port a bipartisan foreign policy. President Truman, who has always had a sneaking admiration for Taft, listened to the arguments, At one moment he was in- clined to throw protocol to the wind, call Taft to his office, take down his hair and say, "Bob, we're in a jam in the world. We need your help!" But he was talked out of it. Finally, after some three weeks of bic- kering within the White House circle, a compromise was reached. Taft would be invited in, but only as one of a group of congressional leaders summoned to the White House for a formal conference. Net result was that the rebuffed Taft an- grily told the Republican conference he was opposed even to "consulting" with the ad- ministration. And, in his foreign policy speech last week, he accused the President of violating the constitution by sending troops to Korea. (Copyright, 1950, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.) Demise of the NVickel1 TO THE nostalgic memories of five cent beer and the five cent cigar, add the poor man's only remaining bargain-the nickel phone call Only the other day, a New Yorker who wanted to make a phone call by coin-box phone habitually dropped his silver-plated buffalo into the nickel slot. In vain he wait- ed for the expected and familiar dial tone, and then began pounding the coin box mut- tering appropriate if not well-chosen words of scorn. After mnments of eannvertion h erlanA The City Editor's SCRATCH PAD By PAUL BRENTLINGER NORTHERN NEWSPAPER editors quite often slip away to the warmer depths of the South for a week or two during the winter in an effort to escape the home town's artic-like temperatures. When this is done, it is customary that after returning home the editor will write an article or two describing the social, economic, political and moral status of the South. I spent one week in the South during Christmas vacation. I see no reason why this newspaper should stray from the tra- ditional practice of publishing a Post- Vacation-In-The-South survey of the cur- rent situation in Dixie. Therefore, I am going to offer a description of what im- pressed mein this much discussed area of the United States. This description will be presented in a manner which the title of this column might suggest as being suit- able,... SOME WRITERS have said that the only two American cities which have per- sonalities of their own are San Francisco and New Orleans. If a city can have such a thing as a personality, New Orleans prob- ably has one. This personality has been largely shaped by the famous French Quart- er, a square mile or so .of aged 18th century buildings, many of which are equipped with fabulously intricate iron balconies and slum- like exteriors which hide exquisite interiors and lush patios. A tourist in New Orleans is likely to go away remembering a peculiar odor of old liquor, old perfumes and aging wood which exudes from every street of the French Quarter.. . walking down the street behind a rgang of junior high school students who discuss the intricacies of the teen-age world in vigorous French . .. dinner at Antoine's, where the lights are doused when a waiter serves a flaming dessert from an ornate vessel . . . the lady tourist at the next table who asks the waiter if tiere is something "French" about the T-bone steak which the establishment serves . . . a wealthy local citizen who treats his family to dinner at the big restaurant and starts the kiddies off with manhattans and teaches them to say "merci" instead of "thank you" to the wait- ers . . . the contrasting atmosphere of the small lunch room where a Negro walks in with a bottle of beer in one hand and asks for a ham sandwich for his Christmas din- ner... The well known "streetcar named De- sire," which still plies the city's narrow streets, but which is now a gleaming mod- ern bus.... the casual sinfullness of Bour- bon Street and its countless bars housed in ancient French or Spanish missions. . .. standing on a Bourbon Street corner and hearing four excellent jazz bands. playing simultaneously in four neighbor- ing bistros. . . . the confusion which arises upon finding an "original old absinthe house" on one corner, and an "ol original absinthe house" two blocks away on the same street... * The barkers at the door of each joint, constantly suggesting that you "come right on in, the show is just starting." . .. tpe strippers who use everything from oyster shells to alligators to give a new twist to the old bump and grind routine. . . . all this wickedness going on a scant half-hour away from Tulane University, Newcombe College and Loyola University of the South and their thousands of unprotected students... . French sailors, halted on their way up Bourbon Street by an old lady of French descent who busily asks them all sorts of questions and gets a string of "ouis" in re- ply.... sidewalk artists who will print your portrait in 20 minutes for a trifling five dollars .,crowds jamming famous St. Louis cathedral to see the Christmas Eve pageantry, divided between the faithful and the mere curiosity seekers. . . . the custom of imbibing extra-sweet coffee and dough- nuts without holes at the market house's Cafe du Monde after a night of carousing. THERE ARE other partsCof the South, too. . . Charleston, S. C., for example, with blocks and blocks of houses which are older and possibly more interesting thah those of New Orleans. . . . unfortunately, Charleston has no Bourbon Street, no Basin Street, no Desire Street, no French restau- rants with fantastic prices.... In Columbia, S. C., the visitor might stum- ble across the University of South Carolina. If so, he would' never again scream for -a campus which contains only one type of architecture. ... imagine if you can an en-. tire campus of structures like our beloved Economics Building. ...here you see fra- ternities using bright neon signs to identify their chapter houses, a somewhat justifiable practice, since each merely inhabits a sec- tion of a huge quadrangle. .. . here you see huge chalk signs demanding that the Caro- linians "Beat Duke!" or "Beat hell out of Clemson!" imagine seeing a chalky "Beat hell out of Northwestern!" scrawled across the rear of Angell Hall. ...in Co- lumbia you might read the newspaper col- umnist's statement that segregation could be compared to the practice of having sep- arate rest rooms for men and women.... In Lexington, Ky., home of the Uni- versity of Kentucky, downtown merchants went all out to support Kentucky's Sugar Bowl team. . . . you say "Yea Bobcats," «