PAGE TWO THE MICHIGAN DAILY SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1951 Spanish Ailiance THE recent request for naval and air bases made by Adm. Forrest P. Sherman to Generalissimo Francisco Franco portends the completion of another chapter in the fantastic and sometimes incredible story of Spanish-United States relations. Sherman and the nation's defense experts want the bases as a part of the Mediterran- ean defense line, vital to the protection of Suez and the Middle East oil regions. But the expediency of the matter seems to have placed in shadow certain ethical values which were made much of following Franco's assumption of power in the Iber- Ian peninsula. Fascist Spain, it will be remembered, was only slightly less than an avowed enemy of this nation during World War II. And the type of despotic rule which has characterized Franco's government was decried again and again by the statesmen of the democracies from 1936 on. During the twilight period of Franco's government, the United States refused to have anything to do with it on a diplo- matic plane. Now we have recognized Spain, and have become unexplainably friendly with her, and we seek to commit ourselves on a more or less permanent basis through the purchase of military base rights on Spanish territory. ** * IT is time that the United States either de- cides upon a completely ethical course in world affairs, or gives itself up without com- punction to the machinations of Realpolitik. That we should make of such a man as General Franco a firm friend and ally seems a little like hypocrisy-and yet we are well on the way toward doing it. It is possible that such a policy, fol- lowed during the Second World War in regard to Russia, is in part responsible for the Russian power complex at the present time. Perhaps the proper course would have been one of non-concession from 1941 on. At any rate, obligating this country to a totalitarian nation worked for disas- ter in that instance. Although Spain is a smaller and weaker nation, obligating ourselves to her, whether in a period of stress or not, is a mistake in principle and quite probably also one in practice. We have followed a general policy of con- demnation of Fascist practices in the past, and its wisdom has been borne out by the woe brought upon the earth by the purveyors of absolutism. A glance at the case history of Argentina's La Prensa" is sufficient to confirm the axiom that dictators seldom re- form. Franco, for all his sudden amitie toward his American brothers, is nevertheless a dic- tator and as such, cannot be trusted. It would seem that experience with his ilk in the past two decades would have taught our statesmen something. Apparently it has not. -George Flint MATTER Jr FAC T By JOSEPH and STEWART ALSOPI WASHINGTON-There is a fairly simple explanation of the strange ritual at Kaesong-the talks about a cease-fire, as a prelude to an armistice, as a prelude to peace negotiations, which are carried on while the Korean fighting also continues. The cease-fire and armistice are in fact ex- pected to be the last serious acts of the Korean drama. No doubt, when and if the generals and admirals successfully complete their labors at Kaesong, the diplomats and statesmen will go to work in their turn, under some- what less primitive conditions. No doubt there will be peace negotiations, with all the familiar trappings of agendas, proposals and counter-proposals, and loud hagglings about the meaning of such terms as "free elec- tions." But almost no one hopes that these negotiations will accomplish anything.. Gen. Nam H and Gen. Tung Hua clearly hold this view. Hence the North Korean and Chinese representatives are trying to crowd into the Kaesong agreementsclauses that belong in a final settlement, such as provision for withdrawal of all foreign Editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only. NIGHT EDITOR: EVA SIMON CINIEMA I i troops from Korea. Equally, the same view is held by the leading personalities in Washington and Tokyo. And that is why Vice Admiral Joy and his delegation are proceeding with such meticulous delibera- tion, even although this means that the somewhat desultory fighting is thereby prolonged. The reasons for this view are also plain enough. After a cease-fire and armistice, each side will hold roughly half of Korea. Each will demand a final settlement on its own terms-the United Nations calling for a settlement responsive to the wishes of the Korean people; the Communists demanding a "democratic" settlement which will en- sure Communist control of the country. This sort of negotiation is doomed to deadlock be- fore it begins. * * * WHAT then will be the consequences, if the bitter, bloody war in Korea simply tails out into a cease-fire and armistice, without the formal peace agreement that customarily concludes wars? Where will it leave us? Not too badly off, appears to be the answer. It is possible, in the first place, that de- fense of the post-armistice status quo can eventually be left to a greatly strengthened South Korean army, 'provided that Chinese also wish to recall their "volunteers" on rea- sonable terms and at a reasonable time. If not, some United Nations troops will have to be retained in Korea, as a safeguard against renewed aggression. But even if the American forces are thus prevented from saying a final farewell to a country they do not love, there will still be substantial con- solations, both positive and negative. First, since Japan is so near, the Korean garrison can be relatively small. Most of the American divisions can be pulled back to Japan or brought home. Second, even a small U.N. garrison will be a better guarantee against renewal of Kor- ean hostilities than any peace treaty. No doubt its retention will be denounced by the same Senators who have attacked the Ad- ministration for being overly hasty in re- calling American troops from Korea three years ago. Yet Gen. MacArthur himself planned to leave U.N. forces in Korea for several years, at the time when he expected to conquer,the whole country. Third, on the larger question of peace treaty vs. no peace treaty, there is one ad- vantage in having no peace treaty that al- most no one seems to have thought of. In brief, the announced American policy is to neutralize Formosa for the duration of the Korean war; and this has been somewhat grudgingly accepted by the world at large. But if the Korean war is formally termin- ated, and we still seek to continue the neu- tralization of Formosa, we shall run into the worst trouble with our allies and in the United Nations that we have seen yet. In blunt language, we will not have a leg to stand on, and the resulting ruckus will risk splitting the Western alliance from nave to chops. On the other hand, if the Korean fight- ing just tails out into a cease-fire, armis- tice, and deadlocked peace negotiation, the whole status quo will be perpetuated, in- cluding the neutralization of Formosa. It can and will be continued, under these conditions, without too much difficulty. And so we shall be borrowing a useful leaf from the book of the other side. The plain truth is that this wind-up of the Korean fighting is a rather special test DORIS FLEESON: Hard-Way Harry WASHINGTON -When a Senate attache telephoned Sen. Paul Douglas that President Truman had called two strikes on him in the matter of three federal judgeships in Chicago, the Senator's quaker faith lost out for 60 seconds to plain rage, thenhe laughed. "Well, the so-and-so has lots of guts," he said. "About the judgeships, no comment." After a thoughtful week end, the former Marine has decided to give battle. He ex- pects to win. His proposal to poll the city's lawyers on his vs. the Truman selections is made in good faith; of course he has no control over their ballots and many of them are not Douglas men. But, with anything like a fair count, he is confident that his two candidates who were rejected by the Presi- dent-William H. King and Judge Ben- jamin Epstein-will murder the. Truman substitutes. Only last week-perhaps with the Illinois situation in mind and realizing that his judgship choices were the weaker ones-the President implied that bar associations were only stubborn defenders of this best of all possible worlds. Perhaps against a conser- vative Senator, at least with public opinion, Mr. Truman could make this derogation stick. Governors and Presidents have often fought the ultra-conservative bar and won. But any such attack on Douglas must fail. Besides the Senator was careful to include in his requested poll both the Chi- cago Bar Association, which has but three Negro members who were recently ac- quired, and the Cook County Bar who are the Negro lawyers. William King, just by the way, is a foremost advocate of civil rights in race-conscious Chicago. The attitude of the Chicago Democratic organization could make a difference in the results of the Douglas poll if it is not truly behind him. He was Jake Arvey's assurances that it is. ALL Senate precedent is at Dougla's back. The Illinois liberal has acted in accord- ance with time-honored practice and his- torically; he has only to proclaim the ob- jectionable nominees "personally obnoxious,, to him. He does not wish to do it that way; he is satisfied he can maintain his position that his nominees are the best qualified and wholly deserving. Not being without humor he is aware that some of the Senators on the far right will be distressed by the necessity of having to vote for one Fair Dealer as against an- other. This may possibly include the chair- man of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Pat McCarran, with whom, however, Sen. Doug- las has hsd no personal exchanges. The President, who must have reasons that seem good to him, was as insulting to Sen. Douglas as possible in this entire controversy. Never once was the Senator asked to the White House to confer on the matter. He was not courteously advised in advance when the nominations went up. To rub it in, an innovation decidedly startling to politicians was introduced in that the defeated Illinois Senator, former Majority Leader Scott Lucas, was consulted by the President. Washington had just noted Lucas in the capacity of a lobbyist for the used-car dealers fighting against Mr. Truman's price-control bill-of which Sen. Douglas is one of the mightiest defenders. The Capital therefore gaped at the spec- tacle of Lucas, the judge maker, announcing on the White House doorstep after a talk with the President that the Illinois judge- ships were en route. Lucas's candidate, Jo- seph Sam Perry, was the only member of the Douglas slate to survive the Truman hatchet. Just another reason why the cloakrooms call the President: Hard-Way Harry. * * * SPAIN THE military have won "the battle of Spain." When the tumult and the shout- ing die, Dictator Franco will be some kind of a working partner of the North Atlantic Treaty Nations. The price the military are paying'for get- ting their way is that visibly, in the person of Admiral Sherman, Chief of Naval Opera- tions, they are taking the rap for the nego- tiations now going forward. But the Ad- miral is behaving correctly, as always; the State Department had caved in before he departed for Madrid. State Department sources further depose that actually the Labor Government of Bri- tain had weakened too. Present British government outcries are described as chiefly designed to "conciliate"-public opinion at home. This claim is not made about the French Government which, unlike the British, has a large Communist bloc to consider. Ap- parently the French are going to have to take it and like it. But Secretary of State Acheson is not be- ing outflanked by the Pentagon; some of his supporters would prefer that he was. That he has little stomach for the Franco alliance seems evident from the fact that he is disassociating himself and his people as much as possible. Perhaps this too is sup- posed to make the anti-Franco British feel better. Generally speaking, the select and rather small company who have stood by him on Capitol Hill are anti-Franco. In their view he~ is again acnting the rolo1 f aneasero - P __ 4 OIM. +fl 4' nf ,A w . ar r.. . ON THE Washington Merry-Go-Round with DREW PEARSON WASHINGTON-American truce negotiators in Korea have noted with interest that the Chinese Communists are using American jeeps. The American public has also wondered not only how the Com- munists were able to obtain American equipment, but why the Na- tionalist Government was driven out of China. The sub-rosa operations of the Chiang Kai-Shek family may be one of the answers. Another of their operations has just come to light-a move by a Chiang brother-in-law, with other wealthy Chinese to corner the soybean market at the expense of the American public. The brother-in-law is T. L. Soong, brother of Foreign Minis- ter T. V. Soong, who formerly handled much of the three and a half billion dollars worth of supplies which the United States sent to China during the war. The soybean pool netted a profit of $30,000,000 and shot up the cost to the American consumer $1 a bushel. One of the strange things about the soybean manipulation was that its operators knew exactly the right time to buy up the world's soybean supply-a few weeks before the Communists invaded Korea. Recently this column told how Eugene Soong, son of T. L. Soong,, together with L. K. Kung, son of Dr. H. H. Kung, another brother-in- -law, sold a huge quantity of precious tin to the Chinese Communists. As a result Secretary of Commerce Sawyer has now barred this group, together with three law partners of ex-Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, from getting export licenses to trade with any country for three years. It was the father of Eugene Soong, T. L. Soong, who bought up half a million bushels of soybeans before the Korean War in May, 1950. Soybeans are used for cattle and human food, in manufacturing plastics and paints, and are essential for war production. And 56 Chinese bought up the huge quantity of 6,986,000 bushels on the Chi- cago Board of Trade at $2.34 a bushel. Shortly thereafter the price began to climb. It soared and soared. Finally, five days after the Communists invaded Korea, the price hit $3.45-1/ a bushel, and the group sold out. T. L. Soong is the same man in charge of supplies sent over the Burma Road at a time when a series of warehouse fires and "sabotage" caused the disappearance of large quantities of war material. Shortly thereafter, Soong left for the United States on a diplo- matic passport, and was moved into an even more important spot in Washington-Chief Procurement Officer of Chinese war supplies. Soong is still here. But, instead of handling war supplies, he is now speculating in soybeans at the expense of the American public. Operations like this may be one reason why the disillusioned Chinese people threw out the Soong-Kung dynasty and accepted Com- munism as a lesser evil. * * * * -GOP TARGETS FOR '52- A FRANK OUTLINE of GOP campaign strategy for 1952 was pre- sented to key Republican Senators' assistants by Babe Hermann, the energetic national committee executive director, in a private meet- ing the other night. The tall, banjo-eyed Hermann, onetime big league ballplayer, confided: "We won Senate seats last year wherever we took our gloves off. There were only two states we should have taken and didn't, and that was because our nominees refused to punch hard-Missouri and Connecticut. "Why," complained Hermann, "we had to bootleg speakers like McCarthy into Connecticut." The "prime targets" in 1950, he said, were Scott Lucas in Illi- nois; Francis Myers in Pennsylvania; Elbert Thomas of Utah, and Millard Tydings of Maryland. Turning to Frank Smith, assistant to Sen. John M. Butler, who defeated Tydings, Hermann continued: "We did a beautiful job in Maryland and Utah, Frank. I don't see why the Democrats yelled so much about the composite picture in your campaign, when, by com- parison with the anti-Thomas newspaper in Utah, your publicity was like a country gentleman's. He referred to the fact that in Utah, a supposed "Congressional Record" with statements attacking Thomas as a pro-Communist was circulated to all mailboxes in the last hours of the campaign-so late that Thomas had no opportunity to reply. "We all know Sen. Thomas was not a Communist," Hermann explained, "but these tactics were necessary to balance the pseudo- liberal newspapers which were for him." Pointing to Dick Cardall, administrative aide to Sen. Arthur Wat- kins of Utah, Hermann continued: "There's the fellow who gets a lot of credit for that victory. Sen. Bennett (the Republican who beat Thomas) is very much indebted to him." The 1952 target areas, Hermann indicated, were to retain all Re- publican seats in the New England and Atlantic States, and pick up new Senators in Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. "We have Republican governors and some patronage strength to put on real scraps," he explained. "Also, we have a fighting chance of picking up seats in Maryland, Kentucky and West Virginia and strengthen our position in the South. (Copyright, 1951, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.) A rchitecture A uditorium THE NAKED CITY, with Bary Fitzger- ald. BORN during the rage of documentaries a few years back, this was Mark Hellin- ger's last picture, and was probably also his best. In retrospect, it seems the best as well of the spate of "authentic background" pictures that accompanied it. This is largely due to the fact that the makers of "Naked City" have been able to incorporate their "authentic" atmosphere into a unified work of art. The routine functioning of the police department, the continuous shots of buildings- and streets, even the random dialogue of the citizens are not the extraneous means to a bogus na- turalism through which so many other docu- mentaries have suffered. Instead, from the first air panorama of Manhattan, the city becomes the star of the movie. This, in a sense, is high ro- mance, but it is developed with such eco- nomy and such vitality that the result is an unqualified success. In this kind of picture, characters become only a series of surface personalities, but it is through the inter-relationships of these personalities that the kaleidoscopic picture of the city is obtained. Which after all is the purpose of the movie. In a similar manner, "Battleground" by means of a group of surface personalities, assembles a full, if also somewhat romanticized, picture of men in combat in the late war. Barry Fitzgerald as the lieutenant in charge of the murder investigation which occupies the body of the picture is effective as a cop who knows his job. Howard Duff Anti-Thomas , "What Would You Charge To Let Me Protect You ?" INTERPRETING THE NEWS: Military Alliance May Help 'Liberalize' Franco Spain By J. M. ROBERTS, JR. Associated Press News Analyst IN CONNECTION WITH the U.S. effort to include Spain in the Eu- ropean defense program, there are several interesting political corol- laries to watch. France and Britain have drawn a fine line. On the record, they will have nothing to do with Franco's Fascist regime. But if the Uni- ted States wants to bring another ally into camp, they will not actively resist. Britain says she still cannot condone, however, the way Franco came to power. His ruthlessness in keeping it, and his oppression of civil liberties. (Incidentally, Britain's conscience seems less sen- sitive about the Mao Tse Tung regime in Peiping, which came to power in the same way and uses even worse tactics in a China where British commercial interests are very important.) Reports that Franco is about to adopt some reforms to make his regime more acceptable to the Western democracies, however, suggest that military cooperation might have the eventual result of doing the Spanish people some good and making Spain less objectionable to all. NE OF THE MOST interesting political developments in the world today is taking place in Yugoslavia. Kicked out of the camp of Communism which is controlled by Russian imperialism, totalitarian- ism in Yugoslavia seems, at least on the surface, to be undergoing some face-washing. Western ideas about economics and social wel- fare are no longer entirely banned. Cooperation for rehabilitation just possibly could do for Spain what such clumsy things at U.N. restric- tions on political intercourse failed to do. The United States needs to maintain the line that rearma- ment of the Western world is for the defense of free nations against enslavement. It is not sufficient merely to oppose one form of enslavement. The lessons learned with much smaller problems of this type in Greece and Turkey will be important to a proper relation with Spain in this respect. The United States likewise cannot abandon the position that she is not organizing her own bloc to oppose Russia, but rather is co- operating in collective security for the free world. She can seek mili- tary bases from anyone, but she cannont afford to seem to be or- ganizing a separate, non-Communist, United Nations. etteP4 TO THE EDITOR The Daily welcomes communications from its readers on matters of general interestand will publish all letters which are signed by the writer and in good taste. Letters exceeding 300 words in length, defamatory or libelous letters, and letters which for any reason are not in good taste will be condensed, edited or withheld from publication at the discretion of the editors. , " To the Editor: THOUGH Dave Thomas' editor- ial of July 20 apparently is de- signed primarily to stir lagging in- terest in the letters' column of The Summer Daily, comment does seem worthwhile since the as- sumptions he makes and the stan- dards he uses to criticize are in- valid, it seems to me. Thomas assumes that the Cath- olic Church is not democratic but that it ought to be. While I agree that the Catholic Church, like many institutions in our society, is not organized on a democratic basis, it does not seem to me that It ought necessarily to be. In a democracy theorists postulate an essentially moral, rational man capable of working out his own decisions, while most religious groups argue that man is depen- dent on an external force. But in a practical, working sense these different concepts of man do not contradict each other. Thomas suggests that the bath- ing suit morality and socialized medicine decrees are typical of Catholicism. I think they are not. Can you imagine, for example, an edict being issued from St. Mary's Chapel on campus demanding that from now on all student swimmers must be covered from shoulders down to the knees in proper attire? Or any American church, for that matter, calling for socialized me- Academic Freedom The Harvard Crimson in its third annual report on academic freedom has recorded listed 35 in- cidents rather fully documented in which questions of academic free- dom were involved. Reported the Crimson: "Of all the cases reported in this issue, only one involved an actual card-carrying Communist ... The rest involve assorted radicals, for- mer Communists, people who someone thought were Commun- ists, members of 'subversive organ- izations,' teachers who opposed administrative policies, and the like . . . The threat (of commun- ism) doesbnot lie in lectures and speeches by radical teachers. If a teacher's political opinions have vitiated his value as a teacher, then he may be fired or not fired on the basis of his competence. But he should not be fired simply because his opinions are unusual or his associations unpopular. dicine, with or without therapeutic abortion and birth control? Any institution is conditioned to some degree by thehsociety of which it is a part. The primary function of a church is to forma- lize moral attitudes and standards, and, regardless of the authority which it claims for such standards, the church does fit into, as well as helps to mold, society. The question of civil liberties and the Catholic church is a deli- cate one. However, Thomas' evi- dence does not clearly point to the indictment he intends to make. Therefore, it seems to be that his editorial must be interpreted as unwise and at least unfair. This letter is intended, by the way, not as a defense of the Cath- olic Church, but as a criticism of Thomas' reasoning in his editorial. -Janet L. Watts, '51 (Editor's Note: Editorials written by the editor of The Daily are not designed to stir lagging interest in the letters' column nor to merely fill up space. They are written because the editor believes that he has something worthwhile to say and believes in what he is saying.) ~A~irpjn ar~ Mir~lgalI Sixty-First Year Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under the authority of the Board in Control of Student Publications Editorial Staff Dave Thomas .........Managing Editor George Flint .............Sports Editor Jo Ketelhut..........Women's Editor Business Staff Milt Goetz..........Business Manager Eva Stern ........ Advertising Manager Harvey Gordon .......Finance Manager Allan Weinstein ...Circulation Manager Telephone 23-24-1 Member of The AssociatedPress The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the userfor republication of all news dispatches credited to it or otherwise credited to this newspaper. All rights of republication of all other matters herein are also reserved. Entered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor. Michigan, as second-class mail matter. Subscription during regular school year: by carrier, $6.00; by mail, $7.00. BARNABY Barnaby, tell your Fairy Godfather O felemf nm~kdw rl/in tina fh You know the legend about the Indian Ghosts don't need phones, m'boy. I