Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

security,"
Current Events
By Prof. William H. Russell, Ph.D.
STATE OF THE UNION
President Eisenhower's opening message to Congress
went straight down the middle of the road on most nation
al problems. In foreign affairs his most specific request
was for a more liberal trade policy. He stated his faith
in continued expansion of the domestic economy under free
enterprise. But the budget cannot be balanced this year,
and the President wants no tax cuts. The last part of the
speech, covering welfare proposals, was almost New Dealish
in tone. The President supports an extensive highwaybuilding
program, aid for private health insurance plans,
more public housing, and some form of aid for schools. He
also favors revision of the Taft-Hartley law and an increase
in the federal minimum wage from 75 to 90 cents an hour.
In addition, Eisenhower advocated higher salaries for Con
gressmen and other federal employees, lowering the voting
age to eighteen, and statehood for Hawaii. Some of these
are measures which he requested, but did not obtain, from
the last Congress.
POLITICAL LINEUP
The President's message creates an interesting political
situation. His personal followers are delighted, and are
confident they can re-elect Eisenhower on such a platform
in 1956. The conservative Republicans are not very happy and
will vote against some of the measures, but are in no posi
tion to lead a major revolt. The Democrats are in a dilemma
because the President's program is so liberal that they will
have trouble attacking it. They will thus be hard-pressed to
find issues for 1956. A "me too" campaign has little popular
appeal, as the Republicans learned when running against
F. D. Roosevelt. The Democratic party may move farther
"left"
to find a distinctive program, but any such trend is
likely to widen the split between Northern and Southern
Democrats. Most of the Democrats in Congress are speak
ing cautiously because of Eisenhower's personal popularity,
and may not move against him until next year.
LOWERING THE BOOM
The Federal Reserve Board acted to curb speculation
on the booming stock market by raising
margin requirements
from 50 to 60 per cent. Margin is the down payment on a
stock purchase. Stock prices rose about 50 per cent last
year, with an especially sharp increase since the election.
The change in margin requirement was not drastic and
was intended mainly for psychological effect,
as a warning
against speculation. Stock prices promptly took their worst
dip since June, 1950. The market recovered in a few days,
however, and experts considered the drop a healthy one.
Insurance companies and pension funds now hold tremendous
amounts of stock as permanent investments. Most individ
uals are also keeping stocks for long-term investment,
rather than selling
for a speculative profit. The
capitalgains
tax encourages this. The Senate Banking Committee,
however, has promised to study the rising
if there is any chance of a 1929-style crash.
TRAVEL LIMITS
market to see
Our State Department has prohibited Soviet citizens
from traveling in nearly a thousand counties and hundreds
of cities, totalling 27 per cent of the land area of the U. S.
Americans are barred from about 30 per cent of the Soviet
January 19, 1955
Union, and this is a retaliatory
sians are affected, mainly embassy
measure. About 400 Rus
employees and a few
press representatives. Russians living in this country already
are required to secure advance permission for any trip
beyond a 25-mile radius from New York or Washington.
The prohibited areas are supposed to be based on "re
ciprocity and but there is little logic in many of
them. The purpose is mainly to show the absurdity of such
restrictions and to induce the Russians to relax theirs. The
Russians can still acquire as much information as any or
dinary traveler by reading
BILLIONS FOR HIGHWAYS
our newspapers and magazines.
President Eisenhower's Highway Commission has agreed
on a ten-year program involving the spending of $101 billion
for highway modernization. About half of this is new plan
ning. The federal government would pay nearly the whole
cost of a $24 billion improvement in major cross-country
highways. States now pay about 40 per cent of the cost
on "U.S." routes. But the new program still calls for in
creased expenditures by the states, and there is no sug
gestion as to how they will raise the necessary funds. This
report will probably be the basis of President Eisenhower's
recommendations to Congress. The highway program may be
strongly opposed by those who believe the money should
go into schools instead. In both cases, our country has
been unwilling to tax itself heavily
enough to meet the
growing needs, so that the problems are getting steadily
worse.
OFF FOR THE ANTARCTIC
The U. S. Navy has begun a three-year Antarctic ex
ploration program with the departure of an icebreaker
from New Zealand for the South Polar continent. It will
establish a base at Little America, Admiral Byrd's former
headquarters. Meanwhile an Australian expedition is already
under way on the opposite side of the continent, from a
base set up last February. They are traveling inland by
"Weasel," a tracked vehicle developed by the U. S. for
work in the far North, and have found a new range of
mountains. Great Britain also has plans for Antarctic ex
ploration. A British group may try to cross the continent
by surface vehicle, touching at the South Pole on the way.
The trip would cover 1750 miles of virtually unknown ter
rain, including
some rugged mountains. The British and
Australians are coordinating their work with our own. The
U. S. expedition will be the most elaborate, including the
operation of an observatory at the South Pole during the
"summer"
of 1956-57.
POLITICAL CASUALTY
Panama lost a good president, and the U. S. a close
friend, by the assassination of Jose Remon. Among the sus
pects arrested was former president Arnulfo Arias, but there
were no real clues to the plot. If the purpose was to over
throw the government, it failed, for the vice president took
over and kept good order. Remon was police chief under
Arias and then became president in 1952. He was popular for
his honest, effecient government and welfare program. This
is the first presidential assassination in Panama's fifty
years of independence.
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