Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

Current EventsBy Prof. William H. RussellMORE SOCIAL SECURITYJust before adjournment, Congress passed an act extending the coverage and increasingcial Security system. Farm operators,the benefits of the Soand farm workersearning more than $100 a year from one employer, are nowincluded. More self-employed professional people are alsobrought in, and optional coverage is extended to ministersand to employees of state and local governments. All told,about ten million additional workers are made eligible forSocial Security. After much controversy, doctors and dentistswere not included.Added benefits, beginning in October, will total about$400 million a year for some six and a half million beneficiaries. The minimum for retired persons is raised from $25 amonth to $30, and the maximum from $85 to $98.50. Eventually the maximum will reach $108.50, by extending the payrolltax up to the first $4200 of salary, instead of $3600 as at present. The benefits for widows and other beneficiaries are alsoincreased.This is an interesting example of a Republican administration extending some "New Deal" policies while it has.checked others.SALARY RAISES DEFERREDPresident Eisenhower's most important veto of the recentCongressional session was his rejection of the bill which wouldhave given 1,750,000 federal workers a five per cent pay increase. Included among the gainers were half a million postalemployees. The President vetoed the law because it did notinclude an increase in postal rates to meet the added expense.This was a brave move, for it brought down the wrath ofgovernment workers and of organized labor generally. But.Eisenhower promises to ask the next Congress for a generalreadjustment in federal pay scales. The postal workers received their last raise in 1950, and are now the poorest paid ofall federal employees. An increase in postal rates seems inevitable whenever Congress decides that it is politically safe,.for the rate on first-class mail has not changed for more than.twenty years.VICTORY FOR THE ILAAfter a struggle lasting nearly a year, the InternationalLongshoremen's Association won recognition from the National Labor Relations Board as bargaining agent for the25,000 dock workers of the Port of New York. Last Septemberthe AFL expelled the crime-ridden ILA and set up a rivalunion. But John L. Lewis stepped in and gave the ILAstrong financial support in its battle to keep jurisdictionover the dock workers. The ILA victory in the recent longshoremen's election is thus a victory for Lewis, and a sharpsetback for AFL. Some predict that the ILA may now affiliate with Lewis' United Mine Workers. Whether the waterfrontracketeers will be eliminated seems more doubtful.SHAKEUP IN BRAZILBrazil is the latest country to go through a revolution,Latin American style. Trouble began for President GetulioVargas with the attempted murder of an anti-administrationnewspaper editor. Members of Vargas' personal bodyguardwere implicated in the plot. There was also general discontent over inflation, corruption, and the strong-arm methodsof the 71-year-old dictator-president. Finally army and airand he took his own life.force generals forced him to resign,September 8, 1954He had ruled Brazil since 1930, except for the period from1945 to 1951.The resignation and death of Vargas led to widespreadpopular riots. Some were in protest against the change ingovernment, while others, apparently Communist- inspired,were directed against the United States. Vice President JoaoCafe Filho, who became chief executive, immediately began ananti-Communist drive. He is not expected to change Brazil'sforeign policy, but there may be greater freedom for foreigninvestors. In order to stay in power he will have to conciliatethe people, who generally liked Vargas, as well as variouspolitical and military factions.GREECE DEMANDS CYPRUSCyprus is becoming one of the troublespots of the eastern Mediterranean. The British, having given up Suez, nowconsider Cyprus their main Middle Eastern base. They havestated that they can never give it complete independence, andhave forbidden the inhabitants to agitate for union withGreece. Though a large majority of the island's half-millionpeople are of Greek culture, Great Britain points out thatCyprus never belonged to Greece, and that there are important Turkish and Armenian minorities whose rights must beprotected. After tryingfor five years to get the British toagree to a plebescite, the government of Greece has appealeddirectly to the UN for intervention, based on UN declarationsof the right of all peoples to self-determination. A union with.Greece would probablymean tlie end of our schools and:mission work in Cyprus, judging from the drastic restrictions,placed on evangelical Protestants in Gre'ece.FIGHTING POLIOAs the polio season neared its peak, the total of reportedcases was slightly below last year's, but above the average forthe last five years. California, Texas, Michigan, Florida, andOhio have had the largest number of cases. We will not know,until early next year, the results of the Salk anti-polio vaccine tests sponsored by the National Foundation for InfantileParalysis. Evaluation of the vaccine will involve checking thehealth records of 1,800,000 children after the polio season isover. The Foundation is spending seven and a half milliondollars on the vaccine program alone, and is also providinggamma globulin for those areas which need it, in addition tohelping with the expenses of individual patients. Because of allthese expenses the Foundation has had to sponsor an emergency March of Dimes to raise an extratwenty million dollars.WHO'S AHEAD?Our defense experts warn that Russia may be much betterarmed than we have believed. She apparently has a jet engine much more powerful than any of ours, for four of themare sufficient to drive her biggest bomber. The British Admiralty has published estimates showing that Russia has alarger fleet than Britain's, and that she is especially strong insubmarines. The Admiralty believes the Soviets now have 350submarines, including a large fleet in the Pacific. Nazi Germany began World War II with only 57 submarines. Russiaalso seems to be leading the U. S. in training key technicians.While we will graduate 17,500 engineers next year, Russia willturn out 50,000. Our current shortage, in terms of adequate defense, is estimated at 30,000 engineers and up to 10,000 scientists.147