Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

agent"Current EventsBy Prof. William H. Russell, Ph.D.STEEL RAISEAfter a strike of only twelve hours, the C. I. O. UnitedSteelworkers reached agreement with the six largest producers on a new wage contract. About 600,000 workers areaffected. Management offered an increase of ten cents anhour, but the union demanded twenty cents in order tokeep up with the gains of the auto workers. A compromisewas reached at an average increase of 15raises the average hourly wage to $2.13.cents, whichThe steel settlement will keep production booming, butit will also have an inflationary effect. Steel prices immediately rose, an average of $7.50 per ton. Automobileproduction takes 25 per cent of our steel, and prices maygo up on the 1956 models, if not sooner. In past years, everyincrease in steel wages and prices has been felt throughthe whole economy. Optimists point out that factory wageshave increased 71 per cent since 1946, while consumer pricesrose only 35 per cent. The difference is made up by increased productivity, and as longtrend we will all become richer.DEBT LIMIT EXTENDEDas we can maintain thisCongress has passed, and President Eisenhower signed,a bill continuing the national debt limit at $281 billion foranother year. The latest report on debt subject to the limitplaced it at $273.6 billion. But nearly half the governmsnt'srevenue comes from income taxes, and the treasury willhave to borrow several billion more in the next six monthsto maintain operations until income taxes begin to comein again.In 1933 our national debt was $16.8 billion. We havegone in the red every year since, except for 1947, 1948, and1951. For the fiscal year ending June 30, the debt increasedby about $4 billion. With business prospering, tax receipts,may be high enough to balance the budget this coming year,unless the politicians yield to temptation and cut taxes forthe 1956 elections.GOVERNMENT PAYThe President has also approved a payincrease formore than one million federal employees, retroactive toMarch 1. The average raise is 7.5 per cent, or about $325a year. It applies to 983,000 classified Civil Service workersother than postal employees, and to 90,000 others in agencies with separate pay systems. This is the first general payincrease since 1951. This session of Congress had alreadyraised the pay of postal workers, members of Congress andthe federal judiciary, and career members of the armedservices. The total cost of all the increases will be about oneand a quarter billion dollars a year.HOOVER PROJECTSThe second Hoover Commission has concluded its twoyearinvestigation into means of improving government operations. Mr. Hoover is now 81 and this may mark the endof his public career. Since February, the Commission'seighteen study groups have brought out reports with a total of 362 recommendations. However, the Administrationand Congress have been very slow to act on these. About70 per cent of the suggestions of the first Hoover Commission (1947-1949) were accepted. But the second grouphad broader scope, being allowed to consider questions ofpolicy as well as of efficiency in operations. It was alsomore partisan, being dominated by conservative Republiof its recommendations involve a reduction incans. Manygovernment services, especially in fields where private corporations might be able to make a profit. This philosophywas well shown in the final report, advocating the saleor lease of all government power projects to private firms.Such a plan has little chance of acceptance in the presentCongress.LATTIMORE FINALEThe government has finally dropped its perjury caseagainst Owen Lattimore, after tangled legal proceedingslasting since 1952. Lattimore was formerly a State Department consultant on Far Eastern affairs. The governmentcharged that he lied when he denied, before the Senate International Security subcommittee, that he was a Communist sympathizer or had promoted Communist interests.No charges of espionage were involved, though McCarthyonce smeared Lattimore as "the top Soviet espionagein this country. The government case virtually collapsed when Federal Judge Luther Youngdal threw out thekey counts in two indictments. He ruled that the charges ofCommunist sympathies and interests were too vague forany fair judicial verdict, and the Court of Appeals upheldhim. The government's case was unfortunate from the beginning, for it seemed to involve prosecution for a man'sopinions rather than his actions.TAFT MEMORIALIn the two years since the death of Senator Robert A.Taft, the greatness of his loss has become more apparentfrom the lack of good leadership among conservative Republicans. Last year, a group of Taft's friends set up aMemorial Foundation. Besides a program of college scholarships and an institute for research in government, theyalso have decided to sponsor a monument to Taft in Washington. The Foundation has offered to build the monumenton the north slope of Capitol Hill. The proposed design is amodernistic marble towar 100 feet high,with a carillon of 25bells. Public donations would pay the cost of about $1 million. Over Sixty Senators of both parties joined in sponsoring the enabling legislation.TOURIST AIDSTwelve Russian agricultural experts will be in this country from July 15 to August 20 for a tour of American farms.They will spend most of their time in Iowa, Nebraska, andMinnesota, but also will study fruit-growing in California,In addition, the government experimental farms at Beltsville,Md., will be opened to them. A similar group of Americans is going to Russia at about the same time.The State Department is taking some long-overdue stepsto make foreign travel easier. The passport division will bemodernized, in an effort to reduce the average time requiredfor securing a passport from four weeks to one. Visa regulations have also been eased, so that it will be easier forforeigners to enter this country. This is to be commended:-twenty-seven foreign countries require no visas from American tourists, yet we have compelled their citizens to submitto much red tape and delay in order to visit the U. S. Oneof the best ways to "sell" our wayforeigners see it in action.of life is to let moreJuly 13, 1955