Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

street,"Current EventsMISSION TO MOSCOWChancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany concluded his visit to Moscow by agreeing to establish diplomaticrelations with the Soviet Union. In return, Adenauer won averbal promise that Russia would return the 10,000 remaining German prisoners of war. The agreement on diplomaticrelations must be confirmed by the West German Parliament, which probably will balk if Russia does not show goodfaith on the prisoner question.Adenauer claimed that he did not give up any ties withthe West, and did not agree to the present boundaries ofEast Germany. Two days after he left Moscow, however,an East German delegation arrived. The Soviets have madeit plain that they do not consider the Bonn government representative of all of Germany, and that they will not unifyremains in NATO. If fullthe country while West Germanydiplomatic relations are established, Moscow can deal directly with West Germany without consulting the Big Three,even persuade Bonn to recognize the East Germanand maygovernment as the price of further concessions. Adenauer'svisit produced a shift in Russian diplomacy, but not a setback.SCHOOL DAYSNearly 40 million young people are attending Americanschools and colleges this fall, the U. S. Office of Educationreports. This is about a million and a half more than lastyear, markingthe eleventh consecutive year of increasedtotal enrollment. The greatest rise is at the elementarylevel, but high schools and colleges also show an increase.This will become more marked as the war-time "baby boom"reaches the upper levels. The Office of Education predicts atotal school attendance of 51 million by 1964. Already thenation needs 140,000 more teachers and 250,000 classrooms,and the financial problems of our schools are growing steadily more urgent. Local and state meetings are leading upto a White House Conference on Education, which President Eisenhower has called for late November.FARM VOTEDemocrats are moving to make the farm problem amajor issue for 1956. Republican leaders, mindful of thefarm revolt which helped Truman win the election of 1948,have admitted that something must be done. Since 1951,farm prices have dropped 25 per cent and net farm income32 per cent, two-thirds of the latter decline coming underthe Eisenhower administration. Secretary of AgricultureBenson has promised government action to halt this drop.One possible remedy is a subsidy for farmers who withdrawland from crop production. The farm problem will increasethe pressure on President Eisenhower to run again, for heis especially popular among Midwestern Republicans. Agriculture is the dominant occupation in sixteen Americanstates which have a total of 170 electoral votes, and theRepublicans have usually carried a majority of them. TheDemocratic farm campaign is ably headed by two formerSecretaries of Agriculture, Claude Wickard and Charles F.Brannan.CONSTRUCTION SUCCESSThe Ohio Turnpike will open on schedule, October 1st.September 28, 1955It goes for 241 miles across the northern part of the state,from Pennsylvania to the Indiana line. The entire projectwas completed in forty months, as planned. Even more remarkable is the fact that construction costs were very closeto the original estimates, so that the $322.6 million in expenses will be fully covered by the bond issue of $326 millionsold in 1952. The Ohio builders were fortunate in having aperiod of stable prices for their project. They also were ableto reinvest the bond money, while waiting to spend it, andgain more than $9 million in interest. Twenty-two miles atthe eastern end of the expressway have been open for ninemonths and collected nearly $1 million in tolls. The easternend connects with the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and anotherbranch will join with the New York Thruway.LEGION BATTLEA sharp fight is expected when the American Legionmeets in Miami for its annual convention, October 10-13;and we don't refer to the usual boozing and horseplay. It hasoften been charged that Legion policies are set by a smallruling clique of ultra-conservatives. Recently Seaborn P.Collins, the Legion's national commander, issued an attackagainst the Fund for the Republic, a research organizationof the Ford Foundation. The Fund for the Republic is headed by Robert M. Hutchins, an outspoken liberal. It has defended individual freedoms and criticized many of the tactics:used by anti-Communists. The Legion also has split over areport by a special committee on UNESCO. Many Legionnaires had charged that UNESCO was tainted with Communism and atheism, but the Legion committee denied thisand deplored the intolerance of UNESCO's critics. TheLegion traditionally has been isolationist, and it is doubtfulwhether the convention will uphold the UNESCO report. Inany case, some bitter personal rivalries will emerge in theLegion's leadership.EARTHMOVINGAmerican engineers have ended a major threat to thePanama Canal, by removinga large part of Contractor'sHill. This great rock mass was at the Canal's narrowestpoint, in Culebra Cut. Early last year it began to show dangerous cracks, which might have split off tons of rock andblocked the Canal for months. Work began a year ago, andthe 415-foot cliff has now been cut back, with a series ofsetbacks to stop any rock slide. Some two and a half millioncubic yards of rock and earth were removed, at a cost ofthree and a third million dollars.POLITICIANS ABROADOver thirty U. S. Congressmen are visiting Russia orother Iron Curtain countries this fall. Except for a few unfortunate incidents, all have been well received. Senator Kefauver has been busy meeting the Russian "man in theand Senator Ellender of Louisiana seems to havebeen completely won over by Soviet cooking. Others havebeen somewhat more skeptical, or at least non-committal.Most of these trips are paid for by the U. S. government,but their main value seems to be in personal publicity forthe politicians. Few of them can gain any information whichour State Department does not already have.195