WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:11.400 Now, Edward R. Murrell and the voices of President Harry Truman, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 00:11.400 --> 00:16.960 General Douglas MacArthur, Eric Johnston, Senator Tom Connolly, Harold Stassen, Senator 00:16.960 --> 00:23.800 Kenneth Wherry, Leo DeRosha, David Lilienthal, and more than 40 other men and women in the 00:23.800 --> 00:30.840 news in the seventh performance of Hear It Now, presented tonight and every week at this time. 00:41.560 --> 00:48.960 Let no Russian leader underestimate the fabulous productive capacity of this country. If we must, 00:48.960 --> 00:58.600 we can fight and we will fight and we will win. The gruff, arrogant policeman has no place in 00:58.600 --> 01:05.960 modern society. The policeman cannot afford to lose his temper, however great the provocation. 01:05.960 --> 01:29.480 The steak comes to 325. What? 325 for a steak? Oh, Fred. 01:29.480 --> 01:39.240 Hear It Now. The Columbia Broadcasting System and 173 affiliated radio stations present a 01:39.240 --> 01:45.760 document for ear based on the week's news and the men and women who made it. All the voices and 01:45.760 --> 01:50.960 sounds you will hear are real. They are presented as they were spoken in the heat and confusion of 01:50.960 --> 01:56.480 a world in crisis. It is broadcast in the hope that the collection of these scraps of sound into 01:56.480 --> 02:02.280 a weekly recorded history may add another dimension to our understanding in the difficult days ahead. 02:02.280 --> 02:08.960 Here is the editor of Hear It Now, the distinguished reporter and news analyst, Edward R. Murrell. 02:08.960 --> 02:14.160 The important new phrase in the American vernacular this week, as it was last week, 02:14.160 --> 02:19.560 was the great debate. The great debate on sending troops to Europe was being waged around the country 02:19.560 --> 02:24.880 generally and specifically in Washington. Perhaps not as well argued as the Lincoln-Douglas debate 02:24.880 --> 02:31.440 of 1858, but considerably more abundant in words, gestures, and protagonists. Mr. President, 02:31.440 --> 02:37.520 will the Senate yield? I yield to my good friend from Massachusetts. But all the debates in 02:37.520 --> 02:41.720 Washington were not the great one, perhaps fortunately for the nation's sanity, if not 02:41.720 --> 02:45.720 its safety. There were also some arguments in Washington which had nothing to do with 02:45.720 --> 02:51.320 remaking the world. The two voices you just heard were those of Senator Leverett Saltonstall of 02:51.320 --> 02:56.320 Massachusetts as he interrupted an oration by 64-year-old William Langer, the senator from 02:56.320 --> 03:01.520 North Dakota. Langer was using the Senate floor to declaim at great length, as he has done so 03:01.520 --> 03:07.360 often before, on Dakota's unsung physical resources, human and otherwise. The senior 03:07.360 --> 03:11.760 senator from Massachusetts interrupted Senator Langer to ask why, if North Dakota possessed 03:11.760 --> 03:17.480 such vast physical resources, the senator had turned elsewhere for his bride. I think the 03:17.480 --> 03:23.280 senator from North Dakota is presenting his case in a very strong light. I should like to ask the 03:23.280 --> 03:29.640 senator one question. Did not the senator himself go to Columbia University in New York for a good 03:29.640 --> 03:36.520 legal education? And did he not at that time find a very lovely lady, then a resident of the state 03:36.520 --> 03:43.040 of New York, who has since been his fine wife and good mother to his four daughters? I may say to 03:43.040 --> 03:50.520 my good friend from Massachusetts that before I went to Columbia University, I went to the University 03:50.520 --> 03:59.760 of North Dakota. Naturally, when I got to New York, I was of an age where I was attracted by some very 03:59.760 --> 04:06.760 fine girls. However, I want to make it clear that at the time I met the lovely young lady who became 04:06.760 --> 04:14.200 Mrs. Langer, I did not know from what state she came. Mr. President, will the senator yield further? 04:14.200 --> 04:21.360 North Dakota yields to no other state when it comes to the beauty of its women, their intellect 04:21.360 --> 04:29.320 and their charm, or their ability to make fine wives, lovely hostesses, and excellent mothers. 04:29.320 --> 04:35.840 The nice thing about this country is that in every state we are proud of the fact that American 04:35.840 --> 04:43.720 women are at the very top of womanhood in the entire world. During my travels in Europe, I never 04:43.720 --> 04:51.200 saw any women who could compare with the women of the United States. The great debate, now in its 04:51.200 --> 04:56.600 fourth big week in the nation's capital, was still playing to packed houses, but so taxing were the 04:56.600 --> 05:02.320 roles that the stars seemed to change each week. Last week it was Truman and Taft. This week it was 05:02.320 --> 05:08.120 Wary of Nebraska and Connolly of Texas. Last week's principals, Senator Taft and the president, 05:08.120 --> 05:13.960 seemed almost mellow this week. The Ohio senator willing to make certain concessions, and here is 05:13.960 --> 05:18.400 the president, obviously making some kind of friendship gesture to the opposition. Somebody 05:18.400 --> 05:31.360 sent me a cartoon from Punch a day or two ago in which the cartoonist was depicting an argument 05:31.360 --> 05:38.800 in the Senate of the Carthaginians, and one able senator of the Carthaginians was saying that 05:38.800 --> 05:44.160 Hannibal should not be allowed to use elephants in Italy because the Senate should control the use 05:44.160 --> 06:00.560 of those elephants. That's been going on ever since we had Senates and senators, and I've served 06:00.560 --> 06:06.760 ten years in the Senate and I know just exactly how they feel. There isn't a senator in the Senate 06:06.760 --> 06:11.600 who's not just as anxious to see the United States government continue as the free government of the 06:11.600 --> 06:17.920 world as I am, and I know that no matter what they say for publication, when the time comes for action, 06:17.920 --> 06:22.880 they'll be right there in their way. On Tuesday, two of these senators locked horns over the 06:22.880 --> 06:27.200 president's right to send troops to Europe without the consent of Congress. The Democrats 06:27.200 --> 06:32.560 held that since George Washington's day, U.S. presidents in time of emergency had such a right. 06:32.560 --> 06:36.720 Senator Kenneth Wary, Republican of Nebraska, said that his fellow Republicans and according 06:36.720 --> 06:41.200 to his mail, the American people, did not acknowledge any such right for Mr. Truman, 06:41.200 --> 06:46.640 and the minority leader offered a resolution on this. The resolution that I put in the Senate 06:46.640 --> 06:52.160 around which all of this debate is centered, and regardless of what happens to the resolution, 06:52.160 --> 06:58.720 believe me, it's the basis upon which all of these debates have been held, and it's served the most 06:58.720 --> 07:04.800 useful purpose because it has aroused and alerted the American people to what the president said he 07:04.800 --> 07:09.440 would do. Tom Connolly of Texas, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, violently 07:09.440 --> 07:14.240 opposed burdening the commander in chief with any such instructions, stated that Wary was trying to 07:14.240 --> 07:19.200 make him swallow a piece of paper. Connolly said, I have already swallowed Wary's piece of paper and 07:19.200 --> 07:25.120 it gave me indigestion, and then went on to say, the Wary resolution which sought to limit the 07:25.120 --> 07:31.840 power of the president under the Constitution and transfer that power to the Congress with 07:31.840 --> 07:39.680 reference to sending troops to Europe was considered by the Senate and substantially it was rejected. 07:40.720 --> 07:46.800 By unanimous consent, the resolution was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations and the 07:46.800 --> 07:54.000 Committee on Armed Services. This joint committee will consider the matter and possibly hold hearings 07:54.000 --> 08:01.520 on the same. It will have general eyes now before it and will receive his report on the results of 08:01.520 --> 08:06.880 his trip to Europe. The senator from Texas managed to get the Senate to commit the Wary resolution to 08:06.880 --> 08:12.160 two committees for further study, but when newsmen asked Senator Wary if he considered this a defeat, 08:12.160 --> 08:18.640 the senator from Nebraska replied, you say this resolution is dead? It's just as live this minute 08:18.640 --> 08:24.000 as it was this morning, it's just as live as it was before it was committed, and someday, 08:24.000 --> 08:30.720 somehow, somewhere when this report is made, that issue will be voted upon. In this week's edition 08:30.720 --> 08:36.000 of the Great Debate, both Connolly and Wary used the same word over and over again, Eisenhower. 08:36.000 --> 08:40.560 Members of both sides of the debate were keeping an interested eye on the gentleman from Kansas and 08:40.560 --> 08:45.360 Columbia as he toured the Atlantic Pact countries and ending most of their arguments with the 08:45.360 --> 08:50.640 expression, of course, this is all dependent upon what Ike has to say when he gets back from Europe. 08:50.640 --> 08:55.680 General Eisenhower, 3,000 miles away from the Potomac, was obviously the most important man 08:55.680 --> 09:01.360 in Washington this week. Eric Severide, CBS's chief correspondent in Washington, summed it up this way, 09:01.360 --> 09:06.000 after a moment the Congress is waiting for General Ike to get home and tell it what Europe is doing 09:06.000 --> 09:10.960 and what he thinks Europe will do to defend itself. And on the basis of what he says, 09:10.960 --> 09:14.880 Congress will express itself as to what we ought to do to help Europe help itself. 09:16.160 --> 09:20.720 A certain amount of polite pretense seems to be necessary to keep our check and balance system 09:20.720 --> 09:26.400 of government operating smoothly, and this is a case of polite pretense. The President has the 09:26.400 --> 09:31.520 power to send over American troops whether Congress likes it or not, but it's better for him that 09:31.520 --> 09:36.800 Congress say in advance that it does like it. Congress knows perfectly well already that General 09:36.800 --> 09:41.840 Ike will give it a cautiously optimistic report about Europe's efforts and recommend that we do 09:41.840 --> 09:46.080 send troops, but it's better for the Congress that it hear from the general in advance. 09:47.920 --> 09:53.040 This complicated procedure may waste time, but it does spread the responsibility three ways between 09:53.040 --> 09:58.640 President, Congress, and the military. Everybody feels a little safer and more comfortable that way, 09:58.640 --> 10:03.840 and in case of future trouble, each one can say, yes, I went along with it, but so-and-so told us, 10:03.840 --> 10:10.560 etc., etc. Governmentally as well as mathematically, the triangle seems to be the most solid geometric 10:10.560 --> 10:16.320 form. In Europe, the general, with a minimum of long lunches and receptions and a maximum of hard 10:16.320 --> 10:21.360 talk and logistics, was completing his swift survey of the willingness and ability of West 10:21.360 --> 10:26.720 Europe to defend itself. As he moved from France to Italy to Belgium to Denmark to Norway to England, 10:26.720 --> 10:31.360 the propaganda machines of the communist country shouted out from behind the iron curtain 10:31.360 --> 10:37.040 warnings about the imperialist Eisenhower from the warring United States. We asked the National 10:37.040 --> 10:41.360 Committee for a free Europe to monitor some of these propaganda blasts from the satellite 10:41.360 --> 10:46.320 countries and Russia so that we might let you hear them and know what Russia is saying about 10:46.320 --> 10:51.280 General Eisenhower and his mission. They were broadcast in many languages, including English, 10:51.280 --> 10:55.920 and are recreated for us now. We thought it better if we let General Eisenhower answer them 10:55.920 --> 11:00.320 in his own words from speeches we recorded from his last two weeks in Europe. First, 11:00.320 --> 11:08.240 the Bulgarian radio. The instigator of the new war is Eisenhower. Dressed in the gown of the 11:08.240 --> 11:14.240 Dean of Columbia University, he declared that at present there is not peace, only an armed 11:14.240 --> 11:22.720 armistice. It is better to risk war and possible annihilation than to work for peace. That was the 11:22.720 --> 11:28.720 Bulgarian radio on Eisenhower. Now here is the General on January 6th as he left for Paris, 11:28.720 --> 11:34.320 first stop on his mission to Europe. Mr. President, I devoutly pray that the mission on which I am 11:34.320 --> 11:39.920 leaving this morning will result in nothing but peace, security, and tranquility for our various 11:39.920 --> 11:47.120 nations. Moscow radio on January 10th. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the Gauleiter, wishes to feel 11:47.120 --> 11:54.000 the pulse of Europe. It is easy to discern behind all this gross military and political blackmailing 11:54.000 --> 12:01.520 operation so characteristic of Washington's political morals. Our money or our men is what 12:01.520 --> 12:06.960 Eisenhower will tell his vassals. General Eisenhower on the subject of allies at his news 12:06.960 --> 12:12.160 conference in London. As far as I'm concerned, my arms are wide open for any free country that wants 12:12.160 --> 12:18.320 to get into it and put his heart into it. I never had too many allies in a fight. Again from the 12:18.320 --> 12:24.080 factory where it is made, the Moscow radio on January 12th. It is not for nothing that in the 12:24.080 --> 12:30.480 very first few days of his stay in Paris, Eisenhower broadcast a speech in which he pointedly said that 12:30.480 --> 12:36.800 the French, the Dutch, the Italians, and representatives of the other Western European nations must rid 12:36.800 --> 12:42.400 themselves of their prejudices in which American propaganda includes the conception of national 12:42.400 --> 12:48.160 sovereignty. Now listen to what General Eisenhower did say about the French, the Dutch, the Italians, 12:48.160 --> 12:54.720 and prejudices. In the great heritage of Europe must be found the will, the moral strength, 12:55.760 --> 13:03.120 and much of the means to build defenses behind which its children may prosper and live in peace. 13:03.120 --> 13:09.280 These are the children of Europe, not just of Holland, Italy, France, or other nations. Let us 13:09.280 --> 13:15.840 work for them and put aside all prejudice and past grievances. It is possible that German troops 13:15.840 --> 13:21.280 will be included in the defense armies from Prague in Czechoslovakia, where in better days 13:21.280 --> 13:27.360 they hung portraits of Ike, there was this broadcast. It could be anticipated that Eisenhower 13:27.360 --> 13:34.240 wouldn't have too many reasons for friendship with these Nazi generals. However, he declared 13:34.240 --> 13:41.040 recently that he was looking forward to friendship with the German generals. He must have forgotten 13:41.040 --> 13:48.800 1944 rather quickly. Eisenhower in Frankfurt on January 20th. I shall hope someday that the 13:48.800 --> 13:55.280 great German people are lined up with the rest of the free world because I believe in the essential 13:55.280 --> 14:02.480 freedom, loving quality of the German people. The general went on to say, I've come to know there 14:02.480 --> 14:07.280 is a real difference between the regular soldier and officer and Hitler and his criminal group. 14:08.080 --> 14:12.960 All along the line the Russian charges could be proved false and ridiculous. Perhaps they 14:12.960 --> 14:18.880 appeared most ludicrous when they got around to Ike's personal habits. In West Point, the American 14:18.880 --> 14:26.080 Army Training Center, in the citadel of American reactionary mercenaries, he was, as admitted by 14:26.080 --> 14:33.520 his biographers, a mediocre student. And if ever he excelled in anything, it was again as football 14:33.520 --> 14:42.320 player. He became famous in school, let us not forget, for beating up a Negro. Rather than let 14:42.320 --> 14:46.400 the general speak for himself on this one, we turned to someone who would know more about this 14:46.400 --> 14:51.680 subject than even the Russians. I'm Sergeant First Class John H. Montgomery of Starkville, 14:51.680 --> 14:57.680 Mississippi. I'm one of the people who worked on General Eisenhower's staff during the time of 14:57.680 --> 15:04.880 Chief of Staff of the Army. I worked for him from 1944 until 1947 when he retired from the United 15:04.880 --> 15:11.360 States Army. I also think he's one of the greatest men who ever lived, as personally and otherwise. 15:11.360 --> 15:16.000 And I also understand there were some remarks about him being a football player that I don't 15:16.000 --> 15:21.840 know about because it was before my time. In regards to the Russian story of General Eisenhower 15:21.840 --> 15:31.280 mistreating a colored soldier, I know personally that he's not that kind of a man. And I do know 15:31.280 --> 15:37.600 that if anyone, any Russian or anybody else that would say that he would do a thing like that, 15:37.600 --> 15:45.360 I'm sure, I'm positive that they're lying because I never known him to say anything or do anything 15:45.360 --> 15:50.960 towards any of the fellows who worked with him the time that I was there that he ever would attempt 15:50.960 --> 15:56.560 to do such a thing or either take any action towards something that you wouldn't like because 15:56.560 --> 16:02.720 he never did it towards anyone that I know. What neither the Russians or even the general had said 16:02.720 --> 16:08.000 was that no public servant, no soldier had ever undertaken an assignment with more to lose 16:08.000 --> 16:13.200 personally and more to gain for his nation and the free world than General Dwight D. Eisenhower. 16:13.920 --> 16:18.720 As for himself, he was easily one of the most respected men of this republic. His record of 16:18.720 --> 16:23.760 past performance could perhaps be equaled, but he could go no higher. He could only go down if the 16:23.760 --> 16:30.640 Atlantic Pact fails. But at a time when there was a worldwide drought of leadership, the 16:30.640 --> 16:35.200 time when there was a worldwide drought of leadership, he had been willing at the age of 60 16:35.200 --> 16:39.680 to attempt what some think to be impossible, had been willing to risk his name, his stature, 16:39.680 --> 16:44.800 his prestige, perhaps his health to stop the threat of communism in Europe. He would return 16:44.800 --> 16:49.440 on Wednesday of next week. His report to the Congress on Thursday might well determine the 16:49.440 --> 16:55.760 road down which we will march or stumble. You have heard some typical examples of communist 16:55.760 --> 17:01.760 propaganda and distortion. Now, in contrast, brief reports from our CBS reporters who watched 17:01.760 --> 17:06.640 General Eisenhower at work. Howard K. Smith, our chief European correspondent from London. 17:07.840 --> 17:13.120 General Eisenhower's visit to Europe has by all accounts been a shot in the arm to this weary and 17:13.120 --> 17:18.320 rather frightened continent. The mere fact that he accepted the Atlantic Command has been a sharp 17:18.320 --> 17:24.160 antidote to fears that America might go back into isolation. For as a London paper said the other 17:24.160 --> 17:30.240 day, a man who could probably be president of the United States if he wanted to would not accept this 17:30.240 --> 17:35.680 job unless he were sure it were going to be worthwhile and fully supported by his own country. 17:36.560 --> 17:43.120 David Schonbrunn from Paris. General Eisenhower left Paris this morning for Iceland and he got a 17:43.120 --> 17:48.480 ringing send-off from the people of France who refused to follow a communist call to demonstrate 17:48.480 --> 17:53.920 against the general. For the French government, it was a smashing victory, a victory of much more 17:53.920 --> 17:59.040 than local importance. The complete defeat of the communist attempt last night has international 17:59.040 --> 18:04.960 significance. Now, Winston Burdette reports from Rome. There's no doubt that the very brief talks 18:04.960 --> 18:10.160 which General Eisenhower had with Italian leaders, talks which began mid-morning and were all over 18:10.160 --> 18:15.840 before lunchtime, were a definite political success. The Italian government just now is going 18:15.840 --> 18:20.960 through a critical time. It is launching a big defense program that is going to tug hard at the 18:20.960 --> 18:27.040 weak seams of the Italian economy. Many leaders here have had serious misgivings about Italy's 18:27.040 --> 18:32.000 exact place in the Atlantic Pact, about how much importance the high command would give to the 18:32.000 --> 18:38.160 Italian front in case of trouble. For both these reasons, the government needed a word of reassurance, 18:38.160 --> 18:43.920 a moral boost, and General Eisenhower, with his great personal gift for appreciating other people's 18:43.920 --> 18:50.320 problems, gave them that boost. So chiefly, his trip here was a kind of psychological tonic 18:50.320 --> 18:56.160 in a country where morale often tends to wobble badly and public opinion is extremely volatile. 18:56.720 --> 19:00.000 And Richard C. Hotelet tells what the Germans thought of Eisenhower. 19:00.960 --> 19:06.560 General Eisenhower came to Germany because it is indispensable to the effective defense of Western 19:06.560 --> 19:12.560 Europe. He found here a country which is indeed physically capable of becoming the strongest 19:12.560 --> 19:18.480 continental ally, but which for some time has been showing all the symptoms of nervous breakdown, 19:18.480 --> 19:24.480 total defeat in the last war, millions of dead and crippled, poverty and occupation have made 19:24.480 --> 19:31.600 peace at any price, almost a national fixation. Germany is most directly threatened by Russia. 19:31.600 --> 19:37.040 It is intellectually a part of the West. Nevertheless, the Germans have been profoundly 19:37.040 --> 19:43.440 unwilling to commit themselves actively to the common cause. General Eisenhower's purpose here 19:43.440 --> 19:49.200 was to plunge to the psychological root of this German dilemma, and he succeeded from the moment 19:49.200 --> 19:55.600 he arrived. He radiated confident leadership and sincerity. Everyone he met, government and 19:55.600 --> 20:01.600 opposition alike, was deeply impressed. He gave the assurances which the people had been demanding, 20:01.600 --> 20:07.920 that bygones are bygones, that German soldiers will be treated as equals, and that the West will 20:07.920 --> 20:14.400 mobilize its strength in the cause of peace. Public response to his words showed that there is some 20:14.400 --> 20:20.800 spirit here in Germany which can be roused for the alliance. The Russians and their satellites 20:20.800 --> 20:26.160 would not hear the reports of Smith, Hotelet, Burdett and the others, but America was finally 20:26.160 --> 20:30.960 beginning to get in some licks against the communists inside Russia. Last Sunday was the 20:30.960 --> 20:36.080 24th anniversary of the death of Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Republic, the man Joe Stalin claims 20:36.080 --> 20:41.360 as his idol. This week, the State Department's Voice of America, in many languages, told the 20:41.360 --> 20:46.320 Russians that Stalin was never Lenin's choice as his successor. This is what some Russians heard 20:46.320 --> 20:52.720 this week. These are Lenin's words. I am outraged by the arrogance of Ordzhonikidze and the 20:52.720 --> 20:58.800 connivance of Stalin and Jushinsky. It is of course necessary to hold Stalin and Jushinsky 20:58.800 --> 21:05.120 responsible for this out-and-out great Russian nationalistic campaign. I think that here the 21:05.120 --> 21:11.760 hastiness and administrative impulsiveness of Stalin played a fatal role and also his spitefulness. 21:11.760 --> 21:18.720 As a rule, spitefulness plays the worst possible role in politics. From the first Lenin had opposed 21:18.720 --> 21:25.760 Stalin's candidacy to be general secretary of the communist party. He had observed that cook will 21:25.760 --> 21:33.520 concoct nothing but peppery dishes. Stalin is too rude and this fault becomes insupportable in the 21:33.520 --> 21:40.160 office of general secretary. Therefore, I propose to the comrades to find a way to remove Stalin 21:40.160 --> 21:47.200 from that position and appoint another man more patient, more loyal, more polite, and more 21:47.200 --> 21:56.400 attentive to comrades. You have been listening to a program recalling the death of Vladimir Ilyich 21:56.400 --> 22:07.280 Ulyanov, Lenin, 27 years ago this week on January 21st, 1924. This has been a presentation of the 22:07.280 --> 22:13.600 voice of America. U.S. propaganda against communism was improving, but the big question was the number 22:13.600 --> 22:18.720 of radio sets behind the iron curtain which could tune us in. There were those returning from Europe 22:18.720 --> 22:23.440 who said the dissatisfaction within Russia was growing, that in the event of war the people would 22:23.440 --> 22:29.200 revolt. Harold Stassen, just back from a world tour which did not take him behind the iron curtain, 22:29.200 --> 22:33.600 said that in a report to the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania on Monday night. 22:33.600 --> 22:40.320 The rulers of the Russian Kremlin will not initiate an all-out world war, but in my view, 22:40.320 --> 22:47.360 America and the world faces years or even decades of struggle, but not the devastating horror of an 22:47.360 --> 22:55.120 all-out third world war. I base that, of course, upon my finding that there's much unrest inside 22:55.120 --> 23:01.920 Russia. There's trouble inside the Red Army. There's trouble inside the iron curtain. In my judgment, 23:01.920 --> 23:06.800 this trouble would burst forth in genuine counter-revolution if an aggressive world war 23:06.800 --> 23:13.360 were initiated by the communist rulers. This week there was a strong new voice in foreign affairs. 23:13.360 --> 23:17.520 The Republicans, with one new seat due them on the vitally important foreign affairs committee, 23:17.520 --> 23:23.120 finally decided who the new senator should be. Wayne Morse of Oregon, Homer Capehart of Indiana, 23:23.120 --> 23:29.120 and half-dozen others had looked, hopefully, to the seat. The man chosen was Abel Charles Tobey of New 23:29.120 --> 23:33.520 Hampshire. The senator said he would try to follow in the footsteps of Arthur Vandenberg. 23:34.160 --> 23:38.960 In this crucial epoch, facing problems extremely complex and far-reaching, 23:38.960 --> 23:44.880 I feel that partisanship should be conspicuously absent, and I hope to emulate the fine, 23:44.880 --> 23:51.360 constructive example of my friend and colleague, Senator Arthur Vandenberg, whose illness and 23:51.360 --> 23:58.320 enforced absence we all so much deplore. In confronting our foreign policy problems, 23:58.320 --> 24:05.280 we must above all take a positive approach for the time for critical inspection of past policies 24:05.280 --> 24:11.440 as been replaced by the urgent necessity for constructive, imaginative, cooperative action. 24:12.320 --> 24:18.160 There is no cause for defeatism. There is no ground for final fear. 24:18.800 --> 24:23.520 A poll of the Senate conducted by the Associated Press showed that a majority of senators would 24:23.520 --> 24:29.280 approve sending troops to Europe, but the debate on troops on foreign soil was not limited to Europe, 24:29.280 --> 24:32.880 nor were the lines evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. 24:32.880 --> 24:39.520 Senator Edwin Johnson, Democrat from Colorado, said we should put up in Korea or get out. 24:39.520 --> 24:40.720 Senator Johnson. 24:40.720 --> 24:46.720 Three weeks ago, in a telephone message to a mass meeting in Boulder, Colorado, 24:46.720 --> 24:56.240 I coined the phrase, all out or get out. These five short words express what I think our policy 24:56.240 --> 25:04.320 should be. To me, it is more important for us to save the lives of our GIs than the red faces 25:04.880 --> 25:12.480 of our discredited policymakers. When our troops departed from the Hung Nam beachhead some days ago, 25:12.480 --> 25:19.360 a GI spoke for America when he wrote these immortal words on a billboard at the point of 25:19.360 --> 25:26.560 at the point of debarkation. We didn't want the damn place anyhow. On the Korean peninsula this 25:26.560 --> 25:31.760 week, it was sometimes hard to figure out who wanted what places. All week long, our armed 25:31.760 --> 25:37.840 patrols probed for the enemy. We came across his small patrols, his isolated units. We moved in and 25:37.840 --> 25:43.360 out of towns we had given up a few weeks ago. One Jew was one of these. At least six times, 25:43.360 --> 25:49.600 it changed hands. Then we took it to stay. CBS correspondent John Jefferson went in with a 25:49.600 --> 25:58.080 reinforced infantry battalion. We are now in Wanju itself. The town is quite battered, except for the 25:58.080 --> 26:04.720 very south side where the buildings for the most part, the usual Korean thatched huts, are, 26:05.280 --> 26:10.320 merely have broken windows, broken frames. But here in the center, where our around the airfield, 26:10.320 --> 26:16.560 the buildings, the quonset huts that were once put up by us that our B-29s hit the other night, 26:16.560 --> 26:21.440 the wreckage is quite complete. And a few minutes later, Jefferson watched the new commander of the 26:21.440 --> 26:26.640 second division, Major General Clark Ruffner, land at Wanju airstrip to meet with the battalion 26:26.640 --> 26:31.520 commander. Jefferson asked the general to describe the mission of our troops. Here General Ruffner's 26:31.520 --> 26:40.880 reply. You've asked me to say a word or two as to why we're here. We're here to carry out a well-known 26:40.880 --> 26:49.600 principle, keep contact with the enemy. And therefore we have returned into this area to 26:49.600 --> 26:57.040 reestablish and affirmatively decide where he is and what strength in order to keep contact with him. 26:57.040 --> 27:02.560 There's too much negative information. We want positive information. Our troops got positive 27:02.560 --> 27:07.520 information at Wanju and kept moving north. Today, Allied tanks, troops, and artillery, 27:07.520 --> 27:13.760 three strong task forces, captured Su-1 without a fight and found themselves within 15 miles of 27:13.760 --> 27:19.760 evacuated Seoul. As some of the troops moved forward looking for the enemy, behind the lines 27:19.760 --> 27:24.720 in such centers as Taigu, there was time for relaxing, time to get away from the war for an 27:24.720 --> 27:31.600 hour or two, time for song. I am Staff Sergeant Merl Strang of Bangor, Maine. This song is being 27:31.600 --> 27:37.280 sung by the International Choir of the 5th Air Force. The song is Arirang. It is the famous 27:38.080 --> 27:46.960 Korean folk song. This choir was started in Seoul, Seoul, Korea, and when we left we brought 60 27:46.960 --> 27:54.960 members of the choir down here to Taigu and we have built the choir to 150 voices. 28:01.040 --> 28:06.800 There were other voices and other sounds at Taigu. The voices you hear come from a mess hall 28:06.800 --> 28:13.040 beside one of the busiest airstrips in the world at Taigu. Some days as many as 1,500 sorties take 28:13.040 --> 28:18.880 off from this strip. The mess hall is used for many purposes. The airmen eat there three times a day, 28:18.880 --> 28:23.680 sing there once or twice a week, and almost every morning just before dawn they use it for a briefing 28:23.680 --> 28:29.520 session for the flights that will strike north against the communists. I'm going up on an airfield 28:29.520 --> 28:33.680 strike up here today. I want to get a little information from you intelligence people about 28:33.680 --> 28:38.080 the flap situation and what I can expect on the airfield. What am I supposed to find there? What 28:38.080 --> 28:42.800 information have you got on it? That was Lieutenant Colonel Charles Williams of San Antonio, commander 28:42.800 --> 28:48.080 of the 9th Fighter Bomber Group, a jet outfit. Williams is about to brief his fliers, but first 28:48.080 --> 28:52.560 he must be briefed by the intelligence officer. There are definitely flak positions on this 28:52.560 --> 28:59.520 particular airfield. Also there are reports that enemy Yaks are in these two revetments here in the 28:59.520 --> 29:04.880 northeast section of the airfield. Now your primary mission be to knock out those Yaks. Young Colonel 29:04.880 --> 29:10.640 Williams gets the mission clearly defined in his own mind, then his pilots troop in for their briefing. 29:10.640 --> 29:15.120 Okay boys we're going to start up in a few minutes here going up to hit this airfield. I've been down 29:15.120 --> 29:19.360 to intelligence and got all the poop on it. Anybody got any questions? Colonel what's the weather up 29:19.360 --> 29:23.520 there in the target area today? The weather up there is supposed to be pretty good. There was some 29:23.520 --> 29:27.360 ground fog. I think it'll be burned off the time we get there. We should have about eight or ten 29:27.360 --> 29:31.040 miles visibility. What kind of trouble do they have with flak over there the last couple missions? 29:31.600 --> 29:35.360 The last couple missions have gone in. There's a lot of flak around the target area. However the 29:35.360 --> 29:40.320 route that we picked out to go in I don't think we'll get bothered with any of it. We'll be low 29:40.320 --> 29:43.920 enough and fast enough. I don't believe that air is coming. We should get through there with no 29:43.920 --> 29:49.120 sweat. Colonel do you expect any air opposition? There's possibility there may be some Yaks. 29:49.120 --> 29:53.680 There's a 26 got jumped by a conventional Yak up there yesterday but if we see any of them we 29:53.680 --> 29:58.000 shouldn't have any trouble handling them. A few minutes later Colonel Williams is in his own jet, 29:58.000 --> 30:02.560 talks to his crew chief. If you listen closely you will hear the actual sound of his parachute 30:02.560 --> 30:16.320 gear clicking closed. Sergeant how about give me a hand with my chute here will you please? 30:16.320 --> 30:17.600 Okay let's wind it up. 30:21.360 --> 30:27.040 That is not yet the sound of a jet engine. Jets like Model Ts need cranking to get up the speed 30:27.040 --> 30:32.320 of the engine. That's an auxiliary motor about 25 horsepower which is rolled up beside the plane to 30:32.320 --> 30:39.360 start it. The engine is brought to speed. Williams opens his throttle. He applies ignition. The 30:39.360 --> 30:44.640 kerosene based fuel flows in. It catches. The air is sucked in through the opening at the nose of 30:44.640 --> 30:50.400 the plane where the propeller would be. The air is heated by the fuel, becomes combustible, expands 30:50.400 --> 30:55.200 through the turbo and is ejected from the tail of the plane in the form of gas thus forcing the 30:55.200 --> 31:05.600 plane forward and into the air. The jets take off in a matter of seconds are out of sight in less 31:05.600 --> 31:12.160 than 30 seconds. Less than one hour but more than 500 miles later the ground crews are sitting near 31:12.160 --> 31:18.080 the control tower waiting for word of the mission. The planes check the tower for landing instructions 31:18.080 --> 31:24.240 before they are seen or heard. In the case of the jets they'll be on the ground in about 40 or 50 31:24.240 --> 31:31.920 seconds. Seven two five two five two three king two tower go ahead. I'll let you two five two three 31:31.920 --> 31:38.320 landing left and traffic runway three one left winds are calm. Altimeter three zero three two 31:38.320 --> 31:44.960 set turning down window. Less than a minute later the planes have landed and this time it's the 31:44.960 --> 31:53.040 fliers turn to do the briefing. How's the ship sir? Our ship's okay. We didn't do too good on a mission 31:53.040 --> 31:59.600 on the airfield. We had to dive bomb a ton. Everything went all right. Nothing wrong with the airplane. It's okay. 32:00.400 --> 32:05.120 Colonel Williams' ninth fighter bomber group based at Tygoo had a surprise visitor this week. 32:05.680 --> 32:11.280 The SCAP, the aircraft of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur at 71 in the battle of his life. 32:12.000 --> 32:16.560 He stood beside his plane at the Tygoo strip and while other planes took off on missions to the 32:16.560 --> 32:22.160 north the general gave the reporters a statement. He spoke slowly so that they could copy down every 32:22.160 --> 32:41.760 word. There has been a lot of loose talk about the Chinese driving us into the sea. Just as in the early 32:41.760 --> 32:52.880 days there was a lot of nonsense about the North Koreans driving us into the sea. This command 32:52.880 --> 33:00.720 intends to maintain a military position in Korea 33:00.720 --> 33:17.600 until just as long as the statesmen of the United Nations decide we should do so. 33:19.200 --> 33:24.000 In the last fortnight the statesmen of the world, both those with and those without portfolio, 33:24.000 --> 33:28.400 have offered many solutions as to how to end the war in Korea. The New York Daily News, 33:28.400 --> 33:33.200 the largest newspaper in the world, is often a symposium for the statesmen without portfolios 33:33.200 --> 33:39.120 who write endless letters to the editor. The paper calls its letters column the voice of the people. 33:39.840 --> 33:43.920 This Wednesday there was one suggestion that might have been endorsed by Trig Villi 33:43.920 --> 33:49.040 and certainly would have the approval of any New York cop. Dear voice of the people, 33:49.840 --> 33:57.280 the UN Army in Korea needs some help. How about sending some of New York's 11,000 taxi drivers 33:57.280 --> 34:03.120 there with their cabs? They are more dangerous than any bomb Stalin may drop on New York. 34:04.000 --> 34:10.800 Very truly yours EWS. Before it was time for General MacArthur to requisition the 11,000 taxi 34:10.800 --> 34:15.520 cabs of New York for combat against the enemy, the delegates to the United Nations would have to make 34:15.520 --> 34:19.760 sure that they had exhausted all the more peaceful methods of ending the war in Korea. 34:20.640 --> 34:26.160 On Saturday of last week America in the voice of Warren Austin asked the UN to declare Red China 34:26.160 --> 34:30.880 the aggressor. Both houses of our Congress voted unanimously that this should be done, 34:31.600 --> 34:36.640 but the proposal was not enthusiastically supported by all other nations. In Britain, 34:36.640 --> 34:41.360 Prime Minister Attlee thought it would be a mistake. Sir Gladwin Jeb speaking for him said, 34:41.360 --> 34:46.960 not for the first time, let's go slowly. On Wednesday, Sir Benegal Rao of India had reported 34:46.960 --> 34:52.240 that the Chinese government at Beiping, which has three times turned down our ceasefire proposals, 34:52.240 --> 34:58.480 really wants peace and concessions. Ambassador Austin, usually a very calm man, was furious, 34:58.480 --> 35:05.920 said that China was just trying to split the free world. That it is a transparent effort to divide 35:06.480 --> 35:15.760 the free world and to delay the exercise of the Pacific functions, the peacemaking functions 35:15.760 --> 35:24.960 of the United Nations, postpone, delay, procrastinate. And so far as one can 35:25.680 --> 35:33.440 understand the English language, it is not even new. It is not a proposition. 35:34.400 --> 35:41.360 It is not addressed to the United Nations. It isn't much more than a postal card would be. 35:41.360 --> 35:46.480 If the United States succeeds in getting the UN to brand red China the aggressor, 35:46.480 --> 35:51.680 it will have to decide then what to do next. And some people in Washington are saying, 35:51.680 --> 35:58.480 use the atom bomb. One of the controversies now raging is just how far can the atom bomb go in 35:58.480 --> 36:03.520 winning a war? Can we, if total war comes, bring the Soviet Union to defeat through our atomic 36:03.520 --> 36:09.280 weapons? One of the men who knows most about atomic energy is David E. Lilienthal, who until 36:09.280 --> 36:14.800 a year ago guided the US atomic energy program. Today's Collier's magazine has a rather 36:14.800 --> 36:20.320 startling article by Mr. Lilienthal, who is leaving shortly for India and private conversations with 36:20.320 --> 36:27.200 Prime Minister Nehru. Here is David E. Lilienthal. The A-bomb has indeed been a great deterrent on 36:27.200 --> 36:33.920 Russia up to now. But in the five years since Hiroshima, the A-bomb has been overvalued in the 36:33.920 --> 36:41.680 popular mind and in the military mind as a kind of guarantee of victory in case of war. Korea 36:41.680 --> 36:47.920 jarred us free of this notion, this notion that the A-bomb is an all-powerful, all-sufficient, 36:47.920 --> 36:55.600 one-shot answer to all of our security needs. We mustn't go astray in our thoughts or hopes or 36:55.600 --> 37:04.640 plans because of the H-bomb either. No such weapon as a hydrogen bomb now exists. Whether there ever 37:04.640 --> 37:12.160 will be is only a remote possibility. We've got to get strong the hard way. There isn't any easy way. 37:12.880 --> 37:21.600 We must buy security the costly way. There isn't any cheap way. An atomic attack would not destroy 37:21.600 --> 37:31.200 Russia. It would gravely, terribly wound Russia but not defeat her. Our reluctance to go to war, 37:31.200 --> 37:37.520 our efforts to avert that awful tragedy for ourselves and for the world, may lead to 37:37.520 --> 37:44.960 miscalculations by the Russian leaders. If they underestimate the power of this country to wage 37:44.960 --> 37:52.240 war, to devastate Russian cities, they will have made an error that will never be forgotten. 37:52.240 --> 37:59.360 They will have caused the erasure of most of the industrial progress built with such pride and such 37:59.360 --> 38:08.000 deprivation by the people of Russia. Let no Russian leader and no rattled American for that matter 38:08.000 --> 38:14.560 underestimate the fabulous productive capacity of this country or of our ability to produce 38:14.560 --> 38:21.760 fighting men the equal of any. Let no one fool himself by talk of how we shall exhaust ourselves 38:21.760 --> 38:28.480 by fighting a war all over the world or by providing arms for Europe. A war with Russia 38:28.480 --> 38:34.320 would be terrible. It would be bloody. It would be costly and heartbreaking. 38:34.320 --> 38:40.160 But if we must, we can fight and we will fight and we will win. 38:52.160 --> 38:57.680 You are listening to Hear It Now, CBS's weekly review of the news told in the actual recorded 38:57.680 --> 39:04.720 voices of the people who made the news. We pause briefly for station identification. This is CBS, 39:04.720 --> 39:06.720 the Columbia Broadcasting System. 39:06.720 --> 39:15.680 This is program seven in the new CBS 60-minute document for air based on the week's news and the 39:15.680 --> 39:21.520 problems and tasks facing the American people. Once again, here is the editor of Hear It Now, 39:21.520 --> 39:40.000 Edward R. Murrow. This week, food prices soared to all time new highs. The meat industry said it was 39:40.000 --> 39:45.040 due to hoarding that panicky citizens had hidden away in their freezers over a million pounds of 39:45.040 --> 39:51.440 meat, thus sending prices soaring. The meat industry said it was due to hoarding that panicky 39:51.440 --> 39:53.440 citizens had hidden away in their freezers over a million pounds of meat, thus sending prices soaring. 39:53.440 --> 39:58.240 Later in this program, we shall try to make a brief report on meat USA, including the biography of a 39:58.240 --> 40:05.680 pound of steak. Most prices and all wages in this country have been frozen as of last midnight. 40:05.680 --> 40:10.880 The government issued the orders a few hours ago and the men who must administer them make it clear 40:10.880 --> 40:16.400 that this is a sort of stopgap device to hold things as they are until better regulations can 40:16.400 --> 40:23.600 be worked out. There will be no rollback of either prices or wages, but they must stay as they are 40:23.600 --> 40:29.440 except for certain food prices, which under the law can still go up. The man in charge of this 40:29.440 --> 40:34.720 overall stabilization program is Eric Johnston, the former head of the Motion Picture Association. 40:34.720 --> 40:40.480 As he sees it, inflation is to be feared as much as Russia. Inflation is one of the greatest 40:40.480 --> 40:46.960 threats that we face in the United States. I think it is just as great a threat as Russia, because I 40:46.960 --> 40:53.360 think Russia could lick us if we weaken ourselves by inflation. Wage and price controls are only 40:53.360 --> 40:59.360 part of the answer. We will have to do it through increased production, through vigorous credit and 40:59.360 --> 41:06.080 tax policies, and through other measures to relieve the pressures of inflation. We will have to do it 41:06.080 --> 41:14.080 and do it vigorously. If we don't, inflation can ruin us all. It is a silent thief that steals from 41:14.080 --> 41:20.560 everyone's pocketbook. But one long-standing controversy was apparently ended this week. 41:20.560 --> 41:26.080 I once made a crack to the effect that nice guys finish last. Well, it's been taken a little too 41:26.080 --> 41:31.600 literally. That was the voice of Leo Ernest de Rocher, the lippy and successful manager of the New 41:31.600 --> 41:37.600 York Giants, who once in his turbulent career coined the expression, nice guys finish last. 41:38.320 --> 41:44.640 Today, Leo took back that phrase, particularly as it applied to a certain umpire. In Florida, 41:44.640 --> 41:51.200 Bill Clem, the elder statesman of big league umpires, is 78 and very ill. Mr. de Rocher heard 41:51.200 --> 41:56.480 about his old friend in the blue suit who often had the last word, and said he'd like to send this 41:56.480 --> 42:02.320 word to the ump who always called him as he saw him, Leo de Rocher. I've been tossed out of more 42:02.320 --> 42:08.560 than one game by old Bill, but I never resented it, and Bill never harbored any grudge against any 42:08.560 --> 42:14.480 ballplayer that I ever knew that questioned one of his decisions. I recall one time while I was 42:14.480 --> 42:19.120 playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, the old Gas Horse gang, I was the captain of the club, 42:19.120 --> 42:26.400 Frankie Frisch, now manager of the Cubs, was then managing St. Louis. And Bill Clem was well 42:26.400 --> 42:33.280 known for after being in an argument with managers or players, he would walk away and draw a line 42:33.840 --> 42:39.760 with his foot, saying that if you cross that line, you are automatically out of the park. 42:39.760 --> 42:44.560 Well, this day, I had gotten into a beef with Bill and was tossed out of the game, 42:44.560 --> 42:48.960 and Frisch charged up and run right up to the line, and Clem was waiting for him, 42:48.960 --> 42:54.320 just looking at him, and Frisch stopped dead and then walked around it. And Clem just looked at 42:54.320 --> 42:59.600 him, he said, same thing, he says, on your way, and tossed us both out of the game. Well, 43:00.720 --> 43:05.120 you know, those are the things that stay in a ballplayer's mind throughout the years. 43:05.760 --> 43:11.040 Bill Clem was noted for that, but also everybody knows that Bill Clem is a very sick man right at 43:11.040 --> 43:16.800 this moment. In fact, he's fighting for his life, and I once made a crack to the effect that nice 43:16.800 --> 43:24.720 guys finish last. Well, it's been taken a little too literally, but I still don't retract it, except 43:24.720 --> 43:31.120 to say if there's one guy it never applied to, well, it's Bill Clem. Get well, Bill, baseball 43:31.120 --> 43:36.000 would just never be the same without you. And New York's police commissioner, Thomas Murphy, 43:36.000 --> 43:39.760 had this bit of advice for a graduating class at the police academy. 43:39.760 --> 43:47.120 The gruff, arrogant policeman has no place in modern society. You must remember you are the 43:47.120 --> 43:53.360 public representatives of the city, and your attitude and demeanor will redound to the credit 43:53.360 --> 44:01.360 or discredit of yourself, the department, and of the city. The unnecessary use of force is a 44:01.360 --> 44:09.200 despicable thing that brings discredit to the policeman and to the department. The policeman 44:09.200 --> 44:16.160 cannot afford to lose his temper, however great the provocation. Earlier in this program, you heard 44:16.160 --> 44:21.680 Eric Johnston say, inflation is one of the greatest threats that we face in the United States. 44:22.480 --> 44:28.000 I think it is just as great a threat as Russia. We talk a great deal about Russia on this program. 44:28.000 --> 44:33.360 Now let's talk about inflation where we feel it most. In the past 30 days, the price of steak 44:33.360 --> 44:40.640 went up more than 4%. How? Why did it happen? This next story on Hear It Now is the documented 44:40.640 --> 44:47.040 biography of a pound of steak. During 1951, the average American, that most elusive figure, 44:47.040 --> 44:53.120 will eat 148 pounds of meat. This is the biography of one of those pounds, and the voices you are 44:53.120 --> 45:00.960 about to hear originate in the Chicago stockyards, a ranch in Montana, a feed farm in Iowa, and a 45:00.960 --> 45:09.120 butcher shop in New York. Before we begin, just a few statistics. As we said, we each eat roughly 45:09.120 --> 45:15.680 148 pounds of beef, veal, pork, and lamb a year, and spend 6% of our income on these meats. 45:16.480 --> 45:22.800 Since 1941, the story of meat is the story of inflation. We take you now to the office of Ewan 45:22.800 --> 45:27.520 Clegg, Chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, for a very quick report on the 45:27.520 --> 45:36.880 price of round steak since 1939. August 1939, just before the war began in Europe, 36 cents. 45:37.920 --> 45:48.240 1941, the year of defense preparation, 39 cents. 1942, the first full year of America at war, 45:48.240 --> 46:07.600 44 cents. 1943, 44 cents. 1944, 42 cents. 1945, 41 cents. June 1946, while the OPA was still on, 46:07.600 --> 46:27.520 42 cents. July 1946, just after the OPA ended, 61 cents. 1947, 75 cents. 1948, 90 cents. 1949, 46:27.520 --> 46:42.000 85 cents. 1950, 94 cents. December 1950, one dollar. Now you're in the butcher shop of Fred 46:42.000 --> 46:47.520 Loeb at 1300 First Avenue in New York. It might well be the butcher shop just around the corner 46:47.520 --> 46:53.600 from you in your hometown. Hello Fred. Hello Miss Terriga. How are you? Okay and you? How are the 46:53.600 --> 46:59.840 kids? Hi. What would you like to have? Oh I don't know. No, no, you know what I think I'll have? I 46:59.840 --> 47:04.720 think I'll have a nice sirloin steak. Special occasion tonight. All right, you got a good steak. 47:04.720 --> 47:10.720 Yes. How big you need it about? Well enough for us, you know. All right, I go inside and get it. 47:10.720 --> 47:23.280 Is that big enough? Oh that's fine, fine. All right, I'll put on a scale. That steak comes to 325. 47:23.920 --> 47:29.520 What? 325 for a steak? Oh Fred, how much a pound is it? Well don't you read the papers? 47:30.080 --> 47:36.800 Neat wind up. Again? Look Miss Terriga, it's not my fault that the prices are so high. 47:36.800 --> 47:42.640 Well whose fault is it? I have to pay more the wholesaler and I have to charge more. So it's the 47:42.640 --> 47:47.280 poor housewives that have to suffer. You know things are so expensive, so darn expensive, that 47:47.280 --> 47:52.880 you're afraid to eat, afraid to shop, afraid to do anything. That's not my fault. I have to pay for 47:52.880 --> 47:56.720 it so the housewife has to pay for it. So it's not your fault, it's not the housewife's fault, 47:56.720 --> 48:01.680 and whose fault is it? Mrs. Klettiker wants to know who is to blame. The butcher says he 48:01.680 --> 48:07.440 isn't making any more money. It must be the wholesaler. So we went down to the market area in Manhattan 48:07.440 --> 48:15.600 and asked the wholesaler. We as wholesalers only operate at a gross profit of a penny and a half 48:15.600 --> 48:24.560 per pound. Now you could readily see that the wholesalers are not making as much money as people 48:24.560 --> 48:33.600 think. We have to pay more money to the packers, those who slaughter the cattle, and this cause 48:33.600 --> 48:40.880 must be passed on to the retailer who in turn passes it on to the consumer. Who's to blame for 48:40.880 --> 48:49.920 all this condition? We cannot at this time place our fingers on the proper source that's creating 48:49.920 --> 48:55.040 this condition. The wholesaler says that he makes less than a cent and a half on every pound of round 48:55.040 --> 49:00.560 steak he sells, buys his meat from the packing house in Chicago, may be there to blame. So our 49:00.560 --> 49:06.640 reporter in Chicago went to the packers. It is a fact that because of increased income, the demand 49:06.640 --> 49:13.280 for meat, especially the more favored cuts of meat, is quite high. However, the outlook for meat is 49:13.280 --> 49:20.080 excellent, about a billion pounds more than in 1950. It is for this reason and remembering the 49:20.080 --> 49:25.040 black market that developed during the last war that the livestock and meat industry feels there 49:25.040 --> 49:30.880 is no necessity at this time for the imposition of price controls and rationing which inevitably 49:30.880 --> 49:36.400 would discourage production and lead to the restoration of black markets. What I am trying 49:36.400 --> 49:42.560 to say is that Mrs. Consumer is the real boss of the meat situation and it is within her power to 49:42.560 --> 49:48.400 extend her meat dollar as far as possible through careful buying. We always thought the packing 49:48.400 --> 49:53.760 house which does the actual slaughtering got the cattle from the grower but in between there is a 49:53.760 --> 49:59.120 commission agent in Chicago. He says he isn't making any money either. The commission man does 49:59.120 --> 50:05.760 not take title to any livestock. He is not a broker in the sense that he speculates on the livestock. 50:05.760 --> 50:14.320 He charges a commission which is based on a unit cost. I might add that this time that that 50:15.600 --> 50:26.400 cost is a very small one and the last figures I have on costs for selling on over $600 million 50:26.400 --> 50:34.880 worth of livestock sold on the open market. Percentage wise, the commission figured $4,100 50:34.880 --> 50:42.480 of one percent. I would like to underline that that is less than one half of one percent. 50:42.480 --> 50:47.040 The commission agent said to try the feeder. The feeder is the man who gets the steers when 50:47.040 --> 50:52.400 they are young calves, feeds them on corn until ready for the market. Near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 50:52.400 --> 50:58.720 J.C. Holbert, a feeder, says I'm not responsible. If you buy good calves you got to pay from 35 to 50:58.720 --> 51:05.520 38 cents a pound from them as feeders. Well, you start with that high cost. Then let's do just a 51:05.520 --> 51:13.680 little simple figuring here. Any schoolboy can figure. It takes about 20 pounds of corn at least 51:13.680 --> 51:21.120 to make two pounds of gain on these steers. So it costs you 30 cents a pound to put on that gain. 51:21.120 --> 51:26.320 You're a pretty good feeder if you can do it for that. If this cattle feeder is going to stay in 51:26.320 --> 51:32.880 business with the increase of cost of labor and increase of cost of feed, he's got to have a good 51:32.880 --> 51:38.560 price for these finished cattle or the American public is not going to have beef to eat very long. 51:39.120 --> 51:43.760 The feeder in Iowa said that he was just one chapter in the life of a pound of steak and the 51:43.760 --> 51:50.560 steer that bore it. That the calf that he feeds to maturity started his life in Montana. So we went 51:50.560 --> 51:56.160 to the ranch of Frank Spencer, 40 miles from Great Falls near the Canadian border, and asked him who 51:56.160 --> 52:01.200 is making all the money in cattle. Even though finished cattle are selling on the market for a 52:01.200 --> 52:06.560 much higher price than they were in 42, my percentage of profit per unit is considerably 52:06.560 --> 52:12.240 less now than nine years ago. I do not believe that the rancher can be held responsible for the 52:12.240 --> 52:18.800 price of beef when he has no control over the feeder and packer prices which affect the retail 52:18.800 --> 52:25.600 counter price. In my opinion, the final price is dependent on the housewife herself. So we went 52:25.600 --> 52:30.320 back to the housewife and reported to her on what the butcher, the packer, the commission man, the 52:30.320 --> 52:36.640 feeder, and especially the rancher in Montana had said. Oh I don't know, it all confuses me. I don't 52:36.640 --> 52:41.760 know the answer. My husband makes more money now than he did, but what he comes home with, with 52:41.760 --> 52:47.520 taxes taking out, I just about live. I don't know. To me it seems like the old army game of passing 52:47.520 --> 52:54.080 the buck. And a 50 cent buck at that. We went still further, asked the farmer in Nebraska who 52:54.080 --> 53:00.400 grows the corn for the feeder in Iowa why corn was so high. He said his farm machinery cost twice as 53:00.400 --> 53:05.600 much as it used to. And in Illinois, the machinery manufacturer said the cost of labor is more than 53:05.600 --> 53:11.200 twice as high as it was in the 30s. And at the end of the round robin, the working man who is paid by 53:11.200 --> 53:15.920 the tractor company says he needs high wages because the price of food has gone so high. 53:15.920 --> 53:21.200 Everyone seems to blame everyone else. And no one seems happy in spite of the fact that there will 53:21.200 --> 53:27.280 be 12 percent more meat available this year than ever before in our history. Even the butcher's wife, 53:27.280 --> 53:33.520 Mrs. Ruth Loeb, is unhappy about it all. I wish people wouldn't fight with my husband in the store 53:33.520 --> 53:39.840 about the high prices. And it's not his fault that you're paying the high prices. He's paying more 53:39.840 --> 53:47.440 for the wholesaler, and that's why he has to charge you more too. In this strongest, most bountiful land 53:47.440 --> 53:52.080 in the world, we're back where we started from. There's more meat on the market than ever before. 53:52.080 --> 53:57.280 Prices are higher than ever before. The normal equation of supply and demand won't stand up. 53:57.280 --> 54:01.760 And while obviously somewhere along the line someone is making a profit on meat, it always 54:01.760 --> 54:07.200 seems to be the other fellow. We don't know the answer, but we do know the American housewife is 54:07.200 --> 54:13.440 in the middle. And tonight's freeze on steak offers her only this doubtful consolation. 54:13.440 --> 54:17.600 Prices can only go up another five percent. 54:22.880 --> 54:26.640 Is your ear having difficulty in identifying the strange sound you hear? 54:27.360 --> 54:34.080 It comes from Wichita, Kansas. Eight words a minute, typed by a mother of two children 54:34.800 --> 54:36.720 by holding a pencil between her teeth. 54:36.720 --> 54:42.320 Ken Davis, who runs the news operation at KFH, our CBS station at Wichita, called us yesterday and 54:42.320 --> 54:46.000 said, if you guys want a March of Dimes story for this week, I've got it. 54:48.000 --> 54:50.800 From Wichita, Kansas, Mrs. Margaret Shapley. 54:51.600 --> 54:56.800 The doctor came back for an unscheduled evening visit. The little Catholic sister slipped into 54:56.800 --> 55:04.720 whisper, I'll pray for you. So here was death. To my surprise, the doctor was not there. 55:04.720 --> 55:14.480 I was not afraid. I was not sure about God. But if he was like they say, he would judge me fairly. 55:15.200 --> 55:20.960 I asked him one thing. If I had to leave my boy and girl, he would take care of them. 55:22.000 --> 55:28.240 The long night dragged. The steady pump of the iron lung was not enough. I gasped for breath, 55:28.240 --> 55:34.320 and the nurse brought oxygen, turning it stronger and stronger. Finally, my need levelled off, 55:34.320 --> 55:40.480 and by morning somehow I knew I wouldn't die. Afterward, I wished I had. For one day, 55:40.480 --> 55:45.920 I knew I would never walk nor use my hands again. In despair, I would have taken my life. 55:46.800 --> 55:50.800 But a paralyzed person can't reach for a bottle of poison or jump off a bridge. 55:51.600 --> 55:57.440 I couldn't escape, so I fought with the only weapon I could find, faith. Faith that somehow 55:57.440 --> 56:03.360 I could make it up to others and to myself for the burden I am. I am typing by holding 56:03.360 --> 56:09.120 a pencil between my teeth. Many friends have thought I might sell stories. Now is my chance 56:09.120 --> 56:16.400 to try. John, who isn't quite five, is my best critic. His favorite character is Oscar, 56:16.400 --> 56:22.320 a fat little worm who became a butterfly. Carol, a blue-eyed, golden-haired little charmer, 56:22.320 --> 56:29.280 likes stories too. She climbs onto my bony, hard lap, opens a magazine upside down, leans back, 56:29.280 --> 56:36.080 and commands, weed to me, Mommy. A friend came by to visit, saying simply, I was lonesome. 56:36.800 --> 56:42.400 Those words made me very happy, for if I can give comfort or companionship to someone lonely or 56:42.400 --> 56:45.360 troubled, then I am paying a bit of my own way. 56:45.360 --> 56:51.360 To that story of patience and fortitude, we can add nothing, but permit us to remind you 56:51.360 --> 56:55.520 that our heritage demands that we measure an individual's usefulness in terms of his 56:55.520 --> 57:16.560 example and his service to a society at peace. The March of Dimes needs and deserves our help. 57:25.920 --> 57:32.000 You have just heard Program 7 in the new CBS series Hear It Now, a weekly document for 57:32.000 --> 57:38.000 ear based on the week's news. All the voices you heard were real. They were recorded on the scene 57:38.000 --> 57:52.720 of history in the making. Hear It Now is edited and produced by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly 57:52.720 --> 57:57.600 and the CBS staff, which includes Irving Gitlin, Edmund Scott, and Charles Ashley. 57:58.400 --> 58:03.680 Portions of tonight's broadcast were recorded by CBS correspondents George Herman and Robert P. 58:03.680 --> 58:09.040 Martin in Korea and by Armed Forces radio teams. Art Buckner is the engineer. 58:12.800 --> 58:19.200 Other portions of this program originated at WTOP in Washington, WMSC, Columbia, South Carolina, 58:19.200 --> 58:30.480 WEI, Boston, KMBC, Kansas City, WCAU, Philadelphia, WAGA, Atlanta, WBBM, Chicago, KFBB, Great Falls, 58:30.480 --> 58:37.680 Montana, WMT, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, KCBS, San Francisco, KNX, Los Angeles, and the British 58:37.680 --> 58:43.280 Broadcasting Corporation. Special acknowledgement is made to Northwest Airlines for rapid shipment 58:43.280 --> 58:55.360 of combat recordings for use on this program. 58:59.280 --> 59:04.400 Edward R. Murrow can be heard each weekday evening at 745 Eastern Standard Time 59:04.400 --> 59:13.920 over most of these same CBS stations. This is Olin Tai speaking. 59:13.920 --> 59:35.440 This is CBS where you'll laugh at Jack Benny every Sunday night the Columbia Broadcasting System.