The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 8

Notional Whirligig RAY TUCKER'S Hoffornan Says Tht Cruiser Brooklyn At Santiago Battle I BROOKLYN EAGLE, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1951 Proposed National Crime Council Could Be Most Helpful Locally LETTER Although no veteran European statesman or diplomat would pretend to interfere openly In American i dential politics, the leaders of sev Borough i nt Cash mo re's crusade for the ronstru-tion of a new cruiser Brooklyn now has the support of the Society of Old Brooklyn-ites, whose eral Allied governments abroad have indicated to touring mem bers of Congress that they want Gen. (Ike) Eisenhower to remain in his present post instead of progressing to the White House as the G. 0. nominee next year. This indirect intervention is a tribute to the American mill- tary leader, even though goes counter to the schemes of his political promoters on this side of the water.

Indeed, the attitude of his foreign associates in rearming Europe may affect Ike's own decisions on shifting more or less permanently from a uni- form to partisan garh. Natural-, ly, he is cognizant of the existence of this feeling toward him, The most important of the recommeri; dations of the Senate Crime Investigating Committee on the completion of its 16-month investigation of the national underworld is the creation of a national crime co-ordinating council. We hope it will be acted upon favorably and promptly, as the advantage of such a body are obvious. There were many other important recommendations and it is significant that a large portion of them relate to the acute narcotics problem which in recent mon'hs has come to be recognized as the No. 1 crime menace in the nation, particularly because of the tremendous increase in tha use of drugs by young-steri.

In fact, tha committee wisely suggested that the proposed national crime council should serve as a clearing housa for narcotics information. The committee's report contained a mass of interesting details and recommendations as to crime conditions on local and State levels, most of which have already been given public attention. The suggestions on the drug racket deserve close attention. Of prime importance is amending the law so that much stiffer sentences can be handed out to those convicted as drug peddlers. As we get to understand the facts it is becoming clear that this is Just about as serious a crima as murder.

It should be treated accordingly. The setting up of a national crime council could be of incalculable advan tage all over the country. Specifically, it could be helpful in many ways to the various local crime councils, such as the New York City Anti-Crime Committee, of which Spruille Braden, former Assistant Secretary of State, is chairman. There would be many occasions on which the proposed national council could act in a co-ordinating capacity. It could also he very useful in 'securing factual information from informed Washington sources.

The New York committee was brought into existence as a direct result of the Brooklyn rackets inquiry, with County Judge-Samuel Leibowitz and Distdict Attorney Miles F. McDonald taking a prominent part in launching it. As a result there is particularly-deep interest in this community in tha future of this committee. So far it has been busy laying the groundwork for its activities and when the Summer is over, it is hoped that it can begin to make its influence felt in this field, which sorely needs such a public-spirited organization as a constant watchdog over the various phases of crime detection prosecution and punishment. All these local committees should become mudl more valuable if they could have the backing of a well-staffed national council with able, well-informed, non-political and aggressive leadership.

Without real aggressiveness and courage, movements of this kind can never get anywhere. Although Ike alone can make final choice with respect to a problem involving both his personal ambitions and world affairs, it is not unlikely that he will give as much consideration to the attitude of European Frime Ministers, diplomats and military leaders as to those o(V puch pro-Eisenhower politicians as Messrs. Dewey, Duff, Dar by, etc. He must, In short, decide whether he prefers to gamble HEARD ABOVE THE SOUNDS OF BATTLE for the Presidency of th "United States, or write his name in history as the possible savior of Western civilization against the most serious threat since Attila the Hun. Ironi- NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS president, Magistrate Ahner C.

Surpless, wrote last week to the borough chief: "1 am quite sure that all of the members of our society know of the great record that was made by the old cruiser Brooklyn which, if memory serves, was the flagship of Admiral Schley at the battle of One Autumnal afternoon in the year IRtiS this reporter stood on the bridge of the cruiser named for the community which a year before had been the city of Brooklyn. I was chatting with her commander. Captain Cook, a fine, portly Navy mart of the old school. I gazed up at her smokestack where jagged holes marked the spot where a Spanish shell had made a hit. "You haven't had your repair job I remarked.

In a quiet, matter-of-fact tone. Captain Cook replied, The old fighter will carry her scars until they settle the loop controversy down in Washington." A few minutes later he introduced me to Lt. Albon Hodgson, a slender, dark-haired officer from Virginia, who was then, and had been, navigator of Admiral Schley's flagship during the Santiago sea fight. It was the beginning of a long friendship. Hodgson took me down to what was known as the gun deck, where there was a secondary battery, and showed me the wreckage caused by two Spanish shells, one of which had driven the Brooklyn's piece back through the port and against the steel bulkhead that partitioned that quarter.

I had dinner that evening with Mr. Hodgson and Lieutenant Commander Mason, the executive officer, and heard from them the story of how, when the Spanish ships left the harbor that morning of the 3d of July, the Viscaya. the Christobal Colon and the three other vessels, the names of which escape my memory. Admiral Schley immediately took command, his senior, Admiral Sampson, being at Playa del Est to the eastward, in conference with the Army chiefs. Schley looped around the Texas, took the fire of the enemy and straightened out in the Brooklyn being the fastest vessel in our fleet, until the Brooklyn and the Massachusetts ran the enemy craft ashore, one by nne, against the outlying point to the westward.

The Brooklyn was lying in our Navy Yard at the time of my visit. She was of an old type, wide at the water line and having what was known as a ''tumble home" curve to the gun deck of the secondary battery to which there has been reference above. Treaty With Japan Recognizes Dangers Faced by Free Nations rallv there is tin assnranrp LETTERS THE A 0 EJ By ERNEST LINDLEY Japan Treaty Rightly Called A 'Peace of Reconciliation' The draft treaty with Japan justifies the description "peace of reconciliation." lt should enable the new Japan to become an honorable member of the society of free nations. The only important penalty it imposes upon Japan is to take away the territories she acquired over the years outside the Japanese of today that he can attain either honor. The theme of European warning against an Eisenhower elevation to the American Presidency is that no other American can persuade, inspire or bully our Continental Allies into making the necessary sacrifices for a firm resistance to Russian attack.

Even Generals Marshall and Bradley are only names over there, and both were involved in World War II strategy decisions that antagonized foreign, politicians and militarists. "Ike" has informed Congressional visitors? that he is not yet satisfied with Europe's war preparations. He has given same notice to European lead-ers in more blunt terms than any other American would have dared to use. On his surveys he has not home islands. Japan got most of these in wars with other nations.

Part she held temporarily under a League of Nations mandate, the terms of which she violated. A few islands the Kuriles. now held by the Soviet Union, and the Ryukyus spared the feelings the Home 4 Delegates from Japan, a crushed aggressor nation, will have presented to them at San Francisco a "treaty of conciliation." There is assurance that although the Soviet obstructionists are on hand in full force the document will be signed in a matter of With its signing the day that "will live in infamy-' fades into more distant perspective as the free world faces the new-challenges to its security and prepares to guard against them. The dangers of today would make surrender to the burning anger of ten years ago an act of great folly. The treaty, in consequence, has not been formulated in a spirit of vengeance.

It is not touched by recollections of Pearl Harbor, the death march of Bataan, the beheading of captured Allied fliers, hy the inhumanities that marked Japans conduct of war at every step of the way. Instead, the treaty is designed to deal with conditions as they are and as they can be envisioned in the foreseeable future. It is not a soft treaty. The fruits of years of conquest are stripped away and Japan is no longer an empire. Instead, it faces again the problem which it hoped to solve through a policy of imperialismthat of sustaining its S3.000,-000 people through the limited production of its own soil.

But the Japanese are a proud people. They will have what they most desire the restoration of full sovereignty. Their history proves also that they are resourceful and energetic. While the transition in government and in their way of life wrought during the six years of occupation has been 'drastic, they have shown aptitude in adjustments. Under the treaty, which thev are eager to accept, they niust stand alone.

It is true that they may expect financial help from the I'nited States, favorable trade arrangements and the continued presence of American military units on the islands until their own capacity for defense has been established. But the hard problems of a government under heavy strains must be solved hy the Japanese themselves. Regardless of what trials of body and soid may be involved, Japan's ordeals during the years ahead will constitute a meager retribution for the grief and suffering brought to the world between Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. With the harmonious co-opera: ion of Secretary of State Acheson, John Foster Dulles, adviser to the State Department, has borne the heavy burden of the treaty's preparation. The document to be considered at San Francisco is largely the work of his hand.

It shows the results of more than a year of labor, of an intimate knowledge of the vast and complex problem involved, also of a spirit of wise compromise. Mr. Gromyko is present in his characteristically sullen, glowering mood, determined to resort to his familiar tactics of obstruction although aware they will be futile. Russia desires a Japan bled white by reparations, leaving her economically and militarily helpless. But most of the conferees, the State Department says, "are in no mood to tolerate The treaty with Japan was fairly being appraised as a major accomplishment toward the healing of the war's wounds.

It may be considered as one more moral defeat for Moscow and it serves as an incentive to the restoration ol Western Germany to sovereignty. or Foreign Offices or commanders in the field. He has even lectured their industrialists and labor groups. No other American has enough prestige or good will overseas to enable him to talk so boldly to leaders of nations which once controlled the known- world, including our own continent. Oddly, these European ohjec.

tions to an Eisenhower nomination come at the very moment when his Presidential sponsors have begun to worry over hi3 prolonged absence. In their opinion, too deep involvement in world problems may hurt him politically. Frankly, from their standpoint, he is talking too much, even though many of his remarks are supposed to be off the record. and Hotim. tall perhaps in a third category, but they are of little value except for military purposes.

The new Japan is a Japan stripped of empire and miscellaneous fringe possessions. At the insistence of some of the nations which suffered most grievously from Japanese aggression in the second World War, the treaty acknowledges Japan's duly to make such reparation as she can. Rut it dors not impose tin her reparations which she cannot pay or which would come eventually out of the pockets of American taxpayers or private lenders. The nations hich insist on reparations' can get them by sending raw materials to Japan to be processed. The treaty Is fire of re-trie, tions on Japan's right to make a living hy peaceful, and proper means.

At the same time, it pledges her to adhere to "fair practices" in trade and com-merce. It will not be easy for Japan, with her immense and still growing population, her lark of raw materials, and her chronic shortage of food, to make a living. Rut she would have had no chance of earning her way if the restrictions originally proposed hy some of our Allies had been written into the treaty. The new Japan is a Japan of universal suffrage, labor unions, and widely-distributed small land-holdings. It Is one in which the Kmperor is more like the constitutional monarch of a European democracy a symbol of unity than a god.

There is little doubt that these reforms, effected under General MacArthur, will stick. The treaty neither requires Japan to rearm nor prohibits' her from doing it. It clearly supposes, however, that she will make provision for her own defense and for such col. lective security obligations as she may assume. A ban on Japanese military forces is in the Japanese Constitution.

For a long time to come, a major part of the responsibility of defending Japan against aggression must fall on others, chiefly us. lt is hoped that within a few years Japan will he able to provide most of the troops for her defense. Rut she will not be able to afford the more expensive paraphernalia of war. The possibility that Japan might again become a great aggressive power is remote-. The prohlem for some time to come will he to get her to pull her weight in the collective security boat.

When Japan heromes once again an independent nation, may be expected to adopt policies which will at times displease us or other free nations. And we cannot he sure, of course, that she will solve her economic problems or be ahle to operate successfully the institutions of democracy. Rut she probably has a better chance of doing both than have most of.the nations of Asia. What is most important is that she should be a stable and responsible member of the community of free nations. The peace treaty worked out by John Foster Dulles is states, manlike.

In any event, there ran be no turning bark now. Failure to sign the treaty promptly would have very serious political effects in Japan. 4 His political agents here were disturbed particularly by his re- rent advocacy of a federal union of the Western European A Pleased With Defense Of Stors and Bars by VFW To the Editor of the Eagle; I note in the Brooklyn Eagle of Aug. 30 that the Northern members of the Veterans, of Foreign Wars rallied to the defense of the South yesterday in defeating a resolution to outlaw the Confederate flag from VFW posts. Delegates to the 52d annual encampment turned down with a resounding vote of "no" the resolution introduced by Louis A.

Salmon of Lynn, Mass. "If you outlaw the Confederate flai? you might Just as well outlaw all of Dixie," National Council member Frank Bunkley of Mobile, said. If I be pardoned for Injecting personal opinions into the "closed" discussion, I have lately returned from a visit to the heart of the Southern Confederacy. 1 gazed upon the mounds which covered the skeletons of General Tickeu's Charge at Gettysburg, with a profound sense of loss. "Theirs not to ask, theirs hut to die." They died in defense of an ideal that to them was as sacred and vested with moral obligations as any of their Yankee antagonists.

It is about time that men grew up. I think. The hospitality of Virginia lately extended to me I shall never forget. The Stars and Rars ranks with all the emblems immortalized in song and story. For shame.

Mr. Salmon. "I wish you were in Dixie!" CLARENCE E. HELLER. Defends Franco As 'Great Man' To the Editor of the Eagle: In his letter to your column a reader raps superpatriots who can't choose between Uncle Sam and the Fascism of Uncle Franco.

The orders from the Kremlin seem to be that anyone who disagrees with Communism shall be called a "Fascist. 'capitalist." "reactionary" or some other name. Ninety-five percent of us love Uncle' Sam but we can't help admiring a man who gave the Reds the sound thrashing they deserved, especially the trouble making Abraham Lincoln Rrigade from the Bronx. General Franco is a great man and his place in history is assured and I am sure he would receive as great, a reception as that great American, General MacArthur, if he were to visit us. JOHN RYAN.

Korean GIs Looking For Mail From Homo To the Editor of the Eagle: We have been in Korea since September of 1050 and have received very little mail from the States. Could you help us out? We would appreciate some pen pals, preferably of the feminine sex. You may wonder why we picked your paper from all of the leading papers In the nation. Well, we're all avid Dodger fans and Brooklyn Just sounded good to us. CPL.

JACK HENDRIX, RA, FKC. LEONARD AVER-BACH, 1 PVT. DICK TRICE, 2812784(5: Battery 78th AAA Gun Battalion, APO 301, eo Postmaster, San Francisco, Calif. countries. He said that such an organization, which would 4 wipe out jealousies and friction based on so many different sovereignties, would remove Louisiana Corruptionists Display Nerve in Newspaper Indictments Dr.

Brady Says: QUESTIONS ANTt ANSWERS Forjet Blood Prpsiire I am 38, have a blood pressure between My doctor doesn't restrict my diet nor does he give me anv medication. A. M. E. Answer Neither would I if were my patient.

If you think mir doctor and I are out of step send and stamped, self-addressed envelope for hookle; "(' which tells some wholesome truths about heart ami artery troubles and about blood pressure. Mum mucus supposed to be in the bowels? E. L. Answer Yes. Sometimes irritation by enemas, "internal baths" and so-called colon Irrigations cause secretion of an EXCESS of mucus and many poor geeks under the spell 'of charlatans regard this excess of mucus as an indication for still more irritation thus their spurious "mucous colitis" continues as long as they keep patronizing the colon" filling station.

Turpentine and Paint Is it injurious to an expectant mother to use turpentine and paint; Mrs. C. B. J. Answer No.

IllOM 01 uieMlll I II Ulllf UlOfl tMIL in building an international military force. Belatedly, he 4 now advocates formation of a single army instead of the mere tt merger of the various Allies' contributions. His friends fear that he may j.f appear in the guise of a "Union Now" enthusiast, a scheme hich has more vocal than popular support in this country. As a preliminary move toward a "One World" government, the "Union Now" preachers favor a unification of Britain 1 and the Euronean countries in. to a single regime, with no tariff or economic barriers.

Not even Harry S. Truman has 4 taken a stand- on that controversial question. "Ike" is also expected to recommend far more militarv aid ness of the reprisals through which the guilty characters hope to silence the accusing voices against them. They have struck at the newspaper publishers and workers through the medium of a dishonorable grand jury which has returned indictments on barges of defaming the characters of three men all of whom have pleaded guilty as gamblers the parish sheriff, the district attorney and other officials. It seems, however, that their spirit of desperation has carried them to rash extremes.

Far from silencing the voices of their accusers, they have created a national issue and have centered attention upon their community and upon their own conscienceless efforts to justice and preserve a condition of lawlessness. The politicians and'gamblers of Calcasieu Parish have made the fatal mistake of appraising moral values and public sentiment disdainfully. They have challenged not merely the five men whom they have succeeded in having indicted but all of the decent elements of their community and the forces of law and order in the nation. They have a bear by the tail. The Louisiana story is an aftermath nf Kefauver committee investigations in that State.

Accordingly, it is a matter of Congressional interest, and Congress, as Senator Kefauver insists, "must keep a close eye on just what goes on Louisiana corruptionists and their political allies have in recent years been notoriously bold, operators. The spirit of the late Huey Long, who permitted nothing to stand in the path of his overpowering ambition, ha- endured. It has never found more daring and shocking expression than in the current counter-offensive by the familiar alliance of politicians and gamblers, who have turned virion their accusers with violence. The leadership of the crusade against the crime syndicate in Calcasieu Parish, La has been taken by a newspaper, the "American which has. received the moral and active support of civic groups and individuals.

Its purpose of exposing the operations of the gambling interests and the dereliction? of responsible puhlic officials has been advanced with complete effectiveness. The gamblers have been revealed to the light of day, as also have the faithless men in puhlic office and the venal politicians who have linked their interests with those of underworld characters for the customary reasons financial gain and political support. There is nothing unfamiliar in these aspects of the Louisiana sforv. They are a part of the sordid records of many cities, including New- York. The scandal in Calcasieu Parish is made distinctive, however, by the daring and ruthless- and arms than even the Admin-istration proposes.

This pro. posal will he, marie just at the time early next year, perhaps- he must let it he known whether he will be a candidate, 4 and on which ticket. It will hardly he a propitious moment for him to suggest such an riltional burden, if he hopes to get anywhere in politics. PATH TO PEACE By EDGAR A. GUEST The guided missile and the gun Their targets.

blast in vain. After their fearful work is done War threatens youth again. Not all the bombs that men can make Ry science trained and skilled, Designed the strength of foes to break, The path to peace can build. 'Til time from every heart and mind Old hatrprfs can release. In vain will mortals seek to find The way to lasting prica: Ml' 4 Jf "VI All nibo nl BROOKLYN fAGlE (Tr.d.

M.rk E.l, BROOKLYN DAILY EAOIF. CHROTH' Wr. Publht w- CROWELL, Beomirv-TrMurfr i Engl Blrtt 74 Johnson Bt telvn INT. TELEPHONE MAin 4-2nn Subaenp'lon rnit bv mn Inr th Brookln Etl ra th United Bute, yr. lis.

00 Sntrd it Brooklyn F. Olwt Mill lUcur "You bet I leorned something in school today oil the other kids gtt an allowancal.