Senator Saltonstall Called A Bipartisan Republican
(Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of editorials examining prominent senators up for re-election this year).
In Massachusetts, always a border state politically, Senate Republican Whip Leverett Saltonstall, one of the original Eisenhower for President leaders, is up for reelection this year and hopes to garner more than the mere 50.5 per cent majority vote he received in 1948.
Sen. Saltonstall, who has been in the Senate since 1945 when he was picked by Massachusetts constituents to fill the unexpired term of Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who resigned, will be 62 on Sept. 1, and has been plagued the past several years with illness.
He has been a keen supporter of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty organization and is known as one of the most bipartisan members of the upper house of Congress. On bipartisan bills in the present session of Congress, Sen. Saltonstall has voted in accord on 85 per cent; on matters of party line he was with other Republicans on only 62 per cent of the measures brought to vote. In his previous four sessions this ratio has been almost the same.
Page 2 University Daily Kansan Monday. April 19, 1954
A strong New England liberal, his main claims to senatorial fame are his chairmanship of the Senate armed services appropriations committee and the position of party whip—the man who is responsible for rounding up votes for roll calls.
Six years the governor of Massachusetts before moving on to the Senate, the tall, gaunt Sen. Saltonstall is a vigorous opponent of socialized medicine. In his words: "If doctors become beauracrats they lose their initiative, and advancement of medicine diminishes."
Insisting that the proposal in no way meant he was for all-out socialized medicine, Mr. Saltonstall, with a Democrat and four other Republicans, in 1947 introduced a bill to improve the health of American children. The provision was that childrens' health would be in the hands of state authorities so "children can get proper care for defects before they reach maturity."
On the subject of foreign aid he is strongly in favor of U.S. dollars overseas.
He went with most of the GOP in voting in 1951 to send more troops to Europe and in 1949
cast his "aye" vote for the Mutual Defense administration bill, which provided more arms for NATO nations. In 1947 and 1948, respectively, he favored the European Recovery program and aid to Greece and Turkey. In 1952 when a bill to cut aid to Europe was brought to a vote on the floor, he went against his party majority, cast his vote against reductions, and was on the winning side.
On internal affairs he long has been a vigorous foe of the high cost of government, is opposed to price controls, and is in favor of public housing.
"We must keep the functions of our government within the ability of our citizens to pay," he said in a 1946 speech. "If we do not, then we are not properly carrying out our ideals of government. We cannot expect to pass on forever to our children and our grandchildren the obligation to pay for the services that we currently enjoy."
He voted against the successful Commodity Credit corporation bill of 1950 which increased the borrowing authority of the CCC, and in labor management has shown that he is for federal regulations. He voted for the controversial Taft-Hartley labor-management relations bill of 1947, and was announced in favor of the Federal Mediation act of 1946, which established a board for strike settlement.
This man, said to have one of the most distinctive faces in U.S. public life, helped in 1952 to pass a law to reorganize the Internal Revenue bureau. Also in that session he voted to cut meat price controls in 1951 and to end all controls June 30, 1952. In the National Housing act of 1949 he was for the successful bill to provide slum clearance and low-cost housing on a five-year basis. Another similar bill passed in 1952, again with Mr. Saltonstall's support.
As chairman of the armed services appropriations committee, he just last week told his committee that its investigation into a limited field of "security risks" had put unwarranted black marks on the entire armed services.
He himself was a field artillery lieutenant in World War I. One of his three sons (he also has three daughters) was killed in combat in World War II.
-Stan Hamilton
Indochina May Remain Unsolved at Geneva
What to do about Indochina has become one of the bigger problems of the day, and it's a problem that probably won't be solved at the Geneva conference late this month.
One of the most important difficulties standing in the way of a settlement is the tremendous gap between the points of view of the U.S. and its allies.
France, the nation directly involved, wants out of the war. On March 9 their National Assembly voted to instruct the Geneva delegation "to take and seek all solutions to bring about as quickly as possible a cessation of hostilities . . ." in Indochina.
Other Western European nations generally follow the French line of reasoning. Britain, for example, probably would agree to admitting Red China into the UN as a concession toward peace in Indochina.
Such attitudes aren't being accepted by the U.S. to any great extent. The idea of appeasement of any kind brought forth loud protests from congressmen as soon as it became known there would be a Geneva conference.
While our allies are talking wistfully of peace in Indochina, the U.S. is considering moves that would be anything but peaceful, including air and naval support for French forces. Sending American troops to the area is not an impossibility, either.
As long as the U.S. thinks about direct intervention of one kind or another, there is not much chance that this nation will agree to pay the high price Red China will undoubtedly demand in return for calling off the dogs in Indochina.
Public sentiment in this country does not incline toward appeasement of a nation whose troops were killing U.S. soldiers only a few months ago in Korea.
But how can an agreement with Red China be reached if major concessions are not offered? It may be true that the country needs both trade and recognition from the West, but it is not Red China who is losing the war in Indochina.
Apparently the U.S. has decided to back the French in Indochina, even if it means turning the situation there into another Korea.
If that has become the official policy, rather than a blu/ frighten the Communists into an agreement, it is hard to see even a ray of hope for a solution to the Indochina problem.
Meow - Cat Session Centers Around Kittens...
It's a pretty usual occurrence for persons of the fairer gender to be accused of being catty—and catty is what a bunch of us were the other evening. For we talked about fuzzy, furry felines; the kind all of us had harbored, nurtured and loved as we were young and addicted to that sort of thing.
One of the young ladies, fondly clutching a stuffed prototype of the animal to be discussed, brought the whole thing to pass by mentioning she was seeking a Siamese cat to present to her current gentlemen friend.
A rash of reminiscences followed. This writer recalled a trio of cats maintained some years ago in a back-yard orange crate. The little ones were unwittingly named Fluffy, Tuffy, and Muffy. All were snow-white angoras, but one—Muffy, as a matter of fact—was deaf as a post. I recalled that I was most crushed by Muffy's apparent disregard of my care for her. I would call her sweetly and she would walk obliviously away. However, my parents told me of her unfortunate infirmity and I was mollified.
Muffy, however—doubtless due to a psychological reaction to her defeat—became more and more of a
problem. One day she was gone.
I cried, wept, stormed, called,
sought. But Muffy would not come back.
A few months later our family was motoring around the countryside (for that's what they used to call it then) when we found occasion to draw up to a gasoline station and stock up on petrol. From out of a dim corner of the station wandered a dirty white blur. It was Muffy. I screamed shouts of joy and embraced her and brought her back to the homestead where she lived a pleasant—if sullen—existence. It wasn't until years later I learned that Muffy had been planted
there by my disparing mother and disgusted father.
One discuasant—the others had gone to sleep—jumped into the conversation with a tale of two kittens which had afforded incalculable amusement to her family and friends. They were sweet, affectionate, ideal pets. Then one day they produced six others of their kind. As the narrator put it, "there was all kinds of heck to pay." Being rather unlettered in things in general and innocently four years old, the story teller had named one cat Madeline and the other Martha.
Martha was rechristened Marvin and life went on.
After being rudely awakened by a pillow in her face, a third chimed in with her kitty cat story. It seemed that when she was a freshman living in North College hall, she was smuggled a feline into the dormitory where she was kept from the wary but unknowing counselor.
Very, very slyly, her corridor mates crept from the dormitory dining room bearing saucers of milk. Very, very surreptitiously, the kitty was made comfortable under her benefactor's bed on a blanket and pillow stolen from the
corridor lounge. Very, very casually the cohorts began to mew, kitty-fashion, in front of the counselor so the counselor wouldn't suspect the new resident if the new resident mewed. For nearly two weeks the kitty was hidden from the powers that be. By the time it was discovered, they were glad to get rid of the thing.
People began remembering cat names. Sir Reginald had been owned by one of the conversants, Ambrose had too. So had Chloe. So had just about every name in Webster's dictionary of Christian names. There were even a few decidedly un-Christian names.
After one of the young ladies revealed her great enthusiasm for the animals, saying that she intended to remain unmarried and live in a great huge house with at least 10 kittens, we decided to forget it and get some sleep.
She couldn't have elaborated anyway—she had a phone call. In fact, she had two at the same time. And, she probably would have had more but the other phones were busy.
We deemed it unlikely she'd live alone with her cats and stopped talking. It was about time.
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—Letty Lemon