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ETTORE ET ee ne etna OLUME 116, NUMBER 15, ISSUB 1689, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 14, 1947 ‘News in Focus ‘reatest Victory Congress T was a great victory for David E. Lilienthal, but perhaps an even eater one for Arthur Hendrick Van- ‘nberg. Surely, it was Vandenberg’s ghest hour in 19 years as Senator from ‘ichigan when he delivered his power- 1 appeal Jast week for confirmation of tienthal as chairman of the US Atomic 1ergy Commission. The crucial Senate test on Lilienthal’s mination came an hour after Vanden- tg had finished. Seventeen other Re- iblicans defied GOP floor leadership support Vandenberg: with 34 Demo- ats they voted down (52 to 38) an tempt to send the Atomic Commission ipointments back to committee. The mal vote actually to confirm Lilien- al.and four other commission members ould be an anti-climax. Thus, despite 10 solid weeks of bitter, ibridled assaults on his ability, charac- r and origin, Lilienthal had won the apendous job of directing this coun- y's atomic-development program—for nace or war. This program had floun- sted during the long Lilienthal debate. is victory would be the signal for full seed ahead. But Vandenberg had won many vic- ries, too, in this fight: . He had proved beyond doubt the its many had said he lacked; he ha igned himself vigorously against the yur other members of the Senate’s Re- iblican “Big Five’—Taft (Ohio), *hite (Maine) ; Wherry (Nebr.) ; and tidges (N. H.)—and had beaten em all. . In his undeclared, disavowed race for ¢ 1948 GOP presidential nomination, 2 had gained much ground at the ex- ange of his chief congressional rival, ob Taft. @ But his greatest victory was won over himself. Last week’s performance pro- vided fresh evidence of the distance Vandenberg had traveled from his pre- war, pfo-isolationist, strongly anti-New Deal position. Now his raspy, gravel voice, never so effective before, seemed to represent the good conscience of conservative Ameti- cans willing, on some issues at least, to confront the stubborn realities of an atom-splitting world. There were many dramatic moments in the final two days of bitter debate be- fore the Senate’s test vote, but none so dramatic as the 35 minutes consumed by the 63-year-old © Michigander. chamber was crowded. Most . Senators were at their desks, Members’ of Senate - staffs and a few favored friend$ occu- pied chairs or stood at the sides and rear of the floor. Not even standing room was left in the galleries. Vandenberg rested his big frame heavily against a speech rack atop his mahogany desk in the center of the chamber, With his left hand, he gripped the stand. With his right, he executed his familiar salute-like gesture as he hunched over and thundered home his The arguments. Republicans and some South- ern Democrats had hammered inces- santly on the line that Lilienthal had Communist sympathies or was “soft” toward Russia. Said Vandenberg: After weeks of testimony, I find no basis for this charge... . I do not want to emulate the intolerance of commu- nism itself by condemning to some soit of Siberia all persons who do not hap- pen totally to subscribe to my own view as to how America ought to be run... . It is the opinion of our [atomic-energy]} committee that Mr. Lilienthal is no part of a Communist by any stretch of the imagination. . . Taft had stunned even some of his Republican colleagues by urging that the “US withdraw its international atomic- control plan from the United Nations “until the world is in a more peaceful state.” He wanted domestic control taken out of civilian hands and returned to the Army. Vandenberg pointed out that the Senate Atomic Energy Commit- tee had struggled with that problem for many months: Said he: ‘. .. if we found out one thing truer than another, it is that in peacetime we cannot drive science into its laboratories with bayo- nets.” To arguments that Lilienthal—former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority —is “such a devotee of public owner- ship that he will endanger free enter- prise,” Vandenberg recalled that Con- gress had made control of atomic energy “the tightest government monopoly ever set up in the United States... .” He declared: You all voted for it. It passed the Senate unanimously. We .. . decreed that government ownership and management . is an indispensable public necessity for the sake of national security in respect to the control of atomic energy .. . there- fore, one of the most available men to run it is the successful manager of the greatest existing comparable example of _