◆ SpookStack

6 public ownership and management. Whether we like it 6r him or the TVA, this sequence leads logically to David Lilienthal’s door. His liability under other gircumstances thus becomes an as- set for the time being. Vandenberg branded as “irrelevant, incompetent and immaterial” the criti- cism by Taft and others of the so-called Acheson-Lilienthal report on atomic- energy control—the document which provided the basis for the plan sub- mitted to the UN by Bernard M. Baruch, He pointed out that the report was pro- duced by others than Lilienthal and Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson, and declared: ‘‘Prominently among those consultants who put their stamp of integrity upon this report . . . was the very man who is the idol of all the speeches I have heard here against the Lilienthal confirmation. It is signed by Major General Leslie R. Groves. . : .” (Groves was wartime director of the Army's Manhattan Project which pro- duced the atom bomb.) Vandenberg cited a list of scientists who had endorsed Lilienthal and de- -manded: “Where are the comparable witnesses against him, Senators? I ask that again. Where are the comparable witnesses against him?” There was no answer. Crotchety old Kenneth McKellar, - the Tennessee Democrat who had started the fight against Lilienthal and produced half a dozen disgruntled former TVA em- ployees as opposition witnesses, stared moodily at his thumbs. A few more minutes and Vandenberg was concluding: “. .. for myself... 1 have no alternative. ... I have no doubt that in the interest of the national wel- fare and for the sake of a square deal, Mr. Lilienthal is entitled to be con- firmed.” Applause swept the galleries in viola- tion of Senate rules, Liberal Republican Senators Charles W. Tobey CN. H.) and George D. Aiken (Vt.) stepped forward to congratulate Vandenberg. As Vandenberg headed for the corridors, Senator Irving M. Ives (R, N. Y.) clasped his hand. Looking like a man who knew he was beaten, Taft went through the final mo- tions of debate. After the vote the Ohio _-senator hurried from the chamber. Three newspaper reporters were waiting at the door. “Any of you fellows wait- ing to see me?” asked Taft, briskly. All shook their heads, “No.” They were waiting for Vandenberg. Revitalized UN Foreign Policy o the people of Greece events on TV inei own. doorstep—the death of George II, the accession of his brother, Paul I, and the UN investigation of border warfare—were overshadowed by happenings in a far-off land. Greeks knew that their immediate future was being shaped less in Athens than in Washington where both Senate and House Foreign Affairs Committees held hearings on the Administration proposal for “anti-Communist” loans to Greece and Turkey. Impatiently the Greeks read reports of testimony that promised to extend the House hearings another week, maybe © more, before Congress could open its great foreign-policy debate. Most of the “testimony was anti-Communist bombast, but from ‘Senate President Arthur Van- denberg, in a continuing mood of states- manship (see above), came a proposal that was far from bombast. “Maybe after all, the Senator agreed, the UN should not be by-passed. He proposed, and his committee adopted, an amendment promising that the US FDR Today TT. years ago this Saturday, “April 12, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died at Warm Springs, Georgia. Last week Mrs. Roosevelt ‘spoke the thoughts of millions: “You know, I think he gave people a sense of security. They felt he had a pretty complete understanding of their own problems and the prob- lems they must face in the rest of the world. Hearing his voice they were inclined to feel they were part of what was _ going on. Now they feel left out.” For another recollection see ‘The Roosevelt We Remember,” by Henry Wallace, page 14. NEW REPUBLIC would abandon its Greek program if either the Security Council or the UN Assembly voted disapproval and pro- vided the UN itself was ready with a substitute Greek plan. As evidence of good faith, the US would yield its own veto right in the Security Council. In realistic terms, the UN Assembly was never likely to take such action, entailing vast expenditures for an alternative pro- gram, but the true importance of the Vandenberg amendment was its author's acknowledgement that the UN, unless it is to become totally devitalized, must be kept in on such vital problems as political loans to member states. If Vandenberg had carried his con- cessions one big step further, by sepa- tating the Turkish proposal from the Greek loan, it would have fulfilled most of the Liberal conditions for non-mili- tary loans to Greece, a matter sure to get a thorough airing in congressional de- bate. The anxiqus Greek government read with more interest, however, that the committee had by-passed proposals by Senator Henry Cabot’ Lodge (R, Mass.) which would have required taxation and fiscal reforms before the Greeks could qualify for US aid. After talks with Premier Demetrios Maximos and For- eign Minister Constantine Tsaldaris in Athens, Raymond Daniell of the New York Times rediscovered what Constan- tine Poulos had reported nearly a month ago (March 17) in a dispatch to the New Republic. Daniell concluded that the Greek government had no intention of embarking on any reform program and hoped, instead, that the US would act only in an advisory capacity on loan expenditure. , Other items in correspondent Daniell’s dispassionate account did not draw a very pretty picture of the nation to which a loan is proposed: @ Tsaldaris said “the Greek army of 100,000 should be doubled immedi- ately.” @ “The US may be financing a future military dictatorship” since the premier’s political debts are chiefly to rightist army officers’ leagues, rich industrialists and bankers. @ “It is worth a man’s life to be seen reading a liberal daily in the provinces.