The piece finds the evidence for that last statement to be slim, that there was evidence that the Democrats were preserving the New Deal and liberalism with President Truman's new appeal to labor after vetoing Taft-Hartley, and to progressive interests after the Truman Doctrine became the Marshall Plan. His vetoes of the tax bill for the wealthy and his stands against removal of rent controls, his proposed public health program, extension of social security, a new minimum wage, and other such issues had given him new appeal among progressives.

Meanwhile, Mr. Wallace and the Progressive Party were not gaining much ground.

The record of the Republican Congress had thus far set forth in high relief the distinction between the Democrats and the Republicans. Moreover, the world economic crisis was painting the distinction, with the Republicans favoring a return to isolation.

It concludes that the party of Truman, Pepper, and Daniels had established a foundation of "politically effective liberalism" after all.

It finds the influence of such a negligible organization to be minimal at best and certainly posing no danger to University students' thinking. It was typical of youth to have affinity in small numbers to radical movements, but the voices of such minority interests, while loud, had an impact typically inversely proportional to their volume.

The episode would, however, likely lend ammunition to those who sought to purge Dr. Graham from the presidency of the University. That effort, it posits, would be far more deleterious to the reputation of the University and the state than any small Communist clique of students.

The piece says that it would be superfluous as there was already such a provision in the Constitution, limiting the Legislature from passing on such local matters and providing that any such acts in violation of the provision would be void.

The fault, it ventures, in not enforcing the provision lay with the local governments. They needed to begin acting for themselves rather than looking to Raleigh for legislation.

But the late British Ambassador, Sir Ronald Lindsay, had imparted to FDR a story he discovered in a document contained at the British Embassy in Washington, still not unveiled in 1947 to the public.

During the term of President Lincoln, Lafayette Park, across from the White House had a tall iron fence and hedge which was closed each night at 10:00 p.m. It was a favorite spot for couples to court. One night, as Secretary of State Seward was leaving the White House late, a voice from behind the hedge whispered to him by name. He found that he was being beckoned by the British Ambassador who said that he was "in a deuce of a fix" for being locked in the park with the wife of the Spanish Ambassador, needed his assistance to escape the ordeal. Relations between Britain and Spain were strained and word of the liaison could cause an international incident.

Mr. Seward, understanding the urgency, immediately importuned President Lincoln for help. The President agreed that something had to be done quickly, but the keys to the iron gate, he informed, were with the White House gardener and he had gone home to Georgetown, a long way away in the 1860's. Finally, Mr. Lincoln suggested that the White House janitor, who had a room in the basement, could obtain a ladder and allow egress via that means for the British Ambassador and the Spanish Ambassador's wife. And thus they made their escape.

President Roosevelt had laughed heartily at the story and asked Sir Ronald how he had discovered it. He told the President that his predecessor had written a full account of the incident and the document had surfaced during a recent inventory at the Embassy.

Mr. Allen next tells of new Secretary of Defense James Forrestal planning to have his offices at the Pentagon, up to that time exclusively inhabited by the War Department. It had been a controversial decision, as many believed the Secretary of Defense ought be located in the former State Department building opposite the White House—later, the Executive Office Building. Secretary of War Kenneth Royall agreed to relinquish his suite of offices and return to the offices he had occupied as Undersecretary, one block long, instead of the two blocks which the Secretary's offices stretched.

Mediterranean commander General John C. H. Lee would soon retire after returning to the U.S. As the column had revealed the previous day, numerous complaints had been received from G.I.'s and their parents regarding General Lee's lavish living conditions compared to the enlisted men and his overly strict system of discipline, undermining morale. The War Department had no comment on why the General was retiring, just as a Congressional committee was visiting Europe and planning to investigate the situation in the Mediterranean.

Russians had difficulties with the written word, some of which came from the difficulty in getting prescriptions filled for glasses. Yet, even young Russians with good eyesight appeared to have difficulty reading. Approximately half the pupils were in rural schools, limiting their education to four years.

The chief purpose of education was to produce good servants of the state. There was little emphasis on geography or history, the latter limited to the French and American revolutions, with nothing on Soviet history. The chief subject in schools was Marxist-Leninist doctrine. The teachers and professors of the country appeared to support this approach. The Teachers Gazette stated that the duty of each Russian teacher was to instill in students a "scientific materialistic outlook which has no truck with mysticism, the belief in supernatural forces, magic, etc."

The goal was not entirely realized as Russians, young and old, spit over their shoulders to demonstrate non-conformity. The Gazette recently had lamented that Soviet students in nine Leningrad schools, based on an examination, knew more of Josef Stalin's foreign policy than of his five-year plan for rebuilding Russia.

Mr. La Follette, before the war, had been an isolationist, but it appeared that his view had been transformed such that he understood that the U.S. now had a role irrevocably tied to Europe. He was also aware of Soviet ambitions in the world.