The piece finds some of the reaction by the realtors unreasonable, as when the president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards described the speech as having been written in the New York offices of the Communist Party. He had claimed that progress had been made toward elimination of the shortage by Congress in the last session, removing all housing controls, stimulating investors to enter the market to create new housing.

The piece finds it news that Governor Thurmond was a Communist and "demagogue", as also labeled by the NAREB president—perhaps an opinion on the latter which would change in less than a year. It also finds it surprising that "progress" had been made in housing by the removal of the controls, as thousands of citizens remained without adequate housing.

But the realtors, it offers, had been no more gluttonous than the rest of the country and the housing shortage was the result of conditions beyond anyone's control.

Both the Governor and the realtors appeared unrealistic in their diametrically opposed positions.

It finds wisdom in the counsel of a North Carolina delegate to the convention who favored fair standards for housing to be promulgated by private builders, lest the shortage ultimately cause a return to Government controls.

In addition to the coalition of Royalist reactionaries and the Liberals, there were six other parties vying for influence on U.S. policy in administering the 300 million dollars of aid under the Truman Doctrine. One of the primary tasks ahead was to prevent these rival interests from destroying the aid program.

Until the Greek Army could be rebuilt, however, American aid could not adequately provide security to the country. That task would take until the following June. Meanwhile, the problems of reconstruction and revival of production remained.

Conservative observers estimated that the task of rebuilding Greece and insuring its stability and security could take five years and an uncertain amount of money.

It remained too early to tell what would be the result of having chosen Greece for a showdown with Russia.

It was, says the piece, the failure of such statesmanship by the Administration, the Republican majority in Congress, and by both industry and labor, which had led to the boom-and-bust cycle without brakes. It was now doubtful whether the country could be united to stop it, given the same lack of leadership.

Such "statesmanship" as favored by Senator Flanders was unlikely now to have much impact. The only effective way to control inflation was to return to rationing and price and wage controls as during the war. Even resort to these measures would soon be ineffective in the face of the increscent spiral.

Mr. Flanders had stated that the alternative was to rely on a reservoir of unemployed to regulate prices. The piece hopes that such a nonchalant, pleasant description could be applied also to the consequences.

He next informs of the 15-year old daughter of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black having, the previous term, called her father during a conference of the Justices, ordinarily an inner sanctum not to be disturbed, and seeking his assistance in obtaining a carpenter to fix her closet. Later, Justice Black found her sitting outside the conference room, to which, ordinarily, no one was admitted outside the Court, waiting patiently for her father to tend to the problem.

Whether she was instructed to get back where she belonged, was not reported.

He imparts of Henry Kaiser having asked for a hearing after fiscally conservative Congressman Robert Rich of Pennsylvania urged that Kaiser not be given any discount on the 35 million dollar loan by the Government to build the Fontana, California, steel plant during the war. Mr. Kaiser pointed out that the Government had lost 300 million dollars on U.S. Steel discounted war contracts, 151 million of which came from the Geneva, Utah, steel plant built with Government funds and sold at 20 cents on the dollar to U.S. Steel. He pointed out that it would create unfair competition to allow U.S. Steel such a benefit while forcing Kaiser to pay back the entire sum borrowed to build its plant. Mr. Rich appeared finally convinced of the propriety of the argument.

Last, he informs that the Air Corps was receiving applications from former Army, Navy, and Marine officers, some 24,000 having been submitted, some of the men having been captains and colonels. They would be assigned new ranks ranging between corporal and master sergeant.

The Liberals opposed the monarchy which the Royalists supported, and so the Government thus established was at fundamental odds with itself. The major question was whether the amnesty offered the guerrillas by the new Premier, Themistokles Sophoulis, leader of the Liberals, would cause the rebels to lay down their arms.

Most American observers in Greece were skeptical of the viability of the new Government, as were Greeks of genuinely democratic persuasion. The latter believed that the former Government, by arresting and exiling thousands of non-Communists, had alienated too many.

Archbishop Damaskinos was optimistic, however, and believed the coalition could work to effectuate peace.

Rebels on Crete had offered to surrender under the amnesty program, but they were less fierce than the guerrillas of Macedonia in the north.

The military would likely get a much larger share of the allocated aid than originally contemplated, and a much larger army was likely, as security was a top priority.

Though upset with Mr. Lewis, the other officers of the executive board would follow his advice and would not seek to remove him from the board, of which he was vice-president, or to seek to have the AFL convention in October override his ruling, as he had stated he would not sign the affidavit even if ordered to do so by the convention. That would provide the convention with only the undesirable recourse of either firing him from the board or eliminating UMW as a member union.

Unless the Government changed the ruling, the policy would lead to strikes and class warfare.

Mr. Riesel views the move as a means for Mr. Lewis to make himself head of all union labor, both AFL and CIO, by smashing Taft-Hartley and thereby becoming a hero to all of labor. That would give him control over 15 to 17 million workers.

CIO would likely follow the lead of AFL in not signing the affidavit, causing the labor law to bog down in the courts in determination of its constitutionality. If the courts ruled the Act unconstitutional, Mr. Lewis would become the hero to all of labor. Even if he failed, he would be viewed as a bold leader. He would also couple the drive with his new position as head of the AFL PAC, promising to funnel more money into the campaign of 1948 to defeat members of Congress who had supported Taft-Hartley than contributed by the CIO PAC in the elections of 1944 or 1946.

Mr. Riesel quotes from Shakespeare: "'Tis Paltry to be Caesar." Mr. Lewis wanted more.

Then from Moscow came Palmiro Togliatti to lead the Communists into the coalition Government, despite the continued presence of the throne and the perceived Fascism. It set a pattern for all of Western Europe to follow.

The overall policy directed by the Kremlin was to establish a strong Soviet core, with a more cautious approach vis-à-vis Western Europe, where the Communists would not seek full power but were instructed to infiltrate the governments and remain there. It explained the Communist cooperation on reconstruction of France and Italy and the flourishing of nationalism. Their mission was to prevent opposition to Soviet foreign policy while maintaining political disorganization and weak government, to allow for the center of power to be Moscow, which would draw these governments as a magnet.

But the fly in the ointment proved the spirit of energy and independence of both the French and Italians, urged on by the U.S. opposition to Soviet expansion. The strategy had fallen apart when Premier de Gasperi in Italy expelled the Communists from office and Premier Ramadier in France also kept them out. And then the U.S. announced the Marshall Plan which could enable Western Europe to regain its strength, capable perhaps of acting as a magnet in its own right for Soviet satellites.

But for the present, there was still disorganization and hunger, coupled with pessimism in Western Europe. The U.S. was fumbling, giving an opportunity to Russia to make a new inroads. Hence, the new Kremlin approach was to denounce cooperation in reconstruction and use the labor movement to stimulate strikes, as in northern Italy. The Communists of Western Europe would now try to seize power. The development presented cause for concern for American policy-makers.