 It's time for the Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, brought to you every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A presentation of the Laun Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Laun Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope? Mr. William Bradford Huey, editor of the American Mercury, and Mr. James H.R. Cromwell, former United States minister to Canada. Our distinguished guest for this evening is the honorable William F. Benton, United States senator from Connecticut. The opinions expressed are necessarily those of the speakers. Senator Benton, it's a pleasure to have you with us tonight, sir, on the Chronoscope. Thank you. And for our viewers, will you identify yourself politically? Are you a new dealer, a supporter of the president, sir? In general, I'm a very consistent supporter of the president, though I differ with him and his advisors in certain major ways. I, with Senator Paul Douglas, fight a good deal harder than most administration men do to get our budget into balance to cut back on expenditures. I have fought subsidies to agriculture, beet sugar subsidies, and other subsidies. But roughly speaking, and certainly on the foreign policy, I would describe myself as a supporter of the president. You're a sort of sound-money new dealer, then. Is that correct? I like to think of myself that way. There are those who won't use that definition applied to me. You believe in having a balanced budget, in other words, senator. Is that right? Paul Douglas and I have joined together in recommending not only a cut of seven and a half billion dollars out of the budget, Mr. Cromwell, but in trying to close up a tax loopholes, maybe to catch some rich fellows like the Cromwells, to pick up another two and a half billion dollars to bring the cash budget into balance. And about ten billion dollars would do it. I'm sure that our viewers would like a prediction from you, sir, as to whether you think the budget is likely to be balanced this year. Mr. Huey, there's not a chance in the world it's going to be out of balance by billions. In a presidential election year, you'll never get the Congress to pass the tax bill, which the president recommended, which I would before. And you're never going to get the Congress to make these cuts in appropriations bills because the pressures of too many people are involved to spend the money. You remember that cynical advice, don't you, of old Uncle Joe Cannon to a young congressman, my son, never vote a for-a-tax bill or against an appropriations bill. Well, that applies, that particularly applies in an election year. I say, sir, now, sir, I believe that you have taken a rather strong position on the civil rights program. And our viewers are very much interested in that tonight because General Eisenhower, this week, took a very firm stand against a federal civil rights program. Yes. Now, what is your position on civil rights, sir? Well, I'm a great admirer of General Eisenhower and I have respect for his judgment, but I differ with him and I differ with him sharply on this particular question. Civil rights, Mr. Huey, is a problem for all the people, not a problem state by state. And the reason it's a problem for all the people is that our failure in the field of civil rights, in our failure in the field of our racial relations, our doing justice to our Negro group and other racial minorities is picked up by the communists all over the world and thrown back at us. And indeed, it's the most damaging of all the communist propaganda. We forget the two-thirds of the peoples of the world have colored skins. And day after day, the communist propaganda hammers into the minds of these people that we discriminate. We're injust. We don't live up to our democratic preachments. And that's too important to let Mississippi and Alabama decide. That's a problem for all the American people. But do you think, Senator, that it's possible to do away with these personal feelings by legislation? Not a bit of it. It's a long, slow educational process, Mr. Cromwell. But as with all education, you throw your hat in front of you. We have full civil rights legislation up in the state of Connecticut. It doesn't mean that there isn't stumped discrimination. We can't get rid of it merely by passing laws. But when the people of the state say together, we stand against this. It's against the policy of the state. We are going to set up courts and commissions. We have a case in the state right now against the labor union for refusing to permit Negroes to join. And it's the first case of its kind in the country. And it's a fine thing for the people of our state to get the education that's involved in that case. Well, now let's see the views that the American people now have before them on this. General Eisenhower, I believe, has taken a rather firm stand against federal action in the civil rights matter. That's the way I read his statement yesterday. There are no qualifying clauses. He's simply against it. Senator Taft has certain qualifying clauses. Senator Keith Fauver, who's been on this program. Now, you, I believe, sir, are almost completely on the other side from General Eisenhower. You believe in federal action. I'm not trying to win any Southern delegates. I'm not a candidate for the presidency. But out of my long experience in foreign policy, Mr. Huey, I've represented the United States at eight international conferences as a delegate of this country. I've talked to the people of other countries who sent delegates there. And this is thrown at us all the time. And not only by the Russians, but naturally by the Indians, by others. I told on the floor of the Senate last month in fighting the McCarran immigration bill, the story of Mrs. Benton and me being in Japan in 1937. We saw the black flags break out all over Japan. It was the anniversary of our Exclusion Act when we said that the proud, sensitive people of Japan, not one of you is fit to come into the United States. Japan went into mourning. All historians agree that our Exclusion Act against the Japanese can be one of the major factors that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. I give that as a quick illustration to show how important action in this field is from the standpoint of all our people. You're a member of the Senate next year. You mean when I'm a member of the Senate? Yes, when you're a member of the Senate next year. Why, your constituents can depend on you to try to overcome the traditional Southern opposition to federal legislation in this field. Mr. Huey, Connecticut's a pretty literate state, and if they didn't know that, I agree with you. I wouldn't have a chance to go back to the Senate. Senator, we'd like a few words from you, sir, on your activities in the Mutual Security Program, and I believe that we are sending to Europe. Now, I believe that you have been responsible for an amendment to that program. Now, just what are you trying to do with that amendment, sir? Well, I'm trying to combat communism in Europe and to strengthen the hands of our administrative officers who are fighting communism. Of course, the basic purpose of the Mutual Security Act is to fight communism and to prepare ourselves to fight communism if we come to an open outbreak of hostility. Specifically, how will your program help in combating communism in Europe? Well, my benton amendment tells Mr. Harriman and his associates, the administrators of this act, to spend these vast sums of money, the 6,400 million now under discussion, in such ways as to discourage the great European monopolies and cartels which hold back production and hamstring productivity, which is the very thing we're trying to encourage. And in the second place, to discourage the communist labor unions and to encourage the development of the kind of free labor unions really fighting for the welfare of the workers of the kind we have here in the United States. Senator, I think that great many people don't realize the difference between the way business is conducted here in the United States and the way it's conducted in Europe. I wonder if you would give us a little discussion about the difference between competitive business in the United States and monopoly business or cartel business as they term it in Europe. Well, you put your finger, Mr. Cromwell, right on the basic difference. The basic difference in attitudes of the American people goes right back to 1890 when we passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. There isn't any antitrust legislation in Europe at all. Our laws, Mr. Jeffrey Crowther of the London Economist put the thing wonderfully when he once said, we put a man into the House of Lords in England for the very thing in the United States for which you put him into sing-sing penitentiary. Our laws say you can't combine and merge and monopolize fixed markets, fixed prices, control production, fail to put in new machinery, and eliminate competition. All over Europe, the European businessman is trained to exactly the opposite viewpoint and every European country is run in a business sense by the cartels and the monopolies. What do you think the chances are of changing the European point of view on that, of changing the European businessman's mind? This is an entrenched viewpoint that makes the gap between the European and the business communities psychologically in American business communities much greater than the Atlantic Ocean. It will take years. Oddly enough, the best chance right now, I think, is in Germany. Senator Bennett, you're... And we can break it up in Germany. There's hope for breaking it up throughout much of the rest of Europe. That's very interesting. Our audience, of course, understands that you are up for re-election in Connecticut and quite frankly, I believe the Republicans think that they have a chance to win your seat this year. It is rumored. It is rumored. Now, you expect a very vigorous campaign, I assume, in Connecticut. It's sure to be a vigorous campaign, Mr. Huey, because the state is small and compact, highly literate politically, and there will be much money spent in Connecticut by the Republicans in the expectation that I may be one of the vulnerable senators who can be successfully dislodged. I don't like to tell them now that they'd better save their money, but perhaps you'll assure them of that for me. And what positions, sir, do you take nationally in the race between the Democrats and the Republicans? Have you endorsed any candidate for the presidency? We in Connecticut have endorsed my senior colleague, Brian McMahon. I believe that the Democrats have too much sense to nominate a candidate with whom we can't win. You know, I therefore predict a Democratic victory, though I agree with you, there are some Democratic candidates now in the field with whom we can't win. So there is a tie-up between the candidate and the anticipated victory, and that I'm the first to admit. I'm sure that our viewers very much appreciate your views tonight, sir, and thank you for being with us. I congratulate you on the quality of this program, Mr. Huey. The editorial board for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope was Mr. William Bradford Huey and Mr. James H.R. Cromwell. Our distinguished guest was the Honorable William F. Benton, United States Senator from Connecticut. You know, the problem confronting the manufacture of an article of extreme precision, such as a Laun Jean, is to deliver it to its eventual owner in the same perfect condition in which it leaves the factory. 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