 It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important aces of the hour, brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope. Mr. William Bradford Huey, editor of the American Mercury, and Mr. Elliot Haynes, associate editor of United Nations World. Our distinguished guest for this evening is the Honorable W. Averell Harriman, director of the Mutual Security Agency. The opinions expressed are necessarily those of the speakers. Mr. Harriman, since you are distinguished American and a candidate for the presidency, I'm sure that our viewers will appreciate your views on a number of subjects tonight. Now, sir, is it true, since we have had all of the other candidates, except General Eisenhower, we'd like to place you in the political spectrum first. Is it true to say that you are the most liberal or the most ardent supporter of the new and fair deals? I believe I am both the most liberal and the most ardent supporter of all of the principles and I've so stated in detail. And using the terms right and left, which are a bit confusing, you perhaps are further over on the left. I don't recognize those terms. Those are those are continental terms and relate to a spectrum of political thought which doesn't exist in this country in my judgment. But in terms of liberalism and conservatism, or reactionaryism, progressivism, I put myself on the liberal progressive side. What are the basic policies of the new deal, would you say? Well, the basic policy I think that President Roosevelt brought to this country was that we should build our economy from the low income groups up and not have a trickle down from the top as it used to. And it's worked that way. Our income of the low income group has increased twice as fast as those of the of the higher income groups. Would you attribute that to government policy, government action? I think the great deal had to do with government policy, establishing minimum wages, social security, of course strengthening helping unions organize and developing appropriate collective bargaining. Now the president has said that he... And many other aspects, but those are fundamental. The president has said, sir, that he thinks that one of the issues is trumanism in this campaign. Are you willing to accept that and to accept trumanism? Well, I humanize the new deal and the fair deal because they are over a period of 20 years and I've been involved with them. I've worked for President Truman, great respect for him. I think he's one of our great presidents. Been very thoughtful and forthright and both on domestic front and also on international fairs. He's had great courage. That's a very interesting evaluation we've had in the year that we've had our program. We've had, of course, people with all sorts of views about the president. Your evaluation is that President Truman is a truly great man. I think he's faced some of the most difficult problems in the international front that any person ever has in the beginning of 1946 when the Russians were moving into Iran and Greece and Turkey when they were threatening and attacking the Marshall Plan, the North Line Treaty, facing up to Korea. There's a long list and he's a man of great decision and great foresight. You think history will be kind to him and we'll call him a great president. Mr. Harriman, to get down to... Kind to him, but a great appreciation of his judgment and character. To get down to a specific question in domestic politics, some people think that the people who have very firm opinions on civil rights want all or nothing at all and hold us up from getting anything. What do you think about that? Well, I don't look at it quite that way. I think we have got to move forward. The Democratic Party has always moved forward and I think we've got to move forward with this issue. Congress has got a responsibility to pass effective legislation. You know, the executive branch can do a great deal. I've worked in the executive branch. President Truman has done much, but there's much more can be done and if one shows the example of elimination of discrimination, one can do a lot. By moving forward, you mean a compulsory fair employment practice. Well, there's a great deal of emphasis on that word compulsory when, as you know, there are compulsions in the proposal for FEPC, but the main weight of it is to education, mediation and to bring things along voluntarily. I think those that consistently use this word compulsion wave a red flag rather than emphasize the pouts of FEPC, which are really cooperative and can lead to action voluntarily. Mr. Harriman, during your long and distinct... By that, I don't want... I want to say that I think there must be some more back of it in order to get the attention that it needs. In your long and distinguished career with the government, sir, it's been often said that you were a Republican. Were you a Republican in 1932? Now I was born and raised a Republican. New York State Republican. I was a Republican in 1928. I knew Al Smith. I was on the Park Commission, worked with him, admired him, and then I was very much afraid that the policies of the Republican Party would get us into trouble abroad. I saw us turn our backs. I thought Wilson's ideas were right, and in 28 I thought we were going to bring the world down on top of us because we were lending money abroad and building up tariffs. So when did you see... In 1928 I voted Democratic and I've never been happier since. I feel I'm part of the generation I'm living in. I'm not among those that are trying to obstruct progress. So the press has not been correct in identifying you as a Republican since 1932, as a Republican in the Roswells and... No, I was a Democrat in 1928 and Al Smith, Al Smith Democrat. You say that you just said that tariffs were one of the reasons you became a Democrat. The Republicans were important. I say at that time we were, we were inculcating loans abroad and building up tariffs at the same time. Well now we're doing more or less the same thing now, and recently you called people that wanted tariffs five percenters, I believe, meaning I suppose it hurts the country in some way. Would you explain that? I think what that wasn't very well reported, it was a rather complicated thing. You see many of the groups that are coming down, or representatives groups coming down, are objecting to as small as five percent of their total market in this country being being being taken by the foreigner. Now my own judgment is that they will, our country will prosper at least five percent and they'll get at least five percent more business in the United States than what they lose. That's just an example of bad newspaper reporting then. Well I wouldn't say that, it was a rather a complicated statement to make and I don't blame the recording. Mr. Harriman it's been said... But I did call them the five percenters who objected to the five percent. A great many people believe that the most unpleasant fact in our world today is the fact that the Russian Russian power complex is very strong. Yes. That is the most unpleasant fact in America. That is the great danger that is not even pleasant, we are living in a very dangerous time. Now do you think, is it fair to say that the Roosevelt or Truman administrations at any time aided and abetted the growth of Soviet power? Well what is fair to say during the war I was I was representative of President Roosevelt in all of our negotiations with the Russians. We tried to help the Russians stay in the war and people forget today that when we landed on Normandy there were some 200 Russian divisions, our German divisions on the Russian front plus 50 satellite divisions. We never could have gotten sure if those divisions hadn't been fighting desperately on the other side. Our objective was to keep them in the war and as such we did help them and we kept them in the war. Now nothing that was done in the war helped their post-war this idea that y'all was a sellout is just not true at all. Why would the Russians go into such tremendous lengths to break them if they'd been so favorable to them? Did you attend all of the great conferences? I attended all the conferences during the war except one of the two Kuvert conferences. And was anything done at any of those conferences that you did not approve of? Oh of course I didn't agree with everything and I'm not saying that everything was done was entirely right. I've always stated that naturally we made mistakes but I think the basic idea that we should try to make arrangements with the Russians to live in peace was absolutely essential for us to do. The first that that failed showed the world that we were trying for peace and the Russians had thought if it hadn't been for that attempt that many people in the world wouldn't think that we are not the Russians with a troubled mind. Mr. Herrmann many people think that Russia doesn't want a total war and yet you do agree but that in preparing for it as we seem to be doing now we may scare them into it. No I don't think that's true. I think that we've got to get ourselves in a defensive position we can't live exposed and none of our friends and allies you can't have confidence in the world if one is afraid that any minute there may be a major major attack. Our policies of course are entirely defensive we are not building a big enough establishment. I'm sure that our viewers would like just a word about your political plans from this point on. Do you plan to be active during the month of June? Well I'm planning to go around to the different states particularly those that were the uninstructed delegations and I've been very much surprised and gratified by the support I received where I've gone that I've been abroad so much that many people haven't seen me in recent years. Mr. Herrmann in your travel around the country you may bump into General Eisenhower one of these days and of course he's expressed admiration for you in his book and you say that you admire him. Are you running against him because you think he's going to be caught by the isolationists in his party? Well I have tremendous respect for General Eisenhower, a warm friend, he's been a great patriot and great soldier but when he embraced the doctrines of the republican party why I'm opposed to him politically and I told him so when I saw him before. Now I think it's the that you can't have a forward-looking foreign policy and the look-back policy here at home I also think he's going to be a prisoner of the old god. And as a final observation I think we need a democratic administration finally. Well thank you very much for being with us tonight sir. The editorial board for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope was Mr. William Bradford Huey and Mr. Elliott Haynes. Our distinguished guest was the Honorable W. Averill Harriman director of the Mutual Security Agency. 25 years ago on May 21st 1927 the world was electrified by the news that the lone eagle Colonel Charles Lindbergh had sent his monoplane the spirit of St. Louis down at Le Bourget Field in France completing the first non-stop flight from the United States to Europe. Sensation was to follow sensation. A few days later Admiral Byrd landed his three-motor plane on the French coast. Clarence Chamberlain flew non-stop in a blank of monoplane from the United States to Germany. Harold Yancy flew from Old Orchard, Maine to Spain. Coste and Belont spanned the Atlantic westward from France to New York. Thus in a few short years daring men set the stage for the worldwide air transport system of today. Lawn Jean is proud that practically every one of the great pioneer aviators of history used Lawn Jean watches for the essential navigation on which life or death might very well depend. 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