Editorial Columns from the Milwaukee Journal

This editorial from THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL may interest you Vednesday, April 11, 1951 THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL April days, snow is nothing but a night- mare we've just awakened from. L. W. NIEMAN, Founder, 1882 England had a rough winter, too. If we Published by The Journal Company were the ski jumpers we'd just leave the H. J. GRANT, Chairman of the Board snow shipment in the customs house un- J.D. FERGUSON President and Editor claimed. If the customs people think it's M. H. CREAGER Vice-President and Editorial Advisor valuable, let 'em have it. By the time ahy- IRWIN MAIER Vice-President and Publisher one will appreciate it-on some hot day J. P. KEATING ce-President and Production Mgr. next August-there'll be nothing left but L. W. ROBINSON Vice-President and Treasurer Vice-President and Gen. Mgr. of Radio a huge puddle, anyway. W. J. DAMM Let them try to tax that? PHONE MARQUETTE 8-6000. Private telephone system. Address all correspondence to specific person or department. Business Office Hours: 8:30 to 5 daily, except Sunday Gen. Ridgway's Fine Record World War II proved that however neg- Removal of Gen. MacArthur lected America's military establishment The American people will overwhelm- becomes in times of peace it produces out- ingly join in "the deep regret" expressed standing leaders capable of meeting any by President Truman at the decision to re- test in time of crisis. move Gen. Douglas MacArthur from his Lt. Gen. Matthew Bunker Ridgway, who various command posts in the far east. takes over from Gen. MacArthur in the far Gen. MacArthur is one of the all-time east, should prove no exception. Those military greats of this nation. As fighter, who now cry doom, who claim that Mac- leader, strategist, tactician and adminis- Arthur alone can handle the job in the trator, he has served his country well and Pacific, fail to take into consideration the deserves its everlasting gratitude. His quality and reputation of the man who is name will rank in history alongside those replacing him. of Washington, Grant, Pershing, Marshall Gen. Ridgway's military record has al- and Eisenhower. ready won a place in American history. He It is unfortunate, indeed, that circum- organized America's first air borne divi- stances should have arisen that made it sion, led it in the invasion of Sicily and unavoidable to dispense with Gen. Mac- fought with it up through Italy in World Arthur's services. War II. He jumped with it on D-day in It is hard to see how President Truman Normandy. Later, as commander of the could have taken any other action. 18th air borne corps, he helped stem the Germans in the battle of the bulge and The United States cannot have two com- drive them back across Germany. He was manders in chief. flown to the Philippines to prepare his corps for invasion of Japan as the Pacific The United States cannot have a military war ended. commander acting contrary to the orders of his commander in chief and his military When Gen. MacArthur needed a replace- superiors, the chiefs of staff. ment for Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker, killed in Korea, he asked for Ridgway. Within The United States cannot permit the 12 hours after the request he was on his breaking down of the basic American doc- way from his post in Washington as deputy trine of civilian control over the military. chief of staff for administration. He took It cannot have a military commander over when the Chinese hordes were driv- meddling in political and diplomatic mat- ing the UN army back. He reorganized ters. his forces, reversed the drive and has led It cannot have a military commander in his men back across the 38th parallel. position of highest responsibility when he Not as well known, but just as impres- apparently does not believe in the national sive, is Gen. Ridgway's diplomatic and ad- policies agreed upon by a majority of con- ministrative record. He is experienced in gress and the president. the far east, where he served in China and It cannot allow a military commander as adviser to Theodore Roosevelt, jr., then persistently to advocate policies that alien- governor general of the Philippines. He ate our friends and allies throughout the served on the commission of inquiry and world and are in contradiction to ayowed conciliation to settle the Bolivia-Paraguay policies of the United Nations, of which we boundary dispute and was aide to Gen. are a member. Marshall on a special mission to Brazil. He was commander of the Mediterranean the- Gen. MacArthur refused to follow the ater. rules that have governed the relationship He was Gen. Eisenhower's representa- between military leaders and their govern- tive on the United Nations military staff ment since the American Constitution was committee and senior United States dele- adopted. gate to the inter-American defense com- mittee. He had a big hand in drafting Correspondence between Washington and Tokyo, now made public, reveals that both the UN principles of military organi- zation and western hemisphere defense the president and the chiefs of staff re- peatedly asked Gen. MacArthur to "be gov- plans. He was a United States representa- tive to the American conference in Rio de erned by the policies and directives issued Janeiro. He was an adviser to the UN se- in the manner provided by our laws and the Constitution." Gen. MacArthur curity council and to the United States defied these requests. In letters, in civil delegation to the UN assembly in Lon- speeches, in interviews, in statements to don. In the Pentagon as well as in his prominent visitors, he continued his cam- other assignments he earned a reputation paign against present national policies. He as a brilliant and capable administrator. showed a blindness to our problems in Eu- Gen. Ridgway comes to his assignment rope because he was, as for many years in Japan with an outstanding record of jobs past, preoccupied with our problems in the well done. America need have nothing but orient. trust in this man who takes over its des- tinies in the far east. The situation was rapidly becoming im- possible. Confusion, fanned by political partisanship, was growing at home. Our Toward Economic Disaste friends overseas were bewildered at the The much needed warning of the senate- sight, wondering at the stability of our gov- house economic committee that our ernment and at the worth of its interna-