The President's News Conference

THE PRESIDENT. Please be seated. I have no special announcements to make this morning, but I will try to answer questions, if I Can.

[1.] Q. Mr. President, what do you think of the performance of the Russian delegation--in particular, Mr. Malik--in the United Nations Security Council? ¹

THE PRESIDENT. I am not interested in the Russian delegation. I am highly pleased with the performance of the American delegation. I think it is one of the most wonderful performances that has been held since I don't know when. And the same can be said for the British delegation. I don't like filibusters. You should have asked the question the other way around. I am on the American side.

¹Jacob A. Malik held the rotating presidency of the Security Council during August. In that capacity he was able by various maneuvers to block action on the principal item on the agenda, the "Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea."

Q. They are the ones that have been kicking up the fuss--

THE PRESIDENT. It doesn't make any difference. We have been putting them down.

Q. Mr. President, then I take it that you mean that the Russians--you think the Russians are filibustering ?

THE PRESIDENT. No doubt about it. Did you ever see a filibuster before?

Q. Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT. You've been here almost as long as I have.

Q. Mr. President, do you think the Russian filibuster is a good sign or a bad sign in relation to world peace?

THE PRESIDENT. I can't answer hypothetical questions, for I don't know.

[2.] Q. Mr. President, can you tell us anything about Mr. Harriman's report to you yesterday, after his return from the Far East?

THE PRESIDENT. Mr. Harriman, I think, expressed all that can be said in the press conference which he held right here in this room.² What he said was substantially what he had reported to me.

²W. Averell Harriman, special foreign coordinator for President Truman, stated in a press conference on August 9 that United States policy toward Formosa had been set by Mr. Truman on June 27 and that this policy had not been changed since that time (see Item 173). The policy, Mr. Harriman went on to remind the reporters, was aimed at isolating Formosa from the mainland both by preventing attacks on the island by the Communists and by preventing Nationalist efforts to return to the mainland.

[3.] Q. Mr. President, do you anticipate using your powers to reduce expenditures on public works of a nondefense character, like flood control, reclamation--that sort of thing?

THE PRESIDENT. Have you seen the memorandum which I have sent to all the Departments?³ If you haven't, I would advise you to read it, and that will answer your question.

³ See Item 196.

Q. Mr. President, they didn't send them to us.

THE PRESIDENT. Well, it was not a public document, but everything of that kind leaks, and a good one ought to leak once in a while. [Laughter]

Q. It didn't.

Mr. Ross: Mr. President, that was made public.

THE PRESIDENT. That was made public, Charlie says. [Laughter] You probably didn't keep up with the bandwagon. I thought it had been. But if it hadn't, it could very easily have leaked.

[4.] Q. Did you reply to the telegram of the railroad unions before the Government takes possession of the railroads? ⁴

THE PRESIDENT. I did not.

4 On August 4 the President received a telegram from R. O. Hughes, president of the Order of Railway Conductors, and from W. P. Kennedy, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, in which they blamed the carriers for the lack of progress in settling the railroad dispute and recommended that the "Government take possession of and operate the

[5.] Q. Mr. President, are you as optimistic as the Pentagon on the progress of the war in Korea?

THE PRESIDENT. I take my military advice from the military leaders, and I am optimistic, as they are.

[6.] Q. Mr. President, do you plan to appoint Mr. Martin Hutchinson to any other post?

THE PRESIDENT. I have no plan.

[7.] Q. Mr. President, I would like to go back to Mr. Harriman, if I may?

THE PRESIDENT. Sure.

Q. General MacArthur says there are defeatists and appeasers who are working against him. Is anybody trying to set you against General MacArthur?

THE PRESIDENT. I haven't met anybody yet.

Q. What was your answer, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. I haven't met anybody of that sort yet. General MacArthur and I are in perfect agreement, and have been ever since he has been in the job he is now. I put him there, and I also appointed him Commander in Chief of American and Allied Forces, at the suggestion of the United Nations. I am satisfied with what he is doing.

[8.] Q. Mr. President, we have had conflicting reports on the excess profits tax. Some of your friends are saying that you want an excess profits tax now, and that you do not want one as of now.

THE PRESIDENT. Well, I will tell you just exactly what the situation is. As in the case of the request for controls, I asked for a tax that I hoped could be promptly enacted. An excess profits tax is a very controversial matter. Of course, eventually, there will be an excess profits tax, but the Congress ought to have plenty of time to work it out when they haven't the election jitters. And I think it railroads in the United States until such time as this dispute is settled in fairness to the rights of our members." See also Item 221. would be better to work that out after the election than now.

If they will act promptly on the tax I asked for, it will help, to some extent, with this inflationary spiral with which we have been threatened. That is the reason for the request for the increased taxes.

Q. You would take an excess profits tax now, if Congress voted one?

THE PRESIDENT. Of course.

[9.] Q. Do you have any comment on Glen Taylor's apparent defeat? It looks as if he is beaten by a thousand votes in Idaho?⁵

THE PRESIDENT. No, I have no comment.

5 On August 8 Senator Glen H. Taylor of Idaho, vice presidential candidate in 1948 on the Progressive Party ticket headed by Henry A. Wallace, was defeated in Idaho's primary election for the Democratic senatorial nomination by former Senator D. Worth Clark.

Q. You are not unhappy, though?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know anything about it--only what I have seen in the papers. And when I get the official returns, then maybe I'll comment on it.

[10.] Q. Mr. President, the Senate Finance Committee tabled the bill to suspend the import tax on copper. Are you still as optimistic, that Congress--

THE PRESIDENT. I think that is something that really ought to be done. It is helpful to our allies, and it will help our relations in the American hemisphere. That tax ought never to have been put on there in the first place. They should not have let it expire. I requested it time and time again, that they not let it expire.

Q. Didn't get the question, sir.

THE PRESIDENT. The question was about the copper tax.

Q. It has been under suspension, hasn't it--the import tax on copper?

THE PRESIDENT. It has been under suspension, but the time expired some time ago--I think the 1st of July.

[11.] Q. Mr. President, in our policy of neutralizing Formosa and preventing Communist invasion, if that should be attempted, are we prepared to use the Air Force and ground troops as well as the 7th Fleet?

THE PRESIDENT. I can't answer any questions like that--now--I'm sorry.

[12.] Q. Mr. President, you have said that you will carry on mobilization with the old-line agencies, and if so, what is your thinking on that? Why do you favor that, rather than setting up new administrative functions?

THE PRESIDENT. I have been spending the last 5 years improving the administrative setup of the Federal Government, by reorganization plans and in other ways. We have an excellent and efficient administrative setup in the Federal Government, and there is no reason in the world why it can't operate successfully under all conditions.

Q. Mr. President, then I take it that you mean it wouldn't be a revival of OPA?

THE PRESIDENT. You can take it to mean that, if you like.

[13.] Q. Mr. President, Trygve Lie, in his report on the United Nations, said that the real crisis would come after we had won the Korean war--that is, a crisis in world affairs; and he recommended high level meetings between the East and West to solve that crisis. Are you in favor of such meetings? Do you think they would be useful?

THE PRESIDENT, I am in favor of anything that will contribute to the peace of the world.

Q. May I be more specific then, sir? If Trygve Lie were to take the initiative of suggesting such a meeting, would it have the approval of the United States Government?

THE PRESIDENT. I will answer that if the matter is put up to me. It hasn't been, as yet.

[14.] Q. Mr. President, a couple of weeks ago you told us that you felt wage and price controls and manpower allocations could come all at the same time as a part of total mobilization? You said at that time it was not in sight--

THE PRESIDENT. That is correct--not yet.

Q. It has not come in sight yet?

THE PRESIDENT. No.

Q. Mr. President, in that connection, the Senate and House Banking Committees apparently want to give you selective powers, if they are necessary. I understand the House is planning to take that, and I think the Senate wants to. Will you express an opinion or comment on that?

THE PRESIDENT. The House and Senate must legislate and put the matter up to me, and then I will comment on it. I have asked them for exactly what I want, very specifically.

[15.] Q. Mr. President, from those questions, it seems to me to bring up the old matter of another meeting between the heads of states?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, it is not necessary to bring it up, because there isn't going to be one.

Q. I wanted to make that clear.

Q. Mr. President, you make a distinction between possibly high level meetings and meetings between heads of states?

THE PRESIDENT. That's correct--that's correct.

[16.] Q. Mr. President, in connection with all-out mobilization, if there were need for control of transportation, could we take your answers to mean that you might use an agency like the Interstate Commerce Commission?

THE PRESIDENT. I certainly would.

[17.] Q. Mr. President, I believe we mentioned awhile ago the rejection of Martin Hutchinson. I wonder if you have any comment on the four rejections by the Senate⁶--

THE PRESIDENT. No, I have no comment. Senatorial courtesy still works.

6 Four of President Truman's nominees for Federal office were rejected by the Senate on August 9: Frank E. Hook to the Motor Carrier Claims Commission, Martin A. Hutchinson to the Federal Trade Commission, and two Federal judges already sitting under "recess" appointments, Judges M. Neil Andrews of the Northern District of Georgia and Carroll O. Switzer of the Southern District of Iowa.

[18.] Q. Mr. President, it is only a little over 5 years ago that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. I wonder if, in the light of the past 5 years, you have any comment on the future of atomic energy?

THE PRESIDENT. No comment.

[19.] Q. Mr. President, I might have missed this--I might not have heard. Do you think that the United Nations meeting now would do any good-

THE PRESIDENT. Will you repeat that--will you repeat that, please? I didn't get it.

Q. Do you think that any good would come now of a meeting between the heads of states--of Russia and the Western Powers?

THE PRESIDENT. The United Nations is set up for that, for the purpose to which you refer. The United Nations Security Council is in session, and the Assembly will be in session in a very short time. That is the place for these things to be taken up.

[20.] Q. Mr. President, you referred to the Russian conduct in the United Nations as a filibuster, but--

THE PRESIDENT. Yes, that is correct.

Q.--do you care to say what they are filibustering against?

THE PRESIDENT. Themselves principally, I think.

[21.] Q. I wanted to ask, have you heard anything from Mr. Steelman⁷ on the progress of the mediation--conferences with the railroad and union heads?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes, I hear from Dr. Steelman every day, but I have no comment on what he has had to say.

Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT. You are entirely welcome.

7 John R. Steelman, Assistant to the President.