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30 NATIONAL AFFA?:' 4: - Committee te Aid Spanish Democracy, Nationa! Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Nationa] Federation for Con- stitutional Liberties, Soviet Russia To- day, the Spanish Refugee Relief Cam- paign, and the American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born. - Joseph E. Davies: Affiliated with National Council of American-Soviet Friendship and Congress of American- Soviet Friendship. Sent greetings to New Masses. Signed statement of National Federation for Constitutional Liberties hailing War Department order permitting Communists to become Army officers. Author of “Mission to Moscow,” which glorified Soviet regime and justified totalitarianism. . Paul Robeson: Affiliated with Ameri- can Committee for Democracy and In- tellectual Freedom, China Aid Council, American League for Peace and. Democ- . racy, American Peace Mobilization, Art- ists’ Front to Win the War, Citizens’ Committee for Harry Bridges, Joint Anti- Fascist Refugee Committee, Medical Bu- reau and North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy, National Coun- wal af Amarinan-Soviet Frien chin Na- Gi OF AMericab-ooviey PMeoasnip, fs ~ tional Federation for Constitutional Lib- erties, National Negro Congress, New Masses, New Theatre League, New Dance League, New Theatre, Southern Conference for Human Welfare, Soviet Russia Tod. y, Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, American Youth for Democracy, International Labor Defense, the Abraham Lincoln School, and the Washington Committee for Aid to China / To Pravda, the activities of Russia’ friends proved that “foreign democratic intellectuals have become more and more convinced that only by following the principles which the USSR is defending in the field of international relations can the Jeaders of science and culture be set free from. the fate of the servants of imperi . Unfortunately, Pravda added, the “friends of the USSR do not have freedom of speech on the pages of news- papers, magazines, and books with great circulations, and sometimes these per-, sons are even persecuted. May Party Line The party line stretched long and thin down Eighth Avenue in New York's swarming garment district. Sometimes there were embarrassing gaps in it. Some- times there seemed ta be fewer paraders than police—2,800 uniformed cops and a smal) army of detectives had been as- signed to reviewing stand looked like a Sunday picnic. A mother rocked her baby car- riage in the spring sunshine. Two small boys scrambled over the bleachers, whacking at each other with rolled-up banners. Girls d for snapshots. It was May Day, 1947. ; Thur + “t-rsdov, before police, ‘respondents 2 route. At Union Square, the. Pe from Tass, the official Soviet news agency, and thousands of office and factory svork. ers en route ta the 5 p.m. homeward sub- way crush, New York Communists and pro-Cammunist organizations marched in their annual show of strength. What The Daily Worker heralded as “united labor” tumed out to be the old. standbys—the National Maritime Union, the United Electrical Workers, and the International Fur aud Leather Workers Union—aii CIO and Communist-infitrated. Only a few left-wing AFL contingents marched and they paid the price—by nightJall, the AFL ordered the three leaders who had sponsored participation in the parade sospended. By far the Peas triumph of the day belonged to Communist party itself. it ordered imto the parade about 700 vet- erans, in uniform and wearing military decorations. They marched in perfect ranks chanting: “One-two-three-four. We don’t want another war.” On placards, banners, and floats, the marchers announced where they stood: @ They were against military use of the atomic bomb, imperialism, the Taft- “ , : : Hartley “slave” labor bill, Representatives Rankin and J. Parnell Thomas, Senators Taft and Bilbo, war talk, Red_ baiting, J. Edgar Hoover, President Truman's foreign policy, loans to Greece and Newsweek MW’ by dames Cutter Aroostook: Six bomber he -xs to Europe aAet Turkey, Wall Street, and the House Up- American Activities Committee. € They were for peace, independence of Puerto Rico, a Federal theater, the 35- bour week, housing, Soviet-American friendship, Gerhard Eisler, Henry A. Wallace, the Negro ballplayer Jackie Robinson, and the retum of “one-cent bubble gum.” . Communist spokesmen vied with each other in trying to cover up an all too apparent fact—~May Day, 1947, was s lop compared with other years. Blatantly. Ben Gold, Communist president of the Fur and Leather Workers Union, pro- nounced the parade the “best ever.” Wil- ‘jiam Z. Foster, national chairman of the Communist party, added: “This t demonstration is but a foretaste of the great demonstrations to come.” The Dailv Worker announced that 80,000 had marched, The police count: 27,500. ~—~_ ARMY: Potato Air Base Agriculturally, Aroostook County in Northern Maine could brag about its smooth-skinned patatoes that make it the nation’s No. 1 spud producer. Commer- ... cially, it could boast of the astounding $55 bushels per acre which it converts into starch, alcohol, dehydrated potatoes, seed potatoes or fertilizer, or just lets rot under the government's price-sup- rt program. Botanically, the county— igger than Connecticut and Rhode Is- land combined—had also been famous for its forests of magnificent white pines. Militarily, it was another matter, Be- cause Aroostook County § the closest spot in the United States to Eurere, the Army Air Forces last week revealed it would build a $14,000,000 base there for its longest-range bombers—the six-en- gined Consolidated B-36, the Boeing B-50, the Northrop B-35 Flying Wing, and its jet-powefed version, the B-49. Their 5,000-mile radius would put Eu- rope within six- to seven-hour range of the new Aroostook base. The chosen site on Aroostook’s foe-free ear wa. MES fe AN plateau was 7,200 rolling acres of potato and pine lands outside Limestone Vil- lage, only 4 miles from the Canadian border and 30-from the wartime air- ferry hub at Presque Isle. Because of the immense weight of the new super- bombers, the AAF figured it was easier to build the mammoth new 10,000-foot runway from scratch than to convert Fresque Isle or any other field. The AAF planned to break ground June 15, as soon as the spring thaws are our Since Aroostook has a virtually sub- ‘arctic climate, it would take two sum- mers,: perhaps three, to complete work. Gnty" then would the field be ready to- base two air groups of perhaps 30 bombers each. Presumably, a twin base «for the AAF’s over-the-Arctic air strategy “would be built in the northwestern parti of the country to match Aroostook’s Net- . Te aaa