moke your IGHT now, getting rid of every coal-burning locomo- health program of cities cur- sed with these puffing _mon- ° sters. This is the verdict of the American Medical Association. Recently a doctor asked the authorititative Journal of the AMA for the latest facts about the one-time king of the rails. The experts have come through with a sizzling reply. : Coal smoke is directly re- sponsible for a growing per- centage of cancer, tuberculosis, bronchitis and a wide range of lung diseases classed as pneu- moconiosis. The railroad and coal barons have tried to hush up these facts for many years. But now that the public is. de- manding medical action again- st a number of grave illnesses, in self-defence,« doctors and public health authorities are compelled ‘to tell the truth. They must put the blame where it belongs. Not on smoky chimneys in general, but on the locomotives. All smoke is bad. For a simple reason the By DYSON CARTER gets In lungs Locomotives are the only coal burners in common use which pour out great, quantities of steam along with their foul smoke. While steam itself is harmless, combined with other smoke-stack exhaust products it. constitutes an extremely ser- ious health menace. When a locomotive starts belching as the fireman pours on coal, what comes out of the stack isn’t simply filth. Billions of fine carbon particles make up the soot and give the smoke its dirty color. These micro- scopic bits, if pure, would ‘be practically harmless. But they bear ‘condensed’. on them a heavy load of coal tars. These complex chemicals, produced by breakdown of coal when it is burned, are definite- ly known to cause several kinds of cancer. There is no longer. any dispute about this substance. And when people in- hale soot particles soaked in coal tar,they are seriously rais- fensive sources. coal smoke from rail engines ranks high above all other of- ing their chances of sooner or later being stricken with thee dread disease. That isn’t all. Along with car- bon and coal tar, locomotive smoke contains a high percen- tage of fly ash and of poisonous chemicals. Some of these are minerals and others, like the compounds of sulfur, are strong- ly acid. They do not cause can- cer, but they are very irritating to the lungs and all tissues of the breathing system. Engines blast out much powdered silica, the cause of silicosis among hard rock miners. TINALLY, engines pour out steam. This, say the medical research men, is the decisive factor. ‘Dry’ smoke from factory chimneys is not nearly so harm- ful as locomotive’ smoke. The latter is extremely dangerous be- cause, first of all,,the sulfur gases from coal are much more poisonous when combined with steam, Secondly, steam saturates the atmosphere with water vapor and almost constantly produces the murky, poison-filled condi- tion called ‘smog.’ Producing smoky fog on a mass scale is the locomotive’s worst crime. Of course steam itself is harm- less. But under average condi- tions great quantities of steam released into the air are not dis- persed. They hang as clouds over the city. What we see and feel and smell as persistent, foul smoke. is really smoke that can’t rise or blow away because it is heavily laden with steam. Such conditions are nearly al- ‘ways found where there are coal- burning railroads. Trying to les- sen the evil by compelling the engine crews to cut down on ‘smoky’ firing is next to useless. So are laws passed to lessen smoke from factory chimneys. As long as steam engines burn coal, the menace remains. According to the Medical As- sociation and experts of the U.S, Public Health Service, the one and only way out is to force railroads to scrap their steam engines. An immediate program should call for every switching engine to be replaced by diesels. Costly main line steamers can be junked as they wear out, but meanwhile the main lines should be electri- fied where they enter a city. Some engineers maintain that steam locomotives have certain technical advantages over diesels and electrics, This conflict of opinion exists today in Soviet .railway circles. But in the USSR new steam engines are of the ‘condensing’ type. They do not release any. steam out of the exhaust, but condense it and return the water to the boiler, as in fac- tory and power plant steam generators. In spite of many advantages there is little hope of costly condensing engines being adop- ted on this continent. Hence the trend toward diesel and electric locomotives is one we can heartily support. The coal interests, already threatened by the swift rise of oil heating, will continue to pressure our railroads _into buying new steam engines. In view of what medical science has now deter- mined, every constitutes ‘a public. health. such purchase crime against There is food in Germany, but— by JOSEPH CLARK AST month United Press cor- respondent went out to the Bavarian countryside and in two hours flat collected 620 pounds of food in ‘starving’ Germany. How? In exchange for’ a few cigarettes, second hand clothing and soap. That news flashed after hun- ger demonstrations had spread throughout the U.S. and British occupation zones. U.S. authorities admitted that German workers ‘received less than 1,200 calories a day. Now think back just a few months — right before the open- ing of the Big Four foreign ministers conference in Moscow. Herbert Hoover was sent to Germany by President Truman. Hoover said that since the Amer- ican flag flew over Germany it had to send a billion dollars worth of food and machinery and other materials. ~ What’s more, he said that Germany couldn’t pay repara- tions till the German manufac- turers got back on their feet and exported goods to repay what American taxpayers paid out in shipments to Germany. And then think: back to the Moscow conference. A big to-do resulted when the U.S. delega- tion said—no reparations to the victims of German aggression. Reparations from current pro- duction would only mean that American dollars going to Ger- many would be transferred to the victims of Nazi occupation, we were told. That sounded log- ical—didn’t it? FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 1947 But now let’s square all this with the latest news. There are tons and tons of food available in the German countryside. De- spite this, the German cities are starving and U.S. officials try to sell a bill of goods about bow the U.S. must feed the Ger- mans and spend billions rebuild- ing the Reich. URE, there’s a food crisis in Bavaria and’ the other Am- erican and British governed states. But the latest facts also point to the reasons: { 1. As contrasted with the So- viet zones. the bigger estates have not been divided among the small farmers. 2. The, German authorities in Bavaria and other states in the western zones are Nazis or Nazi- minded. 8. There is no planned econ- omy in the Western zones. The men in charge hate Com- munists and Socialists.and agree with the U.S. occupation author- ities that food is primarily a source of profit, not of human welfare. : 4, The so-called merger of the American and British zones has ben a miserable flop. All four zones’ must be unified on an anti-fascist basis. All four zones must establish one central Ger- man govern m ent—cleared of Nazis, demilitarized and giving man government—cleared of power to the people who can build a democratic Germany. The scandal in Germany de- mands a fundamental answer. ® Huge poster-portraits of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels decorated the walls of the ruined Royal Castle in Berlin when thousands of Germans gathered there recently to hear trade union leaders call for democratic land and industrial re- forms to end the present food crisis in the western zones. Placards demanded a central government, policies to secure world peace, and a united trade union movement. :