From the New Republic: The Birth of Conservative Media as We Know It

For 2305 - this fits with our coverage of conservatism in a previous section, as well as our upcoming look at the media.

- Click here for the article.

Henry Regnery flipped through his notes a final time as he waited for the rest of the group to arrive. In a few minutes Room 2233 in New York City’s Lincoln Building would be packed with some of the brightest lights of the conservative movement, gathered together at his request. Writers, publishers, and editors made up most of the guest list, including William F. Buckley Jr., the enfant terrible of the right; Frank Hanighen, cofounder of Human Events; Raymond Moley, Newsweek columnist and author of the anti–New Deal book After Seven Years (1939); and John Chamberlain, former editor of the Freeman and an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal.

When everyone was settled, Regnery explained why he had called the meeting. As 1953 came to a close, he observed the men in Room 2233 were unquestionably on the losing side of politics. And that puzzled him. “The side we represent controls most of the wealth in this country,” he told those gathered. “The ideas and traditions we believe in are those which most Americans instinctively believe in also.” Why then was liberalism ascendant and conservatism relegated to the fringes? Because, Regnery argued, the left controlled institutions: the media, the universities, the foreign policy establishment. Until the right had a “counterintelligence unit” that could fight back, conservatives would remain a group of elites raging against a system that by all rights they should control.

- Click here for the magazine they produced: Human Events.

From the TSHA: Historic World War II pipelines sold

The Texas State Historical Association tells us that on this day in 1947 the Big Inch and Little Inch pipelines were sold by the US government to a private company - Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation, which was headquartered in Houston. Both pipelines also connected Houston with the northeast, which helped solidify Houston as the center of the oil and gas industry.

This might be an interesting read for both 2305 and 2306 students. 2305 students should consider the interplay of interests involved in the construction of the pipeline before and during WW2, and the decision about what to do with the pipeline once the war was over. 2306 students ought to think about the role government policies played in the development of the local area and the degree to which local power brokers were able to ensure that these policies benefited them, as well as the local area.

WW2 was very good for the local economy and the business interests located here.

Here's the note sent out by the TSHA:

On this day in 1947, the Big Inch and Little Big Inch, two strategic pipelines laid during World War II from East Texas to the Northeast, were sold by the U.S. government to a private company. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes realized as early as 1940 that shipment of petroleum to the Northeast by tankers would be impossible in time of war because of German submarines. In 1941, at Ickes's urging, oil industry executives began to plan the building of two pipelines. One, twenty-four inches in diameter, called the Big Inch, transported crude oil. The other, twenty inches in diameter, called the Little Big Inch, transported refined products. The Big Inch ran from Longview to Southern Illinois, thence to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Twenty-inch lines continued from there to New York City and Philadelphia. The Little Big Inch began in the refinery complex between Houston and Port Arthur and ended in Linden, New Jersey. Together the pipelines carried over 350 million barrels of crude oil and refined products to the East Coast before the war in Europe ended in August 1945.

And from the TSHA entry on the Big Inch and Little Inch Pipelines:

After the war, the pipelines became the focus of a clash of interest groups, with the oil and gas industry wanting to convert them to natural-gas pipelines and the railroad and coal industries opposing this. The Surplus Property Administration, given the task of determining future use, hired an engineering firm to study options; this study recommended that the pipelines be converted to natural-gas transmission. At the same time the United States Senate held hearings on their future use. In January 1946 the SPA recommended that first preference should be to continue use as in the war to ensure availability of the lines in a national emergency. However, by June 1946 the War Assets Administration announced an auction for the lines. All bids were ultimately rejected because no defined use preference had been established. After a strike by coal miners in November 1946 the WAA solicited bids to lease the lines, with Tennessee Gas and Transmission Company awarded a lease for natural-gas use to run from December 3, 1946, to April 30, 1947. Once it was established that the lines were viable for natural-gas transmission, the WAA again offered them for auction. The high bid of $143,127,000 came from a new corporation, Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation, formed by George Rufus and Herman Brown and their partners. The purchase was final on November 14, 1947. As of 1993, Texas Eastern had its headquarters in Houston.

Congress now has only two WWII veterans remaining

And both are the House - Ralph Hall (TX) and John Dingell (MI). Frank Lautenberg was the last veteran in the Senate.

Michael Barone describes the domininance this generation had on politics for the bulk of the late 20th Century. It had a greater inpact on any other group of veterans since the Civil War.

Not much notice was paid when the last Spanish-American War veteran in Congress, Barratt O'Hara, died in 1969.

Nor was much attention directed at the retirement from Congress in the 1970s of the last two World War I veterans -- Sen. Mike Mansfield of Montana (who lied about his age to enlist) and Sen. John Sparkman of Alabama (who served in the Students Army Training Corps).

In contrast, World War II veterans made a big splash in politics starting shortly after the war ended. Dozens of young veterans were elected to Congress in 1946, including future Presidents John Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

The Washington Post speculates on what his retirement might mean for the the institution and veteran's policies:

But with the death Monday of Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), not a single one of the 115 World War II veterans who served in the Senate remain, the latest evidence of the rapid decline in members of Congress with military service.

The passing of Lautenberg and the dearth of veterans in Congress is a concern for veterans advocates, who have seen a number of senior senators with clout and sympathy toward their positions pass from the scene in recent years.

“It’s a sad day,” said Louis Celli, national legislative director for the American Legion. “These were some of the most ferocious advocates for veterans that we had. We as veterans counted on the senior leadership, the World War II veterans, to represent us. We respected them, they respected us, and without them, there’s going to be a void.”

Lautenberg “was a real champion for veterans,” said Bob Wallace, executive director of Veterans of Foreign Wars. “He was very proud of the fact that he served in World War II and got educated on the GI Bill. He wanted to do the same for younger veterans, no matter what generation they served.”

Both stories highlight an interesting factoid:

For a time, the Senate was home to three men — Inouye, Bob Dole of Kansas and Phil Hart of Michigan — who had recuperated at the same Army hospital from serious wounds incurred in World War II combat.

The Washington Post story points out that while WW2 veterans flooded Congress (115 would eventually serve) soon after the end of the war, very few veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have ben elected. They don't point out - but its worth noting - that no Vietnam Veterans have been elected to the presidency. The three who ran - Gore, Kerry, and McCain - were defeated.