The Charlotte News
Tuesday, October 1, 1946
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that eleven of the 21 defendants tried at Nuremberg had been convicted of war crimes
Only Herr Von Ribbentrop expressed signs of shock at the sentence and had to be helped from the courtroom by MP's. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, once head of the Gestapo, bowed to the court after his sentence was announced.
Rudolf Hess, Walter Funk, and Grand Admiral Erich Raeder each received life sentences.
In addition, Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach each received 20 years in prison, Constantin von Neurath, 15 years, and Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, 10 years.
Former Finance Minister Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen, and former Deputy Propaganda Minister Hans Fritsche were acquitted. Herr Schacht was seen outside the courtroom selling his autograph for candy bars.
American lead prosecutor Justice Robert Jackson expressed disappointment at the three acquittals. The Russian prosecutors also objected to the three acquittals and the prison sentences.
Of the organizations on trial, the SS, SD, Gestapo, and the leadership corps were found guilty; the high command, SA, and Reich Cabinet were found not guilty.
Associate Editor of The News Harry Ashmore, who had been a Lt. Col. in the Army and served as chief of staff to Brig. General Don Faith in Task Force Faith in the Ruhr Valley, tells of the capture of Franz von Papen in April, 1945, just as the war was ending in Europe. The task force first caught Franz von Papen, Jr., who alerted them that his father was in the area. Subsequently, they were able to track down the former German diplomat who acted for the Fatherland in both wars, was instrumental in the annexation of Austria.
The Justice Department reported uncovering in Germany evidence that linked the German-American Bund to the Ku Klux Klan during the period 1937 to 1941. The evidence of collaboration included documented statements that the two organizations intended to create an anti-labor third party to align labor against other elements in the country, a joint meeting of the groups at Camp Nordland, N.Y., in 1940—a fact reported at the time—, and an affidavit from an assistant director of the Bund stating in 1937 that the Bund was cooperating with the Klan and other similar organizations. In 1939, the Bund, according to the FBI, had 6,617 members in the country. The primary goal of the organization was to foster Germanism and German ideals.
British troops completed their withdrawal from Lebanon.
Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson indicated that the United States was considering what to do with regard to the renewed Russian demands on Turkey for shared control of the Dardanelles. Turkey, he said, had not asked for U.S. help. Mr. Acheson did not see the situation as a threat to peace.
*The "Truculent Turtle", a Navy patrol bomber, broke the record for a nonstop flight, traveling 11,237 miles in 55 hours and 18 minutes, between Perth, Australia, and Columbus, Ohio. The crew, led by Commander Thomas Davies, said that they thought they could have made it to Washington but their fuel gauges were inaccurate and they did not wish to take any chances. A baby kangaroo, which made the journey safely, accompanied them on the long hop
Former Secretary of State Cordell Hull, about to turn 75, had suffered a stroke the previous night and was in critical condition at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Mr. Hull would recover and live until 1955.
Rail shipments were stopped because of the latest maritime strike of the AFL Masters, Mates, and Pilots Union and the CIO Marine Engineers Union, to prevent congestion in ports. The Labor Department was working to mediate the dispute. The AFL union wanted a 30 percent increase in wages and the CIO, a 35 percent increase.
The State Board of Education asked the Advisory Budget Commission to raise teacher salaries in North Carolina by twenty percent, which would mean a budget increase for the coming fiscal year of 13.5 million dollars.
*AFL vice-president Matthew Woll stated that pickets might form in front of theaters showing movies the screenplays of which had been written by Communists or starring actors who were Communists. He claimed that among this group were Edward G. Robinson, Myrna Loy, Burgess Meredith, Orson Welles, James Cagney, Lionel Stander, and J. Edward Bromberg. Ms. Loy and Mr. Robinson threatened lawsuits for defamation, Mr. Robinson calling the allegation "mean, low contemptible and libelous". He added that anyone in Hollywood who possessed an enlightened viewpoint suddenly became a "Communist".
Sub-freezing temperatures hit the Northeast.
On the editorial page, "The Faith of the Class of '50" comments on the new freshman class entering American colleges and universities, doubling, possibly tripling, normal first-year enrollment in North Carolina, with another thousand students in the dozen temporary college centers across the state. On many campuses, over half the student body were GI's, showing their scholastic discipline. Veteran withdrawals from college were less than that for non-veterans.
While placing stress on the staff of the institutions, the signs were encouraging, as the thirst for knowledge could not suggest disillusionment among American youth, but rather that America was still a land of opportunity, that the war was not being considered merely a prelude to other wars. The veterans obviously believed that they were educating themselves for the future they would enjoy. Their faith was ample return for any sacrifice the nation might need to make to insure that they were educated as they desired.
"A New Drive for Traffic Safety" comments on the State Committee on Traffic Safety embarking on a five-year, $500,000 campaign to educate North Carolina's driving public to the need for better traffic safety, with the goal of reducing accidents in the state by half. Based on the first quarter of 1946, that would save annually over 3,000 lives and 119,000 personal injuries, plus 140 million dollars in property damage, and thus be well worth the price at $160 per life.
The money would come from private donations, and the distinguished committee members, whom it lists, were serving without pay, though many were public officials. It urges that the public contribute.
"When Is a Veteran Not a Veteran?" tells of the North Carolina commander of Amvets having requested of North Carolina newspapers that they not identify criminal defendants as "veterans", thereby precipitating a "foolish" debate among newspapermen. Some editors had agreed to the request while most insisted it was necessary for a complete description of the defendant.
There was no apparent hard and fast rule employed by any newspaper in the state. When the veteran made a point of his service either by appearing in court in uniform or telling the court of his prior service, it was part of the story. In other cases, except major crimes, there was no special effort made to ascertain the military service or not of a particular defendant.
"Veteran" neatly accommodated headlines, "vet" even better, such as "ENRAGED VET SLAYS SIXTEEN instead of the more prosaic LOCAL YOUTH SLAYS SIXTEEN."
Attorney General Tom Clark had recently stated that veterans generally demonstrated better than average conduct in civilian life and thus the editorial disagrees that mere identification of defendants as veterans cast unfair stress on them. Since most able-bodied young men in the country had served during the war, it was not abnormal to find that most young defendants in criminal cases had been in the service. The same was true of young lawyers, doctors, ministers, and newspaper editors.
The piece states that it was not going to add to the work of the copy desk by outlawing the use of the reference.
Drew Pearson tells of a meeting of the President's reconversion advisory committee in which AFL president William Green attacked continued price control, especially as it had impacted the availability of meat. Eventually, former Roosevelt adviser Anna Rosenberg addressed the stout Mr. Green by saying that while what he advocated might be correct, he appeared to be getting his fair share of meat. Mr. Green sat down. After he began addressing the group again, another member stated that Mr. Green had won, but only because he had more wind than any of the other members.Senator Theodore Green of Rhode Island advocated the Government take-over of the meat packers. He also wanted a Justice Department investigation to determine whether there was a conspiracy between the packers and livestock raisers to keep meat from the market.
At a meeting of the Democratic executive committee, former Governor E.D. Rivers of Georgia inveighed against having Henry Wallace stump for Democratic candidates in the fall. DNC chairman Robert Hannegan stood his ground in favor of the move, stating that he would back anyone who state or local Democrats invited to speak, including Senator Claude Pepper of Florida.
**The President had met with the State Department's new national committee for educational, scientific, and cultural cooperation, each member of which being personally introduced to the President at the President's insistence because he wanted to keep his handshaking arm trim in an election year. When it was mentioned by Assistant Secretary of State William Benton that the group had been democratically elected, the President questioned under his breath whether it had been with a big "D" or a small "d". The President was wearing a simple black tie, unlike his normal colorful neck attire, prompting some members of the committee to suggest that the President was in mourning for Henry Wallace.
**A Swedish correspondent had asked TVA director David Lilienthal, after he explained that TVA was developed by FDR in the aftermath of Coolidge-Hoover opposition, what would happen if the Republicans got into office. Mr. Lilienthal replied that they could not blow up the dams.
**Denotes portions not in The News version of Mr. Pearson's column, substituted by his "Capital Chaff".
Marquis Childs reports that, as in the rest of the world, there was a postwar shortage of housing in Sweden. There had been no destruction of property in Sweden during the war, but thousands of families nevertheless were seeking homes as building materials and skilled labor were scarce. Because Sweden was receiving half of its prewar imports of coal, it was necessary to maintain extra labor in the forests to cut timber. Complicating the situation, Sweden had exported portable houses to France, Norway, and other war-torn countries. He posits that scarcity of housing was a principal reason for revolutions following in the wake of war.Europeans were restless, wanted to move about and spend money after being hemmed in by the war. Most prices were controlled, but not on antiques and art, resulting in a boom in antiques and paintings, old and new.
Industrialists desired selling of more wood pulp in America to supplement the dearth of newsprint
Samuel Grafton provides a two-category typology for those voices seeking to stop Russian expansionism. The one, which he dubs "Elmer", was typified by Joseph Alsop of the New York Herald-Tribune, wanting to stop Russia because it had a bad dictatorship. He urged support of all non-Communist Leftist movements in Europe, to provide a democratic bulwark to Russia, as Communism had trouble in such free states.
The other school, which he dubs "Hector", represented by Republicans of the Midwest, detested Leftists as much as dictators. To Russian workers, Hector gave praise to the right to organize but at the same time advocated restrictive legislation of the right to strike in the United States. Hector praised the Greek Government despite its oppressive approaches to the leftists, left with no practical capability to organize except under the aegis of the Communist Party.
Hector had a tendency to drive ordinary liberals to sympathy with Russian Communism because it branded everyone who was liberal as "Communist". American and European labor did not trust Hector and would not join it. Hector and Elmer would necessarily also clash, as Elmer wanted free and progressive states while Hector ultimately favored strictures on freedom.
The West was beginning to support creation of something better than Russia in Europe rather than merely opposing Russia. And if American foreign policy ever began to champion that approach, a good many Republicans who talked of unity while actually supporting Hector would jump ship, "using language not fit to be quoted in these chaste columns."
A letter from Inez Flow again addresses her favorite topic: prohibition. She thinks false the editorial of September 26 counseling that Charlotte, with the nation's second highest murder rate, would not do any worse for the presence of liquor and that the added revenue from liquor sales, based on Durham, would supply about a half million dollars per year for additional library books, police protection, and improvements to streets. She asserts that it would have an adverse impact on crime and insanity.
The editors respond that, contrary to her pro-dry quote from the Topeka Daily Capital, suggesting that crime and insanity would increase with the end of prohibition, the Wichita Beacon had observed that there was more liquor and gambling in Kansas under prohibition than at any time in the state's history, and that law and order had broken down all over the state.
A piece from "The Rhamkatte Roaster" in The Raleigh News & Observer, tells in literally spelled dialect of the nefarious attempt by Virginius Dabney of the Richmond Times-Dispatch to claim that Virginny had produced Virginny Dare at Jamestown 'coz she was named Virginny.
They 'as all fer Virginny puttin' on its own play relative to Roanoke Islan'. Nof Caliny had enuff claims with it bein' fi'st in indepen'ence, gittin' a commission fer Johnny Paul Jones, establishin' the fi'st state univers'ty, furnis'in' mo' fi''tin' men to Marse Robert than any other cotton-pickin' state in the Confed'racy, fought the fi'st blood-lettin' battle of the Woa at Bethel, advanced fa'ther than anyone at Gettysbu'g, and fin'lly, wuz last at Appomattox
They didn't envy none Virginny for its Founders and Marse Robert. Didn't need to. Would fight back with shootin' irons if'n they tried to steal, however, Virginny Dare. A pageant was one thing, but takin' the glory from Fort Raleigh was beyond the pale.
Where have we been the last ten days? We have been right here, busy eating the ten pounds of veal we were able to obtain at the market on Saturday—and good it was. Where have you been?
Anyhow, we added them links above 'fore we ever even saw that Herblock. Ain't that some'un? If you go and erase 'em, we'll get Michael after ye.
*Denotes a story on the front page not on The News front page, culled from other front pages of the date during our ten-day hiatus.
Framed Edition
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