The Charlotte News
Monday, October 14, 1946
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the 21-nation Paris Peace Conference had completed its work on the last of the five treaties, that of Finland, referring the treaties next to the Foreign Ministers Council, to meet in New York starting November 4 to complete the work and to begin preparation of the treaty for Germany. In the final plenary session of the Conference, the United States proposal that Finnish reparations to Russia be reduced from 300 million dollars to 200 million, as with the same proposal for Hungary, was defeated.
Senator Arthur Vandenberg had addressed the conference on the issue, contending that Finland could not pay 300 million dollars. Former President Hoover had spoken in New York the previous day, saying the same thing.
The U.S. proposal to have Finland pay three-fourths of the damages to U.S. properties in the country during the war was also defeated by a vote of 11 to 5. The U.S. abstained from voting on the cession of the port of Petsamo to Russia.
V. M. Molotov complained that the 11-week conference had been dominated by the United States, and specifically rejected the decisions to internationalize Trieste under U.N. supervision, to internationalize trade on the Danube, and the resolution of the Greek-Bulgarian border issue.
The President was set to make a radio address at 10:00 p.m. this date on price controls of meat. As OPA had not been advised of any pending changes in controls, it appeared unlikely that the President had opted for relaxation of controls, leaving only the options of maintaining controls as they were or abandoning them altogether, to stimulate production and release of meat to the market. An action to increase importation of meat to alleviate the shortage was also being considered. The President's decision was being closely held in secret by the White House.
Commenting in response to questions regarding a Sunday broadcast of Drew Pearson, dovetailing a column he had written October 10, that there were atomic bombs being stockpiled in England, the President flatly denied the report, saying that the only atomic bombs ever outside the U.S. were the two dropped on Japan and the two detonated in the Bikini tests the previous July.
Izvestia called imaginary the Atlanta Constitution report that the Japanese had, in the latter two days of the war, successfully tested in Korea an atomic bomb and that Russia had captured the scientists and were holding them, trying to obtain the secret. Secretary of War Robert Patterson had also denied the report as fanciful, as had the leading Japanese physicist.
From London, a Moscow broadcast was monitored which stated that Prime Minister Stalin had meant to refer to the United States when, in September, he told a British reporter that there were some military men seeking to stir up a war to enable continued high military budgets.
In France, the Fourth Republic was established through adoption of a new Constitution on Sunday by over a million votes, after two previous failed efforts. The adoption took place despite opposition to the proposed version by Charles De Gaulle, believed by many to be headed for the presidency of France in the general election of November 4. His opposition was based on the Constitution's creation of a weak presidency compared to a strong bicameral parliament, with most of the power vested in the lower chamber. He said that it would create anarchy. Over 39 percent of the electorate stayed away from the polls, much of which was attributed to the De Gaulle campaign.
In China, heavy fighting continued in the civil war between the Communists and Nationalist Government forces. After the Government had taken Kalgan, they sought to clear the railroad from the city to the Great Wall, and were also fighting northwestward across Jehol Province, seizing Dolon. The Communist forces had produced a siege at Tatung in northern Shansi Province and at Paoting, capital of Hopei Province. Fighting was ongoing along the 90-mile railroad between Peiping and Hankow. The Communists had also captured Yuanshih.
In Batavia, the Dutch Government and the Indonesian Republic signed a truce in the fourteen-month old hostilities in the East Indies. The British had already planned to withdraw their forces by November 30.
In Nuremberg, the eleven defendants sentenced to death were scheduled to be hanged the following Wednesday morning at an undisclosed location. A limited number of correspondents would be allowed to witness the hangings.
Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi was said to be under investigation by the Senate War Investigating Committee, chaired by Senator Harley Kilgore of West Virginia. They were responding to unspecified complaints against him.
The Supreme Court rejected the request to bar Senator Bilbo from taking his Senate seat based on deprivation of Mississippians of the right to vote conditioned on color or race. The petitioner had argued that, while the Constitution vested in each chamber of Congress the right to judge the qualifications of its members, it did not restrict the right to each exclusively. Per the ordinary course, the Court simply rejected the petiton without comment.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case testing the validity of ICC rulings allowing a ten percent increase on freight rates in the North and East, while reducing them in the South and West by the same percentage. The petitioners were the Governors of six New England states, nine other Northern states, and 33 railroads.
A representative of the CIO PAC stated to the House Campaign Expenditures Committee that the organization did not have a purge list for candidates it wanted to defeat in the upcoming election. It had given $1,000 each to several unsuccessful candidates in the primaries, including the opponent of Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi and to Dr. Homer Rainey, Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Texas.
In Palm Beach, Fla., a non-swimmer dove into the surf to try to rescue a drowning young woman and wound up drowning. The young woman was saved by others.
Clothiers reported that men were requesting thinner and longer suits, a condition attributed to the war. A controversy was raging in the industry as to whether to include vests with suits. They were considered in place on the college campus, not in business.
In Boston, the Massachusetts General Hospital was set on October 16 to celebrate the centennial of the first public surgical operation utilizing anaesthesia. After the celebration, they would probably be feeling no pain. So you may want to check that out if you are in the Boston area.
On the editorial page, "It's Time for an Investigation" favors an investigation by the City Council or Civil Service Commission into charges by the Mecklenburg Solicitor that the Charlotte Police Department did not provide him with loyal and undivided support in the prosecutions of the recent lottery case and divorce mill case, the reason for his calling in the SBI to investigate, obtaining the first lottery convictions in 15 years. Moreover, as soon as the case was finished, the lottery sprang up again, resulting in his calling in the SBI and State Patrolmen again, who then arrested two more operators.
The squabble appeared to germinate from political differences between the former chief of the Police Department, now heading the SBI, and the new chief. The SBI chief had told his men not to interact with the Charlotte Police chief.
"How Many Republicans Are Too Many?" comments that the 300,000 Republicans in North Carolina estimated by Governor Gregg Cherry were likely fenced in by gerrymandering "as impenetrable as the great wall of China."
It finds Governor Cherry being overly pessimistic in his saying that the Democrats would have to fight in some of the Western districts of the state. They appeared secure.
The editorial makes it clear that it was not chiding the Governor, that he had been an excellent Governor, as had most of his predecessors, even under one-party rule. But it adds that a strong two-party system always allowed progress to flourish, and the relatively good government of North Carolina, compared to other Southern states, was not the final goal to be reached. One-party rule was a form of isolationism apart from the standards of most of the country outside the South.
It hopes that someday North Carolina might produce a President, along the general lines of Governor Cherry. But until it developed a two-party system, that would not be likely. It predicts, erroneously, that Governor Cherry would eventually become Senator, but would then climb no further.
"The Boom Has Only Been Postponed" comments on an article by News reporter J. A. Daly finding that since July 1, about 1.1 million square feet of floor space had been contracted in the eight Southern states, providing for about 6,400 new jobs, primarily in textiles, albeit with some variation within that industry as to the types of plants to be built. Twenty-four of the 51 new plants were in North Carolina. Georgia was second with eight.
The new building in a poor building season hearkened great progress for the South down the road.
A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "District 50 at Buckingham?" tells of the Royal Palace in England being now unionized from top to bottom. The 200 employees had bargained collectively to receive an increase in wages of $4 per week.
The piece speculates that the inspiration likely came from America and wonders whether the UMW's District 50 might try to sign up the palace guard. The New York Herald-Tribune had, not facetiously, suggested that the royals
Drew Pearson states that one reason President Truman had so much difficulty finding good people for Government positions was that they simply missed FDR. In a recent conversation the President had with Isador Lubin, White House secretary to the late President, this point came up as the President sought to entice him to return to government service. At first couching his reluctance in terms of financial considerations, Mr. Lubin eventually gave the President to understand that his overriding reason was that he missed FDR. The President stated that he also missed him, and from the sound of his voice, one could tell that he meant it.
*The column next relates of a controversy in 1939 into which President Roosevelt had stepped when he declared that Argentinian canned beef was superior to American canned beef, many claiming that he was casting aspersions on the American cow. Some even had believed it would cost him the 1940 election.
Presently, Argentinian beef could not be imported because of hoof-and-mouth disease, but canned beef was not forbidden. Nor was meat from Patagonia, which consisted primarily of mutton.
He next tells of the question regarding sale of a south Chicago steel plant built by the Government during the war at a cost of 90 million dollars, currently being operated by Republic Steel. Republic wanted to buy the plant for 30 million dollars, to be paid without interest over twenty years at 1.5 million per year. Henry Kaiser, unable to obtain adequate steel from the other steel manufacturers for his Willow Run automobile plant, had proposed to lease the plant at a payment of two million dollars per year for three years, leaving the plant available for Government munitions in case of another war.
At the conclusion of World War I, munitions plants were sold off for a song to private companies and at the advent of World War II, munitions were hard to come by, with companies delaying production even after the fall of France in spring, 1940.
Mr. Pearson adds that RFC director and personal friend of the President, George Allen, on the board of Republic, would be a key figure to watch in the deal, to determine what influence he would exert. The position of the War Assets Administrator was to get rid of war surplus property as expeditiously as possible. Attorney General Tom Clark, however, wanted to avoid the creation of monopolies in the process. The tug of war between the two policies would likely determine the outcome.
*Denotes portion of Pearson column not in The News version this date.
, in Columbus, Ohio, tells of the Republicans being confident over the coming election in November and for 1948. They saw former Governor and 1944 vice-presidential nominee John W. Bricker as a shoo-in for the Senate race in November and an odds-on favorite for the 1948 nomination for the presidency.Mr. Childs interviewed Mr. Bricker and found him opposed to all Government regimentation and control of the economy, believed that free enterprise would prevail to stimulate production and hold down prices. He thought that Ohio Senator Robert Taft was too liberal, favoring subsidization of hospital building programs and housing. He branded his Democratic incumbent opponent Senator James Huffman a Communist for accepting the backing of the CIO PAC. Senator Claude Pepper of Florida had come to Ohio to stump for Senator Huffman, but Mr. Bricker found it a help to his campaign, leading in the latest Gallup poll 56 to 28 percent, with the remainder undecided.
Signs were that, with the polls thus, Republican optimism was well founded.
Harold Ickes, transplanted to the editorial page for the first time, tells of Bernard Baruch's new profession as a member of the Atomic Energy Committee of the U. N. Long before the war came to be a reality, he had foreseen its possibility, had offered his services to the Administration as early as September, 1938 in the event of war. Mr. Baruch and FDR had known each other since World War I and were good friends. But with Harry Hopkins having a major influence at the White House, Mr. Baruch was not within the initial war council. It did not embitter him, however, to be left out.
When the rubber crisis developed, for which Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones had been responsible, failing to foresee the difficulty and establish production of synthetic rubber prior to the fall of the East Indies and the Philippines, the President turned to Mr. Baruch to resolve it. The confidence he brought to the situation eliminated the crisis, though the country continued to suffer for some time from a rubber shortage during the war.
He maintained offices in Washington at a personal cost of several thousand dollars per year and had a competent staff. He was not beholding to Congress for appropriations.
The country now believed in the Baruch Plan for control of atomic energy and eventual sharing of it when safeguards and inspections were assured. Mr. Ickes says that he believed in the plan. Mr. Baruch would accept modifications, but the country would be doing itself a disservice in the eyes of other nations to demonstrate dissension regarding the plan at this juncture.
In our ferreting of other newspapers, we came across an editorial from the previous week by Samuel Grafton which never appeared in The News. In it, he tells of the quandary inevitably facing newly matriculating college students if listening and taking to heart implicitly the good advice of different people being offered in campus speeches. Vice Admiral Denfield had addressed the entering freshmen at William and Mary, telling them that they must be ready for war on an hour's notice. The acting president of Columbia had urged the students there to keep their minds free and unregimented. Former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen had told some nursing students in Atlantic City that they needed to be unselfish.
The combined advice required the new student to be a "philosopher sentry", at once on the ready for war, yet keeping his or her mind free and unregimented, while maintaining the need for a sense of selfless sacrifice.
"These new directives to modern man require that he shall live like a Spartan and think like an Athenian." Such youth, torn between directives, had the right to demand that the speakers before them "make peace". While fraught with tendencies toward sloganeering and selfishness, it could solve Admiral Denfield's problem and so might be forgiven infringement of the other two directives.
A letter, with which the editorial column had expressly agreed, states that the South's one-party system was a form of isolationism, ceding control of the region to others outside the South, rendering the region a colony. Eleven states could not control either major party, could only determine their local and state offices. The South had not produced an elected President since Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk—if one excludes Woodrow Wilson, born in Virginia and raised in Georgia and South Carolina.
He finds Southern democracy to be hinged to the concept of a Solid South, and the result produced something not so democratic, the anomaly whereby most Southern Democrats voted as a bloc against a Democratic Administration and with Republicans.
A letter cutely sets forth in imaginary conversation with a child the idea that bacon, roast beef, sirloin steak, and butter could all be had in plenty when Herbert Hoover was President, no more.
Yeah, maybe for the first six months of his Administration.
A letter from the vice-president of Pennsylvania Central Airlines thanks the newspaper for the series of articles by Pete McKnight on air transportation.
A letter writer who had written on October 7 that he had never been a member of CIO, corrects his statement to indicate that in 1937 he was a member, a fact he regretted.
He still, however, does not correct his worse error, pointed out by the editors, that he had been fighting CIO for 14 years when it had only been formed in 1935.
The Herblock brings to mind, incidentally, the need for correction of the narration of the brief documentary to which we recently linked, anent the flight of John Glenn aboard Friendship 7, the first supra-earth orbital flight of an American, February 20, 1962. The sun does not orbit the earth, and certainly not every 24 hours; the earth spins one revolution on its axis every 24 hours, give or take, until the moon
Also, "long-player", from February 16, 1946, is now here
Framed Edition
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