The Charlotte News
Saturday, November 30, 1946
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Government had authorized coal operators to assess fines against striking miners, now in their tenth day of idleness. One such mine in Pittsburgh had already begun, with permission, to levy fines of a dollar per day for each miner on strike, numbering 4,500 at the company.
Workers in other industries rendered idle by the coal strike now numbered more than 95,000. Another 167,000 were temporarily idle during the extended holiday weekend.
The Department of Interior disclosed that conferences were being held with four applicants regarding taking over operation of the Big Inch and Little Inch pipelines for transport of natural gas to the East Coast, Philadelphia and New York.
The United States sided with Russia at the U.N. on the proposal that control of the atomic bomb be given first priority in any consideration of arms limitation. Contrary to the Russian view, the U.S. wanted inspections of the bomb and uses of atomic energy to be outside the purview of the Security Council and each permanent member's veto. Russia wanted control to be policed by the Security Council. The British wanted the bomb outlawed, also different from the American proposal which expressed a desire for limitation of the bomb only as part of a general plan of arms limitation.
The previous night, Nationalist counter-attacks in China were repulsed by 3,000 Communist troops at Wanchuang, 20 miles south of Peiping. The Communists were reported to be massing troops on the west bank of the Yellow River to fend off an anticipated attack on Yenan.
Philippine President Manuel Roxas disclosed that an agreement had been reached with the United States to establish bases in the islands for mutual defense. The Philippine Scouts, most of whom had been wiped out during the war, would be used primarily to man the bases. He assured that he would see to it that the Scouts could maintain their Philippine citizenship while joining the U.S. Army, a matter ordinarily prohibited by Philippine law.
Representative Lawrence H. Smith of Wisconsin labeled Elliott Roosevelt an "ambassador of ill will" and urged the State Department to revoke his passport, based on his statements which Mr. Smith viewed as openly courting Soviet favor while he visited Moscow. Mr. Roosevelt had stated that the Russians appeared to have a "consuming desire" for peace with the United States. Congressman John Rankin opposed an investigation of the matter by HUAC because it had its hands full investigating other matters, and suggested that as a member of the Army Reserve, Mr. Roosevelt could be court martialed for any offense against the country.
As expected with the end of price control, OPA head Paul Porter resigned, effective December 4, and the President accepted his resignation. Mr. Porter had succeeded Chester Bowles in the position the previous February. The Administration was considering consolidation of OPA with the Civilian Production Administration headed by John Small, who also had indicated a desire to return to the private sector.
It was also announced by the White House that control of sugar prices, one of the few price controls still in effect, might soon be eliminated.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that wholesale prices had risen 21.8 percent since June, the highest level in 26 years.
Wheat prices went down as much as 8 cents, to $2.01 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade, the sharpest decline since prior to the war. Wheat had been selling at $2.18 late the previous week. There appeared to be a general sell-off taking place. Other grains also declined in price.
In San Mateo, California, police were searching for a person firing tracer bullets at passing motorists.
Tom Fesperman of The News tells of shoppers crowding into stores to begin their Christmas shopping in Charlotte. It appeared to hearken one of the largest buying sprees in the city's history. It was being helped by reduced prices in many shops and stores.
Children stopped and pointed in windows at the toys.
On the editorial page, "A Confederation Rears Its Head" comments on the State of North Carolina having just issued a charter for an organization called "The Confederation of Enlisted Veterans", which had declared itself expressly opposed to the Klan and the Columbians and "any other un-Americans", but also stated its main purpose to be "to keep America white and free".
It had as a principle that no veteran would have to pay dues to work, that it would bar from its membership anyone who was a member of international organizations such as Kiwanis, Rotary, or Red Cross.
Press reaction had suggested caution with respect to the organization, as its goal included curtailment of the rights of minorities.
The Greensboro Daily News had suggested verse to the Confederation's leader:
Teach not thy parent's mother to extract
The embryo juices of the bird by suction.
The good old lady can that feat enact
Quite irrespective of thy kind instruction.
The piece thinks it fitting that the organization was off to such a poor public relations start.
"In the Role of Supplicant" comments on the prospect that the one-third Federal contribution to the North Carolina Medical Plan to build hospitals and a new medical school associated with the University would potentially be derailed under the Republican Congress.
The previous Congress had authorized the expenditure in support of building and improving community hospitals but had not funded it. The economy-minded Republicans might be hard put to do so, and even harder put by the fact that most of these community hospitals would wind up in the South, where medical care was most wanting, along with support from Republicans.
"Inflation Hits the Juke Boxes" reports that record prices were up 100 percent and the cost of the juke box itself had gone out of sight. It says that for a nickel, one could no longer fill the saloons with the strains of "Highway Sixty-Six".
Like Gonesville, daddy. That is Route 66
Money was likewise lost with hillbilly selections, such as
The price had risen to three records for a quarter across the nation to obtain the dance sensation sweep.
But there was no way to insert eight and one-third cents into the slot and so the casual coin-dropper would disappear, like Splitsville. The juke would be left to the devotees who did not like the sound of their own or anyone else's voice.
The piece recommends allowing dropping of a nickel to enjoy three minutes of silence as a boon to the man who had a hangover, hated Frank Sinatra, could not stand hillbillies, was trying to converse across the table, and exhibited love of classics.
Before long, it would not be necessary to fill the juke with any records. The titles on the front would inhibit enough anyone from purchasing anything but the sounds of silence.
A piece from the Charleston News & Courier, titled "Utopia Comes to Eureka", comments on the plans of Roger Babson to build a camouflaged college, to be called Utopia, near Eureka, Kansas. It would consist of farm houses and barns dotting the countryside, connected by underground passages and a bomb-proof underground vault to house records.
It posits that, as in the Dark Ages when accumulated knowledge was kept alive by monastic scholars living in caves and on hillsides, such a college might prove salutary in the event of World War III and the atom bomb.
It also believes it fitting that the records to be held in the vault would include business records and books on economics, for the art of America, it asserts, was to be found in its statistical abstracts, charts and graphs thusly preserved, more so than in its poetry, music, or paintings.
A table compiled by the editors shows relative spending for each of the fiscal years from June 30, 1938 through June 30, 1947, as appropriated by the North Carolina Legislature from the State's General Fund and the uses to which the spending was allocated. Another table below it provides for the same years the appropriation for education in the state and how it was allocated.
Drew Pearson addresses an open letter to John L. Lewis, in which he imparts a recent statement by a veteran that he did not resent the fact that he had to give up his career goal of becoming a mechanical engineer because of the Depression or that he had to go to war for four years, but he did resent the current strike conditions impairing his ability to construct a future.
Mr. Pearson reminds Mr. Lewis that his own son had gone to prep school, Princeton, and medical school. That was fine, but not everyone was so fortunate and many were wondering the same thing as the veteran. They believed in the social contract and that they were entitled to have a future after serving their country. A broken contract in that regard would do harm to the country.
When Mr. Lewis broke his contract with the Government, the Government had to break its commitment to send coal to France.
Strikes, depression, and broken contracts and promises had laid the foundation for Fascism in Italy before the coming to power of Mussolini in 1922.
The cost of living had risen for everyone, not just miners. He reminds Mr. Lewis that he had loudly called for an end to price controls, which had caused the cost of living to rise. It was all right for him and his mighty union, but not those with less concentrated political power to get what they wanted.
The people had a contract. "And there is no clause in their contract whereby one man has the right to topple the economy of their country like a juggler stopping in the middle of his act."
He signs the letter "Once Your Friend, Drew Pearson".
Marquis Childs comments on the CIO taking sides with John L. Lewis in his latest dispute with the Government regarding the May 29 contract and whether he could deem it void and order the UMW to strike against the Government.
The Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932 prevented an injunction against a strike. But the Smith-Connally Act of 1943 prevented a strike against the Government and provided for criminal penalties for anyone aiding such a strike. The Federal District Court's position was slightly in between, indicating that it was contempt of court to violate the temporary restraining order issued by the Court, regardless of jurisdiction to issue the order under Norris-La Guardia. The order had presumptive validity and the UMW and Mr. Lewis were bound to obey it until told otherwise by an appellate court.
The CIO had sided with Mr. Lewis, its enemy, only because they believed he would ultimately win when the case reached the Supreme Court. They wanted to be on the side of the winner. They premised this belief on the notion that the Court was liberal and pro-labor and disliked injunctions against strikes.
Mr. Childs suggests that playing in the background of any Supreme Court case on the coal strike would be the feud between Justices Black and Jackson based on Justice Jackson's letter of the previous spring objecting to Justice Black having participated in the Jewell Ridge Mining Company case of 1945 because of an attorney for the UMW having been a former law partner of Justice Black. That case had determined 5 to 4 for the UMW the issue of portal-to-portal pay for the time entering and exiting the mine by train. He quotes from Justice Jackson's opinion in the case, rebuking Justice Black for not recusing himself.
Another coal case might also divide the Court.
But reports had it that Mr. Lewis was considering settling the dispute directly with the operators, who had shown a willingness to discuss acceptance of the May 29 contract and also discuss reduction of hours for the same pay, as Mr. Lewis was seeking. Mr. Childs thinks that result likely.
Samuel Grafton reports of high prices curtailing shopping. Yet, consumers appeared to be waiting for the period between Christmas and New Year's. Drinking was off at New York City cocktail lounges by 20 percent, for example, but New Year's Eve reservations were at their highest level ever. A shoe seller had raised prices to keep pace with rising prices of materials, and his business had dropped 40 percent.
The party to follow would seem to those able to participate to be a continuing postwar boom, for awhile. But the partiers would be looking for Christmas Past in the bottom of the glass.
For a time during the postwar period, prices were maintained fairly steady and it was considered shameful to have what others did not. He hopes that the revelers of New Year's Eve would look back on that short-lived period with some wistfulness, as well as the period during the war when no one was left on the outside. The same neighbor who once walked the street in communion with his neighbor, to be on the lookout for enemy aircraft, now might steal his neighbor's shirt from him for a beefsteak.
"The last party of the boom is indeed a kind of farewell party, in clear memory of an old acquaintance, even though it may have been a strange, passing brief acquaintance; and tomorrow you will be alone. Perhaps in time to come we may be haunted by the hope of recapturing that old togetherness for our days of peace
And, today, unlike 50 years and two days ago, North Carolina could not transact a field goal in the closing seconds to beat Duke, losing 27 to 25 in Chapel Hill. Fifty years ago Thursday, as we have remarked before, we saw Max Chapman, with 33 seconds left to play, kick a 42-yard field goal that Thanksgiving Day for the 16 to 14 victory and an invitation to the Gator Bowl, the first bowl invitation for North Carolina since 1949 when they lost to Rice in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on New Year's Day. North Carolina finished its regular season in 1963 8-2, as Duke finished its regular season this year 10-2. On December 28, 1963, North Carolina would beat Air Force 35 to 0 in Jacksonville, Florida. The victory, however, was overshadowed in a tragic year by a tragic fire the following morning at the Roosevelt Hotel, killing 22 people and injuring others, many of whom had been fans attending the game.
Ah well, we said our little prayer that 28th day of November, 1963, before the field goal was kicked. We never got the chance this date because of an interception by Duke at mid-field with 13 seconds remaining and North Carolina moving the ball, in need of another 15 to 20 yards for the field goal attempt.
Yet, we recall that in 1962, the result between Duke and North Carolina in Chapel Hill had been the opposite, with Duke winning 16 to 14. So, next year in Durham...
At least the annual meeting has become competitive again, with Duke winning two years in succession for the first time since 1987 through 1989 when they won three in a row and four of five, including 1985. Since 1990, North Carolina had won 21 of 22 games until last year. Today's win was only the twelfth victory, with one tie, by Duke since 1962.
In 1946, North Carolina beat Duke on November 23, 22 to 7, and on this date, beat Virginia 49 to 14, to finish the regular season as Southern Conference champions and ninth in the nation, with a record of 8-1-1.
Last week, North Carolina pulverized, atomized, smashed, and decimated its opponent, with only three prior losses, 80 to 20.
The Spartans of the hardwoods did a little better last weekend, too. But they still have more to prove before we shall give them kudos. And they will have the opportunities to do so in short order, especially when they play the Spartans on Wednesday.
Framed Edition
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