The Charlotte News
Friday, September 27, 1946
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the San Antonio River overflowed causing at least ten deaths and millions in property damage in San Antonio. Scores were rescued from rooftops and others from the raging river. Water was at two to six feet in some business streets and as much as 25 feet in other areas. The water followed a storm late the previous night.
The flood was the worst for the area since September 10, 1921 when 49 perished in a flood which caused 7.5 million dollars in property damage and flooded buildings to the second floor during the night in a matter of minutes.
In Pittsburgh, the strike at Duquesne Light Co. continued, as well the trolley car strike to avoid threats to operators. Bus drivers also refused to cross the picket lines.
The Army ordered a reduction of three million pounds per week in its normal allotment of meat to alleviate some of the shortage. A twelve percent reduction in meat served troops would follow.
DNC chairman Robert Hannegan stated that after a meeting with the President, it was determined that, despite urging by Congressional Democrats to end price controls on meat, they would not be removed.
Ovid Martin reports that cattlemen of the West and Midwest contended that they alone held the key to continued livestock production. They were the only farmers with significant numbers of livestock ready for slaughter.
Well, head 'em up then and move them out and stop jabberwockying about the business. Look here, we have hungry meat eaters to feed, busters. We could come out there in the middle of the night and do some cattle rustling.
King George II returned to Greece, prepared to resume his throne from which he had been exiled since 1941.
In Frankfurt, Germany, the defense rested in the trial of former WAC Captain Kathleen Nash Durant, accused of participating with her husband in the heist of 1.5 million dollars worth of Hesse family jewels from Kronberg Castle. Ms. Durant did not testify.
Secretary of State Byrnes stated at Paris that he was now optimistic that the Peace Conference could conclude the five treaties before it by October 15.
Russel Brines reports that General Douglas MacArthur spoke for the first time on the beginning of the war in Manila on December 7, 1941, December 8, Manila time. He said that the air forces never had a chance as they were badly outnumbered and outmoded. He responded specifically to charges by Lt. General Lewis Brereton, commander of the Philippine Air Force in 1941, in his book, The Brereton Diaries, in which he had said that he had requested permission to launch an air assault on Formosa, the origin of the Japanese attack force. But the permission was withheld until after the B-17's at Clark Field north of Manila had been destroyed. General MacArthur countered that such an attack would not have been possible before the B-17's were destroyed as there was too little time.
Mr. Brines, who was present in Manila at the time, says that the reporters were informed of the attack on the planes as they sat on the ground, after the planes had returned from a flight and were refueling.
Harold Ickes discusses the firing of Henry Wallace and the President's failure to stand by him after giving him approval for his Madison Square Garden speech of September 12, plainly conflicting with the policy enunciated toward Russia by Secretary of State Byrnes on September 6 in Stuttgart. Mr. Ickes thinks that Mr. Wallace should have foreseen what would happen even with the President's approval, and should have resigned before making the speech.
He compares it to the episode involving his own forced resignation as Secretary of Interior in February, following his testimony before the Senate in the confirmation hearings of Ed Pauley to be Undersecretary of the Navy. Mr. Ickes indicates that, following the President's advice, he told the truth about Mr. Pauley, that as treasurer of the DNC, he had offered to raise $300,000 from oil interests if Mr. Ickes would go along with dropping the Federal claim on tidal oil lands and leave them to the states to lease to oil companies for royalties, a move which would have also been conducive to the economic interests of Mr. Pauley with large tidal land holdings in California. Mr. Ickes felt that he was hung out to dry by the President for having related the truth, just as Mr. Wallace was, following the President's advice.
In New York, a 27-year old young man, son of an American Tobacco Co. executive, jumped from the 76th floor of the Empire State Building to his death, landing on 33rd Street. The man, who had served in the Marine Air Corps and had been discharged February 15, 1943, suffered from battle fatigue. He worked on the 76th floor for an advertising agency.
In Washington, UMW leader John L. Lewis underwent emergency surgery for appendicitis, was said to be recovering well.
The B-29 Pacusan Dreamboat, set to fly from Honolulu to Cairo in 43 hours non-stop, was again postponed for weather. Sorry. Rain check. It is set to try again in 24 hours. Everybody back in the queue.
The following day, six states and portions of nineteen others would end Daylight Savings Time at 2:00 a.m. If you live there, remember to set your clocks back an hour. Twenty-three states were not on Daylight Savings Time. We leave it to you to find out if you are affected by the change.
On page 14-A, the AP's Harold Claassen picks UNC, Duke, and Wake Forest to win their opening football contests the following day. See how accurate his predictions are tomorrow.
On the editorial page, "There'll Be Some Changes Made" comments on the visible cleavage in the Democratic Party during the Wallace controversy, even if the left-wing had not drifted away from the main body.
Jane Russell was bound to be in there somewhere.
But the conservative elements were now in full control. While the people appeared to want such a change, therefore proper, the manner in which it was being accomplished prompted concern.
A change of the Congress to Republican control would only assure government by coalition for another two years. Much of the New Deal would likely be dismantled and the remaining war controls abandoned. But neither party would be strictly accountable for these actions.
It hoped that the conservatives who would now lead would remember that the word derived from "conserve".
And liberal shares its root with "liberty", but we have yet to promote a Statue of Conservatism
"The Library Deserves a Break" tells of the annual report by the Charlotte Public Library, stating that it had rendered $105,000 worth of services for an investment of $70,000 in taxes. It provides a number of statistics on the library and states that it had scored only 55 out of 100 points in the American Library Survey. The minimum national standard was 75.
It needed more money and the hope was that the law would be changed to permit a vote on the basis of a true majority rather than a majority of the registered voters, on which the previous election in the spring had depended, the bond measure having passed by a majority of voters, but not a majority of those registered.
"The Symphony Society's Campaign" remarks on the effort of the Charlotte Symphony to raise a mere $12,000 and, because of its relatively small amount, the possibility looming that it might be overlooked. The Symphony was seeking 2,000 members to pay $6 each for season tickets.
The Symphony, composed of amateur musicians, had delighted its middlebrow audiences with experimental performances which would likely not meet with the approval of Arturo Toscanini
Drew Pearson comments that neither the President nor Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder had sought to bring the Securities and Exchange Commission back to Washington from Philadelphia, where it was considered capable of doing less harm to business.
He then analyzes the recent stock market decline, citing four primary reasons for it.
John L. Lewis was comparing himself to Napoleon, saying that his victories for the miners and his planning of the AFL seamen's strike had been in the works for months before realizing success and so were not so astounding, just as Napoleon's victories had not been.
The Army was blocking transmission of American propaganda broadcasts from Germany to Russia. Lt. Gen. Lucius Clay, commander of the military government in the American zone, was the primary objector, believing it was contrary to the Potsdam Agreement unless the Russians could censor the programs. The State Department contended that the Russians had violated many agreements in their conduct of affairs in Germany, and the Department was trying to overrule General Clay.
Marquis Childs tells of Sweden's Prime Minister for fourteen years, Per Albin Hansson, an humble, yet strong leader. He believed that good luck had saved Sweden from being involved in the war.
The trade agreement which was in the process of being concluded with Russia would mean that 10 to 15 percent of Swedish export trade would go to Russia, about half that of the export trade with Great Britain, also based on large credits. Nor would it interfere with the multilateral trade sought by the United States, as clauses would be inserted to provide conformity with such a trade association.
Critics believed Russia would seek to use the trade agreement to promote the collapse of what remained of capitalism in the world.
The Prime Minister believed that the United States was too concerned about Russia and that fear might produce the very problem being feared. No one in Sweden thought Russia wanted war. But they also believed the firm stance taken by the United States was the best policy with respect to Russia, even if it was attendant with risk of world conflagration.
Samuel Grafton tells of the surprise contained within the Stalin speech expressing desire for cooperation in peace, and democratization and demilitarization of Germany. Whether Stalin was encouraging the advice of Henry Wallace to be gentler with Russia or responding to the get-tough policy of Secretary Byrnes was a matter for debate.
Mr. Grafton reminds that on September 19, he had suggested that the Wallace speech might prompt a reorientation of Soviet policy.
At the same time, if no danger of war existed, as Prime Minister Stalin had stated, then there had been no need for Mr. Wallace to make the speech and lose his job. But it also undermined the doomsayers who were hot to predict war with Russia.
Another way to view the speech was that it was creating propagandistic ground on which to contend that capitalism would be responsible for any war which would ensue. Stalin had stated in February that war was inevitable in a capitalist world.
If the statement was a challenge, then how America responded would be critical. The country needed to show that it wanted peace as much as did Russia, so that official statements by America would be remembered as much as those by Stalin. Some of the country's present statements would make "poor remembering in time to come."
Felix Belair, Jr., of The New York Times, writes of Col. Robert McCormick, isolationist publisher of The Chicago Tribune, now head of the Illinois Republican Party, regarding his views of the 1948 election. His mission was to save the country from both British imperialism and Russian Communism. The Democrats were the party of Russian-loving Communists. The Eastern wing of the Republicans was controlled by the international bankers of New York, determined to perpetuate British imperialism.
He favored Senator Robert Taft of Ohio or former Ohio Governor John W. Bricker for the Republican nomination. He left room for support of California Governor Earl Warren, but had not yet met him.
He would have no truck with former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen or New York Governor Thomas Dewey, the 1944 nominee, considered both not to be Republicans. He believed that Mr. Dewey was put up by the international bankers, as had been the late Wendell Willkie in 1940. He claimed that he had been responsible for the 1944 defeat of Mr. Willkie in the Wisconsin primary by Governor Dewey, forcing Mr. Willkie from the race.
Secretary Byrnes had lined up American foreign policy with Great Britain. Mr. McCormick could not explain, however, why there was a pro-British policy in a pro-Russian Administration, as he inevitably contended.
He insisted that Communism had gotten nowhere in the Midwest, that Marshall Field had sought to start a newspaper devoted to the spread of Communism but was losing two million dollars per year trying.
Col. McCormick believed Easterners could not see beyond Ohio. He thought the Eastern Republicans would try to put up a renegade Westerner for the nomination in 1948, as they had succeeded twice in succession in doing. But they would not have his support or that of the Illinois delegation were they to try it again.
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