The Charlotte News

Thursday, October 2, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Bulgaria accused the U.S. before the political committee of the General Assembly of using the Balkan disturbance as an excuse to transform Greece into an armed camp of the United States. The U.S. had just given full diplomatic recognition to the Communist-dominated Government of Bulgaria while joining Britain in a successful effort to bar Bulgaria from U.N. membership.

The previous night, Russia had vetoed membership for Italy, a move which observers predicted would work to the advantage of the present non-Communist Government in Italy. The application for membership had been supported by seven members of the Security Council, including Britain and the U.S.

Secretary of Commerce Averell Harriman warned Americans that rationing and price controls were not yet out of the picture if the program of voluntary cutbacks in food consumption, as urged by the President, were not followed.

The Population Reference Bureau stated that if Europe’s population continued to rise at its current rate, then the food shortage might become a permanent issue.

Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts sought deportation of all Russian agents in the U.S. and confinement of Soviet Embassy personnel to their area of official business. The proposal was in the wake of Moscow abruptly and without explanation having refused entry to the Soviet Union of twelve Senators and the Assistant Secretary of State John Peurifoy.

Senator Robert Taft completed his Western tour to test his viability as a presidential candidate by speaking at Casper, Wyo., against universal military training and in favor of expansion of the National Guard as an alternative. He recommended a bipartisan approach to foreign policy but also stated that the Administration had, since FDR had come to office, not followed a program to maintain the peace by refraining from use of force except under conditions where the freedom of the country was threatened.

A young German woman, 21, had been discovered stowed away in an airplane at Frankfurt, Germany, trying to get to New York. The discovery had probably saved her life as the box in which she had secreted herself would have been placed in an unheated part of the plane where she would have frozen to death. She was discovered when handlers found the box warmer than other boxes they were loading. An American soldier had brought the box, measuring a mere 30 by 21 by 24 inches, to the airport as a favor.

Near Hattiesburg, Miss., a bus of the Southern Bus Lines Co., whose former drivers were on strike, had been fired on from a wooded area alongside the road in a renewal of violence against the company’s buses, despite warnings by Governor Fielding Wright that such violence would result in deployment of the National Guard to ride the buses, with standing orders that they could shoot to kill. A bullet pierced the back of the bus but no one was injured. The bus was the first since the beginning of the strike to renew passenger service between Jackson and Hattiesburg.

Near Shreveport, La., another bus was fired upon the previous night by an unknown assailant using a shotgun, wounding the driver.

Bread had gone up a penny in some sections of the country, signaling a general increase in price.

In Hastings, Neb., a coyote entered a farmer’s chicken pens and had dinner, then could not effect escape through the hole by which it had entered. The next morning, a police officer shot the animal.

Emery Wister of The News reports that actress Anne Jeffreys, originally of Goldsboro, would take part in the Christmas Parade to be held November 12. Don’t miss it. They expect a hundred thousand people to show up.

Ms. Jeffreys, he reports, was working toward a career with the Metropolitan Opera, for which her role in the operetta “Street Scene” in New York was a first step. She had played opposite Charlotte native Randolph Scott in "Trail Street" and again in "Return of the Bad Men", just completed. Her latest film was "Riff-Raff" with George Raft.

Furman Bisher, on the sports page, concludes that the primary difference between the major leagues and minor leagues in baseball was that the majors had more subways at their disposal.

The Brooklyn Dodgers led game three of the World Series at Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn by a score of 6 to 0. Bobo Newsom pitched for the New York Yankees and Joe Hatten threw the rosin for the Dodgers. The Dodgers would go on to win the game 9 to 8, making the Series two games to one in favor of the Yankees.

Bob Jones University opened at Greenville, S.C., as reported in a story by Burke Davis on page 8-A. You won't wish to miss that one.

It was doubtful that the Democratic argument that high taxes provided a contingency fund for foreign aid would be received well, given the amount of foreign aid already being disbursed.

That a tax cut would impair defense was an argument which had validity but, together with the aid program, it was obvious something had to be reduced. It suggests that the primary area for reduction would inevitably be in Government employees and services.

The Republicans, it finds, had the Democrats on the spot for 1948 on this issue.

Mr. Scott had opposed the Program from its inception when bandleader Kay Kyser had toured the state to raise money and public approval of it. Clarence Poe, publisher of The Progressive Farmer, disagreed with Mr. Scott on the matter.

The piece concludes that Mr. Scott’s criticism had come too late and that the time was ripe for getting on with improvement of the state’s health facilities, especially in rural areas, and training new doctors.

He had eliminated soap operas from the company’s advertising, opting instead to advertise on Bob Hope’s show, in newspapers, and on a family drama, “Fighting Senator”. He did not believe the typical regimen of soap opera subjects to be fit for American listeners. He had impressed Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson after the war by volunteering to do a survey of fats available in the world, a major concern after the war, a study which he undertook at his own expense. When he became head of Lever Brothers in America, he eliminated the big soap company rotation as head of the soap association, opting to step aside when it was his turn in the three company rotation with Procter & Gamble and Colgate, allowing the small soap companies to put their person in the presidency. The move had for the first time in years brought amicable relations between the small and large soap companies.

Mr. Luckman did not kowtow to labor but had their active support.

The choice would depend to a great degree on what the Soviets chose to do. Forces from the past worked to the advantage of the U.S., with numerous Greek emigrants having gone to America at the turn of the century, immigrants who had sent back large sums to families in Greece, working to balance the precarious economic situation before the war. American educators and health specialists had spent years and millions of dollars in voluntary efforts to raise the standards in Greece and throughout the Near East.

An unfortunate consequence of the aid program was to cause Americans to believe that the need for such volunteerism had been supplanted. It was to be hoped that the organizations which had been established in Greece would not die, as they had become reservoirs of good will toward America.

He goes on to describe the future under such a scenario wherein both the U.S. and Russia would be laid to waste.

He criticizes the plan of Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson to reduce exports of grain from 15 million tons to 12 million tons in the coming year. One thing could lead to another until Europe was devastated, leaving the U.S. a “continental island” in the midst of a Soviet-dominated world. The result would be a devastating war in which both the U.S. and Russia would be destroyed.

Amber waves would turn to crimson tide.

The quote is actually "marble-hearted", but the sentiment is the same.

Framed Edition

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