The Charlotte News

Monday, November 24, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Representative J. Parnell Thomas, as part of the debate on House approval of the contempt citations against the Hollywood Ten, informed the House that HUAC had only begun its drive to push Communists out of the motion picture industry. He also declared that the Hollywood Ten, who had been cited for contempt four weeks earlier for refusing to answer whether they had ever been members of the Communist Party, were in fact Communists. He was cloaked, of course, with Congressional immunity from suit for slander.

At the U.N., Semen Tsarapkin of Russia charged before the Palestine committee that Britain was trying to prevent a solution to the Palestine problem.

Senator Arthur Vandenberg, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, urged the Senate to provide speedy approval of the 597 million-dollar emergency aid package for Austria, France, and Italy. He expressed regret that the President did not also ask for aid to Nationalist China and that the Chief Executive had coupled the aid request for Europe with proposals for inflation-control legislation. He urged that in a "live and let live" world, there was need for restoration of East-West trade relations and that the aid should not be viewed as economic competition with Russia unless Russia persisted in making it so appear.

Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, warned that the emergency aid program for Europe would result in a serious food shortage in the U.S. if the 1948 grain crops were poor. He stated that his committee would not write a blank check for the aid.

In London, the foreign ministers conference was set to convene the following day, for the final attempt to draft a treaty for Germany and Austria. Secretary of State Marshall had already declared that the U.S. would work to complete the German treaty, even without concurrence of Russia, despite the consequence being the inevitable split of Germany into Eastern and Western sections.

In Paris, new French Premier Robert Schuman was reported to have determined to pursue vigorous measures to halt the spread of strikes in the crippled country, after over a million workers had walked off the job. The Communist-led General Confederation of Labor was responsible for the strikes. Most of the railroads, all of the harbors, and most of the coal mines were shut down by the strikes. All grade schools in Paris were closed.

Oui, oui. Vive les Communistes.

In Ironton, O., the FBI had detained since Saturday fifty persons as part of a white-slave ring operating in three states, including West Virginia and Kentucky. Most of the persons were detained as material witnesses from an Ironton "call house district", known as "The Line" since before the turn of the century. Eleven were charged with violation of the White Slavery Act. An FBI agent stated that the "trick" to the raid was not getting into the houses, but finding evidence of interstate transportation of the women involved in the prostitution ring.

In Lenoir, N.C., the Caldwell County Grand Jury indicted former Hudson High School principal R. L. Fritz for obtaining money under false pretenses. Mr. Fritz, president of the North Carolina Education Association and advocate for higher teacher pay, had paid teachers at the school overtime from funds paid ostensibly to substitutes who then reimbursed the money to the school. At the time, schools across the country were hard-pressed to remain open for lack of staff based on low teacher salaries. Mr. Fritz stated that the reason for the maneuver was to keep the school operating. Mr. Fritz did not personally benefit from the payments, in excess of those authorized by law for teachers. The State Board of Education, however, was not interested in such trivialities when it stripped him of his teaching certificate and referred the matter to the Caldwell County prosecutor for presentation to the Grand Jury. Teachers, after all, were supposed to have taken a vow of poverty and Mr. Fritz had violated the letter of the law passed by the Legislature which so implied.

In Timberline Lodge, Ore., a skier was rescued from a position high on the mountain after he had broken his leg. He felt no pain, however, as he had no leg. It was prosthetic.

On the editorial page, "Harry Truman, Quarterback" analogizes to football the flexibility and deft stealth exhibited by the President since the previous January in dealing with the Republican Congress, characterizing it as the same ability which FDR had possessed. While not as adept as the latter, President Truman had shown that the Republicans had underestimated him.

An example was the lead-up to the call of the special session. The President had routinely stated that he hoped not to have to call it, but finally had caved in just three weeks before the time set to convene, on November 17. It had left the Republicans little time in which to protest or lay plans to bog down the session. He had also concealed until the last minute his announcement urging wage and price controls, having stated a month earlier that such controls were emblematic of a police state.

The critics who complained about the tactics as campaign politics forgot that a minority President had to use finesse and that trying to be bi-partisan with such a reactionary majority could devolve quickly into "do-nothingness".

The President, while going left and right, back and forth during the year, was in fact steering the country right up the middle, or as near to it as could be practically accomplished with the Republican Congress.

"World's Hope in ITO at Havana" tells of the 62-nation conference in Havana during the week, seeking to set up an International Trade Organization. As they represented 90 percent of world trade, if the nations could agree, then it would be a long step forward in establishing economic order in the world. And if it were later approved by the governments involved, it would aid immeasurably in preventing war.

America was deserving of the principal credit for hope of such at the conference. The U.S. had begun this approach in 1934 when FDR and Secretary of State Hull pushed for and obtained from the Congress the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act. The Act was then later renewed to allow for continual lowering of trade barriers by reducing tariffs. The country had reduced its tariffs by a third under the Act. During 1947, imports were at eight billion dollars while exports were at 19 billion, as free trade had been re-established by the Truman Administration.

Much progress had been made since the isolationist trade policy and cut-throat international rivalries characterizing trade during the Depression years.

The Republicans and sympathetic Democrats were coalescing around a program of higher tariffs, trying to prevent renewal of the Act when it expired at the end of the fiscal year. That prospect would be enhanced were the GOP to win the 1948 election.

"Communist Strategy in Europe" tells of the Communists in France following a strategy which they had followed in Germany during the early 1930's during the rise of Hitler, leading to the war. They had assumed in the latter case that following a short-lived experiment in Nazism, the Germans would turn to Communism. Thus, the Communists worked alongside the Nazis to eliminate the Social Democrats and other moderate forces.

In France and Italy, the Communists were likewise driving the Socialist coalition governments toward the extreme right by causing industrial paralysis with nationwide strikes. The resulting public disorder led to use of strong-arm tactics by the governments. Both countries were on the verge of chaos and revolution.

The fact that the Gaullists had won majorities in France in the municipal elections, leading to the return of General De Gaulle to the fore of French politics, fit with the Communist plan, as General De Gaulle brought dictatorial and reactionary tendencies to the government.

The Communists wanted General De Gaulle as President, for the same reason they assisted the Nazis in getting rid of moderates. If he were to return to power, the Communists would intensify their efforts to precipitate strikes. That, they believed, would require in response strong-arm tactics by the Government, thus paving the way for the Communists to fill the breach in the popular will.

The editorial posits that the survival of the moderate Socialist forces in the two countries was requisite for peace and economic restoration.

A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "Accent on Worth", informs of a report by the National Industrial Conference Board that management and labor were cooperating on advanced age policy in the work force. No longer, as during the Depression and earlier, was a premium placed on being under 40. Employers were accommodating their jobs to older workers. The accumulated skill and steadiness of older employees, according to prevailing contemporary wisdom, offset the comparative greater strength, speed, and stamina demonstrated typically by younger workers.

The piece hopes that these lessons would continue, even through tougher economic times.

Charles W. Duke, in an article from Editor & Publisher, tells of the Freedom Train carrying the country's most precious documents for the eyes of the nation to view up close. The train had begun in Philadelphia on September 17, the 160th anniversary of the passing of the Constitution and sending it to the states for ratification. The idea for the train had been conceptualized in 1946 by Attorney General Tom Clark as a means to educate the country better on its history. The entire train, except the documents themselves, was fireproof. The documents were placed inside moisture-proof, shatterproof, and fire resistant envelopes, then encased in shatter-proof glass. Security was provided by 36 Marines. The train would operate 362 days of the year, making its runs by night.

He lists the various individuals and companies responsible for promotion of the train as it made its way across the country.

Drew Pearson tells of the House and Senate foreign relations committees having come to different positions on the emergency aid program for France, Italy, and Austria. The House wanted to tie it to the summer aid bill for Europe, as an amendment. The Senate committee wanted to start anew with a fresh bill, as the emergency aid was inexorably bound up with the full Marshall Plan. Senate Democratic leaders were also opposed to establishing an eight-man committee to administer the aid, as favored by the House, wanted instead authority retained by the State Department.

The President was pushing for the private sector to make generous contributions to the aid program through corporations and relief organizations such as the Overseas Aid program, the chairman of which the President had recently met with and discussed the aid program. Both agreed that such a private aid program provided opportunity for the U.S. to show what it could do for the world, compared to the relatively meager effort by Russia. The President found the Overseas Aid program and the Red Cross to be the only private relief agencies worthy of his endorsement.

Secretary of State Marshall agreed with film censor Eric Johnston, head of the M.P.A.A., that American films were doing a good job in countering Soviet propaganda, contrary to the position taken by HUAC in its investigation of Hollywood during the latter half of October. Secretary Marshall recently had told Mr. Johnston and Sam Goldwyn of MGM that one evening when he had been envoy to China in 1946, he had dinner with Chou En-Lai, the number two man in Communist China. Afterwards, they watched the movie "State Fair", prompting Chou to inquire whether all such rural dwellers lived as the characters in the film. Secretary Marshall stated that it fairly depicted farm life in Ohio, about which Chou was plainly impressed.

Mr. Goldwyn, bored with talk of movies, told of having been present at the Hearst ranch in San Simeon, California, when Mr. Hearst was hosting President Calvin Coolidge. He asked Mr. Coolidge in what among the specified activities, walking, riding, swimming, and tennis, he wished to participate. The President, known for his terse statements, replied, "Sit."

Samuel Grafton tells further of his friend Harry, the veteran, now a credit manager in New York City. In the process of running an errand for his boss, he saw a movie house on the upper East Side with an old Hitchcock film showing, which he decided he would take the time to see.

As he looked at the posters outside the theater, someone he knew exited a next-door sandwich shop and greeted him by name. The man, Phil, was wearing the suit of an usher or ticket-taker.

As he greeted Phil, Harry slowly began to realize that he did not like him, that they had never gotten along during their Army days. Phil told of the job in the theater being the best he could find.

Harry remembered the weekend furlough which he was supposed to have received to visit Paris but of which he had not been able to partake. Phil had obtained his furlough to see Paris, had always been a finagler that way.

Meanwhile, Harry spent a miserable weekend after Phil departed. He had bought a twenty-dollar pair of binoculars which he did not need and spent the whole weekend admiring them. But they had not been as good as Paris would have.

When Phil asked him if he was going to see the show, Harry responded in the negative, that he had to get back to the office.

He caught the subway and surprised himself by laughing. He could make the short trip in fifteen minutes.

A piece reprinted from the Chapel Hill Weekly, titled "'Backward New York'", tells of the little-known influx of Puerto Ricans to New York causing problems. Since it was a U.S. territory, there was no restriction on immigration from Puerto Rico, and, in consequence, 400,000 had arrived in New York during the previous 12 years, causing stress on the city's health, education, and police functions.

It was being predicted in a report on the problem that the immigration would increase and double in the ensuing decade. People came, attracted by the illusion of plenty and believing that the Government would provide if they could not find adequate employment. Much of the distorted image derived from movies. The result was that on arrival, Puerto Ricans lived usually with relatives in overcrowded housing. Many were inadequately clothed and fed and had tropical diseases contracted before arrival.

The piece suggests that solution to the problems would not be easy, that a statesman such as the President ought declare the situation the Nation's No. 1 Economic Problem—just as FDR had in 1938 regarding the South, based on UNC sociologist Howard Odum's 1936 abstract, Southern Regions. At that point, it continues, missionaries from other states would flock to New York to advise the officials what to do about the situation. They would tell New York of its backward thinking and would present impressive reports and surveys. And, it concludes cynically, if they offered their advice with proper mien of superiority and patronizing tones, acting as if they knew whereof they spoke, then the problems would forthwith vanish.

Paul Gilbert provides extrapolated contextual definitions of various words. Example: "Heaven: The place where marriages are made, which explains why married people are always harping at each other."

Among the quotes of the day: "The man whom Little Rock police arrested at noonday strolling along downtown clad only in shirt and socks might have been trying to start a little-below-the-hip club."—Arkansas Gazette

"State Fair Commissioner says long skirts are a fire hazard. Most males don't think they're so hot."—Dallas Morning News


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