The Charlotte News

Thursday, December 11, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Jerusalem, Arabs and Jews continued to do battle after 153 lives had been lost during the previous 12 days since the decision by the U.N. to partition the land between Arab and Jewish states. The death toll throughout the Middle East had reached 269. The deaths of 20 Arabs and two Jews were reported this date in Jerusalem and Haifa. Five were killed and thirty injured in Haifa by a bomb tossed from a small truck at a Lebanese bus and a taxi on Kingsway Highway. Arabs occupied a synagogue in Jerusalem, stimulating the violence in that city. They were later driven out by Jews, and one Arab was reported killed and two Jews wounded in the incident. Four armed Arabs broke into a magistrate's court in Jaffa and took guns and ammunition, as well as other court exhibits.

Alex Singleton of the Associated Press reports that at the London foreign ministers conference, the United States demanded that Russia stop removing industrial equipment as reparations from Germany and sought an answer from V. M. Molotov on the issue. It was anticipated that the answer might come this date and that the fate of the conference would likely hinge on his response. Secretary of State Marshall the day before had said that Russia was removing 500 million dollars worth of assets from Germany per year while America and Britain were contributing 700 million in aid to Germany.

Britain and the U.S. were reported to have revised their economic unification agreement of the previous year to provide the U.S. with control over economic and financial policies.

Republican Majority Leader in the House, Charles Halleck, stated his approval for the proposed 590 million dollar emergency aid bill, but stated that the only reason it was needed was because of the mismanagement by the Administration of foreign affairs. Assistant Democratic Minority Leader John McCormack accused Mr. Halleck of making a political speech, better left to the campaign ahead. Representative Clarence Brown of Ohio accused Mr. McCormack of indulging in inappropriate personal attacks. Congressman Pete Jarman of Alabama accused Mr. Brown of delaying the bill with political discussion by "Tweedledee and Tweedledum".

The House Banking Committee pushed aside the President's proposed ten-point program for controlling inflation, substituting its own. The chairman, Jesse Wolcott of Michigan, stated that if the President did not want the House version, he would not need to take it. The President criticized the Republican plan for voluntary price controls and relaxation of anti-trust laws to permit it. He assured that as long he was President, there would be no relaxation of the anti-trust provisions. Senator Taft suggested that the President did not fully understand the GOP program.

If so, he was not in the minority.

In Rome, armed forces of the country had been mobilized to keep order in the first general strike since 1922, prior to the start of Fascism. The Chamber of Labor which called the strike estimated that a half million people were thus far participating.

The last American troops were scheduled to depart Leghorn, Italy, on December 14, in compliance with treaty conditions that all Allied occupation troops vacate within 90 days of ratification of the treaty with Italy. The troops would be able thus to get home for Christmas.

The House Appropriations subcommittee issued a report stating that a condition which included criminality existed in the Boston office of the IRB. The report was based on an investigation conducted by Robert E. Lee, chief of the committee's investigative staff.

The ATC reported that six had survived the crash the day before near Goose Bay, Labrador, of the Army transport plane carrying 29 persons.

A photograph appears of an airstrip on Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific, on which the U.S. Governmment was building a remote atomic test facility out of concern that an atomic accident in the Western United States could destroy hundreds of square miles of territory.

It was, incidentally, over Eniwetok that syndicated columnist Raymond Clapper had died during observation of a bombing raid on February 2, 1944, when two American planes collided.

In New Braunfels, Texas, two passenger trains collided head-on and caught fire, killing two trainmen and injuring nine others, with two of the crew missing.

The Leading Embroidery Co. announced purchase of two former War Assets Administration warehouses in Charlotte for the purpose of establishing a manufacturing facility for embroidered goods.

Senator Clyde Hoey of Shelby turned 70 this date.

The senior class of the Central High School in Rutherford, N.C., would present a three-act comedy, titled "We Shook the Family Tree", the following evening at 8:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium, in case you've an interest in attending.

On the editorial page, "Too Much and Too Late for America?" tells of an Associated Press dispatch reporting that Republicans found the Administration's inflation control measures to be "too much and too late". The piece suggests that the President might make use of the phrase during the coming campaign to describe the Republicans.

It had become a practice of the Truman Administration to procrastinate in seeking needed measures and then have to grit teeth when asking ultimately for them.

Despite the leadership in the Senate by Arthur Vandenberg regarding emergency aid and its necessity, the Congress was nearing the end of the special session with the "too much and too late" mentality firmly still intact. Little had been done to stem inflation, an enemy to the aid program.

The world was looking for a united America to respond to the world crisis, while the opportunity to do so was increasingly slipping away.

"Problem in Oil and Gas" tells of oil executives informing Congress that there was plenty of oil and gas available but not enough transportation to move it. But that was only part of the story as consumer demand was substantially increased along with production, and foreign demand was also growing.

There were 37.2 million motor vehicles in service, one for every four Americans, three million above the previous all-time high reached in 1941. Railroads had increased the use of oil for diesel engines by 300 percent during the previous three years and their demand for other oil had doubled. There had been, following the coal strike of 1946, a rush to convert heating fuel from coal to oil.

Conservationists were calling for increased imports of oil, which accounted for 400,000 barrels per day of the 5.2 million being produced.

All of it, opines the piece, demanded planning and export and allocation controls. Shortages were interrelated and they became more intricate as the country hesitated to meet the emergency in Europe with emergency action in the domestic economy.

"A Gold Medal for Brotherhood" applauds the selection of deputy U.S. delegate to the U.N. Herschel Johnson of Charlotte for receipt of the annual Carolina Israelite Gold Medal award for his contribution to fostering of brotherhood during the year. Previous recipients included former Governor J. Melville Broughton, former Ambassador to Mexico and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, and UNC president Frank Porter Graham. A statewide committee made the selection, sponsored by the Carolina Israelite of Harry Golden. Mr. Johnson had been a guiding force in the passage of partition of Palestine and that alone justified the award. He also generally had been an ambassador for world peace and humanitarian interests. The award would be formally presented at the end of February during Brotherhood Week.

A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "Christmas Treat", tells of Britons receiving from their Government an extra ration of ten cents' worth of meat, a pound and a half of sugar, and four ounces of chocolate, causing excited public reaction.

But despite the severity of the hardship to Britons, the newspapers had commended the U.S. for its efforts to tighten its belt, and stressed the needs of the people of the Continent. The piece thinks that such integrity deserved a sugar plum for Christmas.

Drew Pearson tells of the Truman Cabinet debating important questions, unlike the reputation ascribed to the Roosevelt Cabinet. Presidential adviser Clark Clifford and Leon Keyserling of the Council of Economic Advisers favored the proposed controls offered by the President while Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson and Secretary of Commerce Averell Harriman opposed them. After the speech to Congress was prepared, primarily by Mr. Clifford, the Cabinet went over it carefully, with Mr. Anderson and Mr. Harriman suggesting several changes. Mr. Harriman especially wanted the proposal for control of steel prices removed, as he believed he could encourage voluntary control by the industry.

Finally, it was determined that if the President acceded to the requests to remove price controls from his proposals, he would be accused of going along with Senator Taft, and that ended the debate as the President insisted on keeping them in the speech.

The President had asked the Council of Economic Advisers to conduct studies of long-range prospects for continued prosperity, expansion of social security, and a program to stabilize wages and prices to guarantee continued production in agriculture.

Marquis Childs, in New Orleans, tells of voluntary rationing of fuel oil and gasoline to be tried first, with some companies in Southern states already rationing customers. There was a tremendous amount of waste in overheating of hotels, trains, railways stations and public buildings, with the thermostat ordinarily set between 75 and 80 degrees. Doctors agreed that overheating was more conducive to colds and sinus infections than underheating. He thus advocates a program for hotels, retail stores, schools, public buildings, and trains to agree to reduce the temperature.

The British Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan, a former coal miner, told Mr. Childs during a previous visit in London that had America not converted its heating and industry to oil, there would be a coal shortage and serious labor problem in the American mines, as in Britain. But instead, there was an oil problem, with world-wide implications. And, the foreign policy considerations vis-á-vis the Middle East confirmed this assertion by Mr. Bevan.

In recent months, it had been reported that the Air Force and Navy were unable to obtain enough high-octane fuel for routine training exercises because of the glut of consumer demand for oil. There was a question as to whether gasoline rationing would work in peacetime, suggesting that fuel oil would be more easily rationed.

He urges as an initial measure that the temperature in all Federal courthouses and post offices be reduced three to four degrees.

But would not that mean you would be letting premeditated murderers and all burglars go scot-free? Not to mention cold kissing. Maybe only one degree.

Samuel Grafton tells of the National Association of Manufacturers advertising that inflation was produced when the flow of money into the marketplace exceeded the flow of goods, simple enough. But its proposals for solution included substantial individual tax reduction, which would only increase the flow of money into the marketplace. Usually, tax reduction was proposed to cure deflation, not the opposite.

Senator Taft had suggested that rationing of meat without price controls might become necessary by the spring, and that the rationing be accomplished by allowing customers to spend only so much on meat each week. But that resembled the present de facto system. Without price control, such a program would not work to assure consumers meat.

Congress had a plan for wheat, whereby the Government would purchase up to 250 million bushels until the next harvest, to provide a visible supply to hold down prices. That proposal, however, would create artificial scarcity of wheat at a time when the world needed it the most. And it had been suggested that the surplus grain would be used as animal feed instead of being shipped abroad.

All of these approaches were offered by the opponents of control.

A letter from the secretary of the Charlotte Central Labor Union tells of the North Carolina Baptist Convention having in November at its meeting passed a resolution to prevent Baptist participation in mediation between business and labor. He finds the resolution to be restrictive of religious life in the state.

A letter from failed Republican Congressional candidate P. C. Burkholder informs that he intended to run again in 1948. He had worked on his farm and believed it good to have those in Congress who had "the smell of the cow in their clothes and the brand of the barn on their shoes."

Of course, it might be better to realize Shinola when you see it, Mr. Burkholder.

He says that a farmer at least had hound dog sense and could catch Mr. Rabbit, feels that the State Department ought utilize this sense to catch Mr. Molotov in his chicanery.

A letter from the business manager of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of Local 1469 responds to the letter recommending that the City Council forthwith implement the delayed pre-war zoning ordinance, to eliminate sub-standard housing. After hearings, the Council had continued the moratorium on the enforcement of the ordinance for continuing want of sufficient building materials. He says that the materials to make the necessary improvements were available and that the union would supply all necessary labor for the task.

A letter corrects a caption to a picture in The News of November 29, identifying a four-masted "schooner" as the object of a boy's admiration, when in fact, he relates, it had been a rare square-rigger, not a schooner.

Are you certain?

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