The Charlotte News

Wednesday, December 24, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Palestine, a Jew and two Arabs were killed this date and four Arabs and three Jews were wounded, bringing the total since the November 29 approval of partition by the U.N. to 310 dead in Palestine and 431 throughout the Middle East.

Gunfire was heard in Jerusalem and scattered sniping took place in Haifa, broken up by Haganah, the Jewish Agency's military arm.

In Rome, Pope Pius XII called for a "league of honest men" to safeguard the world against war, blamed a "policy of insincerity" on the part of many nations for hindering the way to peace. He found Europe and the world further than ever from peace at the end of 1947. He named no specific countries in placing blame, but his remarks were interpreted as referencing the Communist-bloc nations.

President Truman pardoned 1,523 men who had been convicted of draft evasion during the war, inclusive of some who had claimed conscientious objector status. Those granted pardons were selected from a list of 15,805 men by an amnesty board, headed by former Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts. Most of those pardoned had completed their sentences but would be relieved of the civil disabilities of a felony conviction.

Amnesty already had been provided to 618 others who had served a year in the Army after sentencing. The board eschewed suggestions of a general amnesty as many of the 10,000 willful violators had prior criminal records while others were said by the board to have "ulterior motives". Many of the conscientious objectors, the board found, were motivated by fear or the desire to remain in highly paid positions.

The pardons were recommended to those who evaded the draft out of ignorance, illiteracy, honest misunderstanding or carelessness which did not imply criminal negligence.

If it sounds a bit like Catch-22...

The chairman of the Committee for Amnesty in New York called the President's action "picayune clemency". The Washington Pacifist Fellowship found it "a sorry substitute for the real act of justice he might have performed".

The amnesty board included Raleigh attorney Willis Smith, who would run a race-baiting campaign managed by Jesse Helms in 1950 to defeat interim Senator and UNC president Frank Porter Graham for the Senate seat. Mr. Smith would then die in 1953. Alton Lennon would be appointed his successor by Governor William B. Umstead, serving in 1947 as Senator after appointment a year earlier, succeeding deceased Josiah W. Bailey. Mr. Umstead would be defeated by former Governor Melville Broughton in 1948, after which Senator Broughton would die only two months into his Senate term, at which point Governor Kerr Scott, who would later defeat Senator Lennon to become Senator and, himself, die in office in 1958, appointed Dr. Graham. Governor Umstead would die in office in 1954, succeeded by Luther Hodges, who would later serve as President Kennedy's Secretary of Commerce.

The other Senator from North Carolina at the time in 1947 was Clyde Hoey of Shelby, who would also die in office in 1954 and be succeeded by Sam J. Ervin, appointed by Governor Umstead.

The only death in office of either a Governor or Senator from North Carolina since 1958 was Senator John East, who committed suicide in 1986. Former Governor Terry Sanford, president of Duke, out of political office for 22 years, would defeat his interim successor in the 1986 election.

The French National Assembly passed a measure to tax those making over the equivalent of $3,780 per year, to raise money for reconstruction of the French economy. The bill allowed for an alternative of purchase of the equivalent in Government bonds in lieu of the tax payment. The primary opposition was from the Gaullists on the right and the Communists on the left. The upper chamber would next consider the bill.

The U.S. began withdrawing 2,000 troops from thirteen bases in Panama, the country having refused, by vote, reportedly, of Panama Reds, to lease the bases to the U.S. The U.S. had authority to maintain the troops at the bases until all treaties from the war were concluded, but decided to evacuate early. The Army now had to defend the Canal Zone with its bases inside the the area. But the main airfield was too small to accommodate B-29's and the nearest large airbase was a thousand miles away, in Puerto Rico.

In Wilmington, N.C., the Coast Guard found no sign of life aboard a ghost ship which originally had five crew members, the steamer found stranded, after being under tow, five miles off the mouth of the Cape Fear River at Frying Pan Shoals. The Coast Guard was going to drop turkey dinners the following day in case any of the ghosts were hungry or needed to slake their thirsts with something other than the water everywhere.

In Charlotte the previous afternoon, the owner of an electric company accidentally drove his truck over the leg and arm of his two and a half year old daughter. She suffered fractures and abrasions but no serious injuries.

In Santa Claus, Ind., the American Legion proceeded to answer about 50,000 letters addressed to Santa Claus, per their usual habit. The letters were routinely re-routed to the town by the Post Office.

Senator William Langer of North Dakota had introduced a resolution providing for post office workers to handle the mail. But the American Legion post commander at Santa Claus said that such a transfer of duties would deny them the enjoyment they obtained from the task.

The President and the First Family celebrated their first Christmas at the White House, the prior two having been in Missouri, before the death of the President's 94-year old mother the previous summer. The President greeted in the Oval Office all of the employees of the White House, shaking their hands. He planned to address the nation at 5:15 p.m. with a Christmas message, following a ceremony in which he would light the Christmas tree on the South Lawn of the Executive Mansion. Some 15,000 persons were expected to attend the lighting ceremony.

If you intend to go, bundle up and leave early as parking may be limited.

Also, do not expect conflagration if that is your purpose in going to the ceremony. For they only used electric lights certified by Underwriters Laboratory.

The Empty Stocking Fund of The News had reached $7,241, $459 short of its goal. The newspaper thanks the many contributors to the drive.

The News did not publish on Christmas and so we shall see you on Friday. Have a merry one and consider the less fortunate than yourself as you proceed through the day of gift giving.

And don't shoot anyone. If you've a mind to do so, wait until Friday and maybe by then, you will have changed your mind. And we include everyone in that advice, no matter your occupation.

On the editorial page, "On Earth Peace, Good Will Toward Men" quotes from the Book of Luke in the Bible, chapter two, verses 1 through 14, telling of the reason for Joseph and Mary being in Bethlehem at the birth of the child Jesus, to be counted by Caesar Augustus for purposes of taxation.

"Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year" is a piece from Thomas L. Robinson, publisher of The News since the previous January, thanking the readers, the advertisers, and the employees of the newspaper, completing its 59th year in publication, for making it a success.

"Spirit That Will Save the World" suggests as Scrooges those who decried the Marshall Plan as another effort of America to play global Santa Claus to the tune of 17 billion dollars over four years. It reminds of the lesson of giving, that the giver was enriched, and that turning the other cheek was the law of salvation, something the naysayers seemed to forget.

There were many places in the world in 1947 not recognizing the Christmas spirit, where men still hated and fought one another. Perhaps at no other time, it finds, save during the world wars, had there been so much distress. But yet good was challenging the evil in the world.

America had generated grand generosity during the post-war period and the emergency aid bill just approved for France, Italy, and Austria was but another example, as well the Friendship Train out of the heartland.

"Little Virginia's Faith Survives" says bah humbug to the notion of psychologists that the Santa Claus myth should be discarded for children as they could not stand the disillusionment later on in life, at age 94 or so, when, inexorably, another myth replaced it.

Virginia, who had written the New York Sun a half century earlier inquiring of the existence of Santa and received the reply that Santa was real, had grown up and recently provided an interview to Hal Boyle, saying that she still believed in Santa.

It offers that children needed happiness in a world fraught with the difficulties of 1947. Virginia had informed that Santa Claus was the "spirit of giving".

Drew Pearson, in Paris, tells of the days of George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" being long gone, that the City of Light was now "cold and drawn". No one stirred in the streets after 10:00 p.m., for the bed at home was the only place they could stay warm. During the day, tired people trudged the streets in gray.

The "new look" of longer skirts did not affect the women of Paris as they had too much about which to be concerned otherwise. They were pressed to buy bread.

The franc was worth less than a quarter of its prewar value versus the dollar. Butter cost $5 per pound when available.

But despite the depressed conditions, the anti-Communists had been victorious in the recent nationwide strike involving two million workers. The political pendulum had swung hard to the right in response, but there was a danger that it might swing too far.

There was no coal in France as the British were not mining enough for export, and the Germans were using the Ruhr coal for themselves, per the State Department's policy encouraging Germany to rebuild itself. U.S. coal, thanks to John L. Lewis, was too expensive for the French to afford.

French newspapers were thin for want of newsprint. But the French read of the Friendship Train and its donation to them of food and supplies directly from the American people. Many of the beneficent U.S. cities and towns whose citizens had contributed to it had been named on the radio. The recipients were very appreciative of the gift. And the workers showed that appreciation by eagerly unloading the ship and transferring the goods to the French Friendship Train going from Le Havre to Paris. But the Gerbers baby food in one boxcar got stuck behind a broken drawbridge and could not be delivered in the first train. Smaller boxcars in France meant that it would take ten trains to deliver all of the food.

Trucks were allowed to course down the Champs Elysee for the first time during peacetime to deliver the food. The lead truck, which had been a gift from the Americans in 1939 and had gone through war service, bore a sign which read that it would take 2,000 more such truckloads to bring all of the food on the Friendship Train to the people of France.

Samuel Grafton says Merry Christmas to the chambermaid in a London hotel who had burst into tears when he gave her a can of boned chicken, then laundered his shirts. He offered her the next day a package of evaporated milk, but she declined, saying that he had done enough.

He also says the same to a German refugee who showed him the way to the American border while he was in Tia Juana. The German knew the road well.

He offers another Christmas salutation to those compliant with a wish which remains timely: to everybody who did not want to shoot anybody.

Also, to those who were concerned regarding preservation of liberties for those with whom they disagreed and did not like.

To the woman in Iowa who prayed every night for the angry.

To the Mexican baby, no bigger than a cricket, who walked about the sidewalk one cold midnight while his parents sold newspapers.

To all the unsnazzy and unsure people of the world.

To the girl in Prague who laughed and laughed at the notion that her country would not maintain its independence from Russia.

To the titled lady in a London restaurant who returned her Martini on the ground of it being a quarter inch short, and then gave it, when full, to an American traveler.

To the small boy in the square at Puebla reading Tom Sawyer in Spanish.

To a famous man he knew who refused to provide his name to the headwaiter when denied admission to the place and then ducked into a Third Avenue bar instead, because he could not stand to make the headwaiter cringe.

To all who were tall and to all who were short and to all in between, Mr. Grafton wishes a Merry Christmas.

Joseph Alsop tells of it being a Christmas when there was no peace on earth and precious little good will among men. The aggressive policies of the U.S.S.R. had brought the world into the "zone of war". Secretary of State Marshall, whom all could trust, had just imparted the news that it was of no use any longer to try to negotiate a settlement over Germany with the Russians.

The source of Soviet policy was the Politburo, fourteen men possessed with the powers to determine the fate of the country. They vied with one another for absolute power. None of them had been for very long outside the Soviet Union.

The mistake in assessing the Politburo was to assume that they were little different from Western leaders. A hint of the difference had come when Josef Stalin, during the war, had informed Eric Johnston, then head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the non-Soviet world, after the war, would enter a deep economic depression. That assumption was a primary impetus behind Soviet policy. It demonstrated that facts reached the Kremlin only after gross distortion during transmission. For anything which deviated from the party line was deemed subversive. Thus, the embassies provided information which they knew the party bosses wished to hear.

The charges which the Kremlin made of imperialistic aims by the U.S. in offering up the Marshall Plan were undoubtedly believed by the party chieftains for its confirmation down the line.

A piece by Victor C. King, from the Mecklenburg Times, relates of his interview with Santa Claus, telling of his history, that he had come from his native Holland about 300 years earlier, in the mid-1600's, landing in New Amsterdam after the Dutch had purchased the island from the Indians for $24. He was then known as "Son Klass", or at least so pronounced, more or less.

His father, he told Mr. King, was Bishop of the town of Myra in Asia Minor. To prevent three daughters of a poor man from committing a great sin for the fact of their not having gifts to present to the Church at the time of the feast of Christ, the Bishop had given three gifts to the father to lay beside his daughters' beds. And so the Bishop was the first to invent the custom of giving gifts to children at Christmas and the tradition was passed to son Santa.

The Russians were first to spread the custom and made the Bishop St. Nicholas. The Bishop's body was brought to Embre and buried beneath the church. St. Nicholas then became the patron saint of children.

Santa concluded that making children happy at Christmas was his business. He was in a bit of a rush and so had to be excused from the interview, as he had to load his sleigh. Then he waved good-bye and "disappeared in the haze over the house tops."

And he did not crash. For the eight tiny reindeer turned out not even to be necessary, with Rudolph leading the way.

That man in Charlotte selling Christmas trees, reported the previous day, had lied like a little dog.

A letter writer thinks that taxes should be lowered in anticipation of an inevitable economic downturn so that people will have more money when it would come.

Wethinks he may be thinking in terms of milli-microeconomics rather than macro.

A Quote of the Day: "Short skirts will be back in two years, predicts stylist—just about the time we've paid for the first long one." —Dallas Morning News

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