The Charlotte News

Wednesday, December 3, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Palestine, from Jaffa to Tel Aviv, violence continued in reaction to the U.N. vote Saturday approving partition. Machineguns, knives, grenades and fire were in evidence, with 35 thus far killed this date, based on unofficial estimates. Twelve of the dead were Jews and 15, Arab. Among the Jewish fatalities was Moshe Newman, a commander of Haganah, the underground organization tending toward non-violence. The previous day, also unofficially, fourteen had been killed and 38 wounded.

A round-the-clock curfew was imposed in the land between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. A curfew on the Arab quarters of Jerusalem was continued for an additional 24 hours. Thousands of Jews and Arabs were fleeing the troubled areas of Jerusalem.

A representative of the militant Irgun organization warned Arabs via radio that if the violence continued, retaliatory action would take place.

In Cairo, teachers at Al Azhar University were attempting to organize a holy war to drive the "wolves" from Palestine. Police in that city dispersed a crowd of students chanting anti-American and anti-British slogans before the two nations' respective embassies.

Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, stated that Jews needed arms to defend themselves against the Arab riots and threats.

Regent Emir Abdul Illah of Iraq stated to a crowd in Baghdad that he would personally lead volunteers in a fight in Palestine to prevent partition.

In Beirut, Lebanon, demonstrators attacked a French school.

In Aden in Yemen, a British protectorate, one person was killed and 20 wounded in riots started by Arabs during a three-day strike in sympathy with the Arabs of Palestine.

Muhammad and Jesus and Abraham all would likely have been very pleased with the exhibition of brotherhood.

Premier Jamil Mardam Bey of Syria personally visited the American Legation in Damascus and apologized for the attack on the edifice on Sunday, an attack which included ripping down the American flag. A new flag was hoisted.

Former U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie stated that the U.N. would maintain its distance from the conflict in the Middle East. He announced the appointment of Ralph Bunche, formerly of the State Department, as the American representative on the five-nation commission to supervise the partition.

The Administration promised to submit two bills to Congress, one on rationing and allocation and the other on wage and price controls, to meet that among the anti-inflation measures which had been quickly defeated in committee. Senator Robert Taft, heavily criticized by some Republican colleagues for his immediate critical reaction to the President's initial call for the wage-price controls and rationing, reserved comment this time until he had seen the proposals.

CIO president Philip Murray announced that the organization's unions, anticipating no action to control the cost of living within the special session of Congress, would seek a third round of wage increases starting early in 1948.

In Paris, 5,000 police and mobile guardsmen were stationed around the National Assembly as it continued to debate the strike-control bill, seeking effectively to ban strikes. Two sections of the bill, providing for enforcement against sabotage and agitators, were passed by the Assembly. The sections were bitterly opposed by the Communists.

In Lisbon, a violent storm, the worst in Portuguese history, with winds gusting to 117 mph, had claimed at least 165 lives, most of whom were among the fishing fleet.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee urged prompt action on 590 million dollars worth of aid to Europe and China, while also reporting that Russia had over four million men under arms. The U.S. was said to have 113,000 armed men in Europe and 258,000 within the U.S. Ground forces in the free European states were estimated at 2.879 million, while the Soviet satellites were said to have 1.121 million men under arms. The report stated that the Soviets had an objective of preventing aid reaching Europe and Asia from the West, as well as interfering with the program of aid. It warned against "bleeding ourselves white" with ineffective aid. Debate on the emergency aid proposal in the House would begin the next day. The Senate had already approved the President's request for 597 million dollars in aid to Austria, France, and Italy.

The President, leaving behind freezing Washington weather, arrived in 75-degree Key West, Fla., for a five-day vacation, during which time he would dedicate the Everglades National Park. With the "Independence" grounded as part of the DC-6 check following two fires, one of which had resulted in a crash killing all 52 aboard during the previous month, the President flew aboard the "Sacred Cow".

Hey, pal, some people work for a living. Down 'ere baskin' in all 'at sunshine, while people are starving in Europe and rioting in the Middle East.

Before leaving Washington, the President the day before had dropped in on a children's hospital for its dedication. While there, he visited a little girl injured in a traffic accident. She was disappointed, however, because her mother had told her the President was coming to see her and she had misinterpreted the intention as "present". So, the President sent her a Mother Goose book with an inscription stating that it was the present she thought she was going to receive.

In Pittsfield, Mass., a hunter who had been hunting for 17 years without spotting a deer had suddenly bagged a 250-pound buck. He laboriously lugged it out of the woods, tied it to the fender of his car, and then realized that he had left his shotgun in the woods. When he returned, he discovered that someone had stolen his deer. The matter was under investigation by the Sheriff.

If you see his buck, return it.

At Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass., holes were being cut through doors and stairways to measure the speed of light, never previously recorded accurately.

In Indianapolis, Siamese twins uniquely joined at the skull were under observation. Thus far, they were reacting normally but doctors gave them little chance of survival. It was believed that their brains were joined and thus an attempt to separate them would be fatal.

John Daly of The News reports of fear of a series of explosions in a Charlotte-area community near Belmont and Mt. Holly having been quickly attenuated after a service station attendant sold to several persons what appeared to be high-test gasoline for kerosene. A low-flying plane was employed by the Standard Oil Co. to broadcast a warning to residents not to use the ostensible heating fuel if they had purchased it. The liquid was returned and no explosion had been reported.

If you smell the liquid and it smells as gas, do not put it in your heater. It might be alright for your car because your car explodes regularly, but not your heater. Just like the DC-6's.

In Charlotte, marking the conclusion of the six-day rededication period to the founding principles of the country, the "Freedom Train" arrived with its original, duplicate, and facsimile documents crucial to the development of the nation from its discovery to the present day. Tours would begin the following day.

The Heritage Foundation, sponsors of the tour, recommended that children under twelve not be brought to see the exhibit. For it contained matter which might be disturbing to small children. Parental discretion is advised.

You would not want to raise revolutionaries.

Stewart Alsop tells of trouble ahead in Palestine, on page 11-A.

On the editorial page, "Word H. Wood, 'A Big Man'" tells of the distinguished career of the local banker of Charlotte who had just announced his retirement effective in mid-January as chairman of the American Trust Co. He had been in banking since 1893, beginning at Wachovia Bank & Trust in Winston-Salem. Then George Stephens, his college chum, asked him to help organize the American Trust Co.

He had also been active in getting the Federal Reserve Branch to locate in Charlotte and had organized both the Hotel Charlotte and the Charlotte Country Club, as well as being active in numerous civic campaigns.

"Progress for United Nations" tells of observers not knowing whether to cheer or shake their heads dolefully at the result of the plenary session just concluded at the U.N. The Assembly had passed 94 resolutions. But to observers, it appeared miraculous that it had survived the session without disintegrating.

The primary accomplishments were the establishment of the Balkans watch commission for the Greek borders, the Korean independence commission, the creation of the Little Assembly Committee, whereby the political committee of the General Assembly would sit full-time to counteract the unilateral veto within the Security Council, and the partition of Palestine.

It was being predicted that the Soviets would stage some form of walk-out regarding the first two commissions and that the Arab nations would walk out regarding the partition of Palestine. Yet those delegations had made it clear that they desired success by the U.N.

They would likely, however, do everything within their power to prevent implementation of the programs which they opposed.

It posits that the primary chance for failure of the organization in the coming months would be in any shortfall of courage and wisdom to proceed along the path set forth during the 1947 session.

"General Doug Warms Up for '48" opines that General MacArthur appeared not the typical politico for his regal manner not being conducive to attracting votes. Yet, he was becoming adept at double-talk. A recent dispatch from Tokyo, analyzing his chances for garnering the 1948 Republican nomination, set forth his views on various issues. The piece summarizes those stands, to the extent that he took any beyond general support of unions and child labor laws and expression of favor for free enterprise, while condemning monopolies.

There was enough in the statement to please a number of political groups. Yet, because the General did not take any swipe at Britain, isolationist Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune, who had started the movement for him, might have to look elsewhere to vent his Anglophobia.

A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "Just a Little Thin on Top", tells of a Huntington, W. Va., councilman having introduced an ordinance to limit the price of haircuts for bald men to 25 cents.

Some associated baldness with intelligence, but the piece questions the premise.

The salient question for purposes of the ordinance was when would a man be considered bald. There would also be men who would rather pay more than be so classified. They needed the reassurance that they looked okay, regardless of price.

Drew Pearson tells of the President having cracked down harder than ever before on the State Department to press for the votes at the U.N. for the partition of Palestine. He had discovered that some countries were falling out of line on the issue because of secret sabotage from State Department officials. Mrs. Roosevelt had urged the President to take action, threatening to resign the U.N. delegation were the Assembly to refuse approval of partition based on fumbling by the State Department. In the end, influence was exerted on countries either indebted to or dependent on the U.S. to vote in accord with the U.S.-Soviet position.

The two men who worked the hardest to put across the plan were Secretary-General Oswaldo Aranha of Brazil and the man he defeated for the position, Herbert Evatt of Australia.

He notes that partition represented the first major cooperative effort between the U.S. and Russia since the formation of the U.N.

He tells of several members of Congress being tricked into attending a dinner, at the ostensible invitations of five state commissioners of agriculture, when the actual host was Ralph Moore of Texas, a notorious lobbyist, friend to Senators Pappy Lee O'D. of Texas and Elmer Thomas of Oklahoma. Mr. Moore was being investigated by the Justice Department.

The guests heard propaganda attacks on the President, Secretary of State Marshall, and Charles Luckman, head of the domestic food conservation committee, all three branded as seeking dictatorial powers.

Mr. Pearson asked Mr. Moore why he had attended the party and he refused to answer, saying it was none of his business.

Georgia's Agricultural Commissioner, Tom Linder, recited at the party a poem for the President, which Mr. Pearson reprints:
He wiggled in and he wiggled out;
He left the country all in doubt
Whether the snake that made the track
Was going out or coming back.

Meanwhile, the members of Congress ate seafood and filet mignon, while sipping cocktails.

Marquis Childs, in Tucson, looks at the high cost of living, at 66 percent above the pre-war level, finding many households priced out of the ability to make purchases beyond bare necessities. The other limit to prosperity was the scarcity of materials, especially steel, from which so many derivative products were manufactured, both for domestic consumption and the foreign market.


The 16 nations participating in the Marshall Plan indicated their need of 700,000 short tons of steel sheets and strip during the coming year. It amounted to four times the recent rate of export from the U.S. to these same countries. The Averell Harriman committee report on the country's available resources for the Plan had stated that there was no assurance that U.S. production of steel could meet the needs of Europe. That announcement would likely bring down steel prices and, in turn, trigger perhaps the readjustment needed to stabilize inflation.

The steel companies had contended that they could not expand, but those arguments would need be weighed against world needs to produce economic and political stability.

Charles W. Duke, in the last of his series on the "Freedom Train", tells of the Atlantic Charter being aboard. Signed initially by FDR and Winston Churchill on August 14, 1941, it stood for the principle that the four freedoms enunciated by President Roosevelt in January, 1941 would be assured the liberated nations, at least insofar as freedom from fear and want. It was then signed by 24 nations, including Russia, China, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. During the war, 19 other nations joined as signatories, including Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. They all promised mutual cooperation and that no separate peace would be formed with the Axis nations.

The U.S. official duplicate of the Charter of the U.N., formed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco, was also aboard the train.

He concludes by explaining that the documents on the train spanned from Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the New World in 1492 through the 1945 U.N. Charter, 453 years of history.

A letter writer thinks there ought be more stress in the city and county on the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of May, 1775.

He regrets that Mecklenburg, which had originated the concept of independence, was not even mentioned on the Freedom Train.

You do not want to go too far with that or they might call you a liar. Local lore is one thing. Outsiders can dismiss it as pleasant eccentricity. But when you try to impose the notion on others, it fast loses its force in the questionable authenticity of that particular claim.

A letter from failed Republican Congressional candidate P. C. Burkholder comments on the November 22 editorial, "Where Our Money Goes in China", finds its criticism of Governor Dewey for seeking aid for the Chiang Government, without heed to its reactionary nature, to blink the fact that the State Department had helped the Communists to violate the terms of the ceasefire. He accuses the editorial of thus supporting, by implication, the Communist cause in China.

The Quote of the Day: "With television perhaps we shall know what the studio audience sees to make it laugh so much more heartily than what we hear makes us laugh." —Memphis Commercial-Appeal

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