Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that violence continued
in Palestine in the wake of the U.N. approval of partition the
previous Saturday, as the Arab three-day strike went through its
last day. Both Arabs and Jews pleaded for a halt to the violence.
The Associated Press estimated that 34 had died in the three days,
19 Jews and 15 Arabs.
A violent highway battle took place in the Arab town of
Ramie, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, after an Arab mob
attacked Jewish buses being escorted by armored police cars.
In Cairo, for the fourth day in a row, demonstrations took
place, with crowds estimated at 15,000, parading, smashing shop
windows, and setting fire to trolleys and automobiles. There had
been no casualties, according to police.
Representative Ed Cox of Georgia argued before his colleagues
that the emergency aid package to Austria, France, and Italy had to
be passed by the House in its fully requested amount to stop the
already extant battle with Russia, in all forms a war save shooting.
In Indianapolis, the newborn Siamese twins joined at the
skull were being prepared for X-rays, as doctors expressed hope
that they might be separated by surgery.
Dick Young of The News reports of a blast at a
sandwich shop at 317 Church Street in Charlotte, killing one man and
injuring two others at 8:00 the previous night. Because the dead man
had gone into the numbers game two weeks earlier, it was believed
that the explosion was connected to a numbers racket or other
gambling operations, and in consequence the local police had asked
for assistance from the FBI in analyzing the blast, originating
inside a public toilet adjacent to the building.
In Los Angeles, actress and model Vivian Du Bois Wilkerson
demanded temporary alimony of $800 per month because half of her
dresses were not long enough to suit the au courant fashion.
The husband argued that $300 was enough for a fashion statement. The
judge settled the matter at $600.
Ralph Gibson of The News tells of the opening of the
Freedom Train to visitors in Charlotte, with the Mayor and Federal
Court of Appeals Judge John J. Parker on hand.
Remember, no one under twelve ought attend, as the subject
matter is for mature minds. Otherwise, you will likely regret it
when your inordinately precocious six-year old starts dumping out all your tea because of
limitations without representation. Try to contest, and the next
thing you know, you will see a musket in your face at dawn with
something being mumbled by the disgruntled fils regarding
right to bear arms.
Furman Bisher reports from Miami on the sports page anent
Florence joining the Tri-State Baseball League.
On the editorial page, "Blood Bank Is Your Protection"
tells of the Red Cross establishing a central blood bank in
Charlotte, good for the health of all of the residents of the
region.
"King Mihai's Fight for Romania" finds the
announcement that the King would wed Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma
and Denmark to have political significance. It had been rumored that
the King might wed Princess Margaret of England, as he had attended
the wedding of her sister to Lt. Philip Mountbatten on November 20.
But the latter match would have offended the Communists overseeing
the country. The engagement to Princess Anne was not fraught with
such political complication.
King Mihai had become heir to the throne at age six in 1927
when his father, King Carol II, renounced it for the love of Mme.
Elena Lupescu. He eventually returned and ruled again until the Nazi
occupation began. King Mihai then resumed the throne and overthrew
Antonescu, transforming Rumania from an ally into an enemy of
Hitler.
The King was held in high esteem by the peasant population,
keeping him in power. As long as he remained, the anti-Communist
cause in the country would not be entirely lost.
"Gubernatorial Race Shapes Up" tells of Secretary
of the Army Kenneth Royall deciding not to run in the gubernatorial
race in North Carolina. It was expected that Lieutenant Governor
Stag Ballentine shortly would enter the race to challenge the
existing candidates, State Treasurer Charles Johnson, State Representative Oscar Barker, and dark horse
challenger R. Mayne Albright.
It offers that the decision by Mr. Royall was wise, given his
long absence from the state and the need for his services in
Washington, but suggests that he might in the future become
Governor. Mr. Royall never would run.
As indicated, State Agricultural Commissioner Kerr Scott
would be elected in 1948.
A piece from the Washington Post, "'Bryng Us in
No Tripes'", tells of M.P. T.C. Skeffington-Lodge having
complained before Commons recently that the typical fare of romance
novels coming from America was "tripe". He recommended
that Britons be deprived henceforth of the "Niagara of piffle
and tush."
The Financial Secretary of the Treasury, William Glenvil
Hall, however, reminded Mr. Skeffington-Lodge that the loan
agreement with America pledged not to discriminate against American
products. He distinguished the situation from the ban on importation
of American movies to save dollars as part of an overall scheme to
prevent importation of all foreign movies. The same distinction, counseled Mr. Hall, did
not apply to books, ordinarily limited by the deception of a common language.
Drew Pearson continues his report from two days earlier
regarding Lt. Colonel David Laux, who was shipped north to Alaska
after reporting to Secretary of War Henry Stimson his insistent
recommendation that Army transport planes be equipped with armor and
self-sealing fuel tanks to avoid a repeat of the friendly-fire
downing of 44 transport planes carrying 800 men over Gela and
Catania, Sicily, in July, 1943.
Mr. Pearson now regards Brig. General Mike Dunn, who was
shipped to the Pacific and demoted to colonel for blowing the
whistle on brass-hat incompetence. He had argued that dropping men
by air behind enemy lines would save the tremendous losses entailed
in beachhead landings. Prior to the incidents in Sicily, General
Dunn had been a proponent of armor and self-sealing tanks on the
transport planes, slower than other planes and thus sitting ducks to
ground, air, and naval fire. His top boss, however, General Carl
Spaatz, disagreed, dogmatically so, arguing that there was not
sufficient time to install the tanks and that armor and tanks would
curtail the range of the planes.
General Dunn then went over the head of General Spaatz and
wrote directly to Washington on the matter on May 13, 1943, two
months before the friendly-fire losses in Sicily. A board of
inquiry, after the friendly-fire incidents, recommended that the
transports be equipped henceforth with self-sealing tanks. When
General Dunn persisted after the incidents, he was demoted and
transferred to the Pacific.
Eventually, when Colonel Laux and Colonel Felix Dupont
persisted, General Hap Arnold was persuaded to write an order to equip the planes with the tanks, addressed to
General Bennett Meyers—about to be indicted after the Senate War Investigating subcommittee revelations about
his wartime profiteering as Army Air Forces deputy chief procurement
officer. It was unclear what General Meyers had done, but nothing happened and General Spaatz finally killed the Arnold order
because of the problems of effecting quick enough installation before
D-Day and that the tanks could shorten the range of the planes.
At that point, Colonel Laux brought the matter to the
attention of Secretary Stimson, and then was transferred to Alaska.
He urges that such penalties being imposed on whistle blowers
be stopped before peacetime conscription would begin for the first
time in the country's history.
James Marlow discusses the process thus far in the passage of
emergency aid for Austria, France, and Italy. It has already been
amply covered on the front pages and so we leave it for you to recap
on your own. He informs of what would happen if the House and Senate
wound up not agreeing on the amount, the Senate having already
approved the President's requested sum of 597 million dollars. In
that case, a joint committee of both houses would be set up to seek
to reconcile the bills.
Marquis Childs, still in Tucson, finds that with the crest of the
wave of prosperity in the country about to begin its descent,
there nevertheless remained a way still to avert a crash. He tells of an
owner and manager of a department store in the Midwest who provided
his opinion on the effect of high prices. He had no choice but to
sell at the high prices because the merchandise cost so much at
wholesale and the lower-priced items were of shoddy construction.
His major concern was that customers were, for the first time since
the war, beginning to balk and go home without buying.
If such response brought on a recession, then it might be to
the good. But he feared, with wholesale prices and the costs of
labor so high, that the result instead would be bust.
The department store owner believed it would be just what the
Communists wanted for America. Yet, he did not find remedial
possibilities in rationing of those commodities in shortest supply.
He believed that in peacetime, the incentives to cooperate with
price control would not be present as they had been during war, when
people had relatives overseas whose lives and welfare depended on
accelerated production and quelling of inflation on the domestic front. The black
market, he believed, would thus thrive.
His sales were up five percent from a year earlier, but his
units sold were down 17 percent, indicative of the price hikes and
the consequence that consumers had been priced out of the market.
Mr. Childs concludes that with Stalin waiting in the wings
with bated breath over such a prospective crash, Americans should be able to
find a solution to the problem.
Samuel Grafton discusses the difference between being for
democracy or merely being opposed to Russia. The latter group would
not mind being cozy with Chiang Kai-Shek in China or the throne in
Greece. He ponders to what extent the problems being experienced in
Italy and France were a reflection of lack of faith in the ardor of
Americans to stick by them, as opposed simply to being against
Russia.
Domestically, to fear Russia meant firing screenwriters
suspected of Communist sympathies. It meant loyalty tests in the
Government. It entailed being suspicious of everyone for being a
potential Communist. And, in the end, it implied a curtailment of
freedom.
To love freedom meant defending France and Italy for the sake
of democracy, not merely because they were convenient bulwarks to
Russia. It meant defending the freedom of Federal employees and
Hollywood writers. It meant stopping Russia for the sake of freedom,
not merely for self-interest.
"It means dignity, which is what this piece is about."
