Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Britain, the shortage of power from the coal shortage continued, with the shutdown of industry ordered in England and Wales being considered for Scotland also. The "Economic Dunkerque", as it was being called, had drawn the ire of Conservative leader Winston Churchill, charging "incompetence in high places" within the Attlee Government. Labor appeared united behind the Government, and both Conservative and Labor M.P.'s expressed that no vote of confidence would be necessary.

Italy sought a revision of the treaty it had just signed the day before with the Allies. Ambassador James Dunn of the United States agreed with the Italian Government that until the Government ratified the treaty, it was not deemed effective. He was dismissive toward the anti-Allied demonstrations of the previous day outside the embassies of Russia, Britain, and the U.S.

In China, the Chinese yen fell to a new low, having declined in value for three successive days.

J. David Stern, former publisher of The Philadelphia Record and two other newspapers in Camden, N.J., told the House Labor Committee that he had recently sold the three newspapers at a great personal loss to warn the country of the "cancerous growth" on a free press created by the American Newspaper Guild which had been striking the three newspapers since the prior November. He told of having been the first publisher to recognize the Guild in 1934. He stated that he had begun publishing anti-Communist editorials in 1936, and in 1937 began having problems with the Guild, but did not try to establish any connection between the trouble and the editorial policy.

The general manager of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce complained that Charlotte was trying to lure away both industries and now the V.A. regional headquarters to Charlotte. Mayor Herbert Baxter of Charlotte had stated the day before that the V.A. office would move to Charlotte if the 100,000-square foot space for it could be found. The general manager of the Chamber in Winston-Salem stated that the city had offered to construct a building to take care of the V.A.'s needs beyond the space it presently occupied in the Nissen Building.

Burke Davis introduces the report of the newspaper on the North Carolina Good Health Program, telling of Charlotte's four hospitals offering the best medical care in the Carolinas. Combined, they provided 1,155 beds, not enough, however, to care for present patient demands, as the city attracted patients from a wide geographic area. There were severe shortages of facilities for blacks, though the city's black hospital was the busiest black hospital in the Carolinas.

The newspaper carried this date a 52-page magazine insert on the state's health care, the introductory page of which is here.

Senator Robert Taft of Ohio proposed a 200-million dollar per year medical care program for the indigent and to encourage voluntary health insurance plans. Senators Joseph Ball of Minnesota, Alexander Smith of New Jersey, and Forrest Donnell of Missouri, all Republicans, joined in sponsoring the bill. The money would be distributed to the states. Senator Taft stated that the bill would allow health insurance to be available to those who wanted it on a non-compulsory basis.

The President tentatively accepted an invitation to speak on Mother's Day before the Southern Baptist Convention at St. Louis.

In Hollywood, Olivia De Havilland was reported suffering from intestinal poisoning, would recover, though would be feeling lousy for a few days.

In Washington, it was reported that the Bureau of Standards had tried twice to tell a foreign-born plumber of the corrosive effects of hydrochloric acid, after he had informed of its effectiveness in cleaning clogged pipes. Each time, the plumber thanked the Bureau for agreeing with him. On the third try, the Bureau dropped its erudite language and became more direct: "Don't use hydrochloric acid. It eats hell out of the pipes."

In Chicago, five Cleveland dentists hailed a cab and asked the driver to show them the town. The cab driver then took off at high speed, through alleys and stoplights, over curbs, finally being pursued by two squad cars with police firing pistols at the fleeing cab. When the errant taxi was finally halted, it turned out the driver had stolen the vehicle from a garage. He had 42 prior arrests since 1930. The dentists were glad to be alive.

On the editorial page, "A Note on Peace and Resentment" tells of the signing of the five peace treaties with former Axis nations, Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Finland, and Hungary, reducing Italy to a second-rate power, without colonies and stripped of some of its continental territory.

"Max Gardner and His Town" tells of the unusually close bond between deceased Ambassador and former Governor O. Max Gardner and his hometown of Shelby, not just one derived from the sentimental attachment of a public figure to his birthplace, but from a genuine respect and feeling of propinquity by the townspeople to Mr. Gardner and from the fact of his own public spiritedness with respect to the community.

"The YWCA Has Another Birthday" tells of the local YWCA celebrating its 45th birthday, and the organization being the largest and oldest international women's organization, with affiliates in 69 countries, thirty of which had suffered terribly during the war. There were 435 chapters in the United States, which were being called upon to support a drive for a 2.1 million dollar building fund to reconstruct war damage around the world.

A piece from the Louisville Courier-Journal, titled "Honey Chile and One World", tells of 30 girls at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga., desiring to improve their speech by setting up a "Gab Lab", to overcome the Southern drawl.

Drew Pearson tells of the beginning of the decision to merge the Army and Navy, having formed in President Truman while he had been a Senator, touring, with a joint House-Senate group, military facilities in San Diego. In an Army plane, the pilot sought to land at a Navy field to avoid a torn up landing field at the Army base. The Navy, however, adamantly refused to accept any but Navy planes. The plane finally landed on the bad field, and bent its propellers in doing so. As the legislators trundled along the bumpy field from the airplane, Senator Truman remarked to a colleague that there was something rotten, and perhaps the Army, Navy, and Air Forces ought to become one. It was there, says Mr. Pearson, that the Navy's problems began.

Marquis Childs tells of the State Department moving its primary offices from the Old Executive Office Building across from the White House to a new headquarters, contained under one roof, to be called eventually the Truman Building, located in Foggy Bottom. The move would take place while Secretary of State Marshall was attending the Foreign Ministers Council meeting in Moscow.

Samuel Grafton, still in Paris, tells of French freedom being intensely individualistic. In the late nighttime when electricity rates were lower, the French stored their electricity via a device installed in the home, called a Cumulateur, for use during the daytime hours. Electricity at present was being cut during daylight hours two days per week.

A letter writer commends the members of the Legislature who had opposed the creation of a board to govern the funeral directors and embalmers of the state. He favors elimination of all such governing boards which discriminated against persons based on race. None of the present boards, he says, had any black members. He cites the Barber and Beauty Boards as examples.

A letter finds The News opposition to the Fact-Finding Group of doctors on the proposed four-year medical school, to be located at the University, to be misplaced, "reaching up to touch bottom".

The editors respond that their purpose in the editorial had been to defend the Group against the Salisbury Post's charge that the doctors were "conscientious marplots", acting out of bitterness regarding Charlotte not having been chosen as a site for the medical college. The editors had seen the Group's report as an oversimplification of the issues, but had also seen the opposition by the Post likewise. They think their language in the editorial had been quite restrained.

A letter compliments the editorial on radio advertising, finds it to have a bad odor, without comparison to newspaper advertising, even if some of that also was noxious.

"[O]ne can turn a page easily, but when you turn the radio dial you just exchange one dumb blahblahblah, for another just as bad."

A letter writer encourages black teachers during Negro History Week to concentrate on the study of black history, as he finds that many blacks were not acquainted with their rich heritage.

Framed Edition

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