The Charlotte News
Saturday, May 10, 1947
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the 400-million dollar aid package to Greece and Turkey was approved by the Congress early the previous night. The House approved the measure by a vote of 287 to 107. The yea votes were comprised of 127 Republicans and 160 Democrats. Against the measure were 93 Republicans, thirteen Democrats, and one American Labor Party member. The bill had passed the Senate by a vote of 67 to 22 on April 22.
There were some minor differences in the versions of the bill which would need to be worked out in conference. It was expected that the legislation would reach the President's desk by the following week. The President had originally recommended the aid bill on March 12, suggesting an initial deadline of March 31, the date by which Britain was supposed to have withdrawn its aid to Greece.
The Philippines representative to the U.N. advocated before the 55-member Political Committee the establishment of an interim government for Palestine pending a final resolution of the problem.
The United States opposed a Russian proposal that a proposed commission of inquiry submit a plan for immediate independence of Palestine. The U.S. believed that no mandatory injunction should be placed on the commission.
The telephone strike which had begun April 7 ended in nine Southern states, but because of continuing strikes by affiliated unions, mainly involving installation and repair personnel, the Southern Bell employees, including those in Charlotte, refused to cross picket lines to return to work, and thus service was not restored. The settlement allowed for $2, $3
There was no sign of settlement between Western Electric and the installation and repair workers.
The CIO claimed to have organized 41,300 workers in North Carolina during the previous year, only a small number of whom, about 2,100, were cotton mill workers. Others organized included employees of 20 tobacco drying and processing plants in the eastern portion of the state.
The Senate Finance Committee approved a four billion dollar income tax cut. Senator Walter George of Georgia complained that if passed, it would leave no surplus to pay down the 258-billion dollar national debt, most of which had come from the war.
Governor Earl Warren of California advocated waiting on tax reduction until the Government budget was balanced and substantial payments had been made to reduce the debt.
In New York, a 54-year old diamond dealer, despondent over financial setbacks and ill, jumped to his death from the 85th floor of the Empire State Building. He had first attempted a jump from the 86th floor observation deck but landed unhurt on the deck on the floor below. He was the thirteenth suicide accomplished by jumping from the building.
Also in New York, a man was arrested for pushing a 21-year old NYU coed in front of an approaching subway train the day before. She had been saved by both the train stopping and alert persons on the platform who pulled her quickly to safety. The man was charged with felony assault and sent to Bellevue Hospital for observation. He had served during the war with the Army Corps of Engineers and had been since committed to several mental facilities for nervous disorders.
In Chicago, the six-year old boy who could not use his new roller skates because both of his legs had been amputated after a gasoline explosion six weeks earlier, was informed the day before by his father of the amputation. The boy took the news calmly as he read a comic book. His father told him of soldiers who had lost their legs and then, having been fitted with prosthetics, learned to walk again. The boy said in response that he would rather sit.
In Oklahoma City, a State Representative was adjudged mentally ill, suffering from paranoia, following his having shot a State Senator on the floor of the State Senate on Wednesday. He explained that he had not shot to hit the Senator.
In Hollywood, actress Marion Davies
In Miami, the honeymoon
On the back page, Dr. George Crane advises couples against taking temporary housing with their in-laws.
On the editorial page, "Eastern Joins the East-West Fight" tells of Eastern Air Lines having joined Charlotte in its battle to have the Civil Aeronautics Board reverse its refusal to grant a route to the west, to add links to Chicago and to Memphis.
"Arnall on the Inside Rail
The piece suggests that he ought thank Herman Talmadge for the opportunity as it was Mr. Talmadge's claim, via the vote of the Legislature, to succeed his father as Governor which had caused the feud with Governor Arnall, who sought to hold the Governor's office for Lieutenant Governor-elect M. E. Thompson until he could be legally sworn. The State Supreme Court had finally resolved the matter in favor of Mr. Thompson based on the State Constitution.
Mr. Arnall was preaching liberalism but had separated himself from the philosophy of Henry Wallace, though having supported him in 1944 for the vice-presidency and continuing to express admiration for his idealism. But he did not appreciate the former Vice-President's more recent speeches against the Truman Doctrine.
Mr. Arnall had correctly predicted that Thomas Dewey would again be the Republican nominee in 1948 and that President Truman must return to domestic liberal policies if he wanted to defeat Governor Dewey.
When asked about his availability for the ticket as vice-president in 1948, he stated that the position was wide open. The piece, however, finds it unlikely that any such candidate would come from the South for its being already in the Democratic column and thus not lending anything electorally to the ticket. But he could become such a contender if he developed a national following during his speaking tour.
"The Congressman and the Ladies" indicates that Representative John Kunkel of Pennsylvania had a way with the ladies. The 48-year old bachelor had recently greeted a delegation of 800 women from three counties in his district, all Republicans and members of local organizations. He took them to the Statler where they applauded him and labeled themselves his "sweethearts", kissed him, and presented him with a radio phonograph. That was the sum total of their mission.
It suggests that it would be good if the action turned into a Be-Kind-to-Congressmen week.
A piece from the Winston-Salem Sentinel, titled "Their Eyes Are Upon Us", tells of Dr. James E. Shepard, president of the North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham, now N.C. Central University, having stated that other Southern states watched developments in race relations in North Carolina to obtain direction. The state had acquired a position of leadership in the area.
North Carolina had abolished the poll tax in 1920 and had equalized teacher pay between the races during the war, having done so without racial tension erupting. The record had presented a positive example to the rest of the South.
The piece asserts that if the state measured up to the standards set by Governor Charles B. Aycock at the turn of the century, to protect the freedom and privileges of all citizens and to advance in educational equality, it would continue in this positive role as a model for other states of the South.
Drew Pearson informs of President Truman telling Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington that the Republican cuts to power and reclamation projects would compromise national security, as the Army and Navy relied on those projects for power. The atomic bomb would have taken a lot longer to develop, according to military experts, were it not for TVA and the Grand Coulee Dam supplying power for the Hanford nuclear plant in Washington and Oak Ridge in Tennessee.
The President told the Senator that he would take a trip to the West in August and make an important speech on foreign policy at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Senator Magnuson promised to continue to work vigorously for restoration of the the cuts made by the House to the power and reclamation projects.
The President had hinted, in a talk with Democratic chieftains of four Midwestern states, that he might veto the stringent labor bill probably about to emerge from Congress.
He would veto the Taft-Hartley bill the following month, but it would be passed nevertheless over his veto.
Joseph Alsop discusses the concern in Washington inner circles that a worldwide monetary crisis would soon occur, resulting in more hunger and insecurity, and retardation of the reconstruction effort. The cause of the crisis was that Germany, Japan, and Southeast Asia were in ruins, and Britain and Western Europe were left crippled. The exports of food and coal to meet the needs abroad had been accomplished by dollars either loaned from the U.S. or through sale of gold and American securities by the recipient countries. Now, the dollars were running out. Sweden, Mexico, and Canada during the previous year had suffered losses of a third of their original gold and dollar holdings.
According to American calculations, the situations in France, Italy, and other major European economies were shortly to reach the point of criticality. The harsh winter and consequent coal shortage in Britain had reduced its productivity, while the poverty of the nations which ordinarily would be receiving British imports had sharply curtailed its receipts, thus reducing money with which to pay for U.S. imports.
During the previous March, the U.S. had exported more goods than ever in peacetime, 1.327 billion dollars worth, taking in but 444 million dollars worth of imports. The favorable trade balance, ordinarily desirable, was deceptive, as most nations could not pay for the goods received. Recently, the Federal Reserve had received 150 million dollars of gold in one week, indicative of the importing countries scraping the bottom of their monetary reserves.
Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson and other high level officials in the Administration were seeking a remedy. The first step would be to obtain from Congress a renewal beyond June 30 of the controls for making available U.S. exports to needy countries. The second step would be to activate the World Bank, to meet the most urgent needs of France and other Western European nations, and then for the Bank to raise larger sums by sale of its bonds. The third step would be to raise the lending power of the U.S. through the Export-Import Bank or some other agency. The latter step would probably be delayed, however, until 1948 because of its political implications. And that delay could prove quite costly.
Samuel Grafton disagrees with the notion that there was a bipartisan foreign policy, stating that it no longer existed. The Congress had cut the State Department's foreign broadcast and information service to the bone and had severely slashed foreign aid requested by the White House, from 350 to 200 million dollars. The Democrats voted heavily against the cut while the Republicans voted for it. The only thing presently bipartisan was the anti-Russian sentiment.
Republicans generally supported Secretary Marshall, but then refused to provide him the tools he requested to get the job done of preventing Soviet expansion.
The Democrats were using their anti-Russian feelings to build a more or less positive program while the Republicans were doing the opposite, retreating into a form of isolationism. They fought the foreign broadcasts on such superficial grounds as there existing no specific authorization for them and that one broadcast, as part of its review of The Wallaces of Iowa, had incidentally promoted the previous agricultural accomplishments of Henry Wallace.
The positive side of the program, building up nations that they might establish free governments, was the great hope for democracy. But the negative side promoted by Republicans was threatening the viability of this program.
Mr. Grafton concludes that merely to hold a low opinion of Josef Stalin was not sufficient for a bipartisan program with any promise of positive results.
A letter counsels cherishing one's mother all the time and not just on Mother's Day.
A letter responds to a letter writer who wanted everyone to vote dry in the upcoming referendum on controlled sale of liquor. He thinks everyone should vote for control as the county could not be any wetter than it was under prohibition and the bootlegging trade.
A letter writer presents a letter to the Duke Power Co., addressing an ordinance recently passed by the City Council that it was to be unlawful to smoke on buses operated by the company in Charlotte. A month had passed without signs on the buses instructing of the new ordinance, as the ordinance required. He demands that the company comply.
A letter from the president of the Charlotte Real Estate Board thanks the newspaper for its Monday editorial on rent control.
A letter writer from London remarks of his having read news of North Carolina from Parliament during the week, regarding an increase in taxes and import duties raising the price of cigarettes and tobacco. The young writer had seen The News mentioned in the "paper novel" See Here, Private Hargrove—by former News reporter Marion Hargrove
Whether he had actually read
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