The Charlotte News

Monday, July 28, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Haifa, British naval forces escorted into the harbor two small wooden vessels loaded with about 1,100 uncertified Jewish immigrants, sponsored by the moderate Jewish organization Haganah. The passengers were immediately loaded onto British ships bound for Cyprus.

The 4,500 Jewish passengers of the President Warfield, who had engaged in battle with British troops the previous week, were on their way back to France, from whence they had come.

At the U.N., a vote on the Security Council was expected within two days on the issue of whether to establish a border-watch commission for the Greek borders with Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria. The vote would test the organization's ability to resolve disputes. Russia and its satellites opposed the border-watch commission. But it was not clear yet whether the Russians would refrain from exercising their veto and abstain.

Dutch military headquarters announced successes in eastern Sumatra, capturing virtually intact coal and oil regions from the Indonesians. The captured Java ports of Cherebon, Probolinggo, and Banjoewangi were opened by the Dutch Navy to trade. Batoeradja and its Shell, Standard Oil, and Vacuum Oil holdings were reported captured by the Dutch.

In China, the Communists were said by Government reports to be encircling the Chiaotao coal mining area of Honan Province, located on the north bank of the Yellow River, 80 miles northwest of Kaifeng. The Ministry of Economic Affairs sought the aid of the Army to protect the mines.

New Secretary of Defense James Forrestal praised the merger of the Army and Navy, finding it the most decisive step in formulating military policy since the Founding. The first occupant of the position stated that his tenure might not be longer than a year. The new Secretary had been Secretary of the Navy since May, 1944 and Undersecretary before that since 1940.

The News hired a new Editor, William Reddig of the Kansas City Star, to replace departing Harry Ashmore, becoming Associate Editor of the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock. Mr. Reddig had 25 years experience in journalism and was author of Tom's Town, published earlier in 1947, a critical study of the Kansas City political machine under the late Boss Tom Pendergast, who had convinced Harry Truman to run for the Senate in 1934.

Mr. Reddig, 47, had been at the Star for 19 years and was a native of Kansas City. He had begun his journalism career as a reporter at the Baltimore News in 1922, and then joined the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1924. He then worked for the Trenton (Mo.) Republican as its Editor, before eventually joining the Star in 1928. He specialized in political writing.

The change marked the first editor or associate editor of The News who was not a native of either of the two Carolinas. Mr. Reddig also became the oldest editor or associate editor to assume the post in at least four decades. J. E. Dowd was 47 when he left the Editor's desk and became General Manager the previous January. He had become Editor in 1932. Harry Ashmore was 29 when he became Associate Editor in 1945. Burke Davis had also been 29 when he became Associate Editor in latter May, 1942, becoming Editor during the stint in the Navy of J. E. Dowd, an Annapolis graduate, from the end of 1942 through August, 1944. Stuart Rabb was 24 when he came from the Winston-Salem Journal to replace W. J. Cash at the end of May, 1941. And Cash was 37 when he assumed his duties as Associate Editor in early November, 1937. Prior to Cash, Julian Miller, later Editor of the Charlotte Observer, dying suddenly while in Lumberton of a heart attack a year before this date, July 29, 1946, had been the Editor from 1916 through 1932, coming to the post at age 29. There does not appear to have been an associate editor prior to Cash's tenure. W. C. Dowd, Sr., became Editor and Publisher of the newspaper in 1893 at age 28, five years after The News was founded, and remained as Editor until 1904, joined, by 1901, by Associate Editor R. A. P. Smith, described as "young" at the time by J. E. Dowd, writing on the history of the newspaper in the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of The News published in December, 1938.

Information, incidentally, on Mr. Rabb was not available online five and six years ago when we were reviewing his year as Associate Editor. After leaving The News at the end of May, 1942, he joined the Army and eventually became a member of the O.S.S., in which capacity he parachuted 14 times into enemy territory in France to work with the Resistance. In 1936, while at U.N.C. and a writer for The Daily Tar Heel, he had directed the first North Carolina Press Institute colloquium for high school students aspiring to a career in journalism. As we stated at the time, he performed admirably during a particularly harried year in world events, with large shoes to fill in the wake of the departure of Cash, his tenure undoubtedly becoming even more complicated after Cash's sudden death in Mexico City just a month after being hired to replace him. He had, by September, 1941, editorialized that war with Japan was practically a fait accompli, the time and place of initial battle being the only remaining question marks. Mr. Rabb passed away at age 93 on September 8, 2010—coincidentally, thirty years and two days after the death of Mary Cash Maury, Cash's widow, who had also worked for The News, 30-30.

Cash held the record in recent years for tenure in the position of Associate Editor, 43 months, beating Burke Davis by three months. The position was obviously one which took its toll on its occupants, and for scant pay considering the contributions.

Since the previous April, when Harry Ashmore had become Editor, there was no Associate Editor. We assume that the Editor continued as the principal editorial writer, the role traditionally assigned the Associate Editor at The News when J. E. Dowd had been Editor.

So again, we shall keep an eye peeled for any changes in editorial direction of the newspaper, undergoing rapid changes in 1947 with the sale in January by the Dowd family to a group of investors, including the Dowd brothers, W.C. and J. E., and naming at that time of a new publisher, Thomas Robinson, formerly of The New York Times.

The first session of the 80th Congress adjourned in the early morning hours of Sunday, until January or the calling of a special session. It was the first time Congress had been in session on Sunday since 1929. With a threat of filibuster, the Democrats had successfully blocked the Republican effort to investigate allegations that Attorney General Tom Clark had dragged his feet in investigating the vote fraud scandal coming out of the James Pendergast-backed candidacy of Enos Axtell, the President's candidate, in the 1946 Kansas City primary in which incumbent Congressman Roger Slaughter was defeated. A Grand Jury in Kansas City had issued 29 indictments in May against 27 defendants and declared that the primary probably should have been won by Mr. Slaughter. Sequestered ballot boxes which the Grand Jury intended to be examined wound up stolen from the vault in the wake of the indictments.

The Senate War Investigating Committee continued its investigation into the "Spruce Goose" of Henry Kaiser and Howard Hughes, with former War Production Board official Merril Meigs testifying that the contract for the plane was let in reponse to the belief that Mr. Kaiser would otherwise take his case before the American people, as the concept of the 200-ton transport plane sounded good to them, while the aircraft industry and nearly every Government agency involved said that it could not be done. The concept when proposed in 1942 sounded good to obviate the necessity of the long and perilous journey across the Atlantic, constantly harassed by German U-boats.

The Agriculture Department announced the end of sugar rationing because of lack of funds to run the program. The rationing program had ended for consumers two months earlier and the remaining rationing of industrial and institutional users now also ended. Some controls on sugar still remained in effect.

The widow of deceased bootleg kingpin Carl Lippard was summoned by the Clerk of Superior Court in Charlotte to answer a complaint that she had secreted or misappropriated some of the estate's bootleg money—probably in her boots.

The News would publish the following day a special report of an industrial survey of the Piedmont Carolinas. Burke Davis was the editorial director of the edition, in the making for three months. WBT radio was scheduled to broadcast a show on the future of the Piedmont in conjunction with the edition.

"The Carolina Farmer" pages tell of Bill Gibb combining hog farming with soil conservation on his farm in Marion in McDowell County, while having 20 legendary hounds which regularly gave chase and hunted down the mountain bears. It was a sight to behold.

The third annual sportswriting contest was beginning at The News. The contest was for writers between ten and sixteen to cover Charlotte Hornets baseball games during a road trip.

On the editorial page, "Mother of the President" provides a salute to Martha Truman, 94-year old mother of the President, who had just passed away on Saturday. Her hold on him had remained strong through her death. Her influence would remain strong, and good.

Mr. Truman had inherited from his mother his sturdiness and brisk pace, as well as her facial characteristics, her smile and personal charm, delighting in company.

Her stories of early experiences in the Missouri Border war and the Civil War had stimulated young Harry's interest in history, and influenced his decision to become a soldier and subsequently to enter politics.

She had told the President to be "a good boy" when he left for Washington and had greeted Washington with "fiddlesticks". She possessed innate modesty, as did her son. She also had a keen interest in politics. She had predicted that "Harry will do all right" in the White House.

"The nation, joining in sympathy with the sorrowing President, pays tribute to his mother not alone for her fine effect on her son but also for her right to be remembered as an interesting personality in her own right, a remarkable woman, one of the last members of a great generation."

"Another Park for Charlotte" tells of the plan of the Midwood Men's Club to donate to the city 6.5 acres for a park, an important contribution to the city's recreational facilities. It came on the heels of the establishment of Freedom Park, also from donated land. The piece expresses thanks to the Club for the donation.

"Convictions for Drunk Driving" tells of Mecklenburg County being the state's leader in drunk driving convictions, with 39 during June out of the 509 statewide. Guilford was second with 29, followed by Forsyth and Surry, each with 23.

The arrests rates dispelled the notion that there was a relationship between the presence of ABC stores and drunk driving, as each of these counties were presently dry—Mecklenburg's ABC system, approved by voters in June, still being organized.

It notes also that the figures did not account for those who drove while drunk but avoided accident or arrest. So, Mecklenburg's high rate might be the result of vigorous enforcement in the county, compared to others. It hopes that the number of convictions would rise.

A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "A-Probing We Will Go", tells of autumn being the period of the Congressional investigation, which sometimes turned up valuable information. One such committee was poised to investigate the Klamath Indian tribe, whose hunting grounds were in Oregon and California. Another would look at child day care centers in D.C. Three committees would examine why building costs were so high. Vote fraud in three states would be the subject of three more inquiries.

HUAC would examine Hollywood. A labor subcommittee would look at American Federation of Musicians union president James Caesar Petrillo.

It urges the various committees in the expeditions not to keep anything which measured less than six inches from mouth to tail fin.

Drew Pearson tells of helping to dedicate a veterans hospital swimming pool the previous day in the Bronx. The pool was dedicated to the memory of the four Army chaplains, each of different faiths, who gave their lives by giving their life jackets that four GI's might live. Their names were Father John P. Washington of Newark, Rabbi Alexander Goode of York, Pa., George L. Fox of Cambridge, Vt., and Clark V. Poling of Schenectady, N.Y., each of the latter pair being Protestants. The four died praying together, hand in hand. Their common cause was to make a world which could live in peace.

He believes it a fitting memorial. Too many statues of warriors on horseback beside their cannon populated the landscape of the country from earlier wars, glamourizing that which was ugly and detestable.

What needed to be exalted were the principles for which men had given their lives in war. The children of the future needed to be taught that the war just ended had started because the Fascists of the world preached a superior race doctrine, and that the war was won by those who believed that all men are created free and equal.

It was what the four Army chaplains believed. In death, there could be no discrimination by race, religion, or ethnic heritage.

The Japanese-Americans of the 422nd Regiment stormed up the hillsides of the Apennines in Italy without interruption by anyone contemplating their color and racial background.

With the heat of battle behind, many citizens appeared to forget those lasting lessons of the war.

He notes that Clark Poling was the son of Baptist minister Dan Poling of Temple University. Rev. Poling was raising money to build a chapel in memory of the four chaplains, to be located in Philadelphia, where all persons could worship, regardless of creed.

He next lists the Democrats and Republicans who voted in a secret committee for and against publication of "Fascism in Action", a pamphlet complementing the previous year's Government publication of "Communism in Action".

Speaker Joe Martin was riding in a cab, being told initially by the driver that if he had been allowed to vote, he would have voted Republican the previous fall. But now, after the President's courageous vetoes of the tax bills and Taft-Hartley, he felt much more admiration for Mr. Truman and intended to vote for him in 1948. Speaker Martin, at first impressed, abruptly urged the driver, upon hearing the last, to take him to his destination.

Marquis Childs tells of his secret agents coming across a document from the Ambassador of Inner Utopia to his Foreign Minister, in which he describes the session just ended of the 80th Congress. He was impressed by the President's unannounced visit to the Senate, taking his old seat on the floor, the first time in the history of the country any President had ever done so. In the parliamentary system practiced in Inner Utopia, the Prime Minister was engaged in debate on the floor each week.

The President and the Congress in America, he continued, were engaged in constant warfare. The two often ignored one another.

The Ambassador was especially concerned that the U.S. information service was being severely curtailed at a time when Soviet propaganda was running high. He had concluded that the reason was the suspicion of the Congress for the Executive Branch.

The Congress had curtailed the budget of the tax collectors by 20 million dollars, collectors who could probably have collected 400 million in revenue.

The Ambassador was impressed by A Twentieth Century Congress by Representative Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, recommending permanent liaisons between the President and Congress, with offices at the Capitol.

The Ambassador to Inner Utopia felt that the American people had great capcity for industry but remained handicapped by divided government—a pet peeve, by coincidence, of Mr. Childs.

We have visited Inner Utopia. It's not much to write home about.

Samuel Grafton tells of the intellectual conservatives of the country, including the New York Herald Tribune and Times, carrying on an unabashed love affair with the 80th Congress despite it doing things displeasing to the conservatives in both foreign and domestic matters. Taft-Hartley received praise, but the sugar tariff, restricting free trade, was greeted with disdain. The loyalty test for Government employees aroused the concern of the Times. The conservatives wanted universal military training, but the Congress was opposed to it.

The conservatives of the Willkie mold were following a Congress molded by Senator Taft.

The conservatives had never forgiven the preceding Democratic Congresses the way they had the 80th Congress when they disagreed with it, even though the preceding Congresses were acting more in line with conservative intellectual thinking on foreign policy than the current Congress. The American conservatives had fought to have a conservative Congress, but now that it was a reality and had come up far short of expectations, the conservatives nevertheless gave unmitigated praise to it.

A letter from A. W. Black, continuing his weekly and sometimes bi-weekly column, finds Communism being misunderstood. The philosophy of Karl Marx, he says, was that of hate. Americans were adopting a false sense of security from sole possession of the atom bomb. The country was at risk from sabotage by Communists, such as by injecting poisons into the water supply.

Get that duct tape ready.

It was "imperitive" that the Commie be subdued forthwith that peace might be had for many years.

Wonder what W. A. Black thought about that.

A letter from failed Republican Congressional candidate P.C. Burkholder continues to object to the notion that Republicans were responsible for all of the country's wars. President James Buchanan, a Democrat, left the country in a state of war for Abraham Lincoln. President Grover Cleveland ended his two separate terms, he says, in an economic panic. Woodrow Wilson led the country into World War I. President Roosevelt led the country into World War II.

Well, he could add that President Truman would lead the country into Korea. President Johnson would lead the country into Vietnam. And President George H. W. Bush and President George W. Bush would, respectively, lead the country into two wars with Iraq.

Democrats, all. End of argument.

He concludes that he might say that The News caused World War II, but it did not make it so.

But, Mr. Burkholder, that is true. It was that conniving W. J. Cash fellow who told Hitler what to do before he did it. You've got to know history. Perhaps you ought peruse the Textile Bulletin of Dave Clark so that you can keep your ear to the tracks.

But we agree that Herbert Hoover created more jobs than any single leader in the history of the world, even if about 90 percent of them were jobs selling apples on street corners.

Apples are good for you. Ergo, many people must like selling apples, for many consume them in great quantity, as evidenced by the bins at the market, which have many apples in them every day.

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