Friday, January 23, 1948

The Charlotte News

Friday, January 23, 1948

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that General Eisenhower, in a letter to the New Hampshire Republicans who had backed his nomination, finally stated unequivocally that he would not accept the nomination for high office.

He stated: "The necessary and wise subordination of the military to civil power will be best sustained, and our people will have greater confidence that it is so sustained, when life-long professional soldiers, in the absence of some obvious and over-riding reason, abstain from seeking high political office."

He did not wish to establish a precedent whereby military leaders were selected for their potential for political office.

Senator Charles Tobey of New Hampshire, who had recently established a "Draft Eisenhower" movement in his home state, found solace in the fact that the General's letter said only that he "could" not accept the nomination, but did not say that he "would" not accept it.

In London, Winston Churchill stated to Commons that Western Europe needed to act quickly to form a union and demand a showdown with the Russians before Russia developed its own atomic bomb. He believed that such a strategy would have the best chance of avoiding a war. He also believed that the Russians were no more than a year or two away from having the bomb.

Prime Minister Clement Attlee stated that he thought such a union ought be formed cautiously and developed only through the U.N. He stated that he did not believe war was imminent. He also said that he favored friendly relations with Russia. The previous day, Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin advocated such a union.

William Green, president of AFL, along with a spokesman for the National Association of Manufacturers, stated to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that they favored the Marshall Plan, but wanted some restrictions added.

Most of Bavaria stood paralyzed as a million workers went on strike for 24 hours in protest of the food shortage. It was the largest walkout in Germany since the war. Some carried signs saying, "We Are Germans, Not a Colony" and "Away With Bizonia—Liberty", the latter in reference to the combined British-American zones.

In Davos, Switzerland, Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma rushed to former King Mihai I of Rumania, who had recently abdicated, and kissed him. It had been rumored that the two would be married. They would.

Republican presidential candidate Harold Stassen told the Senate Appropriations Committee that Ed Pauley had made in excess of $40,000 in profit from grain speculation following a speech by Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson which had depressed prices.

Mr. Pauley had already announced his intention to leave the Government at the end of the month. There was nothing illegal about his activity. Mr. Stassen was therefore blowing so much smoke at this point. Mr. Pauley had already testified and challenged Mr. Stassen to confront him regarding the lies he had told. While Mr. Pauley admitted making a million dollars on the speculation, he denied receiving or exploiting any inside information for the purpose.

But Senator Homer Ferguson obviously was eager to display a floor show for the nation, in the hope of luring to the Republican camp the soft-headed.

In Columbus, O., actress Kay Francis became ill suddenly for mysterious reasons. Her manager was detained by police for investigation of assault with intent to kill. The manager said that she had summoned him to her room after informing him that she had taken sleeping pills. She was severely burned, he claimed, when she fell against a radiator. The actress remained unconscious. Police found evidence of a "wild party" having taken place in the room.

Ms. Francis was present in Columbus for the stage production of "State of the Union", which was also set to be released in April as a motion picture.

In Hollywood, a merchant marine officer sought divorce from aspiring actress Jaqua Lynn, based on her having "deported" herself as being the mistress of a middle-aged drama school operator. The latter denied the claim.

In Los Angeles, a woman seeking divorce said that her husband had insistently complained that she was a poor housekeeper for not removing a spot on the wall. He eventually sought to remove it himself, but it became larger and larger while his anger grew commensurately. She watched him as he scrubbed, seeming to irritate him the more until he slapped her in the face.

Dick Young tells of the Parks and Recreation Commission looking at the relative costs of either a quonset hut or a concrete block structure as a replacement for the activities center for teenagers.

Cold temperatures were promised for the Carolinas again, developing out of a mass of frigid air moving eastward from the Rockies. Temperatures were expected to fall to between 10 and 15 degrees. The low for this date in Charlotte was 41.

In Nashville, the low was 9 degrees, 14 in Memphis, 22 in Knoxville, and 21 atop Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina.

The sports page tells of pitcher Ernie White of the Boston Braves, who would lead them to the National League title.

On the editorial page, "Secret of the Nazi-Soviet Pact" finds it doubtful that the release by the State Department of the secret pact offered by Stalin to Hitler in 1940, to join the Axis in exchange for control of Finland, the Dardanelles and the Middle East, rejected without reply, would have more than little impact on the Russian people. The propaganda coup which the State Department claimed by broadcasting the news via Voice of America would largely fall on deaf ears. The Russian Government would justify the effort to the people as an expedient in furtherance of power politics for the purpose of national defense.

The double-dealing which had occurred since the war appeared only as an extension of the same sort of logic.

Stalin distrusted the West as much as he had Nazi Germany and would betray the West just as quickly. The prospect of war would not be eliminated until a basis for trust was established, sufficient to convince Russia that the capitalist world did not mean to attack it.

"'Fill a Ship with Friendship'" tells of North Carolina sponsoring, through the state Council of Churches, its own Friendship Train for France and Italy. The national train had not passed through the state. It informs of the types of goods desired.

It again gives credit to Drew Pearson for originating the idea in October and seeing it through to delivery. Mr. Pearson's impressions that the Europeans were deeply moved by the aid had been borne out by all observers. It encourages therefore making contributions.

"Great Smoky Calls America" tells of the development of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park finally getting underway, with a projected budget of 2.2 million dollars. The Park had 1.1 million visitors in 1947. The development, it says, would stimulate business in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee and draw to the area many as permanent residents.

A piece from the New Orleans States, titled "Prospect for South's Growth", informs of a report by the Census Bureau predicting that if the South were to take advantage of its increased supply of skilled labor, increased local capital, and larger quantity of plants and equipment, there would be substantial growth in metropolitan population.

Drew Pearson relates of his experience riding the Simplon-Orient Express from Trieste to Paris, taking twice as long as the train traveling about the same distance from New York to Chicago. The primary reason was the constant red tape encountered at borders, reminding the passenger that Lincoln was right in preserving the Union.

He cautions that the Russians were seeking to unite the Balkans and that if America were smart, it would not allow it to occur. The attempt was being made by force.

America needed to work to form a union of Western Europe, economically and militarily, as part of the Marshall Plan, as recommended to Congress by Bernard Baruch.

He suggests establishing a pool of experts in each industry from various countries and allowing each country to draw on that expertise at will. In that way, the prospect of lending credence to Communist charges of imperialism could be avoided. When he made the suggestion to leaders of Italy and France, it received positive reaction. Foreign Minister to Italy, Count Sforza, suggested an international pool of financial experts to check spending under the Marshall Plan.

Such suggestions could enable the vision of Mr. Baruch to be realized.

Marquis Childs tells of Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon having taken the unconventional approach of addressing a union, in this case the CIO International Woodworkers of the Pacific Northwest, by suggesting that continuing to seek wage hikes only contributed to the high cost of living, as the inevitably higher prices absorbed most of the hike by the time it was realized in their pockets.

The industries were not resisting the latest round of wage boosts, and union leaders suspected that it was for the reason that they wanted to absorb the boost into profits while continuing to increase prices even further. G.E. had proved the exception by lowering its prices. UAW members at G.M. had voted to forgo a third of its 30-cent per hour demand for increase, provided the company would agree to a reasonable pension plan.

Labor appeared to be realizing that Senator Morse was correct and that there was no wisdom in entering anew such a cycle.

Samuel Grafton suggests that people in high places really did not want inflation to end, as demonstrated by the rejection by the Republicans of Bernard Baruch's recommendations to the Congress for a two-year moratorium on tax cuts and freezing of farm prices for three years. Businesses, even marginal businesses, were earning good profits and did not want the boom times to end. And, while non-unionized service workers as policemen, firemen, and teachers suffered on government incomes, they were not large enough as a group in each Congressional district to make an electoral impact.

Mr. Baruch's plan received kindly approval but no one wanted to implement it.

A letter writer explains the high prices in the lumber industry. The industry did not like the prices, he says, but saw no way to reduce them in the face of demand many times greater than prior to the war.

He says that there were faults within the industry which he represented. But he expresses, nevertheless, love for it:

"When bored by office routine and jangling telephones, I love to take a trip to the mills and go out where the logs are being cut where I can inhale the sweet fresh earthly smell of the forest, listen to the song of the saws and enjoy the sweet, healthful aroma of fresh cut lumber."
A letter writer hopes that the U.N. would establish a means of enforcement of its decisions, as the partition of Palestine. He predicts that if it followed a weak course with the Arab states, it would meet the same fate as the League of Nations and be ignored.
He quotes from a London A.P. dispatch, which said, "Great Britain will continue to fulfill her contracts to sell arms and military equipment to Arab states despite their threat to march against Palestine after the British mandate ends." Meanwhile, Haganah could not, according to the British, obtain arms, and the U.S. had banned the shipment of arms and munitions to the Middle East in early December. Moshe Shertok of the Jewish Agency was seeking U.S. surplus war materiel on a lend-lease basis.

The writer concludes that should the U.N. afford itself teeth to back up its decisions, it would become the potent instrument of peace for which it was designed.

Shoemaker.

Framed Edition

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