Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that about a thousand
students at the University of Oklahoma in Norman protested the ban
on admission of blacks and burned a copy of the Fourteenth Amendment
to the Constitution, mailing its ashes to President Truman. The
spring semester was about to get underway.
Six other black students had sought admission to four
graduate schools, and no word had yet come from the University
admissions office on the status of the applications.
The Supreme Court had recently ordered admission of a black
female student to the University law school unless the State made
available forthwith an equal facility under the separate-but-equal
doctrine. The response of the University had been to try to set up a
law school in the course of a week, with three faculty members and
only the one student. The University again rejected her application
to the regular all-white University law school.
The student, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, had petitioned anew to
the Court on the basis of inadequacy of the State's new "law
school" and seeking admission to the regular University school.
The case, however, would not be heard before February 2, as the
Court was in recess this week.
The House voted to consider the Knutson 6.5 billion dollar
tax cut bill, on which it would vote Monday, without allowing for
amendments. The Democrats opposed the move as a gag rule. Former
House Ways & Means chairman Robert Doughton of North Carolina
had intended to offer an amendment to the measure to allow for only
a four billion dollar cut.
The President asked the Congress to extend until the end of
October his power to control the allocation of grain, to enable
production of ethyl alcohol to curb the fuel shortage.
The House Rules Committee indicated it would act as early as
the following week to approve legislation to raise subsistence
payments to veterans in school and permit higher payments for
on-the-job training.
The British, according to informants, indicated an intent to
modify slightly a treaty signed with Iraq on January 15, following
riots in Baghdad regarding the treaty, not yet ratified, allowing
British troops to enter Iraq in the event of war and the British to
use Iraqi airfields. The British apparently believed that they had
misjudged the reaction of the Iraqis, normally accepting of
Government sanctioned policy. The treaty was designed to stop
Communism from spreading through the Middle East.
In Paris, the National Assembly finance commission voted
against the proposal by Premier Robert Schuman to confiscate a
billion dollars worth of francs from black marketeers.
Russia had objected to American plans to reopen a base in
North Africa near Tripoli, at Mellana. Russia complained that
placing a base in Libya, a former colony of Italy, violated the
terms of the Italian peace treaty. The base was to be used for Air
Transport Command planes.
Senator Claude Pepper of Florida stated that Democrats would
make rent control and housing a major issue in the 1948 campaign.
Former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen arrived in New
Hampshire to campaign for the presidency in the primary set for
March 9, the first in the nation. Republican leaders in the state
believed that Mr. Stassen and Governor Dewey were the strongest
candidates in the primary race.
A Federal Judge in Washington issued a temporary restraining
order against GM, preventing it from implementing an employee
insurance plan on February 1, pending a hearing set for the
following week. The NLRB had just filed a complaint charging that GM
had not allowed union bargaining on the plan.
In Denver, a seven-year old boy related to reporters the
story of his father strangling his mother to death in his presence.
The father had just been released from prison on an arson
conviction. The man had choked his wife and told her to "hurry
up and die". He had shook the bed and made a noise like a pig
as he killed her.
The U.S. Navy was advised by the American Feline Society to
send a cadre of a million "back alley brawler" cats abroad
to kill rats in Europe, pilfering food sent as part of the emergency
aid package passed by Congress the previous December. The Society
said that they would undertake to draft the cats and that ordinary
domestic cats would not be acceptable for the task.
Frank Morgan says: "If you believe only half of what you
hear, be sure it's the right half. Which brings me to the
observation that a lie is very often the light that lies in the eyes
of a woman ... and lies and lies."
That's not fair. Many men lie all the time and you know it.
On the editorial page, "Guessing on the Marshall Plan"
tells of Philip Reed of GE testifying to the House Foreign Affairs
Committee that no one could guess within five billion dollars how
much it would cost to rebuild Europe under ERP. But, nevertheless,
he supported the plan generally for its necessity in stopping
Russian expansion.
The piece finds his reasoning valid and also respects his
candor on the cost issue.
The critics of the proposed 6.8 billion dollar package for
the first 15 months, such as Herbert Hoover, were advocating only a
four billion dollar appropriation. The piece thinks that those
opponents needed to consider the testimony of Mr. Reed. It was
dangerous to continue to pare down an already pared down proposal,
especially given Mr. Reed's testimony.
"Whisky and Grain Savings" tells of the House
Banking Committee voting not to continue curbs on use of grains by
the distilling industry. Some in Congress protested the move, but
the figures showed that only two percent of all corn and one percent
of all grains were consumed in distilling. So it did not appear
prudent to penalize one industry to save that relatively small
amount.
The Administration contended that there had been a savings of
five million bushels of grain the previous month under the 60-day
voluntary program, but the distillers pointed out that the country
lost more than that back in not having the by-product of the grain
for use in livestock and poultry feed. The program also caused
unemployment in the industry and loss of tax revenue. It thus believes the
Committee was correct in voting down the legislation.
"Big Jim for President" finds Big Jim Folsom,
Governor of Alabama, to be a showman mainly out to promote his own
interests more than the progressive government he had promised. He
had recently posed for a number of frivolous pictures for a national
publication. And now he had announced his candidacy to run as a
favorite son for the Democratic nomination for the presidency,
charging that President Truman was "hogtied" by
"monopolists, brass hats, grain speculators and Wall Street
lawyers."
His antics had incurred bad press in Alabama and elsewhere.
He had not accomplished anything during his first year in office. It
found his charges against the President, particularly his being in
league with Wall Street lawyers, to be amusing, especially given the
heavy criticism against the President for his civil rights stand and
the like.
It suggests sardonically that if he wanted to attract votes,
he should change his line to the reactionary appeal to which many of
his fellow Southern politicians resorted.
A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "Is
the Army in the Saddle?" tells of a report by 21 educators,
headed by Albert Einstein, titled "Militarization of America",
finding that American democracy could not survive continuation of
the trend toward military control of the country's institutions. In
addition to Secretary of State Marshall and the President's closest
aide, Admiral William Leahy, there were many sub-Cabinet posts
filled by military men, the focus of the educators' report.
The piece thinks that the presence of military personnel in
civilian posts was no threat, the important thing being how the
employee performed. The piece saw no evidence of military dominance
in civilian affairs.
Drew Pearson tells of the Army now having the inside track at
the White House, whereas the Navy had been preeminent during the
Roosevelt years, given President Roosevelt's former role as
Assistant Secretary under Secretary Josephus Daniels during World
War I.
Early indications were that the revelation that the
President's personal physician, Maj. General Wallace Graham, had
speculated in the grain market, combined with the President's
continuing support of him, would cost him a million votes in the
election. The President's Naval aide, Rear Admiral James Foskett, had
been sent to sea because of a row with Army aide Maj. General Harry
Vaughan.
Former Congressman Robert Jones, now on the FCC, had rallied
members of the Public Lands and Surveys Committee of the House to
vote for a compromise reclamation measure favored by the power
companies. Mr. Jones had, while a Congressman, been active in
opposing the power interests.
Mr. Pearson next explains why the Communist newspaper in France,
Humanite, had criticized him and the Friendship Train,
delivering food to France from the people of the United States. He
informs that the people of Strasbourg were making 10,000 white rolls
per day from the flour delivered by the train, making a substantial
contribution to the nutritional stability of the children. The
program would last about two months, through the winter. It was
enough to worry Humanite, causing it to charge American
imperialist motives behind the gift.
Congressman John Taber's secretary was busy promoting the
election interests of the Republicans, placing a sign on Mr. Taber's
office which read, "Don't be a dem fool— Vote Republican in
1948".
It does not seem to have much of a ring to it.
Marquis Childs tells of Senator Taft having stated recently
that prices had begun to level off, to which some of his colleagues quipped that those prices were only on minks and diamond
wristwatches. He provides the foremost members of the two split
factions of the Republican Party with regard to the remedy for
inflation. Senator Taft and Senator Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska were
the conservatives, eschewing any more control than that afforded by
the voluntary measure passed in the special session. Senators as
Ralph Flanders, Irving Ives, and Raymond Baldwin were in favor of
some form of control. Senator Flanders had introduced a bill to
establish the machinery anew for meat rationing so that it would be
ready. Senator Baldwin sponsored a rent control bill extending
controls to June, 1949.
The differences were in the fundamental approaches each wing
of the party was taking, the conservative wing opposing anything
which was favored by the Administration, much as they had during the
New Deal era under FDR, while the other wing was taking an
affirmative approach out of concern for the country and the negative
impact which a deflationary bust would have.
Samuel Grafton tells of the Politburo apparently starting to
reconsider its hard line which had been echoed by Foreign Commissar
V. M. Molotov. They understood that ERP, with the full weight of
American production behind it, could not be matched by Russia in
Europe. The Politburo would thus abandon their expansionist policy.
ERP would be the litmus test by which the Soviets would determine the
willingness of America to adhere to its enunciated foreign policy.
The Soviet Ambassador to the United States had begun to
behave more in a diplomatic than adversarial role, strongly
indicative of this change.
Mr. Grafton again affirms the importance of ERP becoming a
reality, casting the matter in terms of the Biblical story of
Elijah. The country appeared on the right track as long as it stuck
to it.
A letter from a "railroader" complains of an
article in the newspaper which had told of high wages among railroad
men, now seeking another wage hike, but had neglected to inform of
the long hours necessary to earn those wages. The Southeastern
Railroads calculated the average annual salary to be about $4,000
A letter writer complains of the puling nonsense in the
letters to the newspaper from failed Republican Congressional candidate P. C.
Burkholder.
Well, just a dang minute, Pilgrim. Old P. C. is always right,
especially on the country buttermilk issue. Maybe he is a little
wild on the rest, sometimes, but he is entertaining.
A letter from P. C. Burkholder again attacks the Marshall Plan
for its cost, and states that it would not do any good anyway, as
Americans would not fall for Communist propaganda. He thinks that it
was, by design, an effort by the New Dealers to build up Communism
and bankrupt America, because the New Dealers were Communists. The
New Deal, however, he says, was "trembling".
A letter writer finds Mr. Burkholder monotonous but gives
thanks that he was not a Democrat. He thinks he ought give thanks
that he had lived during the age of Roosevelt and the New Deal, a
favorite target of Mr. Burkholder's incessant letters.