Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President met
with Secretary of State Marshall to discuss the international
situation. Secretary Marshall had flown to Washington from Paris for
the briefing. The President cut short his New York campaign trip to
meet with the Secretary.
Rumors abounded that the President was considering a plan to
send Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson to Moscow to meet with
Josef Stalin, but diplomats had stated that the plan had been
abandoned. Mr. Truman had no comment on whether such a plan was
being considered. CBS reported that the President had asked for
airtime on Tuesday to make such an announcement but had then
canceled the request.
The six "neutral" nations of the U.N. Security
Council were seeking more time to press their efforts to effect
conciliation between East and West in the Berlin blockade crisis,
seeking to postpone a scheduled Monday meeting of the Council to
afford more time for mediation. They were urging that Russia and the
Big Four directly settle their differences and that the blockade
temporarily be ended during the period of negotiation. They believed
that it would be useless for the Council to demand that Russia end
the blockade as Russia would undoubtedly veto the resolution.
The U.N. political committee moved forward with debate on the
Russian proposal to reduce major power armament by one-third.
Britain argued that the proposal was a fraud on the world.
Argentina was leading a quiet move to relax the U.N. boycott
of Franco's Spain. Other Latin American countries joined the effort,
but Venezuela and Mexico were said to be opposed.
In Berlin, the Russians announced that large-scale air
maneuvers would be held in the airlift corridors this date, to
include gunnery practice. Again, U.S. officials registered a
protest. The Russians had announced similar maneuvers for the
previous day but no sign of them was seen by the American airlift
pilots.
In Llandudno, Wales, Winston Churchill warned that World War
III could come at any time as a result of the Berlin crisis and that
only the atom bomb deterred Russia from engulfing all of Western
Europe. America would be committing suicide and "murdering
human freedom" to destroy its stockpile of atom bombs. The
West had to negotiate from a position of strength.
In France, Communist-led strikes hit the country following a
six-day mine strike, also led by the Communists. The strikers
demanded a 40-hour week, a month of vacation pay and a minimum wage
of $75 per month, double the current minimum. A million tons of coal
had been lost by the strike.
In Munich, Germans sought to try Ilse Koch on crimes against
humanity charges of their own, following her June commutation from
life to four years on the Allied war crimes convictions stemming
from her time at Buchenwald concentration camp.
In Tel Aviv, 75 to 100 Stern Gang members remained at large
after breaking out of the Jaffa jail this date. The jail held most
of the 250 members rounded up by the Israelis following the
assassination of U.N. mediator Count Folke Bernadotte on September
17. About 120 had initially escaped, but about 50 of those only took
a swim in the sea, visited with friends and returned voluntarily.
Lewis Strauss of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission said at
the University of New Hampshire in Durham that scientists would soon
figure out the photosynthetic basis for plant life. It could open
the way for a great advance in food production. He also said that
atomic energy would soon be so abundant that it would provide
electricity to the ordinary home. He also said that undesirable
traits could be stifled in subsequent generations through gene
manipulation by nuclear energy. Experiments had been conducted in
animal and plant life, and human development was being studied in
Japan in the aftermath of the atomic blasts. Findings on the latter
showed so far that resultant changes were undesirable.
In Pittsburgh, Socialist candidate for president Norman
Thomas said that Henry Wallace and the Progressives were
Johnny-come-latelies in the field of racial equality. He claimed
that Mr. Wallace had not practiced racial justice while he had been
Secretary of Agriculture in the Thirties.
In Charlotte, Bishop Grace appeared at the United House of
Prayer on Long Street before 1,500 people. He spent the bulk of the service in a
revolving chair observing the marching and palm-smacking of his
flock. The band played a bebop rhythm. "Daddy" Grace had
last appeared in the city on September 12.
Tom Schlesinger of The News reports of the Public
Library having a display of books, magazines and films regarding the
planned Miracle Farm Demonstration Day set for the following week,
to turn a failing farm owned by two veterans into a fertile
enterprise in the course of a few hours.
In Cleveland, the Indians took the fourth game of the World
Series against the Boston Braves, 2 to 1, giving Cleveland the lead
in the series 3 to 1.
Game 5 the following day, also in Cleveland, would, we predict, go to the
Braves 11 to 5.
On the editorial page, "Young Republic Fights for Life" tells of the tendency of the public to forget that Russian guns and
U.S. guns were already exchanging volleys in the fights in China and
Greece. To both countries had been going U.S. aid, arms and military
advisers, as Russia did likewise. Thus, there was actually a pair of
hot wars transpiring within the context of the cold war.
According to observers on the scene, the Greek war with
Communist guerrillas might last well into 1950, and was of strategic
significance to protect the Mediterranean, the Dardanelles and the
Suez Canal for the West. The Greek situation was under control.
But China was the greatest test. It had become a Republic in
name, though not in fact, 37 years earlier, but had endured war for
almost two decades, such that its Government had never achieved
stability. The Chiang Government had never managed to put down the
rebel Communists in the North. The American policy had been of
little help to the Chinese Nationalists as the Administration had
largely withdrawn from the problem.
The piece suggests that the policy in China contributed to
the Soviet belief that American policy generally was spineless,
exacerbating therefore the Berlin crisis. It agrees with Governor
Dewey that a new policy toward China was necessary and that America
could not afford to abandon the Chinese to Communism any more than
Europe. If China were to fall, he had posited, then so would all of
Asia.
The piece concludes that China should receive from the free
world a present of survival on its 37th birthday.
"Can You Speak Freely?" begins by quoting John L.
Lewis on October 6, saying before the UMW convention that Attorney
General Tom Clark had tapped his phones. Mr. Clark had denied the
charge with a laugh, saying that Mr. Lewis bellowed so loudly that
it was not necessary. But he did not generally deny that the Justice
Department had ever used wiretapping outside of espionage and
criminal cases.
The piece does not know who was telling the truth in the
case, but no mention was made in the contempt cases against Mr.
Lewis of any wiretap evidence. If such matter were obtained and used
to bring pressure on Mr. Lewis, it posits, even in the national
interest, his civil rights were violated. More importantly, the
rights of all citizens were at stake.
It regards nothing sinister about wiretap evidence when used
to capture criminals or to interdict spy operations. But for it to
be used by the Justice Department and the FBI for political
purposes, to gather dirt on the party not in power, was not to be
tolerated.
The New York Star had just concluded a series of
articles on the topic of indiscriminate use of wiretapping and the
like against not only Mr. Lewis, but also Col. Robert McCormick of
the Chicago Tribune, Jim Farley, deceased publishers Joe and
Cissie Patterson, Harry Bridges of the ILWU on the West Coast,
former Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones, and CIO and Steel Workers
head Philip Murray. But if so, no such information appeared to have
been utilized in any criminal prosecution.
It wonders why Congress was not investigating the matter as
it would be salutary for the country and for the Congressmen
themselves.
A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled
"Important Lawsuit", comments on the defamation suit of
Alger Hiss against Whittaker Chambers for $50,000 for having stated
on "Meet the Press" that Mr. Hiss was a Communist
during the mid-Thirties when Mr. Chambers knew him. Mr. Hiss,
formerly of the State Department, was presently head of the Carnegie
Foundation, on whose board sat John Foster Dulles, who had
recommended Mr. Hiss for the position.
The lawsuit was important for HUAC as well as to the parties
involved.
It would also be important for the 1948 pumpkin crop down on
the Animal Farm.
Drew Pearson tells of the Pentagon planning to present in
January a military lend-lease program for the five Western European
Union countries, regardless of who would win the election. The
program would run 4.5 to 6 billion dollars. Under consideration were
proposals to supply enough aid to outfit about 25 divisions,
establish semi-permanent American air and ground force bases in all
five WEU countries except Belgium, plus Italy and West Germany, and
establish a ring of air bases through Norway, Greenland and Alaska
to thwart any Arctic air attack by the Soviets. The WEU wanted the
Pentagon also to obtain automatic right to declare war if the
Soviets attacked any WEU nation. Secretary of Defense James
Forrestal and his aides, however, thus far were balking because of
the huge expense, totaling 31 billion dollars in the end for
defense, aid, and veterans expenditures if the plan were
implemented. Quietly, talks were being held with a Dewey
intermediary on the subject, Ferdin Eberstadt, the likely Secretary
of Defense under President Dewey.
Anytime Mr. Dewey slipped up on the campaign trail, the press
was reluctant to report it, while every time the President slipped,
it was front page news. In Julesburg, Colo., Mr. Dewey told the
crowd that he was happy to be back in Denver. While that made the
newspapers, a gaff at Greeley was noted by only a few local papers.
Mr. Dewey was interrupted by a plane flying overhead with its
speakers blaring "Vote for Hamil", at which Mr. Dewey
said, "That fellow Hamil is no friend of mine." Mr.
Dewey had forgotten that Mr. Hamil, the GOP gubernatorial candidate,
was on the rostrum with him. The worst faux pas, however, was
in Denver, unreported, when he urged that they return their
Congressman to Washington. The Congressman was a Democrat, John
Carroll.
It was no secret that Mr. Dewey disliked Senator Joseph Ball
of Minnesota, in a tough fight with Mayor Hubert Humphrey for
re-election. But when told that he was in trouble, Mr. Dewey wanted
to come to Mr. Ball's aid.
Secretary of State Marshall was having trouble in Paris with
the French and British, the French favoring some form of appeasement
of the Russians and the British leaning their way, believing that
Moscow would ignore efforts to get the blockade lifted. Secretary
Marshall believed the Russians were in the process of stalling and
remained firm that the U.S. would not leave Berlin. He reminded the
allies that if they pulled out of Berlin, they would soon have to
leave Germany, and then there would be no recovery as there would be
no aid. In the end, the French agreed.
One of the problems, Mr. Pearson notes, was the Communist
propaganda having convinced the French that the Marshall Plan was an
instrument to prepare for war with Russia and that the U.S. would
employ the French in that fight.
Marquis Childs tells of the President and his advisers not
accepting that the people had already made up their minds on the
election, thus planning to campaign almost continuously on the road
until the weekend before the vote on November 2. Greater emphasis
would be placed on what the President and the Democrats had done for
the country rather than so much on the "do-nothing"
Congress and what the Republican leaders had done to hurt the
country, as in the previous cross-country train tour.
Emphasis, on the advice of Clark Clifford, would be placed on
Taft-Hartley and its future threat to the unions in the hope of
driving labor to the polls in large cities. But in Michigan, where
the UAW had taken over the Democratic Party, there was no unusual
rush to register to vote, despite only a week remaining until the
registration deadline.
The campaign of Wendell Willkie in 1940, during which he
barnstormed the country and made numerous speeches daily while FDR
remained aloof from the campaign tending to the international
situation, was the paradigm for the current Truman campaign.
Eventually, FDR was forced to the campaign hustings by the
insistence of Mr. Willkie. But that was in the midst of war and the
electorate was reluctant to change horses in midstream.
Mr. Childs thinks that if the President had any chance for
re-election, he had to pursue the active campaign he was waging.
Reports had come to the White House that the underdog role of the
President had begun to appeal to the public. The President would
continue to show his fighting spirit against "hopeless odds".
Joseph Alsop tells of Andrei Vishinsky having an ace up his
sleeve at the U.N. meeting in Paris, would propose at the right time
a complete evacuation of all occupation troops from Germany. Korea
stood as a recent precedent and the Cominform had called for
complete evacuation. The Soviets were also forming a pro-Russian
militia in Eastern Germany. Well conditioned German prisoners who
had been trained by the Russians in Communist indoctrination camps
had been returning to Germany in increasing numbers during recent
weeks and were becoming part of the police force. This force
undoubtedly would seize power in Germany for the Communists in the
event of evacuation.
The Western powers, however, were unlikely to accept any such
condition. It was calculated by Russia to appeal to the Germans who
disliked all of the occupation forces, while preserving the
objective of having control of Germany by the Communists. The only
way to trump such a proposed effort would be for the Western powers
to propose the evacuation first and condition it on free elections
being held under U.N. supervision, and disarming of the
Soviet-trained militia. The U.S. could also offer to France and
Western Europe military lend-lease and provide guaranteed support
against aggression.
Those favoring such a strategy argued that the time was ripe
for evacuation as the Germans, because of resentment over the
blockade, would overwhelmingly defeat the Communists in any fair
election.
The experts believed that Russia would accept such a proposed
agreement in principle and then make it impossible of final
achievement by demanding such things as continued ownership of
German industries in the Eastern zone, greater reparations, and a
voice in control of the Ruhr.
A piece from the Congressional Quarterly tells of the
next budget to be sent to Congress the following January to present
a formidable task for the next President to hold under 40 billion
dollars. It analyzes the problems for budget-cutters from either
party.
The Carlsbad (N.M.) Current-Argus reports that a woman
from Carlsbad was visiting recently in Terrell, Texas, and was
questioned by a woman about the Carlsbad taverns which she claimed
to have visited.
From the Greenville (Tenn.) Sun comes a poem titled
"Love":
Love is like an onion, You taste it with delight And when it's gone you wonder, Whatever made you bite.
