Friday, DECEMBER 3, 1948

The Charlotte News

Friday, December 3, 1948

TWO EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Berlin, the Communists had launched a propaganda campaign to scare Berliners from the polls in the elections scheduled for the following Sunday, asserting in the newspapers that the U.S. might withdraw from Berlin by the spring and that General Lucius Clay might be recalled by the U.S. The Russians recognized only the newly created Communist Government of East Berlin.

Meanwhile, the U.S. was able to remove its equipment from the Berlin City Hall, overtaken by the Communist regime. The British had been stopped from doing likewise the previous day, until finally prevailing on the police to let them do so.

An election rally in the Western sector was intruded by fistfights and heckling, the third straight day of such activities.

In Paris, the U.N. political committee approved by a vote of 42 to 2 a new American proposal, put forward by future Secretary of State Dean Rusk, as an amendment to the British plan approved the previous day, providing for a conciliation commission to assist Jews and Arabs in settling outstanding questions on Palestine. The committee had struck from the British proposal a reference that the commission would give equal weight to the proposal of assassinated former Palestine mediator Count Folke Bernadotte. As pointed out by Mr. Rusk, the opposition vote was by those who had opposed partition in the first instance and who had also opposed the Bernadotte plan to give Arab Palestine to Trans-Jordan, opposed actively by Russia. The Arab and Slav blocs abstained.

In China, the Nationalist Government confirmed that Suchow had fallen to the Communists after complete evacuation of the city had been completed, with 250,000 troops falling back to rescue surrounded troops north of Nanking in the Suhsien sector. Foreign observers, however, estimated the troop contingent at 110,000. The Communists found supply depots in Suchow completely destroyed, after a scorched-earth policy had been employed.

Madame Chiang Kai-Shek called on Secretary of State Marshall at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington. No details were provided.

On instructions from the White House, military personnel were ordered to stop talking about the effect of the proposed 15 billion dollar budget ceiling for the military being put forward by the President. The three branches of the armed forces, collectively, had proposed as much as 23 billion dollars.

The treaty of Rio de Janeiro formed in August, 1947, was ratified to form the Mutual Defense Compact between 19 nations. It provided for immediate military assistance if any member nation were attacked by another nation within the hemisphere, and in the event of attack by an outside nation, that the signatories would meet to determine the best course of action. The "security zone" thus formed by the Compact extended literally from pole to pole. Canada had not joined the Compact but would join NATO. Thus, all of the members of the Compact other than the U.S. were Latin American nations.

Of 2.2 million loyalty checks done by the FBI of Government employees during the prior year, starting October 1, 1947, only 385 workers had left the Government voluntarily and 51 were fired by their agencies after "unfavorable determinations" of their cases. There remained 131,000 forms to process.

Based on new "important" "documentary" evidence discovered in Baltimore—not yet described as being contained within a pumpkin—, the case of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers, which had captured attention of the nation the previous August before HUAC, was set to resume before a grand jury and possibly also again before HUAC. Attorney General Tom Clark said that he would recommend the inquiry be reopened by the Justice Department if a special Federal grand jury in New York asked him to do so. Since the hearings had concluded before HUAC in early September, Mr. Hiss had sued Mr. Chambers for $75,000 for defamation, based on accusing him on "Meet the Press" of being a Communist. A previous Justice Department investigation of the varying and conflicting testimony between the two men before HUAC to determine whether there had been perjury was left inconclusive and terminated.

An agreement was reached with the last of five CIO striking maritime unions on the West Coast, providing for a ten percent pay increase for three years, bringing pay from a base of $295 per month to $325.

In Oshkosh, Wis., a fire, caused by an igniting oil heater, destroyed a home, killing six small children.

In Charlotte, a 19-year old woman from Belmont gave birth to triplet girls at Mercy Hospital. All were doing well. The mother said, "What in the world will I do with three girls?"

In celebration of the newspaper's 60th birthday, a piece tells of Charlotte's saloons in 1888, with hotels boasting of their "fine stocks". But there was also talk of prohibition, as the Temperance Union held meetings at the YMCA. A wagonload of illicit spirits confiscated at Sugaw Creek Church had been sold at auction at Wadsworth's stable, including the wagon, the team of horses, and 130 gallons of "firewater". The owner bid on the property but it went to a syndicate of saloon men. The wagon had been spotted by revenue agents as holding illicit merchandise, though disguised as butter, when an unusual demand for butter suddenly arose at Sugaw Creek and some of the customers were observed leaving the wagon with jugs filled with butter.

In Memphis, Tenn., as explained in the caption below a photograph, Mrs. Rebie Willis, head surgeon of the doll hospital, was busy in advance of Christmas mending broken dolls.

And your bird can sing...

On the editorial page, "A Return to the Two-Party System" tells of RNC chairman Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania having mailed to party workers a memo in which he stated that they should continue to work to "police the Truman New Deal" and radical spending. He said that they would not abandon the Government to "regimented state socialism" as intended by the Democrats.

It posits that if Congressman Scott, though discredited by the poll results, could sell Republicans on these ideas, then there would be a return to the two-party system, which the piece believes to be a good thing. Since 1936, when Alf Landon had been the GOP nominee, there had been no real choice between the candidates. Wendell Willkie, the GOP opponent of FDR in 1940, had championed "one world" and had no serious disagreement with the New Deal. Similarly, Thomas Dewey, in both 1944 and 1948, had not varied greatly in philosophy from the Democrats, only promised to do the job more efficiently for less money.

While a national debate transpired on the balance between the Federal Government and the states, the GOP had decided that since it could not defeat the Democrats on the issue, it had to join them, thus depriving the voters of any real voice.

In response to the debacle in November for the Republicans, liberal GOP Senators George Aiken of Vermont, Wayne Morse of Oregon, and Raymond Baldwin of Connecticut had advocated a new, liberal Republican Party. Instead, the piece recommends putting the issue squarely before the American people in the next presidential election as to whether they favored the New Deal approach or not.

"The Odds Against the Missimo" tells of Madame Chiang, having arrived in Washington to try to obtain aid for China's sagging, corrupt Chiang Government, to be not so charming as her previous visits had made her seem and, likewise, was not so welcome. The President did not want her in the country, believed that giving aid to China was akin to pouring money down a rat-hole.

If she were to obtain aid, it would be through her force of personality and charm. She would have to convince Americans that China was fighting the Communists in the interests of the U.S. and containing Communism.

Many Americans believed that any containment of Communism, no matter the source, was a good thing. But there were also many Americans who would not tolerate the continued feudalism evidenced by the Chiang regime toward the Chinese people.

Madame Chiang could not obtain aid before January when the new Congress convened. It says that regardless of her mission, she was welcome personally for her historical role but could not be welcomed as a representative of the Nationalist Government.

That is why you will wind up out there in Taiwan.

A piece from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, titled "Neckerchief Note", describes how the "four-in-hand" as a necktie got its name, having apparently derived it from the coach and four roans, piebalds or bays, but beyond that, the record appeared barren. It hypothesizes that perhaps such a coachman had developed his kerchief into a necktie or cravat.

Whatever the case, it concludes, the tie was the most ornamental and useless male apparel, now costing up to $35, though the dollar tie had remained for at least 40 years, based on an editorial column by Henry D. Perkins of the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, looking back at Norfolk of 40 years earlier. Food had probably been a tenth as cheap as in 1948. But while inflation had raised the prices of most other things, the dollar tie remained stable.

A piece from the Congressional Quarterly tells of foreign policy issues being likely to consume two or three months of the new session of Congress, regarding ERP, aid to China, arms for Western Europe, the creation of NATO, the renewal for more than one year of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements, and the reconsideration of displaced persons from Europe and replacing the discriminatory Act adopted by the 80th Congress, as well as other issues.

Drew Pearson tells of the President confiding recently to a friend that he would make changes to his Cabinet only after his inauguration and when the press stepped back and stopped hounding him about it. He did not want the perception left that any member would be fired, to avoid harming their earning capacity in the private sector.

He adds to a story circulating in the national press regarding former Senator D. Worth Clark's advice that aid be given to China, based on his mission at the behest of the Senate Appropriations Committee, by telling of the receipt of Mr. Clark's former law firm of $100,000 from T. V. Soong, brother-in-law of Chiang, for the purpose of attracting aid for China.

He tells of the Mayor of Reading, Pa., relating the story of being informed that a good person for a job in his Administration would be one George Schultze out of the Sixth Ward. When the Mayor asked what he could do, the reply was, "Nothing," to which the Mayor had responded that they should therefore hire him right away, for they would not need to break him in.

Federal Security administrator Oscar Ewing had been working to get more doctors, dentists, and nurses for the country, in part by favoring a plan of Federal loans to medical students under Federal guarantees of repayment. He also favored a bill to provide Federal subsidies for medical schools based on the number of students graduated.

He notes that Mr. Ewing blamed the nursing shortage on marriage.

The President was considering a labor leader as Assistant Secretary of State, given that most European Governments were dominated by labor.

The seven-year old daughter of comedian Georgie Jessel had, with her father, visited the President, who gave her some chewing gum, to which generosity she had responded by saying that she knew who she would vote for in the coming year.

Hey, we don't have presidential elections in odd years in this country, little girl, unless you are trying to suggest that the President will be impeached, in which case, you must learn some manners. And don't smack that gum.

Secretary of State Marshall was mad about the visit to the U.S. of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek—who was staying with Mrs. Marshall at the family home while the Secretary was in the hospital. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal favored the visit.

Senator Elbert Thomas of Utah, writing a book about the rise and fall of the New Deal, said that See Magazine had offered to purchase the serialization rights, to which Senator Thomas had replied that he believed it would not be timely as he did not foresee the fall of the New Deal.

The Politburo reportedly had held several meetings since the election to try to figure out what had occurred with the failed campaign of Henry Wallace.

Secretary Forrestal had asked for an inventory of all surplus war equipment, which would then be rushed as military aid for the Marshall Plan nations until such time as Congress passed a peacetime lend-lease bill.

As part of a British plan to have a European air force under British command, the British had begun negotiations with French companies to produce British jet fighters for the French Air Force.

Marquis Childs discusses the indictment of former Congressman from Missouri Roger Slaughter, purged by the Pendergast machine at the behest of the President in 1946 for his disloyalty to the Truman policy. He had been indicted recently for not properly registering as a lobbyist, claiming as defense that he was hired as a lawyer whose duties to the client incidentally included lobbying, for which he was exempt from registration by the fact of client confidentiality owed by the attorney.

Many law firms in Washington were hired likewise for the purpose of lobbying and if the courts were to refuse to uphold Mr. Slaughter's defense, it would strike fear into those legal circles.

Technically, Mr. Slaughter had done as much as anyone, if by contrary action, to see to it that the President was re-elected. For he had lobbied Congress actively for the grain storage limitation, opposition to which the President was able effectively to use during the campaign in the farm states and rural areas generally. The limitation had prevented the Government from buying grain at support prices, for it had no place to store it, causing farmers to have to sell excess crops at below support levels.

While the Republican candidate had eventually won the general election in 1946, a Democratic amateur, a war veteran and opponent of the Pendergast forces, had been elected to the Congressional seat in 1948, running on a liberal New Deal platform. He had been one of only a handful of candidates elected from the Americans for Democratic Action. Hubert Humphrey had been elected to the Senate from Minnesota as national vice-chairman of ADA. In St. Paul, active ADA member Eugene McCarthy—who, as Senator from Minnesota, would go on to be an opponent of Vice-President Humphrey for the Democratic nomination in the 1968 presidential race—was elected to Congress.

He tells of other ADA members elected to Congress, from New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts, where renowned Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr., was the ADA chairman.

The ADA members, he predicts, would be heard from in the new Congress and the organization had already begun an organizing drive aimed at the 1950 elections.

James Marlow instructs of Freud's basic theory of the human mind, that it is divided into three parts, the id, the inherent primordial drives of the subconscious, the ego or consciousness, the sense of self and identity, and the super-ego or conscience, often associated with the individual's conception of "god" or a moral and ethical standard.

When all three are in proper synchronization, the human being is at stasis with the world, but if, for instance, the id manages to supersede the super-ego, then criminality can easily result, if not checked by the ego, still in need, however, of re-balancing with the super-ego to avoid the superfluity of ego to conquer the id.

Most of the mind was within the subconscious, submerged as an iceberg—or, as the typically unseen movements of a functioning internal combustion engine. The three parts of the mind were in natural and perpetual conflict and had to be constantly balanced through compromise to avoid untoward behavior patterns or acts. Some conflicts were no more than neuroses, the inability to work out the compromises, leading to anxiety or depression. Others could advance to critical mass to become psychosis, devolving into the realm of hallucination—as when a piston is thrown through the top of the head and the engine catches fire.

He asks whether there is comparison between this mental battlefield on an individual level and that of society in the collective mind of the nation. Dr. Edward Streckman of the University of Pennsylvania had asserted that there was, that nations, as individuals, had personalities. Too often, he posited, the societal conscience was weak, succumbing to the subconscious drives of the collective id, war being the most egregious manifestation.

The societal ego constantly rationalized away the conflicts between the super-ego and id, enabling double-dealing even in the face of societal dishonor, providing the nation with a self-induced, false self-perception of fair-dealing and ideals.

A piece from the Greenville (S.C.) News tells of the selection by the AMA of Dr. William Lowry Pressly of Due West, S.C., as national family doctor of the year. It applauds the selection.

A piece from the Greensboro Daily News tells of the menu available at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian at Cherokee, N.C., the previous Sunday, which included as a meat barbecued rattlesnake.

Bon appetit.

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