Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Jerusalem was
virtually paralyzed as gun-toting Arabs, Britons, and Jews patrolled
the city following the previous day's bombing of the Jewish sector,
in which 52 persons had been killed and 88 others injured on Ben
Yehuda Street. There were possibly more victims in the rubble of two
hotels, three apartment houses and scores of shops. Arab leaders
claimed credit for the bombing, consisting of two truckloads of
explosives.
Many Jews believed, however, that the British were
responsible, as nine British soldiers were killed in retaliation.
Three Jews were also killed, bringing the death toll to 64. The
Jewish Irgun organization threatened that all British personnel
entering the Jewish section of the city would be subject to
execution.
The U.S., Great Britain, and France began a London conference
regarding the future of Western Germany, the first formal
recognition that the world had divided into two spheres of influence
as it was the first time that Russia had been absent from talks on
the future of any of the former Axis nations. Russia absented
itself primarily in reaction to the Marshall Plan and its stated
belief that the Plan was imperialistic, as well the failure to form
a German treaty on Russia's terms, favoring a strong central
government, during December. Russia protested that the conference
violated the July, 1945 Potsdam agreement.
In Prague, Communists placed security police in front of all
government buildings and foreign embassies, stifled partially free
speech.
In Washington, Southern Democratic Governors waited to talk
to Senator Howard McGrath, DNC chairman, regarding the President's
civil rights proposal. They continued to be angry about the matter.
They said that if any of the provisions were enacted, the President
would be in "real trouble" in the South, as Southern
electors would be allowed in December to vote as they chose. The
Southerners feared that they were caught in a political crossfire as
they had heard, based on a Senate poll, that the filibuster would be
broken by Republican support, aided by some Democrats, as it took
two-thirds of the quorum present to effect cloture. Usually, a few
Republicans allowed the filibuster to proceed.
Said Governor Strom Thurmond, "We really mean business."
Senator McGrath stated in Providence, R.I., that the
President would stick by his civil rights proposal regardless of
opposition from the South.
The President urged a stronger 14-month rent control law and
extension of financial aid in building homes. He also proposed a
long-term housing bill to construct a million dwellings per year for
the ensuing decade. He said that less than 15 percent of the 840,000
units constructed in 1947 had been rental units.
The President visited St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, saying
that renewal by Congress of the Virgin Islands Co. charter was
necessary to assure stabilization of the economy of the islands. He
would leave later in the day for the Naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba,
then begin a vacation in Key West, Florida.
An article in Advertising Age said that Robert Young,
railroad executive of the Chesapeake & Ohio, was willing to run
for the presidency. He thought any of 10,000 businessmen would make
a better president than any of those running.
In Marblehead, Mass., a man was detained by police for
attempting to break into the phone company. He was upset that he had
lost his nickel in a pay phone. After a lecture, they sent him on
his way without his nickel.
Dick Young tells of the Charlotte smoke nuisance coming
before the Planning Board during the afternoon session.
Get rid of it. We don't like it.
Furman Bisher looks at Paul Campbell of the Charlotte Hornets
baseball team, on the sports page. He had played previously for the Boston Red Sox, would go back to the majors during the 1948 season, joining the Detroit Tigers.
Don't miss it.
You can take The News informal reader poll on your
presidential preference for 1948. Use your pinking shears to cut it
out. It only costs three cents to mail.
On the editorial page, "Final Test for Brotherhood" suggests that the U.N.'s viability rested on the success of the
Palestine partition plan being successful. For it to be so would
require the U.N. to establish a force to supplant the British force
set to leave in Mid-May.
During this Brotherhood Week, U.N. delegate of the United
States, Herschel Johnson, of Charlotte, would be honored locally for
his work on the partition plan, to be the recipient of the annual
Carolina Israelite award, sponsored by Harry Golden, founder
of that publication. UNC president Frank Graham would accept on
behalf of Mr. Johnson, too ill to attend. The matter of enforcement
of partition, set to be implemented by October, was about to be
taken up by the Security Council.
The decision on enforcement would, it suggests, be epochal in
its implications.
"Crisis Mounts in Far East" thanks General
MacArthur for not agreeing to come home to testify before the House
Foreign Affairs Committee anent the aid to China proposed by the
President. The piece finds it to have only been a ruse to promote
General MacArthur as a presidential candidate and would not have
served the welfare of the country to hear his testimony on the
subject.
The Chiang Government, as everyone knew, was bankrupt and
could not be saved except by a miracle. It points out that in
addition to crises in Japan and China, to which General MacArthur
had to attend, there was one developing in Korea, all of which, it
believes, might affect America's position and policy in the Far East
in the coming weeks or months.
"America's Peril in Cold War" regards the Communist
move to take over Czechoslovakia to hearken potentially a major
setback in the cold war. The fighting in China and Greece was a hot
war and the situation in each country was intensifying. In Korea,
the Communists had set the stage for a coup which would strengthen
the Soviet position in the Far East. In Italy and France, the
Communists were creating new disturbances.
It appeared that the cold war was reaching a climax just as
the U.S. was divided by an election campaign. The situation called
for quick agreement on the Marshall Plan and bipartisan action to
strengthen other allies and establish Universal Military Training.
Above all, it finds, an early settlement to the differences
between Russia and the U.S. had to be reached, lest disaster result.
A piece from the Louisville Courier-Journal, titled
"In Justice to Mr. Maynard", suggests that the furor was
exaggerated over E. T. Maynard having made $300,000 to $400,000 by
selling short wheat, oats, and cotton during the current price
break. It only served to bring to mind that Bernard Baruch had made
a killing in 1916 on short selling. When called before the Senate,
he admitted that he was a speculator and convinced the Senators that
he had traded without inside information. Mr. Maynard had likewise
been cleared. But nonetheless, the bear speculator could never be
popular in America as people liked optimism. Yet bear speculation
promoted price adjustments.
A piece without a by-line from the Chicago Times finds
a change in Henry Wallace which was not good, first because of his
positive attitude toward being a third-party candidate and moreover
for his becoming a professional politician, providing polished
answers rather than displaying the former frankness which set him
apart from the run-of-the-mill pol. As example, he claimed not to be
aware of the political stances of Senator Wayland Brooks, Republican
of Illinois, to be contested in the fall by Democrat Paul Douglas
and possibly a Progressive Party candidate who might undermine
Professor Douglas's chances. Mr. Wallace knew of the positions of
Mr. Brooks from the former's days as Vice-President when they were
regularly in opposition to one another on the floor of the Senate.
The piece thus wonders why he would allow his supporters to
contemplate the nomination of a Senate candidate to contest the
liberal Douglas candidacy. The reason appeared to be the support by
Professor Douglas of the Marshall Plan and the President's hard line
policy toward Russia.
The Marshall Plan would be enacted by the fall and so,
ventures the piece, it would cease before the election any longer to
be an issue. Senator Brooks was an isolationist who could help to
sell the country down the river to the delight of the Soviets. But
Mr. Wallace nevertheless believed that he could keep his Communist
supporters in line. Unlike FDR in 1944, Mr. Wallace had refused to
eschew Communist support.
While Mr. Wallace viewed himself as the replacement of FDR
for liberals, he was actually a confused and disappointed man, as
shown by his attitude regarding Illinois.
Drew Pearson finds the victory of Leo Isacson, American Labor
Party candidate in the Bronx special Congressional election, to have
placed a damper on Democratic hopes for the fall. It had even caused
some Democratic leaders to begin to look for another candidate other
than the President. Even allies as Democratic Senate leader Alben
Barkley—to be the vice-presidential nominee—and former Speaker of
the House Sam Rayburn were complaining. The fact that the
Wallace-backed candidate could be elected in the stronghold of Boss
Ed Flynn was significant. It appeared that the Democrats could not
win with President Truman.
He points out that, historically, only two of the six
Vice-Presidents who succeeded to the Presidency by death of the President were re-elected, those being Theodore
Roosevelt, in 1904, and Calvin Coolidge, in 1924. Politics regarded
the Vice-President as a political accident insofar as his potential
to become President.
And we might add that George H. W. Bush was the first
Vice-President to be elected directly to the Presidency since Martin
Van Buren in 1836. And, of course, Al Gore would be the second such
Vice-President elected President since that time. Thus, we have
become apparently more appreciative of our Vice-Presidents in recent
decades.
Since this piece appeared, the only sitting Vice-President who became
President and was re-elected after acceding to the Presidency was
Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Richard Nixon skipped eight years before being elected in 1968. He should have stayed at home.
Other gossip making the rounds among Democrats was that there
was no special circumstance as in 1912, when the third-party
candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt drew away votes from President Taft,
in 1916, with the prospect of entering the war contributing to the
narrow victory of President Wilson over Charles Evans Hughes, or in
1932, when the Depression enabled the victory of FDR, his ebullient
personality and success then leading to his three subsequent
victories. They believed that another forceful personality had to be
sought for 1948. There was discussion of getting Henry Kaiser as the
candidate.
But, after having just won the Second World War over an Axis
including Germany, occurring but twenty years after World War I,
perhaps the ring to the American people of "President Kaiser"
would not have gone over so well. President Truman sounds much
better.
Senator Homer Ferguson, chairman of the committee looking
into the grain and cotton speculation of Senator Elmer Thomas of
Oklahoma, had recently uncovered during a secret hearing that one of
Senator Thomas's closest pals and a broker-speculator had paid no
income tax in 1946 and deducted $59,000 in expenses as a farmer. The
crony had come to Washington from Texas penniless a few years
earlier and was reputed to be worth a quarter million dollars,
obviously not from farming.
Marquis Childs again looks at the Atomic Energy Commission,
telling of its general unanimity during its first 18 months, with
one exception, a 4 to 1 decision on providing radioisotopes, useful
only in medical research, to foreign nations.
The two-year terms would end in August and it was to be hoped
that the President would then reappoint all five of the
commissioners for their excellent work thus far. The new terms would
be staggered, such that each would be appointed successively for one
to five years.
Lt. General Leslie Groves, who had been a member of the
Military Liaison Committee, was retiring, as he had not gotten along
well with the Commission. There had been other friction, to be
expected under such circumstances.
A piece without a by-line appears on the House of Commons,
telling of the National Geographic Society reporting that the new
House, rebuilt after the bomb damage of World War II, would have
modern air conditioning, loudspeakers, and a gymnasium. The work was
not expected to be completed until April, 1950. Being part of a
larger complex, the Palace of Westminster, as the whole of it was
called, Commons was in a building of more than 1,100 rooms. The aim
in restoring the Commons chamber, suffering the worst damage during
the war of any other part of the building, was to maintain, insofar
as practicable, the original appearance. The Palace had been built
in the 1090's. Guy Fawkes had been tried there for the Gunpowder Plot, the attempt to blow up Parliament, in 1605.
