Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Southern
Governors meeting at Wakulla Springs, Fla., showed a split in its
ranks. Governor M. E. Thompson of Georgia was opposing any effort by
Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright to hold a nominating convention
separate from that of the regular Democratic Party. Governor Jim
Folsom of Alabama agreed with Mr. Thompson, though both expressed
the position that the President's ten-point civil rights program was
"unwise". South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, who
would eventually lead the Dixiecrat revolt at the Democratic
convention after introduction of the civil rights plank into the
platform, had no comment on the Wright proposal but intimates said
that he disfavored it. Governor Beauford Jester of Texas was said to
hold the same view. Both Governors William Preston Lane of Maryland
and Millard Caldwell of Florida were opposed to criticism of the
President.
It was believed that discussion on the U.N. five-nation
Palestine Commission would reach the showdown stage within a week,
as it prepared to complete a report to the 11-nation Security
Council on the need for armed force to carry out the partition
approved by the U.N. on November 29. The larger nations had thus far
not made any statement on use of force. Syria was the only Arab
nation currently on the Council.
Seven Jews and two Arabs were killed in different areas of
Palestine the previous day, bringing the death toll since partition
to 1,080. One of the dead was a Jew killed by two Arabs in a
robbery.
Reliable sources reported that February 15 continued to be
"D-Day" for the volunteer Arab force formed in Syria to
begin its campaign against Jews in Palestine.
The Greek Government executed nine persons convicted of
subversive activities.
The Senate Banking Committee called a cooling off period
until February 16 before writing a draft of a bill on rent control
extension, set to expire at the end of the month.
General Omar Bradley took over as Army chief of staff from
retired General Dwight D. Eisenhower, about to become president of
Columbia University. The President presented General Eisenhower with
an oak-leaf cluster, his third such cluster added to his
Distinguished Service Award received in World War I. The President
also presented him with a silver cigarette case.
Bread, flour, and lard would cost less following the four-day
decrease in grain prices. Kroger in Cleveland announced that a
20-ounce loaf of bread would drop on Monday by a penny, from 15 to
14 cents.
You had better get there early and buy about 3,000 loaves.
The Kitty Hawk Wright flier, which made the maiden flight on
December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, N.C., was to be returned to the
United States to rest in the Smithsonian in the wake of the death of
Orville Wright on January 30. The plane had been at the Kensington
Science Museum in London since 1928 when Mr. Wright, enraged over
the Smithsonian claiming that a plane designed by former Smithsonian
secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley had actually been the first
machine with the capacity to fly, then transferred the plane to
Kensington. He had, however, left a letter behind from 1943
indicating a desire to have the plane return to the Smithsonian.
A late bulletin reported that an Eastern Airlines plane with
60 persons aboard was reported crashed at sea, 80 miles off
Jacksonville, Fla. No other details were available.
In San Francisco, an Indian daredevil, Alfred (Dusty) Rhodes
jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge wearing life jackets, parachutes,
and football padding, but nevertheless did not survive the crashing
plummet into the notorious riptides beneath the bridge which usually
break the backs of jumpers before they drown. His parachutes opened
but failed adequately to break his fall and he hit the water on his
face. The man's wife watched as he undertook the stunt, captured on
film by a Hollywood cameraman. Mr. Rhodes had been a movie stuntman
for several years. He did not have permission from the Bridge
Authority to make the jump.
In 2013, a record number, 46 people, committed suicide from
the Bridge, 38, in 2014. Something over 1,600 people have died from
leaps off it since it opened in 1937. Only 33 of those who jumped
have survived. Two persons have barely survived stunt jumps with
parachutes.
Representative John Folger, 68, of North Carolina's Fifth
District, announced that he would not seek re-election. He had held
the seat since June, 1941, following the death of his brother, Congressman Lon Folger, in an automobile accident. Mr. Folger had been the Mayor of Mt. Airy.
AAA reported that longer hemlines in women's dresses lowered
safety, as stockings caught the eyes of drivers at night better than
long skirts.
In Hollywood, Wayne Morris was stricken with pneumonia.
Buz Sawyer returns to the Saturday colored comics supplement
after a three-week absence, in response to reader demand.
On the editorial page, "Rent 'Figment of Imagination'"
tells of the National Apartment Owners Association claiming that the
housing shortage was such a figment and that rent control should
thus be removed.
One consulting economist had stated that allowing rents to
rise would have the effect of causing many people to double up in
their housing, which would have ripple effects socially, including
the potential for eviction riots and demonstrations of the homeless.
It had taken the New Deal to get the country out of the
mindset that such living conditions were the norm, and it would
take many more such economic and social innovations to get the
country out of the illusion this time, should it drift into it.
Landlords, it suggests, ought therefore be plumping for inflation
control, not an abandonment of rent control.
"Steps for the Public Health" tells of the County
Board of Health adopting new standards for hog pens and hog lots as
a result of the increasing swine population in Mecklenburg County.
The Board also adopted new sanitary regulations for humans
based on shocking conditions discovered in Furr Town.
Well, enough said on that.
"Lost Riches in Carolina Clay" tells of an
industrial promoter of the Duke Power Co., who hailed from Australia
and had lived in North Carolina for 35 years, having studied the
soils and its rich clay deposits and counseled that businesses be
established for the production of brick, tiles, insulators, pottery,
china, and tableware.
As much of this native soil was shipped elsewhere for such
manufacture and finished products then purchased by North
Carolinians, the manufacturing process, he advised, ought be in the
state where a ready source of raw materials existed.
A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "Mr.
Hoover Is Correct", tells of John J. McCloy, head of the
International Bank, having told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee that the Administration was underestimating the needs of
the 16 recipient nations under the Marshall Plan during the first
fifteen months, that the actual figure would be 7.6 billion dollars, $800,000 more than that calculated by the Administration.
The piece thinks the statement ought deter those who wanted
to slash the appropriation for the Marshall Plan, primarily in
reliance on statements made by former President Herbert Hoover after
he had visited Europe and assessed the needs from the U.S. not to be
so great as the State Department contended, as the Latin American
countries, he advised, could supply 3.3 billion dollars in credits
during that initial period.
The International Bank, by contrast, estimated that Canada
and Latin America could contribute no more than 500 million dollars
worth of aid.
It suggests paying less attention therefore to Mr. Hoover and
more to Mr. McCloy, for the sake of Europe.
Drew Pearson provides an open letter to Senator Homer
Ferguson of Michigan regarding the past dealings in commodities by
Oklahoma Senator Elmer Thomas to assist the committee in
investigating the Senator to determine whether he had benefited from his own
announcements on the floor of the Senate regarding cotton and
silver, while having surrogates trade for him on these two
commodities. The column then presents the particular evidence
accumulated, tending to show that the Senator had thus benefited
since 1933. He had favored silver purchasing and attacked the
Federal Reserve while trading in silver to his profit. The same was
true more recently in his cotton pronouncements while his associates
made purchases for him.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop, appearing on the front page, tell
of a compromise in the winds between the Administration and Senate
Republicans on ERP. It would probably take the form of cutting the
term of the initial appropriation from 15 to 12 months, while
Senator Vandenberg's Foreign Relations Committee would endorse the
full ERP program. If, after the election, the initial appropriation,
ranging between 4.5 and five billion dollars, would prove
inadequate, the ERP administrator could go to the new Congress for a
deficiency appropriation.
The ultimate determination of such a compromise would be
controlled by political expediency. For the Republicans to contest
openly the appropriation would cause problems in European confidence
in the Plan. Senator Vandenberg held the reins of bargaining power
both with respect to the State Department and the Taft Republicans,
the latter wary of political ramifications of emasculation of the
Plan to the point of ineffectiveness. If Senator Vandenberg could
assure the State Department that he could deliver prompt
Congressional action on any compromise to which agreement was
finally reached, then he would hold considerable capital.
Marquis Childs tells of the country consuming twice as much
oil as before the war with the consequence that the nation hung on
tenterhooks in terms of its fuel supply, worrying both consumers
and the oil companies. Average per capita daily usage was 650
gallons in 1948, compared to 370 gallons prior to the war.
Some demanded that the Administration place an embargo on oil
exports, but that had been sidetracked thus far in Congress.
Secretary of Commerce Averell Harriman had presented to Congress an
able defense of the nation's oil policy, heading off discontinuance
of exports with the idea that it would turn international opinion
quickly against the U.S.
Total production had risen from the prewar level of 3.6
million barrels per day to the 1947 level of 5.5 million barrels.
Imports prewar were 155,000 barrels per day and exports, 510,000,
whereas 1947 import and export levels had been equal, at 450,000
barrels each. In 1948, the country had started for the first time importing more than
it exported and that would continue indefinitely.
In Britain, the gasoline ration had been abolished the
previous fall, meaning that only motorists who could prove need
obtained any. Secretary Harriman had told Congress that cutting
further the European oil supply would force it back to the
horse-and-buggy days.
Kerosene was being used widely, for instance, in the slums of
Boston for heating and cooking, such problems resulting in pressure
being placed on Congress to do something about the shortage. Some
Republicans felt that an oil embargo would be smart politics. It
would be vetoed by the President and so would not endear him to
those in the country in need of oil. But when posed against the oil
needs of the rest of the world, such a move would be foolish.
Samuel Grafton predicts that if prices were to drop sharply,
candidates would be selected in the fall on a very different basis
from the present mode. A recession could occur after the conventions
and before the general election. The question was what effect it
might have on public opinion, whether to force a return to
Roosevelt-type planning or, more likely, the seeking of a father
figure to guide the country through the dark passage.
It could produce a military turn, with Universal Military
Training becoming more appealing as a means to take up some of the
inevitable surplus which would take place in the labor market, as
full employment would begin to diminish. Production of armaments
would suddenly become a means to keep people employed. As food sales
decreased, opposition to the Marshall Plan would drop
commensurately.
Mr. Grafton advises the President to inform the public
presently what steps he would take in the event of a recession. He
would need point out that lack of economic controls had flopped.
Such leadership was necessary to inform the body politic so that it would
not be rudderless when the time of recession would come.
It was a primary issue not being discussed in a campaign
where the focus thus far had been how much of a tax cut to give the
American people.
A letter from P. C. Burkholder responds a second time to a critical letter appearing January 29, relating his
usual fare of anti-New Deal billingsgate. He cites a letter from South Carolina which had approved his drivel of January 17.
A letter from Mars Hill says that the Mars Hill School, one
of five such high schools in the state, had qualified for the AAA
course in Safety and Driver's Education. It had received a fully
equipped Chevrolet for the purpose, with dial controls, furnished by
the French Broad dealer.
The editors congratulate Mars Hill and say shame on
Charlotte.
A letter writer agrees with the piece re-printed from the
Christian Science Monitor, titled "Boys in Trouble",
feels that the only way to correct problems of delinquency was
through education, not censorship, to divest of the "old and
prudish ideas that have for so long channeled minds to the point of
thinking in strips."