Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Berlin, the
U.S. Army, to countervail Russian tactics impeding the travel along
railroads and highways into and out of the city, refused entry of
two Soviet generals and twenty other Russians to a railroad
administration building which the Russians normally controlled
within the American sector of the city. Only the non-administrative
employees were allowed to enter, the rest barred by 50 U.S. MP's.
Food was allowed to be brought to the workers.
The Russians also controlled the radio station in the British
zone of the city, likewise pursuant to a 1945 agreement.
General Lucius Clay, U.S. military governor, also ordered a
roadblock across the road to Potsdam, wherein many Russians lived
who worked in Berlin, preventing cars with Russian passengers from
going to Berlin from Potsdam.
The Russians had removed their roadblocks to arteries leading
from the city to the Western zones the same day they were erected,
on April 1.
A 56-car train was sent into Berlin from the U.S. sector,
bearing food and supplies for U.S. forces and dependents, passing
the Russian checkpoint at Marienborn without incident. The British
had already sent in two trains. The Russians allowed freight trains,
with documents of passage, to enter the city unimpeded but continued
to search departing freight trains, as well as incoming and
departing passenger trains.
A key delegate to the U.N. General Assembly stated that it
would be unlikely that two-thirds of the majority of theAssembly
would vote in favor of the reversal of the partition plan, as
favored by the United States.
In Jerusalem, the Palestine Government's high commissioner,
Sir Alan Cunningham of Britain, called, in a radio message, upon
Jews and Arabs to engage in a ceasefire as asked by the U.N.
Security Council.
Meanwhile, Jews were reported by Arabs to be advancing on the
village of Castel, driving toward Ain Karem, in areas from which
attacks on Jewish supply convoys had been launched. Palestine police
reported that ten bodies of Arabs were discovered in an orange grove
near Rehovot on the Coastal Plain. An Arab said that Jews entered
the grove and opened fire.
The Western powers called for the U.N. Security Council to
admit both Italy and Trans-Jordan to the organization, previous
applications for membership having been blocked as to each nation by
exercise of Russian vetoes on the Council.
Historian Charles A. Beard told the Senate Armed Services
Committee that universal military training would violate the
country's liberty and create a huge bureaucracy drawn from the upper
and middle classes which would "enslave the plain people".
Other academicians also testified against the program.
The Senate, the previous day, had overridden the President's
veto by a two-thirds majority after the House had done likewise,
causing the 4.8 billion dollar tax cut bill to go into effect.
Speaker of the House Joe Martin, echoed by other Republicans, said
that the cut would be reversed in the event of a national emergency.
The President instructed Attorney General Tom Clark to seek
an injunction to stop the twenty-day old coal strike. The three-man
fact-finding board of the President determined that the strike had
been caused by the actions and statements of UMW president John L.
Lewis and was not an independent action of the miners, making it
easier to enjoin Mr. Lewis to call it off.
Tom Fesperman of The News tells of Roy G. Baker,
president of the Young Democrats of America, visiting Charlotte and
contending that the Democrats, taking no heed of current polls to
the contrary, would come out on top in November. Mr. Baker had been
taking his own polls and found a different sentiment. The
interviewer wanted to know of the universe for his sample.
Despite suffering ridicule, young Mr. Baker, as it would turn
out, had obtained the straight dope.
He hoped that the Republicans would nominate Senator Taft
when they assembled in Philadelphia.
The City Planning Board determined that the proposed
cross-town boulevard in Charlotte, to become Independence Boulevard,
would probably link with Wilkinson Boulevard and tie in with Dowd
Road at S. Sumter Avenue. Should you have an interest, the whys and
wherefores and more details of the route are provided.
A City Councilman, substituting for the Mayor and Mayor pro
tem, both out of town, could not find a key to the city to present
to a visiting dignitary, the head of the National Letter Carriers
Association. After diligent search to no avail, the City Manager,
having located a ribbon for the key, made one from cardboard and
sent it over to the Councilman in the nick of time for the
presentation.
On the editorial page, "A Risk with the Tax Cut" comments on the President's veto message anent the tax-cut bill,
which the Congress had this time passed over his veto. It added
nothing new which the President had not stated the previous summer
when he twice vetoed the same bill and it was then sustained. But
most of his objections had been met by the new measure or rendered
no longer valid by changed conditions. He rested his veto on the
notions that the tax cut would produce a deficit and not leave
enough for reduction of national debt.
The Congress had argued that the tax cut would be covered by
increased revenue from taxes on larger incomes, that the budget
surplus would be larger than the tax cut, larger than that predicted
by the President.
The piece believes that there was a chance that the
President's fears would be realized. But he failed to answer the
contention of proponents of the tax cut that it would stimulate
production and hence income.
Moreover, the President indulged in campaign rhetoric in
contending that the tax cut measure primarily benefited the wealthy
and those making more than $5,000 per year. Even Senator Claude
Pepper of Florida admitted that the bill cut the confiscatory rates
which had prevailed during and since the war for the wealthiest
taxpayers. The lion's share of relief under this bill, unlike the
prior two, went to low-income taxpayers.
"A Limit to Federal Aid" comments on the passage
of the Taft bill by the Senate to supply primary and secondary
public schools with Federal aid amounting to 300 million dollars,
criticized by Senator Harry F. Byrd as unwise at the present time.
The piece agrees. The Federal budget was rising toward 50 billion
dollars per year and such spending would bring a new wave of
inflation, making national bankruptcy a possibility. While the need
for better schools, housing, and health care was dire, the Federal
Government could not meet all of the needs at once while supplying
ERP aid and paying down the debt from the war. The state and local
governments, it opines, ought supply the funding for the schools,
health, and housing.
"Dangerous Days in Berlin" suggests that if the
Russians were to succeed in squeezing the Western powers out of
Berlin with the new restrictions on rail and road traffic, requiring
inspections by Russian soldiers, then a severe blow to Western
prestige would have been delivered. The Russians claimed that the
inspections were necessary to avoid loss of manufacturing equipment
from East Berlin.
Technically, the Russians operated within their legal rights
but were violating the spirit of the four-power accord on Germany.
It posits that restrictions would likely, as threatened,
become worse and that the Russians could starve the Western allies
of food, as the plane service to carry food appeared inadequate.
Thus, a dilemma arose as to how America could remain in Berlin
without military measures. If it used force, it would be branded an
aggressor. If it lost the siege, then the Communists would control
the rich resources of the Eastern sector of Germany.
A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "In
Which Virginia Reels", comments on the rumors that North
Carolina and Virginia might enter the Republican column in the
presidential election for the first time since the polarized
election of 1928, in the latter instance based on the Catholicism and pro-wet stance of
Democratic nominee Al Smith. The rumor regarding Virginia was more
likely to come true, as Governor William Tuck was the leader of the
Southern revolt against the President's civil rights program.
The Republican Party was stronger in North Carolina than in
Virginia, as stated by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, but, it
predicts, North Carolina would "ride the storm, and not reel",
as it had the good sense to ask itself where else would the
electorate go. For 40-odd years, North Carolina Democrats had
encouraged a type of democracy down home with which no one found
much fault.
Drew Pearson tells of Bank of America head A. P. Giannini and
Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder holding a secret dinner
recently in Palm Beach, at which was discussed the resignation of
Mr. Snyder to join the Bank of America.
Friends of James Farley said that he now wanted to be
President, not just Vice-President.
In the Texas Senate race, only seven percent of the
electorate, according to a poll, favored incumbent Senator Pappy Lee
O'Daniel. Former Governor Coke Stevenson and Congressman Lyndon
Johnson—who would win the election in a popular landslide—were
running first in the polls.
He next recommends that average persons might be broadcast on
the radio to talk about America to the people of the Eastern bloc.
It made more sense than more contests such as "Miss Hush"
and "The Walking Man"—the latter, of course, if
you did not stop to figure it out, having been Jack Benny, the
former, Martha Graham. The more difficult part is to figure out what
the various clues in each contest actually meant and how they
pointed to the revelation of the mystery identity and the Big Money.
He suggests that a contest ought be initiated, offering
wristwatches as prizes for the best Russian letters re how to bring
about a democratic peace with the U.S. It would induce thousands of
Russians to listen attentively to the broadcasts. He suggests it
might be tried first in Italy before the elections.
A war of information was far better than a war of arms.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of Giancarlo Pajetta, an Italian
Communist deputy who had gone to Yugoslavia and Moscow to arrange a
gesture of Soviet generosity toward Italy, designed to influence the
April 18 elections. The State Department believed the meeting was
intended to arrange the transfer of Trieste to Italy. Thus, the
U.S., Britain, and France proposed the transfer of Trieste back to
Italy to beat the attempt to the draw. The weak response from Moscow
regarding the move suggested that the hunch was correct.
Other attempts at wooing Italian friendship might be for
Russia to offer to forgive Italy's reparations and to agree to send
wheat. Another possibility was the use of force in the event of an
adverse electoral decision.
It appeared from all indications within Italy that the
elections would favor the Christian Democrats of Premier Alcide de
Gasperi. Even in Communist-controlled Milan, there were positive
signs, as demonstrations by Communists had to receive police
protection against retaliation by the people.
But on the negative side was the fact that a promise to
provide Italy with 29 ships had been delayed in bureaucratic red
tape in the Maritime Commission. Furthermore, the Communists were
continuing their propaganda campaign unabated. Communists were going
to Italian farmers making promises of greater livestock after the
Communists were elected. The likelihood of pro-Italian gestures from
Yugoslavia and Russia was as great as ever in the days before the
election.
The Alsops conclude that while matters in Italy had improved
in the previous three weeks or so, there was still a chance for
problems, and, even in the event of a successful election, the prospect of the
stimulus being applied by the Communists to set off a civil war.
Samuel Grafton again defines terms. "Crisis" was
applied to the situation extant between Russia and the U.S. But the
crisis of the soul was caused by concern as to whether the U.S. had
done enough to try to effect peace with the Soviets, that another
try at negotiation should be undertaken. It included the feeling
that both sides were to blame for the problems.
"Non-Appeaser" was the person at the dinner
party who nervously agreed that he wanted a showdown at any cost.
"Humility" was the ability to see oneself in
proper perspective. The quarrels between the Southerners and the
President were as strident as anything coming in the reports from
abroad.
"The End of an Era" could be applied to the end
of the period in which there were only two factions of the
Democratic Party.
"The Family in a Changing World" was a popular
topic among lecturers and writers, as, for instance, Government
policy which would allow a husband and wife to split income for tax
purposes, per community property states, but would compel the draft
or military training of their son.
A letter writer provides a letter he had written to the Mayor
of Monroe regarding a speech the latter had made favoring legalized sale
of beer. The author thinks otherwise.
A letter from a German living in the British sector in
Wuppertal-Vo, asks the friends whom he had known when he lived in
Stanley, N.C., from 1927-30, to send him a comb, for the one he had
lacked teeth, causing him to have to aim carefully when he parted his
hair.
He may be asking cryptically for something other than a comb.
This may be a job for the CIA out which to figure.
