Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that heavy fighting
continued in and around Jerusalem as the seven Arab states met in
Amman, Trans-Jordan, to consider the U.N. truce proposal. The Arab
view continued to be that they would support the truce as long as
the Jews abandoned the notion of Israel as a sovereign state and
disbanded the Jewish Army. Egypt and Syria had requested an
additional 48 hours for consideration of the truce, until noon
Wednesday, and the U.N. had granted the request.
Britain's Foreign Office had indicated to the Arabs that it
expected them to accept and abide by the truce.
The Baghdad press accused the U.S. of bias against the Arabs.
Haganah reported that Jewish forces had recaptured Ramat
Rehel, a Jewish village halfway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem,
where Jewish defenders had been routed by Arabs the previous day.
Casualties were reported to be heavy on both sides.
The provisional President of Israel, Chaim Weizmann of New
York, stated after a meeting with President Truman that he had
provided hope that the arms embargo, in effect since the previous
December for the Middle East, would be lifted. Mr. Weizmann told the
President that the Jews were at a disadvantage to the Arabs in arms
supplies as the Arabs were able to get their arms elsewhere. He also
discussed with the President the possibility of a loan of 90 to 100
million dollars from the U.S. to Israel, with which to purchase
arms. He added that the Jews would forthwith abandon the Arab port
of Jaffa once peace was restored.
The President urged Congress to pass a minimum wage hike from
its current 40 cents to 75 cents an hour and to provide Federal aid
to education. The Senate had passed a 300 million dollar education
aid bill, but the House had not yet acted. Neither chamber had acted
on the minimum wage legislation.
The President and Secretary of Commerce Sawyer commended John
Virden of the Commerce Department, who had resigned his post when it
became known that his daughter was employed by the Russian news
agency Tass. Both expressed regret at his resignation and reaffirmed
their confidence in his loyalty.
House Democrats determined to oppose the Republican one-year
extension of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, set to expire June
12, and support instead a three-year extension without the
Republican proviso that Congress could veto trade treaties if the
President exceeded the limits of tariff adjustments set by the
Federal Tariff Commission. Secretary of State Marshall had stated
that the Republican bill would cripple foreign economic policy.
GM granted workers an 11-cent pay raise based on the cost of
living index, to be reviewed three months hence, on September 1. If
the index were to go down in that period, so would the raise, but
not by more than a nickel. The move averted a scheduled Friday
strike. The average wage at GM would be $1.61 per hour after the
raise. The UAW had sought a 25-cent raise.
The cost of living, according to the Labor Department's
Bureau of Labor Statistics, was 69 percent higher than in 1940.
In New York, parties to a dispute involving 25,000 long
distance operators agreed to resume negotiations and delay a
Presidential fact-finding board determination of the matter.
Four were missing in the flooding of the Pacific Northwest.
The Kootenai River had flooded 8,000 acres of rich farmland at
Bonners Ferry in Idaho when the big dike there collapsed, causing
water to reach to the eaves of some farmhouses. In Spokane, Wash.,
27.5 inches of rain had fallen in the previous year, the wettest
year on record for the area.
In Wilson, N.C., three fishermen drowned when their boat
overturned in a sandpit. A fourth member of the party swam to
safety.
In Charlotte, the Dunroy Company announced plans to construct
a $120,000 warehouse for the purpose of storing frozen foods for
distribution across the Carolinas.
In Los Angeles, an associate professor of experimental
physics at the University of Cincinnati told a group that there was
no such thing as gray hair, that a person whose hair was 20 percent
white appeared gray-headed and a person whose hair was 50 percent
white appeared white-headed.
In Oxford, England, Oxford University students selected a
young woman at the University's Lady Margaret Hall
as the student for whom they would most willingly jump into the Isis
River. The result was that a hundred students would jump into the
Isis the following day as the young woman had "poled past them
in a punt"—whatever that is supposed to mean.
In Bessemer City, N.C., a farmer was awakened by a bolt of
lightning which ripped the siding from his home, knocked the windows
out of his bedroom and dislodged two mantels. The farmer wound up on
the floor but was unhurt. The lightning had poled past him in a punt.
On the editorial page, "UN: 1—Its
Accomplishments" finds that despite undergoing heavy criticism
during its first three years of its existence, the U.N. had
stimulated more movement and organization toward world cooperation
than ever before in history. The food organization of the U.N. was
stimulating production and conservation worldwide, with a goal of
more than doubling food production in the coming 25 years to avoid
mass starvation and consequent threat of war.
Russia had exercised the unilateral veto on the Security
Council, reserved for the five permanent members, 23 times, eleven
regarding membership applications, nine on peace issues, and three
times regarding the Balkans.
But at the same time, the U.N. had induced Russia to withdraw
its troops from Azerbaijan in northern Iran in spring, 1946, and had
also placed pressure successfully on the British and French to
withdraw troops from Syria and Lebanon. It had helped to protect the
integrity of Greece despite three Russian vetoes on the subject, had
obtained a truce in the war between the Dutch and Indonesians, and
had ameliorated the situation in India and Pakistan which erupted in
the wake of independence, partition, and inter-migration of
populations. A plebiscite had been arranged for Korea. Albania and
Britain had accepted jurisdiction of the International Court to
resolve a dispute regarding mine damage to three British destroyers
in the Korfu Channel. The Court was also considering the validity
under the U.N. Charter of Russian vetoes of membership applications.
The U.N. also had marshaled evidence in each case of veto which the
world could see, attenuating the effect of the vetoes. And Russia
was supportive of keeping King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan and his Arab
Legion out of Palestine.
The U.N., it observes, had, for all its difficulties and
growing pains, probably kept the world out of far worse scrapes than
would have been the case had it not been extant. Too much focus had
been placed on its warts and too little on its quiet successes.
Efforts to revise the Charter would likely wreck the
organization and thus, it opines, should be shelved until more
propitious times.
It promises a second piece, "UN: 2", anent the
Charter, the following day.
"Charlotte Is Proud of Mercy" tells of Mercy
Hospital opening a new 110-bed maternity wing. Originally the
hospital opened with 25 beds in 1906, moved to a 75-bed facility in
1915 at its present location. The new wing would give the hospital
275 beds total. Remodeling of existing sections was also planned.
The citizenry had responded well the previous summer to the public
solicitation of funds, a first for the Sisters of Mercy in the
hospital's history, providing nearly a half million dollars of the
needed 1.5 million for the expansion and remodel.
The piece congratulates the hospital and its staff and
advisers for the effort.
"Chicken-Hearts Harebrained" tells of the
Department of Agriculture advocating the raising of hares in the
backyard to conquer the meat shortage in the country expected in the
coming months. Edible rabbits could be raised in 90 days and
consumed in the meantime little, just scraps of stale bread or old
potatoes. Domestic rabbits were immune to tularemia which afflicted
the wild varieties and caused rabbit fever. The rabbit fur also had
considerable commercial value.
But the advice overlooked, it suggests, the squeamishness of
the average American household in eating what would inevitably
become part of the family menagerie. Eventually, in consequence of
such timidity, the backyard and the whole neighborhood would become
overrun with rabbits.
It concludes the suggestion, therefore, to be a harebrained
scheme.
A piece from the Louisville Courier-Journal, titled
"That Bold Look Is a Flop", tells of the "Bold
Look" touted for men, to make them look and feel masculine and
fitted for leadership, having turned into taffeta hats bedecked with
feathers and flowers, or gay-colored berets. No one, it finds, could
feel masculine and ready to take charge in such attire. Every man
had to have, according to one clothier, plus fours to step onto the
golf course during the summer.
"Why, we couldn't even look a Marine in the face
wearing plus fours and a beret."
Sumner Welles, former Undersecretary of State until August,
1943, tells of a decision in Italy by the Socialists during the
summer which would determine whether that party would be under the
grip of Togliatti and the Communists or would become a force in its
own right for democracy. The Communists had managed after the war to
gain influence over the workers and trade unions. The Socialists, by
contrast, had little organization or money. Its principal figure was
Basso, a ruthless manipulator under the direction of the Communists.
About a year earlier, Giuseppe Saragat had founded the
Socialist Party of Italian workers to take back the labor
organization from the will of Moscow. He came to the U.S. and formed
close relations with American labor organizers. Another Socialist
reform movement had also begun under Lombardo.
In the wake of the April 18 elections in which the Communists
had not fared well, there was a demand for a national assembly of
the Socialists. Basso had managed thus far to thwart it, to keep the
Socialists in the Communist camp. The reformists within the party,
under Saragat and Lombardo, wanted to have a unified labor party
within a democratic setting. As long as the Communists controlled
the party, the workers would desert to democratic parties. Some of
the trade unions had already eliminated the Communists.
In November, regional elections would be held. A Socialist
Party purged of Communists would cut into the strength of the
Christian Democrats and make it more likely that the opposition to
progressive economic and social programs could be defeated within
the De Gasperi coalition Cabinet. The Socialist reformers had joined
with the Cabinet to defeat Communism but did not feel at home with
the Christian Democrats. They would not, however, return to the
Socialists unless it were purged of Communist influence.
The reform of the Socialist Party would be as profound in
creating a new Italy as the Labor Party in England. It was the
anodyne to the Communists. Unless it could become viable as a
democratic force, the choice of the people would ultimately be
between Communism and alignment with increasingly reactionary forces
of the right and center, in either case, a great threat to the
survival of democracy in Italy.
Drew Pearson tells of several Democratic leaders wanting to
avoid the nomination of President Truman. Most of them, at least
those from the North, were afraid to stick their necks out. Instead,
they were encouraging others to do so. Quietly, several Democratic
leaders were lining up to block the nomination on the first ballot
and produce thereby an open convention. The current strategy under
discussion was for Alabama to nominate General Eisenhower and for
California to second it.
The British Foreign Office had admitted that Britain was
shipping arms and paying money to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan, and
about 60 British officers were commanding his troops of the Arab
Legion. Britain stated that it would cease the activity when the
U.N. Security Council declared Trans-Jordan an aggressor nation and
banned such aid. But Sir Alexander Cadogan of Britain was in the
meantime trying to block U.N. action on Palestine. It called forth
the strategy of Britain in 1931-32 when Secretary of State Henry
Stimson was trying to stop Japan's transgression in Manchuria. The
British would publicly condemn the Japanese action while privately
reassuring the Japanese. A similar strategy was followed with
respect to Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-36. Britain
condemned the attack but sold badly needed oil to Italy.
He once again tells of the Army neglecting the Reserve in
favor of the draft. The Reserve Officers Association had sent a
representative to Congress to ask for a substantially greater
allocation than that requested by the Army and Air Force for the
Reserves. With the greater allocation, the draft would be
unnecessary and the necessary security force would be recruited and
trained more economically. The Reserves complained that since the
Army was not calling up the Reserves, they were losing interest and
quitting.
DNC chairman J. Howard McGrath was only going to travel as
far as Chicago on the President's cross-country tour to the West
Coast.
Kate Smith had been made an honorary Army nurse by Surgeon
General Raymond Bliss.
Former executive director of the DNC, Gael Sullivan, was
being approached to head the draft Eisenhower drive, but had not
committed to the task.
Eleanor Roosevelt was still telling friends that she could
not support President Truman based on his about-face on the
partition of Palestine—though he had also recently promptly
recognized the new State of Israel.
Joseph Alsop, in San Francisco, suggests that following the
Oregon victory by Governor Dewey, the question for him was whether
he could break through a deadlock and secure the nomination on the
first ballot. The question for Harold Stassen was whether someone
such as Senator Vandenberg, who was not his bitter enemy, would be
the party nominee. Now, Mr. Stassen was in the role of stopping Mr.
Dewey, a reversal of the roles from a few weeks earlier following
the Stassen victories in Wisconsin and Nebraska.
Dewey supporters could now plausibly argue at the convention
that his failures in those earlier primaries was because he was too
preoccupied to campaign actively in those states. The Oregon
Republicans were moderates and so the effect of his victory was
greater.
But while Governor Dewey had won, Senator Vandenberg's
victory was even more impressive, as was said after the Ohio
primary, won by Senator Taft. For now Mr. Stassen would likely swing
his support to Senator Vandenberg and seek to place himself thereby
in a position to be the running mate.
Such a move would not necessarily be actively resisted by
Governor Dewey, provided he could secure the second spot. Senator
Vandenberg had let it be known that if he were drafted, he would
serve only one term. The Dewey forces were so considering such an
alternative if he had lost the Oregon primary. Senator Vandenberg
would likely prefer Governor Dewey as a running mate to Mr. Stassen
because of the party enmity the latter had created during his
campaign.
Mr. Alsop observes that the defeat of Mr. Stassen suggested
that his primary emphasis during the campaign in Oregon, outlawing
of the Communist Party, had also been defeated, showing the wisdom of the
voters. Other candidates would likely take a hint from the results
and realize that such appeals to prejudice would not sway the
electorate, that it was not a good ploy to be a fellow traveler of
J. Parnell Thomas and HUAC.
Samuel Grafton finds, as had Drew Pearson, that in the
repeated British rationalizations for aiding the Arabs, an iteration was
taking place of the failed strategy of inaction and appeasement
which preceded World War II, allowing Ethiopia and Spain to fall to
the dictators.
The British contention that it could not recognize Israel
because it could not tell how long the State would last reminded of
its rationale for allowing Spain to fall to the Insurgents of
Franco. Similarly, Japan had been allowed to have its way in
Manchuria from 1931 onward. And the British were sending money and
arms to the Trans-Jordan Arab Legion until such time as the Security
Council determined Trans-Jordan to be an aggressor nation, while, in
the meantime, working in two-faced fashion to limit Security Council action.
A Quote of the Day: "Says one sardine to another, 'I
resent being packed in here like bus-riders.'" —Louisville
Times
Another Quote of the Day: "How ridiculous for the Arabs
to send all the way to the United States for a man to teach Red Sea
anglers how to catch sharks. Yet that is what they have done, when
anybody ought to know that the surest way to catch sharks is to fish
for whiting and bass." —Charleston Evening Post
Another Pome from the Atlanta Constitution, this one
"revealing that best results are frequently obtained by not
obeying that impulse:
"To be free from taint You must practice restraint."
But that which is
Can't be what ain't;
So, if you're about it,
Might as well
do what you cain't.