Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Israelis in the
modern section of Jerusalem were trying to break the Arab blockade
of the supply route from Tel Aviv which had cut off food and water
to the city, as Arabs stepped up their attack on the modern sector,
having taken control of old Jerusalem with the surrender the
previous day of the remaining Jews trapped there. The modern city
was under siege and Haganah declared that the fight to liberate the
old city continued, now in flames, appearing as part of Stalingrad
during the Nazi siege of 1942. In Latrun, the battle for the crucial
town on the supply route continued, with thousands on each side
participating. The battle lines stretched four miles to Bab al-Wad.
It was expected that the U.N. truce proposal for Palestine, supported by the U.S.
and Russia, was doomed to defeat in the Security Council. It would
order ceasefire in 36 hours and subject violation to economic and
military sanctions. Only five affirmative votes of the necessary
seven so far were evident, with Britain opposed.
Henry Wallace testified after all before the Senate Judiciary
Committee regarding the Mundt-Nixon bill, already passed by the
House, saying that peace could not be achieved with Russia if the
country approached the task with the atom bomb in one hand and the
Mundt bill in the other. He declared, in a half-hour prepared
statement, the bill to be an attack on free speech and assembly.
Only a few questions were posed by Senators at the
conclusion. He said that there were ample laws already on the books
to deal with subversion. He found the law as presently framed to be
potentially restrictive of any organization which promoted world
peace and progress. A large crowd gathered to hear the former
Vice-President. Originally, chairman Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin
had nixed his appearance to avoid giving Mr. Wallace free campaign
publicity.
The Republican Policy Committee determined to block all
remaining pending nominations of the President until after the
election, but the previous day, had confirmed Charles Brannan as
Secretary of Agriculture and said that they would not block Cabinet
appointments.
At Annapolis, the President took movies of the annual
Memorial Day crew races between Navy and Cornell, with Navy
victorious. He wore a dark blue suit, a flowered tie, and his
familiar buff-colored hat.
Chrysler UAW workers ended their 17-day strike after agreeing
to a 13-cents per hour wage increase. The contract was extended
until June 15, 1950 but permitted wage adjustments after passage of
a year. Salaried employees were given an eight percent raise. They
had initially sought 30 cents but lowered demands on the eve of the
May 12 strike to 17 cents. Chrysler had previously offered no more
than 6 cents.
G.M. workers had settled three days earlier for 11 cents, but with
the ability to have increases or decreases based on changes in the
cost of living, as assessed every 90 days.
In Atlanta, Dr. J. McDowell Richards, president of Columbia
Theological Seminary at Decatur, Ga., told the 88th General Assembly
of Southern Presbyterians that there were many racial problems in
the country which could not be solved except by white and black
Christian leadership. He urged increased support of black churches,
saying the ground was "level at the foot of the Cross".
Flood waters continued to plague the Pacific Northwest, in
eastern Washington, northern Oregon, western Montana, and British
Columbia. Fifteen deaths were reported, with damage to crops and
property extensive.
In Palo Alto, California, novelist Gertrude Atherton, 90, was
ill. She would die two weeks hence. She had authored over 50 books.
In New York, Lulu was lost on the Queen Elizabeth,
having been brought from England by new Ambassador Sir Oliver
Franks. The ship had returned to England with no sign yet of Lulu,
still presumed onboard.
See, that's what you get for bringing a floozy along with
you.
In Washington, the National Spelling Bee took place, won by a
fourteen-year old girl from Black Horse, Ohio, by correctly spelling
"oligarchy", a misprint, says the orthographically
challenged Ed Creagh, for "olligarky". The winner was
sponsored by the Akrun Beakin-Jurnal, received $500 and a
trip to Nue York.
Hey, pal, nobody likes a wize gye.
The North Carolina primary had a heavy turnout, except in
rain-drenched Asheville and the western portion of the state
generally. The various candidates are listed.
Ray Stallings of The News reports that four police
officers set out on a fishing trip Wednesday, until their car began
overheating before they were more than 40 minutes beyond Charlotte.
After replenishing the radiator, their trailer caught fire. After
putting that out, they finally reached Garden City in time for some
night fishing, began preparations. Then came a gully-washer. They
ventured onward to Myrtle Beach where they spent the night, awakened
to find a flat tire. Trying to change it, the jack broke. Obtaining
assistance hours later, they returned to Garden City for fishing.
But there were no bites. As one of the officers stuck his pole in
the sand to grab some lunch, a fish took it and the pole was not
again seen until an hour later when it returned. They went to
Southport, Fort Fisher, and Kure's Pier, eventually caught nine
fish, but none of them very large. They headed home on Friday and,
per the course, the trailer caught fire again. They put it out and
proceeded.
We offer our sympathies as we have experienced the functional
equivalent more than once. Thanks again for the several rides, tows or
pushes from sand, mud, bog and mire, or whatever else there was
seeking to drag us under.
On the editorial page, "The Die-Hards Must Smell Gravy" finds the House passage of only a one-year extension to the
Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act to be whetting anew the appetites of
protectionists, irrespective of the fact that the present bill, if
it were to become law, would cripple ERP out of the gate by placing under Congressional oversight
the President's authority to adjust tariffs in the national interest. Three-year extensions had been the
previous norm since original enactment of the law in 1934. Senator Taft and
Senator Vandenberg, the latter favoring continuing the Act unchanged
for three years, were now wrangling over the issue in the Senate,
with June 19 set for adjournment for the June 21 Republican
convention, and the Act set to expire on June 12 unless renewed.
Senator Taft remained supportive of low tariffs but wanted to limit
the President's power.
Even former Republican presidential nominee in 1936, Alf Landon, was for
the three-year extension without the limiting amendments.
Governor Earl Warren had placed the debate in the context of
turning the clock back to prewar days or moving forward in light of
changed world conditions.
The piece agrees with the latter viewpoint.
"The Voice of America Scandal" discusses the
concern in Congress regarding the charge that the Voice of America
had transmitted libelous material against the nation into Latin
America, with such statements as "New England was founded by
hypocrisy and Texas by sin", and "people get married in
Las Vegas and divorced in Reno".
The piece wants to examine, however, the context of the
statements and the accuracy of the translation before joining the
chorus of condemnation and calls for investigation. The whole matter
derived from the drastic cuts in appropriation to VOA by Congress,
causing broadcasts to be farmed out to NBC, making it impossible for
the State Department to exert control over content. It finds
therefore that the investigation would only lead back to Congress,
itself, as the source of hypocrisy and sin.
"Our Churches Go Forward" tells of the well-being of Charlotte and the surrounding area being largely the result of its strong churches. So it was happy to announce that Myers Park Baptist Church had raised half a million dollars to build a new sanctuary or central building. The new building would have a set of bells donated by former News publisher W. C. Dowd, Jr. and his family. The construction would begin in the fall and, with other new structures, would accommodate the thousand persons of the present congregation. Dr. George Heaton was pastor. It congratulates the congregation for its effort.
A piece from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, titled
"Britain's Socialism", tells of the Labor Government in
Britain fleeing from nationalization of industries by consolidating
rather than expanding the process. The program had been stymied for
months on the question of socialization of the iron and steel
industry.
Banks had presented no great problem, as with gas and
electric utilities and transportation, except that the latter
encountered wage issues. Those problems became more pronounced in
the coal industry and production fell precipitously after
nationalization, with commensurate slowing of production of industry
generally. That caused apprehension regarding the nationalization of
steel plants and the Government therefore backtracked, was now
advocating leaving them in private hands.
The Labor Party was apparently returning to support of
capitalism.
W. A. Wells, continuing the series of articles on the
presidential candidates, looks at Governor Earl Warren of
California—to be selected as the vice-presidential nominee by
the Republicans with Governor Dewey. Mr. Warren had an unassuming
cordiality which put people at ease—a trait, it might be
noted, that enabled him to obtain a unanimous decision in 1954,
during his first year as Chief Justice, in Brown v. Board of
Education, the school desegregation case pending before the High Court when Chief Justice Fred
Vinson died in 1953. A person left his presence feeling that Mr.
Warren genuinely was glad to make the acquaintance, that he was
interested in the person's problems and had mutual interests.
He maintained old acquaintances from his days 23 years
earlier as District Attorney in Alameda County, inclusive of Oakland
and Berkeley. He had traveled more within California than any
previous Governor and was a tireless fielder of questions.
He had declined to campaign for the presidency outside
California.
The Governor had won on both the Republican and Democratic
ballots in the state's unique cross-primary nomination process in
the race for his re-election in 1946. He had turned down the
vice-presidential spot in 1944 with Governor Dewey, as he wanted to
finish his term as Governor.
He wanted the party to be for the poor and rich alike, with
the rules fair for all, not just for one class of persons. He
supported free enterprise, had reduced state taxes, increased old
age pensions by $10 monthly, put through the largest expenditure
program in the history of the state, provided for post-war
development, reorganized the state prisons, put across a 2.8 billion
dollar long-range highway program, but had failed in getting
legislative approval of a health insurance program.
Nationally, he endorsed universal military training, favored
a strong Navy and supported ERP.
While a boy, he saw the father of opera singer Lawrence
Tibbett killed in a gunfight in 1903. Two years after he became D.A. in 1925, his own father had been beaten fatally
by a burglar who was never apprehended. The 1903 formative incident
perhaps having influenced his entry to prosecution, he had been a
tough District Attorney in Alameda County and subsequently for
four years, from 1939-43, as State Attorney General, waging prosecutorial
campaigns against bootlegging, gambling, and the Klan influence on the Alameda County Sheriff and the Oakland City Council, in collusion with the large paving companies to defraud the City.
At 57, he had been married to a former widow for 23 years,
with five of their own children and one adopted from his wife's
prior marriage.
As a May 10 Life article on the Governor had concluded: "He has a deep social conscience,
for he does not believe he is his brother's keeper but rather his brother's friend."
Drew Pearson tells of the hiring at $10,000 per year each by
the Republicans in Congress of two high-powered New York press
agents of the firm of Bell, Jones & Taylor to sit inside the
joint Congressional Committee on Housing and provide propaganda on
behalf of the real estate lobby. They were hired by Senator Joseph
McCarthy of Wisconsin and Representative Ralph Gamble of New York,
each agent assigned to each member as an "assistant".
Their job officially was to make an impartial study of the housing
shortage. But they knew little of housing and spent large portions
of their time socializing with the real estate lobby leader, Frank
Cortwright. They then produced a 400-page report blaming
representatives of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches and
Jewish synagogues, Community Chest people and visiting nurses for
urging the demand for public housing. The Committee rejected the
report in favor of a 40-page report by Senator Ralph Flanders of
Vermont, but nevertheless the former report had cost the taxpayers
$20,000. Despite its rejection, the other report was printed at
Government expense and disseminated across the nation by various
real estate interests to the public. One of the agents still worked
for Representative Gamble on the House Banking & Currency
Committee.
Ed Flynn, Bronx boss, who thought the chances of the
President's election were nil, was resigning as New York
committeeman. He had been one of the big city political bosses
responsible in 1944 for Mr. Truman being on the ticket.
Two prominent Democrats, Jim Farley and Frank Walker, were
covering four days in advance the same route as the President's
cross-country train, to start June 4.
Marquis Childs tells of Sir Oliver Franks, 43, taking over as
the new British Ambassador to the U.S. at a time when relations were
strained with Britain regarding Palestine and the Middle East. The
British had continued the old policy of power politics, as though
nothing had happened in the world since 1914. The U.S. had followed
first one policy, then another, causing confusion and anger among
the affected nations.
Retiring Ambassador Lord Inverchapel was a longtime friend of
the new President of Israel, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, and knew where
British policy was leading but could do little to alter the course.
Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin had an emotional fixation on
Palestine, could not view it objectively, reflected in British
public opinion.
Timing worried policymakers regarding the impact on continued
hearings in the respective Appropriation Committees of each
Congressional chamber regarding assessment of ERP appropriations,
with the potential of cuts still forthcoming, interfering potentially with
recovery in Western Europe. An isolationist,
anti-British bias would favor such cuts.
Mr. Childs urges that Britain and the U.S. had to come
quickly to agreement, the first task of Mr. Franks, to arrest the
present drift in Anglo-American relations, potentially crippling to ERP and the
future stability therefore of the world.
James Marlow contrasts the American Secretary of Interior and
his relatively benign functions with the Ministers of Interior in
the Soviet bloc countries, in charge of the secret police and state
security. The latter controlled sometimes food rationing, the
ability to move about freely, election machinery, and entry and exit
from the country. It was the reason that the Communists concentrated
their aim on getting a Communist into the Interior posts if they
could not take over a country.
In Finland, the President had forced a Communist out of the
Interior post after censure by the Finnish Diet, but quickly
replaced him with a fellow traveler, after what the New York
Times described as pressure from Moscow to do so.
In Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Nosek had been Minister of Interior
since the end of the war. He had been instrumental in securing the
takeover by the Communists a couple of months earlier, enabling the
police to paralyze the opposition by arresting them and seizing
their headquarters.
A letter from the chairman and vice-chairman of the local
cancer drive thanks the newspaper and other community organizations
for support in making the campaign a success, receiving $19,500 in
April.