The Charlotte News

Saturday, May 29, 1948

THREE EDITORIALS

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.

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