Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the four military
governors of Berlin opened their second conference this date,
apparently exchanging experts' views on how to end the blockade. It
was reported in a German newspaper that the Russians had said that
the reasons for blocking the only rail line from Berlin to West
Germany had been resolved. Western allied transportation officials,
however, said that the newspaper was guessing when it speculated
that supply trains might be running by the following Sunday.
Winston Churchill, in a telegram to the second annual
Congress of the European Parliamentary Union, said that several
European Governments had approved a proposal to convene a
constitutional assembly for a European federal union.
In Stuttgart, Germany, former Third Reich financial wizard
Hjalmer Schacht was ordered freed by an appeals court from his
eight-year prison term following conviction the previous year by a
German de-Nazification court. He had been acquitted by the war
crimes tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946.
In Prague, Eduard Benes, 65, appeared near death as he lapsed
into unconsciousness following a stroke a year earlier. He had
resigned the presidency of Czechoslovakia the previous June.
In Louisiana, Russell Long, 29-year old son of the late
Governor and Senator Huey Long, was 1,500 votes ahead of his
opponent in the Senatorial election after the primary the previous
day. His uncle, Earl Long, had been elected Governor in 1948.
In New York, a trucking strike began regarding a dispute over
pay increases, possibly causing serious curtailment of transport of
food and other vital supplies into the city.
The CIO-PAC had decided to support President Truman in the
election, calling Governor Dewey "the candidate of big
business".
In Decatur, Ala., Henry Wallace, speaking at the Morgan
County Courthouse where the Scottsboro rape trials had taken place
between 1931 and 1936, appeared before a peaceful crowd who even
cheered him when he said that he had not entered the South to preach
disunity. He said that he favored an end to the cold war so that
hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Fascist regimes in Greece,
Turkey, and China could be halted. The money could then be spent to
build other TVA's across the country. He wanted to double Alabama's
income so that it equaled that of New York, mutually beneficial.
Only a few black citizens were present. Only a few boos were heard
from the crowd.
An Alabama mayor had written to Mr. Wallace that his presence
was not wanted in the state. Other city officials warned him that
they would strictly enforce segregation. Mr. Wallace had vowed not
to speak to a segregated audience.
In Shelby, N.C., the wife of one of the two men charged in
the slaying of a fifteen-year old unwed mother recanted her previous
confession to the shooting and testified that her husband had told
her that if she did not so confess, she would be sorry.
Tom Fesperman of The News reports that the Allied
Church League was making plans to hold a referendum to outlaw sale
in the county of beer and wine. They had just won an election in
Cumberland County, location of Fayetteville. The previous year's
approval of ABC-controlled liquor sales had nothing to do with sale
of wine and beer. Another ABC referendum was barred until mid-1950,
three years after the previous referendum.
In Charlotte, three men charged with throwing eggs and
tomatoes the previous day at Henry Wallace, though in each case
missing their mark and hitting others, primarily newspapermen, were
found guilty in police court and ordered to pay $25 in fines plus
costs. One of the defense counsel argued that Mr. Wallace ought be
charged for disturbing the peace. He wanted to hear what "the
fool" had to say and thought that the hecklers were the ones
who prevented him from being heard, not his client.
The judge said that he disagreed with Mr. Wallace at least as
much as the egg throwers testified that they did but that was no
reason to engage in such protest. One of the men, after his arrest,
said that he did not believe Mr. Wallace had the right to stand on
the Courthouse steps and say that stuff. He had gone to the speech
out of curiosity and had thrown a tomato when he saw a bag of them
on the ground.
Well, you would, too, if you heard that stuff.
One of the four persons who had thrown the missiles escaped
arrest.
Well, you just wait. Somebody'll get him with a tomato before
it's over. What goes around comes around.
The hurricane in the Atlantic had moved harmlessly to sea off
Nova Scotia, but another tropical storm was brewing in the
Caribbean, 1,950 miles from Miami.
Wake us when it gets there.
In Hollywood, actor Robert Mitchum had been arrested with
three other persons on felony narcotics charges after a raid of a
Hollywood home. Mr. Mitchum and an arrested real estate agent were
said to be marijuana smokers, smoking at the time of the raid. Mr.
Mitchum surrendered a pack of 13 other marijuana cigarettes. Actress
Lila Leeds gave up several more. One of the four, not in possession,
was charged with being in a place where narcotics were being used.
His career is probably over. He might have to go to the
joint. At least he wasn't a Commie.
On the editorial page, "The Eggs and Henry Wallace" finds that the nation was not deprived of historic words when the
crowd in Charlotte shouted the Progressive Party presidential
candidate down. Everyone already knew what Mr. Wallace was going to
say. Yet, it finds, it was still a disturbing and foolish
demonstration as it deprived the candidate the right of freedom of
speech and his followers free assembly.
All of his statements favoring racial equality had served to
stir Southern resentment against him and those he professed to
champion. But he had the right to speak. "When mob rule
replaces constitutional rights, our whole democracy is jeopardized."
Those who hated Mr. Wallace the most and were out
demonstrating were playing right to his hands. He was not in North
Carolina seeking votes, knowing that few could be had. He was making
a point to the North by having eggs tossed at him in the South,
hoping thereby to capture thousands of votes in other states. It
suggests that his pointed cancellation of hotel reservations to stay
at the homes of blacks was calculated to anger Southern whites to
the same end.
It hopes that next time he came to the county, the citizens
would give him the silent treatment he had earned.
You don't know Southern dumbbells too well, do you? It's
inbred. They are incapable of keeping silent when some outsider
starts into agitation of those old white-supremacist genes. They
know they are members of the supremes because they know.
"Continue the War on Polio" tells of Raleigh News
correspondent Lynn Nisbet reporting that North Carolina had lost
forty million dollars in tourist trade during the summer because of
the polio outbreak. It suggests that pouring forty million into
research of polio would be better than losing it in the reduced
tourist trade. It recommends contributing to the National Foundation
for Infantile Paralysis during its donation campaign.
"A Change In Our Electoral System" tells of
Senator John Sparkman of Alabama favoring a constitutional amendment
to abolish the electoral college. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.,
had also favored the move. Both men would become vice-presidential
nominees, Senator Sparkman for the Democrats in 1952 and Senator
Lodge for the Republicans in 1960. Both wanted the electors
apportioned in each state based on the proportion of the popular
vote carried rather than on a winner-take-all basis.
Senator Sparkman argued that
the change would take away the balance of power enjoyed by small minorities
in states where the parties were about evenly divided. It would
place emphasis on finding candidates with national appeal rather than appeal only in certain key
states. It would also encourage both major party candidates to go into every
part of the nation, not just concentrating on the electoral-rich
states up for grabs while ignoring largely the others in the bag for
one party or the other.
It suggests that President Roosevelt had made popular the
concept of grossly distorted influence of minorities in such close
states, and that President Truman, with his civil rights program,
had carried on that tradition for political benefit more than caring
genuinely for civil rights.
Which is a back-handed way of saying that the editors did not
much cotton to civil rights for minorities or anyone in power who
did.
Governor Dewey, in an apparent bid for the Italian vote, had
urged giving back to Italy its North African colonies.
The Dixiecrat movement was a reaction to Democrats having
taken for granted the South. In 1944, the South cast over 4.5
million votes, 3.4 million of which were for the Democrats. In 1940,
when FDR beat Wendell Willkie by 3.6 million votes, the South had
cast 4.4 million votes.
Doing away with the electoral college, it counsels, would
cause the parties to pay more attention to the South and court the
region accordingly. But, it says, conceivably, if electoral votes
were parsed precisely, a national election might be settled by three
ten-thousandths of an electoral vote.
After 2000, we heartily agree. But will it ever come to pass?
Not unless the public clamors for it with all the ardor which ought
be brought to the subject. It is at the very heart of modern
democracy. So don't sit complaining about stolen elections and
corruption of the process if you are not regularly trying to thump
this pleasant little 18th Century convention which has been outmoded
for 100 years, since the end of the horse and buggy era. If you like
being manipulated and targeted with stupid campaign ads and the
like, continue it.
A piece from the Greensboro Daily News, titled "Headed
Toward Suicide", tells of the Department of Agriculture
finding that cotton exports had reached a 76-year peacetime low in
the 1947-48 fiscal year. Decreased shipments were blamed on dollar
shortages abroad, large cotton stocks in foreign ports, and delay of
the start of ERP. The president of the CIO Textile Workers Union of
America had said that major New England producers of fine cotton
goods had decreased their output in response, lowering consumption,
to maintain higher prices. There was a large surplus of cotton. The
higher prices had worked to lower demand.
Even if it meant going without underwear, as they did "over
the river", (at least we reckon that's what their recondite
language meant), the people were not going to pay the higher prices.
The cotton industry needed to be aware of the facts rather than continuing operation out of their unawares.
Robert Allen, substituting for vacationing Drew Pearson,
discusses the uncertainty in the outcome of the election, with
independent voters still a wildcard. Memphis Boss Ed Crump's candidate had been
upset in Tennessee by Congressman Estes Kefauver and it portended
more surprises in the general election. The public was clamoring for
fresher-sounding voices.
In Colorado, crusading Eugene Cervi was giving incumbent
Democrat Ed Johnson, late entrant to the race, a run for his money,
charging the conservative with following old guard politics,
challenging his voting record. Polls showed the race to be close.
Two years earlier, Colorado had given majorities to liberal
Democrats, bucking the national trend.
In Wisconsin, Ralph Immel, a veteran of both world wars, was
making life difficult for the GOP bosses, calling them reactionaries
and advocating a list of detailed reforms. Mr. Immel's principal
problem was overconfidence among his supporters who might take
victory for granted and not turn out sufficiently at the polls.
Senator Arthur Vandenberg, meeting Rotterdam's Burgomeister,
corrected the latter on his omission of one prominent Dutch
American, after the Burgomeister had named not only Mr. Vandenberg
but also former President Hoover and two Congressmen. The omission,
reminded Senator Vandenberg, was FDR.
Defense Secretary James Forrestal had contributed monetarily
to the DNC and to campaigns of Southern Senators in close primary
fights. But not placing all of his eggs in one basket, he had also
contributed to some Republican New England Congressional candidates.
Democrats were not holding out much hope for Congressman
Virgil Chapman to defeat incumbent Senator John Sherman Cooper of
Kentucky. In fact, Congressman Chapman would win but would die two
years into his term. Mr. Cooper would then defeat the appointed
successor in 1952.
When Governor Strom Thurmond carried his third party
presidential campaign to Arkansas, all of the important state
leaders had ignored him.
Marquis Childs, in Oakland, discusses Henry Kaiser, "the
jumpingest jumping frog in the West". He informed, among other
things, that Kaiser presently produced more cement than the pre-war
cement trust combined, more aluminum ingot than the total production
in the country in 1937, and that Kaiser-Frazer automobiles was
making a thousand cars per day and had 3.5 million dollars in the
bank.
He had been criticized by those who claimed that he grabbed
Government subsidies by wooing politicians, to finance private
ventures.
He decided to build a retreat at Lake Tahoe and shortly
thereafter guest houses began appearing. He even entered his own
boats and crews in races on the Lake.
His company was involved in at least 28 industries, known
accurately only by Mr. Kaiser. His chief adversary at present was
Republic Steel after Mr. Kaiser successfully bid for a war surplus
blast furnace which Republic had sought, causing consternation in
the industry.
He recently raised his prices on steel to nearly the gray
market level, from $4.30 to $5.80 per hundred weight for plate, and
structural steel from $4.25 to $5.75. The fabricators protested that
they could not compete with Eastern manufacturers at those prices,
but Mr. Kaiser did not relent.
He owed the RFC 100 million dollars for his Fontana steel
plant which was built during the war. He had located an iron ore
deposit and built a railroad to it. The result was that Western
steel was going East to compete in Kansas City with the Eastern
manufacturers. He had been chiefly responsible for breaking the
aluminum monopoly.
Mr. Kaiser's drive, Mr. Childs concludes, was the stuff
which had made American production records the miracle of the world.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss the early evacuation of
the American zone of Korea having been decided by the National
Security Council about a month earlier. Technically, it was time for
the evacuation, as both Soviet and American occupation troops were
scheduled to evacuate 90 days after working governments had been
established in both zones. But effectively, the evacuation was
leaving the whole of Korea to Soviet domination. The decision came
as a result of debate whether Korea was worth holding, the decision
that it was not having been based on three grounds: the 200-300
million dollar per year occupation costs; the need for 24,000
American troops needed elsewhere; and the fact that Okinawa and
Japan were of equal or greater strategic importance.
Some policymakers speciously argued that the fledgling regime
of Dr. Syngman Rhee might effect a measure of independence.
Prior to the evacuation, the American garrison would train a
South Korean constabulary of 40,000 or more men. The Americans would
leave behind their arms, with perhaps an American military mission.
But the Government in South Korea was weak and infiltrated by
Communists. In the North, the Soviets had set up an efficient
regime, with a well-trained Army of 60,000 to 250,000 men. South
Korea was not economically self-sustaining, could not hope to supply
its own food, the North controlling the food supply. The entire
power supply, save one small plant, came from the North. Thus, after
the evacuation of the Americans, South Korea would be ripe for the
picking.
The Republicans, almost sure to win in the fall, wanted to
try to do something about Asia and the policy of abdication being
followed by the Administration. It appears to the Alsops outrageous
to make the decision to evacuate presently when such decisions were
"quite likely to prejudice any future attempt to turn the tide
in Asia."
The Editors' Roundtable, compiled by James Galloway of
Asheville, examines the issue of farm subsidies, with a majority of
editors favoring flexible supports rather than the 90 percent of
parity support extended until 1950 by the 80th Congress in the
special session.
Again, because this issue is of a transitory rather than
long-term historically significant impact, we refrain from providing
the individual editorial summaries.
Example: "The parity scheme as it exists today does not take into consideration advancement in farming techniques. The parity price of eggs, for example, is based upon an average annual production of 88 eggs per hen. But poultrymen have boosted this average to 118. With this 30-egg margin egg producers are able to make a profit even at 90 per cent of parity prices... The House vote to continue this support price system is evidence that the House is willing to spend taxpayers' money for farm votes." —Akron Beacon Journal
A Quote of the Day: "A lot of children see undesirable
movies because they cannot be left at home." —Tallahassee
Democrat
