The Charlotte News
Monday, January 31, 1949
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in China, Acting President Li Tsung-Jen flew from Nanking to Shanghai to attempt to organize minority groups in support of his peace plan, returning shortly thereafter to the capital, announcing that Madame Sun Yat-Sen, widow of the father of the Chinese Republic, and the minority leaders had refused to join him. The Communists were presently six miles north of the capital as its defenders were quickly departing. Meanwhile, General Hsueh Yueh, hero of the Sino-Japanese war, declared that the four southern provinces of Hunan, Fukien, Kwangtung, and Kwangsi would continue to fight against the Communists regardless of Nanking's decisions.
The Atomic Energy Commission issued a report to Congress stating that the country had far more powerful atomic bombs than the old ones dropped on Japan in August, 1945 or those exploded in the two tests off Bikini Atoll in July, 1946, as demonstrated in the three tests off Eniwetok the previous spring.
Associated Press correspondent Eddy Gilmore reports on a recurring rumor that Prime Minister Stalin would soon meet with President Truman. Stalin had stated the previous day, in response to correspondent Kingsbury Smith's written question, that he had no objection to such a meeting. The President had issued an open invitation to meet with the Soviet leader in Washington. Stalin had also said that there was no obstacle to removal of the Berlin blockade as long as the West met two conditions, postponement of creation of the West German state until the Big Four Council of Foreign Ministers could meet to try to resolve the entire German issue and lifting of the Western counter-blockade. That proposal had been advanced previously. Two days earlier, a Russian white paper had issued calling the proposed North Atlantic Pact an effort to obtain British-American world domination by force.
Senator George Aiken of Vermont complained at Senate hearings that the Administration's labor bill lacked adequate teeth to deal with nationwide strikes which would severely impact the country.
Former President Hoover recommended to the House Executive Expenditures Committee that Congress give the President authority to reorganize the Executive Branch such that there would be fewer than 20 agencies reporting directly to the President. Currently, there were 1,800 bureaus, commissions, divisions, departments, administrations and offices in the Government. Of those, the number of agencies which directly reported to the President varied between 65 and 101.
House Speaker Sam Rayburn, House Majority Leader John McCormack, Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas and Vice-President Barkley met with the President, and Speaker Rayburn assured that the Democrats would push the President's program more vigorously in Congress.
In Whiteville, N.C., 9,000 Baptists had resolved to boycott businesses selling wine or beer because of the community having approved sale of the spirituous inebriants.
Snow, sleet, and freezing rain hit the South, causing 17 deaths, through Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. Arkansas was hardest hit.
Tom Schlesinger of The News relates of Davidson College being integral to Charlotte community life though its 50-acre campus, 112 years old, was twenty miles distant from the city. It ranked as one of the best institutions of higher learning in the nation. Yet, Charlotte had never embraced the college as its own.
In Portland, Me., barbers reduced prices by a dime from their peak of 85 cents established for a trial period of several months. It must have hit the widow's peak and had to retreat.
Another "Mr. X" contest begins this date, again with an initial $10 prize, increasing $10 each day until a correct identification is made, with the $50 accumulated by the end of the week going to the Empty Stocking Fund for needy families next Christmas. The initial clue, plus the photograph, is that Mr. X was a young man who had risen rapidly in politics.
It must be Vice-President Barkley.
Or maybe Tennessee Ernie Ford
On the editorial page, "Liberty and Security" discusses the lack of precedent for curtailing civil liberties in time of cold war, as opposed to during a shooting war.
Recently, three professors at the University of Washington had been discharged on the ground of being Communists, though they had taught at the University and been members of the Communist Party for many years. The country had permitted the American Communist Party to exist for many years without interference. But now, in the midst of cold war, the country had suddenly become concerned to the point of firing Communists and prosecuting them, in the case of the twelve Communist Party leaders, for conspiracy to overthrow the Government by force or violence. Recently, John Gates, editor of The Daily Worker, one of those indicted, was scheduled to speak at UNC and chancellor Robert House had denied him use of a hall on campus, something which probably would not have occurred a few years earlier.
The trend, it offers, was neither good nor entirely bad. It was alarming that the country had suddenly become so fearful of corrosion of democracy from within. But, it finds, never before had the effort from within been so coordinated with efforts from without to destroy the country and all democracies of the world—apparently forgetting for the nonce the concerted effort on both fronts by the Nazis.
Until the Supreme Court would rule on the matter, it suggests, the scales of justice had to tip to the side of security.
"A Shift in Strategy" tells of the dairy industry stopping its resistance to margarine and the industry's traditional lobbying for continuance of the discriminatory tax on margarine provided that margarine would not be pre-colored yellow. The piece finds no reason for continuing discrimination against margarine as long as the ersatz product was labeled as such.
"Judges and the Parole System" tells of a second judge criticizing the parole system in the state for allowing early release of serious offenders. Acting Parole Commissioner William Dunn, Jr., had responded to the criticism on Saturday, with a letter to the editor explaining the parole system. He had pointed out that the Commission sought the opinions of the trial judge and prosecutor in each instance where parole was being recommended. It was therefore up to each judge and prosecutor, suggests the piece, to take care in responding to such recommendations. The fault in the system, it finds, might lie in a failure in that regard.
A piece from the Winston-Salem Journal, titled "Another Magistrate Case", tells of one Surry County magistrate being under indictment and twenty justices of the peace being investigated in that county, finds therefore that it was time for the Legislature to enact reforms of the system.
Drew Pearson tells of a meeting, called by Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, between the House Armed Services Committee, top military advisers at the Pentagon, and State Department planners to map a new policy of attempted cooperation with Russia. The Congressmen were told that Russia was not in preparation for war and that there was no immediate prospect for war. State Department chief planner George Kennan indicated that the U.S. hoped to work out an "economic agreement" with the Russians involving trade of goods needed and desired in the Soviet Union.
A year earlier, Mr. Forrestal had told Congress that war appeared imminent. Now, plans were being made to cut the Air Force to 48 combat groups. Mr. Kennan said that the Russians would not have appreciable numbers of atomic weapons before 1951 and that by then the U.S. would have dwarfed that production. He stressed, however, that war could erupt in Europe though Russia was not planning one. So, it was urgent that the U.S. act on the proposed Atlantic Pact to enable complete implementation of the Marshall Plan and provide the Western European nations further security against the prospect of Russian aggression.
The Congressmen also received a briefing on the new B-36 bomber from Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington.
Mr. Pearson next provides a cross-section of the mail in response to his suggestion that the President make a recording of popular tunes played by him on the piano for sale to benefit the March of Dimes drive, all of the letters being highly supportive of the idea.
Stewart Alsop discusses the President's proposal in his inaugural address regarding raising the living standards for the underdeveloped nations and the speculation on what it meant. He looks at the origins of the proposal to try to ferret out the meaning. The President had first consulted with adviser Clark Clifford and Undersecretary of State Robert Lovett, telling them in a general way what he had in mind for the speech anent foreign policy. They then got together with Charles Bohlen of the State Department and drafted a proposed version. The President and Mr. Clifford, however, believed it too complicated and redrafted it to simpler language, stating the matter as a contest between democracy and Communism and reviewing the foreign policy accomplishments of the previous four years, adding a statement of strong support for the Marshall Plan, the North Atlantic Pact, and rearmament of Western Europe.
But the White House decided that the speech lacked a sense of freshness and so the idea of the new program was added. Thus came to be the so called Point Four in the speech. The President also may have felt that the Marshall Plan and the North Atlantic Pact would not be enough to halt Soviet Communism, especially in Asia. The "bold, new program" might become something in addition to the other two, or it might come to nothing, as it remained fuzzy in its conceptualization.
Marquis Childs, in Omaha, tells of the RNC re-electing Congressman Hugh Scott as chairman despite grumbling in the ranks after the loss in November and the belief that Mr. Scott was Dewey's man. The RNC membership was old and reflected thinking of the past. Yet, no one proposed the only solution out of the party's dead end, that the entire membership resign. If Mr. Scott had lost the late election, the RNC as a whole had lost five in a row. Still, they were looking for a scapegoat for the recent drubbing.
One member, Consuelo Bailey of Vermont, wanted the Committee to engage in self-examination, but no one else appeared in the mood to do so. The membership of the Committee showed how far removed it was from the grass roots of the country. There were only two black members, both from Mississippi. No ethnic minority in the country otherwise was represented at all.
In the face of criticism, Mr. Scott, the only World War II veteran on the Committee, had conducted himself with dignity. Others pointed out that if he were removed as chairman, veterans and younger voters would see it as a sign of exclusion from the Republican Party.
Governor Dewey had stated during the
campaign that younger voters had been alienated. If Mr. Scott could
take his slim margin of victory and begin to win back the younger
voters
Samuel Grafton, no longer carried by The News, suggests that while it was nice to hear the Italian and French Communists calling for peace with the West, it had a hollow ring. For what they appeared to want was peace with Oz, a never-never land which did not exist. Rather than accepting America as a capitalist society, they acted shocked to find that the country did not accept Communism, viewed every foreign policy move as an act of capitalist imperialism. If they genuinely wanted peace and were not simply engaging in propaganda gestures, then they would seek peace based on recognition of the actual state of things.
But similarly, the President, in his condemnation of Communism in his inaugural address, had appeared to state a desire for peace on democratic terms, not recognizing the nature of the Communist system. Both sides thus needed to be wary of such unrealistic attitudes.
"In a world in which space has recently become curved, and in which the mathematician's ruler turns out to be made of rubber, statesmen's syllogisms may not be the last word in accuracy, either. What the world wants is peace among the people who live in it, and not dismal theories on why they should be different from what they are to produce what otherwise cannot be had."
A letter writer criticizes another letter writer of January 25 who had labeled those who failed to contribute to the March of Dimes as "welchers, deadbeats and parasites". He did not like the way some charitable organizations raised money, found it "sickening".
A letter from A. W. Black again responds to letter writers favoring world federation. He believes that force was necessary to keep nations in line, until "a better people with a greater understanding" could develop.
A letter writer favors abolition of the electoral college. Popular determination of the presidency would enable Republicans in the South and Southerners generally to have greater voice in the national government, would render the Solid South a thing of the past, and would be in accord with full democratic principles.
That's a good idea.
A
letter writer complains that the
ABC system of controlled liquor sales in Mecklenburg had not, since
it was inaugurated in September, 1947, lived up to its promise of
building better schools or a new library or even a new jail to house
all of the drunks
Framed Edition
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