The Charlotte News
Wednesday, October 12, 1949
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Admiral William Halsey told the House Armed Services Committee that the B-36 was a "siege" weapon, capable of bombing cities and industries, unable in the end to stop anything, however, except bullets from fighter planes. He said that military history showed that siege weapons could not subdue an enemy with troops in the field in positions to attack the besieging force. Fleet Admiral Ernest King echoed the remarks, saying that in the event of war, it was possible that Russia would not use the atomic bomb, just as neither side had used gas in the late war, and so reliance upon it would be a mistake. Captain Arleigh A. Burke, assistant chief of Naval operations and future chief, urged the Committee to reinstate the scrapped supercarrier project, as had Admiral Halsey.
Communist elements were reported within 35 miles of the provisional capital of Nationalist China at Canton, entering its outlying suburbs. The main body of the Communist Army was still believed 50 miles away. The Government had already fled to Chungking. Thousands of evacuees from Canton jammed into Hong Kong. The Communist press said that Nationalist troops guarding Canton's perimeter were preparing to evacuate to Formosa. Acting President Li Tsung-Jen refused to go to Chungking and instead would join General Pai Chunghsi, who had withdrawn 200,000 troops into Kwangsi, a move interpreted as a complete break from Chiang Kai-Shek, still trying to direct the Nationalist forces.
The President, meeting with members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, renewed his opposition to a 58-group Air Force, favoring 48 groups, saving 741 million dollars. He said, however, that he would accept the House position on funds for stockpiling strategic materials. These two issues were stalling passage of an appropriations bill for the armed services.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7 to 3 to release the displaced persons bill without recommendation so that it could go to the floor for debate and a vote.
Senator Clyde Hoey said that five percenter James V. Hunt was closing his Washington office, following the investigation by the subcommittee chaired by Senator Hoey into the practices of the five percenters in influence peddling on Government contracts. He said that no more public hearings would be held before January. The illness of Mr. Hunt and of another object of the investigation, perfume manufacturer David Bennett, had delayed their testimony before the subcommittee.
The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America asked the Supreme Court to review the case of a black student seeking admission to the University of Texas Law School—the case which would become known as Sweatt v. Painter, to strike down segregation at the school as not having met the "separate-but-equal" standard imposed by Plessy v. Ferguson, and to be a forerunner to the landmark public school desegregation case of 1954-55, Brown v. Board of Education, overturning Plessy as outmoded for never fulfilling its intended purpose and eventuating in second-class schools for black students. The announcement said that the Presbyterian Church of the South dissociated itself with the Council's position.
Sherman Minton was sworn in as a new Justice of the Supreme Court, replacing Wiley Rutledge who had died in mid-September.
The President told the ambassadors to the Council of the Organization of American States, visiting the White House for Columbus Day, that the countries of the inter-American system subscribed to the principle of non-intervention in internal and external affairs of one another but were also committed to solidarity and the principle that representative democracy would be upheld by the member states.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas predicted passage of the farm program of Senator Clinton Anderson providing for sliding parity between 75 and 90 percent for support payments. He said that he doubted the target date for adjournment the following Saturday could be met. President Truman had been reported to favor return to the flat 90 percent parity program on at least six basic commodities, inclusive of tobacco and cotton. The House had already voted for the Gore plan of 90 percent on these commodities.
Philip Murray expressed optimism that the steel strike would soon end with complete victory for the union.
The U.S. Conciliation Service opened talks this date in White Sulphur Spings, W. Va., between the UMW and coal operators to try to effect resolution of the dispute over pension payments prompting the coal strike. The Southern Coal Operators complained that John L. Lewis administered pension payments from the fund in a "Tammany Hall" style, suggesting political favoritism and corruption.
Relax, coal miners. You can soon be
digging the foundations for the Greenbrier retreat, in preparation
for D-Day
The rumored plans for a third labor organization were denied by the president of the leftist Farm Equipment Workers, which was planning to join the leftist United Electrical Workers. But a statement by a member of the FE executive board was in conflict with that assessment, that statement saying that the move would be resisted by the FE as it would aim at tying together the Communist-led unions.
Earl Richert of the Scripps-Howard news service continues his series of articles regarding hidden taxes in the price of consumer goods, focusing on gasoline, which was taxed at the average rate of 6.4 cents per gallon for both state and Federal taxes, a quarter of the cost of each gallon. The state rates ranged from 9 cents in Louisiana to 3 cents in Missouri, added to the Federal tax of 1.5 cents. The motorist also paid 1.5 cents in tax on average for every quart of oil. Other taxes applied to such routine maintenance items as spark plugs. On an average trip, tolls, taxes on lodging and meals and other such items also added to the tax bill. The AAA was lobbying to prevent expenditure of the gas taxes for anything other than roads. Twenty states required that limit by their constitutions.
Passengers on rail and air traffic paid 15 percent in Federal tax on their fares. The companies were lobbying to have the latter tax removed as it had been imposed to reduce wartime travel.
In Raleigh, Governor Kerr Scott asked a conference of law enforcement personnel to join together in stamping out bootlegging in the state, as well as enforcing drunk driving and disorderly conduct laws.
Bob Sain of The News reports
that a letter from Queen Charlotte, written in June, 1812 from
Windsor Castle, anent issuance of a pass to an apothecary of the
Queen's Household to enter the Stable Yard Gate of St. James Palace,
had been purchased and donated to Charlotte's Mint Museum
Digested, it says: "Look heya, you betta let my man up in der and show some tee' tow' him or I gonna come on down deya and whup up on you."
On the editorial page,
"Pandit
Nehru's Visit" remarks on the U.S. "good will tour"
underway by Prime Minister Nehru
The effort to support the Kuomintang in China had failed and the building up of Japan as a bulwark to Communism was of questionable wisdom. But India had a governing class with the outlook of the Anglo-Saxon countries. Pandit Nehru was the most Westernized leader of that country, having been educated in England.
He was amenable to foreign investment to aid industrialization of India and his Government was solidly anti-Communist.
The President's "Point Four" plan for private investment to build up underdeveloped countries might find application in India. Big problems, however, remained in the form of tension with Pakistan, the country's huge sterling balance with Britain, and the immediate housing, education, and food issues besetting the country.
It advises aiding India in its transition from a former British colony and developing a definite role in the East. Pandit Nehru's visit would focus attention on that goal.
"Undemocratic Vices" finds it not terribly disturbing that a number of illegal slot machines were operating in the state as they only took pocket change from those duped into pulling the lever. It was well known that they existed.
It finds nothing inherently immoral about them but also warns that they were worthy of the patron's caution. The reason they were banned was that the profits ordinarily went to unsavory persons who were made wealthy thereby and then threw that wealth into the political and law enforcement arenas.
It concludes therefore that as long as the law was on the books, it ought be enforced against private clubs which had no right to exception.
"Negro School Needs" tells of Governor Kerr Scott remarking to a group of educators that the state needed better schools for black students. The State Board of Education was in charge of allocating money appropriated by the Legislature for building new schools and improving existing school buildings. It also had to approve local projects paid by local money.
State superintendent Dr. Clyde Erwin asserted that local school boards were becoming aware of the needs of black schools and were spending money proportionately between the races. He said that within the ensuing few years, a large number of the deficiencies in black schools would be eliminated and new schools would replace the old.
It concludes that when the local
school boards were as firmly wedded to the principle of equal
treatment in allocation of funds as the State was to equal teacher
salaries, school bus transportation and textbooks
"Hospital for Alcoholics" tells of a proposed hospital for alcoholics at Camp Butner finally beginning to gather momentum following several months of preliminary study. The 1949 General Assembly had allocated $300,000 for the project. The hospital would be used in lieu of mental hospitals which had been utilized for treatment of alcoholics, though not properly staffed for the purpose.
A piece from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, titled "On Smoking in Bed", tells of a man who for years had sprinkled his bed with water at night to avoid a fire having wound up having his house burn down recently. It urges fire prevention, reminds that a third of all fires were caused by careless smokers and that the most dangerous age group for causing fires was children 1 to 5—especially if they smoked. It warns against overstuffed closets, attics or basements and not to leave flammable liquids in areas where they could be tipped over or subjected to heat by the sun or other source producing potential ignition.
Drew Pearson tells of Admiral Arthur Radford having testified to the House Armed Services Committee in executive session prior to his public testimony. He had said, in response to Senators expressing disappointment that he had not stated any affirmative role for the Navy, that he was only the first witness and that others would provide that role. But Congressman Paul Kilday of Texas was not pleased, believed that the Navy should not have begun by criticizing the Air Force.
Senator Lester Hunt of Wyoming, returning from Germany, said that it would take an army of educators to defeat Nazism in Germany and that de-Nazification was a myth. He believed in appointing American administrators for every school and university in Germany, that it would be cheaper than the first month of World War III.
A few high officials received free rides from private companies to the homecoming in Kansas City for DNC chairman William Boyle, even though no Government planes were used. He lists the persons and companies involved. Phillips Petroleum, which along with other oil companies had been lobbying for return of the tidelands oil to the states and opposed confirmation for reappointment to the FPC of consumer advocate Leland Olds, had flown Vice-President Barkley and Secretary of Labor Maurice Tobin back to Washington.
The sudden death of Idaho Senator Bert Miller could hold up the displaced persons bill until the 1950 session. It was supposed to come up for debate in the Judiciary Committee during this week but the Committee members now would attend Senator Miller's funeral, possibly preventing the bill from reaching the floor before the recess.
A Providence, R.I., manufacturer would demand investigation by Congress of General MacArthur for using taxpayer money to build up the Japanese industries at the expense of American business and labor, encouraging cheap, competitive Japanese exports for the American market. The manufacturer of cigarette lighters claimed his business was hurt by Japanese duplicates of Ronson, Evans and other American lighters at cheaper prices by using inferior materials and cheaper labor.
Conny Donny, how does that fit
Marquis Childs discusses the upcoming Congressional election year, stressing the re-election bid of Senator Charles Tobey, who had managed to anger many powerful interests, including Senator Styles Bridges, also of New Hampshire. It was possible that Senator Bridges's administrative assistant might run against Senator Tobey in the Republican primary. Senator Bridges suspected Senator Tobey of being responsible for the investigation in the Senate which brought to light Senator Bridges's $35,000 salary as a member of the board of directors of the UMW welfare fund.
Senator Tobey had also uncovered various incidents of political influence involving loans by the RFC. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas had introduced a bill to forbid RFC employees for two years after leaving the RFC from taking positions with any company which had received an RFC loan, a bill passed by the Senate but held up in the House.
The cynical found Senator Tobey quite annoying for not approaching Washington realistically, to allow leeway to persons on a Government salary. But, remarks Mr. Childs, were it not for such members of Congress, the dome of the Capitol, itself, might turn up missing one day.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop find that the muddled leadership of the President regarding which farm bill he was backing had led to confusion in the Senate such that the farm bill had "growed" as haphazardly as Topsy. First, the President appeared to back the proposal of Senator Clinton Anderson for a sliding 75-90 percent of parity support price. But after Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas had presented that bill, Senator Richard Russell introduced an amendment to restore fixed 90 percent parity, consistent with the Gore bill passed by the House. That amendment wound up in a tie vote, broken favorably by Vice-President Alben Barkley, causing a rift with Senator Lucas.
Senator Lucas then got Senator Anderson to make a couple of concessions in his bill and the Russell amendment was eventually removed.
But having gone through that process, Senator Lucas was frustrated by the President then deciding to back the fixed 90 percent parity price.
With such mercurial stances, they conclude, the President's "Welfare State" would run into trouble before it was even established.
Robert C. Ruark tells of his typewriter not cooperating whenever he tried to venture into serious topics with which he was not intimately familiar, despite copious amounts of study and reading on those topics. But with such things as baseball, merchant ships, and stripteasers, subjects about which he knew firsthand, the words flowed effortlessly.
Baseball was a business and made sense, rarely changed its rules and could not be remade by experts. He never cared for football because it appeared as loose as psychiatry as the rules changed constantly to fit the situation and the coaches were all liars.
He views the 1949 World Series just
concluded the previous Sunday as a delight even to non-baseball fans
for it having been simple and uncomplicated, an escape from a complex
world. Joe DiMaggio could not be fogged
The people had embraced this Series because it was "free of the irritants of global double-talk and the uncertainties of remaining alive."
Doubtful. They just needed a place
to snooze for about three hours in the afternoons as the park benches
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