The Charlotte News
Wednesday, October 5, 1949
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Government mediator Cyrus Ching called for a Friday meeting between coal operators and UMW leaders to try to effect an end to the three-week coal strike as it was starting to reach crisis proportions. There was no contemplated action yet regarding the steel strike. Mr. Ching refused comment when asked whether the President might soon invoke Taft-Hartley to obtain an injunction to end the strike.
The House Armed Services Committee advised the Navy to fire Cedric Worth, assistant to the Undersecretary, for writing the memo which led to the Congressional inquiry into potential misconduct in procurement of the B-36 contract, eventuating in clearing of all those charged in the memo with self-dealing. The Navy announced that Mr. Worth had resigned at the end of August.
The Committee also said that it would open hearings the following day into charges by Navy brass that the morale of the Navy had fallen dangerously low under unification of the military, weakening the Navy and compromising national security.
The joint House-Senate Atomic Energy Committee was split into three groups on whether to adopt the draft report which found no evidence to support the charges of mismanagement of the Atomic Energy Commission, with chairman Senator Brien McMahon pressing for its adoption. Senator Bourke Hickenlooper, who brought the charges, wanted the report rejected as too soft. A third group, in the middle, led by Senators William Knowland and Richard Russell, believed the report had not gone far enough but that the charge of "gross mismanagement" was not warranted.
Three Republican Senators, Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, and Karl Mundt of South Dakota, wanted to keep open the investigation into the five percenters and influence peddling in procurement of Government contracts. Senator Clyde Hoey, chairman of the investigating subcommittee which looked into the charges, had apparently declared during the previous weekend that the matter had ended for this session of Congress. He clarified, however, that he would call a meeting of the subcommittee the following week to consider whether to reopen the hearings and that what he had said during the weekend had been misinterpreted by the Republican Senators. He had said that two of the witnesses yet to be called remained too ill to testify and that if they did not before the end of the year, the subcommittee would look into it in January.
House Speaker Sam Rayburn predicted that the House would pass the Social Security benefits expansion bill, placing eleven million additional workers under its provisions. The Senate was not expected to act before the beginning of the next session.
The House Ways & Means Committee had found during hearings that newspaper editors and publishers rarely retired at age 65 and that there had been no expressed desire to have them brought under the planned expansion of Social Security benefits.
The Veterans Administration announced that it might start paying out 2.8 billion dollars in G.I. insurance dividends before Christmas at the rate of a million dollars per week, with completion of payment of the special dividend to 16 million World War II veterans by the end of the fiscal year. Later, a second special dividend payment of undetermined amount would be paid, probably in 1951-52.
French Premier Henri Queuille had offered his resignation to President Vincent Auriol after his coalition Government had run into difficulties since the Socialist Party had demanded that worker demands for wage increases be satisfied. M. Queuille headed the Radical Socialist Party, conservative.
In Canton, China, Leonard Clark, who claimed to have found the world's highest mountain in the Amne Machin Mountains of China and was a former colonel in the OSS, was charged with manslaughter in the deaths by gunfire on September 8 of an American and a Briton. He claimed not to have shot the two men. It was alleged by Chinese authorities that Mr. Clark had been in love with the wife of one of the dead men, a claim he also denied, and that the shooting took place in a jealous fit during a drunken party. Mr. Clark had been featured in the current issue of Life. He said that if he were in jail when the Communists took over Shanghai he would be tortured for his work in the OSS behind Japanese lines during the war. He begged therefore to have his plight relayed to former OSS head, General William Donovan.
In Ravenna, O., two babies, who apparently had been mixed up at birth, had been returned to the hospital by the putative parents and an investigation was taking place. A nurse was suspended by the hospital for the apparent mix-up. The two mothers had shared the same room. The mix-up was discovered by an alert doctor who came to the home of one of the children to examine it and discovered a sign of an instrument delivery, which had not been the case of the child delivered to that mother.
Oh, no. We could all be confused. Everyone should be investigated.
In Charlotte, hundreds of offers of clothing had poured into the Welfare Department during Welfare Day this date, with the Junior Woman's Club president and Department superintendent Wallace Kuralt answering the phones. The Club and the Department co-sponsored the event.
In the first game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, the score between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers was knotted at 0 after five innings. The Yankees would go on to win the game 1-0 behind the pitching of Allie Reynolds. Don Newcombe was the losing pitcher.
On the editorial page, "Social Security Revision Needed" finds that though the extension of Social Security benefits would not take place during the current session of Congress, the start of hearings on the matter would be beneficial as paving the way for prompt action in both chambers in 1950.
There had been no change in the benefits afforded by Old Age and Survivors Insurance since 1939. The planned graduated increase in payroll taxes had been postponed by Congress each year since. The average payment was under $20 per month and even the highest payments, at $25.41, were inadequate to cover the basic cost of living in 1949.
The nation was spending about two billion dollars in public assistance annually as it dispensed 600 million per year in old age and survivors insurance benefits, meaning that those who contributed nothing to their welfare payments were in better condition than those who paid through employers.
Unless Congress revised and expanded the benefits, only those workers who belonged to major unions, as steel, automotive, and coal, would have retirement benefits sufficient to pay their way in old age or disability.
"The Navy Keeps Firing" supports a thorough investigation by Congress into allegations by Navy chief of operations Admiral Louis Denfeld and his immediate subordinates that military unification was harming national security by weakening the Navy and giving a larger role to the Air Force. The people deserved an answer on whether the shift to air power was the correct move.
How many investigations do you need? Let's drop the big one and find out who is ready for action at 3:00 a.m.
"Object Lesson for the Miners" comments on the treatment of the coal miner who had filed suit for an accounting of the UMW welfare fund, seeking ouster of John L. Lewis as a trustee, as well as the other two trustees, including Senator Styles Bridges, who had already expressed an intent to resign. The miner had been expelled from his local, fired from his job, and harassed by local miners. Yet, within the totalitarian regime of Mr. Lewis, he had no recourse. The piece suggests that it ought remind malcontents of the union of the extraordinary power wielded over their very existence by the UMW head.
"Distinguished Visitors" tells of the President visiting Fort Bragg
It is pleased that they were in the state and hopes that next visit, they would come to the Piedmont.
He will, two years hence, to perform groundbreaking for the new campus at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.
A piece from the Atlanta Constitution, titled "A Good Record for Georgia", praises the fact that the state had come in second only to Delaware in per capita rehabilitation of the physically handicapped, and fifth overall in raw numbers, with over 3,000 rehabilitated persons holding productive jobs. The good record was the result primarily of the Vocational Rehabilitation Division of the State Department of Education, along with close cooperation from business leaders. It recommends as good business the rehabilitation and hiring of the handicapped.
A piece from the Dayton Daily News examines Government by crony during the history of the presidency, tells of Andrew Jackson being the first President to select cronies to comprise his circle of advisers, his so-called "kitchen cabinet". He treated his regular Cabinet as clerks, department heads. But among the men around him, there was no hint of personal corruption.
President Ulysses Grant had been the next such President with cronies around him, filling his Cabinet with personal, political and military friends. His Presidency was also marked by nepotism, appointing many members of his own and his wife's families. The result was corruption, the worst to that point in American history. Yet, the President had never been personally implicated in any of the many scandals of his Administration. His primary fault had been excessive loyalty to his friends.
Warren Harding was the next President to suffer from cronyism, resulting also in enormous scandal, though he also was never implicated.
Now, there was President Truman with his cronies from Missouri and his former Battery D of World War I. Thus far, he had not been betrayed the way Presidents Grant and Harding had been by their friends. But there was the chance that the small deviations, for instance, of General Harry Vaughan might grow into larger problems. The President's loyalty could lead to more serious trouble and the dignity of the Government was being placed in jeopardy by such a coterie of friends in high places.
The all-time topper, of course, would be the Administration of Richard Nixon, between 1969 and August, 1974, also criticized for being overly loyal to his political cronies appointed as either advisers or members of the Cabinet. But in his case, he sought to cover up their various criminal enterprises and in so doing, brought down his own Presidency. Of course, there is ample evidence to conclude that Mr. Nixon's flaws went far deeper than mere loyalty and covering up of crimes, to actual participation with knowledge in criminal enterprises, leaving himself space for plausible denial through a wink and a nod of approval while creating the facade of overly zealous lieutenants acting independently.
Drew Pearson tells of growing resentment among rank-and-file coal miners regarding the coal strike, as it had been preceded by a three-day work week since July, leaving miners stretched to make ends meet as John L. Lewis continued to draw his $50,000 per year salary. The former esprit de corps of earlier walkouts was missing. The miners were especially upset by the dissipation of the welfare fund, the termination of payments, premised on failure of contribution to it by Southern operators, in fact limited to only three or four, being the reason for the walkout.
Indicative of the level of anger, a miner had brought suit for accounting of the fund, alleging mishandling of it by Mr. Lewis and the other trustees, an act which would have been unthinkable for a miner in past times.
Southern miners had talked privately of forming a separate union if the civil suit found waste in handling of the welfare fund. The Southerners were upset that Mr. Lewis settled the cause of the Northern miners first, causing them to remain out of work longer. They wanted a wage increase without going broke from a strike.
Alaska's defenses were compromised for lack of housing for U.S. troops.
No Air Force planes were on hand to transport Government officials to a Kansas City event honoring DNC chairman William Boyle. The officials blamed Mr. Pearson for his uncovering of the military flight and junket system, leading to curtailment by Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson of military flights for Government officials not transacting military business.
The Justice Department was preparing to require all Russian representatives in the U.S. to register because of the increased concern regarding spying by personnel of Amtorg, the Russian Government trade agency in the U.S. The State Department might, however, block the move as harming relations with Russia.
The CIA was urging that Russian mink, through which it gained its dollars for financing all of its activities in the U.S., including spying, be placed under tariff. But the State Department was urging against a high fur tariff.
Because of Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada, it was likely that the intended Senate-House investigation of lobbyists, one of the mainstay promises of the 1948 Democratic campaign, would be limited only to the House. Lobbying had actually increased in the current Congress. Senator McCarran had blocked every move to investigate the practices in the Senate unless he could name the lobbyists to be investigated.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of a decision having been made jointly between Britain and the U.S. to provide to Yugoslavia, in the event of attack by the Russians, "all aid short of war".
Russia had gone as far as it could with attempts at sabotage and assassination, all proving ineffective against Tito's Soviet-trained police. Economic blockade had also been ineffective against the Western aid provided by a 25 million dollar loan from the Export-Import Bank and an eight to nine million dollar credit from the British. In addition, the British and Italians were negotiating extensive trade deals with Yugoslavia to bolster its economy. This aid had enabled Tito to act audaciously against the Soviets, describing the "degeneration" of the Soviet Communist Party and accusing the Russians of wanting to dominate the world.
In addition, Tito's 30-division army could withstand any attack by the Soviet satellites.
That left the Russians only with the option of direct attack to try to topple the Tito regime. They would only resort to that alternative if they were assured of an easy victory and that it would be limited to a local war. Thus, the threat of immediate military aid to Yugoslavia by the British and U.S., it was hoped, would deter such an attack. While the new policy could lead to a world war, it was a risk which the Anglo-American policy-makers were willing to take.
Robert C. Ruark tells of the New York Yankees' victory over the Boston Red Sox the prior Sunday, clinching the American League pennant. He says that had the Red Sox won, he would have covered the story the same way for the Yankees' showing of guts in the process.
Guts was something lacking in the Red Sox. Talent had earned them only second place the prior season when the Cleveland Indians had won the pennant on the last day, and third place in 1947.
But the Yankees were operating with
70 separate injuries, sparked by Phil Rizzuto, who was "washed
up". Joe DiMaggio, their principal threat, was mainly out
during the season, and when he finally returned at the end, was so
weak that he had to be withdrawn in the final game. He thinks it was Yogi Berra who had said Sunday that if pitcher Vic Raschi needed to win the game by 1-0, he would have done it. The Yankees had
luck on their side finally in the last game on Sunday—which, if
you missed it, is here
We don't follow baseball, never have to any degree, can't find enough toothpicks to stay awake for nine consecutive innings, and so are tired of this pitching piece. We suppose it has its advantages on a lazy summer Saturday afternoon when some find it better to snooze occasionally on the sofa than sweat outside doing various chores. We always preferred the latter—as when we were laying patio pavers while watching and listening to the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the articles of impeachment in July, 1974. But we understand. It's tradition, carried over from childhood, a means of connection to the child within each of us.
Some have the Yankees as such a medium; some have the Tar Heels.
He concludes: "All through the year the Yanks owned no home at the top, but they kept the lease open, and at the end they clinched it, and they did it on raw nerve. Or guts. Horrid word or no, it's a commodity you can't buy."
This report
That canine repugnance, in fact, should have been a central theme in the yawning chasm of the vice-presidential debate last night and it might have gained inspiration. Alas, as it was, Donny did everything that Senator Kaine said he did, while Governor Pence grimaced his way repeatedly into denials and non-denial denials until the viewer was left wondering where the beef had gone, probably left to be chewed up by Buddy along with the inconsequential "30,000 e-mails" which have been transformed, in non sequitur, into a chimera by Conny and his pals.
No one pays attention to vice-presidential debates anyway. Otherwise, there would have been a President Dukakis in 1989.
Both men, at least, appeared competent and alert, even if one of them had the thankless task of having to cover for an inveterate conman who, obviously, no longer distinguishes between reality and unreality. In fact, Governor Pence appeared polished enough to have his own radio talk show.
And if that does not turn out well,
he might have a role reserved in motion pictures
In any event, have it your way, Nixon shills of 2016: Conny Donny leads every poll by forty points and is a shoo-in. Never mind that Republicans in tight Senate and House races, right and left, are heading for the hills in shell-shocked disarray to avoid association with the head of the ticket. They are all sell-outs to the Globalist Conspiracy trying to own your soul and sacrifice your heart at the altar.
But take heart, for the leak will yet come which will be the decisive moment in the election, turning the polls from forty points up for the Republican to at least eighty points up.
We already know what the revelation will be, but, for national security reasons, are bound by blood oath and double-secret bogeyman threats of reprisal not to reveal it.
Oh, okay. But keep it hush-hush. Buddy did a you-know-what right on the White House lawn once in 1997, at taxpayer expense. And the mainstream press covered it up, to hide the truth about Sox.
There, it feels a lot better to have that off our chests.
Oh, no. There is a long black car outside with dark-tinted windows, and we must thus now to the hills take our leave.
They know everything, even before you think it. You can't hide. Dogs.
Ye Fala?
Framed Edition
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