The Charlotte News

Tuesday, November 1, 1949

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that a small Bolivian plane collided in midair with an Eastern Air Lines DC-4 passenger plane and plunged into the Potomac near Washington, resulting in all aboard the DC-4 perishing. Among the 54 dead, 50 of whom were passengers, were Congressman George J. Bates of Massachusetts and five passengers who lived in Charlotte. Only the pilot of the small plane survived.

Also in Washington, heavy damage was caused by an explosion at the Post Office Department building on Pennsylvania Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets, a block from the Old Post Office. The damage to the eleven million dollar structure, built in the mid-thirties, was estimated at $400,000. Twelve persons were treated for cuts and bruises from flying glass and debris. The explosion was thought to have originated within an electrical transformer room.

It sounds about like the average Conny Donny rally.

You can deny all you want, Donny surrogates with the cute little smile and smile..., claim that these repeated incidents of racism and religious bigotry on the part of Donny's supporters over the course of the last year do not represent him. But that is who he stimulates, the core of his "followers". It is who he refuses to denounce openly and viscerally. For it is who this degenerate little son of a bitch is. The Nazis also denied culpability. At base, as Donny, they were plunderers who formed a popular following, seemingly mesmerized by mass hypnosis, by deliberately preying on nationalistic urges of a defeated people and found a convenient, powerless scapegoat on whom to project as the cause of all of their self-righteous bitterness and indignations for what was simply, in fact, personal failure, failure, in the end, made manifold times worse by their fearless, psychopathic leader who, for all his big talk and braggadocio, after transforming his minions by giving them license to murder with impunity anyone they disliked or found different from themselves, died as a coward hiding in a bunker.

Reports were confirmed that Bethlehem Steel, the nation's third largest steel company, had settled its strike with the United Steelworkers. The terms were the increase of the existing welfare and pensions fund to equal a stipend of $100 per month, including Social Security benefits, with workers contributing half. The previous day's rumors thus were incorrect as to the nature of the settlement, that it was to be funded by employer contributions only.

The United Electrical Workers announced that they would withhold their dues from CIO in protest of Philip Murray's enunciated plans to oust Communists from the CIO. The statement from UE president Albert Fitzgerald said that the CIO action was “union busting and red-baiting hypocrisy”.

Speculation continued over whether Vice-Admiral Forrest Sherman's arrival in Washington meant that he would assume the position of chief of Naval operations or some other post.

In Rome, dissension among a small group of anti-Communist Socialists caused the resignation of three of the party members from the coalition Cabinet of Premier Alcide de Gasperi, potentially causing the entire Cabinet to fall, the traditional parliamentary procedure. The Christian Democrats of Premier de Gasperi had won a solid majority in 1948. The resignations came during an eight-hour general strike called by the Communist-led General Confederation of Labor in protest of the deaths of two peasants in a clash between peasants and police in the deep south of Italy as the peasants were attempting to occupy farmlands.

In Hof, Germany, in the American occupation zone, a German engineer claimed to have discovered a deposit of uranium in the Fichtel Mountains, near the location where the Russians had reportedly found deposits of uranium within the Eastern zone.

Dr. Joseph Kaplan of UCLA announced that 60 miles above the earth there was a previously unknown layer of oxygen molecules—apparently distinct from the previously known ozone layer—which changed their wavelengths to convert the sun's deadly ultraviolet rays to infrared heat rays. If, he warned, a sudden piercing of that layer were to occur, from a comet or an atomic explosion, life could vanish from the earth or at least be hampered by an epidemic of cancer from the ultraviolet rays penetrating the earth's atmosphere.

The latter result was predicted by the announcement at the same time by Caltech's Dr. Renato Dulbecco, who termed uv shortwave rays "death rays", which killed a certain type of virus, and a "life ray" which brought the virus back to life. The viruses controlled the growth processes of cells and destruction of the viruses could allow the cells to grow wildly, as with cancer. His work was aimed at finding why cells became cancerous and determining the effect of the sun on humans.

In San Francisco, police followed a trail of small change from the scene of a robbery at a cleaning shop to an apartment, wherein they found the robber with the victim's overcoat. A hole in his pocket had caused the $45 worth of change he stole to trickle out and form a trail leading right to him.

In Charlotte, lower temperatures were recorded, reaching 44 by noon, down from 59 the previous midnight, and predicted to fall to a low between 35 and 40 this night. Frost was also a possibility.

On the editorial page, "Self-Perpetuating Slums" tells of the terrible conditions among slums in Palmer's Alley in Charlotte, where previous investigations by the City Health Officer had shown that 20 families lived without sewage facilities, one faucet served all occupants, electricity existed in only two units, and garbage was strewn everywhere.

It suggests that owners of such property should regard management as broader than mere collection of rents, that the City should conduct frequent inspections and require strict conformity to City ordinances.

The only permament solution would be to abolish the slum areas and provide the occupants with public housing. North Carolina cities and towns could not utilize funds from the Urban Redevelopment bill recently passed by Congress, as the State Legislature had not passed the necessary enabling act. The City Council had sought and received approval recently for 400 Federal low-cost housing units, but the Housing Authority had urged building 1,800 units.

The 1950 census would produce enough information to enable the City to reconsider the number of public housing units, to study the feasibility of supporting the Federal Urban Redevelopment program, and to explore the possibility of using public funds or encouraging private capital to improve low-cost housing without reliance on Federal aid.

"A Matter of Service" discusses the City Council's decision to enforce an ordinance, on the books since 1946, to forbid taxicab companies from renting cabs to drivers for a fee. The reason for the ordinance was to encourage service to the public, the incentive for which the companies did not have when they rented the cabs to drivers. A judge had issued temporary injunction to prevent enforcement of the ordinance, scheduled to take effect November 1, until a hearing could be held on November 14 to determine whether the ordinance was prohibited for impairing private contracts.

"Progress in War on Alcohol" tells of the State getting ready to build a hospital for alcoholics at Camp Butner, a major step toward progress in rehabilitation. It hopes that the Hospital Board would also pay attention to the need for local facilities where immediate treatment could be given. The chairman of the Board, John Ruggles of Southern Pines, deserved great credit for bringing to fruition the new hospital plan.

Drew Pearson tells of the Pittsburgh office of naval material inspection having saved a lot of money for the Navy. He provides several examples.

The President had asked his physician recently whether he might have a piece of chocolate cake, to which his doctor flatly said no. The President reached for the cake anyway, and his doctor then admonished that he would see him at his 5 o'clock exercise period. The President picked over the crumbs of the cake and became involved in conversation with a Senator, never finished eating it.

Congressman Walter Lynch of the Ways & Means Committee warned the insurance companies that the free ride on taxes was over and that a loophole that had enabled them to escape billions of dollars in taxes was about to be closed. They would have a choice of either paying tax for 1948 and 1949 on all above 92 percent of their income from investments or they could pay for 1947-1949 under average valuation. Insurance executives balked at the proposal, but Congressman Lynch reminded them that they had been warned for two years that this adjustment was coming.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss the removal of Admiral Louis Denfeld as chief of Naval operations because of his failure to support unification, after being named to the position by former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal on assurances that he would support the then proposed merger. Secretary Forrestal had preferred Vice-Admiral Forrest Sherman, now thought in line to become the next chief of operations. When Admiral Denfeld came up for re-appointment the previous summer, he had again assured Secretary of the Navy Francis Matthews of his loyalty to the concept of unification.

Then the dispute arose over the claim of low morale among Naval aviators. Much of the criticism was directed at Admiral Denfeld for not standing up for the Navy within the Joint Chiefs. But then Admiral Denfeld reversed field and gave at least tentative support to the critics, probably to avoid ostracism by his fellow admirals. That prospective fate made his decision at least understandable.

But Secretary Matthews's feeling that he had been misled by Admiral Denfeld was also understandable. That he had to be relieved was a decision therefore not without reason.

The Alsops find it interesting that of all the people involved in the dispute between the Air Force and Navy, Secretary Matthews, who had been picked from a card file for the position, had turned out to have displayed the most character.

Henry C. McFadyen, superintendent of the Albemarle, N.C., schools, provides the ninth in his series of weekly articles on child education. He tells of 75 percent of students who would graduate from high school never planning to attend any form of college, technical or trade school. A high school diploma did not assure a well-paying job, as some parents mistakenly thought. Schools generally could not afford to have facilities to teach trade skills. But a new type of education had been developed in the state, called Diversified Occupation and Distributive Education, whereby students attended classes as usual in the mornings but learned skills on the job in the afternoons. It provided a way for high school students to be taught to earn a living.

A letter from "Tieless Ty Tyler (Hub Huneycutt)" tells of his tie.

A letter writer wants the report of Albert Coates, director of the N.C. Institute of Government in Chapel Hill, re consolidation of city and county governments as a means of achieving greater efficiency, to be made available.

The editors respond that it would shortly be sent out to newspapers and to the general public.

A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., in Chapel Hill wants The News to stop editorializing for the revised displaced persons bill—to make it non-discriminatory toward Catholics and Jews, in remedy of the bill passed by the 80th Congress in 1948.

He finds generally that while News editorials did not merely say "me too" as did the Durham Herald editorial page, he would like the newspaper to "get in line with sound editorial policy on a national level".

You must have been listening to Fox and Friends and Shaw N. Sanity, with the expertise of his high school diploma.

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