The Charlotte News
Thursday, February 10, 1949
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in New Delhi, following an eight-month trial, Narayan Godse and Narayan Apte were sentenced to death in the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi on January 30, 1948. Five other defendants were given life sentences and an eighth defendant was acquitted, despite being described by prosecutors as the brains of the conspiracy. A ninth man arrested was released after giving evidence for the prosecution. The doomed defendants laughed before and after the sentencing.
In southern Poland, 34 Catholic priests were arrested for reading a pastoral letter from Bishop Stanislaw Adamski charging that Polish officials were abolishing religious instruction in the schools and removing crucifixes from the walls of schoolrooms. The Government of Poland denied that it was waging any campaign against religion.
Douglas Cornell of the Associated Press describes a report from General MacArthur regarding a Russian spy ring which had operated in Tokyo and was busted by the Japanese just prior to Pearl Harbor. Two of the members were hanged. Three were known still to be alive, two of whom were living in the U.S., one an American citizen. Both denied any such involvement. The spy ring was able to warn the Soviets of the German invasion a month before it took place June 22, 1941, and that the Japanese would not attack Russia, allowing the Soviets to concentrate their forces on the German front.
HUAC was said to be interested in investigating the matter.
The Army stated that the rules under which the spy ring worked were instructive of how the Communists conducted espionage and that some involved in the former Tokyo ring might still be active within the United States. Spies were chosen who were neither Russian nor Communist, but had sympathy with the Communists. They used false names, had cover occupations, and appeared not to be interested in the information they sought.
Berlin police reported that an anti-Communist newspaper correspondent had been kidnaped from a house in the French sector of Berlin. A German anti-Communist organization said that its investigation had determined that another journalist had disappeared in East Berlin 16 months earlier and was sentenced to 25 years at hard labor.
Major General Gordon Saville, head of the air defense command of the Air Force, told the House Armed Services Committee that a 161 million dollar appropriation should be approved as quickly as possible for erecting a radar net around the country to protect against enemy attack, that the present defense system was dangerously inadequate, especially that in Alaska. He said, however, that there was no known system to render the country absolutely secure from air attack.
The President favored keeping the number of atom bombs in the country's arsenal a secret, contrary to a reporter's suggestion that Atomic Energy Commission chairman David Lilienthal had advocated that the number be made public. The President denied that Mr. Lilienthal had so advised.
The President said that he continued to be as strongly in favor of a four billion dollar tax increase as during the State of the Union message to Congress the previous month, and also continued to support the grant of stand-by authority to impose controls on wages and prices.
The President denounced the conviction and sentence to life imprisonment of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty for treason by the Communist Hungarian Government, calling it a "kangaroo court". He said that an investigation was transpiring to determine whether the fact had violated Hungary's treaty commitments.
The Government of Hungary announced that it had expelled a second member of the U.S. legation for alleged spying and smuggling men out of Hungary.
In London, Russia accused the three Western powers of issuing an ultimatum by rejecting the claim of Yugoslavia to territory in southern Austria. The Big Four Council of Foreign Ministers were meeting in a third attempt to form an Austrian treaty. Yugoslavia claimed that the area they sought was primarily populated by Slovenes. Yugoslavia also claimed 150 million dollars in war reparations from Austria.
Senator Matthew Neely of West Virginia demanded that Robert Denham, counsel for the NLRB, be fired for being biased and prejudiced in his testimony before the Senate Labor Committee earlier in the week. Senator Taft defended Mr. Denham, who had testified in favor of retention of the bulk of Taft-Hartley.
The Hoover Commission issued a report recommending revision of the Civil Service by outlawing political favoritism and eliminating red-tape, while rewarding officials who cut the Federal payroll.
In Raleigh, the State House passed a resolution supporting Federal aid to education.
"Mr. X" of this week, the former well-known football player, must be Jim Thorpe.
We would have said Doc Blanchard, but he should have been in a military uniform, not a suit.
On the editorial page, "The Dice Are Loaded" objects to the bill before the Legislature giving the voters the choice of making the state completely dry or retaining the county-option system, contending that it was as unfair as the reverse situation would be, the choice between an all-wet state or county-option. It believes that the only fair system was to allow the people of each county and municipality to determine whether they wanted ABC-controlled sale of alcohol.
"Balancing the GOP Books" comments on Governor Dewey's speech at the Lincoln Day Dinner in Washington to the Republican Party, advising that they could not hope to make a swift comeback with the present schism between old guard conservatives and progressives, recommending that those not liberal and progressive ought leave the party. The piece finds the latter advice meaningless, as everyone favored such policies, especially around the time of an election.
Mr. Dewey did not want the party to accept the entire New Deal philosophy but also did not think it wise to retreat to the 1920's, rather favored charting of a middle course. But, the piece asserts, Mr. Dewey was not an exponent of moderate political philosophy, as his policies in New York reflected the New Deal while he worked with reactionaries behind the scenes, playing both ends against the middle.
It suggests that there was more needed than Mr. Dewey's chastisement of the Republicans, that a positive course needed to be set forth, something the voters could "really get a lift from".
—Yeah, Bob, how about a space program?
—Okay, get to work on that.
—Yeah, gardening in outer space. Good thinking, Bob.
"The Russian Heroes" tells of two Russian pilots being wined and dined by the State Department after stealing a Russian airplane and flying to the West as traitors to Russia.
The piece applauds their choice of countries but questions making heroes of such persons and, generally, lionizing anything and anyone anti-Russian. It reminds that Hitler was anti-Russia, as was Mussolini and Franco. The U.S. had been pro-Russian during the war.
It cautions that joining any movement or person happening to share a common enemy could become "both ridiculous and dangerous."
A piece from the Gastonia Gazette, titled "Fight Against Socialized Medicine", reports that Gaston County doctors had unanimously backed the proposal of the North Carolina Medical Society to assess its members $25 each to form a resource pool to combat the President's medical care program. The piece finds the move by the doctors commendable and opposes without reservation Government subsidy of medical care, a step which it viewed as an initial move toward socialization of all services.
It cites problems with England's socialized medicine as militating against such a system and finds it abhorrent that an additional half-million government employees would be necessary to administer the program.
It suggests to doctors that they take it easy on their patients and bill accordingly to convince them that the private enterprise system was best for medicine.
"The fight
Wait about 40 years, pal, and you will likely rue that editorial you wrote as a bitter joke—probably on you in your old age, despite Medicare.
Doctors, in your day, said a lot of
screwball things
Jack Bell discusses the key role of former Democratic Senate Leader, Vice-President Alben Barkley in getting President Truman's program passed by the Congress. As a Southerner from Kentucky, he was well-suited to quelling of Southern antipathy to the civil rights legislation.
He recalls the bitter spat with FDR in early 1944 over the latter's veto of the tax bill which Senator Barkley had worked hard to achieve, resigning as Majority Leader in protest. The tax bill passed over the President's veto and Mr. Barkley was re-elected by his colleagues as Leader.
President Truman, during his first term, had not consulted much with Senator Barkley, but had grown close to him during the campaign. The Vice-President had been included in Cabinet meetings since January 20, and was advised on policies as they were formed. Former Vice-Presidents John Nance Garner and Henry Wallace, both under FDR, had been invited into Cabinet meetings, Mr. Garner as a "no" man and Mr. Wallace as a purveyor of ideas.
Mr. Barkley was able to fit into the Cabinet without suspicion from other members and adopted no conspicuous position in advance. He thought very much like the President. And he fit right in with the Senate, something which Mr. Garner, as former House Speaker, could not manage effectively, and which Mr. Wallace was ill-suited to accomplish.
Thus far, in his presiding role in the Senate, Vice-President Barkley was bending over backwards to be fair to both parties, sticking closely to Senate rules. His colleagues expected that when controversial matters began to take center stage, he would begin to guide the legislation from behind the scenes while being just as fair on the floor.
Drew Pearson tells of Vice-President Barkley, Senator Tom Connally of Texas, and Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan having been on hand to greet the French Merci Train when it arrived in Washington bearing gifts for the American people in gratitude for the Friendship Train of November, 1947, which had borne food and clothing from Americans to the French as a stopgap for the winter prior to Marshall Plan emergency aid taking effect. The three had never allowed partisan battles to interfere with their personal friendship for one another. As Senator Connally cut the ribbon for the D.C. boxcar, one of 49 being delivered across the nation, one for each state and the District, Senator Vandenberg whispered that he bet it was not the first time that Senator Connally had broken into a boxcar.
British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin had recently become concerned that the Labor Party would be forced to resign after the vote of confidence on the Government's policy toward Palestine, partly because, it was argued, the policy was upsetting relations with the U.S. Mr. Bevin had then called on Secretary of State Acheson for support and Mr. Acheson responded by approving Mr. Bevin's statement to Commons that the U.S. and Britain had resolved their differences on Palestine and had agreed on the same policy. But then Mr. Bevin added to his statement remarks critical of U.S. policy, infuriating Mr. Acheson to the point where he nearly withdrew his statement of support, finally determining to let the matter drop but also stating that he would think twice before helping Mr. Bevin again.
Vero Beach, Fla., was suspected of leasing a Government airfield at a substantial profit, $2,000 per year for ten years, to the Brooklyn Dodgers for spring training and the Government was investigating. The Government leased the field to Vero Beach for nothing on the stipulation that any profit derived from it was to be used in the field's upkeep and improvement.
The Congress had voted to deny salary appropriations to the Director of Reclamations and his California aide, despite the President having sought to intervene in the matter, calling it unconstitutional to block the Administration's power of appointment to the Executive Branch. But the message was held up in the Appropriations Committee. The fight was regarding the 160-acre limitation on irrigation, which Senator Sheridan Downey of California wanted lifted for the sake of the corporate farms. Senator Downey had led the fight against funding the two positions, arguing that the limitation had been too effectively administered.
Mr. Pearson wonders how the civil rights program would fare when it had been so easy for the President to be defeated by a coalition of Republicans and Democrats on this issue.
Marquis Childs finds that on the day recently when the British Trades Union Congress, the CIO, and the Dutch unions had withdrawn from the World Federation of Trade Unions, the last link between the West and Soviet Russia had ended, without a whimper in the press. The move was inevitable as it had become obvious that the Soviets were seeking to use the WFTU as an agency for resisting the Marshall Plan.
After an attack on the Communist influence within the organization by James Carey, the head of the British TUC, the head of the Soviet All-Union Central Committee of Trade Unions in Moscow, V.V. Kuznetzov, denounced the idea that Moscow controlled the Russian trade unions, saying that in Russia authority belonged to the workers and that the Government was always glad to assist the trade unions and consider their opinions. He contended that the absence of strikes in Russia was the result of absence of exploitation of the workers.
Mr. Childs confutes the argument by stating that it was obvious that the trade unions in Russia were completely subordinate to the State.
Philip Murray, head of CIO, had been working to root out Communists from the labor organization and, with CIO having helped to shape the Marshall Plan, had partnered with Mr. Carey to resist the Soviet influence in the WFTU, until it became obvious that there was no other way than for the Western unions to withdraw.
Joseph Alsop, still in Belgrade, again looks at the unique position of the Yugoslav Government under Marshal Tito, banished from the Soviet sphere for heresy to Moscow doctrine, yet still held at arms' length by the U.S. and, at the direction of the U.S., by the Western European nations receiving Marshall Plan aid. The U.S. had permitted concessions to Tito by allowing him, for instance, to have oil ships at Trieste, but had also instructed the Marshall Plan recipient nations not to engage in trade with Yugoslavia out of concern, as with the other Soviet satellites, that munitions would wind up in Soviet hands. The latter stance had caused Yugoslavian resentment and belief that the American Government was hostile. Mr. Alsop offers that there was no chance that such exports would go to Russia.
There were those in high levels within the Yugoslav Government who still believed the Soviet propaganda line regarding U.S. imperialism. But the predominant view, that held by Tito, himself, was that of a political realist, that Yugoslavia should begin making friends in the West. Tito could not re-establish relations with the Soviets lest he wind up executed.
If better relations were to be had with Yugoslavia, the inconsistency in American policy, the "fiddle-faddle", had to give way to a clear offer of the olive branch, to give the political realists a chance to respond. Such could remove the political friction on the Greek frontier, where Yugoslavia had given aid to the Greek guerrillas. Yugoslavia could be provided the opportunity to improve its people's well-being and solidify its independence from Moscow, the greatest threat to which was the economic pressure on the Yugoslav people, tending, if not checked by a modicum of prosperity, to create inroads for Soviet propaganda.
A letter from a county chairman of the March of Dimes in Chesterfield, S.C., suggests that the people of Mecklenburg County meet the quota for the campaign which had formally ended January 31, with most counties in the state meeting their quota. He reminds of the work of the March of Dimes in caring for polio patients during the epidemic of the previous summer. He says that Chesterfield, with only five cases of polio the previous year, had doubled its quota, while Mecklenburg, with 1,200 cases, had not even met its goal. He wants to know what was wrong.
A letter writer quarrels with Dick Young of The News in a piece appearing January 29 finding that profits from ABC-controlled sale of alcohol had contributed to lower taxes in the county. The writer had ascertained that his taxes were twenty percent higher than in 1947 and ten percent higher than in 1946, before ABC sales began in September, 1947.
But, in fairness, are you not comparing apple jack to oranges?
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.