The Charlotte News
Monday, February 14, 1949
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Vatican City, Pope Pius XII, addressing a secret and extraordinary consistory of the College of Cardinals, declared that when a civil government contradicted divine and human rights, "bishops and the faithful themselves are bound by their conscience to resist unjust laws." He again referred to the unjust conviction and sentence in Hungary of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty, sentenced to life imprisonment for treason, the subject of the consistory.
Senator Arthur Vandenberg told the Senate that the North Atlantic Pact provided "infinite assurance" against World War III.
In the second quarterly report on the Marshall Plan, it was stated that there were 2.5 million workers idle in Europe who were available for emigration to other European countries and overseas. Only a small portion, it said, could be absorbed in Continental Europe. There were labor shortages meanwhile in Italy, Greece and West Germany.
The President reported to Congress that the cost of lend-lease during the war to the 38 allied nations had surpassed 50 billion dollars, between March 11, 1941 and March 31, 1948. Aircraft and aeronautical supplies accounted for the most expensive item at 8.7 billion dollars and water craft was next at 7.5 billion.
In a hearing before the Senate Labor Committee regarding repeal of Taft-Hartley, NLRB counsel Robert Denham denied bias to Senator Matthew Neely of West Virginia who, the previous week, had called for his ouster from the position. Mr. Denham had testified in favor of retention of Taft-Hartley. Senator Neely suggested that he was a "biased partisan", provoking Mr. Denham's denial. Senator Neely then asked him whether a biased man could determine whether he was biased, to which Mr. Denham replied that he supposed not.
Secretary of Labor Matthew Tobin told the joint Economic Committee that the unemployment situation should be watched closely to allow measures to be undertaken to head off a recession in the event one would threaten.
The Supreme Court ordered argument on whether it should allow the Justice Department to file suits to establish Federal control of tidelands oil off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. The Court had ruled in June, 1947 that tidelands oil off California belonged to the Federal Government. Attorney General Tom Clark contended that the rule applied likewise to the Texas and Louisiana tidelands oil.
The Court also accepted for review a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case from Philadelphia holding that a landlord could withdraw his property from the market under the Rent Control Act and evict tenants pursuant to that intention, even though he intended to sell the property and had not yet formed a sales contract. Normally under the Act, intent to sell the property enabled eviction only after a contract of sale had been formed. The landlord complained that, despite her best efforts for three years, she could not sell the property with tenants present and was threatened with foreclosure as a result. Housing Expediter Tighe Woods contended that the decision was wrong and had urged the Court to accept review.
In North Dakota during the weekend, the worst weather in the West in two weeks hit in the form of blizzards, adding six southwestern counties in that state to the disaster area. Temperatures again dipped below freezing in Southern California and 24-degree temperatures were predicted for this date in some parts of the citrus-growing area.
Some 500 passengers in three stalled trains at Rawlins and Hanna, Wyo., were rescued and taken to Cheyenne in buses.
In Greensboro, N.C., three small black boys, ranging in age from 10 to 12, stoned a drunken black man the previous night, locked him in a small bin filled with excelsior and straw, and then threw a match through a window and burned the man to death. The rock throwing began after an argument between the boys and the man. A policeman caught one of the boys as they ran from the scene.
Dr. John R. Cunningham, president of Davidson College, provides a report on the development program for the College and the drive to raise public funds, totaling 2.5 million dollars. One million would be for the endowment to enable raising of salaries for the sixty men on the faculty staff, who, despite a recent twenty percent increase in salary, were not able to meet the higher costs of living.
In Charlotte, City and County school board officials were told that they would either have to pare their budgets to 4.3 million dollars or, to permit their requested combined six million dollar budget, obtain a State Supreme Court ruling allowing them to exceed the limit on bonded indebtedness.
The News announces its first "Miss X" contest this week, under the same rules as before, with the accumulated $50 by the end of the week going to the Empty Stocking Fund for the needy the following Christmas if no one guessed the identity of the woman in the meantime. The first clue is that she was born in New Jersey.
Well, that makes it all too obvious
On the editorial page, "Inland View of Port Development" tells of the head of the State Ports Authority having requested 7.5 million dollars for the budget. The piece cannot figure out how the money would be spent. The Governor was for it, as were several state figures of prominence. The piece favors development of North Carolina's two ports, Wilmington and Morehead City, for the sake of industrial development, but thinks that with the budget already high, perhaps this 7.5 million dollars was unnecessary.
"More Lives in Danger" finds the action of the State House Roads Committee favoring ending vehicle safety inspections to have been unwise, that it would place motorists and pedestrians in danger from unsafe vehicles. It cites statistics showing that the 1947 death toll on the highways was 19 percent lower than in 1946 and that the 1948 total was yet again 12 percent lower than in 1947. Vehicle registration in the meantime had risen by 23 percent. It places the onus of an increased fatality rate on the Committee if the inspection law ultimately was thrown out.
"Auspicious Beginning" tells of three large gifts, from the Belk family, the wife of former Governor and Senator Cameron Morrison, and Mr. and Mrs. W. Z. Stultz, totaling $500,000 for the Davidson College development program campaign, meaning that it would assuredly meet its $750,000 goal for Mecklenburg County.
It concludes that the College was not without honor in its own country.
But would that not mean it was, therefore, not a prophet?
A piece from the New York Times, titled "Stars and Silence", poetically tells of the "silence of the Earth in a February zero spell" which was "so intense that one wonders if hidden life will respond when the time of cold is done."
"Cold broods like a smothering feather puff. If one were in the heart of a cedar swamp where small glades are surrounded by evergreens, he might see a moonlight ballet of the rabbits. The gray forms dance in silence..."
A thaw would bring the promise of spring.
"Mellow days and frosty nights mean rows of icicles on woodsheds, corn crib and barn. Then Winter moves in again and the nights are heavy with blazing coal fires and silence."
Drew Pearson, aboard the Merci Train from France, tells of the average Frenchman thinking himself a personal ambassador by contributing to the gifts on the train, making it difficult for foolhardy leaders to start wars. He notes that the French Government had nothing to do with the formation of the train, just as the American Government had nothing to do with the Friendship Train of November, 1947, bearings gifts of clothing and food from the American people for the winter of 1948, before the emergency aid of the Marshall Plan could be implemented.
He relates of priceless gifts aboard the train as the Taveau statue of George Washington and the flag which had flown over Verdun in 1918. There were also precious gifts from individual French citizens, which were of no particular artistic or commercial value. One poor family had given their son's uniform worn during the war prior to his death in France.
A "Treasure Book" had been signed by each of the persons who gave gifts, each sending a message of good will.
There remained on duty a round-the-clock guard of the HUAC chambers to protect what remained in a safe of the "pumpkin papers" of Whittaker Chambers, the bulk of it having been given to the Justice Department. The guard had been demanded the previous December by Congressman John Rankin, no longer a HUAC member, having been barred from the Committee by a rule passed by fellow Democrats, aimed at him, preventing membership on another committee by committee chairmen.
Mr. Pearson tells of the state of Franklin lasting three years from 1784, between North Carolina and Tennessee.
Senator Ed Johnson of Colorado was demanding an investigation to find out why the airlines, continually operating in the red, were able to afford large contributions to both political parties and also pay large salaries to their executives.
Stewart Alsop discusses the Fair Deal program of the President bogging down in Congress, losing the momentum which it had to start the Congress in early January after the surprise election results. The repeal of Taft-Hartley and a replacement bill had met an impasse and a compromise appeared the best hope, a bitter disappointment to labor which expected repayment for delivering the election to the President.
The four billion dollar tax increase and standby price and wage controls requested by the President were also apparently doomed, as Congressman Robert Doughton, head of Ways & Means, and Senator Walter George, head of the tax writing committee, were opposed to both. The dip in farm prices had cooled any ardor for price controls, though it was still being urged by the White House as a potential curb of industrial prices and to prevent a bust. Without the tax increase, it was difficult to see how the defense and foreign aid budgets could be passed without substantial reductions.
Social legislation would likely wind up compromised to the point that only those housing, education, health, and minimum wage bills which were supported by Senator Taft would pass.
Civil rights legislation, unless the Democrats were able to pass a Senate rules change to enable cloture of filibuster, appeared also either doomed or headed for a severe compromise, which would disappoint civil rights advocates in either case. It was hoped by moderate Southerners that Vice-President Barkley might propose such a compromise to the White House.
Mr. Alsop predicts that what would likely emerge was a watered-down version of the Fair Deal, which he believes would be appropriate as a reflection of national sentiment.
Marquis Childs discusses the desire of Norway to join the North Atlantic Pact, provided the U.S. could assure its protection in the event of attack. Norway shared a common border with the Soviet Union for a hundred miles of largely unprotected ground with few roads.
Sweden was not interested in joining the Pact and did not want Norway to join, out of fear that it might provoke incidents with Russia. Sweden had proposed a Scandinavian mutual defense alliance with Norway and Denmark. Sweden had the best military apparatus in Scandinavia, able to deploy 700,000 troops and having a sufficient navy and air force to bother a Russian attack. Combined with the 40,000 troops of Norway, the military of such an alliance might delay the Russians for three to four months. But that would be reduced to days in the event of Russia deploying troops into unoccupied Finland and using it as a staging area.
Thus, the U.S. needed to be careful in agreeing that it could supply security for Norway. The North Atlantic Pact might be diluted to the point where provision of such security would be difficult to provide. Also, the provision of military equipment and arms to the Western European nations under the Pact might retard industrial development, and diverting arms to Norway might unduly reduce the arms and equipment to be supplied to Western Europe where there was greater need.
A letter writer responds to a letter anent the farmer, was getting madder and madder as he thought of the letter writer biting the hand which fed him. The writer was born and reared on a farm and knew what hard work was. Machinery made it easier but cost money. Farmers paid plenty of tax and deserved good roads. He praises Governor Scott for his rural roads program.
A letter writer comments on "Hoover's New Role" of February 9. He wishes that Mr. Hoover were the country's "general manager" at present, for he earned his own living and the country would not need pay him $190,000 per year to try to get him re-elected, as with President Truman.
But it was Mr. Hoover's Commission which was recommending the hike in salary and expenses for the President and on down the line. So what in the world are you talking about?
A letter writer responds to the same letter as the first writer, stating ironically that he wholly agreed with the writer and was glad that there were not too many people in the state like them.
A letter writer complains of having the tax collector threatening to sell his family's home for back taxes, despite his having been unable to work for a work-related injury for which the mill at which he worked refused to pay. He and his wife earned a combined $600 in 1948 and had a son 13 years of age. He wonders how anyone expected them to survive.
A Quote of the Day: "Four cases of mustard fell from a truck and smeared a street in Cincinnati. It shouldn't happen to a you-know-what." —Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press
Well,
not really. But it was a good thing that it was not mayonnaise in
Nantucket
Happy Presidents Day.
Framed Edition
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