The Charlotte News
Wednesday, June 29, 1949
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in West Berlin, the anti-Communist railway workers union charged that the Soviet railway management had begun reprisal against the striking 14,000 workers who had returned to work the previous day after a 38-day strike. Part of the terms of settlement was that no reprisals would occur. The union claimed that 375 men had been fired without notice.
Rail traffic had not resumed as workers continued to effect repairs on the tracks resulting from the absence of use. It was not clear when the trains would start running normally, but elevated service would resume the following day.
The previous day, the Russians had seized seven tons of power plant machinery on its way by truck from Frankfurt to Berlin for use in construction of a power plant designed to make West Berlin independent of the Soviet sector. The equipment was released this date after a British-American complaint that the seizure violated the terms of the agreement entered three weeks earlier to lift the blockade.
The State Department issued a note to the Chinese Government saying that it could not recognize a Government order closing ports in Chinese Communist possession unless the Government maintained an effective blockade of them. The note said that it relied on established precedent, that it was protecting American shipping interests and that American shipping could make a claim for losses against the Government if there were no blockade in effect. The British had adopted an even more stringent position.
Former President Herbert Hoover testified before the House Armed Services Committee that it would be dangerous to appoint a chairman of the Joint Chiefs, as proposed by the Administration and approved by the President and deceased former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. He believed that it would place too much power in the hands of a single military officer. He stressed that the Hoover Commission recommendations were designed to provide more power to the Secretary of Defense and clarify the purpose of the two-year old National Defense Establishment Act, merging the military.
The White House, through an unnamed aide, said that Bernard Baruch had been misinformed of conditions when he said the previous day that the Administration had for four years failed to formulate any contingent plan for mobilization in the event of a new war and that the President had blocked the effort by the National Security Resources Board to do so. The aide said that no such plan had been approved by the Board or presented to the President. But, he claimed, mobilization plans were being consistently updated.
A few days earlier, former Secretary of State James Byrnes had spoken at Washington & Lee University, indicating that the Fair Deal domestic program of the President would lead the nation into a "welfare state" with everyone an "economic slave".
The House cut the size of the housing bill from 1.05 million units to 810,000 and the yearly subsidy for the program from 400 million dollars to 308 million, matching the Senate bill.
A reporter for the Birmingham Post testified before a civil rights subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee regarding the recent floggings of three women by masked, hooded and robed mobs of men in and around Birmingham. The women, all white, a 39-year old mother and her two teenage daughters, had told the reporter that they had been beaten in the woods near Dora on June 3 by a mob of 150 such men. Two of three men with the women were also beaten. They had identified one of the men as Oscar Lee Colvert and said the men wore the insignia of the Klan on their robes. The reporter said that in a separate incident he witnessed a cross-burning on a woman's lawn, but the woman reported that it was not done by the Klan, rather by competitors of her taxi business. She stated that the people of the county were proud of the Klan as the only law around.
In New York, in the perjury trial of Alger Hiss, the defendant's wife, Priscilla, testified that she never typed any summaries of State Department documents for provision to Whittaker Chambers, as he had claimed. She also stated that Mr. Hiss had not asked her to do so.
The judge ruled that minutes of the grand jury and an FBI report of an interview with Mr. Hiss, sought to be introduced by the prosecution after objecting to the defense having access to the documents, would be excluded from evidence.
In Washington, the espionage case of Judith Coplon went to the jury after the court denied a motion for mistrial by the defense, based on the contention that the prosecutor had appealed to "passion and prejudice" in his closing argument. She faced two charges, one with a potential ten-year sentence for taking secret files with intent to injure the U.S. while benefiting a foreign government, and the other, providing for three years in prison, for concealment and removal of secret documents. Ms. Coplon also faced an indictment for conspiracy to commit espionage in New York, with a potential 35-year term of imprisonment, based on the same nexus of facts, involving intent to give the secret files to a Russian, Valentin Gubitchev. Ms. Coplon claimed that she was in love with Mr. Gubitchev, the reason for their meetings, that she never provided him with secret documents and that the only reason she had excerpts of the documents in her purse was for a book she planned to write, preparation for a Civil Service examination, and in connection with her work as a political analyst at the Justice Department. She claimed to have been framed by the Justice Department, directed by her supervisor to carry a certain "decoy" file, a letter in fact prepared by the FBI professing to contain "strictly confidential" information, albeit false, regarding the Russian trading firm Amtorg. This letter was also in her purse at the time of arrest on March 4.
The AFL, through president William Green, asked the Senate to kill the Administration labor bill calling for repeal of Taft-Hartley, after the bill had been amended on a proposal by Senator Taft, passed the previous day, to allow the President the power of plant seizure or 80-day injunction of a strike imperiling the national welfare. Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas said that no labor leader would set down labor policy for him. Senator Taft believed that the labor movement was retreating, unable to get repeal, in order to make the Act an issue in the 1950 elections.
Senators Frank Graham of North Carolina and Olin Johnston of South Carolina had voted against the injunction amendment, while Senators Clyde Hoey of North Carolina and Burnet Maybank of South Carolina voted for it.
In Madisonville, Ky., a coal mine was closed after 4,000 UWM miners marched to the mine, operated by non-union workers. The miners refused to leave the property when asked to do so by the Sheriff. There was no violence involved.
It could be the result of the
tobacco auction calling being understood
Near Hobucken, N.C., off Beaufort, a trawler captain landed a 14-foot, seven-inch saw fish, estimated to weigh half a ton and believed to be the largest such fish ever caught along the North Carolina coast.
That's nothing. We caught a seventeen footer last week with our bare hands without a boat.
In Greensboro, a woman accused of triggering a false fire alarm explained to the judge that she thought it was a mailbox. She said that she had recently moved to Greensboro from Burgaw where they had no such alarm boxes. The judge dismissed the case.
More hot weather was forecast for the area from the Rockies to the Middle Atlantic states. Some rain had fallen during the night but none in the Northeast, dry throughout June. Downpours occurred at Lynchburg, Va., and at Terre Haute and Fort Wayne, Ind.
On the editorial page, "For Better Government", as the last of the fifteen-part Fortune series is presented this date, again urges citizens to write to the President and members of Congress to adopt the Hoover Commission recommendations on reorganization of the executive branch. The President had already issued seven proposals to Congress for reorganization, some of the least controversial, and either house had 60 days of continuous session to veto them on a vote of a majority of the members.
"Trade Courses Needed" finds the decision to stress trades rather than academic courses at the new black City college to be wise, as Johnson C. Smith University already provided academic courses for blacks at a tuition less than that proposed for the new college. Moreover, there was a backlog of black high school graduates eager to be trained in the trades. A similar institution for whites in the city, under the supervision of UNC, had proved successful and there was need for such a school for black students.
"Statement of Principle" responds to the numerous letters being written regarding the June 21 editorial, "Separation of Church and State", re the Barden substitute aid to education bill which would deny use of Federal aid to education for any except public schools and would deny its use for transportation, health services and other welfare-related activities for both public and private schools, the latter to accord the Supreme Court decision holding that such activities had to be afforded to parochial schools if provided public schools to comply with Equal Protection, not being barred by the First Amendment Establishment Clause until the aid actively established a religion, that is aiding the religious-affiliated school or program itself.
It reiterates the newspaper's opposition to Federal aid to education for its ultimately intrusive nature into the field of education, but finds the Barden substitute measure better than the original measure which would not except Federal aid to public and private schools for the welfare-related activities.
It advises readers, however, that their letters, while acceptable on both sides of the issue, would not be reprinted if indulging in attacks on religious views, that the subject was not about religion.
"On Watering the Grass" tells of grass needing watering in the summer and that standing barefoot on the grass while doing so was a renewal of childhood pleasures, of kinship with the earth. The pleasures would be heightened if there were children around no older than three to share in the watering. And a passing dog getting into the act would be the more stimulating. It was not exciting or thrilling, but provided a pleasant, peaceful way to spend a little time in the twilight hours each day in June.
Hurumph. That only makes the feet itch with aphids. Pass us a mud-encrusted basketball out of the March-puddle behind the goal in the backyard any day and skip the grass watering in bare feet. June is for running in shoes.
The fifteenth and final article in the series reprinted from Fortune anent the Hoover Commission report and recommendations on reorganization of the executive branch looks at veterans' affairs and Federal grants-in-aid to the states.
It was anticipated by the Veterans Administration that in the coming fiscal year, it would spend 5.3 billion dollars, 11 percent of the total budget, more than any other Federal agency except the National Military Establishment and the Treasury Department. World War II had created 14.9 million new veterans and the V.A. was no longer equipped to handle them, leading to waste and inefficiency. The V.A. had conflicting lines of authority between headquarters and field offices, with too many written rules, resulting in confusion.
The procedures for handling insurance and death claims were complex and time-consumptive, with death claims taking an average of 80 days to process, while private companies paid most of their claims within 15 days.
The V.A. had insufficient control over the usefulness and quality of the schooling provided under the G.I. bill, often paying the highest possible tuition and equipment costs.
Pension claims were also delayed.
The V.A.'s principal need was streamlining. The report itself suffered from division, as vice-chairman Dean Acheson and commissioner James Forrestal both declared that the V.A. was outside the Commission's jurisdiction to make recommendations and so refused to join the report.
As to Federal grants-in-aid to the states, about 40 percent of the money spent by the states came from that source. The grants were specifically provided for social security, public health, education, highway construction, and other such programs. The state usually was required to match the grant in some ratio. The Commission found that the system had provided needed standards for welfare and public-service programs, and produced some redistribution of wealth between poorer and richer states. But it had also taken away some of the initiative and independence of the states and resulted in a large Federal brueaucracy to administer the programs as well as encrocached on state and local tax sources which could be used as effectively for the purposes.
The Commission mildly recommended: that the functions and activities of government be appraised to determine which could be most advantageously operated by the different levels of government; and that the tax systems at the different levels be revised, leaving to the localities and states, to the extent possible, adequate resources from which to raise revenue to meet the duties and responsibilities of state and local governments.
Drew Pearson tells of a group of six
Democratic members of Congress, including Senator Hubert Humphrey and
Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, proposing to the President, in
an off-the-record discussion, a program of "economic expansion"
to head off the prospect of a depression. The President met them by
producing several charts
The group proposed a five-point plan, promotion of private investment and production through FHA-type loans to build plants, creation of a national advisory board on the economy, passage of measures to stem rising unemployment, long-range planning for public works and resource development, and voluntary adjustments in purchasing power. The President said that he would have to study the program before agreeing to endorse it but added that he agreed with their basic thinking. He restated his long-standing objection to the tax cut for the wealthy provided by the previous GOP Congress. He said that it had resulted in economic dislocation, sending prices, profits, wages and production into a downward spiral.
The President had been punishing Southern Democrats by holding up appointments of postmasters in their states. Senator Olin Johnston of South Carolina, chairman of the Post Office Committee, therefore hinted to DNC chairman Senator Howard McGrath that he would hold up all postmaster appointments until those for South Carolina were made by the President. When Senator Johnston next saw the President, he mentioned casually the matter of South Carolina postmaster appointments being held up, and the President then wrote a note, saying that he would look into it right away.
Iowa editors recently agreed among themselves that Senator Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa was making a spectacle of himself in his reckless criticism of Atomic Energy Commission chairman David Lilienthal.
Tom Watson of IBM, General Eisenhower's friend, had convinced the General to oppose Federal aid to education, save in specifically targeted poorer states, as tending toward socialism. The move had convinced many of the General's fellow educators that he knew a lot more about war than the peacetime needs of the nation.
Secretary of State Acheson and Undersecretary James Webb, the latter of North Carolina, were shopping for summer cottages near Kitty Hawk, N.C., site of the first manned flight by the Wright brothers.
Secretary Acheson had told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in executive session that at the recent Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Paris the British and French had been more cooperative than ever before regarding rebuilding of Germany, being more concerned of German economic competition than its resurrection as a military force, content to have Germany's economy rebuilt as long as strict controls were in place to prevent resurgence of the military.
Marquis Childs, in Hyde Park, N.Y., tells of the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial, his home, grave, and museum, attracting a steady stream of visitors. The National Park Service had constructed an atmosphere of a home still inhabited. The Memorial had been self-sustaining in 1947, through the quarter per person admission charge to the house and another quarter for the museum. In 1948, a small amount had to be paid from the Treasury, but it was expected to sustain itself again in 1949.
The museum housed all manner of things, gifts provided FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt during their 12 years in the White House, along with mementos of the President's childhood. The President had left his vast store of personal papers to the Library, and others in his Cabinet were regularly donating papers as well. Former Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., had recently donated his 840-volume diary. The experts in charge of the material estimated that more had been written about FDR than any other figure in history save Napoleon.
"That is a joke on the Roosevelt-haters who, incidentally, contributed more than their share to the Niagara of words that flows on."
FDR, he concludes, was also conscious of his place in the stream of words about him, and that he appeared to plan it that way was also a joke on his enemies.
A letter from a past president of the Baptist Southern Convention sets forth a letter sent to the editor of the Atlanta Constitution, thanking it for reprinting the News editorial from June 21, "Separation of Church and State", which he finds courageous and timely. He believes that the controversy surrounding the subject came from those whose thinking was conditioned in a foreign atmosphere where there was no barrier between church and state.
He tells of a recent court trial in New Mexico which barred nuns from teaching in the public schools while in their habits, banned the Catholic mass from the schools, and ordered all religious symbols removed from the public school buildings. That such was necessary bespoke the problem in the country.
A letter from the minister of the Thomasboro Baptist Church likewise praises the same editorial and wishes to see more like it.
A letter from the minister of St. John's Baptist Church also praises the editorial.
A letter writer addresses an article appearing Monday regarding census enumerators checking local businesses, finding it a duplicative task and waste of Government resources for the Department of Commerce to seek information on the income of businesses when the IRB already had the information.
But the IRB information was confidential and specific to identified businesses.
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