The Charlotte News

Tuesday, September 27, 1949

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that during a radio broadcast in honor of Women's Day, the President described those opposing his Fair Deal policies as "alien and dangerous" to be "160 years behind the times". He urged that women's interests went beyond job holding and partisanship, and he sought new female recruits for the Democratic Party, urging that they look beneath the labels to the facts and not be misled by political slogans. Several women appeared on the broadcast, led by India Edwards, director of the women's division of the Democratic National Committee.

The British Labor Government raised taxes on dividends from 25 to 30 percent after some companies had not followed the advice of the Government in 1948 to hold dividends to 1947 levels. Sir Stafford Cripps, Chancellor of the Exchequer, threatened to include limits on dividends in the next budget if businesses did not hold the line voluntarily.

A Labor M.P. urged that President Truman meet with Premier Stalin and Prime Minister Clement Attlee to discuss atomic control. The Prime Minister rejected a demand by Conservative leader Winston Churchill for additional information regarding the Russian explosion of the atom bomb.

Russia had agreed to return 30 American naval vessels loaned by the U.S. during the war.

House Speaker Sam Rayburn said that top priority in 1950 would be provided to legislation to revise the Federal tax laws.

Non-union coal miners returned to the pits in western Pennsylvania in defiance of the UMW walkout regarding non-payment by some Southern operators of contributions to the welfare fund since the expiration of the contract on July 1.

In Cleveland, the publisher of the Lorain Journal replied to the Government's antitrust suit with a statement that it was a threat to every newspaper and publication in the country. The suit sought to break up the alleged monopoly held by the newspaper on dissemination of information in its market by its refusal to carry advertising of those who advertised on two radio stations in Elyria or in the Sunday News, another newspaper published in Lorain on Sundays. It was the first such suit to allege an attempt by a newspaper to injure a competing radio station and sought an injunction to end the practice of refusing the advertising.

In San Francisco, the jury, after nine hours since receiving the case from the judge, was still deliberating in the trial for treason of Iva Toguri, labeled "Tokyo Rose" for her alleged broadcasts to GI's in the Pacific during the war from Tokyo, urging them to lay down arms and go home. The jurors had retired for the night shortly after 11:00 p.m. The trial had begun June 5. The Government was not seeking the death penalty in the case. The judge had instructed the jury that "reasonable intent to betray" through an act performed voluntarily, without coercion from fear of death or serious bodily injury, were elements required for conviction.

Twenty-five persons were killed and 28 were missing in four plane crashes in the U.S., Mexico, and England the previous day, the largest number of fatalities having occurred in an accident involving a Mexican airliner in which 24 were killed, including a Senator of Mexico, Ramos Millan.

In Chicago, a mother and three of four quadruplets to whom she had given premature birth the previous night, died, with the fourth infant given only a fifty percent chance of survival. The woman's husband said that his wife had not been certain that she was pregnant and that he was planning to take her to the doctor the following Friday to find out. She had given birth to three previous children during a prior marriage. She had become ill the previous night and was taken to the hospital.

Caution was being urged by several Charlotte specialists in the use of antihistamines, pribenzamine, thenylene, neoantergan, histadyl and benadryl, that they should be used only with medical supervision, could be dangerous otherwise. The Navy had just completed experiments with the five new drugs to determine their impact in controlling cold symptoms and found that they proved 90 percent effective when taken quickly following the first signs of allergic reaction, but dropped to 74 percent effectiveness after waiting six hours from the appearance of symptoms.

Governor Kerr Scott told a press conference in Raleigh that North Carolina's principal need was more telephone service, that Southern Bell served only 22 percent of its potential customers and that 70 other companies were available for expansion but were dragging their feet. He also urged power companies to complete rural electrification.

The American Cotton Manufacturers Institute, with its home offices in Charlotte, was incorporated by the State.

In Little Rock, Ark., Confederate veterans convened for probably their penultimate reunion, with only eight of 28 survivors gathering. One veteran, 102, said that he had never surrendered and would not if they killed him a hundred times. It was anticipated that their last reunion would be held the following year in Charleston.

Go to hell and good riddance.

On the sports page, sports editor Furman Bisher tells of his Team of the Week, while sportswriter Bob Quincy compares UNC's 1948 Heisman Trophy runner-up Charlie Justice to SMU's 1948 Heisman Trophy winner Doak Walker, the latter having been observed in person the previous Saturday by Mr. Quincy in Dallas when SMU beat Wake Forest, 13 to 7.

UNC would go on to have a 7-4 season, finishing 16th in the final Associated Press poll, losing to number 5 Rice in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, the last bowl appearance by UNC until the Gator Bowl of 1963. SMU, which also had junior Kyle Rote in the backfield, would have a 5-4-1 season, having won the Cotton Bowl the previous year. Charlie Justice would again finish second in the Heisman voting while Doak Walker would come in third in 1949. Kyle Rote would be runner-up in 1950.

On the editorial page, "Auditorium Proposal" finds two principal problems with the proposal of a gift of property to the City by the Oasis Temple of the Shrine for use as a site for a new auditorium, lack of parking space and limitation of space generally, making the auditorium not as architecturally pleasing as it might otherwise be surrounded by grasses and shrubbery. But, it finds, the site would be very accessible from Independence Square, would be adequate for a building with a 3,500-person seating capacity, and was worth $400,000.

The proposal still had to be approved by the Shriners and by the City Council.

"Retirement of Mr. Thies" tells of Frank R. Thies retiring as chairman of the City Planning Board, organized in June, 1945 and having performed well under his direction since he became chairman in June, 1946. During his tenure, the Board had developed the standard housing ordinance designed to clean up slums, the subdivision ordinance for the orderly development of residential areas, a survey of traffic and parking problems, a plan for extension of the city limits, and a recommendation to eliminate railroad crossings downtown to reduce traffic bottlenecks.

"Senator Kerr vs. Mr. Olds" tells of a Senate Interstate Commerce subcommittee getting ready to take up the nomination of Leland Olds for reappointment to the Federal Power Commission, an issue delayed since the prior June. Mr. Olds was an advocate for Federal protection of utility consumers. Senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma had investments in natural gas and was pushing a bill which would exempt that industry from Federal rate regulation, a bill opposed by Mr. Olds, and thus had managed to hold up the nomination.

The piece asserts that the subcommittee, in serving the interests of the people, ought approve or disapprove the nomination and allow the matter to come to the floor for debate and not hold it up in committee.

And even more so should it be in 2016 regarding the nomination to the Supreme Court of Judge Merrick Garland, held up, unprecedentedly for a Supreme Court nomination, without hearings since March 16, 2016. We hope that in one of the remaining two presidential debates, a considerable amount of time will be devoted to this issue which has receded into the background in recent months. The view each candidate has of the propriety of the Senate Judiciary Committee's inaction on this matter is central to how each views the role of Government in our society, whether as a means of working for the people's interests in a bipartisan manner or engaging in obstructionism to advance partisan causes, even to the point of hampering indefinitely the people's business before the highest Court of the land.

"Revival of Freedom Drama" tells of "Shout Freedom", the outdoor drama by LeGette Blythe celebrating the history of Mecklenburg County presented the previous year, being considered for re-presentation in 1950 and annually thereafter. It wishes the Mecklenburg Historical Society well in making the idea a reality.

Drew Pearson tells of Senate Democratic leaders deciding, following personal appeals by both Senators Hubert Humphrey and Claude Pepper, not to adjourn until something had been done about the nation's overcrowded schools and understaffed medical profession. Senator Humphrey had stressed the need for school legislation, warning of nine million more children entering the nation's schools by 1958, and Senator Pepper, regarding the medical profession, stressing the need for new medical schools. After some expression of concern over states rights, the group agreed on the goals.

The big steel companies had been quietly maneuvering to save the basing-point pricing system, outlawed by the Supreme Court as encouraging a monopoly in violation of existing anti-trust laws. In response, the companies had sought to push through Congress a bill to legalize the system, stopped by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee and Congressman John Carroll of Colorado. Presently, the companies were attempting to obtain positive regulatory authority for the system through the FTC. They wanted the Commission to order the companies to stop certain minor practices while permitting them to continue the basing-point system, giving the appearance of strictness.

Senator Harry Cain of Washington had told friends that he was considering running against Senator Warren Magnuson in 1950 for the other seat in Washington, though his own term did not expire until 1953. He had not decided whether to resign his current seat. If he chose to run against Senator Magnuson, Senator Cain would wage a mud-slinging campaign.

Robert C. Ruark finds a whiskey ad, in which two twin brothers promoted the product, to be no more convincing than if one person had made the claim, and less so than the average endorsement by a celebrity.

He says that he once dated twin sisters and the indelible memory still remained, finds any product promoted by twins to be without merit.

Henry C. McFadyen, superintendent of the Albemarle, N.C., schools, in the fourth of his series on childhood education, stresses discipline in the school. He imparts of his having once spent a day visiting a military school and having been thrilled by observing the military precision of the students during the morning drills. Yet, in the afternoon, when they were on their own, a group of about 25 had gathered for a game of tag football but instead spent the entire time hogging the ball from each other, never organizing themselves into a game.

He finds that any group of boys on a sandlot would have been better at informal organizational skills and yet not as good at strict obedience to orders.

A disciplined person was one who had developed the skills to do what was required of him or her on their own. But people, parents and educators, differed on the best way to instill such traits. Many believed that discipline was best inculcated by doing, allowing the child to make his or her own mistakes in the process and then learning to correct them. Others believed that a strict system of reward and punishment was the better system.

He finds that where the reasons for rules were explained to the children, there was little need for punishment for their infraction as the students understood why they should obey the rules. In that way, the students learned to discipline themselves, the most effective way to encourage and instill discipline.

A letter writer from Lumberton believes that Russia's explosion of the atom bomb had brought it one step closer to the position Germany would have been in had the war continued beyond 1945, endangering American cities from the air. He counsels peace and negotiation as the salvation of the world.

A letter from the county commander of the American Cancer Society thanks the newspaper for its favorable editorial of September 22.

A letter writer from Yonkers, N.Y., tells of the nation having the best highway system in the world but that heavy trucking threatened to ruin it unless regulations on weight loads of the "boxcars on rubber" were implemented nationwide.

Any sucker considering voting for the 2016 Republican presidential nominee ought to read this article by the owner of a New Jersey piano business who, in 1989, was cheated by the Trump Corporation out of $30,000 for $100,000 worth of pianos. Is the Republican nominee a man of his word? It is one thing if someone does not pay a bill because of truly demonstrably shoddy performance on the other side of the contract or because the payor truly lacks the means to pay promptly and then makes up the difference later. But to skip out on substantial payment when completely solvent and when the other party performed properly and well is beyond despicable, especially when the payee is a small business person who suffers for years afterwards for such a large loss and especially when the difference in payment for the payor, as in this instance, would be little more than a tip.

As the 2016 Republican nominee has no other track record by which to judge him than his performance as a businessman, such conduct, repeated numerous times through the years, disqualifies him for public office of any description, let alone the presidency, even assuming that he had any other qualifications for the job, as he does not.

And, yes, he is a politician by definition. He is running hard for the presidency of the United States. Please do not be so naive as to fall for the silly argument that, well, at least he is no pol. By the same reasoning, one would have cast a ballot in the 1920's for Al Capone, less a politician than the 2016 Republican nominee, as he never ran for public office.

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