The Charlotte News

Wednesday, February 15, 1950

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Moscow, the Soviet Union and Communist China signed a 30-year peace treaty the previous night. The thrust of the treaties was said to be to develop economic and cultural ties between the two nations and to prevent resurgence of Japanese aggression. Russia agreed to lend to Communist China 300 million dollars over the ensuing five years and to give up railroad and navigation rights in Manchuria by 1952. The Soviets would also withdraw all troops from the naval base at Port Arthur. The free port of Dairen would be transferred from Soviet administration to the Chinese. The treaties thereby abrogated the 1945 Russo-Chinese pact, signed by the Nationalist Government as a result of the Yalta Conference, providing the Soviets with rights in Manchuria, Port Arthur, and Dairen. The new treaties entailed also a mutual assistance pact in the case of attack on either country by Japan. The treaties would become effective either upon conclusion of a Japanese peace treaty or in 1952 at the latest. The agreements were signed by Foreign Ministers Andrei Vishinsky and Chou En-Lai, after negotiations had been transacted between them and between Josef Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung.

A group of 23 Senators, including the entire 13-member Armed Services Committee, were invited to the Pentagon for a briefing by the military and civilian heads of defense. Senator Chan Gurney of South Dakota said that he wanted to know whether American defenses were as strong as claimed by Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson or as weak as claimed by Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington. Senator Lyndon Johnson, who had accompanied Secretary Symington on a recent speaking tour across Texas, said that Russia was two years or more ahead of the U.S. in guided missile development. The future President said that the U.S., insofar as a push-button war was concerned, had "neither the push, nor the button."

Maj. General Clovis Byers of the Army told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the Army was running out of the geniuses necessary for developing the new tools of war. Furthermore, intelligence tests showed that a third of the Army scored between 60 and 90 points, with 90 being minimum for adequate soldiers. Representative Charles Plumley of Vermont countered that most of the medals for bravery during World War II were awarded to men who could not have passed a literacy test sufficient for admission to West Point or the Naval Academy.

The President, in a speech at the Justice Department to law enforcement officials, called for a moral crusade against the resurgence of organized crime in the country since the end of the war. He urged religious instruction and moral training in the home to combat early the draw of these vices. The conference had been called by Attorney General J. Howard McGrath to work out a program of Federal, state, and local law enforcement cooperation in the anti-crime drive, aimed primarily at gambling in the form of slot machines and book-making. The President added that crimes of violence had risen after World War I, as they had after the late war. He also warned the law enforcement officials against use of any tactics which would violate the Constitution.

The President, according to the White House, intended to wage an aggressive fight in Pennsylvania and Ohio to elect Democrats to Congress in the midterm elections.

In Great Falls, Mont., eight men were killed when an Air Force B-29 crashed on takeoff during the morning hours. Seven men survived the crash with minor injuries. The plane had been searching for a missing B-36 in Queens Charlotte Sound, reported missing the previous day while searching for the source of an unknown light on the Sound. An oil slick was spotted in the location of the lost plane, but it was believed that a ship may have left it behind.

Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson said that despite being recently grounded at Norfolk, the U.S.S. Missouri would remain in active service for training of midshipmen and members of the Naval reserve.

John L. Lewis and the mine operators began negotiations this date to try to form a new contract but quickly became embroiled in an argument as to how to proceed. Neither side had any positive statements after the morning meeting.

The miners meanwhile remained on strike, despite Mr. Lewis having instructed them to return to work in obedience of the Federal court order temporarily ending the strike pending a hearing on an injunction.

Floods, snow and ice storms hit the South, Midwest and East this date, causing at least 16 deaths and rendering thousands homeless. More than a foot of snow fell in upstate New York and sleet, turning to slush, hit New York City. East Central Louisiana was bracing for possibly the worst flooding since 1927, with more than 1,300 families evacuated.

It's just never going to stop until we finally build the wall and the roof to keep out the undesirable elements.

Tom Fesperman of The News, in the third in his series of articles on Winston-Salem's Committee of 100, tells of much of its work having been praised but some also drawing criticism. One such complaint was that it was a propaganda organization. Committee officials denied the charge. Some claimed it was dominated by wealthy men of the community, while others complained that there were only two black members when 40 percent of the city's population was black, and only one member from organized labor, CIO's E. L. Sandefur. There had also been complaints that the Committee's work only tended to raise taxes and that it dodged some issues deemed too controversial, such as Sunday blue laws. There was also criticism of the Committee chairman for becoming the leader of the pro-ABC forces the previous year despite the Committee's avowal to remain out of politics. Committee representatives defended the Committee on each of these points.

The pictured water truck was still, we believe, in use in the Twin City through the 1970's, perhaps through about 1984, when they purchased a 1954 International Harvester in an attempt at modernization.

On the editorial page, "National Labor Impasse" tells of the coal miners refusing to obey John L. Lewis's order to return to work after two days since the Federal court order ending the strike, the first time in years that they had engaged in such disobedience.

The miners could not be forced to work and only the union, its officers and Mr. Lewis could be held in contempt and fined and jailed for non-compliance. If it was a conspiratorial violation of antitrust laws, acting as a restraint on trade, to engage in such a continued strike, then it would also be so for management not to engage in a settlement.

It finds Government mediation inadequate as it was inevitably politicized to please voters.

It favors enforcement of laws against trespass, assault and mob violence as a means of breaking the stranglehold of unions.

It concludes that either unions would have to control their members and comply with the law or the Government would have to break the monopoly of the unions.

"Abuses of the GI Bill" finds it good that veterans had taken advantage of the bill to educate themselves at Government expense. But abuses had occurred in the system as fly-by-night schools had sprung up in every field and trade to enable veterans to obtain the $120 per month educational stipend without regard to what they learned. The abuses were being investigated by the House, and the President had called for tightening regulation on the vocational schools. It was likely that uniform standards for such schools would be created and enforced.

"Death of a Story-Teller" tells of the death of historical novelist Rafael Sabatini, age 75. He kept his history straight while telling his stories well, never sinking to the level of the dime novel. While not ranking with the master artists, it finds, he was a master story-teller, a "craftsman of integrity", a trait lacking in his literary progeny.

A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "For Cash and Justice", discusses the effort by the Treasury to get Congress to tax the outside pursuits for profit of educational institutions, charitable organizations, and labor unions. Such would help to balance the budget and plug a tax loophole through which many were legally evading paying taxes. The tax exemption had been so abused as to become a racket. It favors the effort and also wants Congress to look at the evasion of taxes through creation of non-taxable trusts with ostensible charitable purposes while not being required to dispense the money on any schedule.

A piece from the Cleveland Plain Dealer places the President in the role of an ordinary borrower and Congress as the banker making the decision whether or not to loan the money based on deficit financing. Ordinarily, a responsible banker would deny the loan. It wonders what Congress would do.

Drew Pearson tells of atomic scientists having told the Joint Atomic Energy Committee in executive session that the hydrogen bomb could be built for 80 million dollars, far less than the original two billion dollar cost of the atom bomb. The reason was that much of the same equipment used to develop the fission bomb could be used to develop the fusion bomb. The House the previous week had already approved the money as part of a deficiency appropriation bill, though few House members understood that they were voting for the H-bomb.

At the urging of Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas, Republican Senator Kenneth Wherry had applauded politely during the President's recent speech to Congress. Senator Lucas urged Senator Wherry to urge Senator Taft to clap as well. But Senator Taft ignored the request, until the President urged creation of the National Science Foundation, which Senator Taft supported. He then clapped and told Senator Lucas that he had complied with his request.

John L. Lewis was now cooperative with the press and photographers thanks to his new public relations director. In earlier times, he would turn his back and snarl at photographers.

Mr. Lewis remained querulous, however, in negotiations with management, as betrayed by his recent comment to the president of the Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Co. that he was a "liar by the clock". Mr. Pearson provides the context.

The President had recently told Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey, upon the latter presenting him with a gavel made by a Danish cabinetmaker, that he collected two things, Bibles and gavels. He proceeded to show Senator Humphrey some of his collection of Bibles, which included a copy of the Book of Mormon and another of the Koran, the latter presented by the Prime Minister of Pakistan and utilizing a whole sheep for its production. Senator Humphrey suggested that the President ought be able to maintain law and order with his two collections. The President made it clear that he also studied the scriptures.

The President told the Senator, a major backer of civil rights legislation, that he intended to see the civil rights legislation through the Congress, emphasizing the impact on foreign policy to maintain consistency between the ideal of democracy and its practice. He predicted that the battle would be won in Congress, despite Southern opposition. He spoke highly of Southern progressives, especially Senator Frank Graham of North Carolina and Governor Sid McMath of Arkansas. The President said that when a black man could head a large insurance company in North Carolina, then the South was making great strides forward in racial tolerance.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop continue their discussion of the dangers of economizing on defense by Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, made worse by his misrepresenting American defense capabilities. The Russians were said to be able to build six atomic bombs during the first year of production and 25 per year thereafter, leaving them by 1952 still far behind the U.S. but nevertheless with a respectable stockpile of 50 or more bombs. They also had 350 B-29-type heavy bombers with which to deliver the bomb, with 15 being produced every month. In all, the Russians had 16,000 planes, which were constantly being updated, while the U.S. had 13,000 in its arsenal, with most not being replenished and steadily becoming obsolete.

The Russians were developing 1,500 heavy tanks per year while the U.S. had no heavy tank as yet.

The submarine fleet of the Russians was estimated at between 200 and 300, while U.S. destroyer forces had lagged behind.

The Soviet air warning net was still deficient, although being steadily improved. The effective German Mark 21 submarine was being produced only in small numbers.

The U.S. atomic stockpile and strength in strategic air power would, for the time being, serve as a reliable deterrent. But the combined effects of Soviet rearmament in the face of U.S. disarmament posed the principal problem over the ensuing two or three years. In the event of another major war, Japan and Okinawa would have insufficient Naval defense and would likely fall to the Russians. The crucial destroyers, destroyer escorts, and carriers were being reduced at the peril of the nation's defense.

Reliance on the relatively slow B-36 by the Air Force would, in two to three years, raise the possibility of not being able to penetrate Soviet defenses.

The Alsops conclude that while Secretary Johnson had promised a Navy which could control all vital ocean areas and clear the sea of strategic air warfare around the world, he was providing the opposite, and the resulting weakness served as an open invitation to defeat in a future war.

Marquis Childs discusses the effort by some to oust Secretary of State Acheson from his post. Some were motivated by the peevishness regarding his determination to stand by his old friend Alger Hiss in the face of his conviction for perjury. But others were idealists who wanted a miracle. The latter were the same sort of people who believed in the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, that it would have the literal effect of outlawing war. They believed in the miracle of words.

But Secretary Acheson was wise enough to understand that there was no such miracle which would bring about a permanent peace.

He concludes that since Mr. Acheson was the third Secretary of State appointed by President Truman since July, 1945, after James Byrnes and George Marshall, it would damage American foreign policy to have yet another break in continuity. It would also be difficult to find anyone with the experience and knowledge of Secretary Acheson who would also wish to serve.

While it would be nice to have someone who could respond to the wishes of the idealists in the country, there was no reason to expect Secretary Acheson to be able to do the impossible and, by the magic of words, resolve the ills of the time.

A letter writer tells of being blind and daily guided by a seeing-eye dog. But her Norwegian elkhound had been poisoned to death when it managed to consume rat poison in a public place. Another such dog had become seriously ill from rat poison. The dogs were trained in New Jersey at great expense and she reminds the public not to leave out rat poison or other poisons in places where dogs or pets could get to it.

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