The Charlotte News
Monday, February 20, 1950
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Budapest, the Hungarian Government prosecutor sought long prison terms for American businessman Robert Vogeler and six co-defendants who had pleaded guilty to spying. The court would render the verdicts and sentences the following day. The prosecutor had previously prosecuted Josef Cardinal Mindszenty for spying and obtained a life sentence.
In Taipei, Formosa, the Nationalist Defense Ministry stated that 100,000 farmers had revolted in the Tungting Lake region of Hunan Province in mainland China, killing many Communists. It claimed that the revolt was in reaction to excessive requisitioning of rice by the Communist Government. Three Nationalist bombers raided Nanking the previous day, damaging a power plant. Informed sources in Hong Kong said that the Communists had stationed 25,000 troops on the Hong Kong-China border during the previous three weeks. A British Army spokesman, however, said only that the situation was as it had been two weeks earlier.
In England, last minute campaigning was taking place in advance of the Thursday general election, as Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin told an audience in Croydon that the Government was seeking further aid from the U.S. after the Marshall Plan's scheduled termination date in 1952. A point of controversy was the proposal by Winston Churchill that high level talks take place between the Big Three and Russia, with Deputy Prime Minister Herbert Morrison contending that it was "badly thought out" and Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Cripps describing it as a desperate attempt to find a talking point.
Jack Bell of the Associated Press reports that test votes in Congress during this week were possible on the displaced persons bill and the FEPC bill, as the body was preparing to get down to business after two weeks of inaction to enable lawmakers to attend Jefferson-Jackson Day and Lincoln Day dinners. In foreign affairs, hearings on another annual appropriation for the Marshall Plan would begin the following day. Senate leaders were trying to set up a permanent small business committee, followed by agricultural issues before consideration of the displaced persons bill later in the week. Republicans wanted to show that they favored civil rights and might dare the Democratic leadership to bring up the FEPC bill after that. Administration leaders would try to get the measure, stuck in the Rules Committee since the previous summer, before the full House on Wednesday under a special rule permitting once every four months two hours of debate on bills despite being stuck in committee.
The Federal court in Washington, which had a week earlier issued a temporary restraining order against the coal strike, restated the order, extending it to run until March 3 when a hearing would be held to determine whether an injunction should issue for 80 days pursuant to Taft-Hartley. The UMW miners had not heeded the order and remained out of work, but the union insisted that they were acting individually as John L. Lewis had ordered them to return to work.
Government mediator Cyrus Ching invited both management and the unions threatening a telephone workers' strike on Friday to participate in mediation talks the next day.
In Upper Marlboro, Md., Congressman Fred Crawford of Michigan pleaded guilty and paid a fine and court costs after spending two days in jail on an assault charge for striking a young man who worked for him on his farm. A dispute had preceded the slap. The Congressman had remained in jail over the weekend after refusing to post bond through a bondsman and instead insisting on payment of a cash bail. He also subsequently refused to sign a promise to appear in lieu of bail.
In Manchester, N.H., the trial began of the doctor accused of murder for the mercy-killing of a patient suffering from terminal cancer.
A cold wave hit the Eastern half of the nation, extending to Southern Florida. Lows of 10-15 below zero were predicted for upstate New York, already beset by coal-rationing. During the early morning, the temperature in New York City had been 10 degrees, the lowest of the winter, with the mercury expected to drop to between zero and five degrees this night. The colder weather throughout the Eastern half of the country was expected to last for three weeks.
Get out your blankets. So much for the accuracy of Phil's and Chuck's shadowless prophecy.
On the editorial page, "Mr. Jones and the Hoover Report" finds misleading the opposition of Congressman Hamilton Jones of Charlotte to the part of the Hoover Commission recommendations dealing with veterans, as he saw it as destroying a square deal for the veterans in the name of economy. But the report had made no recommendation which would curtail benefits or services, only favoring better management of existing programs.
It suggests therefore that the Congressman maintain an open mind on the recommendations as the less money which was wasted on veterans programs, the more would be available to care for the real casualties of war.
"The British Election" finds parallels between the British election to come the following Thursday and the 1948 U.S. general election. The Labor Government had advocated an expansion of socialist programs, just as the Democrats had proposed expansion of the "welfare state". The Conservatives had called for cessation of expansion of socialist programs, just as the Republicans had urged an end to the Fair Deal, pledging better administration of the existing programs. Prime Minister Clement Attlee had conducted his own whistle-stop tour of the country, displaying a folksy attitude and stubbornness, as had President Truman in 1948.
There was the distinction also that the opposition leader, Winston Churchill, was a more skilled orator and determined battler than Governor Dewey had been. And the American election had been held in a time of prosperity whereas the British elections were being held against a backdrop of austerity, limitations on imports, and a dollar shortage resulting in devaluation of the pound.
Most observers agreed that Labor was in a favorable position to win, despite the Conservative victories recently in Australia and New Zealand.
It warns Americans against drawing inaccurate conclusions from the British elections, as there were many local issues at stake in Britain and the outcome did not necessarily suggest an analogous trend for the U.S. in 1950. Moreover, the British allowed free access to the airwaves by candidates and broadcasts of a political nature were evenly divided between the parties. It was, it remarks, a democratic election therefore "in the highest degree".
Generally, the British elections were more understated and less elaborate than the American presidential election. The success of the party in achieving a majority in Parliament was the key to success, rather than focusing on a pair of opposing candidates.
"Brotherhood Week" urges that National Brotherhood Week was a concept which should prevail year round, not just for a few days. If so, there would be no cold or hot wars, no killing. Without such brotherhood, the world and its people, it finds, were doomed, as man now had the weapons to destroy the earth at will.
It finds regrettable the fact that there was no similar organization in Russia as the National Conference of Christians and Jews to sponsor such a week there.
"Ominous News for Taxpayers" tells of a report issued by the State Tax Research Department concluding that a deficit would be likely in the state budget by 1951 when the next Legislature convened and that it would have to be met by increased consumption and personal income, thus raising tax revenue.
Drew Pearson tells of John L. Lewis telling the operators that two conditions had to be met before he would agree to a new contract, that the operators would have to drop all lawsuits for damages suffered during the strike and that any back payments withheld from the welfare and pensions fund during the strike would have to be paid forthwith.
The Western and Midwestern operators, as Mr. Lewis had pointed out, were awaiting the decision of Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal, where the strike had started, to establish the settlement pattern.
A Hollywood actor was seeking to have gambling kingpin Frank Costello deported. Mr. Pearson reminds that in mid-1947, he had suggested that the Government could deport Mr. Costello at any time for having made false statements when he became a naturalized citizen in 1925, including not reporting that he had a prior criminal conviction for carrying a concealed weapon, and for violating Prohibition laws at the time when he swore to uphold the laws and Constitution.
The new Treasurer, Georgia Neese Clark, went before Congress for the first time, and members of the House Appropriations Committee stated the hope that she would adhere to her predecessor's aversion to an enormous public debt. She replied that she would.
The Government hoped to have free voluntary screenings for various diseases set up in major cities. Republicans supported the effort, found that it was not socialistic. The program had undergone a trial in Richmond, Va., and met with acceptance, as 400 to 500 persons per day visited the pilot clinic. The estimated cost was only five million dollars per year, provided Red Cross and Community Chest organizations aided the effort.
Robert C. Ruark tells of having unabashedly begun carrying a leather shoulder handbag two years earlier, which he had bought in North Africa, finding it of enormous utility since. He was able to carry various items inside, including a change of clothing, several books, liquor, water, copy-paper and carbon, a notebook, his shaving kit, etc. It had come in handy when his plane was downed in Brazil for thirty hours after a motor fire. While all of the other passengers were listless, thirsty, and dirty, he was able to read, write, quench his thirst and freshen up. He had also lived out of the bag for 28 onerous hours aboard a train from Casablanca to Algiers.
No one had called him a sissy yet. So, he recommends the handbag to men, finds women had a good idea, even if puce pants and purple tailcoats were not for him.
Marquis Childs discusses the drift in Western policy in Berlin being dangerous. If Berlin were to fall to the Russians, it would have a devastating psychological impact on Western Europe, as much so as the fall of mainland China to the Communists had in the Far East.
The American seizure in January of the railroad station, and then having to backtrack and return it after the Soviets threatened re-imposition of the blockade, had created doubt throughout West Germany. The problem went back to the June, 1949 Paris agreement ending the blockade, permitting the Soviets to continue control of transportation in Berlin, which worked to allow the Russians to stop truck traffic entering from West Germany and demand, within the law, a bill of lading, creating delays and effectively imposing anew a type of blockade.
Some Americans believed that countermeasures should be imposed, even at the risk of a new full blockade. But an airlift of food would be costly, and even more so, if, as suggested by some, the airlift were to include raw materials for manufacture and re-shipment of finished goods to aid in repairing the West German economy. The Congress was not in the mood to allocate such funds with a five billion dollar deficit looming for fiscal year 1951.
The Soviets meanwhile were undertaking complete communization of the East, with the German "folk police" being trained with armed Russian units and the non-Communist parties being systematically eliminated. The "Free German Youth" were planning a rally of 500,000 marchers on May 28 into West Berlin.
The handwriting was on the wall, therefore, and no American, he suggests, should be surprised at the result.
A letter writer says that becoming a member of Alcoholics Anonymous after 35 years as an alcoholic had led to the writer's life being set aright. The author had tried unsuccessfully to obtain treatment at various facilities for the previous 20 years.
A letter from the director of the Charlotte Distributive Education Program thanks the newspaper for its support during its Education Week.
A
letter writer from York, S.C.,
finds that Mrs. J. Waties Waring, wife of the Federal judge who had
found that the South Carolina primary system had to be open to black
citizens, had crossed the line when advocating intermarriage of
blacks and whites. He could abide an open primary system and claims
that some of his best friends
A letter writer opposes the practice of charging 60 cents to fish in State-controlled waters, and also finds questionable the limitation on hunters that they hunt only between noon and sundown, as well as laws protecting the fox.
A letter from previously failed Republican Congressional candidate P. C. Burkholder expresses gladness to see former Senator Robert Rice Reynolds entering the Senate primary campaign against Senator Frank Graham. He suggests that if more in Congress had followed the isolationist lead of Senator Reynolds, then there would not have been so many Americans killed in the war and that the country would not be spending so much money abroad to "fatten Communism". He finds that Mr. Reynolds was for spending for Americans first, "instead of throwing it out to create more wars in the name of peace", had no stain of Red upon him.
That P.C. really knows his history and he is square on the money. He will not let any Commie tourist come in here and take over Amurica. And he'll also make sure you drink plenty of farm-cultured buttermilk. No Commie tourist will drink buttermilk.
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