The Charlotte News
Thursday, April 6, 1950
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Owen Lattimore testified to the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, investigating the charges by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Communist infiltration to the State Department, that he had never been a Communist and that the charges of the Senator were "base and contemptible lies", that he had "flagrantly violated" his responsibility as a Senator, making unauthorized use of Government secret documents. He also said that the Senator had impaired the effectiveness of the Government in its relation with allies abroad and rendered the Government a laughing stock. Mr. Lattimore had flown to Washington from Afghanistan, where he had gone on a mission for the U.N.
To bolster bipartisan support for Administration foreign policy, the President appointed John Foster Dulles to be an adviser to Secretary of State Acheson. The previous night, press secretary Charles G. Ross had denied rumors of the appointment, had said that instead Mr. Dulles would be made an ambassador-at-large. Mr. Dulles had been defeated for the 1949 special election for the Senate in New York by former Governor Herbert Lehman after having been appointed to the seat by Governor Thomas Dewey following the retirement for health reasons of Senator Robert Wagner.
The NLRB recommended to the Senate Expenditures Committee that the position of general counsel, created by Taft-Hartley, should be abolished, as it had led to divided powers between the Board and the counsel.
The Veterans Administration called off, for the nonce, its planned dismissal of 4,700 hospital and clinic employees, as well as its plans to close some medical clinics, but would proceed with planned dismissal of 3,000 non-medical personnel. The V.A. sought an additional 2.2 million dollars to keep the medical personnel employed through the end of the fiscal year.
The President sent a message to Congress from Key West, asking for extension of unemployment compensation to an additional sixteen million people and raising benefits by about twenty percent.
In Kansas City, Charles Binaggio, a
onetime assistant to Boss Tom Pendergast, was found shot to death in
the Jackson Democratic Club room, located on Truman Road, leading to
Independence. Mr. Binaggio had become the Northside district
political boss, fighting, as he rose through the ranks from precinct
captain, James Pendergast, the deceased Boss's nephew who had taken
over his uncle's political operations. One of Mr. Binaggio's
shoulders was sprinkled with cigarette ashes. Directly over his body
hung a picture of President Truman. The dead body of another man,
shot in the head, was also in the room. He appeared to have been
running for his life when felled
The report says that the President was a member of the club. He was in Key West and so, presumably, was eliminated as a principal.
But if it is shown later that Mr.
Binaggio
In Murray, Ia., a nine-year old boy perished in a house fire trying to save his two younger sisters, who also died. The parents and a brother escaped unharmed.
In Raleigh, testimony began in the trial of the Wake Forest College student accused of murdering another student on the campus the previous December 14, then fleeing police custody by bus and car to Los Angeles. A former student told of seeing the defendant on the night of December 14, standing alongside his wrecked car, telling him that his foot had slipped from the brake to the accelerator. The witness called a wrecker and police, and when the police arrived, the defendant took them aside and asked for a break. The police placed him in a squad car while another police officer looked inside the defendant's car, finding a body under the dashboard. The police car carrying the defendant had driven down the road a short distance and was flagged when the body was discovered. After it stopped, the defendant alighted, as did the driver, and then the defendant took off. The witness described his observation of blood on the body and on the windshield of the defendant's car. A second student said that he had observed the defendant with the victim earlier that night, gambling, and that the victim appeared to be winning. The State intended to call 37 witnesses.
In Charlotte, a woman was held without bond on a charge of murdering her husband in the early morning hours, following what police described as an argument some hours earlier. She, wisely, refused to talk to reporters. Her attorney said that she had told him that she was badly bruised but was so confused that she could not provide a coherent report of what had happened. She had related to him that there was "no other way out" than to shoot her husband.
The attorney would be better advised to shut up, too, assuming he wishes a fair trial for his client.
The News began a feature in which photos of diapered babies would be presented each day with a caption reminiscent of a familiar citizen or politician, and after review, two pictures would be published per week for the ensuing three weeks. First place would receive $10 and second, $5, each week.
There is no further excerpt on the front page from The Greatest Story Ever Told by Fulton Oursler, published in 1949, and so you will have to read the remaining 23 pages on your own. Perhaps, the concluding excerpts were presented inside the newspaper as Easter weekend approached.
On the editorial page, "A Satisfactory Solution" tells of school authorities and Mayor Victor Shaw having determined that it would be good for the proposed Latta Park community building to be situated on the edge of the Dilworth school playground, perhaps thereby bringing the controversy over the location to a conclusion. If there were no protest from Dilworth parents and teachers, then the Park & Recreation Commission would likely approve the site.
"Public Ownership Justified" tells of the City Council approval of a lease of the Quartermaster Depot for manufacturing and warehousing space to be a positive development for the economy of the city. The Depot would first have to be offered, by Government regulation, to other military branches, but if they declined, as was expected, it would be offered first to the State, then the City, then to private investors. It favors public ownership of the facility.
"The Meaning of the Cross", an Easter week guest editorial by Dr. Herbert Spaugh, Moravian Pastor of the Little Church on the Lane, finds the Resurrection Story to be essential to combat the cynicism pervading modern life. It afforded the assurance of "daybreak and victory" in the midst of tribulation.
On the first Easter morning, time had changed, turning a new page "on the calendar of eternity." It implied an end to looking for the evil in men and a beginning of looking for the good. "Eternity will prove that the meek have inherited the earth." Victory over death was achieved through Christ, as promised at the Resurrection.
A piece from the
Louisville
Courier-Journal, titled "Leave This Fight to the Irish",
finds sensible the decision of the House to eliminate its provision
attached to the ERP funding bill, insisting on unity of Ireland as a
condition for receipt of ERP funds. Eire had been neutral during the
war and had resisted the unity which Ulster had voted several times
to adopt. Thus to have insisted on the matter either would have
resulted in loss of a valuable Ulster base for Britain and the U.S. or an attempt
to force unity on unwilling Eire
Bill Sharpe, in his weekly
"Turpentine Drippings", snippets from newspapers across
the state, presents one from the Hartsville Messenger, in
which a man stepped into a bar claiming that his dog could talk. The
man then demonstrated the skill for the incredulous bartender, asking the dog
what was on top of a ballpark, to which the dog replied, "Rrrroof!
Exasperated by the fake display of
the dog's purported verbal abilities, the bartender threw the man and
the dog into the street. Afterward, the dog said, in a tiny voice,
"Maybe I should have said 'Dimaggio
Stretch Rollins of the Mullins Enterprise tells of the small town offering not much to see, but that what was heard made up for the omission.
The Sanford Herald reported of a parrot which had normally resided in a bar next to a church, until the former burned down, causing the parrot to have to take refuge in the latter. When Sunday arrived, the parrot observed verbally that there were new chorus girls, a new bartender, but only the same old crowd.
And so and so and so
Drew Pearson tells of Oklahoma Senator Elmer Thomas having appointed a subcommittee comprised of Senators Willis Robertson of Virginia, Joe O'Mahoney of Wyoming, and Homer Ferguson of Michigan to investigate how Mr. Pearson managed to find out about the secret testimony of Joint Chiefs chairman General Omar Bradley, regarding his having not said, as Senator Ferguson claimed publicly, that there was no prospect of a hot war with Russia. Instead, Mr. Pearson had related that he had said that Russia would not have the industrial capacity or atomic stockpile to make war for two years but refused to predict what might occur thereafter, or even in the meantime should Russia start bullying a Western ally. The column had corrected the misperception thus conveyed by Senator Thomas and explained that part of the General's quoted remarks had been deleted from the Congressional Record. The person providing the information, Mr. Pearson says, was someone not present at the hearing.
Chaplain Bernard Braskamp may have been the first Congressional chaplain in U.S. history not to use a prepared text for his daily opening prayer. He favored the notion that the Lord sometimes wanted to hear from his supplicants "off the cuff".
Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington was about to become chairman of the National Security Resources Board, in bad shape, leaderless for some time and being kicked around by agencies supposed to be obeying its orders, the AEC, the GSA, and the Munitions Board. John Steelman had been acting head since Arthur Hill had resigned the position in December, 1948, and he had only provided superficial attention to the role.
Marquis Childs tells of a new group of moderate Republicans having formed, setting forth principles designed to counteract the "back to normalcy" stands favored by the Taft-Wherry-Bridges conservative branch of the party. Some feared to join the new group out of concern it might divide the party.
One of their stands was to favor criminal penalties for fair employment practices discrimination and another, advocating Federal power to prosecute lynchers. The statement of principles favored the health care position of Senator Irving Ives and Congressman Jacob Javits, to give Federal aid to cooperative health insurance units formed under Federal-State supervision, with charges based on individual income.
The hope was that that the group could do for the GOP what the Americans for Democratic Action had done for the Democrats. The ADA, meanwhile, had decided to strike any reference to the Fair Deal in its new policy statement, seeking to sever ties with both major parties. But the fact was that the ADA had supported only Democrats and had consistently supported Administration foreign policy and its anti-Communist efforts. Yet, in some communities, ADA membership had to be transacted in secret because of backlash to its liberal tendencies. Mr. Childs finds this reaction anti-democratic.
He wants to see such a new organization led by liberal Republicans, as it would promote healthy competition within the two parties. ADA had not transformed the Democrats, as many Southerners regarded it with suspicion, as much so as Republicans did. But it had produced an antidote to complacency with the status quo, and, in that manner, was showing the way for change.
Robert C. Ruark tells of the AMA
Journal finding that whiskey was a depressant, not a stimulant.
But after having read of drink's pros and cons, he had concluded,
through direct experience, that Toots Shor had the best of the
argument when he said: "If you ain't drunk by midnight
He provides the effects which
various forms of drink produced, concluding that whiskey did not make
one pretty, but rather made one think so
He concludes: "Alcohol is not
man's best friend, but it is also possible to be bitten by a dog.
Alcohol is here to stay. End of treatise, and I hope this disposes of
the matter for all time
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