The Charlotte News

Wednesday, May 17, 1950

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in London at the conference of NATO nation foreign ministers, the U.S. was pressing the other eleven nations to speed formation of an international army, with a super-command structure to weld together the armed forces of the nations, to combat the threat of Russian aggression. The proposal called for the continental countries to supply more ground forces, with a minimum of 30 divisions as a standing force, based primarily on French forces, with some British and American forces stationed in Germany. Britain might be asked to concentrate on jet fighters. A decision in the matter was expected this date, as the foreign ministers met for the third and final day of the conference. The American diplomats believed that larger and more efficient industrial production was necessary to support the costly defense effort.

The Senate Finance Committee approved the bill to expand Social Security benefits, albeit a revised version of that passed by the House the prior year. Majority Leader Scott Lucas had said that he would seek to expand the measure further when it reached the floor.

Assistant Secretary of the Army Karl Bendetsen told the House Armed Services subcommittee investigating charges of maladministration, laxity and Communist infiltration in the Army's finance center at St. Louis, that the "get 'em paid" philosophy had made the overpayments to veterans of 157 million dollars inevitable. He reported that 83 million of the funds had been repaid and 15 million waived in hardship cases, leaving 25 million referred to the GAO for recovery. He expected the remaining 35 million also to be recouped.

According to Undersecretary of State James Webb of North Carolina, Ambassador to Nicaragua Capus Waynick of North Carolina was being recalled temporarily from his diplomatic post to launch the "Point Four" program to provide technical assistance to underdeveloped nations, because of a "red urgency" in getting the program underway.

It's sort of like the Redstone rocket and the capsule atop it, to get along the way up there in the nick of time, isn't it?

Rail traffic, following the settlement the previous day of the strike of the firemen for six days against five of the nation's leading railroads, had nearly returned to normal this date. Loss in business and wages during the six-day strike was estimated at 50 million dollars.

In Baghdad, the Tigris River flooded the suburbs and drove 20,000 people from their homes, submerging 5,000 homes, causing hundreds of mud-constructed buildings to collapse. There was, however, no loss of life reported.

In Budapest, two hotels were renamed, the Britannia becoming the Beke, or Peace, and the Imperial becoming the Szabadsag, or Freedom.

In North Carolina, former Senator Robert Rice Reynolds called on his two opponents in the May 27 special Senatorial primary, Senator Frank Graham and Willis Smith, to agree to the outcome regardless of whether any of the three received a majority vote.

The Charlotte PTA leader endorsed Senator Graham via WSOC radio in Charlotte, saying he had done much for the schools, libraries, and medical care in the state.

The Twin City Sentinel in Winston-Salem had queried the fourteen members of the President's Civil Rights Commission of 1947, of which Mr. Graham had been a member, and the majority of them agreed that Senator Graham had opposed a compulsory FEPC. Mr. Smith, however, contended in Greensboro the previous night that Mr. Graham had supported the compulsory FEPC and claimed that there had not been a minority report at all. (There was included, starting at the bottom of page 166 extending through the first paragraph of 167, a statement of a minority position that segregation should be eliminated but without imposition of Federal sanctions. It did not indicate a minority position on FEPC, however, but did regarding enactment of state legislation for education, prohibiting discrimination in admission and treatment of students.) Mr. Smith also criticized Jonathan Daniels for changing his position in Chicago earlier in the week to opposition to a compulsory FEPC.

It should be noted that the compulsory FEPC bill was presently that which was being filibustered by twenty Southern Senators, not including Senator Graham, but its doom in the Senate had been foreshadowed, and even if it passed, the House had already defeated such a measure earlier and passed only an advisory FEPC bill which provided for study of problems in employment. So to get a compulsory FEPC bill at this juncture was thought not possible. Mr. Smith was against the concept on principle, not just for lack of possibility of passage.

The 1950 census showed that Winston-Salem, aiming for 100,000 in population, had reached only 87,226, a ten percent increase over the 79,815 of 1940. Another 56,000 were expected to be recorded from Forsyth County, exclusive of the city, a twenty percent increase over the 46,660 of 1940. The county's largest growth was in the immediate suburbs of the city, where most of the new houses were located, with a fifteen percent rise in units since 1940 and an average of 3.5 persons living in each unit, whereas 3.75 had been the average a decade earlier, against a national average of 3.2.

You need to get rid of a third of a person to make things more comfortable. Have a lobotomy performed on one.

Ralph Gibson of The News reports of a family argument resulting in two people being killed and one hurt by a shotgun blast the previous night in a murder-suicide in Charlotte.

They could have used some family counseling to resolve their differences, if not a lobotomy.

Bob Sain of The News, as further discussed below, again tells of the pre-frontal lobotomy and the enthusiastic response it had received at the State Hospital at Morganton and Camp Butner. The doctors who had performed over a hundred said the complications resulting from the surgery were outweighed by the benefits. He explains the relatively simple icepick, transorbital surgical technique as compared to the more complicated scalpel procedure in use for the pre-frontal surgery, both seeking the same end, to sever the frontal lobes from the rest of the brain.

Have they got any procedure for enabling your typing fingers flawlessly to follow your mind?

Dollar Day in Charlotte was set to draw thousands of shoppers to the city for bargains. Get there early. Maybe you can get a cheap pre-frontal. Bring your own icepick. Leave the shotguns at home.

On the editorial page, "The Doctors Disagree Again" tells of Dr. Walter Freeman of Georgetown University, one the most enthusiastic supporters of the pre-frontal lobotomy, having just announced to the American Psychiatric Association that he was giving up the operation save in the case of disturbed children who might otherwise destroy themselves, as its results had done more harm to the patients than produced salubrity, especially in the triggering of epileptic seizures.

The North Carolina doctors at Duke Hospital and Camp Butner, whom Bob Sain of The News had interviewed, still stood by the procedure with selected patients, and expressed surprise at Dr. Freeman's reversal of approval. They believed more than merely disturbed children could be helped by the surgery. A fourth of those on whom the lobotomies had been performed had been sent home from the mental facilities as either recovered or greatly improved. Others were expected to show progress soon. The entire staff at Camp Butner was enthusiastic about the procedure, feeling they could at last do more than merely make the mentally ill comfortable.

As with cortisone and ACTH, the medical men therefore were in disagreement over the merits of the pre-frontal lobotomy, and so, it concludes, families of patients who might benefit from the surgery were anxious to obtain complete data on it and, in the meantime, it regards the burden of proof to rest with Dr. Freeman and others who had found the procedure too risky.

"By-Product of the Machine Age" tells of the railroad strike of the firemen having ended while the basic issue still remained regarding how to provide for workers who would lose their jobs because of new machines, as in the case of the diesel locomotive displacing the need for firemen. It urges better planning henceforth, before the new machines were in place, to cushion the blow. The Government could use its research and analysis services to aid in this displacement management. But most of the work had to be done by management and labor, working together to help the displaced workers to be trained for new employment.

"...But Winter Lingering" tells of Prentiss-Hall's weekly "What's Happening in Washington" reporting that May was a dangerous month in the postwar period and that if the U.S. could weather it, everyone, including the President, would breathe easier and feel that the country had narrowly averted a shooting war.

It cited the danger in Berlin, where the "Free German Youth" of the Eastern zone were invading the Western zone at Whitsuntide and Western troops having been ordered to shoot them if necessary to break the march.

In addition, the Russians were again agitating in Azerbaijan in northern Iran, Red troops were training for landing operations on several small islands in the Baltic, the U.S. might grant control of Zone B of Trieste to Yugoslavia, thereby displeasing both the Russians and Italians, and in Korea, Communists in the North would take over if the tottering Republican Government in the South were to fall.

On top of those troubled spots, in the Dardanelles, military moves by the Russians might come against Turkey to control the pathway into the Mediterranean.

It concludes: "Ah, May! Month of flowers, month of birdsong—once upon a time."

A piece from the Washington Post, titled "Presidential Advisers", tells of the appointment of Leon Keyserling as chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers to replace Dr. Edwin Nourse to be that of a yes-man in place of someone who had objectively advised the President on economic matters.

Drew Pearson tells of High Commissioner of the U.S. occupation zone in Germany, John J. McCloy, having cabled the State Department that the Communists were having second thoughts about seizing Berlin after their May Day demonstrations and were backing down. Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky had called East German Communists to Moscow and told them to abandon plans for the invasion as the Americans were prepared for them. He blamed the German Communists for blabbing about the plans too much, taking away the element of surprise.

A Missouri grain company had leased a section of Camp Chowder, Mo., from the Government for $5,500 and then, effectively, leased the same property back to the Government for $204,000, all within the same week. He explains.

During a House hearing, Ohio Congressman Clarence Brown had become upset at an Air Force Captain, A. M. Puncsak, for being impudent in challenging Mr. Brown's finding that private grocers were properly complaining about the Wright-Patterson Air Base commissary harming their business. Mr. Brown then lectured Captain Puncsak's superiors after the captain had left the hearing, saying that he ought to be court-martialed, then went into a rage about military officers in general, adding that he was not trying to intimidate them, to which one of the officers replied that he saw no other way to interpret the statements, causing Mr. Brown to blow up again, in language which Mr. Pearson deems unrepeatable.

He may have even called them car-wheelers.

Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan had come up with a new plan for agriculture, whereby farmers would build up an insurance fund in prosperous years, which they could then draw on in lean years, designed to cut Government subsidies. A similar plan was drawing increased Congressional support, but would probably not be the same plan to be recommended by Secretary Brannan.

Stewart Alsop tells of the two sides of Senator Robert Taft's positions on various matters, one determined by his rational mind, which he describes as Robert, and the other, determined by his political mind, which he dubs by his middle name, Alphonso. He then proceeds to relate a mythical conversation between Robert and Alphonso on these topics, including the effect of Senator McCarthy's campaign against Communists in the Government, the continued necessity of ERP but for its cost, the importance of NATO versus its cost, and the danger of the defense cuts while needing economy. In each case Robert took the Administration stance, more or less, while Alphonso took the politically expedient course in the opposite direction. And Alphonso always won out over Robert.

Marquis Childs, in Chicago for the President's speech two nights earlier to the assembled Democrats, tells of the Republicans being upset that the gathering was being partially financed as a "non-political" event by the Chicago Host Committee, comprised of Democrats and Republicans. The event appeared to be a bargain for the Democrats, as it got out the crowd, gave them entertainment, advertised the triumphs of the party with the Democratic Governors present, all for only $50,000 from the Democratic coffers toward the total estimated cost of $250,000, the rest picked up by the Committee.

The President's week-long train trip across the country had appeared, according to those who went along, to be a success, as crowds had turned out in large numbers and appeared enthusiastic. The people around the President believed that Senator Joseph McCarthy's charges had not hurt the President, personally, even if he may have hurt Secretary of State Acheson's stature as well as Democratic members of Congress running for re-election.

The question of whether the President's homely, simple touch could help Democrats in the fall remained unanswered. His real purpose had been to obtain support for his program in the ensuing two years and whether that had been accomplished also remained a question mark.

A letter writer from Huntersville, commenting on the May 5 editorial endorsing Willis Smith in the special Senate primary race against incumbent Senator Frank Graham and former Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, expresses dismay at the endorsement, finds that his "editorial god" had "feet of clay". He finds Senator Graham's priceless knowledge of history, government and political science to equip him well for the post and that North Carolinians could thus not afford to deny its use to the nation in such critical times.

A letter writer finds that former Senator Reynolds was the man for the job as he had gotten jobs for people of the state back in 1933 during the Depression when he first went to the Senate.

That Man done ended the Depression on his own. Never mind that he helped to start the war by being an isolationist idiot who endorsed Hitler and was decorated by him in Berlin, and had his Vindicators, just like Charles Lindbergh and the America Firsters. Had the war gone differently, Bob was going to be regional Reichsfuehrer in charge of immigration and resettlement.

A letter writer subscribes entirely to a letter from a previous writer in Pinehurst.

A pome from the Atlanta Journal appears, "In Which A Comment Is Made On The Conduct Of Young Men Standing On Street Corners:

"No one but churls
Whistle at girls."

But when one unfurls
Her flag, there curls
Some smoke from the fags.

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