The Charlotte News

Saturday, May 20, 1950

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Armed Forces Day heard speakers urging preparedness by the country against possible Russian aggression. The President and Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson both spoke for extension of the draft law, a universal training program, and preparedness generally. The President said that universal military training, had it been passed as proposed in 1945, would have averted the cold war.

American diplomats in Europe suggested that the outcome of the NATO conference of foreign ministers in London earlier in the week had indicated that the West believed it could only survive by arming to the teeth.

With the FEPC bill appearing dead, as the necessary 33 votes or abstentions to block cloture of a filibuster appeared certain, Majority Leader Scott Lucas continued nevertheless to insist that a second test was forthcoming to try to break the filibuster led by Senator Richard Russell of Georgia and joined by 19 other Southern Democrats. The Administration appeared primed to use the defeat in the fall Congressional elections, as Republicans had supplied the necessary abstentions plus six no votes to defeat cloture. Senator Robert Taft, who had voted for cloture, though against the compulsory FEPC bill, predicted failure of the measure—not bothering to disclose that he made, according to Drew Pearson the previous day, a deal with Senator Russell to supply the necessary Republican votes to defeat cloture, in exchange for Southern votes to supply the legislative veto of the President's reorganization plan for NLRB which would have abolished the office of general counsel, established under Taft-Hartley, responsible for selecting the cases to come before the Board.

Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon easily won the Republican primary against conservative opposition. A Republican win was tantamount to victory in the fall in the one-party state.

In South Amboy, N.J., an ammunition explosion the previous evening rocked the city and was heard in three states, leaving as many as 26 persons dead and at least 312 injured. Among the missing were three sons of the president of the firm which was loading the ammunition onto barges when the explosion occurred.

The force of the explosion felt in nearby homes was so great that many residents thought an atom bomb had fallen and the country was at war.

A twenty-year old girl returned home after being missing overnight following the explosion, but two children accompanying her were still missing. The three had gone to observe the aftermath of the blast.

In one house which had its windows blown out, a frightened young dog jumped through an opening and was gone all night, until it was located 500 yards away by its owner following an all-night search.

Frightened... That dog was out having a blast.

A list of twelve internationally occurring large explosions taking lives since 1916 is provided, including the 1944 Port Chicago, California, explosion, which killed 322, and the 1947 Texas City, Tex., explosion, which killed 468. The largest death toll among them was 1,600 in 1917 at Halifax, N.S., when a munitions ship collided with a relief ship during World War I.

In greater Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Red River dropped half an inch and bright sunshine raised hopes that its flood crest had reached its height. Officials feared further breaks in the dikes which would permit more water to flow into the already water-logged city.

In El Paso, Tex., Marion Hargrove, formerly of The News and famous for his best-seller, See Here, Private Hargrove, was being sued for divorce by his wife on grounds of incompatibility. Mr. Hargrove was also a Hollywood script writer.

In Raleigh, columnist Lynn Nisbet stuck by his story reported the previous day that the personal secretary of Governor Kerr Scott and the former State ABC chairman had solicited contributions to the campaign of Senator Frank Graham from distillers in Philadelphia and New York, despite denials of the claims by both men. Mr. Nisbet said that the story, before release, had been confirmed by a Philadelphia distiller whose name could not be released, as well as by a county ABC Board chairman who claimed to be present when the New York solicitation was made.

Tom Fesperman of The News tells of Governor Scott and a few friends having spent a wonderful morning at the Selwyn Hotel in Charlotte, finding that Senator Graham would easily win the primary the following Saturday. They determined that he should receive about 232,500 votes to 142,500 for Willis Smith and 50,500 for former Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, giving Senator Graham a majority. The prediction came after an hour of running various figures from across the state. The Governor said that his prediction on votes two years earlier in his gubernatorial primary against State Treasurer Charles Johnson had been almost exactly accurate.

A News straw poll showed Mr. Smith winning 59 percent to 31 percent for Senator Graham and ten percent for Mr. Reynolds, based on early returns of 89 ballots of 750 postcards sent to persons randomly selected from the city directory, regardless of whether they were registered to vote. Similar results had occurred in a straw poll at Davidson College, with Mr. Smith receiving 107 votes, Senator Graham, 70 votes, and Mr. Reynolds, 10 votes.

On the editorial page, "The Dulles and Baruch Warnings" tells of Bernard Baruch and John Foster Dulles both warning that the nation's defenses, contrary to the assertion of the President, were not sufficient to ward off a surprise attack by the Russians. Mr. Baruch favored a mobilization plan which could be implemented forthwith in an emergency, along with granting emergency war powers to the President. He cautioned that after five years since the end of the war, there was still no global strategy for winning the peace.

The piece finds that a bipartisan foreign policy with a single national planning staff and better organization at the international level would supply the necessary foundation for a solid defense program.

Mr. Dulles, it concludes, was no alarmist, and so when he said that the country was not prepared for the contingency of war, it was likely the case.

"The Rights of a Worker" suggests that if the NLRB acted vigorously to enforce Taft-Hartley against the UMW and the coal company for firing an employee and knocking him out as union local president for seeking to obey the back-to-work order of the Federal Court, it would establish a good precedent for equal enforcement of the law against the unions as well as against management, the reason for Taft-Hartley.

"A Weak Platform Plank" differs with the statement of Willis Smith that Senator Graham had subscribed to the FEPC section of the Civil Rights Committee Report of 1947 without ever having read it.

Just a few days earlier, Pete Ivey of the Twin City Sentinel in Winston Salem had reported that letters from six of ten responding Committee members attested to Senator Graham having not favored a compulsory FEPC with sanctions attached or abolition of segregation where it existed.

It suggests to Mr. Smith that he had plenty of good planks on which to stand without relying on such a weak one.

"Springtime in Charleston" finds surprise in the staid Charleston News & Courier presenting a large picture on its editorial page of an exceptionally photogenic young woman, whose picture it compares to "finding on a high mountain in Springtime a wild flower growing out of the snow."

Why don't you just send her a love letter and woo on your own time? You're hard up for filling space today, aren't ye?

Drew Pearson tells of interest surrounding the income tax case of Vaughan Cannon of Buncombe County, N.C., a reputed slot-machine king. The center of the state's thriving gambling business was in Asheville and Mr. Cannon had friends in both Raleigh and Washington looking the other way from his illegal enterprise. Over a year earlier, the Federal Government had placed a tax lien of 1.4 million dollars on his North Carolina property and recommended that he be prosecuted for fraud, but nothing had happened. House Ways & Means Committee chairman Robert Doughton of North Carolina was reported to have been helpful in the delay, but Mr. Pearson did not believe the report and Mr. Doughton had denied even knowing about the matter. His only connection appeared to be that he was a director of the Northwestern Bank, which had loaned Mr. Cannon up to $60,000 for the purchase of "music machines". Lamar Caudle of the Justice Department, also from North Carolina, was also getting blamed for the delay but that also appeared to be a false rumor, as the case was still in the hands of the Treasury Department.

Mr. Cannon had received a suspended sentence and a fine from the Asheville Superior Court for his illegal gambling operations. He was nevertheless able still to operate through the cooperation of the Asheville police. A police court judge in Asheville was also a registered agent for Mr. Cannon's property. The Asheville jailer, a policeman, was likewise on the payroll as a building supervisor.

Congressman Robert Rich of Pennsylvania was giving an impassioned speech before the House recently, warning of the dangers of deficit spending inuring to the detriment of the children and grandchildren of the present generation, including, specifically, those of Speaker Sam Rayburn and former Speaker Joe Martin. He had overlooked the fact that both of the latter were bachelors, without children.

Senator Joseph McCarthy had recently received a letter from a man in Ohio who said he had been shopping in Sears recently and picked up a hammer and sickle at one time, before realizing their symbolic significance, quickly put them down for fear someone might think him a Communist.

In North Carolina, you could buy those in certain places without suffering any negative social sanction. Just don't try to buy a hammer and cycle at the same time.

Recently, incidentally, we broke a half-inch Sears breaker bar trying to tighten a front axis nut on the hybrid, a first in forty years of using that tool to break and tighten down nuts of all sorts and torques, including several crank nuts and other axis nuts. We took it to Sears and they replaced it forthwith, with one of the same model number, right out of the bin, free of charge—identical. You can't go wrong with Sears. It's stamped right into the handle, "Lifetime Guarantee". It does not say what happens though should you blow your mind while breaking the breaker bar. Is the warranty valid posthumously to one's heirs and assigns?

The new tax bill coming out of the House Ways & Means Committee had cut excise taxes by a billion dollars and raised new revenue only by about 650 million, the reverse of the President's recommendations. They would likely claim that collecting back taxes would add to that revenue, but such represented only one-time collection of a bad debt, not new revenue.

Marquis Childs discusses the rift in the Democratic Party between the Northern and Southern branches, comparing it to a troubled marriage in which the wife, the South, was always confident of wooing back her straying husband, the North.

The current fight over the FEPC was but one problem. Others included the fight to cut the tax on economy brand cigarettes versus normally priced cigarettes, to eliminate the virtual monopoly of the big tobacco companies, as economy brands, taxed at the same rate, could sell for only three cents less per pack. The Treasury Department had initially approved of the cut, but pressure from House Ways & Means Committee chairman Robert Doughton of North Carolina along with the big tobacco interests had caused a second Treasury report to issue which estimated lost revenue from the tax cut at 90 million dollars. But this report had been based on sales in late 1932 at the bottom of the Depression when economy-brand sales had soared to 23 percent of the market.

Another area of dispute was oil and natural gas. The President had vetoed the Kerr bill to deregulate the natural gas industry, causing deep resentment among Southerners in Congress.

The President's suggestion that the tax deduction of 27 percent for oil depletion allowance be examined for possible revision had oil producers worried. Speaker Sam Rayburn had assured them, however, that they had nothing about which to worry.

He concludes that the power of the South lay not just in bloc filibusters but also in backstage maneuvering on economic issues.

Robert C. Ruark tells of Life having devoted a million dollars and two years out of the life of a senior staffer to collect and present the memoirs of the Duke of Windsor, who had given up the throne in 1936 to marry a commoner, a twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson. In a world where Kinsey had killed Cupid, where movie stars had children out of wedlock, where wars occurred routinely, and sex crimes were rampant, to devote such attention to love appeared out of place and likely to be hooted down.

Mr. Ruark had gotten to know the Duke a little and found him a "nice bloke". As Edward, Prince of Wales, he had become "every girls' vicarious Big Deal". After he became King, he fell in love and announced his plans to marry Ms. Simpson, to the shock and horror of the Royal Household and Parliament. He agreed to abdicate the throne to do so. Since that time, the Duke and Duchess had lived in semi-exile from England. Intimates reported that they had become more interdependent on one another as time had passed.

He concludes that they were wonderful and that the story was worth a million dollars, that one could not underestimate the durability of love.

Tom Schlesinger of The News, in his weekly "Capital Roundup", tells of Senator Frank Graham's candidacy being backed by seven or more of the North Carolina Congressional delegation, whom he names, plus Senator Clyde Hoey, even if none had declared their support openly. Only one member was definitely for Willis Smith. Moreover, of 21 other Southern Senators polled, only two opposed Senator Graham and fourteen supported him.

Senator Lister Hill explained Senator Graham's absence from the FEPC meeting by the fact that he was in North Carolina campaigning, expressed assurance that Senator Graham opposed the bill.

Mr. Schlesinger suggests that Capus Waynick's appointment as the temporary administrator of the President's "Point Four" program would not hurt his North Carolina gubernatorial ambitions for 1952.

Representative Alfred Bulwinkle of North Carolina was confined to a wheelchair and could scarcely move his head, was proud of the new $4,200 Chrysler constituents had presented to him.

Senator Hoey was largely pleased with the Social Security bill reported out of committee during the week.

Senator Graham was sidelined until after the May 27 primary with an illness.

Some speculated as to what would have occurred with Senator McCarthy's charges had the investigation been handled, as it almost was, by Senator Hoey's Investigating subcommittee, which had handled the "five percenter" investigation the previous year. Senator Millard Tydings had volunteered his Foreign Relations subcommittee at the last moment, as Senator Hoey preferred not to have his subcommittee involved. Senator Hoey favored the grand jury style of investigation, conducted in camera until sufficient evidence is adduced for a public proceeding.

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