The Charlotte News
Tuesday, June 6, 1950
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Senator Joseph McCarthy told the Senate in a speech on the floor that an FBI chart prepared in May, 1947 listed at least three persons still employed in high positions in the State Department as Communist agents, out of the 124 agents, Communists, and sympathizers listed three years earlier. He said that he knew the names of the three persons in question and that they were among the 81 names he had provided to the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee investigating his charges. He wanted the subcommittee to find out why 18 of those on the list had been allowed to resign as opposed to being fired and urged that it find out where they were presently employed.
Senator Irving Ives of New York charged that the Tydings subcommittee was attempting to whitewash the State Department. Senator Ives wanted Republicans to take positive action toward giving the McCarthy charges a "fresh start".
If at first you don't succeed in getting the Nut's claims to rise above the level of a laughing stock, try, try again.
In Tokyo, General MacArthur, reacting to attacks by Communists on American soldiers, ordered 24 of the top Communist leaders in the country purged. The Japanese Government quickly followed his command, barring the 24 persons from politics, including writing on politics, and forcing seven to abandon seats in the Diet, costing the party its most effective leaders. Japanese Communists had been active of late in protesting continued American occupation of Japan. The ruling Liberal Party in Japan, which had retained power in the Sunday elections, had already announced its intention to outlaw the Communist Party.
Wouldn't you have loved, as some Republicans had urged in the run-up to the 1948 race, to have had General MacArthur as your President? We are not asking you, Trumpette. We know the answer.
Some Southern political leaders, as Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia and Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, reacted indignantly to the Supreme Court trio of rulings on segregation the previous day, Henderson v. U.S., banning segregation of railway dining car facilities on the basis of the Interstate Commerce Act, Sweatt v. Painter, ordering admission of a qualified black student to the University of Texas Law School for want of a separate-but-equal black law school in the state, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma, holding that segregated seating in class, dining and library facilities for a black doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma was violative of Equal Protection.
Governor Talmadge said that as long as he was Governor, blacks would not be admitted to white schools of the state. Governor Thurmond attributed the rulings to the campaign by the President and his "cohorts" to destroy states' rights in the country.
Dr. T. S. Painter, president of the University of Texas, named as the defendant in the Sweatt case, said that Herman Marion Sweatt, the plaintiff, would be admitted to the Law School according to the Court's order, subject only to the interpretation of it by State Attorney General Price Daniel.
Dr. George Cross, president of the University of Oklahoma, said that the McLaurin ruling apparently knocked out all segregation in the University's graduate schools, but added that he did not think it would result in a great influx of black graduate students.
The editorial staff of the Atlanta World, a black newspaper, was jubilant at the results.
The Atlanta Constitution editorialized that the Sweatt decision was not unexpected and ought serve as warning to Georgia and other Southern states that educational facilities had to be truly equal to pass muster under the separate-but-equal doctrine enunciated in 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson.
Georgia's superintendent of schools estimated that it would take 100 million dollars to raise black schools to the level of white schools in the state.
Four suits were pending on segregation in North Carolina, one of which would integrate UNC, while the other three related to inequalities in public school systems. Four suits were also pending in Louisiana, impacting public schools. In Florida, six suits had been filed to force admission of black students to the University of Florida professional and graduate programs, for which they qualified but for race. Two suits involving public schools were also pending in Georgia.
The piece notes that no Southern state had a black medical school and no Southern black college or university could award a doctorate degree.
Future Selective Service questionnaires would no longer ask registrants of their race, thanks to a protest raised against it by Congressman Arthur Klein of New York.
The House Ways & Means Committee voted to retain a 20 percent excise tax on light bulbs, reversing an earlier recommendation to cut it in half. It approved the other billion dollars worth of proposed excise tax cuts. It rejected an Administration proposal to place a ten percent levy on television sets, which would have yielded 45 million dollars in new revenue.
In California and Iowa, the Republican and Democratic primaries were taking place. In California, where cross-filing was permitted, two-term Governor Earl Warren faced James Roosevelt, son of FDR, in both the Republican and Democratic gubernatorial primaries. In 1946, Governor Warren had won both primaries. Democratic registration outnumbered Republican registration in 1950, however, unlike in 1946. Newspaper publisher Manchester Boddy and Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas were pitted against one another in the Democratic Senate primary, while Congressman Richard Nixon was unopposed for the Republican nomination.
In Iowa, Senator Bourke Hickenlooper enjoyed a large early lead over two opponents in the Republican primary for re-nomination.
A twin-engine plane with 65 persons aboard, at least 37 of whom had already been rescued, had crashed this date in the Atlantic, 275 miles east, northeast of Miami. The survivors, including the pilot and co-pilot and one other crew member, were picked up by a Navy ship from thirteen life rafts and none of them were wearing life jackets. At least five of the remaining 28 persons were confirmed as dead, leaving 23 still missing but regarded as unlikely to have survived.
Near St. John's Newfoundland, a forest fire which threatened the town and burned twelve square miles of timberland, was reported under control.
In Danville, Pa., a man had his wallet returned after he had lost it eight months earlier, dropping it into a crate which was then shipped overseas and discovered in Southampton, England, by the recipient firm of the crate, who then returned it. The wallet contained a dollar and some papers.
In Cowpens, S.C., the former convict
and his red-haired, scar-faced wife, previously reported to be the third captured desperado's wife, said the previous day to be wearing a wig, were
captured this date in the home of an acquaintance after five days on
the lam following commandeering at gunpoint by the three of a Highway
Patrol car in Tennessee
He was looking the other way and driving a separate vehicle.
Give them their banjo tune
In Rockingham, N.C., 50 loomfixers struck at the Aleo Manufacturing Co., idling about 750 workers. The dispute arose over discharge of two loomfixers on unstated matters.
Winston-Salem's committee supporting the goal of reaching 100,000 population wanted a recount of the recently conducted census, which placed the population at just over 87,000. They said that they had evidence that there were more people in the community, based on recounts they had performed in certain areas of the city.
Hold your horses. You will get there soon enough. We shall help you out in about eight years.
Incidentally, speaking of Winston-Salem neighborhoods, we recommend to Senator Harris of California that the next time Senator Burr of North Carolina seeks to bully you during a hearing into suspending your questioning of a witness, you turn to him and say: "Look here, Senator Moonman of Buena Vista, (pronounced "Beauna"), I know you come from some back wood where they get their words and letters all tangled up a mite, but I am not part of your Social Club, boy, and so I shall continue to question this witness until hell freezes over if I so choose, and have someone come up in here and provide you a noogie
In Raleigh, Willis Smith would announce before the end of the day that he would seek a runoff against Senator Frank Graham, to whom he had lost by 53,400 votes on May 27 in the Democratic Senate primary, Senator Graham having failed by about 5,000 votes to achieve a majority of the 618,000 votes cast in the record-breaking primary turnout for the state. The third major entrant, former Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, had polled around 59,000 votes and a fourth candidate received about 6,000 votes. The runoff would occur June 24.
On page 1-H of The News, 1949
Soap Box Derby winner Max Evans begins a series this date on the
approaching Derby of June 21 in Charlotte. Get your racers ready
As shown in a picture, actress Susan Hayward shows a local farmer in the North Georgia Blue Ridge Mountains, where she was filming a picture, how to enunciate "pear-shaped" tones for his speaking role in the movie.
You don't want to miss that
On the editorial page, "Strange Note of Harmony" finds the head of the Textile Workers of America in accord with the Textile Information Service of Atlanta, the latter a management organization, as to the plans to lower tariffs to stimulate foreign trade to alleviate the dollar shortage abroad. Both were against it as being inimical to the textile industry and its workers.
Normally, their concurrence would produce enough opposition to kill a move to lower tariffs, but in this case, the international implications were likely to override the opposition. Tariffs were a form of indirect subsidy, causing prices to consumers to remain artificially higher to protect wages and profits of domestic industries.
Every industry to be affected by the lowering of tariffs could present figures to show how it would be disastrously impacted. But the only alternative was to provide vast amounts to the same foreign nations in need of American dollars by providing direct aid and loans. It concludes that it was "better to get at the cause of the malady than to continue giving transfusions."
"Davidson Does It" tells of the 2.5 million dollar Davidson College development program, the first public fund-raising campaign of the College, having reached its goal the previous day. Had tuition been raised to cover the cost of needed new facilities on the campus, a new gym, church, student center, dorm, and liberal arts quadrangle, attendance would have been limited to students from wealthy families. As it was, its tuition was modest, if slightly above State-supported schools.
"Introducing Dan Dowling" introduces the new cartoonist to the editorial page, whose first entry appears this date, complementing, not replacing, Herblock, the two providing different takes on issues, Mr. Dowling being more moderate and tolerant of human foibles than Herblock.
It provides as example the cartoon on the page, in which Mr. Dowling shows Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, critic of Senator McCarthy's smear tactics, urging the Democrats and Republicans, locking horns in dispute in the middle of a baseball diamond amid "disunity", "confusion" and "smears", to "play ball". Herblock had been relentlessly critical of Senator McCarthy, openly loathing his tactics, as exampled by a cartoon within the editorial showing Senator Smith ordering "McCarthyism", personified by a sheepishly shamed, dirt-ridden GOP elephant, upstairs to wash its hands.
It does not mention what would happen with the alternating Vaughn Shoemaker cartoons, present on the page about half the time since September 5, 1947, but presumably they were to be cut in favor of Mr. Dowling's offerings.
Jane McMaster of Editor & Publisher writes the prior summer of Mr. Dowling, 42, native of Harlan, Iowa, the staff cartoonist for the New York Herald Tribune, replacing the retired "Ding" Darling in that role and as chief of the Tribune Syndicate when the latter retired in April, 1949. Mr. Dowling had previously worked until that April at the Omaha World-Herald.
He produced five cartoons per week, regarding them as an "exam every day". He had been drawing cartoons professionally since age 13, when he began working for a college yearbook at $10 per cartoon. He attended college at U.C.-Berkeley and at the time drew some cartoons for the Oakland Tribune. After college, he joined the World-Herald.
He spent about nine hours on each cartoon, six of which were absorbed in conceptualizing what he wanted to draw, reading newspapers for ideas.
Once he had been threatened with elimination for his cartoons attacking FDR, to which he had asked, "What weapon?" He had received the greatest post-election response in 1948 for his cartoon showing President Truman walking from a concert stage underneath the caption, "And They All Laughed When I Sat Down to Play." Most of the response was positive.
His cartoons about the "welfare state" resulted in critical letters. He also received an occasional cartoon idea from letter writers, some indicating willingness to part with it for a price.
He said that the caricatures in political cartoons representing Uncle Sam, the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant had not changed in 50 years and would likely continue for the foreseeable future. He also observed that the average reader did not want to have to labor with much thought about a cartoon, that its meaning needed to be obvious at a glance, with adequate labeling. They also preferred humorous cartoons to the more serious variety.
A piece from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, titled "Prestige Lost", finds new chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Leon Keyserling, to be acting as no more than a cheerleader for the Administration's economic policies when he appeared the previous month at the Chicago rally climaxing the President's cross-country tour. He and the other two members of the Council were supposed to be objective economic policy advisers to the President. It concludes that whatever prestige the Council had, Mr. Keyserling had thrown away.
Drew Pearson tells of Congressman Graham Barden of North Carolina, having acceded to the chairmanship of the House Labor and Education Committee following the death of John Lesinski of Michigan, likely to push through the Committee his aid to education bill, without aid to parochial schools, a bill pigeonholed by Mr. Lesinski. It was doubtful, however, that the bill would pass on the floor. Mr. Barden had run into severe criticism from Francis Cardinal Spellman the prior year for his insistence on abiding strictly by the principle of separation of church and state and not including aid to parochial schools.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pearson points out, many of the nation's school districts were in need of Federal funding, either for correction of dilapidated facilities, overcrowding or both, as in San Antonio, Midwest City, Okla., and Northern Virginia, where attendance by two or three shifts of students per day was necessary to accommodate overcrowding.
Despite Senator Brien McMahon, chairman of the Joint Atomic Energy Committee, being one of the staunchest defenders of both the State Department generally and Secretary of State Acheson, the two, both from Connecticut, did not care for one another personally.
He notes that Senator McMahon was torn between two advisers, Arthur Krock of The New York Times and liberal columnist, Marquis Childs, the latter of whom was willing to claim credit every time Senator McMahon leaned liberal.
Robert Denham, general counsel of the NLRB, had refused in every case to abide by the usual practice of signing briefs in the Court of Appeals where the unions were plaintiff, while doing so routinely when the companies brought the complaint. Mr. Pearson thus finds it no wonder that the unions were anxious to abolish the position or force his resignation.
Insiders believed that the President's intervention in the Missouri Senate race, favoring State Senator Emory Allison, would backfire, as had the President's attempt, with the aid of James Pendergast, to purge Congressman Roger Slaughter in 1946, leading to the election of the eventual Republican nominee. It turned out, however, that Mr. Allison was against most of the Truman program, such as opposing equal education for black students, subjecting road construction to politics, and other things. Former Congressman Tom Hennings, in consequence, was appearing to emerge as the likely Democratic nominee—and so it would be, Mr. Hennings then going on to win the fall race.
He notes that insiders said that it was not the President but James Pendergast, heir to his uncle Tom's machine, who had picked Mr. Allison.
Joseph Alsop, in Paris, tells of Secretary of State Acheson having told the NATO foreign ministers at the London conference in May that the Soviet Union would, by 1953 or 1954, reach its climax of rearmament, requiring that to be the target date for rearmament of Western Europe, an estimate accepted by the foreign ministers.
It had also been suddenly realized that the West was weak before Russia's military build-up, that since early 1947, a lot of planning had been undertaken and secret papers prepared among the Western nations, but not much armament built up. The U.S. and Britain each had two divisions in Europe and the Belgians had one. But France had its army tied down in Indo-China. There were no other combat-worthy troops in Western Europe, as estimates for the necessary defensive force varied between thirty and forty divisions.
In addition, bases were needed, a radar net had to be established, and the defense to the advanced Russian submarines had to be developed, along with additional air power, anti-aircraft weapons and the new guided missile technology.
That program was entirely to be defensive and pacific, not designed to be offensive, which would require about five times the level of armament. The cost would be great but not unbearable, requiring additional outlays of one to five billion dollars per year to be borne by all of the NATO nations. If the program were accomplished, then the threat from Russia would be dissipated. If not, the danger would be high that a third world war would occur.
He stresses that there was still time to make the choice, as Stanley Baldwin had time still in 1935; but having made the wrong decision then, that of ignoring German and Italian build-up, the war resulted. If the same poor choice were made this time, he warns, the West could not survive, and did not deserve to do so.
Robert C. Ruark grieves for the father of recently arrested Harry Gold, alleged to be an accomplice of Dr. Klaus Fuchs, the British scientist who had admitted giving atomic secrets to the Russians between 1944 and 1947. Samuel Gold, the father, had died since the arrest of his son, heart broken that his son had betrayed the country to which the father had come as an immigrant from Russia, developing a strong pride in having achieved citizenship.
Mr. Ruark finds such behavior of the younger Gold to be treason worthy of death, and a breach of faith with the country which gave the individual opportunity and freedom to think and speak out against one's government. It was a country, he finds, taken for granted by those who were born in it, but not by those who had to escape foreign despotism to get to it and establish a new life, free from the terror of thought police who came in the middle of the night and locked up the person who dared dissent or express defiance to the ruling party's will.
He finds it not a bad country in which to live, "even under the Truman Administration".
He concludes that the kind of treachery of which Harry Gold stood accused was a "tragedy of misdirected zeal and mental arrogance", capable of wrecking the entire nation. And so he grieves for Mr. Gold's father, as he did for Judy Coplon's father, who had also died in the midst of her two trials for taking Justice Department documents from her job and intending to pass them to a Soviet spy.
Framed Edition
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