The Charlotte News

Thursday, May 22, 1952

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that General Matthew Ridgway told Congress this date that Communist charges of use by the U.N. forces of germ and gas warfare in Korea were "false in their entirety"and provided a "monumental warning", comparing it to a forest fire bearing down on a wooden village. The implication was, similar to the suggestion made by Defense Secretary Robert Lovett, that the Communists intended to commit these war crimes themselves. The General said that the protracted armistice negotiations had not been a failure despite the lack of a cease-fire thus far. He said that he approached his new job as supreme commander of NATO in Europe with high confidence. He endorsed as fair and reasonable the three-point proposal made by the U.N. recently to effect an armistice, rejected by the Communists insofar as the voluntary repatriation of prisoners as not allowing for the return of enough prisoners, rejecting the U.N. screening which produced the tally of those prisoners wishing return.

Vice-Admiral C. Turner Joy, in his final statement as chief of the allied truce delegation in Korea, this date rebuked the Communists for using the armistice talks as a "stall to repair your shattered forces". He indicated that there was nothing left to negotiate, that the allies had offered their last proposal for voluntary repatriation, that the decision on the armistice was in the hands of the Communists, and then left the negotiation tent. The Communists demanded a nearly unprecedented afternoon session, which lasted 29 minutes and consisted almost wholly of North Korean General Nam Il replying to what Admiral Joy had indicated during the morning session, in what the U.N. delegation spokesman indicated was "plain drivel". Another session was set for the following day.

Senators demanded more facts from the Pentagon and Korean commanders this date about the handling of the Koje Island prison camp situation, Senator Styles Bridges telling a reporter that testimony received from General Ridgway the previous day in executive session had left many questions unanswered. Both Senators Bridges and Armed Services Committee chairman Senator Richard Russell of Georgia quoted the General as saying that his orders had not been carried out by interim camp commandant, Brig. General Charles Colson, in obtaining the release of Brig. General Francis Dodd two weeks earlier after he had been seized by Communist prisoners at the camp. Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine had indicated to the Senate that a female relative of General Dodd had contended that he had received orders from superiors in the Army to "coddle and appease" the Communist prisoners at the camp. It was believed that some light on what had been occurring at Koje might come from a conference being held this date between Secretary of the Army Frank Pace and Senators Bridges and Lyndon Johnson. General Ridgway later stated to the press that he had directed U.S. forces in Korea to obtain the unconditional release of General Dodd unharmed or that they would then move in with force.

In the air war in Korea, U.S. Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers, in relentless attacks, had smashed this date a huge enemy supply base at Pyongyang and its port Chinnampo in North Korea, with pilots reporting that 117 buildings had been destroyed and 80 more heavily damaged.

In the ground war, U.S. Patton tanks shot up enemy fortifications along a 20-mile sector of the central front the previous day, hitting 250 enemy bunkers and inflicting 35 casualties. The U.S. 40th Division, comprised of the California National Guard, spearheaded the attack.

The President stated this date at his weekly press conference that he was certain of his power to seize industries in an emergency, that he liked all of the candidates who were running for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, and that he believed the Government cleanup would take care of itself under new Attorney General James McGranery. He also said that he did not know whether Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois could be persuaded to seek or accept the nomination. He indicated that neither Congress nor the courts could take away the inherent power belonging to the President to seize vital industries in an emergency, but stated that he would abide by the Supreme Court's ruling in the steel case, and that if it were adverse to his position, he would immediately turn the steel mills back over to the industry and then see what would happen. He added that he did not believe the Court would rule that way. The President appeared to be in good humor.

Senator James Kem of Missouri gave Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan a vigorous tongue-lashing at a Senate hearing this date before the Agriculture Committee, saying that the Secretary had made "irresponsible and utterly unfounded" statements about the Senator, hinting that he might sue the Secretary for libel. He specifically referenced a statement attributed to Mr. Brannan in which he had stated recently that the Senator had voted against nearly everything the farmers needed. The Secretary responded that he had not come to the hearing to engage in a political discussion, but would make the statement again and intended to document it. Senator Kem said that he had voted for the 1948 and 1949 farm acts, which Secretary Brannan indicated he had opposed.

Senators Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and James Murray of Montana responded to the President's statement the previous day, in which he had been quoted as saying that he hoped that the supporters of California Attorney General Pat Brown, opposed to the slate of delegates favoring Senator Estes Kefauver, would win that state's June 3 primary, by saying that they doubted that the President was trying to stop Senator Kefauver's candidacy. Senator Humphrey indicated that it was pretty obvious that Senator Kefauver thrived on the opposition of Democratic Party leaders and that the President was "too smart a politician not to know that." Senator Murray agreed, adding that such a statement by the President would help Senator Kefauver win the support of a lot of people who were against the President. (The President, at his press conference, refused comment on the California delegation, saying it was their business.) Clarence Streit, a member of the Atlantic Union Committee's board of governors, stated that the Nebraska primary, won by Senator Kefauver despite statements by Senator Robert Kerr disparaging Senator Kefauver's advocacy of a federation of nations, for its putative surrender of aspects of U.S. sovereignty over foreign economic and military policy, had proved Senator Kefauver's strength.

Currently, according to the Associated Press tally of delegates, Senator Kefauver led the race with 115, to 92.5 for Ambassador Averell Harriman, with 616 votes necessary to nominate.

Senator Kefauver, campaigning in Santa Barbara, criticized the delegate slate pledged to Mr. Brown, who had said that the 68-vote delegation would, if it won the primary, decide at the convention which candidate to support, the Senator contending that they were asking the voter to "buy a pig in a poke".

Among Republicans, California supporters of General Eisenhower were being urged to vote for Governor Earl Warren's delegate slate, on the premise that he would throw his support to the General at the convention, which would begin July 7 in Chicago.

On page 2-A, another Gallup poll appears, which indicated that if the election were being held at the present time between General Eisenhower and Senator Kefauver, the General would probably be the winner.

In Raleigh, North Carolina Democrats indicated that they expected the national party to recognize "men of the South" as being as capable of providing leadership to the nation as the men of any other section of the country. The statement was contained in the platform adopted by the state Democratic convention this date, dominated by supporters of Senator Russell, with a few backers of Senator Kefauver. The adopted platform also urged Congress to "strive constantly for a balanced budget and relief from burdensome taxation" and praised the "dynamic and forward-looking" administration of Governor Kerr Scott for his programs of rural road development, rural power and telephone extensions, permanent improvements at state institutions and the program of increased and improved facilities in the public schools. The keynote speaker, State Commissioner of Agriculture L. Y. Ballentine, also praised the accomplishments of the national party under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman as having established a record of "sustained economic progress and social advancement in the face of almost insurmountable difficulties." He urged that it was time for Democrats of all sections to accord Southern leaders their "just deserts". He wanted the candidates and platforms of the national party to coincide in general agreement with the "governmental concepts" which had brought the state and the country to the "proud positions" which they now held. He added that the strength of the party was in its breadth.

Rowland Evans, Jr., tells of the three railroad Brotherhoods having reached agreement with management for the first time in three years, bringing the 21-month operation of the roads by the Government soon to an end. The agreement, which was signed at the White House late the previous night, was binding on the rank-and-file, a previous agreement reached in December, 1950, having been rejected by a vote of the memberships of the three unions. The agreement was reached after intensive mediation by Presidential assistant John Steelman, and would raise wages 37 cents per hour for workers in the yards and 22.5 cents for employees on the trains, also link wage increases and decreases to the cost of living, lay the foundation for yardmen to switch from a 48-hour week to a 40-hour week and obtain a four-cent pay increase when the shorter work week would take effect, and provide the unions the right to reject carrier requests to run the same train crew through a divisional terminal point if the two parties could not negotiate their disagreements over such interdivisional runs. The dispute had begun in March, 1949, and the Government had seized the roads in August, 1950 to avert a nationwide strike. The Army, technical operator of the roads, had obtained no-strike court injunctions on two occasions, one of which was still operational. Operation would revert to the railroads probably within about a week.

In Warwick, R.I., a Navy diver, working with the FBI, investigating the $100,000 Quonset Point Naval Air Station robbery, this date salvaged a bagful of money from the Pawtuxet River. Reporters on the scene speculated that it contained the bulk of the stolen funds, though FBI agents withheld comment.

The Army Corps of Engineers stated this date that Dwight Phillips of Charlotte had been selected to build a five million dollar housing project at Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Ga.

In New York, as pictured, actor John Garfield, who had been found dead the previous day in the New York apartment of dancer Iris Whitney, had complained, according to Ms. Whitney, of feeling ill and had stretched out on the bed where she permitted him to spend the night, discovering his body in the morning after he had apparently died of a heart attack.

On the editorial page, "We Wonder about McGranery" indicates that the new Attorney General, who had just been confirmed by the Senate, appeared to be another political hack, but hopes that its fears would be unfounded, despite being based on statements that Judge McGranery, himself, had made and had been documented during the confirmation process. His approach to weeding out corruption appeared flippant, that it would be "as easy as pie".

When he said that he would cooperate with Congress in building a "very happy, healthy country", he appeared to have really meant that he would cooperate with Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada. It reiterates the matter which had been thoroughly explored by Marquis Childs and the Alsops regarding Richardson Dilworth's charges that Mr. McGranery had misappropriated $5,000 in surety money put up by an Irish radical group, Clan Na Gael, to obtain the freedom of one Sean Russell, who, in 1939, had come to the U.S. to assassinate King George and Queen Elizabeth during their visit, but had been intercepted and arrested by the FBI. Mr. Dilworth had sued the Judge successfully in 1948 to obtain return of the money which the Judge had refused to return voluntarily, despite the bond on which the surety was based having been released in 1944. The essential facts of the matter had not been disputed by Judge McGranery during the hearings, but he responded that Mr. Dilworth was a member of the Americans for Democratic Action, enough to provoke the ire of Senator McCarran, who was thereafter dismissive of the testimony of Mr. Dilworth, ensuring the confirmation of Judge McGranery.

It concludes that Senator McCarran had a nearly fanatical desire to control the Justice Department—not unlike the chairman of the present Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019—and he may have worked out an agreement with Judge McGranery, similar to the one he had with former Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, becoming the only Senator who had full access to FBI files. It suggests that if the new Attorney General really intended to clean out corruption in the Government, he would have a rough time, finding it extremely difficult to obtain any competent legal administrator to work with him during the remaining eight months of the Administration. It suggests that the prospects for any considerable improvement in the Justice Department appeared dim, at least until a new administration would come in on January 20.

"The AMA Raises a False Issue" indicates that recently the column had occasion to quote a British journal which had responded to Europeans unduly picking up anti-American slogans and repeating them, by reminding that American aid had been responsible for rebuilding Europe following the war. It suggests that the cries of "socialized medicine" within the country constituted a similar expression of negative sentiment, merely picked up from other people and lobbying groups without proper rationale.

During the week, a good bill had been defeated in the House, which would have provided increases in Social Security benefits for 4.5 million retired Americans, amounting to five dollars per month or 12.5 percent, whichever was larger, as well as providing other benefits. But its provision providing for insurance to persons forced to quit work because of total or permanent disabilities had touched off the cry of "socialized medicine", prompting the AMA to send telegrams to all members of the House in protest of the power provided by the bill to Federal Security administrator Oscar Ewing to set up rules governing medical examinations of applicants for disability waivers. That hue and cry had resulted in killing the bill.

It indicates that the issue raised by the AMA had been entirely false, as the Government, as the insurer, had the full right to set the rules which would govern applications for the relief of disabled persons, the same right exercised by private insurance companies. The increases provided by the bill would not have required any increase in Social Security taxes, as the money to pay for it was already present. The increases were needed by the elderly presently on the retired list and the particular provision to which the AMA had objected would have protected many Americans from losing their already-paid premiums into Social Security because of physical disability. It suggests that both the House and the AMA deserved the strongest possible rebuke from the people for their conspiracy to defeat a worthy piece of legislation on entirely false grounds.

"Quite a Fellow" tells of Southern Democrats and the Americans for Democratic Action being in agreement in their admiration for Governor Adlai Stevenson, many Southerners placing him in second position as their choice for the nomination, only behind Senator Russell. Those delegates might support the Governor after they had paid their respects to Senator Russell at the convention. The ADA, considered radical by many Southerners for its uncompromising stand on civil rights, had loudly applauded Governor Stevenson at its recent convention, prompting Chalmer M. Roberts of the Washington Post to write that the ADA, with control of the largest bloc of delegates necessary to nominate, would support a draft-Stevenson movement at the convention.

The editorial finds that any such candidate who could garner such diverse support had real potential and warns Republicans to "look out".

A piece from the Chicago Tribune, titled "Light in TVA Land", indicates that the Chamber of Commerce in Nashville had adopted a resolution opposing Government subsidies as being "unsound and uneconomical and should be progressively discontinued." The piece finds it remarkable for originating from businessmen in the heart of TVA country, where the Federal Government had spent about a billion dollars to provide cheap electricity, flood control, navigation facilities, fertilizer, playgrounds, fish ponds and other good things. Of late, the Army Corps of Engineers had undertaken a multi-million dollar program to develop the power resources of the Cumberland River, with three dams already under construction and six more in the planning phase, all endorsed by the board of governors of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce the previous February. But another committee of that body believed that thousands of acres of rich farmlands would be flooded for construction of the proposed reservoirs and that the annual revenue from the power thereby produced would be less than the finance charges on the development. Editorials appearing in the Nashville Tennessean favored the "squanderers" and "abused" the men of the Chamber who doubted the benefits of the project. Eventually, in late April, the board of governors met again and issued its resolution against all Federal expenditures which were not designed to promote national defense or furnish necessary governmental services.

The piece concludes that light was breaking through the clouds in TVA land and that maybe there was some hope for the taxpayers in other parts of the country.

The piece does not bother to indicate that TVA was operating at a profit consistently and therefore not actually costing the taxpayers a penny, but rather benefiting them.

Bill Sharpe, in his "Turpentine Drippings", snippets from newspapers around the state, provides one from the Sanford Herald, recounting a conversation between a husband and wife after a social gathering, wherein the wife indicated she would never go anywhere with her husband again because he had asked a woman how her husband was standing the heat, when her husband had been dead for two months.

The Harnett County News tells of an old man who entered a bank to have his check cashed, receiving the money, then counting it several times, to which the teller inquired as to whether it was enough, the old man responding, "It just is."

The Fayetteville Observer tells of the Raleigh News & Observer having explained that the State was able to purchase from Esso its gasoline for 10.54 cents per gallon less than the average motorist could purchase their regular gas at the pump, because two cents of the bill per gallon was for Federal tax which the State did not have to pay, and seven cents was State tax, meaning that the 30.5 cents for the ordinary customer was not very much different from the 20.86 cents paid by the State to Esso under its contract, after subtraction of taxes.

But what about that extra .64 cent? That must be the Bee tax, which Esso normally tacked onto the bill at the end for the ordinary pumper.

Which, incidentally, brings to mind for the short-memoried morons buying into this Administration's lying propaganda about how wonderful our economy is in 2019, that gas prices were at a seven-year low in early 2016, the last year of the Obama Administration, averaging $1.99 per gallon. Where are they now and where were they four months ago at the start of 2019? So, the morons will undoubtedly try to retort that gas prices don't matter much, just one commodity. Look at the stock market and unemployment and...

The Zebulon Record tells of trying to instruct a National Guard class on reading directions, asking a private to explain what would be in his left hand if he stood with his back to the north and his face to the south, to which he had replied, "Fingers."

The Goldsboro News-Argus relates that the state depended too much for its living on tobacco, and if the crop should fail some year because of inadequate rainfall, many would be on relief before the year was done. It favors balanced farming.

And so forth, so on, so forth, on forth, forth and on so

Drew Pearson tells of the steel cables which had roped off the sidewalk in front of Blair House while the First Family had resided there during the course of the renovation of the White House, having now been removed. They had been put in place after the November 1, 1950 incident in which two Puerto Rican nationalists had opened fire, seeking entry, stopped by the alert guards on duty outside, one of whom was killed and another wounded, after returning fire and killing one of the nationalists and wounding the second. Now, passersby could walk down the sidewalk without having to go into the street to avoid the barriers. But security measures to protect the life of the President and the Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Munoz Marin, had been strengthened in the aftermath and continued so, as the new constitution of Puerto Rico was now being debated in Congress. Governor Munoz Marin had been attacked in San Juan at the same time of the attack on the President and was now under special guard in Washington, with the name of his hotel being kept secret. The Puerto Rican nationalists were bitterly opposed to the new constitution, which set up a model, middle-of-the-road partnership with the U.S., believing it to be only a continuation of Yankee rule.

Another group, not so fanatical physically, but nearly so in terms of wishing to preserve the status quo, was at work in the House. After a bill had been passed by both houses of Congress permitting Puerto Rico to adopt the new constitution and after it had been approved overwhelmingly by a local plebiscite in Puerto Rico, it was blocked in the House the previous week by Republican Congressman Charles Halleck of Indiana. "Two-Cadillac Charley", who had come to Washington from modest means but now drove two Cadillacs, had been vague about his reasons for opposing the Puerto Rican constitution, stating that he did not like that it prohibited child labor or its provision for setting a goal of providing a job for every man. Other Republicans, as conservative as Mr. Halleck, opposed his position, Congressman Arthur Miller of Nebraska indicating that the new constitution would not allow seizure of the steel mills or taking over newspapers, or allow wiretapping. Congressman Fred Crawford of Michigan, another conservative Republican, also supported the new constitution, but to no avail as far as Mr. Halleck was concerned, who wanted to bottle up the bill in the Rules Committee, preventing even a floor vote, a move supported by several Dixiecrats. Mr. Pearson suggests that just as the extremists in Puerto Rico were ready to assassinate the Governor and the President, the reactionaries in Congress were prepared to assassinate the new constitution. They did not understand apparently that the entire Latin American world was watching Congress to see whether the U.S. would renege on its pledge to work out a commonwealth partnership with Puerto Rico.

Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico had told fellow Democratic Senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma that he would one day regret having voted against statehood for Alaska the previous winter, indicating that it would come back to plague him in his race for the presidential nomination. It was an inside fact, says Mr. Pearson, that Senator Kerr had made a deal with Southern Democrats to trade his vote against Alaskan and Hawaiian statehood in return for their support on oil and gas legislation, Senator Kerr being a partner in Kerr-McGee gas and oil interests. The Southerners wanted to deny statehood primarily to avoid the prospect of diluting the Southern-bloc vote in the Senate with four additional Senators. Senator Anderson understood that the people of Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico deeply resented the fact of being kicked around by certain members of Congress, being unable to vote or nominate. Their delegates at both the Republican and Democratic conventions in July hoped to support those who had befriended them. Senator Kefauver was the only leading candidate who had consistently championed statehood and the rights of island people. He had traveled from Iowa to Washington to be present for the vote, whereas Senator Taft had voted to pigeonhole Alaskan statehood. He indicates that General Eisenhower had favored it—and, of course, Alaska would finally become a state during the latter part of President Eisenhower's term, at the beginning of 1959, with Hawaii following a few months later.

Marquis Childs tells of John Foster Dulles making a series of speeches around the country seeking to bring together the two factions of the Republican Party, those supporting General Eisenhower and those supporting Senator Taft for the presidential nomination, around a common foreign policy goal.

Mr. Dulles had recently returned from a meeting with General Eisenhower in Paris and was expected soon to endorse him. He had also kept in touch, however, with Senator Taft and General MacArthur. During his talks with General Eisenhower, he had stressed what he perceived to be a failure of the Truman Administration to form a positive policy for Asia, the area of his expertise while he had been the Republican foreign policy adviser to the State Department until two months earlier when he resigned. He had been largely responsible for forming the treaty concluded the previous fall with Japan to end formally hostilities in the war, as well as the immediately subsequent U.S.-Japan pact permitting American bases to remain on Japanese soil.

Mr. Dulles agreed with existing policy that marshaling the strength of the Atlantic community in cooperation with the U.S. was appropriate for dealing with the 500-mile European front against the Communist bloc. But along the Communist front in Asia, stretching 22,000 miles, the U.S. had only reacted negatively to Communist aggression, such as in Korea, and Mr. Dulles believed that it was crucially necessary to prevent the Communists from consolidating their power in mainland China. As long as the Korean War continued, that interruption was taking place, but at its end, something else would need to be substituted, such as a blockade of the Chinese mainland coast. That would interrupt a large part of Chinese trade, but would not completely block it off, as Russia would still be able to supply strategic goods.

Mr. Childs suggests that the extremes within the Republican Party were most evident in this area, with Senator Harry Cain having gone so far as to introduce a resolution calling for a declaration of war against Communist China, based on its aggression in Korea. Senator Taft, in his recent Seattle speech, had demanded that the Nationalist troops of Formosa be enabled to invade the mainland, with American aid. Senator Taft did not indicate what would occur should the estimated half-million Nationalist troops, a figure higher than the number estimated by military experts, not succeed in taking back the mainland. Michigan Senator Homer Ferguson, who favored a "strong line" in Asia, had said that the troops would then merely return to Formosa, presumably to be ushered back by the same American ships and planes which would be required to enable their passage in the first place.

Robert C. Ruark tells of a lot of nonsense going around in recent months about the location of airports because of the airline tragedies which had hit neighborhoods close to Newark Airport as well as one striking in Queens on an approach to Idlewild. Many people advocated placing airports further from residential areas. But Mr. Ruark thinks they were already too far away, necessitating long travel to reach one's departure point. He indicates that he lived a good distance from both LaGuardia and Idlewild but that the planes nevertheless passed overhead all the time, and he figured it was a chance he had to take that one day a Constellation might land in his living room.

He finds that, as a practical matter, there was no way to locate airports far enough from buildings to render them safe, as large passenger airplanes required long distances to take off and land.

There was a proposal in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which he had recently visited, to place an international airport halfway between the two cities, which he posits was too far away from both to be convenient to either. And, as far as safety concerns, the liability would be the same for both cities. Once an airport was established in a remote location, real estate prices inevitably would go up, as businesses would congregate around the airport. Thus, the built-up area would chase the airport in any event. Idlewild was "nine leagues away from nowhere", but the chance of crashing into neighborhoods was just as much as if it were located in Times Square.

He indicates that he believed the problem would never be licked, unless, somehow, airports could be built over each city, suspended in the air. He also believes that the problem of getting baggage on and off an aircraft in less than half an hour was insoluble. Or the problem of holding the passengers responsible, at least partially, for the operation of the airline. Or producing a ground attendant who was not cross if the passenger were late, and doubly cross if the passenger were cross for the flight being late. Both conditions were the fault of the passenger.

He relates that recently he had observed a steward on Eastern Air Lines wake up every passenger on the plane during a flight which began four hours late out of Houston, demanding a ticket at daybreak in Washington, just because he was having trouble with his passenger manifest. Most of the passengers had been aboard for five hours, but the steward was oblivious to the unnecessary disturbance of their quietude and slumber. He had to carry four heavy bags for what seemed to be miles through Idlewild because the Eastern representative at the desk had been too busy to process the baggage in the normal manner. He had also been spoken to sharply by the man at the gate for the effrontery of wanting to board a plane for which he had owned the ticket for several days in advance. He had to wait four hours for a late flight out of El Paso in Houston, but was rebuked by American Airlines for arriving only seven minutes late before departure time out of Odessa. He had missed a plane out of Birmingham because the desk boy was too busy handling his ticket. And the food they served him remained "generally lousy" except on overseas flights.

Well, by and large, you will be pleased to know, Mr. Ruark, that in all these 67 intervening years, the airlines, for the most part, have still not remedied any of these many problems, still treating their passengers more often as cattle than as people, acting as if the passenger is being done a favor to be flown from here to there for absurdly high fares, and should not be entitled to a claim, for instance, when Delta returns one's locked suitcase, just as you locked it before embarking, but without your Nikon camera any longer aboard, after the suitcase had been strangely re-routed to Florida, 600 miles south of your destination on a flight from the West Coast, and then tells you that their insurance company does not cover lost or stolen cameras, or, for further instance, when TWA, after leaving you stranded overnight in St. Louis, for the second time, after they missed their connecting flight, refuses this time to provide a motel voucher or any other compensation for the interruption of your flight, no matter the urgency of what might have been awaiting your and other passengers' arrival at the other end of the journey half a continent away, or for another instance on TWA, they demand to charge you $50 on the return flight of a roundtrip ticket for an "extra" bag, packed exactly and with the same weight as on the inbound flight, which they had flown in without surcharge or comment, then summon "security" when you express your case and refuse to pay the extra $50. That's your tough luck for being so incredibly stupid to fly TWA, or Continental, or Delta, name them as you please... We don't need no law or implied-in-fact contracts. We don't got to honor no stinking contracts. We are the Airlines.

Of course, our greatest concern now is that the airlines are so poorly compensating their pilots, some of whom have reported having to resort to food stamps, that one should feel quite lucky to arrive at all, we suppose. And then there are the old airplanes which should have been retired from service years earlier and suffer from structural fatigue.

Gut luck... For our part, we try to stay put as much as possible, far from the madding crowd.

A Pome appears from Ernest Rogers of the Atlanta Journal, the first in awhile, this one "In Which An Observation Is Made Concerning Human Reactions To Certain Feathered Creatures:

"Sometimes a pigeon
Can test your religion."

And, sometimes, a transworld witch bitchin'
Belongs home, with her butcher-bird, in the kitchen.

Herblock foresaw this date the present.

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