Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that China had erupted in civil war with the Communists fighting the troops of Chiang in Northern China, in Shantung, Shansi, and Suiyuan provinces. In fighting near Changchih in Shansi, captured by the Red forces, Government forces had suffered 15,000 casualties, and the Communists had also incurred heavy losses. The Red Chinese had also captured Linmingwang, a railroad town near Tzehsien, in southern Hopei Province, which effectively severed the route to Peiping, to which Chiang's troops were proceeding to relieve American Marines in the north, ordered to stay out of the conflict. Unconfirmed rumors circulated that the Russians were supplying the Communists with weapons seized from the Japanese.

On Java, Indonesian Nationalists, equipped by seized Japanese armaments, killed an estimated 25 British Indian troops at Soerabaja. Soekarno, the President of the "Indonesian Republic", then declared a truce. It was reported that many women and children in internment camps had also been killed by the native population, as well as possibly all 35 women and children who had sought shelter inside an overrun jail. The British had taken several of the natives as prisoner but then removed their pants and let most of them go.

President Truman announced that he was cancelling all scheduled visits around the country, including one scheduled for Friday in Statesville and Raleigh, to spend more time on the country's problems, foreign and domestic, especially with the labor-management conference set to begin a week from this date. Friends had been urging the President to curtail his travels to avoid criticism for not spending enough time in Washington after his recent trip to Caruthersville, Mo., and Reelfoot Lake, Tenn., the latter being where the President had announced offhandedly to reporters, while speaking informally on a front porch, the intention of the United States to retain exclusive possession of the atomic secret.

The UAW rejected a G.M. proposed compromise arrangement on wages whereby there would be a 45-hour work week, effectively a 15 percent wage increase, rather than the demanded 30 percent increase based on a 40-hour week. Walter Reuther, vice-president of the UAW, stated that the union would not relent on its demands unless G.M. could prove that it would be unable to provide the thirty percent increase without raising vehicle prices.

Some improvement was noted in U.S.-Russian relations by the friendly reception of Ambassador Averill Harriman by Premier Stalin when he delivered a message of undisclosed contents from President Truman. There also appeared to be some headway being made to eliminate the Russian demand for an Allied council of occupation of Japan.

In London, Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced that no large monetary gifts, as in the past, would be provided the victorious British generals of the war. He stated that it was not in keeping with the times or the nature of the war, fought by so many British subjects. The Government was still paying many of the annuities to victorious commanders and descendants of commanders from past wars.

Two strikes ended and two others began. Some 11,500 workers of Westinghouse Air Brake Co. in Pittsburgh and 6,500 of R.M. Hollingsworth Corp. in Camden, N.J., resumed their jobs. In Akron, 400 maintenance workers left the job at Firestone, impacting 15,000 other employees, while in San Francisco and Oakland, 179 machinists began a strike which could impact 40,000 to 80,000 workers.

Nationwide, the idle employees stood at 245,000, an increase of 17,000 over the previous week, with 7,000 set to return to work on Wednesday after the end of the Hollywood studio workers strike.

The nineteenth in the series of articles by General Jonathan Wainwright on the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in April and May, 1942 tells of the landing on the night of May 5-6 of the Japanese on Corregidor, following the intense shelling of the island fortress for the prior three days, after over three weeks of non-stop bombardment since the fall of Bataan on April 9. The enemy came ashore on the northeastern tip of the island, entering from landing boats and armed motorboats. They were being mowed down systematically until the second wave of landing troops came, backed by tanks and artillery.

The Japanese then swarmed ashore and began marching westward toward Malinta Tunnel, the command post and sanctuary. American and Filipino troops and Marines were then dispatched to form a hastily placed defensive line across the island while being steadily bombarded from Bataan.

General Wainwright received a message at 4:00 a.m. on May 6 from President Roosevelt, which he quotes, thanking him and his men for the heroic stand they had made and the example they had set for others during the fighting. At the time of receipt of the message, the Japanese were approaching Denver Hill, between Malinta Tunnel and the point of landing, and by daylight had reached the Hill, within 500 yards of the tunnel.

A platoon of Marines sent to the line were wiped out as the commanding officers watched. By 10:00 a.m., it was reported that more enemy tanks were being landed. With his defenses crumbling and now facing more tanks, General Wainwright, at 10:15 a.m., made his difficult decision to surrender, as he knew that that his troops could not hold out through the night. He ordered General Beebe to deliver a pre-arranged broadcast of surrender directed to General Homma, a cease-fire to become effective at noon. He ordered the destruction of all weapons greater than .45 caliber. Some of the officers misinterpreted the order, however, and began destroying the smaller firearms as well before they could be stopped.

In Charlotte, the City Council was ready to crack down on the sale of beer following testimony by law enforcement heads of numerous arrests in the wake of the county fair, the circus, and auto races, including numerous assaults and drunk driving incidents. But the Council was stopped from taking action by legal issues.

The previous Monday, 124 defendants, the largest docket in the history of Mecklenburg County, were set for trial. Half of the cases were for drunkenness, and more arose from drunkenness.

And, don't tell anyone, but here is a sneak peek at the October 29, 1937 edition of The News, which we have not previously set forth, having needed three days off five years ago after going through the Cuban Missile Crisis daily for the second time. Those seven-day weeks were rough for five and a half months, without respite. Try it sometime. Six says per week are bad enough during the course of five years.

We shall get back to that page, and the ensuing two days, in due course, but before hell freezes over.

On the editorial page, "Pipe Dreams" discusses the recommendation by the Planning Board to the City Council that it use 4.327 million of the total proposed five million dollar bond issue, for water and sewage, leaving the other favored projects, especially a new auditorium and library, on the back burner.

"John M. Scott" comments on the death of the prominent local banker, as featured Saturday on the front page. He had started business in the Scott Drug Co. and then became head of the Charlotte National Bank, which became Wachovia. He also had helped to establish the Charlotte Country Club and promote the Southern Golf Association.

"$64 Question" finds the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating radio programs despite the protests of Congressmen.

On Phil Baker's "Take It or Leave It" recently, a member of the audience had responded to a question as to what sort of unity was good for the country by saying that unity among all people, including those of different races and national origin, was desirable. A member of HUAC heard the broadcast and found that this individual belonged to the Council for American Unity, prompting investigation into that organization's certainly nefarious goals. There was the suspicion that Mr. Baker might even have paid off the man $64 to make this suspiciously un-American statement.

The organization had nothing about which to worry, provided Francis Bacon was not found within its membership.

"Federation Blues" finds it lamentable that cowboy singer Senator Glen Taylor, freshman from Idaho, had introduced a bill with a sound basis, to surrender a part of each nation's sovereignty to an international organization dedicated to preservation of the peace, with an active police force to implement it.

It was unfortunate that such a proposal had to come before the Senate "with a faint accompaniment of guitar music", insuring its defeat by not being taken seriously, despite Senator Taylor's good voting record thus far and despite support of the concept by former Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts.

The piece nevertheless commends the Senator for his courage in airing the concept.

Senator Taylor would join former Vice President Henry Wallace as his vice-presidential running mate on the Progressive Party ticket of 1948.

"Diplomacy" examines the policy of the United States toward the British and Dutch in their actions in French Indo-China and in Java, resisting the native nationalist movements in each country, in Indo-China, that of the Annamese or Vietnamese, the Vietminh under Ho Chi Minh, and in Java, the Indonesians. Secretary of State Byrnes had announced that all Lend-Lease weapons being used in either conflict had to have their U.S. labels removed.

The excerpt from the Congressional Record has Representative Robert Rich of Pennsylvania speaking in support of the bill to cut funding for Lend-Lease, saying that the remaining 25 billion of its 66 billion-dollar budget ought be cut since the program had been terminated right after V-J Day.

Drew Pearson comments on a statement by OPA director Chester Bowles to the Senate Banking & Currency Committee that the Army intended to spend 41 billion dollars during the first year following V-J Day, compared to only 33 billion throughout the war. Mr. Bowles could not explain what they intended to do with the money.

Another item reports that HUAC had investigated the activities of the Nationalist Party of former North Carolina Senator Robert Reynolds and found nothing improper about it—not surprisingly, since Kit Marlowe was not a member.

Nothing had been done about the request to investigate Gerald L.K. Smith, the notorious reactionary, because HUAC was too busy investigating Hollywood for possible influence by Communists.

Marquis Childs comments on the attempt by the Truman Administration to establish a wage-price program to resolve the labor disputes and get reconversion back on track. It was likely that the order issued by the President on August 18 would become the centerpiece of reconciliation. It provided for adjustments in wages based on the particular industry involved, some receiving 10 percent, others 16 or 20 percent. Some industries would also be allowed to raise prices to afford the wage increases.

The president of Tuskegee Institute writes a letter soliciting items for distribution at Christmas to the needy.

A letter writer finds it distressing that there were not more letters being written regarding the poisoning of dogs in Charlotte, as had surfaced way back in February on Hermitage Court.

"Valentine's Day", incidentally, is now here ; "repeats", here; and "troupe", being banished hither to England, is, unfortunately, no more heard from to be. So, we must take provision as we might, even should the pineapple make, being, intrinsically, sensate, sense more, doleful thought though it might betray to those unwitting of the frustrate lore, fearful of the mirror in their way, whither thou, with thine peanut, Peasant, goest, bean for a be, corrupted in conception, hopelessly thus lost, tost in misdirection, awash anon upon the reined knee Sea.

He adds that he was also wondering why no one had written a letter inquiring as to whether the Germans or the Japanese had something to do with stirring up the trouble in South America, of late in Argentina and Venezuela, as well as the labor trouble in North America.

Another letter writer thanks The News for carrying Drew Pearson's column, especially impressed by the August 23 edition, in which Mr. Pearson, according to the editors, had exposed some of the problems at the Naval base at Banana River, Florida, an expose actually not appearing until September 19, Mr. Pearson having been on vacation on August 23.

Samuel Grafton finds it a sign of weakness that the President had chosen to make a national issue of the proposed one year of universal military training for those 18 to 20 years old out of high school. It was, he says, a secondary issue, not worthy of elevation to such primary status at the time. It had not brought the country any closer to resolution of its domestic problems with labor or its foreign problems with Russia.