Friday, November 30, 1945

The Charlotte News

Friday, November 30, 1945

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Rudolf Hess admitted to the Nuremberg Tribunal that his claimed amnesia had been a ruse to try to obtain strategic advantage and that he was prepared, despite a somewhat impaired memory, to proceed in the war crimes trial. He accepted full responsibility for his actions.

A German witness, Maj. General Erwin Lahousen, testified for the prosecution that Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the master spy of Germany prior to the Third Reich and to whom Lahousen had been an aide, had been involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler in July, 1944, and was executed for his role in it. He also testified that Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel plotted to assassinate French Generals Maxime Weygand and Henri Giraud. General Lahousen further stated that former Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop had demanded that in the invasion of Poland in September, 1939, all farms of Poles were to be burned to the ground and all Jews killed. General Lahousen indicated that Hitler had implemented a policy of deliberate starvation of Russian prisoners, impelling them to the point of cannibalism. The Luftwaffe had undertaken reconnaissance flights over Leningrad and Poland in the days just prior to the invasion to start the war on September 1, 1939.

The previous day, the tribunal was shown a film of the horror of the concentration camps.

In Sweden, about a thousand out of 3,000 German, Polish, Austrian, and Baltic prisoners of war attempted mass suicide to avoid being turned over to the Russians. The prisoners had been on a hunger strike for a week in protest of the transfer. Most of the prisoners were former members of the Wehrmacht who had fled to Sweden at the time of capitulation in May.

Dr. Irving Langmuir, nuclear energy expert for G.E., testified before the Senate atomic energy committee that Russia would likely have the atomic bomb within three years and would possibly be able to develop more bombs than the United States because of its larger population, regimentation, lack of unemployment and strikes, and a more extensively planned program of scientific research. The Soviets, he assured, had plenty of uranium at their disposal, and could devote ten percent of their production capacity to a crash five-year plan of energy development.

On Capitol Hill, Representative Ellis Patterson of California declared his lack of support for the appointment of General Marshall as Ambassador to China, replacing resigned General Patrick Hurley. He based his objection on General Marshall's lack of experience with the Far East and his being a military man.

Five Senators, Robert Taft of Ohio, W. Chapman Revercomb of West Virginia, Walter George of Georgia, Raymond Willis of Indiana, and Milton Young of North Dakota, urged an immediate end to the draft, citing the statistic that 175,000 men per month were still being inducted to the armed forces while the President had promised that after V-J Day military needs would be reduced to no more than 50,000 draftees per month.

Maj. General Sherman Miles, the acting chief of Army intelligence at the time of Pearl Harbor, told the joint Congressional committee investigating the attack that intelligence officers had feared such an attack and believed, based on the fourteen-points message delivered by the Japanese to Secretary Hull at 1:00 p.m. on December 7, that war was imminent. It was, of course, at the time but about twenty minutes away.

The intelligence officers did not, however, venture any predictions prior to the attack as to where it might come. Intelligence constantly assumed as part of its plans that a surprise attack, including an air attack at dawn, could be undertaken against Hawaii. Contingency plans were drawn up for defense against such an attack as early as 1932 and continuing into 1935 or 1936. It was believed that the only way to have prevented such an attack was by air reconnaissance originating from Hawaii.

The impasse continued between General Motors and striking UAW members seeking a 30 percent wage increase to match wartime wages based on overtime. G.M. continued to assert its stance that the UAW pickets were blocking office workers from entering the plants and thus were engaging in illegal practices which, until stopped, would prevent negotiations from continuing. G.M. did, however, agree to meet with the chief U.S. conciliator on Tuesday. The UAW, represented by vice-president Walter Reuther, met with G.M. officials for the first time since the inception of the strike and addressed the claimed illegality of the pickets, UAW denying any impropriety.

In London, Winston Churchill celebrated his 71st birthday, his first since the Conservative Party's overwhelming defeat in July.

A severe nor'easter hit New England, New York, and New Jersey, blanketing the region with up to twelve inches of snow and causing at least 18 deaths.

An empty oil tanker truck collided with a bus loaded with textile workers heading home from the Bladenboro mill to Lumberton, sending the bus careening down an embankment while on fire, killing five persons and injuring 21 others, five seriously.

Thus far, reports News reporter Freck Sproles, the Empty Stocking Fund sponsored by The News had collected $117 and needed substantially more to insure that needy families and children of needy families in Mecklenburg County would not be neglected at Christmas.

As a sample of the stories being covered by former Associate Editor Burke Davis, soon to join the staff of the Baltimore Evening Sun, an inside page has his report anent the unique school at Ellerbe, N.C., which had attracted attention from educators all over the nation and from Canada, having on many occasions more observers than students attending the school. The students made the school a self-sustaining entity, undertaking all janitorial chores, publishing and binding books for its library, giving blood tests to the chickens and cows owned by neighboring farmers, building a tennis court, and other such sundry projects, making the school unique.

In Rhinebeck, N.Y., where Fala was recuperating from his bout with cousin Blaze, the bull mastiff, tragedy struck, as Blaze was put to sleep by order of the State Health Department, even though no rabies had been found to infest his fur.

Thus endethed the saga of Blaze in a blaze, a bully to the bitter end, bumped off after bumping off the transport plane in January the three servicemen heading home on furlough, one reportedly seeking to attend his father's funeral.

Mrs. Roosevelt, when asked about the ill-fated fight, sharply rebuked reporters, responding that she considered it a private family matter, adding that they should instruct the Associated Press, who, she was told, first disclosed the story publicly, to "mind their own business".

On the editorial page, "The Fathers Take a Fling" discusses the City Council's attempt to tackle the considerably snarled traffic problems of Charlotte—especially kangaroo-hopping Trade Street.

"Another Good Man Goes" remarks on the departure from Congress of Robert Ramspeck of Georgia, having served well the district which included Atlanta for sixteen years. Mr. Ramspeck was going to become executive vice-president of the Air Transport Association of America.

During his time in Congress, he had both supported and opposed different aspects of the New Deal, making it difficult to pigeon-hole him as a liberal or conservative. His main endeavor had been in the area of civil service legislation, replacing the old political spoils system.

The Atlanta Constitution had remarked that it was tragic that the pittance paid Congressmen made the best members of the body always subject to being enticed into the private sector by corporations able to pay substantially more.

"Cloak-and-Dagger Diplomacy" discusses the likelihood that the Congress would appropriate money for an intelligence gathering service, under the auspices of the State Department. Undersecretary Dean Acheson had stated to Congress that State did not intend a cloak-and-dagger operation, rather a simple set of intelligence analysts and gatherers who could present facts in a reasonable manner to the diplomatic corps to enable results in diplomatic negotiations.

The editorial doubts it would be so tame, given the anecdotes emerging from the war on the exploits of the Office of Strategic Services, their comic strip reality, arriving in a given location by parachute, changing disguises, and employing every blonde in sight to obtain the desired information.

"Mr. Acheson's glib words cannot disguise the fact that a man who bends over to listen at a keyhole invites a swift kick, whether he's wearing ledger-ruled trousers or not."

A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "With a Four-Motored Roar", comments on the active furniture manufacture in North Carolina, more than any other state. And now added to the capability of manufacture was large distribution via air freight. A recent delivery to Worcester, Mass., of 6,500 pounds of furniture by air had proved the point.

It contradicted what former Governor Thomas Bickett had said, during his term from 1917 to 1921, that Southerners would dig things from the ground or cut them out of the forests, send them north, receive a dime, and then have Northerners make something from raw materials and charge a dollar for the product. Now, North Carolina was making its own product and sending it north at a large profit.

Drew Pearson comments on the end of the Truman honeymoon with the press. He pauses to examine the President's record after seven and a half months in office. The new President had appointed a better Cabinet than had FDR while carrying on the Roosevelt policies, indeed had shown more courage than the late President on certain issues, such as his putting forward a national health care program and in asking that the Fair Employment Practices Committee be made permanent. He had been forthright in demanding a full employment bill and unemployment compensation increases, had risked offending his friends by favoring Government control of offshore oil reserves. President Roosevelt had ducked or only timidly advanced many of these same issues on fear of offending certain factions of his own party.

The question then posed by Mr. Pearson was why the Truman Administration had thus far failed to get off the ground, with such able men, while the Roosevelt Administration had sailed along with personnel of lesser ability. He provides four reasons, starting with Roosevelt's superior elocution skills and ability to use the radio to appeal to public sentiment, a capability which President Truman simply lacked.

Second, Mr. Truman had been hurt by labor, despite his efforts consistently to support them.

Third, he had let the military direct him with regard to conscription and demobilization, lending in the process credence to the contention by Thomas Dewey during the 1944 campaign, that the Administration intended to retain soldiers in service after the war to prevent large-scale unemployment. In so doing, President Truman had lost the support of the men in service.

Finally, the President had surrounded himself with friends from Missouri and Mississippi who knew little of government, whereas FDR had shrewd men as his immediate assistants who understood well the machinery of government and could get things done, making up for a weak Cabinet. It was this latter point which most hampered the new Chief Executive.

Marquis Childs comments on the short tenure, from September 1 to October 11, of Col. Frank McCarthy, hired by Secretary of State Byrnes to reorganize the State Department, resigning for health reasons. Mr. Childs speculates that contributing to his health problem may have been the disorganization which he found at State. In his stead, Mr. Byrnes had appointed his law partner from Spartanburg, S.C., Donald Russell, a man with some government experience, but little in foreign affairs.

Mr. Childs asserts that Secretary Byrnes had to carry the issue to Congress to obtain its aid in the reorganization effort. Part of the Department's problem was lack of staff and too much work with low pay, causing the diplomatic arena most usually to be populated by wealthy amateurs instead of trained professionals.

Cordell Hull, with his prestige in Congress, might have been able to obtain adequate appropriations to modernize the Department, but instead had been consumed by the conduct of foreign affairs and the petty squabbles between factions within the Department. Mr. Byrnes, also with considerable prestige on Capitol Hill where he had served as Congressman and Senator from South Carolina, now had his opportunity.

The State Department of 1945, offers Mr. Childs, was equipped to deal with the problems of 1910, but not 1945. Modernization, especially in recognition of the new scientific advances on the world stage, was essential.

Another soldier from Charlotte stationed on Leyte submits a letter signed by 120 soldiers from North Carolina, 25 from Charlotte, complaining of the slow boat back home, the soldiers feeling forgotten in the Pacific with war now more than three months behind them. The plans to ship soldiers home, they urged, had "gone SNAFU (situation normal—all fouled up)." They understood that there were problems in demobilizing two million men, but there was also no excuse in sending only a few thousand home each month.

Samuel Grafton remarks that during the previous year, the United States plan for world collaboration had gone from being confident and united to splintering asunder, indefinite. Some advocated world government, a plan with many drawbacks, including the tendency of its supporters to disfavor lesser forms of world cooperation, to view the situation with a kind of desperation.

It was split from the more conservative view, as championed by Senators Tom Connally of Texas and Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, both delegates to San Francisco in the spring, which favored full participation by the United States in the U.N., but maintaining sovereignty.

A third contingent wished to rely on international law and a parliamentary method at the U.N. to resolve all international discord. But it ignored the tendency of nations to vote their self-interest and that there were unsettled issues between the world and Russia, on which the Russians believed the U.N. would be able to outvote their own interests.

Mr. Grafton favors another Big Three meeting—ruled out the previous day by the President as unnecessary provided the U.N. would serve its intended function—in which these interests might coalesce and find a meeting ground. Failure to do so was barring the door to both world government and an effective U.N.

Maj. General Brock Chisholm, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare in Canada, provides the quote of the day: "How can we teach children realities when we pay movie stars 200 times the salaries we give university professors?"

Framed Edition
[Return to Links
Page by Subject] [Return to Links-Page by Date] [Return to News<i><i><i>--</i></i></i>Framed Edition]
Links-Date -- Links-Subj.