Saturday, November 15, 1947

The Charlotte News

Saturday, November 15, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President was planning to lay the long-range Marshall Plan before the Congress in his message to start the special session on Monday, and that the Administration would lay the whole plan before the Congress during the special session, albeit without the hope of getting Congress to act on it before the regular session would begin in January. Previously, it had been thought that only the plan for emergency interim aid during the winter was to be presented during the special session. But members had urged presentation of the entire Plan so that they could act intelligently on granting emergency aid, proposed as 597 million dollars, primarily to be given to Italy and France.

At the U.N., the possibility arose that the date of partition of Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish, might be delayed until October 1, 1948 based on the British having declined to be party to the partition plan, to which agreement had been reached by the U.S. and Russia, refusing to administer Palestine during the interim period between the end of the British Mandate and the beginning of government by the two states. The proposed plan would end the Mandate on May 1 and the states would become independent on July 1. Russia was reported to be opposed to changing those dates to August 1 and October 1, respectively.

In Palestine, the death toll from three days of violence had reached 16, with another 36 wounded. A 20-year old Jew had been killed the previous night in Haifa when an unidentified group began shooting at a bus. Emanuel Ben-Gurion, nephew of David Ben-Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency, had been reported among the wounded in the incident. Six Jews were among the dead, and three among the wounded. Five of the dead Jews had been killed on November 12 by police and military personnel in a raid on a house thought to be a Stern Gang terror training center, the incident which had triggered the responsive violence attributed to the Stern Gang the previous day, in which four Britons, two soldiers and two policemen, were killed in two separate incidents taking place in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

In Cleveland, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, C. Girard Davidson, stated that the HUAC investigation of Hollywood during the latter half of October stood as example of some groups in the country seeking to withdraw Constitutional rights from those who did not follow "the middle road of conformity" or a "mid-Victorian social and economic philosophy" or who professed that the society had not reached perfection under Herbert Hoover. He stated that those who claimed to fear Communism were actually feeding the Communists what they wanted, eradication of all vestiges of liberalism and progress.

In Tabor, Czechoslovakia, during a ceremony in which a memorial to President Roosevelt was unveiled, the U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, Lawrence Steinhardt, made a speech comparing the late President to John Huss, the Czech hero who fought for freedom and was a native of Tabor, burned at the stake in 1415 for refusing to recant religious doctrines he had been preaching.

Charles Markham of The News interviewed former Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall, in Durham to speak at Duke. The progressive former Governor had been receiving numerous speaking invitations throughout the country since he had emerged as the hero of the gubernatorial succession controversy the previous January when the Georgia Legislature gave the Governor's Mansion to Herman Talmadge, son of the late Governor-elect Eugene Talmadge who had died in December before being sworn into office. The Supreme Court of Georgia ultimately had decided the matter in favor of the Lieutenant Governor, M. E. Thompson, whom Mr. Arnall believed was the rightful successor under the State Constitution and, on that basis, had contested the right of Mr. Talmadge to enter the Mansion and to set up an office in the State Capitol and begin acting as Governor, attracting national attention.

His message was simply that the only limitation on the future of the country was that which the people themselves would create and that the problems of any given state or section were problems to be faced by the entire nation, that the problems of the country or the world could be solved in each community. He decried the cynical notion that the U.S. ought drop the atom bomb and "get it over with".

The Senate War Investigating subcommittee looking into the war contracts of Howard Hughes suddenly ended its hearings into the matter, amid allegations by Mr. Hughes that the subcommittee had withheld information from the public anent how Mr. Hughes had received the war contracts. Subcommittee chairman Homer Ferguson of Michigan denied the allegations. The subcommittee, he said, would, however, continue its hearings on retired Maj. General Bennett Meyers and his dealings with Hughes Aircraft and several other airlines, some of whose stock he had purchased while negotiating contracts as procurement officer for the Army Air Forces. Senator Ferguson, perhaps not choosing the best wording, stated that the subcommittee had not "even lit the fire" yet under General Meyers.

Retired deputy commander of the Air Forces, Ira Eaker, testified to the subcommittee that it was untrue that General Meyers had purchased airline stock for him, as the General had claimed.

In Goldsboro, N.C., one child had died and two others of the same family were critically ill from lead poisoning after breathing fumes of burning lead batteries used for fuel. A doctor said that deadly fumes from old batteries could carry two or three blocks.

In New York, two doctors were charged with homicide for the death of a 22-year old woman who had died following a criminal abortion. An autopsy determined that the cause of death was the abortion.

In La Crescenta, California, about 20 men wearing American Legion caps reportedly marched into a home where a Democratic Club was holding a meeting and ordered the members to disband and leave the premises, urging the members to "thank God" that they lived in the United States. The Legionnaires thought that the club was comprised of Progressive Party members. The Sheriff's sergeant arrived on the scene and saw the men in their caps on the lawn. No arrests were made.

But their caps, bearing "Glendale 127", were taken away and thrown in the ocean. If you find their caps while fishing, do not return them.

Actress Greer Garson was recovering at the home of a friend at Beverly Farms in Beverly, Mass., following surgery.

The Outlaw of Guntown, Miss., a former soldier, got his gun through the mail from the Army.

On the editorial page, "Record Profits and Production" tells of the President having dodged the question at a press conference as to whether he would seek re-implementation of the excess profits tax which had been in effect during the war, saying that he would so indicate in his message to Congress in January.

A strong case had been made against doing so despite the highest profits being made by big business in the history of the country. For the key to success of the Marshall Plan was increased production, and it was believed that such a tax would deter production beyond a certain level.

The piece urges that the fact that profits had been the engine of increasing production post-war ought discourage putting any brakes on corporate profits through re-imposition of an excess profits tax.

"Philadelphia, Here He Comes" predicts that the candidacy of Governor Earl Warren for the GOP nomination for the presidency, as the Governor had announced the previous day, would emerge in the event of a deadlocked convention between Governor Dewey and Senator Taft. Those who believed that General Eisenhower would be the choice out of such a deadlock overlooked the fact that the Republicans wanted a seasoned campaigner and proven vote-getter, as Governor Warren.

He had determined not to campaign or seek delegates outside California, thus not getting in the way of the two leading candidates, leaving him as a non-antagonistic alternative in the event of a deadlock. His popularity in the West was unmistakable and there had been no prior presidential candidate from the Far West save Herbert Hoover, who had been born and raised in Iowa and spent much time abroad before joining the Harding Administration in the early Twenties.

"Lex Marsh Is a Good Neighbor" compliments Mr. Marsh for having decided to withdraw his plans to build an apartment house in the Myers Park neighborhood of the city, which he had the right to do under the extant zoning ordinance when he bought the property, after which he had been issued a permit by the City to do so. But the zoning ordinance had since been enacted and the residents were upset at the news that he intended to build. He decided instead to be a good neighbor, forgo his legal rights, and deserved commendation for it.

A piece from the Washington Post, titled "Reuther's Rightists", applauds the re-election of Walter Reuther as president of UAW and the election of his supporters to other key posts in the union, eliminating Communist influence in UAW. Mr. Reuther still opposed Taft-Hartley but wanted to do so through legal channels, not by non-compliance with the provisions as other unions, led by John L. Lewis and the UMW, had done.

Mr. Reuther had overcome the Communist-inspired slur that he was in bed politically with Senator Robert Taft, an effort to taint him with the rank-and-file.

CIO head Philip Murray had praised Mr. Reuther at the start of the convention while giving only tepid recognition to the other former officers, suspected of Communist sympathies, who were eventually defeated.

Drew Pearson, aboard the Friendship Train, tells the inside story of the maneuvering which went into the Congressional Tax Study Committee having recommended a large tax cut. The Committee, comprised primarily of Wall Street business men selected by House Ways & Means chairman Harold Knutson, naturally favored the interests of big business. The minority report was prepared by the labor member, Matthew Woll of AFL. The minority report, contrary to usual practice, was not printed with the majority report, prompting inquiries. The reason was that the report was filed late because of efforts by the majority to get Mr. Woll to refrain from filing such a vigorous objection. The initial press release by the majority claimed that the report recommended tax cuts for the lower income brackets when in fact, upon actual reading of it, the press had discovered that the primary effort was toward giving the upper brackets loopholes.

Italian Ambassador to the U.S. Alberto Tarchiani was a visitor aboard the Friendship Train. He had fled Italy in 1925 to escape Mussolini's Black Shirt rule and then fought back during the rise of Fascism, either with his typewriter or otherwise. He had occasionally slipped back into Italy, as in 1929 when he led a daring rescue of three political prisoners from the Lipari Islands. He had also been responsible for the scattering of anti-Fascist propaganda leaflets from an airplane over Milan.

He had led a movement in exile from France until Hitler invaded in 1940, at which time he fled to Britain, where initially he was placed in jail until he could convince the British authorities that he was not the enemy. He then spent the next three years in New York, encouraging development of democracy in Italy. He accompanied the Allied troops into Salerno and during the battle of Anzio, about which he had written a book, Twenty Terrible Days at Anzio. He had also written a book on the current Italian Premier, Alcide de Gasperi.

James Marlow of the Associated Press tells of the effort by many Americans to send food and supplies to Europe on their own. He provides the procedure by which citizens could do so. An alternative to sending actual goods was to send $10 to CARE in New York, and the resulting packages from CARE could be sent to individuals abroad.

Stewart Alsop discusses Walter Reuther's overwhelming victory at the UAW convention during the week, not only capturing the presidency again but also the top four spots in the union and control of the executive board, built on a platform of eliminating Communist influence within the union. It marked the last opportunity for Communists to influence a major segment of American labor and, in consequence, to influence deeply the left in the country. It reduced them to political impotence. Only two or three months earlier, until Joseph Curran's victory in the National Maritime Union, the Communists had a chance to dominate about half of the CIO membership.

Philip Murray's position as head of CIO was also strengthened. The CIO PAC, which had Communist influence, would likely undergo a change. Mr. Reuther was expected to replace R. J. Thomas, former UAW president and immediately past vice-president, as the treasurer of PAC.

Communist officers in the CIO United Electrical Workers union would likely soon be voted out, as it kept the union from being able to partake of NLRB services in collective bargaining, pursuant to the restriction under Taft-Hartley. The UEW was the last stronghold of the Communists in organized labor.

Thus, the UAW election signaled a major sea change within CIO, which would have ripple effects in other CIO unions. It had also repudiated the base of Henry Wallace within the CIO and thus set back the prospects of a viable third party movement.

Marquis Childs discusses the boom in the Republican Party to try to nominate General Eisenhower for the presidency. The realists in Washington believed it would gain no traction because the GOP was so tightly controlled by men with little sympathy for outsiders with no political track record. The recent exception had been Wendell Willkie in 1940, but the Old Guard had later greatly regretted that nomination. The Republicans at the time believed that they had a better shot at defeating FDR for a third term with an outsider than with a party regular. They would only take General Eisenhower under similar circumstances, the need for glamour to win, unlikely to prevail by the following June.

The General appeared genuinely not to want the job but would likely not say no if a tide developed to sweep him to the nomination. He had not delivered a Shermanesque unqualified "no" to running, but close associates believed that he might do so, to forestall the prospect of a draft.

The likelihood, therefore, absent some major intervening event, was that Governor Dewey would again get the nod of the GOP.

A letter writer provides some verse to honor the Christmas Festival which had taken place in Charlotte on Wednesday, with special recognition provided ABC Radio storyteller Ted Malone and actress Anne Jeffreys, both of whom had come to town for the event.

It concludes:
And so next year, we hope again to have,
Another such show, to beat this one, my lad,
Be with us then, and until then adieu,
Give us a boost, and we'll boost you.

A Quote of the Day: "Scientists think they can modify the climate up North. Turning it, perhaps, from worse to bad." —Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press

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