The Charlotte News
Tuesday, November 4, 1947
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.S., acting through delegate John Foster Dulles, presented to the U.N. General Assembly's political committee a revised proposal whereby the U.S. and Russia would evacuate all troops from Korea within 90 days, "if possible", after establishment of an independent government in the country pursuant to a national election, supervised by the U.N., to be held by the end of March. Troops would leave by the following summer, rather than by January 1 as proposed by Russia, prior to the election. The proposal also wanted creation of "national security forces" to replace all military or semi-military forces and for the U.N. commission to advise Korean leaders on any problems encountered in setting up a new government. The former U.S. proposal on the matter had set forth no time limits.
Voting was taking place in Mississippi without incident, to fill the seat in the Senate left by deceased Senator Theodore Bilbo, who had died of cancer in August. Blacks were seen voting in many areas without problem. Judge John C. Stennis would win the election out of a field of six candidates, including one Republican.
In Kentucky, weather played a factor in turnout as Democrats sought to take back the State Government which they had lost in 1943.
Weather also depressed turnout in New York.
In Brunswick, Ga., the former warden and four former guards of the Glynn County correctional camp were acquitted of Federal charges that they had violated the civil rights of eight black prisoners by killing them on July 11. The jury "deliberated" eight minutes following a six-day trial and a thirty-minute summation by defense counsel, who argued that the prisoners had conspired to take control of the camp for the purpose of effecting an escape. He advocated revising of the laws to permit punishment more severe than isolation for prisoners who violated prison rules, placing prisoners in the same status as soldiers in the Army when it came to insubordination. The men had been cleared by the county coroner's jury at the time of the slaying. The District Attorney had presented evidence showing that the guards had laid the prisoners on tiles in the prison yard and simply opened fire.
In Concord, N.H., John Winant, 58, former Ambassador to Great Britain, who succeeded Joseph P. Kennedy to the post in 1940 and served through the war, had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a Belgian .32 caliber pistol. Mr. Winant, who had earlier been Governor of New Hampshire, had not been in good health since the summer, and, according to his secretary, was in "low spirits". Mr. Winant had been succeeded as Ambassador in early 1946 by Averell Harriman who then resigned in fall, 1946 to succeed Henry Wallace as Secretary of Commerce. Mr Harriman was succeeded at the beginning of 1947 by former North Carolina Governor O. Max Gardner, who then died on the morning he was to board the ship in New York for passage to Britain.
A majority of the ten-person citizens committee on taxation recommended to the House Ways & Means Committee a reduction of income taxes across the board, with due regard for the impact of the rising costs of living on the lower brackets. The majority recommendations, according to Matthew Woll, AFL official on the committee, would cut Federal spending without regard to revenue needed for European aid and shift the tax burden from the rich to the poor and working class.
Congressman John Dingell of Michigan, member of the Ways & Means Committee, criticized the report as Wall Street recommendations purportedly on behalf of the people. He had previously criticized the choice of membership of the committee, made by Ways & Means Committee chairman Harold Knutson.
In Asheville, N.C., citizens were voting in large numbers on the issue of whether ABC-controlled sale of liquor would begin in the city. It was the fifth such referendum in the Western part of the state in the previous six months, with only Mecklenburg County having approved such a measure.
Former Governor Melville Broughton declared himself a candidate to contest Senator William B. Umstead in the special election to be held in 1948. Mr. Umstead had been appointed by Governor Gregg Cherry to the position upon the death of Senator Josiah William Bailey in December, 1946. Mr. Broughton favored enactment of retirement laws for teachers and State employees, adding a twelfth grade to secondary schooling—durn that, nawsuh—, extending the school year from eight to nine months—ditter, nosirree to that—, State aid to libraries, re-organization of State hospitals and institutions under consolidated boards, and other proposals. He would ultimately win the election and then die suddenly in March, 1949, after serving but two months in office. His successor, appointed by Governor Kerr Scott, would be Frank Porter Graham, president of UNC—and noted Communist.
Doggie Hatcher, head of the State Highway Patrol, and Francis Fairley, a Charlotte attorney, were potential candidates for the 1948 race for the Tenth Congressional District in North Carolina, to contest incumbent Hamilton C. Jones. Perennial letter writer and previously failed candidate, P. C. Burkholder, and Manley Dunaway had already announced that they would run for the GOP nomination for the office.
A motorcade of Charlotte leaders paraded through various area towns to extend invitations to attend the Christmas Festival in Charlotte on November 12. You don't wish to miss it, especially the crowning of Miss Christmas—who, it was rumored, had promised to descend with Santa Claus through every chimney throughout North and South Carolina on Christmas morn.
Ray Howe, sports editor, gives the nod to Davidson as college football team of the week in the state, after its 14-14 tie with VMI the previous Saturday. Davidson stood 3-3-1 at this juncture in the season, and would go on to win its last three games. VMI was 2-3-1 and would lose two of its last three games.
Our prediction for this week, a bit faulty last week, is 42-35.
On the editorial page, "Daffy Way to War on Communism" tells of American imperialist George Weller stating editorially in the Chicago Daily News that America could not hope to defeat Communism by putting pressure on the Russians at the U.N. and providing aid to Europe through the Marshall Plan. His solution was to turn the country into a military state for the purpose of winning the current "war" with Russia. Then, America could crush the Communists or frighten them into a remote corner of Siberia. He wanted, in addition to economic aid to Europe, the rearming of the military, universal military training, standing American forces in Germany equal to the Soviet divisions in Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary, and Rumania, establishment of localized Naval and Air Force bases overseas, and methods of "rapid decentralization of forces to worldwide bases" to intercept enemies before they left Eurasia.
The piece thinks that such a plan would only bring the country to bankruptcy—as the realization of the greater part of it in fact nearly did by the early 70's and through the 80's.
"And this horrible fantasy is called realism."
Whip Inflation Now.
"Dangerous Confusion in America" tells of House Ways & Means chairman Harold Knutson claiming that the President and his Council of Economic Advisers were confused on the notion that a balanced budget might be had while providing aid to Europe and maintaining taxes at current levels. But more confused was Mr. Knutson, opines the piece, who proposed, for the third time in a year, to present in the upcoming special session of Congress a four billion dollar tax cut, stating that the foreign aid program would only lead to further inflation.
While oppressed taxpayers deserved consideration, Americans could hold out longer than Europeans, living on 1,500 calories per day. A four billion dollar tax cut would not stem the inflationary pressures from the Marshall Plan but only lend to them. He was also wrong in suggesting that the failure of the Plan would have no disastrous economic and political effect on America. Such failure would wreck Europe and thus American foreign trade, and thereby create unemployment and potentially another war, costing far more than the 20 billion dollar price tag for the aid.
Mr. Knutson failed to recognize that the first order of Government business was to check inflation.
Whip Inflation Now.
"Hold Your Hats for the '48 Run" tells of the economic experts being bullish on 1948 because they had been wrong in the bearish predictions for 1947. They had predicted a mild recession, but the economy had continued to grow. The previous year, the experts had not entered into their calculus the disastrous winter in Europe which caused the need for huge American exports, saving the farm segment of the economy, triggering also a rise in the cost of living and the need for higher wages in consequence. The third factor overlooked was the short American corn crop. Into at least mid-1948, both farmers and industry would have to run to keep pace with demand and so there was no cloud on the horizon. Labor unions were demanding a third round of post-war wage hikes to keep pace with the cost of living. Retail trade volume was at an all-time high, would rise above 100 billion dollars by the end of the year.
The only naysayers were the Council of Economic Advisers, who had little standing outside the White House. Other experts said that the only real danger ahead was inflation.
Whip Inflation Now.
A piece from the Winston-Salem Journal, titled "Great Champion of Peace", praises the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to two Quaker organizations, from Philadelphia and London. The Nobel Committee noted that the Quakers were celebrating their 300th anniversary as a faith, with the motto to aid people in distress, people who had suffered from war and violence. The Quakers had helped the Norwegians, locus of the Nobel Committee, as well as all of war-torn Europe. The piece thinks it significant that the Quakers became the first religious group to receive the peace prize since its inception in 1901, and that it had been accomplished in the Christian way, through helping others. It feels the prize was well-deserved.
Drew Pearson tells of the President, impressed by the imperious uniforms worn by the military in Brazil during his recent visit to the Inter-American Treaty Conference, having instructed the American military to increase its accoutrement adorning officers' uniforms. While he did not throw out completely General Eisenhower's directive that officers and enlisted men should wear the same working uniforms, caste-conscious officers, who had been heavily criticized since the end of the war for their perquisites during it, felt a new sense of opportunity in the President's order and that General Eisenhower's directive for uniformity might wither on the vine. The Air Corps could free itself from the directive by adopting a new uniform for the newly independent branch.
He next imparts of receiving a letter from one Robert Stratton of Houston, telling more of John Monroe, the notorious influence peddler and lavish entertainer of Army and Navy brass to attract war contracts, informing also that Mr. Stratton would be dead by the time Mr. Pearson read the letter. And, he had in fact killed himself with a pistol. He wanted Mr. Pearson to investigate Mr. Monroe, as the columnist had already done three years earlier. He claimed to know personally Mr. Monroe and that the whole matter had been hushed up quickly because of his being tight with FDR and Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire. Mr. Stratton had only in the past year become aware of Mr. Monroe's corruption.
Mr. Pearson tells of Mr. Monroe having sued him for a million dollars for libel and the jury having rendered a verdict of non-liability after 20 minutes of deliberations. Subsequently, Mr. Monroe was convicted of black-marketeering and sentenced to two years in jail, a conviction still pending appeal. Still out on bond, he had set up a new venture, Advice, Inc., which continued to operate. He concludes that the wheels of justice spun slowly.
Joseph Alsop, in Vienna, tells of the leaders of Austria, the heart of which was Soviet-controlled, living constantly in fear of danger from the occupiers' methods, which included kidnaping. The new leaders were plain men in thread-bare business suits, in stark contrast from the past leaders, the Hapsburgs, the Starhembergs, or Sobieskis. The leaders varied from the Socialist Vice-Chancellor Schaef to Foreign Minister Gruber, who made his name in the resistance and belonged to the Catholic Peoples Party.
Despite propaganda efforts, the Austrian people were sticking with their leaders. In Western Europe, the Communists took 20 to 30 percent of the vote. But in Austria, only 5 percent voted for the Communists, regardless of the fact that the polls were being watched closely by Russian troops at election time.
He posits that the reason for this shift was that the Austrians were aware of what it was like to live under Soviet control, whereas the rest of Western Europe did not. And the West and the U.S. also had occupation troops in Austria, checking Soviet attempts at domination and encouraging the Austrian people to remain independent.
The Austrians believed that there was a remote chance that the Soviets could make a bargain at the London foreign ministers conference, which would again attempt to write acceptable Austrian and German treaties, whereby the Russians would reduce their grip on the claimed "German assets" in Austria promised by Potsdam, which, under the Russian definition, included all manner of American and Austrian assets seized by the Nazis. The Austrians believed that the compromise would also include commitments for long-term American, French, and British economic and political support of Austria. About 600 billion dollars of aid would need be spent in the ensuing four years if the Russian economic stranglehold would be prevented from closing its grip again.
More probably, the Soviets would reject any such agreement, which would likely lead to requests by Austria that the West end its military occupation while leaving its troops in Austria until the Russians evacuated. They would also seek increased rehabilitation and relief allowances.
There was the additional possibility that the Russians would divide Austria and refuse to recognize the Government in the Russian zone, which, if it occurred, would imply Russian preparation for world conflict, a daunting prospect which the West did not wish to face.
Whatever the case, Austria stood as a pivot point in Western Europe for determining the future peace and stability of the world, economically and politically.
The last paragraph of the piece, incidentally, was misprinted as part of the piece by Samuel Grafton.
Samuel Grafton proposes that the question always be asked repeatedly in America: How is freedom today? The extent of freedom in the country tended to wax and wane with the times. During the previous two weeks, with HUAC examining Hollywood, the question had been raised in stark relief—perhaps Willie Stark relief—as Hollywooders tepidly began the hearings by stating as their defense to the charges of Communist infiltration of the movie industry that they made nice family fare, free of political undercurrents. But by the second week, the trend had been to say that the types of films produced were Hollywood's own business—as plainly it was and is, if, that is, one believes in the concept of "free enterprise" and not comradeship with socialism and dratted communism.
Thus, a development in civil liberties had occurred in those two weeks. He does not cast HUAC in the role of devil, but rather as one of the protagonists in a complex story, as democratic processes were controlled by no single group. To its credit, HUAC had become increasingly sensitive regarding charges of censorship as the hearings proceeded. The result was that the country stood now in a clearer light, with questions posed as to the extent of proper inquiry into political beliefs of individuals. Even the conservative press had defended the right to hold contrarian political beliefs.
He thinks some relevant questions ought be asked, such as why the book publishing trade did not endure the type of microscopic inquiry which the movie industry had undergone, why it was scandalous to propose burning of a book but not to ban a movie.
We might digress a moment to suggest that any relatively new medium takes time for people with slow cultural wits to adjust by analogy to its forerunner media. The internet, currently, is going through such a phase, roughly twenty years into its viable existence—discounting the first twenty years in which few knew of it, paltry in any event. Movies at this point in time, 32 years since the first feature film, "Birth of a Nation", had reached audiences with decided impact, and only twenty years since part of "Wings" and "The Jazz Singer" had become the first feature films to incorporate a soundtrack, were still in their relative infancy, developing gradually from the sentimental fluff of the early films into areas of subject matter designed to instill social conscience, obviously considered dangerous by HUAC, wishing jealously to preserve that realm for politicians who always had the mandate of the people and thus in mind the infallible sense of what Americanism meant, unpolluted by infiltration of movies seeping into that electorate's collective subconscious through the interstitial spaces amid frames, in which the word "RED" could appear in bold letters without the awareness of the audience, even extending to such subliminal fare as bullfighting, with its bright red cape.
In short, those fellows down on the farm who had not been much exposed to fare beyond the shoot-‘em-ups and crime dramas in which J. Edgar or his functional equivalent always caught the ruthless bad guy, and love and hope triumphed from misery, were not going to allow the American people to be influenced in such liberal manner by film, causing them to think beyond these cozy pictures of what America and Mom were all about.
Mr. Grafton continues that the book trade had always fought back against any form of censorship, had always published a variety of books, unlike the monotonous fare on the silver screen. The publishing trade also had an internal dignity which permitted publishing of unorthodox stories without great reaction from the publishing industry itself. "The third cousin of somebody who works at Doubleday does not fly into a rage because of something that appears under the Random House label."
By considering the experience which it had just endured, the movie industry could, he thinks, grow beyond its current limiting boundaries. In that, it could fight Communism in better ways than it had yet demonstrated, by establishing a climate in which the Communist dogma could not be fostered, by making freedom more attractive.
A letter from a member of the City Council offers explanation for his proposed resolution, passed by the Council, to defer further the implementation of the City housing ordinances to obtain slum clearance, passed before the war and delayed in enforcement because of scarce building materials. Whereas an editorial of October 31, "Council Sidesteps the Slums", had criticized the decision on the ground that building materials, according to the Housing Authority, were available, the letter writer says that all of the testimony to the Council proved to the contrary. To allow enforcement to go forward to eliminate substandard housing would cause the scarcity of housing to become worse and produce only chaos. He assures that as soon as the materials were to become available, as predicted within the ensuing three years, the Council would allow the ordinance to be enforced.
A letter writer starts by wondering whether the "People's Platform" of the newspaper served the same purpose as the chaplain while he was in the Army. His pet peeve currently was the anti-noise ordinance in the city. He believes that in consequence, it was against the law to whistle at a pretty girl or give a loud football cheer on Saturdays. He also thinks that the police ought use blackjacks rather than whistles to enforce the traffic signals at intersections—among other things.
A letter writer says that the country needed more disunity rather than unity, as professed by U.N. second American delegate Herschel Johnson, to defeat Soviet expansion. Mr. Johnson had recommended military force in Greece if Russia did not desist in its effort to destabilize the Greek Government. He believes that the voices of dissent, as that of Henry Wallace, those characterized as "appeasers" to Russia by Mr. Johnson, needed to be heard more in the country, not less.
Framed Edition
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