Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that
Secretary of State Marshall informed Russia that the U.S. could not
accept any program of reparations based on current production in
Germany as a price for agreement on economic unification and urged
further statement on the matter by the Soviets.
Western observers saw little hope for agreement
to effect a German treaty agreeable to all Big Four powers at the
London foreign ministers conference.
The Republican leadership in Congress agreed on
a four-point anti-inflation program to be passed during the special
session, i.e., prior to Christmas. It would consist of voluntary
industry-wide agreements to hold down the cost of living, setting
aside anti-trust laws on the issue to permit agreement on
price-fixing; continuation and expansion of export controls;
increase of the requirement of gold reserves to back currency from
25 to 40 percent, and increase from 25 to 35 percent that required
for Federal Reserve Banks; and control over vital transportation
facilities, as boxcars. The Republicans hoped that the measure would
be passed by December 19.
Congressman Albert Gore of Tennessee labeled the
program of voluntary controls as an effort by the GOP to provide a
"rubber-stamp" of big business interests.
House Majority Leader Charles Halleck joined
other Republicans in favoring a cut of the 597 million dollar
emergency aid bill for France, Italy, and Austria, probably cutting
it, according to unofficial reports, to 500 million. Mr. Halleck,
however, did not assert a specific amount. It was expected that the
bill would be passed within two days. Amendments were being tacked
onto the bill to require the President to minimize the drain on
American resources and ease the impact on high prices. The Senate
had already approved the 597 million requested by the President to
tide the three countries through the winter pending passage of the
Marshall Plan.
In Jerusalem, British High Commissioner Sir Alan
Cunningham warned that the British would undertake severe sanctions
against both Arabs and Jews unless the violence of the previous ten
days, since approval by the U.N. of partition on November 29, would
cease.
Six Jews had been killed this date in the Jewish
settlement of Gevulot, near Gaza. Police repelled the Arab attackers
with gunfire. At Karatiya, an Arab house was blown up killing four
occupants, dynamited by Haganah as gunfire from the house allegedly
had killed three Jews, four days earlier. Other violence was
reported in Jerusalem and Haifa, directed at the British and Jews,
as well against Arabs in the latter port city.
In Paris, the French Government refused
acceptance of the Russian diplomatic notes protesting the exclusion
from the country of Soviet citizens thought to be provoking the
labor unrest in the country. Future French President, Minister for
Foreign Affairs, Francois Mitterand was planning a radio address to
explain the French position, that the language in the notes was
unacceptable, not that the notes were necessarily rejected.
In Rome, the Chamber of Labor voted to hold a
general strike beginning at midnight. The Government had offered the
equivalent of 18.65 million dollars for public works in Rome to
avert the strike. Newspapers predicted that Premier Alcide De
Gasperi might call for organization of a fifth government as a
result of the labor unrest, the new Cabinet to be inclusive of two
small leftist parties to assure a majority in the Assembly.
The House Armed Services subcommittee reported
that one or two atomic bombs dropped in the San Francisco Bay Area
would likely cripple or destroy all American efforts in the Pacific,
for the fact of Oakland and Hunter's Point in San Francisco being
its primary respective Navy and Army supply depots. the subcommittee
had toured the facilities earlier. The report urged Secretary of
Defense James Forrestal to undertake studies to consolidate the
separate administrative structures governing the two bases, as well
as other separate command structures still extant.
In Ithaca, N.Y., former Vice-President Henry
Wallace stated that unless there would be a substantial change in
current U. S. foreign policy, there would be a third party in the
presidential race in 1948. He stated that if needed, he would do
what he could to help the effort. He desired assurance that the
Democratic Party was not a party of war.
In Goose Bay, Labrador, an ATC transport, a DC-4
type plane, with 29 aboard, ten of whom were crew members and
nineteen, military passengers, had crashed and burned. It was
unknown whether there were any survivors, but one man, possibly a
rescue worker, near the scene of the crash could be seen from the
air waving his arms. The plane had been bound for Westover Field in
Massachusetts. Stormy weather was reported in the area of the crash.
In Pine Camp, N.Y., four Army officers were
burned to death when a fire swept through their barracks. They were
assigned to "Exercise Snowdrop", airborne maneuvers which
had begun November 1.
A photograph appears of a bust sculpted by William Westcott of Major Thomas D. Howie of Charleston, S.C., presented to the town of St. Lo, France, commemorating the death of the Major as his troops broke through to the outer defenses of the town, on July 17, 1944. The bust was presented by Staunton Military Academy of Staunton, Virginia, where Major Howie had coached football prior to the war.
In Longview, Texas, rags-to-riches oil man
Rogers Lacy died at age 63. He had been a major wildcat operator in
the 1931 oil boom of East Texas, died as one of the richest men in
the state.
John Daly of The News reports that,
according to community booster C. O. Kuester, an organization of
business and civic interests would be formed in January to finance a
proposed May 20 symphonic pageant to celebrate the Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence, putatively signed May 20, 1775. The
cost of the proposed annual event was to be between $50,000 and
$90,000.
Devote it to develop new housing in the city or
otherwise elimination of racial barriers and prejudice, and skip
that silliness, based on an unproved and probably apocryphal notion
of the document representing "first in freedom".
In Cleveland, the Plain Dealer had been
printing a picture of a lost doggie every Monday morning, resulting
in finding homes for 705 strays since the previous August, compared
to 391 in the same period the previous year.
On the editorial page, "A Great Day's Work
for ABC" praises the bust of 50 bootleggers in Mecklenburg
County by the ABC Board, after a three month undercover operation by
State law enforcement agents, in operation since the inception of
ABC controlled sale of liquor in Mecklenburg.
It showed that ABC Board chairman Marion Sims
meant business when he had stated that a goal of the Board would be
to eradicate illegal bootlegging. The arrests spoke louder than
words that the day of the bootlegger in the county was done. The
undercover operation culminating in the arrests demonstrated that
having one agency responsible for both distribution of legal liquor and
enforcement of the liquor laws was appropriate and efficient.
"A Trick in the Russian 'Panic'" finds
the reports that Russia was having monetary troubles appearing as
perhaps Russian propaganda designed to defeat the Administration's
program of controls of the economy and thus debilitate the
effectiveness of the Marshall Plan. The news had already dampened
ardor in support of both programs. Several Senators, some of them
moderate to liberal, were now voicing the opinion that the crack-up
of the Soviet economy showed the dangers of control.
But they were ignoring the possibility that the
reports were false, with the intent to create just the sort of
reaction, designed to undermine the effectiveness of the Marshall
Plan, the stated goal of the Communists.
It was foolish, it asserts, to depend on a
breakdown of the Russian economy in formulating U.S. foreign policy
and its inextricably intertwined domestic economic policy.
"Samoa Is the Place for Earles"
counsels that the letter adduced by George Earle, the former
Governor of Pennsylvania, to the effect that he was "politically
exiled" by FDR to be the deputy commandant of the Naval station
on Samoa in early 1945 for having sought to reveal his conclusions
that Russia, then an ally, posed a greater threat to the security of
the country than Germany, had shown itself to be a sound move by the
late President. Mr. Earle had been an emissary of the President from
1943-45 in Turkey before being transferred to Samoa. The President
had expressed concern that a personal emissary voicing such a view
could seriously damage relations with a valuable ally and so forbade
Mr. Earle from expressing the opinion and terminated his status as
emissary, directing the Navy to place Mr. Earle where it saw fit.
It offers that it would take a childish mind not
to appreciate the gravity of the situation posed by Mr. Earle's
intended action during the war. Russia was then engaging the German
Wehrmacht in the east and was the primary opposing part of
the pincer, combining with the American and British forces from the
west. Moreover, the Russians were being urged to join in the Pacific
war at the conclusion of the hostilities in the European theater.
It represented a mind blind to reality not to
recognize that Russia at the time was not any threat at all,
especially compared to that of Germany. But it was the Earles in the
country who had been most responsible for beating the post-war drums
and stimulating the cold war tensions with Russia.
It counsels that others of his mind ought also
to be sent to Samoa and ordered to stay there during the period when
men of good will were attempting to resolve the world crisis to
avert another war.
A short piece from the Raleigh News &
Observer, titled "Blowing for 'Hot War'", tells of the
politicians of the country conceding expectation of a "hot war"
by prating of a "cold war". The War Assets Administrator
had reportedly withdrawn more than five billion dollars worth of war
materials declared previously to be surplus, on the notion that they
were now earmarked for usage in universal military training, still
not authorized by the Congress.
The Wall Street Journal points out that
The London Times had recently responded to British Fuel
Minister Shinwell's statement that nationalization of the coal,
electricity and gas industries formed a "triology", by
pointing out that the word meant a set of three tragedies performed
in immediate succession.
Drew Pearson tells of the traditional notion
that first-term Senators would be seen and not heard not being
followed by the current crop of new Senators. They had formed a
coterie of dissidents to Senator Taft's attempt to have more power
in the Republican caucus and agreed to meet together once each week
for three hours to present their consensus views to the Republican
Policy Committee, headed by Mr. Taft.
The meetings were supposed to be in secret, but
Senator Zales Ecton of Montana had remarked that he expected the
results to appear in Drew Pearson's column. And voila, the
columnprovides the colloquy of a recent meeting.
Senator Ralph Flanders voiced the opinion that
too much meat was being wasted in the country, to which Senator
Joseph McCarthy urged that the Senators should look at their own
plates, which were, of the moment, full of leftovers.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge urged passage of the
Marshall Plan but received little support from his colleagues.
Senator Lodge also thought that the aid ought be in exchange for use
of bases in Europe and receipt of scarce materials in trade.
Senator John Bricker believed that the housing
shortage would be over by the end of the year, to which Senator
McCarthy responded, "Bull!"
The six Florida Congressmen were miffed for
being left out of the ceremonies to dedicate the Everglades National
Park the previous week, in favor of the two Senators sharing the
podium with the President. Only Congressman George Smathers, who
represented the district where the park is located, refrained from
therefore boycotting attendance of the ceremony.
The column congratulates Congressman Walker
Norblad of Oregon for proposing that the Commerce and Treasury
Departments disclose all foreign interests owning property in the
United States. Of 27 billion dollars worth of assets in the U.S.
held by foreign citizens, 13 billion dollars worth were held by
those in the 16 countries to receive aid under the Marshall Plan.
Vera Micheles Dean, in a piece from the Foreign
Policy Bulletin, tells of Secretary of State Marshall having
raised the important question anent Russian-American relations, as
he departed for the London foreign ministers conference, that the
U.S. should answer the calculated propaganda efforts of Russia,
aimed at vilifying the U.S. and painting it as an imperialistic
aggressor intending to interfere in the internal affairs of aided
nations.
The piece questions whether the country should
only engage in positive information dissemination or respond in
kind, as with "Operation Backtalk" initiated by General
Lucius Clay in the American occupation zone of Germany in late
October.
Many of the Congressmen who had toured Europe
during the summer, Karl Mundt among them, had returned favoring
increased appropriations for the State Department's Office of
Information. Mr. Mundt wanted the current 12.8 million dollar annual
budget raised to 50 million per year for the ensuing six years.
She then examines six points for consideration:
the need to convince non-Russians of the actual goals of the U.S. in
its aid program; respect for the notion that while the world had
become one by technological advance, it was still a world of vastly
different cultures and people; that the U.S. should not be
identified with reaction but rather progress in world relations, not
denigrating those nations dissimilar to America for merely being so;
that facts were the greatest ally to the U.S., not dissembling forms
of propaganda; that faith and not fear should be the motto; and that
Europe should have its own means of disseminating information.
She cautions that, no matter how many words were
broadcast and published, actions to back them up were the only
effective means of propaganda.
Samuel Grafton reports that he had never, in
eighteen years of writing his column, received such hateful and
bitter mail as he had in the previous few days since writing his
column on civil liberties regarding the Hollywood Ten. He had been
promised to be placed in a concentration camp, offered one-way
tickets to Moscow, etc.
Pressure in the country toward conformity was
greater than he had ever experienced. Concern over civil liberties
had run high among conservatives when FDR had been elected the third
and fourth times. But now that conservatives were in power, the
rights of minorities, the object of their concern previously, were
now ignored.
Part of the pressure developed out of a fever,
the suggestion that those who disagree go somewhere else. But the
country had always been a melting pot of ideas and backgrounds, and
nevertheless had thrived. The country had never been a place where
everyone agreed.
Indeed, that notion of uniformity was
characteristic of Communism.
"I find the man who (in the guise of
protecting us against Communism) puts his stethoscope against his
neighbor's head to see if he can detect an unorthodox thought, a
strangely incoherent figure, whose lips say no to totalitarianism,
while the pose and aspect of his hands and body say yes."
Joseph Alsop, in London, tells of the remaining
400 million dollars of the U.S. 3.75 billion dollar loan to Britain
of 1946 having been released, the assets previously having been
frozen, contingent on Britain being willing to accept exchange of
foreign sterling, primarily aimed at aiding
dollar-squeezed and relatively sterling-abundant France and Italy. The release had come as a
reprieve.
Were the Marshall Plan not quickly passed by
Congress, the ability of the 16 recipient European nations to resist
Soviet aggression would come to a halt. He recaps the steps in which
Britain had come to the dollar crisis, with its basic gold reserve
of two billion dollars being depleted monthly since the summer at
the rate of 250 million per month. The reserve was not only for the
U.K. but the entire sterling area and if the reserve fell below a
certain point, South Africa and other sterling customers would
refrain from trade, causing the entire sterling area to fall into
economic chaos. During the twenties and thirties, when the reserve
fell to 2.5 billion, it was considered the absolute minimum.
The responsible British Cabinet officials had
convinced U.S. Ambassador to Britain Lewis Douglas of the gravity of
the situation and he had gone to Washington to appeal directly to
the President, who then gave the authority for release of the funds
without the previous condition.
The money would tide the country over through
January. But the Marshall Plan could not be passed before the end of
February. The British Cabinet was therefore straining to find
measures to cover the month-long gap. It was a virtual certainty
that the same emergency faced in November would recur in February.
He thus questions what would occur should
Senator Taft, Senator Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska, Congressmen John
Taber of New York and Harold Knutson of Minnesota, practice
dilatory or obstructive tactics in enabling the Marshall Plan to
pass. He says that it would mean "[q]uite probably, general
ruin".
