Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Federal Trade Commission had ordered the steel industry to cease fixing prices, shortly after Attorney General Tom Clark had announced a program to investigate and stop any price-fixing in housing, food, and clothing. It was not clear whether the Justice Department would follow suit on the steel industry relative to building costs. The steel industry had ignored President Truman's exhortations to keep prices stable and had announced a month earlier price increases ranging from $5 to $7 per ton. The FTC had taken a similar action in 1924 during the term of President Coolidge.

At the Pan-American Conference in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. proposed discussion of a military agency to back up the Western Hemisphere's mutual defense treaty.

Both British and American representatives meeting to discuss new conditions of the 1946 loan by the U.S. to Great Britain ruled out a new loan. Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder was chief negotiator for the U.S. Only 850 million of the 3.75 billion-dollar loan remained after a year. Mr. Snyder was demanding an accounting and presentation of an outline for balancing the British budget, speeding production, and achieving a balance of trade which would promote worldwide economic stability.

Max Hall of the Associated Press tells of Taft-Hartley going fully into effect during the week, on August 22. Some of the provisions had taken effect when the law was passed over the President's veto on June 23. The sea change would be in the fact that the NLRB would be charged with the responsibility to protect unorganized workers as well as the organized, and that the rights of employers would also be protected. The NLRB would now have a general counsel, Robert Denham, who would determine what disputes the NLRB would consider.

Ambassador George C. Atcheson, Jr., was presumed dead, along with nine others aboard a B-17 which had crashed at sea 65 miles west of Pearl Harbor on Saturday at midnight. Included among the dead were members of General MacArthur's staff. Mr. Atcheson had been a key diplomat involved in the rebuilding of Japan, was chairman of the four-power Council for Japan and on the commission assigned to draft the treaty with Japan. Four persons aboard the plane had been rescued alive after a night in the water fending off sharks. One of the survivors said that Mr. Atcheson only smiled quietly as the plane went down.

Lt. General John C. H. Lee, commander of the Mediterranean theater, denied charges made by G.I.'s and their parents that he was living lavishly while the enlisted men under him suffered and were unduly disciplined.

Prince Eugen, 82, youngest brother of King Gustav of Sweden and a serious painter who had held one-man exhibitions, had died.

In Columbia, N.C., the Sheriff reported that a band of 200 to 300 white men had ordered six white Harvard, Yale, and U.N.C. students to leave the home of a black man, where they had resided since the previous June. The students had complied with a 24-hour ultimatum. They had specifically come to the town to aid the principal of a black high school in Columbia, in Tyrrell County, in the work of "The Light of Tyrrell", a credit union which had raised about $35,000 to purchase a 300-400 acre plantation, subdivided and then sold to individual black small farmers. The students were helping to build an office building for the credit union.

The Sheriff said that there was no law against whites living under the same roof as blacks, but that it was not thought zippety-doo-dah by the white-trash folk around town, who hain't never been to Harvard, Yale, or U.N.C., hain't never and never been.

Be a risin' up one these days.

In Clearwater, Fla., the "red tide" of dead fish thought infected by a micro-organism appeared to be withdrawing again and beaches from Venice to Clearwater were reported free of dead fish. It was hoped that the no-fishing and no-swimming orders issued Saturday could be rescinded off Clearwater. The area had been filled with dead fish in the most recent strike of the "tide".

In Dallas, Tex., 1,300 women were rebelling against the long-skirt fad. The Little Below the Knee Club had been founded three weeks earlier as a result. The following Saturday, they were going to march through Dallas streets garbed per their name.

In Chicago, a former WASP pilot who did not like flower-growing was set to enter the Bendix coast-to-coast air race on August 30. She was halfway between a blonde and a brunette—which, presumably, placed her somewhere over Independence. She believed her plane could beat the 435 mph speed which won the race the previous year.

Tom Watkins of The News tells of the County Board of Commissioners refusing to lift the ban on sale of wine and beer on Sundays outside Charlotte in Mecklenburg County, after hearing from county merchants and ministers on the issue. Final action would await the presence of the full Council, as one member was absent. But all four members present were for continuing the ban.

From Akron, News reporter Tom Schlesinger—son of prominent historian Arthur Schlesinger and brother of future noted historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.—tells of the tenth running of the Soap Box Derby race—halted for four years during the war. Charlotte's champion, Drew Hearn, had been defeated in the third heat by a racer from Wichita, when his chin strap had broken and blocked his vision half-way down the course at a point where he had the lead. He then swerved and brushed the guard rail, and though he recovered and finished the race, the mishap had eliminated him from the competition. He had won easily his first two heats.

The race, viewed by 100,000 spectators, was won by Ken Holmboe of Charleston, W. Va., beating the Akron entry, Gene Miller, by a few feet.

On the editorial page, "Knoxville Busses Show the Way" tells of Knoxville, Tennessee, having a transportation coordinator appointed by the City Council, who had authority over all public transportation. He had issued an order that all of the old streetcar tracks would be paved over by August 1, regardless of whether new busses were in place. Immediately, the local bus company ordered 24 new buses with 48 more in the offing.

"Drew Hearn and His Generation" gives praise to the Charlotte Soap Box Derby champion who had raced the previous day in Akron for the national title, with 134 other participants from 133 cities in 33 states. Boxing champion Joe Louis had stopped by to give a pep talk to the only black entrant, Ashton Fawcette of Durham. Jimmy Stewart and General Jimmy Doolittle were also on hand.

"Dewey and the Gallup Poll" tells of Governor Thomas Dewey reportedly consulting routinely with George Gallup before making any of his rare policy statements. It might explain, suggests the editorial, why Mr. Dewey had been so silent of late, as the polls were confusing.

A piece from Christian Century, titled "'An Insult to Asia'", discusses Indonesia as an example of the new Asia. Within 24 hours of the outbreak of violence by the Dutch troops on July 21, Sutan Sjahrir, former Prime Minister of Indonesia, placed the case before Jawaharlal Nehru in India. Pandit Nehru sided with Indonesia and set forth the doctrine that no European nation should interfere militarily in Asia against the people of Asia. The American press had dubbed it the Asian equivalent of the Monroe Doctrine. Mr. Nehru described the Dutch action as an "insult to Asia".

Robert S. Allen reports that observers were betting that the British Labor Government would ease its confiscatory tax on foreign films, which had prompted the MPAA to issue a ban on export of American movies because they would lose 75 percent of their profits, already substantially cut by costs of exhibition and distribution. There was also in the wings the prospect of an American ban on British imports of films, which would result in a loss of up to 30 million dollars in British receipts, 22 million having been derived by the British from films shown in America during 1946.

Simple answer should have been: "My, oh my. I's sho can't remember back that far, massa. I sholy can't. But the song I sang dat day went like dis..."

He next imparts of the vendetta which Eva Peron, wife of the "semi-dictator" Juan Peron of Argentina, intended to fulfill at the Pan-American Conference in Rio de Janeiro. She held a grudge against Dr. Ricardo Guardo, president of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, who had refused her order to have removed the deputy who had sought to pass a bill banning acceptance of decorations from foreign countries, proposed at a time shortly after Senora Peron arrived in Spain to be decorated by Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Dr. Guardo moved to table the expulsion resolution even as it appeared doomed in the Chamber because of two majority members remaining absent during the vote, which would have caused it to fail for want of the necessary two-thirds majority. Dr. Guardo's move had only been one to try to save face for the Peronistas and Sra. Peron. The semi-dictatrix was nevertheless angry about the matter and wanted Dr. Guardo purged. She would be an adviser at the Rio conference, and as such, Dr. Guardo's superior.

He concludes: "Hell hath no fury."

Admiral William Leahy, chief of staff to both Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, had been given a lesson in patience recently by Dr. T. V. Soong, Chinese Foreign Minister. When Admiral Leahy counseled that China ought make concessions to Russia on the Manchurian Railway, jointly controlled before the war by Russia and China, or else China would lose all of Manchuria, Dr. Soong replied that China would, however, be able to obtain Manchuria again in the not too distant future. When Admiral Leahy asked how long that would be, Dr. Soong replied that it would be about 500 years, not so long in the perception of the Chinese.

Paul W. Ward, starting the third week of his series of articles from the Baltimore Sun, titled collectively "Life in the Soviet Union", discusses labor in Communist Russia. Labor did not have the ability to bargain collectively, were prevented from striking, not only by the police and courts, but also by labor union leaders who were also, in most cases, Community party officials. Workers were bound to the jobs they had, were required to obtain the "blat" or permission of their employer to change jobs. The employers, by a decree of June, 1940, could only grant that permission in a limited number of cases. The penalty for quitting without permission was criminal prosecution and two to four months in jail, plus a permanent record of the defiance in the worker's "labor book", which the worker was required to carry and provide to each new employer.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop again discuss the tension developing in the country between security and civil rights of individuals. They cite the recent termination of ten employees of the State Department under the new loyalty test authorized by the McCarran Amendment to the State Department appropritations bill. Initially, the ten persons, whose names were not revealed, had no right of appeal. A three-man loyalty board was then established to review the cases.

A letter is reprinted from Milton H. Richman, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans, addressed to Secretary of State Marshall on August 8, anent the Palestine situation. To alleviate the "rising tide of reprisals by the contending parties", the organization advocated the same sort of resolution presented to the U.N. by the American delegate, which had worked to halt the fighting between the Dutch and Indoensians after 15 days, a simple directive threatening U.N. reprisals of either economic and diplomatic sanctions or military action or both, if the directive were not heeded.

A short piece from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat imparts of the lightning rod salesmen of yore once proliferating in the Midwest, hawking lightning rods to the farmers, whether needed or not. He had been a character. The piece was reminded of the fact by a circular from the Better Business Bureau warning of lightning rod salesmen operating in the area, one of whom had suggested a bill of $2,000 for his prodigious efforts, more inclined to huckterism than actual labor.

Framed Edition

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