The Charlotte News

Saturday, August 2, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of the armed conflict between the Dutch Government and the Indonesians, ordering the hostilities begun July 20 to cease immediately and that the two sides submit to arbitration. The Council debated the matter for only two days before issuing the unprecedented order. Britain, France, and Belgium abstained from the 8 to 0 decision of the Council. The United States had authored the final resolution. The Council rejected the Soviet proposal that the forces be ordered back to their original positions at the start of the conflict. Both sides were expected to obey the order, but the Dutch representative was not pleased with the outcome.

A series of papers by the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission urged that the atomic stockpiles and production facilities had to be turned over to the nations of the world to avoid the temptation of an aggressor nation using the weaponry. Russia did not take part in the papers, not yet approved by the governments represented by the delegates who produced them. The papers formed the basis for a second report to be delivered to the Security Council on atomic energy.

The Senate War Investigating Committee heard the testimony of John Meyer, publicity agent for Howard Hughes, telling of $105 worth of New York nightclub entertainment for Elliott Roosevelt in August, 1943, when he recommended that the Government order a hundred of the Hughes F-11's as photo reconnaissance planes, a recommendation accepted over the objections of the military brass, forming part of a 40-million dollar contract with Hughes Aircraft.

Senator Harry Cain of Washington interrupted the proceedings to discuss Mr. Meyer's six wartime deferments from the draft and wanted his record investigated by the Justice Department. Senator Homer Ferguson then deferred a ruling on the decision and adjourned until Monday.

In Petah Tiqva in Palestine, near Tel Aviv, the body of a dead Jew was found beside a road, believed to be one of two Jews reported killed by angry British soldiers after the discovery of the two hung British sergeants, murdered by the Irgun organization in retaliation for execution of three of its members for the May 5 bombing and shooting at the Acre Prison. Two Arabs near the scene said that they had seen the body hurled from a passing truck.

Tel Aviv was quieting down after a night and day of violence in which five Jews were killed and 16 hurt on Thursday, and another 33 wounded on Friday, most of the casualties being at the hands of police and British troops angered at the hanging of the two sergeants.

Since mid-July, 24 had been killed and 144 wounded in Palestine, 15 of the killed being police or Army personnel. Two were Jewish attackers and seven were civilians. Of the wounded, 79 were British security personnel and 65 were Jewish civilians.

Acting on rumors, the State Department instructed law enforcement agencies from New Orleans to Florida to be on the alert for seven former Army combat planes, Mustangs and Lightnings, leaving the country, purportedly to aid a revolution in the Caribbean. It was not stated where the uprising might take place. No planes were found.

Reports were that an uprising was being formed in eastern Cuba, to take place in the Dominican Republic. Cuban officials had denied these reports. The rumors had apparently originated in the American missions in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, resulting from press stories.

The Dominican Ambassador, Julio Ortega Frier, stated that an army of 3,000 Communist revolutionaries from Cuba, Guatemala, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico had been mobilized to invade his country. The governments of each of the countries, save Puerto Rico, had denied any knowledge of such an army.

UAW representatives recommended a strike by 107,000 workers at Ford Motor Company beginning Tuesday, affecting 40 plants. At issue was formation of a pension plan and limitation of lawsuits arising from Taft-Hartley. The union and management were scheduled to meet Sunday to try to negotiate an agreement.

In Coal City, W. Va., a baby born prematurely at six months had ostensibly died in a Beckley hospital and was turned over to the mortuary for preparation for burial. As the embalmer began to work, he pressed on the baby's chest and it started to cry. It was returned to the hospital and placed in an incubator, but its heartbeat was only half the normal rate and it subsequently died, was returned to the mortuary.

In Lillington, N.C., the Angier farmer accused of murdering his wife with a gun testified that he had not, as the prosecution claimed, written or dictated the suicide note found from his wife, purportedly written on the day she was shot in August, 1946. The State contended that the note was scrawled, whereas the woman had a beautiful handwriting, and that it contained grammatical errors unlikely for a high school graduate as she was. The note had not been discovered until seven months after the first conviction and death sentence, affirmed by the State Supreme Court. A new trial had been granted on the basis of the newly discovered material evidence. The defendant had told his mother-in-law right after the shooting that he had reached for the gun to prevent his wife from shooting herself and it went off, killing her. The note was discovered by the defendant's sister.

In the fourth week of the seven-week photo contest at The News, the contestants vying for a $5 weekly prize and the chance to compete for the $25 grand prize, affording the opportunity then to compete nationally for up to $1,500, Mrs. Place showed as the first female winner, capturing the prize for her submission in Class D, Animal Life, a picture taken with her Brownie of a white polar bear at the Denver Zoo. She established three firsts in the fourth week. Second place went to a man who presented a photo of a child blowing on a pipe. He got $2.50. His name was not Mr. Wynn.

Thus far, 1,244 entries had been submitted.

We do not think that pipe smoking should be encouraged among infants. Furthermore, polar bears in captivity ought not be promoted.

In the Woman's Section of the newspaper, there were pictures and details of the 24th annual Blowing Rock Horse Show.

On the editorial page, "Incompatibility in Our Letters" tells of a contest between the editor of the Siler City Chatham News, E.A. Resch, and novelist James Street of Chapel Hill, in which Mr. Resch objected to a Good Housekeeping short story by Mr. Street titled "Symphony in Siler City", in which Mr. Street had labeled the local folk "yokels". Mr. Street responded to the editorial in which Mr. Resch suggested the label as "contemptuous" by calling Mr. Resch's response to be demonstrating of a "whopping measure of stupidity."

The piece thinks the argument unnecessary, but it pointed up the inevitable conflict between the editor, wedded to his locality, and the novelist, who loved the town, too, but had roots in many places, always longing for home, but aware of its deficiencies and willing to comment on them. It was the problem which had troubled Thomas Wolfe.

Andy Griffith, incidentally, was a rising junior at the University at the time of this tempest in a kettle-drum.

"Why Not Relax for Peace?" tells of Senator Brien McMahon of Connecticut proposing a plan whereby the countries of the world would declare a moratorium, led by the United States, on all tension in the world, eschewing discussion of war while it took an inventory of its essential security needs.

Most editorialists had greeted the plan as being unworkable and the piece agrees. But, it adds, it demonstrated how far the world had gone down the path of "international lunacy". The country did not like to hear of the McMahon Plan, but it also did not like to hear the words of the president of Charles University in Prague, Dr. B. Bydzovsky, who stated that the U.S. was a land of pessimism about war, and that the press should exclude "war" from its editorials so that the people could think more clearly in terms of peace.

The people also did not want to hear the Fortune Magazine prediction that to implement properly the Marshall Plan to combat Soviet expansion would cost the country 50 billion dollars. Yet, the American people had no trouble accepting that World War II had cost the country 341 billion dollars.

And the next war would have incalculable cost, because, as Fortune had said, "It will be the Last World War—the one that will never get in the history books."

"Salute to Secretary of Defense" seeks to work out the thorny issue of how many guns were due the newly created post of Secretary of Defense after merger of the armed forces. He was entitled to more than the Secretary of the Navy, who received 19, but he could not have 20 for being violative of the ironclad rule in the Navy of not having 20. Nor could he usurp the 19, as that would cause problems. Twenty-one was right out, as that was the sole province of the President.

The piece recommends as a solution that the Navy ships be lined up and fired all at once, on the off chance that the shot might be heard in Moscow, to let everyone know that the country loved everyone.

But what's wrong with 19 and a half? Just load half the shell on the last one.

A piece from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, titled "Prayer for Landlords", tells of a letter writer to the New York Herald Tribune supplying a quoted prayer for landlords from the Book of Common Prayer of King Edward VI, son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, who had died in 1553 at age 16 after reigning for six years. He had given the first such book in the vernacular of the post-Reformation Church of England.

The prayer for landlords, it instructs, was eventually dropped from the Book, but, it believes, given the contemporary evidence, was dropped too soon.

Drew Pearson tells of Senator Glen Taylor of Idaho, former cowboy singer who had won the respect of his Senate colleagues, getting ready to embark on a cross-country horseback ride for peace. Along the way, he intended to speak in advocation of the U.N., having introduced a bill to strengthen the organization and help to eliminate the veto power on the Security Council. He worried that the Midwest was returning to isolationism and that threat of war loomed. He would set out from the Golden Gate in San Francisco, alternating each day between two horses. He would ride the distance by horse, even in the desert and in the Rockies, taking about three months.

The names of the horses were not provided.

The column next discusses the junket planned by twelve Congressmen to travel overseas at the instance of Pan American Airways to explore the idea of "one company" rule in foreign markets, as favored by Pan Am. But the Civil Aeronautics Board has refused to sanction the trip unless the Congressmen paid their own way. The junket was now cancelled. An attempt by Pan Am to have the trip charged on credit until Congress could authorize it in January had resulted in two of the Congressmen, including North Carolina's Alfred Bulwinkle, refusing to go under such conditions.

He notes that Howard Hughes contended that he was being investigated because of his refusal to merge his company with Pan Am and to cooperate with the "one-company" idea.

He next reports of the KKK in Atlanta holding a meeting, despite its charter having been revoked by the State of Georgia. Ninety had attended the meeting. Among other things discussed at the meeting was a plan for a cross-burning on Missionary Ridge in Rossville, Ga. Three cars leaving Atlanta would be led to the affair by Jimmie Helms of the Atlanta Police. Grand Dragon Dr. Samuel Green had the full cooperation of the Atlanta Police in the cross-burning.

Dr. Eubanks, an Atlanta dentist with an office in the Chandler Building, closed the meeting with a prayer.

He notes that Parson Jack Johnston of the Klavern was not a member of the Southern Baptist Convention but had frequently attacked its president, Rev. Louis Newton.

He tells of Congresswoman Margaret Chase Smith of Maine already being referred to by her colleagues as "Senator", as she was running for the seat to be vacated by retiring Majority Leader Wallace White.

Sam Mosher of Signal Oil Company had helped to work out the compromise with the Government on the tidelands oil issue.

Bing Crosby's "Welcome, Stranger" recently had enjoyed a command performance at the White House.

The other guy must have gone fishing.

Marquis Childs discusses the Senate War Investigating Committee investigation of Howard Hughes and the "Spruce Goose" war contract, and the investigation's implications for international air travel, linked inseparably to politics.

Senator Owen Brewster of Maine had long championed the interests of Pan American Airways, which enjoyed exclusive domination of overseas travel until 1940. After that, TWA, operated by Mr. Hughes, and American Overseas Airways were able to obtain routes, TWA getting the exclusive right to fly to Paris, Rome, Cairo, and other capitals, while American got the post-war route to Berlin. The competition upset Juan Trippe, head of Pan Am, and caused the company to promote the idea of a "chosen instrument" whereby a single airline would be awarded specific monopolistic rights over certain routes, theoretically to be spread over competing airlines. Senator Brewster had favored legislation to establish such a policy. Likewise, Nevada Senator Pat McCarran was a proponent of Pan American and the "chosen instrument" plan.

Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington was linked to Northwest Airlines, and Alaskans who wanted an inland air route charged that he had frustrated their plans, a charge Senator Magnuson denied.

The taxpayer paid for the airline subsidies coming through post office airmail routes, and it was not clear how much money went to the airlines in this form, certainly in the hundreds of millions of dollars. How much of it had been returned to the Government for carrying the mail was equally obscure. He recommends that a Senate investigation focus on that.

Samuel Grafton tells of General Eisenhower stating that it appeared increasingly that the United States would have to settle for a two-world concept rather than the one world for which the country had been striving. Mr. Grafton wonders what the two-world concept would look like, suggesting that it might do strange things to Western man.

The one world idea had touched the roots of the democratic spirit, the concept of the brotherhood of man. The two-world idea had "a brackish, even bitter flavor", something like the difference between the offensive and the defensive. The idea of two worlds might also transmogrify into multiple spheres, with a leftist France and socialist Britain with which to contend and provide aid.

There was already some reaction forming against the Marshall Plan, with people saying that the country should save itself and let Europe care for its own. Divisiveness of the type could become infectious.

It might be that a two-world system would be as hard to set up as a one world system, as hard as breaking glass into two pieces. None of the problems would be solved by having two worlds.

It would still be possible to form one world, but only if the country could win over itself and conquer its fear and hesitation. It would be necessary to give up some of the nation's wealth, to admit refugees, and accommodate views to accord those of foreign allies. He views the task as not easily accomplished.

A letter from A. W. Black seeks to find parallel between the recent statement by Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin that he foresaw no danger of war and that of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, declaring "peace for our time" on his return from the Munich Conference with Hitler, which resulted in the Pact of September 30, 1938. Mr. Black finds Mr. Bevin's statement incompatible with the reality that a diplomatic war was already transpiring. He finds the path to war with Russian Communism inevitable.

A letter writer favors a surprise attack on Russia, in the vein of Pearl Harbor, before the Russians could attack the United States.

A letter writer says that the editorial of July 30, suggesting use by the National Guard of the new Naval Reserve armory being built in Charlotte, to alleviate the Guard's competition with community groups utilizing the Armory, was not workable for the two units requiring different space for their training and drills.

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