The Charlotte News

Friday, August 22, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Netherlands had declared before the U.N. Security Council that the U.N. effort to end the conflict with the Indonesians had been a dismal failure as bloodshed had increased since the mutually agreed ceasefire after the U.N. had ordered it. The Netherlands Government urged the Security Council therefore to drop the matter and allow the parties to settle their own dispute bilaterally.

In Seoul, Korea, there was an arrest by Korean authorities of more than a hundred ringleaders of revolutionary activity in the Southern section, occupied by the Americans. The arrestees were charged with rioting, attacking police boxes, and interference with the Government's rice collecting program. Some leftists were accused of seeking to inject leftist material into radio programming. They were, according to Lt. General John Hodge, occupation commander for the Americans, tied to the north, not necessarily the Soviets. He said that some rightists were also arrested and that the arrests were not politically aimed, though not explaining how such was the case when the enunciated ground was "revolutionary activity". The Russians, occupiers in the northern section, protested the action.

In Sofia, Bulgaria, Russia's representative on the Allied Control Commission rejected the U.S. and British demand for review of the death sentence handed down against Nikola Petkov, anti-Communist leader, sentenced for his alleged conspiracy against the Communist-dominated Fatherland Front Government. The Americans and British termed it a "gross miscarriage of justice", suggesting it might have repercussions in Bulgaria disturbing of the peace.

In Cairo, about 5,000 Egyptians protested against the U.N. not providing a decision on Egypt's desire for British troops to be evacuated. Some shouted, "Down with America." Others urged, "Down with Brazil" or the Security Council.

Freight rates went into effect this date to equalize the rate between the West and South and the North, as ordered by the I.C.C. in May, 1945, and upheld by the Supreme Court the previous May.

Taft-Hartley went into full effect this date.

Seconds before it had gone into effect at midnight, Ford signed an agreement with UAW to extend the union shop. The agreement included alternative provisions for either a pension plan and a 7 cents per hour wage increase, plus other economic benefits, or a 15-cent per hour increase plus six paid holidays, the choice to be determined by a vote of union members.

Without good rain in the Midwest, there was likely to be a meatless summer in 1948 and much higher prices on meat, as corn production was at its lowest level since 1936. Meat would be chopped to 15 to 20 pounds per year per person. That's only about 60 to 80 good-sized burgers, friend. Prepare for the worst. Hit the ditches and get in your bomb shelters. The Russkies or doing it. Red meat is out.

In Philadelphia, an explosion occurred in the Detective Bureau, thought to have originated in an evidence locker from explosives being maintained. Several injuries resulted, none serious.

In Edenton, N.C., the County Solicitor asked the Grand Jury to indict the Register of Deeds for alleged improprieties in issuing marriage licenses, presumably without medical certificates, as the same Register had pleaded guilty to such charges a year earlier.

In Shelby, the head of the North Carolina Highway Patrol concluded that the Patrolman who had shot the Police Chief of Cherryville after a traffic stop for his car allegedly weaving down the road, after which the Chief allegedly charged the Patrolman and cut him with a knife, at which point he was fatally shot four times, had acted in self-defense.

In Miami Beach, Virginia Hill, girlfriend of the recently murdered Bugsy Siegel, was said to be unconscious in the hospital, ostensibly from an overdose of sleeping pills, although that reason for her comatose state, offered by the Police Chief, was also said by other sources to be only rumor. She had returned on August 9 from France, where she was at the time of the murder of Mr. Siegel on June 20 in her Beverly Hills home. She had been hospitalized in Monaco after an overdose of sleeping pills, and again in Paris for nervousness.

In Hollywood, Hedy Lamarr, recently divorced from John Loder, was expected to marry actor Mark Stevens when her divorce became final 11 months hence.

On the editorial page, "Another Big Stride for the South" comments on the new I.C.C. freight rates going into effect this date, to bring parity between the North and the South and West, reducing Southern and Western rates by ten percent while raising Northern rates by the same amount. It had taken 25 years to bring about the change.

"No Slump for Fifteen Years?" tells of economic forecasters seeing no problem in the economy on the horizon, as previously suggested there might be, some going out as far as predicting 15 years of uninterrupted prosperity. One study had predicted national income to be 154 billion per year for the period 1956-60, 7 percent below that of 1946. But according to Professor Sumner H. Slichter of Harvard, that analysis had failed to take into account technological progress which would increase production efficiency such that actual income would be closer to 237 billion annually at 1947 prices, and perhaps as high 260 billion or more.

The economists did not foresee, however, the ugly cars of 1958 with their new dual headlamps stuck onto 1957 bodies, and the intense ennui of the middle class by that point, dissatisfied with prosperity, dragging the country into a recession.

"Bilbo's Legacy Is a Warning" suggests that no one could or would compose a glowing eulogy for the late Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, for his life was one of appeal to the baser prejudices of the citizenry and prostitution of his office.

He used the filibuster and obstruction to establish himself as the voice of blind reaction.

The American people had rejected Mr. Bilbo but his influence would likely linger on in the South as long as the conditions which nurtured him continued. Democracy, to be vital, had to be extended to all citizens.

A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "Hunger for the Bible", tells of the Bible being in demand abroad and the American Bible Society being in need of $775,000 to keep the spiritual food in the export pipeline.

Robert S. Allen tells of former Secretary of State James Byrnes, presently practicing law in Washington, following the Administration's foreign policy with interest, especially regarding Russia. Recently, he had remarked that he believed it was possible for the U.S. and Russia to reach a better mutual understanding if the people who believed deeply in that possibility were working hard to achieve the end and those persons received the support of their fellow countrymen. If those who were working to effect such rapprochement began to become cynical, then they should be replaced.

He notes that an old friend had remarked to Mr. Byrnes that it was too bad he had resigned, to which the former Secretary shot back, "Who said I resigned?"

He tells next of RNC chairman Carroll Reece being a guest of the Perons in Buenos Aires, replete with a 40-dollar per day hotel suite, a limousine and food and drinks on the house, all charged to the Government.

The bust of Susan B. Anthony in the U.S. Capitol was supposed to have occult properties, according to a Capitol guide. Recently, a woman from Pennsylvania did a whirling dervish in front of the statue. The reason, according to a woman accompanying her in the group, was that she had recently lost her husband and needed good luck in finding another.

The Senate Small Business Committee was set to hold hearings into the Army and Navy hoarding of steel and the State Department granting of licenses to large-scale steel exports, to cause embarrassment.

At least 75 percent of veterans were set to cash in their terminal leave bonds in September, pursuant to the recent legislation allowing same early, notwithstanding exhortations by the President to hold on to them to spare the Treasury.

Veteran of Iwo Jima and Okinawa W. E. James was being urged to run for Congress from Alabama.

Collier's was going to reprint in serial form excerpts from the memoirs of the late Harry Hopkins, finished by playwright Robert Sherwood. It would be as revelatory as those of Jim Farley, also serialized in the magazine, but from a different point of view.

Paul W. Ward, in the 17th article in the series for the Baltimore Sun, titled collectively, "Life in the Soviet Union", tells of the collective farming system in Russia not being as many Westerners perceived it. It was not a group of farmers sharing and sharing alike in commonly farmed land. Equal distribution of profits was discouraged by the Communist rulers. The Soviet farmer was only slightly more productive than those in China and India, ranking 19th before the war among 21 countries studied in per capita productivity, just ahead of China and India. At least 40 percent of the work force on the farm was comprised of women. It was likely that productivity since the war was less than before the war as the agricultural economy was hard hit by the war, with most tractors still in operation being ten years old and 10,000 not operating at all, another 20,000 to 30,000 in need of parts. The only new tractors in the Ukraine, according to UNRRA, had come from the U.S.

American agriculture, despite the glowing claims of the Politburo of Soviet farming being the best in the world, was nearly four times more efficient or productive than Russian farms. American winter and spring wheat required on average 8.75 man-hours to produce, whereas comparable Soviet wheat took between four and 4.75 man-days to produce. Britain also enjoyed nearly four times greater productivity in its farming.

The Russian farmer worked 250 days per year and received for the efforts 1 to 4 cents in cash plus 22 pounds of grain, hay, potatoes and other vegetables per day. The Communists had abandoned their former slogan: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

Marquis Childs, on his way to Europe, tells of Washington being hot, causing bureaucrats to find excuse to visit elsewhere. Secretary of State Marshall was at the Pan-American Conference in Brazil, Congress had gone home, and even the Brewster-Ferguson Committee had folded its tent.

President Truman, however, was still at his desk. He could on weekends visit the mountain hideaway in Maryland dubbed Shangri-La—later, Camp David. At the end of August, he and the First Lady would fly to Rio for three days to attend the Conference, which the President would address. It was hoped that his visit would enjoy the same success as his visit in 1946 to Mexico City. He would return via ship and that would be the closest thing to a vacation he would be able to obtain.

The United States, he points out, placed more burdens on the President than either Great Britain or France did on their leaders. He concludes that it was remarkable that so many men wanted the job despite its responsibilities.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss General Eisenhower and his prospects for running for the presidency in 1948. His retirement from the position as Army chief of staff to become president of Columbia University the following January had made him available for politics, even if he eschewed any interest in it.

His prospects depended on his own initiative plus the backing of Roy Roberts of the Kansas City Star. But Kansas was not organized for General Eisenhower. The professional Republican politicians of the state preferred Governor Dewey. But if Mr. Roberts took charge of the effort to nominate the General, then it could become a reality. Thus far, he had remained passive in his efforts, probably not desiring to embarrass the General, who sincerely appeared not desirous of a run for public office.

Had he been the Republican nominee in 1948, would history have been markedly different, especially that of the 1960's?

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