The Charlotte News

Monday, September 1, 1947

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that a prospective fight was believed to be shaping up in the U.N. General Assembly regarding the plan submitted from Geneva by a U.N. committee proposing to divide Palestine into Arab and Jewish states and to admit 150,000 Jewish immigrants during the ensuing two years. The previous night, the eleven-member committee recommended unanimously the proposal that Palestine would become independent from Great Britain at the "earliest practicable date". The partition and immigration proposals were approved by seven members. The proposals included that Jerusalem would become an international city. The other three members of the committee who voted recommended a federal Arab-Jewish state and immigration of Jews to "absorptive capacity" during a period of three years.

The majority recommendation gave to Arabs the territory of Western Galilee, the Samarian and Judean hill country, and the Southern coast, from Isdud to the Egyptian frontier. The ports of Haifa and Jaffa were proposed to be for the operation of common Arab and Jewish interests under an economic union of the two states.

The Jewish state would be comprised of Eastern Galilee, the central coastal plain, including Haifa, Jaffa and Tel Aviv, and the Beersheba sub-districts, including most of the Negreb, the southern desert.

The General Assembly would consider the report beginning September 16. The Arab League vowed to oppose the proposals.

In Hungary, the Communists placed first in the national elections for a new Parliament, polling 20 percent of the vote, a result which even the Communists' allies asserted was accomplished by fraud. A four party coalition, including the Communists, had polled 63 percent of the vote. The Democratic People's Party, anti-Communist, came in second with about 16 percent of the vote. The Small Holders Party, which finished first in the previous election, came in third with 15 percent of the vote. Fourth were the Social Democrats with only slightly fewer votes. The Hungarian Independent Party was fifth.

Because of the dollar shortage in Britain, the country had stopped purchasing food from the United States for the time being. Purchases of tobacco, machinery and some other items would continue.

Don't need food; need cigarettes and machinery though.

A few hours before the announcement, 12,000 coal miners in Yorkshire had voted to end a three-week walkout. The strike had begun in Grimethorpe, regarding the refusal of miners to dig an additional two feet of coal per day, as directed by the Government.

In Tokyo, an international tribunal freed 23 Japanese accused of war crimes after it was determined that there was insufficient evidence for convictions. The American prosecutor stated that the dismissals had no bearing on the prosecution of Hideki Tojo, ongoing for 15 months. Included in the dismissed defendants were a Tojo Cabinet minister and the manufacturer of some of Japan's planes during the war.

In Paris, a fire at the Select Theater in Reuil, about three miles from the Arc de Triomphe, killed 90 persons and injured another 60. The proprietor was charged with manslaughter for negligence in not taking adequate precautions against fire. A short circuit in the balcony was the source of ignition.

The President arrived in Rio de Janeiro for the close of the Pan-American Conference, which he would address the following day and then personally sign the Inter-American treaty formed by the conference, for mutual security of the Western Hemisphere.

In Ecuador, a revolt took place among troops on Saturday night against the week-old Government of Col. Carlos Mancheno. The latter had placed the country under siege and sent troops and tanks acquired from the U.S. under lend-lease to trouble areas. On Sunday, the rebels were joined by other garrisons. The rebels were apparently supporters of Dr. Mariano Suarez Veintimilla, the previous vice-president, and Col. Baquero Davila.

In New York, the American Legion convention ended after a day of resolutions primarily aimed at opposing Communism. The Legion heard a talk by former Minnesota Governor and Republican presidential candidate Harold Stassen, in which he stated his support for the Marshall Plan. The Legion voted to approve the Plan as well, albeit with a minority report which asserted that money alone would not stop Communism.

The president of the National Association of Manufacturers contended that Americans had higher buying power than eight years earlier, before the war, while Secretary of Labor Lewis Schwellenbach stated that wages had not kept pace with higher prices. The NAM president also said that labor costs accounted for most of the higher prices, a contention disputed in part by Mr. Schwellenbach. Food prices, he remarked, produced largely by unorganized workers, had increased 72 percent, a large factor in the increased cost of living. The NAM president pointed out that while cost of living had risen 57 percent since 1939, wages had doubled.

In Strasburg, Va., on Saturday night, a woman allegedly murdered her estranged husband, a druggist, inside the pharmacy where he worked. She claimed that he was seeing another woman. She was charged with murder. Witnesses stated that she approached him and pulled a gun from a cosmetics case, stating, "I told you I was going to kill you." She then shot him in the chest.

Well, at least she told him first.

In Jackson, N.C., a committing magistrate would hear the case again against the seven white men accused of attempting to lynch Buddy Bush the previous May 23, in the immediate wake of the acquittal of the 28 defendants in Greenville, S.C., for the lynching of Willie Earle. A Grand Jury in Northampton County had previously refused to return indictments, despite a confession by one of the men to the FBI. The case was submitted to the magistrate at the behest of Governor Gregg Cherry, who insisted that justice be done. The state's 54-year old anti-lynching law allowed the case to be brought in a county adjoining the county where venue normally resided. The committing magistrate, if he found probable cause, could resubmit the case to a Grand Jury in such adjoining county. Each of the two charges brought against the seven white men carried a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Police in Laurinburg, N.C., were hunting for three or four robbery suspects who had taken $1,800 from a man, near the entrance to the Laurinburg-Maxton Air Base on Highway 74. He had picked up two of the men as hitchhikers, and that was the thanks he got. They quickly pulled guns and ordered him to turn over his pocketbook, then drove his car back to the base entrance where they got into another car and left with one or two other men.

If you should see the men, do not approach. Call the police or Highway Patrol—and do so at once.

A woman in Lafayette, Georgia, was convicted of five counts of bigamy and sentenced to two years on each count, to run concurrent. She admitted six marriages but said that she thought the previous five husbands had divorced her.

On the editorial page, "Strong Prop in U.S. Income" finds the confidence among economists that no depression was imminent stemming from the notion that the high prices did not constitute true inflation, as high production and wide distribution of income were working to cushion the prices. Per capita income had reached an all-time high of $1,200 in 1946, twice the 1940 rate. Thus far in 1947, it was $1,082, still 90 percent higher than in 1940.

Moreover, regional income had increased by two and a half to three times in the South and Northwest since 1940, even though the Southeast was a third below the national average.

Exports were five times above pre-war levels and were expected to continue high. Domestic markets would absorb any cuts.

If production continued high for the ensuing two years, the U.S. could supply its own needs and those of the world, and do so at reduced prices.

"American Bigotry in Rome" tells of a group of Southern Baptists having stated on Saturday that the President had become the tool of the Vatican, based on correspondence between Pope Pius and the President anent the recovery of Europe. The Baptists thought it a move to make the Government "an ally of clerical totalitarianism."

They were also upset that America had returned Myron Taylor as envoy to the Vatican and that American relief to Italy was being distributed from the Vatican.

The Vatican responded on the latter point that the Italian Government had full responsibility for administering the aid.

The piece regards the Baptist view as narrow. The American Government, in dealing with the Vatican, was acting prudently for the latter's influence throughout Western Europe. To ascribe, as the Baptists had, the correspondence by the President to election-year politics, was below any political enemy, especially so for the Baptists.

"Reynolds Asks a Question" tells of former Senator Robert Rice Reynolds visiting Charlotte and asking what America got out of the war. The piece responds that for the 308,978 citizens who gave their lives in the war, it was the destruction of tyranny in Germany and Japan. Those dead could no longer be heard in a republic taking for granted the freedom they had helped to preserve.

It finds it no shock that the isolationist, reactionary former Senator would ask such a question. Now, he viewed the Communist threat as far more menacing than that of Hitler during and before the war. Yet, he had no fear of war with Russia as he was confident it would blow up in their faces with an internal revolt should they try it.

He thought the answer to his question was expressed only in national debt, which he calculated at 625 billion dollars, not the official 258 billion. He had determined that a fence of steel around the nation could be built more cheaply.

A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "The City Planners", tells of Springfield, Mass., serving as a model for public planning in holistic fashion, serving as well-rounded example internationally from Britain to Eritrea.

Robert S. Allen predicts that William Green would be elected in October to another term, his thirteenth two-year term, as president of the AFL, despite his having wanted the current term to be his last. No successor, however, could be found on whom the AFL leaders could agree. Mr. Green was little more than a figurehead in any event, with real power vested in a group comprised of John L. Lewis, George Meany, Dan Tobin, and William Hutcheson.

Each of the four, especially Mr. Lewis, plus many others, wanted to be president of the labor organization. None of them had ever agreed on a successor to Mr. Green, which was how he had become president in the first place.

It was also vital to have unity in AFL for the fight during the coming year against Taft-Hartley.

He notes that Mr. Meany, a backer of Thomas Dewey, hoped to become a compromise candidate for the AFL presidency.

He next imparts of the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, which had made 105 million dollars during its life, founded in 1934 when Henry Wallace was Secretary of Agriculture. Dr. William I. Myers, dean of Cornell's Agricultural School, was largely responsible for the agency's success. Originally passed as part of the New Deal, the agency was designed to prevent farmers from losing their farms to foreclosure and bankruptcy. It had loaned 1.2 billion dollars during its life. The severe drought year of 1936 was its peak, with 837 million outstanding in loans. More than a quarter million farmers paid off their mortgages during the war, during which time the agency had collected 500 million dollars. The corporation was now beginning its liquidation, with 135 million in loans still outstanding. The FFMC was not being investigated by Congress as was the RFC, with a loss of 900 million dollars. Moreover, the Congress did not change the agency's budget at the previous session.

The chief operating official, Harris Willingham, described the FFMC as a clear case of "man biting dog".

Marquis Childs, in Berlin, discusses the role of trade unions in occupied Germany. Before Hitler, the trade unions had been more geared to political activity, being closely wedded to the State, than to collective bargaining. It was so under the Weimar Republic from 1920-33, making it easy for Hitler to take over the trade unions.

Law No. 22 had issued in the American zone which sought to further the American goal of establishing free collective bargaining through trade unions, cutting, to the extent possible, the umbilical cord to the State. Labor leaders continued to insist on obtaining benefits not in the contracts, but the Americans believed that the idea of collective bargaining free of State interference was beginning to take hold. The new constitution of Wuerttemberg-Baden required labor to obtain fair wages and vacations with pay. The constitution in the state of Hesse provided that management and labor would have an equal voice in the operation of the factory and that a neutral party would settle disputes.

But despite these objectives and reforms to achieve them, the problem of high prices versus lower wages had caused a system of barter to be developed that factories could keep their employees. Manufactuers would pay certain percentages of the wages in product, which in turn would be traded on the black market. Bricks, for example, were one such product, causing a problem in the building of new housing. Some 60 percent of the building materials in the American zone had gone into this market, upsetting the building program. In the British zone, it was 30 percent. Thus, an order was issued forbidding such barter.

It was too early, he reports, to determine whether Germany would ever have free trade unions and free collective bargaining, with tradition being against it. The Americans were nevertheless persisting in trying to get the Germans to adopt the concepts.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop report that the 16 nations meeting in Paris to determine their needs under the Marshall Plan and the resources which each nation could contribute to it had completed their work except for cutting down the requests. The resulting totals, calling for more than 12 billion dollars in aid during the first year and a little under 30 billion for the four years duration of the Plan, were thus inflated. George Kennan, author of the Plan, had been sent from the State Department to guide the countries in trimming their needs to avoid the prospect of the American Government doing the trimming. The Administration deemed six to eight billion dollars to be reasonable for the first year and 15 to 20 billion for the four years.

Britain and the European nations were organizing committees to supervise the reconstruction of fuel sources, transportation, communications, and agricultural production, among other areas of the economy.

Congress would likely want to write into the authorizing legislation for the Plan a host of restrictions. To make this prospect work advantageously, a proposal was being made to have a Government corporation formed with broad powers to administer the aid. The proposed board of directors would include as half its membership Senators and Congressmen appointed by the president pro tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. The Alsops regard the idea as a good one.

A letter from the president of the Charlotte Spastic Association thanks those who helped to make the six weeks nursery at St. Martin's Parish House in Charlotte a success during the summer.

A letter from Harry Golden, secretary of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, thanks the newspaper for its coverage of the second annual convention held at Little Switzerland, N.C., and the editorial on the subject August 26. He remarks that the address by News publisher Thomas L. Robinson to the convention served as one of the highlights.

A letter writer responds to a letter of August 20 re dangerous cab drivers in Charlotte, finds the previous writer not in the phone book, wonders where he came from and who he was to remark on Charlotte cab drivers. He thinks he ought apply as a "Dead Eye Dick" detective, for he knew more than 150 policemen and city detectives.

This writer says he rode in the cabs every day and none of the drivers, in his experience, had ever run a red light. All the drivers were courteous.

He concludes that if the correspondent would make himself known, the cab drivers likely would present him with a suit better than anything he currently could afford to purchase.

Well, fellow, we shall tell you the story of that writer: he landed at Roswell back in July, and then went to Hollister, California, for the July 4th celebration, had sand kicked in his face. That's who he was and from whence he derived. He remains the Man with No Name, not even in the phone book. Why don't you pick on someone your own size.

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