Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that British Foreign
Minister Ernest Bevin urged before the House of Commons formation of a Western
European union to face the "ruthless" drive by Russia. He
favored unification of Germany but believed that the Russians, in their formulation, wanted
too much centralization, making it too easy for transmutation into a
one-party dictatorship.
The Hagana organization, the militia of the Jewish Agency,
stated that it had attacked the Arab village of Yazur and killed
twelve this date, following an Arab attack which resulted in the
deaths of seven Jewish police officers and wounding of four others
at the edge of Jerusalem. The deaths raised the total killed in the
Middle East to 951 since partition of Palestine by the U.N. on
November 29.
In Greece, Army units repelled strong guerrilla forces from
Notia Europos and Actochori in the Edessa area of Western Macedonia.
The U.S. revealed, from the seized German Foreign Office
records, a secret offer made in 1940 by Stalin to Hitler to join the
Axis on condition Russia be provided a free hand in Finland, a base
near the Dardanelles, and a dominant voice in the Middle East.
Hitler did not respond. The State Department released the
information, and it was being broadcast via the Voice of America
into Russia and Eastern Europe.
In Bavaria, the Bavarian Trade Union Federation called for a
walkout by its million members, in support of the 24-hour protest by
200,000 workers the previous day in Nuremberg and Cologne, regarding
food shortages.
At a press conference, the President said that he would
officially announce his candidacy for re-election sometime before
the July Democratic convention, but that there was no rush. He
supported parts of the plan enunciated by Bernard Baruch to a
Congressional committee, but not that of former President Hoover,
who favored reduction of foreign aid from a four-year program to one
of 15 months.
AFL president William Green proposed a 45-hour work week with
overtime pay as a method to increase production and help reduce
inflation, provided Congress would approve an effective
inflation-control measure, including most of the President's
ten-point plan, with the exception of the desired authority for wage
controls.
The President had stated at the press conference that he was
not in favor of such an extension of the work week, as also proposed
by GM president Charles Wilson. He again lauded the other Charles
Wilson, head of GE, for reducing prices.
In Colton, California, four men were killed in a powder
explosion at the Portland Cement Co. quarry. The quarry mined lime
rock for use in cement. The explosion came from premature detonation
of dynamite. One of those killed was on the job for the first day.
In Savana, Ill., an explosion at an ordnance plant was felt
over three states, but there were no injuries reported.
In Los Angeles, a woman, 20, was charged with extortion by
sending a letter to actress Betty Grable, threatening to kidnap her
seven-month old daughter unless she was paid $5,000 to refrain from
the act. The young woman had arrived recently from Texas, would
likely be residing in California for awhile.
A new cold wave hit the Midwest and snow fell again in the
East. The temperature reached a cool 29 degrees below zero in
Pembina, N.D., with zero being the norm across the country to
Chicago. Snow reached accumulation of eight inches in West Virginia,
and some new snowfall was recorded in New York City, already beset
by record snow.
In Gerrard Hall on the campus of UNC in Chapel Hill, the 23rd
annual North Carolina Newspaper Institute convened. It was open to
the public. University Comptroller William D. Carmichael—after whom
Carmichael Auditorium is named—would host a luncheon for the event
at the Carolina Inn, at which would be featured the folk songs and
ballads collected by Dr. and Mrs. I. G. Greer.
We note that Gerrard Hall apparently was once the scene of a
speech by President Andrew Johnson, said to have been delivered
while he was quite in his cups. In any event, it is documented that
Presidents James K. Polk, a graduate of the University, James
Buchanan and Woodrow Wilson each spoke there.
We once took a class there on appreciation of classical music, Music 41. A couple of times, in another context, we, ourselves, were granted the stage to deliver a talk to some animals on loan from the Zoo to the University. On one such occasion, we delivered a reading of some of our poetry, which was well received and deeply appreciated.
On the editorial page, "We Must Out-Think the Russians"
tells of Eleanor Roosevelt returning from Geneva where she had
chaired the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, stating that she was
impressed with the Russian challenge to American world leadership.
She advised that the U.S. needed to find ways to be strong enough,
including "out-thinking" the Russians, to allow Russia to
work with America. Otherwise, the country had to prepare for another
war.
America had the foremost Navy in the world, the strongest
industrial capacity and economy generally, sole possession of the
atomic bomb, a strong Air Force and military generally. But it was
not utilizing this strength with intelligence. Mrs. Roosevelt
asserted that America had to play the role of the disciplined adult
to the undisciplined child, which was that of the younger U.S.S.R.,
advice which the piece thinks sound.
The first mistake had been made in issuing an implicit
challenge on arms build-up, believing that Russia would be unable to
compete. But they were busy changing their subordinate position in
this regard. The Marshall Plan was designed to rectify this mistake.
The other mistake was in thinking that atomic power gave the
country security. But the Air Policy Commission report, released January 14, had stated
that it would cost about 24 billion dollars beyond the current
defense budget over a four-year period to prepare for a long-range
assault on Russia. And even that would not assure survival. The
report emphasized that only abolishing war would enable complete
security.
It concludes by asserting that the country still had the time
to out-think the Russians, but not so much as the Congress thought.
"Threat by Southern Democrats" comments on the
threat of new Governor Fielding Wright and Senator James Eastland,
both of Mississippi, to bolt the Democratic Party if it continued
along the course toward effecting "anti-Southern"
legislation, such as that to authorize permanently the FEPC, an anti-lynch law, an anti-poll tax
law, and other such bills.
It had been the Southern politicians who pushed for dumping
Henry Wallace from the ticket in 1944, leading to the nomination of
Senator Truman, thus would be ironic should some of the Southerners
bolt.
The reaction of party managers, that the Southern Democrats
had no other place to go, was valid. A GOP victory would deprive the
Democrats a return to committee chairs. And a victory by Thomas
Dewey might make matters worse, as he was in favor of the
"anti-Southern" legislation, as apparently also were the
undeclared General Eisenhower and the declared Harold Stassen.
It concludes that it looked like a bad year for Mississippi.
A piece from the Dallas Morning News, titled "The
Iniquitous Margarine Taxes", tells of more people turning to
margarine, with butter costing over a dollar per pound. The New York
Academy of Medicine and the AMA had stated that margarine was as
nutritious as cow butter.
But there was a tax of a dime on yellow-colored margarine,
and only a quarter cent on the uncolored type, which was sold
typically with an additive for coloring it in the kitchen.
Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas had proposed a bill to
repeal the tax on colored margarine and the piece supports the move.
Cow butter, it opines, ought compete with margarine on its own
merits.
Drew Pearson states that, in the wake of Oklahoma Senator
Elmer Thomas admitting that he had traded in the commodities
market, there might be a Congressional investigation of his
activities. Yet, he might also escape that fate.
The Senate Republicans were planning to utilize Hollywood
stars to make 25 films regarding the accomplishments of the 80th
Congress in the first session. The actors would presumably include
future California Senator George Murphy, Robert Montgomery, and
Adolphe Menjou, each of whom had testified the previous latter
October before HUAC in a manner supportive of that Committee's
efforts to root out Communists in Hollywood. The movies would cost
about $50,000 to make. They were to be aimed at Republicans to
encourage turnout in November.
Democrats were purchasing 16-mm projectors to show political
films at their meetings. But there apparently would be no actors
performing in Congress with other actors, as in the Republican
films.
James Caesar Petrillo, in his testimony the previous day to
the House Labor Committee, had hinted that he might call off his ban
of playing recorded music on radio stations, provided Taft-Hartley
were altered to enable a larger welfare fund for his American
Federation of Musicians. Only those who performed live and in
recordings were eligible under the current law. Acting chairman of
the Committee, Gerald Landis of Indiana, then consulted with
Congressmen Richard Nixon of California and Charles Kersten of
Wisconsin, neither of whom voiced objection to the change.
Piano players had to be nice to Mr. Petrillo in case the
political gig were to go sour, as, for instance, might
non-concentrated orange juice shipped in tank cars.
The Ambassador to Poland, Stanton Griffis, was bored and
wanted transfer elsewhere. Secretary of State Marshall's assistants
suggested Palm Beach for his new assignment.
Tin was being returned to its wartime status, meaning a
shortage of tin cans, prompting protest by Campbell Soup, accusing
the Administration of using the tin to produce containers for food
to send abroad while leaving consumers at home sans cans. The
industry proposed voluntary controls, but the Administration
refused. The Army and Navy wanted reserves of both tin and oil in
case of a sudden attack.
A former military aide of General Eisenhower had dropped a
hint that the General might, after all, despite his protestations to
the contrary, run for the GOP nomination in 1948.
The Progressive Party convention would take place in
Philadelphia, right after the Democratic convention in the City of
Brotherly Love, site also of the Republican convention.
Marquis Childs discusses recommendations made to Congress by
Bernard Baruch, already covered in the previous day's editorial
column, and the importance of them in assuring that the Marshall
Plan would work. His principal point had been that the domestic
economy was inextricably tied to the success of the Plan. Mr. Childs
believes that the Baruch recommendation to forgo tax cuts for two
years and authorize a freeze on farm prices for three years, with guarantees
to the farmers that they would obtain the frozen price during that period, were sound
plans to reduce inflation by reducing the incentive of workers to
seek increased wages to keep pace with rising costs of living.
The Republicans were determined to pass a tax cut, though it
would likely be less than the 5.6 billion dollars proposed by House
Ways & Means Committee chairman Harold Knutson.
He notes that Mr. Baruch had been called a warmonger and
ignored when he returned from Germany in 1938 proclaiming that
Hitler was determined to attempt world conquest.
Mr. Childs recommends that the U.S., within the framework of
the U.N., should make it clear to the nations of Western Europe that
in the event of aggression against them, the U.S. would come to
their aid. It would clarify American intentions to the world.
Samuel Grafton indicates that Walter Lippmann had stated in
an editorial column that the rebuilding of Europe under the Marshall
Plan required trade with Eastern Europe, the Western nations needing
raw materials and food from the East in exchange for manufactured
goods. The Plan, therefore, was not only an effort to box in the nations behind the
iron curtain.
To presume that it would not be so bad to let the Republicans
gain the White House in 1949, on the belief that they might junk
ERP, was to engage in delusion. And the person who supported the
Plan only in the belief that it would stop Russian expansion would
ultimately come to oppose the Plan, as that person inevitably would
develop the belief that other, cheaper methods could be found for
the purpose, i.e., building up of American military forces.
Those who favored the Plan as a means to create economic and
political stability in Europe, and by that method stop Russia's
expansionist aims, supported it for its intended purpose.
Those who wanted to dismantle the Plan were not moving in the
direction of peace.
A letter from two Davidson College students, after reading of
the plight of the eleven-year old mentally deficient girl who had
not been committed to a State institution for lack of room, asks why
her younger brother, whose health suffered from the presence of his
violent sister, could not be taken into a private home.
The editors note that many residents had written offering a
place in their homes for the boy. But the head of the State mental
facilities had assured that the girl would be admitted into the
Caswell Training School at Kinston within several weeks.
A letter writer responds negatively to "Congress Doesn't
Feel the Cold", appearing January 16, saying it contained no
logic. Rationing was divisive and would not increase supplies. He
says that as a farmer, he would benefit from rationing of fuel oil,
but there would be little produce to be harvested in the fall. He
perceives a managed economy to be a mismanaged economy.
The editors reply that it was better to put the public
interest before the private interest, and the Government was in a
better position than private industry to regulate the economy for
the general welfare.
Another "pome" appears from the Atlanta Journal,
this one "Advising One and All Not to be Caught Unawares By the
Tricky Behavior of the Thermometer During the First Month of the
Year":
