The Charlotte News

Thursday, January 29, 1948

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that about a thousand students at the University of Oklahoma in Norman protested the ban on admission of blacks and burned a copy of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, mailing its ashes to President Truman. The spring semester was about to get underway.

Six other black students had sought admission to four graduate schools, and no word had yet come from the University admissions office on the status of the applications.

The Supreme Court had recently ordered admission of a black female student to the University law school unless the State made available forthwith an equal facility under the separate-but-equal doctrine. The response of the University had been to try to set up a law school in the course of a week, with three faculty members and only the one student. The University again rejected her application to the regular all-white University law school.

The student, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, had petitioned anew to the Court on the basis of inadequacy of the State's new "law school" and seeking admission to the regular University school. The case, however, would not be heard before February 2, as the Court was in recess this week.

The House voted to consider the Knutson 6.5 billion dollar tax cut bill, on which it would vote Monday, without allowing for amendments. The Democrats opposed the move as a gag rule. Former House Ways & Means chairman Robert Doughton of North Carolina had intended to offer an amendment to the measure to allow for only a four billion dollar cut.

The President asked the Congress to extend until the end of October his power to control the allocation of grain, to enable production of ethyl alcohol to curb the fuel shortage.

The House Rules Committee indicated it would act as early as the following week to approve legislation to raise subsistence payments to veterans in school and permit higher payments for on-the-job training.

The British, according to informants, indicated an intent to modify slightly a treaty signed with Iraq on January 15, following riots in Baghdad regarding the treaty, not yet ratified, allowing British troops to enter Iraq in the event of war and the British to use Iraqi airfields. The British apparently believed that they had misjudged the reaction of the Iraqis, normally accepting of Government sanctioned policy. The treaty was designed to stop Communism from spreading through the Middle East.

In Paris, the National Assembly finance commission voted against the proposal by Premier Robert Schuman to confiscate a billion dollars worth of francs from black marketeers.

Russia had objected to American plans to reopen a base in North Africa near Tripoli, at Mellana. Russia complained that placing a base in Libya, a former colony of Italy, violated the terms of the Italian peace treaty. The base was to be used for Air Transport Command planes.

Senator Claude Pepper of Florida stated that Democrats would make rent control and housing a major issue in the 1948 campaign.

Former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen arrived in New Hampshire to campaign for the presidency in the primary set for March 9, the first in the nation. Republican leaders in the state believed that Mr. Stassen and Governor Dewey were the strongest candidates in the primary race.

A Federal Judge in Washington issued a temporary restraining order against GM, preventing it from implementing an employee insurance plan on February 1, pending a hearing set for the following week. The NLRB had just filed a complaint charging that GM had not allowed union bargaining on the plan.

In Denver, a seven-year old boy related to reporters the story of his father strangling his mother to death in his presence. The father had just been released from prison on an arson conviction. The man had choked his wife and told her to "hurry up and die". He had shook the bed and made a noise like a pig as he killed her.

The U.S. Navy was advised by the American Feline Society to send a cadre of a million "back alley brawler" cats abroad to kill rats in Europe, pilfering food sent as part of the emergency aid package passed by Congress the previous December. The Society said that they would undertake to draft the cats and that ordinary domestic cats would not be acceptable for the task.

Frank Morgan says: "If you believe only half of what you hear, be sure it's the right half. Which brings me to the observation that a lie is very often the light that lies in the eyes of a woman ... and lies and lies."

That's not fair. Many men lie all the time and you know it.

On the editorial page, "Guessing on the Marshall Plan" tells of Philip Reed of GE testifying to the House Foreign Affairs Committee that no one could guess within five billion dollars how much it would cost to rebuild Europe under ERP. But, nevertheless, he supported the plan generally for its necessity in stopping Russian expansion.

The piece finds his reasoning valid and also respects his candor on the cost issue.

The critics of the proposed 6.8 billion dollar package for the first 15 months, such as Herbert Hoover, were advocating only a four billion dollar appropriation. The piece thinks that those opponents needed to consider the testimony of Mr. Reed. It was dangerous to continue to pare down an already pared down proposal, especially given Mr. Reed's testimony.

"Whisky and Grain Savings" tells of the House Banking Committee voting not to continue curbs on use of grains by the distilling industry. Some in Congress protested the move, but the figures showed that only two percent of all corn and one percent of all grains were consumed in distilling. So it did not appear prudent to penalize one industry to save that relatively small amount.

The Administration contended that there had been a savings of five million bushels of grain the previous month under the 60-day voluntary program, but the distillers pointed out that the country lost more than that back in not having the by-product of the grain for use in livestock and poultry feed. The program also caused unemployment in the industry and loss of tax revenue. It thus believes the Committee was correct in voting down the legislation.

"Big Jim for President" finds Big Jim Folsom, Governor of Alabama, to be a showman mainly out to promote his own interests more than the progressive government he had promised. He had recently posed for a number of frivolous pictures for a national publication. And now he had announced his candidacy to run as a favorite son for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, charging that President Truman was "hogtied" by "monopolists, brass hats, grain speculators and Wall Street lawyers."

His antics had incurred bad press in Alabama and elsewhere. He had not accomplished anything during his first year in office. It found his charges against the President, particularly his being in league with Wall Street lawyers, to be amusing, especially given the heavy criticism against the President for his civil rights stand and the like.

It suggests sardonically that if he wanted to attract votes, he should change his line to the reactionary appeal to which many of his fellow Southern politicians resorted.

A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "Is the Army in the Saddle?" tells of a report by 21 educators, headed by Albert Einstein, titled "Militarization of America", finding that American democracy could not survive continuation of the trend toward military control of the country's institutions. In addition to Secretary of State Marshall and the President's closest aide, Admiral William Leahy, there were many sub-Cabinet posts filled by military men, the focus of the educators' report.

The piece thinks that the presence of military personnel in civilian posts was no threat, the important thing being how the employee performed. The piece saw no evidence of military dominance in civilian affairs.

Drew Pearson tells of the Army now having the inside track at the White House, whereas the Navy had been preeminent during the Roosevelt years, given President Roosevelt's former role as Assistant Secretary under Secretary Josephus Daniels during World War I.

Early indications were that the revelation that the President's personal physician, Maj. General Wallace Graham, had speculated in the grain market, combined with the President's continuing support of him, would cost him a million votes in the election. The President's Naval aide, Rear Admiral James Foskett, had been sent to sea because of a row with Army aide Maj. General Harry Vaughan.

Former Congressman Robert Jones, now on the FCC, had rallied members of the Public Lands and Surveys Committee of the House to vote for a compromise reclamation measure favored by the power companies. Mr. Jones had, while a Congressman, been active in opposing the power interests.

Mr. Pearson next explains why the Communist newspaper in France, Humanite, had criticized him and the Friendship Train, delivering food to France from the people of the United States. He informs that the people of Strasbourg were making 10,000 white rolls per day from the flour delivered by the train, making a substantial contribution to the nutritional stability of the children. The program would last about two months, through the winter. It was enough to worry Humanite, causing it to charge American imperialist motives behind the gift.

Congressman John Taber's secretary was busy promoting the election interests of the Republicans, placing a sign on Mr. Taber's office which read, "Don't be a dem fool— Vote Republican in 1948".

It does not seem to have much of a ring to it.

Marquis Childs tells of Senator Taft having stated recently that prices had begun to level off, to which some of his colleagues quipped that those prices were only on minks and diamond wristwatches. He provides the foremost members of the two split factions of the Republican Party with regard to the remedy for inflation. Senator Taft and Senator Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska were the conservatives, eschewing any more control than that afforded by the voluntary measure passed in the special session. Senators as Ralph Flanders, Irving Ives, and Raymond Baldwin were in favor of some form of control. Senator Flanders had introduced a bill to establish the machinery anew for meat rationing so that it would be ready. Senator Baldwin sponsored a rent control bill extending controls to June, 1949.

The differences were in the fundamental approaches each wing of the party was taking, the conservative wing opposing anything which was favored by the Administration, much as they had during the New Deal era under FDR, while the other wing was taking an affirmative approach out of concern for the country and the negative impact which a deflationary bust would have.

Samuel Grafton tells of the Politburo apparently starting to reconsider its hard line which had been echoed by Foreign Commissar V. M. Molotov. They understood that ERP, with the full weight of American production behind it, could not be matched by Russia in Europe. The Politburo would thus abandon their expansionist policy. ERP would be the litmus test by which the Soviets would determine the willingness of America to adhere to its enunciated foreign policy.

The Soviet Ambassador to the United States had begun to behave more in a diplomatic than adversarial role, strongly indicative of this change.

Mr. Grafton again affirms the importance of ERP becoming a reality, casting the matter in terms of the Biblical story of Elijah. The country appeared on the right track as long as it stuck to it.

A letter from a "railroader" complains of an article in the newspaper which had told of high wages among railroad men, now seeking another wage hike, but had neglected to inform of the long hours necessary to earn those wages. The Southeastern Railroads calculated the average annual salary to be about $4,000

A letter writer complains of the puling nonsense in the letters to the newspaper from failed Republican Congressional candidate P. C. Burkholder.

Well, just a dang minute, Pilgrim. Old P. C. is always right, especially on the country buttermilk issue. Maybe he is a little wild on the rest, sometimes, but he is entertaining.

A letter from P. C. Burkholder again attacks the Marshall Plan for its cost, and states that it would not do any good anyway, as Americans would not fall for Communist propaganda. He thinks that it was, by design, an effort by the New Dealers to build up Communism and bankrupt America, because the New Dealers were Communists. The New Deal, however, he says, was "trembling".

A letter writer finds Mr. Burkholder monotonous but gives thanks that he was not a Democrat. He thinks he ought give thanks that he had lived during the age of Roosevelt and the New Deal, a favorite target of Mr. Burkholder's incessant letters.

Framed Edition
[Return to Links
Page by Subject] [Return to Links-Page by Date] [Return to News<i><i><i>--</i></i></i>Framed Edition]
Links-Date -- Links-Subj.