Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.N. Security
Council had voted 9 to 2 to hear the matter of the Berlin crisis,
with Russia and the Ukraine dissenting. Russia immediately boycotted
and Andrei Vishinsky said that Russia would not take part at all in
the debate, considering the hearing to violate the U.N. Charter. He
also insisted that there was no blockade of Berlin. The hearings
would begin the following day.
Senator Robert Taft said that he believed that the GOP could
carry four Southern states in the election, Tennessee, North
Carolina, Florida, and Virginia, as the Democrats would be splitting
the vote with the Dixiecrats. He had no doubt that Governor Dewey
would win the election. He also said that he believed the
Republicans would not lose seats in the Senate and might even gain a
seat or two.
George Harrison, president of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks,
called on the President to congratulate him on his campaign thus
far. He said that he believed that the people were responding to the
campaign because they believed the President was for them.
In Cincinnati, John L. Lewis attacked the President for the
Government action against the UMW in recent strikes and urged miners
to vote against him in the election. He said that Mr. Truman was a man
"totally unfitted for the position", that men were
digging coal to pay for the fines imposed on UMW as a result of the
contempt findings against the union in proceedings brought by the
Government. He said that the President did not care how many miners
broke their backs to pay for those fines. He also said that the
President was "too cowardly" to put him in jail in 1946
rather than calling for the fines. He also accused Attorney General
Tom Clark of tapping his telephones.
In Albany, N.Y., Governor Dewey talked with his foreign policy
adviser John Foster Dulles regarding the Berlin crisis and other
matters of importance.
The Dixiecrats were ruled by the Oklahoma Supreme Court not to
qualify for the ballot in Oklahoma.
In China, a typhoon was reported to have killed an estimated 800
persons near Leichow and at Pakhoi.
A hurricane with 132 mph winds hit the Florida keys and moved
toward Miami. It had killed three and injured many more as it passed
over Cuba during the night. The hurricane was following nearly the
same path as one which had hit the area in mid-September.
In Washington, a Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune suddenly arose
from his seat in a cafe and stabbed in the breast a woman he had
hoped to marry and then stabbed himself in the abdomen. Both died
from the wounds.
In Cairo, Georgia, a young veteran said that he would put up the
necessary $500 bond to have his Egyptian sweetheart released from
Ellis Island in New York to join him in Georgia. He had gone to New
York, learned of the bond and then returned to Georgia to cogitate
on the matter and consult with the home folks.
At Moffett Field in California, twelve short-range Navy planes
took off on the first long-range overwater flight using aircraft
carriers for refueling. They would first land on the carrier Tarawa
800 miles from the base and then, 800 miles further, onto the
carrier Princeton, then finally to Barbers Point Naval Air
Station in Hawaii.
Dianna Cyrus Bixby of Burbank, California, was about to embark
the following weekend from a field in San Francisco for a
round-the-world flight of 21,000 miles, hoping to beat Bill Odum's
record of 73 hours, 5 minutes and 11 seconds.
John Daly of The News tells of Du Pont's manufacturing of
ductile titanium promising an economic opportunity for North
Carolina for the presence of the ores from which the metal came. A
mine already existed at Lenoir, producing titanium for Glidden
Paint. Du Pont was planning to produce the ductile titanium for use
in manufacture of jet engines. Prior to this development, it had
been very difficult to separate titanium in pure form from the ores.
Tom Schlesinger of The News reports of the City Traffic
Engineer telling the Rotary Club that downtown parking facilities in
Charlotte were inadequate and that in consequence, the City might be
forced to open a parking facility.
Ray Stallings of The News reports of the City receiving a
new 213 h.p. fire engine built by Mack Truck. It cost over $16,000
and had a soundproof cab. The Fire Department had received its last
truck from Mack in 1935, the first enclosed fire engine in the U.S.,
designed by the local Fire Department and receiving widespread
publicity at the time. The new firetruck, pictured on the page, came
with 1,900 feet of hose. It was expected to last twenty years.
We shall see.
On the sports page, sports editor Ray Howe selects Wake Forest as
his team of the week following its win over William & Mary, 21
to 12. The previous week, he had selected North Carolina after its
win over Texas. Wake Forest and North Carolina would meet the
following Saturday, UNC to win, we predict, probably about 28 to 6.
On the editorial page, "Another Russian Trick?" discusses the Soviet proposal to have simultaneous agreements to ban
atomic weapons and establish a control body, the reverse of the U.N.
Atomic Energy Commission proposal approved by the U.S. The U.S. had
properly considered it a trick to place blame on the West for not
cooperating in establishing control and to confuse the world. Had
the Russians been sincere, they would have lifted the Berlin
blockade.
It was more of the same sort of maneuvering which had preceded
the blockade in May, when the Soviet press responded to a statement
by Ambassador to Moscow Walter Bedell Smith by insisting that he had
proposed talks with the Russians to which the Russians said they
were receptive, when in fact the U.S. stated that he had intended no
such thing.
"Toward Productive Lives" celebrates the third annual
Employ-the-Physically-Handicapped Week, saying that often the
handicapped outperformed those without disabilities and were more
prone to stay on the job.
"New Carolina Industry" tells of the modernization of
the textile industry in the Carolinas since the the war, with new
investment of Northern capital resulting in diversification. An
example was the Celanese plant in Rock Hill, S.C., manufacturing
filament yarns and synthetic fibers made from cellulose.
A piece from the Durham Morning Herald, titled
"Manipulations", discusses the decision by the Louisiana
Legislature to include, after all, the President on the ballot after
originally having listed only the Thurmond-Wright ticket as the
Democratic choice. The Truman-Barkley ticket, however, would not be
listed on the ballot as Democrats.
The piece thinks it was a maneuver to get voters to support the
Dixiecrats when otherwise they might not. The Dixiecrats were
depending on manipulation rather than demonstrated merit to garner
votes.
Drew Pearson writes again of the Michigan scandal involving one
of the largest Chevrolet dealers in the nation, Arthur Summerfield,
and other auto dealers, who had given hundreds of thousands of
dollars to the GOP in exchange for deference on payment of state
income taxes. When the Republican State Attorney General began
investigating, the Governor cut off his funding and GOP committeemen
demanded his resignation as Attorney General. Eventually, he had to
drop the investigation for lack of funds to proceed and because the
circuit judge in Michigan before whom a grand jury was considering
the matter suddenly terminated it on the excuse that some of his
friends had been implicated in the scandal.
At that point, in July, Mr. Pearson had gone to the Justice
Department and suggested that since the State was no longer
proceeding in the matter, the Federal Government ought take up the
cudgels. The Justice Department had so far moved very slowly but was
investigating.
He sets the record straight that he tipped Attorney General Tom
Clark, not the reverse, as some had charged Mr. Clark with political
maneuvering in an election year.
Winston Churchill was being urged by Conservative Party members
to step down as leader.
Prime Minister Clement Attlee, whose health was fading, would
remain as P.M., to form the glue between the two factions of the
Labour Party, one led by Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, the other
by Herbert Morrison. Sir Stafford Cripps, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, was being groomed to be Mr. Attlee's successor.
The Italian Army had gotten around treaty restrictions on its
size by increasing the size of Italy's police departments to
historic levels.
Marquis Childs writes from aboard the Truman campaign train the
previous week, tells of the atmosphere being that of a "gossipy
small-town sewing circle" or traveling rodeo. The President
had made his hundredth speech of the tour at Eufaula, Oklahoma,
surely a record. By contrast the Dewey campaign train was taking it
easy, not starting to campaign before around 10:00 a.m. each day,
three to five hours after the President.
The tour was gruelling, especially on the President. Sometimes,
his voice stumbled but he plowed ahead, giving his back-platform
talks. Wife Bess and daughter Margaret had to make themselves appear
agreeable to the constant procession of politicians aboard the
train. The staff was also harried, having many times to work through
the night, but did not have to appear before the public.
Reporters, too, had it hard, especially the press association
men, who had to file round-the-clock stories. They could rarely
relax with the President, who often dropped newsmaking impromptu
remarks.
The Pullman porters took a great deal of punishment also, perhaps
the most of anyone aboard, with meals having to be served at odd
hours and getting almost no sleep.
The question was whether, after all the expenditure of energy and
money, anything was really accomplished in any presidential
campaign. FDR kingmaker James Farley believed that no votes were
changed in the latter four or five weeks of a campaign. Pollster
Elmo Roper agreed with that assessment.
The President was fond of saying that until recently, he was the
only person who believed that he could be re-elected, implying that
millions had been converted. It was not possible to prove the
premise one way or the other. But he had established himself as a
friendly, plain-spoken American who earnestly wanted the people's
votes.
Mr. Childs speculates that he was slowly improving his position,
partly for the sympathy attendant an underdog meeting the challenge
of a supremely self-confident young veteran of the campaign trail.
James Marlow again addresses the Berlin crisis, stressing that
Berlin had been a danger spot since the end of the war and the
division into four sectors, for the presence of the four sets of
troops of the four powers. The four nations were supposed to work cohesively
in developing a unified economic system but had not, the Russians
working separately from the Western powers. They were also supposed
to develop a unified German government, but again Russia dissented,
leaving the West to form a separate Western government, angering the
Russians, prompting the blockade.
Adding to the problem was development of a Western currency in
Berlin, further angering the Russians, who wanted all of Berlin
under Russian marks. That had been the straw which broke the camel's
back in June, prompting the initiation on June 26 of the road and
rail blockade.
That had led to the ongoing British-American airlift which could
prove problematic during the winter.
Sumner Welles, former Undersecretary of State until August, 1943,
tells of the mistake in allowing Moscow propaganda to reach Western
Europe first, regarding the reasons for termination of the Moscow
talks anent the Berlin crisis. The Russians had put out the line
that the West had broken off the discussions, were not interested in
meeting the reasonable concessions made by the Soviets. Such a
mistake was intolerable in light of the phony "peace
offensive" of V. M. Molotov in the spring. The Western powers
should have anticipated the Russian move and released their own
report ahead of Moscow.
The supreme test ahead for the U.S. was to avoid war with Russia
and prevent the collapse of the U.N. over the crisis.
Secretary of State Marshall reportedly wanted to take the matter
to the Security Council before going to the General Assembly, the
initial move favored by the British and French.
Mr. Welles asks whether the U.S. should not propose a solution to
the main problem, the future of Germany, before taking Russia before
the U.N., and agree to resume negotiations if the blockade were
lifted. He also wonders whether it would not be better to consider
the Russian proposals for general disarmament without dismissing
them out of hand as "suspicious", as had British Foreign
Secretary Ernest Bevin.
He thinks that John Foster Dulles ought be given a greater voice
in foreign policy development to establish a bipartisan policy. It
would increase public support for the foreign policy, as would a
board of advisers which included Mr. Dulles and Senator Arthur
Vandenburg, as well as perhaps Eleanor Roosevelt and Senators Tom
Connally, Walter George, and William Fulbright, all advising the
Administration on how to proceed.
