Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that at the outset of
the U.N. Security Council debate on whether to create an
international police force for Palestine, the United States pledged
full support of the partition plan, approved by the U.N. the
previous November 29 and scheduled to be implemented by the
following October. The pledge included use of an international
peace-keeping force if the Security Council deemed it necessary to
maintain order in the Holy Land. Chief U.S. delegate Warren Austin,
however, stated that force could not be used to enforce a political
settlement or to enforce the partition plan. Force could only be
used to maintain the peace.
In Prague, twenty Czech security police officers armed with
rifles and bayonets entered the headquarters of the Social
Democratic Party, in furtherance of the attempt by the Communists to
take control of the country. After a search, the police remained as
a "defense guard". The Government said that a similar
force was on duty at the Communist Party headquarters.
In Washington, four Southern Governors, Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina, Gregg Cherry of North Carolina, Beauford Jester of
Texas, and Ben Laney of Arkansas, vowed to use whatever means
necessary to block the President's proposed civil rights
legislation. They had just met with DNC chairman, Senator J. Howard
McGrath of Rhode Island, to discuss the matter. The Senator told the
Governors that the civil rights program would not be withdrawn by
the Administration, and assured them that the President had no
intention of setting up any FBI-type police force to interfere with
Southern segregation, as the rebelling Southerners, notably Senator
Richard Russell of Georgia, had read into the President's request
that a special civil rights division be set up in the Justice
Department with agents trained to enforce civil rights. Senator
McGrath said that this group would be aimed at stopping violence in
labor disputes. He offered a re-wording of a proposed plank in the
Democratic platform regarding civil rights.
After the meeting, the four Governors expressed their
continued objection to the direction of the national party, stating
that it had deserted the principles of government upon which the
party was founded, i.e., from their perspective, "states' riiiights".
Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon stated that the Republicans
could go fishing and still win the November election, given the
Southern revolt and the third-party candidacy of Henry Wallace.
Southern Governors asked Southern members of Congress to back
a plan endorsed by the Governors Conference to establish regional
schools for graduate study, to afford facilities to minorities.
Senator Olin Johnston of South Carolina favored introduction of
legislation jointly for the purpose in the 15 Southern state
legislatures.
In Birmingham, the KKK demanded by telegram that the
Anti-Nazi League of New York stay out of Alabama. The League had
asked Governor Jim Folsom to revoke the Klan's charter in the state—as the State of Georgia had done in 1947, a move begun in 1946 by progressive Governor Ellis Arnall, albeit completed with a twist under his successor, Governor M. E. Thompson.
Henry Wallace told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that
peace required a new approach to Russia and that new faces were
needed in the executive branch to implement such a policy. He again
asserted his belief that the Marshall Plan would carry the country
along the road to war. The former Vice-President engaged in
repartee with Committee members regarding who would be the new
faces, Republicans or members of the Progressive Party. Mr.
Wallace's new running mate, Senator Glen Taylor of Idaho, sat at the
Committee table during the hearing.
The House passed the one-month temporary rent extension bill
to afford time for further hearings on a 14-month extension. The
Senate was expected to act quickly on the measure.
The President directed Attorney General Tom Clark to send FBI
agents to inquire of the sixteen leading steel companies as to why
they had raised their prices by $5 per ton the previous week, to
determine whether there was any illegal agreement between the
companies in so doing.
In Colorado Springs, a seventeen-year old boy admitted to
police killing a thirteen-year old friend by bashing in his head.
In Pocahontas, Ark., a butane explosion leveled five business
buildings, believed to have killed one man.
In Lancaster, S.C., the testimony was completed in the case
of the former Waxhaw, N.C., police chief, accused of murdering a
local constable of Lancaster. The former police chief claimed that
the constable and a deputy sheriff fired the first shots in a gun
battle which left the constable dead and the former police chief and
deputy wounded. The deputy had his right arm amputated from the
shooting. He testified that he and the constable had sought to
arrest the former chief for suspicion of murder in the deaths of two
black men in Waxhaw.
On the editorial page, "Revolt Puts South in Dilemma" tells of the President intending not to retreat from his stand on
civil rights, that he could not do so politically without a loss of
face far worse than any resultant damage in the South.
A large number of Southern Congressmen had stayed away from
the protest in Washington and Senator Harry F. Byrd had told the
membership to hold their fire and bide their time to see how the
program would play out in Congress.
The final answer would depend on how many Republicans would
support a Southern filibuster. Given that passage of the civil
rights bill would produce a split in the Democratic Party and
benefit the Republicans, the piece thinks it likely that the
Republicans would vote for cloture and allow the bill to pass.
While on this subject, we note in passing a footnote: In 1967, then New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, in his investigation and prosecution of Clay Shaw for participation in the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy, contended that several circumstantial coincidences, in addition to eyewitnesses, established a connection between Lee Oswald and Jack Ruby. One of those was the phone number PE8-1951, a phone number appearing both in Oswald's address book, as established by Warren Commission Exhibit 18, p. 40, and in a phone log of Jack Ruby's calls of June 10-11, 1963, Exhibit 2308. (According to longtime Lyndon Johnson assistant, Clifton Carter, the original plans for the trip to Texas were set on June 5, 1963 at the Cortez Hotel in El Paso, in a meeting attended by President Kennedy, Vice-President Johnson, and
Governor John Connally.) Mr. Garrison, in a television interview at the time, did not relate the identity of the holder of that telephone number. It was, as subsequently determined at the time, KTVT-TV in Fort Worth, as set forth by Oswald in his address book at page 43, albeit misstated therein, possibly a product of his known dyslexia, with transposed call letters, "KVTV"—then, in turn, misinterpreted by the Warren Commission to be "KUTV"—following which were the words from a Russian song, "Polyushko Polye", or, in English, "Little Field".
The television station in question, incidentally, was not that which covered the President's Fort Worth breakfast on the morning of November 22, 1963, at which, peculiarly, was made mention by the tv announcer, at the 6:45 mark of the broadcast, apparently reading from a script to pass the time awaiting the arrival of the President and First Lady, the name of Leon Czolgosz, self-dubbed "Fred Nobody", assassin of President William McKinley in 1901. That station was KRLD-TV. The reference and its timing becomes more than passing strange when one realizes that Warren Commission witness Sylvia Odio testified to having been introduced to Lee Oswald as "Leon" Oswald. And again, perhaps even more so, when is factored in the ostensible compliment paid to President Kennedy by Time and Life publisher Henry Luce, that he could not understand how the President found so much time to read so voraciously and attend to his duties as President, suggested by Mr. Luce observing on the President's desk the 600-page volume by Margaret Leech, In the Days of McKinley.
What does it all mean? As Mr. Garrison suggested, that is for you, the jury, to determine. We only relate the facts of this particular coincidence a little further, with the advantage over 1967 afforded by the internet. But we do not suggest that it necessarily detracts from the weight of Mr. Garrison's evidence as marshaled in 1967, even if not susceptible then, by the limits of available technology, to fuller exposition. If your tendency is to laugh, then actually become a lawyer and try a case sometime. Then, perhaps, you will not be laughing. Any old fool can be an armchair gen'ral and lead the fit across the field. Think and research before you laugh. It is always best to maintain uppermost in one's mind when researching any form of aberrant human behavior, especially the ultimate crime, murder, and, moreover, the murder of a President in broad daylight, that the thing will be obfuscated in layers of absurdity and apparent nonsequitur, while also hidden in plain view, provided one's perspective is properly adjusted to an understanding of the impelling mindset behind the crime.
The last two verses of "Polyushko Polye" are translated:The wind disperses your brave songs
Across the green field.
Songs of the past,
Leaving them alone with your glory
And right at the end, on a dusty road…
Field, my field, has seen so much misfortune.
It was drenched in blood,
The blood of the past.
Field, my field,
My wide field…
"Timely Advice from Washington" informs of
Assistant Secretary of War Gordon Gray, of Winston-Salem, having
stated that the country had neglected its defense since the Founding
and could have avoided participation in a couple of wars had it not
done so. In 1783, George Washington had proposed a plan not unlike
the President's, including universal military training. The latter,
posited Mr. Gray, was required to assure the security of the country
and provide for readiness in case of military emergency.
Mr. Gray had been part owner of The News for the
previous year.
"New Party Worries Old Timers" tells of warnings
coming from Republicans that the third-party effort by former
Vice-President Henry Wallace would be formidable and produce
problems for both parties in the fall. RNC chairman Carroll Reece
expressed the belief that splinter politics could result, similar to
that in European countries.
The third-party movement could produce a split which would
clearly define the liberal-conservative schism in the country, and
many conservatives thought that would be a good thing. But the
enthusiasm for it was diminishing among Republicans as they viewed
the public dissatisfaction evident with both the Administration and
the Republican Congress, as brought to the fore by the Bronx special election of the previous week.
If the Southern revolt were to continue, causing defeat in
November of the Democrats, then then it would likely result in a
permanent division between the liberal and conservative wings of the
party. That would set the stage for establishment of a new party
formed of liberals from among both Democrats and Republicans.
A piece from the Washington Post, titled "Curtain
in Japan", tells of journalists in Japan strongly objecting to
censorship imposed by General MacArthur and his order of an unlawful
raid on one newsman's home, as well as his sending of letters to the
newspapers of nine correspondents intended to compromise their
relations with their employers.
The piece finds an Army investigation warranted, either to
clear General MacArthur of the allegations or establish the fact and
determine what changes were needed, with an eye toward the broadest
possible policy to assure openness to the press.
Drew Pearson tells of Governor Dewey being likely to swing
his support to Senator Arthur Vandenberg in a deadlocked Republican
convention between Senator Taft and Governor Dewey. Those close to
Senator Vandenberg, however, insisted that he did not want the
nomination, considered that it would be too much for his health at
age 64. His wife was also ill. But still the inside betting was that
he could get the nomination and would accept it in a deadlocked
convention.
The denial by the military brass hats that they were spending
public funds to promote Universal Military Training was belied by
the facts, as evidenced in the distribution of several thousand
copies of the UMT Pioneer, the UMT training center newspaper
at Fort Knox, beyond the camp itself.
The Republicans greeted with glee the victory of American
Labor Party candidate Leo Isacson in the Bronx special election.
The President was upset when informed by Democratic House
Whip John McCormack that the Veterans Administration was facing
another sizable reduction in personnel for lack of funds. The
President wanted the V.A. to put in a deficiency request to Congress
and have a showdown on the matter.
The President had decided to provide to the press his own
view of what had caused the commodities market to turn downward,
following a briefing by his Council of Economic Advisers, rather
than simply reading the Council's report to them, which his aides
believed might suggest the President's lack of working knowledge on
the economy.
Speaker Joe Martin recently stated in confidence that he
believed that the Marshall Plan might wind up costing 60 billion
dollars and bankrupt the country, in which case, it might as well be
ceded to Russia.
Senator Harley Kilgore of West Virginia was working to
establish a supreme court for military court martial cases.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop examine the hypothesis held by
many observers that Senator Vandenberg might win the Republican
nomination in a deadlocked convention between Senator Taft and
Governor Dewey, with Harold Stassen throwing his delegates behind
Senator Vandenberg. They suggest that the daydreamers who held to
this notion were not well enough organized to bring about a draft
movement at present. Moreover, Senator Vandenberg, himself, was not
compliant, held no ambition to become President. By convention time,
however, things might change. The deadlock also had to develop
before such a draft movement could manifest itself.
Samuel Grafton finds the Democrats in disarray after the loss
of the Congressional seat in New York to American Labor Party
candidate Leo Isacson, backed by Henry Wallace, and the refusal of
the Southern Democrats to attend the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner. The
President was no longer sure he could carry New York or some of the
Southern states. The former condition was remarkable as the
President had made more liberal statements during the previous six
months than FDR ever had during such a compressed period. And by
doing so, the President had lost support in the South.
FDR had consistently quarreled with liberals on various
issues, but he always had a core of support which President Truman
lacked. Consequently, President Truman had to overcompensate with
liberals to win their confidence. The President appeared to be in
trouble everywhere.
It augurs that President Vandenberg would take the oath of
office in January.
A letter from the president of the Charlotte Christian
Council tells of the county-wide campaign for overseas relief having
been successful, and thanks the community for the support of the
drive sponsored by the Council.
A letter writer says that while he had no brief for regular
correspondent to The News, P. C. Burkholder, failed
Republican Congressional candidate, he found some of the New Deal
policies which he criticized to be worthy of the attack and suggests
a debate between Mr. Burkholder and some of those who had written to
the newspaper critical of him and his viewpoint stated in prior
letters.
A letter writer responds to the letter of Mr. Burkholder of
December 11, 1947, in which he had stated that he would run again
for Congress in 1948. On September 27, 1947, he had labeled former
President Hoover an "ass" for allowing himself to be used
by the Democrats to lend credence to the Marshall Plan, as he
investigated conditions in Europe for the President.
The author says that he had voted for Mr. Burkholder in 1946,
but that any bright Democrat could make him look ridiculous, even in
the eyes of Republicans.