Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.S. had
agreed with the Western European Union, comprised of Britain, France,
Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg, to set up a West German government
by September 1, with broad control over domestic affairs. As the five nations planned their mutual defense
strategy, there was
assumption by the WEU that the U.S. would provide support in the
event of war. The three Western occupation allies would retain control
over Germany's foreign policy and trade.
The U.S. had stated that the WEU would first need to work out
their own defense needs before any U.S. assurance of military
backing would be forthcoming. White House press secretary Charles G.
Ross said that the President had no immediate plans to urge Congress
to authorize limited arms shipments to Western Europe.
The Russians in Berlin hinted that they might impose harsher
restrictions on rail traffic between the Eastern and Western
sectors.
Jews had seized Arab strongpoints in the southern part of
Jerusalem in the Katamon quarter this date, in a bloody battle in
which, according to an Arab spokesman, 30 had been killed. Jewish
sources estimated 50 Arabs and 15 Jews dead in the fighting. Arab
sources said that they were confident that the Jews could be
expelled from the Katamon quarter.
Other Jewish forces of Haganah had nearly isolated Jaffa,
capturing Salama, the toughest Arab stronghold village in Jaffa's
outer defense ring. Only the Ramle Road remained open into Jaffa, an
artery protected by the British.
Talks were proceeding regarding a truce in Jaffa, with the
Arab forces likely to surrender on condition of mutual
non-aggression.
Arab reinforcements were observed arriving from Jericho,
Bethlehem, and Hebron into Jerusalem.
In Bogota, Colombia, the Ninth Pan American Conference ended
with the signing of a 21-nation pact pledging united efforts toward
Western Hemispheric peace and resolutions against international
Communism and foreign colonies in the Americas.
Begun March 30, the Conference had been interrupted by the
riots of April 9, continuing for three days, during which 1,500
people were killed.
Following a White House conference, Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington stated that his
recent advocacy for a 70-group Air Force, while the President wanted
only a 66-group force, as did Secretary of Defense Forrestal, did
not create a difference between his and the President's defense
strategy.
Chrysler UAW employees scheduled a strike for May 12 if they
did not receive a demanded 30-cent per hour wage increase.
Representative Fred Hartley said that the Taft-Hartley law
may need to be invoked by the President in the event of a rail
strike on May 11 if the demanded wage terms were not resolved by
then. Negotiations between management and the three involved railroad
brotherhoods continued with Government mediators.
Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, addressing the Textile Workers
Union convention, stated that Taft-Hartley had been a product of
propaganda and pressure from the Government and that the new minimum
wage bill, set to raise the wage from 40 cents to 75 cents per hour,
had "sleeper clauses" which would harm labor, causing
him to oppose it. He said that an increasing number of members of
Congress favored amendments to Taft-Hartley.
There were empty cattle lots in the Midwest from the previous
summer's short corn crop, indicating an incipient severe meat
shortage beginning within a month.
In Mullins, S.C., and in Hickory, N.C., there were explosions
shortly after a low-flying plane passed over each site. The Mullins
incident resulted in a house being destroyed and three occupants
killed. The Hickory incident had occurred the previous Tuesday
night, the Mullins incident the previous night.
Near Hatteras, N.C., a man who had purchased an LCM in
Norfolk spent four days aboard the craft stranded, before the Marines
landed on the water and took him to safety.
Former News Editor Burke Davis, now with the Baltimore
Evening Sun, tells of the sometimes humorous story regarding the
erection of the new statue to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson
in Baltimore, on page 4-A.
Mr. Davis would subsequently author separate books on each of
the two Confederate Generals, as well as other Civil War books, such as To Appomattox: Nine April Days, 1865.
The Gen'rals, though, fact be told, weren't near as big as
they've got 'em in the statuary there, when we saw 'em in person
back 'ere.
The price of Life Magazine rose from 15 to 20 cents
this date. Subscriptions had already risen from $5.50 per year to
$6. We hope it's worth the extra nickel. The price would not rise again until the April 5, 1963 issue, when it went to 25 cents. The price would rise yet again, however, with the October 16, 1964 issue, to 35 cents.
On the editorial page, "On Taming a Vicious Dog" tells of a large dog having slipped out of its collar in the baggage
car of the Seaboard Air Line train passing from Petersburg, Va., to
Henderson, N.C., causing the personnel to flee the car. The railroad
detective enjoyed no more persuasive power, also retreated. Finally,
a humane officer in Raleigh befriended the dog and got him
re-leashed.
It explains that the dog had sensed the railroad men's fear
and reacted accordingly, whereas the humane officer was trained not
to be afraid and obtained the dog's trust while being prepared in
case the dog turned and attacked him.
It suggests that the U.S. take a leaf from the book of the
Raleigh humane officer in dealing with Moscow. Demonstrating fear
would lead to World War III.
"Firebrand in Textile Union" tells of a union
organizer in the CIO Textile Workers Union warning that, given the
extreme resistance, there would be bloodshed in the South before the
work of organizing was done.
The piece thinks that he was merely venting anger over the
failure of the organizing effort, with only 15,000 of the 1.8
million Southern textile workers being unionized in the previous two
years. It sees the warning as a sign that goon tactics would be
employed by the organizers, a familiar Communist stratagem.
"United Action for Air Mail" tells of word from
the Post Office Department in Washington that the air mail service
to Charlotte, found to be as slow or slower than ground service, was
under study. The Chamber of Commerce and the Railway Clerks
Association had continued to lobby for better service to the city.
A piece from the Washington Post, titled "Prohibition
Wedge", discusses the effort in Congress to restrict or ban
liquor advertising. It views it as a first step to a return to
prohibition and its panoply of societal problems experienced during
the 1920's. Such campaigns, it ventures, would not serve to end the
abuses of alcohol but only would revive the earlier era's
clandestine abuses, ended in 1933.
Drew Pearson tells of Secretary of the Army Kenneth Royall
having approved the dismissal of three-fourths of the Nazi war
crimes cases the previous August. The reason they had not been
completely stopped was that General Lucius Clay, military occupation
governor in the U.S. zone of Germany, had convinced him that to do
so would create a disparity between those who had been de-Nazified
and those who had not. House Appropriations Committee chairman John
Taber wanted them stopped, as did Committee member Richard
Wigglesworth. Mr. Royall assured that only those cases presently
being processed would be prosecuted. He told the Committee that it
would not be serious if the appropriations for the remaining
prosecutions were cut off. He said that too much extension of the
de-Nazification program endangered the rebuilding of Germany. He
agreed that there was no reason for them to continue and that he now
regarded General Clay's reasoning as without ground.
Some of the indictments against the Krupps munitions
executives had been dropped and there was an effort afoot to treat
of charged I. G. Farben executives, despite their involvement in the
operation of Auschwitz, in like manner.
He congratulates Atlanta prosecutor Paul Webb for his
crackdown on the Klan.
He congratulates Kiwanians for reminding of Canadian Goodwill
Week.
Ernie Gross of the State Department had been responsible for
re-adoption of the anti-genocide policy, demanding a strong treaty
to prevent it in the future, making future war crimes trials less
susceptible to military and partisan political pressures.
Senator Taft was concerned that if Harold Stassen captured
several delegates in the upcoming Ohio primary on Tuesday, the
Senator would have a hard time being re-elected to the Senate in
1950.
Samuel Grafton discusses the country's defense policy, that
of the redundant wall, starting with the occupation forces in
Western Germany and the aid program to Turkey and Greece, as well as
China, inside of which was the inner wall of the Marshall Plan,
patrol between sectors being handled by the Air Force.
Insulation, he posits, had replaced isolation as the
country's foreign policy. The Congress was trying to pass 822
million dollars in additional defense spending, already passed by
the House, which Secretary of Defense Forrestal had told them would
be inflationary.
HUAC was preparing a bill to make it a crime to be an officer
of the Communist Party.
This wall mentality had caused increased worry in the
country, that the wall was not high enough. Before it, while peace
was being pursued, such was not the case. He recommends a return to
the earlier policy to produce quiescence.
Marquis Childs tells of President Truman having undergone a
change, becoming a man on a mission since the threat of war came on
the horizon. The doubts which hung over his earlier years as
President had disappeared. It was first noticeable when he called on
Congress to pass the temporary draft and UMT. He was now less prone
to grumble about Congress.
The new attitude was likely to thwart efforts to displace him
on the Democratic ticket. Indeed, many Democrats were beginning to
believe, however faintly, that he might be able to be re-elected.
The fact that inflation was again becoming a problem gave
them new hope, as the President could blame the Republican Congress
for not passing the wage and price controls he had urged. Instead,
they had passed the tax cut which he vetoed, this time sustained,
making it likely, with increased defense spending, that there would
be a deficit.
Mr. Childs predicts that the voters might well place blame
this time on the Republicans for higher prices, as they had blamed
the Democrats in the 1946 election when they controlled the
Congress.
A letter from the U.S. Deputy Game Warden complains of boys
using BB guns or .22 rifles to shoot songbirds, in violation of
Federal law. He warns that anyone doing so would have their gun
confiscated and turned over to the police department and possibly a
warrant sworn against them.
He had recently seen two boys carrying their .22 rifles while
waiting for a school bus in Charlotte.
A letter writer commends Dorothy Thompson for her part in the
"Town Meeting of the Air" broadcast from Charlotte
earlier in the week. He compares her to Shirley Temple in charm.
Having entered the Auditorium with the idea that she was the enemy
for opposing the idea that a third party could achieve peace and
prosperity, the subject of the debate, he came away admiring her
intellectual honesty.
A letter writer opposes the crosstown boulevard, to be
Independence Boulevard, thinks that the statistics being compiled by
the new traffic engineer militated against its soundness, explains
why.
