Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Russians had
quit the Berlin City Government, the Kommandatura, and thus ended
the last functioning four-power governing body in Germany.
The Falcon Futura would, however, make its debut in model year 1961.
The three Western powers had offered to the West German state
leaders their own government under their own constitution which they
stated should be drawn up by September 1 for ratification by the end
of the year. They were offered an "occupation statute"
in lieu of a treaty, providing to them the same powers of any
sovereign state save the ability to act on foreign affairs. The
leaders of the eleven Western German states were considering the
proposal.
The Arab League announced that it had determined to reject
the U.N. proposal to the Palestinian problem. U.N. mediator Count
Folke Bernadotte had proposed that the Arab portion of Palestine, as
determined by the November 29 partition line, would be annexed to
Trans-Jordan as a dependent to be partially under U.N. jurisdiction.
The League saw it as requiring Trans-Jordan to yield part of its
sovereignty. It said that Trans-Jordan's only goal in Palestine was
to prevent a Jewish state, not to acquire territory. Israel was also
considering the proposal.
The Communists and soldiers of Yugoslavia rallied around
Marshal Tito and his defiant stance to the Cominform criticism for
being too cozy with the West and anti-Russian. Tito arrived in
Belgrade to admiring crowds shouting his name.
John Boettiger, former Phoenix newspaper publisher and
husband of the former Anna Roosevelt, daughter of the late
President, had just returned from a trip behind the iron curtain,
saying that he saw no signs of preparation for war in the
Russian-satellite nations. Steel plants in Poland, Hungary, and
Czechoslovakia, he said, were producing full bore but only
agricultural implements and steel rails.
President Truman signed the housing bill passed by Congress
at the eleventh hour before the June 19 recess, while criticizing it
for stripping the public housing and slum clearance provisions,
saying it was "practically nothing". Among other things,
it gave authority to the RFC to purchase GI home mortgages up to
$10,000 each. He said that the final bill provided no long-term
housing relief.
The Federal Government asked the Federal District Court to
make permanent the temporary injunction forbidding a strike by the
three railroad unions still not forming a contract with the
railroads, which had resulted in Government seizure of the roads on
May 10 pursuant to the Railway Act.
International Harvester settled a lengthy wage dispute with
the United Farm Equipment Workers of the CIO, 48 hours after a
strike had begun. The new contract provided for eleven cents more
per hour.
In Pittston, Pa., a 76-year old veteran of the
Spanish-American war became a father of a child born to his 34-year
old wife.
In Bassfield, Miss., grasshoppers were eating their way
through cotton and cornfields, had been so doing for two days.
Farmers had resorted to a mixture of arsenic, wheat bran and sawdust
to combat the menace. At least ten localities had been laid to waste
thus far.
The President predicted victory over the Dewey-Warren ticket
and said, in answer to a press question, that Eleanor Roosevelt
would be completely acceptable to him as a vice-presidential running
mate, qualifying it by asking what the reporter would expect him to
say. Clare Boothe Luce had suggested that selection of Mrs.
Roosevelt as the running mate presented the only possibility for
victory by the Democrats. The President said that the running mate
was entirely up to the convention. He responded to a question
whether General Eisenhower would be an acceptable running mate by
suggesting that the question should be put instead to the General.
Mrs. Roosevelt stated through a spokesman that she had no
intention of running for public office.
As usual, Ms. Luce's clairvoyance, conveyed with a dash of
cryptic opacity, not entirely translucent or of this world, proved
itself the equivalent of the Nine Worthies.
Governor Earl Warren flew home to California to take over
State Government duties from Lieutenant Governor Goodwin Knight, who
had fallen ill. He had been transacting business in the Governor's
absence, a requirement of state law. Mr. Knight, incidentally, would
become Governor in 1953 after Governor Warren, elected to a third
term in 1950, would be appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
On page 16-A, Elmo Roper's poll for Fortune Magazine
showed that if the election were held this date, Governor Dewey
would defeat the President. General Eisenhower, if he were the
Democratic nominee, however, would defeat Governor Dewey.
So, the simple solution is obvious. But the stubborn, crazy
man in the White House from Independence would continue to lead his
party to utter and complete ignominious defeat and final
disintegration.
On the editorial page, "Could Dewey Handle Russia?" finds Elmo Roper's analysis of the Fortune poll
on the Dewey-Truman race, insofar as he stated that Mr. Dewey could
"handle Russia" to be astonishing. There was no evidence
to support such a notion. He stood committed to the bipartisan
foreign policy which had done little to ease East-West tensions. He
had only stated that he would divert more money to aid of Chiang's
China and would be firmer with Rooskie Russia.
When asked, however, about the Berlin blockade crisis and its
potential to cause war, he had responded at a press conference only
that the country should not consider such possibilities, wise but
inconsistent with his rhetoric of force. The statement's tone was
consistent nevertheless with that of the convention speech in which
he sounded bipartisan cooperation on foreign policy.
The former claims to toughness had attracted support from
some elements of the GOP while the latter tones would attract many
moderate supporters. The change of stance did not necessarily mean
that Mr. Dewey could not handle Russia but did indicate that he
would not be so tough as his former campaign statements suggested.
"A Hope for Downtown Drivers" favors the
off-street parking plan being studied by the City Planning
Commission to relieve congestion on city streets caused in part by
on-street parking, along with other nefarious activities.
"Childish Behavior by Leftists" tells of a
student protest by some Communists at Chapel Hill of the Carolina
Theater's showing of "The Iron Curtain", an anti-Russian
film based on the 1946 Canadian Government espionage case. It mimicked a protest by Henry Wallace supporters of the film
in New York, after which a fight occurred. But the Chapel Hill
incident elicited no such pugnacious reaction, only a reported
threat by conservative patrons of the film that they would "work
over" the protesters, a threat which never materialized.
The piece thinks that if that was the best example Chapel
Hill could produce of a conservative versus leftist struggle, then
those who claimed a menace by the Pinks and Reds of Chapel Hill
could cease to worry.
Well, these were the summer school students in need of remedial training, the wilting violets of the organization. The real deal, those attendees of the University during the school year, the genuine Red meat of the crowd, would have had a melee going in a hot minute—a little shoving, a soft drink thrown in the face of the opposition, some appropriate billingsgate, Goobers tossed in a perfect shot at the backs of their heads, and it would have made the Saturday football games in the fall, the occasional basketball brawls with Duke, appear as patty-cake contests for sissies.
"It's Easier to Ride a Bus" reports of the subway
riders in New York having to endure the doubling of the nickel fare
to a dime. The person beset with cost of living increases as it was
and having to struggle to make ends meet would wonder how they could
match the sudden increase and continue to ride, whether to go on the
bum. It gives thanks therefore for the seven-cent bus fare.
Too bad it was anent the I.R.T. and not the Boston fare
increase on the M.T.A.
Drew Pearson tells of the U.S. Attorney for Dallas having
branded Mr. Pearson a "liar" for his previous column
asserting that about 150 cases of fraud against veterans in housing
had been uncovered by the Justice Department in the Dallas-Fort
Worth area without a single indictment having been brought.
Nevertheless, Attorney General Tom Clark had initiated an
investigation and a special grand jury had been convened to look
into the matter. The V.A. had admitted that the 150 cases were
pending. The cases involved the allegation of requiring side
payments of $2,500 by veterans over the limit chargeable under the
G.I. Bill to obtain home loans. Deference reportedly had been shown
by the U.S. Attorney to accused members of the Dallas Builders
Association because they were prominent citizens. Cases had been
delayed by as much as 18 months.
French veterans of the war were planning a Train of Gratitude
in reply to the Friendship Train of food and supplies from America
the previous November-December, the brainchild of Mr. Pearson. The
French veterans, who were also railway men, conceived the idea to
send 48 cars, one for each state, to America as a souvenir of the
venture. The French National Railways had authorized the shipment of
the cars and the French Line agreed to ship them to America for
free. The veterans wanted to load the cars with gifts consisting of
traditionally French non-luxury items, some of which he lists.
Marquis Childs discusses the dilemma of the President in
whether to sign the interim bill passed by Congress re the Atomic
Energy Commission, to amend the original legislation, which provided
that the commissioners would be reappointed after their initial
one-year terms to staggered terms of one to five years, to make them
all two-year terms. The alternative of the President was to make
interim recess appointments for six months until January and thus
compromise the effectiveness of the all-important AEC at a critical
time.
The President had sought reappointment of all commissioners,
but Senator Taft had vowed to fight the reappointment of David
Lilienthal as chairman. The compromise plan was the amendment, as
championed by Senators Vandenberg and Bourke Hickenlooper to avoid
the direct fight on the re-nominations.
The President would probably accept the compromise measure
and sign it.
It was part of the same ball of wax undermining confidence in
the Government which the loyalty tests had caused,
reportedly eliminating a few scientists from Government
employment on the basis of flimsy evidence of questionable
associations. And HUAC had demanded the file of the confidential loyalty
investigation of Dr. Edward Condon, head of the Bureau of Standards,
on the basis that he had supposedly associated with a Soviet agent
and was thus the primary atomic security risk in the Government, notwithstanding his clearance by the FBI. Yet he
was never given the opportunity to appear and respond to the
charges.
The Congressional Quarterly examines the lack
of congruity between the Republican platform and the performance of
the 80th Congress. The Republicans could claim a reversal of foreign
policy from the brand of isolationist-nationalist sentiment
championed by House Majority Leader Charles Halleck. But on housing,
social security other domestic legislation, they would have a
tougher time responding to Democratic arguments that they would not
depart from the record of inaction established by the Republican
Congress.
The basis for the Republican victory in 1946 was different in
many respects from the issues central to the platform of 1944, but
many of the 1944 planks nevertheless remained similar to those of
the 1948 platform.
You may peruse the platform summary for yourself. As the
Republicans would lose the presidential race and control of both
houses of Congress for the ensuing four years, it is merely academic
to understand what the 1948 platform said, and essentially what it
said has already been covered in the stories on the convention.
Furthermore, virtually none of what the platform had in it would be
achieved by the GOP Congress under President Eisenhower from
1953-55, not until the Democrats regained control of both chambers,
some of which not until the 1960's and even the 1970's, such as the
promulgation of an equal rights amendment for women, never ratified.
So, it was so much good advertising for a liberalized agenda
which the Old Guard of the GOP never allowed to see the light of
day.
It concludes that since Governors Dewey and Warren had
supported both the internationalist plank and most of the social
legislation planks, the candidates for Congress from the GOP would
perhaps be the ones most placed on the spot by the discrepancies
between inaction and the duplication of planks of the 1944 and 1948
platforms.
A letter writer questions whether Southern Democrats were
properly a political party at all when they went to Washington
nominally as Democrats only to vote with Republicans on many issues.
Furthermore, they were usually elected by very small minorities of
the population of potential voters, as little as 6 percent.
A letter writer questions the math of The News in
figuring in its Monday front page article that Mecklenburg had
helped the victory of Kerr Scott in the gubernatorial primary runoff
election with Charles Johnson by providing Mr. Johnson with only a
358-vote margin of victory this time—compared to the 4,000-vote
margin in the May 29 primary.
The editors respond with that latter explanation, the fact
that the difference had been so minimized on this occasion.
A short excerpt of a piece from the Kingsport
(Tenn.) Times: "The old judge is perfectly right in
saying there is nothing necessarily evil in the human body or in
sex. But all evil is the abuse of something that is in itself good.
The judge's decision proves, not that there is no such thing as
obscenity, but that 82 is beyond the age when a judge should be
retired."
The argument, incidentally, does not apply to guns,
inherently evil.
A Quote of the Day: "Good advice to a young man: Keep
your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut afterwards."
—Lamar (Mo.) Democrat