The Charlotte News
Saturday, October 15, 1949
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that General Omar Bradley was quoted as saying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Russia was capable of putting 300 divisions into combat within 60 days and 502 divisions within a few months, urging that the Committee approve the 1.3 billion dollar foreign arms aid appropriation already approved the previous day by voice vote in the House. There appeared little opposition to the appropriation.
As anticipated, Canton was taken by the Chinese Communists this date and troops were reported heading toward Hong Kong via the Canton-Kowloon Railway, expected to arrive by this night opposite Hong Kong at Kowloon. No trouble was expected by the British in Hong Kong. Because of a news blackout, the fate of the 80,000 Nationalist troops who had been garrisoned at Canton was not yet known, but the bulk of them were believed to have fled west.
In Budapest, former number two Communist and former foreign minister Laszlo Rajk was executed after having been found guilty of treason by the Hungarian People's Court on September 24. It had been alleged that he had conspired with Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia to overthrow the Communist Government. The conviction had been confirmed the previous day by the court of appeals. Two other defendants convicted with him were also hanged.
The Daily Worker in London claimed that the verdict the previous day against the top eleven American Communists for violations of the Smith Act virtually outlawed the Communist Party in the United States. But the Communist newspaper's affiliate in New York took the contrary view.
The Italian Government refused a request to recognize Red China.
Senate-House confreres voted to adopt the House bill providing for 90 percent parity for support prices on six basic crops, rather than the Senate bill providing for sliding parity between 75 and 90 percent. Tobacco had already been fixed at 90 percent parity under the Senate bill.
Adding to the coal and steel strikes, leaving 900,000 workers idle, 16,000 Alcoa workers were threatening strike on Monday.
In St. Louis, an escaping prisoner disarmed and fatally shot two policemen at police headquarters in the suburb of Overland the previous night. The prisoner, who had been brought to the station for booking on an auto theft charge, was recaptured during the early morning.
In Sumter, S.C., a man who claimed that he and his family had been threatened repeatedly the previous night by an armed neighbor was under arrest for running him down and killing him with his car, dragging the victim 38 feet across a cotton field. He said that he had not meant to kill the man.
Earl Richert of the Scripps-Howard news service, in another of his series of articles on the hidden cost of taxes within the price of consumer goods, analyzes the taxes on blended whiskey. The Federal tax was $1.61 per fifth and state taxes averaged 29 cents. Additional taxes on wholesalers and retailers, including licensing fees, ran the total tax bill on each fifth to a range between $2.10 and $2.34, depending on the percentage of alcohol.
The liquor industry was pushing for the wartime gallon tax of $9 to be cut to $6, reducing the Federal tax by 60 cents on a fifth. But Congress so far was not budging.
Liquor consumption had been declining since 1946, with tax revenue 27 percent less in 1948 than in 1946 and 9.7 percent less than in 1947. Liquor consumption in 1948 was eight percent above that of 1941 but seven percent below the average for the period 1942-47.
In Eldridge, California, a 41-year
old woman, during a hearing on whether she should be dismissed as an
attendant at the Sonoma State Home, denied the charge that she was
practicing witchcraft on the patients. It was claimed that she
"unnecessarily aroused and disturbed" the patients with
claims of the ability to perform black magic. Four employees and
three patients claimed that she was a witch who put spells on the
patients and broke the spell by pouring salt in a strange manner. The
woman was not seeking reinstatement to her job from which she had
been suspended but wanted only to set the record straight. She said
that she believed in the Bible and was a Rosicrucian, but did not
practice black magic
In London, the Conservative Party announced that Winston Churchill's paintings would adorn its Christmas cards.
Also in London, wild cats from the city's bomb rubble entered the Tower of London and tried to raid the quartermaster stores for food, prompting the governor of the Tower to seek aid from the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals.
You can call on the 2016 Republican presidential nominee to alleviate your problem. He is a cat grabber of renown in the United States.
Bermuda was alerted to prepare for hurricane winds from a tropical disturbance 420 miles southwest.
In Cypress Gardens, Fla., a Florida
State sophomore, 19, was named Honey Bee Queen at the Florida Bee
Keepers convention. In the photograph, she apparently is wearing a
Honeycomb in her hair
On the editorial page, "The Communist Trial" comments on the findings of guilt the previous day against the eleven top American Communists for Smith Act violations, conspiring knowingly and willfully to advocate and teach the overthrow of the Government. The case would ultimately, however, be decided by the Supreme Court, which had not yet ruled on the constitutional validity of the Smith Act, passed in 1940.
The right to rebel against oppression was the very principle on which the country was founded and so it finds that if the Act were to be upheld, it would establish a dangerous precedent. Yet, the country was more informed than in 1775 at the outset of the Revolution and reliance on the ballot box was regarded in modern times as a better means than violence to resolve differences with the Government.
It finds solace in the contrast between the deliberative nine-month long case in New York, which accorded the defendants all incidents of due process, and the quick trials held in the Soviet Union against claimed traitors.
It is too bad that the same incidents of due process and slow deliberation were not accorded the hapless Monroe Medlin, convicted in Charlotte in early September in short order of first degree murder of Mrs. E. O. Anderson, his former employer, on August 1, and without an effective appeal, his appointed counsel having abandoned his appeal as supposedly being without issue to bring before the State Supreme Court, to be executed December 9—all appearing a bit more resemblant to Hungary than democracy.
"Teacher Salary Analysis" tells of the State Board of Education determining that teachers earned on average $2,235 per year. It questions how the State could hope to keep competent teachers at such low pay. Black teachers made more on average, $2,296, than did white teachers, based on the higher accreditation rating usually achieved by black teachers.
While it wanted all salaries higher, it finds optimism in the fact that at least black teachers were achieving high ratings and higher salaries, insuring that the black segregated schools would do well in the state.
"School Bus Inspections" tells of the State Highway Patrol Commander ordering his patrolmen to conduct inspections of school buses for mechanical defects and carefully to observe as well their speed. The directive was in response to the recent accident in Middlesex, N.C., killing seven children, the bus being overloaded at the time. It praises the new Commander for his efforts at enforcing safety.
A piece from the Atlanta Journal, titled "Look Here, Virginia, Go Slow", looks at Virginia's question of whether attracting with low tuition rates out-of-state students to its public colleges and universities provided benefits which outweighed the cost to taxpayers in keeping the tuition low. The piece suggests going slow in rendering conclusions and urges consideration of the impact of out-of-state athletes on the football programs of the schools. For if they curtailed the program, it ventures, it might calamitously spread to neighboring states.
Tom Schlesinger of The News provides his "Capital Roundup", telling of Senators Graham and Hoey both backing the Anderson agricultural bill which had just passed the Senate—but, as reported on the front page, had failed this date in the House-Senate reconciliation conference in favor of the 90 percent parity bill passed by the House.
There was mixed feeling regarding the President having dumped for the current session his fight for civil rights, as there might have been opportunity for the anti-lynching law to pass. Senator Graham said that he favored the civil rights program but could not comment on the strategy presently being pursued by the White House, as he had not been included in the discussions which led to it. He also said that he believed that race issues would be resolved through religion and education more readily, however, than through Federal intervention.
Mr. Schlesinger relates that anyone unable to get a ticket for the upcoming Notre Dame-UNC football game need not fret as even the wife of the Belk's Department Store executive in Charlotte had been unable to land any, even through Senator Hoey. It was just as well, as the Tar Heels would lose to the Irish in the Bronx on November 12, 42 to 6, their third loss in four games after starting 4-0 through this date.
Speaking of football, we must ask a question regarding the validity of the current A.P. and Coaches polls for 2016, insofar as the ranking of Florida State at 13th and 15th, respectively, and UNC, at 22nd and 21st, respectively. Both teams are 5-2. UNC beat Florida State two weeks ago, 37-35, in Tallahassee. The only other loss by Florida State was a 63-20 rout to Louisville, currently ranked number 7 in both polls. UNC lost its opener in Atlanta to then-ranked Georgia, 33-24, and last week in the pouring rain in Chapel Hill to then-ranked Virginia Tech, 34-3. Neither Georgia, 4-3, nor Virginia Tech, 4-2, is still ranked. UNC just beat Miami in Miami on Saturday, 20-13, led at halftime 20-3, had possession of the ball at the Miami 5-yard line at the end of the game. Florida State had to come from a 13-3 halftime deficit last week to beat Miami in Miami, 20-19, on a blocked last second extra point attempt. The only other common opponent the teams will have is N.C. State. The only quality opponent, other than Miami, which Florida State has beaten thus far is Ole Miss, winning the opener 45-34, and Ole Miss, ranked one position behind UNC in both polls, is now 3-3, albeit with a 45-14 win over then-ranked Georgia.
So our question is, with both teams having played one common opponent and UNC having had an easier time winning the game against Miami, and with UNC having beaten Florida State at home, having led 21-0 at one point in the first half, how is it that Florida State, with the same overall record and only two quality wins thus far, should be ranked ahead of UNC, also with two quality wins, by fully nine positions in the A.P. poll and six in the Coaches poll?
Ah well, who said the rankings have to make any sense? If they did, number 20 Western Michigan, with a cupcake schedule, despite an undefeated record, would not be anywhere near the top 25, as every other team in the top 25 would beat them rather easily. You get enough votes from certain media markets and you get a ranking. Always has been that way. Some schools get to live on their reputations in a particular sport, just as UNC does often during basketball season. Nevertheless, a little more logic in the college rankings, in a mostly illogical world, would be appreciated.
Speaking of illogical polls, RealClearPolitics, during the weekend, pulled another of its stunts, again arbitrarily collapsing the number of polls it averages from 10-12 down to six, to reduce Secretary Clinton's lead from 6.4 on Saturday and for the last week to 5.5 on Sunday, suggestive of a sudden shift toward the Republican nominee. It isn't so. Nothing has changed in the race in the past week to stem the increasing trend toward Secretary Clinton, which now ranges from a low of four points in the ABC/Washington Post poll to 12 points in the new Monmouth poll, the latter added back to the average on Monday to return it to 6.4 points. But with that added in to the polling results being averaged until Saturday, inclusive of the Atlantic PRRI poll at 11 points in favor of Secretary Clinton, Quinnipiac at 6, and NBC/Surf Monkey at 7, the latter with the lowest margin of error of any poll at 1.0 for its largest sample, the actual average has increased a half point over the weekend to 6.9 among those ten polls, not remained the same as the truncated average would suggest, effectively discounting the most recent Monmouth poll result and thus giving undue weight among only seven averaged polls to the LA Times/USC "experimental" static, closed-sample survey of highly questionable validity, consistently an anomalous result since it began July 10.
Moreover, the Huffington and state-by-state based 538 averages support even higher results, at 8.1 and 7.0, respectively. Both Huffington, predicting a 1.5 percent victory for President Obama, and 538, predicting a 2.5 percent margin, proved more reliable than RCP, predicting the final spread at only .7 percent, in forecasting the outcome in 2012, 332 to 206 electoral votes, 51.1 percent to 47.2.
So again, those who cling to one or two outlier polls for their solace, go ahead and do so if it makes you feel better between now and November 8 at or around 8:01 p.m. Pacific Time, at which point the election is likely to be called by the networks. If you wish to believe the gun nuts on the radio out in Texas who contend that all the "secret internal polling" of the Republican's campaign has him up about 15 points, go right ahead and convince yourself that you don't even need to vote. Stay home, relax and open up a brewski. Party down, dude and dudess. Tip one for us. Trumper has already won, with the absentee ballots and early voting alone! It's those mainstream meteors that have confused you.
If the juxtaposition of these comments suggests that what it is is football, that may be a quite accurate observation. In any event, on both scores, we like blue.
Drew Pearson tells of Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson believing himself to be a great politician when in fact he was one of the worst, was a bungler at personal relations. But he was a positive decision maker. Since his appointment the previous March, the Joint Chiefs made decisions, whereas they had not for the two years prior to that time. He set clear deadlines for information on which to base decisions. If conflicts arose between the services, he immediately resolved them. His successor, James Forrestal, had often postponed decisions, especially when it came to economy, not a problem for Mr. Johnson.
A messenger heard Senators Ed
Johnson, William Knowland, and Bourke Hickenlooper exchanging
profound ideas and commented that he had heard the "Olsen and
Johnson Show"
Senator Garrett Withers of Kentucky often wore no tie or shoes around his office and one day showed up on the Senate floor for a quorum call without a tie, the omission, however, remedied quickly by the Senate's Special Officer who gave him his own tie.
Dictator Juan Peron of Argentina claimed to be the friend of labor but recently had instructed his judges to rule in favor of management in labor disputes.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss the ongoing row between Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia and the Kremlin, his rebellion now doing real damage to the rigid control which Russia had exerted over the Communist parties of Europe. As evidence of this problem, the Communist Czechoslovakian Government had carried out the purge of all rebellious elements in the country to suppress any spirit which might seek to resist the final assault shortly to take place against the Catholic Church. The purge had included an unusually high number of Communists, evidence of Titoism being feared in Prague.
Tito had agents throughout the Soviet satellite countries.
Until recently, Russia had appeared to be ready to withdraw from Austria but had now balked, appearing to be concerned that withdrawal would require them also to withdraw their "line of communication" troops from Rumania and Hungary, potentially opening the door for Tito-type rebellion in those countries.
Tito's example had also adversely influenced the Communist parties of Western Europe, in France and Italy.
American opinion remained divided on the probable Russian reaction to these developments. Some authoritative observers feared an armed attack against Yugoslavia while other authoritative sources believed such action was less likely, as the Russian divisions on the Hungarian border were less formidable than believed, only four or five of which actually being in position for attack against Tito's 30 divisions.
Yugoslavia's economic condition was grave and it could obtain dollars only from the U.S. The World Bank had provided a loan of 20 million dollars, enough to maintain the country for the time being. But there was no desire to make Yugoslavia economically successful, tempting Russia the more to attack it. Thus, the American policy was to dole out aid in quarter and half measures, per the usual course.
Robert C. Ruark decides that because New York had declared the day the "Sweetest Day", he would not besmirch it with his usual Saturday ill-humor. The motto to merchants was: "All you need to do is cash in on the Sweetest Day", but he had decided to ignore this crassly commercial aspect of the day and not stress that it was as coldly so as some of the other special days, Mother's Day or "Don't Cut That Corn, It Never Drew a Knife On You Day".
He was willing to agree that Guy Lombardo was the sweetest orchestra leader and Earl Wilson, the sweetest author, though he had always thought that Truman Capote deserved the latter honor.
"Oh sweet and lovely
Jimmy Durante could be the Sweetest
Comedian "because The Bugle is my boy and if you can call a man
sweet in a non-sissy sense, Durante
"Kiss me sweet and kiss me
gentle, kiss me on my sentimental
The day was a commercial boon for
the candy
He finds an omission, however, of a
"Sweetest Columnist", possibly because other columnists
would knock the choice. But he believes that with this sweet piece,
he had won it easily. "Sweet"
Framed Edition
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