The Charlotte News

Tuesday, October 18, 1949

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington testified before the House Armed Services Committee that the criticism of the Air Force by the Navy the previous week was false and urged increasing the size of the Air Force in light of the Russian development of the atomic bomb. He said that it was not true that the Air Force favored mass atomic bombing of citizens or was emphasizing the atomic bomb carrying capability of the B-36 while neglecting other aircraft. He believed that the Navy had been conducting organized attacks on the B-36 since 1947 and that at present a second document attacking strategic bombing, more dangerous than the first such document prepared by the former assistant to the Undersecretary of the Navy, was in circulation. He admitted that the Air Force had withheld from the Navy information about the B-36 because the people seeking the information were attacking the project. He also said that he did not oppose aircraft carriers and that the Navy and Marines should have their own arms.

The Senate-House confreres reached agreement on the farm bill, providing for 90 percent parity support prices on cotton, corn, wheat, rice, and peanuts through 1950. Tobacco was already included in both bills as subject to 90 percent parity. The bill was expected to be approved by both houses. The Senate bill of Senator Clinton Anderson had provided for 75-90 percent sliding parity.

The Senate Commerce Committee quickly approved the President's appointment this date of Mon Wallgren to the Federal Power Commission to succeed the rejected reappointment of Leland Olds. Mr. Wallgren's nomination to be chairman of the National Security Resources Board had been withdrawn under fire earlier in the year because of his being deemed by the Armed Services Committee to be without the requisite experience for the position.

The President also nominated James Mead, former Senator of New York, to the Federal Trade Commission.

Dr. Edwin Nourse, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, had submitted his resignation and the President had not rejected it as he had the previous fall the first time he had submitted it. Dr. Nourse had said that he would resign whether or not the President accepted the resignation. Associates said that he was frustrated that his efforts in three years, since the creation of the Council, to make it independent of partisan and political considerations had not succeeded, as when the other two members had sought to persuade Congress to approve the President's anti-inflation measures the previous January, a role he believed was not proper for the Council.

A four-person committee of the U.N., headed by Assembly president Carlos Romulo and including Secretary-General Trygve Lie, reported to the General Assembly that it had failed to reach any settlement of the Greek-Balkan issue and that further attempts at that time would likely be unproductive. They said that they would resume attempts during the current session if the parties deemed it reasonable to do so.

In Brussels, exiled King Leopold said that he would accept the verdict of the people at the polls on whether he could be returned to the throne, and would abdicate if fewer than 55 percent gave him their support.

Frank Carey, science reporter for the Associated Press, tells of a new form of heart surgery performed by a knife attached to one finger and manipulated by touch, to open the mitral valve linking the two left chambers of the heart, often constricted as an after-effect of rheumatic fever. The technique had been used in eight cases, four of which had been concluded successfully, with one fair result and three deaths, and was considered still experimental.

In another medical report, from Scotland, electrically heated gloves were said to be good for patients who needed their blood vessels opened up to insure good circulation.

Just sneak up behind them and scare 'em.

It was reported from Berwick, England, that twenty-one seamen died in a collision between a British aircraft carrier and a coal freighter under tow by the carrier, during a North Sea gale near Berwick. The collier rammed a hole in the carrier and it was said to be taking water.

In London, a Labor M.P. intended to inquire of the Education Minister whether caning for kissing was in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry. Six boys of the Chamberlayne Road School had been caned in July for kissing girls.

Shame on you.

Also in London, Princess Elizabeth, speaking before the Mothers Union, scolded the British people for a high divorce rate and falling moral standards, the strongest such public statement by a member of the Royal Family in many years. She said that it was the age of "growing self-indulgence, hardening materialism and falling of moral standards."

Honi soit qui mal y pense.

In Los Angeles, a 21-year old GI student asked a court to declare him the father of a child born out of wedlock and asked for an order of support, that if the mother, who had placed the child for adoption, refused to care for it, he be granted custody.

In Salem Center, N.Y., a great-grandson of former President Ulysses Grant died at age 36. He had served in World War II in the Army Air Forces.

Formal approval was expected shortly to be sought from the City Council for a petition by real estate representatives to remove rent control in Charlotte. If approved by the Council, it would then go to Governor Kerr Scott for final approval.

In Charlotte, a campaign to raise a million dollars for Queens College was approved by the 186th stated session of the Mecklenburg Presbytery, during its meeting at the Tenth Avenue Presbyterian Church. It was the first time that a united campaign was to be conducted in both the Carolinas for the College.

First Daughter Margaret Truman was on her way to Charlotte this date, according to information received by the Hotel Barringer. She was scheduled to sing on Friday night at Davidson College. But there was some confusion as to whether she might not arrive until Thursday. Helen Traubel of the Metropolitan Opera was accompanying her on her tour. Ms. Truman had already performed in Cullowhee, Greensboro, and Atlanta.

On the editorial page, "Senate Bows to McCarran" finds that the failure of the Senate to liberalize the Displaced Persons Act, which had been passed by the previous Congress and discriminated against Jews and Catholics, to be the result of Nevada Senator Pat McCarran's recalcitrance in keeping it hemmed in the Judiciary Committee for so long and the resultant fear of Senators to sidestep him during his absence in Spain visiting with Franco. The Committee had taken advantage of that absence and discharged the remedial bill without recommendation, only to have it recommitted to the Committee when it reached the floor.

Senator Frank Graham of North Carolina had been among the Senators standing behind the new bill. In the end, seventeen Democrats and nineteen Republicans voted to recommit the bill and sixteen Democrats and fourteen Republicans voted against recommitment, causing it therefore to fail by a vote of 36 to 30.

The real issue had been the fear of ducking the influence of Senator McCarran. It finds that North Carolina should be proud of Senator Graham's stand on this humanitarian measure.

"Prostituting a Profession" finds disgusting the behavior of the six attorneys in the trial of the eleven top American Communists in Federal District Court in New York, just concluded with convictions under the Smith Act against all eleven defendants, and the six lawyers found in contempt and sentenced to jail terms. While all of the convictions, including the contempt citations, would be appealed, taking potentially years to wind through the system, it urges that the attorneys be disbarred for their courtroom conduct which had gone beyond the pale of acceptable professional decorum and ethics.

"World Peace Dream" tells of the United World Federalists of North Carolina having met recently in Charlotte and shared their philosophy that a world government for world affairs was necessary to avoid World War III. It finds their position having widespread support in Congress and a resolution, which it quotes, approving the concept, was in the offing. It suggests that it would take persons of intelligence and wisdom to make the dream come true of world government, to prevent aggression.

"Another Distinction" finds the Mint Museum Ensemble to be a chamber music group of distinction, performing occasionally at the museum. For many who heard them, it was their first opportunity to hear live chamber music. It lists the members.

A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "Snub to the People", finds the Senate's rejection of the reappointment of Leland Olds to the Federal Power Commission to be both a snub to the President and the people for Mr. Olds having been a consumer advocate trying to keep utility rates low, against the will of the power interests. The hearings had stressed his prior political writing in his youth during the 1920's rather than his tenure on the FPC for the previous ten years. The Senators, it finds, had a duty to the people to make their positions clear instead of obscuring them in such a fog. It asserts that a new trend toward underregulation of the power interests bore watching as much as the tendency toward overregulation.

A piece from the Congressional Quarterly tells of a score or more new persons in the 81st Congress making reputations for themselves, including future Vice-President and 1968 Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, future Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1956, Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, a former Congressman, Senators Paul Douglas of Illinois, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, also a former member of Congress, and Russell Long of Louisiana.

In the House, it lists Congressmen John Carroll of Colorado, Andrew Jacobs of Indiana, Hugo Sims, Jr., of South Carolina, Pat Sutton of Tennessee, and James Van Zandt of Pennsylvania.

It provides some of the primary achievements of each in the first session in 1949. It also lists some other Congressmen and Senators who had acquired early reputations, including Jacob Javits of New York, and Hale Boggs of Louisiana, both in the House since 1947, and John Foster Dulles, Clinton Anderson, and Robert Kerr in the Senate, each of the latter three already having established reputations before they got to the Senate.

A brief piece from the Asheville Citizen tells of the strange epitaph which recently deceased former DNC chairman and Postmaster General Robert Hannegan had desired, that he wished to be remembered as the man who kept Henry Wallace from becoming President in 1945 by having led the effort to dump him from the ticket in 1944 and replace him with Senator Harry Truman. The piece deems him prophetic, as it believes Mr. Wallace in his 1948 third-party campaign had demonstrated his unfitness for the office.

Drew Pearson tells of John L. Lewis having walked out of the talks to settle the coal strike after having put forth a feeler to the Northern operators to increase the welfare fund contribution from 20 to 30 cents per ton and increase wages by a small amount. But U.S. Steel, which controlled the coal talks about as much as the steel talks, did not like the proposal and a major coal operator also opposed it, finally nixing it. The reason U.S. Steel opposed it was that the company could not agree to give more to UMW than to the Steelworkers led by Philip Murray. U.S. Steel was demanding contribution by the Steelworkers to the proposed welfare fund for steel and there was no such provision in the UMW agreement. Mr. Lewis, as a result, was mad and walked out.

Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson had been forthcoming before the Senate Appropriations Committee regarding the U.S. policy toward Yugoslavia, treating it as the most explosive place on the globe, but would not commit to any stance regarding what the U.S. would do in the case of an armed clash between Yugoslavia and the Soviets. He also said that within 8 to 12 months, the U.S. could leave Greece on its own, with only two pockets of Communist guerrillas remaining. He also said that the NATO nations had been working since October 5 on a defense plan and had developed a tentative plan sufficient to allow funding of the military aid program, that a plan would be ready by January and the President wanted the funding in place so that it could be immediately implemented.

Undersecretary of State James Webb told the Committee that U.S. relations were improving with Spain. He said that a committee of twenty prominent citizens, including former Secretary of State Marshall and former Governor Harold Stassen, had been appointed by Secretary Acheson to study China.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of Dr. Edwin Nourse, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, preparing to resign against the President's wishes. He had been a major force in trying to keep the budget down, a proponent of balanced budgets. While a minority within the three-man Council, he was powerful as chairman. But the President did not take his advice with respect to cutting defense even more than it had been cut or cutting of foreign aid or his domestic program. Thus, he had been frustrated.

With his retirement, the character of the Council would likely change, as the President probably would appoint someone more in step with the Fair Deal and the foreign aid program. Had Dr. Nourse's policies been carried out, defense would have been pared to the bone, already cut deeply enough to cause problems in security, a significant problem given that the Soviets had recently tested their first atom bomb. But indefinite prolonging of deficit spending also could not continue and it appeared to have become the habit of the Truman Administration.

Robert C. Ruark tells of Pierre, an 18-month old seal, having crossed the English Channel, a recent fad among humans, in five hours, six hours better than the fastest time of a human. The project was the result of a missed question on "Truth or Consequences", and the seal's handler received a dollar per minute for every minute shaved from the record.

People tried to emulate the feats of fish and fowl, often with less than satisfying results. Mr. Ruark could think of nothing more foolish than to try to swim the English Channel. It was, he offers, a neat capsule of the human being, the same arrogance which had led him to try to emulate God with the splitting of the atom. There was no reason behind the Channel swim by humans save vanity.

Pierre knew more about swimming than most humans and the average crow could fly better than the most sophisticated aircraft. Pierre might not be able to split an atom or play shortstop for the Dodgers, but it did not worry him, another difference from the human being.

Framed Edition
[Return to Links
Page by Subject] [Return to Links-Page by Date] [Return to News<i><i><i>—</i></i></i>Framed Edition]
Links-Date Links-Subj.