The Charlotte News
Wednesday, February 9, 1949
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Secretary of State Dean Acheson said that the American people were "sickened and horrified" by the conviction and sentence to life imprisonment of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty for treason in Hungary. He said that the Western powers might bring charges before the U.N. against Hungary for consistent violations of treaty obligations by violating human rights. He said that the action was a "persecution" designed to discredit and coerce religious leadership in Hungary to remove moral resistance to Communism.
On the advice of Mr. Acheson, the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously adopted a resolution to have the U.N. intervene in the matter.
Mr. Acheson also challenged the Russian characterization of the North Atlantic Pact as an "aggressive" move by the Western powers, saying that the purpose of the Pact was exactly the opposite, to establish a regional organization designed to keep the peace, as provided under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter. Mr. Acheson continued to discuss with Norway's representative that country's stated desire to join the organization provided Norway would have protection in the case of Communist aggression.
As the Big Four Council of Foreign Ministers convened in London for a third attempt at writing an Austrian peace treaty, Russia renewed its support of Yugoslavia's territorial claims in Austria, despite the Soviet quarrel with Marshal Tito. The principal stumbling block to negotiations had been the differences between the East and West on Yugoslavia's claim to 800 square miles of southern Austrian territory. It was believed that Russia might be persuaded, however, to change its stance.
The Senate Rules Committee approved an anti-filibuster rule change by a vote of 10 to 3, enabling the Senate, by two-thirds vote, to effect cloture of debate at any time. The extant rule provided that a two-thirds vote could end debate only when a bill was pending, but not a motion. The proposed rule would proceed to the floor, where Southern Senators had threatened to filibuster it.
The Senate Labor Committee extended hearings on the Administration's labor bill from February 10 to February 23, after complaint by Republican members that there was not enough time allotted, despite night hearings, to present witnesses from both sides of the issue.
For the first time since early 1948, wages and salaries declined the previous month, primarily the result of a drop in factory employment.
In a speech broadcast on radio and television the night before at the Republican Lincoln Day dinner in Washington, Governor Thomas Dewey, reluctantly taking on the mantle of "elder statesman", advised Republicans to become the party of "social progress". He said that the GOP was split wide open between those who wished no paternalism in government and would junk social programs and those who wished to go beyond the New Deal as rapidly as possible. He advised taking a middle road and to stop "bellyaching about the past", to stop trying to out-promise the Democrats and seeking to turn the clock back. He said that those opposed to liberal and progressive policies ought leave the Republican Party. Senator Owen Brewster said that the speech "slammed the door" against a third nomination of the Governor. Senator Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska, however, said that if Mr. Dewey had made some speeches of the type during the campaign, he might have won the election.
In Los Angeles, actor Robert Mitchum, following his conviction the previous month for conspiracy to possess marijuana cigarettes, was sentenced to one year in jail, suspended on condition that he serve 60 days as part of a two-year probation. Actress Lila Leeds received the same probationary sentence. The trial judge said that Mr. Mitchum had not presented a proper example of good citizenship to young people and had not accepted the responsibilities attendant his fame.
Hundreds of rural residents converged on Raleigh as a show of support for Governor Kerr Scott's rural road program, a 200 million-dollar bond referendum to finance it presently being considered by the Legislature.
In Southport, N.C., a mysterious prowler had entered four homes in ten nights, frightening two women in a tourist cabin the previous night. He fled when one of the women screamed after he tapped on their door and demanded admittance. The police chief said that the man appeared to be "depraved".
A prowler had left a chloroform-soaked cloth on a sleeping child's pillow the previous week. The infant's mother awakened and frightened the man away.
Tom Schlesinger of The News tells of former Attorney General Francis Biddle visiting Federal Appeals Court Judge John J. Parker in Charlotte as the latter prepared to accept the Carolinian of the Year award the following day, presented by the Carolina Israelite, published by Harry Golden. Both men had served on the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, Judge Parker as an alternate jurist.
"Mr. X" this week, the former well-known football player, had to have been George Gipp.
We would have said that it was
Choo-Choo Justice, but he was still playing at UNC and so could not
be considered a "was"
On the editorial page, "What Happened at Lowell?" tells of the Charlotte City Treasurer finding that Charlotte had a relatively low tax rate compared to other cities of a similar size, specifically, Lowell, Mass. With nearly identical populations, Charlotte's tax rate was $1.86 per $100 of valuation whereas Lowell's rate was $5.28. Utica, N.Y., also of a similar size, had a rate of $4.49.
A letter writer had informed that both Lowell and Utica declined in number of textile mills present between 1928 and 1948. Charlotte, meanwhile, had grown from 46,000 to 101,000 in population between 1920 and 1940, leading to expansion of business and industry.
While other factors probably contributed to the decline of industry in Lowell and Utica, the higher tax rate had an impact. Charlotte, with its lower rate, could attract industry and business, lest it undertake to do too much in the way of civic improvements and cause tax rates to be raised.
"Justice, Moscow Style" finds that the conviction for treason and sentence to life imprisonment of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty by the Hungarian Communist Government had galvanized the entire non-Communist world against Communism. The Communists had made a martyr of the Cardinal. World leaders had denounced the verdict and sentence as an attack on the Catholic Church. No proof had been presented that the Cardinal engaged in any treasonous acts or sought the overthrow of the Government. His fate appeared predetermined by Moscow.
No one had yet observed that the Hungarian trial was likely in direct response to the U.S. indictment and trial of the twelve American Communist Party leaders for conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the Government. Was that any the less trumped up?
"Hoover's New Role" opines that if former President Hoover had shown the same initiative as President which he displayed as chairman of the Hoover Commission on Government reorganization, the country might have been spared much of the misery of the Great Depression, the result of Mr. Hoover's "weak and vacillating" performance in the White House.
During the week, he had explained to Congress that most past efforts at reorganization had failed because the Congress had not given the President adequate authority to eliminate the dead wood in the Executive Branch. The House quickly provided the authority sought by Mr. Hoover, giving President Truman the ability to streamline 1,800 agencies as he wished, subject to Congressional veto within 60 days, and exempting the Defense Establishment, the ICC, the SEC, the Federal Reserve Board, and a few other boards.
If the Senate passed the measure, then, according to Mr. Hoover, the reorganization authority could save as much as three billion dollars per year.
The President could not be blamed for a cumbersome bureaucracy without the authority to reorganize.
A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "Is It Amazing?" finds that the criticism of the justice of the peace system in the state was warranted and urges that the Legislature ignore lobbying efforts to the contrary and take action to revise the system to make justices of the peace more accountable and to make it more difficult for graft to enter that system.
Drew Pearson tells of Vice-President Alben Barkley having snubbed Governor Strom Thurmond by deciding not to attend a South Carolina mayors' conference when it became known to the Vice-President that Governor Thurmond wanted him to stay at the Governor's Mansion and that the Governor would attend the conference. Rather than cause an incident by snubbing the Governor at the conference, the Vice-President decided not to go at all.
Secretary of Labor Maurice Tobin was concerned about a coal strike because of the large surplus of coal on hand for the mild winter in the East, and the desire of coal operators to keep the price up through a strike.
General MacArthur had told Secretary of the Army Kenneth Royall that he had evidence that the Communists in Japan were financing their activities through black market operations.
Secretary of State Acheson and his new Assistant Secretary Dean Rusk conferred extensively during the week with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, seeking support for the North Atlantic Pact and the Administration's bill to provide sixteen million dollars for aid to 750,000 Arab refugees who were reported to be dying at the rate of 50 per day in crowded camps. Senator Arthur Vandenberg assured that he would support both that bill and the treaty.
Assistant Secretary Rusk, who would serve as Secretary of State under President Kennedy and President Johnson, sought support from Congressman Sol Bloom of New York on the refugee aid bill, as Mr. Bloom reportedly opposed the appropriation. Mr. Bloom, however, appeared amenable to supporting the measure after Mr. Rusk talked to him.
Mr. Pearson publishes a letter from a wounded French veteran expressing his gratitude for the Friendship Train of November, 1947.
The U.S. had sent secret notes to France and Britain urging that 175 factories in Germany be left intact rather than being removed as war reparations.
Top Nationalists in China were deserting Chiang Kai-Shek. His brother-in-law, T.V. Soong, had indicated his desire to emigrate to the U.S.
The State Department was preparing to recognize the new Government of Paraguay, despite several changes of government in the previous year, as it was believed to be a civilian government, bucking the trend of military dictatorships in Latin America.
Former Undersecretary of State Robert Lovett was being pushed by friends to replace Jefferson Caffery as Ambassador to France, rather than returning to the private sector.
James Marlow discusses the effort to craft a new labor bill to replace Taft-Hartley which would enable the President to curb crippling strikes threatening national security without curbing too much the freedom of labor to strike. But neither Congress, employers, nor the unions appeared interested in an extreme measure which would control strikes.
If Congress were to provide the President with authority to stop a strike, then it had to provide for compulsory arbitration to resolve the dispute, not desirable by management or the unions. And to be fair, any resolution would have to be retroactive to the intended start of the strike, not desirable by the employers. The unions obviously did not want to lose the right to strike at will.
A compromise might take the form of allowing the President to urge a union not to strike for a given period of time, during which there would be collective bargaining. Or the President might receive the authority to seek injunctive relief for a given period, as under Taft-Hartley, which provided the power to seek an injunction to stop a crippling strike for 80 days.
If the President were granted no express authority, he might undertake seizure under the theory of inherent executive powers.
The underlying objective was to stop strikes which threatened to tie up the economy. But with labor now more settled than right after the war, the Congress would likely find a solution short of the extreme of allowing injunctive relief.
Marquis Childs discusses his friend, the late Laurence Duggan, who had died after a fall from his 16th floor office window on December 20, determined to be a suicide, but thought by many to be either an accident or murder. His death occurred shortly after he had been named in executive session of HUAC by a hearsay witness who claimed that Whittaker Chambers had informed him that Mr. Duggan had acted as a courier of secret documents to Mr. Chambers, a claim Mr. Chambers denied after Mr. Duggan's death when the charge became public.
Mr. Duggan, following his tenure in the State Department, had been president of the Institute of International Education, a private organization which sponsored U.S. exchange students going abroad and foreign exchange students and teachers coming to the U.S. Archibald MacLeish had formed a committee to carry on the work as a memorial to Mr. Duggan.
The need was especially acute for Chinese students as they could not obtain American dollars easily from their Government and, under U.S. immigration laws, could not earn money while in the U.S. as students.
Athens College in Greece had been formed by Homer Davis and Mr. Davis was seeking donations in the U.S. The foreign aid program of the U.S. to Greece was not necessarily taking care of such worthwhile projects.
All of this activity, as with the Friendship Train and the Merci Train, involved direct people to people action, outside governments, to promote peaceful, friendly relations abroad.
Samuel Grafton, no longer carried by The News, discusses testimony of Raymond Foley, Federal Housing and Home Finance administrator, to the Senate Banking subcommittee, regarding the need for over a million new low-rent housing units within the ensuing seven years for the 29.8 percent of American workers earning less than $2,000 per year. The fact had come as a shock to some of the members of the subcommittee and probably to many Americans who had forgotten that so many people were earning less than $40 per week in an era of relative prosperity.
Subcommittee member Senator Ralph Flanders of Vermont wanted to know more about who these low-income workers were and how they had gotten to be in such a state. Mr. Grafton posits that the surprise would likely be shared by much of America, except the 30 percent, who would wonder why anyone was surprised.
A letter writer thanks Dick Young of The News for an article appearing February 2 regarding the disproportionate tax burden borne by city dwellers versus rural dwellers. He proposes an association of city dwellers to fight against adding to this burden through the additional penny gasoline tax to pay for the rural road improvement program of Governor Scott.
A letter writer responds to a letter by A. W. Black opposing world government. This writer believes it would supply the path to peace.
A letter writer opposes a move by a State Senator to alter the State's vehicle inspection law to have the inspections conducted by mechanics, leaving motorists, he asserts, to mechanics' "tender mercies".
That's not nice to get all judgmental
Framed Edition
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