The Charlotte News

Monday, June 6, 1949

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Senator Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa told the joint Senate-House Atomic Energy Committee that an unnamed person who had drafted top secret Atomic Energy Commission reports for Congress, hired under an emergency security clearance in August, 1947, had once been suspended in April, 1948 after the FBI had called into question his loyalty a month earlier. The same person, according to the Senator, had assembled an extremely sensitive report from the AEC to the Committee, sensitivity which Mr. Lilienthal had acknowledged the previous February in an appearance before the Committee. After an emergency hearing in May, 1948, an AEC board had recommended that he be given a security clearance, which was then done. AEC chairman David Lilienthal demanded that the person be called before the Committee to testify. He said that the AEC was keeping some people on the payroll despite doubtful records of loyalty because it was safer to do so than firing them, given what they knew. Some of these persons had obtained their jobs when the Army was in control of atomic energy, prior to formation of the AEC.

Senator Brien McMahon of Connecticut, chairman of the Committee, told Senator Hickenlooper that it was impossible to proceed on his line of questioning without going into executive session. Senator Hickenlooper then began asking Mr. Lilienthal about his views on Communism, to which the latter said that he believed Communists were engaged in a plot to overthrow the Government by force and would use guile and misrepresentation to achieve that end. Mr. Lilienthal, in commenting on a news story of a statement in a speech in Chapel Hill on May 28 by former UNC president, Senator Frank Graham, that liberals, including Mr. Lilienthal, were "groping" to discern whether the Communists in the country were taking their orders from Moscow, said that he was groping, but not on that issue.

Before HUAC, rubber repairman Joseph Franey testified that he and his wife, Leona, a librarian at Bell Aircraft in Buffalo, N.Y., had cooperated with the FBI when approached regarding the entreaties of a Bell employee, Russian Andrei V. Schevchenko, an aeronautical engineer, to acquire data on the jet engine on which he claimed he was working to obtain a large prize offered by the Russian Government to the first Russian to develop it. He sought ordinary technical data initially from Mrs. Franey from the library, data which was not confidential. But beginning in the summer of 1945 and lasting until February, 1946, he had sought confidential data on the jet engine. Mr. Franey was to be the conduit for transmitting the information, always done in open places, such as parks, in New York City, never inside a building for Mr. Schevchenko's fear of eavesdropping equipment. The FBI asked the Franeys to cooperate in giving Mr. Schevchenko useless information which nevertheless appeared to be, and, in some cases, was secret data. Mr. Franey photographed onto microfilm the documents obtained from the library by Mrs. Franey with a camera provided by Mr. Schevchenko and then passed on the film. In return, they were paid $100 or $200 each time by Mr. Schevchencko, the money then given by the Franeys to the FBI. Mr. Schevchenko was never arrested and escaped the country, leaving the Franeys feeling let down. They were informed by the FBI that the State Department would not approve of the arrest as the Department wanted to "appease" the Russian. The deliveries stopped when Mr. Schevchenko departed the country in February, 1946.

In other testimony, Loren Haas, an engineer at Bell and later at General Electric, told the Committee that he also had been approached by Mr. Schevchenko to provide information on the jet, and likewise had cooperated with the FBI in providing useless but technical and secret information for payments from Mr. Schevchenko, also via microfilm, also always exchanged only in public places such as under the table in restaurants or while riding on the subway, from March through late November, 1945, at which point Mr. Schevchenko became concerned about being followed by the FBI. Mr. Haas explained in his testimony that the FBI had told him that the data had to be confidential for the Government to prosecute for espionage. He said that the FBI told him specifically that Secretary of State James Byrnes had said that the Government could not prosecute Mr. Schevchenko, which caused Mr. Haas such frustration that he said he would likely not cooperate if he had it to do over again, given that what he had done had gone for naught. The following day, Mr. Byrnes would issue a statement denying that he ever made such a decision, that it was always up to the Justice Department and the FBI to make decisions on a prosecution, not the State Department.

In Paris, an East European diplomat, considered reliable, said that V. M. Molotov, former Foreign Minister, was now in charge of Russia's policies in China and elsewhere in the Far East. If true, the change suggested a move by the Russians to aid the Chinese Communists to turn China into a modern state. But there had been suggestions in Western quarters that Mao Tse-Tung had nationalist ideas, similar to those of Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia, thus would resist Sovietization.

At Omaha Beach in France, ceremonies were held to mark the fifth anniversary of D-Day. Grass now grew over the foxholes and cattle roamed the once-bloodied fields. Offshore still lay the rusting hulks of ships deliberately sunk to make an artificial harbor for the Allies. Inland, the villages still bore the marks of fighting. High over the bluff where the Allied landing took place, the dead were buried. Two little Norman girls placed wreaths at the site of the landing. Two American servicemen were present for the ceremony. French villagers held ceremonies all along the invasion coast. U.S. Air Force B-17's flew overhead, scattering flower petals. Still perched in a tree was the wreckage of a German plane. A former Army lieutenant-colonel with the 457th anti-aircraft artillery battalion, present for the ceremony, now with ERP, said that his gunners shot it down on the afternoon of D-Day.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved an anti-lynching bill introduced by Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan, the first civil rights legislation approved by a Senate committee in the 81st Congress. The bill would provide for a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison or a $10,000 fine or both, applicable to peace officers and lynch mob members, for conspiracy to incite, aid or commit a lynching. A peace officer who willfully failed or refused to protect persons against a lynch mob would be subject to five years in prison or $5,000 in fines or both.

The President nominated Georgia Clark, a Kansas banker. to be the first woman Treasurer of the United States. She would succeed William Julian, Treasurer since 1933, killed in an automobile accident a week earlier.

He probably knew about the flying saucers and the globalist conspiracy to end the money supply and implant microchips in your forehead, which would send signals to the saucer-people to land in your backyard, was about ready to blow the whistle.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the contempt convictions of UMW president John L. Lewis and UMW, stemming from his refusal to call off a strike in April, 1948. Mr. Lewis had been fined $20,000 and the UMW, 1.4 million. Mr. Lewis and UMW had also been fined in December, 1946 for refusing to call off a strike when ordered. On appeal to the Supreme Court, the UMW fine was cut from 3.5 million dollars to $700,000 while Mr. Lewis's fine remained $10,000. Both of the latter fines were doubled on the second conviction.

In Atlantic City, the AMA, at its annual meeting, criticized the President's proposed health program, the centerpiece of which was compulsory national health insurance.

In West Hazleton, Pa., a fire the previous day killed six young boys, ranging in age from six months to 11, and destroyed the family home. The parents were injured in the fire, which was of unknown origin, believed to have started in the kitchen. Contributions of $1,000 had been received thus far for the remaining eight children.

In Vernon, Tex., a ten-year old farm boy died after a month of surviving severe burns sustained May 10 when his brother accidentally tossed blazing gasoline on him while they were burning weeds.

Duke Power Co. asked the State Utilities Commission for authority to increase Charlotte bus fares to ten cents cash or three tokens for a quarter.

We'll take the latter.

Dick Young of The News explains the 4.575 million dollar bond issue for improved water and sewer lines, construction of off-street parking, building of an additional police station and improvement to the city's parks and recreation facilities. The vote would take place the following Saturday.

On the sports page, News sports editor Furman Bisher tells of it getting tougher for major league pitchers.

On the editorial page, "Road & School Bond Victory" finds Governor Kerr Scott to have proved himself an effective campaigner in getting both of his proposed bond issues, the 200-million dollar rural road bond and the 25-million dollar school construction bond, approved by the voters the previous Saturday. The approval of the road bond also automatically invoked a one-cent increase in the gasoline tax to help pay for it. The voting generally followed pre-election predictions across the state.

No statewide organization had opposed the measures. The News had been against both for their deficit financing, and, in the case of the school construction bond, the inequitable distribution of the money, too much to the poorer counties irrespective of need and population.

It hopes that the money would be well spent for the greatest good of the greatest number of people.

"Park & Recreation Election" discusses the proposed million dollar bond issue set for the ballot June 11 to develop park and recreation facilities in Charlotte. It provides a summary of the recommendations of the Park & Recreation Commission for both the black and white areas of the community.

The proposed gradual rate increase through 1951 for taxes for such facilities would be six cents from the present two cents. The piece favors the measure as essential to continued growth of Charlotte.

You need some green parks in there, not just the black and white ones.

"Unequal Representation" provides the State Constitutional provision which appeared equitably to entitle both Mecklenburg and Guilford Counties to two State Senators each, based on the 1940 census. But the succeeding biennial Legislatures had refused to take action on the matter.

The 1950 census would likely show the same result and it remained to be seen what would occur in 1951. It appeared unlikely that any change would pass, despite the two counties being the largest taxpaying counties in the state, as the balance of power was held by the smaller counties which would resist adjustment of representation both in the State Senate and the House.

Courtney Mauzy, in a piece from the Charlotte Junior League Crier, explains the benefits and costs to be derived from the local bond measure for parks and recreation facilities and suggests that the city could afford the $1.22 per capita per year cost, about $5.40 per taxpayer, given the resultant benefits socially in reduced delinquency and family unrest.

A piece from the Baltimore Morning Sun, titled "The 'Death Tool' Business" (or, possibly, "Death Toll'"), finds that the gruesome accident death toll predictions before a holiday weekend, as in advance of the recent Memorial Day holiday, caused Americans to consider holidays with a shudder of morbid expectation.

Such accidents were not confined to holidays. The more people on the roads or in the water, the more likely it was that accidental deaths would occur. It was good to warn so that people could be apprised of the extra need for caution at such times, but such grim forecasts could be taken too far such that holidays were regarded as a time of death and mourning rather than celebration.

Drew Pearson tells of a secret meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Senator Millard Tydings of Maryland, who proposed that a group of impartial civilians be selected to evaluate the entire air defense program, especially in terms of selecting the right type of planes, with its findings to be made public. Certain questions would be asked of the panel by the Committee, anent airplane design, performance, targets in Russia, etc.

Senator Chan Gurney of South Dakota opposed the procedure, wanting the matter to be taken up first with Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson to determine the propriety of the questions. Senator Tydings said that he had already discussed the matter with the Defense Secretary.

Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas believed that the same procedure then ought be followed with ships, tanks, and aircraft carriers in the other two branches of the service, not just the Air Force. Senator Tydings did not like that idea and eventually, Senator Johnson, normally mild-mannered, said, "The chairman is too arrogant about things." Mr. Tydings said that he was only trying to serve the Committee.

Eventually, the Committee agreed with Senator Gurney's motion, at which point Senator Tydings said that he would not permit the Secretary of Defense to be called before the Committee on the matter. Senator Johnson told him that he had to abide by the Committee's decision. Senator Tydings, after some further testy exchange with Senator Johnson, then adjourned the meeting.

Secretary Johnson was then called before the Committee in executive session and asked about the matter proposed by Senator Tydings. He said that he would have to consider it after consulting with the Joint Chiefs.

Senator Paul Douglas, in reference to FDR, Jr., having defeated the Tammany Hall candidate in the recent New York Twentieth District Congressional election to replace deceased Congressman Sol Bloom, had stated that the limerick regarding the lady and the tiger had to be revised. Originally, it went:

They returned from the ride
With the lady inside
And a smile on the face of the tiger.

The Douglas version would go:

There was a young lady from Niger
Who rode a Tammany tiger.
They returned from the ride
With the tiger's skinned hide
Draped over the lady from Niger.

The principal reason that U.N. mediator Dr. Ralph Bunche had turned down a position as Assistant Secretary of State was the persistence of racial discrimination in Washington.

Iraq was seeking a loan of 80 million dollars from the World Bank but would be turned down as a poor financial risk and for being too close to Russia.

The French Government was preparing to rush more troops and planes into French Indo-China, as reported in Paris by Foreign Minister Robert Schuman to Secretary of State Acheson. M. Schuman said that the French Cabinet had evidence that the Chinese Communists were planning to aid the Communists of Ho Chi Minh in Indo-China. Mr. Acheson approved the plan even though it would weaken the defenses of Western Europe at a critical time.

Dr. Hu Shih, former Chinese Ambassador to the U.S., said that the Chiang regime was "decadent and corrupt", and undemocratic, as with all dictatorships. He warned of the graver danger, however, of Communism, under which all personal freedoms were lost.

Robert C. Ruark tells of recently having a dream: "...Rita Hayworth eloped with Alger Hiss and Judy Coplon, [the Justice Department employee accused of passing Government documents to a Russian member of the U.N. Secretariat], got engaged to Aly Khan. David Lilienthal was batting cleanup for the Brooklyn Dodgers while Sen. Bourke Hickenlooper was reprimanded by Happy Chandler for booing Leo Durocher." He woke up muttering, "40 billion, 50 billion, 60 billion", decided he had better get out of town.

Or see Dr. Freud.

He usually started mumbling to himself, he says, while shaving in the mirror at such times, and then the mumbles would become twitches, especially when atomic scientists refused under the Fifth Amendment to say whether they were Communists.

The year before, he had fled a houselift at his home and wound up playing the jawbone of an ass for a samba band in Brazil, proving to be too much escapism.

So he decided this year to escape to the corn belt. He had been reading Mark Twain of late and wanted to go catfishing. In Evansville, Ind., there was a fierce man to whom he intended to pay a visit but with whom he would not play poker. He would start in Columbus, O., where the locomotive cowcatcher was invented along with the jellybean, plus being possessed of an array of interestingly named individuals, as John Barleycorn, a cop assigned to arrest bootleggers, and Get-Ready Walters, who regularly proclaimed the approach of Armageddon. Without the slightest hint of incredulity, he would visit Jesse James in Missouri and ask him why he had waited 67 years to declare his real identity. He would also forswear use of the words "grassroots" or "hustings" during his trip.

DeWitt MacKenzie tells of the approach of the 1950 election in Great Britain, in which the Socialist Government, elected in mid-1945, was fighting to maintain control of Parliament against the Conservatives, again led by Winston Churchill. The London Daily Herald, organ of the Socialists, was angry with Mr. Churchill for asserting that the empire had been thrown away when in fact it had been strengthened through granting independence to India, Pakistan, and Burma—the move toward which in India had actually begun under the Coalition Government of Mr. Churchill during the war. When Prime Minister Clement Attlee had announced steps to expedite Burma's independence in 1946, Mr. Churchill had attacked the move as divesting one of the great possessions of the empire.

In 1942, at the beginning of the Allied North African invasion, he had said that he had not become the "King's first minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire."

He had not attacked granting of independence to these British dependencies but only the haste with which it was being accomplished.

From his own observations, Mr. MacKenzie relates that Burma and Ceylon, as well as India and Pakistan, had sought absolute independence, and if Britain had not acted to grant it voluntarily, they would have probably taken action themselves, as they had appeared ready for rebellion. To have delayed independence would have been risking an explosive situation. As things had worked out, free India was cooperating with Britain and was remaining a member of the Commonwealth. Others granted independence were expected to follow the same pattern.

So, he concludes, the British Government had managed to make the transition with few difficulties, and it was hard to imagine how it could have been handled any better.

The "Better English" answers could might be: "pairs of shoe"; "table d-hote", rhyming with "Quixote"; milner; erogant, the smart-type, not the putting-on-airs type of Senator Tydings.

The Shoemaker of the day suggests additional legislative response to control of firearms not heretofore tried and provides reply to those who proclaim that motor vehicles kill and yet we do not ban them. But we do regulate them closely, with yearly registration fees and required liability insurance. The same ought be required for ownership of guns, including liability insurance to at least the same levels of financial responsibility as that required for motor vehicles, with at least the same penalties for being caught without the proper yearly registration, safety inspection certificate to show a certain number of hours of training each year in safe handling of the gun, and proper insurance.

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