The Charlotte News

Wednesday, July 6, 1949

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Atomic Energy Commission chairman David Lilienthal testified before the joint Atomic Energy Committee that the country was virtually without atomic weapons when AEC took over atomic energy management in 1947. But to maintain its leadership, he said, the Commission had to tolerate "careless, stupid, and negligent" personnel at times, sticking its neck out to make progress and avoid bureaucratic snafus. He denied Senator Bourke Hickenlooper's charge, however, of mismanagement of the AEC, which had prompted the hearings.

The National Education Association passed easily a resolution against allowing Communists to teach in the schools of the country. Some of the educator-delegates present believed, however, that the move would result in dismissals based on political grounds, even though a teacher was not disloyal or in fact a Communist.

Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, GOP leader on foreign policy, asked during debate that the Senate ratify the NATO treaty. He agreed with Senator Tom Connally, speaking the previous day, that a vote for the treaty was not either a commitment to fight in the event of attack on a member nation or a commitment to support of military aid for the Western European members. He said that the organization's principal strength would derive from the potential military might of the combined twelve nations, not from a limited program of military aid. Senate leaders expressed optimism that ratification by two-thirds vote would occur in the ensuing week.

In London, because of the financial problems in Britain regarding the sterling area's low reserve in gold and dollars, 400 million below the critical two billion dollar mark, resulting from reduced export trade to the U.S., Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Scripps ordered a halt to spending of Britain's dollars except under either existing contracts or where importers could show the spending to be a matter of urgent national necessity. Britain received large quantities of gasoline, tobacco, wheat and cotton from the U.S. and other countries which demanded payments in dollars or other "hard" currencies. He said that Britain had not the "slightest intention" of devaluing the pound. Instead, exports should be reduced in price to compete in the world markets. The strictures would remain in effect until at least September when new ERP aid would be available and a new scheme of payments among European nations in effect. Mr. Cripps said that the problem of trade between the Western Hemisphere and the rest of the world, of which the sterling area formed an important part, had to be resolved cooperatively to formulate a long-term remedy.

Secretary of State Acheson said that the British economic crisis was not great and that its principal issue was Britain's power in competitive export trade. He said that he was confident Britain could adjust from a sellers' market to a buyers' market. He had been informed generally in advance of the comments made by Mr. Cripps.

The U.S. had on hand 24.46 billion dollars in gold, a record high, amounting to 60 percent of the world's monetary gold. All of it, save a bit over a billion dollars worth, was backing outstanding paper currency. Secretary of Treasury John W. Snyder opposed any change in the price of gold, currently at $35 per ounce. The President's Council of Economic Advisers opposed any allocations by ERP to build up foreign exchange reserves.

Incidentally, to the idiots who think that somehow there has been a giant conspiracy to convert U.S. currency to Federal Reserve notes as opposed to something else prior to sometime in the not too distant past, you need to get a grip on reality. That to which we commonly refer as a dollar bill, regardless of denomination, is merely a promissory note, always has been in the past 100-plus years and still is, backed by gold. Nothing has changed since the country went off the silver standard in the 1870's and went exclusively to gold in 1900. Since 1971, notes have not been convertible to the equivalent amount in gold. So what? Unless you are planning to purchase something abroad, it makes no difference. Currency is simply a means of barter.

Of course, if you are accustomed to a mode of exchange in Confederate money, backed by sawdust, filling in the gaps in your mind, we suppose that we can understand your issues.

In New York, in the perjury trial of Alger Hiss, defense counsel Paul Stryker gave his summation to the jury, saying that an indictment proved nothing, was merely an accusation, read to the jury the indictment's two counts, that Mr. Hiss, during February and March, 1938, provided to Whittaker Chambers secret documents about which Mr. Hiss allegedly had lied to the grand jury the previous December, and that he had also lied about not ever seeing Mr. Chambers after the beginning of 1937. He said that a finding of not guilty on count two precluded a finding of guilt on the other count, that they really amounted to one count. He said that only Mr. Chambers had implicated Mr. Hiss, and so whether the jurors could accept beyond a reasonable doubt the veracity of Mr. Chambers constituted the heart of the case. He stressed that Mr. Chambers had admitted perjury before HUAC the previous August when he had denied knowledge of any espionage activities. Mr. Stryker referred to Mr. Chambers as an atheist whose life was a "long masquerade of deception", a man against everything which was decent, engaged in "psychopathic sadism".

In San Francisco, the treason trial began of Tokyo Rose, Iva Toguri, with opening statements of counsel. The Government declared that it would not seek the death penalty, presumably to make it easier to obtain a conviction. The minimum sentence for a conviction was five years in prison. Ms. Toguri was facing eight counts of treason, based on her radio broadcasts from Tokyo aimed at demoralization of G.I.'s during the war. The Government challenged peremptorily only two potential jurors, both black, during selection the previous day. The prosecutor said that there were many reasons other than their race for the challenges. The defense used nine challenges.

Today, and for the last 30 years in the Federal system, longer in some states, such a pattern of peremptory challenges might prompt a defense motion for mistrial premised on systematic exclusion of members of one race, based on the minority status of the defendant. The burden would then shift to the prosecutor to provide his explanations outside the presence of the jury to support the exclusions on other grounds, and if done satisfactorily, given the number of exclusions, whether members of other races had been treated similarly in exercise of challenges, and whether there were reasonable grounds for exercise of the challenge other than race, lack of apparent attention to the proceedings, educational or other background issues, personal conflicts with schedule, expressions of lack of sympathy with authority or the government, and the like, the court would likely deny the motion and continue the process. In the instant case, it is likely, under existing law, that an initial case for discrimination would face tough sledding with a court based on the fact of the defendant being of a different race than the minority excluded, though both were of racial minority groups. But, notwithstanding that fact, a reasonable argument could be made that the exclusion was based on race to eliminate interracial sympathy for the defendant's plight and the case of discrimination in the jury selection process therefore might still have merit.

A showing of a pattern of discrimination within the jurisdiction resulting in systematic exclusion from the entire jury venire of members of a particular race, such as by selecting jurors from economically or racially biased lists, has been available as a challenge under the U.S. Constitution since a ruling by the Supreme Court in 1965.

In New York, an assistant manager at a bank was sentenced to three years in jail for stealing nearly $900,000 from his bank following his plea of guilty in May.

Perle Mesta was confirmed as Minister to Luxembourg. Only Senator Forrest Donnell of Missouri dissented, based on his belief that she was appointed for her giving of lavish Washington parties and raising money for the Democrats.

In Venice, Italy, a 17-year old fisherman had to have surgery to remove a whole fish which had jumped into his mouth and became stuck in his throat as he emptied his net.

In Charlotte, Donald McDonald of The News reports of a police alert having been issued regarding four young men who had held up at gunpoint a Spur service station during the early morning hours, getting away with $240. They also kidnaped the proprietor but let him go after a few blocks when they found he had no money.

You haven't seen one of those Spurs in a long time, have you? They used to be everywhere, had the tan pea-gravel driveways, made the tires on the car sound as crunching, pleasant respite from the hum of the enduring road beneath.

They escaped in a 1940 gray Ford coupe thought to have a Georgia tag, partially obscured by a rag. Be on the lookout therefore for a ragtag two, with probably two on the floor, in a 1940 Ford Tudor, last seen heading east, beating a retreat on Penman Street.

Police were still looking for three persons, two men and a woman, who had jumped a man and taken his wallet with $40 aboard plus his high school ring during the early morning hours of the previous day. He was jumped after one of the men had asked him for a match.

A Harvard University student discovered on July 2 a new comet during his first night of observation at the University's Oak Ridge observatory in Harvard, Mass. The comet was in the constellation Cygnus, the Northern Cross, was discovered after the student took a photograph of the night sky, which showed the comet's tail. It was too faint to be seen with the naked eye.

On the editorial page, "Labor vs. Hoey in 1950?" tells of the North Carolina House, during its 1949 legislative session, having gone along with the program of Governor Kerr Scott more frequently than the conservative Senate, having passed all of his major requests except repeal of the state ban on the closed shop for business not operating in interstate commerce and thus not subject to the Federal ban under Taft-Hartley.