The Charlotte News

Thursday, September 29, 1949

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Russia, in a diplomatic note to Yugoslavia, had scrapped its 1945 friendship treaty with the country, declaring that Marshal Tito's regime had aligned with "foreign imperialist circles". It was the sharpest rebuke to Yugoslavia since the Cominform had expelled the country in June, 1948, resulting in an economic boycott of Yugoslavia by the Soviet satellites.

The State Department announced that three American merchant ships were being held by a Nationalist blockade near Shanghai. The U.S. did not recognize the blockade, implemented against Communist-held cities.

In Pittsburgh, two major steel companies, Bethlehem and Republic, broke off negotiations with the United Steelworkers regarding pension and social insurance fund contributions, and the industry started shutting down its furnaces in anticipation of a Friday midnight strike. The union insisted on the company-paid ten-cent per hour recommendation of the President's fact-finding board, while the steel companies wanted shared responsibility, with worker contributions of two cents per hour to the plan.

Ford settled its dispute with UAW by agreeing to a ten-cent per hour pension and social insurance plan, placing added pressure on the steel companies to do likewise.

In Kentucky and Pennsylvania coal fields, violence struck for the fourth straight day as the nation's coal strike continued. An explosion was reported at a Butler County, Ky., coal tipple, and another at Grass Flats, Pa. Both were laid to sabotage by UMW pickets. The strike, regarding non-payment to the UMW welfare fund by some Southern operators since the contract expired July 1, was set to spread to hard-coal, anthracite miners by Monday.

The President visited Missouri, opening the 1950 Congressional races.

In Dover, Del., the mother and her 16-year old son accused of murder for luring an elderly man into a lonely hearts love tryst to obtain his money and kill him, were found guilty of first degree murder but the son was given a recommendation of mercy by the jury. Under Delaware law, an accomplice, as the mother was determined to be, could not receive a greater sentence than the principal, and so the mother might also escape the gallows. The three trial judges were not bound by the recommendation. The jury had deliberated for five hours the previous night. The trial had begun September 12.

TWA announced that the Coast Guard had relayed information to it that two Italian fliers missing since September 17, en route from the Azores to New York to promote an Italian Boys Town, had been located alive, adrift in the Atlantic in their plane.

In London, actress Joan Fontaine entered the hospital for treatment of a bronchial ailment.

In New York, actor Humphrey Bogart was served with a court summons charging him with assault regarding his Morocco Club fracas involving a pair of pandas, the "girlfriends" of Mr. Bogart and his male companion, and two fashion models who fancied the pandas but wound up flat on the floor while one of their male escorts was hit over the head with a plate. One of the models had obtained the summons for court the following day. Mr. Bogart reacted by saying that it was "too damned early" for such service.

—Oh yeah?

—Yeah, you want to make it something of it?

In Little Rock, Ark., the Confederate veterans staged a parade upon their 59th and probably penultimate reunion. The last reunion was scheduled to be held in Biloxi, Miss., in 1950. The Chamber of Commerce of Charleston, the originally selected site for the 1950 affair, said that it would withdraw the invitation as long as they received assurance it would not be the last reunion. The Sons of Confederate Veterans, which sponsored the reunions, assured that they would continue the meetings as long as two surviving veterans remained. Four veterans had attended the 1949 gathering.

Die, scum.

The newly incorporated American Cotton Manufacturers Institute was set to become effective in Charlotte on Saturday morning.

Can we watch?

The temperature in Charlotte was set to drop by morning to 45 degrees, with mountain temperatures dropping to between 28 and 40 degrees. The temperature range this date had been forecast as 55 to 74 degrees, reaching 64 by 9:30.

On the editorial page, "New World Organization" discusses the two alternate and conflicting plans before the U.N. regarding control of atomic energy: the Baruch plan which would establish an international body with the power to inspect and license activities without encumbrance by Big Five veto; and the Russian plan which would outlaw production and use of atomic weapons but would allow no inspection, on the basis of preservation of national sovereignty.

The U.N.'s Atomic Energy Commission had been established in 1946 to try to work out a plan but neither side would budge from these two divergent positions.

Now that the Soviets had the atomic bomb, it ventures, perhaps a middle ground could be found which was not available when the U.S. had sole possession. Otherwise, an arms race would accrue which could hurtle the world into atomic chaos.

"Road Bond Bargain" thanks Governor Kerr Scott's predecessors for the good economic status which enabled the Governor to sell the 50 million dollar road bond at a low interest rate, 1.5 percent, $1 for every $7 of indebtedness, compared to 4 and 5 percent interest rates in the 1920's. But, it cautions, if there were another Legislature as that of 1949, the economic progress would be stultified, as that Assembly had spent the 110 million dollar wartime surplus while authorizing high spending on roads and education.

"A Man's Philosophy" tells of Dr. Hans Kindler, former conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, having made several strange requests in his will, including that his friends eat, drink and be merry right after the funeral. The music he requested included the slow movement of the Haydn Quartet in C Major, a Bach chorale, and a "good, fast" movement from one of the better Mozart quartets. Quoting extensively from his will, it tells of his having thanked the Creator for allowing him to believe in the "eternal Trinity of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven", among other things. Dr. Kindler recommended his soul to the "God of Music".

It finds it comforting in a world of atomic bombs and bacteriological warfare to run across such contentment.

A piece from the New York Times, titled "Vaudeville Peps It Up", tells of the revival of vaudeville at Broadway's Palace Theater doing well, spreading enthusiasm for the lost comedic form to the hinterlands. But it required pep and pace to be successful, with no room for tired old jokes or dragging.

R. F. Beasley, in the Union County Journal, tells of Senator John Foster Dulles more nearly agreeing with the Southern Senators on the issues of civil rights and repeal of Taft-Hartley than would his opponent, former Governor Herbert Lehman, in the New York special Senatorial race in November. An old political alliance between the South and New York and the states around it, extant from the Civil War to the turn of the century, had long been broken.

The Democratic Party was thus split, but so, too, was the Republican Party. He thinks it would be a good thing for the country if the Republicans would stop being ashamed of being called "conservative" and would fight a real campaign.

Don't worry, Mr. Beasley. Your Monroe product, Mr. Helms, will make up for lost time and then some, starting next spring of 1950, enough for the whole country eventually, after thirty years of his crazy nonsense, to get a bellyful of "conservatism", as you mean it, for decades to come, enough to relegate it back to where it belongs, in a little, insignificant museum-library in Monroe.

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., in a short piece, urges that the country follow the Hoover Commission Report to make the Government more economical, counsels writing to Congressmen and Senators in support of it.

Drew Pearson tells of the battle regarding pensions in the steel industry being watched by the Townsendites of California and Florida, where the battle for pensions had been strong. It was likely that more demands for old-age pensions would follow the steel dispute, regardless of its outcome. Philip Murray of the United Steelworkers had asked U.S. Steel to join in support of the Congressional bill to raise and expand coverage of Social Security benefits, which had lagged in Congress. There had been no response. But, the actual impact would be that organized workers would obtain pensions while the sectors not covered by Social Security, as farm workers and domestic workers, and unorganized workers, as white collar employees, would receive second-rate or no pensions at all.

U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie resisted, for a reason, making public statements in English, as exampled by his private statement regarding the plan to create a prayer room within the new headquarters building, which some had suggested be called a "temple of prayer". He had remarked that the phrase sounded too "formidable", that rather they should call it a "rest room".

U.S. District Court Judge David Bazelon had dropped in to see Illinois Senator Paul Douglas, to obtain his help regarding an appointment to the D.C. Court of Appeals. Senator Douglas had a clipping indicating that Judge Bazelon had given $200 to Senator Douglas's incumbent opponent Curly Brooks in the 1948 campaign. The Judge apologized and explained that someone had convinced him to give the amount. But the real reason had been that neither President Truman nor Senator Douglas were expected to win.

U.S. District Court Judge Alan Goldsborough had ruled that the Canadian-American air agreement might be illegal and required the executive branch to define the limits of executive power, to determine which agreements were treaties requiring Senate ratification. Forty-nine Senators had protested the agreement on the ground that it violated the Senate's rights of ratification. But Canada was threatening to throw out every U.S. airline, including that from Gander in Newfoundland, an important stop on the trans-Atlantic route.

The American Embassy in Rome had informed Edda Ciano, daughter of Mussolini and widow of the Fascist foreign minister Count Ciano, that she would receive substantial royalties from the U.S. for sale of her diaries, on the basis that it could not be proved that she was a Fascist.

Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington had ducked the Navy court of inquiry regarding the false memo on the B-36 because its author, Cedric Worth, would be able to cross-examine him and Mr. Symington feared that he might lose his temper.

Several advisers to the President were urging bringing up the civil rights bill just before adjournment of Congress in December, on the theory that would-be filibusters would be squelched for the desire of members to go home for Christmas.

Marquis Childs discusses the military aid program in terms of its political equation: the willingness of the Administration to yield to certain points plus the resolute stand of Senators Vandenberg and Dulles and the advent of the Russian atomic bomb, equalling the full amount of appropriation requested by the President. With the latter event revealed, the Congress had suddenly given the full amount requested. Until that had occurred, the House had wanted to cut the appropriation in half.

It remained to be seen, however, how the appropriation would proceed for the following year. Most of the current appropriation would likely go to France to equip nine divisions as a front line defense. But it would leave the chiefs of staff of the other Western European NATO nations unhappy, not wanting to be left undefended on the fringes of the geographical range of the pact, as in Norway or Portugal.

A danger in granting the full appropriation was that more money would be wanted for various projects at home, as the provision of money abroad would cause taxpayers to ask why not spend at home.

Because of a rising national debt, perhaps adding as much as six billion dollars by the end of the year, it was necessary to develop an overall plan, taking into account the total American economic resources in relation to urgent security needs at home and abroad. While it would have to be fluid to take into account developing events, a comprehensive plan would be better than an ad hoc expenditure of money, and would attenuate the feeling of the taxpayers that they were not being told why their money was being spent.

Robert C. Ruark says that in discussing with ordinary people their reactions to the Soviet atomic bomb, he found the sense to be calm and relief, not hysteria, less so, in fact, than when the prospect of Russia getting the bomb had been the subject of every cocktail-hour conversation.

Now, the nation's leadership was calming the population with the notion that it would take Russia several years to develop a nuclear stockpile and to catch up with the U.S. technologically. And the theory of mutual deterrence was also being bandied about, analogous to the non-use of gas in World War II.

He urges the politicians to develop a plan and knock off politicking, but realizes that it was probably too much to ask.

Those on the street had little faith in the U.N. as a means of control of the bomb, but they wanted its "menace either to be amply met or prayerfully ignored—not a mixture of both, with futile fiddling and the shouts of doom intermingled with whistles in the dark."

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