The Charlotte News

Tuesday, February 21, 1950

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that American businessman Robert Vogeler, convicted of spying in Hungary after his plea of guilty to the charge, was sentenced in Budapest to 15 years in prison. Two of his six co-defendants, both Hungarians, were sentenced to death. The other sentences ranged from five to thirteen years. Two of the defendants, including Mr. Vogeler and his British aide, were ordered, after completion of the sentences, expelled from the country, never to return, and also that their personal assets in Hungary would be confiscated. The prosecution, which sought the death penalty for all defendants, including a Catholic priest, said that it would appeal the jail sentences of the five defendants not sentenced to death, and the defense counsel also gave notice of appeal. Under Hungarian law, the prosecution was permitted such an appeal.

The State Department announced that the U.S. was breaking diplomatic relations with Communist Bulgaria after the Government there had demanded the recall of the American Minister, Donald Heath, and other representatives of the American Ministry. Bulgaria was directed to withdraw its representatives from the U.S. It was the first time since the war that the U.S. had severed diplomatic relations with any nation.

Secretary of State Acheson told the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees that it was "doubly urgent" that Marshall Plan aid be extended, not only for the reason that Western Europe was in need of the aid, but also to combat increasing signs of boldness by Russia. ERP administrator Paul Hoffman told the Committees that 3.1 billion dollars in aid would be necessary for the coming fiscal year to keep the program going effectively. Mr. Acheson also said that it would be necessary to increase imports to aid Western Europe's recovery. To that end, Mr. Hoffman was setting up a program to find a billion-dollar market for European goods in the U.S. The latter declared the recovery of Western Europe's industry as a "near miracle", that it was on its way to reaching an output necessary for stable economies.

The Federal judge who had ordered a temporary halt to the coal strike a week earlier found the UMW in contempt of court for not complying with the order, albeit not extending the citation to John L. Lewis, who had ordered the miners back to work. The coal miners still, however, did not heed the directive, with some saying that they did not mind being fined until the UMW's money, estimated at between 13 and 20 million dollars, was exhausted. The union was provided until Friday to get the miners back to work to expunge the contempt.

The Northeastern states of the nation were gripped by frigid weather for the second consecutive day, following weeks of unusually mild weather. The mercury reached 36 below zero in Benson Mines in upstate New York. All six New England states reported sub-zero temperatures, with record lows for the date being set in many areas of Maine. New York City and Boston had their coldest weather in two years, with the temperature falling to 6.2 degrees in New York, a record low for the date, breaking the previous record set in 1903.

The Southern Railway laid off a thousand more employees in light of the continuing coal strike, bringing the total to 3,000. Coal accounted for 29 percent of the railroad's freight business.

The House Banking Committee approved a bill to set up a mortgage corporation to encourage construction of middle income homes through cooperatives at low interest rates.

North Carolina Governor Kerr Scott accused the State Utilities Commission of resorting to an "alibi" in saying that the State might set up a 50 million dollar loan fund to finance extension of rural phone service by way of explaining their lack of progress on the matter.

In Addison, Mich., a farm house burned, killing seven children and their father and seriously injuring their mother. The fire was believed to have been caused by a defective basement furnace.

In Gregory, Tex., a Catholic priest was beaten to death in his living quarters at the church. An eighteen-year old boy was charged with the murder. The apparent motive for the slaying was to steal the priest's car, which the boy was driving at the time of an accident, leading to his arrest.

The Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Birmingham, Ala., was considering the site for its Eastern seminary. Charlotte was among the nine cities vying for the site.

The Greatest Story Ever Told, by Fulton Oursler, was to begin in serial form the following day in The News. The recently published book had won praise from clergymen of the area.

We once did a book report on that one, too, in high school. Yes we did, right before the whole class. You can, too. It's your right under the First Amendment—as long as the book is on the parallel reading list.

On the editorial page, "Strange Political Logic" finds nonsensical the alliance between Northern Democrats and Republicans to defeat the Lodge amendment in the House, that which, having already passed the Senate, would, if ratified by the states, amend the Constitution to make the electoral vote proportional to the popular vote and, to discourage splinter parties diluting the vote, require a minimum plurality of 40 percent for victory. The rationale for the alliance was that the amendment would only benefit the South. But, it argues, the concept of proportionality would end the Democratic grip on the South and enfranchise Republicans for the first time, perhaps leading to a viable Republican Party in the South, extending to Congress.

It hopes again that such rationale would be overcome by sense and that the proposed amendment would pass the House and be ratified by the states.

Now, more than ever, we need to do away with this archaic institution left over from the horse-and-buggy and code duello days.

"Mercy Killings" discusses the trial in Manchester, N.H., of the doctor accused of murder for euthanizing a terminally ill patient by injecting air into her veins. It notes that it was a controversial notion, with some believing that it was appropriate with proper consent to end the suffering of such a patient, while others adhered strictly to the precept, "Thou shalt not kill."

It suggests that one persuasive argument against the practice was the rapid advances being made in medical science which could conceivably develop cures for terminal illnesses.

It concludes that the verdict in the case would bring no solution but only marked a beginning of the debate.

Too bad that such a debate did not inhere from the fact of frequent and willy-nilly imposition of the death penalty at the time.

"Wallace Is Right for a Change" praises former Vice-President Henry Wallace for having urged that the NATO signatory nations pledge not to use nuclear weapons in a first strike. It would allay any fears of the rest of the world that such might be the intent of the United States and avoid a potential calamity thereby. It would also strengthen the cause of the democracies in negotiating for nuclear control.

"Doug Bradshaw—Public Servant" tells of the County Auditor—unclear whether he had retired or died—having been dedicated to public service in his role and a strict follower of the rules, giving the best years of his life to Mecklenburg County.

A piece from the Winston-Salem Journal, titled "Wise Delay", finds appropriate the delay of the Winston-Salem Board of Aldermen in ending rent controls as sought by the Board of Realtors, before a projected study could proceed to determine how effectively the postwar housing shortage had been eliminated throughout all classes of people in the city. If the survey showed that housing was at or near prewar conditions, then only in that event should rent controls be removed, and then only with the proviso that they could be re-instituted should rent gouging occur, as had been recorded in many cities where controls were lifted.

Drew Pearson tells of two builders of the boulevards around the Pentagon having entered pleas of no contest to charges of defrauding the Government of $218,000 in taxes on profits from Government contracts. He tells of having first brought the fraud to light in his column of October 19, 1948, prompting an investigation which then languished for a year, until he brought up the delay in a column of October 21, 1949, after which the indictments finally were pressed.

A closed-door session of Congressional leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and the Appropriations Committees took place at the Pentagon, in which it was disclosed by Lt. General Alfred Gruenther, acting as spokesman on behalf of the Joint Chiefs, that Russia appeared to be preparing for aggressive war. Mr. Pearson provides the statistical facts of the build-up disclosed by General Gruenther. The General had stressed that despite the buildup in firepower, the Russian military might still lay in its manpower, able to muster quickly 500 divisions.

Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson had taken a backseat during the discussions. But under his watchful eye, it was plain that the Joint Chiefs were providing the answers he expected on economy, saying that it had to come first, while General Gruenther said that some people were too concerned about security at the expense of economy.

Only Air Force chief of staff General Hoyt Vandenberg voiced opposition to this notion, saying that he stood by the original projection that 70 air groups were needed to defend against Russia, made even more pressing since the Soviets had developed the atomic bomb the prior August.

Senator William Knowland of California interjected that he wanted to know what the military needs were and that the President and Congress would then determine what the country could afford, that he did not want the military trying to assess what could be afforded and curtailing its budgets accordingly.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop again discuss the economizing program of Secretary of Defense Johnson, effectively resulting in disarmament. They find it remarkable that the Joint Chiefs had not complained, but then proceed to provide the explanation. The Joint Chiefs had become psychologically accustomed prior to the war of being without an adequate military in peacetime, carrying over to the postwar period. Moreover, the Secretary's methods of achieving economy included threats of being driven from military service for criticism of the effort, as had occurred to three highly qualified senior officers in the Army for voicing such criticism.

As an example of the prewar psychology in operation, they cite the fact that Army chief of staff General Lawton Collins was fond of claiming that the Army's ground forces were in better shape than ever, despite the economizing. While true, it was also true that they had largely obsolete weapons from the previous war and that air cover, necessary for any effective ground operation, had been severely depleted.

The President had made the original decision in 1948 to cut back on the military budget, regardless of the expressed needs of the three branches. The Joint Chiefs, including Air Force General Vandenberg, Admiral Forrest Sherman of the Navy, and the chairman, General Omar Bradley, were required to submit a plan and budget, against which a budget ceiling could be measured. The President provided them a ceiling in 1950 of thirteen billion dollars. The Chiefs then went about trying to fit their "requirements" within this budget, in the end appearing so fruitless that they abandoned the task.

The Alsops warn that the Chiefs might not be so compliant, however, indefinitely.

Henry C. McFadyen, superintendent of the Albemarle, N.C., schools, in the twenty-fifth in his series of weekly articles on childhood education, stresses school lunches, a relatively recent adaptation, brought about in large part by the National School Lunch Program, which paid about a third of the cost of each meal, about seven cents. The program also supplied surplus agricultural products to reduce overhead for the school districts.

In North Carolina, a little over 90 percent of the schools with lunchrooms, inclusive of about 1,500 schools, were under this program, feeding 277,000 children each day.

During the lunch hour, each child was taught cleanliness and table manners. He remarks that the Army called the Berlin airlift "Operation Vittles" and that the schools were also in the victual business.

Of course, most of the food was not fit to eat, except for the rolls and the chess pie. Don't even think about the chicken pot pie, which could often be seen on the floor after a child upchucked.

A letter writer says that his informal polling of North Carolinians had shown that they did not want either Senator Frank Graham or former Senator Robert Rice Reynolds in the Senate. He finds that Senator Graham was too liberal and too willing to go along with the Fair Deal programs which were, he thinks, undermining democracy. He favors his old friend, Lt. Governor Pat Taylor, for the Senate. (As an aside, Mr. Taylor did not enter the race. His son, Pat Taylor, Jr., would become Lieutenant Governor under Governor Robert Scott, son of Governor Kerr Scott, from 1969-73.)

A letter writer finds that RNC chairman Guy Gabrielsen, about to visit Charlotte, was coming to the South without effect, suggests that the two Republicans seeking the Congressional nomination from the district read Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Love's Labour's Lost.

He also asks the editors to inform him why several major corporations, U.S. Steel, IBM, Standard Oil of New Jersey, and American Brass Co., had reported record profits and yet condemned the "socialism" of the Truman Administration.

The editors respond that the question should properly be directed to the chairmen of the boards of the named businesses, and proceed to offer three quotes from Shakespeare, that the chairmen might find the question, as in The Merchant of Venice, to be a "seeming truth which cunning times put on to entrap the wisest", that yond Cassius had a lean and hungry look, and then reply, per Macbeth, "with some measure of truth": "We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it."

Thus, we take it, the corporations in question, in the eyes of the editors, fearing that their gold might be assailed by the usurping assassins—or at least that their purses would be picked by the Fair Deal—, had become the equivalent of Macbeth, seeking to usurp, as the serpent under't, control of the kingdom out to the crack of doom. Or, was it something else you had in your head, or your heart?

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.