The Charlotte News
Wednesday, March 1, 1950
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in London, Dr. Klaus Fuchs, the British scientist, emigre from Nazi Germany, on trial for violation of the Official Secrets Act for providing the Russians atomic secrets during the course of his work on the Manhattan Project and the British atomic project between 1943 and 1947, pleaded guilty to the charge. The judge, in sentencing him to the maximum of fourteen years for the offense, chastised him for being an ingrate to the society which fed him and having done irreparable harm to both Britain and the U.S. The plea was in the form of a "slow plea", preserving potential appellate rights, that is after a short trial of 90 minutes, during which the defense called one witness to corroborate the defendant's confession to the charges and state that he had been cooperative in the process of investigation.
Senator Brien McMahon of Connecticut, chairman of the Joint Atomic Energy Committee, proposed to the Senate that the U.N. hold peace talks in Moscow, with debates broadcast worldwide, to construct controls on atomic energy. As a first step in the process, he proposed that the U.S. and its NATO partners meet to draft a peace program. He viewed such talks as indispensable to preservation of the peace in an atomic age, recently made more complicated by the prospect of the hydrogen bomb and the fact that the Russians now had the fission bomb.
According to the British Foreign Office, the twelve NATO foreign ministers were planning a conference in the spring, probably to take place in Europe.
The House Armed Services Committee, in its formal report after hearings, said that the removal of Admiral Louis Denfeld as chief of Naval operations the prior fall was the result of reprisal for his "frank and honest" criticism of the military unification program and national defense planning. Ten of the 15 members comprising the majority of the 23-member Committee objected to the report on the basis that it was too weak, while the eight-member minority, all Democrats, felt it was too strong. The ten members who thought the report too weak favored having Attorney General J. Howard McGrath consider charges against Secretary of the Navy Francis Matthews for intimidation or interference with Congressional witnesses. Congressman Edward Hebert of Louisiana had pushed for approval of such charges, but the move lost by a vote of 20 to 11. Congressman John Walsh of Indiana said that the report was intended to embarrass the President and defense officials.
In Taipei, Formosa, Chiang Kai-Shek, as announced the prior day, became again President and commander-in-chief of the military, positions from which he had retired at the beginning of 1949, in favor of Vice-President Li Tsung-Jen, presently in New York recovering from surgery. Nationalist bombers promptly raided power installations in Nanking, to provide emphasis to Chiang's promise to drive the Communists from mainland China. The decision had been motivated by the recent twenty-year mutual assistance and neutrality agreements between Russia and Communist China.
In the Federal court trial of the contempt citation against UMW, the secretary-treasurer of the union testified that it had done everything in its power to get the miners to return to work in compliance with the court's temporary restraining order.
In Manchester, N.H., in the trial of the doctor accused of first degree murder for the euthanization of a terminally ill patient by injecting air into her veins, a statement was read into the record from a doctor who had attended the patient just prior to the arrival of the defendant, that she was already dead, with no evident pulse, when the defendant injected the air. The doctor's statement also said that it was amazing that the patient had lived as long as she had, given her condition, and that no doctor could have done anything to save her.
A nationwide strike of American Airlines ground crews began, affecting 4,600 supply and maintenance workers in 34 cities across the nation.
The Duke Power Bus Co. drivers, who had threatened strike beginning the prior Monday, had voted unanimously in five of the six affected North Carolina cities to accept the proposal for a 60-day truce during which a fact-finding board would be appointed and issue recommendations for settlement of the demands for a twenty-cent wage hike and establishment of a contributory pension plan. Only Salisbury drivers had yet to vote.
In Hollywood, actress Janet Blair
March weather had arrived both as a lamb and a lion in different parts of the country, the former in the Rockies and most of the Eastern and Gulf states, while the latter prevailed from the Eastern Dakotas to Western Pennsylvania and Western New York, where temperatures continued colder than the norm. Wind warnings were up from Cape Hatteras to Jacksonville.
Part of chapter seven of The Greatest Story Ever Told, by Fulton Oursler, appears on the front page as part of the serialization by The News of the historical novel published the previous year.
If you get behind in your reading, you may call 3-0303 at The News or write to the newspaper and receive, free of charge, a tabloid version of the first twelve chapters of the book. 30-30.
On the editorial page, "Spreading the Tax Load Now" finds the tax code riddled with anachronisms, not the least of which was granting exemptions to such enterprises as cooperatives, foundations and educational institutions engaged in profit-making operations.
Business leaders from Charlotte had recently appeared before the House Ways & Means Committee favoring elimination of the tax loopholes for such ventures, as well as repeal of the wartime excise taxes and imposition of fair taxes on businesses receiving preferred treatment under the extant tax code, before an increase of individual income taxes. The piece agrees with those proposed changes.
"Capt. Brown Lives Up to Tradition" finds it appropriate that, after initially having sought to blame his team of officers for inefficiency and lack of assistance in the grounding of the U.S.S. Missouri off Norfolk in January, Captain William Brown had shouldered responsibility for the incident before the Navy board of inquiry, convened to investigate the matter.
"The Negro YMCA" applauds the effort of Edwin L. Jones to attract funds for completion of the black YMCA in Charlotte.
Wouldn't it be a lot easier to dispense with all this nonsense and integrate the YMCA's and everything else, including the country clubs and civic clubs? Whatever happened to the "C" in that organization in those decrepit times, wherein a brave war was fought against Fascism abroad only, for the most part, though not exclusively, to blink fascism at home upon returning?
"The Uncertain Month" celebrates poetically the coming of the first month of spring, transitioning from winter.
"March...a month when the children, anticipating Summer, beg to go barefoot, run in the fields towing a towering kite; a month of woolly clouds flocking under a cobalt sky."
Perhaps another way of putting it is to question why, if God is not a Tar Heel, the sky is Carolina blue.
Yes, on Monday, the current spring edition, with its 43 points in a loss to Virginia, scored the least of any UNC team, save a 40-point performance in a loss at Duke in 1979, since the deliberate slowdown game, inaugurating the Dean Smith version of the "Four Corners" offense, in 1966 against Duke in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament, winding up 21-20 for the heavily favored Blue Devils, ushering in, however, a new era of great success for UNC basketball over the next many years, mostly in succession—a game which we still remember well hearing on radio. The defeat this past Monday, therefore, marked the least offense recorded by a UNC team since the advent of the shot clock in college basketball. Yet, that unfortunate ten-point defeat, following by nine days a 24-point victory over the Cavaliers, is but a glitch in an otherwise smoothly running operation in 2016-17, heading perhaps, if the team keeps its head in the game, to another run at the NCAA championship, of which they fell short of pushing to overtime last year by a quarter second, possessing the momentum had they not been pretermitted in the effort by a last quarter-second three-point shot by Villanova.
The next closest score in least offensive output, incidentally, came against Villanova in 1985, in a 56 to 44 loss in the Southeast Regional final, the last year, before last season, in which the Wildcats had won the national championship.
So, Spring awaits... But not until Saturday is done and a few more things to come accomplished in the interim during the remainder of Winter.
By the way, anyone who thought that Gonzaga, with its cream-puff schedule, ranking below 100 in strength
among the schools, was truly number one simply by virtue of being
undefeated until last week is patently insane—especially if you
had seen them play. Sorry. Maybe next time. Sometimes, it is a far
better thing to play a few tough opponents in November and December
and suffer a few losses, especially when a member of a traditionally
weak conference, than to cruise through on an easy schedule. Gonzaga
will be done by the third round. If they are a number one seed, it will be
a national scandal, though one not of such great import as our
present "President". No offense intended to Gonzaga. We
are merely stating facts
A piece from the Winston-Salem Journal, titled "Thanks Shaw for Stopping Strike", thanks Mayor Victor Shaw of Charlotte for his proposal which had been accepted by the two sides in the dispute of Duke Power Co. bus drivers, to have a ten-day truce while the union considered whether to vote for the 60-day cooling off period and appointment of a fact-finding board, enabling, in the interim, continued bus services in Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and four other cities where the Duke buses operated.
Drew Pearson, following his Monday letter to Secretary of State Acheson, writes an open letter along the same lines to Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, urging the need to chart a more definite course in the country's relations with Russia in the atomic age and then informing the American people of that course. The people were worried about the nature of the policy, were confused by the present course and naturally concerned over stories of civilian defense preparation, including location of an alternate capital in the event of war.
Mr. Pearson does not propose what the policy should be, but indicates that it should be determined and then the people informed openly of the course and its reasons.
He notes that the Alsops had recently criticized Mr. Johnson for his economizing on defense at the expense of military preparedness as a deterrent to further Soviet aggression, but reminds that he had also been criticized when he correctly advocated military preparedness prior to Pearl Harbor. His good works, including his insistence on civilian control of the military, might blow up in his face, however, should another arms race ensue with the Soviets, who had no regard for human life and employed slave labor to effect their side of it.
He says that he does not believe in another peace conference, just as the ones he had attended in the Twenties, leading to the Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war, had failed to prevent war. Yet, those failed conferences, he reminds, had convinced the world of U.S. sincerity about preserving the peace and supplied a ground for moral leadership, while inspiring the American people, preventing malaise.
Most people favored Secretary Johnson's economizing measures in defense but they also needed moral leadership to be displayed on the world stage, and, to that end, he again stresses the need for informing the people of a concrete plan to exert it.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop, in London, tell of the previous week's British elections signaling a final British economic crisis, even though the devaluation of the pound the previous summer had been wildly successful. It had been so successful, however, that it was feared that a cut in Marshall Plan aid was likely. Also, higher import costs resultant of devaluation had prompted a rise in domestic prices, still sharply rising, causing workers to want more money in their pockets to keep pace with inflation, signaling a necessary change in the wage freeze. More inflation threatened to send production costs rising, destroying the stimulus to British exports from devaluation.
Prior to the elections, Labour had believed that with another five years in office assured by victory, it could implement deflationary policies to counter the effects of the inflation. But with the narrow majority achieved in Parliament and another election therefore constantly looming, it would be difficult to effectuate any major economic change. And the only places where economizing of Government could take place would be in welfare reform, political poison, and the already diminished British defense budget, the maintenance of which was crucial to Britain's postwar position in Europe.
A great deal of resentment had arisen from the insistence that about half of the Marshall Plan outlay to Britain be in the form of a direct oil subsidy to the major oil companies, the result of the powerful oil lobby in the U.S. If such "adolescent" policies did not cease, then the whole Marshall Plan and Western confederation could be compromised, as Britain was the keystone insofar as economic and military resistance to Soviet power as part of the NATO alliance.
DeWitt MacKenzie discusses Captain Raymond Rocco "Turk" Westerling, Dutch Indonesian revolutionist who had led native deserters from the Dutch Army in a surprise capture of the West Java capital, Bandoeng, on January 23, presently under British arrest in Singapore. He had wanted to separate West Java from the other fifteen states of the Indonesian Republic. He had been arrested for entering Singapore, where he had gone for arms and ammunition, without a permit. The British were still considering Indonesia's request for extradition. It was likely he would face the death penalty if extradited.
Ruthless and young, he nevertheless held hypnotic force over his followers, reminiscent of Hitler in little. He had been educated in Istanbul and was a polyglot, had been a commando for the Dutch in the late war. He had been the "tough guy" for the Dutch Army, utilizing terror as a weapon, from 1946 until drummed out by official complaints for his methods. In one incident, it was alleged that he had used a guerrilla leader's wife as bait for his surrender, stripping her naked and tying her to a tree. When the leader finally did surrender, he was shot dead on the spot.
Nice guy. Too bad he isn't around to be the military adviser for our new "President". He would fit right in with the mentality daily being displayed.
By the way, Your Highness, don't get too high on your relatively positive polling results from your first speech to Congress a couple of nights ago. The poll was taken only of those who watched, and few did, beyond those who already are suckers for your sales pitch or willing conscripts thereto. Most of us are finding ways to ignore you, except when you make a complete ass of yourself, which is often enough to provide, at least, some perverse entertainment.
Get with the program. You have already lost the people as a whole by the fact of your extremely partisan, extremist policies in the face of only a relatively narrow electoral victory and large popular vote loss. You cannot hope to govern any country with only about 40 percent support and dropping rapidly.
We think it is not only time for the new, racist Attorney General to resign for his lies to Congress anent contacts with Russia during the campaign, but also for this "President" to leave for his lies repeatedly to the American people, his election rigging with the Russians and pre-election fraud regarding his "University" and the bribe he solicited to cover up the investigation of same in Florida.
No one but morons, by definition, could possibly support this corrupt, traitorous moron.
Meanwhile, however, some of these
idiots are preoccupied with an honest mistake at the Academy Awards
Sunday night, think it an earth-shattering event because it transgressed the carefully scripted coloring-book lines laid out in advance—the Horror
A letter from the couple whose home into which an Army plane had crashed recently thanks the newspaper for its coverage and the men of the National Guard, the Charlotte Life Saving Crew, the Fire Department and a Marine detachment for their assistance. No one had been injured in the accident.
A letter writer supports the previous writer from England who objected to Dr. Billy Graham having asserted that if Labour won the British election, it would quickly effect an agreement with Russia whereby the Soviets could bypass England and directly attack America.
She is reminded of a sermon in North Carolina in which the preacher had said that King George and Queen Elizabeth were very ordinary people and that he would not cross the street to see them, finding it inexcusable and un-Christian.
Un-Christian to say that royalty is like everybody else and not superior? What is wrong with that? Did not Jesus say essentially the same thing? The preacher, after all, did not shout out something obscene at the Queen.
A letter writer finds several letters to the editor of late to be "downright disgusting, to say the least", starting with the writer who said that he opposed segregation and would tolerate interracial marriage. He thinks miscegenation is a sin against creation and results in inferior offspring. He finds the New Deal responsible for such tolerance of "loose morals" and relaxed laws which, until recently, had forbidden interracial intercourse.
He enjoys instead the letters of condemnation of Mrs. J. Waties Waring for her remarks critical of Southerners, as well those of P. C. Burkholder, and says "hurrah" for former Senator Robert Rice Reynolds.
Don't worry about the New Deal and Fair Deal. You'll be cheering Willis Smith and his new campaign manager, and singing their praises to the skies in just a few weeks. You'll be happy again.
Praise be to the Hope Diamond.
A letter writer from Miami Beach thinks that The News had devoted too little attention to Winston Churchill's call for a Big Three peace conference, relegating it to page 5-A.
A pome appears from the Atlanta Journal, "In Which a Dietary Warning Is Issued In Behalf Of Those Endeavoring to Reduce:
"Foods that are yummy
Will fatten your tummy."
And dummies who gorge to surfeit
Can't surf without being et by Cretins.
Framed Edition
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