davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
Editorial Comment
HOLD O N

Veterans who hold terminal leave bonds,
issue! by the government to former enlisted
men for unused ~furlough or leave time which
accrued to their credit while in service,
shoule seriously ponder the wisdom Of cashing
Il en-, now that President Truman has signed
the bill which would allow them to do so.
The strongest argument is a selfish one:
the present purchasing power Of those securi-
ties is less than it may be expected to be at
the time Of their maturity. five years from
the cate of the veterans discharge. Ir addi-
ton, by retaining the bonds the ex-service-
mai receives 2 IL per cent interest.
The retail cost Of essential cost-of-living
item< today is so per cent above 1935-193s
prices. The consumers price index for May
Is was slightly below 156-meaning that it
would have taken approximately $1.56 or
that date to buy what 81 would have boz ght in
1o25-9e. Presumably five years hence 81 will
buy more than it does today.
There is also a patriotic argument against
cash'ng. With today's initiation. the release of
81. 800, 900, 900 in spending power represented
by the bonds may drive prices even higher
than they are now.
Unless faced by emergency need, yester-
days warriors would do we'll to hold those
bonds.-Richmond Times Dispatch.
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02

Europe or for world peace through the
United Nations as long as Russia may,
and most certainly will, veto its benef-
icient policies.
General Eisenhower voiced the opin-
ion which gains ground daily in this
country when he recently declared 1T
looks more and more as though the
United States will have to accept a two
world concept when we have been work
ing for a one-world plan"
Certainly the United States would
like nothing better than to %integrate
it's foreign policy with the United Ma
lions, but Russia will not give its con-
sent. If the world does finally split
into two divisions the blame will rest
upon Moscow, not Washington.
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
The Herter Experiment

one reason for its loss Of influA
ence.) Eventually, however, the
wise Representative Eaton of New
Jersey agreed to the Herter plan,
and the Herter committee was au-
thorized.
The manner of its appointment
was significant. Herter made only
two requests of speaker Martin.
First, he asked that none of the
House good-time Charles of pro-
tessional baby-kissers or incorrIgi-
BILE victims of the terrible %oratory
hs bit be named to the committee.
He wanted only men who would
work, and we're ready to take a
hard trip in order to work. Sec
ond, he wanted a committee which
would be a c~ross-section OF the
House as a whole.
Martins choices fulfilled Hert-
er's desires. In character, the
committee ranges from such a
hard-shell isolationist as August
H. Andersen of Minnesota to the
progressive, far-seeing A. S. Mon
roney Of Oklahoma. Besides being
reasonably representative, the
committee also meets Herter's
other. equally important speclflca-
tons.
It's trip, moreover, is to con-
trast strangely with the average
junket. 1t will begin in New York
in late August, with a long and
serious preliminary briefing from
the State Departments new coun-
selor. Charles E. Bohlen. 1t will
be illuminated. along the way, by
the explanations of a staff of ex-
perts headed by Professor William
Yandell Elliott. 1t will consist OF
a long seminar aboard ship as the
first stage: visit to the Ruhr by
the whole committee, and then
visits by subcommittee to the
rest of Germany and Austria,
England, France. the Low Coun-
tries, Italy and Greece as the sec
ond stage; and a prolonged ship
board meeting to. prepare a re-
port on the way home.
The committee has even agreed
that Herter is not to approve
vouchers for pleasant side-expedi-
tions, and one member who
wished to go to Europe by air
has already been refused. Embas-
sizes everywhere have been alerted
to show the representatives the
real face of European lie. Seeing
the facts and weighing them is to
be the sole object. If the House
Committee of Nineteen, after all
this, succeeds in learning nothing,
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
Housing Shortage Worse

The national housing shortage grows
worse instead Of better.
The Associated Press has made a
survey of the housing situation in 157
of the country's leading cities. The
tabulations of the AP show that 40 per
cent fewer new homes were started this
spring than last and that the average
construction cost was up % per cent
In its dispatch reporting the find
ings of the survey, the APP says while
the need for new housing has been es-
timated as high as 100000 600 units,
onlv 1854 new homes and apartments
were started in 157 cities in the first
quarter of 1947. Sixty-three OF the
cities had waiting lists showing 37o,773
families without homes; only 25,23e
dwelling units started in those cities.
Last year., 61,795 new dwelling units
qot under way in the same period In
the 157 cities.
Estimated construction costs,
without land or extras, amounted "
s2O7139.485 for the dwellings started
in The first three months this year
The first quarter total in 1916 was
s27s. 758. $50 for the much larger num-
Der of units.
Thus the average estimated building
cost was s5,548.31 per dwelling unit
this wear, in contrast to $4,512.65 per
unit a year ago.
What is to be the outcome? 1t is
doubtful that anyone can tell. Whlle
veterans and civilians were so hard
pressed for living quarters when the
fighting war ended the promise was
held out by Washington that the fed
eral government would see that no
family lacked a roof, and forthwith
n]aced restrictions on business and fac
tory construction which handicapped
the country's economic recovery, but
which obviously did not improve the
housing situation.
Now more families than ever are
either crowded into inadequate living
space or camping out. Since the gov
eminent has not solved the problem it
appears foolish to look to Washington
for a constructive program. Some other
source of relief must be sought. Pri-
vate enterprise has solved so many OF
our problems in the past it might also
solve this one, if given a free hand.
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02

In those large and piping times
preceding 1929 "Canny Cal' Cool
idge once warned Americans that
prosperity often tested a nation
more deeply than adversely. Few
paid any attention. In the larger
and pipinger times of 1947 how
many will heed the warning. much
more specific and documented. in
President Truman's semi-annual
economic report?
The headlines are O. the re
ports disclosure that national pro-
duction is at the unprecedented
rate of 1925, 900, 600, 900 a year and
that the dream of 80, 600, 900 Jobs
has been realized. These certainly
are gratifying figures and full sat
isfaction should be taken in them,
Moreover. the recession tina; was
so widely predicted has been p"st'
poned repeatedly and is now rele.
gated to the indefinite future.
Even so, Mr. Truman's descrip-
ton Of the present props of pros.
perity as temporary deserves
attention.
The two big props of today S
boom are the reservoir of savings
and the record : breaking foreign
demand. Americas tremendous
productive capacity has not yet
caught up with he task of filling
accumulated needs at nome and
restoring wars d S truction
abroad. The prospect is that it will
be taxed for several years even
if under the Marshall Plan the
United States merely helps Europe
to help i'self regain prewar levels
of production. The current rate Of
exports - $l7.0 90. 600, 900 a year
may not be maintained, but for
three or four years at least they
will be high enough TO halt any,
thing like a depression.
So that prop is Temporary
only in a long-range sense. How
ever, it is not too soon for Ameri-
cans to begin to. plan to make it
more permanent. They can do
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
Where The Blame Lies

There is going forward a propagan-
da campaign in this country which cen
tiers around the proposition that the
United States should integrate it's for
eign policy with the United Nations.
We had not known before that the
United States was not trying to inte-
CRATE it's international affairs with the
United Nations. Whatever failure
there has been in so doing is attrib-
utable to the refusal of the Soviet Union
to do the same thing.
Russia does not propose to integrate
any of it's policies with any organiza-
lion, least of all with the United Ma
lions. Russia is determined to DOM
mate the United Nations as completely
as it dominates eastern Europe.
The United States made it's greatest
mistake when it permitted Russia, in
The initial demonstration of this con-
Stunning purpose of the Moscow regime
10 make the veto a weapon OF domino
ton. Now the United States, to its
borrow, counts the eleven times Russia
has invoked the veto, and must con
.lude that it cannot hope to accomplish
anything for the benefit of the war
weary and impoverished countries O.
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
By T EDISON

WASHINGTON - Fedora. Court
in Boston is expected to hand
down it's decision this week in the
treason trial of Douglas Chandler.
American born Nazi sympathizer
and broadcaster for Adolf Hitler.
The case is worth watching be-
cause it may set an important
precedent. If the United States
should ever get into a war with
a certain other power, the number
of treason charges against fifth
columnists will probably be ire
mendous. And what can be done
with them, under present laws,
may be determined by the out
come of the Chandler case.
There have been few treason
cases in U. S. history. Aaron
Burr's trial for conspiracy to over
throw the United States ard SET
up an independent government
west of the Allegheny river is
most famous. But Burr was &C
quilted. The Whiskey Rebellion
and Fugitive Slave Law cases
rank next. In World War l prose
cutions for treason were largely
supplanted by trials under the
espionage act. In World War II
there were less than a dozen trea-
son indictments.
Douglas Chandler was one of
eight native-born Americans who
were indicted in July, 1913, on
charges of giving aid and comfort
to the enemy by making propa.
ganda b%roadcasts for Germany
and Italy,
Ezra Pound, Id%aho-born poet
VINO broadcast to America from
Rome in support of Mussolini, is
the only one whose case has been
disposed Of. When he was appre-
hended at Berchtesgaden in May,
1945, he tried 10 commit suicide.
Brought to the U. S. in November,
ne was found to De mentally IN
sound by Federal Court the follow
ing February. The treason charges
therefore had to be dropped.
Now SO years old, Chandler was
born in Chicago but grew up in
Baltimore. He served in the U. S.
Navy for a few months in World
War l. Then he became a news
paper reporter in Baltimore, an
advertising man and stockbroker
in New York. He was wiped out
in 1929.
He went to Europe in 1880 and
never came back. He wrote travel
articles for American magazines,
but they dropped him when it was
learned he was taking money from
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
Problem OF TreaS0nists

the Nazis. He "a converted to
NaZism several years before the
war broke out and a big house
confiscated from its former Ber-
lin owner-was placed at his dis
posal.
The State Department invited
him 10 return to the U. S. in 1941
but he declined. Then he began
his broadcasts to America. He
was billed as Paul Revere and
he went on the air to the strains
of a few bars Of Yankee Doodle.
All through he war he rallied at
international Jewry" and the
"war-mongering Roosevelt"
The others in his little band
of free American patriots includ-
ed Robert H. Best of Sumter, S.
c., who criticized the U. S. for
selling out to communism when
it entered the war. He was ar
raigned and indicted with Chand-
Ter in Boston. Also in the Berlin
group Edward Leo Delaney,
of Olney, ILL.,. Constance Drexel,
of Philadelphia and Max Koisch-
WITT of New York. Frederick Will
helm Kaltenback of Dubuque, la.
the 'American Lord Haw : Haw,'
was reported to have died in a
Russian concentration camp two
years ago.
The treason statute under which
Chandler has been tried is the
first section OF the present U. S.
criminal code. 1t goes back to an
act passed in 1870. It has had
few changes. except that in 1862
it was provided that nvone con-
vic ed of treason should lose his
slaves and be disqualified to hold
public office.
Under the Constitution, treason
is limited to levying war on the
United States or giving aid and
comfort to its enemies. There
must be open confession in court
Or two witnesses to an overt act.
turing tie last wa, Attorney
General Francis Biddle tried to
tighten up this law, bu. Congress
showed no interest.
Acquittal in the Chandler, Best
or other cases would probably pro-
vide a new incentive for removing
some of tie loopholes in The trea-
son law, so as to be prepared 10
handle acts of dis!oyalty by fifth
columnists- in future emergencies.
Measures introduced by the House
Un-American Activities commit
tee in the last Congress lean in
this direction, and there is now
more sup22rt for such proposals
than during the last war.
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
All About The Piedmont

It would take a month to absorb the
vast amount of information the Char
lotte News has assembled in its special
'"This is the Piedmont Carolinas" edi-
ton. But the month would be well
spent. It would be like taking a special
course on this great areas resources
and production under a competent
teacher.
The edition is in tabloid form. 1t
contains lightweight pages. The time
and planning that went into it's produc-
ton, the care with which the reading
matter was prepared, the pictorial
thoroughness and %vividness of the il
Illustrations, truly give it library value.
It is a splendid current history OF
what the News boldly, and we believe
correctly, calls "the greatest industrial
ara of the South"
Consider the subjects treated. There
are thumbnail sketches of Piedmont
towns and cities. There are enlighten-
ing articles on the regions hidden
wealth and natural resources. Others
deal with new rural industries, electric
power, transportation, minerals, mills
textile, yarn, fabrics, knitting-lab-
oratory research, cottonseed.
Furniture and tobacco manufacture
are ably discussed, as are the areas
banking and the seats of higher learn
ing in the Piedmont, with both of which
the area is especially endowed. Chemi-
Gals, paper products, distribution of
products, and a host of other interest
ing topics are treated. Too, there are
articles on Carolina progress and the
states fiscal policy.
Wilmingtonians who read the edi-
ton, and all of US should, will be the
more hopeful that the required termi'
nails, warehouses and general facilities
for moving great cargoes to the mar
kets of the world will be speeded, SO
that the Piedmont's huge production
may move through this port
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
By JOSEPH AND STEWART ALsoP

some Of the results may be very
bad indeed-they will tell us a
great deal about the character OF
the legislative body that rules this
country.
The idea of the committee orig
mated in the mind of Represent
alive Herter, a serious, able
Massachusetts conservative, who
is approximately a middle of the
roader in matters of foreign pol
icy. He had been helped by on
the-spot Investigations conducted
by himself last year. AS a mem
Der of the all-powerful Rules Com
mittee, he was also perhaps i'm
pressed by the decreasing influ-
ence of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee - the only body to
which the administration regular
ly talks about foreign policy in the
House.
BY long contact with the Facts.
the Foreign Affairs Committee
mas Dee0 NllO1lS WOI away AOIli
isolationiSm. But the average
House member is not affected by
the committees views. The stupid
Ter representatives even publicity
attribute it to the corruption OF
diplomatic entertaining-those tep-
id but free drinks. those desic-
Gated sandwiches, those effortless
conversations among caterers set
pieces-to which the members of
the Foreign Affairs Committee are
dangerously exposed. Herter of
fered his resolution establishing
the Committee of Nineteen as a
corrective of this situation. The
idea was that il the facts i'm
pressed ordinary members known
to have been previously uncorrupt-
ed, then their friends on the House
floor would be swayed by their
judgments.
There ensued the natural juris-
dictional schemozzle with the
House Foreign Affairs Committee.
(This committees natural habit of
keeping its business to itself is
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02

WASHINGTON The House of
Representatives has just launched
a scientific experiment even more
significant than Professor Yerkes'
famous inquiries into the psychol-
ogy of chimpanzees. @ Under the
leadership o. Rep. Christian Hert-
er, 10 members of the House are
to set off for Europe this summer.
Their aim will be, not to investl-
gate the delightfully."- scabrous hab-
its of the wicked Europeans, nor
even to be richly entertained in
the befitting their high
stations, but to have a look at the
grim Facts of the world situation.
When they return in the fall, we
shall have the answer to that oft
en- debated question: Can con-
gressmen learn?
Speaking more seriously, the
significance of the ~so-called House
Committee of Nineteen deserves
much more emphasis than was
given when this body was named
by Speaker Joseph W. Martin.
There have been times in the
recent past when it seemed that
congressman were incapable CT
learning, or at any rate of rea-
soning from known facts to sensi-
BILE conclusions about foreign pol
icy. But there has been an excuse
for this seeming obtuseness. The
facts have always been hastily
transmitted by officials of the
State Department and other lead
ers of the executive branch. And
the Facts have always seemed I'M
b~elievably remote and unreal TO
many members of the House and
Senate. who are more preoccupied
with the immediate affairs of their
districts. Now a thoroughly repre-
sentative group from the House
will see the facts for themselves.
They are not to junket. They are
genuinely to explore the situation
in the OF an academic
study group. Whatever the results
and il is entirely possible that
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
German BLACK
Market Thrive,

BERLIN - Germans gene,,r,
regard the official Wal an
black market as hopeless be,,S"
it lacks public support.
With financial reform in Co.,,
ny still apparently no cIos.
reality, inflated black
prices gradually are s,ecaH'
accepted by the Germans 1,
NAL. They are prices baS Ss a'
availability Of goods and u "
isn't an item of commodjtv .ei.
today which is anywhere ne. sV'tl
ficient supply. W.
While Germans are recoor,..
black market prices as enr.1 sl
from the viewpoint Of nr,. .sc
economic conditions. the sitr,,ss
at the same time is working . lily
rifle hardship for d maior ns,. ~
the German population-ths
age worker. va
The wage of the average wo,,,
runs from one reichsmsrk
hour to 1.20 reichslnayk. q, ~
basis of a 48-hour week y
averages roughly 50 marks, X |
mans say they are able IA
what their ration cards cabt|
with that wage, bat that i Nv NJ
enough to live on.
The normal worker therein.
clamoring for higher wages. l..
ployers, who have been stist ~.
fast to the wage ana price c,s
trolls set during the war. also wv
beginning to see that they N.Y.
have to boost wages. Allied W.
thorities. too, are giving the r,
ject consideration.
Meantime, the average Germ,
has been selling himself oIt-I,
rugs, jewels, furniture, glassr,,
TO spectators in order ID ~
money to live on the black nm
ket. For most Germans, thou -,
sources, too, are at or near
end.
Evasion of the legal n3-ls|
actually is being countenanced "
German authorities.
When a German goes 10 MI
Berlin city government, for ~
ample, for a permit 10 build, h(
has no trouble getting it. But in
stead Of giving him a permit
(bezugschein) to buy the necs
sary material as is required, he
told to "get the material yout
self"
So he turns TO the black market
On the legal market. a uh,k
meter of wood would cost approx J
mately sixty reichs,narks. On Gl
open or blackmarket it costs W
to 900 reichsmarks.
Price controls constantly al
being evaded. For example, gin
land or a house is sold today, haF
price control authorities say |
must be at the 1886 price led
But that is a dishonest price
German businessmen say, I'll
.lcause if q German sells a hoa(
for 120, 0Go reichsmarks today, NJ
can't get the same return in yaAk
as he did in 1885.
Gas a result. no one will N'
according to the list price. Tayi
set the price in marks at the 1854
level, but then demand as a pre-
MUM something in the form d
real property. usually jeEsS9
which they can cash after nonsn
reform" .
Despite the fact that the m'!t
of Germans no longer believe r
anything or nourish any hopes
the wise ones now are plttHIr'
what money they have into recon,
structing ruins. i
They are doing it room by room
using what material is @avallao'l
in the ruins and what can be o..
tanned by barter or on the 0acsl
market. Usually, the owner WIZ
the help of a couple OF tsslnai
does the work. And he doesn'
have to bother putting up a M
rent sign.
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
Prosperity On Props


that by adjusting their tariff POI D
cy to permit imports enous i,,,;
pay the interest on the ols ~,
which must finance the Gu. Cum N.
volume Of exports. Unless Is s.,o,
cessity is clearly seen and 's s,rs
ed these exports should be Lar
ly sent out as gifts. ur,r,+
The other prop-the acc .;ns, d
ed needs and wartime sa'l l.s'r
Americans-looks far more s.ist
rary. Savings have been l ..,;sll
reduced. Initiation as '..nas
many businessmen to p gt.s. \
.plans for building or retool.aii, mr. +
has forced many families ~, nj,
90 planned purchases and a.S M
savings. Unfortunately s0 aio, nj
ducers are cutting produc''1n++ ic q
employment rather than n d;
And some unions are pus s.iri.r.
wages faster than proouV msr;c,'
In other areas OF the torcirl
economy competition IS ,1orogs'
price cuts or product L" :ress
ment. But there are IaIS s,r.sess
where monopolies or sI n, ,Icn
prevent free competition t,e the
areas powerful groups can
coal operators and mlne'S nd sS'
agree among themselves 80, COR
tort new high prices tE0'I osoplle
sumers. The America 10 he
rave only begun to aWaN. l., str
dangers in such monopu .toy ts
atoms. They tend to os' ba:c
price flexibility which IS .aror,y,
safety-valve of a free s1,t dan'
They increase the booEl'O'
ger. .ls have
learned much since 1917 n,jc re-
machinery for these eco"o ,nlv ole
by the President j. sse and
of many efforts TO lol BJ:
forestall another depleSog Elective
thew must deal far more END .rd DO
ly with both the foreign a%,ospetr
mestic props OF preset p any al
ty before they can haNe
surance of its permanent"
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
TREASURE HUNT

Wilmington dispatches tell of summer visi-
tors at Wrlghtsville Beach flocking to nearby
Money Island and digging for treasure Can.
tain Kidd, the noted pirate, is supposed to
have buried there. THE treasure hunt is an
indication that some people are convinced
that money no longer grows on trees and
Wat 5hose who want it must dig for it," COM
mems the Fayetteville Observer. 1t NAV also
indicate that the postwar initiation balloon is
saSslng-loslng a bit Of air, as it. were. -
Greensboro Record.
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
Just In Fun
MUST BE READING THE Al

Given the unpleasant task .
breaking the news to a woman 'H'
her husband had commute w
eide, a neighbor went to the W
dow's house. Il bring you 70,
he said, "your h0SO'''
Jumped into the river.
oh" sighed the woman 1 mn
and his fountain pen W"
Street Journal.
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02
GOOD MORNING

GOOD MORNING
There are braying men In the w w"na "a as
Ill as hraying asses; for what's loud ana
wen a % taking and swearing, any other
than MISUNDERSTANDING.
The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-02

it will be time to be rainel u
turbed about what is coElil'"'
called the American way.
Copyright. 1947, New i"A
Herald Tribune Inc