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ALSO SERVED BY THE UNITED PRESS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1947
Star Program
State ports with Wilmington favored
in proportion witti its resources, to in
clude public terminals, tobacco storage
warehouses, ship repair facilities, near
by sites for heavy tndvstry and 35-foot
Cape Fear river channel.
City auditorium large enough to meet
needs for years to come.
Development of Southeastern North
Carolina agricultural and industrial re
sources through better markets and food
processing, pulp wood production and
factories.
Emphasis on the region’s recreation
advantages and improvement of resort
accommodations.
Improvement of Southeastern North
Carolina’s farm-to-market and primary
roads, with a paved highway from Top
sail inlet to Bald Head island.
Continued effort through the City’s In
dustrial Agency to attract more in
dustries.
Proper utilization of Bluethenthal air
port for expanding air service.
Development of Southeastern North
Carolina’s health facilities, especially In
counties lacking hospitals, and includ
ing a Negro Health center
Encouragement of the growth of com
mercial fishing.
Consolidation of City and County
governments.
GOOD MORNING
Mean spirits under disappointment, like
■mall beer in a thunder-storm, always turn
■our.—John Randolph.
Freight Rate Ruling
There is good reason to rejoice that
the United States Supreme Court has
upheld the Interstate Commerce Com
mission ruling made in 1945 to place
freight rates between the Northeast on
the one hand and the South and West
on the other on a more equitable basis.
But it is to be noted that the court’s
decision, which increase rates 10 per
eent in the first and lowers them 10 per
cent in the two last mentioned areas
•mounts to less than half of the 39
per cent differential.
When the new tariffs go into effect
they will apply to only 4 per cent of
railway traffic and 6 per cent of the
lines’ revenue.
Even this will help the industrial and
agricultural South and West, but the
battle against the discriminatory rates
which have placed a handicap upon
these regions for close to half a cen
tury must not be dropped.
It should not be even interrupted
until a square deal has been given all
•ections of the country.
Who Will It Be?
These columns recently pointed out
that the political positions of Presi
dent Truman and Senator Vandenberg
are exceptional. It was noted that the
Senator from Michigan might prove
the most formidable opponent Mr. Tru
man could face in the 1948 national
elections, if either or both of them were
candidates for the presidency. Confir
mation of this view is found in an
article in the Christian Science Moni
tor. It is a contribution by Roscoe
Drummond. Mr. Drummond writes:
“President Truman’s growing
strength can contribute to a Vanden
berg draft, since it generally is agreed
that Senator Vandenberg would wage a
formidable campaign and would be a
formidable vote-getter.”
He adds: “If the republicans de
cide that the country is strongly inter
nationalist, it may want to nominate
the strongest internationalist candidate
it can agree upon.” It is the fact that
Mr. Truman and Mr. Vandenberg are
in such agreement on our broad policies
toward other nations that makes their
position so extraordinary.
While Senator Vandenberg is doing
all he can to stay out of the presidential
picture, it is not by any means impos
sible that he might be drafted when
the republicans assemble in national
convention.
Mr. Drummond ignores former Gov
ernor Stassen of Minnesota, but has
this to say of two other men continual
ly in the news:
“The party may well wish to avoid
a divisive collision between Governor
Dewey and Senator Taft, for in such
a collision these two may cancel out
each other. One reason the Ohio re
publicans have rushed their decision to
unite behind Senator Taft is their wish
to head off Governor Dewey. Gov
ernor Dewey continues to have a high
G. 0. P. voter-preference rating, but
he is not genuinely popular among the
national republican leaders.”
New York, Ohio and Michigan are
thus accounted for, but what about the
West? Governor Warren of California
might go into the convention with a
block of votes that could swing the
nomination, if not to him, then to the
nominee it sees fit to support.
The republican nomination could
well be determined by the West, not
by the old strongholds of republicanism.
Hospital Building Program
It was almost a year ago, on June
27, 1946, that W. D. McCaig, of the
James Walker Memorial Hospital board
of managers, announced at a dinner
given for civic groups in the hospital’s
new service building, that a long- range
improvement program had been de
cided upon which would include replac
ing the old central building with a fire
proof, thoroughly modern, eight-story
structure.
Since that evening the program has
been expanded, with changes in the
existing plant to better meet the need
of Southeastern North Carolina for
hospital facilities.
The broad plan was discussed by
John W. Rankin, James Walker sup
erintendent, before the Rotary club
yesterday. Mr. Rankin told of the three
year expansion program at an estimated
cost of $2,100,000.
The first step, he said, will be to
fnurnish a twenty-eight bed ward on
the first floor of the service building
and move Negro patients into it while
the regular Negro ward is being re
novated and modernized.
The next step will be to convert the
entire second floor of the south build
ing for obstetrical cases with three
nurseries, fourteen private rooms, two
two-bed rooms and twenty-nine beds in
four-bed rooms.
Then it is the purpose to replace the
center building with the structure Mr.
McCaig first mentioned, at a cost of
$2,000,000. With this done, the entire
south building, which was constructed
under wartime conditions without steel
or fireproofing, will be converted into
a diagnostic center and clinic.
If the program is approved by the
North Carolina Medieal Care Commis
sion and the Hospital Facilities division
of the Unted States Public Health Serv
ice, one-third of the construction cost
will be paid by the federal government
and one-third by the state. As the
state and national expansion program
covers a period of five years, Mr. Ran
kin explained, it is impossible to fore
cast just when the James Walker proj
ect will be developed and approved.
Considering the lack of adequate
hospital facilties in this region, and
consequent necessity of many persons
having to go elsewhere for treatment,
it is to be hoped that the necessary
preliminaries will be completed with all
possible speed.
Conditions at the hospital have been
below par in many particulars for a
long time. But as Mr. Rankin explain
ed, James Walker is the area’s largest
hotel and largest restaurant, that more
individuals enter and leave it daily
than any other property here with the
possible exception of transportation
terminals, and that as the guests are
ill their mental attitude differs from
that of v/ell persons. With the improve
ments contemplated in the announced
program completed, it is fair to think
that many of the objections to the
hospital’s accommodations and service
may no longer be heard.
The Stratton Bill
A measure before Congress — the
Stratton bill—provides for the admis
sion of 400,000 displaced persons at the
rate of 100,000 a year. Its backers say
this is a “fair share” for this country
to absorb of the 850,000 persons now in
detention camps abroad.
While it was once true that the
United States could assimilate great
numbers of immigrants and is now in
some measure indebted to the sturdier
stock that sought our shores, even
within the last quarter century, and
while the plight of Europe’s displaced
persons wrings the heart, it is to be
asked what could be dLone with such
an influx as the Stratton bill contem
plates. We cannot house our own popu
lation. We cannot provide work for
our own idle persons. We are still un
able to take proper care of our war
veterans and thei.r families.
Furthermore uiere could be no as
surance that the yearly 100,000 emi
grants would take to our way. of liv
ing and become creditable citizens.
There is good reason to think that many
of them would bring their own politi
cal creeds with them and instead of
engaging in customary gainful pursuits
turn missionaries of their unwelcome
ideologies.
The Stratton bill, if approved, would
add new and greater complications to
our troubled economic situation than
we now face.
As Pegler Sees It
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
(Copyright, by King Features Syndicate, Inc.)
Charlie Chaplin recently held a “press con
ference” in New York. More than 100 re
porters attended to ask him questions* mainly
about his politics. Tire occasion was the open
ing of a new movie in which, his ads tell
us, he appears in the role of a “modern
Paris bluebeard who gaily.marries and mur
ders.”
Up to a point, the story would seem to be
autobiographical, for Chaplin has married
four times and there was another exploit with
a stage-struck girl, who had been beguiled
to his mansion. She was railroaded out of
town, but came back, disturbed hi„ secluded
peace and this time, got 30 days in jail.
Disclosing her pregnancy then, she was re
lease^ and had her baby and the disclosure
ensued in court of a personal character which
the old public had never suspected in the
wistful elf in the low-comedy hat, pants and
shoes. Even by the barnyard moral code his
conduce here was deplorable for he was not
generous nor even liberal to the girl and their
chiln but stingy and mean.
In most of the church weddings in the Unit
ed States the marriage formula states that
matrimony is a state to be entered into
“soberly and discreetly, as in the sight of
God.”
In his press conference, Chaplin adverted
to a familiar error of his in explanation of
his failure, in more than 35 .years of voluptu
ous living in the United States, to become a
citizen of the nation which had raised him,
financially, from the status of a refugee from
the economic and social squalor of th6
abominable slums of his native London. Once
before he had said that he was a paying
guest of our country. This time he sai<j that
nearly 70 percent of his earnings came from
outside the country and that he was paying
100 percent in taxes. As to his whole income,
that, of course, is untrue. Furthermore, dur
ing hir rising years and his greatest pros
perity, most of his income came directly from
the American public. The taxes then were
so low that he could keep most of it as he
undoubtedly did for he is very frugal, as the
meagerncss of his productions and his treat
ment of the pregnant girl prove.
A further fact is that, for several years,
Chaplin tried to save money on his income
taxes by representations that another man
was his partner in business. In the last year
of Herbert Hoover’s presidency, however, the
Treasuty insisted that this man had returned
most of the money to Charlie and Chaplin
was compelled to pay a deficiency of $1,174,
000. In his belief that the United States is
a sort of public fee country club offering
hospitality and service to all comers in re
turn for money, Chaplin is obdurately mis
taken. He has not learned that this is a nation
of loyal citizens conducted entirely in their
own interest, for the specific purpose of pro
moting their own general welfare and secur
ing the blessings of liberty to themselves and
their prosperity. He may be pardoned the er
ror because many others have taken literally
the entirely unofficial and poetic invitation to
the "wretched refuse” of the "teeming
shores” of other lands which appears on the
plinih of the Statue of Liberty. His attention,
theirs and our own may be profitably invited
to the preamble of the Constitution wherein
we', t}?e people of the United States, declare
that this is our own country to be managed
for the benefit of her own citizens, exclusively.
This is not to suggest that Chaplin has
slighted the United States in his failure to
ask for citizenship. Nobody confers a favor
on us by such a petition. It is we who confer
the favor and often carelessly anj to our det
riment. If Chaplin were to file a petition now
he certainly would be opposed and there are
precedents under the “moral turpitude”
clause which could be invoked against him.
As to his association with persons sympa
thet’c with the communist front in the United
States, further objections could be raised. He
probably is not a communist in the sense of
being a member of the party but he has been
guilty of great impudence in this phase of his
life among us.
Chaplain sat out two wars involving his na
tive Biitain. In the second one he plainly
evinced a certain attitude tow’ar^ the young
sons of the American men and women who
had laughed him into riches in their own
youth by his conspicuous failure to try to
entertain these American boys even in the
safety of the camps in the United States. His
suggestion, in his press conference, that his
two sons of one of his early, short term mar
riages, were his personal vicars in the Third
Army in Europe is a fair expression of his
character.
Chaplin's only memorable contribution to
the genera] war effort was a recording of a
salute to the Soviet armies which closed with
the words, “Russia, the future is yours!”
Some Americans have asked why we do not
deport him.
Although the Constitution assures us that
this is our own country we have, in our gen
erosity, made laws which confer rights on
immigrants. Most of them become citizens,
to our mutual benefit. Chaplain is an excep
tion, but an authority at the Department of
Justice has reported that he can be deported
only after conviction of a felony. Should he
leave the United States, however, as, for ex
ample, to visit the fleshpots of Mexico, he
might be seriously challenged on the return
trip
Editorial Comment
Not So Well In Moscow
None of the observers for The News and
Courier have been in Moscow, and, notwith
standing that, they insist that any morning one
can see more well fed and well dressed color
ed people in King Street, Charleston, than one
would see well fed and well dressed white
people in Moscow. Howver, the Russians, not
unnaturally, accept at face value statements
of their American journalistic friends in New
York and other cities that the Southern states
of this languishing republic in which we live
are pest holes in which colored persons are
struggling, starving, weeping and dying in
droves.—Charleston (S. C.) News and Courier.
Not the Red Pattern
That Washington high school principal who
says the Russian Communist he invited to
speak had been asked not to discuss politics,
anpears to have had the naive idea, that a Rus
sfa’n Communist would let moral scruples
stand in the way of getting in a little propa
ganda.— (Lynchburg (Va-). News,
THE BOARDWALK
M?<&S
The Book Of Knowledge
(DEPARTMENT:—
THE UNITED STATES)
Jamestown Conquers Adversity
Yesterday’s article told of the
founding of Jamestown, Virginia,
by English colonists in 1607, and
of the part played by Captain
John Smith in holding together the
struggling settlement. In 1609,
about 800 more colonists arrived,
and Capt. Smith went back to
England to have a wound treated.
But the ship carrying Sir
Thomas Gates, the leader of this
new expedition, had been sepa
rated from the rest of the fleet
by a hurricane, and was wrecKed
on the coast of Bermuda. The
colony was again without strong
leadership, and another period of
strife, disease and starvation soon
set in. Supplies gave out, and the
Indians watcher to kill anyone
who left the fort to hunt for food.
This was the Starving Time, long
remembered in Virginia.
When Sir Thomas Gates was at
last able to get to Jamestown in
May, 1610, he found that half the
people were dead and the rest
weak and despairing. Gates deter
mined to take the people on board
his four small ships and carry
them to Newfoundland, whence
they might get back to England.
But as the boats neared the
mouth of the river, they met a
fleet coming in from the sea. It
was the new lord governor of Vir
ginia, Lord De la Warr. with
several hundred colonists and food
enough to last a thousand people
for one year. The colonists who.
a few hours before, had said good
bye to Virginia, turned back once
more to Jamestowm.
In 1611, another governor was
sent over — Sir Thomas Dale. He
made peace with the Indians; he
made the men work and obey the
laws; and he allowed every man
The arrival at Jamestown of t, group of 100 young women sent over
from England in 1619 to marry the eolonists. With their arrival, real
homes were established in Virginia, and the permanence of the
colony was assured.
to have a piece of land for him
self.
At first it was planned to pro
duce many different kinds of
things in Virginia. Two events
kept these plans from being car
ried out. In 1614. John Rolfe, who
had been experimenting with the
culture of tobacco, sent some of
his crop to England. The success
of his venture marked the begin
ning of the great tobacco-growing
industry in Virginia, but it caused
people to lose interest in other
products. Then, in 1622, the In
dians of the Powhatan Confeder
acy attacked the settlement and
killed more than 400 of its 1,240
people. Many of those killed were
men who were the most experi
enced and active in developing its
resources. „
During the earlier years of the
colony, few women came over, but
in 1619 the London company sent
over about 100 young women to
marry colonists. Homes were now
Colonial dwelling near Jamestown,
built in 1652 on land given by Pow
hatan to John Bolfe when he mar
ried Pocahontas, .Powhatan's
daughter.
built outside the original settle
ment, and there were several vil
lages.
The year 1619 was an important
one. There were now eleven little
settlements in Virginia, and each
of them was given permission to
elect two representatives to help
Paging LaFollette
By PETER EDSON
WASHINGTON.—If it’s the little
insignificant things that count,
Congress is doing fine, and more
attention should be paid to some
of the minor measures which have
been passed so far this year.
This 80th Congress has been on
the job four months now. It has
three months to go. Its recurd at
bat is truly wonderful.
Up to May 1, 6589 pages cf the
Congressional Record had been
filled with fine-type debate and
miscellany, and 5138 bills ana res
olutions had been introduced - an
average of nearly 100 per con
gressman. But in these four
months only 45 of these measures
have been made laws. Average
time for getting these 45 laws
passed, rfrom introduction to sign
ing by the President, has bee a 50
days apiece.
Congress may do better ir the
remaining three months. Even so,
R looks as if a lot of things aren't
going to get done at all. The cost
of operating Congress, by the way
has nearly doubled. It ran about
$15 million a year before the war.
Next year’ budget calls for $29
million.
Maybe it’s time to page former
Senator Bob LaFollette and Con
gressman Mike Monroney again
and start getting serious about
this business of reorganizing Con
gress for greater efficiency.
Certainly, the important meas
ures which have been passed this
year can be counted on the fingers
of one hand. They aren’t so very
world - shaking, either. Putting
OPA out of business June 30, con
tinuing v.' a r time excise tax^s,
passing a constitutional amend
ment to limit future U. S. Presi
dents to two terms or 10 years.
Important measures which the
Republican leadership has put on
its “must” list for passage before
adjournment in July include: The
new labor control bill, bill to pro
vide foreign relief, tax reduction,
new rent-control bill, aid to Tur
key and Greece.
Since this leaves you your toes
to play with, you might as well
count up some of the unimportant
things which Congress has had
time to take care of, just to give
everybody full credit. None of
these things made the first pages.
so you may have missed them:
First off, there was a bill to
authorize the War Department to
transport the Boy Scouts to their
jamboree in Paris this summer,
provide them with free passports.
Thh takes care of the internation
al situation in fine shape.
In the way of big financial trans
actions, there was .a law passed
to pay Switzerland $425.88 for ihe
loss of food stored aboard the Jap
anese ship Awa Maru when it was
sunk in the Pacific.
In the line of greatly needed
social reforms, there were a
couple of bills passed to provide
for the promotion and to pay sick
leave to rural mail carriers.
Renaming of Boulder Dam in
honor of Herbert Hoover was an
other hot project, even if Sen.
Glenn Taylor did try to throw cold
water on it by saying the law
should also provide for making
grass grow in the cracks on the
concrete, embossing an apple on
the face of the dam and renaming
the spillway after Albert Fail.
You may have read something
about that great legislative
achievement, but did you note
that Congress had also passed a
bill to erect a Theodore Roose
vel monument in Medora, N. D.?
The boys also got around to
passing an amendment to the Fed
eral Firearms Act saying that rob
bery was a crime of violence.
Seems they left out the word “rob
bery” by accident when the law
.was first passed in 1938.
Then there was a great piece of
legislation passed to furnish gov
ernment steam to the Daughters
of the American Revolution. Not
literally, that is, but to their hall
in Washington for heating pur
poses.
From this list, it’s easy to see
that your interests are being
looked after in Washington, if you
don’t care how.
Among the really important
things about which nothing really
constructive is apt to be done this
year are: Unification of the armed
services, universal military train
ing, a long-range housing bill, fed
era' aid to education, a national
health insurance program, mini
mum wage and social security law
revision.
Write your congressman.
make laws for the colony. They
met in the little church at James
town on July 3U, 1619, and thus
took place the first meeting of the
first legislature in America.
(Copyright,' 1946, By The Gro
lier Society' Inc., based upon The
Book of Knowledge)
(Distributed by United Feature
Syndicate, Inc.)
TOMORROW: — Early Railway
Passenger Cars.
Star Dust
Ultimatum
Two girls were being followed by
a lone male on a beautiful Spring
day. Finally one of them, in ap
parent indignation, turned to the
young man and exclaimed, "Either
you quit following us or-or-or go
get a friend.’’—(Neal O’Hara.)
WHY WE SAY
b, SIAM J. COUJMS IU «L*WSCM
'THE UNDER DOG"
COM. 1*47 »r «a«**i
<0**. TM WO*LO *KH*7
S-/+
This expression used so often ,0^J'
credited to David Barker’s song
Under Dog in the Fight” (1876).
for me, I shall never pause to a»
Which dog may be in the right; For J
heart will beat, while it beats at all.
the under dog in the fight. _J
By DON WHITEHEAD
AP Newsfeatareg
GUAM - This island n ^ ,
the wealthiest in the Paints
per capita basis but f?C 08 t
little to buy with its money*' Y,tJ
each adult Gums*??? !!l»'
age assets, real and
about $7,500. and the natif !sl «
lation of about 23,000 u 6
by thousands of Navv S've*'-('
workers and service m '1Vi,!>*
money to spend but no'[
spend it. hers tc
The Guamanians have mr*
$4,500,000 in the bank of ?"1
alone and additional heavy a18
its in mainland banks,
to naval officers, They ak
war damage claims again??
government totalling SlloM ooof
Through the Navy the „ '
are able to buy food! clothin?P!(
some surplus property but?
real purchasing power' is vLT
men have not ventured into?
market. a ln,° ^
The Navy is trying to inter..,
pany, was expected soon to r
in|. but lo d„. h„
Capt. M. H. Anderson of \c
Englewood, N. J„ naval ad?
istrator, said one large oil ?
pany was expected soon to ?
filling stations, as a fuel
was badly needed bv civilians
“We also are trying to e,
age such things as fiVe and tw
cent stores, drug stores, dr
cleaners and laundries tt come l
Guam,” he said.
One firm which showed an t,
terest was afraid of competitor
from Navy stores, but the cat
tain said, "We propose either t»
withdraw entirely from the field
once private enterprise comes in
or else work out an equitable
rangement so there will be no con
flict. We want to do everything n
can to help businesses come tr,
Guam.”
Meanwhile, the Guam market is
almost untapped.
Letter Box
COOPERATION APPRECIATED
To The Editor:
On behalf of the Cape Fen
Garden Club, I wish to extend on
grateful thankg for the splendid
cooperation you gave us in the
matter of publicity for our recent
Spring Flower Show. I am sun
that your generous amount o!
space accounted in a large meai
ure for the number of people from
the city and surrounding territory
who attended the show.
As Publicity Chairman for the
Flower Show, may I also include
my personal thanks to your news
department, editor and photogra
pher who made my job not only
an easy but a pleasant one.
(Mrs. Wm. G. Roberta
Corresponding Secretary.
Cape Fear Garden Club.
Wilmington, N. C.
May 13, 1947.
DRIVE AROUND GREENFIELD
To The Editor:
I see by your paper that the
City Council is thinking «!
changing the name of Greenfield
Lak< and its environs to honor Dr
Moce and Mr. Wade, who devel
oped the park which has beauti
fied this lovely spot. In the article
there was also a suggestion tha:
the name of the drive around the
lake be , changed. That is what 1
wish to protest.
When that drive was
Wilmington was in the slough o.
unemployment; all citizens wen
called on to help the unfortunate;
who could not find work to It
and hundreds of us contribute!
weekly amounts which were »
sacrifice to make, to enable these
people to earn enough to take cere
of their families. I do not remem
ber the men who were at the heic
of fhe project but it seems tone
that Mr. George Kidder Jj*
mayor of the town at die ' '.
and I know our remittances we
to Mr. J. Allen Taylor. Mr. .an
F Post collected large amounts
the Coast Line for this PurP®*.
The drive is truly a .com®':h.
project and a memorial °_
public-spirited men who devei r
it and I think should be PK*n*
as Community Drive, so tha
tradition of the undertaking 1
be kept for Wilmington
As to the suggestion of chans
the name of the Lake, of •
“Greenfield” is inept, as^there .
certajnly no green fieIds t[ine
it. T believe it was at one * .
Mcllhenny’s Millpond, w
not pretty. However. ' GreenLeW
is pretty and has be®n ra .
tr-.isively advertised. vVhy ‘
the name and designate ,
on both sides of the road
Mr. Wade developed ^adc. jrt;>
and the area near the
Street entrance, which .is a
beautiful “Moore Pa™
Citizen.
Wilmington, N. C
May 13, 1947.___