Editorial THI CHARLOTTE LABOR JOURNAL AND DIXIE FARM NEWS Published at Charlotte. North Carolina__ OLDEST LABOR PUBLIC ATI* iH THE TWO CAROLIXA8 H. A. Stalls. Editor and Publish*, M. Witter. A»aociaU Editor i Entered as second-class mail nu»t*e September 11, 1981, at the (Port Office at Charlotte. N. C., under the Act of Congress of March 9. 1879.______ j Endorsed by Charlotte Typogrmpbieul Union. Number 338. An Af-; filiate of Hiarlotte Central Labor Union and the North Carolina Fed eration of Labor ____ FAMOUS COLUMNIST TABS TAFT “JERK” FOR ATTACKING GENERAL MARSHALL One of the most widely-read newspaper writers in Amer ica has decided that Senator Robert A. Taft (R-, 0-) is a “jerk”—and has said so. He is Henry McLemore, whose column appears in more than 200 daily papers. Part of his comments on Taft are printed below. McLemore is not a political columnist. He generally writes in a humorous manner on the lighter topics of the day. Occasionally, a more serious subject makes his blood boil. Taft’s recent attack on General Marshall did that. • • • McLemore is no “wild-eyed” liberal. Born and reared in rural Georgia, McLemore is the son of a Methodist min ister. He did such a good job as a sports writer for the United Press, the McNaught Syndicate hired him to com ment on events in general. Here is what he wrote in London—where he was on a special assignment—about Taft: “Senator Taft came to my mind about an hour ago when I noticed a story under a Washington date-line that in- i formed me that Senator Taft was against President Tru man’s appointment of General George Marshall as Secre tary of Defense. • * ft “My first reaction to the~ atory *aa that Senator Taft finally had reached rock bottom. My second, third and | fourth reactions were the same. ■■ “I am sure that one can’t call a Senator a jerk and still maintain dignity, so 1 am going to waive dignity and call, Mr. Taft a jerk. Not a bench-sitting jerk. Not a utility jerk. Not a jerk who has run in to kick a field goal. No, I am going to call him—from thousands of waves away— a starting, first-string varsity jerk. “Give him Ruth’s old number, Gehrig’s old number and Grange’s old number. Place him on a pedestal as the one man who, without having to go to the trouble of thinking, hits the wrong thing on the head every time. “Senator Taft objects to Marshall. Just think of that. “The man of Ohio carries enough nonsense in his head to attack a man who, in the pages of history yet to be written, will ertierge as one of the great Americans of all time. “It is like a Piper Cub attacking a B-29. It is the mouse slapping the cat, the lamb trading haymakers with the lion. “The Senator says his reason for trying to block Mar shall’s appointment is because it would strengthen Secre tary of State Acheson’s hand. In other words, the Sena tor’s dislike for Acheson is stronger than his like for his country. * * “Who did more than any one else to make this country victorious in World War II? Marshall. “Who saw the needs and fought with hack politicians to ! get them ? Marshall. “My consolation here in London is the knowledge that my countrymen will ignore the Senator from Ohio and go ahead and put the best man in the job. “One of these days—it may not come until a Russian throw’s a hand grenade through his living room window— Senator Taft is going to realize that the United States is now fighting for survival, not Ohio votes.” UAW-AFL Issues Poster Get Rid of These Headaches! ! WHAT THE UAW-AFl LOCAL UNION CAN DO ABOUT IT o L>~ i>» op^r»> and oii GET OUT THE LABOR VOTE a*** Milwaukee, Wis.—The AFL United Ante Workers issued this psstsr to stimulate rank and flic participation in the 1954 elections. 'CAPITAL REPORTER * RALEIGH. N. C—The public flood control-hydro-electric power vs. private power companies row could be solved very aimply if both sides would get the knives out of their hands and work to gether. In a speech last week at Fay etteville. Governor Scott took an other back-handed swipe at the power companies for what he called “lack of vision.” And at a press conference the next day he said that flood con trol on the Cape Fear during the past 50 years would have saved more than enough in dam aged farm land and crops to have built all the seven hydro-electric plants Army engineers have rec ommended for that stream. Power company spokesmen have pointed out that it is cheap er to build steam generating plants than it is to try to ope rate hydro-electric plants. That is true, and if power is the only aim it would be foolish to build dams for power. But no one has denied the need for flood control. If at the same time, more power- can be manu factured, it's foolish not to do so. But the private power com panies don’t want the govern ment to go into competition with them by selling power. Since the private companies are given exclusive franchise in their areas— and since private power companies are not ex pected \o foot the bills for flood control—a simple solution would fa* for the government to build combination flood control-power dams. Then sell the power only to the private companies for dis tribution. Included should be a provision that this cheap power Oe used first to expand services to new areas and for reselling to REAs. Any extra power then would be available for use in regular channels. As head of the Edison Insti tute (the private power com panies’ organization) Carolina Power and Light Company’s Louis Sutton is in a fine position to make such a suggestion and see if he can’t get private power and government pulling together.) He probably can end a running fight nq| only in North Carolina1 but als* throughout the rest of the country. And, incidentally, it would in crease earnings of private pow er companies. The prison rehabilitation pro gram is beginning to hit on all eight cylinders. 1 he camp for young first of fenders at Camp Butner has proved so successful that a sim ilar camp for Negra youths at Goldsboro has been okayed by the State Highway Commission. I In addition, another such camp 1 for white youths is in the plan ning stages for Morganton. These camps are not placed at state hospitals because of near ness to psychiatric treatment, but are so situated in order to give the young first-timers work on the hospital farms ~ The unfortunate fact about our prison setup is that now some eighty per cent «f all prison ers are repeaters. If, through the rehabilitation program, the first-term youths can be sent to society as good citizens its long range effect will be to save the State tremendous amounts of money in operation of state pris ons. Warden Jw Crawford’s reha bilitation and recreation program at Central Prison is paying off in an all-round better attitude among prisoners there. The sports and other recreation pro grams are resulting in bettor work and better dispositions among the prisoners, with hope that some of the repeaters will not be coining back after their current tour at Central. Raleigh radio station WNAO is planning a program from tha prison, using all prison talent j and featuring an unidentified prisoner* story of his life on each program. This program will start next week. The pris oners wanted to use “If I Had the Wings of An An$el” as their theme song, but the idea was Ve toed by radio station official*. The State Board of Conserva tion and Development is plan ning quite a “do” at its regular fall meeting, October 23-26 at* Charlotte. On the 24th the Board will take a trip to Morrow Moun tain State Park near Albemarle. On the 25th, Buggs Island proj ect officials and army engineers will tell all about recreation plans for the program, and on the 26th a regular business ses sion will be held Agriculture Commissioner L. Y “Stag” Ballentine is being praised for his presentation of Agriculture Department needs to the Advisory Budget Commis sion. He used charts to demonstrate the tremendous expansion of work done by the department during the last 21 months. Par ticularly. gains were shown in dairy and beef cattle programs, seed testing and poultry grad ing. j “I didn’t go into a lot of fig- j urea,”. Stag said. “I tried to get across the growth in services rendered by the department and the need for expansion.” From remarks made by mem bers of the Budget Commission and interested listeners, Ballen tine apparently succeeded in do ing an impressive job of presen tation. Even the moat conservative of the conservatives now are con vinced that the State will have to have increased revenues to keep up its services during the next biennium. And .about the only suggestion of new money raising is sales tax exemptions. I But don't think the people with exemptions are gonna take It sittin’ down. Already the high brass of merchants, automobile and other organizations lire get ting their ducks in a row to fight such a proposal. They probably won’t begin a concen trated campaign until after the November 7 election. Did you know that practically every school bus in the State violates the law every school day? C. C. Brown, director of trans portation for the State Depart ment of Public Instruction, said this was so. There’s an average 10% overload on each school bus, he told the Advisory Budget Commission. That came out after D. Hiden Ramsey. State School Board member from Asheville, told the Commission it was time for the State to take over full responsi bility for the schoo) bus system. The school board wants to add 815 buses to the system at State expense during the next bien nium. That’s in addition to 1, 250 replacements. This would provide a seat for every student by the end of the biennium, elim inate the dangerous overloading, and practically eliminate second runs. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Clyde Erwin has troubles other than school con solidation. He reported that the boll weevil feasted on his Cleve - land county farm’s cotton, bat that he didn’t get enough out of his crop insurance to pay for his fertilizer. -- E. L. Gavin