Uilmington
UJnmtttg #tar
North Carolina’s Oldest Daily Newspaper ■
Published Daily Except Sunday
By The Wilmington Star-News
R. B. Page, Publisher
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ton, N. C., Postoffice Under Act of Congress
of March 3, 1879
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MONDAY, MARCH 11, 1946,_
TOP O’ THE MORNING
“A word spoken in due season, how good
it is"—Proverbs 15; 23.
Oh, give Thine own sweet rest to me,
That I may speak with soothing power
A word is season, as from Thee,
To weary ones in needful hour,
—Havergal.
Bring On Your Suits
The Office of Price Administration
has finally issued an order revising
prices of men’s suits by which manu
facturers are permitted to base their
prices on current costs but requires re
turn to the average 1943 mark-up.
The order is expected to release
thousands of suits to the retail trade.
As Louis Rothschild of the National
Association of Retail Clothiers and
Furnishers puts it, the move “should
break the .dam.” When we quoted
Mr. Rothschild last he claimed that at
least 700.000 suits were withheld,
awaiting this order.
. A • f _ 1 * *11
ura coniesses its new uncv;tive win
bring an increase in price to purchas
ers, which according to our limited
means of reasoning, is not an effective
way to prevent inflation, a task to
which it is supposed to have dedicated
its every effort.
Among a male population far exceed
ing 700,000 and every last man needing
a new suit, this number cannot go far
toward meeting the demand. Inflation,
we have been told, results from demand
exceeding supply, with prospective buy
ers willing to pay “through the nose”
for what they want.
But maybe OPA has some system of
its own, beyond the comprehension of
laymen, for circumventing the old rule
of supply and demand and the tidy way
It has served to “hold the line” in past
ages.
At any rate, there is a prospect that
retail dealers will be gettting more
suits, and maybe that’s a blessing in
that it could encourage manufacturers
to increase their output and the higher
the price the sooner will the surplus
money be spent and competition among
buyers ended.
Bring on your new suits!
School Bus Fund
New Hanover county’s need for new
school buses has existed from the start
of the war. With the large influx of
new pupils which followed the creation
of Camp Davis and the ship yard, the
old fleet was inadequate. The Board
of Education bought all the buses it
could find anywhere, but for the most
part the additions to the fleet were well
worn and too light for the loads they
had to carry.
That the war period passed without
serious accidents is one of the most
striking achievements in the entire
county. Had there been less efficienl
servicing of the old equipment, less ex.
perience on the part of drivers, th<
record could not have been so good.
New Hanover county parents ow(
much to the board for the extraordi
nary care it has taken to see that thei
children traveled to and from school^
'/>
—___
safety, despite the odds it had to con
tend with in bus operation.
Now that the state proposes to ap
propriate $95,000 for the reconditioning
)f school buses, to increase their safe
Dperation until manufacturers can de
liver new ones, the Board of Education,
with complete propriety, expects to
share liberally in the funds thus to be
made available. Certainly the record
is sufficient guarantee that any money
coming this way will be well deserved.
Red Cross Campaign
Tomorrow will witness the start of
the annual Red Cross campaign for
funds with which to carry on for an
other year. Kick-off sessions for the
women’s and men’s worker divisions are
scheduled, the first in Gilmour Hall,
First Presbyterian church at 11 o’clock,
the second with a dinner meeting in St.
John’s church, which will be especially
notable for an address by Marion Barn
hill, former Army captain who endured
existence for eighteen months in a Ger
man prison camp.
Within the following twenty - four
hours worker-teams will move among
Wilmington’s population soliciting sub
scriptions, with the goal set at $41,000.
The Star bespeaks a cordial welcome
from everybody for these workers who
are setting aside their personal and
business engagements to devote their
time to the solicitation.
It will be a tremendous help both to
the Red Cross cause, which needs no
defense or explanation, and to the work
srs, if the people of the community are
ready to give what they can afford on
the occasion of the first call. Return
visits consume time and effort that
could better be devoted to visiting other
donors with the result that the cam
paign would be shortened and the work
ers’ lot be eased.
In the interest of a speedy and suc
cessful campaign, you are asked to
have your check or cash ready when the
solicitor arrives.
It May Be True
Some member of the Senate Naval
Affairs Committee who is courageous
enough to forecast that Edwin W.
Pauley’s nomination for undersecretary
3f the Navy will finally be withdrawn
by midweek, but lacks the courage to
let his name be used, tells a Washington
reporter that the withdrawal plan is
“back on the track again.”
There is, of course, no reason it
should not hit a derailer in the mean
time, as it has frequently done since the
committee started its hearings, but
there is some probability that it may
not in the announcement by Senator
Tydings, who has been Pauley’s chief
advocate during the hearings, that he
will give a “comprehensive report” of
the case by radio next Sunday.
This is taken as proof that the in
quiry will be closed by that time, in
which case Pauley will not be able to
carry out his avowed purpose to call a
great number of witnesses in the effort
to clear himself of the “vile charges”
against him—all of which he designates
as “falsehoods” — and which would
carry the inquiry into the senate fu
ture.
Should the unnamed Senator be
right, should Pauley actually withdraw
and go back to the Pacific Coast and
his oil operations, the administration
would be saved much trouble and Presi
dent Truman great embarrassment.
Even though Mr. Truman is report
ed to be in complete accord with Pauley
and ready to stand by his nomination
through thick and thin, he inevitably
would lose considerable public confi
dence at a time when he needs all the
public support he can muster.
Poker Face
Washington’s congressman Coffee
wants to know if the forthcoming atom
bomb tests are designed "to intimidate
the Russians.’’ The answer is No.
Russia is a land power, not naval
These tests are primarily naval. Thej
are to determine what an atom bomt
will do to warcraft and what nava
strategists ought to do about the atoir
bomb.
If Russia was not intimidated bj
what happened to Hiroshima and Naga
' saki, these tests will not worry her. I
• she was so intimidated, then Heavel
p Protect us against playing stud poke
i with Joe Stalin.
Fair Enough
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
(Copyright, 1946, By King Features Syndicate.)
The testimony taken by the Treasury in the
stock switch conceived and directed by the
late President Roosevelt in settlement of the
debts and alimony obligations of his son,
Elliott was a huge bundle of photostats as
released by the democratic majority of the
House Ways and Means Committee. Few
copies were given to the press, the intent of
the Democrats being to make the material
scarce and hard to get. They were badly em
barrassed by the disclosure of their late lead*
er’s trickery and cunning and it was natural,
in politicians, that they should release the
news in one great, confused blurt, so large
and complicated that the papers could not
cover more than the high spots at the time.
Thereafter, in the rush of the world, other
news would crowd this sorry scandal out. of
print and only a few individuals possessing
copies of the report would take the pains
to analyze it.
As a stickler for truth in history’s opinion
of political giants, I have recently been ex
amining the statements of Mrs. Ruth G.
Eidson, the former wife oi Elliott, given to the
Treasury on two dates, September 10 and
September 14, 1945. This is the first critical
study of her testimony. The first statement
was made in Denver, the other in Fort Worth,
which is Mrs. Eidson’s home. It was explained
that at the time she made her first statement,
in Denver, Mrs. Eidson did not have her
records with her and that, in consultation
with her lawyer, after her return to Fort
Worth, she decided t0 amplify some of her
The discrepancies and lapses of memory
here revealed will have to explain them
selves.
It may be recalled that President Roose
velt, himself, sent Mrs. Eidson, then still Mrs.
Elliott Roosevelt, certain notes and shares of
radio stock that had been recovered from
John Hartford and David G. Baird, both of
New York, on representations that Elliott was
broke, which was untrue, and that the collater
al was worthless. If the collateral really was
worthless there was no reason why the Presi
dent should have wanted to recapture it. In
the end, he concluded his coup by transmitting
the stock to Ruth Roosevelt for the purpose of
defraying Elliott’s alimony and his continuing
obligation to support their children.
Jesse Jones, acting for the president, had
recovered 2,000 shares from Hartford for $4,
000 and 500 shares from Baird for $500.
Elliott’s debt to Hartford was $200,000. His
debt to Baird was $40,000.
The Treasury asked Ruth Rooscg/elt, in
Denver:
“Who did you get the stock from; Jesse
Jones?” ‘
“I think it must have been given to Elliott,”
she replied. "I really don’t know.”
“But you did get the stock eventually?
“I am sure. I think so,”
Again. Mrs. Roosevelt said she didn’t know;
or recall, where the stock was sent.
“It may have been sent to me or Mr. Hanger
(Elliott’s lawyer) or it may have been sent to
Elliott,” she said. This was a fortune that
she was discussing so vaguely. The stock was
Mntir «fnr+v» non
The Treasury asked Mrs. Roosevelt whether
she knew that Jones turned the stock over to
Miss Grace Tully. one of President Roosevelt’s
secretaries. She didn’t know. She didn’t know
Miss Tully had the stock. She did not com
municate with Miss Tully at the White House
asking her to send the stock to her.
"You are quite certain of this?” the examin
er said, "that the stock was not forwarded to
you by Miss Tully. is that right?”
"I didn’t even know that Miss Tully had the
stock,” Mrs. Roosevelt said.
Four days later, she had refreshed her mem
ory and recalled "very dimly” having written
Miss Tully at Elliott’s request, asking that the
stock be forwarded to Fort Worth.
At this point, we turn for a moment to
Elliott’s own testimony in which he said: "in
January, 1944. Ruth G. Roosevelt decided
that She would carry out divorce proceedings,
and wrote the President asking if the stock
certificates were available and she wanted
them in Texas.”
He also said he had inquired about the
stock at the White House but "through some
mistake or mixup” it was impossible to find
it.
Elliott’s statement that his wife asked for
the collateral recaptured from his creditors
and his own inquiries at the White House sup.
port a theory that from the beginning it was
the President’s intention not only to square
his son’s loans for trivial amounts but to con
trive, moreover, that the lenders should p<y
Elliott’s future obligations in Alimony and
child maintenance, from their food to their
education.
Proceeding in the Fort Worth inquiry, the
Treasury presented a large manila envelope
addressed t0 Mrs. Elliott Roosevelt, post
marked: “registered; return receipt request
ed” and bearing in the upper left comer in
typewriting the name “G. G. Tully.” It was
a White House envelope.
Mrs. Roosevelt now recalled that she received
this envelope about November 12. 1943, and
she further remembered that it contained
another, marked "the President” which in
turn contained a third white envelope, also
marked “the President.”
In the white envelope there was a letter
from the President to “Dear Ruth.” dated
November 9, 1943. forwarding 2,500 shares of
Texas State Network and the notes Elliott
had given David Baird. Hartford’s notes for
*200,000 had been destroyed in the presence of
Jesse Jones. The letter explained the trans
action and conveyed a suggestion that she
and Elliott "should make every effort to re
imburse Mr. Jones.” At the time of his own
testimony, Mr. Jones had not been reim
bursed.
Editorial Comment
LEARNING BUT LATE
Senator Vandenberg finds, this late, that
the United States must stand up to Russia,
be frank and firm, and demand respect.
ft is not unusual for public officials to be
about three months behind the public.
The people of the United States have been
knowing6 for fame time that appeasement
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Miss Solomon Taught French Language
But Understanding Is Something Else
By JOHN SIKES
When they hanaed out medals
for war service Miss Anne Solomon
didn’t get one.
That isn’t so much news because
there were probably millions of
other soldiers, sailors, and Marines
who didn’t get medals. But Miss
Solomon rendered a particular
kind of service for which she no
doubt deserves some kind of com
mendation. And thousands of
wives and sweethearts of service
men probably would like to step up
and give Miss Solomon a collec
tion of pats on the back.
You see, Miss Solomon taught
French to servicemen around
Paris. And knowing the kind of
French Miss Solomon taught the
servicemen could go into the shop
pes of Paris and call for the favor
ite kinds of perfumes, lingerie,
and what-not the boys sent back
home.
Miss Solomon was a WAC. She
spent some time around Wilming
ton. You remember when all those
WACs with the funny hats, kepis
1 believed they called them, were
here.
Well, Miss Solomon has a French
background. Furthermore, she’d
studied French for some time be
fore joining up. Therefore, the
Army, ever solicitous of their
men’s welfare and wanting their
men to get une bier when they
ordered une bier, just flew Miss
Solomon over to France after the
invasion so she could tell the men
the proper manner in which to
order une bier.
Miss Solomon has been visiting
Wilmington of late. She’s a kins
woman of Mrs. Hannah Block here.
Mrs. Hannah Block is the lady
whom I mentioned here some
weeks back as owning a hat which
gave flight while she, Mrs. Block,
was singing a solo at a fashionable
wedding. Well, what with this
and that I got to talking to Miss
Solomon. That’s how I happened
to find out about her teaching the
boys French.
“The boys seemed very much in
terested in buying their women
folks back here those flimsy under
things that are to be found mainly
in Paris,’’ Miss Solomon told me.
“Mostly, they bought those slinky
looking black nightgowns with
yards and yards of very fine lace
on them.’’
Parenthetically, this little fact
just goes to show me that, how
ever tough our boys were on the
field of battle, they still had a fine
feeling for their womenfolks at
home and they wanted them to
have those nice little items.
Another thing the boys went in
for pretty heavily was perfume.
Chanel’s No. 5 was quite a favor
ite, though expensive. Miss Solo
mon tells me that when the boys
first hit Paris they paid about 400
francs for a bottle for the Chanel
formula. Then, as the boys showed
the French they didn’t care a whole
lot for money, the price went on up,
to 500, then 600, then 800 francs
for an ounce bottle.
Mainly though the French were
more interesting in swapping
things for their finery. A cake of
soap, for instance, could just about
buy one of those flimsy nightgowns.
The serious side of Miss Solo
mon’s work was in teaching the
French language and customs to
the servicemen in order to promote
a better understanding between the
servicemen and French people.
The understanding, Miss Solomon
tells me, was pretty poor. She
says many times some of her
friends among the French com
plained that our boys just weren’t
doing right by them. Miss Solomon
also said that several times the
boys complained the French were
not doing so well by them. She
spent a great deal of her time
excusing French action to the boys
and vice versa.
Miss Solomon was in a lot of air
raid's over in France. She told me
about watching German para
troopers drop on the Paris suburb,
St. Germaine, where she was sta
tioned.
“It was really pretty frighten
ing,” Miss Solomon probably un
derstates the case. “And I’d like
to say that, although not so much
has been written about the fact,
our American girls came in for
about as much war as the English
girls who were in the service.”
When Miss Solomon was here
she was in the W. A. R., which
means, I think, Wilmington Air
Region. She had something to- do
with the air raid business here
abouts.
One day her commanding officer
called her and asked her how she’d
like to take a nice plane trip.
Next day she was off to New York.
Her home, incidentally, is in
Brooklyn.
Well, first thing she knew she
was at LaGuardia field and prac
tically the next thing she knew,
some 32 hours later, she was in
England.
She was in England for a couple
of months working as a switch
board operator. Then off to France
to teach the boys how better to un
derstand the French people.
“I’m afraid I didn’t do so well at
this,” she tells you, “I’m afraid
most of our boys never did learn
to understand them and I’m pretty
sure most of the French people
never did learn to understand our
boys.”
STAR Dust
Craved A Little Praise
Her houseman having up and
quit just before a dinner party
the hostess phoned an agency and
asked that a butler be sent im
mediately.
The butler came and she gave
him a few hurried instructions.
The first course was decently serv
ed, after which the butler ap
proached the hostess and whisper- .
ed, “Could I see you in the butler’s
pantry?’’
She couldn’t imagine what awful ]
thing might be happening back in '
the kitchen, but she kept a poker '
lace and just pretended that she 1
ladn’t heard. The man went into 1
the kitchen and soon brought the 1
second course. Again he whispered, 3
‘I’d like to see you in the butler’s ■
pantry right away.” r
Again she ignored him, but her ]
Hind was in a panic. The third ]
:ourse, and a third time the butler
whispered that he must see his
Religion
Day By Day
By WILLIAM T. ELLIS
TWO PROPHECIES
When I returned to America, af
ter spending six months in more
than twenty thousand miles of
travel in Russia, during the Keren
sky regime and the rise of the Bol
sheviks, I expressed, over and over
again, in speeches and in articles,
these two outstanding convictions:
1. The Russian revolution dem
onstrated that whenever and wher
ever the masses of people decided
to take over power they could do
so.
1 2. If this revolution permanent
ly succeeded in Russia, nothing
could prevent it from spreading
over the whole earth, except the
practice of Christian democracy.
The reader may judge for him
self, in the light of events, wheth
er my prophecy was true.
If so. then there is laid upon us
the tremendous obligation to make
Christian democracy function.
Can we create, after the pattern
shown in the Mount, a classless,
brotherly socle,y, dominated by the
standards of the Bible?
Are we really great enough for
true democracy?
Not unless we are ready to come
under the sway of the Christ, in
whose discipieship is true liberty,
justice and brotherhood.
O Lord, to the
personal practice of the teachings
eau.hii'h Hl" K*“*«Iom may hr
established on earth, Amen.
M cKenney On
BRIDGE
By WILLIAM E. McKENNEY
America’s Card Authority
I ran a little contest at the May
fair Bridge Club in New York to
select the most interesting hand
of the week, with Harry Fishbein
as judge. Today’s hand is the first
from the contest.
Several West players bid two
diamonds over the opening one
heart bid. In the bidding shown,
however, West passed; but when
North bid three hearts and South
went to three spades, West then
decided to come in with a nuisance
bid of five diamonds. North now
bid six hearts.
Fishbein said that, in rubber
bridge, he would critize West’s
double, but in duplicate the dou
ble is necessary with that hand in
order to protect his score. If the
hand does not make six hearts
many other pairs will have dou
bled it. But when South redoubled,
West knew he was lost.
South made seven hearts on the
hand. He won the opening club
lead with dummy’s ace, led a
trump to his own hand and ruffed
three spades in dummy, thus estab
lishing the spade suit.
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Doctor Says—
PSYCHONEUROTICS
ARE_N0T INSANI
A psychoneurotie is , _
who cannot face cprt-;„ person
m everyday livln
mg mental and physical ^ flop*
ances which make' hhp turb
though most of us show 1 ' A!
behavior at times, the'diaenm011'
neurotic illness is „„ 2",s,s»!
our reactions are disabling6 UnleS5
Chief mental comolaints „
choneurotics are anxiety DrofP!y'
exhaustion, fears, indecision *d
ry, sleeplessness. Cr fei i*
guilt. Physical complain's i>fS] °(
headaches, stomach ra'ns iUde
spells, diarrhea, sweating
bln^, palpitation, vomiting
S%r* m ■»« 4 £
Any one of these comni,,- .
may develop in a normal pen™
in response to some situation k !
psychoneurotics develop °VeU‘
causefreater int6nSity 0;'
ha f 1116 Pat«nts who con
suit physicians are suffering » h
some from of psychoneurosis t
is estimated that the majorih
medical discharges for neuropsy!
chiatric causes from the service,
were for psychoneuroses. All nt
us know neurotics who suffer with
indecision are afraid of failure
find it difficult to get along
with people, and yet who are nor
mal in other respects.
Psychoneurotics are not insane
and may not be noticeably queer
They are not cowards. They are
often warmhearted, lovable per.
sons who do a great deal for their
family and friends. They are often
high-strung, and' conscientious per
sons who occupy important places
in the affairs of the world.
Stomach distress of a psycho
neurotic is just as real as the pain
of an ulcer, except that in the for
mer it results from an emotional
disturbance and in the latter from
an organic cause.
In psychoneurotics there is a
tendency for distress to shift from
one organ to the other; frequently
the patient in relating his symp.
toms will refer to a notebook to
refresh his memory. The lengthy
list of complaints of psychoneu
rotics has sometimes been referred
to as an “organ recital.’’ !
Profound fatigue and aches and
pains without obvious cause,
counting cracks in the sidewalk,
touching every tree or post may
seem just as absurd to the psycho
neurotics as it does to normal per
sons, but psycboneurotics find
these feelings more difficult to
control.
Fear may be overcome by going
back to the same situation and
learning to meet the problem in
the proper way. Unfortunately, as
little children, many psychoneuro
tics did not have proper direction,
for when the going became tough
it was too easy for them to go to
an adult for protection instead of
facing their problems.
The Literary
Guidepost
By CHARLES HO.NCE
MARK TWAIN, BUSINESS MAS,
edited by Samuel Charles
Little, Brown; ?4).
Of the making of books about
Mark Twain, to twist a phrase,
there is no end. He has been writ
ten about more than any other
American literary figure, and. next
to Lincoln and Washington, prob
ably more than any American in
any field.
This book explains in a way why
this has happened. Naturally. 1
is the marvel of Twain's invent™1
and the glory of his prose that haw
sustained this interest. Be-' ,
that, however, the writer engap-j
in so many curious enterprise.
jumped into so many disputes,
so many disagreeable things *
his contemporaries, and, w 8 -
eral, tilted a lar.ce In so many Di
rections, that he would have a.
tracted extraordinary attention
he never written a line.
One of the fellows against whom
Cleanens was extremely caus
was Charles L. Webs*er. his pub
lishing associate, on whose s ‘
ders he was inclined to lay ,theh .
blame for the failure of his ou
ness. Webster’s son, Samuel Ch
les Webster, comes up with an
tirely opposite picture oi,™e --
ciation in Mark Twain s