Page One of The Sunday Times
The two center columns of page one were headed by coverage of the radio address by Chester Bowles in which he pleaded for consumer patience over the clothing shortage, which he insisted would ease by mid-July. Bowles, who was Director of Economic Stabilization, blasted "propaganda" coming from "self-seeking pressure groups." In particular he took issue with an article in The Saturday Evening Post, written by department store executive Lew Hahn, general manager of the National Dry Goods Association, that blamed government price controls for the clothing shortages. Bowles said "the shirt shortage cannot be solved by letting the price of shirts go through the roof. They're too high already." The crisis was most severe in low and medium priced clothing. As the abundant ads in The Sunday Times from the luxury shops of Fifth Avenue attested, high-priced clothing, particularly women's wear, was readily available because that was what manufacturers were producing. The profit on lower priced clothing was not worth their time. "I think the record on getting low and medium priced clothing produced is no credit to either the industry or the government," Bowles said, blaming the situation on a lack of controls and a wartime manpower shortage in clothing manufacturing. He also criticized the "ruthless speculation" going on in the cotton markets and threatened to impose a ceiling if restraint was not exercised. Bowles was hardly a wild- eyed, anti-business radical. He was co-founder of the ad agency, Benton & Bowles ,
At the top of column one was a story about a marathon session of the city Board of Estimates where 5,000 employees and their union representatives gathered to voice their opposition to the city budget, which they felt did not provide enough for wage increases and cost-of-living adjustments for city employees. According to the headline "City Welfare Aides Threaten to Quit Unless Pay Rises."
The headline for column 2 announced that "Admission is Set for Roosevelt Shrine." It was fifty cents. Underneath that brief item was coverage of the hotel robbery that had been a lead story. complete with gory photos, in the tabloids. The Times played it as "2 War Heroes Slain Holding Up Hotel."
"Metal 'Lens' Focuses Radio Waves, Increasing Freedom From Static" was the snore-inducing headline spanning the bottom of column 2 and 3. It was about a wartime development from Bell Laboratories that would improve communications capabilities and reduce radio interference.
Column 3 headline:" La Guardia Pleads for British Wheat in European Crisis." The former New York City mayor, who had recently left office, was serving as director general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. He promised to replenish the British grain supply as quickly as possible, aware of that country's own shortages. He said that Great Britain was willing to ration bread to provide aid to famine stricken regions if the US was. He also announced that he had asked for a 35 per cent set aside in flour production in the US for war relief. The government already was at work on a proposed 25 per cent set-aside. Even this figure was opposed by millers and others in the trade who wanted a voluntary program. Meanwhile Juan Peron, responding from a plea to Latin America from the Pope, announced that Argentina would help.
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Column 4 headline: "More College Aid Set For Veterans" In announcing several new state programs, the Republican governor of New York, Thomas Dewey said, "For the next two or three years we will have a great 'bulge' in the enrollment of students in the colleges and universities" since the education needs that had been deferred by the war now had to be met. "We must spare no expense and no effort," to meet the need, he added.
Column 5 headline: "Soviet Seen Aiming at Rule of Danube" The US and Britain charged that the Soviet Union was seeking control of all navigable outlets of the Danube. Following the Hitler-Stalin pact, the Soviet Union had grabbed Bessarabia and northern part of Bukovina from Romania and now appeared, from the vague borders on their maps, to be laying claim to additional areas to the south. The Americans and British wanted that additional territory ceded to Romania and the right to navigation of the Danube to all nations guaranteed. They also sought the return of a strip of northern Transylvania, largely occupied by ethnic Hungarians, from Romania to Hungary. The Red Army occupied both Romania and Hungary.
"World News Summarized" spanned the bottom of column 3 and 4 and was a capsule summary of the day's top stories.
Column 5 headline: "Chunking Leans to Compromising Manchurian Case" The Chinese Nationalist government and the Chinese Communists were disputing the reoccupation of Manchuria, which had been wrested from Japanese control after the war. The situation remained volatile and General Marshall was on his way to help sort things out. The fate of China was a big issue in the years immediately following the war.
Headline at bottom of column 6 &7: "Russian Shares in Assets Is Asked as '39 Ouster Stalks Dying League" The League of Nations, in the process of disbanding, postponed a decision on a resolution by Czechoslovakia and Poland that the Soviet Union, which had been ousted in 1939 when it began invading its neighbors, share in the distribution of the organization's assets. Russia had not made any claim itself and the action was deemed as a symbolic act of "friendship" by its supporters. A Communist government had been installed by the Soviets in Poland after the War. Czechoslovakia had not yet fallen but the the Communists were the strongest party in the government.
Column 7:"GM Employs More Than Before Strike" and "Spain Bid Scorned by U.N. Delegates" The first was a brief item showing employment up at the car manufacturer despite an ongoing strike. The latter story said that Spain's efforts to limit the UN inquiry into Polish charges that it represented a threat to world peace seemed doomed to failure. The issue had been consuming much of the time of the Security Council. While the majority of the delegates seemed unwilling to allow Spain to set the terms of the investigation, some who supported the investigation recognized that the primary aim of the Soviet Union and its puppets was to destabilize Franco and reclaim Communist control in Spain. The UN delegates were showing more resistance to Polish demands that the UN sever all diplomatic relations with Franco's regime. The US and British governments opposed UN interference with Spain's sovereignty, although earlier the two governments had joined with the French and British in calling for the Spanish people to overthrow Franco on their own. Meanwhile relatively little attention had been given to date in the Security Council to Iran's complaints that Russian troops remained within Iran's borders. It was these sorts of developments that roused the suspicions of conservatives in the UN. Was it truly a peacemaking organization or an instrument of Soviet expansion? UN supporters, on the other hand, were trying to avoid a direct confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union which they feared would doom the organization and lead to another world war.
Column 8: "House in a Revolt Votes to Suspend Draft Till Oct. 15." This was the Page One headline news in the Sunday News this day. The Times article noted that the House had disregarded pleas from Truman and military leaders and amended the draft extension act to suspend inductions from May 15 to October 15 and to bar youths below the age of twenty from compulsory military service. The supporters of the moratorium insisted it would give time to the Armed Forces to see if it could fill its peacetime manpower needs with volunteers. Democrats particularly objected to the timing. The provision that the decision whether or not to reinstate the draft after October 15th would fall solely on the president and this was seen as a ploy by the Republicans to force Truman to make an unpopular political move just before the congressional elections. The suspension passed by a margin of three votes with most Republican members of the House supporting it. The provision raising the draft age was passed by a voice vote. Supporters argued that we should not be forcing "children" into the military while opponents argued that 18 and 19-year olds had proved their value during the war and that without their inclusion in the draft the Armed Forces would be unable to meet their quotas. A large number of other amendments had been offered to the bill, mostly providing exclusions and exemptions from the draft to various groups. The vote on the final bill with amendments had been postponed until Monday.