Honolulu Record, August 19, 1948, vol. 1 no. 3, p. 2
East Coast
While government machinery was bending every effort to dismiss two school teachers in Hawaii, government machinery was doing its best to "protect" two Soviet school teachers in Washington D. C. The nation was bug-eyed last week in its attempt to keep up with the doings of J. Parnell Thomas and his un-American committee. From coast to coast headlines blazed and radios blared — but what it was all about no one could tell for certain. The first report was that a Michael Samarin, with his wife and children, were under the wing of the FBI. It was said that Mr. Samarin, a Russian school teacher assigned to teach children of Soviet diplomats at the Russian consulate in New York, had reported to the FBI, stating that he and his family wished to remain in the United States. They were kept in well publicized hiding. Meantime, Mrs. Oksana Kosenkina, another Soviet school teacher on the same assignment, was reportedly spending a harrowing week. According to Soviet consul officials she was kidnapped and taken to the farm of the mysterious White Russian Countess Tolstoy. According to U.S. authorities she was a refugee from hounding Soviet agents.
Later in the week, according to U.S. officials, she was kidnapped from the New Jersey farm. According to Russian representatives she was rescued after she had managed to slip a note to the Consul through the help of a sympathetic tradesman.
Later, Mrs. Kosenkina either leapt or fell from a third story window of a New York building used by the Soviet Consulate. At last report she was again in the hands of U.S. officials as formal diplomatic notes were being exchanged between Moscow and Washington. In the meantime it would seem that J. Parnell Thomas had a bull by the tail. He had first brought the case of the two school teachers into the limelight by stating they were wanted for questioning concerning the recently "exposed conspiracy" on the part of New Deal government officials. Now publicity seeking Mr. Thomas, his "beautiful, blonde Soviet spy" Elizabeth Bentley, and his investigation were relegated to the back pages.
West Coast
As excitement ran high among the cloak and dagger set on the East coast, tension mounted in the West coast shipping industry. A Truman appointed fact finding board reported that the prospects of settling the maritime dispute "seemed slim indeed." The hoard, offering no recommendations, thus made its final report to the White House. As the report lay on the Chief Executive's desk waiting to be read, Federal Attorney Jesse B. Rosenberg, in San Francisco, suggested government seizure of the industry as one solution to the problem. It was Rosenberg who had filed the court petition which resulted in the 80 day strike injuntion [sic] now in force on the West Coast.
The injunction expires Sept. 2. On that day the waterfront unions are set to strike. The main issue surrounding the West coast pilikia is the hiring hall. This, the unions contend, is the backbone of their organizations. Under the Wagner Act the hiring hall became an established institution. Now, under the Taft-Hartley law, the employers, with a seemingly cooperative NLRB, are determined to break that backbone. The unions aligned against the powerful West Coast shipping interests are the Longshoremen, Cooks and Stewards, Radio Operators, Engineers, and Firemen.
Every Crossroad
The so-called "Dixiecrats" met in Houston, Texas last week and promptly dug their stubborn heels still deeper into the mire of "reactionaryizm." With South Carolina's Governor J. Strom Thurmond, their presidential nominee, serving as their trumpet, they blared to a not too attentive world that they would make no compromise with the civil rights planks of the Republican, Democratic, and Third party platforms. Mississippi Governor Fielding L. Wright, the Dixiecrat's choice for the number two spot — the vice-presidency, got up and made the appropriate number - two speech. He said that the fourth party will "carry this fight to every crossroad of the nation."
Irresistible Spiral
Wholesale prices were up another one-half percent last week, according to the Department of Labor. This is the all-time record. Profits were up 28 percent for 525 leading U.S. corporations, according to the National City Bank of New York. This was also an all-time record. The bank reported that net profits had hit the astronomical figure of $2,287,747, 000 for the first six months of 1948— a 28 percent increase over the same period for 1947. The biggest profits were made by the oil industry. Twenty three major companies averaged an 80 percent increase.
Right behind were the 12 major auto manufacturers with profits going 51 percent higher than last year's. Meanwhile, retail sales were up only 19 percent, indicating that price raising accounted for most of the profit raising.