Re: 1948 Scottie Carb
Yes, that's exactly right. These looked very similar to the older Johny/Rude carbs in design, but the low speed works the total opposite. It's an air bypass type setting, versus a fuel flow setting. Evinrude actually used Tillotson carbs on a couple models, before 1954, namely the older 14hp Fastwin. Scotts and West Bends used a lot of these carbs.
That little hole you see above the low speed needle is the air hole, for the air mixture. You want to make sure that is perfectly clean inside. From the looks of your carb, it looks to be in nice shape. I've ran a lot that were no where near that nice. There may not be a need to tear into it, if you can get it clean from flushing it out. There should be a little drain screw on the bottom of it too.
