The Charlotte News

Friday, November 17, 1950

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.S. 17th Infantry Regiment tank column blasted its way out of a Communist trap in a mountain ravine in northeast Korea in a bid to reach the Manchurian border in four days, 22 miles distant. The three-hour battle ended with 125 Communist troops dead and Marine Corsairs sending rockets into the remnants. American warplanes supported the regiment's tank column advance, setting ablaze the Communist stronghold at Kapsan. The skirmish, however, resulted in a heavy toll of American wounded. The commander, who had narrowly escaped death, said that when the regiment reached the border, if the Communists fired back, they would "shoot hell out of them".

U.S. Marines probed mountains around the Changjin reservoir in the center of the peninsula.

Patrols of the 24th Division roamed unopposed more than six miles north of Pakchon in the northwest sector.

American troops hunting guerrillas far behind the lines reported the highest death toll in any battle action during the week, killing more than 500 enemy troops. The enemy retaliated by setting fire to the town of Kapyong, causing more than 8,000 inhabitants to flee.

Along most of the front, the enemy avoided major engagements but were building up forces in the mountains. A spokesman estimated that 100,000 enemy troops were available in the northwest sector, equipped by American artillery captured by the Chinese Communists from the Nationalists and supplied by American-type shells being manufactured in Manchuria.

Correspondent Stanley Johnson tells of the U.N. Security Council meeting to debate the question of Chinese Communist intervention in Korea. The Soviet delegation had charged the previous night that the U.S. was attacking China on land, sea, and by air, had been the aggressor in Korea, and threatened to veto any resolution on the subject which demanded withdrawal of the Chinese troops. The majority view on the Council appeared to be to take a wait-and-see approach to the situation. Even the U.S., which wanted at all costs to avoid general war with China for its potential for touching off world war three, would not press for an immediate vote on the resolution, which demanded withdrawal of the Chinese troops while assuring the inviolability of the Chinese frontier and the shared power dams in Korea.

In Atlanta, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Omar Bradley, speaking before the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, offered to trade the atom bomb for a "genuine course of righteousness in the world". He called anew for German rearmament and sought a system under which American military reserve manpower would be maintained at greater combat readiness than in the past. He said that the nation had to win the cold wars, as well as the hot ones, to maintain the peace.

North Carolina Congressman Herbert Bonner said that a lot of educational institutions were receiving war surplus equipment, necessary to national defense, and then reselling it. He planned to hold a series of hearings on the matter at Fort Bragg and other military installations the following week.

The AFL and CIO advocated a tougher tax on abnormal business profits from the war than that proposed by the President. The CIO wanted a tax which would generate as much as seven billion dollars in revenue, three billion more than that sought by the President, and the AFL sought one which would generate five to six billion, the latter agreeing with the President's suggested 75 percent rate after a predetermined amount of profit. The CIO wanted 85 percent, the same rate extant during World War II.

Elmer Henderson, the plaintiff who had successfully challenged the ICC's ruling to allow segregated dining cars on trains traveling in interstate commerce, struck down the prior June by the Supreme Court based on the provision of the Interstate Commerce Act forbidding discrimination in such facilities, contended that discrimination still existed in the dining cars and sought further hearings before the ICC to present the case. He said that whites were being seated with whites when seating was available, and blacks with blacks.

In Washington, Oscar Collazo, the surviving attempted assassin of the President on November 1 at Blair House, entered a plea of not guilty to the charges against him, which included murder of the White House police officer killed during the attack, assault on other White House guards hit by the gunfire, and housebreaking with intent to commit murder. Defense counsel suggested that the defense might enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity at a later time. No trial date was set, pending motions to be filed by the defense by December 8.

In Indianapolis, Dr. Alfred Kinsey, Indiana University professor and author of several books on human sexuality, was being blocked for the moment from receipt of research materials from foreign countries because of its alleged "damned dirty content", as contended by the collector of customs in Indianapolis. The latter claimed that the material shipped had no scientific value and he was seeking a ruling from Washington on whether it could be admitted to the country under a 1933 revenue code ruling prohibiting admission of any material which contained nudity or subject matter of a sexual nature. Dr. Kinsey maintained that there was an exception for matter being sent pertinent to the work of a scientist or physician.

In Rauch, Minn., a mother and her four children died in a house fire in the small farming community. No cause was provided.

John Daly of The News tells of the Air Force special board, in the process of selecting a site for its proposed Academy, coming to Charlotte on December 20 to assess an offered site in the Charlotte-Huntersville area as a possible locale. All save thirty possible sites had been eliminated of the 354 offered originally. Charlotte was the only remaining site in the state. General Carl Spaatz would be on hand for the assessment.

The Academy would eventually be located at Colorado Springs, Colo.

Martha London of The News tells of actor Edward Everett Horton, in town to address the Executives Club at the Hotel Charlotte, having recalled it being his first visit to Charlotte in about ten years, since he had played in "Springtime for Henry". He was pleased that many residents of the city had seen his 13-week television series aired recently. He was a believer in the new medium. Having appeared in over a hundred films since 1920, he said that he would accept any role in motion pictures which the high-priced contract player could not play.

In Charlotte, Libby Huffman of Hickory, as pictured, was crowned Queen Freedom of the Carolinas Carrousel Christmas Festival.

On the editorial page, "Will Mao Choose War?" finds that the world was keeping its fingers crossed the nearer the U.N. troops came to the Manchurian border. It was hoped that Mao Tse-Tung and the Communist Chinese would not choose general war in Korea by sending their regular troops across the Yalu River. The threats had sounded as bluffs, but there was the chance that they were not bluffs.