The Charlotte News

Monday, June 26, 1950

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Soviet-backed troops of the North Korean republic, after transgressing the 38th parallel into the South Korean Republic territory in a surprise attack on Sunday, had driven to the outskirts of Seoul and the commander-in-chief of the Northern forces had demanded, via Pyongyang radio, the surrender of the Southern Republic, the only State formally recognized by the West and the U.N. The troop force was moving quickly to try to force quick surrender before promised American military aid could be brought to bear on the conflict. President Syngman Rhee of South Korea blamed the crisis on there having been "too little and too late" American aid.

Morale of South Korean troops appeared low or broken, as the Northern troops, numbering, according to MacArthur headquarters in Japan, about 70,000, supported by 70 tanks, moved swiftly through two divisions of South Korean forces numbering 20,000, encountering little or no resistance in the process during its last dozen miles of advance toward Seoul, reaching to within nine miles of the Southern capital on Monday night, Korean time, after crushing the defenses at Uijongbu and capturing the town, the last defensive bastion before Seoul. Another group of Southern troops were reported to be in bad condition at Kangmung, being attacked from the north and south, fifteen miles south of the east coast side of the 38th parallel—the demarcation boundary between the Russian Northern and American Southern postwar occupation zones, evacuated by both sides pursuant to the U.N. General Assembly resolution of December, 1947, providing for holding elections by the end of March, 1948, after which occupation would end "as soon as possible", and the follow-up resolution of December, 1948, appointing a commission of seven nations to effectuate unification as soon as practicable, after it had not taken place properly following the election of President Rhee. A 1949 resolution found that while the U.S. evacuation had taken place on schedule, the Soviet evacuation could not be verified, and continued the commission comprised of seven nations with directives to observe the situation and make reports of any developments which might lead to military conflict.

In Seoul, the U.S. Embassy burned its secret papers and air raid sirens screamed. Four North Korean planes strafed the streets and the city was afire. Two ships loaded with 700 American women and children, dependents of Americans in the country, sailed from "Ichon" (probably Inchon) to Japan, covered by American-flown planes and a U.S. Naval escort.

An American official expressed uncertainty whether calls by the South Koreans for reinforcements would be met.

After being prompted by the U.S., the U.N. Security Council, meeting in extraordinary session without Russia, which had boycotted meetings because of failure to recognize and seat Communist China, asked both sides to cease fighting and passed a resolution to that effect.

President Truman pledged the country's vigorous support for the U.N. efforts to end the "unprovoked aggression". He did not indicate, however, whether the U.S. would send armed forces to Korea if the U.N. asked for them. Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson said that he could not answer whether there would be U.S. forces committed to Korea.

Associated Press correspondent Russell Brines reports that the President, according to MacArthur headquarters, had approved delivery to South Korea of war materiel, including ten F-51 Mustang fighters, as yet having no fixed date for their transfer to 60 Korean pilots being trained in Japan. In the meantime, American pilots formed an aerial umbrella from Japan to South Korea to cover the evacuation of the 700 American civilian dependents and provide safe passage for the war materiel to the South, ready to fire if fired upon.

Both Secretary Johnson and Secretary of State Acheson had undergone grilling by some Senators, during a prearranged hearing on aid appropriations before the Senate Appropriations Committee, as to why the attack had caught the U.S. intelligence services by surprise. The Committee then sent a request for CIA director Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter to appear. Senator Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska said that the intelligence services had been caught napping.

Senator Eugene Millikin of Colorado said that Senate Republicans met and unanimously agreed that there should be no commitment of U.S. troops in Korea, but that the country should supply military supplies and other aid for South Korea.

Before the armistice ending the three-year war in late July, 1953, 33,652 Americans would be killed in combat in Korea, plus another 3,262 deaths in the theater from other causes, with 92,000 wounded and 15,000 either missing in action or listed as prisoners-of-war. For many years, until the latter Eighties, the Pentagon had listed the official death toll of Americans as 54,000, but that figure, it was later discovered, included 20,000 "other deaths" in the military from areas around the world during the three-year period of the war. South Korea reported 58,127 combat deaths, and seven other nations fighting with the U.N. forces reported a total of about 3,100 combat deaths, led by Great Britain, with 1,109. North Korean forces reported 215,000 North Koreans killed in combat, with another 115,000 Chinese killed, the latter figure at substantial variance with the U.S. estimate of 400,000 Chinese combat deaths. The total wounded in the Northern forces was between 680,000 and 790,000, the latter figure based on U.S. estimates, with 141,000 missing or prisoners. The Soviet Union sent military supplies for the war but few troops. Only 320 Russian troops were killed.

In London, Conservative M.P. Peter Geoffrey Roberts, wartime major in the Coldstream Guards, urged Britain to seek use of the atom bomb against Pyongyang, capital of North Korea. Labour Party members shouted down the call, coming in the form of a question addressed to Prime Minister Clement Attlee after he had expressed deep concern over the situation in Korea.

In New York, stocks took a dive after announcement of the war, with leading issues, notably steel and automobiles, dropping between one dollar and five dollars per share.

In North Carolina, the Saturday runoff primary in the special Senate election resulted in the victory of challenger Willis Smith, who had come in second by 53,000 votes among four candidates in the initial primary of May 27, over incumbent Senator Frank Graham, Mr. Smith winning by 19,507 votes after nearly all precincts had reported. The final tally was 277,862 for Mr. Smith to 258,355 for Senator Graham, the total turnout therefore only being 82,500 less, at 536,000, than the record primary turnout for the state of 618,500 in the initial primary, considerably more than the 400,000 predicted by experts for the runoff. Senator Graham had failed to achieve a majority in the initial balloting by only 5,500 votes.

The election campaign, especially the runoff campaign lasting but two weeks because of a two-week delay in the decision by Mr. Smith whether to demand a runoff, had been characterized by attempts of the Smith supporters, aided by the candidate, himself, to align Senator Graham with "subversive" and Communist organizations and brand him a "Negro-lover" for his claimed stands in support of the FEPC and racial integration generally. In the latter days of the campaign, however, the Senator had made it clear that he did not favor a compulsory FEPC and, while believing generally in equal opportunity for all, also asserted that he thought that integration of public schools would be unfair to both races.

Election observers believed that the FEPC issue and the recent trio of Supreme Court decisions of June 5, striking down aspects of segregation, had been the primary factors impacting the runoff. The observers also attributed the Smith victory to better campaign organizations in many counties.

Mr. Smith was in Charlotte to address the American Legion convention.

At the end of the campaign, we note, it remained unclear to what degree Jesse Helms, then WRAL radio news director in Raleigh, had a hand in the race-baiting, Red-baiting propaganda issuing on behalf of Mr. Smith. The only mention of Mr. Helms came on June 10 in connection with his revelation of State prison director, J. B. Moore, supposedly utilizing prisoners to paint his porch and construct a garage apartment in the back of his house—a conveniently timed embarrassment to the Administration of Governor Kerr Scott, aligned with Senator Graham for the latter having been appointed by the Governor in March, 1949 to replace deceased incumbent J. Melville Broughton who had died only two months after assuming the seat. Mr. Helms would be hired as an assistant to Mr. Smith at the beginning of the latter's term the following year, and there appeared no evident special ability of Mr. Helms, then 29 and not even a college graduate, without some substantial contribution having been made to the Smith campaign, lending credence to later reports, after Mr. Helms achieved prominence in the state following his election to the Senate in 1972, that he was principally responsible for some of the Smith propaganda, especially the race-baiting propaganda of the runoff campaign. It appears clear that he was at least principally responsible for the rally outside the home of Mr. Smith on June 7, publicity urging which had come from a "Raleigh radio station", to encourage Mr. Smith to demand the runoff, at which time the candidate announced that he would do so.

DNC committeeman Jonathan Daniels, editor of the Raleigh News & Observer, had no comment on rumors that he was to be ousted as the state committeeman by supporters of Mr. Smith. Mr. Daniels had been a supporter of Senator Graham. State Democratic chairman and future Senator B. Everett Jordan said that he had not heard anything about such an effort and did not believe it to be true, that it was instead "political gossip". The state Democratic delegation would have to vote for the removal of Mr. Daniels for it to occur, considered unlikely. Mr. Smith said that he had not thought about the issue, but that Mr. Daniels had sent him congratulations on his victory.

The House Rules Committee cleared the billion-dollar excise tax cut measure for debate before the House, but without possibility of amendment on the floor. Republicans, who were opposing the measure for being a "phony tax reduction", would be able to propose a substitute measure from the floor.

In New York, Frank Erickson, who had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and 59 counts of illegal gambling, was sentenced by a three-judge panel to two years in prison and a $30,000 fine, plus a suspended probationary sentence of three years on the other 58 counts. His exposure had been up to 60 years in jail, a year for each count. Mr. Erickson, who entered the plea without a plea bargain, had admitted operating a 12.5 million dollar nationwide gambling operation. It was believed that the plea had been entered so that he could avoid naming names in the gambling syndicate, as well in the hope of a reduced sentence. Perhaps, he agreed behind closed doors to provide names, explaining the relatively short sentence. That way, he might avoid being fitted for the concrete shoes.

In Washington, the Federal District Court denied a motion for new trial to Judy Coplon, sentenced to 40 months to 10 years in prison for her conviction the previous summer for taking secret documents from her job at the Justice Department. She had been subsequently convicted also in New York for attempting to provide those documents to a Russian agent.

In Paterson, N.J., it was so hot that three refrigerators burst into flames, each being extinguished by the fire department with little trouble.

On the editorial page, "Saturday's Election" looks at the results of the Senate primary runoff between Willis Smith and Senator Frank Graham, finds that the victory of Mr. Smith, which it finds surprising, had likely been the result of the June 5 Supreme Court decisions, underscoring the race question and converting many Eastern North Carolina voters to the Smith camp. It suggests that the results showed that sentiment against the Truman Administration was stronger in the state than most had thought and that the revolution of Governor Scott was slowing down.

It provides its prepared editorial for what it thought would be a Graham victory, though the newspaper had endorsed Mr. Smith. It praises Senator Graham for waging a loftier campaign than some of his supporters, as in the case of Mr. Smith and his low-road supporters. It hopes that the smear tactics could soon be forgotten and wishes success to Mr. Smith in Washington.

It should be noted again that the "smear tactics" ascribed to the Graham supporters consisted of calling Mr. Smith a "Republican" and "Dixiecrat" in his policy stances, thus attempting to equate that with Smith supporters associating Senator Graham with Communists and "subversive" organizations, as well as calling him a "Negro-lover" for his stands on civil rights and being a member of the President's Committee on Civil Rights in 1947, which had issued a report calling for an end to segregation throughout society.

"Why the Delay?" tells of the police chief, the fire prevention director, and the slum clearance director of the City looking over the midtown alley, Howell's Arcade, and assessing it from each angle, crime, fire, and slum clearance.

It urges that the problems in the area ought to be cleaned up and the only question was why it had taken so long for each agency to begin to address them.

"The Palmetto Primary" tells of South Carolina's Democratic primary being a race for the Senate between Governor Strom Thurmond and incumbent Olin Johnston, with Governor Thurmond trying to suggest Senator Johnston as being sympathetic to Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, who was trying to end segregation, while Senator Johnston was telling of Governor Thurmond having lowered the dignity of his office by such shenanigans as standing on his head for Life photographers.

The piece finds that the states' rights movement as a third party was dead and that Governor Thurmond was likely aware of the fact but also believed that South Carolina voters would elect anyone who stood four-square behind such principles.

"A Word to the Wise..." counsels knocking heads together to obtain cooperation between the nation's railroads and the trucking industry, as both were essential to prosperity of the nation. Rates had to be set for the railroads because of unbridled competition in the past, forcing rates up. Now, that form of competition beset rail versus truck transportation, and threatened to bring into the mix the airlines and inland waterway operations.

It recommends the piece on the page which follows.

A piece from Traffic World, as stated above, counsels likewise, that while competition was the heart of free enterprise, unregulated and unrestrained competition would be to no one's advantage, ultimately causing the public to have to pay more for goods and leading to inflation. So it hopes for cooperation.

Drew Pearson, in Rapid City, S.D., tells of coming to the Black Hills to dedicate the lighting system for Mt. Rushmore. The four men whose countenances were carved into the mountain were crusaders and, he suggests, in a way, dangerous revolutionaries. The crowned heads of Europe, even as late as the Civil War, were still in some cases trying to defeat the "subversive" democracy left in the wake of Washington and Jefferson. President Lincoln was considered dangerous by the South and Theodore Roosevelt had been considered dangerous by big business for his campaign against monopoly.

The country had at least tried to live up to the principles the four men had set in motion. But in the age of the atom bomb and other modern forms of warfare, the country was in danger of lapsing back into an age of fear of progress. The fear had been palpable since the announcement that the Russians had detonated an atom bomb. Perhaps, he ventures, that fear was why the country was consumed with searching everywhere in its house for Communists and worrying about mistakes of five years earlier rather than looking ahead to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

He finds that Washington and Jefferson, leading 13 weak colonies vying for independence against the monarchies of Europe, had far more reason to succumb to fear than America in 1950. But they were too busy pushing on to new frontiers to take time to be afraid. The country, however, presently appeared too concerned with armed defense to move forward.

The Communists were fighting with ideas rather than bodies and bullets. Ideas were cheap. The U.S. had sent billions in aid to Europe and the Far East but had not sent any ideas with it or, in most cases, even let the people of those lands know from whence the aid came.

He finds that one trouble with the U.S. and its allies was that the arms program left no alternative other than war. While adequate defenses were necessary, piling arms on arms was overkill, making people lose hope for peace, leading to fear and consequent paralysis.

He believes that new objectives were necessary for the country, extending the frontiers of the past beyond the country's borders, extending the idea of democracy to foreign lands. He suggests that a new vehicle was necessary for selling hope. The world could not afford a third world war, which would leave it in chaos. Thus, he counsels getting away from the age of fear and its reliance on armed force.

He promises in subsequent columns to discuss the means for returning to an "age of courage, faith and hope."

Marquis Childs discusses the "'inevitable war' psychosis" of which ERP administrator Paul Hoffman had recently spoken as pervading the country, and the fact that it played into the hands of the Russians, letting them monopolize the peace offensive and offer the mentality as proof of the claimed imperialistic motives of the U.S.

It also had a negative effect on the economy as people tended to buy things on the belief that war was inevitable, which would cause consumer goods as automobiles again to become scarce as during World War II. Rumors abounded that the Government was reactivating defense plants and placing the country on a war-footing. While the Government and military were preparing for the possibility of war, there was no effort to revitalize ammunition plants or convert automobile plants to tank manufacture, as one rumor had it for the Cadillac plant.

A rush on items caused a false prosperity, awaiting the burst of the bubble. Recently, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, Leon Keyserling, had said that the economy was in the best shape in which it had been since the war, even exceeding the previous highs of 1948; but part of that prosperity was based on the psychology of the inevitability of war and scarcity.

He finds that the Government had to prepare for war and would be crazy not to do so in the troubled world of 1950, but such bluster as that of Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, who recently had said that the U.S. could lick Russia with one hand tied behind its back, did no good, fed the war psychosis.

He concludes that it was time for those in the Government and the citizenry to take a calm approach to the situation, building defense steadily but also not heading in the direction the Kremlin wanted, toward economic bust through the war psychosis.

Robert C. Ruark tells of being convinced that the animals were plotting to take over the planet. The evidence appeared in such things as the starling which had landed on the midshipman during graduation at the Naval Academy recently, not flinching in the face of American military superiority.

Fireflies might be utilized, he thinks, to carry tiny atom bombs en masse to the enemy, once it could be determined what caused the firefly to light up.

A rat recently had trapped a cat and a rabbit had beaten up a dog. He wonders where the breaking point might come, as when the lion would lie down with the lamb.

In determining the reasons for such anomalies, he concludes, probably lay the key to the future.

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