The Charlotte News
Friday, July 21, 1950
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page
reports that American black infantrymen knocked the North Koreans out
of Yechon, an important rail center 60 miles northeast of Taejon in
the central sector of South Korea, in a power drive this date after a
16-hour battle ending shortly after dawn. Other American positions,
however, were forced to retreat further from Taejon
Tom Lambert, reporting on the seizure of Yechon, tells of it being the first major U.S. ground victory of the war. Casualties had been light.
The commander of the 24th Division, Maj. General William Dean, last reported leading a bazooka team against enemy tanks, remained missing, now for more than 24 hours.
The Communist drive had cost the enemy 12 tanks while others were damaged, all by the new 3.5-inch rocket launchers. The failure to launch an expected attack on positions four miles southeast of Taejon this date indicated that the Communists were depleted and awaiting new tanks to lead the attack.
Nine U.N. members had answered the week-old call of Secretary-General Trygve Lie for meaningful contributions to the Korean war effort on behalf of the U.N. forces, but none had thus far offered ground troops. He told a press conference that it was untrue that the U.N. was secretly recruiting a voluntary army for service in Korea. The Philippines said that it would allow volunteers to participate in the war, and Peru, Argentina, and Brazil, said that they would provide any assistance possible. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, and Greece had assured contribution of supplies and equipment to the effort.
A source with military experience said, however, that coordinating foreign troops with American troops would only complicate the American military problem.
The Army announced that it was calling to active duty "non-divisional" units of the National Guard and reserves, as need would arise. Units would be alerted about thirty days prior to activation. The reason that whole divisions were not being called was to prevent the prospect of particular states being disproportionately impacted, as divisions were concentrated by states. It was the first time in history that only part of the Guard was activated, the entirety of it having been activated in 1916 for the Pershing punitive invasion of Mexico against Pancho Villa for his attack in New Mexico, and in 1917 for World War I and in 1940 for World War II.
In both the House and Senate, the bills to raise the ceilings on the numbers of personnel in each branch of the military service and to extend enlistments by a year were being sped along for action by early in the coming week. Committee work in both houses was complete and had overwhelmingly passed, with only one vote opposing in the House and none in the Senate. The present ceiling in total was just over two million men.
The Joint Economic Committee agreed unanimously this date that there was need to raise taxes because of the war, to put the country on a pay-as-you-go basis. The Committee discussed no figures but agreed that taxes ought rise by ten percent at once.
Don't complain about the Fair Deal in the same breath you complain about high taxes anymore, moron. Taxes are high because of high defense and foreign aid spending. The cost of continued segregation, both in terms of providing segregated public facilities and in litigation to try to maintain it, likely far outweighed the cost of all proposed Fair Deal programs.
The Agriculture Department was preparing a report to convince Americans that there was no need for hoarding because of the war. There remained plenty of everything.
On the editorial page, "A Stitch in Time" finds that the commodities wholesale price index had risen six percent since the beginning of the year and was climbing rapidly since the beginning of the war in Korea. It had risen by 85 percent between mid-1915 and mid-1917 and 35 percent between mid-1939 and mid-1942. It was likely to rise precipitously again in the present war.
If history repeated, the Congress and the President would probably wait until it had risen fifteen to twenty percent before taking action to curb inflation. But by then the problem would be much harder to tackle. The Congress did not want to act presently, however, to place controls on the economy as it would be politically unpopular.
It reluctantly concludes that the victory over Communism, requiring billions of dollars more in defense and foreign military aid expenditure, would necessitate implementing rigid controls on the inflationary forces impacting the economy.
"Off-Street Parking Need Grows" tells of two available spaces, one used for off-street parking and another as a used car lot, about to be eliminated by two construction projects, leaving less parking downtown. It recommends as a solution that downtown merchants provide permanent parking for their customers and create a public parking authority to buy vacant lots and either operate them directly or lease them to private operators. It urges the City Council to take on the project.
"Big Trucks and City Streets" tells of the City traffic engineer studying how to eliminate traffic congestion downtown caused by trucks. It provides his preliminary findings and suggests that his report would only affect trucks with more than two axles and that zoning regulations would be enforced during normal business hours, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. It urges the recommendations, when complete, to the City Council.
"Partisanship Holds Sway" finds foolish the effort of Republicans to vote against release of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee report which had condemned Senator McCarthy's claims of Communists in the State Department as "a hoax and a fraud", for in doing so, while not defending the Senator, the GOP Senators only served the vain purpose of sacrificing principle to protection of party unity. All Senate Republicans either voted against filing the report or abstained in the 45 to 37 strictly partisan vote.
The piece finds it plain that the report spoke the truth and that the "coarse and unprincipled" Senator McCarthy richly deserved the rebuke. It concludes that it would have been better for all had the Republicans washed their hands completely of the Senator.
A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "For the Export of Starlings", tells of the Smithsonian Institution having issued a report in praise of starlings, contrary to the editorial's opinion that it was a "nasty little beast". But the Smithsonian said that starlings ate the dreaded potato beetles and so served a useful purpose.
It suggests that, to allay suspicion in Eastern Europe that the Colorado potato beetle infestation had been deliberately caused by America, as claimed in Communist propaganda, all starlings in the country ought be rounded up and exported to Eastern Europe.
Drew Pearson tells of Congressman Victor Wickersham of Oklahoma facing a runoff primary after Mr. Pearson had exposed the previous December 12 his salary kickback scheme, similar to that of convicted and imprisoned former HUAC chairman J. Parnell Thomas. Mr. Wickersham called Mr. Pearson a liar but he was being investigated by the FBI. He details further the kickback scheme and payoffs to keep quiet about it, including a promised recommendation to West Point in one instance.
Marquis Childs discusses the likelihood that statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, as championed by Senator Joseph O'Mahoney of Wyoming, would pass during the current session of Congress. For a variety of reasons, including defense, it was necessary.
But a quid pro quo, whereby
Senator O'Mahoney might have to pledge support to the Mundt-Ferguson (and Nixon
He also points out that Puerto Rico, having been given the right in 1947 to elect its Governor, was now being given the right to draft its own constitution, the next step along the way to self-government.
Statehood for Hawaii and Alaska would not come, of course, until 1959.
Later in the year, Puerto Rican nationalists would seek to assassinate President Truman at Blair House.
Robert C. Ruark tells of hat
designer Mr. John
Ms. Dietrich had selected one daytime entry in particular, "The Woman on Pier 13"
Mr. Ruark finds the whole matter to be a dodge and that grandmothers were supposed to be matronly and have white hair. But Mr. John was sure to make a lot of money from the matter, as other grandmothers scrambled to placate their young granddaughters' sense of angst at style competition from their grandmothers.
A letter writer praises the memory of recently deceased Oren A. Biggers, part owner of three produce companies, in Charlotte, Greensboro, and Durham. He proposes a living memorial by donating blood in his name to the Red Cross. The Red Cross, he imparts, had saved the life of Mr. Biggers while he was a prisoner of the Germans during World War II.
A letter from the president of the Automobile Safety Association in Boston finds deplorable the 491 nationwide traffic fatalities, plus 17,000 injured, during the last July Fourth weekend. He wants to know what was being done about it beyond exhorting people to drive more carefully. The auto industry was building buses ten to fifteen times safer than regular cars. He proposes constructing cars likewise, so that the driver would be at the front of the vehicle with an unobstructed view of the roadway.
But then if you get into a head-on collision, you have little protection and, moreover, since cars are not so big as buses, the area of view out the front would be considerably less. You need seat belts, for starters, and padded interiors to follow.
A letter writer tells of a bill sponsored by Congressman John Dingell of Michigan to end excise taxes on fishing equipment having passed the House and being considered in committee in the Senate. It had been passed previously by Congress but vetoed by the President. He suggests writing Senators, urging its passage.
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