The Charlotte News
Thursday, August 3, 1950
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Allied troops, still outnumbered but improving in strength, moved forward for a showdown for South Korea equipped with Pershing tanks. Fresh elements of the First Marines and the Army's Second Infantry moved into place to engage in battle probably by nightfall with three other American and five South Korean divisions. The U.N. forces had withdrawn as much as 18 miles in the previous three days. The First Cavalry had withdrawn orderly to the east bank of the Naktong River in the Waegwan area, twelve air miles northwest of Taegu, blowing the bridge over the Naktong after crossing. The Naktong fallback position was considered a line of choice, according to correspondent Leif Erickson.
Hal Boyle tells of Communist guns shelling a river highway 14 miles southwest of Taegu, near Hyonpung, intended to reduce American traffic along the road running east of the Naktong. It was the closest that enemy fire had come to Taegu. Apparently, the North Koreans, taking advantage of the American withdrawal from the Kochang-Hyopchon area, had staked a position on the opposite side of the river, though the precise locus of the artillery was unclear.
A 24th Infantry Division battalion had penetrated 22 miles behind enemy lines near Chinju to perform reconnaissance, discovering a large enemy buildup for the battle leading to the plains to Pusan, 40 miles east of the front. The task force, penetrating more deeply behind enemy lines than any American force thus far in the war, then fought its way out from behind the lines, incurring some losses, rescuing a regimental command post from destruction by guerrillas and retrieving enemy documents and maps, as well as Russian-made equipment. Don Whitehead reports that the battalion had almost reached burning Chinju behind five American Sherman tanks, four of which, along with four armored cars, had to be abandoned. The American commander said that the operation had prevented the Communist drive to Masan and Pusan from getting underway. The Communists had dropped leaflets around Masan telling civilians to remain inside their homes, that they were about to be "liberated" with a major push.
B-29's undertook their third major strike in five days against North Korean chemical and munitions plants, this one at Hungnam on the east coast, dropping 400 tons of bombs. The plant was about three miles from a plant almost completely destroyed in a Sunday raid and again hit on Tuesday.
At the U.N., Russia boycotted a meeting of the Big Five military staff during the morning and speculation arose that the boycott of the Security Council, ended Tuesday after seven months, might be renewed, following the Council having voted 8 to 3 against Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Jakob Malik's attempt, sitting in the monthly rotation as president of the Council, to unseat by fiat the Nationalist Chinese from the Council. Seven of the Council members had vowed to vote against his effort to give the Chinese question precedence on the agenda over the issue of Korea, after chief U.S. delegate Warren Austin led the fight to reject any Russian proffered deals to settle the Korean war with the Chinese question, stating that the two matters were unrelated and should be considered separately. The order of the agenda was still not settled, with Mr. Malik insisting on placing the China question first, denouncing the U.S. military action in Korea as an act of "aggression".
A foreign diplomatic source in Korea said that U.N. forces probably would have to go beyond the 38th parallel to disarm the enemy, and that leaving the parallel as the dividing line would subject South Korea to another, future attack. He said that President Truman would make the decision on the extent of the offensive and that the majority of the U.N. would support it. He also said that Communist war criminals would have to be arrested and tried.
Former DNC treasurer and former special envoy of the President to North Korea in 1946, Ed Pauley, under questioning by Senator Lyndon Johnson, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had felt in 1946, and still felt, that the U.S. should, if necessary, go to war with Russia to make it comply with its agreements on Korea. He had concluded four years earlier that the Russians never intended to leave North Korea. He said that when North Korea refused in 1947 to allow the U.N. observation commission to enter for inspection, he would have declared war on Russia. He warned that the Korean war might only be the beginning of Russian-directed aggression.
The House voted tentatively to put wage and price controls into effect whenever the Labor Department's cost of living index advanced five percent over what it had been on the prior June 15. Such an amendment would eliminate discretionary standby authority of the President to impose such controls when he saw fit.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas assured that the profit motive would be taken out of the war, though the President, he said, had not recommended an immediate excess profits tax in the interest of speeding through the proposed five billion dollar increase in individual taxes. He predicted that the profits tax would come later.
The Senate Finance Committee junked the House-approved billion-dollar decrease in excise taxes and instead voted to raise them by 55 million.
On the editorial page, "Evading the Issue" finds that with the President having withdrawn his objection to standby powers for imposing wage-price controls and rationing, the way was cleared for the proposal to be passed by Congress, consistent with the advice of Bernard Baruch. Such standby controls would give the President a chance to prove his theory that they would not be needed, that credit and allocation controls, which he had requested, would suffice. The Korean situation was still flexible, however, and so the methods for dealing with it ought be as well. Having the standby controls in place could deter hoarding by consumers and business, to avoid implementation of the controls.
Yet, it still asserts that standby controls avoided the problem and that the controls should be implemented forthwith, as favored by Mr. Baruch. Congress, it concludes, ought make the decision, even if it was understandable, though not excusable, in an election year that they would wish to pass the buck to the President so that they could blame him for it.
"A Parting of the Way" finds itself at odds with a City Council member with whom it normally agreed, Billy Coddington, for his proposal to change the zoning ordinance to allow the Council to veto plans for recreation centers or other facilities in the municipal parks, in light of the recent approval by the Superior Court of the Council's powers to determine parks and recreation matters, despite claims of nuisance by nearby residents regarding the proposed Latta Park recreation center.
"Satisfactory to All" finds acceptable the resolution passed by the City Council which set forth the intention to approve the sale of Duke Power's franchise to provide natural gas to any distributor who had access to natural gas and was ready, willing and able to serve the city's needs. Piedmont Natural Gas Co., which had already contracted with Duke to buy the franchise, could rest assured of approval, therefore, when the Federal Power Commission allowed permission to tap the Transcontinental Co. pipeline. Yet, the Council had still left open the way for competitors to vie for the service.
"Rearmament 'Watchdogs'" tells of the appointment of a subcommittee by Senator Millard Tydings, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, charged with the purpose of keeping watch over the rearmament program to insure it did not waste money or time. The subcommittee included Senators Lyndon Johnson, the chairman, Estes Kefauver, Virgil Chapman, Lester Hunt, Styles Bridges, Leverett Saltonstall, and Wayne Morse. It finds each of the members, with the exception of Senator Bridges, to be of exceptional ability and suggests that they would have their work cut out for them, much as had the Truman investigating committee during World War II, charged with the same purpose.
A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "After Two Years", finds that every law or ordinance ought either be enforced or repealed. As example, a parking ordinance limiting parking to two hours around the State Capitol had been on the books for two years but was only now about to be enforced.
Bill Sharpe, in his weekly "Turpentine Drippings", snippets from newspapers around the state, presents one from Winston-Salem's Twin City Sentinel, finding that the feet and not the neck provided the key to summer coolness, as few barefoot boys appeared to complain of the heat.
The Harnett County News finds that in winter, one could don more clothes to keep warm, while in summer, there was an irreducible minimum beyond which one had to grin and bear it.
The Surfside News posits that
doing nothing
The Smithfield Herald imparts of the meanest man in the world, one who had sat down for a haircut and a shave without telling the barber until he was done with the clipping that he was deaf.
The Zebulon Record tells of a
little boy who was crying after his father had tacked up a picture
And so
Drew Pearson tells of the rules of news censorship being laid down by General MacArthur in Korea. Theoretically, there was no censorship as editors and newsmen were asked to engage in self-censorship. Yet, according to CBS, the General had issued a directive that criticism of command decisions and the conduct of the soldiers on the battlefield was not to be tolerated. It came a day after Homer Bigart of the New York Herald Tribune had wired a story saying that the troops were untrained and that top officers had to remain with them when they were under fire to keep them from running away, that the condition was the reason for such high casualties among the officers. The failure to train the troops was a direct reflection on General MacArthur, who had commanded in Japan most of the troops now fighting, as well on his field commander, Lt. General Walton Walker.
During World War II, the Army and the Navy agreed that criticism from the press was healthy. President Wilson had invited criticism during World War I.
It had been difficult for the press to criticize the occupation troops in Japan as General MacArthur had not tolerated it, making life difficult for any reporter who attempted to do so. In 1946, he had barred the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Herald Tribune, and the Christian Science Monitor, among others, for producing "slanted" editorials, approaching "downright quackery and dishonesty". Ousters of newsmen from Japan by the General had continued right up to the invasion of South Korea.
Senator Elmer Thomas had been defeated in the Democratic primary and he was convinced that his phones were tapped after Mr. Pearson's last revelation regarding soybean purchases conducted through a proxy, a favorite practice of the Senator, taking advantage of his position to affect the price of agricultural commodities.
Senator Kenneth Wherry was trying to arrange a promotion for a Washington police lieutenant for showing him files on sexual "unfortunates"—the new euphemism for homosexuals and "other perverts"—in Government.
Marquis Childs, reporting from the U.N., finds that beyond the chess game of tactical maneuvering was a ray of hope that the U.N. could become a functional world body for preserving peace. The war in Korea had forced some thinking beyond the bounds of the usual "veto and defeatism" which had stultified the body.
The U.S. had worked out a bold plan for action to establish a permanent commission empowered to inquire into aggression, threatened or real, direct or indirect, wherever it might occur. It could prevent the outbreak of minor wars in such places as Indo-China, Iran, Yugoslavia or Greece. The commission would follow the pattern of that formed to oversee Korea and Greece, having broad powers to observe and report back to the U.N. on potential points of turmoil.
The war in Korea would be the first order of business before this proposal was brought up. If Russia were still sitting on the Security Council, it would veto it, but the way would still be open for the General Assembly to approve it, as was likely to occur.
With the Korean crisis, many neutrals, such as Sweden, had begun to favor creation of a permanent U.N. police force and it was probable that such a force would be formed from military personnel of the member states. Many delegates believed that it was the basis for a new beginning of the organization.
Robert C. Ruark tells of there being a lack of enthusiasm for the draft, with a report that a third of those called in New York had not shown up for induction. It was not surprising in such an irregular war, "where the good Injuns look just like the bad Injuns, and the Southern Koreans can't even distinguish themselves from the damyankee gooks by saying 'you-all.'" There was a feeling of being opposed by substitutes against whom the U.S. was not really annoyed.
With World War II had come knowledge
of the world such that it was no longer an adventure to go to war. It
was difficult to get a young man in Manhattan angry at a North
Korean. The veterans were not excited about taking out their old
uniforms again, as Yongdong could not compare with the thrill of
Paris. Personally, Mr. Ruark had less enthusiasm about being shot at than
ten years earlier. He had heard a bomb and there were no milk bars
The prospect of a fight in Formosa, Indo-China, or Iran was equally unexciting.
He concludes that it was a difficult war to popularize, lacking a sentimental aim and a rear full of excitement for the hero, with a definite, triumphant end in sight. "This one is too fuzzy around the edges to be fun for the fighters."
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