The Charlotte News
Saturday, January 20, 1951
ONE EDITORIAL
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that an allied patrol was forced from Wonju in central Korea this date by overwhelming numbers of attacking enemy troops, after holding off an initial attack in fierce fighting. An allied supply convoy had cut its way through an enemy roadblock southeast of the road hub earlier in the day, leaving enemy dead strewn in the snow.
Other Communist forces were on the move in the Yongwol, Chechon-Tanyang triangle to the southeast, movements, with the new attacks against Wonju, which the Eighth Army spokesman indicated were an indication of the attempt by the enemy to drive south along the Wonju-Andong axis, Andong being 40 miles north of Taegu, key to the old defense perimeter around Pusan. Once the enemy had penetrated the Sobaek mountain passes leading to the highway center at Yongju, halfway between Tanyang and Andong, they would have fairly unobstructed passage to the south.
Allied fighter-bombers flew 480 sorties during the day, hitting enemy barracks, artillery, and transports. B-29s dropped 192 tons of bombs on five key rail yards.
Army chief of staff General J. Lawton Collins, upon returning to Washington from Korea, reaffirmed that the U.N. troops would continue fighting and said that chief of staff of the Air Force, General Hoyt Vandenberg, who had gone with him on the inspection trip, had found no evidence of a buildup of Communist troops in the eastern sector.
General MacArthur visited in Korea
for 90 minutes with commander of the Eighth Army, Maj. General
Matthew Ridgway, and declared afterward that no one would drive the
allies into the sea, that they would maintain a military position
Frank O'Brien reports that the President the previous night had stated at a meeting of the Society of Business Magazine Editors that there was not any difference between Stalin and Hitler, Mussolini or other cited notorious despots from history, that they all believed in enslavement of the common people. It was one of the few times that the President had openly castigated the Russian leader. In 1948, he had referred to him as "Old Joe" and said that he was the prisoner of the Politburo. The President also said that he was certain that Congress would be behind him when the time came to commit troops to Western Europe and that the Senators were just as committed to freedom as he was.
At the U.N., the U.S. decided to proceed as sole sponsor of a resolution to brand Communist China an aggressor for its intervention in Korea after trying for three days to obtain co-sponsors. The proposal was to be put before the General Assembly's 60-member political committee during the afternoon. The effort to get co-sponsors was abandoned after the countries, especially France and Britain, indicated a desire to dilute the resolution. The British, for instance, did not approve of the second part of the resolution, calling for the collective measures committee to consider action against China in response.
Senator Tom Connally of Texas, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he was unwilling to accept any legislative ceiling, as had been suggested by Senator Taft, on the number of troops the President could commit to Western Europe, as an emergency might arise which would require quick action. Senator Taft said that he would support a Senate resolution authorizing the President to send a "reasonable number of troops" but favored a limitation, which privately was said to be about five divisions. Senator Connally said that he did not expect the Senate to act on a resolution similar to that approved in the House the previous day, condemning the aggression of China, as introduced by Senator John McClellan of Arkansas. Some members had objected that it was tantamount to a declaration of war on China.
General Eisenhower, while visiting Luxembourg on his tour of the NATO countries, visited the grave of his old friend, General Patton, at Hamm Cemetery.
Maj. General Rosie O'Donnell returned to Washington following his controversial statement made at a press conference at March Air Force Base in California the previous day, calling for use of the atomic bomb against Communist China. He told reporters that General Nathan Twining, vice-chief of staff of the Air Force, had summoned him to discuss Korea and his statements at March Field. General O'Donnell had returned to the U.S. on Thursday after commanding the Far Eastern Air Forces in Korea.
John Hightower reports that officials of both the State and Defense Departments were studying the possibility of arming anti-Communist guerrillas on the Chinese mainland to help check the spread of Communist power in the Far East, especially in light of the rejection earlier in the week by China of the U.N. five-point ceasefire proposal. American weapons were flowing to the Nationalist Chinese on Formosa under a 50-million dollar aid program worked out through MacArthur headquarters the prior summer. It was probable that some of those arms would go to the guerrillas on the mainland, with some of whom Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek had close ties. Estimates in Washington of the guerrilla strength ranged from a half million to 1.5 million, and represented in any event a number of small bands, mainly located in southern and southwestern China, some of whom had once been part of Chiang's armies. General U.S. policy was to penalize China for its aggression to prevent its spread, but not to do anything to provoke general war as it would be to walk into a trap set by Moscow, just as Western Europe's defenses were being built up. Suggestions of extreme counter-measures thus had been rejected.
You had better rein in Rosie before he gets the country ringed around.
The Economic Stabilization Agency, under the new leadership of Eric Johnston, prepared to implement full price and wage controls to stem inflation. The President was preparing to provide to Mr. Johnston broader powers than held by his brief-tenured predecessor, Alan Valentine, who resigned the previous day after three weeks. The new powers would give the director authority over the entire economic phase of mobilization, including credit and rent controls and home financing, a move suggested by Defense Mobilization director Charles E. Wilson.
Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana demanded that the Government nullify the wage boost pact signed between most of the mining industry and the UMW on Thursday, providing for a $1.60 per day increase, which promised an estimated five percent increase in the price of coal. Senator Homer Capehart of Indiana objected, saying that there was no justification for blocking the agreement.
In Raleigh, the State Senate bill to prohibit palmistry, fortune-telling, and clairvoyance was referred to the House Committee on Propositions & Grievances.
Still nothing in it, apparently, about weather forecasters and sports prognosticators.
In Durham, the North Carolina Press Association had selected an editorial by News Editor Pete McKnight, whose picture appears on the page, as the best in the state among daily newspapers for 1950. The editorial from June 7, regarding Sweatt v. Painter and two other Supreme Court decisions striking down aspects of segregation, is reprinted on the editorial page. Tom Fesperman of The News received honorable mention for his October 30 front page feature story, "Unimpressed by Years", regarding a man who had been a former slave and had just turned 101 years old.
Other first prizes went to Roy Thompson of the Winston-Salem Journal for spot reporting, with his story titled, "Mother Drowns Two Children", and to Chester Davis of the Journal in the category of feature writing, for his "Readin', Writin', and 'Rithmetic—Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks". That rhymes.
But it would've been a lot funner to
add, "—Breedin', Lightnin', and" in front of "Old Dogs...", even if
breeding and lightning had nothin' at all to do with the story on new
methods of l'arnin' lessons never too late to l'arn—leastwise long as your mama don't go and drowned
On the editorial page, "Handwriting on the Wall" reprints the June 7 editorial by Editor Pete McKnight, selected by the North Carolina Press Association the previous evening as the best editorial appearing in a daily newspaper in the state in 1950. It regards the three Supreme Court decisions, including Sweatt v. Painter, handed down June 5, striking down different vestiges of segregation, in the University of Texas Law School and in the University of Oklahoma graduate school, both for the states not supplying substantially equal separate facilities pursuant to the requirements of Plessy v. Ferguson and therefore the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection clause, and, in the third case, holding illegal, under the Interstate Commerce Act which forbade discrimination on trains traveling in interstate commerce, segregated dining cars.
A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "Operation Haberdashery", finds questionable the convocation of 80 high-ranking Air Force officers and key civilians from Air Force bases around the world to exchange ideas and review revisions to policies and procedures for the operation of Air Force clothing sales stores. While the Air Force deserved the best in uniforms, it wonders whether, in the midst of world crisis, it constituted a sensible expenditure of money to bring together so many officers from around the world for such a purpose.
Drew Pearson tells of Defense Mobilization director Charles E. Wilson directing his staff to prepare for price and wage controls within two weeks, after receiving approval from the President for complete controls.
Democratic Senators were recently assessing Senator Taft, with Senator Paul Douglas saying that he had a good mind but was too much of a know-it-all.
Ninety percent of war plants were being built in urban areas where the Russians could easily target them, rather than following civil defense recommendations that they be dispersed. While they were being built by private companies, the Government, through the National Security Resources Board, had a powerful say in their certification. But the NSRB had not used its leverage to control location of the plants, as companies were choosing to build new plants alongside the old ones rather than locating to more remote locations.
Two rival newsboys, one for the Washington Times-Herald and the other for the Washington Post, standing on opposite corners, carried on a shouting match back and forth, with the Times-Herald seller urging readers to read of Senator McCarthy's charges that Mr. Pearson had published Pentagon secrets, while the Post seller shouted that Senator McCarthy was accused by Mr. Pearson of aiding Nazi war criminals in the Malmedy massacre case.
One of the toughest problems facing the new Congress was to reallocate the 14 House seats from states which lost population to those which had gained, in result of the 1950 census. The House had not grown with the country. Originally, the House had 65 seats in 1789, representing about 61,500 people for each Representative. In 1951, the ratio was one Congressman to 346,000 constituents. The number of House seats had last been altered in 1911 to the current 435, at a time when there were 92 million people in the country.
Congressman Frank Chelf of Kentucky wanted to increase the number of seats to 450 and introduced a bill to that effect, discussing it with the President recently. He said that he did not want the House so large that the "tail will wag the dog" but urged doing something to provide better representation to the people. The President had promised to think it over.
Currently in 2018, with the House membership still at 435, despite the admission in 1959 of Hawaii and Alaska as new states, the ratio is, based on estimates of the present population of 326 million, one Representative to every 749,425 constituents, in other words, more than twice the number in 1951 and three and a half times that when the number of Representatives was last set in 1911. Why are not the Trumpies, with their professed "Make America Great Again" slogan, hot on the heels of the Congress to expand the number of Representatives in the House? entirely a legislative determination, not Constitutionally set. Could it be that they really don't mean what they say but rather intend to enslave us all to Republican gerrymandering?
Mr. Pearson notes that California had gained seven seats, Florida, two, and Maryland, Michigan, Texas, Virginia and Washington, one each. Pennsylvania would lose three seats, Missouri, New York, and Oklahoma, two each, and Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee, one each.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop find it necessary to consider the problems of Britain with respect to U.N. condemnation of Communist China as an aggressor and the desire by Britain to engage in ceasefire discussions. While the U.S. had two oceans to protect it from immediate attack from Russia's present stock of 25 atomic bombs and 500 B-29 clones, the British were concerned about a more immediate threat from these weapons, as well from the Russian pressure mines being used in Korea potentially being used elsewhere to cut off Britain from its supply lines. The British also persisted in the belief that China could be lured away from Moscow's influence as they regarded the Chinese as more nationalist than Communist oriented. The British explained away the Chinese intervention in Korea by the fact that General MacArthur had ignored the Chinese warnings in October and proceeded to the Manchurian border when the British had recommended consolidating U.N. forces along the narrow neck of the peninsula and holding that line, which, they believed, would not have provoked the Chinese to cross into North Korea in force. Finally, the Anglo-American collaboration had deteriorated in the prior two years to the point that Prime Minister Clement Attlee had recently felt it necessary to confer with President Truman in Washington to assure that he would not use the atomic bomb in Korea or China without first consulting with the British.
The Alsops add that their reporting of these issues did not mean that the British were necessarily correct or that they agreed with the their positions, but since Britain was the principal ally of the U.S., with the bases necessary to meet aggression from the Soviet Union, it was imperative that their viewpoint be considered if the country wanted to keep any allies.
Marquis Childs, after reviewing the history of the Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the century and the efforts at the time of Russia to take over Manchuria while the West was trying to maintain an open door to trade with China, amid criticism of then-Secretary of State John Hay, finds parallels with the current situation regarding Secretary of State Acheson. The Secretary appeared to have weathered the storm surrounding him a short time earlier, amid calls for his resignation over his Far East policy, fueled by his continuing support of his old friend, Alger Hiss, despite the latter's conviction for perjury. President Truman's expression of loyalty to Secretary Acheson had diminished the ardor of those demanding his resignation.
Mr. Childs finds that, except in times of relative quiet, the Secretary of State had always been a lightning rod for controversy and anyone who might replace Secretary Acheson would, soon or late, come in for criticism from Capitol Hill. He ventures that there was really a need for two functionaries in the post, one to handle the Congress and political controversies, and the other to handle the primary function of the office, carrying on foreign policy.
Tom Schlesinger of The News, in his weekly "Capitol Roundup", tells of the Senate preparing to vote the following week on sending American divisions to Western Europe as part of the NATO combined defense force led by General Eisenhower. It was likely that both Senators Clyde Hoey and Willis Smith of North Carolina would support the move to have the vote, though they were not challenging the President's right to send the troops. Senator Hoey said that he was against sending American troops anywhere outside the U.S. but said that he might vote against the Wherry resolution to block the President because of its wording. It would express the sense of the Senate that troops should not be sent to Western Europe until Congress had formulated a policy on the matter. Senator Smith also believed that Congress should have the final say.
Congress was besieged with angry letters regarding the proposal by the Defense Department to lower the draft age from 19 to 18. Neither North Carolina Senator at present favored it. Other mail, in order of magnitude, favored withdrawal of troops from Korea, and dropping the atomic bomb.
The Fair Employment Practices Commission, the Brannan farm plan, national health insurance and Federal aid to education were all likely to go nowhere in the new 82nd Congress, despite being urged again by the President as part of his budget message to the Congress the previous Monday. Senator Hoey had said that they were "dead issues" and should not have been raised again by the President, that the most salient problem at present was the survival of the country and that such domestic issues would need await another time.
Congressman Graham Barden of North Carolina, however, chairman of the House Committee on Labor & Education, wanted to revive his proposed 300-million dollar Federal aid to education bill.
Former Senator Frank Graham was being mentioned as a possible candidate for appointment to the Civil Service Commission.
North Carolina had gained 13 percent in population since 1940 while the nation gained 14 percent, and would thus not lose a Congressional seat after all, as had been anticipated.
The President was recommending that House districts be drawn in the states so that each one would have no more than 400,000 population and no less than 300,000. If Congress followed the prescription, an unlikely prospect, then four of North Carolina's twelve districts would need to be redrawn as not being within those parameters. (To maintain that quota at about an average of 350,000 constituents per district, the President would, perforce, favor today a House of about 870 members, no doubt, to be phased in over a period of around 15 years.)
The Republicans had sought to enlarge the size of the major committees in the Senate and, on the first roll call of the new Congress, the Democrats had won, on a strict 44-38 party-line vote. Senator Smith voted against it and Senator Hoey, speaking in Raleigh, was paired with another Senator voting against it.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.