The Charlotte News

Monday, October 8, 1951

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that General Matthew Ridgway accepted in principle the Communist proposal that the ceasefire talks be resumed in Korea at Panmunjom, as that site was truly neutral within no-man's land, contrary to the Kaesong site which was exclusively patrolled by the Communists. General Ridgway said that he had instructed his liaison officers to meet the Communist liaison officers on Wednesday morning to work out the details. Both sides were to assume responsibility for controlling the new conference site. The Communists had abandoned their previous demand for resumption of the talks that appropriate machinery be established to deal with their allegations of violations by the allies of the Kaesong neutrality zone, the reason for the cessation of the talks by the Communists on August 23.

In ground fighting, American infantrymen inched slowly up the last enemy-held peak of "Heartbreak Ridge" on the eastern front, facing a rain of grenade and small arms fire. At last report, the troops had gotten to within 200 yards of the top. On the western front, battles on each side of the upper Imjin River were raging. On the west-central front, American troops captured "Bloody Baldy" and two other objectives the previous day, moving forward behind one of the heaviest artillery barrages of the war.

In the air war, allied planes continued their 24-hour pounding of enemy road and rail traffic on Monday, as night-flying pilots had spotted 1,800 vehicles on North Korean supply roads and had destroyed at least 125 in pre-dawn attacks.

Former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee considering the confirmation of Ambassador-at-Large Philip Jessup to become a delegate to the U.N., that the State Department had played a role in undermining the Chinese Nationalists, notwithstanding the denials of the Department and Mr. Jessup. To corroborate his earlier testimony that deceased Senator Arthur Vandenberg had told him that Secretary Acheson and Mr. Jessup had, at a White House meeting in 1949, favored termination of aid to Nationalist China, Mr. Stassen had made public excerpts from Senator Vandenberg's diary, in which the latter had written that the President had reported at a 1949 White House meeting that he had such a recommendation from the National Security Council. Mr. Stassen stated that such a recommendation would not have been issued without the approval of Secretary Acheson. The State Department had said Mr. Jessup had not attended the meeting, but did not say whether Mr. Acheson was present or what his view of the matter was. The President had turned down the recommendation because of objection by Congressional leaders.

Civil Defense administrator Millard Caldwell stated in an article in U.S. News & World Report that he thought Russia had enough atom bombs to hit major American cities simultaneously in "an all-out, grand-slam attack". He estimated that if such an attack came from the air, casualties in each city attacked would number about 75,000 dead and 75,000 injured.

Iran's Premier Mohammed Mossadegh arrived in New York to participate in the debate before the U.N. Security Council on the oil nationalization dispute with Britain. The Council was not expected to meet before Thursday.

The Supreme Court refused a petition for reconsideration of its decision in Dennis v. U.S. the previous June, upholding the constitutionality of the Smith Act under which the eleven top American Communists had been convicted.

The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended rejection of the nominations of two men to the Federal District Court in Chicago, who had been rejected by Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois. The action was designed to prevent the President from making recess appointments of the two men to the positions while Congress was adjourned.

The Agriculture Department estimated the cotton crop for the year to be 16.9 million bales of 500 pounds each, 360,000 bales less than the estimate a month earlier.

Princess Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, arrived in Montreal this date to begin their tour of the North American continent. They would conclude the tour in Washington at the end of the month.

In Valdosta, Ga., an Air Force mechanic 1,350 miles distant informed by radio a civilian pilot, on the prairie 90 miles from his home in Eagle River, Ontario, how to repair his stalled plane after an emergency landing. The pilot conducted the repair and was able then to take off for home.

The President would visit Winston-Salem the following Monday afternoon for ground-breaking ceremonies for the new campus of Wake Forest College—at Reynolda-upon-Silas Creek.

In the World Series in New York, the Yankees were tied with the New York Giants at one run each in the third inning at the Polo Grounds. The Yankees would go on to win the game 6 to 2, knotting the Series at two games apiece.

On the editorial page, "A Premium on Dishonesty" finds that with high taxes, there was a greater incentive for Americans to cheat on their taxes, while it was easy for a poor man, who usually owed no tax at all, to be honest in his reporting.

By the same token, there was a greater incentive to attempt to bribe Federal officials responsible for collecting taxes, the cause, it asserts, for the recent spate of cases against corrupt IRB officials.

It suggests that IRB employees ought be above reproach and finds that in all likelihood the great majority were, but as long as there was incentive through high taxes for cheating on taxes, there would be a concomitant effect of tempted IRB officials through bribes to look the other way.

"42 Years of Rising Taxes" tells of Congress having levied the first income tax in 1909 at one percent on corporations. In 1916, the rate had risen to two percent, then in 1917, to six percent, and in 1918, twelve percent. In 1932, it had gone to 13.75 percent and in 1936, the range was from eight percent on the first $2,000 of net income up to 15 percent, plus a surtax on income over $40,000. In 1940, the rates hit a maximum of 24 percent on corporate income over $38,000. The maximum rate was 44 percent in 1941 and the following year, 53 percent. In 1946, that maximum still held, and presently was down to 47 percent. Individual rates had been roughly proportional in their increases, with higher percentages in the top brackets. During the previous 13 years, the maximum rate on corporations had increased, on average, about 2.5 percent per year. It finds the trend not pleasant.

"Dulles Dismounts from Donkey" tells of the President having thrown a curve ball at his press secretary, Joe Short, in trying to explain his order allowing agency heads to classify information and documents under their control. He had thrown another curve ball at John Foster Dulles by announcing that Mr. Dulles had refused the offer of the ambassadorship to Japan so that he could keep the Republicans from becoming isolationists. Mr. Dulles had responded that, while he had turned down the post, it was not for the reason asserted. He declined to state the actual reason, but one of his friends suggested that Mr. Dulles desired to ease out of the Administration, a reason which the piece finds plausible, as he, no doubt, did not desire to continue to be a shield to the Administration against Republican criticism of foreign policy.

"Convicting Speeders" tells of 2,580 North Carolinians having been convicted for speeding during the month of September, the highest monthly total thus far in 1951, indicative either of a lot of speeders on the highways or, perhaps, greater enforcement being exerted by the State Highway Patrol. It reminds that the speeder remained the number one cause of accidents and urges the 1953 Legislature to provide an adequate budget for the Patrol and to pass more rigid laws against speeding and reckless driving.

A piece from the Washington Post, titled "Confusion of Tongues", tells of Arthur Krock of the New York Times having recently provided some additions to the bureaucratic idiom being utilized in Washington. Examples were "breach of security", which he defined as something embarrassing to someone in the Government, and "service to the Kremlin", which in the Congress meant to reduce the budget.

The piece finds in the Times, itself, some interesting idioms, such as "sharp political and social reaction", which meant a large number of persons, with or without good reason, becoming angry at their governments, "defeatist attitude", which was a gloomier opinion about the state of the world than that held by the Times, "shocking realization", that which came to those who held a more optimistic opinion than the Times about the state of the world, and "places of high political power", which were certain important politicians whom the Times wished to rebuke without providing their names.

It adds that just so it would not seem to be picking on the Times, it offers up some idioms within its own pages, such as "we cannot believe that", which was a standard method of expressing hope that something that might happen would not happen, "it cannot be doubted that", a standard method of discouraging the reader from taking exception to a conclusion stated in the newspaper, and "that intangible something", to be inserted into the text whenever the composing room failed to provide enough time to the editors to make up their minds what they meant.

Drew Pearson tells of a new scandal which had arisen regarding the chief of staff of the Chinese Army, General C. J. Chow, Chiang Kai-shek's right-hand man. He had sidetracked $444,706, earmarked for military equipment, into his own private bank account in New York and then transferred it to a fictitious firm. Yet, General Chow would handle the spending of the new 300 million dollars in aid which Congress had just voted to provide the Nationalist Chinese. The General had also pulled wires to keep his son, studying at San Mateo College in California, out of the U.S. draft, getting him transferred to the staff at the Chinese Embassy, where he never entered but continued his studies in California, albeit as a "diplomat" and thus exempt from the draft. He provides the verbatim order which resulted in the favorable status, which involved the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S., Wellington Koo, forwarding the matter to the State Department and giving his assurance that it was valid. The State Department had accepted Mr. Koo's assurances.

At a recent dinner party given by Mrs. Arthur Gardner, wealthy socialite in Washington, Chief Justice Fred Vinson showed up in a gray suit and tan shoes, causing some of the guests to be horrified at the fashion faux pas. Others overlooked the fault because he was Chief Justice.

Marquis Childs tells of Joint Chiefs Chairman General Omar Bradley having just returned from Tokyo and Korea, and, after two or three days of briefing the President and Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett, would take off again for Greece and Turkey, recently admitted to NATO at the NATO Council in Ottawa, to spend a couple of weeks, along with French and British military representatives, briefing the Turks and Greeks on their new role in NATO and determining the strength which each country could contribute. In November, he would then go to Rome to participate in another NATO Council meeting.

The military representatives would also take the first step toward working out the new command relationships, sorting out the Mediterranean and Middle East, which presented problems of keeping the lines of interest straight. The Arab countries, particularly Egypt, were at odds with the British, and the Turks were anxious to bring Egypt under a special arrangement whereby there would be a separate military command for that region. Egypt did not like the presence of a British garrison on its soil and had imposed a partial blockade against British shipping going through the Suez Canal with cargo to Israel.

Before Turkey and Greece could be formally admitted to NATO, many of the nations had to ratify an amendment to the treaty, true of the U.S. The State Department wanted Congress to do so before it adjourned, to set a good example for the other members.

Robert C. Ruark tells of Adolphe Menjou having shaved his mustache, which he had worn in his movies since 1909, for the purpose of a role in the film "The Sniper", and feeling quite betrayed by the fact because Mr. Ruark sported his own mustache of which he was very proud.

He suggests that the type of mustache a person grew relayed something about the wearer. For instance, a man who grew one only for a few months, then shaved it off and grew it back later, showed indecision, a person who could not be relied upon in the clutch. "Show me a man who trims his foliage into a little pencil line, and there is a fellow you wouldn't want your daughter to marry. This is the sort of bloke who goes busted playing horses and chorus girls, who eventually embezzles from the firm and winds up hustling marijuana for a living."

But he suggests that a man with a "generous mop of mustache", like his own, was a person of "sterling quality, exceptional ability and almost superhuman sweetness in his relations with dogs, children and mothers." Such a person was brave for maintaining his mustache through various clashes of opinions, wars, and financial emergencies. He had maintained his own since age 19.

He concludes that Mr. Menjou's mustache had been one of "great sweep, dash, elan and scope", and he was ashamed both for him and of him for cutting it off for a mere movie role, promises to boycott the whole movie industry until he grew it back. And he assures that men with real mustaches boycotted "real good".

A letter from two representatives of a delegation representing 117 Charlotte school children tells of having appeared in mid-September before the City Council to request support for a school bus route in the area between Providence and Sharon Roads. Mayor Victor Shaw had arranged a meeting with Duke Power officials on September 20 at which the delegation appeared, and the Duke officials gave various reasons why they could not offer the bus service, primarily because others would claim that they were getting favorable treatment over other areas. They hope that sometime in the next decade, such service would be established.

A letter from the president of the Charlotte Business and Professional Women's Club thanks the newspaper for its news coverage and editorial lauding the organization.

A letter from Dr. Henry T. Clark, Jr., administrator of the Division of Health Affairs at UNC, thanks the newspaper for its story by editor Pete McKnight on September 28, and editorial the following day, regarding the Division.

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