The Charlotte News
Saturday, December 15, 1951
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that, according to U.N. negotiators, the armistice negotiations in Korea had made no progress on the prisoner exchange issue. The Communists were reported to be continuing to demand approval of bulk exchange of prisoners before providing a list of the prisoners held, whereas the U.N. demanded that data regarding prisoners and prison camps be disclosed at once. The issue of policing an armistice also remained deadlocked. One U.N. negotiator accused the Communists of trying to win at the conference table that which they could not win on the battlefield, after the U.N. negotiators rejected a six-point Communist truce-supervision plan calling for limited troop rotation. Negotiations would continue the following day.
In the air war, allied jets shot down one enemy jet and damaged six others in two air battles over North Korea on Saturday, with one F-86 Sabre jet damaged. During the week, the U.S. Fifth Air Force had lost 13 planes, the largest number in any single week.
The Air Force disclosed that there were substantially more U.S. F-86 Sabre jets flying in Korea now than two weeks earlier, when the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing was reliant upon obsolete F-80 Shooting Stars. The new Sabre jets had shot down two Communist MIG jets and damaged six others since December 1.
In Paris, General Eisenhower, speaking before the NATO temporary committee, warned rebellious Western European nations that to have security they would have to increase military spending. Some of the member nations were reported to be balking at the committee's request for increased budgets, in some cases as much as by 50 percent. The twelve-man committee had been working for two months on a secret 100-page report on the capacity of each of the twelve NATO member nations to increase the share of the defense burden. The report stated that only the U.S. was producing at the peak of its ability and urged the other members to increase their effort. Belgium had indignantly refused the recommendation. After the General's talk, members expressed approval, the Italian delegate indicating that the General had buoyed their feelings of serenity.
In Czechoslovakia, the secret police fired on a British diplomat and a typist at the British Embassy, for a purported act of espionage within the forbidden zone of Prague, prompting the British Government to call them home. The secretary was shot and slightly wounded and the diplomat was bruised during a chase in an Embassy automobile by Prague military police. The British lodged a formal protest regarding the incident.
The Bank of England returned to foreign exchange dealers the right to purchase and sell foreign monies on the open market, regarded as a small first step by Britain in letting the pound find its true value on the money markets of the world.
Britain announced that it would begin paying off both interest and principal of its multi-billion-dollar postwar 1946 American and Canadian loans, starting December 31, deciding not to take advantage of the right to postpone the payments.
In the Philippines, the typhoon which had hit the central islands the previous Monday again formed into a furious storm this date, apparently losing its strength, however, in the China Sea. The death toll from the earlier eruption of the Hibok Hibok volcano had risen to 476 on Camiquin Island.
Charles Oliphant, former chief counsel of the IRB, testified the previous afternoon to the House Ways & Means subcommittee investigating the tax prosecution scandals, that he had flown to Miami on a fishing trip aboard a Charlotte businessman's private plane in January, 1948, at the invitation of Lamar Caudle, but did not know at that time of any tax troubles of the Charlotte businessman. Five months later, he said, Mr. Caudle informed him of the man's trouble with the revenue collector at Greensboro, and the man had called directly to Mr. Oliphant the following October and informed that his machinery plant was being seized for $44,000 in back taxes. Mr. Oliphant further testified that the Greensboro collector agreed to remove the seizure on the businessman's promise to pay by November 1 and that all the payments were made on time. The subcommittee's counsel produced a transcript of a telephone conversation between the businessman and Mr. Oliphant the prior September in which the man had again complained that his property had been seized, whereupon Mr. Oliphant referred him directly to the Greensboro tax collector without intervention from Washington. The counsel did not ask him why he had such a change in attitude but merely remarked on it.
The subcommittee ended hearings for the holidays. In the meantime, a Federal grand jury was soon to be selected to investigate the subcommittee's findings. Subcommittee chairman Cecil King of California ordered that the transcript of testimony of the Chicago attorney, regarding an alleged shakedown for "protection" against "tax troubles" which might befall him, through "connections" in Washington of gambler Frank Nathan, be sent to the Justice Department. Both Mr. Nathan and his alleged accomplice, Bert Naster, had denied the allegations. Congressman King stated that it was clear that someone was lying.
Lamar Caudle claimed that an FBI investigation which he had requested in 1945 had completely exonerated him of "rumors", which, he claimed, he had brought to the attention of then-Attorney General Tom Clark. The rumors, he believed, had been spread by Charlotte's police chief Frank Littlejohn. Mr. Caudle criticized a December 12 story published in The News and carried by the Associated Press, in which it was stated that a former FBI agent claimed to have brought to Mr. Clark's attention certain "indiscretions" of Mr. Caudle while he had been U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina prior to his appointment as Assistant Attorney General to head the criminal division of the Justice Department in 1945. Mr. Caudle said that he was issuing the statement in fairness to Justice Clark and himself.
We are certainly glad that this investigation is taking a respite, as it is getting awfully old, arcane, and rather absurd. How many hairs were there on Mr. Caudle's wife's fur coat? Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things through history whether a man's wife wears a fur coat or cloth coat? Is it a proper gauge of the husband's level of corruption? Given the way things turned out, we posit that it is not.
Senator Taft had his tonsils removed the previous day and was resting comfortably.
That is good, too, as Mr. Republican can't talk for a few days.
In Philadelphia, the chairman of the defunct Empire Tractor Corporation of Philadelphia had been summoned to appear before a bankruptcy referee to relate in detail how DNC chairman Frank McKinney made $68,000 in profit on a $1,000 investment in that firm. The man's attorney stated that the entire matter was the product of "obvious partisan political maneuvering" and that his client would be ready and willing to appear before the referee in January.
A blast of sub-zero cold temperatures struck from the Rockies to the Midwest this date, and the coldest weather of the season was in prospect for most of the country. At least 27 persons had died from causes attributed to the mid-December storm, which had left record snowfalls in many areas across the Northeastern quarter of the country. Temperatures fell far below zero in Montana, Minnesota and North Dakota.
On the editorial page, "Options for the Southern Voter" suggests that since the death knell had been sounded for the "ill-considered" coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats in Congress, it was necessary to come up with a better plan of action for the South in the forthcoming presidential election, thinks that it would be helpful to the voter if rearrangement of both of the major parties could take place, as both parties ran the gamut of the political spectrum. The Democrats had Senators Hubert Humphrey and Harry F. Byrd at opposite extremes, and the Republicans had Senators Wayne Morse and Homer Capehart. Thus, the voter who chose to remain loyal to a party wound up voting for both conservatives and liberals and was, no doubt, confused by the outcome. Yet, realignment would take time and some new strategy for Southern Democrats was necessary for 1952.
Senator Byrd had suggested a third-party revolt which would be better organized than the Dixiecrats of 1948 and would wind up throwing the election into the House, where the Southern delegation could then name the next President. The piece finds this strategy dubious on several grounds, as it was not clear that a coalition of liberal Democrats and Republicans from other sections of the country might not trump the Southern voters in the general election such that it would not require the House to make the final decision, and even if it did, would not be clear that Southern voters would like to delegate their decision on the presidency to the House, where it was not a foregone conclusion that the Southern delegation could hold sway in any event.
Senators Clyde Hoey and Willis Smith of North Carolina both hoped that the President would not be renominated and that the Democratic Party would return to its traditional roots. The piece is not so convinced by this argument, as it finds the Democrats had been in power too long and were so encumbered by weaklings that the party was not strong enough to cleanse itself.
It finally suggests a third course, whereby the South would vote Republican in 1952.
"Another Big Fish Gets Away" tells of the House Ways & Means subcommittee investigating the tax prosecution scandals having, in addition to the failure to call Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark to answer questions about why he approved the appointment of Lamar Caudle in the face of FBI allegations of his prior "indiscretions" while U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, also letting off the hook Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder, despite his responsibility over the IRB.
It recommends that the subcommittee's investigation examine the "free and easy approach" by both the Justice Department and the IRB to taking care of their friends, a system which had not developed until President Truman came to office in 1945, and also begin looking more closely at high Government officials and Democratic Party leaders who manipulated the key agencies to suit their own purposes. It posits that if the investigation was limited to the understrappers, as Mr. Caudle and Charles Oliphant, former chief counsel of the IRB, it would fail in its main objective.
"Europe Moves While U.S. Talks" tells of history having been made during the week when France's National Assembly voted overwhelmingly to adhere to the Schuman Plan for establishing a supranational authority which would administer the four billion dollar per year coal and steel industries of France, Italy, West Germany and the Benelux countries. This new body, as distinguished from the U.N. and NATO, both of which were subject to the veto, would have the power of forceful action through its nine-person executive committee controlled by an international parliament, with legal questions decided by a special court. The Netherlands had already ratified the Plan and West Germany was soon to follow in January, with the other three countries expected to approve it rapidly, following the lead of the French approval.
In Strasbourg, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, author of the Plan, was in the process of working out an agreement between the same six countries to form a European army, also subject to a parliamentary body. Agriculture, transportation and other pools would later be organized as well under this common parliament, the Council of Europe Assembly, which would have full powers within the specified categories.
The problem, however, was that within NATO, there was individual veto power on the NATO Council, resulting in essentially twelve different bosses for the twelve different nations comprising the organization. While this new body would combine six of those nations into one voice, that still left seven different voices to which General Eisenhower had to answer before taking action. While the President, the Secretary of State and Congress recommended Atlantic unity, they became vague and counseled caution when the matter came down to actual cases. Senator Taft, for instance, favored an international organization within NATO "based on law and justice without veto", necessarily entailing that each nation surrender a portion of its sovereignty to an international body in the fields of foreign policy and defense, to which Senator Taft was firmly opposed. As a result, NATO continued to flounder with its multitude of committees and advisory boards.
Drew Pearson describes in detail the meeting in Key West recently between the President and the Joint Chiefs, in which was discussed the likely prospect of a ceasefire in Korea within about twenty days, provided, according to General Omar Bradley, concessions were made by both sides. Air Force chief of staff General Hoyt Vandenberg indicated his particular insistence against allowing the Communists the right to build airfields during an armistice. Army chief of staff General J. Lawton Collins opposed giving into the Communists on freezing troop rotation, but agreed that minor concessions should be made on other points. The President injected that no concession should be made which the country would later regret. The least talkative of the Joint Chiefs was chief of Naval operations, Admiral William Fechteler, who only said that the Navy would be prepared to carry out "any mission, any time, any place".
Also discussed was the issue of withdrawal of U.N. troops during an armistice, a matter which Mr. Pearson deems too sensitive at present for public revelation.
He next proceeds to list several replacements proposed by friends of the President for members of the Administration, following a thorough housecleaning as promised by the President.
Stewart Alsop, in London, finds, upon his return from his journey through Egypt, Israel, Syria, Iraq and Iran, that the Middle East was likely to go the way of China in the near future. He tells of the parallel being inexact, as there was no Mao Tse-Tung in the Middle East and no native Communist armies. But there were similarities in that Britain and the U.S. had adopted a hands-off attitude in the face of vague uneasiness over the situation, plus the existence of the same increasing break between American and British policy, as well as the same resistance to change in the Middle East, the same corruption, the same irresponsibility and the same death-wish within the ruling classes, as well as the same fierce hatred of the West.
Just as China had suddenly become Communist in 1949 when the Communist forces crossed the Yangtze River, so might the Middle East also suddenly become Communist, as if Iran went, soon would follow Iraq and Egypt. It was difficult to understand how to prevent occurrence of this potentiality, a subject which Mr. Alsop says he intended to cover in a subsequent column.
It was necessary, he concludes, to begin taking the Middle East seriously and to take its policy responsibility out of the hands of well-intentioned amateurs and place it instead in the charge of the best brains in the U.S. If that were not done soon, the Middle East would be lost to the Communists.
Robert C. Ruark discusses the retirement from baseball of Joe DiMaggio and praises him for stepping aside voluntarily when his abilities were still intact rather than waiting until he was over the hill and forced out. He also praises him for his low-key personality on the field and outside the sport, without the excesses of Babe Ruth and Walter Hagen. He rates him the outstanding example as an athlete and gentleman which the country had produced, with the possible exception of champion golfer Bobby Jones.
"The closest thing I ever saw
to a demonstration out of DiMaggio was a sly wink he slipped some of
us when he hit a triple and slid into third
Tarleton Collier, writing in the New Leader, tells of black candidates making great strides for the first time in the South, as, for example, Kermit Parker being a candidate for the Democratic nomination as governor of Louisiana and five blacks in New Orleans seeking the nomination to the Legislature. Until the 1944 Texas case of Smith v. Allwright, in which the Supreme Court held that the primary was a part of the political process, subject to Equal Protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, and therefore could not be declared segregated by the party sponsoring the primary, as if a private club, denial of black voting rights had been the rule in several Southern states, and was tried without success in South Carolina in the wake of Allwright, where all of the statutes were purged of mention of the primaries, seeking to privatize the election process, also found by the Federal courts to be violative of the Fourteenth Amendment.
There were five million eligible black voters within the eleven Southern states comprising the old Confederacy, comprising nearly 40 percent of the potential electorate in South Carolina and 50 percent in Mississippi. Once the potential for that strength was realized, it could be put into effect to oppose tradition and reaction in Southern politics.
Governor James Byrnes of South Carolina had declared that the white public schools of that state would never be integrated, whereas in North Carolina, UNC was becoming integrated and blacks were running for public office and occasionally winning, as there were black members of the city councils in Fayetteville, Greensboro and Winston-Salem. In Tennessee, two blacks were on the Nashville City Council. In sixteen Southern cities, there were 417 black policemen, 468 blacks in managerial-professional positions, and more than 110 job classifications above the unskilled level occupied by blacks.
Black leaders believed that the time had passed when violence preceded election days and that large registration and representative voting would put an end to that prospect entirely, as tolerance would come with political strength.
Southern blacks were more conservative than blacks elsewhere, the leaders more realistic, wanting to consolidate their gains for practical purposes, and so remained Democrats, as the Democratic Party, as a practical matter, was the only medium through which candidates for state and local office could be realistically elected. Southern black candidates, therefore, tended to try to prove to the people that they were better Democrats than those who had rejected them for so long.
It was believed that between two and three million black voters would register in the South for the 1952 primaries, constituting a viable threat to the old machines and therefore requiring them to ameliorate their old attitudes. It was likely that there was, as a result, a smaller prospect for a Dixiecrat-type revolt in 1952. Segregationists as Governor Byrnes, Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia, or Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia would obtain few of the new black voters' ballot marks in any such third-party presidential bid.
Mr. Collier concludes that until definite party realignment took place, the entrance of black voters to active participation in Southern politics was almost bound to provide more solid substance to the Democratic Party in the South.
Framed Edition
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