The Charlotte News
Tuesday, December 18, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via O. H. P. King, that the Communists in Korea had provided to the U.S. this date a list of 11,559 allied prisoners of war, including 3,198 Americans, indicating that the list included all prisoners in their custody. The U.N. gave the Communists a list of 132,474 Chinese and North Korean prisoners. The prisoner subcommittee of the negotiation teams recessed until Thursday to study the lists. A U.N. spokesman said that the Communist list probably included errors, omissions and possibly fictitious additions and was questionable because of the refusal of the Communists to allow Red Cross inspection of the prisoners and facilities. The spokesman said that the exchange of lists had not resolved the prisoner of war issue completely, but was a start in the right direction. Previous allied estimates had pegged the number of allied prisoners at 100,000 or more, but a spokesman at Tokyo headquarters indicated that it was probable that many of those listed as missing actually had died in battle and so the discrepancy might be valid.
The appearance on the list of Maj.-General William Dean, believed to have been killed in combat since he had gone missing at Taejon in July, 1950 at the start of the war, had produced elation among his friends and family, who regarded this story as being almost too good to be true. His wife said that she was afraid to let herself get too excited. His son, a cadet at West Point, said the news was a wonderful Christmas present and received congratulations from his fellow cadets. The General had received the first Medal of Honor awarded in the Korean War for his heroism at Taejon, where he remained with his bazooka teams until the town had fallen before enemy tanks at midnight on July 20, 1950. He had then led his little group of soldiers into the mountains and then departed for the river to hunt for stragglers, the last anyone had seen of him. His helmet had subsequently been found with two bullet holes in it, leading to the speculation that he had been killed. But reports from other former prisoners had surfaced in the meantime that he was still alive as a prisoner of war.
In the air war, American Sabre jets encountered more than 200 enemy jets over northwest Korea this date, but the enemy refused to engage. Two Marine planes had been shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire but both pilots had been rescued. Fifth Air Force planes flew 661 sorties this date, including twenty flights in support of ground troops, where front lines were generally quiet.
The Government this date called a
meeting of the Steelworkers Union and ten big steel companies for
Thursday in Washington, in an effort to prevent a strike threatened
for December 31, when the current contract expired. The union was
seeking a 15-cents per hour pay increase and other concessions.
Negotiations transpiring in Pittsburgh had made little apparent
progress. Union president Philip Murray said the previous night that
the strike would be unavoidable
A Washington grand jury began its inquiry into the story of the Chicago attorney who had testified before the House Ways & Means subcommittee regarding a claimed "shakedown" by two men who allegedly claimed that for $500,000 they could offer him "protection" from "tax problems" through their "connections" in Washington. The two men whom he identified as participating in the shakedown had denied the statement, prompting a referral to the Justice Department by the chairman of the subcommittee, Congressman Cecil King of California.
Meanwhile, the subcommittee arranged to question Henry Grunewald on the following Thursday regarding his alleged influence peddling, as reported by Drew Pearson the prior week.
Fresh snow and cold hit the Northern states this date, as deaths attributed to the severe weather rose to 152. Three inches of snow fell in Cleveland on top of the nine inches which was already present, and five more inches fell in western Maryland. In Watertown, N.Y., six new inches was forecast to add to the 37 inches which had fallen the previous day.
In Golconda, Ill., about $300,000 worth of new automobiles, 150 Plymouths, slid from the icy decks of a river barge early this date during a windstorm and sank in 35 feet of water in the Ohio River.
Don't you worry if you had one of those old jellybeans on pre-order, now consigned to Davy Jones's Locker. Don't try to hoist her up and dry her out, or you could be in for a shocker
In Moscow, Soviet Sport magazine contended that British soccer players were as vassals and slaves bound to their masters, blaming the former Labor Government for the condition. It said that families of several players who had refused to sign contracts were now homeless and that the remainder of the professional soccer players were "miserably paid".
In Memphis
A photograph is shown of two American corporals, one from Illinois and the other from Indiana, purchasing Confederate flags at a flag shop in Seoul, where the flags were displayed with U.S., South Korean and U.N. emblems.
On page 6-A, a new serialized novel
by Rob Eden, titled Take-a-Chance Girl, begins this date, and
you will not wish to miss a single scintillating chapter as it
proceeds daily to climax and dénouement
On the editorial page, "Runway Must—and Can—Be Extended" tells of the County Commissioners again voting against the proposed runway extension at the Municipal airport, despite representatives of the North Carolina National Guard being present to explain the national defense necessity for having the extension, to enable Air National Guard training with jets. The piece outlines the arguments put forward for the runway extension and clarifies that it would require no destruction of homes in the process. It would aid the area financially and protect residents of the surrounding community from potential danger from modern airliners landing on runways which were not suitable to accommodate them.
It hopes that the City could intervene to allow rerouting of a road which was problematic for the Commissioners, and so allow yet another vote on the matter. Otherwise, it suggests, it would be necessary at the next election to put in three new Commissioners to replace the three who had voted against the extension.
"Good News If True" finds that the decision of the Communists to turn over a list of 11,559 U.N. prisoners, including 3,198 Americans, would be good news if it turned out to be true. A U.N. command official, however, had emphasized that the list was prepared by the Communists and any such information had to be treated with some skepticism because of their continued refusal to allow Red Cross committees to inspect the prisoners and the camps.
Maj.-General William Dean, believed dead since he turned up missing in July, 1950 during the first month of the war, was on the list, providing unexpected joy to his family and friends. The fact that there were so many Americans listed also gave hope, as recently a report from U.N. headquarters had suggested that 5,500 American prisoners had been murdered by the Communists, prompting grave concern that all of the U.N. prisoners had been killed. There remained, however, great disparity between the 12,000 Americans officially listed as missing in action and the 3,200 on the list.
It concludes that the release of the list was one of the most hopeful developments during the truce negotiations thus far, as previously the Communists had refused to name the prisoners they held. The list removed one more obstacle in the way of a final armistice.
"Joe Johnston—Friend of Youth" laments the death of Dr. Joseph Johnston, who for 27 years had been superintendent of the Presbyterian Orphans Home at Barium Springs, N.C. He had liked young people and knew how to get along with them. With the boys, he imparted understanding of football, which many of the boys had taken to Davidson College to become football stars. He had also served as a trustee for Davidson for nine years. He served his church well as a deacon and an elder and had been elected moderator of the Synod of North Carolina in 1947. Since his retirement from the superintendency of the orphanage in 1949, he had been director of personnel and public relations at Davis Hospital in Statesville, where he had died at age 70.
"Unpeddled Influence" tells of a woman from India who had made a trip to the U.S. with her husband, a businessman, and had told Margaret Parton of the New York Herald Tribune of the helpful assistance they had received from Americans in Washington, St. Louis and San Francisco, the latter including a new American friend who insisted on paying their hotel bill.
The piece suggests that not too long earlier it would have put this matter down to the hospitality of Americans and let it go at that, but having seen the many favors dispensed from casual acquaintances as a quid pro quo, it had to wonder whether the effort had been made to gain some sort of favor from the Indian visitors. Since it was Christmas, it indicates it was disinclined to pursue the matter, but if later reports surfaced of shenanigans in India, which had originated in Washington, St. Louis or San Francisco, it would have to inform the Congressional committee of the need for investigation. For the time being, however, it would assume that the related incidents regarded Americans just being nice to foreign visitors.
A piece from the Congressional Quarterly provides the annual round-up of the first session of the 82nd Congress, finding that both Democrats and Republicans had, to some extent, made good on their party platform plank promises. It provides the details in the form of a lengthy list of issues and their outcomes.
Among the notable failures was delivery on the promise made by both parties for civil rights legislation. Both parties had promised to fight Communism in the country and had passed a Subversive Activities Control Board law over the President's veto. Both parties voted for a 75-cent minimum wage law. Both agreed on virtually every Congressional vote on armaments. Both parties joined to support most of the President's Government reorganization plans. A law raising Social Security benefits and extending coverage was passed with bipartisan support. The parties joined in liberalizing the 1948 Republican-drafted displaced persons law. Following the outbreak of the Korean War in June, 1950, both parties voted for renewal of active draft inductions, which had lain dormant since early 1949, as well as the initial planning for universal military training. A limited program for public housing was also passed.
Drew Pearson tells of Congressman Frank Boykin of Mobile, Ala., operating an influence machine, explaining how it worked. He had a contract to sell his timber to an Alabama lumber company, and was able to pull wires to obtain a large loan for that lumber company from RFC, whereupon the company used two-thirds of the more than $450,000 in loan proceeds to pay an overdraft at the local bank, two of whose officials had since been indicted. Usually, it took months to get a loan through the RFC, but Congressman Boykin had been able to grease the wheels such that it went through just two weeks after he had entertained RFC officials and other bigwigs at an August, 1949 dinner. The regional director of RFC in Birmingham had opposed the loan but it went through anyway.
He relates of three more incidents regarding Mr. Boykin's ability to exert influence, including pestering Lamar Caudle to protect one of Mr. Boykin's friends from tax fraud prosecution. Mr. Pearson finds him a top example of how corruption could insidiously spread through government.
Joseph Alsop lays blame at the feet of the President for the corruption in his Administration, in that he had chosen "hopeless second-raters" as his understrappers, who in turn chose third and fourth-raters as their subordinates.
During his first administration, the President had consulted with his able personal adviser, Clark Clifford, regarding questions of domestic policy, leaving foreign and defense matters to the able men who had charge of those areas. But during the second administration, beginning in 1949, Louis Johnson had replaced James Forrestal as Secretary of Defense and the President's appointments secretary, Matt Connelly, began to be regularly consulted on policy matters. Mr. Alsop regards Mr. Connelly, military aide General Harry Vaughan and Donald Dawson as "second-raters". The regular consultation with Mr. Connelly and the interference in policy by such people as General Vaughan had been the deciding factors in motivating Mr. Clifford to resign.
Mr. Connelly, for instance, had triggered the President's reversal on the merger between Pan American Airways and American Overseas, winding up in approval of the merger. Mr. Connelly and other members of the White House clique of second-raters had persistently impeded the President's action regarding the RFC, the IRB, and former DNC chairman William Boyle's problems. They had encouraged the President to defend the indefensible and at the first signs of trouble, had blamed malice and injustice as the source. (Sound somewhat familiar in 2018?)
He suggests that Justice Tom Clark, who had been an oil lobbyist before the Texas Legislature prior to coming into the Justice Department during the Roosevelt Administration under the patronage of Senator Tom Connally, had been a "second-rater" who had ingratiated himself to Senator Truman and former DNC chairman Robert Hannegan, thus receiving the nod from President Truman in mid-1945 to become Attorney General. Through Mr. Clark, Lamar Caudle, the "third-rater" who had ingratiated himself to the second-rater, was then brought into the Justice Department as chief of the criminal division. Mr. Alsop finds that the real problem with Mr. Caudle was not that he was dishonest but rather that he was "hopelessly third rate". He had dispensed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of favors in return for a few thousand dollars worth of pleasure, flattery and luxury.
He suggests that one would have more respect for such men as Mr. Caudle if they were "big thieves on their own", whereas they were primarily recipients of petty favors who traded lunches, free air trips and the like for enormous benefits conveyed by the Federal Government. The people who became wealthy from this largess were the middlemen who did the favors and the businessmen who dealt with the middlemen.
Marquis Childs, in London, tells of the British, with the assistance of Marshall Plan aid, having been seeking to sell more goods for dollars in an effort to get the British financial picture in balance as much as possible, having enjoyed some success in that regard before the present inflation had caused a new economic crisis.
The Malayan peninsula had supplied rubber and tin revenue, without which the current crisis would have been even worse, and so if this source should suddenly be lost, the consequences would be dire. During 1951, the dollars earned in Malaya would likely approach a billion dollars. Yet, this source of British economic life blood rested on the old colonialism. The plantation and mine operators in Malaya had been engaged in ruthless, unceasing warfare against a relentless Communist enemy hiding in the jungles. Britain maintained 22,000 British troops in Malaya, but under such conditions, troops were of limited usefulness. Communist efforts had been centered on forcing rubber workers to strike by use of the same terrorism employed against those who refused to walk out. If the Communists undertook an all-out effort with the backing of the Communist Chinese, the British could not hold out in Malaya. The result, however, would likely mean the beginning of a third world war and thus the Communist planners might hesitate.
Moreover, there was also pressure from within on the native population, against the backdrop of colonial exploitation. Conditions were reported as being bad in the mines for native labor, particularly child labor, where safety was often ignored. Hundreds of native workers had been reported entombed with few means to effect their rescue.
Such were the hard facts of life
which the new Conservative Government in Britain had to face, and
whether the rest of the West was aware of it or not, all of the
nations had benefited from colonialism which was now outmoded
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