The Charlotte News
Friday, December 21, 1951
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that the allies had demanded this date that the Communists account for more than 1,000 American and other missing U.N. prisoners of war and "an unbelievable number" of South Koreans missing from the Communist list of prisoners. The allies agreed to give up all islands of the North Korean coast to try to hasten the armistice negotiations. The Communists had agreed to unlimited rotation of troops and had indicated a change of mind regarding the allied demand that there be no airfield construction during the armistice. Meanwhile, U.N. supreme commander General Matthew Ridgway appealed to the Communists to open the prison camps to Red Cross inspections.
The truce subcommittee would meet the following day for the first time since Tuesday, presumably to discuss the list of prisoners which had been released on Tuesday, the postponement having been requested by the allies to review the list.
In the air war, allied fighter planes attacked cuts in the Communist rail lines this date in northwest Korea, while the Fifth Air Force hit cuts south of the big rail centers at Sinanju and Kunu. U.S. Sabre jets also took to the air but encountered no enemy planes.
The ground war remained fairly quiet, with only two small fights in the early morning hours near the "Punch Bowl" on the eastern front, with the enemy repulsed both times.
In Paris, the U.N. political committee rejected, by a vote of 39 to 5, with 11 abstentions, the Soviet contention that the U.S. was supporting anti-Soviet spies on Soviet soil. Several of the pro-American delegations had already departed for the Christmas holidays or the vote against the resolution would have been even more lopsided.
The General Assembly voted to reduce the U.S. share of U.N. costs from 38.92 percent to 36.90 percent, but turned down a U.S. appeal for a reduction to one-third of the total. U.S. delegate, Congressman John Vorys of Ohio, had argued for the reduction on the basis of a 1948 assembly resolution endorsing the principle that no nation would be responsible for more than one-third of the organization's expenses. The Assembly approved a budget for 1952 of 48.1 million dollars, of which the U.S. would be responsible for 17.7 million, rather than the 16 million sought. Russia's share in the expenses was increased from 8.14 percent to 11.49 percent, despite a Soviet protest that it was difficult for Russia to obtain dollars because of "artificial hindrances" by U.S. authorities to Soviet trade with the U.S.
The U.S. and other Atlantic allies opened the way for Italy to rearm itself on a large scale by waiving the World War II peace treaty limitations on Italian armed services, despite expected opposition from the Soviets. The formal note from Secretary of State Acheson stated that the 1947 peace treaty's preamble, treating Italy as a defeated enemy, was no longer operable and that Italy was released from the treaty's limitations. Eight nations which had been signatories to the treaty, including the U.S., had agreed to Italy's appeal for the changes. The change left it up to Italy to determine the size of the military forces it would have.
The negotiations between the United Steelworkers Union and ten steel companies collapsed this date, with the dispute referred to the President as a complete deadlock by Federal mediator Cyrus Ching. He said that he no longer intended to participate in an effort to mediate the matter as both sides were sticking steadfastly to their positions, with the Steelworkers demanding an average 18.5 cents per hour pay increase, while the industry claimed that the workers were already well-paid and that any wage increase would result in higher steel prices, triggering an inflationary spiral. That left matters up to the President as to the next step for trying to avert a strike, which would otherwise begin January 1 after the expiration of the existing contract. The President could invoke Taft-Hartley, and seek an 80-day injunction prohibiting a walkout, but that could prevent settlement of the steel dispute until March, with the possibility looming that John L. Lewis would then threaten a nationwide coal strike. The President could also refer the matter to the Wage Stabilization Board for a recommended settlement, but it was unlikely the Board would be able to complete its evaluation prior to January 1. Steelworkers president Philip Murray had stated prior to the collapse of the negotiations that he considered a strike inevitable.
John Service, who had been ousted by the State Department on the basis of a Loyalty Review Board ruling that there was "reasonable doubt" as to his loyalty, asked for reconsideration of the ruling by the Board, "as an act of simple justice". The Board's decision had reversed a State Department loyalty board which had cleared Mr. Service, and he contended that the Review Board was limited to review of cases involving employees recommended for dismissal.
Henry Grunewald refused to testify this date before the House Ways & Means subcommittee investigating the tax scandals, after he had initially refused through his attorney to testify in executive hearing, whereupon the subcommittee agreed to grant him a public hearing, at which point he incurred the wrath of subcommittee members by refusing then to testify at all, with members threatening to throw his attorney out of the committee room when he initially insisted on reading a statement which he had prepared, eventually read by Mr. Grunewald. The witness stated that he was acting on advice of counsel not to answer any questions. The subcommittee had wanted him to testify regarding the alleged $500,000 "shakedown" of the Chicago attorney, a former attorney for Al Capone, who had contended before the subcommittee that two men, Frank Nathan and Bert Naster, had sought the money from him for "protection" from "tax problems" through their Washington "connections". The Chicago attorney had stated that a third man had called him and advised him in a guttural German accent that he had better "play along" with Messrs. Nathan and Naster.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the cost of living index had risen another .6 percent to a new peak the previous month. As a result, approximately 1.25 million railroad workers would obtain a pay increase of four cents per hour under their elevator clauses—as long as the elevator would not start falling under the weight of Santa's sleigh and all of his reindeer. The increase caused the index to reach 188.6 percent of the 1935-39 base level, the increase primarily based on increases for miscellaneous goods and services and prices of fresh fruits and vegetables. The November 15 index was 10.8 percent higher than that of June, 1950, prior to the outbreak of the Korean War, and 6.9 percent higher than in November, 1950.
In Newhall, California, a DC-6 airliner had apparently crashed on Frazier Mountain in the Tehachapi Range, but there were no immediate reports on casualties, and the eyewitness accounts were believed possibly to regard an Air Force plane which had crashed in the area.
A Hong Kong newspaper attributed to "well-informed sources" a report that the Communist Chinese planned a full-scale invasion of French Indo-China before the end of June, 1952.
In Nashville, Tenn., Mortimer Trull, 37, managing editor of the Nashville Banner, died early this date in a fire which destroyed his home. He had been with the Banner since 1938 except during his service in the Naval Reserve during World War II.
As discussed below in an editorial, the millionth traffic death on the country's highways since the count began September 13, 1899, was set to be recorded probably, according to the National Safety Council, within the ensuing 24 hours. As so many accidents occurred in a given day, the precise identity of the millionth victim would not be ascertainable. Traffic deaths for 1951 exceeded 36,000, an increase over the 35,000 of 1950, though less than the record 39,969 established in 1941.
The traffic toll in North Carolina for 1951 had reached 994, compared to 989 in 1950. The story lists the latest victims on North Carolina highways.
On the editorial page, "It Tolls for Thee" tells of the one-millionth traffic death likely to occur in the ensuing 24 hours, as the toll had reached 999,823 early this date.
It quotes from John Donne's
Devotions, that "No man is an island...",
regarding the necessity of drivers
"Undemocratic? Not by a Long Shot" tells of a letter to the editor in the column of this date regarding a prior editorial on the the proposed airport runway extension project and the second rejection of it by the City Council, the editorial having recommended that in the next election the three rejecting Councilmen be replaced should there be no further action on the matter in the meantime. The piece takes issue with the objection by the letter writer, that it was a "viciously undemocratic threat", finds instead election of public officials to be the hallmark of democracy, again reiterates its argument in favor of the runway project.
While on the subject of recent editorials, incidentally, "The Longines Chronoscope" aired this date an interview
We are sorry that we fumbled the ball momentarily on that one, at least coincident with the date of one of the editorials, and hope that you may find it in your heart at Christmastime to forgive
"Accentuating the Negative" finds City Councilman Basil Boyd to have cast an inordinate number of negative votes on key issues for the City's future, such as concerning establishment of the Redevelopment Commission, calling the program a system of "Federal handouts", while he also had insisted on enforcement of the contract with Southern Railway, whereby the Federal and State Governments would share in 50 percent of the cost of elimination of grade crossings in the city, while the City and the railroad split the other half. It wonders whether anything would get done in the city were there too many other members of the Council like Mr. Boyd.
A piece from the Baltimore Evening Sun, titled "Away with the 'Violet Petal'", opines that the Paris judges who selected the "Violet Petal" as the 1951 French cocktail champion ought be forced to drink it, a combination of equal proportions of gin and dry vermouth, crème de cacao, kirsch and violet petals. It finds that while the French may have gone a long way toward undermining the cocktail, Americans had also done their share by seeing how many variations could be established on the martini.
That could be a symphonic piece,
with solo vocalist Dean Martin, "Variations
Drew Pearson discusses Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder, finding that he had largely escaped scrutiny while the Attorney General, J. Howard McGrath, was receiving the brunt of the criticism regarding the tax scandals, despite the fact that Mr. Snyder was in charge of far more tax cases than the Attorney General. While Mr. Snyder was an honest man and thus was amazed at the level of dishonesty occurring around him, a part of honesty also included vigilance rather than complacency in the face of responsibility. Mr. Snyder had been tenacious about the necessity of paying higher taxes to support the defense program, but then had undermined his own program by failing to collect taxes on an honest basis. When people saw the lack of enforcement at the top, there was a tendency to evade taxes at the bottom.
Mr. Pearson suggests that Mr. Snyder's failure might be due in part to the fact that he drank too much, causing moments of embarrassment before the governors of the World Bank and at the French Embassy, as well as causing him to be away from work for periods at a time.
As a political conservative, he would be horrified at the suggestion that he had encouraged Communism, but that was what he had done by allowing an inequitable tax collection system to transpire, wiping out the middle-class which was the bulwark against Communism. In both France and Italy, where there were the greatest Communist populations outside Russia, the tax collection systems were unfair, unequal and dishonest, leaving the burden upon the working class to pay the taxes while the wealthy paid little.
While the workingman saw his taxes taken out of his income by his employer, he read of key tax officials receiving various favors from people whose failure to pay their proper share of taxes was then overlooked or resulted in little relative consequence. Such inequities could therefore cause Communism to spread among the American working class.
He suggests that Mr. Snyder could have become aware of these problems in his Department two years earlier by simply reading the newspapers, including Mr. Pearson's column, which included synopses of several cases of tax evasion. Approximately 1,400 tax cases had been stalled in the Justice Department and 1,200 in Treasury, while the IRB, under the control of Treasury, was going after the small taxpayers as the big ones were getting off the hook because they could afford to hire tax lawyers and purchase influence, enabling thousands of cases to be settled in that manner. Meanwhile, a teenager who swiped an automobile and took it across state lines was placed in prison because of an impulsive act, whereas the premeditated actions of the tax dodgers, able to pull wires and influence officials, went largely unpunished.
He promises to detail some of the inequities in both Treasury and the Justice Department in the next day's column.
Marquis Childs tells of there being divergence of opinion between the supporters of General Eisenhower for the Republican presidential nomination and his close friends, as well as with the General, himself. The General and his friends were of the opinion that the General should not return to the United States and abandon his command of NATO until the job of unifying the Western alliance was reasonably complete, and, furthermore, his friends believed that an early return, in January, as his most fervent supporters desired, would take away from the suspense and mystique of his candidacy, rendering him essentially like any other political candidate, subject to being questioned on his various views of policy matters.
But on the other side of the equation was the fact that the supporters of Senator Taft were increasingly well-organized in the South, the Southwest, and in the North, while the increasing news of scandal in the Truman Administration was further diminishing the popularity of the President, and therefore opening the way, almost by default, for a Taft victory, before General Eisenhower would ever get his candidacy off the ground.
Robert C. Ruark wonders at the ultimate legality of any form of taxation, but especially wonders at the concept of withholding taxes by an employer, especially while many people evaded their taxes because of friends in high places. He again reiterates his belief that the individual ought be entitled to a write-off for his effort at work, just as the oil men received an oil depletion allowance of 27.5 percent and investors in capital gains were taxed at only 26 percent.
He finally questions whether tax collectors should be able to tell a taxpayer what he could and could not deduct, concludes that they were not good enough to mold the individual citizen's life, and that he wanted more equality and consistency in the collection and enforcement of taxes.
A letter writer, chairman of the "Citizens Committee", as indicated in the above editorial, takes issue with the editorial, "Runway Must—and Can—Be Extended", from the previous Tuesday, finds especially offensive the idea of recommending defeat of the three Councilmen who had voted against it.
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