The Charlotte News
Monday, December 24, 1951
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via George A. McArthur, that the Communists had rejected General Matthew Ridgway's appeal to allow inspections by the Red Cross of the Communist prison camps, but they proposed to establish a post office in neutral Panmunjom so that prisoners of both sides could send and receive mail, a proposal immediately accepted by the allies. The Communists said that they deemed the inspection unnecessary in light of the humanitarian treatment being provided their prisoners.
There was slim chance remaining that the armistice could be concluded before the expiration of the provisional agreement on the ceasefire line, expiring on Thursday. Both the prisoner of war subcommittee and the subcommittee working on how to supervise a truce would meet on Christmas Day to try to formulate an agreement.
The battle front remained largely quiet, with allied troops repelling a series of minor Communist probing attacks. For the most part, soldiers attended religious services and put the finishing touches on preparations for Christmas celebrations. There was also little air action except for strikes against enemy railways and supply facilities.
Maj.-General William Dean, whose name had appeared on the prisoner of war list released the previous Tuesday despite the prior information that he had been killed in July, 1950 in action at Taejon, sent a hand-written letter to his wife in Berkeley, Calif., which was immediately put aboard a plane for Japan, from which it would be forwarded to Mrs. Dean. The letter had been delivered soon after a Communist correspondent reported of having interviewed General Dean at a prison camp near Pyongyang three days earlier.
U.S. officials, including the President, were shocked and puzzled this date by a virtual ransom demand from Communist Hungary for the four American fliers whose plane had been forced down during a flight from West Germany to Belgrade the prior November 19. A military court had convicted them in Budapest the previous day of violating the border with intention to aid spies and subversive elements, and fined each the equivalent of $30,000, the failure to pay to result in three months imprisonment, and confiscated the C-47 transport plane. Relatives of the fliers reacted with relief, as they had believed the sentences would be worse. The father of one of the men said that if the Government did not pay the fines, he would raise it himself. The U.S. legation in Budapest made no statement, but the charge d'affaires visited the deputy Foreign Minister of Hungary this date. The President, as he left for Missouri for Christmas, said that he had developed no plans yet for action on the matter.
In Pittsburgh, Philip Murray, president of the United Steelworkers Union, stated this date that the Union's top policymakers would meet on Thursday, but declined to indicate the purpose of the meeting. It was the only indication of Union response to the President's appeal to the Union and the steel industry to continue production of vitally needed steel past the strike deadline of midnight on December 31, when the current contract would expire. The steel industry had accepted the request. The President, meanwhile, had sent the case to the Wage Stabilization Board for recommended solution, and the Board promised early hearings, but could not complete its investigation by the strike deadline.
In West Frankfort, Ill., one miner had been rescued after being trapped for 56 hours in the nation's worst mine disaster in 23 years, claiming 119 lives. A mine disaster in 1928 had killed 195 miners in Mather, Pa., and a 1909 accident had killed 259 in Illinois. In 1947, 111 miners had been killed in a mine explosion at Centralia, Ill. Shortly after the rescue of the living miner, the mine superintendent stated that there were five bodies still in the mine, but that no others were alive. Six other miners had been alive as late as that morning and their bodies were still warm when rescuers reached them. An explosion had occurred the previous Friday night, thought to have originated from methane gas. Those who survived the blast had died of suffocation either from the gas or lack of oxygen. One rescued miner had died the previous night. One of the last six bodies recovered bore a note to the miner's wife, which read: "I love you all way. I go tonight with Christ. I love Him, too."
A series of pictures
In Tijuana, Mexico, a fire at a Christmas party for needy children had resulted in at least 41 deaths, with the death toll estimated to rise to 90 or more. The local district attorney said that he believed it was the highest death toll in a single fire in Mexico's history. Eighty-eight persons had escaped from the three-story building and were treated for burns at a local hospital. Thirty-three of the survivors, 19 of whom were children, were still in the hospital, and five or six were on the verge of death. It was estimated that about two-thirds of all of the victims had been children. The fire had spread quickly from a location near the Christmas tree. As pandemonium broke out, a lot of the victims had been trampled to death before they died of burns. The only fire escape had been locked and boarded up. Firemen had arrived on the scene, including some later from California, but there had been no pressure in the water mains. People had leaped from the concrete and wood building to the street and then crawled to safety.
In Cincinnati, O., eight persons were killed and nine injured, including two firemen, when a fire erupted in a tenement dwelling during the morning. Five of the dead were believed to be members of the same family. Two of the injured were in serious condition and another in critical condition. No cause of the fire is stated.
By early this date, the third day of the four-day Christmas weekend, 265 persons had been killed in traffic accidents, and another 97 in fires or miscellaneous accidents. The National Safety Council predicted that 600 would die during the 108 hours of the holiday period, beginning at 6 p.m. Friday and lasting until midnight Tuesday, the highest figure it had ever forecast for a holiday. The previous year, 545 had died from all accidents during the three-day Christmas period.
Christians all over the world celebrated Christmas Eve, and the President was scheduled to press a button from his home in Independence, Mo., to light the national Christmas tree, and then would broadcast his annual Christmas message. In Vatican City, Pope Pius XII made an impassioned plea for peace, in his 13th Christmas message since becoming Pope. In Korea and in Europe, even behind the Iron Curtain, praises were sung for the Lord. In the Holy Land, Moslem Jordan relaxed its barriers on the holy shrines of Christianity to allow pilgrims to visit Bethlehem and the Old City of Jerusalem, both of which were occupied by Jordan, enabling for the second straight year 2,500 Christians to cross from Israel to worship. The first of a series of Christmas services in the Holy Land had been held the previous day in Nazareth of Galilee, where Jesus had grown up. In Europe, American soldiers, sailors and airmen were playing host to more than a quarter million needy children at hundreds of holiday parties. The three Allied commandants in West Germany had donated a total of $47,600 for the purpose of providing shoes and clothing to impoverished children and their elders in West Berlin. General Eisenhower and his wife Mamie planned an "old-fashioned American Christmas at home", at NATO headquarters just outside Paris. All American forces overseas, including those on the front lines in Korea, would receive a hot turkey dinner. In Moscow, foreigners made their prayerful tribute to Christ and the city appeared festive in preparation for the celebration of the New Year. Foreign embassies in Moscow were holding parties for their children, and a Roman Catholic priest from Worcester, Mass., would conduct services on Christmas Eve.
In Pikesville, Md., the Thompson Trailer Corporation was sending out a letter to its friends, rather than the usual Christmas fruit basket, indicating that its lawyers had informed that no gifts could be provided to anyone associated with Government contracts, and so they could not receive the basket this year. "And the lawyers get more for telling us not to give you a basket than the basket would have cost." It expressed doubt that a little fruit ever influenced anyone and asserted that chances were that "Eve had something else besides an apple."
James Marlow produces his version of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", adapted to Government workers, concluding:
The toys for the children were under
the bed.
The new hat for his wife was out in
the shed.
He'd take it up late. It would be a
surprise.
And, besides, it would frustrate the
gossipy guys.
Ho, ho, ho...
No rest for the weary. The News would publish Christmas Day, for the second year in a row, because of the war.
Wait a minute. Even most of the soldiers, including the Commies, are taking this day and Christmas Day off from the war.
What gives? Where's our Christmas?
This is wrong. Third year in a row without a break, given that 1949
Christmas fell on Sunday. There needs to be a Congressional
investigation. Get that nice man, Senator Nouson, on it right away,
without delay
On the editorial page, "'Sugar Al'—Ellender Sounds Off" tells of Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana having recently returned from Europe with notebooks full of evidence of what he called "the damnedest scandals" in foreign aid spending, with some of the U.S. officials in Germany, he said, being "hard up" for finding ways to spend the money. The piece suggests that he was trying to tell his constituents the notion that these officials were living too high on the hog. He had also demanded that the U.S. put conditions on any further foreign aid grants and require Western European nations to earmark greater portions of their production to NATO, and that the whole program ought be investigated.
It suggests that there was need for investigation of foreign aid administration, as there were 200,000 U.S. Government employees in 96 countries, representing 40 different Federal agencies, whose activities were controlled by 30 Congressional committees. There was need for coordination of these efforts. An investigation to provide administrative efficiency could also ferret out any scandalous activity.
But it finds Senator Ellender being hypocritical, in that the previous July 23, the Senate had unanimously passed and sent to the House a bill which would create a commission, similar to the Hoover Commission on efficiency in government, to undertake a comprehensive study of the overseas administration. But the following day, Senator Ellender put forward a motion to ask that the House return the bill to the Senate, effectively killing it. If he really wanted to economize in overseas operations, he would have wanted the investigation proposed the previous summer to have proceeded. It concludes that he was more interested in making headlines than in actually ensuring that economy took place.
It adds that a broad investigative program might prove embarrassing to Senator Ellender, as it might probe into his activities in the Caribbean, where he and his fellow members of the Congressional sugar-bloc had been active.
"Censorship—But Not for Communists" tells of the President, at his most recent press conference, having imparted off the record to reporters some information regarding the Korean truce negotiations, which he permitted to be sent over the wires to editors, provided it was not published. But, the piece points out, reporters from Tass, the official Russian news agency, and the Daily Worker were at the conference, and so undoubtedly communicated the information to their bosses.
It finds the fact therefore ironic that the President had kept from the public information which would be imparted to the Communists. It concludes that it was difficult to find confidence in the President's leadership when he committed such blunders. It would be acceptable if he admitted the problem and simply stated that the information should not have been classified in the first instance, as this particular information, it indicates, probably should not have. But it was likely by the track record that nothing would result other than either bureaucratic silence or "another tirade against the press".
"Broadcasters Dilemma in '52" finds that in the coming election year, television would have a large role, as previewed by the Kefauver Crime Committee hearings of the previous spring, which were followed by Rudolph Halley, chief counsel for the committee, being elected to the chairmanship of the New York City Council, thought to have been the result of his favorable exposure in the widely telecast hearings.
It suspects that candidates were therefore secretly improving their stage presence by consulting dietitians and perhaps even visiting wigmakers.
The broadcasters, however, faced an unpleasant dilemma because of the Fairness Doctrine, which required them to furnish equal time on the airwaves, that if they allowed use of their facilities by one candidate, they had to provide time for the opposition as well. The FCC Act provided that "licensees shall have no power of censorship over the material broadcast…" The FCC had responded that it had no authority other than to enforce the Act.
Some states had enacted legislation to safeguard the stations from defamation actions resulting from political broadcasts, but, it opines, unless Congress clarified the law and protected the stations, many broadcasters might decide simply to deny access to any candidate, to prevent having to provide equal time. The latter course would not be conducive to informing the public before they cast their ballots and so it urges Congress to pass the necessary legislation during the coming session.
We bet that nice, young Senator Noxson will make good use of the new medium, as he needs no diet or wig to impress the folks at home, being very spun
A piece from the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat, titled "Departed Prestige", tells of
shoe manufacturers insisting that footwear was of much higher quality
than in earlier times, when every pair of new shoes squeaked. New
shoes had not been easy to obtain in those earlier years, costing
$2.50 a pair, a price which was prohibitive for many, and so the
squeak of the new shoes was considered by every youngster to be a
status symbol with his playmates. Double squeaks
"Childhood will be less joyful because of it."
A horrible pun follows in a squib: "As the witches in MacBeth almost said, 'Double, double toil and trouble. Firing burns and Caudle bubbles'."
Merry Christmas to you, too, amigo
Drew Pearson tells of General Eisenhower having given Prime Minister Churchill some blunt talk at their recent luncheon in Paris, stating that while he had always been a friend to Britain, he believed it was not supporting the plan for European unity and that unless British unity were assured, he had concern that European unity would be wrecked during the coming winter. He urged that Britain needed to support a European Union, lest the Scandinavian countries, Belgium and the Netherlands would refuse to join, that the French, Italians, Dutch and Belgians were fearful that Germany would otherwise dominate Western Europe, posing too much of a risk for them to take. Mr. Churchill had responded that England did not consider itself part of the European Continent and that its commitments were to the British Commonwealth, had therefore never intended to join the European army, a fact which the U.S. understood. He also stated that England was doing its fair share and more for European defense, more than any other European country based on its per capita output of munitions and troops. Only if the U.S. would join the European army would England also join. He did promise that England would provide planes for the army in addition to training pilots, but refused to commit to the Schuman Plan for pooling of European iron ore and coal.
He next summarizes the threatened steel strike by the United Steelworkers, set to occur at the end of the year at the time of the expiration of the extant contract. Steel profits had risen by 240 percent since the end of the war and dividends paid to stockholders had also substantially increased, U.S. Steel's dividends having gone up by 166 percent since the end of the war in Europe. Meanwhile, the cost of living had risen 44.3 percent in the same period, while the average weekly wage of the steelworker had risen 46.4 percent over what he had received in 1945, working a 44-hour week, now reduced to a 40-hour week. Nevertheless, the Steelworkers were seeking an 18.5-cent hourly wage increase plus other benefits.
Attorney General J. Howard McGrath had not wanted to accept the position originally when appointed to replace Tom Clark, when the latter was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1949, but acceded to the pleas of the President. Mr. McGrath had been a first-rate Senator from Rhode Island and liked his job. But since he was head of the DNC also and the President wanted his old friend, William Boyle, to take over for him in that capacity, the President had insisted on the appointments. The President had offered a seat on the Supreme Court to Mr. McGrath when, as anticipated, Justice Stanley Reed, who was then ill, would retire in about three months. The latter contingency, however, had not taken place as Justice Reed had recovered. In the meantime, the appointment of Mr. Boyle as DNC chairman had backfired and forced the president to push him out after evidence arose of prior influence peddling.
After the President had fired Lamar Caudle as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the tax division, the President stated that he had been aware for some time of problems with Mr. Caudle and that he had planned to fire him. But, in actuality, Mr. Caudle had been one of the few who had stuck his neck out for the President in North Carolina in 1948, when almost everyone had dismissed the President as a lost cause for winning re-election. Mr. Caudle had campaigned all over the state for the President and thus had won his gratitude. Mr. McGrath had planned to ease Mr. Caudle out of the Justice Department so that he could appoint his own men, but the President had interceded, letting it be known that Mr. Caudle was a friend. And later, Mr. McGrath came to like Mr. Caudle and so defended him even after the President reversed his opinion.
Joseph Alsop indicates that when Prime Minister Churchill visited the United States in January, he would have to pull some sort of rabbit out of his hat, at least according to the general trend of thought in the inner Conservative Party circles in London. During the previous four months, the British economy was hemorrhaging gold and dollar reserves under the weight of the rearmament program, the outflow likely to top a billion dollars.
To correct this problem would require additional American aid, which the British were loath to seek, as the cutting from that tether at the end of the previous year had been widely celebrated in Britain among the people, and, after their pride had been restored, the news of its renewal would be quite unpopular. Britain would need to be given priority on dollar purchase of about one percent of the total American steel production. About 500 million dollars would also need to be provided in aid out of that already appropriated by Congress. The British would need to tighten their belts again, already begun under new Chancellor of the Exchequer R. A. Butler, who had cut imports by a billion dollars, similar to the program undertaken before him by Sir Stafford Cripps. In combination, these remedies, which had been undertaken previously since the war, might enable Britain barely to avoid a crisis.
But it would not prevent the continued erosion of British power in the Middle East, which had produced a crisis with which the U.S. had been unable thus far to deal effectively, or remedy the continuing split between American and British policy on many issues, or the sharp reduction in the British rearmament program. And unless these problems were resolved at their source, they would become progressively worse. The available evidence suggested that left-wing British leader Aneurin Bevan was succeeding in his hope that economic pressures in Britain would, sooner or later, destroy the Conservative interest in Britain by forcing a sharp decline in living standards, and that Britain would then swing far to the left and elect a new anti-American government. If that were to happen, the resistance to Soviet expansion which had been painstakingly built up thus far, would begin to crumble.
Mr. Alsop, during his trips to Britain in 1951 had heard a number of responsible British and American officials speaking of the necessity for an entirely new approach to the whole Anglo-American relationship, including some talk favoring a political and economic union between Britain, the Commonwealth countries, and the U.S.
Robert C. Ruark eschews the popularity of health foods across the country, which favored blackstrap molasses, yogurt, wheat germ and brewers yeast, all of which he found unnecessary. He had been raised on sorghum molasses and believed blackstrap was a poor man's substitute, and a piece in Woman's Home Companion had even stated that in Britain, blackstrap was considered unfit for human consumption by order of the Ministry of Food. Also, yogurt, which he regards as tasting as "pure chalk and water", had no more calories, calcium and vitamins than ordinary milk, while costing a lot more. Wheat germ contained about the same amount of vitamins as an ordinary balanced diet, and modern enriched white bread contained all the muscle of whole wheat while tasting a lot better. He thinks none of these health foods would make a person better looking, feel better or live longer.
Nor had he and his family gone
overboard for vitamins, as ordinary food supplied all the vitamins
necessary to a good diet. Dr. Elmer Nelson of the Food and Drug
Administration had advised following a proper diet and letting one's
physician worry about vitamins
He concludes that he swore by the asafoetida-sack which he wore around his neck as a panacea for everything, as it smelled so bad that no one would get within an arm's length of its bearer, preventing the spread of germs and viruses.
A letter writer from Rockingham
inveighs against modern trends being foisted on the youth of the
country, citing as example the replacement of the simple story,
"'Twas the Night Before Christmas", with "Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer", which he believes suggested that Santa and
his reindeer had become lost in the fog
"You self-styled modern folk may go ahead with the damage you've already done. You may substitute Mother Goose for the gobs of red paint that clutter up the newsstands today if you must. You may forget that 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and ignore the lesson Mary's teacher drew from that little creature's devotion if that's your style of thinking... but for God's sake leave alone our Santa Claus and his 'tiny eight reindeer.'"
He concludes: "Merry Christmas
We thought it was "a good
night
A letter from Lt. General John Hodge at Fort McPherson, Ga., thanks the newspaper for its cooperation in the activities of the Third Army, and wishes it and the community a successful New Year, hopes that the free press would aid and inform people in the establishment of an era of "Peace on Earth".
A letter writer thanks the newspaper for its cooperation in the Memorial Hospital campaign with its editorial and news coverage, and generally congratulates the "outstanding job" which the newspaper was doing.
Framed Edition
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