The Charlotte News
Saturday, December 29, 1951
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.N. negotiators in Korea, in an attempt to break the deadlock in the truce talks, had made their "most important concession" to date by abandoning their demand for aerial reconnaissance during a truce and by agreeing to negotiate the issue of troop rotation provided the Communists would agree to a new six-point compromise plan for policing the truce. The Communists agreed to divulge the fate of the 50,000 South Korean prisoners of war for whom no accounting had thus far been made. The Communists indicated that most of those prisoners had been released at the front. In return, the allies would provide the Communists further data on the list of Communist prisoners which they had exchanged on December 18.
The negotiators had agreed in principle on three points of the six-point compromise proposed this date, including that all fighting would stop within 24 hours after the signing of an armistice and that withdrawal of troops from the demilitarized zone and withdrawal from islands of North Korea would take place within three days. The other three points, not yet agreed on, were that: neither side would reinforce ground or air forces during the armistice, that troops would be rotated within the limits agreed upon by both sides, and that neither side would be allowed to build or rehabilitate airfields in Korea, though they would be able to improve a limited number of bases for civilian use; that each side would provide an equal number of representatives for a military armistice commission responsible for supervision and inspection of the armistice; and that neutral nations acceptable to both sides, which had not participated in the war, would be invited to name members of that commission.
There was no report of any major ground action on Saturday morning, but the Fifth Air Force had flown 237 sorties by noon, hitting enemy supply depots. There was no contact between allied and enemy jets, although 30 MIGs had been spotted.
The U.S. Eighth Army briefing officer reported that the Communists had suffered 1,515,688 casualties during the Korean War. Of those, 823,331 were Communist Chinese, the remainder North Korean. Of the total, 216,721 battle casualties had been suffered since the truce talks had begun the previous July 10. During the prior month since the ceasefire buffer zone had been provisionally established, the Communists had suffered 10,197 casualties. At present, there was no noticeable buildup of Communist forces for a new offensive.
As shown in a photograph, the Detroit Army Arsenal had developed a barrel for the standard issue M-3 "grease gun", which would enable it to shoot around corners, firing a standard .45-caliber bullet at the rate of 450 rounds per minute.
In Erding, Germany, the four American airmen who had been released from Hungary after the Government paid their collective $120,000 fine, following their imprisonment and conviction for aiding spies, were debriefed by U.S. intelligence officers this date and provided a full account of their 40 days in captivity. A scheduled news conference was delayed until the State Department official, Samuel Klaus, could arrive from Frankfurt.
In response to the incident, Secretary of State Acheson had announced the previous day that the U.S. was banning American travel to Hungary and ordering immediate closure of Hungarian consulates in the U.S. Some members of Congress, such as Senators Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa and Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, favored complete cessation of diplomatic relations. Secretary Acheson warned that should other such occurrences take place in the future, more drastic measures would follow.
In Cairo, British and Egyptian commanders agreed on a six-mile wide no-man's land between their respective troops along the Cairo-Suez road, to prevent clashes between the two forces. The buffer zone was established after a British patrol approached to within a mile of an Egyptian outpost, causing the Egyptians to prepare for attack, prevented when the Egyptian commander contacted the British commander in the Suez, causing the patrol to withdraw.
UMW president John L. Lewis blamed mine management for the mine explosion which killed 119 men near West Frankfort, Ill., the previous week, indicating that the company had known 3 to 5 days in advance that the mine was not safe, that his investigators at the scene had found that squeezing the earth around the mine tunnels, caused by shifting of ground, had released great quantities of methane gas in the coal seams during that period before the explosion. He made the statement in the immediate wake of release of a preliminary report on the disaster by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, which had found "serious hazards" had existed in the mine during inspections the previous January and July, including cigarette butts, match stems and improperly shielded electrical equipment in areas where dangerous gas might accumulate. The report stated that the evidence gathered thus far showed that the explosion was caused by electrical equipment igniting methane gas, which in turn ignited clouds of coal dust. Cigarettes and matches had been found during rescue operations, suggesting that smoking might also have been a cause of ignition. Mr. Lewis said again that he blamed Congress for failing to pass adequate Federal mine safety regulations. The previous summer, two Federal inspectors had recommended that the company seal off abandoned shafts and stop using air from them to ventilate other parts of the mine.
Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois, a Democrat, called General Eisenhower "the overwhelming favorite of the great mass of the American people" for the presidency. He predicted that many Democrats would vote for him and said that if he were nominated as a Democrat, he would vote for him, though not if he ran as a Republican. He also said that he did not want to be the nominee of the Democratic Party and said he would not accept if nominated. He did not flatly state his opposition to another term for President Truman.
Westinghouse announced that it would sponsor television and radio coverage of the 1952 presidential campaign over CBS. It would mark the first time that both the Republican and Democratic conventions would be televised on a national scale. In 1948, the conventions had been televised on the limited number of television stations then in existence. Each convention would be allotted a minimum of 20 hours of coverage.
Hurricane winds whipped seas over sinking ships along Europe's Atlantic coast this date, setting off a series of distress calls from at least seven threatened vessels, including two American freighters. One ship was driven aground and others were taking on water rapidly. The Queen Mary docked at Southampton 72 hours late, and its captain stated it was the worst trip he had endured since 1914.
Near Rock Hill, S.C., three Charlotte residents had been killed during the morning in an automobile accident on Highway 21. The car in which the three were riding had been traveling at a high rate of speed and flipped several times, landing in a field, after missing a curve.
In New Orleans, a police officer delivered a seven-pound baby for another policeman's wife, following instructions from a doctor relayed by telephone. He and three other officers had responded to an emergency call and when they got there, the expectant mother indicated that her baby was about to be delivered, then fainted.
On the editorial page, "What, After All, Is a 'Handout'?" discusses the notion of the Federal appropriation for extension of the runway at the Charlotte Municipal Airport as a "handout", which, thus far, had been refused by the County Commissioners. The residents in the area surrounding the proposed extension had so termed the Federal appropriation, denouncing the concept of receiving of "Federal handouts".
The piece re-examines that notion and thinks it unsound to regard defense appropriations as "handouts", that typically such appropriations were not so regarded by patriotic citizens or newspapers. It refuses to place the opinions of the "armchair strategists" among the concerned residents above those of the experts at the Pentagon.
Furthermore, it finds that the time to make objection was before the money was appropriated, as the money would go to pay for such a runway, whether it was established in Charlotte or elsewhere. The argument against acceptance, therefore, appeared to be just a convenient rationalization to try to stop progress. Moreover, the re-routing of the road to make way for the runway, which the residents opposed, had originally been paved in 1930 and maintained since that time by the State, after the County refused responsibility, making it a State "handout".
Finally, the extension of the runway would aid the future of aviation generally in Charlotte, and the refusal presently to accept the extension, 80 percent of which would be paid by the Federal appropriation, would eventuate in it having to be funded by the City.
"1, 2, 3—and 4 to Go?" suggests that Harold Stassen was likely annoyed after his announcement the prior Thursday that he would run for the Republican nomination, as reporters only wanted to know what he thought about the candidacy of General Eisenhower, to whom he had paid a visit recently in Paris. Mr. Stassen knew that any comment on the General's plans would overshadow his own candidacy and so he remained mum. Moreover, it was highly unlikely that he had received any more information than the General had divulged to others. It was likely that Mr. Stassen had made the visit so that observers would assume that when he announced his own candidacy, it meant that General Eisenhower would not be a candidate. That assumption appeared to be erroneous, despite Mr. Stassen's apparent hope that if the General did not enter the race, his supporters would turn to Mr. Stassen.
Mr. Stassen had made a point of making himself attractive to all by his various stances, which, in combination, were too good to be true. He had said that he would take advice from General MacArthur regarding problems in the Western Pacific in devising military plans in that arena, and from General Eisenhower regarding problems in Western Europe. Furthermore, he said he would take advice from Bernard Baruch, former President Herbert Hoover, former FDR kingmaker Jim Farley, Senator Harry F. Byrd, and honored U.N. mediator Ralph Bunche.
It concludes that while Mr. Stassen had been a proven executive with a good record as an attorney, Governor of Minnesota, and as a Naval officer, he no longer seemed to be the knight in shining armor which to many he had at one time appeared. His recent charges before the Senate subcommittee considering the confirmation of Ambassador Philip Jessup as a member of the U.N. delegation had been debunked by questioning and the record, helping to knock a considerable amount of shine from his armor. He seemed to have serious problems in understanding the enormity of the responsibilities which attended being President in the present times.
It asserts that the current field of
Republicans, consisting of Senator Taft, Governor Earl Warren
"Drive Scared!" tells of the new slogan, forming the title of the piece, adopted by The North Carolina Motor Vehicle. The magazine had stated that it did not recommend putting the car in storage or quaking in fear to the point that the driver was hesitant or indecisive behind the wheel, as a scared driver could cause an accident by erratic behavior. Instead, it meant that the driver should be properly alert to the responsibility over life which driving a car entailed in modern traffic conditions. Such a healthy respect would prevent drivers from going too fast or passing on roads when there was too little margin for safety, driving after drinking, following other vehicles too closely, or engaging in other such hazardous forms of driving.
It suggests that the highway death toll during the recent Christmas holiday was enough to make anyone "drive scared", and the New Year holiday was just around the corner. The piece therefore likes the slogan and thinks every driver ought imbue it.
Drew Pearson again addresses the ability to escape tax fraud prosecutions by knowing the right people in the Administration. That practice had gone on for quite some time in both Republican and Democratic administrations, but the Truman Administration allowed it to occur with greater frequency than before.
Several years earlier, when present Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark had been Attorney General, he had been informed by the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles that Charlie Chaplin had a sealed income tax indictment pending since the Harding Administration, which had been kept secret and, for unknown reasons, had never been prosecuted. That U.S. Attorney later had left his position to become president of the Del Mar race track, owned by the president of 20th Century-Fox.
An FBI report on the bribe-taking of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Martin Manton had lain dormant in the Justice Department until the late Justice Frank Murphy had become Attorney General, took control of the case and sent Judge Manton to jail. Mr. Pearson suggests that the record of Mr. Murphy and that of his second successor Francis Biddle showed what a crusading Attorney General could do to clean up corruption in the Government. It had been almost impossible to fix a tax case during the Roosevelt Administration unless it was done right at the top, in the White House. No one, except FDR, could escape the vigilance of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau or Mr. Murphy. The opposite was true in the Truman Administration, where the President would never, himself, fix a tax case, but, nevertheless, tax cases were being fixed all the time by subordinates.
Some of the most important cases in
which FDR had taken a hand involved Boss Frank McHale, DNC
committeeman from Indiana, Brown and Root, Texas contractors who had
backed then-Congressman Lyndon Johnson
Stewart Alsop informs that his recent visit to Europe had shown that European leaders no longer believed, as they had a year earlier, that Soviet aggression in Europe might be imminent. The belief, as exemplified by Winston Churchill, was more grounded in feeling than hard fact. Yet, there was a demonstrable difference in the strength of the West at this juncture, compared to a year earlier, in that now it would take at least two months of preparation by the Soviets to launch an attack, whereas a year earlier they could have done so practically overnight and without any forewarning.
The result was a genuine shift in Soviet propaganda, which reflected respect for the newly strengthened Western defenses and was couched more in a defensive than aggressive mode.
The war in Korea had also had a great effect on the Soviets in diminishing the likelihood of a preventive attack designed to preempt Western rearmament. The Communist offensive in Korea had been a failure, making it less likely that the Communists would launch an offensive elsewhere.
This more optimistic Western belief accounted for the so-called "Ottawa revolt", whereby the Europeans, at the meeting at Ottawa, had resisted NATO plans for establishing an army of 100 divisions by the end of 1954, with the result that the Big Three representatives had agreed to meet further, with the tacit advance agreement that the plans would be scaled back.
The stronger the West became, the less likely a Soviet preventive attack would occur, but too much optimism, warns Mr. Alsop, could cause this deterrent to fail within a year or two at the point when the Soviets had built up a formidable atomic stockpile.
Robert C. Ruark tells of being haunted by front-page pictures of Communist correspondent Wilfred Burchett, who had assured that Maj. General William Dean was alive and well in a Communist prison camp, after the belief had been held by the allies since July, 1950 that he had been killed in action at Taejon.
Mr. Ruark had known Mr. Burchett during World War II, before he became a correspondent for a French Communist newspaper reporting on the war in Korea, with the imprimatur of the Communist forces. At that earlier time he had been an ordinary war correspondent reporting for the British. Mr. Ruark had shared a room with him from time to time in a hotel in Honolulu, together with Lyle Shoemaker of the United Press and Bud Foster of the radio. It appeared to Mr. Ruark, then acting as Navy censor of the press, that Mr. Burchett had performed his job well and that his pieces were not filled with any form of doctrine or caused any great disturbance among the guardians of security. Such had not been the case among some passionate American citizens who sought to sneak forbidden information past the censors. Mr. Burchett had been likable and Mr. Ruark hung around with him quite a bit in his native Australia after he switched to coverage of the British Pacific Fleet headquartered there.
At the time, Mr. Ruark had no inkling that Mr. Burchett was an incipient Communist or that he was dissatisfied with the Western perspective of the world. Thus, it intrigued him to wonder what had occurred to cause his complete switch to another ideology, "to drive him into bondage as a spokesman for mass slavery, for complete denial of individual rights."
A letter writer from Pittsboro says that he had asked Santa Claus for only one thing, nice weather so that he could go hunting, an activity in which he had participated for 54 years. He had been able to go out the previous Saturday and Monday afternoons, but now it was raining.
His wife had advised him not to write letters to the editor during the holidays regarding Government scandals, the Korean War or the country's "inept world leadership". So, in compliance, he would not, but adds Latin from Virgil, which, translated, stated: "The descent to hell is easy." He adds, "Or, it is easier to get into a mess than it is to get out."
Well, as someone apparently addicted to shooting for sport helpless animals merely seeking their daily provender in the woods, you ought to know.
A letter writer comments on the runway extension project and the fact that General Hall Manning of the North Carolina Air National Guard had appeared recently before the County Commissioners to lay out the case of the necessity of the runway to national defense. He said that Charlotte was the most logical and practical place for it to be located, that the addition of jets to the airport would not cause any hazardous condition to surrounding residents which had not already existed prior to the Guard being called to active duty overseas, that the Guard would not interfere with commercial air travel and that the latter would be much safer because of the greater margin for error afforded by the runway extension. He favors the project as being a benefit to the future of Charlotte aviation.
A letter from an Army private in Korea, who says that he had a lot of friends in Charlotte but was not receiving enough letters from home, asks for additional correspondence to find out what was happening around town.
Fifth
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Framed Edition
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