The Charlotte News
Monday, February 19, 1951
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that a counter-attacking American task force had moved forward four miles, advancing behind artillery cover along snow-covered mountain roads, to within a mile of Chuchon, into the heart of the North Korean stronghold in the east-central sector, killing hundreds of enemy troops in the process, at two points ten miles north of Chechon, twenty air miles east of Wonju. Another task force had recaptured a heavily defended mile of an enemy wedge driven into the Chechon front the prior week, along a 2.5 mile front six miles north of Chechon, capturing Kamna, driving the enemy from three hills, with a furious battle in progress for a fourth hill, all within a natural amphitheater ringed by hills. Some 3,000 North Korean troops had made light attacks in the area on Sunday but those had been repulsed.
Between that sector and the west coast, things were quiet as the Chinese withdrew from the battle lines. U.N. troops established a small bridgehead on the north bank of the Han River five miles east of Seoul but were driven back by enemy mortar and machine gun fire. The allies advanced all along the western front, as much as four miles in some areas, with their lines jammed up along the south bank of the Han.
Lt. General Matthew Ridgway said that his troops had won a substantial victory against the Chinese but that the enemy still had enough massed troops north of the 38th parallel to prevent a successful allied crossing into North Korean territory.
The Defense Department's latest weekly casualty report from Korea showed 137 additional U.S. casualties, of whom 29 had been killed or died of wounds, 95 wounded, six missing in action and seven injured, since the prior week's report.
General Mark Clark, chief of the Army Field Forces touring the Korean front, disclosed that American troops, exhausted from fighting on the front lines, would be replaced by fresh soldiers from the U.S. He said that an increased training program, about which he gave no details, was in progress to bring relief to American soldiers who had been overseas for a long period.
The Big Three Western nations conveyed diplomatic notes to Russia proposing that the Big Four deputy foreign ministers meet in Paris on March 5 to work out details of issues to be discussed in a subsequent conference of Big Four foreign ministers or their representatives regarding East-West differences. The list of proposed topics would include Germany, Austria and a review of the armament in Europe. Russia had wanted to focus the conference on Germany.
Correspondent Jack Bell tells of Army chief of staff General J. Lawton Collins indicating in testimony before the joint hearings of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees that Western Europe had about sixteen divisions for defense against potential attack, five from Great Britain, seven from France, three from Norway, one from Belgium, with a battalion from Luxembourg. He said that Russia had between 175 and 200 divisions under arms, comprised of between 12,000 and 14,000 men each, compared to American divisions with 18,000 men. He declined, without further review of the matter, to state how many American divisions should be sent. He also said, in response to questioning by Senator Kenneth Wherry, whose resolution, to leave to Congress the approval of the number of troops to be committed to NATO, was being debated, that any decision on use of the atomic bomb would be referred to the President and that no military man should have the power to make that decision. He stated that the failure of sea and air power to stop the enemy in Korea provided the forceful argument for the need for land forces in Europe, and before an attack occurred.
Senator Walter George of Georgia said that he found the plan reasonable and disfavored placing any quota or ratio on the number of troops to be sent.
A group of Senators, led by Senator Lyndon Johnson, chairman of the Senate Defense Preparedness subcommittee, began investigating armed forces training centers. The subcommittee had issued a report the prior night which chastised the Air Force for having allowed overcrowded conditions to exist at Lackland Air Base near San Antonio, Tex., resulting in a "total breakdown in training" because of recruitment during the last two months of 1950 of 40,000 more men than there were facilities to house them. The report debunked rumors, however, that the conditions had resulted in a pneumonia outbreak, deaths and even suicides at the base.
House Speaker Sam Rayburn said, after meeting with the President, that the President might have to step into the controversy between labor and mobilization planners of the Government, to mediate the dispute. The three labor members of the Wage Stabilization Board had resigned the previous week after the five public and industry members had voted to impose wage controls. Widespread strikes appeared on the horizon.
In Washington, the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen pleaded guilty in Federal District Court to contempt of court this date for the recent "sick" strike of switchmen, in violation of a December anti-strike injunction. The union was fined $75,000. The Government had sought the contempt citation despite the union having claimed that the switchmen had acted independently of union advice not to strike and the union's directions to return to work. The Government had contended that such direction was merely a subterfuge to get around the prior court order.
The President, bowing to criticism of RFC for its alleged political favoritism in granting loans to certain companies, approved a plan submitted by some members of Congress to replace the present five-man board of directors with a single administrator.
As pictured, a thirteen-year old boy from Brooklyn who had joined the Army, discovered when his truant officer began checking on his absence from school, complained that the Army was nothing but floor swabbing and underdone pork chops. He was believed to have been the youngest American soldier since the Civil War. He was being discharged this date.
Does he also swallow open safety pins?
Pogo and friends would make their comic character debut in The News on February 26, having been carried by a hundred newspapers since its creation in 1948.
Don't miss it. Will it be presented in the new Corona 8-point type or the old Ionic, much, much harder to read?
On the editorial page, "Governor Scott's Disservice" tells of the debate between the Governor and the General Assembly regarding the bill passed by the State Senate to provide increased State funds for city streets, the Governor taking the view that the Highway Fund did not have enough to support such a venture without revenue increases. The bulk of the revenue for the Fund came from gasoline taxes and license fees paid by urban dwellers and yet only the secondary roads of the state were maintained and improved through the Highway Fund, with municipalities left to pay for mots of their own local streets.
The piece finds the evidence to support the view that there was enough money in the Highway Fund for local streets and disagrees with the Governor that for State funding to take place, there would have to be an increase in gasoline taxes and license fees. It finds him supporting an unjust system of benefit from revenue, favoring rural residents over urban.
We need them roads and schools in 'ere. Get 'em goin'. Keep them taxes low though. Ethyl's already up to about 15-16 cent a gallon. What's a feller to do? Can even afford to go on a Sunday drive in your whitewalls.
"The Stalin 'Interview'" finds international interest in the statement of Premier Joseph Stalin the previous week because he infrequently spoke on international topics, spoke with absolute authority in Russia, and because the world situation, in the view of many, had reached a critical turning point.
He had said very little not said by Kremlin lackeys previously, and, for the most part, none of the Russian experts in the West found much to encourage optimism that he was genuinely seeking peace and a halt to Russian aggression, though some few found encouragement in his use of the word "if" in relation to British and U.S. acquiescence to his asserted Chinese efforts at peace, that if the two nations did not acquiesce in those efforts, there would be risk of general war. It was a statement designed for consumption in Eurasia, and his encouragement of the regime of Mao Tse-Tung in China might have been a substitute for military aid which Russia either could not or would not provide. His attack on British Prime Minister Clement Attlee was designed to split the Anglo-American alliance.
It concludes that actions and not words were required to convince the world that Russia wanted peace.
"Brotherhood Week" tells of the National Conference of Christians and Jews sponsoring the Week and having at its disposal a million dollars donated by the estate of Henry Ford. It finds the gift important for the fact not only of the money, itself, but because the late Mr. Ford had been openly anti-Semitic, believed that Jews sought world domination and had once published a company newspaper which promoted the idea. Henry Ford II, his grandson, was devoted to reversing that position, changed by the company founder before his death four years earlier. It finds the gift a symbol of enlightenment which should lead others to understand better the brotherhood of man.
It urges parents to ask themselves whether they were inducing prejudice in their children and whether they wished to spread senseless and dangerous hatred.
A piece from the Greensboro Daily News, titled "Fairness Counts", says that it expects the General Assembly to follow through with the State House Education Committee recommendation that the contingency be removed on the salary range increase for teachers, to allow it for all teachers, principals and superintendents, and regardless of whether there was adequate surplus in the general fund to support it at the end of each year, the contingency imposed in 1949. It thinks it important that the 2,581 teachers and personnel left out of the 1949 pay raise be included in 1951.
Drew Pearson tells of a political adviser to the President having disclosed to the President that secret attempts were being made by Governor James Byrnes of South Carolina and former FDR kingmaker Jim Farley to get General Eisenhower to run for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1952. The President had responded to the news by saying that if "Ike wants it", he would nominate him, himself. Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn had echoed the sentiment by saying that the General could have the Democratic nomination if he wanted it. Some of the General's friends were predicting that both parties would nominate him, forcing a realignment of American politics. A supporter had said that the General's great public appeal would counter those forces lining up against him and that nothing could stop the Eisenhower bandwagon in 1952.
In Korea recently, intelligence had dramatically improved because of careful patrolling operations, excellent air observation and a trip to Korea by the head of Army G-2 intelligence, Maj. General A. R. Bolling, and General Walter Bedell Smith, director of the CIA. Lt. General Matthew Ridgway now understood where and when and in what strength the Chinese were going to strike, when they had staged their drive on the central front the prior week. He had slightly underestimated their strength but the advance intelligence enabled him to place 17 artillery units in front of the enemy advance, causing two Chinese divisions to walk right into artillery fire, resulting in huge Chinese casualties.
The State Department and Joint Chiefs were meeting in backstage conferences regarding whether to advance again beyond the 38th parallel, following receipt of a recommendation by General Ridgway that he be allowed to cross it and then proceed to the 39th parallel where there was a bottleneck on the peninsula which could be held much more easily by the allies than along the broader 38th parallel. It would mean recapture of Pyongyang and opening the ports of Inchon and Wonsan. General MacArthur, however, believed that only limited patrols should be conducted beyond the 38th parallel. The Joint Chiefs were inclined to go along with General Ridgway, despite reservations of General MacArthur and the State Department. General Ridgway was left to use his own judgment until definite instructions were provided.
The White House had initially agreed to appoint two persons to the office of price stabilization, both of whom were supported by former Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana, but then Senator James Murray of Montana intervened to nix the appointments. As a result, Admiral John Hoover, who had been appointed at the behest of Senator Wheeler, resigned from the office. Admiral Hoover's brother represented the Anaconda Copper Co., biggest corporate backer of Senator Wheeler.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of 20 percent of defense expenditures going to inflation since the start of the Korean war. Marriner Eccles of the Federal Reserve Board posited that most of this inflation was the result of Government policies with respect to interest on bonds rather than wartime speculation, though greed accounted for some of it.
Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder, with the backing of the President, believed that Government bonds should be redeemed at face value to keep interest rates on them low and thus interest on the public debt as low as possible. But, Mr. Eccles contended that because the net effect of this policy was to place money in the marketplace, as big bondholders during inflationary times cashed in their bonds, resulting in more deposits in the banks and the availability of more credit, placing more money in the hands of consumers and thus creating an inflationary spiral. Bank credit had expanded by about 20 percent therefore since the start of the war, as much as in any seven previous peacetime years.
Thus, while the Government was collecting more revenue than it was spending in that same seven-month period, the total money supply had increased by 8 percent, resulting in the inflationary spiral.
Mr. Eccles proposed, in order to break the spiral, that Government bonds be dropped moderately in price to stem the rush to cash them in, and to raise slightly the interest rate on most Government bonds to 3 percent.
The twenty percent loss to inflation in the defense budget was adequate proof that Treasury's policy was counterproductive. The Federal Reserve Board had the legal right to have the final say in these decisions and the majority appeared to favor the position championed by Mr. Eccles, a position the Alsops find salutary.
Robert C. Ruark discusses Henry Morgan's variety television show on Fridays on NBC at 9:00 p.m., in which Mr. Morgan played a deadpan straight man to his acts, which in the prior program included a man who played tunes through a rubber glove while performing on both a clarinet and saxophone, a man who spelled and pronounced words backwards, a Cossack dancer from Brooklyn who flipped flaming daggers from his mouth, and a chihuahua dog named Bruiser which howled as two girls harmonized to the "Tennessee Waltz". Bruiser won the popularity contest with the audience.
Mr. Ruark enjoyed the show and found Mr. Morgan's dry approach to befit the entertainment in the "age of Mortimer Snerd". He had sanctified the foolish and thereby adjusted well to the new medium of television, which had baffled such radio giants as Fred Allen. He adds that like Bruiser, his impulse was to howl.
A letter writer, secretary of the Merry Oaks Civic Club, forwards a letter sent to Mayor Victor Shaw and members of the City Council regarding the Duke Power Co. bus routes and the suggestion by the City engineer that they be extended while eliminating the less profitable routes, a plan opposed by Duke Power despite its intent to provide better, more extensive bus service to the community. They favor all sections of the city receiving adequate service and urge that it was the duty of the Council and the State Public Utilities Commission to see to it that such service be implemented by Duke, possessed of the exclusive bus franchise in Charlotte.
A letter from the chairman of the local March of Dimes campaign thanks the newspaper, and particularly reporter Ann Sawyer, for promoting the drive and helping thereby to make it a success.
A letter from the president of the Charlotte Opera Association thanks the newspaper for its coverage of the February 6 and 7 performances of "Martha", which the publicity had helped to make a success financially.
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