The Charlotte News
Thursday, March 8, 1951
TWO EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that allied troops had advanced between one and ten miles against spotty resistance on the second day of their drive along the 70-mile front in Korea.
An Eighth Army spokesman said that 11,039 Chinese and North Korean troops were killed or wounded the prior day on the first day of one of the largest allied attacks of the war.
The weather at the front had turned springlike but remained cold.
Fourteen U.S. F-86 Sabre jets intercepted 17 MIG-type fighters over northwest Korea. The Russian-built jets fled. Neither side sustained damage.
A vote by the Senate on the universal military training draft revision bill which would lower the draft age from 19 to 18 and extend service from 21 to 26 months was delayed from this date until the following day because of the death of Senator Virgil Chapman of Kentucky—injured fatally in a collision of his automobile with a tractor-trailer truck on the outskirts of Washington. The Senate the prior day added to the bill a four million man limit to the armed services, against the advice of the Pentagon which wanted no such limitation.
The death of Senator Chapman, who had served 22 years in the House before being elected to the Senate in 1948, succeeding Vice-President Barkeley in the seat, cut the Democratic majority in the Senate to just one, 48-47. The Governor of Kentucky was a Democrat and so would likely appoint a Democratic successor to the Senator.
The Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, meeting jointly, voted 14 to 10 to require both Senate and House approval of any assignment of American troops to NATO. By the same vote, the committees also approved a resolution, sponsored by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., that Europe had to make the "major contribution" to the ground forces of NATO, a proposal which had wound up in a tie vote the prior day. The majority was comprised of all Republicans on the committees plus three Democrats, reported to be Senators Harry F. Byrd, Guy Gillette and Walter George. Chairman Tom Connally of the Foreign Relations Committee and chairman Richard Russell of the Armed Services Committee were in the minority. The members of the majority coalition favored the rest of the Connally-Russell resolution, which favored the Administration plan to send troops, but wanted it supplemented by an amendment to require approval of sending troops by both houses of Congress.
A new X-ray system developed for the military was said to hold promise for revolutionizing and speeding up care of the wounded on the front lines. The new system, utilizing the Polaroid-Land camera system, developed X-rays within a minute without a darkroom, rather than the usual half hour. The new film could be attached to any conventional X-ray machine. It was then developed in a small portable box.
Members of the Senate Banking subcommittee investigating the RFC voted unanimously to ask the Justice Department to search its record of hearings for evidence of perjury, tax evasion or other violations of law. Earlier, RFC director Walter Dunham had testified that a fellow director, Edward Rowe, had urged him to resign and become the "fall guy" for the subcommittee's investigation. Mr. Rowe had not yet testified.
A joint House-Senate committee sought evidence from Government economic stabilization officials that the recently implemented ceiling on raw cotton was necessary, as contended by Price director Mike DiSalle, to protect cotton users against inflationary prices of cotton materials. In issuing the order, he had pointed out that cotton prices were 40 percent higher than before the Korean war and that the ceiling was 25 percent above parity.
As the New York Cotton Exchange reopened for the first time since January 26, the day after general price controls had been implemented, prices jumped as much as $5.75 to $10 per bale.
At Camp Lejeune, N.C., a big helicopter crashed just two hours after it had safely landed after taking Governor Kerr Scott and four reporters on an aerial tour of the Marine base. No one was injured in the crash but the helicopter was a total wreck.
On the editorial page, "Intrigue in Prague" discusses reports from Czechoslovakia that President Klement Gottwald was under house arrest, that former Foreign Minister Vlado Clementis had been shot while trying to escape, that Premier Antonin Zapotocky was confined to his apartment by secret police, and that four high police officials had been arrested for plotting the overthrow of the Communist Government. The truth of these rumors, emanating from the Free Czechoslovakia Special Committee and political exiles, however, had not been verified. Prague denied the stories about Messrs. Gottwald and Zapotocky while admitting the arrest only of Mr. Clementis.
But it had been verified that some 170,000 members of the Communist Party in the country had been purged from the party rolls, with the objective of discouraging nationalism and departure from the Moscow Communist Party line as set by the Cominform. In Hungary, 190,000 had been dropped from the rolls and in Rumania, 192,000, in Bulgaria, 92,500, in Poland, 200,000, and many thousands also in Albania. The Soviets were thus making every effort to tighten their hold on the Balkans.
It suggests that the events underscored Secretary of State Acheson's comments recently that it was important to stimulate nationalist movements in the satellite countries. Such seeds of independence were obviously present in the Balkans or the Soviets would not be undertaking so much effort to destroy them. It urges that the U.S. stimulate their growth.
"Starting Place for Economy" finds that members of Congress, per the prediction of Alan Otten in the Wall Street Journal, would likely not make substantial cuts to the President's $71 billion dollar proposed budget, but rather would engage in rationalization of pork-barrel projects for their individual states and districts, justifying them as being necessary to national defense. It cites examples from Congressman John Dempsey of New Mexico, justifying his district's Rio Grande flood control project on that basis, Senator John Butler of Maryland, promoting reconstruction of an ammunition pier in Baltimore and the continued existence of the outpatient clinic in the Baltimore Customs House, Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi, displeased over the President cutting 16,000 new veterans' hospital beds and having pushed forward two bills to build the hospitals, two of which were in his district, and Senator John McClellan of Arkansas, who opposed cuts the prior year to the Rivers and Harbors bill. All four Johns were generally advocates of fiscal economy.
It urges that the taxpayers would have to let their voices be heard to change these attitudes, as pressure groups form the home states and districts were pushing these pork-barrel projects.
A piece from the Manchester Guardian, titled "Prodigal Use of Power", finds disturbing a report in the New York Times that a tank commander, realizing that Seoul was only a short distance away, had issued orders for two tanks to fire fifteen rounds each into the city. It concludes that there were civilians present but probably few enemy troops. Farther on, according to the reporter, the patrol had come upon the village of Anyang, where a napalm attack had taken place at a point when the Chinese had been holding up the advance. The reporter stated that almost 200 were dead in the village but did not mention that there were any Chinese or North Korean soldiers among them.
The piece suggests that while perhaps there were such enemy soldiers present, "far from the battlefield there will be many uneasy consciences about such prodigal use of air power."
Bill Sharpe, in his "Turpentine Drippings", snippets from newspapers around the state, provides one from Harold Booker of the Camden Chronicle, who speculates on the various uses of cryogenics, apart from a person being frozen in the hope of finding a cure for a terminal disease, that one might do so to avoid an economic depression, or having the children frozen for the night in lieu of a babysitter, or to avoid a personal dispute until the other person got over the problem, or until the world situation improved.
How about during especially hot days?
The Waynesville Mountaineer imparts a story of a woman entertainer at her club pausing the performance to let the audience hear the special message from her children, whereupon a loud voice issued, "Mama, little brother has found a bedbug."
Roy Thompson of the Winston-Salem Journal tells of a woman who wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper suggesting that if Rita Hayworth or some other movie star were to appear on the stage of one of the Winston-Salem theaters, then "some would almost be tempted to go to see her." Mr. Thompson finds the thought worth consideration.
How about Elvis?
The Marion Star tells of a pastor becoming confused when looking at an infant about to be christened and, rather than making the usual neutral comment, "Well, that is a baby!" had asked, "Well, is that a baby?"
The Southern Pines Pilot tells of a local girl being hired as an extra for the movie "Big Top", starring Betty Hutton, Hedda Hopper and others, and so when the movie came to town, people should be on the lookout for Danny among the 3,000 extras.
Is Marilyn Monroe or Jane Russell in
that
And so more, more so, so, so, more
Drew Pearson, writing from PEC, Yugoslavia, tells of driving along the border between Yugoslavia and Albania. He finds it a mystery that Albania had fallen for Communism, as he had found the people, years earlier during a visit, to be rugged individualists who hated all governments, including their own. He suggests that perhaps the explanation lay in the fact that Albania was poor and had been torn by never-ending wars, making it an easy target for Communism.
The U.S. had provided Yugoslavia with 60 million dollars worth of flour on the conditions that they would sell it through their regular rationing system and make it clear that it came from the U.S.
Yugoslav newspapers were full of denunciations of Russia. The father of Yugoslav Communism, Marshal Pijade, had bitterly denounced Russian Communism and praised the U.S. for its support.
He finds that the history of Communism in the Balkans might offer up an object lesson for the U.S., for if the U.S. fought a war against Communism, its aftermath might find the country closer to the Communism it was fighting to avoid.
Stewart Alsop tells of the forces within the Republican Party opposed to Senator Taft supporting General Eisenhower for the 1952 nomination, with their broad strategy for drafting him already set. Senator James Duff of Pennsylvania was the leader of the effort. While Governor Dewey supported the General, he was not close to him and had made enemies within the GOP who suspected him of using the General as a stalking horse for further presidential ambitions. Senator Duff had no such baggage, as he was 71 years old and had no designs on the White House.
California, Pennsylvania, and New York would be the foremost anti-Taft states, forming the nucleus of the Eisenhower movement. The General would hopefully return from his command of NATO the following spring, whereupon an Eisenhower boom would get underway. His name would be entered in the Nebraska and Wisconsin primaries and the Taft forces, according to the plan, would be beaten back.
The fly in the ointment was that the General might choose not to run, as he had in 1948.
Senator Taft had firmly embraced the neo-isolationist stance of the Chicago Tribune on foreign policy, antithetical to that of General Eisenhower.
Further detracting from his presidential timber, Senator Taft had also entered into what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had called "a sinister alliance" with Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Marquis Childs discusses the delay in sending troops to support NATO because of the consideration by the Senate and House of resolutions to require Congressional approval. General Omar Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, had told the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees that while such a delay would not directly affect the security of the country, it would result in a 30 to 60 day delay which would "put a crimp in the plans to strengthen Western Europe", which ultimately related to the country's security.
The delay in action came at a critical time, after General Eisenhower's tour of Europe had bolstered optimism in the peoples of those nations and their governments, optimism which was ebbing away as Europe interpreted the Congressional debates. It also came on the eve of the preliminary planning for the proposed Big Four foreign ministers conference.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., was aware of how critical the delay could be but was also aware that the House had to be given a say on the matter or it would only lead to more debate in the Senate. He wanted to leave it to the Senate alone to approve the sending of troops but also to put before the House a resolution to require the Joint Chiefs to certify that sending of troops was essential to the security of the nation, that only a comparatively minor part of available divisions would be sent and that European nations were doing all they could to rebuild their own defenses. Presumably, such a resolution would do away with the need for House hearings which would largely duplicate those already held jointly by the two Senate committees.
Framed Edition
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