The Charlotte News
Thursday, April 5, 1951
ONE EDITORIAL
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that allied troops, facing stubborn to light resistance, advanced in force as much as eight miles north of the 38th parallel this date on the central front and moved also along the western front, with the goal of throwing off balance a massive Chinese buildup of some 300,000 troops gathering for a new, spring offensive during the April rainy season in Korea. In the western sector, in a ten-mile wide portion of the 40-mile wide front, the infantry of two U.S. divisions hit stubborn Chinese resistance but took two hills by overrunning four Chinese dug-in positions of about a thousand troops each, south of Chorwon.
In New York, Federal Judge Irving R. Kaufman sentenced Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to death in the electric chair for their part in a conspiracy to provide atomic secrets to the Russians in 1944 and thereafter. He set execution for latter May. He sentenced their co-defendant Morton Sorbell, also convicted as a member of the conspiracy, to thirty years in prison. He set Thursday for sentencing of Mrs. Rosenberg's brother, David Greenglass, who had previously pleaded guilty to the charge and provided Government evidence as the chief witness against the Rosenbergs. Judge Kaufman said that he viewed the Rosenbergs' conduct, which he found had occurred in wartime, as worse than murder and so deserving of the death penalty. He also criticized the 1917 anti-espionage law for being too lenient, allowing for only a twenty-year sentence for espionage committed during peacetime, that law having been passed before the atomic age and the cold war.
In so sentencing the Rosenbergs for "wartime" conduct in 1944, he failed to consider the fact that Russia was a prime ally at that time, without whom the war would have lasted much longer and resulted in many more thousands of American lives lost. No serious historian would dispute that fact. He was essentially holding them accountable for the change in relations between the U.S. and Russia during the cold war, something obviously beyond their control or foresight. While the conduct of which they were convicted, providing military secrets to a foreign government or agent thereof, was a violation of the law for which they needed to be held accountable, to apply the death penalty under such murky conditions, where there not only was no declared war with Russia even in 1951, but actual and crucially important allied relations at the time of the conduct which resulted in the death penalty, is to stretch the law around itself and strangle it to death. It was a poor decision and certainly suggests the very definition of "cruel and unusual punishment", insofar as disproportionality between the gravity of the offense and the weight of the punishment, as prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. Yet, it would stand in a time of virtual hysteria in the country born of having seen too much war and too much death from war to be entirely rational as a people, and the Rosenbergs would be executed at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953.
On June 19, the Supreme Court, in its per curiam opinion, would vacate, by a vote of 6 to 3, a stay of execution issued previously by Justice William O. Douglas, thus finally leaving undisturbed the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirming the convictions and sentences in February, 1952.
That latter decision had disposed of the appellants' argument on cruel and unusual punishment, that it shocked the conscience, by saying that the conduct was found in the trial to extend beyond the wartime period of 1944-45 to the postwar period of the cold war, by which time it had become clear that Russia was hostile to the U.S. But Judge Kaufman had relied, of necessity, on the fact of the secrets being passed during wartime to impose the death penalty, for as the Court of Appeals stated: "The statute under which [the Rosenbergs] were convicted provides that whoever violates the pertinent subsection 'in time of war shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for not more than thirty years.' 18 U.S.C. § 794(b). Congress had the power to prescribe the death penalty for wartime espionage." [Emphasis supplied.]
Query, therefore, whether the trial court and the Court of Appeals could look beyond the wartime period to the postwar peacetime period to justify imposition of the death penalty under this statute, when, plainly, the Soviet Union was not a "hostile nation" during the wartime period in question, 1944-45. Was it not mixing statutory apples with oranges to try to justify the death penalty by resort to the peacetime period for defining the character of the "hostile nation" when the statute plainly requires the act meriting the death penalty to have occured in wartime? Does not the fact that the statute required an act in wartime presume, ipso facto, that the foreign nation benefiting would be a "hostile nation" during that wartime, at least, if not preventing conviction under the statute, mitigating by way of creating doubt as to the statute's clear intent to punish wartime acts with respect to friendly nations who later became hostile such that the death penalty would fail in this instance under the Eighth Amendment if not pursuant to the plain statutory language?
Was the execution of the Rosenbergs permitted under the statute on which they were convicted by the fact that the acts in wartime for which they were held culpable were limited to aid of an ally, not a hostile government?
The Court of Appeals stated in footnote 21: "Since § 794(c) covers communication 'in time of war' to 'the enemy,' it might possibly be urged that § 794(b) was not intended to apply to acts, even in war-time, which are to 'the advantage of a foreign nation' when that nation is not the nation with which this country is at war but one which, at the time, is an ally. However, the legislative history contains nothing to support such an interpretation." But why would one need resort to legislative history to settle statutory language which is plain enough on its face, requiring the proscribed act be in "time of war" to justify the statutorily allowed punishment? Who had the burden of proof at trial to show guilt beyond a reasonable doubt under each element of the charged crime under the statute? It was not the defendants under our system. Maybe in Russia.Moreover, in terms of the cold war period, was not the matter of handing over nuclear secrets mooted by the fact of release in fall, 1945 by the U.S. Government of the Smyth Report? which, at the time of its release, nuclear physicists said contained enough information for anyone with the requisite knowledge in physics and the correct materials to build an atom bomb. Thus, should not everyone responsible for its release, including the President, have gone to the electric chair with the Rosenbergs?
Justices Douglas, Hugo Black and Felix Frankfurter dissented to the lifting of the stay of execution on June 19.
The Supreme Court had, in November, 1952, denied review to the Rosenbergs, and on June 15, 1953 denied leave to file a habeas corpus petition to attack the conviction collaterally on grounds not cognizable on direct appeal, matters dehors the record, usually consisting of newly discovered evidence not discoverable at time of trial or a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. The Court of Appeals had already denied habeas corpus relief. Also on June 15, the Supreme Court declined to follow the recommendation of Justice Robert Jackson to hold oral argument before the full Court on an application for stay of execution.
The statute in question, incidentally, 18 U.S.C. 794(b), was amended in 1954 to make clear that it refers to an "enemy" nation in wartime for the death penalty or up to life imprisonment to be exacted as punishment. Subsection (a) of the statute, however, was amended to provide for the same potential punishment, death or up to life imprisonment, for the crime of passing national defense information to a foreign nation, whereas the statute extant at the time of the Rosenberg case had set a maximum of twenty years imprisonment for that "peacetime" violation, as set forth in footnote 1 of the Court of Appeals decision. At that time death could only be imposed as a sentence, under subsection (b), if the act occurred in wartime "to the advantage of a foreign nation" while also being injurious to the United States, or, under subsection (c), in wartime with respect to communication of secrets to "the enemy". If subsection (b) was meant to cover any foreign nation, ally or enemy, why did it not simply say so?
The President stated at a press conference that the Senate passage the previous day of the resolution endorsing the sending of four divisions of troops to Europe showed that the country stood firm in support of NATO. The resolution also asked the President to consult with Congress before sending further troops, though the President made no comment on this section.
The New York Daily News had reported that Communist Japanese troops, part of the Chinese Communist army, were massing on the Manchurian border with Korea. House Speaker Sam Rayburn had so stated on the House floor suggesting that the presence of other Communist troops, without identifying their national origin, threatened to expand the war. The Daily News had learned from intelligence sources that they were Japanese captured by the Russians in 1945 and impressed into service after Communist indoctrination. The President, when asked at his news conference about this matter, declined comment.
The Army would begin in about the middle of the month to return men from Korea who had been engaged in the fighting since early in the war. The rotation would depend on the availability of replacements and would eventually reach 20,000 men per month by early summer. The returning troops who would be reassigned to other posts in the Far East would be permitted some home leave before departing for their next assignment.
Representative Emanuel Celler of New York introduced a bill to require 25 percent of television programming to be devoted to non-commercial educational purposes.
In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., an Erie Railroad freight train derailed and badly damaged the station, but injured no one.
Bob Sain of The News tells of Civil Air Patrol planes searching for a missing Air Force F-51 fighter plane missing since Monday in western North Carolina in Cherokee or Graham Counties, with a single National Guardsman aboard as pilot.
In Baltimore, a four-year old boy complained to his parents of having been stung by a bee. It turned out that he had been hit in the thigh by a .22 caliber slug. Neither of the parents could account for the bullet.
Donald MacDonald of The News tells of three ten-year old girls presenting themselves in Mayor Victor Shaw's office to urge that the City have an elephant on display or perhaps establish a whole zoo. They complained that there was no zoo in the state, that Atlanta was far away and a lot of children grew up without ever visiting a zoo. Moreover, in their case, they did not get to go out into the country much because their fathers worked in the city and so they hardly ever got to see any animals. The Mayor praised them for their efforts and they asked for his autograph.
In the fourth installment of Dale Carnegie's How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, he tells of one of his students having imparted the story of a double loss in the family, the death of his five-year old daughter and then after his wife gave birth to a new daughter, her death after only five days. The father couldn't sleep afterward and eventually went to two doctors, one recommending sleeping pills, the other, a trip. His four-year old son finally gave him the solution to his problem by asking him to build a toy boat for the boy. The task brought him mental relaxation and peace which he had not enjoyed for months. He realized that it was difficult to worry while engaged in constructive activity and so resolved to keep busy.
On the editorial page, "Revolution in Reverse", a by-lined piece by Editor Pete McKnight, tells of Governor Kerr Scott's loss of power on which he had been able to capitalize in 1949 at the beginning of his term, with the General Assembly then willing to pass much of his "Go Forward" legislative program on schools, highways, and acceleration of telephone and electrical service provision to rural areas. Now, in his last two years in office, he had been unable to effectuate much of his continued plans with the 1951 Assembly.
He had been able to appoint liberal UNC president Frank Graham as Senator after the death of J. Melville Broughton in March, 1949, after the Governor had defeated the Democratic machine to win election in 1948 to his single term.
But then, in the 1950 special election, Senator Graham had been defeated by the conservative Willis Smith in the June Democratic primary. The State Speaker of the House, Frank Taylor, a conservative, had appointed committees in the current Assembly session such that many of the free-spenders on the 1949 appropriations committee were assigned to the finance committee where they were not so eager to suggest new taxes to pay for their projects and services. The State Senate had also turned conservative.
The leading candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1952 was conservative William B. Umstead, defeated in the special election of 1948 by former Governor Broughton after Mr. Umstead had been appointed interim Senator in late 1946 by Governor Gregg Cherry, Governor Scott's predecessor, following the death of Senator Josiah W. Bailey. Mr. McKnight lists other potential gubernatorial candidates, including Ambassador to Nicaragua, Capus Waynick, State Secretary of State Thad Eure, State Treasurer Brandon Hodges, and State Supreme Court Justice Sam J. Ervin. But none of them had the political backing which had been demonstrated by Mr. Umstead—who would become the next Governor.
One of the conservative leaders in the House had remarked that Governor Scott did not know when he was licked and just when one thought he was, he would come back from another direction, a man therefore hard to keep down.
Mr. McKnight concludes that the Governor might have other plans for his program which he would reveal later, in which case they had to be good, for at present he was a political "has been".
Following the death of Senator Smith in 1953 and Governor Umstead's appointment of Alton Lennon as interim Senator, Governor Scott would win the special election in 1954 to become Senator but would die in office in April, 1958 before the end of his term, set to expire in 1961. His son, Robert Scott, would become Governor in 1969 and serve the single-term limit extant at the time.
Bill Sharpe, in his weekly "Turpentine Drippings", snippets from newspapers around the state, presents one from the Sanford Herald wherein was told a story of two brothers vying for the front side of the bed, one, after being instructed by their aunt to pray over the matter, interjecting that he was told by the Lord he could have the space, the younger one saying that the Lord did not tell him anything.
J. M. Eleazer of the Sumter Herald praises turnip greens over spinach.
John Wesley Clay of the Winston-Salem Journal finds objectionable the County tax on dogs, discriminatory against female dogs, taxing them $2 while only imposing a $1 tax on males. He claims that the female dog had just as much right to freedom and liberty as the male dog, that the female ate and barked less and was just as polite, concludes that the females might wind up taxed out of existence such that there would be no more dogs at all.
That tax must have been a bitch.
The Montgomery Herald tells of Hy Gardner of the New York Herald Tribune informing of a woman who moved from New York to South Carolina to escape the atom bomb, only to find that the Government was building the hydrogen bomb plant right in her backyard.
The Smoky Mountain Times suggests to the City fathers that they adopt a resolution whereby parking tickets could be paid at the rate of three for the price of four or paid on dollar-days or at one-cent sales.
But the Pentagon would not a weatherman need to know which way the wind blows.
The Goldsboro News-Argus tells of the fair having to be accompanied by the carnival to make it a worthy attraction, though the carnival would be prohibited from having nude-girl shows, even if girl shows were okay, and would be restricted to one dollar for gambling wagers.
So they would be dollar-a-throw
girls?
And so more, more
Drew Pearson contrasts the enmity between the U.S. and Yugoslavia four years earlier with the friendship now being exhibited, example of which was the informal adoption by Chester, N.H., of a Yugoslav town, Kumrovec. He finds such friendly exchanges salutary and during his visit recently to Yugoslavia had found the people warm to Americans.
He again summarizes complaints of servicemen and responds to them. One from a group of sailors in San Diego complained that clothing price increases at the ship's store had done them a great injustice, to which he responds that they were correct, that the cost of living had increased for men in the Navy, in some cases of clothing, more than double that of pre-Korea prices, all the way up to 146 percent increases.
A man, 20, had sought to enlist in the Army but was refused when he told the recruiters that he was married. Mr. Pearson responds that such was the rule, despite the Army needing manpower. He instructs, however, that if the man waited long enough, he might be drafted.
A non-commissioned Air Force officer in Mississippi said that they were told that if the NCO's did not become members of the NCO club by midnight on a certain date they would be restricted to the field. An Air Force regulation provided that membership was voluntary. Mr. Pearson informs him that the commanding officer had explained that the reason for the restriction was that the NCO's had not paid their debts because all NCO's automatically belonged to the club and so those who had not paid their dues had not paid a debt. He said that the officers could be relieved of the punishment of being confined to the field by writing a letter of resignation from the club. Mr. Pearson, however, finds it to smack of intimidation and coercion to collect the $1 membership dues, needed since slot machines on the bases were banned.
Robert C. Ruark decries the deferral of college men from the draft to the extent that they met certain academic criteria as set forth the previous day on the front page, being in the top half of the freshman class or scoring 70 on an aptitude test, with less stringent class rank applied to the upperclassmen, needing only to be in the upper two-thirds or three quarters, respectively, for sophomores or juniors.
He thinks it is a compromise which benefits the "Alger Hisses" at the expense of the average person, "the Al Smiths", and characterizes it as a violation of individual rights of those who were not inclined or possessed of the aptitude to go to college.
Well, after you are dead and Tricky
Rick becomes Presi-dent in 19 and 69, you will get your wish and
ever'body will be treated equally according to their birth date,
without collitch deferments any longer—but only until the
Presi-dent's Secret Plan to win the war would manifest itself in
January, 19 and 73, after...
Marquis Childs discusses a proposal made by the National Association of Real Estate Boards to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee to permit hundred-percent Federally insured housing loans, opposed strongly by chairman of the Committee, Senator Burnet Maybank. He had previously indicated his intention of examining the merits of whether industry could write off the cost of new plants by tax deductions and wind up owning a valuable asset paid for by the Government. He believed that private enterprise ought entail some degree of risk and competition on the part of the investor and not be backed by Government guaranty.
Mr. Childs proceeds to outline a complex proposal by Republican Representative Jesse Wolcott of Michigan re housing, authorizing 75 million dollars for insured mortgages on default of which within a year the FHA would pay 102.5 percent of the loan principal, down to 99 percent if default occurred after four years. It also allowed liberal tax amortization, such that the investor could theoretically have a large amortization deduction each year and also receive virtually the entire value of the loan if the borrower defaulted. The lender took in the payments and had no risk because of the FHA backing.
A pome appears from the Atlanta Journal, "In Which Disapproval Is Voiced Concerning Persons Who Continue To Use A Certain Broken-Down Expression:
"I could choke with fiendish glee
Folks who say, 'Long time no see.'"
But that be better than to suggest,
"You're nosy too long", even if in jest.
This date in 1968, the profane act of the prior evening turned to news
Dr. King's funeral would take place in Atlanta on Tuesday, April 9.
Framed Edition
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