The Charlotte News
Tuesday, May 15, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that Chinese Communist troops were crossing two rivers, the Pukhan, southwest of Chunchon, and the Choyang, northeast of Chunchon, but that an American officer said that the renewed offensive had not yet begun. Clashes with American troops were reported after the latter crossing. Spearheads of the enemy force reached as far as twelve miles south of the 38th parallel. U.N. patrols would provide about 24 hours warning of any impending Chinese strike in strength. A briefing officer on the central front said that rainy weather would likely speed up the attack by a couple of days. It was expected to come the following week.
General Omar Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, testified to the joint Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees that the U.S. was not prepared for a global showdown with Russia and that to strike at Communist China would involve the country in the wrong war with the wrong enemy, that nothing would delight the Kremlin more than for the the U.S. to adopt the strategy proposed by General MacArthur, that it would increase the risks for world war. He said that he would not say anything to discredit General MacArthur's illustrious military career but heavily criticized his policy on Korea, saying it was not so that the President, Secretary of State Acheson and Secretary of Defense Marshall had, as General MacArthur had implied, overridden the Joint Chiefs with a policy all their own. He also said that the Joint Chiefs were in a better position than any theater commander to assess the risks of world war and the country's military resources.
Senator John Sparkman of Alabama said that the feeling was growing in Congress that the Communist Chinese might give an early sign of willingness to negotiate a peace settlement in Korea. Other Senators echoed this sentiment after hearing Secretary Marshall testify for seven days before the joint committees. Secretary Marshall had declined comment on the probabilities for imminent peace settlement.
But the Secretary's testimony still left some Senators, as William Knowland of California, unconvinced that the President's program had been proven superior to that of General Macarthur's.
In Lexington, Va., Bernard Baruch, speaking at V.M.I., praised Secretary of Defense Marshall as "history's first global strategist". He referred obliquely to General MacArthur as the "leader of troops" versus Secretary Marshall, the "organizer". The occasion was a day to honor General Marshall, a graduate of V.M.I.
Mobilization director Charles E. Wilson, speaking to the annual industry-armed services conference, decried the "foolishness" on Capitol Hill, where some of the leading generals were "on the pan", stated that the squabbling must be good news to the Russians. He also said that the job of mobilization would not be so long as he had thought, as long as there was unity in the country around it.
The House Ways & Means Committee voted to raise the Federal gasoline tax from 1.5 to two cents per gallon, expected to raise 210 million dollars in new revenue. The Committee had decided against the raising of the tax the previous day. It rejected a penny per bottle tax on soft drinks, and a 20 percent manufacturers' tax on candy and chewing gum.
That's good, because you can't be expected to carry around a nickel and a penny for a Coke every time the urge hits you.
Economic Stabilizer Eric Johnston asked the Senate Banking Committee for authority to crack down on spiraling profits in both agriculture and industry.
A selling rush hit the New York Stock Exchange, causing prices to drop as much as five dollars per share. There was no immediate explanation for the sell-off.
In Charlotte, Tom Fesperman and Ralph Gibson of The News tell of the search for the killer of a local woman who had been stabbed to death in her two-room cottage near Beatty's Ford Road the previous afternoon. There was no evidence that anyone was angry with the woman or that the murderer had forced his way into the cottage. The woman and her four-year old daughter apparently had been taking a nap in the cottage when the killing occurred. The little girl was unable to relate a coherent story about what had happened, other than to say that a black man had killed her mother. She had been cut on the back of the head but not seriously injured. The victim's husband was at work at the time of the killing and was at a loss to explain it. Police had questioned more than a dozen black men in connection with the killing by noon but learned nothing new about the murder. Several other black men in nearby communities had also been detained without result.
Tom Fesperman tells of the curious turning out by the hundreds at the cottage where the murder occurred. Women with their children walked to the house and peered though the windows onto blood-stained floors and furniture.
On the editorial page, "Congress Muffs an Opportunity" tells of the U.S. having lost much of its prestige and world acclaim which it could have gained by helping starving India with two million tons of food, the bills for which had been held up in Congress. It provides a chronology of the events, concluding on April 30 with Senator Hubert Humphrey warning that delay in the Congress was playing to the hands of Soviet imperialism.
The previous week, the Soviets provided to India 50,000 tons of grain for which India paid cash. The Parliament applauded. But when Prime Minister Nehru told the members that there were no political strings attached to the food bills before the U.S. Congress and that India was grateful for the efforts to send U.S. wheat, no one applauded.
As a result, there was talk in Congress of killing off the bills entirely.
Whatever would happen, the piece posits, the delay by Congress had not served the U.S. well, as India needed the grain while the U.S. had a large surplus. Russia was able to reap the benefits of the propaganda resulting from the delay. It concludes that Congress therefore could not afford to cast stones at the Administration for foreign policy errors.
"The Costly Hand-Out Program" finds the piece on the page from the Congressional Quarterly, comparing Federal grants-in-aid to the states across time and in proportion to their revenue and Federal taxes to be instructive of the notion that taxpayers would be better served were Federal grants minimized in favor of local responsibility for such programs. North Carolina had paid 1.1 billion dollars in Federal taxes in 1950 and received only four percent, or 47.3 million, in grants, even though much of that contribution to Federal taxes came from tobacco excise taxes, paid by consumers in all 48 states.
"Red China and the United Nations" tells of General MacArthur having said that he believed the U.S. ought exercise its veto in the Security Council to keep Communist China out of the U.N. Secretary of State Acheson had said several times that while the U.S. would vote against membership, it would not utilize its veto power to prevent it as the veto power did not apply in determining membership. Yet, the veto had been used previously regarding membership. Regardless, it was not likely that Communist China could poll the necessary two-thirds majority in the General Assembly for admission. Only a third of the membership had voted for it to become a member the previous September, prior to its entry to Korea.
The piece urges that if there were any sign that China might succeed in the Assembly vote, the U.S. should exercise the veto. The mood of the nation would not allow any other result until Communist China had ceased its aggression and shown that it would abide by U.N. rules of international law.
"The Meat Industry's 'Rebellion'" tells of the rebellion against attempts to control soaring prices on meat by the industry threatening to remove meat from the market or turn it over to the black market.
Meat was presently selling at 52 percent above parity, a fair price for the producer, and so the industry could expect little sympathy from the consumer.
There were many flaws in the National Production Act and the Office of Price Stabilization had not performed exceptionally well in interpreting and enforcing the law. But, it concludes, everyone would have to make sacrifices during the national crisis and the meat industry was no exception.
As indicated in the above editorial, a piece from the Congressional Quarterly reports that all states except Nevada received more Federal funds in 1950 than in 1949 for grant-in-aid programs, for public welfare, highway and airport construction, plus other such programs of the type. North Carolina received 46.8 million in 1950, compared to 39.1 million in 1949 and was expected to receive 47.3 million in 1951 for such programs.
California had received 187.7 million in 1950, more than any other state, while Delaware received the least, 4.6 million.
Mississippi received the largest percentage of Federal aid in ratio to its revenue, 38 percent while Delaware received only one percent in ratio to its revenue. North Carolina ranked 24th in that category.
It provides comparative tables of how North Carolina fared in old age assistance, highway construction, aid to dependent children, unemployment compensation, school lunch programs, and hospital construction, in 1949, 1950 and that projected for 1951.
Mr. Ruark was apparently still walking from Miami to Stuart to reach his typewriter.
Drew Pearson tells of General Hoyt Vandenberg, Air Force chief of staff, having given a private warning at the Pentagon that the worst threat to American cities was from Siberia rather than Eastern Europe, contradicting General MacArthur's statement that Russia was not in a position to wage war against the U.S. from Siberia. Assistant Secretary of the Air Force John McCone—future CIA director under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson—admitted that it would be impossible to prevent strikes on American cities originating from Siberia, that the air defense system, even when complete, would be susceptible to penetration by many Soviet bombers.
While General Vandenberg assessed American strategic bombing to be presently five times better that the Soviet system, he said that they were working on their system and the U.S. should not therefore become complacent. Both the General and Mr. McCone said that the goal for the Air Force was 95 air groups by mid-1952 and that it would take another year to bring the equipment up to date, that only at that point could the Air Force pack the wallop which the people ought to demand.
At a time when the Defense Production Administration was under fire for giving away too much money to big corporations, a spokesman had asked that Congress approve another billion to be given away in the ensuing two months.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow cabled the State Department that Russia was mobilizing about a dozen international battalions of volunteers to fight in Korea, enlisted from Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and Rumania. The purpose was primarily to train these satellite nation troops in modern warfare, to match the experience being obtained by the troops of the 15 U.N. nations.
The President had privately asked General Omar Bradley to serve another two-year term as head of the Joint Chiefs after his current term expired the following August.
Italy, though not yet a member of the U.N., had asked to send a contingent of troops to fight in Korea.
Stewart Alsop tells of the British receiving hints in Moscow that the Korean war could now be settled, while similar hints were coming from Paris. There was also a certain atmosphere in Washington which suggested as much. So it was worth concluding that it was possible that the fighting might soon end, that the crisis might be resolved, much as had been the Berlin blockade in 1949, suddenly and with little foreshadowing leading to it.
The military analysts had concluded that the Communist Chinese could not win the war on the present basis. The only way they could do so would be by committing an air force from Manchuria. But if that were to occur, the Soviet masters were on notice that it would cause Manchurian bases to be bombed, possibly starting a third world war. That left the Kremlin with a Hobson's Choice, inaction and devastating defeat in Asia or taking the risk of general war.
Regardless of how one felt about General MacArthur's Korean war policy, the debate on it must have put the Soviets on notice that the U.S. would not withdraw from Korea and that if stalemate would be the result of current policy, then it was likely the country would abandon the policy of limited war and adopt the MacArthur proposal. Thus, the Russians may have decided to cut their losses and throw in the towel.
Settlement would probably take the form of the restoration of the status quo, that is the 38th parallel as the dividing line between North and South Korea, and then staged withdrawal of U.N. and Communist forces. The U.S. appeared ready to accept such terms on the condition that U.N. allies would join in putting the Soviets and Chinese on notice that future armed aggression, whether in Korea or elsewhere, would be answered by attacks on Communist centers of power. The Soviets might risk an attempted knockout blow in Korea or the war might drag on to stalemate, but in either case, he ventures, world war was the predictable eventual outcome. But at least a truce might be in prospect—still more than two years away.
A letter from Congressman Charles Deane compliments the May 5 editorial, "The Charge of Appeasement", which stated that the Truman Administration might be guilty of many things but that appeasement was not one of them. Mr. Deane says that he liked the editorial so much that he had inserted it into the Congressional Record.
A letter writer from Washington says that it was deceptive to say that 65 million people were employed in the country, as about thirty million were employed on wages which could not afford them decent food and shelter. He finds it no wonder that gangsters and crime proliferated in the country, as poverty and lack of proper education bred the conditions under which crime thrived.
A letter writer finds that the convictions of Alger Hiss and William Remington had shown how the "'godless' Communists" had been able to plant two of their own in the U.S. Government, finds America the victim of radical infiltration and betrayal, and that moral and spiritual rearmament was required to combat it.
A letter from Parks Yandle thanks the voters who voted for him and assisted him in his campaign for City Council. He says that he spent nothing and that his friends spent $26.50, that it was no use for a poor man to run against persons who had thousands to spend.
A letter writer from Houston tells of North Carolina being one of 23 states which had voted to approve the concept of world union but that 13 of those had since rescinded their resolutions. North Carolina was one of the ten which had not. He says that world government would destroy the U.S. and that North Carolina should denounce world union, encloses a booklet which explained why.
Where's that booklet? We want to read that, now.
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