The Charlotte News
Tuesday, July 24, 1951
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert Tuckman, that the negotiations in Korea would resume next day, awaiting answer by the Communists as to whether they would agree to eliminate their demand that the agenda for discussion include the removal of all foreign troops from Korea, vehemently opposed by the allies as a political question which had to await post-ceasefire negotiations. Pyongyang radio suggested that the Communists would adhere to their demand. If that happened, then the ceasefire talks might collapse.
The heaviest fighting in weeks broke out along the front, as allied troops halted eight Communist probe attacks. All except one of the attacks by the Communists, that occurring south of Kumsong, had been described as light. A three-day battle, the fiercest in weeks, was still underway southwest of Kansong.
The Fifth Air Force was flying an average of 150 sorties per day against Communist communications lines. During the month since peace talks had been first proposed, the Air Force had flown 13,357 sorties and destroyed or damaged 24 enemy planes, inflicting 4,000 casualties.
In Tehran, negotiations between Averell Harriman, acting as mediator, and Iranian officials, regarding the oil nationalization dispute, had reportedly hit an undescribed snag. A source said that Mr. Harriman and the Iranians were in agreement anent a proposal whereby the British would accept Iranian Government ownership of the oil, including the interests of the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., and an operating company controlled by the oil customers would be set up. The dispute, said the source, revolved around whether the latter company would distribute and market the oil as well as manage the wells and the refinery at Abadan, as proposed by Mr. Harriman, or whether the nationalized Iranian company would manage and direct the actual production of oil.
Two Republicans, Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., of Massachusetts, favored building the armed forces beyond the present goal of 3.5 million men, but other lawmakers expressed a desire for more information before committing to a position. The President had said in his mid-year report to the Congress that the goal might be inadequate to meet the global threat of Soviet "blackmail" and aggression.
Republicans could not reach agreement on a strategy by which to oust Secretary of State Acheson. House Minority Leader Joe Martin said that the GOP policy committee discussed four or five possible scenarios but the matter would have to await further decision the next day. They were meeting in advance of the House voting on amendments to the annual appropriations measure for several Departments, including State. One bill would effectively prevent the Secretary from receiving pay by preventing pay to any official who at any time in the previous five years was connected with any business or profession which represented a foreign government—which would also prevent pay to John Foster Dulles and others. The proposal was attacked as a bill of attainder, aimed at an individual, prohibited by the Constitution.
In Detroit, a House Executive Expenditures subcommittee heard testimony from Brig. General David Crawford, commander of the Detroit Army arsenal and tank-automotive center, that he had accepted free use of a Washington hotel suite maintained by manufacturers holding 33 million dollars worth of ordnance contracts. He also admitted shipping trees from Detroit to his Wayside, Md., home via Army trucks and that he had used Government salvage material to build a 24-foot sailboat. He denied impropriety in acceptance of use of the suite. A partner in the firm holding the ordnance contracts said that he had obtained various home appliances at wholesale prices for Federal workers as a matter of good will.
At Cape Girardeau, Mo., the last threatened town of any size on the Mississippi River until it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, flood waters neared a crest of 41.9 feet but were expected to do little additional damage. Short but heavy rains in the St. Louis area prevented the river from receding, and in the Alton, Ill., area, 20 miles northeast of St. Louis, streets and basements were flooded.
In the area of Savannah, Ga., a nine-year old boy watched from a boat a swift tide carry his father and younger brother away in Tybee backwaters after the seven-year old had fallen from the rowboat while fishing and the father jumped in to try to save him.
Governor Kerr Scott invited reporters from U.S. News & World Report to visit North Carolina and examine for themselves its tax structure, after a report appeared in the current issue of the magazine criticizing it.
On the editorial page, "Public Parking Facilities" examines the arguments against the City entering the parking business but finds them wanting, especially the argument that private business would be encouraged to enter the parking business and the City would become an unjust competitor as not being subject to normal business pressures. Parking was not the most lucrative use of empty downtown space, it suggests, and so owners who developed a parking lot would sell it for commercial development at the first opportunity. It favors municipally owned offstreet parking as the only long-term practical answer to the parking problem of the city.
"Marshal Petain, Fallen Hero" finds that the death the previous day of Marshal Henri Petain, hero of Verdun in World War I, but dying as a traitor at age 95 after being found guilty in 1945 of treason to France for collaboration with the Nazis in 1940 and onward through the war, and sentenced to life imprisonment, commuted in his last months because of failing health, would perhaps lead to his life of service to France finally mitigating the errors of his ways during World War II.
"The Experiment That Failed" tells of the City Solicitor deciding to discontinue the Traffic Court experiment because its docket had become hopelessly jammed in the two sessions per week it had operated, leading to delays in dealing with cases. The Solicitor wanted a daily Traffic Court.
The Institute of Government report on consolidation of City and County services to save money and increase efficiency had recommended consolidation of the City and County Recorder's Courts. The piece thinks that a plausible solution, with such a court holding sessions daily during the week.
"That Taft 'Logic'" tells of Senator Taft recently having called the Korean war a "useless and expensive" undertaking which had only postponed a final showdown with Russia. He favored bombing of China and yet chastised the Joint Chiefs for doubling the military budget since the Korean war began.
He had opposed universal military training because it would encourage war and also opposed arming of Western Europe, while advocating extension of the Korean war into China but without sufficient military funding to assure success of such an operation. He showed in these conflicting views a lack of judgment and perspicacity which Americans expected in a leader. If he were to be nominated by the Republicans in 1952, it suggests, the American people who wanted a change in direction of the country would be disappointed and their enthusiasm for electing a Republican as President diminished.
Drew Pearson tells of Oregon allowing anyone's name to be entered in the primary provided there were a thousand signatures on a petition, regardless of the candidate's permission. Thus, General Eisenhower's name could be entered in the May 16, 1952 primary even if he had not yet declared as a candidate. The party affiliation of the candidate, however, would have to be disclosed. Filing would have to be accomplished 90 days before the primary. He concludes that it was a good bet that the General's friends would enter him in the GOP primary in Oregon the following February.
General Emil Kiel, commander of the Air Force in the Caribbean, had been reported earlier in the column to have sent his plane from Ecuador to Panama to retrieve his dinner jacket for an unexpected formal dinner. When asked about the matter by the Air Force, he first denied the story, but then admitted that the plane had been sent to retrieve his full dress uniform, a trip costing the taxpayers $4,500. General Kiel would likely be passed over for promotion next time because of the incident, as both Secretary of Defense Marshall and Air Force Secretary Thomas Finletter disapproved of such use of Government planes for private business.
The President wanted the joint House Armed Services Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee to issue a report on its findings from the hearings surrounding the firing of General MacArthur and Far Eastern policy. The Committees had decided not to issue a report as members thought it would not be possible to get a majority of the joint committees to criticize General MacArthur. But the President believed such a report, under the guidance of chairman Senator Richard Russell, would be favorable to his actions and so wanted it prepared.
The arrest and conviction for spying in Czechoslovakia of Associated Press reporter William Oatis was motivated by a Communist desire to curtail Voice of America broadcasts in the country, which had proved effective. The Voice had predicted the arrests of Foreign Minister Clementis and other top Czechs several weeks before the arrests, solidifying its credibility with the Czech people after those arrests occurred. Its listening audience had since doubled.
He notes that appropriations for the Voice and other information dissemination arms of Government had been slashed to the bone by Congress. Congressmen had been invited to the State Department to receive a confidential report on VOA activities, but so far only two or three had accepted.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of the likely controversy soon to surface regarding the proposal to expand the Air Force to 150 air groups, provided the President and Secretary of Defense Marshall approved it, which appeared likely. It would cost several billion dollars for the Air Force budget in the current fiscal year and about 15 billion more in 1952-53. The issue was the proportion of defense investment between the services. It would result in building the defense establishment around the Air Force.
The world situation appeared to demand nothing less without taking "unforgiveable risks with the American future".
The growing Russian strategic air force required expansion of the American strategic Air Force to avoid the prospect of a crippling blow delivered to the U.S. or its allies by Russian planes without sufficient interceptor and retaliatory capability.
General Eisenhower had developed a rule of proportionality whereby the fewer ground divisions in the Army and Marines, the more air groups were necessary. A tactical air force was necessary for the defense of Western Europe against the Soviet tactical air force and for that purpose alone it might become necessary to double the currently planned tactical air power.
To prevent national suicide, American air power had to match the rapidly expanding air power of the Soviets.
Robert C. Ruark, in Tanganyika, finds Africa a "lovely and gracious sight", enhanced by the "tawny grace of a lion against his own terrain". He proceeds then to tell the story of his second lion kill in the first three days of the safari. They first observed it from "Jessica", the Land Rover, stalking zebra. They drove to within about 12 yards of it, saw that it was very ugly, with "very convincing teeth". They then saw the lioness's mate, about 200 yards away and then disappearing again into the bush. The lioness then charged Jessica.
They then drove back to camp to pick up Mr. Ruark's wife, have lunch, and develop a plan of attack. They first shot a topi ram and tied him to Jessica, dragging the ram in front of the bush into which the male lion had gone. Then appeared from the bush another male lion, half again as big as the first and with twice the mane, prompting them to name him "Gorgeous George".
They eventually dropped the ram carcass in the grass and then went to the top of a hill to observe it through binoculars. First, the vultures circled for awhile and then began to light on the carcass. Then the lions, five in all, began to appear to protect the kill.
The white hunter, Harry Selby, then said that they should begin to kill the lions. They had as well armed Kidogo, one of their two gunbearers, and so the three of them began stalking the lions in Jessica. As they got to within 100 yards, the lions did not look up. But then as Mr. Ruark raised his gun to fire, the nasty female began to charge. He hit Gorgeous George in the back of the ear, per Mr. Selby's directions, and he rolled over, roaring as he went. As the female began a full charge, Mr. Selby directed him to fire again at the male, which he then did, hitting him in the neck.
Meanwhile, the lioness was only about twenty feet away and still snarling. Mr. Selby and Kidogo were resting with guns poised. As Jessica drove up, Mr. Selby said Mr. Ruark and Kidogo should get in. Then with his gun still pointed at the female, Mr. Selby backed slowly away and got in as well. He said that he did not want to shoot her because of the cubs. He would have shot her only if she started a second charge, hitting her in the throat within six more feet. "She's a nasty girl, what?" declared Mr. Selby.
What was her name?
A letter writer approves of the editorial on the acquittal of Amelia Helms on charges of murder of her husband's paramour, finding that its denunciation of juries following the "unwritten law" to be conducive to a working legal system. He also, however, does not fault the jury in the case because the prosecutor had decided to make it a capital case, which he believes it not to have been.
A letter from Dave Clark defends John Clark of the UNC Board of Trustees from the criticism leveled at him by a News editorial for Mr. Clark's lack of judgment in opposing admission of qualified black applicants to the UNC graduate school in Spanish and desiring instead to have the University stop awarding doctorates in Spanish, as well as abandoning its Medical School rather than admit black applicants.
Dave sees no problem in John Clark's expressions of opinion, thinks the Supreme Court had no power to compel UNC to admit black students. He quotes the late Walter Clark, John Clark's father and former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, that Federal courts lacked authority to trump legislation and when done, lacked the ability to execute their decisions.
He dares The News to state whether it favored elimination of segregation in education, segregation which he thinks the people continued to favor and that he favors, but finds he doubted that the newspaper would do so.
Dave, as editor of the Textile Bulletin, has all the answers—just like them people on the radio out yonder in Texas.
Framed Edition
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