The Charlotte News
Monday, September 17, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that General Matthew Ridgway notified the Communist high command this date that he remained ready to resume ceasefire negotiations, which had been broken off by the Communists on August 23 based on claims of violations by the U.N. of the Kaesong neutrality zone, site of the conference. His statement made no further reference to his prior suggestion the previous week that the site of the conference be changed from Kaesong, to which the Communists had still not responded. General Ridgway flew to Korea from Tokyo to confer with ground commander General James Van Fleet, in case the offer was rejected. It was his second trip to Korea since the talks had ceased and was described by headquarters as "routine".
In ground fighting, John Randolph reports that a North Korean battalion was hit heavily by allied artillery late Monday after failing to gain any ground in a series of counter-attacks on the east-central front. The Communists advanced as far as a saddle between a Communist-held hill and an allied-held height, the location of which, north of Yanggu, had been dubbed by the allies "Heartbreak Ridge", based on the number of attacks and counter-attacks which had transpired there. "Heartbreak Ridge" was just north of "Bloody Ridge". An allied officer said results were "excellent". On the western front, allied troops, supported by heavy artillery, obtained control of a hill northwest of Chorwon, after a two-hour battle. Patrols clashed at several points along the front. Allied air observers reported a decrease in enemy activity, particularly vehicle movement.
Cold rain brought allied air activity to a virtual standstill. The previous day, the Fifth Air Force, despite rain, attacked Communist rail facilities in more than 640 sorties, destroying or damaging 300 railcars, the greatest number in a single day since the previous May.
In Ottawa, the meeting of the NATO Council continued in its fourth closed-door session, with the smaller nation members reportedly demanding a greater voice in major policy decisions. The feeling was reportedly more acute because the U.S. had been pressing hard against small-nation opposition, especially that of Denmark and Norway, to admit Greece and Turkey to NATO. Denmark and Norway were expected to agree in the end, but only after making their objections known. The U.S. was reportedly backing plans to expand the work of NATO into political and economic areas, in addition to its military role.
The chief of Naval operations, Admiral William Fechteler, told a press conference that the Navy had carrier crews which were trained now to handle atomic bombs. He said the Navy had two planes capable of carrying atomic bombs, the AJ attack plane and the P2V Neptune patrol bomber. During the previous year, it had been reported that a compact atomic bomb had been developed, capable of being carried by smaller planes.
The President asked Congress for an additional 484.24 million dollars for the Atomic Energy Commission's Savannah River plant, where work in development of the hydrogen bomb would soon get underway, bringing the total request for the project to 1.18 billion dollars, more than the original estimate for development of the site, inflated in cost by the Korean war.
In Saigon, a French landing ship struck a mine the previous week, killing 68 troops aboard, nearly all of whom were Indo-Chinese. Seven were French soldiers, and seven of the 56 injured were also French. All of those aboard were taking part in a landing operation aimed at taking the rich rice basin of South Cochin China from the Vietminh, against whom the French and pro-French Vietnamese troops had been at war for the previous five years. The campaign had been successful, as the troops had seized control of much of the rice-growing region during the prior week. Sixty Vietminh troops had been killed and many had been wounded in the operation, plus several Vietminh armament factories destroyed.
The President, in a speech at the Library of Congress, criticized Russian society for being a "jungle" in which the Government prowled "like a beast of prey, making all men afraid." He said that Soviet agreements were not worth the paper they were written on. He praised the American Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, newly enshrined at the Library for preservation for centuries to come, the reason for his speech.
In a second speech of the day, before the National Association of Postmasters, he said that a lot of people were "trying to make political capital" by attacking the loyalty of Government workers, "a contemptible way to get votes". He received cheers from the postmasters for his style, reminiscent of his "give 'em hell" whistle-stop campaign of 1948. He also criticized the "slick" magazine publishers for enjoying "juicy subsidies" on mail rates while opposing Government subsidies for everyone else. He said that if he ever retired from the Presidency, he was going to get one of the new light motor vehicles appearing in suburban districts.
The Senate Judiciary Committee blocked the President's nominations for two Federal judicial positions in Illinois, the nominees having been disapproved by Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois as unqualified. The Committee was free to reconsider the nominations at a later time, but for now, voted 6 to 2 against reporting the nominations favorably and 4 to 3 against reporting one of them unfavorably, and 5 to 3 against reporting the other unfavorably, effectively bottling up the nominations in the Committee. The votes had not been recorded by name. Senator Douglas had said that both of the nominees were "estimable" men but were also "personally obnoxious" to him. He had favored the nominations of two others.
A recently fired RFC official testified to the Senate investigating subcommittee looking at charges that DNC chairman William Boyle used political influence to obtain RFC loans for a St. Louis printing firm which had paid him a fee, which he said was a legal fee unrelated to the loans, that he had accepted a number of gifts from an official of the printing firm after helping the company obtain the loans. The gifts included a turkey and a small ham, a box of oranges, packs of perfumes and a camera, the latter, as pointed out by Senator Joseph McCarthy, having been worth $103. (Must have been a Leica, some kind of Communist product, probably intended for use to photograph secret documents at the State Department. Where was the typewriter?)
Another witness, as had an RFC employee on Saturday, testified that RFC directors bypassed the agency's normal review committee, of which the witness was chairman, in granting the first of the loans to the printing firm, amounting to $80,000 of the total of 564,000 in loans provided in 1949.
In Cleveland, Alvanley Johnston, 76, who, until his retirement the previous year, had headed the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers for 25 years, died of a heart attack at his home. His union and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, led by the late Alexander Whitney, had clashed with the President regarding a walkout of trainmen in May, 1946, a walkout which ended after two days when the President called on Congress to begin drafting the strikers into the Army. Mr. Johnston then endorsed Governor Dewey for the presidency in 1948, while Mr. Whitney endorsed the President. Mr. Johnston in 1950 had also endorsed the re-election of Senator Taft in Ohio, despite many labor leaders opposing him because of Taft-Hartley.
As pictured, twenty persons were killed and seventeen injured when a training plane crashed into a crowd of spectators during an airshow at Flagler, Colo.
In Amsterdam, the World Tobacco Congress opened with "no smoking" signs over the doors, as more than 600 delegates assembled from 40 countries to discuss such topics as growing tobacco, fighting diseases, state monopoly, changes in consumers' tastes and world cooperation.
What is the world coming to, when you can't even smoke at the World Tobacco Congress?
The Facts of Life and Love, by Dr. Evelyn Millis Duvall, began this date in serialized form on page 7-A. Presumably, based on the list of topics on Saturday's front page, the first topic was "Getting Started in Dating". If you are interested, you may borrow the book free of charge at the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, we cannot all follow along, chapter by chapter, in unison.
"Kerry Drake", handsome detective, turned assistant district attorney in the war against crime and vice, also began on the comics page.
On the editorial page, "Freedom and Revolution" elaborates on the testimony of Eugene Dooman, former State Department official, to the Senate Judiciary subcommittee chaired by Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada, regarding his claim that the State Department had adopted a policy aimed at the destruction of the Japanese capitalists following Dean Acheson having become Undersecretary in mid-August, 1945, coinciding with the end of the war.
U.S. policy at that time had been to prevent the Japanese from being able to engage again in war, requiring, as in Germany, that strict controls be placed on the large capitalists who profited from war. Viewed from that standpoint, the claim of Mr. Dooman did not seem so ominous. Sometimes, Communist and capitalist countries had common interests, as during World War II, when both fought Fascism.
As a result of U.S. policy toward Japan, implemented at the end of 1945, ownership of about one-third of the cultivated land was shifted from landlords to tenants, during the period of 1947-1948. Whereas tenants formerly cultivated 45 percent of the land, by 1951 they cultivated only 13 percent. That policy diminished the attraction of Communism and helped establish democracy in Japan. But the man most responsible for that policy was not Mr. Acheson, rather General MacArthur, who had issued the directive.
It finds, therefore, the testimony of Mr. Dooman not to hold much water when the claims were viewed in their chronological context and when it was realized that simply because a policy happened to coincide with that of the Communists, it was not necessarily bad. It asserts that the same kind of land reform policy should have been applied in both Germany and Italy. By not doing so, the country, through vacillation and fear to provide leadership lest it be accused of following Communist objectives, had lost much of the goodwill of the people which it had at the end of the war.
It concludes that there was still time for the country to take a position of bold leadership in the world "in the only true revolution—freedom's revolution."
"The Glamour of the Ring" tells of the victory
It questions why the International Boxing Club had refused to televise or broadcast the fight and whether, if it was in fact as Mr. Williams had described it, many sports fans would still have wanted to see it, given its apparent violence, though reportedly not so bloody as many previous professional prize fights.
It concludes that the students of history who had been pointing out parallels of late between the U.S. and ancient Rome appeared to be correct.
"Red Flag for Pedestrians?" tells of an experiment ongoing at Wilmore School, which in the past had its school safety patrol to guide children crossing the street with the traffic light, whereby the patrol was now equipped with red flags to make their presence more conspicuous so that drivers, as in the past, would not ignore them as they made turns at intersections.
It praises the idea and suggests that ordinary pedestrians might carry small red flags on their persons which they could also unfurl as they crossed the street, "a lot more useful than these tiny Confederate banners which are cluttering up the countryside and serving no good purpose that we know of."
We used to have one of those back in the sixth grade, that is, a red flag attached with short, self-tapping screws to a long aluminium pole for guiding the children across the street at our school. At the beginning of each good-weather day, as lieutenant of the guard, we would assist the captain in unfolding the United States flag and raising it, and each afternoon, lowering it, carefully folding it into the appropriate triangle and putting it away in the school office. No one whom we recall ever brandished a Confederate flag, despite the fact that such were very prominent in the culture of the time in certain areas, including at college football games of prominent universities. We had gained sense enough by that point to understand the implications, even at the ripe age of 12, that the Confederate flag was passé and stood for slavery and racism, nothing else, not rebellion against the Government or the status quo, or any other damn thing. It belongs only in a museum or some dramatic presentation for historical purposes, but certainly not on any State building. If you wish to fly one from your front lawn or paste it on your rear window or bumper and tell everybody thereby with any sense who observes it that you're an ignorant, insensitive redneck, that is your right in America. No one has said you have to be reasonable or not play the fool.
Now, cross the street, jackass
"Pity Old Biddy" finds that after the poultry man had first violated nature by depriving the flock of hens the companionship of a rooster most of the time, and also then placing electric lights in the chicken coop to fool them into thinking the sun was up, had now, according to Economic Intelligence, irradiated the sawdust with high-voltage electrons, which the hens then consumed to make "more hatchable eggs". Drew Pearson had reported that solar energy could make farming unnecessary as food factories utilizing artificial sunlight might replace the farm eventually.
It concludes that while science was wonderful, it would not count any of its chickens until they were hatched.
As we warned Republicans a couple of weeks ago, they probably ought take special heed of this report in light of events of the last few days.
And please stop belly-aching, Trumpies, about the mean, old, bad "Libtard" Democrats trying to trip up your nominee to the Supreme Court. Even the head Trumpie believes that hearings ought transpire on the latest allegations. We certainly did not hear you loudly complaining when persons out of Hollywood, normally associated with liberal causes, were being accused in the press and being fired, without any hearing, regarding various kinds of sexual harassment or sexual assault based on alleged incidents from many years earlier. The only difference now is that there will be due process to the extent that it can be had under the circumstances, in the form of a hearing, with examination of the competing sides. What could be more American?
Why don't you, Trumpies, bother sometime to sit down and actually read carefully the Constitution of the United States and then read a couple of serious books, not promoted by Fox News or their functional equivalent, that is not the product of a "conservative" "think"-tank, regarding the Federal Government and how it works in relation to that Constitution, thereby somehow educating yourselves beyond the equivalency of about a third-grade level, both academically and emotionally? We all will then be better off, most especially you, Trumpies.
At base of the current situation is the fact that it is the head Trumpie and the Republicans in Congress who have politicized the Supreme Court beyond anything ever occurring previously in the history of this country, starting with the vacancy which occurred after the death of Justice Scalia in February, 2016, and the refusal thereafter of the Republicans to hold hearings on President Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. Not even in 1968 when Chief Justice Earl Warren announced his retirement in latter June at the end of the term and President Johnson elevated Justice Abe Fortas to become Chief, prompting Senator Strom Thurmond, joined by a few other Southern and Republican Senators, to filibuster that nomination to death, enabling President Nixon to appoint in 1969 Warren Earl Burger to become Chief, was there any attempt to deny hearings to Justice Fortas. Indeed, a test vote on the floor was had to end debate, which failed of the necessary supermajority but nevertheless achieved a majority, making the point that the Fortas nomination would have been confirmed had it not been for the recalcitrant Southerners and Republicans who blocked it. Try to keep in mind as we go along that single, unprecedented fact, the 2016 refusal by Republicans even to hold hearings on a Supreme Court nomination. These are your just deserts for tampering with the Constitution of the United States and its normal process, requiring the Senate to "advise and consent" on the President's judicial nominations, tampering in the process also with the will of the majority of the citizens living honorably under that Constitution, those who voted for President Obama twice, in 2008 and 2012, not to mention the plurality who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Face the facts. You have laid a very large egg. Describing Democrats as "Libtards", "Snowflakes" and the like childish insults does not change the facts. You, Republicans, have lost the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections, since 1992. Does that not tell you something about how out-of-step your party policies are with the majority of the country?
You can, of course, continue to
stare at the lightbulb until you lay an egg shaped like it and call
it a grand idea which has never before been considered or demonstrated in the history
of mankind, appetence. Mind over matter. Will. Clucker
Drew Pearson tells of the Senators who ran the Senate Finance Committee being among the wealthiest in Congress, including five millionaires, with most of the others having incomes far above their $15,000 per year Senate salaries. They had just finished drafting a complicated new tax bill which would spare the rich and soak the poor more than at any time since the days of Andrew Mellon. "It is literally polka-dotted with loopholes to benefit special private interests all the way from mine owners to oyster-shell dealers." It had cut 1.5 billion dollars from the House tax bill in such a way that 90 percent of the tax savings went to the rich who could afford to pay more, while only 200 million was cut for the benefit of small-income taxpayers who earned less than $5,000 per year. He provides examples. He also explains some of the added loopholes.
Joseph Alsop discusses the testimony of former Communist Louis Budenz before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee, chaired by Senator McCarran, finds that Mr. Budenz had a remarkable penchant for recalling presently what he had not recalled in earlier testimony in 1950 when he testified before the investigating committee chaired by Senator Millard Tydings, regarding whether John Carter Vincent and John Service were Communists. The previous year, he had said that he did not know, but now claimed that Mr. Vincent definitely was a Communist. The same was true regarding Mr. Service, of whom the previous year he said he lacked information regarding his political affiliations, but presently claimed had "many contacts" within the Communist Party.
Mr. Alsop had produced two columns the previous week in which he showed that the testimony regarding Mr. Vincent's supposed Communist affiliation was contrary to his advice to then-Vice-President Henry Wallace in the spring of 1944 in relation to China and Mr. Vincent's advice that General Joseph Stilwell be replaced by General Albert Wedemeyer and that Patrick Hurley be appointed as a presidential liaison with the Chang Kai-shek regime, both suggestions having been decidedly anti-Communist.
A favorite Communist Party device, according to Dr. Frans Borkenau, a student of party history, was to betray undesirable persons to the police as dangerous Communists. Mr. Budenz thus may have been the unwitting victim of his former Communist associates, who derived considerable advantage from the fear and suspicion being aroused in the U.S. regarding Communists in the Government. Whittaker Chambers, the accusing witness of Alger Hiss in 1948, leading ultimately to the perjury conviction the previous year of Mr. Hiss, had once said: "With the play of so many influences on my mind, because people are always asking me questions, bringing me information, there are actually areas of my experience where I can no longer distinguish between what I once knew and what I have (later) heard." Mr. Budenz may have fallen victim to the same confusion of memory.
He finds, however, that if such charity could be extended to Mr. Budenz, it could not be accorded the counsel for the subcommittee, who had a large staff to gather the facts and whose questions had prompted the testimony of Mr. Budenz. The subcommittee and its counsel had access to the cable which Mr. Alsop had published the previous week regarding the recommendations of the change from General Stilwell to General Wedemeyer. Mr. Wallace had communicated its substance to Alfred Kohlberg, a prominent member of the China lobby, who was also a close collaborator with the subcommittee. He had also disclosed the matter to both Senators Homer Ferguson and McCarran as soon as his 1944 trip to China had become a subject of inquiry by the subcommittee.
He adds the disclaimer that what he had published was not intended as a defense of Mr. Vincent or anyone else, except as to the specific charges being discussed before the subcommittee. Mr. Wallace, after giving these recommendations to FDR, recommendations which if followed immediately might have saved Nationalist China from the Communists, had, himself, fallen under the influence of Communists during his 1948 run for the presidency.
He regards the type of public proceeding, however, which was transpiring in the subcommittee as a danger to "the common liberties of any ordinary citizen", and so felt the need to sort out the facts and challenge the process.
A letter writer from Pittsboro responds to a letter of September 10 regarding a suggestion of an historical parallel between the U.S. and ancient Rome, is reminded thereby of an incident in 1907 during his college days when the UNC library was being moved from its old building into the new Carnegie Library Building. He was assisting in the process as assistant librarian and one morning during the transfer of books, his old philosophy professor, Horace Williams, had made the statement in one of his advanced classes that man's knowledge did not transcend his experience. The writer found the suggestion absurd and, being the young fool, he says, that he then was, accepted it as a challenge. He asked Professor Williams why, if that statement were true, they did not simply burn the old books rather than move them to the new building. The professor had replied that he was referring to knowledge while the writer was talking about information, which had little, if any, effect upon human conduct.
The writer believes that the U.S.
was following a parallel with the Roman Empire, with increasing
defense budgets. It had only been 45 years since a furor had
developed over the budget reaching a billion dollars during the
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. He finds that while the country
enjoyed greater prosperity than in earlier days, it was "synthetic",
being based on war and preparation for war plus "relief for
domestic and foreign objectives". He urges the reader to think
it over
A letter from the general chairman of swimming activities for the Jaycees and the superintendent of the Parks & Recreation Commission tells of the Commission and the Jaycees having been co-hosts of the Carolinas AAU Senior Swimming Championships and the Junior Olympic Swimming Championships during the year. The meets had been held at Revolution Park Swimming Pool the prior July and August and had been successful, bringing the most outstanding swimmers in the South to Charlotte.
Were any of them black?
Framed Edition
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