The Charlotte News
Friday, September 21, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Don Huth, that General Matthew Ridgway had withheld his answer this date to the Communist proposal of the previous day that the Korean truce talks resume at Kaesong. As the U.N. limited offensive moved forward, even the Communist Chinese radio, normally putting forth voluminous amounts of verbiage in anti-U.N. propaganda each day, was notably almost silent.
In ground action, allied armored columns, in an operation dubbed "Cleaver", pushed into the northern corner of the old Communist Iron Triangle in central Korea, shooting up everything in sight, and then withdrawing for the night. It appeared to have been the heaviest armored thrust of the Korean War, the first in that area since the previous May, and infantrymen followed the tanks into action. One tank column appeared north of Chorwon, encountering light resistance, while a second met stiff opposition north of Kumhwa. The third tank column then encountered this resistance, running into heavy anti-tank fire in a stiff battle. Bitter fighting spanned 80 miles along the Korean front. In the mountainous east-central front, U.S. Marines knocked nearly 2,000 enemy troops from a 3,000-foot peak which the enemy had defended stubbornly for four days. On the eastern front, the "Battle of the Hills", previously engaged in heavy fighting, diminished to sporadic clashes.
Early on Friday, 200 armed North Korean troops had tried to enter allied lines in the spiny ridges of the east, bearing a fake offer of surrender; but when the ruse became apparent, U.N. artillery and warplanes had opened up on them, the artillery killing at least 50.
In Ottawa, the U.S., Britain and France had substantially agreed on organization of a separate NATO military command for the Middle East after Turkey and Greece, newly approved members of NATO, had the membership ratified by all of the member nations. Diplomatic informants said that it was an unexpected result of private Big Three talks held during the breaks of the meeting of the NATO Council during the week. Turkey would serve as the keystone of a new command, around which the powers hoped to coordinate the strategy and armed forces of the key Middle Eastern countries, such as the Arab states, though they did not belong to NATO. The central fulcrum for such an organization would be their common need for joint defense against possible Soviet attack. The critical question would be how Egypt and other non-NATO countries would react to this plan. It was understood that the plan had been approved by the U.S. Joint Chiefs prior to the beginning of the conference.
The president of the St. Louis printing firm which had received a large RFC loan in 1949 and had paid DNC chairman William Boyle a fee, which Mr. Boyle claimed was a legal fee, having nothing to do with any influence exerted by him regarding the RFC loan, testified to the Senate subcommittee investigating the matter that his company had given away $90 Polaroid cameras as "goodwill gestures" to several Government officials, including a Presidential secretary and Mr. Boyle. He said that his company had hired Mr. Boyle as its Washington counsel at $500 per month in 1949, expecting that "some things might develop". He said that, as it had turned out, however, nothing of importance had developed which required Mr. Boyle's services.
In New Delhi, India had agreed to supply 20 million yards of medium grade cloth requested by Communist China.
Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota said that the nation's economy was strong enough to sustain the burden of a large new tax increase, as he fought for at least 9 billion dollars worth of new taxes. The Senate Finance Committee had recommended tax increases of 5.5 billion, while the President had urged 10 billion dollars in new taxes.
The Army ordered the purchase of up to 10 million pounds of beef in foreign countries outside the Soviet bloc, following a request from domestic meat packers for bids on 13 million pounds of boneless beef, which brought offers of only 190,000 pounds from two of the smaller packers, while the major packers had refused to submit bids because of the beef shortage.
In Weedon, England, a speeding express train jumped the tracks and plunged down a steep embankment, badly smashing two of five passenger coaches which had piled up in the crash, causing the deaths of at least 11 persons, including an unidentified U.S. Air Force corporal, and injuring another 45 passengers. The train was bound from Liverpool to London.
In Des Moines, an 18-year old boy who had been shot in the chest and arms with shotgun pellets told hospital attendants, as they picked dozens of the pellets from him, that he wished he had gone to a choir practice the previous night, when, instead, he met up with friends and they tried to hunt watermelons. They drove to a farm, where the hired man spotted them, told them to halt, then fired into the darkness, hitting the boy as the other three fled. The farmer caught them and took them to the county jail, but said he was not angry with them. He said boys had been "riding" his melon patch since late July and he had to put a stop to it. The boys said that they had not tried melon hunting previously, but heard that farmers always shot over the hunters' heads. The wounded boy said that he did not blame the farmer and that he had lost his appetite for watermelons, to which the other boys readily agreed.
As pictured, the U.S. Marines had landed for the first time in combat aboard a giant helicopter behind enemy lines in Korea the previous day on a hilltop which would have taken two days to climb. The Flying Bananas, as they were called, were Sikorsky H-1s.
Wonder if they cost more than $100.
On page 9-A appears the fifth installment in the twelve-part serialization of Dr. Evelyn Millis Duvall's Facts of Life and Love, providing advice to teenagers, this time advising on how to distinguish the many forms and faces of love, the topic as provided Saturday: "Who Do You Love—and How?"
On the editorial page, "Is the Dust Settling Again?" finds that despite the City Traffic Engineer, Herman Hoose, having filed the prior January with the City Council his plan for regulating the movement of heavy trucks through the city, it had, since that time, only been gathering dust, until a public hearing was held on September 12 to hear proponents and opponents of the proposal, at which time the Council delayed action for a week. It then decided that another hearing would need to be scheduled at an indefinite time in the future, at which time the Council would again consider the report. It finds it appropriate to ask the members of the Council whether they were deliberately stalling or were just too lazy to read an important public document.
"The Ottawa Decision" discusses the NATO Council agreement in Ottawa the previous day to admit Greece and Turkey to NATO, subject to ratification by all of the NATO nations. It finds the new emphasis on the Middle East to be encouraging, a move which was especially timely in view of the Iranian-British oil nationalization dispute. Along with the recently signed Japanese peace treaty and the bilateral American agreements with each of the Philippines, New Zealand, and Australia, it presented another sign that the free world was now dealing from a position of strength.
Notwithstanding, the piece indicates reservations regarding the NATO Council decision, as it was not yet convinced that inclusion of Greece and Turkey in NATO was the best long-range answer to shoring up the Mediterranean and the Middle East against Communist aggression. The North Atlantic and the Mediterranean differed in several ways, as they were distinct geographically and in terms of their peoples, governments and traditions, as well as in military viewpoint, presenting different strategic and tactical issues. Admiral Robert Carney, commander of allied forces in Southern Europe, had stated in the current issue of U.S. News & World Report that the Middle East should be organized separately from NATO while being closely affiliated with it.
The Ottawa decision had put the Atlantic and the Mediterranean into one organization under the control of the NATO Council, albeit with only advisory powers. Its decisions had to be unanimous, though no member had yet used its unilateral veto.
It fears that the U.S. had chosen to make anti-Communism, rather than freedom and homogeneity of interests, the criterion for membership in NATO and that it had thereby encumbered the building of a strong, unified Atlantic community by including Turkey and Greece. It meant that General Eisenhower, as commander of NATO forces, would have to spread himself somewhat thin, over a much larger area of the world.
"Putting the 'Whammy' on Speeders" tells of Greensboro's new radar device for clocking speeders having several advantages over the older two-point observation method, as it was able to check speed accurately to within two miles per hour and make better use of manpower and machines, while serving also as a psychological weapon in the war on speeders.
The Mecklenburg County Police Chief had decided to buy one of the "whammies" and the State Highway Patrol Commander was promising further experiments within the state. There was a question of admissibility of the evidence recorded on the "whammy", but one Greensboro Municipal Court judge had said he would accept the evidence in court. A test case would have to go to the State Supreme Court before the gadgets would be accepted generally, as North Carolina required that evidence of speeding be "conclusive".
It again explains that speed was the number one killer on the state's highways, having been a factor in 160 out of 412 fatal accidents, and in one-sixth of all traffic accidents. It favors a mandatory suspension of the driver's license after an individual had been convicted of speeding or reckless driving.
When you see those two long black snakes streched across the road in close proximity to one another, you know to hit the brakes hard, double-quick.
"Senator Hoey Misses the Point" tells of North Carolina Senator Clyde Hoey having written constituents three weeks earlier that he would uphold the President's veto of a new bill granting pensions to disabled veterans for non-service connected disabilities. But during the week, the Senator had joined with 68 other Senators to override the veto. Senator Hoey explained that veterans organizations had told him that a veteran, to qualify, had to be either blind or so helpless that he needed someone to assist him, and that his other income had to be below $1,000 annually, if he were single, or $2,500, if married.
It finds Senator Hoey to have missed the point as the new bill did not apply to veterans whose disability was a direct or indirect result of war service, thus not deserving generous aid as those who suffered combat injuries. Rather, it applied to veterans whose disability was non-service connected. That, it posits, provided an injustice which had prompted the President's veto. The President had said that if non-service connected problems were included, then medical care ought also be provided non-veterans. It finds Senator Hoey to have ignored this sound principle, as had Representative Hamilton Jones of Charlotte, who also voted to override in the House. It adds that Senator Willis Smith of North Carolina had not been present at the time of the vote.
An editorial from the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser tells of it being proud that it had not joined the pack of newspapers seeking Secretary of State Acheson's resignation the previous winter and spring. It had been one of the few American newspapers which had stood by him at that time, though having since been joined by many more. Recently, he had been said to have soared into such high public regard that people now waited outside the State Department doors to cheer him as he emerged, following his deft handling of the Japanese treaty conference in San Francisco. Even his enemy, Senator Joseph McCarthy, had conceded that Mr. Acheson had laid the Russians out in great style at the conference.
Likewise, Senator William Knowland of California and Governor Dewey had praised Mr. Acheson's performance.
It quotes from the Washington Post the previous spring, saying that Mr. Acheson had become a "political deadweight". It also quotes its own editorial from May 3, criticizing that opinion, and praising Secretary Acheson for the decision to defend Korea and for supporting the ideas of NATO and the Marshall Plan. Its earlier editorial had concluded that no man had fashioned more methods for resisting Russia than had Secretary Acheson.
It states that the American people had been responsible for the Korean invasion by insisting on disarmament in 1945, but Mr. Acheson had become the scapegoat. His reputation had begun to improve during the spring when he appeared before the MacArthur investigating committee and was able to resist the attempts of his Republican tormentors to discredit him. No one any longer could make the claim that he was an appeaser. He was in fact the worst enemy the Russians had in the country. He had been the primary instigator of the Berlin airlift in 1948-49, NATO, and the Marshall Plan, as well as the Korean intervention and the system of military alliances in the Pacific.
It concludes that his handling of the Japanese treaty conference and the formation of bilateral mutual defense treaties otherwise in the Pacific, as had been praised in Time, was indeed an extraordinary diplomatic achievement. It asserts that the Russians would rather hang Mr. Acheson than Tito.
Drew Pearson tells of a letter from General J. Lawton Collins, the Army chief of staff, to the spokesman for the 88 discharged West Point cadets, in which he had said that while they were not good enough to be West Point officers, they were still good enough to be Army officers. He assured that their expulsion from West Point for cheating on exams would not prevent them from becoming Army officers. He found their frank admissions of guilt and wholesome spirit of repentance to have confirmed his first impression that those involved in the matter, while openly admitting the violation of the cadet code of honor, were not fundamentally of bad morals or character. Mr. Pearson publishes the letter, though never intended for publication.
He notes that despite past violators of the honor code having received dishonorable discharges, General Collins had shown special leniency to these 88 cadets. It had been decided to allow them to resign and receive a simple administrative discharge without specification regarding the circumstances.
General Eisenhower was satisfied with the progress of Western Europe's defense program but said that the job he would like to see accomplished was not half complete, would take about another year to get the NATO allies in top shape, militarily and economically. He added, however, that the armies under his command were already prepared to give a good account of themselves if called upon to resist Soviet aggression.
Everyone liked South Carolina Senator Burnet Maybank, but his colleagues sometimes had difficulty understanding him. He hailed from the low country where blacks and whites spoke a dialect all their own. As a result, Senators sitting next to him sometimes had no idea what he was saying. Recently, Senator Ralph Flanders of Vermont had listened carefully to Senator Maybank explaining a new bill, after which he said that he would paraphrase Voltaire by saying that he did not understand a word he had said, but would defend his right to say it.
Marquis Childs tells of an organized effort behind the scenes to smear General Eisenhower, based on the idea that he would not be the type of president that the people involved in this smear campaign wanted. Some of the people so involved were those who desired the equivalent of American Fascism, a fringe which had always existed in the country. Some wealthy citizens, however, were also involved, carefully remaining in the background. One of them, a prominent Republican, was reported to be preparing an elaborate dossier on the General's private life, to be handed out at the appropriate time. He had denied the allegation, as had others said to be involved in the campaign.
Some of those involved favored Nationalist China and considered the General's preoccupation with defense of Europe to be a disqualification for the presidency.
General Eisenhower would never stand for guilt by association. One of the principal targets of the Senate Internal Security Committee was Ambassador-at-Large Philip Jessup, who had been repeatedly denounced by Senator Joseph McCarthy. When he had first been denounced, General Eisenhower had dispatched a telegram affirming his belief in Mr. Jessup's patriotism and loyalty. Since the claims against Mr. Jessup were old, the belief was that the real target might be General Eisenhower. One or two others who had been denounced before the Committee could also be linked to the General.
Those who wanted to draft General Eisenhower in 1952 were well aware that he was not a politician and that he did not like being the target of unfair and vicious attacks. Mr. Childs concludes that the price of duty, which was how the General viewed a possible bid for the presidency, could be too high.
Robert C. Ruark comments on the growing trend among fans of male vocal entertainment being the loud, booming baritone voice, such as that of Mario Lanza, Ezio Pinza, Robert Merrill, and Frankie Laine.
Recently, when he had been in a local saloon, he had stumbled across an old "disreputable acquaintance" named John Carroll, who was singing "Old Man River", receiving approval from the women in the audience as if he were Frank Sinatra in the old days. And he was not even a professional singer.
He relates of Mr. Carroll's previous 20 years as a stunt driver in Hollywood while he had sung in his bathroom. A man he knew in Houston dared him to sing and that was when his singing career had been born.
Mr. Ruark says that he and Mr. Carroll had about the same amount of hair and were both big, that, moreover, Mr. Ruark had been yodeling in the shower for years. He suggests that while there might be more sinus in his baritone and that his profile might not be quite so regular as that of Mr. Carroll, he at least deserved a try.
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