The Charlotte News

Thursday, January 17, 1952

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Communist negotiators in Korea charged this date that an allied plane had bombed the Kaesong neutral zone, six miles from the truce talks site at Panmunjom. This charge was in addition to the similar charge two days earlier that an allied plane had attacked North Korean prison camps, killing 15 U.N. prisoners and injuring 64 others. A team of U.N. investigators was ordered to Kaesong to determine the validity of the claim. The Communists did not complain of any damage or injury resulting from the incident.

Otherwise, the two subcommittees, one working on prisoner exchange and the other on truce supervision, made no progress in their talks this date and would meet again the following day.

In the air war, U.S. Sabre jet pilots were credited with downing three enemy MIG-15 jets this date, two of which had been downed without firing a shot. The two had been pursued so acrobatically by the Fifth Air Force pilots that they went into a high-speed stall from which the pilots could not recover, though bailing out before the planes crashed. Three enemy tanks near Kaesong had also been destroyed.

There was no report of any major action in the ground war, where snow covered most of the front.

In Paris, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky said before the U.N. political committee that the Korean War could not reach truce in the field because of "unreasonable demands presented by the American command", renewing his pleas that the Security Council take up the matter. He said that American General James Van Fleet, the U.N. ground commander in Korea, was a "cannibal" unfit to conduct the talks. He also accused Secretary of State Acheson of not wanting any form of atomic control and seeking to undermine the Russian proposal recently put forward on that topic. The political committee referred the Russian disarmament program to the newly created disarmament commission for further study, pursuant to a resolution sponsored by Britain, France and the U.S. It rejected, however, that part of the proposal which had called for a Big Five pact to include Communist China in lieu of Nationalist China.

Soviet chief delegate Jacob Malik also accused the U.S. and Britain of prolonging the dispute between India and Pakistan regarding control of Kashmir, so that they could turn the state into a Western armed base. He stated that the U.N. mediator, former North Carolina Senator Frank Graham, had been a tool of the Pentagon, rather than taking his directions from the U.N. Security Council. He gave his support to a proposal by India to form a constituent assembly to settle the issue of Kashmir and denounced a U.N. plan for a plebiscite, supported by Pakistan. Britain's Sir Gladwyn Jebb derided the notion of an Anglo-American diabolical plot to control Kashmir, indicating that anyone who believed it could believe that a U.N. expedition to the Antarctic to study the habits of penguins was a disguised attack on totalitarianism. Mr. Malik retorted that the latter comment was the best proof that the West could not disprove his charges.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed a joint session of Congress this date, indicating that it was for Congress to judge how much aid Britain should receive and assuring that, regardless of the amount of the aid, the U.S. could count on Britain to do its part in the defense of Europe. He said that any aid to be provided would be for steel and equipment to build British defenses, stressing that he was not asking for aid to make life more comfortable for Britons. He stated that he expected the Chinese mainland eventually to reject its current Communist Government, provoking laughter when he said, "The tale of China is large and will not be wagged." He was greeted with thunderous applause from the packed chamber. The President did not attend, to avoid distraction from the Prime Minister. First Lady Bess Truman was in the presidential gallery. It was the third occasion on which the Prime Minister had spoken to Congress, once on December 26, 1941, shortly after Pearl Harbor, and again on March 19, 1943.

Senator Brien McMahon of Connecticut, chairman of the joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee, visited with the President and stated to the press afterward that he was sure the U.S. atomic energy program would be expanded, but declined to provide details.

Leading Democrats in Congress agreed with Republicans that a fourth post-Korean War tax increase, as sought by the President's economic message delivered the previous day to Congress, was virtually impossible during an election year.

General Eisenhower's name was entered in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, set for March 11, the first such presidential primary of the 1952 election cycle. A large group of "I Like Ike" supporters, headed by Governor Sherman Adams, to become chief of staff for President Eisenhower, presented the petitions to the New Hampshire Secretary of State. The General would be notified in Paris of the fact and he would have ten days affirmatively to withdraw his name. Failure to do so in that time would mean that he would be officially on the ballot.

In Louisiana, despite early returns the previous day showing Congressman Hale Boggs leading the Democratic gubernatorial primary race, he had fallen into third place in the final tally, behind the eventual winner, appellate Judge Robert Kennon, and political unknown Carlos Spaht, who had the backing of Governor Earl Long, the latter two therefore to contest one another in a runoff election on February 19. Congressman Boggs, supported by Senator Russell Long, nephew of Governor Long, had conceded to Judge Kennon, saying that it was impossible to overcome his lead.

In Conway, S.C., the sheriff expressed full confidence in six of his deputies he had re-arrested the previous day on charges stemming from arrests they had made at a Klan church demonstration the previous Halloween. The sheriff opposed the Klan and conducted the arrests of his deputies after a scheduled trial of the deputies, charged with false arrest of 14 Klansmen and disturbing their religious worship, had been halted the previous day at Myrtle Beach in the midst of a jurisdictional dispute. The new warrant in another county charged the deputies with a more serious offense, disturbing religious services with firearms. The deputies had originally arrested the Klansmen on charges of violating the state's new anti-mask law, forbidding the wearing of masks in a public place.

But it was Halloween. Don't they get a break to go Trick 'r Treatin' down at the church? It just not right.

In California, the 226 passengers and crewmen from the snowbound City of San Francisco Southern Pacific train had emerged following three and a half days of cold and hunger while stranded in Donner Pass, and were being transported to San Francisco aboard another Southern Pacific train after walking a quarter-mile from the stranded train by foot and by weasel and snowcat to a cleared highway, where they were picked up by automobile and taken to a lodge before boarding the rescue train. Several hundred spectators turned out in Sacramento to greet them as they passed through shortly after midnight. Elsewhere along the route, small crowds also turned out to see the passing train. Passengers stated that Dr. Walter Roehll of Middletown, O., and four nurses, all aboard as passengers, had saved their lives in treating 60 persons who had been overcome by gas fumes from a heating unit after the regular heating system was exhausted of fuel the previous Monday, a day after the ordeal began.

As testimony to the equanimity in time of crisis of the RNC members aboard, there was no report of murder or cannibalism.

In New York, Captain Kurt Carlsen, who had won recent fame by staying aboard his stricken American freighter, the Flying Enterprise, for nearly two weeks, until it finally succumbed to a second bout with high seas and high winds as it was being towed to Falmouth, England, was greeted with a tickertape parade on Broadway. Thousands turned out for the celebration, which had been accorded to such previous luminaries as Charles Lindbergh in 1927, General Douglas MacArthur at his homecoming the prior year, explorer Richard E. Byrd, General Pershing of World War I fame, and General Eisenhower, after World War II. Captain Carlsen said that he was completely overwhelmed and amazed, could not sleep the previous night, realizing how much trouble he had stirred up.

Well, what about the Northwest pilot who ditched his airliner in a shallow part of the East River the previous Monday, enabling all 36 aboard to be rescued safely? Doesn't he at least get a couple of noisemakers and a bagful of confetti?

Sportswriter Bob Saunders provides on the sports pages the first in a "series" of two stories on the outlook for professional baseball in North Carolina.

Question of the day: Can a two-part story be a series? We thought it required at least three parts.

On the editorial page, "The Nation's Economy" finds that the President's economic message to the Congress had shown that pay-as-you-go was for the time being out the window, as the new budget added more deficit financing and proposed another five billion dollars in additional taxes, to go with the 5.7 billion enacted in the previous Congressional session, short of the ten billion sought then by the President.

Defense spending had increased since the start of the Korean War from 17 billion to 45 billion per year, and a year hence, it would likely rise to 65 billion, representing 18 percent of all production, explaining therefore why pay-as-you-go had been sidetracked. Some economists pointed to the budget surplus during some of the years since the war and the possibility of diminished defense spending by 1954, thus balancing the budget over an eight-year span. But, it notes, it was possible that the country would be spending even more on armaments by 1954.

It was probable that the goal of the President of a five percent increase in national production would be met, as there had been an eight percent increase in 1951. Likewise, it was likely that another 1.3 million workers could be added to the payrolls, as only 1.7 million were presently unemployed, even though seasonal workers and plant changeovers would keep some out of the labor force.

It was unlikely that the President would find much support in Congress for his tax increase, especially in an election year.

He had soundly advocated cutbacks in availability of automobiles, television sets, and river and harbor appropriations, but, it opines, he should have gone further in advocating curtailment of non-essential Government expenditures.

The economy appeared to be booming while under Government control, but, it advises, the nation could and must expect cutbacks of civilian goods and continued high taxes, preferable to abandoning world commitments or allowing inflation to run rampant.

"No Room for the Klan" tells of the report of floggings emanating from Columbus County in southeastern North Carolina, as set forth on the front page the previous day, having apparently spread from Horry County in South Carolina, where Klan activity had been strong. Five such floggings had been reported since October and it was likely that others had occurred and gone unreported out of fear of reprisal. It hopes that the investigation by local authorities, the SBI and FBI would produce the culprits involved in the floggings and indicates that there was no room for the Klan in the state, that it should be crushed wherever it arose.

"Enthusiastic Amateurs" tells of the local Eisenhower for President rally having occurred the previous Tuesday night, attended by 50 persons, remarkable in that no significant organization or advertising had occurred for the event. It pointed out, however, that the Republican Party in the state lacked effective machinery, resulting from years of one-party domination.

It finds that the absence of professional politicians from the pro-Eisenhower movement might prove an asset, as the people had become distrustful of the leadership of both major parties. They were resentful of tight control exerted by party bosses over the national conventions and were beginning to express that distrust with this popular movement behind the General, appearing to stand above party politics.

It therefore wishes the new Mecklenburg organization well and hopes that it could soon match its zeal with mastery of the party rules, sufficient to pull the GOP in North Carolina from its lethargy and make it an effective participant in two-party government.

"Hoey and Smith See Alike" tells of Senators Clyde Hoey and Willis Smith of North Carolina agreeing, according to Congressional Quarterly, 86 percent of the time during the first session of the 82nd Congress. There were others from states who agreed more often, such as Senators Lister Hill and John Sparkman of Alabama, who registered the same votes 97 percent of the time. The piece finds, however, that the level of compatibility on important issues was serving the state better than when Senator Frank Graham had served between March, 1949 and the end of 1950 as interim Senator, often at odds with Senator Hoey such that the two had canceled out one another.

The notion that a state ought have bloc voting by its Senators is rather limited in its scope and appears as another frail rationale by The News to elect conservatives, also flying in the face of its consistent campaign to promote a true two-party system in the state, unless, by that, they mean two Republican Senators.

A piece from the Easley Rotary News, titled "Editors vs. Doctors", finds that editors were at a distinct disadvantage vis-à-vis doctors and other professionals. When an editor made a mistake, there was "hollering, cussing and a libel suit", whereas a doctor making a mistake resulted in a funeral and perfect silence. A doctor could use a long word, and as long as he knew what it meant, people would think he was educated, whereas an editor had to be able to spell any word he used. And so on and so forth…

Drew Pearson tells of Senator Francis Green of Rhode Island having attended a session of the conference between the President and Prime Minister Churchill and having urged the Prime Minister to support European Union, the Senator having just returned from the Strasbourg Conference as part of a Congressional delegation, and imparted to Mr. Churchill the pleas for European unity made by the delegates, including conservative Congressional Democrats and a Conservative British delegate, the latter known to Mr. Churchill. Despite the appeal, the Prime Minister provided no more than lip-service to European unity during the conference with the President.

Mr. Pearson next recounts of some of the major errors which Mr. Churchill had made during the war in his conferences with FDR, starting with the Cairo Conference of 1943, which included Chiang Kai-shek and in which Mr. Churchill had vigorously opposed an Allied campaign favored by FDR, to traverse the Burma Road to rescue China, instead desiring an Allied campaign to retake Britain's old possessions, Singapore and the Malays. To placate Chiang, upset by the rejection of FDR's Burma Road plan, FDR proposed that Britain give up Hong Kong, but the Prime Minister would not hear of it, said that he did not intend to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. The end result marked the beginning of the end for the Chiang regime in China. Mr. Pearson notes that Hong Kong had supplied the Communists with part of their gas and oil used to oppose the U.N. forces in Korea.

Prime Minister Churchill had also demanded a British top commander for Allied forces in Italy during 1943-44, despite most of the troops being American, with the result that nothing could be done in the Mediterranean theater without British approval. One result had been the gross mismanagement of Greece, leading to the civil war after initial British occupation following the ouster of the Nazis, with Mr. Churchill giving the British commander in Athens an order to open fire on any armed male who assailed the authority of the British, directing that he "keep and dominate Athens". That policy eventually failed and the U.S. had to enter with military advisers and aid to clean up the resulting mess.

Tom Fesperman of The News discusses racially restrictive covenants and their ban by the February, 1950 National Housing Act, which prevented the Federal Housing Administration from insuring a loan with such a covenant in the sales contract binding the owner to sell or rent only to a particular race. If the buyer wanted an FHA-insured loan and the contract had such a covenant, he would either have to make sure that the covenant was removed or seek insurance of the loan elsewhere. In Charlotte, despite the new rule, FHA-insured loans remained quite common. Prior to 1950, racially restrictive covenants in sales contracts were the usual case and the absence of one, the exception. Now, it was just as rare to see such a covenant in a contract.

The law was enacted in the wake of Shelley v. Kraemer, before the Supreme Court in May, 1948, holding 6-0, in a decision announced by Chief Justice Fred Vinson, that, of themselves, racially restrictive covenants within a contract could not be disturbed as unconstitutional, as the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause required state action before its provisions applied, but was violated if the covenant were contested in the courts and the homeowner sought the court to enforce it, thus entailing state action to do so. Thus, for all intents and purposes, racially restrictive covenants in contracts were no longer enforceable and could be binding therefore only by mutual assent between buyer and seller or lessor and lessee of the property in question.

An editorial from the Louisville Courier-Journal objects to modern chairs, tables and what-knots of the "plywood and piping school of design", dubbed functional, but, it finds, not for ordinary human beings. "The people who tore off your front porch and gave you the pitiless exposure of that picture window, are ever on the alert. One sign of weakening, one feeble smile in the direction of a leopard-skin hammock slung on three spikes, and the battle will be lost."

A letter writer complains about the newspaper taking pot shots at the residents of the Steele Creek and Berryhill communities within Mecklenburg County, regarding the proposed extension of the Municipal Airport runway to accommodate Air Force jets for Air National Guard training. He indicates that only five or six landowners were directly impacted by the proposed project and so when the newspaper referred to "many" such property owners, it was unfair to the other residents.

A letter writer, describing himself as a "Federal Employee", does not agree with the editorial of January 8 setting forth the endorsement of General Eisenhower for the Republican nomination. He wonders whether people had taken the time to analyze whether the General was best suited to be President, given his lack of experience in dealing with industry. He favors having an outstanding industrialist as President, such as Charles E. Wilson, the current Defense Mobilizer and former head of G.E.

A letter writer, stating that he was a "disgusted taxpayer", does not like the current Administration, does not like the fact that young men had been "thrown into Korea and 'clobbered' for the lack of necessary tools of war to protect themselves with for the first three or four months". He asks rhetorically whether anyone could vote for such a leader and suggests that they were forgetting their sons if they did so, along with the Cabinet officers, military advisers, RFC and Treasury scandals, defense secretaries, and over-taxation, in addition to their right to free government.

He just does not like him.

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