The Charlotte News

Wednesday, January 2, 1952

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that allied truce negotiators in Korea had proposed releasing all prisoners of war and displaced persons in the country, with the guarantee that no one would be sent home against their will, a proposal found initially unacceptable by the Communists. An allied spokesman expressed hope that the Communists might change their minds once they had a chance to study the complex plan and understood it better. It was intended as a compromise between the U.N. man-for-man exchange proposal and the all-for-all exchange proposal of the Communists. A spokesman at Tokyo headquarters summed up the U.N. plan by saying it was an "exchange of everyone who wants to be exchanged". It would begin on a man-for-man basis, to ensure that the U.N. would receive all of its prisoners in Communist hands, and when one side ran out of prisoners, both soldiers and civilians, on that basis, then all prisoners remaining would be released and those who wished to be repatriated, would be, with those who wished not to be exchanged promising never to fight again in the Korean War.

Both subcommittees, that regarding prisoners and that regarding supervision of the truce, would meet again the following day.

In air action, allied planes, flying 210 sorties by noon, struck Communist rail traffic in North Korea, as a frigid haze enveloped ground fighting, which had come almost to a standstill with the exception of patrol contacts.

Clarence Streit, formerly of the New York Times and currently editor of Freedom & Union magazine, recently returned from the NATO Council meeting in Rome and conferences with military and diplomatic leaders in Europe, including General Eisenhower, tells of a great debate having developed in Europe, centering on how to accomplish more rapidly the goals of European and North Atlantic military, economic and political unity, with federal union being the goal. While there was general unity on the goals, there were differences regarding the means to accomplish them. The U.S. favored further uniting of Western Europe as a prerequisite to further integration of the Atlantic community, but that was being blocked by the British and many of the Western European countries, favoring instead advancing further toward Atlantic Union as the best way to speed integration of Western Europe. A third, compromise solution was to make the next step a joint one, advancing both European and Atlantic unity at about the same time, a course favored more by the Europeans than the Americans. He indicates that the debate would likely grow in intensity during the ensuing few weeks when Prime Minister Churchill was scheduled to visit Washington, and would likely result in a public decision in February, when the NATO Council met next in Lisbon.

Congressman Wayne Hays of Ohio told reporters, following a meeting at the White House, that the President had informed him that he would make known his intentions whether to run or not for re-election by February 6, the last day for filing by candidates for Ohio delegates to the Democratic convention.

The President announced this date plans for reorganization of the scandal-ridden IRB, as one of his principal steps in ridding the Government of influence peddling and favor-seekers. The plan for the IRB called for abolition of 64 offices of district collectors and placing all functions of the Bureau under 25 district offices, each headed by a district commissioner. The President said that he intended to make the IRB "a blue ribbon" agency.

In Moscow, Maxim Litvinoff, a long-time Soviet diplomat who had favored cooperation with the Western powers and had been a former member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, had died at age 75.

Off England, Captain Kurt Carlsen continued to stand watch alone through the fifth night since he had ordered all others to abandon the American freighter Flying Enterprise, stricken in the Atlantic storm and listing during rescue operations to 60 degrees. A U.S. destroyer, not equipped for towing, reached the side of the vessel to aid a British ship, on its way to provide a tow for the stricken vessel, but hampered by high seas. Officials of the shipping company were hopeful that the ship and its cargo could be saved. The ship, according to a company spokesman, had appeared to balance itself.

In Arizona, 65 miles northeast of Phoenix, 35 airmen and cowboys sought, through rugged, mountainous country in the Armer Mountains, to reach the bodies of the 28 military personnel killed in the crash of an Air Force C-47 transport plane, having struck the mountain about 100 feet below the crest and at the foot of a rocky bluff. Three to four inches of snow and five-degree temperatures hampered operations. The dead included 19 West Point cadets.

The four-day holiday death toll from accidents was 602, of which 367 were in auto accidents, bringing the total Christmas and New Year's holiday toll to nearly 1,400. The National Safety Council had predicted that 350 persons would be killed in traffic accidents during the previous holiday weekend. Included in the total were the 28 dead from the crash of the Air Force C-47 in Arizona and the 26 killed in the crash of a non-scheduled C-46 airliner in the Allegheny foothills in New York. The four-day Christmas total had been 789, including 535 traffic fatalities. The previous year, the New Year holiday traffic fatalities were 304 over the course of a three-day period. Thus, this year, 92 died per day, while the prior year, 101 had died per day during the New Year holiday period. During the first half of 1951, the non-holiday, four-day average accidental death toll was 455, of which 270 had occurred in auto accidents.

Subzero temperatures swept the Midwest and West, including 30-degree readings at the San Francisco Airport during the morning, the lowest temperature for January 2 on record at that location, and subzero temperatures in several Northern California towns, such as Susanville and Truckee, the latter, in the Sierras, reaching 18 below zero. In International Falls, Minn., readings were recorded of 23 below zero, and at Bismarck, N.D., 22 below zero. Meanwhile, temperatures on New Year's Day had reached 78 in Richmond, 76 in Norfolk, and 74 in Lynchburg and Bristol, Va., while Brownsville, Tex., recorded 82 degrees, New Orleans and Shreveport, La., 80, and Miami, 79.

On the editorial page, "Waste at Home and Abroad" tells of the current issue of Fortune indicating that 87 percent of the 70 billion dollar Federal budget consisting of defense and foreign aid. The average person earning $5,000 per year thus paid $400 of taxes for those purposes, $18,000, if earning $50,000 per year.

Yet, the latest report of the National Planning Association suggested that because of rampant waste, there was no guarantee that the tax dollars were being spent wisely by the Government on defense and foreign aid. The Association favored establishment of a regular civilian agency of the Government to investigate these expenditures and report its findings to the President, the Congress and the public. While put forward several months earlier, there had been little response thus far from the Government.

The Hoover Commission had recommended in 1947 that a thorough survey be conducted of the foreign aid program, which employed 200,000 persons in 96 countries, representing 40 different Federal agencies, controlled by 30 Congressional committees. But, thus far, little had been done toward effecting this end.

It finds that the reason for inaction was that the President did not welcome outside help, and that the Congress was reluctant to surrender its prerogatives, preferring to send its members on annual junkets abroad to check on foreign aid spending, while using already overburdened committees to conduct investigations of defense expenditures, the results of which were often superficial and sensational, aimed at grabbing headlines instead of remedying defects.

It thinks it quite incredible that such large portions of the national budget should continue to become enlarged without basic investigation by an impartial body to regulate spending efficiency. It urges voters to bear that in mind as they went to the polls in 1952.

"North Carolina Taxes" tells of the state ranking tenth in both population and the volume of taxes which it collected, according to the Tax Foundation of New York. New York and California, respectively, collected the most taxes.

It suggests that if the only gauge for the amount of taxes was the population, then State taxes were not too high, but that for full assessment, other factors had to be included in the analysis, such as the taxpaying ability of the state's residents, North Carolina ranking 41st in per capita income, and the relative extent of state services, which in North Carolina, by virtue of the State covering the costs of transportation of schoolchildren and many of the textbooks, were more extensive than in many other states.

The tax structure, both individual and corporate, had been criticized for deterring corporations from locating in the state, and that result would likely receive careful study in the 1953 Legislature. While the Tax Foundation study would be helpful in that regard, the piece urges that ability to pay and relative services received had to be taken into account.

"Lynching Is On the Way Out" tells of the Tuskegee Institute's annual report showing only one lynching during 1951, a continuing trend for the previous five years, when one had been reported in 1947, two in 1948, three in 1949, and two in 1950.

The 1951 victim was Melvin Womack of Winter Garden, Florida, who, on March 28, had been taken from his home by masked men and the next day was found still alive in an orange grove by a police officer, dying in a hospital two days later from his injuries. The Institute believed that the lynchers had gotten the wrong man, as no one appeared to know why he had been kidnaped and murdered.

In addition, according to the report, three potential lynchings had been prevented, and two Southern states had made progress toward enacting anti-lynching bills. In South Carolina, the House had passed a law providing the death penalty for "first degree" lynching, requiring a jury recommendation of mercy to lessen the penalty to a 5 to 40-year sentence, while "second degree" lynching, one which did not result in a fatality, would carry a sentence of 3 to 20 years. In Florida, a similar bill was before the Legislature, also providing for equal liability of co-conspirators in the lynching.

It notes that while neither of those laws had been enacted, the fact that they were debated was an encouraging indication of thoughtful leadership in the region. It hopes that the day was not far off when the lynchers would receive the "swift punishment" which any other murderer was provided.

A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "Gun Around the Corner", comments on the Detroit Army Arsenal's development of a 90-degree bent gun barrel, capable of being attached to a .44-caliber submachine gun, enabling it to shoot around corners.

The piece suggests that for every corner which such a gun could shoot around, there would be a half dozen which would not be suitable for the purpose, such as those which were cut or trimmed, as no one would be there. A corner which had been turned would be even worse, as not only would there be no one there, but the person who had been there would be out of harm's way. If shooting around a corner where prosperity was lurking, the result would be as bad as killing the goose which laid the golden egg. And shooting around the corner in which the wind blew would be an idle gesture, just as no one would wish to shoot around such a corner during summer when the breeze acted as respite from the heat.

It concludes that those who would use the gun to shoot around the wrong corner would be forced to go stand in one.

Douglas Cater, writing in the Reporter, indicates that in 1951, Congress had passed 25 appropriations bills totaling about 91 billion dollars, the largest peacetime budget in the country's history. To assess the appropriations, the House Appropriations Committee had employed 97 assistants and investigators, therefore each assigned to consider about a billion dollars worth of the budget. He suggests that the job was too big for Congress, without resorting to across-the-board cuts to appropriations, opposed by many members and the Administration.

Senator Paul Douglas, who had carried on a one-man campaign to reduce the budget, had proposed 80 specific cuts in appropriations, amounting to approximately 1.3 billion dollars, of which only about 402 million had been accepted by the Senate. A large number of those proposed cuts had been dropped in conference between the House and the Senate. In the process, Senator Douglas had spent at least 35 hours defending his proposed cuts on the floor of the Senate. His battle, suggests Mr. Cater, had been worthwhile to expose a few of the traditional exponents of sound economy, such as Senator Walter George of Georgia, who considered himself to be a great economizer, but, as a key member of the Joint Committee on the Legislative Budget, set up in 1946 to assist in coordinating Congressional action in balancing the budget, had allowed the Committee to rest in abeyance, without meeting since 1949. And Senator George did not seem to care that the budget had not been balanced, blaming the President for the problem. He had voted for only three of the 16 roll-call votes on the economy amendments proposed by Senator Douglas.

Mr. Cater finds that the statements of Senator George the previous October 20 at the close of the session, again complaining about the waste of funds being "corruption itself", had a false ring.

Drew Pearson tells of a Communist doctor, Emil Weil, who had been arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison for subversive activities in 1934, having become Hungarian Minister to Washington in 1950. The previous week, as Hungary had gouged the government for $120,000 in fines to gain the release of the four American airmen accused of espionage after their plane was forced down on November 19, he sat in Washington protected by diplomatic immunity. Mr. Pearson explains his rise to power, by reorganizing the Doctors' Union, surrounding himself in the process with former Nazis from the wartime occupation. Those who had opposed both the Nazis and the Communists during the war were treated harshly and ousted from medical facilities, while those who endorsed the Communist Party, though having been Nazis during the war, were treated lightly, despite Dr. Weil being Jewish.

Dr. Weil had been called in to drug Cardinal Mindszenty, as a means of extracting his confession to subversive activities against the Government. During the Cardinal's 82 hours of cross-examination, he had held up well; but when his secretary was led into the examination room, covered with blood, hysterical and shouting wild answers to every question, the Cardinal had fainted, at which point Dr. Weil administered a drug, aktedon, after which the Cardinal, to that point having resisted confession, then provided the answers the tribunal wished to hear.

George Gallup comments on the latest Gallup polls, heading into the presidential election year. General Eisenhower led both Senator Taft and the President in separately polled head-to-head match-ups by margins of 2 to 1. He led among Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Republican leaders across the country, however, favored Senator Taft for the nomination by a margin of 3 to 1.

The President's popularity, steadily falling during the Korean War, had reached an all-time low of 23 percent approval for the way he was handling his job, while 58 percent disapproved and 19 percent expressed no opinion. Mr. Gallup points out, however, that the President had suffered sharp popularity declines previously and rebounded, notably in both 1947 and 1948. Democratic leaders across the country favored his renomination, except in the South, where Senator Harry F. Byrd was the leading choice.

General MacArthur was considered the third choice for the Republican nomination among Republican voters.

Voters, however, when asked in December which party was best for the people in their line of work, had stated preference for the Democrats. The same response came from the traditionally Republican Midwest farm belt. Younger voters, between ages 21 and 29, expressed preference for the Democrats by a margin of nearly 2 to 1.

He states that if voter turnout reached 55 million, 22 million would call themselves "regular" Democrats, while 17.5 million would consider themselves "regular" Republicans, and 15.5 million, Independents. Thus, neither party could claim a majority without a substantial portion of the Independent vote, although the Republicans obviously would need nearly twice as many to claim victory.

Louis Graves, of the Chapel Hill Weekly, comments on the News editorial, "Options for the Southern Voter", saying that its concluding question, whether Southern Democrats, assuming they were as dissatisfied with the President as their leaders suggested, should not vote Republican in 1952, could be answered affirmatively, provided the Republicans nominated a person who Southern Democratic voters would prefer over the President.

He finds that some Southerners had indicated that they would vote for anyone in preference to the President, but others had indicated that they would bolt the Democratic Party only if the Republicans fielded a person to whom they could entrust the country's leadership.

Senator Taft, he posits, had character and ability, but his foreign policy positions, tending toward isolationism, were not acceptable to most Southerners. But that was not true of General Eisenhower. Southerners would support him both on foreign policy and on domestic matters, and, he predicts, if he were to become the GOP nominee, a "dangerous bolt" of Southern Democrats would take place, dangerous to the party organization, but not the country.

Ninth Day of Christmas: Nine Southern States staying...

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