The Charlotte News

Tuesday, January 22, 1952

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via William C. Barnard, that the allied negotiators accused the Communist negotiators in Korea this date of making "an out and out grab for military advantage" and showing "ruthless disregard of the rights of the individual", rejecting in the process the Communist demands for "forced repatriation" of all prisoners of war, even if those prisoners wanted voluntarily to remain on the side where they were captured. The allies remained steadfast in their insistence upon voluntary repatriation. The other subcommittee, discussing enforcement of the armistice, again was stymied by the Communist refusal to agree to a ban on airfield reconstruction during the armistice, in a meeting which lasted only 14 minutes. Thus, neither subcommittee was able to make progress and would meet again the following day.

Negotiators, however, did take steps to safeguard prisoners from air attack, as staff officers agreed to work out such safeguards starting the following day. Presumably, such safeguards would entail having the Communists inform the U.N. command where their POW camps were located, something which they had not done. The previous week, the Communists reported that allied bombs had killed twenty allied soldiers and wounded many others in a prisoner of war camp near Kangdong.

In the air war, U.S. jets encountered no enemy jets in foul weather over northwest Korea this date, while other U.N. planes attacked Communist rail lines in 153 sorties flown by noon, in the fourth straight day of bad weather.

In the ground war, amid freezing temperatures and snow flurries, action slowed to only patrol clashes.

At Camp Hakata on Kyushu Island in Japan, the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team had lost its champion parachutist, Sgt. Ronald (Pappy) Colwell of Youngstown, O., to another outfit after he was injured in a recent jump. He had begun his career with the flying circus in 1933 and had made 971 jumps before joining the Army paratroopers in 1942, where he had made an additional 119 jumps. The Army said, however, he would likely be unable to jump again.

In Cambodia, the Communist-led Vietminh had injured nine persons this date with exploding bicycles, bearing two bombs, which detonated outside a restaurant in Phnom Penh. The previous day, eight similar bombs had injured about 30 persons outside a government building in Saigon.

In Tunisia, rioting again broke out, resulting in nine Tunisians and a French officer being killed at Sousse, bringing the death toll to 28 during the week of fighting between the Nationalists and French police within the French protectorate. At least five Tunisians had been killed and twenty wounded the previous night by grenades hurled during a demonstration at Nabeul. A French gendarme had also been killed in a shooting near the port of Bizerte. The Tunisian Nationalists had appealed to the U.N. for intervention and released in Paris a letter from the Bey of Tunis to French President Vincent Auriol, sent in April, 1950, pleading for reforms which would provide Tunisia more political freedom.

In Paris, at the U.N. General Assembly meeting, the U.S. accused Russia of using "blackmail" to force the entry of its satellites into the U.N. The American delegate told the political committee that the U.S. would refuse to accede to that blackmail, which consisted of Russia's demand that the West support admission of Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania and Outer Mongolia in exchange for a Soviet promise not to veto the applications of Italy, Libya, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Jordan, Austria, Ceylon and Nepal. He said that if the agreement was made, the Russians would continue to invent such states as Outer Mongolia and then demand their entrance to the organization every time a Western-oriented state sought membership. Earlier, Britain's Sir Gladwyn Jebb had also refused the Russian offer.

In Geneva, Representative Mike Mansfield of Montana proposed this date that the U.N. prisoner-of-war commission should conduct an inquiry inside the Soviet Union regarding the fate of missing prisoners from World War II. He indicated to the three-member commission that hundreds of thousands of prisoners were still detained by the Soviets, despite their claim that all except "a few thousand" war criminals had been repatriated. The Soviets had ignored the commission since its establishment. Congressman Mansfield urged the commission to seek the cooperation of Russia in allowing the commission to study the matter within Soviet territory, that if their claims were true, they should have nothing to hide.

In Ismailia, Egypt, British troops routed hundreds of Egyptian families from their homes this date, as the American nun, slain during the British-Egyptian violence on Saturday, was being buried in the nearby British military cemetery. A British military court would hold a closed inquiry the next day into her death, to determine whether she had been killed by Egyptian snipers who invaded the convent garden or by a stray British bullet. No eyewitnesses to the killing had been discovered and so the origin of the shot could not definitely be determined. The British herded suspects behind rolls of barbed wire stretched across the street and forced them to sit on the sidewalk, while some were held after screening by intelligence officers. Several caches of arms had been found, including 7,000 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition discovered in the tombs of a Moslem cemetery on the edge of the Arab quarters. Thirteen guerrillas were captured in a graveyard battle with British soldiers and one Egyptian who had leaped out of a grave and shot a British officer, who died later, had been killed. The British claimed that the nun had been killed by Egyptians and the Egyptians claimed that the British, firing at the convent, had killed her as she stepped from the convent, to greet the British soldiers whom the sisters had summoned.

In Tehran, Iran refused to accept Robert Hankey as the new British ambassador, stating no reasons for the rejection. Mr. Hankey had served as the first secretary of the British Embassy in Iran during World War II. Reliable sources indicated that the Government was insisting on a new British ambassador with no previous ties to the country. He was named to succeed Sir Francis Sheppard, who had been the chief British representative in the country during the bitter dispute over oil nationalization of British interests. It was hoped by the British that the naming of Mr. Hankey could help resolve the deadlock over the oil crisis. He had served for several years as the private secretary to Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. The British expressed astonishment at the rejection.

In the wake of the President's budget message submitted to the Congress the previous day, members of both houses spoke of cutting it by an amount up to 14 billion dollars to prevent a Federal deficit the following fiscal year. It appeared unlikely that they could meet that goal, however, as much of the contemplated budget had already been allocated, but not yet spent, and so was not subject to being reduced. House Republican Minority Leader Joe Martin stated that the budget proved that "spending and more spending is the only answer the President has for any problem, large or small." Fiscally conservative Congressman John Taber of New York called for a cut of at least five billion dollars in new appropriations. Senate Republican Leader Styles Bridges of New Hampshire called the budget "shocking" and said that Congress had to "squeeze the water and waste" out of it. An editorial below delineates the major parts of the budget, the bulk of which related to defense, as shown in the front page photograph of the President holding two pie charts representing the portions of the budget.

In Illinois, Democratic slates of delegates were filed for Senators Estes Kefauver and Brien McMahon for the April 8 Democratic presidential primary. Senator Kefauver had called a press conference for the following day and friends speculated that he might announce his candidacy at that time. Informed Democrats indicated that the President had known that if Senator Kefauver entered the Illinois primary, so would Senator McMahon. Senator McMahon stated that his Illinois backers had done him a "great honor".

Senator Hubert Humphrey had already been named as a favorite-son candidate in his home state of Minnesota, for the sake of control of delegates for the President.

In Ohio, former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen and General Douglas MacArthur were entered in the Republican primary, opposing Senator Taft. General MacArthur, however, had telegraphed the Ohio Secretary of State this date asking that his name be withdrawn from that primary, as it had been entered without his knowledge.

The price of tin to American industry was raised by the RFC from $1.03 per pound to $1.21.5.

The rise in the price of scarecrows will come next week.

In West Palm Beach, Fla., a Coast Guard pay clerk who had fled Camp Gordon in Georgia with a payroll and a blonde waitress, had been arrested and $20,000 of the $30,000 he admitted taking January 3, recovered. At the time of his disappearance, over $45,000 was reported missing from the safe of which he had custody. He was arrested the previous night in a nightclub, a block from the police station. Police indicated that his travels in the meantime had included a visit to Charlotte, where he bought a 1949 Buick.

With that kind of dough, why did he not buy a 1952 Lincoln? At least he would have gone to jail in style. Guess he was being parsimonious, as gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins.

In Tokyo, nine Japanese girls, aged 17 to 27, arrived from Santos, Brazil, to seek husbands, explaining that the boys of Brazil were "unintelligent, rude" and lacked "Japanese spirit". Each of the girls had spent about $555 on passage, nearly twice the yearly income of an average Japanese working man.

The second chapter of Fulton Oursler's The Greatest Book Ever Written appears on page 4-A, regarding the story of Cain and Abel and the advent of murder in the world.

On the editorial page, "The Military—Not Welfare—State" indicates that it was time to recognize that the Truman Administration was not the "welfare state", as it had become popularly described. It was instead primarily a "military state". The President's budget message of the previous day to Congress had sought to add another eleven billion dollars to defense appropriations, such that 76 cents out of every Federal tax dollar would go to national security, of which 60 cents would support directly the armed forces. The budget proposed a four billion dollar increase in foreign aid, the entirety of which would go to military aid. In addition, the President had indicated that another five to six billion dollar atomic expansion program would soon be presented to Congress, on top of his proposed 85.5 billion dollar budget.

It agrees with the Administration's policy of containment vis-à-vis Russia, but finds that reliance on it alone could prove disastrous, as it did not get to the root of Communism, curing want among people susceptible to being convinced that the ideology was better for them than democracy and capitalism.

It favors devoting more funding out of the increases in the defense budget to Point Four development of agriculture and industry in underdeveloped countries, to give those peoples an economic basis by which to avoid the temptations of Communism. It believes that approach would go further to achieve world peace than through all-out military production.

"Let the Voters Decide" refers to an editorial on the page from the Southern Weekly, which had editorially championed the Dixiecrats in 1948 and their nomination of Strom Thurmond for the presidency. The publication regularly reprinted anti-Truman editorials and had given wide publicity to every new plan of rebellion proposed by the Southern Democrats. The piece finds that the below editorial was significant, if it accurately represented the thinking of the rebellious Democrats in the South, who favored General Eisenhower for the Republican nomination and would likely vote for him in the general election. The Weekly, itself, favored this approach, which included the Southern Democrats holding their own convention after the Democratic convention should the nominee not be to their liking.

The piece favors a more direct approach, simply voting for the Republicans in the general election.

"A New Democratic Candidate?" comments on the report of Marquis Childs carried on the front page the previous Saturday, which indicated that the President had decided not to run again and would support Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois for the Democratic nomination, finding it one of the more interesting "political rumors" of the previous year. Mr. Childs had relied on a Democratic national committeeman from St. Louis, John J. Nangle, who was close to the President, for the information.

It finds that if the President were not going to run, the Democrats would be hard-pressed to find a better candidate than Governor Stevenson. He had easily defeated his Republican opponent, Governor Dwight Green, in the 1948 gubernatorial election, despite the latter being backed by the powerful Chicago Tribune and its publisher, Robert McCormick. The President, by contrast, had only narrowly won the state. The Governor was credited with having conducted one of the best administrations in Illinois history, slashing his predecessor's payroll, bringing in able aides, and beginning rehabilitation of the Illinois highway system and improvement of the schools, etc.

He was also divorced from Washington politics, another great asset.

It concludes that should the Democrats nominate the Governor and pair him with someone of the stature of Senator Estes Kefauver, and the Republicans nominate General Eisenhower, the people would win, no matter who lost the election.

Incidentally, after capitalizing on the "Southern strategy" and thereby narrowly beating Vice-President Hubert Humphrey in November, 1968, former Vice-President Richard Nixon would be inaugurated President, January 20, 1969, fifty years ago.

Little known fact: 37 divided by nine equals 4.11...

Among Mr. Nixon's immortal words through the years were these, delivered as part of his Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1973: "In our own lives, let each of us ask—not just what will government do for me, but what can I do for myself?"

"For More Tree Farming" tells of the Tree Farm idea spreading across the nation, as three new states, Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, had recently been certified, bringing the total participating states to 33, representing nearly 3,400 farms of over 24 million acres. Those privately owned forests were dedicated to the production of continuous crops of wood, which were planned as much as any other crop.

It praises the concept, as it had previously, and finds that it was particularly important to the South, which produced 60 percent of the annual pulpwood within the country and led all regions in mill capacity to convert raw wood into pulp. It would enable farm owners to increase the value of their land and turn a good profit by becoming part of this movement, following its sound principles of forestry.

An editorial from the Southern Weekly, edited by Peter Molyneaux, as indicated in the above editorial, states the dilemma for Southern delegates to the Democratic convention, that 616 votes were necessary to comprise a simple majority and that the eleven states of the "solid" South would have 320 delegates, not counting those from Oklahoma and Kentucky. But fourteen states, including Oklahoma and Kentucky, controlled 618 delegates, more than enough for a majority. It was unlikely, therefore, that the Southern delegations could control the convention.

The Gallup poll among Southern Democrats had shown that, as between the President and Senator Taft, the President would win 48 percent to 35 percent, whereas between the President and General Eisenhower, the General would win by 50 percent to 36 percent, with 10 percent undecided. Thus, the General would carry most Southern states, and Southern Democrats wanted the Republicans therefore to nominate the General, "the simple solution of the problem of getting all supporters of constitutional government and a free economy united in support of a single ticket." It suggests that such a political realignment was possible in the 1952 general election.

The editorial indicates that it believed Senator Taft would also make a good president if elected, but that there was no reason to believe that any Republican could win the election without the electoral votes from the South, which the poll showed Senator Taft would be incapable of obtaining.

It concludes: "Southern Republicans, and especially Texas Republicans, are facing a test in this matter. Are they Southerners, or simply Yankee-minded residents in Southern states? Will they cooperate to make the Southern revolt against the Fair Deal Administration successful? It's up to them."

Drew Pearson tells of two New Orleans underworld big shots, Carlos Marcello and Silvestro Carollo, having been in tax trouble, but, under present rules of the IRB, the means of resolving those troubles could not be revealed to the public. Mr. Marcello had served time in Atlanta's Federal prison for selling marijuana and Mr. Carollo, a leader of the Mafia, had been ordered deported.

The IRB regulatory laws prevented any details regarding tax delinquencies or tax frauds from being revealed to the press or public, on penalty of a $10,000 fine and a term in jail for the official who did so. Mr. Pearson finds that such strict secrecy was why tax influence had been so prevalent in Washington and recommends the subject for study by the House Committee investigating tax collection frauds. He proceeds to show how this secrecy worked to protect Mr. Marcello and Mr. Carollo.

Mr. Marcello had been rated by the Kefauver crime investigating committee the prior year as the top bad man of the New Orleans area. He was associated with Randy Phil Kastel, a partner of Frank Costello, and, in association with his conviction for marijuana peddling, had a tax lien placed on him and his brother Vincent for $76,800 in 1939. There was no record of how that tax lien was settled and the local deputy tax collector in New Orleans said that he did not know, as the tax records were destroyed and tax cases were settled in Washington.

Mr. Carollo had four tax liens filed against him in 1945, totaling $62,024, and all were marked as discharged in 1946. He had a lot of political influence despite having served time in jail for bootlegging, narcotics and attempted murder, receiving a full pardon on the latter conviction from the Louisiana Governor. The Government had decided to deport him in 1936, after his narcotics conviction, but Congressman James Morrison of Louisiana had seen to it that private bills were passed which kept him within the country. He was, however, finally deported in 1947, only to be picked up again in New Orleans in mid-1950, having been ordered back to the U.S. by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the world's top narcotics smuggler. Local tax officials also did not know whether the tax liens against him had been paid in full or adjusted.

When Mr. Pearson called on the deputy commissioner of the IRB to try to find out more about these two cases, he was told that he did not know anything and that if he did know, under the law, he could not reveal it to Mr. Pearson.

He recommends, therefore, that Congress either change the law to permit public inspection of tax returns and tax adjustments or make permanent a watchdog committee for the purpose of oversight of the Treasury and its tax collection functions.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss the potential decisive influence of the South on the Republican nomination, with Senator Taft having thus far secured more than 150 Southern delegates, albeit not finally committed to him and susceptible of being wooed away by General Eisenhower. In both Louisiana and Kentucky, there were already signs of potential defections after the announcement by General Eisenhower that he was a Republican and would be available in the event of a draft by the convention.

The Alsops caution that a few delegates lost by the Senator in those two states did not mean that a whole herd of Southern delegates would defect before the convention the following summer in Chicago. But those defections, combined with the endorsement of General Eisenhower by several of the leading newspapers in other Southern states could spell trouble for Senator Taft.

Ralph McGill of the Atlanta Constitution examines the outlook among Southern Democrats and the impact of the President's decision to run or not on the prospect of delegates to the Democratic convention. In some Southern states, delegates had to announce, in advance of the primary, the candidate whom they would be supporting, and so Southern Democratic leaders were urging the President to make his decision known as soon as possible. If they announced for the President, they would not be elected as delegates. Nor could they rely on favorite son candidacies, as that would be perceived as a device to enable potential switch to the President, whose popularity was low in the South.

Given the problems experienced in 1948 with the Dixiecrat movement, Southern Democratic leaders did not want to have another third-party effort materialize.

Their hope was to have someone available who would be against the Fair Employment Practices Commission, supported by the President. Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee had voted against the FEPC, but had also favored a limitation on Senate debate, restrictive of filibusters, including those aimed at killing civil rights legislation.

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