The Charlotte News
Saturday, October 18, 1952
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Stan Carter, that U.S. troops had broken the last Chinese Communist foothold on "Triangle Hill" this date in seesaw fighting on the central front in Korea. Two miles to the east, South Korean troops had fought off three Chinese attacks on "Sniper Ridge". Allied artillery had directed large barrages at enemy positions north of Triangle and Sniper, and allied warplanes had dropped high explosives and napalm on Papa-san Mountain, where the enemy massed for assaults on Triangle and Sniper. Five days earlier, the U.S. and South Korean troops had launched the largest allied attack of the year, with the goal of winning and holding those two hill masses. The action added hundreds to the enemy casualties, which already totaled 18,000 during the previous nine days.
Eight B-29's had run into heavy flak and rocket barrages and fought off at least seven enemy night fighters early on Saturday in a bombing attack on an enemy headquarters at Tosong in northwest Korea. All eight planes returned to their base on Okinawa. The Air Force said that eight U.N. warplanes had been lost over Korea during the week ended Friday.
A special report by John Ujii from Sniper Ridge tells of the Chinese having attacked at sunset but found the ridge nearly as bright as day as an allied warplane circled slowly overhead, dropping flares, and three searchlights shone on the attacking enemy. He describes in detail the ensuing battle for the ridge, until the Chinese finally withdrew.
The U.S. was estimated to have borne about 35 percent of the battle casualties in Korea while supplying nearly half of the U.N. combat manpower. South Korea had suffered the heaviest losses, estimated at 61.5 percent, while the other 15 United Nations allies had borne the remaining 3.5 percent. As of the previous week, U.S. casualties in the war stood at 121,154, while all other U.N. forces had suffered 221,876 casualties, of which all except 10,899 were South Korean. It was estimated that approximately 300,000 U.S. troops were engaged in ground, sea and air phases of the war, with 450,000 to 550,000 South Koreans and about 40,000 other U.N. troops. The reorganized Army of South Korea had taken over a much greater share of the fighting and in recent weeks had borne the greatest burden of enemy assaults, after the bulk of U.S. casualties had occurred in the first six months of the war in 1950. The Eighth Army had 18 divisions and additional smaller tactical units, of which ten divisions were South Korean. The U.S. had six Army divisions and the First Marine Division in combat. Britain had the third greatest manpower, with some 25,000 soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen. Turkey had the next largest fighting unit, with a brigade of about 5,000. Colombia, with a battalion of 1,000, was the only Western Hemispheric nation south of the U.S. which had joined the U.N. fighting.
At the U.N. in New York, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky this date repeated Communist demands for an immediate truce in Korea, proposing terms which the U.N. had repeatedly rejected, including the return of all prisoners to their homelands. He said that he supported a "peace plan" put forth the previous day by Poland, which Western diplomats regarded as comprised of already rejected terms, including a Big Five peace pact, with Communist China sitting in. Both the West and neutral countries regarded the proposals as devoid of anything new and containing nothing which would resolve the deadlocked Korean armistice negotiations.
In Newark, N.J., the previous night, General Eisenhower said that his decisions had been his and his alone and that he remained a "no deal" man. He said that he had not abandoned his belief in any of the men whom he considered great American patriots, such as General Marshall. A crowd estimated at 25,000 had greeted him the previous night in Jersey City, a Democratic stronghold. Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia announced that he could not support Governor Stevenson, and an adviser to the General said the previous week that the best chance of his capturing a Southern state was Virginia, provided Senator Byrd did not endorse the Democratic ticket. The General was resting this date while planning his first campaign tour of New England, starting Monday.
At the Alamo in San Antonio, Tex., Governor Stevenson declared this date that the Republicans offered only political DDT against world Communism, that their program was guaranteed to contain no taxes, no anxiety and no effort. He criticized the General's claim that American troops could be withdrawn when enough South Koreans had been trained to take their places and his claim that the war had resulted from "bungling" prior to the war. He said that he had "nothing but contempt for those whining politicians who try to tell us that the American people don't know what they are fighting for and have been fighting for for more than 150 years."
The President, speaking in Providence, R.I., said this date that General Eisenhower had sunk so low as to hold out "a false hope to the mothers of America in an effort to pick up a few votes." He described it as "cruel and deceitful", said that he had been wrong about his belief that the General would refuse to play politics with the foreign policy. The President would deliver three speeches this night in New York. He had received great applause during his speech the previous night in Boston's Symphony Hall, charging General Eisenhower, through his support of Senators McCarthy and Jenner, with endorsing a "reign of terror by slander". The audience had hissed and booed at the mention of the two Senators, whom he again called "moral pygmies". The President this date also spoke in Fall River, Mass., but failed to mention one of its most prominent historical residents, Lizzie Borden, thereby passing up the opportunity to provide a clever bit of verse, such as: "Richard Nixon took an axe and gave the budget 40 whacks, and when the job was nicely dunned, he supplied the votes for his fund."
Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon said this date that he would vote for Governor Stevenson, and that he was "completely disillusioned" with General Eisenhower, having first announced his support of the nominee and subsequently withdrawing that support. He regarded the General as having engaged in "demagoguery, double-talk and dangerous desertion" of his priciples during the course of the campaign. He said that the Eisenhower he had supported for the nomination was not the one now "dangling and dancing from campaign platforms at the end of political puppet strings being jerked by some of the most evil and reactionary forces in American politics".
Samuel Lubell, who had been traveling the country seeking grassroots reactions from voters to the campaign, looks at why so many voters were having a difficult time deciding who they would support in the election, with the outcome probably to be determined by those who remained undecided. Some of those voters with whom he had talked said that they liked both candidates, while others said that they disliked both, with most torn by strong conflicts in their own interests and emotions. People wondered whether Governor Stevenson was "just a slice off the Truman ham", as one Bronx salesman had described him, or was sufficiently independent of the Administration to clean house in Washington. Voters also were troubled by whether General Eisenhower was giving or taking orders, and some wished that there was a way to vote for him without voting for the Republicans. Others wondered whether it was more important that the General was inexperienced in domestic affairs or had special knowledge in foreign affairs, and believed that Governor Stevenson appeared to have greater knowledge of domestic matters. Some voters wondered which candidate was more likely to bring peace, a military man or a civilian. Many were torn between competing fears, one of war and one of depression.
In Washington, the Wage
Stabilization Board removed 21 percent of the 24-cent per hour wage
boost previously agreed to by the mine owners and the UMW headed by
John L. Lewis, an action which would likely trigger a general strike
in the industry. WSB chairman Archibald Cox
The U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, Francis Matthews, 65, died unexpectedly at his home in Omaha this date. He had been the Ambassador since July, 1951, and prior to that time, had served for two years as Secretary of the Navy. He had planned to retire as Ambassador at the end of the year.
In San Francisco, the California Supreme Court, in three cases decided the previous day, held that the University of California's special loyalty oath was invalid, but upheld the oath required of State, county and local government employees, pursuant to the State Constitution and State law, finding that the latter statutes occupied the field on the subject and could not be supplemented by the University, the oath of which prescribed specifically that the declarant averred not to have been a member of the Communist Party or other organization which advocated the overthrow of the government by force or violence, while the State provisions prescribed an oath to support the Constitutions of the United States and the State of California and that the declarant did not belong to organizations which advocated the overthrow of the government by force or other unlawful means. The Court registered one dissent from its holding regarding the statutes, but was unanimous in ruling that the University Regents could not impose the special oath on faculty members and employees. It ordered the Regents to reinstate 17 faculty members who had been fired for refusing to sign the University's special oath but had signed the State oath, excepting out one instructor who had taken the oath prescribed by the State Constitution and statutes, but then refused to take the oath prescribed by the successor law. None of the rulings turned on Constitutional issues, but rather upheld the validity of the State loyalty oath against Constitutional challenge, pursuant to prior U.S. Supreme Court decisions. It should be noted that over the ensuing 15 years, Supreme Court doctrine on the subject would evolve to the point of making such loyalty oaths, other than the general oath to uphold the Constitution and laws, as a practical matter, no longer subject to legislative drafting without running afoul of the void for vagueness doctrine, that is so vague and ambiguous that a person of ordinary understanding could not conform conduct to the requirements of the language of the statute.
Near Chester, California, a 200-man
posse was dismissed early this date after two men and a little girl,
who had been missing since the previous night, turned up safe and uninjured.
There was no immediate explanation
On the editorial page, "The Korean Objective Is in Sight" indicates that had the President directed Secretary of State Acheson to tell the U.N. that the free world had to achieve a quick military victory in Korea or withdraw, the Democrats would likely have benefited at the polls, but at an incalculable amount of damage to the U.N. and to the principle of collective security. Thus, it had been wise, it finds, that the Administration chose the more moderate course, realizing that any position taken at the U.N. by the current Administration would have limited impact in any event, as the new administration in January, regardless of who won, could change it. Secretary Acheson thus pledged to keep fighting until an armistice was realized and appealed for more help from the other U.N. partners.
Until Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky would speak at this date's General Assembly session, the current Soviet policy on Korea remained unclear. Whatever it would be, it recommends that the American people, who had borne the disproportionate share of the war burden, should think long and deeply before yielding to any impulse to win the war or withdraw. Both candidates had pointed to the goal of training more South Korean troops to man the front lines, while U.N. troops maintained supply lines to the rear. Recently, the South Korean troops had acquitted themselves well in hand-to-hand combat with the Chinese Communists, no longer breaking and running, as their courage had been stiffened by intensive training and the experience of combat. That change tended to neutralize Communist propaganda regarding "foreign imperialists" and also the claim that the Chinese soldiers were invincible, as they had been sent reeling back by South Koreans who had only two years of experience in modern warfare.
It concludes that while it had been a long and costly war, the objective was in sight and it would be most unwise to call it quits and thereby jeopardize the country's security and abandon the principle of collective security, the best hope to avoid a third world war or to win it decisively, should it occur.
"Electric Power Adds to U.S. Strength" states that in the continuing battle regarding public power, the newspaper had taken a position somewhere between the two extremes, those who opposed all Federal power projects and those who favored vast expansion of such projects. The newspaper believed that some peacetime Federal projects were appropriate because of their collateral soil conservation, flood control, and recreational benefits, while others, which had as their primary aim provision of power, were better left to private utilities.
Following the outbreak of the Korean War, the Congress had authorized accelerated amortization, over a period of five years, for facilities producing defense or defense-related goods and services. Recently, the Wall Street Journal had reported that during the week ending October 8, the Defense Production Administration, which determined the availability of the accelerated amortization, issued 101 certificates of necessity, totaling over 133 million dollars in such write-offs, the greatest amount, 47 million dollars worth, going to electric utilities. Carolina Power & Light Co. headed the list, receiving a certificate to write off 65 percent of 17 million dollars worth of projects over five years. The Journal had noted that the power industry had overtaken the steel industry for the first time in such write-offs.
The piece finds that the Federal Government, instead of putting the electric utilities out of business, had encouraged their expansion with nearly four billion dollars worth of such projects covered by the accelerated amortization program. It concludes that it was good for the private utilities and for the nation.
"Too Much Campaigning" tells of General Eisenhower, on August 5, having set forth his opening barrage of the campaign before the VFW national convention in Los Angeles, and then some days afterward, having spoken in Boise, Idaho. By late August, Governor Stevenson had started his campaign, with a major speech before the American Legion. Since those times, the two candidates had been proceeding at top speed across the country by train and air, with as many as three or four major addresses per day, whistle stops, and radio and television broadcasts.
It indicates that, as Marquis Childs had pointed out in his column during the week, the candidates had established a killing pace for themselves and there was danger that either or both might impair their health in the process. It finds, therefore, that the campaign had stretched out too long, that with modern communications facilities available, the campaign did not need to last more than five or six weeks, giving each candidate time to visit all parts of the country at least once and deliver enough major speeches to cover the major issues. It would also provide each candidate sufficient time to write their own speeches, rather than having speechwriters conduct the major chores, as was presently the case.
It understands that Democrats and Republicans were not on speaking terms at present but suggests that it would be a good idea for them to get together after the election and sign a compact limiting the period of the 1956 campaign.
Gut Luck.
A piece from the Chicago Tribune, titled "Joy Conversation in Milwaukee", tells of having taken a family vacation by Milwaukee, where some of the old German burghers still talked the wonderful mixed-up language all their own. It provides ample samples:
"You should of was there once.
Did we have glad!
"But, then we always have. From the time my wife was little up, she lived there. So we go off and back. Folks who haven't been there yet already don't know nothing and they always will.
"We were so sorry that our visit lasted so early. Milwaukee Deutsch makes a joy conversation.
"People are friendly and the old bierstuben in they hello you in the beginning already. After a few beers they know you so easy they invite you maybe to their home where the street car bends the corner for pumpernickel and wienerwurst.
"If you'd like coffee, the hausfrau will pour it up..."
Drew Pearson tells of Mrs. Elizabeth Ives, sister of Governor Stevenson, to become the official White House hostess were the Governor to be elected President. Recently she told the North Carolina Democratic Club of Washington that the family had not realized that the Governor was a good storyteller until he left home, as he had never gotten to talk at home. He had rejected an opportunity to make a special radio broadcast to women voters, which his sister explained that he felt as silly as targeting a broadcast toward barbers, storekeepers, bus drivers or other occupational groups. She said that campaigning with the Governor was easy as the staff directed what to do and where to go, but not what to say.
British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden, recently married, promised Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, also recently married, during a visit in Belgrade, that the entire British fleet in the Mediterranean would rush to Yugoslavia's aid in case of a Russian attack, and Tito told Mr. Eden that Yugoslavia presently had 26 first-class Army divisions and would fight to the death to resist Russia. The two got along so well that they ran out of issues to discuss and began talking about their new brides.
In Korea, the Chinese had launched 55 probing attacks against allied lines in one day the previous week and then put pressure at the weakest point, in the Chowon Valley, where an American division was moving out and a South Korean division was moving in, giving way because the latter had not yet dug in. The enemy attack failed to penetrate what the Army called its main resistance line but had made a dent in the operations resistance line. Meanwhile, the Chinese had brought up an impressive array of field artillery and front line anti-aircraft guns, the previous week firing 200,000 rounds of artillery across the line and for the first time firing flak at allied planes from front line positions. There were still no signs of a major offensive, with no accelerated pace of supplies or massing of reserve troops. Although the press had reported that the Chinese had moved 16,000 reserves into the battle area, that was inaccurate, as they had instead been juggling two front line divisions rather than bringing reserves from the rear. The Pentagon believed that the Chinese were deliberately bleeding the U.N. troops, knowing the regard for human life which the West had, and that the Chinese were also seeking to straighten out the battle line to improve their bargaining position at the conference table in case truce talks resumed.
Brig. General Robert Cutler, friend of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., had been placed aboard General Eisenhower's train as a personal aide and a kind of ambassador for Senator Lodge. Because his duties were undefined, he became part of the Eisenhower brain trust, writing speeches, sitting in on policy sessions and issuing pronouncements. But one morning at 4 o'clock, he had rousted the speech-writing crew from bed and told them that they would have to start work on the next speech, though not due until the following evening, prompting the speechwriters to rebel and go back to bed. Governor Sherman Adams, the General's campaign chief of staff, backed up the writers and demoted General Cutler, who was now seen a lot but less often heard.
Joseph Alsop, in Dallas, Tex., tells of General Eisenhower's tour of that state opening a new epoch, making voting for Republicans in national elections respectable in the South. Many of those in Texas who were supporting General Eisenhower had also supported Governor Dewey or had joined the Dixiecrats in 1948, but now were doing so without the prior shame. Yet, there was also the problem of the movement being tainted by too much respectability, as it derived its real force and power from the oligarchy of oil men, bankers, industrialists, large ranchers and big real estate operators who ruled the state's expanding economy. They had challenged the traditional Democratic hold on Texas, with 2 to 1 registration versus Republicans and Dixiecrats in 1948.
These wealthy Texans had raised for General Eisenhower between three million and six million dollars, and the RNC had been able to take that money and spend it elsewhere across the country. In cities such as Dallas and Houston, the pressure for the General was so strong that aspiring young lawyers and businessmen were genuinely afraid not to declare for the Eisenhower ticket. Governor Allan Shivers and Senate candidate Price Daniel, both Democrats, had declared for General Eisenhower and carried with them large segments of the established Democratic Party. The Texas press was nearly unanimous for the General.
Yet, the movement for the General was being challenged, primarily by Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, aided by Senator Lyndon Johnson and most of the Congressional candidates. Recently, former Vice-President John Nance Garner had surprisingly endorsed Governor Stevenson. Mr. Garner had reportedly stated of Mr. Daniel, "Why, when that young squirt gets to the Senate, he won't even find anybody to show him the way to the outhouse." With the deep-rooted Texas Democratic tradition and the support of the farmers and small ranchers, most of the industrial workers and 200,000 black voters, the Rayburn movement had great assets on its side to counter the wealth and power of the Eisenhower movement.
Mr. Alsop demurs from judging whether those assets would outweigh the power of the Eisenhower movement, but the local experts were predicting 5 to 4 odds that Governor Stevenson would carry Texas, and he advises to "place your money as you choose".
Marquis Childs tells of Eisenhower strategists, early in the campaign, having taken a private poll in eleven farm states to determine the issue which most concerned farmers, finding that the Korean War and the resulting deep resentment that the draft was taking boys from the farm when they were needed at a time of labor scarcity was the top concern. It helped to explain why the campaign was exploiting the Korean War, particularly in the farm belt, stressing it as much as the issue of Communists in the Government. Members of Congress who were not being contested actively were talking at every opportunity about the need to end the war, fixing blame on the Administration for it. Shortly after the poll, General Eisenhower began talking about the Korean War, starting in Illinois, which was receptive to any message which favored staying out of foreign wars.
The General had stated many times that he favored replacing American troops in Korea with South Koreans on the front lines, but had not stated when that would take place. He had also talked about ending the war as quickly as possible, but again remained vague on when that would be. The Pentagon had been unhappy with those campaign statements. First, there were already a large number of South Koreans among the U.N. forces, and 700 were being trained every day in an eight-week course under American supervision, though limited by scarcity of equipment, necessitating a cutback in weapons for NATO forces to equip the newly trained South Koreans. Additionally, if Americans were removed in the foreseeable future, the Communists would overrun all of Korea. Within two to three years, sufficient Koreans might be trained to take over the front line positions, but those new units would not be battle-tested veterans.
A letter writer from Hamlet finds that in the pre-convention campaign, there had been two men vying for the presidency who would have made a great President, Governor Earl Warren or Senator Estes Kefauver, but finds that both had been too broad-minded and honest for the political bosses to accept. Most independent voters wanted a change of administration, and they thought that General Eisenhower would represent a good change, in spite of Senator Nixon's "extreme conservative voting record". But now many independents were shocked and dismayed at the General's change of position to embrace the Old Guard reactionaries, such as Senators McCarthy, Jenner, Capehart and Taft. "Since Nixon has developed into a corrupt extremist, he should be in jail instead of running loose, and Ike should be defeated." The writer had lived in Indiana for 30 years and was a product of progressive Republicans, but now found himself forced to vote for the Democrats, despite their having been in power for 20 years.
You may find this hard to credit—or, maybe not—but, 22 years from this juncture, the nation will have witnessed in the prior two years Senator Nixon, after having won re-election to the Presidency in one of the greatest landslides in history, only behind the victories of President Johnson in 1964 and President Roosevelt in 1936, having resigned the previous summer in the face of certain impeachment and removal from office, pardoned, for all crimes associated with the causative scandal, by Congressman Gerald Ford, who had become the first non-elected President by dint of having been appointed Vice-President a year earlier by President Nixon after his original Vice-President, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign over corrupt practices while Governor of Maryland, specifically involving taking of bribes, after pleading nolo contendere to same, President Nixon thus remaining free of the hoosegow, despite many in his Administration having gone to prison for crimes related to the June, 1972 break-in and attempted bugging of the Democratic National Committee headquarters, in addition to other domestic operations involving illegal surveillance and break-ins, and the attempt to cover up those crimes, making Teapot Dome a piker of a scandal by comparison. Nelson Rockefeller would now be Vice-President.
One might describe it as the worst of times and the best of times. So, you have something of which to look forward, though, we forewarn, it is a path fraught with some tenuous and nightmarish points along the way. At least, you will not have to endure another world war anytime soon. And, by the end of that 22 years, Mr. Nixon will no longer be running around loose, at least not in any manner visible to the public, though it was questionable, thanks to his henchmen, to what extent his loose behavior was ever fully visible in the first instance during his times in or out of public office in the interim. (Run "Nixon", "Gray" and "SNIE
A letter writer wants every voter to notice that the President had conducted his whistle-stop tour through the West and the North, but had so far ignored the South. He thinks that omission was either because he was afraid to enter the South or was still taking the Solid South for granted, that perhaps he was afraid he would do more harm than good to Governor Stevenson by "showing his face among the people who know Mr. Truman for what he is—and haven't been afraid to tell him so over the past five or six years." He believes that the President also realized that Southerners were tired of being involved in a losing war in Korea, one with no possible end in sight.
A letter writer from Marion registers his objection to a previous letter writer who had referred to Democrats as "stupid … crooks" who "can't read or write". He says that he had never seen a ward boss after voting in several elections and that everyone had suffered the same problems during the depression, just as everyone had benefited since that time. He regards the 1938 wage and hours law to have been the most important thing which had happened to the people since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He believes that nothing would please the Russians more than a Republican victory, that Senator McCarthy was the greatest ally of the Communists, and that they liked Senator Taft because of his isolationism. He believes that prices were too high, but the Republicans had done nothing about it in the 80th Congress which they controlled, just as they had done nothing about corruption. Governor Stevenson, whom he finds to resemble FDR in his efficiency and clear and concise thinking, was needed in the leadership of the country.
A letter writer from Pittsboro, indicating his respect for the newspaper's independent outlook and thinking, nevertheless disagrees with its confused view of internationalism versus interventionism. He contends that not all non-interventionists were necessarily isolationists. He recommends pulling in and building as strong a nation as possible militarily, restoring the country's independent position in world affairs and relying on the atom and hydrogen bombs to neutralize the danger of a trigger-happy country, as he regards the U.S. to have been in 1945.
A letter writer finds that the reason many Democrats were supporting General Eisenhower was because they recognized the drift toward socialism and complete political control of the affairs of every citizen. He says he could only vote for General Eisenhower and that if his grandfather, who had spent four years of his youth with General Robert E. Lee in Virginia, could know of his decision, he would rise and shake his hand.
He might also call you an idiot.
A letter writer from Albemarle, a doctor, indicates that the nation was at a "crossroads of destiny" where it could follow the current Administration's plans for excessive taxation, deficit financing, socialism and economic collapse, with all freedoms taken away, or take the other road and reduce expenditures, graft and ignorant planning. He urges voting for General Eisenhower.
A letter writer from Wellesley Hills, Mass., says that she is "shocked, surprised and disgusted" that there had been no wrath exerted regarding Governor Stevenson's fund—for a few State employees in Illinois, to supplement their State incomes after they had taken a significant cut from their private sector salaries—, wonders whether the people were blinded by his "smooth jokes and Harry's vile ridicule". She would not vote for a man who accepted money from "the very type of men who are ruining and demoralizing America. As for Nixon, he accepted money from respectable business men, to fight Communism."
You tell 'em. That nice young man is for America and for Americans, not a bunch of Commie snakes.
Framed Edition
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