The Charlotte News

Friday, October 24, 1952

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that U.S. troops late this date had attacked the last Communist-held knob on "Triangle Hill", having been stopped 85 yards from the top of "Pikes Peak" by Chinese mortar and small arms fire. The U.S. Seventh Division troops were pinned down by machine gun fire, mines, direct trajectory and mortar fire, hand grenades and small arms fire, but pushed 50 yards further before finally withdrawing to their original positions. On nearby "Sniper Ridge", South Korean troops gave up their hunt for Chinese troops in a maze of underground tunnels on the hill's northern tip. The South Koreans withdrew at dark with the Chinese still holding their positions. Twenty miles to the west, South Korean and Chinese troops maintained opposite slopes of "Iron Horse Mountain" as artillery barrages from both sides hit the crest. The Chinese then swarmed over the top and pushed the South Koreans further down the slope. Fighting erupted at other scattered points across the battlefront.

The Department of Defense added 269 casualties among Americans in the Korean War, including 71 killed, 181 wounded, nine missing in action and eight injured in non-battle related incidents.

General Eisenhower this date campaigned in Michigan, pledging to protect the rights of labor, saying at Pontiac before a crowd of 4,000 that the Administration had falsely accused him of being a potential "union buster", part of its "campaign of fear", including "singing songs of hate and "hymns of vilification". At Royal Oak, a crowd of 10,000 turned out to hear the General charge that the Democrats had a "sorry record", promising to talk about the failures in foreign policy which caused the Korean War in his speech in Detroit this night. He criticized the President for calling the inquiries into Communists in the Government a "red herring" and a "smear". He claimed at Buffalo that the Administration was guilty of bigotry and bossism.

Governor Stevenson campaigned across the state of New York this date, defending U.S. entry into the Korean War as a stand for collective security, saying it was not "Truman's war" but rather "mankind's war". He said that support for the U.N. presented the best hope for world peace. The previous night in a speech in Cleveland, he accused General Eisenhower of deliberately condoning a "sly and ugly" campaign. He defended the character testimony he had given in a deposition on behalf of Alger Hiss during the latter's perjury case in 1949. He stated that John Foster Dulles and General Eisenhower were more vulnerable on the Hiss case than he was, for having been on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Foundation when Mr. Hiss was made the president of the Carnegie Endowment for World Peace. The Governor's speech had been carried live via television on NBC and by delayed radio broadcast an hour later on the CBS and Mutual networks. He spoke before a crowd of 5,000 in Rochester during the morning of this date, decrying General Eisenhower's proposal to let South Korean troops do the fighting, saying that it would "risk a Munich in the Far East with a third world war not far behind". His schedule called for 14 speeches in 14 hours, the most intense period of his campaign thus far.

Governor Stevenson visited Niagara Falls in New York, saying that if he captured this "political bride", he might return after the election. He told a crowd of about 1,000 that the Republicans were not discussing the issues but rather were "talking nonsense".

Vice-President Alben Barkley was expected to make a 40-minute speech in Charlotte during the afternoon of this date, with a reception afterward at the Selwyn Hotel and a dinner for 275 party leaders in the state. He would then lead a parade to the Armory in the evening , where he would speak at a rally. All of the state dignitaries in the Democratic Party, including Governor Kerr Scott and both Senators Clyde Hoey and Willis Smith, were scheduled to be on hand. On his way to Charlotte, the Vice-President was scheduled to stop for about 15 minutes at the Winston-Salem airport and speak briefly to a crowd there.

Another Gallup poll appears, showing for the first time during the campaign that voter preference was equal for Democrats and Republicans, whereas the Republicans had held the decisive edge previously. General Eisenhower had, however, continued to run ahead of his party by three points, but the trend of recent weeks had been in favor of Governor Stevenson, who had gained a full percentage point since the previous poll. In terms of economic self-interest, the majority of respondents identified with the Democrats. If the General were to win, it would be the first time since 1916, when incumbent President Woodrow Wilson narrowly beat Charles Evans Hughes, that a candidate of the minority party would win a presidential election. At present, the respondents indicated 48 percent preference for General Eisenhower, 39 percent for Governor Stevenson, with 13 percent undecided. If the undecided votes were allocated based on the 1948 outcome, two-thirds would go to Governor Stevenson, resulting in a 53 to 47 percent preference for the General, and if they were allocated on the basis of 1944 results, they would be given 3 to 1 to the Democrats, resulting in 52 percent for the General against 48 percent for the Governor. Party preference was split 45 percent for the Republicans and 41 percent for the Democrats, with 14 percent undecided, and even on the basis of the 1948 allocation of undecided voters, with 51 percent in favor of the Democrats based on the 1944 allocation.

For the first time in six months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was a drop in the cost of living, by two-tenths of one percent, attributed to lower prices for food, which had dropped one percent. Overall, the cost of living had risen by 12.1 percent since the start of the Korean War in June, 1950 and by five percent since wage and price controls had been imposed at the beginning of 1951.

In Sparta, Tenn., a trio of wild highway kidnappers left their 19th victim locked in the trunk of a stolen car in a remote gulch the previous night and took a 20th victim with them in a stolen truck. After spending five hours in the trunk, the victim was rescued by two fox hunters who heard the man trying to free himself. He said that he and his neighbor were returning to their truck after hunting squirrels when they were waylaid by the kidnappers, who said that they would probably release the other man this date. The other kidnappings had occurred along highways from Florida to Tennessee. Three boys from Nashville told FBI agents that they were forced to take part in kidnapping, robbing and tying up four persons near Valdosta, Ga., and state patrol officials said that no charges would be brought against them.

The sixth hurricane of the season hit the coast of Cuba off Las Villas Province this date, packing winds between 115 and 125 mph. Havana was no longer in danger of receiving the full brunt of the hurricane. The southeast Florida coast from Vero Beach to Key West received storm warnings and would be on the western edge of the storm if it continued in its present course. A tropical downpour flooded the streets of Miami. Heavy rains were also reported over most of Cuba.

In Cleveland, three men had invented a furnace which they claimed had no flame, no fuel and no chimney. It had a blower and a small electric motor which drove a sealed oil unit.

A freshman at Columbia University who had been kidnapped by sophomores, bound up like a mummy and sent by plane to Chicago, had taken it all in stride and was not upset. His fellow students had wired him $51 for the return plane fare. The hazing occurred as part of the annual sophomore-freshman "fun week", but this trip set a new record for distance. Someone on the plane had untied the student and when he got to Chicago, he told the police, who notified Columbia authorities.

On the editorial page, "The Exchange of Atomic Secrets" indicates that Prime Minister Churchill had used the occasion of his report of Britain's successful detonation of an atomic bomb to advocate the need for exchange of atomic information between the U.S. and Britain. The U.S. had been reluctant to share the information with Canada, Britain or France, because the countries had a Communist espionage problem.

During the war, scientists of all three nations had worked on the Manhattan Project, but security was inadequately developed, and Klaus Fuchs of England and the Rosenbergs had divulged secrets of the atomic program to the Soviets. Out of concern that there would be more leaks, and because the U.S. was doing most of the work and paying most of the bills, the atomic secrets were shared less.

It indicates that there should be recognition that it was likely that atomic weapons would be used in future warfare and so would be productive to share atomic information with allies, just as other military information was shared. The problem of security needed to be worked out by Congress and security officials. It suggests that one method of accomplishment might be to restrict data and equipment to the U.S., with approved allied scientists allowed equal access.

"What Kind of a Character Are You?" quotes from John Stuart Mill regarding the benefits of representative government, and that some of his neighbors were "passive characters" who were, nevertheless, obstructions in the pathway, while improvement in human affairs was wholly the work of "uncontented characters", that it was "much easier for an active mind to acquire the virtues of patience than for a passive one to assume those of energy".

With the following day being the last day to register to vote in the general election, it asks whether the reader was a "passive character" or an "active character".

"A Good Investment" indicates, on the seventh birthday of the U.N., that the new U.S.S. Forrestal aircraft carrier would cost every citizen on average at least $1.38, by way of indicating the high cost of defense through armament. But the U.N. was also a good investment, though its annual cost was less than half that of the Forrestal 62 cents to each citizen,. The total U.S. contribution to the U.N. was 97 million dollars, whereas the Forrestal cost 218 million. All members paid only about that same amount.

It lists the primary parts of the U.N. which cost money to operate, whereas the World Bank made money.

Operating under the auspices of the U.N., Dr. Ralph Bunche had ended the Arab-Israeli war, Frank Porter Graham had prevented India and Pakistan from fighting over Kashmir, and Communist aggression had been scotched in Korea by the U.N. forces. It finds that, while there had been failures, many problems had been solved which might otherwise have erupted into war. Meanwhile, the work of education, reconstruction and rehabilitation across the world also went forward under the sponsorship of the U.N. It finds, therefore, that for only the cost of one aircraft carrier, the organization was doing a good job.

"Willie the Champ" finds it disappointing to hear that Willie Hoppe had retired from tournament billiards. He had been a champion since the days of William Jennings Bryan at the turn-of-the-century. Now he was leaving competition for exhibition play. For a long time, mothers were afraid that their sons would be influenced by the old bums at the pool hall, and so forbade them to go there. But the sons could always point to Mr. Hoppe, who had gained much by playing pool while maintaining outward respectability. It wishes him well in his post-retirement endeavors.

Is it any wonder that the President would visit Gary, Indiana, the following Monday?

A piece from the Rocky Mount Evening Telegram, titled "The Ability of Bloodhounds", indicates that scientists claimed that the study of hereditary differences in human body chemistry might one day explain how bloodhounds could accurately distinguish between human scents, as well as provide clues for use of genetics and medical science. The scientists suggested that it was possible that sweat was as different and characteristic as blood and saliva, and that bloodhounds might depend on those differences in the chemicals and sweat for distinguishing between scents. It concludes that the bloodhound could not write long articles about the subject, but apparently had developed something which had taken a lot of laboratories and scientists to discover.

Drew Pearson indicates that some Republicans had blamed Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., for placing Robert Cutler, Boston banker, on General Eisenhower's train as a speechwriter. Mr. Cutler had awakened other speechwriters at 4:00 a.m. to write another speech after they had gone to bed after midnight. In fact, however, Justice Felix Frankfurter, flirting with the Republicans, had been responsible for placing Mr. Cutler on the train. Two of the Justice's key friends, former Secretary of War Kenneth Royall and former High Commissioner of Germany, John J. McCloy, were now working for General Eisenhower. He notes that some Republicans feared that Justice Frankfurter's dabbling in the Eisenhower campaign would boomerang, as the Justice had testified for Alger Hiss in his perjury trial and had brought Mr. Hiss to Washington in the first place.

Vice-President Alben Barkley had a new story on General Eisenhower, Senator Taft, and who was running the Republican Party. He said that a young lady was fishing for catfish near Paducah, Ky., caught a big one, so big that it pulled her into the river, whereupon a black man happened by and, watching the young woman wrestle with the catfish, asked whether she was "a cattin'" or the fish was "a girlin'". The Vice-President found the story to remind of the Republican question, whether Ike was "Taftin'" or Taft was "Ikein'".

Ford dealers, who had been asked by RNC chairman Arthur Summerfield and members of the RNC to contribute to the Republican campaign in the Midwest, were not alone. Both Ford and G.M. dealers in Michigan had been asked to contribute to Congressman Charles Potter in his campaign against incumbent interim Senator Blair Moody. Mr. Summerfield was close to Harlowe Curtice, executive vice-president of G.M. and expected to become president, had gotten Mr. Summerfield to switch from Senator Taft to General Eisenhower and was considered Mr. Curtice's messenger boy—explaining the President's refrain along the campaign trail that the Republicans had all the generals, General Motors, General Mills, and General Eisenhower, but had left out the general welfare, which the Democrats covered.

Senator Taft had leaked to the press his confidential memo critical of General Eisenhower's supporters, drafted shortly after he had lost the Republican nomination in July, blaming his defeat on New York financial interests and the pro-Eisenhower press. Mr. Pearson quotes from the memo, in which he criticized the press for blowing up the story regarding the "theft" of the Texas delegate votes, which Senator Taft believed would ordinarily have been a simple local matter which would have been settled by the RNC and the credentials committee at the convention.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of Senator McCarthy being set to provide a national radio and television broadcast on Monday, which he called "The Stevenson Story", "undoubtedly to be the low-watermark of this not very high level campaign". Neither the close advisers of General Eisenhower nor the General, himself, had been consulted by the Senator before he announced his intention to "expose" Governor Stevenson, and the RNC was not sponsoring the speech and had not contributed to its cost, estimated at more than $50,000, picked up instead by a group of the Senator's admirers, headed by General Robert Wood, a prominent America Firster and former head of Sears.

They indicate that Senator McCarthy had been playing his own hand throughout the campaign, with many observers believing that he had in mind running for the presidency in 1956, on the belief that if General Eisenhower lost the election, the Republican Party would run to the right. The speech, whether successful or not, would likely alienate many independent voters who were supporting General Eisenhower. But if the General demanded to review the speech before it was presented, it would appear that he had endorsed it, thus placing him in an untenable position.

Some in the Republican Party, such as RNC Chairman Arthur Summerfield, believed that the Senator was an asset to the General, and there was some evidence to support that view, as many people wondered what was wrong with Senator McCarthy for having gotten the Communists out of the State Department. The Alsops indicate that the problem was that he had never identified any Communist in the State Department. They also quote from a speech he delivered in Wisconsin at which he claimed to have a brief prepared by Justice Department lawyers, dated July 28, 1952, in which it was stated that illegal passports had been used to expedite travel in foreign countries by members of the Communist Party and that plans had been discuss by leading members of the Soviet secret police to obtain blank passports from the State Department from Communists employed by it. The problem with that claim was that it was from a report of the Justice Department prepared in 1928, when Calvin Coolidge was President and Frank Kellogg was Secretary of State, and was only a summary of testimony seeking to prove that the Communist Party was a subversive "action group" within the meaning of the law extant at the time.

They thus answer the question of what was wrong with McCarthy by indicating that he did not play the American political game according to the rules but rather cheated. "He proceeds on the assumption that the voters are too stupid to prefer the complicated truth to the simple, dramatic lie."

The statement would be applicable also to someone prominent on the political scene today, in 2019, the difference being that for Senator McCarthy to spread his lies, he had to collect money to broadcast his appeals to the public, not possessed of a Twitter account.

Marquis Childs, in Cleveland, indicates that Governor Stevenson was undertaking a strenuous last-minute push in the doubtful state of Ohio, which might become key to the election. The President was also planning a last-minute visit to the state in the hope of obtaining enough undecided votes for the Governor. Indeed, there was a pervasive uncertainty among the voters, embracing up to half of them, such that no one was prepared to say how Ohio and its 25 electoral votes would go. Wilson Wyatt, campaign manager for Governor Stevenson, predicted that the Democrats would carry the state and that the Governor would achieve an electoral landslide. But those who looked at the picture more or less objectively were skeptical of both of those claims, guessing, based in part on straw polls, that Ohio would vote for the General.

The presidential race in the state in both 1944 and 1948 had been close, with the President having achieved a 7,000 vote victory over Governor Dewey, and FDR having won in 1944 over the Governor by 12,000 votes. Yet, in 1952, in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, there had been record-breaking registration of voters, as had been the case in nearly every city. In Cleveland, where most of the industrial workers lived, newly registered voters had expressed, in a poll taken by the Cleveland Press, that they supported the Governor by 58.4 percent to 41.6 percent for the General. Those figures were close to those shown for voters who had already registered, and so at first glance, it appeared the election would heavily favor the Democrats. But in the suburbs, 61 percent supported General Eisenhower, slightly less than Governor Dewey's percentages in 1948 in those areas.

Former price administrator Mike DiSalle was running as the Democratic candidate for the Senate against incumbent Senator John Bricker, who had the imposing mien of the classic Senator, while Mr. DiSalle went on with his radio "clockathons" defying the Senator's prestige and popularity.

A letter writer indicates that he had read the newspaper for 30 years, considered it a great value and a friend to the poor and laboring people, but found that it had forsaken them in endorsing General Eisenhower, who was merely "Taft's tool". He recounts of having seen the bread lines which had no bread and recalls 21,000 bankrupt banks, leading to suicides, during the Depression years. He had seen families in Charlotte cast out onto the sidewalk, all in the same day. He appears to forecast a return to such times under Republican rule. His last name is Hoover.

A letter writer responds to a letter from the Disabled American Veterans which had endorsed incumbent Congressman Hamilton Jones for having worked for the interests of veterans. He objects on the basis that the organization, of which he was a member, had maintained strict neutrality in politics, and claims that 70 percent of the members to whom he had talked supported opponent Charles Jonas for the seat. He says that it was time for a change.

A letter writer who knew Mr. Jones from the time he was a boy, indicates that he had always shown fair play and exhibited gentleness, had also been a fellow student at UNC, where he had always reflected credit on himself. He urges voting for him for re-election to Congress.

A letter writer from Morristown, Ariz., urges change from the "New and Fair Deal Socialists within the Democratic Party".

A letter writer finds that G.M. and General Wood appeared to be underwriting a great part of the Republican campaign expenses, wonders what sort of confidence they inspired in plain people, says that the expansion of giant corporations during the previous 20 years had been largely the result of increased purchasing power of the common people, brought about by the broad financial policies of the government, whereas the Republicans had nearly destroyed many huge corporations in the early 1930's, along with thousands of small businessmen and great masses of employees. He urges voting for the Democrats.

A letter writer suggests that had General Eisenhower been nominated by the Democratic Party, Democrats would be singing his praises instead of condemning him, congratulates the newspaper for its endorsement.

A letter writer responds to a letter from a woman who had found General Eisenhower to be a good military man but not qualified for the presidency, finds that a narrow view of his ability, that he had demonstrated versatility and various aptitudes. This "independent voter" says, in response to the prior writer's suggestion that one did not call a plumber when one needed an electrical wire repaired, it would be better to have a good Pfc. elected President by the people than "Haberdasher Harry" produced by the Pendergast machine.

A letter writer indicates that there was a spreading movement, originating in Texas, to make inauguration day in January a nationwide holiday on the basis of thanksgiving for deliverance from "a man whose conduct in office has dragged the high and sacred office … to such a low level as to cause the country to lose inestimable prestige in the eyes of the whole world."

This man is obviously gifted with the blessing of augury concerning 2020.

A letter writer finds letter writers who had said they would no longer read the newspaper because of its endorsement of General Eisenhower to appear adolescent and prejudiced, as they did not wish to be well-informed and did not wish to know both sides of the issue. He says he would continue to read the newspaper with pleasure.

But that is only because you're going to vote for General Eisenhower, right? If they had endorsed that socialist, pink Stevenson, you would have jumped up and down on it and thrown it in the incinerator. No, you just shut up, smart guy, and put down the knife. We know your kind.

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