The Charlotte News
Thursday, November 6, 1952
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that U.S. Sabre jets and Communist MIG-15s engaged in four air battles this date over northwest Korea and the Fifth Air Force said that it had shot down one enemy jet and damaged four others. Seven additional damage claims were pending checks of gun camera film. The jet battles were the first since the prior Sunday. In all, 14 Sabres had tangled with 27 enemy warplanes in two morning battles just south of the Yalu River and 28 Sabres did battle with more than 20 enemy jets in two battles during the afternoon.
Meanwhile, ground battles along the front tapered off to patrol skirmishes, following 24 days of nearly continuous fighting. Troops on both sides retired to rest and regroup. The enemy had lost more than 12,000 casualties during that time, and U.N. losses, though not yet announced, had been severe.
The Defense Department announced that U.S. battle casualties had reached a total of 124,569 for the war, an increase of 1,174 over the previous week, including 179 dead, 1,015 wounded and 20 missing in action.
The Associated Press reported that as of 12:30 p.m. this date, with 139,918 of the nation's 146,370 precincts reporting, General Eisenhower had tallied a vote of 32,497,888 to Governor Stevenson's 26,158,658, giving General Eisenhower a winning percentage of 55.4.
Eight contests remained undecided out of the 435 seats in the House, and the outcome of two gubernatorial races, in Michigan and Montana, also remained in doubt. Republicans had won control of the House by winning 220 seats and Democrats had thus far captured 206, with one being independent. Democrats were leading in all of the undecided races. Complete Senate returns gave the Republicans 48 seats and the Democrats, 47, with the defection of Republican Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon to become an "independent Republican". The slim Republican majority was enough to organize committees, as Republican Vice-President-elect Richard Nixon would be a tie-breaking vote. The Democrats had possessed a 49 to 47 edge in the previous Senate and 232 seats in the House, in the previous Congress.
Ho-hum, the Deals're done, and Nixon's the One.
In Springfield, Ill., Governor Stevenson's campaign headquarters were being dismantled this date, but his top lieutenants were already discussing a movement to draft the Governor for the 1956 Democratic nomination. They believed that the Governor would be the top challenger for the 1956 nomination. The Governor, himself, made no comment on his future plans and had brushed aside a question about 1956 at the end of his concession speech early Wednesday morning. He was expected to make clear his plans during the ensuing weeks following a vacation. His campaign manager, Wilson Wyatt, told reporters that he and others in the headquarters had discussed the future with the Governor and that the feeling was that he would definitely be the nominee again in 1956. Mr. Wyatt said that he and others in the campaign had underestimated the political appeal of General Eisenhower, when they predicted that the Governor would win with at least 400 electoral votes. The campaign was still trying to analyze what had occurred during the election and the reason for the overwhelming defeat of the Governor. Mr. Wyatt expressed the opinion that the Republican theme that it was time for a change had snowballed to the point that it had been impossible to arrest. He ventured that the theme was cumulative over time, and had been present even during the third term of FDR. He believed that no one could have done as well for the Democrats as Governor Stevenson under the circumstances.
After the Dewey debacle, the Democrats won't be so foolhardy as to nominate the same candidate twice in a row, especially after such a trouncing.
General Eisenhower had accepted the President's suggestion for a conference on the problem of peace, which would be held during the week beginning November 17. Following the election, the General had gone to Augusta, Ga., where he was vacationing with his family at the Augusta National Golf Club, where they intended to remain for 10 days.
President-elect Eisenhower could probably count on a friendly Congress to underwrite his domestic and foreign policy changes after his landslide victory. Both Republicans and Southern Democrats, who had formed a coalition to block much of the Truman Administration domestic program, were receptive to General Eisenhower's leadership. Most of the Southerners had publicly supported Governor Stevenson, but many felt more closely aligned to General Eisenhower's views on domestic issues. One example was the legislation to provide the states the tidelands oil, passed by the 82nd Congress in the 1952 session but vetoed by the President, a veto which was sustained by the Congress. General Eisenhower had stated during the campaign that he favored the measure. The General's views on foreign policy generally paralleled those of the Administration and, for the most part, approved by Congress. He would find approval from the coalition for placing additional emphasis on Far Eastern policy, including Korea, and for cutting and revising aid to Western Europe. The General had endorsed Senator Taft's earlier statement during the campaign that there had to be a reduction in Federal spending and in taxes. The President-elect had accepted the invitation of President Truman to have a representative sit in on the formulation of the budget for the coming fiscal year, which would have a lot to do with possible reduction of taxes.
Lt. General Wladyslaw Anders, wartime commander of the free Polish forces under General Eisenhower, stated that the General's election raised hope among Polish exiles that the day of the liberation of their country was near.
Don't get your hopes up too high.
Mutual Security adminstrator Averell Harriman stated this date that he planned to return to his New York home at the conclusion of the Truman Administration in January. He spoke with reporters following a short meeting with the President.
Congressman Adolph Sabath of Illinois, who had served for 45 years in the House, died this date at the age of 86. He had been known as "the Congressman with a golden heart", and had just been elected to his 24th consecutive term from a district in the heart of Chicago. His time of service had, at that point, been topped in longevity only by Representative Joe Cannon of Illinois, who served 46 years, albeit with two breaks in his service. Mr. Sabbath had served under eight Presidents, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. He had been chairman for many years of the powerful Rules Committee and had been a central figure in both the passage of New Deal and Fair Deal legislation. He had authored the workmen's compensation act, sponsored the first old age pension plan, championed Social Security benefits and the eight-hour workday. He had saved pennies as a sawmill helper to pay his way to America from Bohemia when he was young. He went to work in Chicago as a watchboy in a store upon his arrival in the United States, then became a salesman, cashier, bookkeeper and later entered the real estate business. His death came from complications from a major operation the previous June.
The Royal Swedish Academy awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize for literature to French novelist François Mauriac, known for such novels as The Desert of Love and Vipers' Tangle, (not about the Chambers-Nixon-Hiss affair), as well for being a poet, playwright, essayist, biographer and contributor to newspapers. He would receive the equivalent of $33,000 as the prize, to be awarded by King Gustav Adolf at the presentation ceremony on December 10. He had been selected from among more than 40 candidates, including Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain, Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce and French novelist Albert Camus. The last American to be awarded the literature prize had been William Faulkner in 1950. The 1951 prize had been awarded to Swedish author Par Lagerkvist.
In Charlotte, it was announced that controlling interest in the Durham & Southern Railway had been purchased by First Securities Corp. and Nello L. Teer Co., both of Durham.
In Troy, N.Y., the death of a 31-year old truck driver had revealed that he had led a double life, having two wives, four children by each wife, and two homes, 60 miles apart. He had thus lived for seven years and the two families did not come to light until the two wives contested for rights in his estate, following his death in a motor vehicle accident on September 30 in New Jersey.
A report from Istanbul stated that a half-hour exchange of fire between Turkish and Bulgarian troops on the frontier the prior Tuesday had been set off by wandering pigs. The Turkish troops had opened fire on the Bulgarian frontier when they heard suspicious noises, and in the morning found dead pigs. Prior to the explanation, some Turkish papers had called for reinforcing the border.
Don't give them atomic weapons anytime soon.
On the editorial page, "The Voter Merits a Better System" finds that the election machinery in Mecklenburg County was woefully out of date and had to be streamlined immediately, especially in light of the record turnout in Tuesday's election, causing innumerable bottlenecks at the polls. It again urges purchase of modern voting machines to alleviate the problems.
"A Blow below the Belt" indicates that the low-level campaigner typically just before an election distributed campaign literature which was distorted and designed to appeal to the prejudices of voters. North Carolina Republicans had engaged in that conduct, the previous weekend issuing a bulletin to various ministers throughout the state, claiming that there was much "concern" about Governor Stevenson being a Unitarian while stating that it was not trying to make a political issue of his religion. It said that a Unitarian was "a religious free-thinker—a religious liberal" and that the idea of salvation to the Unitarian was not essential to Christianity. It had also said that there was no compromise on the part of General Eisenhower in his faith in Christianity.
The piece finds that such an appeal was cheap at the close of the campaign "between two devout and humble men" when religion had been kept out of the otherwise bitter campaign. It was an appeal which was similar to the tactics used in 1928 when Herbert Hoover had run against Governor Al Smith of New York, a Catholic. The Republican state chairman, J. M. Baley, said that he regretted any misinterpretation of the bulletin and the public relations man who released the bulletin had been hiding from the press all week. The editorial suggests that they could, at least, admit that they had hit below the belt.
"The Press and the People" indicates that for the first time in 20 years, the editorial pages of the nation were on the same page with the people. In 1932, 39 percent of the press had supported FDR editorially, and since that time the number had steadily diminished until only 15 percent had supported President Truman in 1948 and 14.5 percent had supported Governor Stevenson in 1952. In the current election, 55 percent of the voters and 67.34 percent of the daily newspapers, with 80.4 percent of the total daily circulation, had chosen General Eisenhower.
It suggests that the figures could be interpreted to mean that the majority of the press had been right all along but that it took 20 years for the people to find out, or that most newspapers favored the Republicans because they believed that they would be more sympathetic to business, or that the voters and the press since 1940 had become progressively cooler toward the Democratic Party, following the Roosevelt landslide of 1936. It could also be all three factors working at once, but it refuses to make any predictions, as it was likely that the Democrats would receive more support from the editorial pages during the ensuing couple of years for the simple reason that the party out of power always looked better than the party in power, able to make mistakes.
"Unequivocal Mr. Univac" indicates that while the leading pollsters did not want to guess the outcome of the election during the tabulation of the results Tuesday night, the Univac computer had not equivocated, and early in the evening had predicted a landslide for General Eisenhower after only three million votes had been tabulated, suggesting that the General would receive 438 electoral votes and Governor Stevenson, 93. The outcome at the end of the day had been 442 to 89.
Yet, those who programmed the Univac would not believe its early prediction, and so curtailed some of the trend information it had been fed, and asked it to try again. At that point, it said that the odds were practically even. When the programmers then put back in the trend information, the computer said that General Eisenhower would carry 40 states and Governor Stevenson, eight. The actual outcome was 39 for the General and nine for Governor Stevenson.
It finds that the Univac, therefore, despite some erratic programming by its handlers, had acquitted itself well. It suggests that by 1956, the computer would be able to provide the final vote by precincts before a trend was even spotted by human programmers. "Science, yes, but leave us have our small and harmless pleasures."
Hal de man
A piece from theBoston Herald, titled "Love Feast", indicates that when it appeared in the press that the President had received his former arch-enemy John L. Lewis at the White House and given him a personal tour it had sought to imagine the conversation, which it proceeds to relate.
Whatever the conversation, the President got Mr. Lewis to call off the coal strike.
Drew Pearson indicates that now that the election was over, the U.S. would need devote some attention to the badly neglected field of foreign affairs, where foreign allies, such as Britain and France, had delayed important pronouncements on foreign policy until after the elections. The U.S. would need to do something about the propaganda proliferating in Korea, charging the U.S. with atrocities against Korean women, as made by Russian and satellite publications. The Voice of America was trying to counteract the propaganda, but its budget had been so curtailed by Congress that it had difficulty.
Mr. Pearson provides examples of what the North Korean press was saying about U.N. troops, in one instance claiming that American soldiers had picked all the young women out of a crowd, locked them in empty warehouses, where they were then raped, and, according to the report, patches branded on their bodies with heated irons and nails. It claimed that those who resisted had a wire put through their nose and were led by the wire through the village, that "the monsters" gouged out the eyes of many of the women and hacked lumps of flesh from their bodies. It also claimed that they disemboweled several pregnant women during the temporary occupation of Sariwon. He goes on quoting from other Communist publications, making similar claims.
Some State Department officials believed that the propaganda might be in response to the exposé of the Russian atrocity at Katyn Forest, involving the massacre of Poles during World War II. The Voice of America had aired information about those murders behind the Iron Curtain, and the broadcasts proved effective, with the Voice having received numerous requests for reprints from those living in Communist countries.
Marquis Childs finds that the issue of the Communist threat domestically was not going to disappear from the scene simply because the presidential campaign had ended. Orators during the campaign, such as Senator Taft, had said repeatedly that the internal danger of Communism was greater than its external threat, and the contention was deliberately exploited to try to discredit Governor Stevenson and the Democrats. The Governor had replied by affirming his American beliefs and charging that Republican leaders, including General Eisenhower, had been just as culpable in failing to detect the guilt of Alger Hiss. But the charges and counter charges had failed to confront "a cancerous growth on the American body politic".
Mr. Childs suggests that perhaps it was too late to try to remove the issue of treason from the political arena, but he feels that if it were not done, it was inviting "the destruction of the freedoms" on which American life depended.
As President, General Eisenhower would be under great pressure to dismiss all persons who had ever been involved in charges of disloyalty, regardless of findings by the various loyalty boards. One method for removing the situation from politics would be to appoint a commission, whose members would be named jointly by Congress, the Supreme Court and the President. Such a commission would be given full powers to examine the seriousness of the internal Communist threat and the damage done to fundamental freedoms by the shotgun charges of Communism and treason against U.S. citizens. Such a commission would need 6 to 9 months to do its work properly and during that period, it would be reasonable to expect a moratorium on the issue. The final report would be an answer to still the voices of all except the demagogues.
Roscoe Drummond of the Christian Science Monitor indicates that the most significant fact about the Korean War was that the leadership of both parties had lost touch with American public opinion. Both General Eisenhower and Governor Stevenson were very close on most issues concerning the war. But the campaign had divided the American people regarding Korean policy, such that, in a poll taken recently by Elmo Roper, less than a third supported continuation of the truce negotiations, two-thirds said that they wanted to see the war extended beyond Korea, even at the risk of sparking World War III, and two-thirds also said that if extending the war was not practicable, they wanted the U.S. to withdraw completely, leaving the South Koreans to deal with the Russians and the Chinese.
Yet, neither General Eisenhower nor Governor Stevenson favored any of those positions, believed that the negotiations ought continue, that the war should not be expanded, and that complete withdrawal from Korea was not an option, though both had favored increase of South Korean troops on the front lines insofar as practicable, when they were ready and properly equipped. Both had also agreed that the decision to enter into the conflict was correct, even though General Eisenhower had charged that "blunders" by the Administration had caused the war.
The real need regarding Korea was not to reconcile differences between the two candidates and the two parties, but rather to reconcile the differences between what the new Administration favored doing in Korea and what the majority of the American people said they wanted done.
A letter from the chairman of the
Queen City Classic indicates that the annual football game between
Second Ward and West Charlotte high schools, to be played the next
night at Memorial Stadium, had its origin six years earlier thanks to
the publisher of The News, Thomas L. Robinson. The proceeds of
the game went to support athletics at the black high schools in the
county. He urges citizens to support the event and contribute thereby
to the youth
A letter writer indicates that his previous 20 years of party detachment, after having worked hard to carry voters to the polls on election day in 1932, had led him as an independent voter to disillusion with the Democrats. He hopes, regardless of the winning candidate in 1952, that there would be a reassessment of domestic and foreign affairs.
A letter writer urges not condemning a charitable organization for errors of some and giving to the United Appeal, to assist the worthy cases whose gratitude the individual benefactors would never know.
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