The Charlotte News
Friday, December 26, 1952
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that allied fighter-bombers had hit 15 enemy supply dumps, six artillery positions, ten troop bunkers and 27 buildings this date over North Korea, while 16 U.S. Sabre jets engaged with 16 enemy MIG-15s near the Yalu River border with Manchuria, with no reports of enemy jets destroyed or damaged.
On Christmas Day, a large MIG contingent had turned back toward Manchuria without firing a shot, despite the deepest jet penetration into Korea by the enemy during the war. The Air Force did not indicate how close the enemy planes had come to the battle line, but they had turned back as soon as the Sabres were airborne. One Sabre was credited with destruction of a MIG without firing a shot the previous day, when the enemy jet went into a spin and crashed while attempting an evasive maneuver.
In ground fighting, a U.S. Eighth Army patrol fought a pre-dawn battle with 25 to 40 Communist troops near Kumsong on the eastern front. Light patrol activity was reported on the western and central fronts, where temperatures were two degrees.
In Moscow, Premier Joseph Stalin's statement that he favored diplomatic conversations with the U.S. regarding Korea were thought by Western observers to be a preliminary offer to use his good offices in arriving at a Korean settlement. Western diplomats in Moscow suggested that a new Western approach was now a possibility in consequence of the Premier's statements, which had been in answer to questions posed by New York Times correspondent James Reston. The Western observers also pointed out that there was nothing new in his declaration, and that there had been no indication in his answers as to where such a proposed meeting with President-elect Eisenhower would take place. Previously, when he had indicated willingness to meet with the heads of state of the U.S. and Britain, it had been stressed that his health prevented long distance travel. President Truman had regularly, since Potsdam in mid-1945, communicated his willingness to meet with Stalin in Washington.
Secretary of State-designate John Foster Dulles issued a statement this date, after consulting with President-elect Eisenhower by telephone during the morning, that he had read the published account of Stalin's views and that if the responses meant that he had concrete proposals to make to the new administration after it took office, he could rest assured that they would be "seriously and sympathetically received". Mr. Dulles further said that diplomatic or U.N. channels of communication were always "available for such purposes and for exchanges of views designed to find ways to promote peace and international good will."
There was some cautious optimism on Capitol Hill resulting from Stalin's statements, but at the White House, the prevailing view was that there was nothing new in the statements to which reply was necessary.
Correspondent John Hightower reports that plans of the Eisenhower Administration for dealing with the Korean War appeared likely to center on placing new pressures on the Chinese Communists while easing the battle burden of U.S. forces. It was believed by authoritative sources in Washington that the new President and Secretary Dulles would promptly call for a U.N. economic blockade of Communist China and for maximum acceleration in training of South Korean forces and their assignment to front line positions. Thus far, however, the President-elect had not tipped his hand regarding what action he might take in Korea. Some authorities in Washington believed that the plans remained fluid until the new President, after taking office, would obtain a final look at all of the information available on the war.
Richard O'Regan of the Associated Press reports from Vienna that Western Europe looked forward to the new year with a general conviction that the Russians would hesitate to wage aggression in 1953 but would nevertheless keep the cold war hot. Many Western European statesmen, including Prime Minister Winston Churchill, believed that the danger of a shooting war had receded despite the Kremlin being still determined to dominate Europe. Military men were concerned, however, about a recent acceleration in Russian and satellite military power buildup. General Matthew Ridgway, supreme commander of NATO, cautioned that the Soviets might be approaching the strength they needed to overrun the Continent at the same time that Europe relaxed in overconfidence based on the improved unity of NATO.
The President granted a full pardon to former Congressman Andrew May of Kentucky, who had served nine months in prison after his conviction of accepting bribes for influence in awarding munitions contracts while chairing the House Military Affairs Committee during the war.
In New York, all of the 262 seamen aboard six foreign freighters, who had been questioned the previous day under provisions of the new McCarran Act, restricting access to the U.S. by aliens who had been members of subversive organizations, were granted shore leave the previous day.
Hope you already had your Christmas shopping done earlier. You can walk around looking at all the colorful decorations.
In Hong Kong, a Nationalist Chinese newspaper reported that Communists had arrested 59 teachers and executed two of them since taking over the schools at Kukong in Communist China, 100 miles north of Canton, the prior September. The teachers had been charged with counter-revolutionary sentiments, cultural espionage or disloyalty.
Also in Hong Kong, two U.S. Navy sailors were in a British naval hospital occupying adjoining beds after a cable aboard ship had snapped while it was in port on Sunday, breaking the left legs of each man. Though from different states, both had joined the Navy in May, 1952, had gone through boot camp together and started Korean duty at the same time aboard the U.S. cruiser Los Angeles.
In Nagoya, Japan, eight persons had been killed and 21 injured in a second explosion in five days in the downtown area this date. An explosion in a chemical plant had killed 21 persons and injured more than 200 the prior Monday.
In Tehran, an Iranian Airways plane crashed in dense fog the previous night, a few miles from the airport, killing 23 persons, including four Americans. Two passengers were the only survivors. The plane was attempting to land in the fog when it bounced several hundred yards in an open field and broke apart, the pilot having miscalculated the altitude.
In Columbia, S.C., a lumber company employee with a long police record was shot and killed from a passing car on a corner of Main Street this date, and another man shortly thereafter gave himself up to police as the assailant. Police believed the shooting derived from some previous trouble between the two men. It could have been meant just as a friendly Christmas greeting which went awry and hit the victim in the head.
In Chickasaw, Ala., a souvenir 45-mm "tank buster" shell exploded on a family's porch, causing a sixteen-year old girl to lose both of her legs and a woman to lose her right leg. Others suffered burns. The Marine private who had brought home the shell was on Christmas leave from Camp Lejeune, N.C., and was not around at the time of the explosion. His younger brother had been showing the shell to another person when he dropped it and it exploded. The woman who lost her right leg was the mother of the Marine. The Marine told the police chief that he did not realize the danger of the shell.
Next year, bring a turkey.
Fatal accidents during the Christmas
holiday had thus far surpassed 300, with 251 persons having died in
automobile accidents since 6:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, 23 more in fires,
and 31 by other types of accidents. The holiday period would last
until midnight Sunday, and if the rate of accidental fatalities
continued at the same pace, the all-time record of 555 traffic
accidents established in 1936 might be broken. The previous year the
toll had been 789 deaths, 535 having occurred in traffic accidents.
Several cities reported record numbers of vehicle accidents, such as in
Chicago, where there were 1,300 accidents, with more than a dozen
persons killed, including four by hit-and-run drivers. The City
traffic chief blamed the heavy toll on drunk drivers and increased
traffic because of relatively mild weather. The National Safety
Council had predicted a traffic death toll of 594 for the four-day
holiday period
Colder weather moved into the central part of the country this date, with icy blasts pushing eastward from the Rockies and Western plains, and southward from central Canada. It was below zero again this date in the Rockies and in parts of the Western plains. The cold air was expected to cover wide areas in the Eastern half of the country during the weekend. Florida was the country's warmest spot, with 78 recorded at Orlando the previous day. Temperatures had ranged between 5 and 15 degrees below zero in the Western mountain areas, with 12 below recorded at Butte, Montana.
In Los Angeles, a 27-year old mother from Hawthorne, suffering from incurable Hodgkin's Disease, was scheduled to undergo a cesarean section birth this date to deliver her fourth child, despite the operation threatening to kill her. She said that if she could have the baby, she would die happy. On Christmas, she had joined with her three children in singing carols and rejoicing at the presents Santa had left for the family under the Christmas tree. Scores of offers had poured in from potential blood donors, some from as far away as Chicago, but doctors held out little hope for her survival of the cesarean birth.
As pictured, the receptionist for President-elect Eisenhower's headquarters in New York demonstrated an "Eisenhopper", a spring-loaded grasshopper toy which sprung into the air, designed to release tension of guests when they visited.
Must have been patterned off the D-Day crickets.
On the editorial page, "Prohibition Issue Looms Once Again" tells of the prospect of the statewide liquor referendum coming up once again in the 1953 General Assembly, with the Allied Church League drive having added for the first time solicitation of commitments from candidates prior to the Democratic primaries the previous spring, and in some cases had obtained promises to vote for such a referendum, the question being whether to retain local option.
It concludes that having observed the operation of the ABC system of controlled sale of alcohol in Mecklenburg County, the newspaper was more firmly convinced than ever that placing whiskey under legal control was a lesser evil than Prohibition, and that the principle of county option was both fair and democratic. It indicates that it had been the newspaper's position in the past and would remain so during the upcoming session of the General Assembly.
"Educational TV—Some Reservations" indicates that on the page was an excerpt from a speech by FCC commissioner Frieda Hennock, advocating educational television for students in school and for adults, finds that there was little to add to her excellent presentation, and that it was unthinkable that the channels already tentatively set aside for educational television would go by default to commercial broadcasting for not being filled by educational stations. It indicates that the FCC ought extend the deadline to allow more time for the slow-moving education forces to obtain their own independent stations.
It indicates that there were some dangers involved in educational television, as it could not replace the personal attention of a skilled teacher, and therefore should be used only sparingly in the classrooms. But, it indicates, television should be good enough to compete for the child's attention successfully with commercial television in the open market, so that it would be of use during after-school hours and vacations. Another danger was that if carried to the extreme, mass educational television could become a forum for indoctrination.
It concludes that there was need for more searching inquiry into educational television's shortcomings, to guard against them and avoid producing automatons who thought alike "as they mentally goosestep to the chant of the TV announcer."
"Pleasure Ahead" indicates that Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois should have a good time during the coming session of Congress, as he was a persistent advocate of economy. He had been given a rough time the previous year by his fellow Democrats when he sought repeatedly to reduce specific appropriations, getting nowhere despite convincing arguments. Now, as a member of the minority party, with the Republicans pledged in their platform and by the President-elect to effectuate economy in government, the Senator had promised to continue his battle for economy. If the Republicans fulfilled their vows, Senator Douglas would be able to accomplish some good, and if the Republicans failed to vote for economy, he could taunt them with their own campaign promises.
"Our Capricious Calendar" indicates that those favoring reform of the calendar wanted Christmas and New Year's Day always to fall on a Monday for the sake of business. Under such a calendar, the year would be divided into four equal quarters, each beginning on a Sunday and ending on a Saturday, and each containing 91 days, with every month having exactly 26 week days, eliminating in the process leap year.
It indicates that the Gregorian calendar was capricious and made little sense, and it looks forward to the day when could be eliminated the old saw which went: "Thirty days hath September,/ All the rest I can't remember./ The calendar hangs upon the wall./ So why bother me at all."
A piece from the Kansas City Star, titled "A Threat to a Tang", tells of the people of The Netherlands producing plenty of cheese but having to import the flour with which to make bread, flour they had purchased annually from the U.S. in recent years, paying for it with precious dollars earned through exports of goods and services to the U.S. In the past the Dutch had exported cheese and imported flour, and the arrangement with the U.S. had worked fairly well. But a section of the Defense Production Act limited the amount of cheese the Dutch could sell in the U.S., limiting their dollars and forcing them to reduce their purchase of U.S. flour from 73,000 tons to 57,000 tons per year.
The piece finds that the regulation in question had meddled with something as vital as a cheese sandwich and should be ashamed of itself.
Freida B. Hennock, F.C.C. commissioner, as stated in the above editorial, in a reprinted abstract of an address to the San Francisco branch of the American Association of University Women, indicates that in a democracy it was education's responsibility to advance the individual's knowledge of himself and his society and to aid the citizen's solution of the difficulties to be found in each. To accomplish those tasks, education had to make substantial use of mass media and all of their new developments.
She finds television to be the "newest and most powerful of the mass media". The superintendent of the Alameda County Schools, across the Bay, in his testimony before the FCC in support of reserving a certain number of television channels for education, had said that television was the greatest educational tool "ever devised by man". One of educational television's major efforts would be to provide telecasts for use in schools as a regular part of the curriculum, with programs in every subject, designed to meet the needs of each class, from kindergarten through college. Recreational needs of children, including story-telling, hobbies, and handicrafts, would also be provided after school, on weekends and during vacations. (They already have "Howdy Doody" and its functional equivalent in many of the local markets. That's how we found out about the old rubber pencil illusion.) Included in the audience would be shut-in children and those who were handicapped or unable to attend school.
Educational television would be just
as valuable to adults
She indicates that for those benefits to occur, educational television would need to have its own independent, non-commercial stations which could operate full-time, the recognition of which having prompted the FCC to set aside in reserve 242 television channels exclusively for such purposes.
She concludes that the threat of television to cultural standards was not in present television fare, but rather from those who knew that something ought be done to furnish educational television and nevertheless did nothing, "inviting by default the confirmation of their worst fears."
We doubt that she had in mind Margaret Mitchell meeting Erskine Caldwell in historiographical po'trayals, set somewheya along the streets of a Southe'nized ve'sion of "Ouah Town", as seen through the tv lens, transposing, somehow, ci'ca 1847 Georgie into 1887, when few white-columned mansions inhabited by fancy dances of a Satu'day night, outside "Bi'th of a Nation" and A'lington anyway, even existed befo' the fall, let alone 22 yeahs afta, mo' likely simply a la'ge, wind-swept, central co''ido'ed cabin, pe'haps with some ostentatious po'ticoes stuck on each end faw effect late' on afta the ol' one burnt down, the "hill people" by then pretty much blent via lint, and sometimes not so savory civic o'ganizations gravitatin' 'round celebratin' Khristian ho'se ridin' of nights, with the refinedly educated of the town, but theya it is
Drew Pearson tells of Marshal Tito's recent diatribe against the Vatican having been disastrous from the point of view of the U.S., as nothing could have hurt Tito more. He was probably thinking of the intense anti-Catholic feeling of the Serbs who were Orthodox and bitterly resented the massacre of Orthodox Serbs in Catholic areas when Hitler's puppet government was in control. It was on that basis that Archbishop Stepinac was tried as a war criminal.
U.S. policy favored more Titoist independence from the Soviets behind the Iron Curtain, such as in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, in the hope that those countries would overthrow the Moscow puppet regimes and set up independent governments. Tito also served as example to Mao Tse-tung in China. The recent spy trials in Czechoslovakia of former Communist leaders, who had been found guilty of Titoism, indicated that the policy was working. Another aspect to U.S. policy was to block Communism in Greece, Turkey, and the Dardanelles, and Titoism was quite important to that effort.
The reason for the announcement of the Truman Doctrine in March, 1947, providing military aid to Greece and Turkey, had been to resist the efforts of Russia to gain control over the Dardanelles, which provided a warm-water outlet to the Mediterranean, considered a prize for Russian leaders for more than a century. Communist guerrillas were still operating in Greece despite millions of dollars and shiploads of U.S. military equipment having been provided to support the Greek army, until Tito had broken with Moscow, causing the halt of Communism in Greece, as the guerrillas were no longer able to cross the Yugoslav border. Now, the relations between Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey were excellent, and served as the pillars of NATO defense in Southeast Europe. Should Russia push down from Austria past Trieste to northern Yugoslavia and the head of the Adriatic, the Dardanelles, Turkey and Greece would be bypassed, and the Adriatic would provide the Soviets with their warm water route to the sea. No two countries of Europe, therefore, were more important to one another than Italy and Yugoslavia, supplementing each other perfectly when it came to defense, with politics being their only trouble. Any U.S. or Italian failure to help Tito also therefore hurt the defense of the Vatican.
For the easiest avenue of attack on Italy was across the broad plains of northern Yugoslavia to the Dalmatian Coast, in recognition of which, Tito had stationed 12 well-stocked forts in the Dalmatian hills along that corridor. Russians proceeding down the Dalmatian Coast to Communist Albania would be within easy striking distance of the U.S. naval base at Leghorn, Italy, on the Adriatic coast, and the giant airbase at Foggia, and also then within easy bombing distance of Rome and the Vatican.
Occupation of the Dalmatian Coast by Communist troops would make it more difficult for the U.S. to send military aid to Tito. The realists in the State Department had long preached the importance of Italian-Yugoslav cooperation, and had realized that Catholic sentiment in the U.S. did not favor U.S. aid to Tito for his anti-Catholicism. Tito's 30 divisions of well-trained Yugoslav troops, plus his strategic position, made Yugoslavia and the preservation of Tito's independence all-important to NATO. It had been difficult to convince Tito on one side and the Catholic leaders on the other of that significance.
Those unfortunate developments in Yugoslavia were probably the best break for Stalin, posits Mr. Pearson, in many months. Underground reports from Hungary indicated that the Kremlin's next move in Europe was likely to be against Yugoslavia, with 15 parachute garrisons having been established along the Hungarian-Yugoslav border. The Kremlin's strategy, according to the underground reports, was to stir up ostensible Communist revolt inside Yugoslavia and use that as an excuse to start local civil war between the satellites and Tito. Such a localized civil war would make it difficult for either the U.S. or the U.N. to intervene on the basis of a threat to world peace, and Communist strategists apparently believed that they could thereby reach the Adriatic coast just opposite Italy in short order.
Robert Peel, editorial writer for the Christian Science Monitor, indicates that there was nothing subversive about learning to "love thy neighbor as thyself", and nothing unpatriotic about recognizing that in modern times one's neighbor might be a peasant on the other side of the globe, as the U.N. forces of the West had learned in fighting side-by-side with South Koreans. Yet, in every country there were those who were resisting the facts of international life, who decried honest attempts to come to a better understanding with global neighbors, labeling that attempt "disloyalty" to one's own country. There were those who suspected that "internationalism" was synonymous with the interests of Communism. It was true that there was a certain type of "sentimental internationalist", who had never learned that responsibility, like charity, began at home, and such persons' "fuzzy benevolence" might be perverted to dangerous ends by shrewd propagandists. But a loyal, responsible citizen of the local community and of the nation was no less a patriot when that person expanded their vision to include the best interests of all mankind.
A great deal of criticism was being directed at UNESCO for its attempt to promote better international understanding. The chief criticism was coming from the Soviet bloc and from a segment of the American public, each accusing UNESCO of being an instrument to disseminate the ideas of the other. American criticism had centered on a series of UNESCO pamphlets titled "Towards World Understanding", especially number five, "In the Classroom with Children under 13 Years of Age", which recorded the findings of an international seminar in 1948 on the subject of Education for a World Society. The pamphlet initially stated that it did not purport to be an official expression of the views of UNESCO, but was rather an exploration of the ways and means of educating children toward better world understanding and helping to rid them of local and nationalistic prejudices against their world neighbors. Within the context of the seminar, there could be disagreement on the methods of teaching proposed, for instance, a second seminar having found fault with the stress of the first seminar on local and world history before national history, and then reversed that priority. But to regard such discussion on teaching methods to be subversive was "curious indeed".
He addresses some of the other criticisms of this pamphlet along similar tracks, and then concludes that it was time for every citizen to ask why there should be a need for any conflict between one's loyalty to one's country and loyalty to mankind, "between loving his near and his far neighbors."
Marquis Childs indicates that with the able executives designated to fill the second level of offices in the Department of Defense, the President-elect had virtually completed the slate of appointments, resulting in "an impressive list". The emphasis had been on business leadership, not surprising for the conservative victory. Such stress was not new for the Defense Department, as retiring Secretary Robert Lovett had been a partner in one of the largest private banking and investment houses in the country, and the retiring Deputy Secretary, William Foster, was head of a small steel company which had become one of the most efficient in the country.
But running an administrative office in Government, as these men had found out, was completely different from running an administrative office in a business.
The new Secretary of Defense would be Charles E. Wilson, president of G.M., and his new Deputy, Roger Kyes, vice-president of G.M. Despite G.M. being the largest corporation in the world, with a half-million employees, the Defense Department, in volume of expenditures for armaments, performed business equal to that of G.M. plus the 18 next largest corporations in the country. Moreover, the Congress, as the functional equivalent of the board of directors, exercised far more power to check the executive branch than did the average corporate board.
Governor Douglas McKay of Oregon, the new Secretary of Interior, had Chevrolet and Cadillac dealerships in the Pacific Northwest, and Arthur Summerfield, the new Postmaster General, was a Chevrolet dealer in Michigan, reputedly the largest such dealer in the world. During the campaign, the Democrats had made much of the Republican connection to the top management of G.M.
After the UAW strike of 1946, which lasted 108 days, Mr. Wilson had reached an agreement with the union, the largest in the country, negotiating over a period of months with Walter Reuther to conclude a contract which made industry and labor history by adjusting wage increases in accordance with changes in the cost-of-living index. Some executives at the time at the other automobile manufacturers were angry when they saw the contract, believing it would set a pattern for all companies, which only the largest could afford. But since 1946, the contract had been renewed and Mr. Reuther and Mr. Wilson had enjoyed a friendly working relationship in the interim.
Mr. Childs concludes that whether a big government would present a more stubborn problem than big business remained to be seen.
Object lesson for the Trumpies: The government is not a business, except perhaps in Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany, and cannot be run as such, lest disaster ensue.
Second Day of Christmas: Two dogs continuing to fight over control of the Christmas tree lights.
Framed Edition
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