The Charlotte News
Saturday, March 29, 1952
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Sam Summerlin, that a U.N. truce negotiator had indicated this date that "only the Kremlin" knew why the Communists were insisting that Russia be nominated as one of the neutral inspector nations of the truce. The U.N. spokesman speculated that the Communists might be using the deadlock for propaganda purposes or for the purpose of leveraging a trade.
The secret negotiations on prisoner exchange continued, without any interim announcement as to progress, as previously planned. It was indicated that the session this date was "amiable". Communist correspondents indicated that the lead Chinese negotiator complained of two alleged leaks to the U.N. press from the U.N. negotiators anent that which had transpired during the secret sessions, but the U.N. spokesman had no comment other than to say the charge was "ridiculous".
In the air war, overcast skies and fog obscured most North Korean targets, but Thunderjets had been able to dive through holes to shoot up enemy bunkers on the eastern front, while B-26 light bombers had destroyed 54 supply trucks the previous night and B-29s attacked enemy rail and highway targets at Sinanju and Hamhung.
The U.S. Fifth Air Force announced that during the previous week, it had lost nine warplanes over North Korea, two of them in air combat with enemy MIG-15 jets. Three had been shot down by enemy ground fire and two had failed to return from their missions for unknown reasons. During the same period, the U.N. forces had downed four enemy planes, probably destroyed three others and damaged nine.
In ground action, there was a flurry of small enemy attacks across the front late Friday and early this date. In one such action, the allies withdrew after a half-hour fight with the enemy, who hurled about 50 hand grenades before the U.N. troops carried the battle into the enemy trenches. An allied raiding party killed about 60 enemy troops in capturing a hill position west of the Mundung Valley on the eastern front, after which the allies withdrew.
According to an Associated Press survey, Soviet charges that the U.S. was waging germ warfare in North Korea and Communist China were not being believed outside the Iron Curtain bloc. One of the chief aims of the Soviets was to convince the millions of people in Southeast Asia that the Western powers had no compunction about releasing germ warfare in furtherance of what they described as "Western imperialism". The U.S. and Britain demanded that the International Red Cross or the World Health Organization be permitted to send experts into the areas where the Soviets claimed the germ warfare had been unleashed, but the Communists had refused. The refusal, according to British Foreign Office officials, had likely blunted the effect of the Communist propaganda in the minds of the Asian people. Newspapers in French-controlled sections of Vietnam viewed the charges as being just as ridiculous as the Communist accusations a couple of years earlier that Americans had been dropping potato beetles in the Soviet zone of Germany and Czechoslovakia. Many of those newspapers had pointed out that the Chinese Communists had killed many of their best physicians in purges and were undoubtedly short of medical supplies in combating epidemics. In India, a top-level official said that his Government had reacted to the charges with "incredulous horror". Some followers of Gandhi, however, tended to give the Chinese Communists the benefit of the doubt until an inquiry could take place, with one disciple indicating that after the U.S. had dropped the atom bombs on Japan, Asians would not be surprised at anything the country might do. The press in Indonesia had paid little attention to the charges, but responsible observers believed that the propaganda had aroused widespread doubts among many Indonesians, who tended to be suspicious of Western sincerity. In Western Europe, officials and the press, with the exception of Communist organs, ridiculed the charges.
Government leaders unofficially indicated resignation to a steel price increase of up to five dollars per ton to avert a strike by steelworkers on April 8, while officially, the Government denied any deal regarding prices. Negotiations between the "Big Six" steel firms and the United Steelworkers union were set to resume on Monday and the Government hoped a resolution would result, especially as the companies had sought the meeting.
The President was being urged by
Senator Burnet Maybank of South Carolina to end the confusion and
announce his intention this night as to whether he would seek
re-election, during his address to the annual Democratic
Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner
New York oil man Larry Knohl had a Federal tax lien filed for 1950 unpaid taxes and penalties in the amount of $779,768. He had testified in the previous year's House investigation of tax scandals, stating that he had given $5,000 to then-Assistant Attorney General Lamar Caudle for arranging purchase of a $30,000 airplane. He already had other tax liens amounting to $200,000.
In Buffalo, a former U.S. Army sergeant was being held without bail in jail pending extradition to Italy on a fugitive warrant for the slaying of an O.S.S. major behind German lines in northern Italy during the war, in 1944. The Defense Department had joined in the accusation of murder and alleged that a lieutenant from Pittsburgh had conceived the murder plot while the three men were on a mission for the O.S.S. According to the Department, the sergeant had drawn the two of spades and received the assignment to shoot the major, after the lieutenant decided that poison which had been administered to the major might not do the job. The major was killed after he and the lieutenant argued over how much American aid should be provided to Communist and non-Communist bands of Italian partisans, the major wishing to hold up distribution of arms pending a more thorough check, while the lieutenant wanted the Communist elements, whom he perceived to be tougher fighters, to receive immediate aid in fighting the Germans. The lieutenant was also expecting to be arrested.
At Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, a jet bomber crashed and exploded in the waters off Plum Tree Island in Chesapeake Bay, shortly after takeoff the previous night on a local training mission, and the three-person crew remained missing.
As pictured, Ruth Steinhagen, 21, had been released from a mental hospital as legally sane and therefore competent to face trial for the 1949 shooting of Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus, who opposed her being tried for the assault.
News editor Pete McKnight was scheduled to leave the following week on a tour of the Middle East, as part of the fifth study tour arranged by the American Christian Palestine Committee. He would be accompanied by 16 others, including educators, civic leaders, clergymen and other journalists. They would visit Rome, Cairo, the Old City of Jerusalem, the New City of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nazareth, Bethlehem, plus other parts of Israel, and Jericho and its environs in Jordan territory. They would meet with government leaders and representatives of their own professions, while studying social, economic, political and religious conditions in Egypt, Jordan and Israel. Mr. McKnight intended to report back in several articles to the newspaper from time to time during the tour. During his absence, associate editor Vic Reinemer would be in charge of the editorial page.
In Detroit, the health department a few weeks earlier had ordered a woman to rat-proof her home. She complied, but complained that after having done so and prevented the rats from getting in, the ones which were already there could not get out. The judge dismissed the case against her but ordered that she stop harboring wild rodents by May 23.
In Ann Arbor, Mich., delegates to a
mental health conference at the University of Michigan learned of a
disease known as vernal hyperpyrexia, defined as causing the iron
content of the blood to turn to lead and gradually settle into the
lower extremities of the back, the least fatal of all mankind's
diseases and cured by complete rest, a change of scenery through
playing golf, fishing
On the editorial page, "Eisenhower and the Independents" tells of Bernard DeVoto, writing in the current issue of Harper's, having developed the thesis that General Eisenhower appealed to the independent voter primarily because of his views on foreign policy but that if elected President, would have a Congress run by Republicans who tended toward isolationism and would effectively mutilate his foreign policy, leading to the conclusion that the best hope for the independent voter was the nomination by the Democrats of Governor Adlai Stevenson and his election along with a Democratic Congress.
The piece does not desire to quarrel with the thesis or the stature of Governor Stevenson but points out some of the things which Mr. DeVoto had ignored, starting with the notion that it was unlikely for the ensuing two years that the Republicans would gain control of the Senate, though they might be able to control the House. The reason for the prediction was that most of the Senators up for re-election in 1952 were Republicans and most of the Democrats up for re-election came from solidly Democratic states. Since the Senate had a greater voice in foreign policy than did the House, it was not likely that Congress could override the foreign policy of General Eisenhower, were he to become the next President. Moreover, the General had proven his ability to persuade to his position those initially stubbornly opposed to it. It also finds that the independent voter had an alternative to the Democrats, as the election of General Eisenhower would lead to the ascendancy of Senators Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., James Duff, Leverett Saltonstall, Wayne Morse, Frank Carlson, Irving Ives and Ralph Flanders. That would encourage other Republicans of their caliber to run for office.
It finds that for the independent voter to turn away from the General would be to weaken the chances of a Republican victory in the election, and for many independent voters, there was a need for change in the administration, to inject new enthusiasm and vitality to a sluggish and inefficient, entrenched party. That would preserve and perfect current foreign policy. It indicates that the true independent liberal desired efficiency in the Federal Government and wanted new emphasis on local and state responsibility. While Governor Stevenson's record in Illinois showed that he would bring that kind of vitality to the Federal Government, it was doubtful he could remove all of the entrenched dead weight, which a Republican could better effectuate.
It concludes again that its belief was that General Eisenhower would bring greater dividends to the independent voters, among whom it counts itself.
Delusional.
"These Hybrids" finds that hybrid politicians were appearing in the news of late, the prior Monday's editorial on Dr. Thomas Burton, a candidate for Congress in the area, having pointed out one such individual. Senator Taft, the previous Wednesday, had referred to "hybrid tickets" in relation to the offer of Harold Stassen to split with General Eisenhower the delegates he might win in the upcoming Wisconsin primary.
It finds that the term "hybrid" could be applied to the Republican Party, which included the liberal Senator Wayne Morse and the highly conservative Senators William Jenner and John W. Bricker. In the Democratic Party, there was the conservative Senator Harry F. Byrd and the liberal Senator Hubert Humphrey.
It expresses eagerness to find out how the Wisconsin voters would respond to the notion of a hybrid ticket.
We predict that half of the coming hybrid Republican ticket will be the electric Dick Nixon.
"Doctors' Day" finds that the medical profession had come in for a lot of criticism during the previous few years, some of it from politicians and some from the public sincerely concerned over the rising costs of medical care and the inability to fit it within the family budget. It indicates that it would be unfair to judge the medical profession by its lowest common denominator, the doctor who did not keep abreast of medical progress, charged more than he ought, while wearing a cold exterior hiding a cold heart. For every such physician, it finds, there were many others who remained true to the highest traditions of the profession and were as concerned as the public regarding the difficulty of extending adequate medical care to all people.
So, on the day before the annual Doctors' Day, it pays its devoirs to the medical profession, finding that North Carolina was perhaps more fortunate than other states in terms of its professional competence and civic-mindedness within the profession. Because of progressive doctors, Blue Cross insurance plans were widespread and the Medical Care program was providing clinics and hospitals across the state. There was also a State appropriation for the indigent, as well as a loan fund for young medical students who agreed to practice in rural areas for a particular period of time. Charlotte also had an unusually large group of skilled specialists who were devoting their time to badly needed out-patient clinics.
It indicates that Doctors' Day had been started in 1934 by the Auxiliary to the Southern Medical Association and, it predicts, would continue for a long time, as the wives of doctors, sponsoring the Day, appreciated better than anyone else the rigorous assignment which medicine demanded of doctors.
A piece from the Salisbury Post , titled "Some Stop Smoking", finds that while it remained a subject of controversy whether smoking was injurious to health, it was undisputed that smokers paid more in taxes, with the Federal tax accounting for about one-third of the price of cigarettes, with states and some cities adding more. Yet, people liked to smoke and so it was difficult to get them to stop.
A professor of psychology at Duke, Dr. Gelolo McHugh, had come up with a means to quit smoking. Duke experimented in parapsychology and extra-sensory perception, with which most of their colleagues were skeptical because the phenomenon was not subject to duplication under laboratory conditions. Dr. McHugh contended that scare tactics did not effectively induce people to quit smoking. Making a concerted effort to quit worked for some people but was not a good method, according to the professor, because if it failed, attempts to quit in the future would be much harder. Cutting down on smoking was also not effective because it kept the mind on smoking. The trick he found that worked best was to set aside a no-smoking period at the beginning of each day, gradually extending it until the desire to smoke was extinguished.
The smartest and most effective way to stop smoking cigarettes is never to start in the first place.
Dr. Charlton C. Jernigan, new president of Queens College in Charlotte, has reprinted his recently stated comments regarding the small, liberal arts college, as presented on Cedric Foster's Mutual Broadcasting System radio program, in which he stated that such colleges were the "last stronghold of free and untrammeled thought". Queens, he indicated, insisted on remaining a relatively small, liberal arts college. He believed much of the nation's leadership in the past had come from such institutions and that it was those institutions to which the country would need look for wise leadership in the future. He also asserts the belief that such institutions were the essence of American free enterprise. The value of such an institution, in contrast to mass education, came from its encouragement for inner growth and maturity of the student achieved through close and intimate contact with mature faculty members. He asserts that the graduate of such colleges entered life with a more firm belief in their eventual security.
And he goes on in the same vein.
That's all a load of bull, of course. There is nothing like self-rationalization of provincialism and fear of competition from large numbers of students from all over the world. You may think the one-room schoolhouse superior to all other forms of education, but think again. "Mass education" does not mean that every class has hundreds of pupils being taught at once. Some do, but in those courses, our experience was that one of the three hours per week was taught in a small section, while plenty of courses had only a few students, about the size of an average elementary school classroom or smaller. Just because a school has 15,000 undergraduate students does not mean that they study in the same classroom.
Drew Pearson, beginning a series of
columns on the Democratic candidates for the presidency, starts with
Senator Robert Kerr
Senator Kerr was the most pious and one of the most powerful and most genial members of the Senate, while probably also being the wealthiest member. He also had a lot of courage, though some called it gall. He was likable and taught a Baptist Sunday school, taking his religion seriously while also believing in prohibition, being a tee-totaler. Yet, he brazenly flouted the Senate's ethics and good conduct standards by taking part in matters in which he had a direct pecuniary interest, contrary to an advisory rule of the Senate. Former Senator Warren Austin of Vermont, presently Ambassador to the U.N., for instance, had disqualified himself from voting on a talc bill because he had investments in talc, and the rule had been consistently followed by others. But Senator Kerr had introduced the bill to deregulate the price of natural gas carried in interstate pipelines and became the principal lobbyist pushing for the bill to pass, which eventually occurred, but was vetoed by the President. Nevertheless, Senator Kerr and former White House counsel Clark Clifford, attorney for Phillips Petroleum, lobbied through the Federal Power Commission for a ruling effectuating the same end, allowing price hikes on natural gas. That was so, notwithstanding the fact that Senator Kerr had millions of dollars of interest in the outcome of the bill, by virtue of the fact of his ownership of oil and gas lands valued at around 100 million dollars. He was a partner in the Kerr-McGee Oil Industries Co., with a 1949 gross income of nearly 15 million dollars and a net income of 1.2 million. In 1948, the company had a gross income of 12.5 million dollars, on which it paid an income tax of only $29,053 because of the oil depletion allowance.
He operated on the principle that if one quoted the Bible enough, people tended to forget other things, and it had worked successfully for him. When he had been sworn in as a Senator at the beginning of 1949, he placed his brother in charge of handling RFC law business in Oklahoma. The Senators investigating the RFC the previous year had overlooked this fact. Moreover, the President said nothing about the FPC ruling wherein the President's old friend, former Senator Mon Wallgren, chairman of the Commission, had reversed the President's veto of the Kerr deregulation bill.
Marquis Childs, in Omaha, tells of it being the hope among Democrats that 1952 would prove to be a repeat of 1948, when the chips had been down for the President right up until election day, nevertheless having won on the strength of his cross-country tour and appeal to the people.
But in this year, there was a new ingredient in the form of Senator Estes Kefauver, who had campaigned tirelessly and had usurped the role from the President of the underdog so effectively that it was not impossible that he would capture the nomination from the professional politicians, backing either the President or a deemed successor.
A letter from Dr. Thomas Burton, the subject of "Political Hybrid" of March 24 and mentioned again in the above editorial, responds, saying that he was sorry that his activities had gotten the editors confused through his support of General Eisenhower for the Republican nomination on the one hand, and then declaring as a Democrat for the race for Congress on the other. He indicates that political parties were confusing and that the consistency he desired was not to be found completely in either party. Until the primary, he was acting as an ordinary citizen trying to hew his way through a maze of party inconsistencies to reach a type of consistency he valued more than party regularity. He proceeds to define his position, indicating that he had no personal objection to either Democratic incumbent Congressman Hamilton Jones or the leading Republican candidate, Charles R. Jonas, but wanted the voters to have the full opportunity to select a candidate based on issues and programs. He indicates that if he were successful in the primary, he would become a politician and would abide by the law which required that he be regular, whether it was consistent or not.
A letter writer from Gaffney, S.C., praises the March 18 letter writer who had voiced disapproval of dancing being taught in the schools based on it being evil, causing young girls to go wrong and young boys to have evil thoughts about the girls with whom they danced. This writer also believes that dancing was not "Christ-like", thinks that God would not have a man embracing any woman other than his wife.
That leads inevitably to the logical conclusion that if one has danced with another, the two partners must be married or forever live in sin, no matter what should transpire in the future, and no matter how many partners they might have, the requirement continuing to be that they consummate the dancing relationship in connubial bliss so as to follow God's will. He thus seems to be counseling polygamy. If you have danced with a person of the opposite sex, and then do not marry that person, your soul is condemned to perdition. Repent or just be naturally Satanic, part of a polygamous cult.
Satan lives on the dance
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.