The Charlotte News
Friday, June 13, 1952
FIVE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via George McArthur, that the head Communist negotiator in the Korean truce talks, General Nam Il, had said this date that the U.N. was in no position to dictate anything either on the battlefield or in the conference. The 16-minute session again made no progress on the remaining issue, voluntary repatriation of prisoners. The two sides agreed to meet again the following morning. Maj. General William Harrison, the chief U.N. negotiator, cautioned, however, that if the Communists continued with their propaganda blasts, the U.N. negotiators would again walk out, as they had for three days the prior weekend.
In the ground war, U.S. 45th Division troops smashed a counter-attacking Chinese Communist battalion on a mass of hills on the western front in Korea. Fighter-bombers, tanks and artillery and mortar barrages helped the troops blast the Chinese from one knob of the commanding hill, west of Chorwon, during a 14-hour dawn to dusk fight the previous day. For a week, the area had been the site of the heaviest fighting of the year. There was nothing, however, to indicate that the action was the start of a new Communist offensive.
At the Koje Island prison camp, Brig. General Haydon Boatner, camp commandant, said this date that he had cracked the resistance on the island among the Communist prisoners of war being held there by the U.N. According to the General, the Communist-led prisoners had submitted to authority four times this date. He said that he believed the worst of the resistance was over.
A former Associated Press newsman from Charlotte, Lt. Hildreth Payne, 28, who had been recalled to active duty, had been killed the prior Saturday in a plane collision over Japan. A friend of the lieutenant said that he was on a flight to try to spot the ship bringing his wife and two children to Japan when his F-51 Mustang collided with a Corsair. The other pilot had also been killed. His wife was informed of her husband's death when she and her two small children disembarked from a ship in Tokyo.
United Steelworkers president Philip Murray told his aides this date that the union shop issue was one of four obstacles preventing settlement of the 12-day old strike, begun after the Supreme Court had ruled that the President did not have Constitutional authority, absent Congressional authority, to seize the steel industry in a national emergency. Mr. Murray said he did not know how long the strike would last. In addressing the Steelworkers, he said that Senator Taft should have more sense than to press for a court injunction under the Taft-Hartley Act, and that General Eisenhower was a "me-tooer", receiving loud cheers from the workers for these statements and boos at the mention of the two leading Republican presidential candidates.
The House this date considered two bills, one passed by the Senate to continue wage-price-rent controls through the ensuing February, as they were set to expire on June 30, while the other bill, which had passed the House Banking Committee, would extend the measures for one year, but would end restrictions on consumer and real estate credit, which had been extended by a year by the Senate measure.
Senator Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa, member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told a reporter this date that he intended to launch a new drive to ban sending of troops to Europe without the consent of Congress, indicating that he would seek to write such a reservation into the Senate approval of the peace treaties with West Germany. Chairman of the Committee, Senator Tom Connally, indicated that the treaties did not carry the provision which Senator Hickenlooper suggested, giving the President powers to send additional troops abroad at his will. He said that the treaty should not give rise to this debate, which had been resolved the previous year. Republican Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin agreed with Senator Connally.
Pennsylvania's 70 Republican convention delegates were guests this date of General Eisenhower on his farm near Gettysburg, and Senator Taft would confer with them later at an unannounced time and place. An Associated Press survey showed that the delegation was divided between 20 for the General, 18 for the Senator, and 32 following Governor John Fine. In Michigan, the delegation was likewise split, seven for the General, six for the Senator and 33 behind Arthur Summerfield, the Michigan Republican national committeeman, who had declined to say who he was supporting. The General was slated to meet with the Michigan delegates the next day and deliver a major speech in Detroit.
Democrats were meeting in Connecticut to select 16 delegates, and in Arkansas to select 22, both in state conventions.
In Liverpool, England, 31 bags of mail and parcels for U.S. airmen in Britain were found slashed and rifled through, aboard the steamer American Traveler this date, after it had arrived from New York the previous day.
In Miami, a resident, whose slumber had been disturbed at 1:00 a.m. by a low-flying, Eastern Air Lines plane, had sworn out a warrant for the arrest of the pilot for disturbing the peace. He said that the pilot had the option of taking off on another runway, which would have routed the plane over the uninhabited Everglades, but instead chose the runway which caused the route to be over West Miami homes.
In Bemidji, Minn., a huge muskellunge was found dead on the shores of Lake Bemidji, with a beer can lodged in its throat. Fishermen suggested that the fish had mistook the shiny container for a fisherman's lure. The dead muskie weighed more than 70 pounds, was 65 inches long and had jaws 9 1/2 inches wide.
But, inside the mistook shiny hook, was there a letter regarding a Canuck? And, how deep was the shiny lure lodged within its throat?
On the editorial page, "How Governor Scott Feathered His Nest" refers to the report on the front page the previous day, based on a story from the Greensboro Daily News, by former News reporter and editor Burke Davis, indicating that Governor Kerr Scott had managed to have about 15 miles of roads paved through and around his dairy farm in Alamance County, increasing his ability to get his milk to market more quickly and also receiving from the State $12,000 for the taking of the acreage on which the roads traversed.
After recapping the facts from the story, it concludes that the Governor's candor in his responses did not correct the "inexcusable, immoral and even dishonest diversion of public highway funds for his own personal benefit." It indicates that since the Highway Commission had been founded in 1921, the road program in the state had been remarkably free from fraud or political misappropriation, with roads largely being built where they were needed rather than where Governors wanted them.
It urges that the Highway Fund be brought under closer supervision by the General Assembly, as the Governor and the district commissioners presently exercised too much power over the allocation of the funds. It hopes that the report by Mr. Davis would convince the 1953 General Assembly to make such changes to avoid further misuse of road money by future administrations.
"Cause or Effect?" tells of a poll of the Brown University class of 1942 revealing that the graduates with the largest waistlines were currently making the most money. It poses the question of whether jollity and gregariousness, traditionally associated with obesity, increased the earning capacity of the fat individuals, or whether their waistlines expanded because they were making so much money that they could afford to eat well.
"Time To Remind the Senators" comments on the subject of an editorial of the previous day regarding the apparent absence of sufficient members of each house of Congress to provide the necessary majority of the membership to veto the President's submission of three reorganization plans recommended by the Hoover Commission, unpopular, especially with Senators, because of their removal of 20,000 jobs from political patronage appointments, bringing them under the Civil Service system. The prior Tuesday, the Senate Government Operations Committee voted heavily against all three plans, which had to be defeated in one house or the other by the following Friday, or they would become law. It appeared that there might be sufficient numbers of Senators on hand to vote against the three plans after all.
It indicates that all three plans were good and that the Senators who were opposing them were more interested in their own political machines than in improved government.
"G.I. Justice" tells of the Army officers at the Koje Island prison camp having allowed the prisoners to take over virtual command of the compound, taking hostage the former commandant, killing non-Communists, manufacturing weapons, flaunting orders, and winning a tremendous psychological battle, culminating in a bloody riot until order had been restored by the new commandant, Brig. General Haydon Boatner. Two of the officers previously in charge, Brig. General Charles Colson and Brig. General Francis Dodd, had been reduced in rank to colonels, and a third officer was reprimanded. An Army sergeant had written to General Mark Clark, the new U.N. supreme commander in Korea, that his handling of the Korean incident was "repugnant and disgraceful". That sergeant had been charged with disrespect of a superior officer and ordered court-martialed, with a maximum penalty, if convicted, of six months in the brig and a bad-conduct discharge.
It offers no commentary.
"Douglas to Carl" tells of the American Academy of Arts and Letters having held a "ceremonial" at which Richmond historian Douglas Southall Freeman was to present a gold medal to Carl Sandburg. He called from the podium for "Dr. Sandburg", to which there was no response, then resorting to "Mr. Sandburg", to which there still was no response, finally saying "Carl!" prompting Mr. Sandburg then to arise and accept the award.
It suggests that no bachelor of arts or sciences should become dismayed if they happened to flub the ceremony, as they, also, might become an academician.
A piece from the Salisbury Post, titled "There's No Place, Etc." tells of a resident of Salisbury, having just returned from Chicago, declaring that he had no wish to go back, even to attend the political conventions. The wonderful steaks he saw had cost $10 each. One bright spot was that cigarettes were 23 cents per pack. He believed that there was a sales tax on the sales tax in Chicago.
The piece suggests that North Carolinians always seemed to return from other places with an enlarged appreciation for their home.
Drew Pearson tells of many political observers having predicted that Senator Estes Kefauver's wife, Nancy, who was half-Scottish and half-American, would be a serious handicap to his campaign. But in fact she had turned out to be a great asset, achieving popularity wherever she had appeared. Recently, Senator Richard Russell, whose campaign had not progressed nearly so well as Senator Kefauver's, indicated that, as a bachelor, he perhaps could use a Nancy.
The only member of the Federal Power Commission who had voted against the natural gas lobby might be quietly axed by that lobby. Tom Buchanan had been appointed chairman of the FPC in May, but the gas lobbyists and certain Senators were trying to block his confirmation. Mr. Buchanan had vigorously fought the lobby in its efforts to raise gas rates, and had lost his battle. Had he won, the price of natural gas would not be threatened with a 50 to 100 percent increase. Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington, chairman of the subcommittee reviewing his appointment, was stalling, in the hope that, with a new administration in January, another FPC chairman would be appointed. The other two members of the subcommittee, Senators Charles Tobey and Herbert O'Conor, appeared favorable to the nomination.
The Supreme Court decision in the steel strike, he reports, had strengthened confidence in American democracy abroad. He had received reactions from various Europeans and Latin Americans, expressing great interest and appreciation for the fact that a little-known Federal District Court judge had been able to upset the seizure action of the President. They regarded it as proof that the U.S. did not support dictators.
Raymond Moley, in the eleventh of his 12-article series abstracted from his 1952 book, How To Keep Our Liberty: A Program for Political Action, tells of the first decision to be made by any group intending to organize for militant political action being its objective, whether it intended to keep itself independent of a legally constituted party organization but supportive of the candidates of a party, intended to work within the legal framework of a party for the purpose of gaining control of it, or to limit itself to a specific objective, such as getting out the vote.
He indicates that in his book he had given three illustrations of these types of groups. His first illustration had regarded an organization initially centered in one Congressional district but later extended to several in a very large Midwestern city, beginning in 1946, when a small group of men who were heads of small manufacturing firms decided to make their influence felt after 16 years of Democratic machine rule within the district. They employed an expert who employed experienced political workers, and they trained many volunteers in how to influence voters. In their first campaign in 1946, they turned a Democratic majority in 1944 of more than 40,000 into a 40,000 majority for their candidate. They had continued their efforts in the 1948 election.
Another illustration occurred in Columbus, Ohio, during Senator Taft's 1950 re-election campaign. A group, calling itself the Active Citizenship League, went about trying to get voters to vote, and for their candidate, Senator Taft, in an area where roughly 50 percent of those who were eligible were not registered to vote. Eventually, they were able to obtain an 85 percent turnout rate, and Senator Taft captured 80 percent of the 6,500 newly registered voters. The group had since decided to spread its idea to other localities and states, calling it the Ohio Plan.
He suggests that such movements could be multiplied many times across the country, in which event there would be an end to the domination of American Government by a Federal machine.
A short piece from the LaGrange Daily News tells of growing tired of hearing multi-married movie stars and others "of like tribe" provide counsel regarding "the Great American home when most of their 'experience' has been in marriage 'motels'—marriages on the run, that is."
A letter writer finds that the words of Congressman Carroll Reece of Tennessee, a supporter of Senator Taft, that General Eisenhower's speech at Abilene, Kansas, had been in favor of "mother, home and heaven", though not intended as a compliment, had helped the General rather than hurt him. The writer says that he was a Republican from the Western part of the state and, prior to hearing of this remark, had not made up his mind whether he was for Senator Taft or the General, but now had decided to support the General. He thinks if well-publicized, the comment would add a lot of support for him.
A letter writer comments on the fact that the forces behind Senator Taft had been able to obtain their choice of General MacArthur, who had publicly supported the Senator, as keynote speaker for the Republican convention the following month. He indicates that there were millions of voters who would not support the Senator because of this political maneuver, and thinks that it would instead benefit General Eisenhower. He thinks that the General was the only candidate in the field who could "pull the country out of the mess it's in and bring about a sound and lasting peace."
A letter writer asks why anyone should vote Republican when they had done nothing for labor or the farmer. He was 82 years old and remembered the Red Shirt campaign in 1876, when the South Carolina Legislature was comprised of 85 black members and 15 whites from 1865 to 1876. At that time, his family owned a lot of land but had no money, as five-cent cotton had made them paupers. He had seen James B. Duke and R. J. Reynolds take tobacco from the "ragged farmers" at from one to ten cents per pound, whereas now the price was 50 cents. The Republicans had done nothing for the farmer. He had been in Texas in 1933 when cotton was five cents, corn 15 cents, and wheat 25 cents. At the time, former Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon and John D. Rockefeller were taking oil from independent producers at eight cents per barrel, at which point Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes had gone to Houston and told the oil barons that unless they paid a dollar per barrel, the Government would take them over, at which point they raised the price to a dollar per barrel, which had been the minimum price since that time. He says that he was a 100 percent Democrat from South Carolina and thinks that Senator Kefauver would be a second Andrew Jackson or FDR.
A letter from Dr. Thomas Burton, who had run unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary against incumbent Congressman Hamilton Jones, thanks the many thousands of voters who had supported him, and urges every Democrat and independent voter to support Mr. Jones in the November general election, to prevent isolationism and reaction from getting a stranglehold in Washington.
As indicated, Congressman Jones would lose to the Republican nominee, Charles R. Jonas.
A letter writer from Myrtle Beach, S.C., indicates that the citizens of the town wanted to thank the newspaper for its support of the first annual Sun-Fun Festival.
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