The Charlotte News

Saturday, June 28, 1952

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Stan Carter, that U.N. infantrymen this date had repulsed three furious attacks by Chinese Communist troops on the Korean western front, centering on a hill dubbed "Baldy". After the attacks, the U.N. and Communist artillery exchanged heavy barrages.

In the air war, allied warplanes, for the fourth time during the week, had bombed and strafed hydroelectric plants serving North Korea and Manchuria, for the second straight day hitting the Changjin reservoir area, a power plant serving both Manchuria and North Korea.

In London, the Big Three Western foreign ministers ended their talks and put the final touches on the draft of a reply to the Russian invitation to a four-power meeting regarding the unification of Germany. No details, however, were provided on the contents of the reply. Secretary of State Acheson said that the talks had served to inform each of the foreign ministers regarding development in various parts of the world and strengthened the liaison and understanding among them, including close cooperation in Korea and the Far East. Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Secretary Acheson also discussed Middle East problems, particularly those in Egypt and Iran.

In Berlin, the Western Allies this date protested to the Russians the "inhumane" shackles which had been placed on the people of Berlin by the Communists in the Eastern zone. The joint statement urged a cessation of restrictions on freedom of movement by Berliners or to arrange for compensation for the thousands of innocent people suffering "untold distress". The statement indicated that the restrictions violated the 1949 Paris agreement which had ended the 1948-49 Soviet blockade of Berlin. Secretary Acheson had just visited Berlin in an effort to build morale in the Western zones of the city.

The State Department this date apologized to Far East expert Owen Lattimore for the embarrassment caused by issuance by the Department of an order to customs officials to stop him from leaving the country, based on a tip from the CIA that he was planning to travel to countries behind the Iron Curtain, a tip which proved false. The tipster, a travel agency executive, had been indicted the previous day by a Seattle Federal grand jury for making the baseless tip.

The Senate voted to adopt compromise legislation between the varying House and Senate bills on economic controls, which would extend wage and price controls for ten months. The bill now passed to the House which could act on it later this night, as the present controls law would expire at midnight on Monday. The compromise measure had been approved by Senate-House confreres in the predawn hours this date. The House measure would have virtually eliminated all price controls, while leaving intact wage controls. The compromise was not as strong as the bill passed by the Senate, according to Senator Burnet Maybank of South Carolina.

The House voted 1.2 billion dollars in special appropriations for American airbases at home and abroad, upholding cuts of 568 million dollars which the Appropriations Committee had made in Administration requests for airbase construction.

The President signed the bill this date giving the Marine Corps new official status, repealing its limitation to 20 percent of the peacetime strength of the Navy and authorizing a permanent organization of three divisions, three air wings and supporting units up to 400,000 men and officers, leaving the Corps within the Navy. The manpower limitation would not apply in wartime or national emergencies. It also gave the commandant of the Marine Corps an equal position with the Joint Chiefs regarding all policy or strategy matters directly concerning the Marines, whereas presently the commandant had only an advisory role.

Colorado's 16-vote Democratic delegation, unpledged based on state party rules, was being wooed by four aspiring Democratic presidential candidates, Senators Richard Russell of Georgia, Robert Kerr of Oklahoma, and Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, plus Mutual Security Program administrator Averell Harriman.

Senator Taft spoke at the University of Virginia after conferring with Virginia delegates to the Republican convention, set to begin a week from the following Monday. The Senator said that the U.S. should repudiate the Yalta agreement, made between FDR, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin in February, 1945, cut off economic aid to Western Europe and transmit "infiltration and propaganda" to Iron Curtain countries.

In North Carolina, where a runoff primary was being conducted this date, a combination of the heat and lack of interest had produced a light turnout in Charlotte, Asheville and Raleigh, suggesting a trend throughout the state. The only race of note being contested was for a seat on the State Supreme Court, between Superior Court Judges William Bobbitt and R. Hunt Parker. Three Congressional races were also in limbo.

In North Canaan, Conn., bandleader Artie Shaw, married six times previously, married actress Doris Dowling on June 19. Among Mr. Shaw's prior brides had been actresses Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, plus author Kathleen Winsor.

Elizabeth Blair of The News reports that Carolyn Bigham, 20, who had started her education only 18 months earlier because of a severe illness, meningococcal meningitis, which had left blank her memory, was soon to be wed to a 22-year old service station manager in Ardmore, Oklahoma, who had read about her in the September 24, 1951 issue of Life and written her, beginning a romance which would carry them to the altar in August. The News had carried a story about Ms. Bigham on June 22, 1951 and Time had written an article about her on July 9. After writing her, her fiance had come to Charlotte to meet her in March.

No, we are not going to suggest for their wedding that they have lots of arrangements of forget-me-nots or that the wedding song be "Unforgettable".

By the way, did you ever realize that fiance and fiancee bear a linguistic relationship to affidavit? One is effectively an affiant to marriage when engaged. Don't forget it... We would not wish you to be prosecuted for perjury.

Donald MacDonald of The News tells of the temperature again having reached 100 in Charlotte and across the Carolinas this date as the record-breaking heat wave continued through the Southeast. By 9:30 a.m., it was 90 degrees, and by 12:30, 97. The low during the morning was 80. The forecast for the day that it would be partly cloudy across the state proved false, as was the prospect of scattered afternoon thundershowers. No new cases of heat exhaustion had been reported locally but doctors warned of over-exertion in the heat. Three of the city's four ice companies had reported no shortage but one company said it had been so swamped with calls as to be unable to meet demand. The largest such company in the city could supply 450 tons of ice per day. That is a lot of cold ice—probably more than even Mr. Shaw could handle. The previous day, the high had been 102 in Charlotte.

For the fourth straight day, Winston-Salem had 100-plus temperature readings, reaching 103 the previous day at 4:30 p.m.

In Columbia, S.C., it had been the hottest day in 27 years the previous day, hitting 105, one degree short of the all-time record, established in September, 1925. Bamberg, S.C., had recorded 107, after hitting a record 106 on Thursday.

It was there, undoubtedly, that developed the old Southern expression, "Bam, it's hot."

On the editorial page, "Where Taft's 'Strength' Lies" refers to the Time piece on the page, assessing the comparative chances between General Eisenhower and Senator Taft for winning in the fall election against either Senator Kefauver or Governor Stevenson, finding that the only real chance for a Republican victory was by nominating General Eisenhower. It calls to the attention of the North Carolina delegates to the Republican convention this analysis and also reminds of how Senator Taft had manipulated minorities in Southern states to obtain control of the convention machinery, as pointed out in a letter to the New York Times from one James G. Leonard, whose theory it then explains. The likelihood of these Southern states helping the Republicans electorally in the fall was remote at best.

It concludes that the GOP convention's choice was between "a man whose strength stems from control of minorities and one who has a broad, national appeal," thus making the choice clear, should the Republicans hope to win in November.

"Buy American—Or Else" tells of the various "Buy American" provisions of the foreign trade laws having been calculated to prime the domestic pump, one such provision having required Marshall Plan funds to be spent for U.S. agricultural products when there was a surplus in the country, another having forced the purchase of American products unless the foreign-made equivalent were more than 25 percent cheaper, and still another having required 50 percent of all foreign aid to be carried in U.S. ships.

The current Mutual Security Program made no funds available for purchase of U.S. tobacco, deemed not essential to the purposes of the program. North Carolina Congressman Harold Cooley and other Representatives from tobacco states agreed that they could not justify leaf tobacco as a "defense support" item, but got the House Appropriations Committee, nevertheless, to go on record that it was counting on the Mutual Security Agency to see that adequate supplies of tobacco were provided to countries receiving aid under the program.

It responds: "Hot ziggety. Shoot a weed to me, keed. To heck with the dollar shortage. Let's puff those Russians right off the continent—with American tobacco, that is." It concludes that foreign aid looked more like a "dish of gravy for American pressure groups" than any giveaway.

"Pot & Kettle" tells of one wing of the Republican Party in the country having, for the previous two years, criticized the Administration for its conduct of the Korean War, demanding all-out attack on China to complete the withdrawal from Korea, while during the current week, the British Labor Party had criticized the Conservative Government for not being consulted before U.N. planes had attacked the power plants in North Korea, whereupon the Administration critics among the Republicans began criticizing the Labor Party, and when Secretary of State Acheson sought to placate British feelings, Republican Senators Styles Bridges and William Knowland lambasted the Secretary as well.

It indicates that the truth was that Labor in Britain was catching on to the game which the Republicans had been playing for the previous two years, making political hay out of conduct of the Korean War, and so the Republicans criticizing Labor for its recent criticism was akin to the pot calling the kettle black.

"Another Kind of Shop" tells of the various types of shops being negotiated in labor contracts, the union representation shop, in which the union was recognized as the bargaining agent, the preferential shop, in which the union members were given preference in job security or promotion, the percentage shop, in which a certain percentage of employees belonged to the union, the closed shop, in which only union employees could work, presently illegal under Taft-Hartley, the open shop, with usually no union members at all, the agency shop, which required all employees to pay dues to the union even if they did not join it, the maintenance-of-membership shop, the "GM shop", under which employees had to join the union but could leave after year if they desired, and the union shop, looming large in the current steel controversy, requiring all employees to join the union after a short trial period on the job. Most of those shops also had variations.

It tells of yet another type of shop which did not thus far bear a name, but was being tried in a few cases. Under it, the worker had a choice of belonging to the union or not and if he decided not to join, he would be required to make payments, equivalent to union dues, into a fund to be administered by some agreed agency. The money would be used for such things as grants to needy families of employees, retirement benefits, scholarships for workers' children, recreation, etc. It finds that such a plan met the principal arguments of both management and labor, giving the employee freedom to join or not the union but also preventing him from being free from any payments made by union members, and making those payments for purposes for which union dues usually provided. It urges that the system be given a trial as meeting the typical objections of both management and labor to the various forms of shops.

A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "The Veep, with Stars", comments that some of the supporters of Senator Taft were urging as his running mate General MacArthur. It finds it hard to imagine the General as Vice-President, a job which former Vice-President under FDR, John Nance Garner, had once described as "a spare tire on the automobile of government". It imagines that Vice-President MacArthur would wade ashore from the Potomac each morning to the Senate to perform dawn inspection, to ensure that each Senator was properly in uniform and the aisles lined with page boys, standing smartly at attention, perhaps even with the Navy Band, which the piece stops short at including, saying that the latter point was not conceivable, but that a mixed quartet of lutes and cymbals might strike up "Hail to the Chief, with the Possible Exception of Taft". Twice per day, the press gallery would be purged of unfriendly newspapers and correspondents sent home to the National Press Club bar to ponder their errors. The Old Soldier would put an end to Senate filibusters and impose the rule that to answer a roll call, a Senator would say, "Here, Sir; Yea, Sir", and not avoid record votes. There would be no Congressional junkets abroad except to Formosa and no need for a Senate parliamentarian.

It concludes that at least one thing could be said: that "the Veep, with Stars, would be no more Throttlebottom. He's a full-throttle or none."

Drew Pearson tells of Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada having agreed to a backstage deal recently to provide Spain an additional 25 million dollars in aid, but then double-crossed that deal, made with Senator Tom Connally, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who was fighting to save foreign military aid from sweeping cuts and so obtained Senator McCarran's agreement to vote against such cuts in exchange for the approval of the 25 million for Spain. Senator McCarran had kept his bargain on the first roll calls, voting against a billion-dollar cut, and then a 500 million-dollar cut, and finally a 400 million-dollar cut. Senator Connally agreed then to carry the amendment proposed by Senator McCarran regarding the additional aid to Spain to conference, a move which ordinarily would mean Senate approval of the amendment. The amendment then passed by a routine voice vote.

At that point, however, Senator McCarran, on the next vote, regarding a 580 million-dollar cut of foreign military aid, voted for it. Senator Connally then rushed up to him and stated, "I thought when you were bought, you stayed bought." The Senator whispered loudly enough so that the entire gallery could hear his statement. Mr. Pearson indicates that it had been seldom that a more brazen exhibition of legislation via backstage deals had become evident.

The President had been giving a series of off-the-record but significant dinner parties for men only, bigwig contributors to the Democratic Party, plus one or two normally considered to be Republicans. He names some of them, heads of large companies, including Lipton's Tea, Fruehauf trailers, and Georgia-Pacific Plywood, plus DNC chairman Frank McKinney.

Several of the guests had told the President that he ought to run again, as he was the only Democrat who could win, to which the President had replied that the Democrats could win no matter whom the Republicans nominated. He stated that he did not wish to be another Benjamin Harrison, who had been re-elected at the age of 68 and was carried out, feet first—though the President had his history confused in this regard, as President Harrison not only did not die in office, as had his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, but also was not re-elected, having first defeated incumbent President Grover Cleveland in 1888, but then losing in 1892 to President Cleveland. President Truman also had said that he had 10 or 15 more years to live and he planned to enjoy them—winding up too conservative, as he would in fact have 20 more years to live. He had also talked about the constant strain on the President, that only recently the country had almost been at war, though receiving a cable during one of the dinners indicating that things were better, according to Secretary of State Acheson. At that point, a dinner guest, in mock exclamation, trying to be facetious, stated, "That Communist!" The President had taken the sardonic statement seriously, however, replying, "Yes, that Communist who is over in Europe right now persuading the French and Germans to fight the Russians."

Time, in a reprinted piece on the page, as above stated, provides recent polling results between General Eisenhower and both Senator Estes Kefauver and Governor Adlai Stevenson in theoretical contests for the presidency the following November, as well as the same theoretical match-ups with Senator Taft, finding that General Eisenhower would win 59 percent to 31 percent against Governor Stevenson and 55 percent to 35 percent against Senator Kefauver, whereas Senator Taft would lose to the Governor, 45 percent to 44 percent, and to the Senator, 50 percent to 41 percent.

The more important finding, however, was that the General's delegate support for the nomination, while ostensibly behind that of Senator Taft, 464 to 389, was ahead of the Senator's delegates, 326 to 277, if states in which there was little or no chance, based on prior voting history, for the Republicans to win in November were subtracted from the respective delegate totals.

Additionally, it finds that the Democrats would take 190 electoral votes from the traditionally Democratic states, while the Republicans would take only 152 votes from the traditionally Republican states, with 266 votes needed to elect. It thus assesses whether the General or Senator Taft could do better in attracting the remaining 114 electoral votes, finding that the General would have, by far, the better chance in the battleground states, though the General lacked as many friends as Senator Taft had among the practical politicians in those states. Governor Earl Warren, for instance, in electoral rich California, and Governor Thomas Dewey, in electoral-rich New York, were both for the General, and both states, with a total of 77 votes, if added to the electoral totals in the Republican column, would give them 229 electoral votes in November. If both states were to go to the Democrats, they would have 267 votes, one more than necessary for victory, and the professional politicians conceded that Senator Taft was particularly weak in both states versus either leading Democrat.

It analyzes other swing states in the same manner and finds, in the end, that the only real chance for victory for the Republicans in November lay with the nomination of General Eisenhower.

Marquis Childs regards the recent story anent the State Department's order barring Owen Lattimore from foreign travel, based on a report by an informant to the CIA that Mr. Lattimore was planning to travel behind the Iron Curtain, a tip which turned out to be false, as uncovered by Alfred Friendly of the Washington Post. He finds serious harm to have been done by the story to Mr. Lattimore's reputation and urges the State Department to issue a public apology—as the front page this date indicates had been done, as well as reporting the Federal indictment of the tipster.

He also indicates that it was the job of the FBI, not the CIA, to regard domestic intelligence gathering and internal security.

He suggests that at times it appeared that Mr. Lattimore was the victim of a plan calculated to bring about his destruction. Senators Joseph McCarthy and Pat McCarran had been especially vocal regarding supposed Communist sympathies of Mr. Lattimore, when no evidence of same had been produced. He had merely expressed opinions about the Far East, on which he was a recognized expert. Mr. Childs indicates that if Mr. Lattimore could be destroyed for expressing his point of view, then at another time and in another political climate, those who held quite different views could also be destroyed for what they believed. Such weakened the core of individual freedom, closer, therefore, he ventures, to Communist totalitarianism than to democracy.

He also indicates that Professor Lattimore had been invited a year earlier by Prime Minister Nehru of India to lecture at the University of New Delhi for a year, which Professor Lattimore had declined. Recently, tentative overtures had been made to Prime Minister Nehru, suggesting that he and other Asian neutral representatives might arbitrate the prisoner repatriation issue in Korea, the remaining sticking point for a truce. There had been hints from New Delhi that Prime Minister Nehru might accept such an assignment. Mr. Childs concludes, however, that the latest demonstration of fears by the U.S., aimed at Mr. Lattimore, could induce Prime Minister Nehru to refuse participation in such an arbitration and thus have collateral consequences inimical to national interests.

He concludes that one of the good reasons for the President's veto of the McCarran-Walter immigration bill, that veto having been overridden by Congress the previous day, which severely restricted immigration from the countries with the greatest number of prospective immigrants to the U.S., was that the bill provided more arbitrary power to bureaucrats within the Justice and State Departments. Giving that kind of power to bureaucrats could ultimately spell the end for individual freedom.

A letter writer comments on a letter printed the prior Thursday from the Mayors of Huntersville and Cornelius promoting the candidacy for the County Board of Education of a particular candidate because, otherwise, the entire membership of the Board would be concentrated in the southern and eastern sections of the county. He wishes to correct this error by indicating that a present Board member lived in the northern part of the county, and that the chairman of the Board lived in Charlotte.

A letter writer comments on another letter writer's statements regarding the supposed "Texas Steal" of delegates for Senator Taft, indicating that the prior writer did both himself and Senator Taft no service by trying to justify this effort on the basis that the delegates who had, for years, maintained the weak Southern Republican Party had a right to object to Democrats and independents suddenly controlling the party by support of General Eisenhower. This writer sends along an article by Roscoe Drummond of the Christian Science Monitor, in which he had pointed out that the issue was not who had received the delegates but whether Texas voters had been disfranchised by the Republican state committee. She also finds that the idea that Senator Taft was a local favorite among Republicans to be offset by the fact that she had found many people locally who normally were supportive of Democrats nationally ready to help support General Eisenhower and would be unlikely to support Senator Taft if he were the Republican nominee, even if the President were drafted to run again.

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