The Charlotte News
Wednesday, July 23, 1952
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Jack Bell, that a new era of harmony pervaded the Democratic convention in Chicago this date after the White House had called for a compromise on the loyalty pledge, and increasing pressure had built for a ticket of Governor Adlai Stevenson plus a Southerner in the second spot. There were also signs that the President might provide his blessing to the nomination of Governor Stevenson prior to the opening of the night session this date, at which the roll call of the states for the nominees would transpire. The actual balloting for the presidential and vice-presidential nominees was expected to get underway late the following night and, if only one ballot was required, might be finished on Thursday. It was anticipated that about six hours would be taken up in nominating speeches, which would start at noon on Thursday.
The compromise on the loyalty pledge was that no delegate would have to pledge to undertake to place the nominees on their state ballot if such a pledge would contravene state laws or state party rules. Four states, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia and Virginia, had refused to sign the pledge the previous day, which would have required the delegates to undertake their best efforts in their state to place the party nominees on the ballot. Some Southerners, however, were still not satisfied with the compromise, Governor James Byrnes of South Carolina having been reported to dislike it as much as the original version, but having issued no public statement. Senator Olin Johnston of South Carolina, however, indicated that the compromise had overcome some of the prior objections. (A late bulletin indicates that Senator Johnston had become ill on the convention floor and was sent to a hospital via ambulance.) Louisiana delegates notified the credentials committee that their state laws and rules prevented them from taking the pledge as originally written, but that the compromise allowed them to sit as delegates without issue. Future Senator B. Everett Jordan, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic executive committee, said that he had expected a compromise, as the original pledge had caused too much trouble. The North Carolina delegation had voted against taking the original pledge.
Tentative drafts of the foreign policy and labor planks had been provided reporters the previous night. Congressman John McCormack of Massachusetts, chairman of the platform committee, had directed the committee to work on the draft planks until dawn, when a series of voice votes of the 19-member committee indicated agreement on the compromises. He asked the full 108-member committee to meet in the afternoon this date to go over the proposed planks.
Secretary of Interior Oscar Chapman had met this date for two hours and 15 minutes with Governor Stevenson, but Mr. Chapman refused to say what had been discussed other than the convention.
The Southerner which the party leaders wanted most as the vice-presidential nominee was Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, but he had repeatedly indicated that he did not want the position. The second choice might be Senator John Sparkman of Alabama or Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas.
Despite the groundswell for Governor Stevenson, Senator Estes Kefauver and Averell Harriman were not giving up their fights for the nomination. Senator Russell also indicated his belief that he could still win the nomination. He said that he had briefly scanned the proposed compromise civil rights plank and did not yet know whether he would support it, but believed a plank could be adopted which would have support throughout the party.
James Roosevelt, a supporter of Senator Kefauver, denied at a news conference that there was any effort on the part of Senator Kefauver and Mr. Harriman to stop Governor Stevenson from obtaining the nomination. Senator Kefauver, however, spoke out against a "synthetic draft", indicating that the delegates did not know where Governor Stevenson stood on the issues. He also urged his supporters to ignore reports that he would get the nod for the vice-presidential nomination.
The convention this date refused to unseat an anti-Truman Texas delegation, rejecting the minority report of the credentials committee favoring a pro-Truman delegation headed by former Congressman Maury Maverick. By voice vote, the convention approved the majority report, seating the regular delegation headed by Governor Allan Shivers.
The Virginia delegation drafted a proposal this date to have the DNC censure temporary convention chairman, Governor Paul Dever of Massachusetts, for the way he had handled adoption of the loyalty pledge rule early on Tuesday, not allowing a polling of the delegates as sought, but calling for voice vote only. The delegation also objected to the fact that he had allowed Senator Blair Moody of Michigan, sponsor of the loyalty pledge resolution and chairman of the rules committee, to take over the convention chair.
Tom Fesperman of The News reports that Governor Stevenson would receive six or seven North Carolina delegate votes on the first ballot, according to Governor Kerr Scott, and would then proceed to win the nomination. Governor Scott intended to cast his half-vote for Governor Stevenson. He said that he had talked to delegates from several different states the previous night and, while some had made commitments for the first ballot, all of the talk centered on Governor Stevenson. He believed that the Governor was acceptable to the North Carolina delegation and that he would accept the nomination. He stated that he had also seen a lot of sentiment for having Senator Russell as the vice-presidential nominee. Previously, indications were that the North Carolina delegation was supporting Senator Russell for the presidential nomination. Former Governor and Senator Cameron Morrison, chairman of the North Carolina delegation, stated that he was still strongly for Senator Russell, unless the movement for Governor Stevenson were to take over the convention completely before the first roll call.
The North Carolina delegates had joined with hundreds of others in cheering for Eleanor Roosevelt in a large demonstration on the floor the previous night. Mr. Morrison had been one of the delegates carrying the North Carolina standard in the demonstration. The ovation was the big event of an otherwise uneventful session and gave the North Carolina delegation its only action of the night.
Former Vice-President Adlai Stevenson, who had served under President Grover Cleveland and was grandfather to Governor Stevenson, was also a first cousin of Vice-President Alben Barkley's grandmother. Moreover, Governor Stevenson and Senator Richard Russell shared the same great-great-great uncle, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, a signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.
In Egypt, the Army seized control of
the Government with the announced intention of stamping out
corruption. The bloodless coup
In Iran, disciplined Communists teamed in a "united front" with fanatical fascist-minded elements to fan violent anti-American feeling. The move came after Mohammed Mossadegh's return as Premier was approved by the lower house of Parliament, following a violent outbreak on Monday which had swept new Premier Ahmed Qavam from power. Also, the previous day, the International Court had issued a decision favoring Iran in its oil dispute with Britain, also perceived as favorable to Premier Mossadegh's standing. One of the cries heard during the "united front" rioting was, "Death to the traitor Shah."
On page 2-B, Dr. George Crane urges
in his column "pause and praise" as an asset for any
effective salesman or personnel manager. Pause, upon receiving a criticism, and then say, "Death to the traitor
On the editorial page, "Democrats, Fearing Ike, Seek Harmony" tells of three developments in the previous day which suggested the conclusion that the Democrats were not going to force the issue of civil rights in 1952. The first was the loyalty pledge debate, the pledge having been softened, as further discussed below by James Marlow. The second was the intervention by someone to restore harmony, after Vice-President Alben Barkley, having been rejected by the union bosses for the nomination, had packed his bags and was planning to leave the convention, instead having been put on the program to speak. The third was based on reports in the morning that the platform committee had worked out a compromise on the civil rights plank which might be acceptable to all sides and avoid a floor fight.
There was also a steadily growing groundswell of support for Governor Adlai Stevenson for the nomination, thought to be a unifying force.
It concludes, however, that stitching together a unity between the liberals of the North and West and the conservatives of the South would only postpone intra-party conflict, the effort reflecting only the threat to Democratic dominance by General Eisenhower's candidacy. It finds the difference between the two wings of the party too deep and irreconcilable for such a new-found harmony to prevail following the general election.
"A Party Realignment Is Needed" tells of the conflict evident at the 1952 national conventions suggesting the pressing need for a major realignment of both political parties. Both had their conservative and liberal wings, which often worked at cross-purposes. Republicans had Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon and Senator James Kem of Missouri at opposite extremes, whereas the Democrats had Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, also polar opposites. The resulting division had demonstrated itself at both conventions, having been exemplified by the Taft-Eisenhower battle at the GOP convention and now was apparent in the fight over the loyalty pledge at the Democratic convention.
The result of such divided parties was the abandonment of party responsibility. Voters could not vote for a party program, as was the case, for instance, in Britain, as there was no assurance that the party, once in power, would follow the party platform. That left the voter voting instead for personalities.
It favors realignment of the parties to place the conservatives in one camp and the liberals in another, and believes eventually that would transpire.
But is not intra-party debate to work out some of these weighty issues, and, hopefully, in the process, educate and eliminate some of the worst biases and prejudices besetting the country historically, a desirable dynamic tension in both parties, rather than having them increasingly monolithic, with the consequence of the same conflicts but on an increasingly bitter inter-party basis, resulting in hopeless monochromic confusion of the clueless?—such as the Trumpety Dumpeties we have on the scene today, who mindlessly chant, following the words of their fearless leader, such things as "lock her up" and "send her back", betraying in the process both a generalized misogyny, at least for women in positions of power, and xenophobia.
"Does He Mean It?" tells of a Japanese envoy having recently arrived in the U.S., saying, "We have come not to borrow, but to pay." It finds in that statement some suggestion of Mark Antony's ironic eulogy for Julius Caesar. The mission was intended to find a way to repay 400 million dollars which Japan had borrowed from private concerns prior to World War II. The envoy was prepared to listen to the proposals of creditors regarding the method for doing so. It expresses hope that Japan would pay, joining Finland as the only nation which had paid its war debts.
"The Relentless Car War" tells of the Korean War having resulted in 18,000 American fatalities, 82,000 injuries and 13,000 missing in action. The Car War, during 1951, had resulted in 27,100 American fatalities and 1.962 million injuries.
It tells of a letter this date from a Mecklenburg County police officer, suggesting that automobiles be mechanically limited to a top speed of 50 mph. It finds the argument unpersuasive as setting forth the wisest solution, but believes it deserved thoughtful consideration by automobile manufacturers, legislators and citizens who could impress their views on legislatures.
Excessive speed was the largest single cause of highway fatalities. But a speed in excess of 50 mph could be safe under certain conditions, while under other circumstances, a slower speed might be dangerous.
It indicates, however, that as long as buyers and sellers of automobiles were interested more in gimmicks and gadgets than in safety features, increasing numbers of people would die in automobile accidents. It advocates mandatory driver education and increasing emphasis on safety equipment, as well as stiffer penalties for speeding and drunk driving.
A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "The Need Remains", informs of a report by the National Association of Real Estate Boards regarding its campaign to convince cities to abolish slum conditions, the report having indicated that 111 cities and 32 states were helping in that campaign. The Association had been against low-rent housing projects and so, the piece suggests, its support indicated that the campaign, while having merit, was not entirely unselfish.
The report had indicated that there were 800 unfit dwellings in Charlotte which had been demolished, but it was unclear whether the inhabitants of those dwellings were unable to afford higher rent or simply chose to live in those abject conditions. It was also unclear what would happen to the displaced residents if there were no low-rent housing available for them.
It concludes that as laudatory as the campaign was, it did not remove the need for low-rent housing for millions of Americans unable to afford adequate housing. The Government had been forced to provide most of the low-rent housing and, it indicates, while everyone would welcome the Association's efforts to take over that Government function, the day when that was the case had not yet arrived.
Drew Pearson, in Chicago, tells of a favorite occupation at the convention being attribution to the President of support for a candidate for the Democratic nomination. Some of the six Cabinet members, the twenty or so Senators, certain highly placed Democratic bosses, and two White House observers present at the convention were in a position to have access to the White House by telephone, but most were not. Yet, from many, there were intimations of a particular candidate the President was supporting. The situation was similar to that in the 1944 convention regarding the selection of FDR's running mate. The late Robert Hannegan, then DNC chairman, had produced a letter, apparently from FDR, listing the first choice as Senator Truman and the second choice as Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Only years later had it come out, through FDR's personal secretary, Grace Tully, that the letter in question had been retyped at Mr. Hannegan's direction to reverse the order of the names. By that process, Senator Truman had been named as the vice-presidential nominee and eventually, the following April, had acceded to the Presidency on the death of FDR.
To a few close advisers, the President had indicated he favored Averell Harriman for the nomination because of his complete support for the New Deal and Fair Deal. But after word of that support leaked out, DNC chairman Frank McKinney urged the President to change his choice to Vice-President Alben Barkley because the country would not support any candidate who so thoroughly endorsed the Fair Deal, that it would result in splitting the party on the issue of civil rights, enabling General Eisenhower to carry the South. Several Southern Democrats also made the same representations, and afterward, the President was reported to have authorized Mr. McKinney to promote the Vice-President's candidacy. In the meantime, the President still looked with favor on Mr. Harriman, and also had no objection to Senator Kefauver, despite the fact that he had remained miffed at the Senator for having trounced him in the New Hampshire primary in March. The President was definitely against Senators Robert Kerr and Richard Russell for the nomination, and had been miffed at Governor Stevenson for being so aloof with regard to the nomination, which the President had essentially offered him in January.
Senator Russell had denied that John L. Lewis had influenced him in making his statement in which he stated that Taft-Hartley needed to be supplanted by a new labor law. Senator Russell had dinner with Chicago boss Jacob Arvey about ten days before the start of the convention, at which the Senator sought the large bloc of Illinois delegates, to which Mr. Arvey indicated that the Senator's anti-labor voting record would prevent him from carrying the big cities. Subsequently, the Senator passed on this information to his public relations adviser, David Charney, who also represented Mr. Lewis, and Mr. Lewis concocted a statement which he gave to Senator Russell through Mr. Charney, which resulted in the change of position by the Senator on Taft-Hartley.
Mr. Pearson notes that Virginia delegates, an Atlanta banker, who was treasurer of the Russell campaign, and Georgia Governor Herman Talmadge had all objected loudly to the Senator's change of position. He also notes that Mr. Charney had been cross-examined by the Kefauver organized crime investigating committee because of alleged links to gambling kingpin Frank Costello, though the committee found that he had received no pay from Mr. Costello, while having written favorable stories about him and having been the applicant for the liquor license of the Copacabana Club, established by friends of Mr. Costello. He indicates that political observers considered it more than coincidence that Mr. Charney was now working for Senator Russell as part of the stop-Kefauver campaign, but, he indicates, Senator Russell probably had not known anything about Mr. Charney's background.
Marquis Childs, in Chicago, tells of having interviewed Governor Stevenson during the previous six months several times and come away with the impression that the Governor had genuinely not wanted to run for the presidency. He understood that as a divorcee, there would be a lot of press attention focused on his three sons in a White House environment and that it would be all the more of a prison than was normally the case. Some believed that he had been coy in his seeming reluctance, calculating all the while to take the prize away from those who were eagerly pursuing it. Mr. Childs, however, believes that not to have been the case. The Governor had given to him several arguments why he did not wish to run and Mr. Childs had accepted the reasons as sincerely offered.
Much had been said about the relationship of the Governor to the President, the President having early in the year indicated that the Governor was his choice as a successor, at which time the Governor had indicated his lack of desire to do anything but run again as Governor of Illinois. That, according to inside sources, had angered the President, but he was too practical and too loyal to the Democratic Party to let such personal feelings get in the way of a general election victory. Such was demonstrated when Vice-President Barkley had phoned the President in anger and sorrow over the fact that the organized labor leaders were not supporting a Barkley candidacy. The President had expressed genuine sympathy for the situation, said that it was unfair in light of Mr. Barkley's long record on behalf of labor, but that given that reality and the fact that the party could not win without labor support, the Vice-President's candidacy had to come to an end. This phone call had preceded Mr. Barkley's statement of withdrawal the previous day.
The President had assured the Vice-President a trial run for the nomination, with the President's vote cast for him by his Missouri alternate on the first ballot, but also had indicated that if three or four ballots showed that the Vice-President could not obtain a majority, the President would shift his support to another candidate.
The President had been pleased by Governor Stevenson's opening statement to the convention and impressed by the spontaneous standing ovation that he had received for about eight minutes in response.
He concludes: "For better or worse—for the country as well as for the individual—a man of imagination, of sensitivity, of some Hamlet-like qualities is launched on the national scene."
James Marlow, in Chicago, discusses the change by the Northern Democrats in their stance vis-à-vis the Southern delegates to the convention, after the initial effort to have a party loyalty pledge which would assure support of the party nominee and the party platform or result in the delegates refusing to sign having no part in the convention. After the loud objection by the Southern delegates to that effort, the Northern Democrats relented and watered down the pledge to one merely stating that the delegates would ensure that the party nominee was on the ballot in their individual states—that having also been watered down further to enable them to skip the effort if it was prohibited by state laws or state party rules. The President had been credited with instructing the Northern delegates to relent and compromise on the issue.
Democrats could not afford to lose any of the Southern delegates, either to the Republican nominee or to a third-party Dixiecrat effort. The Dixiecrats in 1948 had taken 39 electoral votes, with then-Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as their nominee.
Until 1936, when the Democrats abandoned the two-thirds majority rule for adoption of the platform and selection of the nominee, the Southerners had controlled the convention process. Since that time, the Southerners were outnumbered, but with the threat of a walkout in 1952, they were in a position to regain some of that lost power. The Southern delegates did not want a strong civil rights plank in the platform, that which had precipitated the walkout in 1948.
A letter writer suggests that there were roughly four influential political groups in the country, one being the Old Guard, that is the bankers who controlled industry, holding sway from the time of the Civil War until FDR came on the scene in 1933. Another group, antithetical to the first group, supported the New Deal and Fair Deal. They were accused of being forerunners of socialism, but were too young, vigorous and rich, too productive and prosperous to be "prostituted" by socialism. The third group were the moderate Republicans, led by General Eisenhower, Senators Lodge and James Duff, and Governor Dewey. The fourth group were the independents and unaffiliated Democrats, in whose hands, he believes, rested the fate of the nation.
He urges that the people could stick to their "fine state Democratic tickets" and vote for such "fine men" as Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd, South Carolina Governor James Byrnes and Governor-nominate William B. Umstead of North Carolina, while also voting for General Eisenhower to bring "a new concept of national politics". He suggests that the General was no superman or wizard and that he was no hero worshipper, but finds the General to have "more of the finer characteristics and attributes than any presidential candidate" in his lifetime of 61 years—the same age as the General. He finds him intellectually honest, courageous, intelligent and intellectual, religious in fact, a leader of men and a "cooperator". He dismisses the "squid fish politicians" who claimed that the General lacked knowledge of domestic problems, indicating that it did not matter as long as his personal qualities determined the subordinates who would discharge those responsibilities. "If he lacks knowledge of domestic affairs, he also lacks the knowledge of personal political chicanery", which he thinks is a good swap for the sake of the general welfare and survival of the integrity of the nation. He thus urges Southern Democrats to vote for General Eisenhower.
But he will receive plenty of instruction, no doubt, in political chicanery from his sidekick, whose very nickname, being something like "chic Dick", exudes same.
A letter from a Mecklenburg County police officer, as indicated in the above editorial, counsels establishing governors on automobiles which would limit the speed mechanically to 50 mph, to stem the rising tide of automobile deaths, 74,500 during the previous two years, and additional injuries, resulting from speeding. He urges a Federal law to that effect. He also indicates that "traffic accident" was a misnomer, as wrecks had a cause, the most usual of which, he had found in his 15 years as a law enforcement officer, was high speed.
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