The Charlotte News

Wednesday, August 13, 1952

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via William C. Barnard, that U.S. Marines had thrown back a third Chinese counterattack against "Bunker Hill" on the western front in Korea, following a 70-minute fight in which 750 enemy troops had battled fiercely but failed to penetrate positions of the Marines fighting from prefabricated bunkers, inflicting numerous enemy losses. Flares had lighted the sky during the fight and Marine and Communist artillery had split the darkness. Chinese sniper and artillery fire had begun at dusk and reached a peak at around 9:00, and five minutes afterward, enemy troops charged up the slope, facing Marine rifle and machine gun fire. The Marines had captured the ridge early the previous morning and the previous night, 400 Chinese troops had attacked.

Elsewhere along the front, fighting was relatively light.

In the air war, U.S. Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers supported the ground troops this date, concentrating mainly in the "Bunker Hill" region.

A Communist Chinese radio broadcast from Peiping claimed that the U.S. 45th Division had been pulled out of the Chorwon sector on the central front after losing over 8,000 men, a report which was not confirmed by the U.S. Eighth Army headquarters.

Governor Stevenson had stirred up a political storm with his White House visit the previous day, with General Eisenhower having questioned the propriety of the President having military and security leaders brief the Governor on the international situation. He and Senator Richard Nixon also questioned whether it meant Federal money was to be spent in an effort to elect the Governor, and Senator Nixon indicated that it revealed that the Governor clearly was the "hand-picked candidate" of the President. Senator John Sparkman of Alabama, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee and who had also attended the conferences the previous day, suggested that the Truman Administration should likewise give the General complete information on international affairs—as if he were in the dark only two and a half months after resigning as NATO supreme commander.

Some White House aides of the President indicated that he would likely make no more than about six speeches during the campaign, but unofficial word had come from Governor Stevenson's Springfield, Ill., headquarters that both he and the President would almost certainly make comprehensive campaign swings. The White House, responding to General Eisenhower's and Senator Nixon's statements, said that all of the President's speech-making campaign trips would be charged to the DNC. Two aides of the President who had joined the Stevenson campaign had been placed on leave without Government pay.

Governor James Byrnes of South Carolina signed a petition to place on the November ballot in that state an independent slate of presidential electors pledged to General Eisenhower. He had told the state Democratic convention the previous week that at the present time, he was supporting Governor Stevenson, but would keep his mind open as the campaign progressed. The petition would require 10,000 signatures before being recognized by the South Carolina Secretary of State.

Another Gallup poll appears, assessing the likelihood that the Republican presidential ticket could carry states in the Deep South. The poll showed that General Eisenhower's chances were not good in that region, but that he might carry some of the border states such as Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Virginia. The Republican Party was favored by only about five percentage points more than four years earlier, but General Eisenhower had improved the standing of the Republican presidential nominee by 12 percentage points. On the generic question of voting for a party, 62 percent of the respondents indicated that they would either definitely prefer or would lean toward the Democrats while 34 percent said they would definitely prefer or lean toward the Republicans.

In Raleigh, State fiscal records indicated that Governor Kerr Scott, in allocating $750,000 the previous day for work on county roads in his home county of Alamance, had scraped the bottom of the highway fund surplus. He had also allocated another $394,000 from the surplus to rebuild and enlarge facilities for the criminally insane at the State Hospital in Raleigh. An additional $65,000, however, would be needed to meet the allocations. According to State highway officials, it was the first time that any part of the surplus had been earmarked for roads of a particular county. The Governor had previously allocated a million dollars for use on secondary roads all over the state.

William B. Umstead, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in the state, recommended the reappointment of future Senator B. Everett Jordan as chairman of the state Democratic executive committee and the appointment of Mrs. John Richardson of Raleigh as vice-chairman. The new chairman and vice-chairman would be elected by the committee at a meeting in Raleigh on August 20, but traditionally, the incoming Governor picked the officers.

In Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Pope Pius XII received three members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in special audience this date, Senators Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin, Robert Hendrickson of New Jersey, and Willis Smith of North Carolina, spending about 20 minutes with them. The three had arrived in Rome the previous night to confer with Italian officials on emigration and problems connected with political refugees.

G.E. this date offered wage increases and insurance benefits to about 200,000 employees, with a spokesman estimating that a majority of the workers would receive total increased benefits worth from 7.5 to 13 cents per hour. Present average hourly earnings for G.E. employees had been estimated at $1.75.

Chester Davis of the Winston-Salem Journal reported that the reason why the top graduating student from the University of North Carolina Law School had been barred by the State Board of Law Examiners from sitting for the written portion of the bar examination was that he had "tried to conceal his Communist past". The Board had not ruled against him because he had been a Communist or because it frowned on union activities but rather, according to sources for the story, because he had given untruthful answers about his past. He had been active in unions and had run for Congress in 1948 as a member of the Progressive Party, and had served as that party's secretary. Two witnesses before the Board had positively identified him as having been a member of the Communist Party as recently as 1948—thus about a year prior to his entry to law school.

But would they have refused him the privilege of sitting for the bar exam if his allegedly false statements had been in response to questions about whether he had ever been a Republican or Democrat?

In Wetumpka, Ala., a middle-aged nurse, accused of the arsenic poisonings of her two two-year old nieces, one of which had allegedly occurred more than two years earlier, injured herself by slashing her wrist with a razor blade the previous night, only a few hours before she was scheduled to go on trial on murder charges in one of the cases. The Sheriff indicated that although her jail cell had been closely guarded, she had managed to slip a razor blade under the covers of her bed and used it to cut into her flesh, causing her to lose about a pint or more of blood before she was discovered. The trial was to be postponed for at least a day while prison medical officials gave her a transfusion. The doctor indicated that she did not appear to be seriously injured, but had been weakened by the loss of blood. She had admitted, according to the Sheriff, providing an arsenic-laced soft drink to one of her nieces over two years earlier, but denied having intentionally poisoned the other niece by leaving a salt shaker containing arsenic at the child's home after a visit. She said that she had used the concoction in that case to make an insect killer.

She might be a little buggy.

In Chicago, a man awoke to find his pants on fire while sitting as a passenger on a rush-hour bus. He told police that he had no idea what had caused the ignition of his rayon trousers while he dozed on the way home from work the previous day. None of the other passengers had a clue either. The man was taken to a hospital with second-degree burns and a female passenger was also slightly burned, while a third passenger's ankle had been kicked in the resulting panic.

Maybe he lied about something on the way home from work.

In Finchampsted, England, the Heritage Nudist Club sicced a fierce bull terrier named Patch on a naked peeping Tom, a tall, sunburned male nudist hiding in the surrounding woods, the members having been frightened by him as he was not a member of their organization. They relied on Patch, who, they said, knew how to grab by the seat of the pants but was no less effective when there were no pants to grab.

In Folkestone, England, the Gastonia, N.C., fireman, Bob Paysour, was leaving this date for Cap Gris Nez, France, to embark on his attempted swim of the English Channel, scheduled to begin at 3:00 a.m. Thursday, after high winds had prevented his scheduled start on Monday and again on Tuesday. He had swum 20 miles upriver in the Catawba River near his home the previous summer and so believed himself ready for the challenge.

But were there any nudists on the banks of the Catawba as he swam?

On the editorial page, "Victory Comes to Those Who Seek It" tells of a Charlotte resident who had recently returned from a trip through the Middle Atlantic and New England states, and was an ardent Eisenhower supporter, having reported that many Republicans with whom he spoke had lost their zeal for the forthcoming campaign. He believed it was because some Republicans were not yet sold on the nominee and were overly impressed with Governor Stevenson. He was worried that the Republicans might throw away their best chance in 20 years to win in November, even before the campaign officially began.

It ventures that the lull between the two conventions and Labor Day, when the campaigns began typically, disillusioned many voters who wanted candidates to pronounce right off the bat their stands on the issues. Many Republicans were likely in shock because of the draft of Governor Stevenson by the Democrats and his efforts since the convention to dissociate himself and his campaign from the White House. There was also bitterness among Taft supporters, as explored by Marquis Childs this date, with many local and state leaders still sulking, and some even seeming to harbor the secret hope that General Eisenhower would lose.

It suggests that those explanations did not add up to a valid cause for Republican pessimism, as the Republicans had many assets in the campaign, including a "dynamic, eloquent and convincing candidate", a feeling among millions that it was time for a change, dissatisfaction with some of the details, if not the basic objectives, of Administration foreign policy, and public disgust with the "shabby ethics" which had been revealed in Washington.

It concludes, nevertheless, that all of those assets would not amount to much without enthusiasm and hard work during the fall in advance of the election.

There you go again, playing cheerleader for the Republicans, all in the phony guise of needing to re-establish the "two-party system", especially in the South, when what really bothered you all along, apparently, regarding "Trumanism" was all of the talk by the President urging a civil rights program, which had, if not resulting in very much positive legislation, at least changed the atmosphere, especially in the Federal courts.

Again, we suggest that you just go ahead and rename the paper the "Charlotte Republican News".

"The European Community Surges Forward" indicates that the launching on Sunday of the Schuman Plan's High Authority meant that Europeans had decided that misconceived ideas about nationalism and sovereignty were not only antiquated but also economically unfeasible, and so were abolishing those notions by providing real power to an international organization, the Community of Coal and Steel, which included France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries. The nine-person High Authority could abolish, raise or lower all tariffs on any product of coal and steel in Western Europe, control freight rates, break up and regulate cartels, allocate supplies in times of shortage, levy taxes on coal, raise loans, make investments, and allocate materials. The members had severed all official connections with their native countries, and the new organization would have full diplomatic status, causing the High Authority to be considered Europeans, responsible to a bicameral supra-national parliament and an international court.

It finds, therefore, the concept of the United States of Europe no longer to be merely a theoretical project but actually now extant. It showed that men could break away from the artificial barriers which they had forged, and afforded a glimpse of what could be with a free world market extending across the Atlantic, encompassing all goods, not just coal and steel.

"A Big Man for a Big Job" indicates that Governor Kerr Scott and Governor-nominate William B. Umstead had buried the hatchet and recommended an outstanding educator, Charles Carroll of High Point, as the Democratic candidate to succeed the late Dr. Clyde Erwin as State superintendent of Public Instruction. It finds it to have demonstrated a high level of statesmanship for which both men had earned the thanks of all North Carolinians.

The High Point Enterprise indicated that Mr. Carroll was the best qualified educator for the position. The Greensboro Daily News said that he was at the top of the list of potential successors to Dr. Erwin. The Asheville Citizen, which had observed Mr. Carroll when he had served in Swain County some years earlier, had called him "one of the nation's ablest school men".

He would bring to his new position the understanding of a native North Carolinian, the experience of more than 30 years as a teacher, principal and superintendent in North Carolina schools, and the vigor of new ideas and new enthusiasm.

He was taking over at a critical time, when the schools faced inadequate facilities and teacher shortages along with large classes and a fast-growing student population. There also loomed the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court might soon rule segregation of public schools unconstitutional.

"A Questionable Practice" tells of an individual who regularly gave blood at the Red Cross Blood Center in town having been insulted after giving blood recently when one of the nurses had offered him a free ticket to a performance of an entertainment which he had indicated he enjoyed. He refused to accept the gratuity, at which point the nurse offered him a business card which would enable him to secure a discount on merchandise at the business named on the card. He was further insulted and angered and also declined the card, believing these offers to be essentially bribes to induce people to give blood. He indicated that the Red Cross could not refuse to provide such free advertising for all such businesses and it would place the Blood Center in the position of being a clearing house for all sorts of "bank night" schemes. Furthermore, the donor might hold out for more loot in exchange for his blood.

The piece indicates that it had doubt regarding the value over the course of time of such a practice and advises that it cease.

Drew Pearson's staff, while Mr. Pearson was on vacation, tell of a lot of people having claimed credit for helping Governor Stevenson write a brilliant welcoming speech delivered at the outset of the Democratic convention, and it was a speech which he had written himself, save for one suggestion indirectly made from the late Josephus Daniels, who had written to FDR while he had been Ambassador to Mexico, indicating in a letter of January 1, 1936, quoting Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, that "the great thing is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it; but we must sail and not drift, nor lie at anchor." Ambassador Daniels had offered the quote as a suggestion for one of FDR's fireside chats. The letter had been contained in Carroll Kilpatrick's recent book, Roosevelt and Daniels—A Friendship in Politics, and a history professor at the University of Chicago had passed the quote along to Governor Stevenson. Thus, it concludes that a 1936 quotation by Josephus Daniels of Justice Holmes had helped Governor Stevenson, in his opening address to the convention, to clinch the nomination.

The President, having gotten his man nominated, found himself increasingly on the outside looking in, a position about which he had made no comment but over which the palace guard had been fuming privately. They had heard a report that Governor Stevenson had only reluctantly come to the White House luncheon earlier in the week, that there was friction between the President and the Governor's campaign manager, Wilson Wyatt, and that the new DNC chairman, Stephen Mitchell, had not pulled punches while serving on the House investigating committee which had looked into the Justice Department.

It indicates that an inside fact was that Mr. Wyatt's forced exit from the Administration had been about the biggest letdown a top official ever had. When he had taken over as Housing Expediter to build homes for veterans, the President gave him a letter which instructed him to use "the same daring determination and hard hitting teamwork with which we tackle the emergency job of building the world's most powerful war machine." Six months later, however, Mr. Wyatt found himself blocked at every turn by the President's staff, until John Steelman, Presidential assistant, tried to persuade him to remain with drastically limited powers, which Mr. Wyatt refused to do and resigned. The palace guard had indicated that he had resigned because he had finished his job of supplying veterans housing. Mr. Wyatt, however, had indicated that he had not finished the job and would stay on if permitted to operate an all-out emergency program. That had not pleased the palace guard and for an hour, then-Presidential counsel Clark Clifford argued with him over the phrasing of his resignation. The column indicates that Mr. Clifford had not sought to protect the homeless veterans but rather the man who had failed to help them.

Marquis Childs indicates, with General Eisenhower far from being accepted by the American people thus far as a potential President, that the Republican Party was beset by a "split personality", or as Governor Stevenson had said, schizophrenia, meaning a division within the individual so serious that it prevented him from functioning effectively.

He indicates that he had spent some time among Republicans recently and come across one man who could be called a "magnate" of the old variety, who had plenty of money and believed in its power. Eventually in their discussions, politics had come up and the magnate indicated that he believed that Governor Stevenson was bound to win, would have been bound to win even had he been nominated by the Republicans. As almost an afterthought, he had indicated that he had been for Senator Taft. This man was from a solidly Republican family, whose members expressed horror when it was discovered that one of their number had voted for FDR.

Mr. Childs muses that it was possible that many across the country felt in like manner and either might stay home for the election or even vote for Governor Stevenson, rather than cast their ballot for General Eisenhower.

An argument was being made that to vote for the General would be to cast to one side the right wing of the Republican Party and preserve a moderate course. Voters who used reason rather than emotion and prejudice would likely adhere to this position. But it was not likely to count for much with those who, for the previous 20 years, had voted their own special interests. And those comprised formidable numbers, upon whom the Democrats were counting to enable them to achieve yet another victory.

Robert C. Ruark tells of the one rise in living costs which had failed to annoy him greatly having been that of cab rates, which had remained stable for a long time. He was a fan of cab drivers and also trusted them, as he had used cabs to get to work for the previous seven years. He had never given money to a cab driver without being delivered his promised trip.

He had heard a lot about rude cab drivers who failed to thank their fares for tips or insulted when no tip was offered. He indicates that the best way to deal with such a cab driver was to exit on the right side of the cab and leave the door open, causing horns to blow at the rude cab driver for having to exit the cab to close the door, thus serving as a deterrent to such future conduct.

He had never been able to understand how the cabbies managed to preserve their sanity in a large town, such as New York, which was "like visiting the dentist for a 12-hour stretch, six days a week."

The only other group which he found to compare favorably were bartenders, under-respected for their true artistry while taking more punishment than did cab drivers. The bartender had to stand and the cab driver could change fares every few minutes while the bartender was stuck with the same bore for potentially hours. The bartender was stuck listening to the same old routine from drunks, as if the listener had no troubles of his own, expected to show rapt attention.

He indicates that he was not an infrequent visitor to "places where babbling broth is served", and that in 20 years, he had met only one rude bartender, who was not in the business very long.

He ventures that the patrons of cabs and saloons met more gentlemen as operators than the operators of cabs and saloons met among their patrons.

A letter writer wonders what had happened to all the people who had been protesting several months earlier that all they wanted was a change in administrations, when now that they were assured there would be a change, they appeared not to have wanted a change after all. Rather, they wanted "a chance to commit political and economic suicide, or otherwise burn the house down." He indicates that, while there was some housecleaning to be done, few would subscribe to the Republican notion of burning it down to clean it. He analogizes to the Republicans having become a bankrupt firm and having appointed a good receiver in General Eisenhower to mind the bankruptcy. But he did not believe that the Republicans would be able to sell stock in their bankrupt enterprise before November.

A letter writer from Pinehurst indicates that, with one exception, there should be complete agreement with the editorial conclusions in "Ike Lays Down His Opening Barrage", appearing August 6. The one exception was the ninth objective it listed among those which the General had stated in his speech in Los Angeles to the VFW as the ten basic things which every soldier with whom he had served wanted. That was, "to ensure, by means which guard our basic rights, that those who serve in government are Americans of loyalty and dedication." The newspaper had indicated that it was a pledge that subversives would be kept from the Government and represented a direct slap at McCarthyism. The writer suggests that the General should have been more direct in his condemnation of Senator McCarthy and that it merely appeared to be a light tap on his wrist. He also finds it disconcerting that former Illinois Senator Curley Brooks, who had been an obstructionist reactionary, and Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, "the hand-maiden of Col. Bertie McCormick", were to be heavily involved in the General's campaign. He also objects to Governor Theodore McKeldin of Maryland having tried to associate Governor Stevenson with Communism by associating him with Alger Hiss. He hopes that the General would denounce both Senator Dirksen's and Governor McKeldin's dirt and indicates that if he did not, many of his admirers would be disappointed and disillusioned.

A letter writer from Washington indicates that the Republicans and Democrats were slowly merging into what might become in time an "American International Party" with "a platform and political philosophy predominantly designed to bolster and support the losing imperialism and exploitation of weaker nations by the stronger nations." He wonders how many persons were in favor of an American national party which would be dedicated to the preservation of the exercise of inalienable rights and the country's national fortunes for the common good and welfare of the people.

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