The Charlotte News

Monday, August 4, 1952

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that the U.S. Fifth Air Force stated this date that U.N. fighter-bombers had struck in two massive waves at a key North Korean military headquarters near Pyongyang and left it a flaming wreckage. Air Force and Marine planes flew more than 275 sorties in the raids. The first wave dropped 3,500 gallons of napalm and 185 tons of high explosives, followed by 15,000 rounds of .50 caliber and 20 mm ammunition. There was no report on the second wave. U.S. Sabre jets intercepted elements of 63 enemy MIG-15s, destroyed one and damaged another. That raised the total to 1,002 MIGs destroyed, probably destroyed or damaged, since the beginning of the war.

In ground action, the U.S. Second Division smashed a 50-man Chinese charge against heavily fortified positions atop Old Baldy hill, and half the attacking force had been killed. Other than this action, the area around the hill was reported quiet except for enemy artillery and mortars pounding allied positions. The Eighth Army reported that there had been only minor losses in the hand-to-hand combat which resulted in taking the hill the previous Friday in an eight-hour battle in mud and moonlight.

Quartermaster officers indicated that 4 1/2 months of testing of 1,400 eight-pound nylon armored vests had shown that they could reduce combat wounds of the chest and abdomen by 60 percent. Medical statistics estimated that 10 to 20 percent of those killed at the front would have survived had they been wearing the vests. The vests were not designed to stop bullets but to protect the wearer against artillery, mortar and grenade fragments.

The Navy reported this date that one of its patrol planes had fought off two MIGs over the Yellow Sea the prior Thursday and returned to base. Two of the crew had been killed and two had been wounded in the fight. The plane had been on routine patrol over the sea area west of Korea when it was attacked by the two Chinese MIGs. The plane, a flying boat, was damaged but was able to limp back to base in Korea where it received spot repairs before proceeding to Japan.

In Korea, a hitchhiking Air Force master sergeant, on his first jet plane ride, had recently found himself piloting the craft for 30 minutes after the engine failed and the pilot passed out from lack of oxygen. He flew the training craft until the engine quit and then maneuvered it carefully down to a level where the pilot regained consciousness and took over the controls. He did not realize from his rear-seat vantage point at first that the pilot was undergoing convulsions, as the oxygen gauge showed plenty of pressure. He became aware of the problem when the pilot failed to answer the radio. He took the controls and made a right turn and followed the coast of Japan, believing that to be the best bet for finding an airfield, and then the engine quit. He maintained control by trial and error until the pilot regained consciousness at around 13,000 feet. The pilot recovered and took over the controls at 6,000 feet and got the plane restarted. The pilot, however, could still not see clearly, requiring the sergeant to read the airspeed to him all the way to landing. They had only a few minutes of fuel left at the end of the flight. The sergeant had been in the Air Force since 1940.

In Tehran, the Iranian Senate this date gave initial approval to a bill granting Premier Mohammed Mossadegh unlimited powers to rule the near-bankrupt nation with a free hand for six months. The upper house, however, showed unexpected opposition to a bill ordering confiscation of the personal wealth and property of Ahmed Qavam, who had been deposed two weeks earlier after only four days in office. The bill called for his fortune to be divided among the survivors of persons killed in the street fighting which had resulted in his overthrow, including the reported deaths of 20 police officers and soldiers. A newspaper indicated that the Premier had promised to arrest Qavam when the Senate passed the bill granting him full Government powers. Presently, it was unknown exactly where Qavam was located.

The Agriculture Department this date called a ten-state conference to plan quick disaster loans to farmers hit by the severe drought conditions, the conference to take place in Atlanta on August 6 and 7. Eight of the states were in the South and the other two were Maine and Massachusetts. A consensus of opinion was that only a three or four-day soaking rain would restore the fading remnants of crop and pasture lands. The agricultural commissioner in Massachusetts, however, said that even that much rain would not be enough in his state. It was estimated that crop losses might surpass one billion dollars.

In Denver, General Eisenhower was completing his plans for his campaign this date after three days of negotiation. The General met with a delegation of nearly 50 persons from Illinois and with representatives of several black groups. The Illinois group included former Senator Curly Brooks, presently a Republican national committeeman, who had backed Senator Taft for the nomination.

In Springfield, Ill., Governor Stevenson denied this date that he was a "captive" candidate of the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. He said that he had been his own master so far and would continue to be. He responded to the accusation regarding the ADA by indicating simply, "Nonsense". The accusation stemmed from the fact that his new campaign manager, Wilson Wyatt of Louisville, had formerly headed the ADA. The Governor said that he had asked historian Arthur Schlesinger of Harvard to help him in his campaign and that he had agreed. He said that letters and telegrams had convinced him that the people wanted the Federal Government refreshed, without any sharp alteration of the policies of the prior 20 years. He said that he had reached no conclusion on whether the states or the Federal Government should control the tidelands oil deposits, and had asked Governor Allan Shivers of Texas to come to Springfield to discuss the matter with him. He said that he would not adjust his convictions to make any sectional appeal for votes in the coming campaign and believed that the civil rights plank in the Democratic platform was a good one.

Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., of New York, addressing a Harlem rally the previous day, stated that blacks would not vote for the presidential or vice-presidential candidates of either party unless they obtained a civil rights platform acceptable to them. He said that he would confer with Governor Stevenson and Senator Sparkman, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, on the civil rights issue. He read a telegram from Governor Stevenson acknowledging a request for an interview and agreeing to meet with him in Springfield in a week to ten days. Mr. Powell said that he would lead a delegation to the conference. He indicated that he would encourage the Governor to adopt a stronger stance on civil rights than the platform contained, including a stand for a compulsory FEPC. He said that Senator Sparkman's record showed continuous opposition to civil rights legislation. He also stated that black voters had been "sold down the river" by "Uncle Toms" at both national conventions, that these Uncle Toms had spearheaded the sabotaging of the civil rights planks in both platforms. He said that blacks would go to the polls in record numbers in the fall, but had not yet picked a horse to back, prompting prolonged applause from his audience of about 3,500.

In Live Oak, Fla., a large contingent of State Highway Patrolmen maintained an all-night vigil against possible trouble after a black woman shot and killed a popular doctor who was the Democratic nominee for the State Senate. The Sheriff indicated that he had arrested the woman and rushed her to the State prison at Raiford, traveling 90 mph to elude several cars which were following. He indicated that he did not know whether the cars were chasing him or whether the occupants were merely curious. The doctor had been shot twice from behind as he stood at his desk on Sunday in his downtown office, and again after he had fallen to the floor, in what was apparently, according to the Sheriff, a dispute over a medical bill.

Near Waco, Texas, two Greyhound buses collided head-on this date near dawn, and burst into flames, killing at least 28 persons and possibly 33. Many servicemen returning to their bases from weekend leaves were among the dead and injured. Twenty-four passengers were taken to Waco hospitals, many critically injured. Five of the total 57 passengers remained missing. It was difficult to identify the dead because ticket purchasers were not required to reveal their identities and the burned wreckage had left little from which to make identifications. One of the buses had departed Dallas at 1:00 a.m. and was headed to Brownsville, while the northbound bus was about to reach Waco. Both drivers were killed. The accident occurred on the same highway where in early 1928, ten members of the Baylor University basketball team of Waco had been killed in a bus-train collision, albeit occurring considerably to the south of this date's accident scene. It was not yet clear, with so many critically injured and missing, whether it would become the worst traffic accident in Texas history. One woman recounted that she owed her life to a black man who had been thrown clear of the wreckage but was brave enough to return and pull her and a little girl seated next to her from the burning wreckage, leaving her with only minor injuries. The little girl's parents who had been standing near her had been killed and the little girl continued to cry for her mama. It was believed that the man was a soldier at Fort Hood.

A Washington lawyer was fined $25 this date for swatting columnist Drew Pearson in the neck, after he had been convicted of the assault the prior Friday. The maximum penalty would have been a year in jail and a $500 fine. The assailant was a former professional basketball player and said that the fracas in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel the prior June had been a "fight of honor". Mr. Pearson had written critically of the man's activity on behalf of the Spanish Government of Fascist dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco, one of his clients.

On the editorial page, "Eisenhower or Stevenson?" responds to many readers who had inquired as to whether the newspaper, having supported General Eisenhower for the Republican nomination, would continue that support through the general election. It indicates that, as an independent newspaper, it would approach the question as any independent voter. It says that it had supported the General for the Republican nomination because it believed in the two-party system and that the General was the only Republican candidate who could win in November.

It finds that the nomination of Governor Stevenson by the Democrats placed the election in a different light, as he was not a creature of the Truman Administration and did not share the President's views on several key issues. It indicates that it was pleased with both the Eisenhower-Nixon and Stevenson-Sparkman tickets, that it was happy the Republicans had withstood the assault from the Republican right wing, and that the Democrats had withstood the advance from their left wing, leaving the more moderate forces in charge of both parties. It was also pleased that the foreign policy would not be irreparably damaged in the campaign by emotional, irresponsible charges, that both the General and the Governor agreed on the fundamental objectives of the foreign policy.

It finds, however, that the burden of proof was on Governor Stevenson to show that he could bring about a change from his party's stewardship of the prior 20 years, which, it believes, had become stale, with graft and inefficiency being the result.

It suggests that the independent voter would want to determine how General Eisenhower's views on domestic policies would be defined and how completely the Governor would disavow and dissociate himself from some of the "grosser aspects of Trumanism". It thus proposes to wait and see how the candidates would interpret their party platforms and set forth the issues during the campaign.

"The Money Keeps Rolling In" tells of the Scott Administration in North Carolina heading toward a sizable surplus in the budget by the end of the term at the end of the year. That was so despite Governor Scott having spent more to improve services and facilities than any other Administration in the history of the state. Just a few days earlier, the final report on the 1951-52 fiscal year had shown an unobligated general fund credit balance of 35 million dollars, an increase of 10 million dollars from the end of the previous fiscal year. It had resulted from general fund revenues having soared to nearly 179 million dollars, well above the record-breaking expenditures of 166 million. The highway fund also had a good year, taking in 94.2 million dollars, plus 11.8 million in Federal funds, against expenditures of 104 million, 13 million of which was for debt service on the 200 million dollar secondary road bond issue. And the road ahead to the end of the year looked even brighter.

It indicates that the figures showed that North Carolina's economy was sound and that it was more than keeping pace with the nation's economy. Though the boom was partially a result of the national defense mobilization program, it also reflected the state's expanding industrial base and the growing diversification of agriculture.

It indicates that at the beginning of Governor Scott's Administration in January, 1949, when more conservative North Carolina newspapers, including The News, had thought that the Governor's "Go Forward" program should proceed more slowly, the Governor's confidence in the state had been unlimited, and history had proved good to him, making his gamble pay off. It indicates that if he wished to crow a little, it would tolerate it with good humor.

"Charles Clinton Spaulding" comments on the death the previous week of Mr. Spaulding at the age of 78, the son of former slaves, born just ten years after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and then rising from poverty to great wealth, reputed to be one of the wealthiest black citizens in the country. He had headed the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, with 800 agents and more than 33 million dollars worth of assets, the nation's largest all-black business enterprise. He also controlled a black bank, a building and loan association, and several other affiliated insurance companies. Mr. Spaulding had not devoted his entire life to business. He had been a strong believer in interracial cooperation and served on many Durham governmental and civic boards, including the Red Cross and the Selective Service Board. He had also been honored the previous year by the Freedom Foundation for his contribution to freedom during 1950.

He once said that he would always be grateful that his ancestors had been transplanted to North America, as it was the best place in the world which he had found to live and leave one's mark. The piece indicates that he had left an indelible mark which would show all Americans of any race that it was still a land of opportunity.

A piece from the Winston-Salem Journal, titled "The Unloved Louse", tells of Waldemar Kaempffert, science editor of the New York Times, having said recently that DDT did not kill the form of lice which had been plaguing the American soldiers in Korea, but that there was no evidence that the Korean louse differed in any respect from its European or American counterpart. Professor Frederik Merk of the history department of Harvard, however, had said that the Asiatic louse was distinct from the European louse.

Professor Merk had indicated that one of the ways anthropologists had determined that the American Indian had actually come from Asia originally, migrating across the Bering Straits thousands of years earlier, was by comparison to Orientals with respect to eyes, skin color, high cheekbones, and similar tooth structure. The clincher had come when the scalp of a mummified Peruvian Indian had been found to contain a Mongolian louse, which the professor hypothesized had come to the South American continent ages earlier on the heads and bodies of the Asiatic migrants.

His theory was supported by Hans Zinsser, who had written in 1935 Rats, Lice and History, in which he indicated that the prehistoric American louse had been described as quite similar to the Chinese head louse and to the louse found upon Aleutian Eskimos, another argument for the migration across the Bering Straits. He had found that the louse adapted its color to that of the host, such that there was a black louse in Africa, a smoky louse of the Hindu, a yellowish-brown louse of the Japanese, a dark brown louse of the North American Indian, a pale brown louse of the Eskimo, and the dirty gray one of the European.

The piece indicates that all of that study did not help the American soldiers in Korea who were suffering from lice, but fortunately, the Army had shipped a supply of lindane to Korea, which had cured the problem.

That's good because it was starting to sound like a pretty lousy war.

Query whether Rats, Lice and History was required reading for the enlistees of C.R.E.E.P. in 1972, germinating out of University of Southern California campus politics.

The piece got through its exposition without referencing the ode by Robert Burns to the little but noxious creature, and so we shall supply the reference for good measure, in the hope that you may never be attacked by any, surely a product of Old Scratch.

Drew Pearson tells of a new rash of Congressmen obtaining free airplane transportation to various parts of the world after Congress had adjourned for the political conventions. Some of it had begun before the adjournment. Some of the flights were justified, but others had the appearance of junkets. One such trip was taken by Congressman Harold Cooley of North Carolina, who had sent his sister to Europe via free air transportation to study hoof-and-mouth disease for the House Agriculture Committee, which Mr. Cooley chaired and of which his sister was clerk. The area of infestation which was of interest to the U.S., however, was in Argentina and Mexico, and while hoof-and-mouth existed in Europe, there was no meat imported from Europe to the U.S. The Congressman had also requested the Air Force to supply a special plane to take a large group of Congressmen and Senators to the Inter-Parliamentary Union at Berne on August 28. That trip appeared to be justified since the Union was an important gathering for world cooperation, but Mr. Cooley had insisted on a Constellation as the means of travel, which cost $88 per hour for gas and oil alone, not including the salaries of the crew and the wear and tear on the aircraft. Those who were to make the trip included Senator Willis Robertson of Virginia, his wife and two sons; Congressman Albert Gore of Tennessee, his wife, son and daughter; Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan and his wife; Senator Willis Smith of North Carolina and his wife; Senator Tom Connally of Texas and his wife; Senator Tom Underwood of Kentucky and his wife; Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois and his wife; Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin and his wife; and Senator Theodore Green of Rhode Island.

He also indicates that other Congressional junketeers included Senator Homer Capehart of Indiana and his assistant, both accompanied by their wives, who had flown to Europe in an Air Force plane on July 11; Congressman John Wood of Georgia, chairman of HUAC, who had flown to Europe with his wife in an Air Force plane on April 19; again Senator Wiley and his wife, who had flown to Europe on their honeymoon in an Air Force plane, leaving May 16 and returning June 1; and Congressman Walter Norblad and his wife, who had left for Europe on July 5.

The Utah Statesman, a Republican mouthpiece, had sent a letter to the Continental Distilling Corp. of Philadelphia seeking the latter's advertising business.

Some choice television licenses had been handed out by the FCC of late, and at least three had gone to good friends of the Administration. Governor Stevenson was among those applying for a license in Springfield, Ill. Another top Illinois Democrat, the State Secretary of State, was opposing Governor Stevenson and his group for the license, seeking a competing license. Other friends of the Administration who had been favored for the hard to obtain television licenses were Lady Bird Johnson, wife of Senator Lyndon Johnson, who had obtained a television station in Austin, Tex.; Ed Craney and Bing Crosby, who obtained a television station in Spokane, Wash., Mr. Craney being a close friend to Senator Ed Johnson of Colorado, chairman of the Senate Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee which ruled on FCC matters; and Roger Putnam, the Economic Stabilizer, who obtained a station in Springfield, Mass.

He notes that the New England paper which had probably criticized the President more than any other, the New Bedford Standard-Times of Massachusetts, had also obtained one of the new tv licenses the previous month, while another New England newspaper which had vigorously opposed the Administration, the Holyoke Transcript, had also been awarded a television license.

Marquis Childs discusses the difficulty for Governor Stevenson in conducting the kind of campaign which he said he desired, one detached from the vested interests. The problem was demonstrated shortly after his nomination regarding the issue of whether DNC chairman Frank McKinney should continue in the position. The Governor had indicated that he wanted a change, but Senator John Sparkman, his running mate, believed Mr. McKinney ought remain.

The problem with Mr. McKinney was that he was associated with the bosses, and the rumor was already being circulated, to be exploited by the Republicans, that Governor Stevenson's nomination was engineered by the bosses to the exclusion of the "people's choice", Senator Kefauver.

The other problem with Mr. McKinney was his series of blunders in the six months he had been in the position of chairman, first having persuaded the President to leave his name in the March New Hampshire primary after the President had indicated he would withdraw it, leading to the trouncing by Senator Kefauver, an embarrassment to the President, though he never campaigned in New Hampshire or anywhere else.

The Governor's own inclination would be to start with a clean slate, and Mr. Childs indicates that the Governor was a liberal in the truest meaning of the word and that his integrity was such that he would not resort to expediency of political appeal in violation of his own convictions.

The Democrats faced another problem, the black vote in the Northern cities, which could be decisive in those areas. The Census Bureau had recently released figures showing a dramatic increase in the number of non-whites, including Asians, in those cities between 1940 and 1950. For blacks alone, Detroit showed an increase from 149,112 to 300,507; in Los Angeles, from 63,774 to 171,205; in Cleveland, from 84,504 to 147,849; and in New York, from 458,444 to 747,620.

Governor Stevenson had stated several times that he believed the states should try to resolve the problem of discrimination and that the Federal Government should intervene only in the case where they failed. General Eisenhower had declared his opposition to Federal intervention. Black leaders were reported to be unhappy at the fact that both positions fell short of the all-out support of the Administration's civil rights program given by Averell Harriman prior to the convention. These leaders also were disturbed by the presence of Senator Sparkman on the ticket. But Democrats were convinced that the black leaders with real influence could be won back to their traditional support of the Democratic ticket, provided in every election since 1932. Dr. Ralph Bunche, member of the U.N. staff, was said to have indicated that he would do all he could for the Democratic ticket.

Mr. Childs concludes that powerful pressures would be exerted on Governor Stevenson by the various blocs essential to Democratic victory, the kind of pressures he had envisioned in his "long and unhappy reluctance" to accept the nomination.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop quote from the late Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan that no one could win a party nomination "without conniving". There were those who contended that Governor Stevenson had connived to obtain the Democratic nomination by playing hard to get. Senator Paul Douglas, who had supported Senator Kefauver for the nomination, had suggested that the draft of the Governor was an exercise in "planned spontaneity". RNC chairman Arthur Summerfield also charged that Governor Stevenson was the "hand-picked" candidate of the President, implying that his draft was planned.

The Alsops indicate that nothing could be further from the truth, that the Governor had turned down efforts to get him to throw his hat in the ring repeatedly and on three occasions had toyed with the notion of issuing a Shermanesque type withdrawal from the campaign, stopping each time just short of doing so after being talked into relenting for the good of the country.

They indicate that the President and the "bosses" were supposed to have maneuvered to obtain the draft of Governor Stevenson when, in fact, they had been caught as off guard as anyone else by the draft by the convention. The fact was that the professional party leaders had gotten behind the draft effort only after it had already taken hold in the convention.

The Governor was, however, a politician and understood that to have turned down his party's nomination for the presidency would have been political suicide. His draft, however, had been an "honest draft", as he indicated it had to be for him to to have accepted it, and he had not connived in any sense to obtain the nomination.

The Congressional Quarterly reports on 129 roll call votes taken in the Senate during the year and tells of Senators Clyde Hoey and Willis Smith of North Carolina having voted on the record 91 percent and 90 percent of the time, respectively. For the entirety of the 82nd Congress, both 1951 and 1952, the two North Carolina Senators had gone on the record 95 percent and 83 percent of the time, respectively.

The average for all Senators was 86.8 percent record voting in 1952, and 87.1 percent for the Senate for the entire period of the Congress. It provides a list of the percentages of on the record votes by Senate leaders, with Majority Leader Ernest McFarland having voted on the record 99 percent of the time; Majority Whip Lyndon Johnson, 96 percent of the time; Minority Leader Styles Bridges, 83 percent of the time; Minority Whip Leverett Saltonstall, 93 percent of the time; and GOP policy committee chairman Robert Taft, 89 percent of the time.

Local Congressman Hamilton Jones had voted on the record 82 percent of the time, versus 93 percent of the time the prior year. The average House percentage for the 82nd Congress was 86.8 percent.

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