The Charlotte News
Saturday, September 6, 1952
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Milo Farneti, that Chinese troops had attacked three allied outposts on "Bunker Hill" this night, under heavy artillery and mortar cover, and may have forced the allies to withdraw, after hand-to-hand fighting had ensued. There was no confirmation, however, of the withdrawal from at least two of the outposts, as the troops at the top of the hill were holding firm in their prefabricated bunkers after the fighting slackened prior to midnight. At the eastern end of the battlefront, allied infantrymen repulsed an enemy attack with fists and bayonets at "Sandbag Hill", an allied outpost.
U.S. Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers hit a large enemy headquarters in northeast Korea, near Kowon, demolishing 56 structures and damaging 20 others. U.S. Sabre jets probably shot down one MIG and damaged another in air battles between 39 allied fighters and more than 50 enemy jets.
Tokyo headquarters reported that allied jets the prior Thursday had set an unofficial record for a single-day toll by shooting down 13 MIGs, with one other having crashed on its own.
The U.S., Britain and France the previous night provided to Russia peace proposals for Austria, which the Big Three claimed met previous Soviet objections to concluding a pact. The three Western powers suggested a four-power conference in London on September 29 to conclude the pact. They indicated that they were reluctantly willing to limit Austria's future armed forces and ensure that an independent Austria guaranteed free elections, basic freedoms and anti-Nazi measures, each of which provisions had been demanded by the Soviets as conditions for acceptance of a shortened, simplified version of the treaty. A final agreement would end the postwar occupation of the country, but that prospect appeared as remote as ever, as Moscow observers thought it likely that the Soviets would object to an abbreviated form of the treaty and instead insist on starting negotiations again on the original treaty.
At Kasson, Minn., both General Eisenhower and Governor Stevenson would make separate speeches to the farmers assembled for the National Plowing Contest, with 100,000 persons in attendance, as each candidate would provide major talks on their proposed farm policy. The General would speak at noon and the Governor, at 4:00. The official forecast was partly cloudy with scattered showers. Farmers from 15 states were assembled to compete for prizes in the exhibition of their plowing prowess.
The General, based on the prepared text of his speech, would put forth his plan for guaranteeing present price supports for an additional two years, which would then lead to higher prices for the farmer. He advocated greater protection for producers of perishable products such as meat, milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables, not presently under price supports, and also urged an increase from the present 90 percent parity to full parity, which he said would minimize Government control and protect the independence of farmers. Price supports presently covered wheat, corn, rice, cotton, tobacco and peanuts, and the General favored extension to other crops, such as oats, barley, rye and soybeans. He also called for expanded farm research, strengthening of farm cooperatives, improvement of farm roads, and development of rural electrification and telephone service. He charged that the Administration had tried to make the American farmer a "political captive".
In a speech before a pep rally of Republican leaders in Chicago the previous day, the General had stated that he might name a black person to his Cabinet, if he found such a person with "the qualifications needed to serve the United States well". (Apparently, he would not.) He also stated that he would seek to include Senator Taft on his team, not only as a consultant but as a leader. He said that if common honesty in government could be achieved, he believed that it could come close to balancing the budget without reducing necessary expenses for the armed forces.
Another Gallup poll appears, indicating the views of veterans, from a survey taken prior to the recent American Legion convention meeting in New York, finding that 53 percent responded that either they were leaning toward or would definitely support the Republican Party in the presidential election, while 40 percent said they would lean toward or support the Democratic Party, with seven percent undecided. If the latter undecided group were to wind up favoring Governor Stevenson, the race would be narrowed considerably. Among all voters, as indicated the previous day, the General led 51 percent to 43 percent for Governor Stevenson, with six percent undecided.
In Washington, House investigators looking at the Justice Department scheduled unusual sessions this night and the following day to hear further from former Assistant Attorney General Lamar Caudle. The previous day, he had turned over to the committee several documents which regarded his dismissal from the Justice Department the prior November. The two ranking members of the committee declined to say whether one of the items was the letter from the President firing Mr. Caudle for "outside activities". The weekend hearings would be in executive session, but the two ranking members indicated that there would be a public hearing probably within ten days.
In Hartford, Conn., the state Democratic convention unanimously nominated Congressman Abraham Ribicoff for the Senate.
In San Francisco, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the 1950 perjury conviction of Harry Bridges, head of the International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union, upholding the Government's order revoking his U.S. citizenship. He had been convicted of swearing falsely at his naturalization hearing in 1945 that he was not a Communist. The conviction and order would be reversed the following June, 7-0, by the Supreme Court, based on the charge having been brought beyond the statute of limitations. Justices Robert Jackson and Tom Clark, both having served as Attorneys General during the pendency of the matter, took no part in the decision.
In Farnborough, England, the
DeHavilland 110 night fighter plane of Britain blew up in a
supersonic flight this date, killing 20 persons in front of a crowd
of 20,000 spectators at the air show. A famous test pilot, John
Derry, 30, and his observer, Tony Richards, had died in the crash
A Honduran tanker with 30 men aboard broke up this date in the Atlantic in a storm, 130 miles southeast of Charleston, and 11 of the crew were missing, while two others had refused to leave the floating wreckage. The 11 missing men, including the captain, were aboard a lifeboat. Seventeen of the crew had been rescued by a Norwegian ship. Coast Guard rescue planes and four U.S. military destroyers were searching for the missing crew members.
In New York, musical comedy star Gertrude Lawrence, 51, died this date in a New York hospital after having been admitted on August 16 with yellow jaundice. She was on leave from her starring role in Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, "The King and I".
On the editorial page, "'The Mess in Washington'" supplies a quote from General Eisenhower as the title, which he had invoked in his Philadelphia address on Thursday night regarding foreign policy. He stated that the clean-up of the "mess" would be the beginning of a more successful foreign policy. It predicts that he would preface his discussion of domestic policies similarly.
It expresses its approval of the Republican strategy in this regard, for at once attacking the Democrats where they should be attacked while also reducing issues which might have been unduly magnified, such as foreign policy. It suggests that had Senator Taft been nominated, the issue would have been "liberty vs. socialism", requiring a frontal attack on many of the desired and accepted accomplishments of the Democrats, virtually assuring a Republican defeat. At the other extreme, a "me too" campaign, in the form of that waged in 1948 by Governor Dewey, would not have threatened the achievements of the five successive Democratic Administrations or the "sprawling, bungling, encroaching bureaucracy" which the Democratic Party had raised up. Thus, it finds making an issue of "the mess in Washington" to be good politics.
It believes the other eight points of the General's proposed foreign policy were solid, bipartisan fundamentals which Democrats and independents could support. They included moving toward peace by setting clear and positive goals, preserving alliances abroad, providing aid abroad by every peaceful means to the right to live in freedom, providing unwavering support of the U.N., providing for an economically and militarily strong country, fighting against discrimination, economic inequity, poverty, insecurity and every social ill which hampered and handicapped any of the people, while rooting out of government those who would betray the system.
It wonders whether the General as President would be able to convince those of his party who doubted the wisdom of having allies in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, to go along with his program, and whether they would reverse their historic position to support decreased tariffs and broad reciprocal trade agreements, and give unwavering support to the U.N.
The General had ended speculation about U.S. military liberation of satellite countries by indicating that only by peaceful means would the country aid the enslaved peoples.
It concludes that he had presented a program for peace which made sense, primarily the program of the Truman Administration. He had tied the Administration to corruption, and the Democrats would likely seek to tie the Republican record in foreign affairs to the policy of the General. Then the voters would decide.
"Count Sforza", lamenting the death on Thursday of the Italian diplomat, tells of Italy having produced few high-caliber statesmen during the century, one of whom having been Count Carlo Sforza, who had returned home, after his voluntary exile during World War II, to lead his countrymen to a freer, better life. He had figured in European and Asian history for the previous 40 years, having been an experienced diplomat by the end of World War I, negotiating the Treaty of Rapallo between Italy and Yugoslavia, solving the Silesian border problem by proposing that which became known as the "Sforza line", and, after departing when Mussolini came to power in 1923, became known as a statesman-in-exile in the U.S.
His best work had been accomplished after World War II, pushing toward the goal of a united Europe and counseling limitation of Italy's sovereign power. In 1950, he had stated, "Either you come to an agreement and abolish your stupid frontiers—or else." It indicates that he was a "plain-talking champion of European and Atlantic unity", and concludes that his death was a considerable loss to Americans.
"Greensboro, Too" indicates that the Greensboro Record had joined The News in supporting the "Memphis Plan" as a remedy for decreasing transit company fares and profits. In Memphis, the bus company attracted riders by offering them more for their money, with free transportation into the city in the evenings. The Record believed that the plan might be applicable to Greensboro and quotes from its piece in that regard. It again urges the City Council and bus officials to look at the Memphis plan.
A piece from the Asheville Citizen, entitled "We Could Slip Back Here, Too", indicates that Governor-nominate William B. Umstead had opened up new and better prospects for tourism in the state the prior Tuesday as he opened up Grandfather Mountain to greater tourist patronage, in a dedicatory exercise. He said that, as Governor, he would support the tourist industry, as Governors before him had done. He also said that the state should make every effort to advertise its national attractions more aggressively, provide good food and lodging at reasonable prices, and give the traveling public the type of hospitality and friendly treatment which was a trademark of the state and its people.
The piece suggests that Mr. Umstead spoke to a point which concerned the state's third largest industry, tourism, currently worth nearly 300 million dollars per year. The state's 79 parks and recreational areas, some 70 lakes, 320-mile coast line and great expanse of mountains, with hotels, golf courses and scenic splendor, would mean nothing in terms of tourism unless those attractions were advertised, as in other states. It suggests that there should be active hospitality, with well-organized commercial tours. It hopes that Mr. Umstead's words would be heard throughout the state and acted on.
Drew Pearson reports that Senator Taft would dictate his own terms to General Eisenhower when he consulted with him the following week, regarding his participation in the campaign. The Senator had already sent word in blunt language that he would support the General only if he was allowed to make his own "fighting campaign". The Senator still was bitter from his defeat at the Republican convention and for his having not been nominated either as vice-president. In Chicago, after the nomination of the General, Senator Taft had sent word to the General's camp that he was available for the vice-presidential nomination and received no enthusiastic response, the General's aides and advisers being afraid that the Senator would seek to be the tail of the ticket who would wag the dog. They politely declined. The Senator then called his old friend, Senator Frank Carlton of Kansas, in the Eisenhower camp, and asked him to consider Senator Everett Dirksen for the second spot. Senator Carlson put forward Senator Dirksen's name in a huddle of Eisenhower strategists just after the nomination of the General, but Governor Dewey had nixed the idea. That left Senator Taft disappointed and disgruntled as he left the convention.
The new RNC Chairman, Arthur Summerfield, had sought to repair relations with the Senator, as Mr. Summerfield had been a Taft supporter. The Senator then let it be known that he would campaign for the ticket on his own terms. Mr. Summerfield tried to persuade the General's inner circle to meet those conditions and the Senator was invited to meet with the General to map campaign strategy, at which point the Senator indicated that he would meet the General in Washington any time after September 8. Then, New Hampshire Governor Sherman Adams, the General's campaign chief of staff, announced that the two rivals would get together, angering the Taft forces and the Senator, who did not want a premature announcement. The Senator already had a grudge against Governor Adams for whispering in Chicago that the Senator was the man "Stalin wanted for President".
Senator Carlson then telephoned Senator Taft while he was vacationing in Canada and asked him to meet with the General a week ahead of schedule in Cleveland. The Senator replied that his invalid wife needed the rest and that he could not cut short his vacation, but promised that he would campaign vigorously for the ticket.
Mr. Pearson adds that Governor Stevenson might not know it but the nation's two top labor bosses, AFL president William Green and CIO president Philip Murray, were upset over George Harrison's appointment as chairman of the labor committee for Stevenson.
Marquis Childs indicates that the House Judiciary Committee was presently conducting an investigation into the Department of Justice, which might open up the scandals which had been brewing from time to time in court actions. The Senate Judiciary Committee had failed to act on the matter. Demands had been made for an investigation, particularly of the Office of Alien Property Custodian, which reportedly had been selling seized property through influential Democrats who received large fees. The Senate had adopted a resolution to investigate the Department in March, a subcommittee had been named and staff members appointed two months afterward. But according to the chief counsel, public hearings were not yet scheduled.
Mr. Childs indicates that any thorough investigation would have to take into account the close relationship between the Justice Department and Senator Pat McCarran, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who had a habit of summoning top officials to his office with little or no notice. Former Attorney General J. Howard McGrath had complained frequently of receiving pressure from the Senator by his repeatedly demanding to know why no settlement had been reached in the case of the former Dollar Steamship Line, presently known as the American President Line. Through the time of his firing in March, Mr. McGrath had refused to approve a settlement of the case, despite great pressure to do so.
He proceeds at length to summarize the tangled case and indicates that the President had ordered the settlement of it approved after the confirmation of James McGranery as the new Attorney General, who indicated in a long memorandum the legal viewpoint that, apart from the merits of the case, there was no alternative to settlement. The former Solicitor General, Philip Perlman, who had formerly been Acting Attorney General prior to the confirmation of Mr. McGranery, had opposed the settlement and called it a "steal" of unprecedented proportions. He resigned his post and made no statement regarding the proposed settlement, but rumors persisted that he had quit because of the Dollar case.
Robert C. Ruark indicates that the trouble with the campaign was that Governor Stevenson was stealing the thunder of General Eisenhower and saying things as a Democrat that the General ought to be saying as a Republican. Only recently, had General Eisenhower given a suggestion of being a little bit mad about the Washington "mess". But neither candidate was taking any gloves off, the way Mr. Ruark and his fellow "illiterates" liked it. He suggests that he was surrounded by intellectuals, whom his grandfather told him never to trust. He wants both of the two gentlemen to get "a lot lower and dirtier before us common folks cuddle up to either." He wanted them to play it "loud like Harry", "to holler damn and blast and s.o.b. and stomp the rostrum and challenge each other to duels with ball bats."
"These boys ain't gonna get nowhere with us as long as they keep giving us the literate deal with all these gentle beginnings and sly walkouts. Like a genius named Clutch Thrasher said the other day, Stevenson's the only man in history to use the word 'schizophrenic' in a Presidential acceptance speech. How about that?"
A letter writer indicates that while everyone realized that the Duke Power bus service could not continue to run at a loss, there was no need to cut service to people who needed it. She indicates that the people who worked at night could no longer make their connections with only one hour of service after 8:00 p.m. She suggests raising the fare to a reasonable level and keeping the system intact.
A letter writer finds that General Eisenhower's attack on the Democrats for corruption sought to issue blame which he and his "Teapot Dome Republican cohorts" shared. He had been the leader of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II and was far behind the lines giving orders to General Patton to pull back and retreat from Berlin, to appease the Russians with its capture. "What a stumble and bumble the Democrats made under Eisenhower." He wonders whether the General would admit corruption which existed right under his nose when the Hessian crown jewels were stolen by a U.S. Army major and a nurse, and whether he was any less culpable for those two than the President had been for hiring an official or two who had betrayed the country's trust. Soldiers under the General's command serving in the armed forces had stolen train loads of vital food supplies and funneled them into the black market of Paris during the war. He suggests that the General was committing a "five-star blunder" every time he brought up the "phony clean-up cry".
A letter writer decries mud-slinging and finds it un-Christian. She favors forgiveness and giving people another chance.
A letter writer from Rock Hill, S.C., thinks the newspaper should take a better stand for General Eisenhower, that he was a great American, so great that the Democrats had wanted him as their candidate in 1948. But the politicians in North Carolina would not support him because he was a Republican. The writer's father had fought for four years during the Civil War and had been in prison during the last three months at Elmira, N.Y. He believes that General Eisenhower would be "our general". He believes that women of the nation would be proud to elect him, and he prays that the General would lead the country out of the "mess" and place it again where it should be. "Arise, America, else it may be too late."
Whatever you say, boss man.
Framed Edition
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