The Charlotte News

Monday, March 30, 1953

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that South Korean troops had repulsed a Chinese Communist drive, consisting of about 300 troops, on "Christmas Hill" on the eastern front, west of the Mundung Valley, during a driving snowstorm this date, with the South Koreans killing or wounding about 100 of the enemy. U.S. Marines dug in firmly at the "Vegas" outpost on the western front, after winning back the outpost at dawn on Sunday, following having been forced from it three times by the enemy the previous week. The Marines had defeated a three-pronged enemy drive on the outpost late the previous day and, with a curtain of artillery fire, had broken up a force massing for another attack the previous night.

In the air war, U.S. Sabre jets had probably destroyed one enemy MIG-15 and damaged one other. The previous day, Sabres had shot down four enemy jets and damaged a fifth. The foul weather, which left up to five inches of snow on the eastern front, had curtailed allied fighter-bomber strikes.

Communist Chinese Premier Chou En-lai this night offered a compromise solution to the problem of repatriation of prisoners of war in Korea, the only remaining issue preventing an armistice during the previous year. He proposed that both sides return prisoners who insisted on going home and then hand over the others to an unspecified neutral state for a "just solution" regarding their repatriation. He added, however, that the Communists continued to reject the U.N. command's claim that they held prisoners of war who refused repatriation to China or North Korea. The proposed Chinese plan was similar to the proposal by India which had been approved by the U.N. the previous fall but then rejected by North Korea and China, as well as by Russia. The truce negotiations had been suspended since the previous fall, when the U.N. representatives walked out in frustration over the continuing stalemate.

The broadcast via Peiping radio had been greeted with guarded optimism at the U.N. in New York, with the British delegation issuing a formal statement calling it "most encouraging" but also saying that it would be for London to decide its exact implications. The New Zealand representative said it was better than anything previously stated by the Communists, and the Australian representative suggested it as a possible basis for discussion. An unnamed American source said it should be viewed with "healthy skepticism", that the general view of such broadcasts and recent peace talk in Moscow was that they were "straws in the wind", the questions being how strong was the straw and how hard the wind was blowing.

We shall consult the weatherman, after checking the parking meter.

Congressional leaders, who had met with the President this date in their usual Monday conference, reported that the President was considering a cut in foreign aid spending. Senator Taft and House Speaker Joseph Martin said that there had not yet been a determination of the amount, but that it would be below the 7.5 billion dollars proposed by the Truman budget for the ensuing fiscal year.

Harold Stassen, director of the Mutual Security Agency, this date accused Senator Joseph McCarthy, and the Senate Investigations subcommittee which he chaired, of "undermining" the work of executive agencies seeking to cut off trade between the West and Iron Curtain areas. The Senator had unilaterally formed an agreement on Saturday, without consulting the State Department or any other agency, whereunder Greek owners of 242 ships would break off all trade with North Korea and Communist China. The move had raised a Constitutional question, as the President was charged with the conduct of foreign affairs—as further considered in an editorial below. The State Department had announced this date that Greece had already put into effect a new order prohibiting ships flying under Greek flags to trade with Communist nations or entering any port under Communist control, including ports in mainland China and North Korea. That agreement was not binding on Greek owners of ships sailing under registries of other countries, and Senator McCarthy claimed that his agreement was therefore more inclusive than the one worked out by the State Department with the Greek Government, as only 51 of the 242 ships under the McCarthy agreement were sailing under the Greek flag. The State Department replied that many other countries had agreed to abide by the U.N. embargo on shipment of strategic materials to Communist countries and therefore the opportunity to conduct trade with those countries under foreign flags was limited legally. When Mr. Stassen inquired of Senator McCarthy whether he had made a compact to call off an investigation of the Greek owners who had signed the agreement, the Senator had responded that it was no concern of Mr. Stassen, though the subcommittee's chief counsel quickly added that they had not.

Legislation to establish the coastal states' title to oil-rich submerged lands off their shores had been called up for House debate this date, with passage, probably on Wednesday, being a virtual certainty. Proponents of the bill contended that it would ratify what had been accepted practice for 150 years, state ownership of the submerged lands, while opponents denounced it as a steal of perhaps 40 billion dollars in Federal revenue. The Supreme Court had held in 1947 that the Federal Government held dominion and power over the submerged lands in California, and subsequently, in two other cases, the submerged lands in Texas and Louisiana. Former President Truman had twice vetoed legislation to give the states title to the submerged lands, and shortly before departing office, had declared them to be part of the Naval oil reserve. During the campaign, General Eisenhower had said that he would sign such a bill, and had subsequently reaffirmed that position since becoming President. The Senate planned to start debate on its own bill, differing somewhat from the House version, on Wednesday.

In Athens, Greece, returns from weekend by-elections gave nine additional seats to the parliamentary majority held by the Rally party of Premier Marshal Alexander Papagos. It would thus hold 243 of the 300 seats. Calm, orderly balloting had taken place the previous day.

The Navy planned to lay off 141 civilian employees at two air stations in North Carolina, according to Senator Willis Smith this date, in an economy move.

Six airmen were killed and nine injured in the crash of a B-29 in the Azores the previous afternoon, crashing on takeoff, according to the public information office at Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Ga., the home base of the aircraft. There were no survivors.

In Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, a missing Viking airliner with 18 persons aboard was located this date 80 miles southwest of a town in Tanganyika, at the edge of a region of mangrove swamps. The fate of the persons aboard was not yet known. Search parties were organized to hunt for survivors.

In Largo, Fla., three State agencies were investigating the wind-swept fire which had destroyed a one-story frame nursing home the previous day, taking the lives of 32 elderly patients and a nurse who had tried to save them. Twenty-five patients had been saved from the fire. In addition, a county welfare director had been killed in an automobile collision while driving three of the patients to the hospital for treatment.

In Clifton, N.J., a tavern and hotel owner had admitted killing his five-year old son because he could not stand to see the boy suffer any longer from cerebral palsy. He told police that he had shot the boy, whose body was in the back seat of the father's car when police found him. He was charged with murder. The boy had never been able to talk and had difficulty walking. The father said that he did not believe he, himself, had much longer to live and did not want his wife burdened with the care of their son. He had maintained an all-night vigil in the car with his son's body, chain-smoking the while.

Rowland Evans, Jr., tells of CIO president Walter Reuther this date having asked the Senate Labor Committee for drastic changes to the Taft-Hartley Act, quoting freely from the President's campaign speeches in the process. He favored abrogation of the injunctive provisions of the law, which permitted the Government to seek an injunction of a strike for 80 days during a cooling off period, and also provided for injunctions against certain union practices deemed by the law illegal. Mr. Reuther called instead for give-and-take collective bargaining in lieu of bringing the courts into labor disputes. The Committee was in its second week of hearings regarding proposed revisions of the Act, passed over President Truman's veto in 1947.

On the editorial page, "Misrepresentation—Assembly Style" indicates that the proponents of the amended law which enabled appropriations committees to meet in secret when considering the budget, rammed through the General Assembly the previous week, had misrepresented the measure in two important respects during the debate. The legislators had said repeatedly that the subcommittee would not be able to make final decisions or vote in secret, and left the impression that off-the-record sessions would be rare. But after the bill had passed, it was realized that it not only authorized the subcommittee to consider budgetary matters in secret but also to reach final decisions and to vote in secret sessions. In consequence, the subcommittee had been in executive session since the prior Thursday.

It indicates that the attacks in the floor debate were aimed primarily at the press of the state, but that actually the amendment was aimed at the people, taking away the right to know about budget deliberations before final, irrevocable decisions were reached. It allows that if the people wanted their public business transacted behind closed doors, it was up to them to allow it to continue, but that the press would continue to fight secrecy in government, with or without public support. In secrecy, democracy was in danger and autocracy a step closer.

"McCarthy Poaches in Presidential Preserve" finds that Senator McCarthy's opposition to the confirmation of Charles Bohlen as Ambassador to Russia had begged the question of where the executive department's constitutional responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy began and ended. Further blurring that line, the Senator, just after the confirmation of Mr. Bohlen, held a press conference during the weekend, in which he announced that the Greek owners of 242 merchant ships had agreed to break off all trade with North Korea and Communist China, and refuse to carry cargoes of any type from one Communist port to another in any part of the world. He had added that the agreement had been reached without the State Department or any other agency having been informed, because he did not want any interference.

Apparently, Senator McCarthy's Investigating subcommittee was about to begin an investigation into shipping. Until the detail of the agreement was known regarding the volume of shipping it would impact, it was not clear whether it would be of material help in applying economic pressure against the Communists.

It indicates that, notwithstanding that effect, it was clear that it was an invasion of the responsibility of the executive branch, which, under the Constitution, had the power to conduct foreign policy. The President and Secretary of State Dulles had already begun a crackdown on foreigners who had been trading behind the Iron Curtain in ships bought from U.S. surplus. Mortgages on 14 Greek ships and seven Italian ships had been declared in default, and a tanker bought illegally by aliens had been seized. Into that mix had stepped Senator McCarthy to reach his agreement. Without executive powers, it was not known how he expected to enforce the agreement if it were to be violated.

It suggests that it was not the first time that the Senator had sought to run the State Department, having focused on the Department since February, 1950, when he first made his claim that there were various numbers of "card-carrying Communists" in the Department. He had sought to set policy and enforce his own personnel standards, prescribe his own loyalty rules and even dictate major appointments regarding foreign policy. Thus far, the President had ignored these intrusions on his power, seeking to live in peace with the Senator. In the Bohlen case, the Senator had been within his rights to oppose confirmation, but in the present instance, he was invading the State Department's province. It concludes that it would be interesting to see whether the President would undertake a new tactic for handling the Senator in light of that poaching.

Actually, it was stretching the point to suggest that Congress has no authority in establishing foreign policy, as under Article I, Sec. 8, Congress has the specific power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, as well as among the states. Under Section 10, no state shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation. The treaty-making power is reserved to the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, on concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators present, and it is presumably this power to which the front page and the editorial refer. And, of course, without the majority consent of both houses of Congress, no committee or individual member has power to regulate commerce, certainly, therefore, rendering the move to form a compact unilaterally with 242 shipowners an usurpation by Senator McCarthy of the right of Congress as a whole. And any such regulation by the Congress in the form of legislation would have to be signed into law by the President or not, subject to veto, then to override by the Congress, or pocket-veto. But those limitations had never stopped Senator McCarthy previously in the use of his "technique" to achieve power not bestowed on him by virtue of his office, as further elucidated below by Marquis Childs.

"For the Good of the Community" indicates that the medical profession had traditionally been cool to suggestions for more public information about its activities and accomplishments, partially based on the medical code of ethics and partially on the concern that lay writers might overstress the significance of medical developments and stir false hopes in the people. The more thoughtful leaders of the profession, however, had realized for a long time that good health was everybody's business and that more information about the medical profession should be made available.

The previous week, a major step toward a better system for handling medical news in the community had been taken when a group of doctors had met with representatives of the News to set up a better information program, with additional meetings planned with the radio stations and other local newspapers. The objective was to ensure full and correct reporting of medical news in a way which would not prejudice medical ethics. It indicates that it would be important in any community and was of special importance in Charlotte, as it had developed into a major medical center which generated medical news not only of local interest but of national and international significance as well.

It finds, therefore, the formation of the public relations and information service to be a constructive step, and indicates that the newspaper had been happy to participate.

"A Through-the-Net View of Malenkov" tells of Joseph Stalin's nephew, who had gone to Western Europe a few years earlier to be married, having written a book, My Uncle Joseph Stalin, which had been generally accepted as a reliable account. Parts of that book dealt with the new Premier, Georgi Malenkov, Stalin's nephew having related that his uncle had kidded Mr. Malenkov a lot and that many top Communists did not believe he was very bright. He was, however, possibly smarter than they had thought, as Stalin's daughter had once commented that Mr. Malenkov did everything he could to keep her father working and wearing himself out, that it appeared he wanted to cause her father's breakdown.

Once, during a volleyball game, when Mr. Malenkov's side was losing, he became angry and started batting the ball with his fist instead of his palm, causing Marshal Zhukov, on the opposing team, to become angry and instruct that hitting the ball with the fist was illegal, at which point Stalin intervened to say that it was okay as Mr. Malenkov usually hit the ball into the net anyway. Mr. Malenkov had continued using his fist and Mr. Zhukov continued to complain, until one strong Malenkov volley came straight across the net and hit Zhukov in the face, causing a nosebleed. At that point, Mr. Zhukov called Mr. Malenkov a naughty name and the game broke up. (We have an idea what he may have called him, something which was probably known to the CIA but classified in 1953.)

Stalin's nephew had claimed that this incident was the beginning of the feud between the two men. The piece indicates that it did not know one way or the other, but that since so many were trying to draw conclusions from various characteristics of Mr. Malenkov's face as appearing in news pictures, it believes that the reader might be interested in the story. It finds that it could conclude only that one should never play volleyball with Mr. Malenkov.

We are reminded, incidentally, this date in 2020, to have been, but for the untimely intervention of our mortal enemy, which we do not wish to make our friend, as it has its biological, survivalist determinism engaged autonomically and without relent to work inimical designs on all our lungs to the point where, if allowed to go unchecked, will arrest our breath, the day of the semifinals of the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament, that in 1967, coach Dean Smith of UNC, finding his team positioned in the national semifinals, the school having achieved that status for the first time since 1957—, its basketball team then coached by Frank McGuire, who would hire Mr. Smith as an assistant coach in 1958, coach Smith becoming head coach in 1961-62, after a point-shaving scandal had landed UNC's program on probation and resulted in a mutual parting of the ways by coach McGuire, who took a job coaching the Philadelphia Warriors, whose star was Wilt Chamberlain—, decided to have his players, as a distraction, he believed, from the rigors and monotony of a long season of basketball, play volleyball on the eve of the semifinals, the opponent being the unheralded Dayton Flyers. It would be a colossal mistake, as we vividly still recall through tear-encased panes, as UNC would be pummeled unmercifully, bludgeoned, bloodied and dragged from the field of play without quarter given, Dayton winning by 14 points behind the sharp-shooting Don May, never, in consequence, permitting that year the vaunted, expected meeting between number three and four UNC and the number one UCLA Bruins, led by Lewis Alcindor, deemed the most dominant player in college basketball to that point since Mr. Chamberlain. Thus, the ten-year anniversary match-up, with so many parallels in play, would have to wait a year, to our dismay. Volleyball, in other words, may not be the best recipe for preparation for a major contest in another sport, even if, no doubt, it did prove to be a distraction.

By the way, youngsters of the Wicked-pedia generation, something we have been wanting to point out for awhile, they did not call it the "Final Four" or the "Elite Eight" or the "Sweet Sixteen" in those days, for the obvious reason that they began with only 23 teams, the champions of the major nine conferences with the most historical success in the tournament having received a bye for the first round, after which were left only 16 teams, four in each region, the assignment to which was determined solely by geographical location of the schools—you research-challenged lummoxes, making undue assumptions about things of which you know little or nothing, without even realizing the exiguity. The nomenclature you cull from later times did not come into usage until the expansion of the tournament began in 1976 and continued thereafter. Try to scratch your little tummies and rub your heads at the same instant and imbue your research and writing with a little common sense, at least some of the time, lest you behave generally as a Skinnerian virus—not unlike the teenager we encountered running down the supermarket aisle a few days ago, at which point we abruptly halted short of otherwise perpendicular intersection, to afford as much social distancing as her careering movement would allow, whereupon the youngster made a sudden, momentary feint in our direction as if faking a move on the court, whether done deliberately as some joke or whether out of some strange instinctive gesture, the result winding up as the same expression of thoughtless understanding of the present crisis besetting humanity at large. (We learned our deft move, incidentally, to avoid a charge, at the UNC basketball camp, back when...)

Try reading a little, as it tends to slow down the thought processes somewhat, to allow for contemplation as you have input of information to your brain, allowing your mind to reason through that information and come to the conclusion, with reference to the instance at hand, that it is not a government plot or this or that, UNC or former President Obama or man-made biological weaponry, but rather, regardless of such claims' veracity or lacking all substance, remains, at the end of the day, an issue of mutual survival at stake in each interaction undertaken with fellow human beings without taking adequate precautions, as the unknown, unwitting host of the virus can be anyone not confined generally to an immaculate bubble, at any time, and the virus takes no timeout to catch its breath but merely, for its survival, seeks a new host on whom to propagate its will at every opportunity. It cannot help itself, lacking any conscience or consciousness, being a pathological pathogen. Be aware and wary of that which you cannot see, feel, taste, touch or hear. It is there, nevertheless. If you have difficulty with the biological sciences, just conceptualize it as the devil incarnate, and stay away from crazy churches and thoughtless, callous churchmen holding in-person services, as they invite the devil in right now, as surely as the snake-handlers—only, in this case, sending out the silent, stalking predatory snake into the community to communicate its poison to others.

Then again, you nuts on the radio out in Texas, the current occupant of the White House, the one ostensibly in charge, at least by dint of the anachronistic convention of the electoral college, does not deign to wear a mask which he now advises all us peons to don, or even to practice at his daily-show briefings the required six-feet of social distancing from the others positioned on the surreality-tv stage, indicating that he and they may, somehow, be immune?

Drew Pearson indicates that the new Justice Department had started out by not pulling any punches regarding the prosecution of Republicans, including Republican members of Congress. Congressman Ernest Bramblett, a Republican from California, faced a grand jury investigation on charges made by Mr. Pearson the previous fall that he had taken kickbacks in salaries paid to his office staff. Warren Olney, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, also from California, had put the matter before the grand jury. As counsel for the California Crime Commission, he had done more than any other single person to clean up crime in that state. Since joining the Justice Department, he had helped to crack down on Emelio Georgetti, a prominent figure in the California gambling world. Mr. Olney had also asked for the resignations of four Democratic lawyers in the Criminal Division, for dragging their heels regarding the prosecution of Congressman Bramblett. The latter, similar to the cases of former Congressman J. Parnell Thomas of New Jersey, former Congressman Andrew May of Kentucky, and Congressman Walter Brehm of Ohio, against each of whom the column had supplied much of the original evidence of kickbacks, had a woman on his payroll for about 15 months who had never worked in his office, either in Washington or in California, drawing $4,700 annually, and was the wife of the Republican clerk of the House and a close friend of the Congressman. The Congressman had allegedly approached another secretary with an offer to boost her salary from $3,400 to $5,000 per year, provided she would give him $5,000 in advance, an offer she refused, shortly thereafter leaving the Congressman's employ. Another secretary for the Congressman was provided a salary increase from $2,200 to $5,000 in early 1951, denying any kickback to the Congressman and claiming that the salary increase was because of her extra work. Her husband had also been on the payroll, as had the wife of the Congressman, drawing $3,400 per year, though seldom seen around the office.

Former President Truman had chosen the private island of oilman Ed Pauley as the site for his Hawaiian vacation. Mr. Pauley, at the 1944 Democratic convention which had nominated Senator Truman to be the vice-presidential candidate to FDR, replacing Vice-President Henry Wallace on the ticket, had been a major promoter of Senator Truman, button-holing key delegates to switch from Mr. Wallace to the Senator. But in 1948, Mr. Pauley had discouraged friends from contributing to President Truman's re-election campaign, telling them that he could not possibly win and that their money would be wasted. When the President scored his surprise victory, Mr. Pauley had $65,000 of postdated checks on hand and belatedly joined the Truman bandwagon, going to the White House to take credit for collecting the checks. It was partly because of that belated change of position that the President had appointed Mayor William O'Dwyer of New York to be the Ambassador to Mexico, where Mr. Pauley was working on an oil concession with the Mexican Government at the time, seeking a U.S. Government loan to build a Mexican Government refinery. Ed Flynn, boss of the Bronx, also had interests in Mexico. Mr. Pauley and Mr. Flynn therefore convinced the President to appoint Mr. O'Dwyer to the key post.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop find that there were symptoms that all was not well in the Eisenhower Administration, but it was not yet known what illness was causing the symptoms, the Alsops venturing that it appeared to be "a severe case of political indecision, sadly complicated by political inexperience." The President and his chief advisers had not yet decided which among several paths was best for the country, though having appeared to have chosen a clear path during the campaign. Before taking office, they favored a stringent economy, a balanced budget, conservatism at home, and intelligent boldness abroad. But when they took office, they realized it was not going to be that simple, starting with the disillusionment that there was no magic way out of the Korean impasse. The bigger disillusionment was the realization that what appeared as Government waste on the campaign trail, now appeared as self-preservation, as the largest portion of the budget was devoted to national security, in the form of defense spending, foreign military and other aid, plus atomic energy and the like. The President and his primary Cabinet advisers had believed sincerely that they could cut substantial waste from those budgets, and had found some waste, but had also discovered that large savings could not be achieved without cutting out present or projected defense capability.

An MIT report from Project Lincoln had found that the country would be exposed to an atomic attack by air by the Soviets within the ensuing two years, a prospect which the Truman Administration had never really confronted, including such prospective weaponry as the long-range ballistic missile, which might dominate the strategic stage in less than a decade hence. The officials of the Administration now admitted that the strategic situation of the country was much worse than was popularly supposed, and was continuing to deteriorate. Reversing that trend would require additions to the Truman security and defense budget, rather than reductions. But if that were done, cherished fiscal policies had to be sacrificed and strong Congressional prejudices would have to be overcome, with a different climate of public opinion created.

The President, the National Security Council, the Pentagon, the Treasury, the State Department, and the Budget Bureau had all taken a great deal of time to consider those various questions, and the ultimate decision which had to be made was how much national security the country had to have, a decision which White House sources had said would not be final for another month. Every other aspect of policy and politics in some way depended on that decision, and there could be no firm leadership undertaken until the decision was made. That was one source of the President's troubles. Because of their political inexperience, the President and the men around him did not know their own strength and did not understand their power to lead if they so chose. The Alsops conclude that the troubles were thus explained and could be easily curable.

Marquis Childs quotes Senator William Knowland of California, in the debate on the confirmation of Charles Bohlen to be Ambassador to Russia, that if the members of Congress had so destroyed confidence in the men in the government, "then God help us!" He finds the words noteworthy for several reasons. They stated movingly the actual nature of the crisis in political life at present, were uttered by the chairman of the Republican policy committee during the third month of a Republican Administration which had come to power with a great popular majority, and served to pinpoint the technique of distortion of fact, rumor or hearsay, being used by Senator McCarthy, then making flat assertions and charges based thereon, exaggerating the accusations the while.

In 1949, Senator McCarthy had first used the technique, setting out to prove that U.S. Army officers prosecuting German SS troops charged with the Malmedy massacre of U.S. prisoners during the Battle of the Bulge, had used brutal tactics to extract confessions. The contrary evidence was ignored and the Senator's accusations became increasingly broad, eventually accusing U.S. troops in occupied Germany of doing that, he said, which even the Russians would not do. It had been a great gift to Communist propaganda in Germany and, according to observers there at the time, helped to the produce the anti-American attitude prevailing among many Germans.

As in the Bohlen matter, Senator McCarthy had proposed to use a lie detector on one witness, a lieutenant who was a naturalized American who had spent considerable time in German concentration camps. The lieutenant had said he was willing to submit to the test. The Senator said that he thought the lieutenant was lying and that he could not fool the lie detector, that he was aware that the lieutenant was a psychologist and a psychiatrist, and that he knew he could probably not therefore get much from him during cross-examination. The chairman of the investigating committee, Senator Raymond Baldwin of Connecticut, pointed out problems in the use of a lie detector, in an effort to strive for fairness. In consequence of the ploy, Senator McCarthy received a lot of publicity, almost as much as the findings of the committee that there was little or no evidence to substantiate the charges of brutality. Another consequence was that Senator Baldwin departed the Senate to accept a judgeship in Connecticut, telling friends that he could no longer remain if what Senator McCarthy had done in the inquiry regarding the Malmedy massacre was going to be the prevailing new standard of conduct in the Senate. Thus, Mr. Childs concludes, an able and fair-minded Senator was driven from political life.

Such a technique was being used repeatedly, with Senator McCarthy now taking aim at Secretary of State Dulles, whom he accused of deceit and untruths, not just mistakes and misconceptions. Mr. Childs indicates that it was what the McCarthy technique did to its victims, and Senator Knowland was aware of that when he made his angry protest. He concludes that if that technique were to continue, there would be no one left who could be trusted with power except Senator McCarthy.

Robert C. Ruark finds it a pleasure to learn that chivalry was not dead in New York, even if somewhat crushed and wilted. John Howard had pleaded guilty to charges of transporting a young woman from California for the purpose of engaging in immoral acts in New York at high prices. Mr. Howard had been quoted as saying that he had met her in New York and took her out to all the good clubs, but refused to name them because they had already been "loused up enough by the Jelke case"—which had involved the charge that Mickey Jelke III had hired out three women as high-priced prostitutes to support him while he awaited his margarine inheritance, on which he had just been sentenced to 3 to 5 years in prison following his conviction on two of the three counts, as well as eight additional months for having two guns at the time of his arrest.

Mr. Ruark views Mr. Howard's protection of the names of the clubs to be the new chivalry, permitting the destruction of a woman's reputation and the assassination of the character of a banker, but not the saloons. He finds the chic saloon to be at an all-time pinnacle, with saloons for business, monkey business, pandering, for being seen in, and for not being seen in, and sometimes for "plain boozing". Modern marriages were made in the gin mills and dissolved in same, then rearranged, all under the eyes of the same doorman and headwaiters. He concludes that realizing their importance, he was pleased that Mr. Howard had kept their fair names from being soiled.

A letter from two women comments on the March 26 editorial, "The People's Right To Know", indicating their full agreement, that secret sessions of the General Assembly would eventually lead to secret sessions in some other part of government, posing a threat to democracy, that freedom of the press was freedom for the people. They conclude that the legislators must have something to hide and that if the people understood the dangers, the practice could be stopped.

A letter from an Army corporal of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, serving in Korea, indicates that he would like to receive mail from people back home, and leaves his forwarding address.

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