The Charlotte News
Tuesday, September 15, 1953
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that at the U.N. in New York, Russia and the Western powers began a General Assembly meeting which would last 12 weeks, debating such issues as Korea and the seating of Communist China, but that the U.N. Western delegates were confident that the Assembly would delay the question of Chinese admission for at least the remainder of the current year and that it would not change its previous recommendation that the Korean peace conference be a two-sided proceeding rather than a roundtable of belligerents and neutrals, as being sought anew by Communist China, already voted down by the Assembly in the earlier special session. It was likely that the sister of India's Prime Minister Nehru, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, would be elected president of the session, having support of both the Soviet bloc and the leading Western powers, including the U.S.
In Korea, the Communists might answer the following day allied demands for an accounting of more than 3,000 U.N. military personnel, including 944 Americans, who were believed still to be in captivity following the end of the prisoner exchange program. A U.N. Command spokesman said that there was no way of knowing whether a Communist reply to the demand would be forthcoming. This date, the U.N. released to the Indian guards 2,000 North Korean and Chinese prisoners who had expressed a desire not to repatriate, the release this time being without incident, as prior such releases had led to the prisoners jeering and throwing rocks at Communist observers. The Indian troops, guarding the prisoners while their fate was being determined for the ensuing 90 days, had kept both allied and Communist observers further away from the compounds housing the prisoners to avoid further disturbances. The transfer was part of 8,000 North Korean and 14,700 Chinese prisoners who had refused repatriation and would ultimately be transferred to the demilitarized zone for the time being. Eight of nine North Korean prisoners who changed their minds and were delivered to the Communists claimed that they had been beaten by the U.N. custodians, but one said that they were treated "pretty good".
In Chicago, at the meeting of the Democrats, accusations were made against the President that he had broken his 1952 campaign promises to farmers, predicting reaction which would cost the Republicans control of Congress in 1954—an accurate prediction. Senator Clinton Anderson, Charles Brannan and Claude Wickard, each a former Secretary of Agriculture, led the attack on the Republican farm policies. Senator Anderson said that in the years since 1910 when the Democrats had been in power, farmers had received 77 billion dollars more than parity in income, but that when Republicans had been in power, farmers had received 12 billion dollars less than parity. Adlai Stevenson, to close out the meeting, would provide a televised report to the nation this night regarding his trip around the world. Former President Truman this date supported the vigorous attack by Governor Stevenson the previous night on the Administration's foreign policies. The former President said that he feared that the Republican policies were alienating U.S. allies.
Several Democratic national committeewomen said that they had a few questions which they wanted to bring up when the national committee met this date, primarily concerning the new policy of integration of women into the committee activities at headquarters in Washington, as announced early in the year by DNC chairman Stephen Mitchell, in effect abolishing the DNC's 31-year old women's division, a change designed to provide women equal status with men in party work. One of the committeewomen said that what she had observed thus far in the integration policy, however, was not in furtherance of equal rights for women.
The season's fifth hurricane, packing 115 mph winds, was developing this date in the Atlantic, 930 miles east southeast of Miami. Named Edna, it was centered about 200 miles north northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, moving in a west northwesterly direction at 12 to 14 mph.
In 2020 thus far, as of October 31, we have had 28 tropical storms in the Atlantic, tying the historical record set in 2005, the year of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 11 of which this year have become hurricanes, whereas 15 reached that wind strength in 2005.
In Statesville, N.C., some 500 town and county leaders in the area had heard from experts this date that they had better brush up on their salesmanship if they wanted to convince industry that it was the best place for new factories. Some 50 in the delegation from Mecklenburg were from the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, along with others from Charlotte in the audience at Mitchell College the previous night at the fourth of ten development forums being held across the state by the State Department of Conservation & Development, the meetings presided over by Robert Hanes, chairman of the Commerce and Industry Committee of the Department. A picture of the Charlotte citizens attending the forum accompanies the story, including a picture of News editor Pete McKnight.
In Raleigh, A. H. Graham, chairman of the Highway Department, promised this date to issue a statement in the controversy regarding his firing of the head of the Woman's Prison, Ronie Sheffield, saying that he would make no comment on the contents of the statement.
In Ossining, N.Y., 13 prisoners on death row in Sing Sing Prison were shifted to other quarters while their cells were being painted, the concrete walls and ceilings being tinted light green, more restful and soothing to the eyes, according to prison administrators.
In Chicago, a plumber had rented a submarine to take 50 guests on a cruise on Lake Michigan while he delivered a bathtub and other plumbing fixtures. He had advertised in Chicago newspapers that the owner of the submarine had to furnish the pilot, the cook and the bartender, who would have to be able to prepare roast beef dinners and mix drinks. He reported that he had found a submarine at a shipbuilding company in New Jersey and that it would be delivered within the ensuing three weeks. Is it, quite rightly, yellow, or light green, being restful on the eyes?
On the editorial page, "Chinese Red Proposal Is Mere Propaganda" indicates that the Chinese Communist demand in advance of the General Assembly session of the U.N. to enlarge the Korean peace conference to include neutral nations would fail, just as had Russia's previous proposal to include India, Burma, Indonesia and Russia, at the special session which had selected the participants in the conference and established its mode of procedure. The Assembly had rejected the Russian plan and approved a two-sided conference, with the U.N. side represented by those nations who had participated in the war, and the other side represented by North Korea, Communist China, and Russia, provided North Korea and China wanted the latter to participate.
The U.S. had opposed the suggestion by Chinese Premier and Foreign Minister Chou En-lai the previous day that Russia, Burma, Pakistan and Indo-China be invited to the conference as neutral nations and that Communist China and North Korea be permitted to send representatives to the Assembly to discuss the question of enlarging the membership of the conference. It finds the U.S. opposition appropriate, as the matter had already been decided by the Assembly and a two-sided conference would be the only way to proceed in finalizing the peace in Korea. As Communist China and North Korea were aggressors by the standards of the U.N., it would make no sense to reward them by inviting them to take part in the work of the Assembly, and so that request also deserved quick rejection.
"Chairman Hall Lacks a Funnybone" indicates that Clayton Fritchey, editor of the Democratic Digest, had perhaps hit the right note in reply to criticism by RNC chairman Leonard Hall regarding the magazine's supposed undermining of the Administration in foreign markets, by saying, "Well, they can always burn it." It finds that Mr. Hall had the naïve idea that people who lived in other lands did not care anything about U.S. domestic politics, asking Adlai Stevenson whether he thought the magazine and the party were serving the cause of America "by peddling undermining attacks on the President" in Europe and Canada.
The piece indicates that it had read through three issues of the Digest and found it a "temperate, good-humored, and witty commentary on political affairs" and that the only undermining it did was to point out the failures of the Republican Party, always a favorite activity of the party out of power. It finds that since it was more intelligent than the usual political propaganda, it likely increased respect abroad for the American system rather than undermining it. It also believes that the number of copies of the magazine being sold in Paris and Canada were likely insignificant in number, by comparison to the political news flowing from the country to foreign newspapers and magazines every day. It suggests that Mr. Hall ought occupy himself with more important things, as Canadians and Frenchmen did not vote in U.S. elections.
"Good Musical Fare, Well
Seasoned" indicates that the coming season of the Charlotte
Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of James Christian Pfohl, offered
an attractive fare for the community and surrounding areas,
recommends purchase of a season ticket. It had always been
handicapped by inadequate facilities, but the new auditorium was now
being built on Independence Boulevard, and Mr. Pfohl and his
associates were building a bigger and better orchestra to fit it. It
indicates that the first concert, on October 26 and 27, would present
the popular soprano Eileen Farrell
"The Battle against Secrecy Is Not Over" tells of Weimar Jones, president of the North Carolina Press Association, having recently given a brief talk in Chapel Hill in which he reminded his listeners that the people had not raised any indignant protest against the General Assembly when, in the 1953 session, it passed a new law allowing budgetary matters to be heard in executive session, contrary to the old law, requiring public hearings. He attributed the indifference to a loss of public confidence in newspapers generally and called for more accurate and responsible reporting of public business.
It finds truth in what Mr. Jones had said, but expresses the continued belief that many people in the state simply had not realized that for which the newspapers were battling in trying to preserve the people's right to know about the business of their legislature. Directors of the Press Association had recommended to the newspapers that they ask candidates for the General Assembly the following year how they would stand on the issue of executive session hearings, but it ventures that it would serve a more useful purpose for voters to ask that question as it had been their rights which were infringed.
A piece from the Arkansas Gazette, titled "Red Raiders", tells of Yugoslav Vice-President Edvard Kardelj having been so impressed by a German woman who cooked for a Yugoslav restaurant that he "cooknaped" her for his kitchen. But then he made the mistake of inviting Premier Tito for dinner a few months later and now she was cooking for the Premier. It finds that in the people's democracies, there was no democracy at all and a cook had to cook where ordered, "[u]nless, of course, she wants her goose cooked."
Drew Pearson discusses the resignation of Secretary of Labor Martin Durkin to return to his position as president of the plumbers union. When the President had asked him not to resign, he had responded that it would depend on whether the President would go along with the 19 points regarding amendment to Taft-Hartley which had been previously agreed, and when the President said no, he had resigned. Mr. Durkin had been displeased with the way he had been treated, excluded from major policy decisions, and therefore had not sought to promote the Administration to labor, which had been the hope in his appointment. The 19 amendments had originally been approved by the President in late July but then were leaked to the Wall Street Journal which had printed them, prompting adverse reaction from big business. The result, especially given the death of Senator Taft at the end of July, was that the Administration backed away from the proposed changes.
The battle for the Democratic candidate for the mayoralty of New York was bitterly tearing apart the party, with Mayor Vincent Impellitteri being contested by State Senator Robert Wagner, son of the late Senator. Two issues were involved in the election taking place this date, a clean-up of the party in the city and a maneuver by FDR, Jr., for the gubernatorial nomination, seen as a stepping stone to the White House. Some of the old Democratic leaders, as Bronx boss Ed Flynn, had died, while conservatives as Jim Farley were perceived as out of step with the liberal wing of the party, led by Senator Herbert Lehman, Averell Harriman, Mr. Wagner and Mr. Roosevelt. If Mr. Farley could get Mayor Impellitteri re-elected, he would go a long way in establishing control of the governorship and the New York delegation at the 1956 Democratic convention.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss Secretary of State Dulles's tendency to gamble on important decisions in at least two instances, both paying off. The first was a statement to India's Prime Minister Nehru, informing him the prior May that if the Korean truce negotiations stalled again, the U.S. would take the war to the Communist Chinese, knowing that the Prime Minister would relay the information to the Indian Ambassador to China, who in turn would communicate the information to the Communist Chinese, as had happened. The result was that the truce negotiations proceeded this time to conclusion.
The second such gamble came in regard to Iran, letting former Premier Mohammed Mossadegh flounder after he had demanded foreign aid from the U.S. on the ultimatum that he would have to turn otherwise to the Communist Tudeh Party domestically and the Soviets internationally. The President, on the advice of Secretary Dulles, delayed response for a month and then refused the aid, saying that the U.S. could not help a nation which refused to take advantage of its own natural resources, referring to the nationalized British oil, the Iranian royalties from which had dried up since the British had refused to operate the expropriated refineries and had withdrawn their technical personnel. For a few days, after the Shah was forced into a six-day exile, it appeared that the gamble may have backfired, until General Fazollah Zahedi was able to depose Premier Mossadegh, utilizing the police and the army—in addition to the help of the CIA, headed by the Secretary's brother, Allen Dulles, as well as the British counterpart, MI-6. Had Iran fallen to the Communists, the entire Middle East, suggest the Alsops, would have likely followed in that course. The danger had not passed but the gamble by Secretary Dulles had again paid off.
While the Secretary had made mistakes, such as the endorsement of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in the days before the West German parliamentary elections, angering the opposition, East-West neutral Socialists, he had appeared more willing to show courage with Iran and China than with the extremists of the Republican Party. But as long as the gambles paid off, they posit, he deserved credit for taking them.
While not quite arising to the later strategy of "brinksmanship" in times of crisis, for which Secretary Dulles would become known, that which the Alsops describe appears as prelude to and predictive of that strategy, exhibited on a diplomatic level.
When President Kennedy would bring in former CIA director Allen Dulles—fired in the wake of the debacle at the April, 1961 Bay of Pigs attempted destabilization of the Castro regime—, as an adviser during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, Chevrolets, and G.M. generally, would, not strangely, meld into Fords
James Marlow indicates that the Democrats, at their Chicago meeting, had criticized the Administration but not the President, himself, deferring to his personal popularity with the people. The Democrats had claimed to have rescued the President when his own party had not supported his legislative proposals, but since a fiery Labor Day speech by former President Truman in Detroit, the Democrats had gone more vigorously on the attack, likely to continue into the 1954 midterm elections. At the Chicago meeting, the former President again gave a speech critical of Republican policy, as had former Governor Adlai Stevenson and Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois.
The absence of criticism of the President had prompted a question on a Mutual Broadcasting System radio program of DNC chairman Stephen Mitchell regarding the subject, to which he had responded that there had never been any disposition to attack the President personally and that he hoped the party would not turn to the type of personal attacks which the Republicans had leveled against President Truman.
Mr. Marlow suggests that whether the Democrats would begin attacking the President directly during the ensuing year would likely depend on how popular he remained with the voters.
A letter writer from Fayetteville responds to a letter of September 9 regarding employment discrimination, indicating that there were more than two sides to the controversy regarding the Fair Employment Practices Commission, that a third side believed that FEPC would be an acknowledgment to the world that the system was defective and could not be made to work without punitive measures. He suggests to the letter writer that there had been other racial and religious minorities in the country who had advanced themselves to equal acceptance through "industrious effort and deportment", and that blacks should emulate those qualities of "proven practices rather than seeking the aid of such 'crutch' laws as FEPC."
He, also, no doubt, will be voting for Trump.
A letter from a medical doctor in Milton, Mass., indicates that during 1952, North Carolina had, under a "foresighted law", sterilized 15 of its insane persons, 165 of its feebleminded persons and 12 of its epileptics, thereby preventing transmission of those undesirable traits to children. He finds it a humane procedure and congratulates the state on its rate of "protection of the next generation".
A letter from Bob Cherry, Jr., responds, predictably, to a previous letter critical of the recent editorial condemning FEPC through the back door by the fact of the clause requiring a statement of non-discrimination in employment in contracts with banks making loans under the Government farm subsidy program. He finds the previous writer to have implied that the editorial contradicted a previous editorial advocating employment for qualified, educated blacks from the state who were migrating to the North. He sees no contradiction in the editorials, and finds the letter writer to be issuing "un-camouflaged Red propaganda". He says that the writer would not "cram FEPC down the throats of the American people" and so should "switch his little red train to another track."
Chalk up another vote for Trump. That's three in two days. Who knows? Maybe he will yet pull it off, provided enough stooges again fall for his course in salesmanship. Four years ago, he said it was all going to be so nice, so nice. Well, just look around you. Ain't it nice?
A letter writer from Pittsboro indicates having just read the speech by Secretary of State Dulles before the American Legion convention in St. Louis recently, as printed in U.S. News & World Report, finds that the speech appeared to say that the U.S. would go to war in the event of a Communist Chinese invasion of Indo-China. He finds that the Secretary, even with the approval of the President, had no right to bind the country to a war, which would have to be declared only by Congress. He indicates that President Truman had gotten the country into the war in Korea on the theory that it was a police action, but that it had cost the country 140,000 casualties and about 40 billion dollars. He wonders how far defense interests of the country extended and says that the Constitution ought be followed in declarations of war. He believes that the doctrine of self-determination should apply in Indo-China and that the people there should be left to their own devices in fighting for independence from the French.
Framed Edition
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