The Charlotte News

Monday, March 8, 1954

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Japan and the U.S. had this date signed a mutual defense pact to give the Japanese guns and grain, to hasten the day when U.S. troops could withdraw. The mutual defense assistance agreements would contribute 100 million dollars in U.S. aid to Japan's economy during the ensuing three months and probably amount to more in the long run. U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Allison said that the agreement took the country one step nearer to the time when it could withdraw its forces from Japan. It would increase Japan's defense force from 120,000 to 160,000 men and train it along more military lines. The U.S. would supply ships and airplanes. The U.S. would supply 500,000 tons of surplus wheat and 100,000 tons of barley, and Japan would in turn sell the grain domestically and use the money for guns and munitions. Despite Socialist opposition in Japan, it was anticipated that the agreements would be ratified by the Diet by April 1. Ambassador Allison said that the pact did not require Japan to send troops abroad, that, according to Secretary of State Dulles, it was defensive in nature, directed exclusively toward contributing to the defense and security of Japan. But it also did not restrict Japan from sending troops wherever it saw fit.

The President, in a report to Congress on the nation's foreign military aid, said that for more than four years, the U.S. had provided 7.7 billion dollars worth of guns, ammunition and other military equipment to strengthen free nations against the threats of Soviet power, that almost half of the total had been shipped during 1953. He said that as long as the threat to world peace existed, the U.S. would continue to shoulder the heavy burden of world leadership and that military and economic aid programs could not be drastically cut without undoing much of the success which had been painstakingly achieved. The report said that in 1949, the U.S. had financed about 25 percent of its total exports of non-military goods and services by grants and loans, but that in 1953, only about 15 percent was financed by such aid. The report said that the rate of U.S. military shipments to Indo-China in 1953 was about 50 percent higher than in the previous year and that the U.S. had made available 385 million dollars in aid to Indo-China, in addition to 400 million previously appropriated by Congress for the present fiscal year. Military shipments in 1953 to all countries amounted to 3.8 billion dollars, an increase of more than 60 percent over those in 1952.

In Caracas, Venezuela, at the Inter-American Conference, Secretary of State Dulles opened the debate this date on Communism, reading the "established facts" about the Communist movement, saying that he was not accusing any government or any individual of being either plotters or dupes of plotters, replying in particular to the question of the Guatemalan foreign minister, who during the debate the previous week had asked what was international Communism, saying that by now every foreign minister knew what it was and it was disturbing if the foreign affairs of one of the American republics were being conducted by a person so innocent that he had to ask that question. Previously, Secretary Dulles had said that Guatemala's "abusive attack" would not be permitted to obscure the real issue, that Communist intervention was taking place in the Western Hemisphere.

In Miami Beach, Adlai Stevenson, in a televised and radio broadcast speech the previous night, criticized the President for failing to stand up to Senator McCarthy, whom he said was sowing slander and dissension across the nation, that his investigations threatened a "malignant and fatal totalitarianism", that of two million Federal employees, only one alleged active Communist had been found. Democratic Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington said that he agreed with the conclusion but was not too sure of the timing or importance which Mr. Stevenson had attached to Senator McCarthy and his charges of Communists in the Government. Senator James Murray of Montana agreed with that assessment. Both said that they believed that the fall midterm elections would revolve around Republican fiscal policies rather than the Communist issue. Senator McCarthy, himself, reacted to Mr. Stevenson's speech by saying it was "a very cute and clever political talk designed to cloud the issues".

One week after the shooting from the House gallery by four Puerto Rican nationalists, wounding five Congressmen, one seriously, some humor began to return to the House, with all of the wounded Congressmen now recovering satisfactorily. One member questioned how, with the mob around them, a bullet could have gotten through. Representatives Jesse Walcott of Michigan and Clarence Brown of Ohio offered a make-believe award to any member who could prove he did not take part in the capture of the attackers. Representative Carl Vinson of Georgia, who had not been present at the time of the shooting, suggested legislation to set up three types of pay for those who were under fire, combat pay, for those who stood up under fire, flight pay, for those who fled the chamber, and submarine pay, for those who dove under their seats. One member, who asked to remain anonymous, related that at the time of the shooting, an elevator operator had given him a bottle which, though it bore the label of whiskey, the operator suspected of being poison because an unidentified woman had given it to him, whispering, "For the wounded." The unidentified Congressman then poured out the contents and sent it out for chemical analysis, but later found out that the woman who had provided the suspicious liquid was actually the secretary of a Capitol official.

Republican Congressional leaders said at the White House this date that the President felt that a House bill to cut excise taxes by nearly a billion dollars had gone a little too far. House Speaker Joe Martin of Massachusetts said to newsmen, following his regular Monday morning conference with the President, that the Administration hoped to get the proposed reduction figure cut some when it reached the Senate. He said that neither the Administration nor the House leaders would make any effort to reduce the proposed cut in the House. Senate Majority Leader William Knowland said that he did not want to speculate on what might happen to the tax bill when it reached the Senate.

Maj. General William Dean, who had been a prisoner of war of the Communists for three years, after being captured in July, 1950, early in the fighting in Korea, testified as a defense witness before a military tribunal inquiring into the conduct of Marine Col. Frank Schwable, who had confessed falsely to participation in aerial germ warfare during his imprisonment. The purpose of the inquiry was to determine whether a court-martial should be formally convened. General Dean told of his attempt to commit suicide after 32 hours of continuous interrogation by the Communists, saying that he was too weak to escape but thought that he could seize an unguarded machine gun, kill his interrogator and then put the barrel in his own mouth. He said that he was able to obtain the gun but that the trigger mechanism failed and that he had been knocked down and disarmed. He said that he was not subjected to any physical torture and that if the Communist interrogators had pierced him with bamboo spears or stuck splinters under his fingernails or set him on fire, he did not know whether he might have given them whatever it was they wanted at the time, such as the defense plans for Japan. The General said that he had classified information at the time and that he was concerned about giving it away under torture, that if he ever went into combat again, he would carry a pill to take to kill himself if captured. Col. Schwable had told of long periods of examination when he was forced to stand at attention without a break for any purpose. The General said that he had never heard of Col. Schwable until after his own release.

As pictured, the wrong man, accused and convicted of a bank robbery in Connecticut, sentenced to ten years in prison, was freed after six people had been arrested in Indiana, one of whom had confessed to the robbery, a man who resembled the man convicted. The man still faced charges of another armed robbery in Connecticut, but the news of his freedom on the previous conviction had brought smiles from his wife and six-month old son, also pictured. Now, you know very well that the little baby was simply responding to something the cameraman did to elicit his smile and had no idea where his father was or what in the world was going on around him. We must have truth and journalistic integrity in presenting the news.

In San Francisco, a nine-year old, helping her family pack up for a picnic had locked herself in the trunk of the family car the previous day, and because she also had the key with her, her father had to unbolt the back seat to free her.

On the editorial page, "Hiring Is as Important as Training" indicates that local residents had many opportunities to increase their knowledge through adult education, according to the Social Planning Council and the American Association of University Women. But a directory compiled by those organizations also showed that the community had inadequacies in certain fields, especially in facilities for trade and technical training, particularly for black residents.