The Charlotte News

Friday, April 2, 1954

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that members of the Senate Investigating subcommittee, designated to investigate the dispute between the Army and Senator McCarthy, had said this date that they would ask the newly appointed counsel for the investigation, Samuel Sears, for fresh assurances that he could be fully impartial in his role, after it had surfaced via the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper, and from news clippings that Mr. Sears, a Boston lawyer, had made statements two years earlier supportive of the Senator in his bid for re-election from Wisconsin, despite having assured Senators in his testimony that he had never taken any public or private stand one way or the other regarding Senator McCarthy or McCarthyism generally and could be impartial in his role. Newspaper clippings also showed that Mr. Sears had said at the time that he believed Senator McCarthy had "done a great job" and would continue to do so "as he drives the pinks and commies out of government." Senator Charles Potter of Michigan said that he would ask Mr. Sears to reflect on his prior utterances in praise of the Senator and determine anew if he still felt that he could be impartial, saying also that he had no reason to doubt that Mr. Sears would be impartial. Senator Henry Jackson of Washington, also of the subcommittee, echoed those remarks. Mr. Sears told newsmen that he felt he had not done anything which disqualified him for the job.

In Hanoi, it was reported that thousands of fresh Vietminh troops had smashed into a French outpost about a mile northwest of the center of the besieged French fortress at Dien Bien Phu, and that the French had launched a heavy counterattack supported by tanks, attempting to regain the position. Other Vietminh forces attacked the fortress from the southeast in a pincers movement aimed at the heart of the barbed-wire, below-ground enclosure. The French high command in Hanoi said that the Vietminh, attacking with a division from the northwest, while two others attacked from the southeast and east, had overrun two outposts in the northwest sector, but that a French counterattack had driven the rebels from one of those while another counterattack was underway to push the Vietminh from the other. The high command said that the rebels were suffering "heavy losses" in their wild charges at the barbed-wire barricades. The rebel forces driving from the southeast had reached the first line of barbed wire, and French heavy machine gun, tank and artillery fire had mowed down rebels charging wildly at the barricades, as they hurled grenades and high explosives in long bamboo poles in an effort to blow up the barriers and break through. The seriousness of the situation was reinforced by the fact that the Vietminh, in attacking from the northwest, were using one division against the French Union defenders, who for four days and four nights had been without rest or sleep, depending on parachuted supplies to block the rebel assaults.

The Census Bureau reported this date that unemployment had increased by 54,000 in March, to a total of 3.7 million, the smallest monthly increase in the previous six months. The Bureau said it suggested that unemployment was stabilizing. It was the highest unemployment figure, however, in four years, since the 4.1 million unemployed in March, 1950. The lateness of Easter this year, not taking place until April 18, was blamed in part for the lack of more improvement in the March employment figures, but officials said that they were nevertheless encouraged.

In Washington, former Air Force chief of staff, General Hoyt Vandenberg, died this date at age 55. He had been a patient in the Army's Walter Reed Hospital since the previous October, admitted for observations and checkup. The Air Force declined to state the nature of his illness but private physicians who had attended him in a 1952 surgery said that it had found that he was suffering from cancer of the prostate and that subsequent malignancy had spread to his hips, spine and other bones. He had been chief of staff of the Air Force under President Truman, from 1948 until his retirement the previous June.

Also in Washington, Babe Didrikson Zaharias helped the President open the 1954 cancer fund-raising drive the previous night, giving him a few pointers on his golf game along the way. She had been diagnosed with cancer the previous year and there had been talk that she would never be able to play golf again, but a few months after surgery, she was back playing the game. At the White House, she and Mrs. Eisenhower watched as the President passed a pellet of radioactive cobalt, used in cancer research, by a Geiger counter, generating an impulse transmitted by wire to Times Square in New York City, where it illuminated a 70-foot crusader's sword, the symbol of the American Cancer Society, signaling the start of the drive to raise 20 million dollars.

In New York, AFL-ILA longshoremen, under police protection, successfully entered the luxury liner pier stronghold of the striking ILA "Pistol Local" this date, the second consecutive day that the AFL members worked pier 84 during the 29-day old ILA waterfront strike, and the first time without violence at the gates. Despite a line of jeering pickets of the ILA, 110 AFL longshoremen were rushed by police in trucks onto the pier to work an Italian liner, Vulcania. Some 300 police officers were stationed outside the pier to head off any attempt by the ILA to keep the trucks from entering. One ILA member refused to move and swung at a police officer, resulting in his arrest on a charge of disorderly conduct. The New York-New Jersey waterfront commission the previous night had rejected an offer by the striking ILA to end the walkout if the commission would provide amnesty to 65 ILA members who had been blacklisted for criminal records. The ILA had been banned from the AFL for failing to clean out its racketeering elements, and the new AFL-ILA was then formed as a competing union for representation of the longshoremen.

The President signed a bill this date giving to North Carolina 4,750 acres of Federally-owned land at Camp Butner, near Durham. Representative Thurmond Chatham of North Carolina, who would introduce the bill, said that the land had been used by the National Guard for training purposes and that the state expected to continue to use it for that purpose.

In Elizabeth, N.J., a tractor trailer truck struck a bridge abutment and burst into flames moments after the driver, from Charlotte, was pulled from the cab. He was initially thought to be seriously injured but was reported during the morning to be in satisfactory condition. A passing motorist saw the crash and pulled the truck driver from the cab. The truck was demolished. After the accident, a burning pole set a nearby house on fire, and a fireman fighting the truck fire was knocked to the pavement and hurt when the trailer's gas tank exploded. The front part of the house was damaged slightly by flames.

Lucien Agniel of The News tells of the arrival in Charlotte at Municipal Airport of former Governor Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1952. He promised to have something to say about Senator McCarthy when he would speak this evening at the state Democratic rally at the Armory Auditorium. Governor William B. Umstead and Charlotte Mayor Philip Van Every, plus other local and state Democratic leaders, were present to greet him. When asked by reporters what he thought about the hydrogen bomb, he said "Horrors," and that he would have something to say about it during his speech, which would be carried locally on WBT radio and WBTV. Plans to have the talk broadcast via CBS had to be dropped because of prior network commitments. Several radio stations across the state would also carry the speech. Lt. Governor Luther Hodges, who, following the death the following November of Governor Umstead, would become Governor, would be on hand, along with other state Democratic leaders for the speech.

The entire fourth grade class from nearby Paw Creek School were also present to greet Governor Stevenson and, as he was about to enter the black Cadillac of Governor Umstead at the airport, he was approached by a breathless young woman who passed by police and said, "Mr. Stevenson, I'm Anne Leete from Paw Creek School and these are my fourth graders," gesturing toward 25 children standing behind her, asking him if he would say something to them. Mr. Stevenson turned, waved at them and said, "Hello, children, how are you?" A reporter had pointed out that an informal poll of the class taken before the landing of Governor Stevenson had found it predominantly Democratic, and one little girl spoke up saying that there was one exception, pointing to a freckled-faced boy, whom she said was a Republican, to which Governor Stevenson remarked, "There's still hope for him."

Hey, what did he mean by that?

At the Hotel Selwyn in Charlotte, the campaign organizers for former Governor Kerr Scott, running against incumbent interim Senator Alton Lennon in the upcoming Democratic senatorial primary, were making plans for the day. The state campaign manager, future Governor Terry Sanford, was asked whether they had a campaign manager for Mecklenburg County, to which he shook his head that they did not yet, but would see if they could arrange it in the ensuing few days. Mr. Scott arrived with his inevitable long cigar preceding him into the room. He and his lieutenants were a little apprehensive about the dinner plans for the night, with the former Governor saying that somebody had called and said that he was supposed to eat at the Barringer Hotel, but that he had an invitation which said he was supposed to go to the Hotel Charlotte, where he said they appeared to have "right good vittles" and so he expected he would go there. He said he understood that he, Senator Lennon and a third candidate in the race would each have five minutes to speak. They looked forward to being able to take advantage of the drawing power of Governor Stevenson.

In Greensboro, a six-year old member of a church group had answered the leader's invitation to lead the youngsters in prayer by stating, "Lord, I pray that the schoolhouse burns down so we won't have to go tomorrow and…" When things calmed down, he responded to instruction of the leader to deliver another prayer, in which he asked for forgiveness for his first one. But the first one was the one which was sincere and honest.

On the editorial page, "Trade Policy Needs Bipartisan Support" indicates that the President's foreign trade policy, as outlined in a special message to Congress, had been moderate, progressive and sound. But it indicates that whether he would be able to convince Republicans in Congress to pass it was another question. Protectionism had been a Republican Party policy for decades and its allure had been enhanced by 20 years of opposition to the Democrats' reciprocal trade agreements policy. Until 1953, House and Senate Republicans had approved those agreements only three times, in 1943 during the war, and in 1948 and 1951. The previous year, Republicans had voted for a one-year stopgap extension of the agreements pending completion of a study of foreign trade by a Presidential commission.