The Charlotte News

Tuesday, September 12, 1950

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.S. First Cavalry battalion in Korea had captured a commanding peak eight miles north of Taegu this night after a daylong battle fought uphill against entrenched North Korean troops hurling down gunfire in an effort to break through at Taegu from the hill which served as the principal threat to the communications hub. Preceding the attack, American planes and artillery had assaulted the enemy positions. American casualties were reported by correspondent Jack MacBeth as heavy. The attack had followed a three-day enemy artillery barrage onto the Taegu-Tabu road.

Mr. MacBeth tells of some 300 trapped North Korean soldiers on the height drunkenly chanting to "weird music" emanating from a phonograph all the previous night, as they waited for the American attack they knew was coming. It sounded as an American recording playing about ten times more slowly than it ought. When the Americans sent ten mortar shells into the midst of the enemy soldiers to shut up the annoyingly redundant chant, they only continued to sing, lasting until daybreak.

In the Pohang sector, a secret U.N. task force, led by an unidentified "famous West Point football star", attacked and trapped North Korean troops in a corridor deep behind allied lines, resulting in 370 enemy soldiers killed and 188 wounded, taking one prisoner and liberating, in the process, 80 South Korean prisoners.

General Walton Walker, ground commander, asserted that the worst of the fighting in Korea was over, that while the North Koreans still held the initiative and could attack anywhere along the 125-mile defense arc, he was now sure that they could be stopped.

C. Yates McDaniel reports that since mid-August, air evacuation of the seriously wounded from Korea had been halted because of the continued Communist threat to Taegu and its airfield. Instead, evacuation had been by rail to Pusan before the more seriously wounded were flown, when possible in cases taking more than 30 days of recuperation, to Japan and then the U.S.

At the U.N., the Security Council approved its annual report to the General Assembly, without a threatened Soviet veto based on its objection to any mention of Korea. The Soviets abstained, with chief delegate Jakob Malik stating that he did not exercise the veto as the report was informational only. A Russian-favored resolution the previous day before the Council to seat Communist China as an observer in debates on its charges against the U.S. for bombing across the Manchurian border and "aggression" in North Korea had lost by a single vote.

The Big Three foreign ministers began their parley in New York regarding NATO military build-up to deter Soviet aggression. British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin said that he opposed the development of West German military units. Foreign Minister Robert Schuman of France agreed, a position contrary to Secretary of State Acheson.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved 97 million dollars for the Voice of America to enable it to counter Soviet propaganda throughout Europe. The amount was 19 million above that approved by the House and met the request of the President. The appropriation was part of a 16.7 billion dollar emergency bill.

The Senate added a ban of pickets of Federal courts, proposed by Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana, as part of the proposed McCarran anti-Communist bill, to go to a vote later this date. The President had already said that he would veto the bill, that it was only a resurrected version of the Mundt-Nixon bill, requiring registration of Communists and Communist-front organizations, and was likely unconstitutional. The proposed amendment, according to Senator Ellender, would prevent exercise of undue influence on Federal court decisions from pickets and sound trucks. The Kilgore substitute bill, sponsored by Senator Harley Kilgore of West Virginia, a measure authorizing the FBI to detain known Communist subversives in time of war, appeared not to have more than 20 votes in support. But fewer than ten Senators appeared prepared to vote against the McCarran bill. Senator Hubert Humphrey said that he believed the Senate might sustain a Presidential veto, but Senator McCarran believed that there was enough support to provide the necessary two-thirds override. The House had already passed a similar measure.

The President gave his clearance for the Congressional recess as soon as it completed action on pending emergency measures. Congressional leaders hoped to adjourn by Saturday night.

Stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and the "Singing Lady" Irene Wicker denounced the "Red Channels" pamphlet which had named them and about 150 persons in radio and television as being Communists or fellow travelers for having been associated with "subversive" organizations. The pamphlet, published by former FBI agent Theodore Kirkpatrick, had led, two weeks earlier, to the firing of actress Jean Muir from the "Aldrich Family" television show by its sponsor, General Foods. Ms. Wicker said that the Kellogg Company had suddenly dropped her "Singing Lady" program the prior month. An American Legion official in Chicago had pointed out Ms. Lee's inclusion in the pamphlet and wanted ABC to cancel an incipient show in which she starred. All three had denied any Communist affiliation or support of that cause.

A lawyer in Jefferson City, Mo., turned down appointment as a member of the DNC Finance Committee because he represented clients on criminal matters and Senator Estes Kefauver had suggested that if he were to serve, some prosecutors might exert lenience toward his clients.

Steve Early, former White House press secretary to FDR, had resigned his post as Deputy Secretary of Defense, accepted by the President to become effective at the end of the month. He had wanted to quit the post since completing a year of service in May, 1949. He would return to his position as vice-president of Pullman, Inc.

In Eldred, Pa., a large explosion at a dynamite mix house at the National Powder Co. killed eight persons and injured five or six other employees, albeit only slightly. There was no statement of cause of the explosion.

After four railway collisions the previous day and this date had resulted in 33 deaths of soldiers and injuries to scores of other persons, including eight members of the "South Pacific" traveling musical company, Senator Francis Myers of Pennsylvania demanded a nationwide investigation of railway safety. The four accidents had occurred at or near Coshocton, O., Green River, Wyo., Clovis, N.M., and Whitefish, Mont.

Five swordfishing vessels off Halifax, Nova Scotia, were reported to be in trouble after being caught in a hurricane, and one, the Debutante, had radioed that it was unable to make port.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Dr. Smiley Blanton, in chapter 2, "As a Twig Is Bent—Youth to Maturity", from their book, The Art of Real Happiness, discuss the duality of human nature, as explored by Robert Louis Stevenson in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They point out that the aggressive side of such duality did not necessarily depend on some external chemical trigger as in the fictional account, that frustration could produce the onset of savage impulses, as a tantrum in a small, normally passive child. Psychiatry's aim was to channel those impulses into useful and creative activity, modifying this primitive side of mankind—a residual characteristic in civilized man from his hunter-gatherer days when man relied, perforce, on his instincts for preservation against the hostile wilderness, the wild animals and members of other tribes vying for food, shelter and, sometimes, their womenfolk.

On the editorial page, "Eyes on Europe" discusses the New York conference between Secretary of State Acheson, Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin of Britain and Foreign Minister Robert Schuman of France, regarding the need to build up the defenses of the NATO countries in Western Europe to withstand the potential aggressive force afforded by 197 Soviet divisions, 27 in East Germany, against only eight Western divisions, two of which were American. America would need to provide a good deal of the 12 billion dollars estimated to be necessary for the job of fully equipping 40 divisions, the force deemed requisite for an adequate defense, and would need provide a good number of the men. That would be conditioned on the Western European powers providing their own divisions, including perhaps the ten available from West Germany, though France, especially, along with Britain, would have substantial objection to that latter prospect.

The need for a solid Western defense was necessary to prevent World War III, it concludes, and despite the fact that an increased draft over and above the necessities for service in Korea and commensurate increase in taxes would be required for the U.S. to contribute its part, defeat by Russia would be the more imminent should the U.S. allow Western Europe to fall.

"Medical Bill Becomes Law" tells of the President signing the bill to permit special drafting of doctors, dentists, and allied specialists. The system would be equitable, removing the specter of further service by those who had served more than 21 months during World War II, with the first call being for those who had received their educations free from the Government during the war, with less than 90 days of service. Next would be those with 90 days to 21 months of service and then those under 45, who had paid for their own training but had not served. A bonus of $100 per month and commission as an officer would be used to attract volunteers. The law was made necessary by the failure of response to the call for volunteers from among those 5,000 doctors and 3,000 dentists who had been educated by the Government during the war.

"Security and Liberty" discusses the three articles, the first of which appears on the page this date, by John T. McKnight, brother of editor Pete McKnight, regarding methods of securing the nation against Communist threats. There were those who advocated totalitarian methods, those who opposed all restrictions of civil liberties beyond normal protections against espionage and sabotage, and those occupying a middle-ground.

It urges thoughtful consideration of the three articles.

A piece from the Charleston News & Courier, titled "Questions for Future Klansmen", suggests to any would-be Klansman that he ask whether the members of the local Klavern were the successful functionaries of the community or mere loafers, failing businessmen, the uneducated, poor farmers, and other such failures.

As indicated in the piece above, John T. McKnight of Chapel Hill, native of Shelby, one-time state editor of The News, and for the previous 20 years a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, provides the first of three pieces on the methods to achieve internal defense against the spread domestically of Communism. His first piece concerns the Durham test case brought against William Evans for circulating a petition for the Stockholm peace treaty, a document primarily promulgated by the Soviets, in deliberate defiance of a public order made by Recorder Court Judge J. R. Wilson of Durham that police arrest for vagrancy any such person distributing the document. Mr. Evans had sought the signatures of three Durham policemen.

Mr. Evans had professed support of the petition, and his father had been an avid supporter of the Progressive Party candidacy of former Vice-President Henry Wallace in 1948. Mr. McKnight stresses that Mr. Evans was not to be tried, however, for being associated with unpopular causes, which appeared to many pink by association. Rather he was being tried for simple vagrancy, not having visible means of support.

The case thus invoked the First Amendment and whether the Government could prohibit or curtail the rights of free speech, petition of the Government for redress of grievances, and peaceable assembly.

He promises to return to the issue in the ensuing two pieces, regarding the extent to which protection against Communist propaganda could or should be undertaken, while remaining within the ambit of the protections afforded the citizenry by the Constitution.

Drew Pearson tells of a top secret intelligence report compiled principally by the British having just been received in Washington, regarding China's negotiations with Russia on whether the former would stay out of the Korean war. V. M. Molotov reportedly had not been able to convince Mao Tse-Tung to enter the war, to set a date for invasion of Formosa, or to attack at all Hong Kong or Portuguese Macao. Agreement had reportedly been reached on a five-point program under which Russia would equip 15 Chinese divisions, China would send limited troops as volunteers to North Korea only, and would patrol the Manchurian-North Korean border; another meeting would determine the timing of invasion of Formosa, and China would help re-equip the Vietminh under Ho Chi Minh in Indo-China to enable a new offensive against the French-backed Bao Dai Government.

The Justice Department had not been able to locate a witness, Henry Grunewald, in the 1947 Washington wiretap case of Howard Hughes and others, but had been able to find him suddenly for another case, but only after the expiration of the three-year statute of limitations on the wiretap case. Mr. Grunewald had worked for Pan Am at the time of the wiretap and knew the police lieutenant who had conducted the wiretap, allegedly at the behest of Senator Owen Brewster to enable advantage over TWA for Pan Am and Juan Trippe in establishing international routes and to coerce a merger of the two airlines, resisted by Mr. Hughes. Mr. Grunewald, who had quite a lot of money which he had made under mysterious circumstances, supposedly as a highly paid lobbyist, was a frequent visitor to both Senator Brewster and Senator Styles Bridges. Both he and the police lieutenant had been guests in the Washington Hotel suite of former Secretary of War Harry Woodring.

The decision to have Senator Andrew Schoeppel of Kansas accuse Secretary of Interior Oscar Chapman of Communist ties had been made at a meeting of Republican Senators in the office of Senator Kenneth Wherry, based on Secretary Chapman winning too many battles against the public utilities. The speech had been ghost-written. Senator Schoeppel was associated with five oil companies, two gas companies and twenty insurance companies. Former Governor of Kansas and 1936 GOP presidential nominee Alf Landon had once described him as the "errand boy for the utilities".

Joseph Alsop, in Tokyo after returning from the Korean front, finds an odd rule of war in the apparent status that all the good people were at the front and the "odious people" at headquarters. After leaving the hospitality shown him by the men at the front, he writes a "bread and butter" letter to the members of the First Battalion of the 27th Infantry Regiment who had been his hosts.

The secret of such a fighting team, he found, was in the men themselves, such as Captain Logan Weston, commander of Able Company, who had rallied his troops when they were under night attack by the North Korean infantry, single-handedly rushing two enemy machine guns, destroying them with grenades. He continued to command the fight until ammunition ran short, eventually collapsing from loss of blood from two wounds.

Corporal Arthur Prater, despite bad feet making him eligible for discharge, had received the Silver Star for carrying rations and water to a cut off company.

Sergeant Clurion Grigsby drove into the middle of an enemy armored column while bringing equipment from the rear, seized a bazooka, jumped from his weapons carrier, and was able to hit an enemy tank at ten yards.

He also relates of acts of individual courage demonstrated by members of Baker Company, led by 1st Sergeant George S. Hearn.

The battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. G. J. Check, had received its baptism under fire during the prior six weeks. They were no saints, as demonstrated when on occupation duty, but were a fighting team who would move forward without regard to costs and hold a position against heavy odds while enduring great hardship. Many had fallen in the fighting.

In recalling the fighting he had witnessed, he was reminded of the great epitaph by Simonides for the Spartans at Thermopylae: "Go stranger and in Lacedaemon tell/ That here, obedient to the laws, we fell."

They were Americans, however, not Spartans, fighting for the "good life and good society", and if those things survived, he ventures, it would be to such men that the great debt would be owed.

Robert C. Ruark tells of women's fashion, being led by Balenciaga, the "monk of couture", so shy that even the women who went to Europe to partake of the latest fashions had never met him. He had been taking away attention from the likes of such designers as Jacques Fath, Christian Dior, Molyneux and Piguet.

Mr. Ruark is resentful of the fact that the monk would not talk to the person forced to subsidize him, as well of his fashion statement, which made the woman appear as a Russian private in January.

In the latest issue of Harper's Bazaar appeared a picture of a "maid wearing a fuzzy coat so voluminous that she looks less like a lady than a Manchurian peasant", also wearing a dog, the coat by Dior, the dog's pedigree unknown. Right across from her was a woman wearing the same dog, while attired by Balenciaga. He wonders therefore whether all of the women of fashion now had to carry dogs as costume jewelry, and, if so, whether only one dog existed at the moment in Paris.

He goes on to discuss the new look in frocks, fall skirts and pants, with a wallet in the hip pocket of the latter, sans money, because it had all gone to pay for the fashion statement.

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