The Charlotte News

Saturday, November 25, 1950

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that about 5,000 enemy troops swarmed toward the front in the northwestern sector of Korea near Kusong, while under relentless air attack by allied planes dropping napalm and firebombs on the enemy positions. Both the U.S. 25th and Second Divisions, however, continued to move forward against the stiffest resistance encountered in the two-day advance, with the 25th seizing heights two miles from Unsan, fifty miles from the Manchurian border. On the left flank of the drive, Americans, without resistance, seized Chongju, 51 miles south of the Yalu River and Sinuiju, Chinese gateway to Korea in the northwest. Patrols then went north two miles toward Kusong. The enemy penetrated the South Korean Eighth Division to a point near Yongun, 22 air miles from Tokchon on the far right flank of the northwest front. Prisoners captured Friday reported that there was a full division of Chinese troops dug in about ten miles north of Yongun.

Meanwhile, South Koreans in the northeastern sector were under attack with the enemy driving a six-mile wedge into the lines. In the Taechon area, South Korean troops were pushed back during the predawn hours 1.5 miles but the enemy were forced to withdraw from the advance during daylight hours.

At the U.N., the Security Council met this date to discuss the Formosan and Korean issues, the claims by the Chinese Communists that the U.S. was the aggressor in both places. Whether the issues would be discussed together, as the Chinese demanded, or separately, had not been determined. The Chinese delegation—who had just arrived via BOAC at Idlewild the prior day and were staying at the Waldorf-Astoria, with transportation provided by Limousines, Ltd. of Brooklyn and the Bronx, makeup by Helene Curtis—, refused to discuss the claim, as presented in writing by General MacArthur, that the Chinese had illegally intervened in Korea. The U.S. had stated its intention not to discuss matters informally with the Chinese delegation.

The President had set aside 116 million dollars in military aid funds for Yugoslavia. He might seek authorization from Congress for 85 million in additional funding to bolster the lone Communist regime which had distanced itself from the Soviets.

In a diplomatic note released the previous day, Russia raised a half dozen critical questions regarding the proposed Japanese peace treaty, primarily addressing whether the U.S. and other nations could conclude a treaty without Russia.

In Los Angeles, the Canadian National Defense Minister and Air Marshal, touring West Coast aircraft plants and bases, said that a new Canadian jet engine might be the most powerful yet developed.

Senator Hugh Butler of Nebraska suggested that Senator Kenneth Wherry of that state be named to the empty Republican seat on the new Foreign Relations Committee. It would be significant as Senator Wherry was an outspoken critic of Administration foreign policy in Europe and the Far East. A 7 to 6 party alignment would replace the 8 to 5 majority in the current Committee.

Senator William Knowland of California, speaking at a press conference in Manila during a tour of the Pacific, criticized India for failing to send troops to Korea and for not taking a firmer stand against the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet.

Governor Dewey demanded the resignations of two trustees of the bankrupt Long Island Railway, on which the crash of two commuter trains had occurred the prior Wednesday, killing 77 persons, following a crash on the Railway the previous February, killing 33. He threatened court action if they did not leave voluntarily. The move was part of a total shakeup coming for the Railway. The two trustees had been appointed in bankruptcy by the Federal court overseeing the proceeding. There was consideration being given by the Governor and other officials to bringing the Railway under public ownership.

Socialism. First the trains, then your family and friends. Commies everywhere.

A group of top business and labor leaders were planning to meet in New York on Tuesday to discuss voluntary measures to curb inflation rather than relying on Government controls.

In Boston, N.C., the FBI announced the arrest of five men from Boston in connection with a series of auto thefts.

In Rockingham, N.C., three prisoners awaiting trial overpowered a guard and escaped at midnight. One had been recaptured.

Temperatures dropped in the Carolinas this date as snow fell in near-blizzard force in some areas and a freak electrical storm struck the Piedmont. Even colder weather was predicted for the nighttime hours. Asheville recorded a new historical low temperature for the month of 1.4 degrees. At Columbia, S.C., it was 15, also a record for the month. Charlotte recorded a low of 15 and a high of 26 as cold rain fell. On Mt. Mitchell, it was 19 below zero—providing a good place to train for Korea, as long as you wear your light clothing.

On the editorial page, "A Tragic Judicial Error" relates of the case of Emmett Garner, found guilty of first degree murder in Harnett County, N.C., in September, 1947 and executed in March, 1949. A recent report by Noel Yancey of the Associated Press had revealed that the execution had been a mistake. The trial judge in the case had told Mr. Yancey that the reason he allowed the case to go to the jury on first degree murder was his belief that it would have a remedial effect on the community, where there had been a long series of killings and aggravated assaults. He believed that the Governor would ultimately commute the death sentence. The judge had written the Paroles Commissioner, recommending commutation to a 30-year sentence, commensurate with that for second degree murder, based on his stated belief that evidence of the requisite element of premeditation for first degree murder was missing from the case.

The State Supreme Court upheld the conviction, albeit, because of the defendant's failure to perfect the appeal, only on a cursory review of the record required by law. The trial judge then wrote the Acting Paroles Commissioner, pointing to his prior letter. He wrote him a second time two days before the execution, saying that if he had thought the Governor would not accept his recommendation, he would have struck the verdict as being unsupported by the evidence—too late procedurally to do after the passage of a designated statutory period following conviction.

Mr. Yancey's account had not explained why Governor Kerr Scott refused the commutation shortly after the start of his term, the conviction having occurred during the term of his predecessor, Gregg Cherry.

The piece finds it problematic that the judge had risked a man's life to teach the community a lesson, resulting, in this case, in an undeserved death sentence and execution. It was too late to rectify the result for Mr. Garner, but not to ensure that it would never be repeated.

The 1949 State Supreme Court decision, reported at 230 N.C. 66, decided only that since the defendant had failed to provide a statement of the case on appeal within the time allotted, summary review was in order in advance of dismissal, given that it was a capital case. There was no recitation of the facts underlying the conviction or mention of the trial judge's reservations and recommendations to the Paroles Commissioner. The one-page opinion read in relevant part as follows:

From this judgment defendant gave notice of appeal to the Supreme Court, and was allowed to appeal in forma pauperis, that is, without giving security for costs. Defendant was allowed sixty days to prepare and serve statement of case on appeal, and the State was allowed sixty days thereafter to prepare exceptions thereto or statement of countercase.

The Clerk of Superior Court of Harnett County certifies, under date of 22 May, 1948, that "no statement of case of appeal to the Supreme Court in this case has ever been filed in this office, and . . . that no writ of certiorari in this case has been served" on him.

The Attorney-General of the State of North Carolina moves to docket and dismiss the case under Rule 17 of the Rules of Practice in the Supreme Court of North Carolina, 221 N.C. 544, at p. 551, and for affirmance of the judgment.

In the absence of apparent error upon the face of the record the motion is allowed. (State v. Watson, 208 N.C. 70, 179 S.E. 455; State v. Brooks, 224 N.C. 627, 31 S.E. 2d 754; State v. Nash, 226 N.C. 608, 39 S.E. 2d 596; State v. Ewing, 227 N.C. 107, 40 S.E. 2d 600; State v. Lampkin, 227 N.C. 621, 44 S.E. 2d 30; State v. Little, 227 N.C. 701, 41 S.E. 2d 833; State v. West, 229 N.C. 416, 47 S.E. 2d 712.)

Appeal dismissed—judgment affirmed.

A mere sixteen days after the March 2 date of this summary decision, Mr. Garner was executed.

Since 1963, when the Supreme Court decided Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, such an injustice could not repeat in any state, at least not without the assistance of counsel on direct appeal, apparently involuntarily absent in the Garner case. Since Gideon v. Wainwright, decided the same day as Douglas, criminal defendants have the right to effective assistance of counsel at all critical stages of the proceeding, including on the initial direct appeal. Failure of counsel timely to perfect the appeal would be deemed ineffective assistance of counsel and new counsel would be appointed for an indigent defendant.

"Party Representation in Congress" passes along the relative party representation of each of the state delegations in the upcoming 82nd Congress, as printed in the Congressional Quarterly. A table of the states is provided. Twenty-eight states would have only a one-party delegation, twelve of which were Republican. Of the sixteen all-Democratic delegations, eleven were from the South. In the all-Republican states, it posits, there had been active interparty contests, whereas that was not the rule in the all-Democratic states. It again plumps for a greater appreciation of the merits of a two-party system in the South.

"Leveling Out Truck Speeds" refers to the below piece from the Greensboro Daily News, says that most of the trucking industry would likely agree with the stance of the editorial.

A piece from the Greensboro Daily News, titled "Better Watch Both Ends", tells of a Charlotte resident having reportedly invented a tractor-trailer booster motor, whereby the trailer was equipped with an auxiliary motor to boost the capability of the truck by 158 horsepower when climbing hills, to alleviate traffic snarls. The report stated that in a test run from Charlotte to Raleigh, it had performed as intended.

The editorial, however, wants to put the brakes on the idea as it foresaw the problem of the boosted power being used by the truck operators on downgrades and level stretches to violate speed laws. It wants a governor on the truck to prevent usage in that way so as to maintain the 45 mph truck limit.

The Governor may be too busy for that duty.

Drew Pearson tells of the Air Force not able to track down a single credible report of a flying saucer, despite a large part of the American public being convinced of their existence. Mr. Pearson had been permitted to look at the Air Force files and determined that a painstaking review of the reports had been conducted, including reports by actor Bruce Cabot and the Wyandotte Echo, a newspaper in Kansas which reported that a man named Coulter had said that he saw the arrival of a saucer with the corpses of blonde and beardless three-foot Venutians aboard. Mr. Coulter had turned out to be George Koehler of Denver, a radio advertising man for KMYR who had worked up a publicity stunt.

He provides another anecdote from Minnesota which turned out, after Air Force investigation, to be a mere sighting of aircraft flying high against the sun, making them appear as saucer-shaped blurs. Such was typical of the reports and resolutions.

The Air Force received about six reports per day of such flying objects.

But wait... Something is happening.

The Army thus far had only been able to liberate 138 prisoners of war from Korean prison camps, leaving about 4,000 Americans still missing, most of whom had originally been believed killed in action. Yet, since none of the bodies of these men had been recovered in all of the operations throughout Korea, it was believed that the men were transported to Siberia by the Russians operating in Manchuria, giving the Army great concern.

Perle Mesta, Washington socialite appointed to the diplomatic corps, would have to be content with her title of Minister to Luxembourg rather than Ambassador. The President had nixed her attempt to change her designation.

Ambassador to the U.N. Warren Austin privately had advised El Salvador to abandon its effort to provide aid to Tibet against the Chinese Communist invasion of the country, because the U.N. had enough on its plate with the Korean war.

The President had told Secretary of State Acheson that unless Russia responded within a month regarding the proposed treaty with Japan, he favored going ahead with the peace conference without Soviet representation.

Marquis Childs tells of the general belief in Washington being that indirect negotiations had transpired between the U.S. and Communist China to assure that the U.S. would consider a demilitarized zone at the Manchurian border, to be policed by a U.N. commission on which China would be given a special seat, though not a member of the U.N. A sizable U.N. force would remain in North Korea to assure adherence to the agreement. He suggests that it may or may not have been the reason for the Chinese withdrawal but the fact remained that tensions of the prior two weeks regarding the Chinese intervention in Korea had somewhat eased.

John Foster Dulles, as adviser to Secretary of State Acheson on the Far East, had played a principal role in that development and in preparation for handling the Chinese delegation which had just arrived in New York. The assumption on which the buffer zone agreement would be offered was that the Chinese delegation was coming with peace in mind and not merely for propaganda purposes.

The Defense and State Departments continued to be horrified at the thought of general war with China and its unlimited manpower, with varied climate and extensive topography to overcome. In such an atmosphere, Mr. Childs advises, reckless statements could prove quite harmful and so Republicans ought note that Mr. Dulles, a Republican, had been a chief architect of the proposed resolution and that he was in the position by virtue of the recommendation of GOP Senator Arthur Vandenberg, chief Senate proponent of bipartisan foreign policy. If the Republicans repudiated the work of Senator Vandenberg, it would indicate that they were not interested in cooperating on issues of peace and war.

Robert C. Ruark, in Miami, tells of 54 gamblers and gambling syndicate heads having been indicted in the city recently, resulting in Miami being "cleaner than an amateur gambler at a rigged roulette wheel." It was one of the first manifestations of mass moral indignation against organized crime's domination of local politics and industry. Two sheriffs, in Dade and Broward Counties, had been fired, along with seven deputies, one of whom had been providing information to authorities.

Miami had been the site of wide-open conduct for years. But in August, 1947, former FBI agent Dan Sullivan was retained by a group of citizens, led by former Miami Mayor, A. Frank Katzentine, owner of radio station WKAT, as well as by the publishers of the Miami Herald and Daily News. His mission was to investigate organized crime in the community. He checked into records locally and in other states regarding mob ownership of hotels, restaurants, and other businesses. When he found his quarry, he produced a scrapbook of the results, replete with photos of the hoods' homes, businesses, and recitations of their criminal histories. In March, 1948, a formal crime commission was formed.

The scrapbook, containing 150 dossiers, was eventually presented to the President who said that he was shocked and wondered why he had not been told of the problem previously. Nevertheless, nothing happened at the Federal level after the information was presented to then Attorney General Tom Clark. A regional counsel for the IRB said that Miami's crime was a local issue, despite the investigation having shown that the dossiers related to figures who operated throughout the nation.

But Miami's citizen vigilantes kept up the good work—as he promises to exhibit further in subsequent columns.

Tom Schlesinger of the News, in his weekly "Capitol Roundup", tells of North Carolina Senator-elect Willis Smith likely to be admitted to the Senate when it reconvened for the special session the following Monday, even though his election had not yet been certified, generally required before unanimous consent would be extended for early swearing in.

Mr. Smith had informed his staff that he would not have hold-overs from Senator Frank Graham's staff.

His new office had been painted white and the furniture repaired. The seat, remarks Mr. Schlesinger, was jinxed, as Senator Graham had been defeated, Senator J. Melville Broughton, his predecessor, had died in 1949 shortly after starting his term, and Senator William B. Umstead, the interim appointee for deceased Senator Josiah W. Bailey, had lost in the primary to Mr. Graham.

And, of course, Senator Smith would die in 1953, his appointed successor, Alton Lennon, to be defeated in the primary in 1954 by then former Governor Kerr Scott, who would also die in office in 1958. And the appointing Governor of Mr. Lennon, William B. Umstead, successor to Governor Scott, would also die in office in 1954.

Senator Clyde Hoey, in the other seat—which, for it having been inhabited for two terms by Robert Rice Reynolds, could be called the Hope Diamond seat—, would die in 1954, to be succeeded by Sam J. Ervin—and the rest, as they say...

According to the consensus of opinion, Congressman Hamilton Jones of Charlotte was fortunate to have a good campaign organization in his close race with Republican opponent Louis Rogers. Many Tenth District voters were upset about having their loved ones drafted for service in Korea, while others disliked the consequent increased taxes and rise in prices. Mr. Jones had concentrated his efforts on getting the vote out and on Mecklenburg County. Mr. Jones's secretary, John Slear, just tapped by Senator-elect Smith to be his secretary, had pointed out that while Mr. Jones had beaten Mr. Rogers by only 3,000 votes, it was only 500 votes less than his 3,500-vote margin over GOP opponent P. C. Burkholder, the buttermilk farmer, in 1948.

The Hoey subcommittee report on homosexuals and other undesirables in the Government was being circulated among members for signature.

Pressure from Democrats was being applied to Senator Richard Russell of Georgia to take the position of Senate majority leader because of his control of the Southern bloc of votes and the belief that he could exert positive pressure on it for the benefit of the Administration. Senator Ernest McFarland of Arizona would get the nod.

The House Ways & Means Committee, chaired by Robert Doughton of North Carolina, was busy writing a tax bill which, it was believed, would pass the House but become stalled in the Senate.

Congressman Carl Durham of North Carolina was one of the loudest complainers about the soldiers at the Korean front not receiving their winter clothing.

There would be nine women in the new Congress.

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