The Charlotte News

Monday, December 25, 1950

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that U.N. naval and air forces had completed on Sunday the evacuation of the 215,000 persons, including 110,000 South Korean civilians, from the Hungnam sector in northeast Korea, announced this Christmas Day. The evacuation, which entailed the First Marine Division, the Third and Seventh Infantry Divisions, and the South Korean Third and Capital Divisions, plus some British commandos and Puerto Rican infantrymen, also included 17,500 vehicles and 350,000 tons of supplies. Some of the evacuees had already been brought to Pusan or Pohang in southeast Korea, while other units were still at sea.

Commander of the U.S. Far East naval forces, Vice-Admiral C. Turner Joy—for whom would be named one of the two ships, along with the U.S.S. Maddox, which would be reported attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in August, 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading to the passage by Congress of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution and, ultimately, in early 1965, to the start of the American buildup of combat troops in Vietnam—, said that there had been no allied casualties in the actual evacuation, completed at 12:36 a.m. EST on Sunday morning, 2:36 p.m. local time. The U.S., Britain, Canada, Norway and South Korea joined in the evacuation.

It had been the last position held by the U.N. forces in North Korea. It was the first time in history that an American army had been forced to withdraw by sea. But there had been no Dunkerque, as feared there might be, where thousands of British troops had died during the attempted evacuation in late May and early June, 1940 in the face of the Nazi onslaught on the French coast. The American artillery and naval barrage had kept the 100,000 enemy troops at bay beyond the tightened perimeter around Hungnam. As the departure ended, the vital facilities of the port were wired for explosives and destroyed.

Tom Lambert reported that a Communist platoon had sought to attack the eastern sector of the beachhead on Sunday but that they had retreated under artillery fire and air bombardment with napalm.

Losses had been heavy on both sides during the forced withdrawal from the Manchurian border through the frozen hills, from November 28 through December 12.

The President said that news of the successful evacuation was the best Christmas present he could get.

In western Korea, however, U.N. forces were bracing for a large attack by the Chinese Communists and replenished North Korean divisions. Some enemy troops had already crossed the 38th parallel, 28 miles north of Seoul. U.N. troops in the sector nevertheless tried to make the best of Christmas, decorating fir trees on the snowy slopes with sparkling stars made from food tins. Most of them ate turkey, with home in mind. Forty-two Catholic priests and double that number of Protestant clergy conducted services. One G.I., however, described it as the "loneliest day of the year".

Elsewhere, some 800 pilgrims from the Jewish part of Jerusalem made the trip to Bethlehem for services. They included former and future presidential candidate and president of the University of Pennsylvania, Harold Stassen.

The President lit the White House Christmas tree via telegraph key from Independence, Mo., where he was spending the holidays.

Pope Pius XII replaced three gold bricks in the holy door of St. Peter's Basilica, ending the Catholic Holy Year, the 25th such year since 1300. Millions of Catholics had passed through the door during the year. The ceremony closed the door which the Pontiff had opened in a similar ceremony a year earlier. The Pope also conducted the traditional midnight mass at the main altar of St. Peter's and invited the world to join in a "great crusade of prayer and penance" for the coming year. The Pope signed a Papal Bull extending the benefits of the Holy Year to Catholics through 1951.

In Moscow, the foreign colony contained almost the only celebrants of the holiday. Americans gathered at the U.S. Embassy to sing carols and exchange greetings. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrated Christmas on January 7 and a Western-type Christmas was celebrated in Russian homes on January 1.

The accidental death toll for the holiday weekend, starting at 6:00 p.m. on Friday and continuing until midnight this date, was climbing at a record rate, with 373 traffic fatalities and 92 miscellaneous accidental deaths reported thus far through the prior midnight, the most since 1946 at this point, and appearing to be on track to exceed by 95 the all-time record of 555 deaths set in 1936. In 1949, the total had been 413 for the three-day period. Texas led the nation with 29 traffic deaths and 12 other accidental deaths, followed closely by California with 26 traffic deaths and 9 other accidental deaths. New York had 21 traffic deaths and 11 by accident; Michigan, 22 and 4, respectively; Illinois, 21 and 3; Kansas, 17 and 6; North Carolina, 19 and 1; Ohio, 15 and 3; and Pennsylvania had 16 traffic deaths.

The American Veterans Committee called for the "impeachment" of Senator Joseph McCarthy, complaining that large corporations had jumped to do his bidding, as exampled by the Adam Hat Co. terminating its contract with Drew Pearson's radio show the previous Friday—though Adam had claimed that it was the result of a planned change of advertising strategy determined before the altercation between the two men at the Sulgrave Club in Washington and the subsequent charge by the Senator that those who purchased Adam hats were being sympathetic with Communism because of the company's sponsorship of Mr. Pearson's program. The AVC also said that Senator McCarthy had used the "big lie" technique and other "reprehensible methods" to advance his agenda.

Senator McCarthy would be censured by the Senate in late 1954 for his continuing skein of conduct, culminating in the televised Army-McCarthy hearings of that year which served to destroy finally his reputation among all but the most recalcitrant reactionaries.

Only a light snow fell across the land, that in the Dakotas and Great Lakes region. The Eastern half of the country, save Florida and the Gulf Coast, had cold weather. Temperatures were mild throughout the Western half, with more showers in the Pacific Northwest. In Duluth, Minn., it was 10 below zero, in Chicago, eight above, 46 in Mobile, 47 in San Francisco, and 14 in Peoria, Ill. If you desire warmth, travel to Miami, where it was a pleasant 59 degrees.

Bob Sain of The News reflects on Christmas of 1940, quoting from Time of that Christmas, finding parallels between the current Christmas and that earlier time, when the Battle of Britain raged and fear of Nazi invasion across the Channel was palpable. On both occasions, the people had wanted hard facts about the situation abroad, with public apprehension and tension being the common denominators.

Styles were different; music was different. The top tune in December, 1940 had been Jerome Kern's and Oscar Hammerstein's "The Last Time I Saw Paris", while the Duke Ellington Band played the first major swing concert at a U.S. college. Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls was the newest hot-selling novel, receiving critical praise and hoots.

Before his death, the British Ambassador to the U.S., Lord Lothian, had said that peace and order did not depend on disarming the police but rather on overwhelming power behind just laws.

In Charlotte, the Bundles for Britain Committee chairman reported that increasing numbers of people were sending aid packages to England. 'ey all.

FDR had, in September, announced the transfer of 50 aging destroyers to Britain, in exchange for U.S. bases in British territory, the first informal lend-lease action. In November, President Roosevelt had defeated Wendell Willkie, albeit by a smaller margin than his victories over President Herbert Hoover in 1932 and Governor Alf Landon in 1936.

In Berlin, the tripartite mutual assistance pact was signed between Germany, Italy, and Japan, providing that if one country were attacked, the others would regard it as an attack on all three.

Preparedness became the watchword of the day. Part of it was the transformation of Fort Bragg, N.C., into a boomtown of 60,000 inhabitants, instrumental in which had been Col. J. Norman Pease of Charlotte. Also, the Charlotte firm of J. A. Jones Construction received a Government contract of over four million dollars to build Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

On October 16, 1940, for the first time during peace, the U.S. conducted a draft call. Many signed up locally, while many others sought deferment through the expedient of marriage, as issuance of licenses nearly doubled during the fall versus the same months of 1939, from 28 to 50 between the Septembers. The first draft call for North Carolina was for 7,899 men by March 1, 1941.

Syndicated cartoonists were trying to find humor in the situation.

He does not include within his facts of the time, if obviously not known until after the war and capture of Nazi documents, that Hitler determined on December 18, 1940 to undertake what would ultimately become the fatal undoing to his back-stabbing course, the invasion of Russia.

On the editorial page, "The Christmas Story" prints the story of Christmas, from Luke 2:1-14.

"Merry Christmas to All" is a by-lined piece from publisher Thomas L. Robinson, wishing the traditional Merry Christmas to all the readers, advertisers, and employees of The News through the year, explaining why each group was essential to the success of any newspaper.

Given Mr. Sain's reflection on the front page to Christmas past, it appears appropriate once again to reference W. J. Cash's account of Christmas from 1937.

"Not Peace But a Sword" tells of Christmas, 1950 being a good Christmas, with more things available and money with which to buy them than probably any other time in the country's history. But it was also overshadowed by the war in Korea. The war's rumble, while slight and far away, promised to become louder, perhaps acting as harbinger to the greatest world war the world would ever see, the last one. Not everyone was involved in the war by way of kin or friends or neighbors fighting in it. But soon that would change.

It resignedly asserts that Christmas of 1951 would not be so comfortable as this one. The question everyone was asking was whether there would be general war. The answer, it posits, depended on Russia's perception of the strength of the Western powers and whether it believed it could defeat them. The West was weak and Stalin knew it, but so was Russia at this juncture. With every passing day, both sides became stronger and both sides were cognizant of that fact.

When Stalin reached a point where he believed he had the most to gain and the least to lose, he would take the initiative.

There were two ways, it suggests, to prevent war: give Russia what it wanted, that is a Communist world, or become so strong that the price Russia would have to pay in defeating the West would be greater than any benefits it could possibly hope to gain. The first approach, appeasement, was out of the question, as once it began, it would not stop until Russia obtained everything it wanted. The second approach, while not foolproof because of the stimulus to an arms race which almost assuredly would eventuate in war, might afford at least a temporary stalemate to provide time for a Biblical-type miracle to intervene to prevent general war.

War was not likely with Russia in 1951, but peace was not likely either. It counsels praying for peace and working for it diplomatically and politically, but also favors putting aside "the olive branch for the gun", hoping for peace while working for victory.

A piece from the Shelby (Ky.) News, titled "One Worth Repeating", reprints an editorial from the late William Allen White from several years earlier, telling of his eating a pawpaw once per year for the previous 50 years, and every year living until the next summer after doing so, thus ascribing continued sustenance of life to consumption of the pawpaw, which he regarded as a great fruit, a "kind of atavistic throwback to the custard pie on the mother's side and a bullhead catfish on its father's side."

But it also, he imparted, was the saddest fruit in the world as it recalled woods and fields which had become streets, and "times that were gone now, days that are memories, and boys who are dead!"

Well, everybody will die, sooner or later. There is no sense dwelling on it. We shall stay clear of the pawpaw, as it sounds deadly.

Drew Pearson tells of publishing a couple of years earlier "A G.I.'s Plea for Peace" by John Crown, a paralyzed war veteran. It was reprinted by a man in Richmond and became a source of inspiration to many Americans. The previous spring, Mr. Crown had died, and so Mr. Pearson again publishes the letter, finding that Mr. Crown had hit the nail on the head in diagnosing the ills of the world while perhaps also overlooking some of the great strides made by man during the previous 2,000 years regarding achievement of the goals of the Sermon on the Mount. Despite intolerance still being rampant in the country, it had made great progress toward grasping the principal vision Jesus set forth, the dignity of man, a belief which had slowly civilized the world.

While change could be measured in material acquisition, it was more difficult to measure change of the heart of mankind. And it was there where he found the greatest failing of mankind. While giving aid to Europe, the ideals for which the country stood were not being transmitted. The country had not realized that the gift without the giver was hollow.

Nor had the country conveyed behind the iron curtain its abiding desire for peace. It took persons with both ideals and willingness to risk death to carry forth the concept of the dignity of man into some parts of Europe behind the iron curtain. Once it reached those areas, the danger of war would vanish. But Americans had not yet realized this fact, or, if so, had not worked hard enough to bring it about.

Marquis Childs tells of Will Cuppy having a new book, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everything, which he recommends Santa put in many Washington stockings.

He finds that the new director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, Charles E. Wilson, formerly president of G.E., had his work cut out for him. A familiar publicity build-up had begun around him but he did not appear to care at all about such things, wanted only to get the job done.

Defense orders were not being placed with the urgency needed to meet the peril caused by the country's unpreparedness. Civilian officials tended to blame the Pentagon for failing to develop a mobilization plan for overall needs. Even if true, it did not excuse the delays in building up supplies of vital materials, such as aluminum, for making the machines of war and stockpiling. Not until the end of August had the first moves been made toward stepping up production of aluminum, crucial in airplane manufacture. A controversy developed between whether production should be expanded in the U.S. or Canada, eventuating in favor of the former, with the extant Alcoa, Reynolds and Kaiser, plus two new companies getting the nod. But more delays followed before agreements were made with Alcoa and Reynolds, while those with the others had not yet been inked.

Mr. Wilson had broad authority to correct such situations, regardless of where blame lay for the past delays. He would have to resist the tendency of some companies to oppose compliance with Government requirements. The belief was that Mr. Wilson, having come from industry, could talk the industrialists into acting without further delay. Yet, at present, the system was as full of bureaucratic entanglement and confusion as any time in the past which anyone could remember.

Robert C. Ruark tells of the Pentagon planning to ask Congress for money to conduct a million aptitude tests for determination of deferments from the draft for the brightest young men, placing a life-or-death premium thereby on scholastic achievement. On graduation, the deferment would continue if the graduate took a job deemed "essential" to defense.

Mr. Ruark doubts that such a proposed elite corps of braintrusters could be developed from tests, without first subjecting everyone to the draft. The last war had too many privileged persons with exemptions from the draft based entirely on political connections, while many with superior intellects were in the mud carrying rifles.

When a state of emergency had been declared, it was necessary to institute equality of service to the country. After the draft, determinations could be made regarding particular aptitudes of individual draftees. Higher education, he posits, could be postponed when bodies were needed.

A letter writer named Virginia O'Hanlon of New York City, age 8, addresses a letter to the editor of the New York Sun in which she asks whether there was a Santa Claus, because her little friends told her that there was no such thing, while her papa had said that if she saw it in The Sun, it was true. The Sun's response, by editor Francis P. Church, is printed, in which he provides indisputable proof of the existence of Santa, and tells of the right jolly old elfin saint living on forever, even for ten times ten thousand years into the future.

That, of course, was 1897. Whether he is still around probably depends on you.

Edith Johnson of the Oklahoma City Oklahoman explores the meaning of "Christmas" to different people with varying needs and of different ages, then looks at its etymological derivation, the "mass" of "Christ" commemorating the sacrifice in blood and body. She asks rhetorically whether such other "'great and good'" men as Socrates, Aristotle or Confucius ever inspired anything comparable to Christmas. Yet, many educated people believed that those who accepted on faith the divinity of Jesus were subscribers to a "'primitive religion'", merely "'repeating patterns of the past'", clinging to outmoded superstition.

Some wanted to remove the Cross from Christianity, finding it a mistake. She wonders whether they would also remove Christ from Christmas and transform it into a purely secular celebration. She wonders of their thoughts on "Silent Night", "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing", whether they regarded them as containing but figures of speech.

Dr. Daniel Poling had stated that with every other plan, man, and program, the world had come to naught and that only "very God of very God" would fill human need for an adequate leader, that the cornerstone of Christian faith was acceptance of the divinity of Jesus.

First Day of Christmas: A pawpaw in a papa tree.

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