The Charlotte News
Tuesday, June 27, 1950
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President, pursuant to the U.N. Security Council resolution asking members to lend assistance in halting the fighting in Korea, ordered use of air and sea forces in support of South Korea, following the invasion Sunday by North Korea beyond the 38th parallel, advancing to the outskirts of Seoul. The President said that the nation would stand firm against Communist aggression and ordered the Seventh Fleet to be prepared to resist any attack on Formosa, to which Nationalist China had retreated after defeat by the Communist Chinese. He also asked Chiang Kai-Shek to cease attacks on the Chinese mainland as a contribution to peace in the region, and indicated that he would increase allotment of aid from Far Eastern funding to the Philippines and Indo-China, as well as dispatch a military mission to the latter.
The move marked a change from the Truman policy enunciated in January of not supplying to Formosa military protection. He said, however, this date that Formosa's future had to await restoration of security in the Pacific, a peace settlement with Japan, or consideration by the U.N.
The full text of the President's statement is on the page.
It was reported also that a decision had been reached to have an American general command the U.N. "joint defense operation", said to be Brig. General John H. Church, presently commanding American forces on Okinawa—actually to be General MacArthur.
Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson said that at the moment, there would be no need for mobilization of troops.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., of Massachusetts said that he favored use of U.S. ground troops if necessary to repel the Communist invaders.
Senator Eugene Millikin of Colorado, who led Republicans in opposing use of U.S. military involvement in the conflict, said that he supported the President's actions.
Senator Scott Lucas of Illinois, the Senate Majority Leader, told the Senate that negotiations were underway to get other nations to join the U.S. in an armed coalition in support of South Korea.
Senator Frank Graham of North Carolina and Senator Lister Hill of Alabama, speaking to the American Legion convention in Charlotte, backed the President's actions in standing behind the U.N. resolution. Senator Graham urged that strong sanctions be imposed against North Korea for the aggression.
Representative L. Mendel Rivers of South Carolina, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said that if Russia did not back down, world war three had begun, and expressed approval of the President's actions.
British Prime Minister Clement Attlee pledged support of Britain for the U.N. resolution.
Australian Prime Minister Robert G. Menzies said that his country was sending a squadron of heavy bombers to Singapore because of the situation in Korea and that there would be no division among the British Commonwealth countries in standing against "campaigns for acquisition".
In Korea, as confirmed by General MacArthur, American fighters had shot down four Russian-made North Korean planes over Seoul, seeking to interfere with the evacuation of 700 American nationals, and unnamed informed sources said that American planes were headed for action this night against the Communists in all towns captured in South Korea. Communist forces were reported to have been pushed back 20 miles north from Seoul by resurgent South Korean forces. South Koreans were reported also to have recaptured Uijongbu, twelve miles north of Seoul, which, if true, might have severed North Korean tank communications lines and potentially force their withdrawal.
In Moscow, the Soviet news agency Tass reported that the U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the action was not legal as Russia was boycotting the Council.
In Berlin, the Communist press predicted victory for the North Korean forces. It also said that the Korean situation was a test run for an American attack on East Germany, and urged West Germans to join the Soviet Union's "world peace camp".
The joint conference committee reconciling the draft extension bills voted a one-year extension of the President's existing power, allowing him to order the National Guard and all reserves to immediate duty. The bill now had to be approved by each house before going to the President. The Senate previously had passed a three-year extension and the House, a two-year extension, with differences in Presidential power to call for inductions without prior Congressional approval.
In North Carolina, Governor Kerr Scott asked the Democrats of the state to rally behind newly nominated Willis Smith in the fall general election for the Senate seat. The Governor had supported Senator Frank Graham in the primary, whom he had appointed to the seat the previous year. He said that he continued to stand behind Senator Graham and his appointment to the seat, and also praised the heavy turnout in the primary as a healthy sign for the state.
In Charlotte, at the American Legion convention, the Legionnaires unanimously adopted a resolution seeking the ouster of Dr. Paul Magnuson, chief medical officer of the Veterans Administration, for his "lack of interest and lack of usefulness to veterans", especially for his disfavoring the addition of 16,000 more V.A. hospital beds.
On the editorial page, "Aggression in Korea" finds Korea far removed from the reality of Americans, presenting itself to the American troops who had been stationed there during the postwar occupation as seething with political gangsters toward the end of the war.
With Soviet-backed North Korea having just marched on Seoul, Americans were wondering what the American stake there was.
For one, the U.S. was responsible for the establishment of the invaded South Korean Republic, set up in the evacuated U.S. postwar occupation zone. The U.S. had supplied it with arms and established an advisory military mission there.
North Korea was a Russian satellite, in the former Russian postwar occupation zone. The invasion, which was believed to have been ordered by Russia, was a display of naked Soviet aggression. The U.S., to block it, had already sent arms and planes to the South. By doing so, it was risking the same kind of result which beset the forces of Chiang Kai-Shek in Nationalist China, who wound up surrendering American arms to the Communist Chinese. And only a few months earlier, South Korean voters had demonstrated a lack of confidence in President Syngman Rhee. Although North Korea had no leader of the stature of Mao Tse-Tung in China, the U.S. could not depend on the weak morale in South Korea. Nevertheless, it finds, the only viable course was continuance of aid to the South and urging of strong and immediate action by the U.N. to stop the fighting.
It finds the U.N. not so weak as its detractors insisted, quoting Senator Frank Graham that the organization had prevented a third world war from starting over Iran, Greece, Palestine, and Indonesia. It hopes that it could produce similar restraint in Korea.
"Prelude to a Struggle" finds that the victory in the special Senate runoff primary by Willis Smith over Senator Graham to have set up a battle for the gubernatorial nomination two years hence between the forces of Governor Scott, who could not succeed himself, and those of Mr. Smith, bound to win in the fall in the one-party state.
Governor Scott had come to office out of voter discouragement with the "Shelby dynasty" of Senator Clyde Hoey, and the death of Joe Blythe of Charlotte had left an opening in the DNC state committeeman spot for Jonathan Daniels to be appointed by the Governor. Likewise, the death of Senator J. Melville Broughton in March, 1949 had allowed the Governor to appoint Mr. Graham to the seat.
But the defeat of Senator Graham had caused the prestige of the Governor among labor, farmers, school teachers, and blacks to suffer and it was possible that he might not recover it. It set up the prospect of a battle royal between Governor Scott and Senator Smith for 1954 when the unexpired Senate term would end.
That would have been the case probably, but for the intervention of death in both the Governor's Mansion and the Senate seat, Senator Smith dying in mid-1953, allowing then Governor William B. Umstead—who, himself, had been appointed by Governor Gregg Cherry in 1947 to succeed deceased Senator Josiah W. Bailey, only to have been defeated in the special election by former Governor Broughton—to appoint Alton Lennon to the Senate seat, who would then be defeated in 1954 by former Governor Scott. Meanwhile, just after the general election of 1954, Governor Umstead would die and Lieutenant Governor Luther Hodges would succeed him. Senator Scott would then die in 1958 and Governor Hodges would appoint in his stead B. Everett Jordan.
While the other Senate seat, the one formerly possessed, by dint of in-law status, of both the Hope Diamond and the Washington Post, was less death-prone, Senator Hoey would die in spring, 1954, and Governor Umstead would appoint Sam Ervin, a State Supreme Court Justice, to the seat.
And the rest, as they say...
Sorry, Dick, it never comes out good for you.
"In Which We Act as Arbiters" finds the English language to have benefited through time for it being without linguistic doctrinaires issuing ukases on proper usage, but decides to make exception in the case of type being used without the preposition of, as in a recent butchering it found on a local sports page: "He scored an even 18 touchdowns last year for Charlotte Central High School, many of them coming on elusive-type runs..."
It hopes to rescue the preposition-less type from future such type fate.
It's okeh with us, as long as the sports page did not read: "The iconic player scored an awesome 18 touchdowns last year for a super Charlotte Central team, which wound up with a cool, awesome, and iconic year all-round."
Drew Pearson finds Attorney General J. Howard McGrath caught between his natural abhorrence to wiretapping, as in the Amerasia case in 1945, and his feelings of amity for his old colleague, Senator Owen Brewster, who, as had recently come to light, had hired police detectives to tap the telephones of Howard Hughes in 1947 when Mr. Hughes appeared before the Brewster investigating subcommittee regarding the TWA war contracts. The Washington police had discovered the information during an internal investigation and made a report to the Justice Department. The Department had sat on the information for eight months, though the Attorney General, himself, had not known of the matter until a week earlier. But when he had discovered it, he soft-pedaled the whole thing and appeared unenthusiastic about pursuing it.
Governor Dewey was confident that his friend, Democratic Governor Frank Lausche of Ohio, would be re-elected in the fall, so much so that he directed that his name be included on the staff of the steering committee for the following year's Governors conference.
Governor Earl Warren of California chided some fellow Republican Governors at the conference for turning down Federal funds.
GOP Governor James Duff of Pennsylvania told State Department officials that if they had any trouble with Senator McCarthy in Pennsylvania, to let him know and he would take care of it. Governor Dewey was similarly disposed against Senator McCarthy.
Secretary of State Acheson told the Governors that the world situation was critical but not hopeless, provided the country pursued a positive program and did not abandon its present course.
Secretary Acheson also said that if the country cut off Iceland's imports of fish and sheep skins by not lowering tariffs, then it would alienate one of the most vital countries for providing a NATO air base against Russia.
Republican Governor Sherman Adams of New Hampshire—later to become chief of staff under President Eisenhower until being forced to resign amid scandal in 1958—backed up the man in charge of the State Department loyalty program, General Conrad Snow, a Republican and also from New Hampshire.
Former Republican Governor and Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky, now an adviser to Secretary Acheson, said that he had never worked with anyone better. Mr. Cooper subsequently was elected to serve again in the Senate and was a member of the Warren Commission in 1964.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop find the claims of "new weapons" for the country to be misleading in terms of their ability to conquer the enemy. One segment of the "new weapons" was really comprised of old weapons, as the recoil-less rifle and shaped charge. Another part consisted of such things as the guided missile, which would not be ready for deployment for some time to come. It created an illusion of a revolution in tactics and strategy which was not in fact extant.
Another aspect to the propaganda was that it masked the sloth in research and development of new weapons in all three services. The Army Ordnance, for instance, had long delayed adaptation of the recoil-less rifle and shaped charge to anti-tank uses. Even if such weaponry now caught up, it could not be made useful through placement of large-scale orders within a reasonable time unless research and development were accelerated considerably. The situation was worse with respect to guided missiles, with only about 100 million dollars per year being devoted to the project across the services, meaning that supersonic guided missiles would not be available for mass firing for at least five years, not in time to meet the predicted climax of Russia's defense build-up in 1953-54. Even if they were to become available earlier, the need for adequate armies, navies and air forces would not have changed.
It was considered understood that Western Europe would need thirty to forty divisions for an adequate defense. But that low estimate was premised on those forces being equipped with the new weaponry.
The whole picture added up to the self-delusion that new weapons would make the West invulnerable at low cost, and if that false perception continued, they posit, it would be an invitation to disaster which such folly would then deserve.
Robert C. Ruark tells of Tommy
Stern, publisher of the New Orleans Item, having parlayed a
non-existent talking mule, Francis, into an industry and touched off
a fashion in talking animals which threatened to put human actors out
of business. He had invented Francis while in the Army during the war
as a second lieutenant, working for the Army-Navy Review,
looking for something of a lower station than his own. He received
$20 per story. Eventually it caught on with other magazines and
finally became a book, then a cheap movie
Other film companies, in the meantime, had fourteen movies in the works about talking animals.
Animals were cheaper than actors and actresses in movies and did not pitch tantrums and refuse to act. Nor did the animals quarrel about their lines or miss their cues, make unwise marriages or wind up in messy divorce scandals.
Given the previous fame of Rin Tin Tin and Mickey Mouse, it appeared that people preferred human actors only in the absence of dumb animals. With mules on the silver screen, there was no longer any need, he finds, for Sonny Tufts.
A letter from the president of J. W. Goodwin Engineering Co., Inc., a firm active in the construction of natural gas systems, responds to the editorial of June 22 anent the supply of natural gas to the Carolinas. The company had reviewed the rates being charged in the Carolinas for manufactured gas and found that they could be reduced by a quarter to half by the installation of a municipally-owned and operated system. Very few of the pipeline companies, he instructs, wanted to supply gas to such systems. He advises that Charlotte would be wise to follow the advice of the editorial.
A letter writer from Pinehurst, who had written during the Senate runoff campaign some controversial thoughts, congratulates the newspaper for making the forum available to letter writers on both sides during the campaign.
A letter writer invites contributions of time to the Shut-In Society which helped bring cheer and comfort to the incapacitated.
Framed Edition
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