The Charlotte News
Monday, January 29, 1951
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports of resisting Communist Chinese soldiers dying in their foxholes while seeking to stop the allied offensive toward Seoul, reaching to within ten miles of the former South Korean capital. The U.S. Eighth Army reported advances up to three miles along the 40-mile long western front.
An American regimental commander described the Chinese effort as a delaying action, allotting about one Chinese company to each hill. The allied object was to dig them out, as they tried to stay in their foxholes and die fighting.
The five-day advance had been slowed earlier by enemy counter-attacks. The largest attack occurred three miles northeast of retaken Suwon, where an enemy battalion attacked after midnight Sunday and carried on the fight for two hours before it quieted to a skirmish which continued long after daylight.
In the same area north of Suwon, 36 P-51 fighter bombers dropped 8,000 gallons of napalm, in the heaviest Mustang mass attack of the war. About a hundred enemy soldiers were killed and 240 buildings destroyed. The leader of the attack said that the fliers left behind "30 miles of fire burning".
An Eighth Army communique said that the allies were in the strongest position they had enjoyed since the prior November when they were forced to retreat from the Yalu River line after the entry to the war by the Chinese.
At the U.N., the twelve-nation Asian-Arab bloc altered their latest peace proposal in an effort to prevent U.N. approval of the U.S.-sponsored resolution to condemn the Communist Chinese for their intervention in Korea. The new proposal called for an immediate seven-power conference on China and Korea, at the first meeting of which, the confreres would agree on a ceasefire and only then proceed to further deliberations. A previous proposal, which provided for the meeting without a ceasefire arrangement, was met with objection from many members, including the U.S. The U.S. remained opposed to the revised proposal and continued its commitment to passage of the resolution to condemn Communist China, opposed only by the Soviet bloc and the Asian countries of India, Indonesia and Burma.
In London, Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced to Commons that Britain would call up 235,000 Army reservists for 15 days of training during the summer and that the Royal Air Force would recall 10,000 officers and men from its reserve, also for 15 days of training. Most of the reservists would be men who had served as inductees between the end of World War II and the beginning of 1949. He said that the total strength of Britain's armed forces would be 800,000 by April, compared to 682,000 the prior April. He indicated that the expanded defense program would cost in American dollars about 13.1 million over the ensuing three years, about 30 percent more than the ten million estimated the prior September.
Senator Edwin Johnson of Colorado proposed enlistment of a million Western Europeans in the U.S. Army as a "foreign legion" to supplant the need to draft eighteen-year old Americans. He said that he would not oppose volunteers from countries behind the iron curtain, including East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland. After five years of service under the proposal, the soldiers would be able to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas, chairman of the Senate Defense Preparedness subcommittee, suggested that Congress tighten deferments for those 19 to 25 and consider taking single and married non-veterans to alleviate the need to draft 18-year olds, as being sought by the Defense Department.
Selective Service ordered an additional 30-day deferment for an estimated 30,000 college men who were members of mid-year graduating classes, to allow them to obtain jobs in essential industries.
Price and wage stabilization officials began working through the task of removing inequities from the general wage and price freeze ordered Friday, by selectively allowing exemptions. Four million Federal, state, and local government employees would be exempted from the wage freeze, as well as employees of small farms, all of whom had been exempt from controls imposed during World War II. Under the Defense Production Act passed by Congress the prior August, giving the President authority to implement the controls except on food, whole industries, including newspapers, radio, television and movie theaters, were exempt as well from the wage freeze. The wage board would likely allow wage boosts to industry of ten percent above January 15, 1950 levels, with the only issue being whether to include pension and other benefits as part of wages, vigorously opposed by labor members of the board but favored by other board members representing industry. The issue would turn on the votes of the three public members, including the chairman, Cyrus Ching.
The President would speak Saturday in Philadelphia at the dedication of a chapel in honor of the four chaplains of four different faiths who had died in the sinking of the Dorchester during World War II.
In retaliation for restrictions placed January 2 on American diplomatic personnel in Hungary, the U.S. Government placed a restriction on Hungarian diplomatic representatives such that they could not come within 18 miles of the White House.
In Washington, Harold Ambrose was sentenced in Federal court to two to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to engaging in stamp fraud while employed as special assistant to the Postmaster General. The court rejected a plea for probation as the defendant wept. He had pleaded guilty to one of 22 counts and the remainder were dismissed as part of a plea bargain. Prosecutors said the defendant, operating a "Ponzi scheme", had obtained the trust of gullible investors after he promised them rare commemorative stamps for resale at high profits. Early investors received high profits but late investors lost money, a total of about $250,000. He had taken in between $600,000 and $750,000. Gambling kingpin Joe Adonis was listed among those who had subscribed to the scheme.
If he lost money, he may be sending the postman to your door to ring twice while you're in prison.
Tom Fesperman of The News, in the first of a series of five articles on Army life, reports from Fort Jackson, S.C., finding it looking like an Army camp again after five years of neglect amid empty barracks. It now served as a training facility for troops headed to Korea or into officer candidate school. Generally, life was buzzing again around the camp, making things appear as they had during World War II. The theaters were showing a different movie every night, with Gene Autry or another cowboy leading the bill on Saturday nights.
He done come to Charlotte in 1938 at Christmas. You remember?
But underneath the surface, there were differences. The camp hospital did not have a single patient. The V.A. had a major establishment on the post. There were more pickup trucks than jeeps. Company officers used their own personal cars for trips around the post because of a shortage of Government vehicles. The Reception Center was not such a place of confusion as a decade earlier. And all the men were more nearly the same age, in their early twenties, rather than 18 to 40, as during the war. Married recruits were few, with almost none having children. The officers and non-coms wore patches from the war. There were many civilian workers, working alongside officers and enlisted men. A major said that someone had issued the order to push and that had become the watchword.
The 31st Infantry Division of the National Guard had arrived the previous week from the deep South and was the largest outfit on base. The base had been home to the Eighth Infantry Division during the war, before it went to fight at Brest, in the Hurtgen Forest in Germany and along the Ruhr. The Eighth was still present in camp but it was a different unit, serving as a fourteen-week training division for recruits and draftees from seven Southern states. They were not ready to go overseas, having been civilians until the prior November and December.
On the Feature Page, columnist Erich Brandeis comments on the tendency of Washington to treat the public as children, exhorts the Government to level with the American people and tell the truth rather than lie.
If you are blessed with 20-20 foresight, Mr. Brandeis, you will go straight to Senator Nixon today and provide him a dedicated lecture on the subject for several hours, until he pledges, in writing, never again to lie or obfuscate the truth while in public office. Believe us when we tell you from our vantage point that it will do the progeny of the nation reaching their majority in about twenty years, not to mention Mr. Nixon, himself, a great deal of good.
And if you are reticent about being so temerarious as to approach an individual Senator on the subject, you might call upon, as your surrogate, Congressman Kennedy, and suggest that he go over to the S.O.B. and speak with the Senator, as we think he will demonstrate amply in the coming years that he has the right idea
According to the "Our Weather" box, the temperature beneath a snowdrift is about 50 degrees warmer than at the surface and provides insulation to the ground from frost, making crops grow better in the spring.
So, the next time you get caught in a blizzard, just remember to build yourself a quick igloo and crawl inside, especially if you have no dog with you.
On the editorial page, "The Wage-Price Freeze" finds that speculation by business and investors as well as panic buying by consumers had brought about the controls and that there was no choice but to order it. The attempted voluntary system had failed. During the prior six months since the start of the war, Federal Government expenditures had been lower than in the previous fiscal year, the higher defense appropriations having only now just begun to be spent. The rampant inflation during that interim was thus unjustified. The people, recalling World War II, fearing imminent rationing, panicked and began buying up consumer goods. Indecision on implementing the controls also contributed to the problem.
Had, however, controls been implemented shortly after the start of the war, it allows, they probably would not have worked anyway, spawning black markets. The proper state of mind had to exist for them to work.
Adjustments would need be made to allow for wages to catch up with inflation, especially for unorganized white-collar workers.
New Economic Stabilization director Eric Johnston had said that successful administration of controls would enable them to be lifted within a year or two, and it hopes that he was correct. But, it warns, for that to happen, the American public and the Government would have to demonstrate sterner discipline than during the previous six months.
"The Luxury of Segregation" finds that if the South wished to preserve the "luxury of segregation", then it would have to be prepared to pay for it. A decision in Blue v. Durham the previous week by Federal District Court Judge Johnson J. Hayes held that the Durham Public School District was not providing a substantially equal educational opportunity to black children, insofar as buildings, recreation, music, art and library resources, with overcrowded classrooms resulting.
It is not surprised by the Blue findings and believes it would be upheld on appeal. The implications were that Durham County would either have to improve its facilities for black students or integrate, as would all other counties in the state. The cost would be enormous as the gap between black and white schools was tremendous.
The 1948 report of the State Education Commission had shown that in 1943-44, the highest investment per white pupil occurred in Currituck County, at $459, whereas the highest per pupil investment for black students was only $187, occurring in Stanly County. The lowest for white students was in Cherokee, at $40, and for black students, in Gates, at $2.13. In city school systems, the average expenditure for white students was $305 and for black students, $120. The Commission found in 1948 that the range remained about the same as four years earlier.
The Durham case had found that there was no discrimination in expenditure of funds by the State, and the piece asserts that the local boards would be wise to conform to the State's philosophy.
It restates its position that segregation was morally indefensible but also advises that with such a tradition in Southern roots, it would be hard to eradicate. Yet, as long as the Southerners preferred the system, they would have to pay the bill to maintain substantially equal facilities for both races.
As a subtle footnote, even a Federal judge, having been appointed by President Coolidge in 1927 to the Federal bench, so much a part of a bygone era that he did not bother to capitalize the word "Negro", at least save two of seventeen times in the opinion, had gotten the message that segregation was on its last legs, and so there was little excuse for the atavistic part of the populace in general. Yet, it would persist in railing against reality to preserve some silly notions of white supremacy, as those who most tenaciously clung to that belief, by inverse relation, were the least likely to seek shelter from the rain, to seek avoidance of the blast of an atomic bomb.
"The Legacy of Verdi" tells of the prior Saturday marking the 50th anniversary of the death
of Giuseppe Verdi, with the occasion having been marked throughout
the world, as the
Metropolitan Opera had given a performance of his Il Trovatore, and conductor Arturo Toscanini had led the NBC symphony
orchestra in a performance of Verdi's Requiem
The piece finds it a happy coincidence that his named translated to Joe Green, symbolic of the universality of his music. His contributions to the musical world of Rigoletto, Aida, La Traviata, and Il Trovatore were beyond calculation.
Some
critics had sought to denigrate him as being of a lower form of art
within the opera world. But the public desire for his works had not
diminished in half a century. When the organ grinder played "How
Fickle Women Are"
R. F. Beasley, writing in the Monroe Journal on his 80th birthday, looks back over his eighty years and finds that older people were fond of looking to the good old days, not because they were superior to the present, but rather because they had been younger, more active, and had more of a role in the community in the earlier times. He was fond of the past only because it provided the foundations for progress into the present and future.
He believes that democracy and free enterprise would ultimately be victorious over Communism, that tyrants would not reign for long against the basic impulses of the human toward freedom.
He concludes that he looked with pleasure upon the past, with faith for the future.
Drew Pearson tells of General Eisenhower disclosing to friends that he dreaded getting back into uniform and taking the position as supreme commander of NATO, that it would be tough to organize rearmament in Europe and that it would likely kill his presidential aspirations. But he had responded to the President's call out of duty.
The President had partially abdicated to the General the nation's foreign policy with respect to Europe. He would be given the job of convincing Congress of the necessity of sending American troops to Europe. The General had thus become a political figure, both as a liaison to Congress and in welding the necessary esprit de corps among the disparate interests in Europe. He had long been regarded as having greater proclivities to politics than to military operations. He had drafted General MacArthur's farewell address when the latter had left his post as chief of staff of the Army, and it was considered one of the greatest documents ever issued by a chief of staff.
His critics found him too political in directing the invasion of Europe in 1944. But he had to smooth the sensibilities of General Giraud, obtain the cooperation of General de Gaulle and dampen the desire for publicity of General Montgomery, while obtaining unity among the various armies of Europe. Americans had been irritated by the General's orders that there would be no criticism of the British during and after D-Day. He had also placed a British officer alongside each American officer in key positions where cooperation was essential. He would draw on this experience in his new role.
General Eisenhower's genuine dislike for war would enable him to get along with the war-weary Europeans who did not wish to do anything which might risk another general war. He had once told the graduating class at West Point that war was "mankind's most tragic and stupid folly", and that to advise it was a "black crime against all men". He said that as a soldier, one did not inherit any more courage, endurance or fortitude than other citizens. While the military arts and sciences were bulwarks of society, the "greatest of all is the spirit—the will—for freedom and justice".
As a schoolboy in Abilene, Kan., he had been called "Ugly Ike". He had encountered some difficulty in getting an appointment to West Point because he was a Democrat in a Republican enclave, but eventually obtained endorsement from the Republican leaders of Abilene. During school discussions, he had always championed the underdog, believing that the country needed a better distribution of wealth.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss the new price and wage controls imposed by the new economic triumvirate, Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson, and his two subordinates, Lucius D. Clay and Sidney Weinberg. They had designed the controls to afford a temporary stopgap to halt inflation for the duration of the Korean war and to facilitate the expansion of production of defense industries. Provided there was no general war, once the output had been adequately increased to meet both civilian and defense needs, they planned to jettison the controls, probably by 1953.
The Alsops look at steel production as the best example. Steel production was at 100 million tons per year but was still insufficient for both the civilian and defense demand, necessitating an increase of 15 million tons annually. To meet the goal, Defense Mobilization planned to build new plants during the ensuing 18 months, requiring more steel for the time being and thus providing a double hit to civilian consumption in the meantime.
In addition to more rolling mills and blast furnaces, more iron ore had to be mined and refined for steel production, plus more transportation had to be provided for moving it about. Also, the shortage of manganese, a necessary ingredient for steel hardening, had to be overcome. All of these problems had to be resolved in concert.
Moreover, the expansion of production would generate more income, the expenditure of which had to be controlled to prevent rampant inflation from increased consumption, producing strain again on the amount of sufficient production. Thus, stringent credit controls and increased taxation would need be imposed.
The Alsops regard it therefore as a test of American political maturity, to determine if the populace would accept the new controls. The Office of Defense Mobilization advised that it was best to do what was disagreeable at present and get the worst over with. The Alsops counsel that it would be childish to do otherwise.
Robert C. Ruark also looks at controls, but from a different vantage point, upset that it had taken the Government so long to impose them. The President had the Congressional authority to implement them since the previous August but, finds Mr. Ruark, had lacked the political courage to do so. Now, it would cost the taxpayers another 16 billion in inflated dollars for defense spending to produce the same necessary arms. This would necessitate the second tax increase of the year to meet the expanded budget, from 55 to 71 billion dollars, about the same amount which the 30 percent overall inflation had generated in war materiel, though only 14 percent based on the wholesale price index for all goods.
He regards the failure to implement controls earlier, thus saving the difference in inflated prices, to be nothing short of cowardice, when all the signals pointed to the eventual need for them.
He neglects to factor in that General MacArthur had advised Washington, the President and the Pentagon, that the war would be short-lived, over by Christmas, as he had insisted would be the case when he met with the President and Chiefs at Wake Island in October, hot on the heels of the success at Inchon and notwithstanding the known risk of the Chinese intervening in the war. So the hesitancy about implementing controls, which could depress the economy, recovered from its early 1949 slump, if the earlier controls had worked at all when their need would have been less clear to the public, was not quite as clear cut as Mr. Ruark's 20-20 hindsight would suggest—the clarity with which his friends down at the bar no doubt saw it, notwithstanding.
A letter writer replies to the letter of January 22 which had criticized the Reverend Billy Graham for his revival taking in an inordinate amount of money in Atlanta. He says that water was free but that the recipient had to pay to have it pumped into the house, and so it was with salvation. He believes that no preacher who was winning souls for Christ was ever overpaid.
Movie stars were paid huge salaries, as were professional ball players, and so he sees nothing wrong with preachers earning large salaries, as the worldly activities would fail at the Judgment, whereas winning souls would perform a lasting good.
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