The Charlotte News

Thursday, October 18, 1951

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Chinese troops had suddenly abandoned a series of four key hills on the western front in Korea northwest of Yonchon, in the face of attacking U.S. troops, a ridge line for which the Americans had been fighting for two weeks in one of the bloodiest small actions of the entire fall U.N. offensive. The Chinese, however, had stiffened against the allies moving forward toward Kumsong on the central front, but the allies managed to capture two key hills, and were within three miles of the town.

In the air war, 22 B-29's dropped bombs on three Communist airfields and two other North Korean targets on Thursday and were not challenged by any enemy jets.

A C-124 Globemaster carried 165 wounded men of eight nationalities from Korea to Japan the previous day, the largest single airlift of wounded to that point in history.

Efforts to revive the truce talks took a hopeful turn as the U.N. liaison officers submitted a compromise regarding the proposal for a neutral zone around the new site for the talks selected near Panmunjom.

Moscow rejected a secret U.S. proposal that it act to bring about an armistice in Korea, offering instead to discuss the general causes of Cold War tension. The initial reaction by the State Department was that the counteroffer was driven by propaganda, but diplomats guessed at whether, given its wording, it was sincere. U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Alan Kirk, had made the overture to the Russians on October 5. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinski stated that the U.N. command had created the ceasefire stalemate with "all kinds of incidents", presumably referring to the Communist charges of U.N. incursions to the Kaesong neutrality zone, that the Soviets had supported the North Korean-Chinese position regarding a truce line in the area of the 38th parallel and offered Russia's "full and energetic support" of measures for the "successful conclusion of negotiations".

The President, in response to Mr. Vishinski's statement, which included a complaint about the President's recent comment that agreements with the Russians were not worth the paper on which they were printed, said that he was sticking to his statement in that regard.

The President made it clear at his press conference that he did not intend before mid-January at the earliest to announce whether he would run for re-election in 1952. He said repeatedly that he had not made up his mind. Asked what he thought about Senator Taft's statements regarding the big issues of the presidential campaign, he stated with a grin that he was also opposed to sin. The President also said that William Boyle had resigned his position as DNC chairman strictly because of his health. He said that the idea advanced by the American Political Science Association that political conventions be held biennially instead of only quadrennially had merit.

The President also said that General MacArthur's remarks before the American Legion convention the prior day that the General's opposition had "wrecked the secret plan" to let Formosa fall to the Chinese Communists was not based on fact and that the General knew it. An aide to the General said that he had no comment in response.

Columnist Joseph Alsop, during World War II a lieutenant on the staff of Maj. General Claire Chennault in China, testified before the Senate Internal Security subcommittee that the removal of General Joseph Stilwell from his wartime command in China was "the heaviest blow that could be struck to the Communists in China at that time." He said that former Communist Louis Budenz, who had earlier testified before the subcommittee, had committed three untruths regarding the supposed Communist-leaning advice to FDR by former Vice-President Henry Wallace after his spring, 1944 mission to China, by saying that the Wallace mission carried out Communist objectives, that his aide, John Carter Vincent of the State Department, had guided Mr. Wallace toward these conclusions, and that Mr. Vincent was a Communist at the time. The recommendation by Mr. Wallace that General Stilwell be dismissed, said Mr. Alsop, was a major anti-Chinese Communist move, as General Stilwell hated Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists, and had developed attitudes favorable to the Communists in China as far back as 1938, citing a House document which showed the fact. Mr. Alsop also cited excerpts from "The Stilwell Papers", based on the late General's diary, to support his statement regarding the General's hatred for Chiang.

In Egypt, British troops seized the only bridge over the Suez Canal in a "short, sharp" battle the previous day with Egyptian troops guarding it, resulting in two Egyptians being killed. A British Army spokesman said that the zone was quiet the previous night and during this date. The British had also opened fire on rioters and looters on Tuesday at a location in the zone, resulting, according to the Egyptian Government, in seven being killed. The British said that they fired in self-defense but, to ease tensions, were withdrawing their troops from the town where the incident occurred and leaving it to the control of Egyptian police. The British were expected to complete this date transfer from the island of Cyprus to the Canal zone of a garrison of troops in support of the 40,000 or more British soldiers and airmen in Egypt.

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, a British sea captain claimed that Russian airplanes had made an unprovoked bombing attack on his freighter near the Soviet port of Archangel on September 14, dropping three bombs, none of which struck target. In London, the Admiralty and the Foreign Office said that they were aware of the captain's claims but could not yet comment. His account suggested the possibility that the Soviets had failed to identify the ship and were trying to warn it to maintain distance from Archangel. The ship was carrying a cargo of Soviet timber, carrying on trade which was regular between Britain and the Soviet Union.

The President urged Congress to adopt a new compromise so that the multi-billion dollar tax increase package could pass before the end of the session, following the House rejection of the previous compromise bill. The President continued to urge a 10 billion dollar tax increase rather than the 5.7 billion dollar conference-adopted increase rejected by the House. House Majority Leader John McCormack of Massachusetts said that he hoped a new compromise bill would be ready by Friday.

At the American Legion convention in Miami, the organization demanded removal of the entire leadership of the State Department to restore confidence in U.S. foreign policy. It also called on the President to prevent strikes and slowdowns in key defense industries which, according to the Legion, had endangered lives of Americans fighting in Korea. It also urged Congress to pass laws which would provide the same punishment for draft dodgers as for deserters in the face of the enemy, presumably meaning the death penalty. William Green, president of the AFL, addressed the convention on its final day, saying that Congress had sanctioned "ruthless profiteering and price gouging" in the present price control laws.

In Berlin, it was reported that a Soviet zone farmer, who brought two small pigs, a cow and his 30-year old plow horse to West Berlin to trade them for a young horse, was arrested and placed in jail by East Berlin authorities and, after having been deemed by a court to have violated the law by taking livestock out of the Eastern sector, sentenced to a year in jail, considered lenient because he appeared to have gotten the better of the deal.

In Hong Kong, a Cantonese tobacco factory foreman flirted with a female worker and was sentenced to five years by the Chinese Communists under a law aimed at "wiping out feudalism in commerce and industry". The female worker promised to work harder than ever now that "the factory has been purified with democratic reform".

Pardon us for saying it, but it tends to smack of me-tooism.

Tom Fesperman of The News, having already stirred up a hornet's nest regarding smoking of cigarettes openly at Myers Park High School, now tells, on page 8-A, of an all-male home economics class at Central High School.

We look forward to the letters to the editor on that one. Someone is sure to suggest something to the effect, "What next, an all-girl football squad to contest all-male football squads across the county?"And where is the class to address the problem of unwed mothers running rampant through the high schools, not to mention the marijuanas?

On the editorial page, "Land and Foreign Policy" finds that Governor Dewey had been quite correct in his foreign-policy address, nationally broadcast on radio on Tuesday night, in which he had stated that the U.S. should stop trying to make the rest of the world over in its own image and begin to champion "Asia for the Asians—not for the Russians". He had said that the average Asian was interested in food and not two-car garages, gas stoves or green tiled bathrooms.

The piece adds that land reform also was key to providing the necessary food. It was the seed of revolution in such places as China, Indo-China and Iran, and even in Italy and Germany. In most instances, the problem was that the large landholders kept the tenants in virtual peonage by charging exorbitant rents. The U.S. had backed land reform in Japan under the occupation overseen by General MacArthur, transferring over 30 million tracts of land, about one-third of that cultivated, from landlord to tenant. After the reform, tenants worked only 13 percent of the arable land, whereas before the policy was put into place, it had been 45 percent. It suggests that the U.S. had comparable power to clean up the bad situation in this regard in Italy and Germany, but had delayed in doing so. And in giving aid to the French in Indo-China and the "Riviera-loving" Bao Dai regime, the U.S. had not strongly championed land reform as a condition. The same had been true in China.

The problem had been, chiefly by Republican opposition to such Administration-backed proposals as Point Four, that U.S. policy sought to support foreign capitalists, forgetting that the type of capitalism being championed was of a bygone era, representing imperialism by foreign business.

The piece urges that, as with the development of agriculture to produce modern farming methods in the U.S., the county agent, agricultural colleges and programs of aid to individual farmers could go a long way in these foreign countries to enable land reform and development of food-producing techniques which would stave off the conditions under which the tendency toward Communist revolutions flourished.

"A Mission That Failed" tells of former Senator Frank Graham's mission to India and Pakistan to try to effect a resolution of the dispute over control of Kashmir having failed, but not for want of plentiful effort, for which the country owed him a vote of thanks. The issues were complex, as just highlighted by the fact of the assassination of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan by a member of an extremist sect, angry at the Prime Minister's perceived moderate stance vis-à-vis India and the Kashmir issue, desiring instead a holy war declared against India.

The piece urges that the U.N. should not cease in its efforts to resolve the issue, given the explosive situation throughout the Middle and Near East.

"Often a Bridesmaid?" tells of Senator Taft running for the Republican nomination for the fourth straight time, and having been discussed as a candidate also in 1936, albeit not without precedent, as James G. Blaine had come close to the nomination in 1876 and 1880, before finally succeeding in 1884, and Henry Clay, who had sought the nomination in 1824, had been successful in 1832 and again in 1844, failing once again in 1848. Governor Dewey had tried unsuccessfully in 1940 before becoming the nominee in 1944 and 1948.

It suggests, however, that with General Eisenhower looming larger on the horizon as a potential contender for the nomination, the old proverb, "Often a bridesmaid but never a bride," might again come true for Senator Taft in 1952.

"Unity with Safeguards" tells of the U.S. belatedly pushing a neglected phase of its German policy, advocating eventual German unity on the basis of free elections overseen by the U.N. The new policy was the result of the effectiveness of Russian propaganda in Germany regarding unity and "free" elections.

Reuniting Germany would pose many problems which had to be considered and, with world tensions as they were, it was unlikely that there would be any new nationwide election held in Germany for a long time into the future. Since the Soviets preferred a controlled election, it was highly unlikely they would agree to the terms of the U.S. policy, and so the policy tended to expose the problems attendant with the Russian proposal.

A piece from the Baltimore Evening Sun, titled "On Changing Alleys into Lanes", tells of the city fathers of Wheeling, W.Va., having adopted a resolution to change the town's alleys into lanes, because of the perception of negative connotations associated with alleys.

The piece does not know from whence this connotation supposedly derived, as in France, there was no such negative association with an allee address, and in Britain, John Milton had once written, "I know each way and alley green." Moreover, Hogarth had dubbed the classic picture of urban degradation "Gin Lane".

It thinks the city fathers of Wheeling would have an uphill climb to convince town residents, however, that their alleys were now lanes, just as most people still read "undertaker" for "mortician" and "real estate agent" for "realtor".

Bill Sharpe, in his weekly Turpentine Drippings, snippets from newspapers across the state, provides one from Holt McPherson of the Shelby Star, in which he relates of a leading citizen having been using gasoline in the process of home cleaning, then thinking it unwise to leave it standing around and so poured it into the toilet and flushed it down the drain, only later to light his pipe while in the bathroom, causing an explosion which "left him with a very red face, among other anatomical incalescency."

Sam Ragan of the Raleigh News & Observer tells of the wedding ceremony of "jumping the broom" having originated, according to J. Parsons Brown, the Onslow County historian, from a Cherokee Indian ritual in which, for permission to marry, a test had to be passed whereby first the bride, then, if successful, the groom, had to jump over a pole held a distance from the ground, then if both were successful, make the final jump in unison into matrimony. If the bride failed the test, she was thrashed all the way home by her mother, the groom receiving like treatment for having selected such a worthless girl. If successful, a feast followed, after which the platter was broken, symbolizing the breaking away of all former family connections.

The Statesville Landmark explains how to pick cotton, for instance: "Anybody that chases rabbits through the fields don't know how to pick cotton or the ones that dart here and there across the field looking for large boles of cotton that is easier to pick don't know how to pick cotton or the ones that leaves part of the cotton in the burs or half of it on the ground doesn't know how to pick cotton." The piece was written, says the author, "because I believe you could tell the pickers and preserve the farmers' anger."

Mrs. Theo Davis of the Zebulon Record says that whenever she hesitated regarding cutting out a garment that could not be made right away, she remembered her mother saying: "Go on and cut it out. I never in my life saw a piece made that hadn't been cut; and I never saw many that had been cut and didn't get made."

And so forth, on, on, on, on and on forth, out.

Drew Pearson tells of there being interesting backstage reasons why Republican Senators were being insistent that Guy Gabrielson resign as RNC chairman. One was the fact that the RFC loan to the St. Louis printing firm which DNC chairman William Boyle was accused of arranging amounted to $565,000, relatively small when compared to the 18.5 million dollar loan granted by RFC to Mr. Gabrielson's company. Another fact was that, while the St. Louis printing firm was relatively small and thus the type of business which the RFC loans were designed to encourage, Mr. Gabrielson's company was quite large and backed by well-heeled investors, prime among which was Texaco, as well as others which Mr. Pearson lists. Moreover, Mr. Boyle had claimed that he only received a $1,250 legal fee from the printing firm and that when he became DNC chairman he sold his legal practice, though his partner continued to provide him annual installments, which Mr. Boyle claimed, along with his partner, were for the purchase of several cases, having nothing to do with the printing firm. By contrast, Mr. Gabrielson received an annual salary and fees totaling $201,000 from his company during the period when he was either RNC chairman or at least RNC committeeman from New Jersey.

Thus, many Republican Senators worried that the Democrats could, with credulity, exploit these contrasts to their advantage and at least neutralize any damage which had been done to the Administration and the Democrats by the Boyle revelations. The fact that Mr. Boyle had resigned from the DNC placed even greater pressure now on Mr. Gabrielson to resign his position.

The recent work stoppage by employees of GE's Lockland, Ohio, plant, Mr. Pearson notes, while delaying the production of strategic jet engines, was the result of a shortage of materials caused by an Alcoa strike, and the UAW unit at that plant had a no-strike record for which they were to be congratulated. Meanwhile, the entire jet engine production picture was bad, largely because of labor troubles at various factories making key components, such as at Borg-Warner. U.S. F-86's were the only jet plane which could match the Russian MIG-15's, the latter outnumbering the F-86's five to one because of the lag in production. The allies were losing more jets in Korea than the U.S. was producing.

Joseph Alsop suggests that the resignation of DNC chairman William Boyle constituted but a minnow in the fisherman's trove of much bigger fish. That better fishing ground could be found, he posits, at the Federal Power Commission or, moreover, at the Office of Alien Property within the Department of Justice. In the latter were General Aniline and General Dyestuffs, two inter-connected, formerly German chemical corporations which were making profits in 1951 of seven million dollars per year, both of which providing examples of profits to be made by knowing the right people.

Former Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, before he assumed that position in early 1949, had, during the war, been president of General Dyestuffs, bringing down a salary of $50,000 per year with little effort, as that corporation primarily consisted of a patent pool. He continued in the position for five years, until 1947, when, after Howard Hughes fired Jack Frye from the presidency of TWA, necessitating a new position for Mr. Frye, a substantial contributor to the Democratic Party and personally close to then-DNC chairman, Robert Hannegan, Mr. Johnson was removed in favor of Mr. Frye as president of General Dyestuffs. Mr. Frye now drew a $97,000 per year salary.

Meanwhile, the former general counsel of both companies had also been pushed out in favor of Louis Johnson's law firm, an effort to compensate Mr. Johnson for the loss of the position at General Dyestuffs. The law firm, in 1948, obtained $92,000 in fees from the two companies, in 1949, $87,000, and in 1950, $84,000. There were reports that Mr. Johnson was destined to become the buyer of the two companies.

No one, Mr. Alsop posits, should be surprised by this business-politics-government game benefiting Mr. Johnson through the Alien Property Office, and no one was suggesting any solution for the method of financing political campaigns and the need for a permanent-professional public service, the lack of which had produced such unsavory results. He suggests that perhaps the Boyle-hunting Republicans were ignoring the problems and forgetting about the big fish, "because so many of the big fish are friends of theirs."

Robert C. Ruark finds that the World Series had eclipsed in the public mind the visit of Princess Elizabeth to Canada, and, eventually, within a few more days, the U.S., as well as the gangland slaying of underworld figure, Willie Moretti. He suggests the phenomenon as the result of the need of the public to escape the many weighty issues of the day and the World Series having afforded that means at just the wrong time for Princess Elizabeth and Mr. Moretti.

"The folks mightn't trust Truman and his friends, but they know mighty well that a pitcher would dust off his grandmother to protect an earned-run average. Acheson is open to doubt, but DiMaggio ain't. The kids take dope, perhaps, and muggers abound, and you never know whether the man on the stand is telling the truth.

"But major baseball has stayed clean, despite all efforts to contaminate it, since the boys figured that basketball and football were automatic cinches for corruption. The big effort to debase it was definitely on until the professional football scandals and the basketball nastinesses came about, and the boys lost a little heart. The Kefauver emphasis on criminality further deterred the fix, and all the noise this year about general wrongdoing has halted a gang effort to 'organize' Ab Doubleday's heir.

"It is a sad thing that a simple sport like baseball is bigger than a Queen-to-be's visit or the murder of a top racketeer and bigger than the mess in Washington, or the implied doom of us all, atomwise, oilwise, diplomacywise. And the answer is easily as simple as the sport. All of us need something to hang onto, and darned if baseball isn't about the last best security we own."

So's, next time someone's ask you in Brooklyn, der, what's de Queen got to do wid Willie Moretti's untimely dimese, you's can answer right up der dat Mr. Ruark done said it so.

But how does that square with the thousands of people lining the streets along which Mr. Moretti's funeral procession passed? as chronicled in an editorial of the prior week. Will the same people turn out for the Princess? Do some of them sleep in a hole in the long and winding road?

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