The Charlotte News
Friday, December 14, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that the Communist negotiators in Korea had flatly refused this date to provide transparency in their prisoner of war camps, but said they would approve the rotation of 5,000 troops per month, provided that the allies accepted other Communist terms for enforcing a truce, under a new six-point proposal which the allies greeted as being little different from the unacceptable proposal of December 3.
Meanwhile, it was disclosed that the U.S. had alerted Sweden, Norway and Switzerland that they might be proposed as neutral nations for inspection purposes during an armistice.
In the air war, enemy anti-aircraft guns shot down three allied planes over enemy territory while U.S. Sabre jets destroyed one Communist jet and damaged three others. All of the Sabres and F-80 Shooting Stars returned safely from two engagements over northwest Korea and Pyongyang.
Meanwhile, ground troops stuck closely to their lines.
Charles Oliphant, recently resigned chief counsel of the IRB, admitted to the House Ways & Means subcommittee investigating the tax prosecution scandals, that he tipped off former Assistant Attorney General in charge of the tax division, Lamar Caudle, that his income tax returns were under investigation by Senator John Williams of Delaware, but denied that he had informed Mr. Caudle that the subcommittee wanted to see Mr. Caudle's tax returns. He also acknowledged that he had allowed a tax prosecution case to be dropped against a Washington company for tax deficiencies in the years 1942, 1943 and 1944, because of the interest of Congressman James Morrison of Louisiana in the matter, an action which he had taken despite instructions from his boss that the case should be prosecuted.
The Washington Post reported this date that the appointment of Mr. Caudle as Assistant Attorney General in 1945 had been "to a large extent" the reason for the resignation of an FBI agent in Charlotte's field office a few months later, that agent having since become a judge of the juvenile court in Richmond. The former agent had said that he felt that there was no use in continuing in his role as FBI agent if Mr. Caudle was going to head the criminal division of the Justice Department, as there was strong doubt in his mind whether any of Mr. Caudle's friends would be prosecuted. He said that about 20 other agents had kidded him that he was wasting his time involving himself in black market and stolen property cases as he would never get any prosecutions out of the U.S. Attorney's office, which was then headed by Mr. Caudle, and he found that to be true after working his "head off" for three months on one particular case, which wound up, six months after Mr. Caudle became Assistant Attorney General, with the man being convicted and fined $2,500 after the man had told him he had gone to see his friend, Mr. Caudle, who told him to see a lawyer during the process of the investigation, when the FBI agent sought to interview him and the man failed to keep his appointment.
The President conferred with Congressman Cecil King of California, chairman of the House subcommittee, for 35 minutes this date at the White House, after which Mr. King refused to reveal what the conference concerned.
A tax lien for over $51,000 was filed by the IRB against influence-peddler Henry Grunewald for income taxes allegedly owed by him and his wife for the year 1950.
Republicans in Congress, including Senator Taft, demanded that the President dismiss members of the Cabinet as part of his promised house-cleaning measures. Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin said that he would introduce a resolution for an investigation of the Office of Alien Property, which he called "a channel for distribution of plums and patronage." He said that there was a close relationship between those riding the gravy train and heavy contributors and fund-raisers for the Democratic Party. Senator Irving Ives of New York told a reporter that if the President believed the controversy over the scandals would die down before the presidential election, he was mistaken. In Los Angeles, Senator Joseph McCarthy told a press conference that General Douglas MacArthur would make an extremely good president and suggested that a younger man could be nominated to run with the General, such as Harold Stassen, Senator Styles Bridges or Senator Everett Dirksen.
Senator Richard Nixon of California told a reporter that he believed that the President's remarks the previous day that he had been acting continuously to keep the Government clean was "telling the country there will be no clean-up." He said that a minimum clean-up would include the firing of General Harry Vaughan, the President's military aide, Donald Dawson, another aide, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath and Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder. He said that the President, however, was determined to keep them, so that he could rely on their advice in determining what action he should take.
That nice young man wants to make and keep the Government clean as a hound's tooth. We vote for him.
Sumner Pike resigned as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission. He had sought to resign on October 31 at the end of his fifth year on the Commission, but, at the urging of the President, had agreed to stay until this date. The President accepted the resignation with regret. Mr. Pike had been the President's first choice to become chairman after the resignation of David Lilienthal, when Gordon Dean was appointed.
Because of the expanding military production, production of civilian items, such as automobiles and refrigerators, would be cut sharply in 1952, according to Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson, who said before the National Press Club that during the coming year, "there will be many more guns and much less butter." Civilian usage would only obtain about 50 percent of the usual amounts of steel, copper and aluminum during the first quarter, and substantial additional cuts would be made during the second quarter. Mr. Wilson said the production of new jet planes exceeded by many times the number of all kinds of planes lost in Korea and that the delivery of new jets did not reflect the progress being made in defense production, as many new planes had been produced but were as yet undelivered because of the need for minor adjustments.
In Cleveland, three men were laying a sewer line along a new street when the ditch collapsed after a steam shovel hit a water line 20 feet away, prompting one of the men to brace his back against some temporary planking on one side of the ditch and jam his knee and hands against the other side to enable the two other men, his partners for several years, to escape, after which he was buried by the planking and shale, dying as a result.
In London, King George VI turned 56 years old this date. His recovery from a serious lung operation in September was reported to be progressing. It would be the King's last birthday.
In Beverly Hills, movie producer Walter Wanger, in front of his wife, actress Joan Bennett, shot her agent in a parking lot, claiming that he had broken up his home. The agent was seriously wounded in the groin and leg from the two shots fired at point-blank range, and had undergone surgery for an hour and a half. One bullet had pierced the front fender of Ms. Bennett's green Cadillac convertible while she was sitting in it. Ms. Bennett said that she and the agent had been together during the afternoon on business and denied any romantic interest between the two. She said that she went to the M.C.A. building to see her agent and that they drove around Beverly Hills and Hollywood in his car, discussing a proposed television show for her and then returned to the parking lot. Mr. Wanger was booked on suspicion of assault with intent to commit murder and spent the night in jail, to be arraigned later this date.
What was the name of the show?
Will Mr. Wanger be able to make up with Ms. Bennett and live happily ever after?
Don't worry. He only winged
In Asheville, N.C., a "Snow Dance", scheduled for this night at the Asheville-Biltmore College, was canceled because of too much snow.
In Gastonia, N.C., a traffic cop who asked the City to light up a street at a busy intersection after he had experienced several close shaves with automobiles whose drivers had not seen him standing in the street at night directing traffic, instead received from the City Council a phosphorus-painted uniform so that he would be reflected in the car lights.
On page 3-A, another Gallup poll appeared, showing that Americans wanted to retain the country's membership in the U.N., with many saying, however, that the organization was ineffective.
On the editorial page, "What Was Behind the Caudle Appointment?" favors the House Ways & Means subcommittee seeking answers from Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark regarding why he approved, while Attorney General, the appointment of Mr. Caudle as head of the criminal division of the Justice Department in 1945 and then subsequently made him head of the tax division, a post for which he had no experience, and despite having been informed by the FBI in advance of the original appointment of "indiscretions" admitted by Mr. Caudle while he had been the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
It wonders whether Justice Clark had been mesmerized by Mr. Caudle's Southern gentility or charmed by his wily friends, or whether there was some hidden reason for bringing into the Administration such an individual who was a glad-hander and could serve, therefore, the purposes of higher officials in the Administration by ingratiating himself to others.
Despite the probe of Mr. Caudle by the subcommittee, it had been left to The News to reveal during the week that Mr. Clark had flown with Mr. Caudle in a private airplane provided by a man with tax difficulties and that Mr. Clark had known about the FBI revelations prior to the confirmation of the appointment, yet had allowed the appointment to be confirmed. It concludes that unless the subcommittee promptly examined the role of Mr. Clark in the matter, it would foster the suspicion that the subcommittee was protecting "the big fish at the expense of the small fry."
"Confusing the Czech Issue" refers to the Drew Pearson column of the previous day which recounted that the Defense Department was contending that the offer of the Communist Government in Czechoslovakia to return imprisoned Associated Press reporter William Oatis to freedom in exchange for delivery of the 22 million dollar steel mill for which the Czechs had paid in full in 1946 was blackmail, to be a misapplication of the word "blackmail", as it was, in fact, blackmail in reverse by the U.S. for refusing to deliver the steel mill for which the Czechs had already paid.
The truth was that the State Department had withheld delivery after the Communist Government had come to power in February, 1948, on the valid basis that delivery of the mill would be tantamount to placing ammunition in the enemy's hands. Thus, it would have been better for the Defense Department to reiterate this rational position rather than accusing the Communists of "blackmail" for merely demanding a steel mill for which they had already paid. It concludes that Government bureaucratic jargon was difficult enough without adding such confusing connotations to established concepts.
"Scandals Not an Issue?" tells of Governor Kerr Scott having said in the not too distant past that the President would be his first, second, and third choice for 1952. It suggested that he would support him, regardless of all the scandals swirling around the Administration.
It was likely the case that the President, himself, was not dishonest and had not profited illegally at taxpayer expense, but, nonetheless, his loyalty to subordinates had caused him, along with his past schooling in the Missouri maelstrom of politics, to overlook the moral shortcomings of too many in his Administration, for which he could not escape responsibility.
While the people might shrug off the freezer scandal and the fur scandal, they would likely not forget the income tax prosecution scandals, letting the crooks off the hook while Government officials took favors to look the other way.
It concludes that Governor Scott was a shrewd politician and that he might be right that the voters would ultimately return the President to office despite these scandals, but it hopes that he was wrong as its faith in the American people would be sorely strained if he were proved correct.
"'Fearless Fosdicks' in the VFW" tells of the VFW Americanism department publishing a little paper which on one side, was titled "How to Spot Pro-Fascists", while on its obverse provided instruction on "How to Spot Communists".
It proceeded then to explain that Pro-Fascists "like to identify themselves as champions of the United States Constitution and liberty, as Christians and God-fearing", favoring "'big business' or 'management' over labor", and expressed "opposition to international understanding and unity for peace, belittling United Nations' efforts".
Pro-Communists, said the little paper, used "such words as 'proletariat' and 'bourgeois'", declared U.S. foreign policies were not designed for world peace and described Wall Street as governing the United States.
It remarks that it knew numerous people who fit all of those criteria while being good, loyal Americans, either Republicans or Democrats. It counsels that defense against Communism and Fascism was not accomplished by such a simple formula and is distressed to find the VFW engaged in such pursuits. VFW members greeted each other as "comrade", as did Communists, but that did not mean that the two were of the same stripe. It suggests that the majority of members of the VFW likely agreed with those points and it hopes that those veterans would calm down the "zealous 'Fearless Fosdicks' who have lessened the stature of their organization."
Drew Pearson again discusses Henry Grunewald, the influence peddler who had managed deftly to stay behind the scenes, explaining how through political favors he had managed to stay off the hook after being caught by Senator Matt Neely's committee in 1950 for tapping the phone of Howard Hughes on behalf of Senator Owen Brewster and Pan American Airways to facilitate the sale of Mr. Hughes's TWA to Pan Am. Senator Joseph McCarthy had convinced Republicans on the committee, who initially wanted to join the unanimous Democratic majority in citing Mr. Grunewald for contempt of the Senate for failing to honor a subpoena to appear, to sign a minority report opposing the citation, which resulted in Mr. Grunewald getting off the hook, free to continue his influence peddling.
He provides a verbatim exchange between Mr. Grunewald and various Senators regarding his supposed medical condition which prevented him from reading newspapers, an excuse he offered as to why he was unaware that the Senate committee wanted to hear his testimony, though it was in all the newspapers. The next day, after the committee called his doctor to testify, Mr. Grunewald, apparently believing his doctor would not confirm the diagnosis, changed his testimony.
Recently, a high official of the
Munitions Board had wanted to purchase a fur piece as a 25th wedding
anniversary for his wife, went to a swank department store in
Washington to make the purchase and was directed by the clerk first
to a Russian sable costing $600, to which the official replied that
he would have to have something cheaper, whereupon the clerk directed
him to a stone marten fur piece at $335, to which the official
responded by asking whether or not the store had any mink on hand,
prompting the startled clerk to say: "Mink! Who would buy mink
in Washington? The market has been broken—broken in little
pieces. There have been no mink sales in Washington for two months."
The official, he concludes, settled for a silver comb and brush set
Marquis Childs, in London, tells of crowds shopping on Oxford Street in the West End amid massed Christmas lights along the facade of Selfridge Department Store, making life take on an air of prewar normality, as whole families browsed the aisles of plenty.
But despite these outward appearances, there was no escaping the fact of economic crisis, as the leaders of the new Conservative Government were well aware. Chancellor of the Exchequer R. A. Butler and his chief assistants were concerned with inflation while also trying to correct the perilous trade imbalance, with imports far exceeding exports, with the cost of imports of necessary commodities rising by inflation. The cost-of-living index during the previous year had risen from 115 points to 129, and indications were that it was going to continue to rise. During the previous two to three months, annual wage increases had been granted of between 450 and 600 million dollars, some of it due to hardship and some based on escalator clauses in contracts. On the nationalized railroads, freight rates had increased by ten percent, in turn assuring a rise in the cost of coal, which was on top of a wage increase of 75 million dollars per year to the miners.
The Conservatives had taken a conciliatory approach to Labor and were not seeking to blame the Government of Clement Attlee for the inflation, but rather were placing the blame on the Korean War and the necessity of rearmament. They pointed to the fact that they had eleven full divisions out of the country, which was unprecedented in time of peace, a condition which they blamed for the rampant inflation.
Robert C. Ruark discusses Lamar Caudle and rising taxes in the country, against the backdrop of the Administration not pressing the crooks for their taxes, while the wives of the people responsible for collection in some cases wore fur coats, circumstances which were bound to stick in the craw of the average voter in the coming year. He adds that while people might forget the other stuff, the fact that the President had appeared on the cover of Life recently in an aloha shirt, juxtaposed to the timing of the tax scandals, was one of the worst things which had happened to the Democratic Party, along with Mr. Caudle.
"And this we shall remember, because it hurt us on the hip. Oh, Mr. Caudle, that anguish in your rubber face was not misplaced. The slogan of the present party is pronounced easily: 'See-moan. See-moan.'"
Don't you worry, Mr. Ruark. That nice man, Mr. Nooson, or whatever his name is, is going to be coming to the rescue in the sidecar with the Gen'ral. You'll see. Ever'thang gonna be hunky-dory, A-okay, and hoopty-doopty, clean as a hound's tooth.
A letter writer agrees with another letter writer who had favored forgiveness of Mr. Caudle, says that he, as hundreds of others, had made mistakes and many others would, if the facts were known, also have trouble explaining themselves. She wants only one record clean, that being the one of her life on earth, and urges that if more people were concerned about that rather than taxes and making money, the world would be a better place.
A letter writer comments on the "Hall of Shame" editorial, finds it worthwhile and hopes that more names would be added to the list.
A letter writer responds to A. W. Black's letter of Wednesday, which had found the hypocritical spirit of Christmas only a temporary respite from the usual sniping and back-biting among humans, suggests that he go join the household of Joseph Stalin, concludes: "Here's hoping the spirit of Christmas lives on and on and I'm sure it will."
A letter writer finds from a casual glance at a story in the newspaper recently that women of Charlotte were not public spirited and patriotic, as the names of forty men were listed as donors of blood, while only seven women were listed, a result repeated on successive days. He wonders why there was such a big gap between the sexes, with nearly three times more men than women donating blood during a six-day period.
A letter writer compliments the newspaper's coverage of the Washington scandals and thinks that other newspapers ought do likewise. He favors the newspaper joining the Charlotte Ministerial Association to start a campaign to clean up the nation.
A letter writer comments on the Big Three Western disarmament plan being debated against the disarmament plan put forward by Russia, guesses that Russia would feign interest in the Western plan and then impose impossible conditions for it its ultimate acceptance, then accuse the West of causing its failure. He concludes that the Kremlin did not want peace because it did not serve their purposes of worldwide control. He hopes that the people would not be blind to this pattern of conduct.
Framed Edition
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