The Charlotte News
Wednesday, December 5, 1951
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that U.N. negotiators asked questions of the Communist negotiators for two and a half hours in Korea this date and received in return only one answer, that being to the question of what neutral countries the Communists had in mind when they proposed post-armistice inspections to ensure compliance with terms, to which they replied that they intended such countries as either Communist Czechoslovakia and Poland or non-Communist Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. They would not, however, be more specific as to what they meant by allowing inspections only of "ports of entry", a question reiterated 30 times by the allies, with the Communists stating only that they had already answered the question clearly. The two sides would again meet the following day.
A broadcast from Tokyo by the Voice of the United Nations Command accused the Communist negotiators of using double-talk to obtain political objectives through the back door, saying that their proposal to ban troop replacements when troops were sent home was an attempt to achieve foreign troop evacuation from Korea, and that their interests lay in building airstrips for war rather than rebuilding the country for peace, in reference to the Communist condition that there would be no interference with construction of airstrips during an armistice.
For the 30-day agreement on the buffer zone to be binding, the two sides had to agree to the other conditions for an armistice by December 27, or provide a reasonable extension of that date.
In the air war, American pilots reported that in 696 sorties, they had shot down five enemy jets and damaged five in the tenth straight day of jet warfare over North Korea. No U.S. jets had been lost or damaged. The enemy had sent about 230 MIG-15s into the air Wednesday, far outnumbering U.S. planes. During ten consecutive days of air fighting, the longest continuous span of jet fighting during the war, the U.S. had shot down 32 enemy jets, probably shot down one other, and damaged 31, while the allies had lost six jets.
In ground action, fighting was light as the U.N. troops repulsed squad and platoon-sized enemy probes in the central sector and no significant activity was reported from the western and eastern fronts. A U.N. raiding party, for the second night in a row, made a hit-and-run commando raid, attacking a vital Communist rail line south of Songjin. The allies suffered only two casualties and left an undetermined number of enemy dead. Casualties across the front dropped to less than one-fifth of the average rate.
The Navy was tightening its guard against an apparently increased possibility of enemy air assault on U.S. and allied ships off the east coast of Korea, as increased numbers and boldness of enemy jet planes had been observed in that area in recent days, until then, the exclusive domain of planes from U.S. Task Force 77. The increased flights were interpreted to mean that the enemy was seeking to contest U.S. naval dominance of the air over the northeast coast just as the enemy had challenged allied air supremacy over northwest Korea, and/or that enemy pilots were being readied for the first serious attack on allied surface ships.
In Belgrade, Yugoslavia freed Archbishop Stepinac from imprisonment while making it clear that the Government would not approve of him resuming his duties as chief prelate of the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia. He had been sentenced five years earlier to 16 years in prison for alleged wartime collaboration with the Axis and postwar plotting against the regime of Marshal Tito, charges which he had denied. He said in an interview the prior April that he was not willing to leave the country as he did not feel guilty, and would leave it to the Holy See to work out any compromise.
In the Philippines, a Government official estimated that 2,000 persons had died in the previous day's eruption of the Hibok Hibok volcano on Camiguin Island. The volcano had erupted a second time the previous night, about ten hours after the first eruption. Ten villages on the island were believed to have been destroyed and it was thought that 80 percent of the inhabitants had perished.
In Buenos Aires, a bomb exploded in an Argentine navy club, damaging the building and shattering shop windows. No one was injured and no arrests were made. It was the fourth mysterious explosion of a bomb in the downtown area in the prior two months.
In eastern Venezuela, a pipeline explosion killed nine oil workers and injured three others seriously. The cause had not been determined.
In New Orleans, a rare tornado ripped through the community, causing about a million dollars worth of damage but resulting in no injuries.
Before the House Ways & Means subcommittee investigating tax fraud prosecutions, Frank Nathan, accused of an attempted $500,000 tax-fix "shakedown", testified that he had gone to racetracks with former Assistant Attorney General Lamar Caudle, formerly head of the tax division. He said that he was "pretty positive" that he had never talked with Mr. Caudle about tax matters and that when several people had approached him regarding tax matters, he had told them to hire a lawyer. He said that his main business was making deals and acknowledged knowing a Charlotte businessman who Mr. Caudle had admitted in his earlier testimony had sold him three automobiles at a discount while the businessman's tax returns were under investigation. Mr. Nathan said that his only dealings with the man was in the purchase of a car about 18 months earlier. A Chicago lawyer, who had at times represented Capone interests, had told the subcommittee the previous day that Mr. Nathan and another businessman had sought $500,000 from him on the basis that he would encounter "tax troubles" and possibly go to jail if he did not retain their services. The subcommittee had not yet asked Mr. Nathan about this matter. Subcommittee chairman, Congressman Cecil King of California, read a statement saying that there was no evidence that high government officials had taken part in this attempted "shakedown". Congressman King denounced Mr. Nathan as an attempted influence peddler and scolded Mr. Caudle for associating with him.
Charles Oliphant resigned as chief counsel of the IRB on the basis that he had been "the target of attacks, vilification, rumor and innuendo beyond the point of human endurance." Mr. Oliphant had been mentioned repeatedly in testimony before the subcommittee, including by the Chicago attorney who said that Mr. Nathan, as part of his attempted "shakedown", had mentioned Mr. Oliphant as one of his "connections" in Washington. Mr. Oliphant had called the claim "ridiculous".
In Freehold, N.J., former boss of the New Jersey Democratic Party, Frank Hague, listed his present total wealth at over two million dollars, in response to interrogatories propounded in a libel action filed by a Jersey City lawyer seeking two million dollars in damages.
In Providence, R.I., a bartender who had spent months in his bar's basement making two giant candles to set in front of his bar at Christmas could not get them through the cellar door and so had to break a passage through a wall of an adjoining building to enable access to the outside.
What was the adjoining building, a bank?
On page 10-A, the ninth installment of the 12-part serialization of Senator Taft's recently published A Foreign Policy for Americans appears, regarding his views on U.S. obligations under NATO.
On the editorial page, "Product of Misunderstanding" finds that until there was some evidence to the contrary, it should be assumed that the County Commissioners' decision to block the runway extension of the Charlotte Municipal airport was the result of misunderstanding, as any other explanation of such a serious error in judgment was unthinkable. No one had bothered to invite official representatives of the U.S. Air Force or the National Guard to explain to the Commissioners and the citizens who lived near the airport and were complaining already about the noise from increased air traffic, the full details of the project and its importance to the national security program, as the extended runways were necessary for Air National Guard jet training, while also being a boon to the future of air travel in the region.
An official of the National Guard had given the first full explanation in the newspaper the previous day and the piece finds it easily understood. Charlotte had been selected as a base years earlier because of the large number of reserve pilots living there. The squadron had since been activated and provided distinguished service in the Korean War. Because of the long-term defense program, it was proposed to re-establish the squadron in Charlotte when its active duty was completed. The existing 5,000-foot runways needed to be extended another 2,000 feet to accommodate the Guard's requirements since 1947, when reliance for national defense shifted to jets. The longer runways would also decrease the probability of fatal crashes in the vicinity of the airport and thus provide safety to the surrounding residents, and were also important therefore to the safety of the members of the Guard.
The piece thinks that if the official's analysis had been presented to the Commissioners at an earlier public hearing, they would have had little choice but to vote in favor of the runway expansion, and it suggests that the people of the community would expect and demand that they reverse their decision.
"Churchill Avoids His Baby" tells of one of the most surprising results of the recent Strasbourg and Rome conferences of European and American legislators and political and military leaders having been the reluctance of Britain to go along with the European Union idea. Prime Minister Churchill had been an advocate of it and most observers therefore felt that his return to office would provide impetus to the movement. But his Government now seemingly distanced itself from the idea. Scandinavians and some Belgian and Dutch leaders also were less than enthusiastic, while France led the movement toward it. West Germany was reported to be ready to join a European federation, provided its neighbors lost their fear that it would seek dominance.
Several of the U.S. legislators who participated in the Strasbourg Conference urged that further U.S. aid should be withheld until European unification took place.
The piece looks at some of the arguments against European union posed by its critics. Both Labor and the Conservatives in Britain feared that federation with Europe would damage its ties with the British Commonwealth and with the U.S. It favored instead a loose framework of Atlantic Union, including the U.S. The Netherlands feared Germany would dominate, even if its partition were maintained. It also favored more of a NATO-type alliance, with America's influence acting as a brake on the potential for German dominance. The Norwegians favored this latter concept for economic reasons, as an Atlantic Union would create more diverse economic community than a European Union.
General Eisenhower had summed up the free world's problem at the Rome meeting when he urged pooling of sovereignty. The piece finds that the free nations were in the same boat but that each was captain of a different part of it.
"Caesar Was So Right" tells of a change in attitude among Italians regarding collection of taxes. Whereas in the past, citizens had regularly maintained two sets of books, to which the tax collector paid little attention, focusing on possessions, while any citizen who declared his true income was suspected of insanity, in 1951, an estimated 3.5 million Italians had filed returns, as the Marshall Plan had insisted on the change if Italy was to continue to receive American aid. Simplified tax returns and more realistic taxes had also encouraged the process. The tax reform had also brought about land reform under which wealthy absentee landowners were receiving compensation for their declared value plus ten percent, resulting in those landowners who had understated the value of their land to miss out.
It concludes that it had been a long time since Caesar Augustus had decreed, as recorded in Luke, that "all the world should be taxed", but it had now come home to roost in Italy. "Caesar's seizures cease not."
A piece from the Shelby Daily Star, titled "For Our Children", says that while in the past it had never questioned what Santa Claus was bringing to the children at Christmas among the toy guns, swords and daggers, this year, it finds, he may have gone too far. A story out of Providence, R. I., told of a tour by a newsman through toy stores, finding on display complete roulette wheels, electrical pinball machines, horse race games, dice and a small slot machine. It offers that there was no better teacher than a toy and it appeared that the country was determined to provide youngsters with the lessons of "underworld skulduggery".
That's a lot of hogwash. If anything, children playing with cards and poker chips or what have you, learn early, with small or no monetary stakes in the offing, that gambling is a fool's sport in which no one ever really comes out on top. Likewise, with respect to toy guns and the like. Rather, it is likely the sanction-backed suppression by parents of access to such toys or the failure to observe how children might be using such toys, not providing instruction as necessary on their proper usage and appropriate place, which leads to use and abuse of such instruments as adults.
Drew Pearson presents his brass ring to Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, about whom those who worked with him said that there were only two things wrong with him, that he was seldom around the Justice Department and that his aspiration to the Supreme Court made him afraid to make enemies. Mr. McGrath had entered the job expecting to be elevated to the Supreme Court within a year, as Justice Stanley Reed's health had been failing and he had been expected to retire. Instead, he recovered, but the policy under Attorney General McGrath of offending no one, a pattern he had adopted early in life, had continued.
Growing up in Rhode Island, he had gotten to know most of the Irish through his father who sold Knights of Columbus insurance. He had married the daughter of the leading French-Canadian and so endeared himself to the large French population within the state. He had also formed a law partnership with the leading New England blue blood of the state, former Senator Theodore Green. He also formed a political partnership with Italian-American Governor John Pastore who acceded to Mr. McGrath's seat in the Senate when he was appointed Attorney General.
As a Senator, he had an excellent record and as Attorney General, had never failed to take up a case involving civil rights or human tolerance. Yet, the men below him in the Justice Department brought few such complex or forthright cases to him for decision, as he was not around much and such cases were contrary to the atmosphere he had created at the Department of not stirring the waters.
His subordinates were not encouraged to bring tax prosecutions, as they were aware that Mr. McGrath had once been a leading figure in a legal tax-avoidance foundation which was set up as a charitable trust, though it operated huge textile mills, paying Mr. McGrath a $15,000 salary as a figurehead. He had also long been part-owner of the Lincoln Downs racetrack, though taking no part in the gambling surrounding the track. He had also not taken any definite stand on the deportation of gambling kingpin Frank Costello after it was discovered that he committed fraud in his naturalization papers.
Mr. Pearson goes on to provide some more biographical detail of Mr. McGrath's connections and concludes that his human reactions were the best, as he liked people and they liked him, and so he hated to prosecute. He suggests it might account for why the Department had not prosecuted certain witnesses for nearly a year after they provided perjured testimony against Assistant Secretary of Defense Anna Rosenberg during her confirmation hearings, or in the Maryland election cases. He says that one could not blame Mr. McGrath, therefore, as he was never cast for the role of Attorney General.
Marquis Childs, in Rome, tells of the peril of Communism which had threatened Italy four or five years earlier having now definitely dissipated. The Minister of Interior, Mario Sceba, and the Minister of Defense, Randolfo Pacciardi, had been largely responsible for instituting methods which resisted the threat of internal takeover. The latter had built up the morale and effectiveness of the new Italian Army while staying within the framework of the restrictions of the peace treaty. He had implemented a program of re-education for democracy within the Army and maintenance of high standards of health, sanitation and food. Some observers in Rome believed that the controls had been too restrictive, with the result that capital expansion had been checked and the appearance created of monetary stability by virtue of renewed production, when two million were listed as unemployed, the latter indicative of problems not reached by the surface recovery.
There remained terrible poverty, both urban and rural, particularly in the south where overpopulation was the worst. Land reform could help the farm situation where narrowly held wealth prevented taking risks necessary to expand production. The wealthy landowners also opposed equitable taxes, which prevented expansion of industry as well, preventing growth of the economy. Marshall Plan aid had helped to improve conditions, but the overall economic structure was still debilitated by the lack of competition.
By the fact of the U.S. shutting off trade with Eastern Europe, a market had been taken away for Italian trucks, motors, and other such goods which had been highly important to the Italian economy before the war, in part leading to the high unemployment.
Despite these problems, Italians knew how it felt to be comparatively free again. The Communist vote was still approximately one-third of the electorate, but even the skeptics believed this result to be, for the most part, a heritage of disaffection rather than true allegiance to the Communist ideology, and that this residual effect would dissipate in the face of growing prosperity. He concludes that such an economic climax could not be predicted with certainty in the coming months.
R. M. Boeckel, writing in Editorial Research Reports, tells of Senator Taft being the featured speaker on December 5 in Los Angeles before the house of delegates of the AMA, at which time he would provide his latest ideas on the Truman Administration plan for compulsory health insurance and his own medical care plan. The Administration plan would provide medical, dental, hospital, drug, nursing and auxiliary services for all persons covered by Social Security and their immediate families, and would be financed by a payroll tax of 1.5 percent of the first $4,800 of annual earnings on both employers and employees, plus a Federal contribution of a half percent of payrolls during the first five years and one percent during the ensuing three years of the plan. The President was expected to urge again passage of his plan by Congress in January.
The President might opt for support of the plan promulgated by Social Security administrator Oscar Ewing, which called for free hospitalization benefits for persons over 65, which, according to Mr. Ewing, could be paid for from present old-age insurance funds. Opponents of the compulsory medical insurance plan saw this plan, however, as an entry point for socialized medicine.
Based on the proposals submitted since 1945 by Senator Taft, his plan would provide free medical, dental and hospital services to indigents and others not capable of paying all of their health care costs. It would be paid by a 1.25 billion dollar Congressional appropriation over a five-year period, which would then be matched by state funds. States could pay the premiums to voluntary health insurance associations or make direct payments to private or public agencies. This plan would provide more extensive benefits to many of the same persons who would benefit from the Ewing plan, but was condemned by the Administration as "a system of poor-man's medicine involving a means test".
Senator Ralph Flanders of Vermont had proposed a third plan, which would provide Federal-state subsidies to voluntary health insurance associations, with patients charged on the basis of their incomes. The difference between the payments and costs of medical care would be made up by the subsidies.
A letter writer from McBee, S.C., finds that America was great because it was a nation of many races, creeds, colors and religions, diversity which was not a hindrance, "but a mark of quality that is distinctly American."
A letter writer responds to the
letter of the Golden Rule Temperance candidate for governor, who had
written suggesting having the State sell liquor for medicinal
purposes at the county courthouses, under supervision by a deputy
overseen by a group of 300 elected officials subject to recall, with
records kept of the sales. This writer suggests that it would result
in a program under which purchasers of the medicine
He would favor a gubernatorial
candidate who would stand for re-establishment of "this
wonderful oasis of decent and general living, that true symbol of
civilization
Incidentally, as a point of information, we purchased the album on which that song linked above appears, on a cold day in late December, right after Christmas, 1970, at the Record Bar in Chapel Hill—at the time, nearby Hector's and the gargoyles, over a year before "A Clockwork Orange", albeit after the book.
A letter writer thinks that Lamar Caudle ought be forgiven for any trespasses he had committed while in office for failing to prosecute tax evaders vigorously enough, and that any tax evaders ought also be forgiven, in accordance with the Biblical injunction to forgive trespasses. She also thinks everyone ought provide their money to the poor, citing Biblical passages in support of her positions.
A letter writer says that people had the right to listen to the music which pleased them, that she liked folk music and good hymns more than other types, and agreed with the writer who had said of hillbilly music: "They may knock it but they can't stop it."
A Quote of the Day appears from the Lamar (Mo.) Democrat: "A lawyer was attending a funeral. A friend arrived late and took a seat beside him, whispering, 'How far has the service gone?' The lawyer nodded toward the minister in the pulpit and said, 'He just opened the defense.'"
We do not mean to be disrespectful to our former Presidents, but does it really take a week to bury one of the old boys? Or is it just a slow news cycle hereabouts around Christmas? For goodness sake, in 1963 when our President was brutally assassinated in Dallas at the relatively young age of 46, his body was permitted to lay in state in the East Room of the White House for a day and in the Capitol for a day, before the State funeral occurred on Monday after that horribly dark Friday. And then it was over. There was only scant news regarding the assassination the rest of that week, most of it focusing on the adjustment to the office of the new President and his plans for policy. Even then, some Republicans and ardent Nixon supporters complained privately of too much coverage of President Kennedy's death and funeral.
Or, maybe this over-indulgence in funerary arrangements for the prominent dead only applies to former Republican Presidents, as no Democratic President has died since the demise of President Truman in 1972 and President Johnson, less than a month later in 1973. At the same time, we do not recall extended proceedings lasting as much as a week for either former President Herbert Hoover in 1964 or former President Eisenhower in 1969. To the contrary, there was limited television coverage of the funerals, coupled with short, objective reflections on the past accomplishments and failures of each deceased President. Even Luce-published Life, with a Republican conservative editorial bent, devoted only three pages, with little text, to the death of President Hoover, albeit quite a lot more, twelve pages plus the cover and an editorial by Shana Alexander, to President Eisenhower, the latter perhaps benefiting not only from his wartime past as Allied supreme commander in Europe, but also from increasing nostalgia at the time for the seeming relatively calm status quo of the 1950's when contrasted with the ending turbulent Sixties, reflected in the recent election of Richard Nixon.
What has happened to society over the past forty years or so which appears to necessitate excessive reminiscence and effusive emotional outpourings, sans any critical analysis for the historical record, over the prominent dead?
The simple answer appears to lie in the advent around 1980 of 24-hour news, which needs something to fill the time and space. Perhaps, also contributing to the phenomenon is the internet and the perception conveyed thereby to those too young to remember the facts that the focused treatment of the assassination of President Kennedy has to be matched each time a former President dies, ignoring the sudden tragedy of that event and its obvious direct impact on the nation for it occurring to a sitting President, the last to die in office, while also blinking the actual, relatively limited reporting of even that tragedy at the time, though unprecedented in its continuous televised coverage, save sign-off periods, from Friday afternoon through Monday evening.
We suppose providing obsequies to
former Presidents, far beyond any plaudit they received during their
terms or in life, is better than engaging in yackety-yak about random
shooting attacks, auto chases by police, the claimed peccadillo of
the moment or the like
Pardon us, but we felt like kicking a little ass, today, as we suppose that is what great people do.
We do understand, of course, that, just as the late President Truman gained great stature in hindsight during the tawdry age
Anyway, we once ran on a track just a couple of hours after Vice-President Bush had, back in 1988. It did not feel any different from the other times since 1966 we had run on that track. We did not see any unusually giant footprints left among the cinders—or maybe it was paved by then. We did admire the fact, however, that he was out there running at age 64. The current fatso could benefit from following in those footsteps.
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