The Charlotte News

Wednesday, February 7, 1951

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that allied ground forces moved forward behind three tank columns to the last hills guarding the plains leading into Seoul, as Americans, with bayonets fixed, drove a hundred enemy troops from vital heights at one point three miles west of Anyang. One task force reached to within seven miles of Seoul, while the two others, meeting resistance, reached points eight to ten miles away before making their customary nightly withdrawals. The enemy troops were digging in on the heights south of the city, with their backs to the still frozen but thawing Han River, preparing for a stand.

Allied artillery was now in position to shell Seoul. For the third straight day, allied tanks patrolled the southern approaches to the city, shooting up the enemy rearguard whenever they made a stand.

On the central front, U.N. forces, with South Koreans in the lead, moved toward the 38th parallel.

On the east coast, South Korean forces secured high ground three miles east and west and five miles south of Kangnung, seventeen miles south of the parallel.

The allies now had the initiative in the two-week limited offensive.

The Department of Defense announced that U.S. casualties in the war increased during the week by 574, reaching a total reported to next of kin of 47,388, the smallest weekly increase since the first summary had been issued in the war on August 7. The casualties included 7,014 killed in action, 30,941 wounded and 9,433 missing in action, 902 of the latter group having returned to American lines and another 102 of whom were known to be enemy prisoners of war.

Secretary of State Acheson charged at a press conference that the Iron Curtain countries were building up great armies beyond World War II peace treaty limitations, causing much of the tension in the world. He said it would be a prime topic of discussion at any Big Four conference, toward which, he disclosed, the Russians, in their latest diplomatic note, appeared to have moved grudgingly. He also disclosed that the U.S. was negotiating for the right to use military bases in North Africa and the Middle East and that the possibility of a Pacific pact would likely be discussed by John Foster Dulles during his current mission to Japan to conclude a peace treaty. He also said that, contrary to charges by Pravda, the U.S. had done what it could to facilitate settlement of Russia's lend-lease obligations from the war.

The President conferred with former President Hoover to seek advice and support on a proposed grant of two million tons of grain to India, which was suffering from famine in a poor crop year. Congressional support had been harmed by Prime Minister Nehru's friendship with Communist China.

In Woodbridge, N.J., 82 persons died and 500 were injured in a commuter train derailment, the worst rail disaster in the country since 1918. The Pennsylvania Railroad express train rolled onto a just opened temporary overpass alongside the regular overpass, closed for repairs, and then veered off the track and hurtled down a 20-foot embankment. The engineer said from the hospital that he approached the overpass at 25 mph, the limit, and his engine began to sway, at which point he knew that the rest of the train would not stay on the tracks. Passengers and at least one railroad detective, however, said that the train was going at top speed when it reached the trestle. The cause of the derailment had not yet been determined and the FBI had joined in the investigation to probe for possible sabotage. A 1918 train wreck in Nashville, Tenn., had taken 115 lives and a train wreck outside Philadelphia in 1943 had killed 80 persons. It was the third major train wreck in the New York metropolitan area within a year, taking a total of nearly 200 lives.

The "sick-call" strike of railroad switchmen, started January 30, appeared easing this date as more workers joined the back-to-work movement begun the previous day. Service was normal in the New York and New England areas. Still, however, the return had not begun full-scale. Not many trains were moving in St. Louis, Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul or in Chicago, where, along with Detroit, the strike had begun. The strike had rendered idle more than 250,000 workers in rail-related industries.

The Kefauver Crime Investigating Committee of the Senate heard testimony from Sheriff Frank "King" Clancy of Jefferson Parish in Louisiana, during which Senator Charles Tobey of New Hampshire interjected forcefully that if the Governor of the state, Earl Long, had any guts, he would kick out Mr. Clancy for failing to enforce anti-gambling laws. Mr. Clancy agreed. Mr. Clancy had refused on January 26, pursuant to the Fifth Amendment, to answer questions and the Committee voted to ask the Senate to cite him for contempt. He then sought the hearing of this date, saying he was ready to testify.

In Bethune, France, eleven coal miners were killed and seven were injured in a mine explosion 2,000 feet underground.

In Raleigh, the State Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments unanimously issued a favorable report on allowing a statewide referendum on whether to amend the State Constitution to reduce the voting age to 18. A labor group, representative of the State Federation of Labor, the CIO, and independent unions, appeared before the Manufacturing & Labor Committee to plead for passage of a proposed bill to repeal the law passed in 1947, which forbade in the state the closed shop, the union shop and involuntary checkoff system for union dues.

In San Francisco, Governor Earl Warren of California had been hospitalized with an acute pain in his right arm, possibly bursitis, following a severe cold he had suffered the prior week.

You went to the hospital for that?

Put some heat on it and hang ten.

A cold wave, swept by northwest winds, covered most of the central portion of the nation and was headed for Southern and Eastern states, as temperatures dropped to as low as 23 below zero, from Montana into the Mississippi valley.

The News this date again began publication in serial form of Fulton Oursler's The Greatest Story Ever Told, with the abstract of the first chapter appearing in part on the page. The newspaper had also published the abstract of the book the previous year during the weeks leading up to Easter.

On the editorial page, "Tax Now and Spend Later" urges that the Congress, if it were true to its responsibility, would follow the policy of taxing at present and spending later, rather than the reverse as in normal times. Now, the duty was to provide for enough revenue to cover increased spending on defense and promptly to limit pressures causing inflation. As soon as it passed the increased taxes recommended by the President, it should then tackle spending requests, after slashing non-defense expenditures. With such an approach, it opines, the Congress could achieve a balanced budget and immediately scotch inflation. It might even produce a surplus, which would have further deflationary effect to maintain the stability of the economy.

"The Strains in Russia" tells of Wallace Carroll, executive editor of the Winston-Salem Journal, having addressed recently in Winston-Salem the Business & Professional Women's Club, saying that there would probably be no war in the near future with Russia as Stalin would not risk it. He had just returned from a tour of Germany and he observed great discontent and opposition to the Communists among those living in the Eastern zone.

The piece suggests that while the country should never underestimate the power of Russia as a dictatorship, it was also not an indomitable force without major flaws in its system, and such a vision of an unerringly efficient bureaucracy should never predominate in Americans' perception of the Soviet state.

"On Fixing Responsibility" tells of the President receiving the blame for high Federal spending and taxes, but that Congress actually appropriated the spending and passed the higher taxes. While the President was charged with leadership responsibility to urge programs to Congress, it finally took the majority votes of both houses to pass the proposals. But it was hard to pin blame on 96 Senators and 435 Congressmen and so the President bore the brunt of it. It urges that people could, however, write their own Congressman and Senators with suggestions on matters.

"The $64 Question" tells of Defense mobilizer Charles E. Wilson having held a talk a few days earlier with a group of Senators, telling them that he did not think Russia would risk war because it respected the country's ability, gleaned from World War II, to produce rapidly, and that it presented a deterrent to attack by Russia before the country had a chance to prepare fully its defenses.

A piece by William T. Polk of the Greensboro Daily News, titled "No Place for Hushpuppies", recapitulates ground adequately covered by John McKnight on January 16, regarding the favorite dish of North Carolina, finds that there were many favorite dishes across the state, varying by counties, and that it was unlikely therefore that anyone would ever isolate one favorite dish of the state.

Drew Pearson tells of General Eisenhower, in speaking before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees regarding his recent two-week tour of the Western European capitals to determine their ability to participate in the common defense of NATO, having convinced every member present of his points, that Europeans generally were determined to fight Communism with the help of the U.S. but that the U.S. should not treat them as doing the U.S. a favor by fighting their own battles, that they had to demonstrate their own resolve.

He had also informed the Committees that Marshal Zhukov, former Russian commandant of Berlin, was now out of favor with the Kremlin, was driving around in an old Ford in need of repair.

Don't knock people who drive old Fords just because you drive around in a chauffeured Cadillac.

As the General stressed the importance of sea and air power, Republican Congressman Carroll Reece of Tennessee, formerly RNC chairman, inquired whether he was not minimizing the importance of the infantry. He responded that he never wanted to be associated with doing such a thing, that while the Air Force and Navy got the cheers, the infantry got the white crosses.

He said that the country would be "in a hell of a fix" if there were no unity with the allies in Western Europe. He then apologized to the female members present for his language.

Chief of staff General Alfred Gruenther said that the reason for the European determination was that General Eisenhower had sold them on the idea that they had to have the will to fight for their own salvation.

Price administrator Mike DiSalle, who had hired about two Republicans to every Democrat for the agency, had quipped to a Congressional committee that he might soon get so desperate to hire personnel that he would have to hire some Democrats. DNC chairman William Boyle initially did not understand the statement as a jest and became upset.

A quarter of a million civilians had been added to the Government payroll since the start of the war and another half million would be added by the end of the year.

Senator Joseph McCarthy's attack on Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine had aroused the ire of Democratic Senators Harry F. Byrd of Virginia and Pat McCarran of Nevada, both of whom came to Senator Smith's defense.

Senator Taft said that Senator McCarthy's floor speeches in the Senate were primarily for the purpose of obtaining more speaking engagements, for which he now commanded a $1,000 each.

Secretary of State Acheson had told friends that he would not resign under fire, no matter how bitterly Senator McCarthy and other Republicans denounced him, that history would, he believed, vindicate him while it would consider men like Senator McCarthy as "malicious crackpots".

The White House had hired "Jiggs" Donohue, one of the toughest lawyers in the East, to enforce price control.

The Communist Chinese were courting British and Swedish diplomats, suggesting that they become friends, provided they would cease amicable relations with the U.S.

Marquis Childs tells of Peiping radio, following passage of the U.S.-sponsored U.N. resolution branding Communist China an aggressor in Korea, having initiated a new blast of anti-American propaganda suffused with charges of imperialism and warmongering. The nations which supported the resolution now wished to know what the U.S. intended to do about Communist China. It was clear from news stories that influential elements, in and out of Congress, wanted to proceed with a war on the Chinese mainland as soon as possible. Most of the U.N. delegates found such a prospect daunting and foreboding of a nightmarish scenario, a trap into which Russia wanted the country to become enmeshed.

Congressman Walter Judd of Minnesota had suggested that the Government wanted to make use of the Nationalist troops of Chiang Kai-Shek on Formosa to attack the mainland. Such was a logical next step for Chiang's supporters.

Mr. Childs recommends a series of articles by Philip Potter of the Baltimore Sun, anent the potential cost to the American people of such a war, written from an unbiased perspective after a tour of Formosa by Mr. Potter. He found that the Nationalist leaders were determined to get the U.S involved in a war with China on the mainland, but that the Nationalist troops were trained with wooden rifles and were badly unequipped, far from ready for combat action. Chiang Kai-Shek, through his son, exercised rigid thought-control over the Nationalist army, with officers given preference on the basis of politics rather than military capability. That system had alienated General Sun Li-jen, trained in America and probably the Nationalists' most able military commander.

Officials in Washington maintained that there was no intention of taking any steps toward China which could be interpreted as even limited war. But that position could be altered and there would be pressure exerted to impose sanctions to follow up the U.N. resolution, which could include finally direct air attack on supply lines out of Manchuria or air and naval blockade. Whether such pressure could be resisted was producing consternation among the U.N. delegates.

Robert C. Ruark tells of a person probably never getting over having been a sportswriter, as he had been early in his journalistic career. For one who enjoyed sports, it was the perfect profession, combining fun with earning a livelihood. He and some of his pals who were sportswriters were laughing recently about spring training for baseball in Florida. During the annual prelude to the season, it was customary for writers to cover for each other to keep one from getting fired for over-indulging in alcohol, one writing the story for the other in such circumstances. One such person was a Washington writer who had taken time off in Biloxi, Miss., for a "monumental bat". Bob Considine and Shirley Povich were covering for him.

One night, the alcoholic met Messrs. Considine and Povich at the hotel and asked if they had yet completed his story, to which they replied that they had not even written their own. The delinquent writer said that he wished they would hurry as he was going out for cocktails and dinner, would feel better in knowing his story was done. Later, he placed the paper in the typewriter and dictated the byline, address of the copy , the night-press-rate and the dateline, and then told them to take it from there.

Mr. Ruark says that when he wrote sports, he was doing stories under others' bylines for two newspapers other than his own and even obtained for one friend a bonus and a letter of commendation from his boss. Once he inadvertently sent a scoop to the opposition and was chewed out by the writer for whom he acted as proxy.

Once a group of eight writers each filed stories for a reporter who was asleep in his stupor. His employers told him that while they did not mind him getting drunk, they would appreciate limiting his ghostwriters to one out of respect for wire tolls, and added that the third story was the best, wished to hire its author.

He found it fun and hoped to be a sportswriter in his next incarnation, but with a better club to cover than the Washington Senators and with fewer irresponsible friends.

Exactly what does this have to do with the price of eggs resulting from the war in Korea with China?

A letter writer addresses an open letter to Coleman Roberts, head of the local automobile club, and the legislators serving the county, regarding the proposed renewal of the automobile safety inspection law, which had been abrogated in 1949 after a two-year experiment resulting in long DMV lines and numerous complaints from motorists. He does not want the law renewed but agrees with Mr. Roberts that something had to be done. He makes several suggestions, to curb traffic violators.

Give them all life imprisonment, especially the slow ones who cause 90 percent of the accidents.

A letter writer, a "master photographer"—at least we assume that is what "m. photog." means, although it could be susceptible to other interpretations—, comments on an article, appearing in the February 5 edition of the newspaper, by Elliott Danzig, job consultant, titled "Your Job". He found it to be very misleading and inaccurate.

For one, the Photographers Association of America, he corrects, had their offices in Toledo and not in Cleveland. It had no facilities for teaching beginners but only maintained a school for further training of established professionals. Professional photography was not "lots of fun", as the article had stated, but a serious business, as being a lawyer, doctor or dentist. (How would you know?) Each member of the Association had to sign a Code of Conduct and abide by it. Beginners would gain nothing by writing to the Association. The best way to get into the business was to secure a position with an established photographer.

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