The Charlotte News

Monday, March 19, 1951

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that South Korean troops had swum the chilly Hongchon River in central Korea this date in pursuit of Communist forces withdrawing toward the 38th parallel. Eager to pursue the enemy, they had opted to swim across the river rather than wait for boats to carry them. American liaison officers counted 231 enemy dead after the ensuing battle, smashing the enemy from the front and rear. It had been the first action of any size on the front in over three days.

A U.S. armored patrol had thrown back an enemy platoon north from Seoul, which had attacked twenty miles south of the parallel.

On the eastern front, allied patrols probed to within a few miles of the parallel, moving northward against enemy small arms and mortar fire.

After a three-day silence, the Army disclosed that holding elements were seventeen miles from the parallel at five unidentified points and that patrols were operating an undisclosed number of miles north of those points.

U.S. jet pilots killed or wounded 300 of 1,500 enemy concentrated in the village of Kapyong, 32 miles northeast of Seoul.

Correspondent Tom Bradshaw relates that the Chinese Communist mind became more puzzling to allied commanders by the day. One school of thought had it that they were in full-scale retreat, citing the reports of prisoners of lack of supplies and food, while another believed that the Communists had something up their sleeve and were withdrawing with some purpose in mind, leaving small pockets of resistance in certain locations as delaying actions. The latter group believed that the prisoners' stories were planted and that the battle plan had changed after the Chinese had finished digging their foxholes and bunkers. Thus, the prospect of a spring offensive remained. But it was clear that the Communists had been hurt by the allied offensive during the prior two months; yet, along the 38th parallel were defense positions which the North Koreans had constructed for five years before the June 25 invasion of the South.

Six Western European nations, France, Italy, West Germany and the Benelux countries, agreed to the plan of French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman for international control of Western Europe's primary resources, including steel and coal. Britain, however, refused to take part in the plan. The cabinets of the six nations still had to approve it and then each parliament had to ratify it. There was still much opposition to the plan.

Former Mayor William O'Dwyer, now Ambassador to Mexico, testified in New York before the Kefauver organized crime investigating committee that the underworld meted out its own death sentences to violators of the gangland code in a "kangaroo court" usually held at night. There was only one order given, death. In many sections of the country, there was only one boss, as Albert Anastasia for Brooklyn. Mr. Anastasia, he said, was a suspect in a 1941 killing by Murder, Inc., the Brooklyn crime syndicate, for which Abe Reles was a witness when Mr. O'Dwyer had been District Attorney. Mr. Reles fell from a Coney Island hotel window while being held in protective custody and Mr. Anastasia, in consequence, escaped prosecution. Mr. O'Dwyer said that he believed he had fallen while trying to escape custody to avoid testifying. Senator Charles Tobey of New Hampshire took exception to this version of the death of Mr. Reles, saying that it differed from a version provided by Frank C. Bals, former deputy police commissioner, who had said that Mr. Reles intended to lower himself to the next story and then return to custody as a joke. Mr. O'Dwyer said that Mr. Bals had been a good police officer, while Senator Tobey described him as a "flat tire".

Parenthetically, to the stenographer who took down the testimony and to all other stenographers, the name is O. Henry.

But the record stands corrected: it was Greenie, not "Greene"...

A national television audience for the hearing, broadcast in nineteen cities, was estimated at between fifteen and twenty million, with 4.5 to five million locally in the New York area.

One female caller from Newark urged the committee to tell Mr. O'Dwyer to "shut up" and get Frank Costello back on the stand. She said that she was giving a television party for her friends, who were getting bored with Mr. O'Dwyer.

They obviously wanted to hear directly from Murder, Inc., rather than merely stories about it.

A woman jumped from a fourth-floor window and was seriously injured at an apartment house on Central Park West, where Mr. Costello lived on the 31st floor. She was said to be depressed over the death of her husband a year earlier.

He probably pushed her. Why else would they put him in the story?

In Key West, the President, on his three-week working vacation, received a report via telephone from his Democratic leadership regarding prospects for enactment of important Administration-backed measures, the draft revision bill and the effort to block his ability to send troops to NATO without Congressional approval. He would be returning to Washington the following Thursday.

The Senate, meanwhile, was threatening to go home for Easter recess at the end of the week, which would leave the body without a quorum for several days. Majority Leader Senator Ernest McFarland was urging action on the resolution regarding troops to NATO before any such walkout.

The Government said that farm prices would be brought under Government control whenever farm prices reached a level at which ceilings would be permitted, that is when they reached parity.

The United Labor Policy Committee was taking another look at its terms for returning to active participation in the Government mobilization program.

RFC director C. Edward Rowe demanded in writing that Senate Banking subcommittee investigators withdraw their charges linking him to influence peddling, with alleged contacts within the White House.

Another blizzard hit the northern Midwest states, though not as widespread as the two winter storms earlier in the month which hit the region. At Minneapolis-St. Paul, snowfall was measured at ten inches. Many counties in Iowa were snowbound in traffic.

On the editorial page, "Official Morality at a Low Level" finds that the five percenter and RFC investigations had disclosed such influence peddling in Federal Government that it left everyone with misgivings regarding the trustworthiness of the current Administration.

There was nothing illegal about a Congressman helping a constituent receive an RFC loan unless he did so in return for a favor or failed to disclose his help.

The Kefauver hearings on organized crime across the nation had revealed corruption also at the state and local levels, including local law enforcement and local officials.

Senator William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Banking subcommittee conducting the RFC probe, had suggested that a non-partisan citizens committee be formed to study the evidence of dishonesty and unethical political practices. The piece finds the proposal sound, but believes that only a complete change of administrations would likely enable penetration of the worst of the influence peddling ongoing in Washington. Yet, such a body could formulate a code of political ethics, which might ultimately become law, for guidance of officials and the people.

"Stabilization on the Wage Front" recaps the history of wage stabilization during World War II by a board which had consisted of 12 members, equally representing management, labor and the public. It had wide powers over wages and hours. It hit some rough spots but survived the war.

The President had proposed increasing the current nine-member board to 18 under Mobilization director Charles E. Wilson, following the walk-out by the three labor members the prior month after the ten percent wage ceiling was imposed by the six management and public members. The President had not been specific, however, as to what the new board's powers would be. It advocates giving it broad powers as wage and price controls were vital to the success of the defense mobilization effort.

"The Greatest Mother" quotes from Stuart Symington, chairman of the National Security Resources Board, praising the Red Cross for its global efforts. The piece urges contribution to the current drive in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, with a goal of $143,000, of which only 54 percent, it reports, had been contributed through the prior week.

A piece from the Greenville (S.C.) Piedmont, titled "Free Mail and the Postal Department", tells of the President's proposed bill, originating with the Postmaster General, which would double the postal rates for second class mail and raise the rate on other classes. The bulk of the second class mail consisted of newspaper and periodicals, receiving the blame for the Post Office being in the red. But, it urges, it was not so.

An article in Harper's, titled, "The Postman Knows the Answer", by a mail carrier in Oklahoma, had pointed to the real problem, the Government's franked mail from members of Congress, especially heavy during campaigns. Some members loaned their privilege to outside groups to promote their causes. In all, it cost the Post Office about $300,000. In addition, other free mail was sent out by various Government agencies.

It concludes that while the rates perhaps ought be raised, the Government, itself, ought also to reduce use of the franked mail if it intended to operate in the black.

Drew Pearson, in Frankfort, Germany, tells of the steady stream of strategic materials going from West Germany to help build the Russian war machine. While it did not represent the sentiments of the Bonn Government or the West Germans, it did represent the attitude of the industrialists, the same ones who had sold raw materials to Hitler and who wanted to sabotage the plan of French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman for a cooperative German-Franco steel-coal sharing arrangement from the Ruhr.

He provides example of this sale by industrialists to the Russians or their satellites, including rubber, ball bearings, carbon black, precious nickel, lead, crude iron and pig iron, exported to Hungary during May-June, 1950, until U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy caught one of the shipments of surplus Army trucks sold through Steg and put a stop to them.

Also, machine-tool plants in West Germany, financed by the Marshall Plan, were shipping vital machine tools to Russia and its satellites. U.S. officials had now asked Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany to stop the shipments.

Former Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson, who had wanted harsh punishment meted to German officers at the end of the war, now was in the employ of German industrialists and had recently lobbied Mr. McCloy against the Schuman plan. The German people had reacted badly to his presence.

Marquis Childs tells of an investigation being conducted by Senator Hubert Humphrey into the medical policy of the Veterans Administration, without sensational headlines. Standards of care had dropped.

At the end of the war, the President had asked General Omar Bradley to take over as V.A. administrator because of its need for overhaul, especially in medical services. Veterans organizations had virtually taken over the direction of the hospitals, with their officers receiving special privileges in many instances. A more serious flaw was the isolation of the medical services from modern medical research. General Bradley revitalized the V.A., ushering in modern medical practices through Maj. General Paul Hawley, the new director of medical services, with the cooperation of Dr. Paul Magnuson, recently fired director.

But General Bradley's successor, Carl Gray, did not provide the medical director the same independence of action, with friction growing between him and Dr. Magnuson regarding decisions within the bureaucracy which Dr. Magnuson believed belonged with medical services. Finally, Mr. Gray fired Dr. Magnuson and appointed Admiral Joel Boone in his stead.

General Hawley and the other medical experts all testified before Senator Humphrey that independence should be restored to medical services. But the veterans organizations sided with Mr. Gray. Senator Humphrey concluded that medical services had to be independent from outside interference. The Senator hoped that Mr. Gray would issue an order to that effect, but, urges Mr. Childs, the only real safeguard would be legislation so providing.

Robert C. Ruark complains that his haircut had gone up to $1.25 since the beginning of price ceilings. Ordinary food was up five to ten percent and in New York, rents had risen 15 percent. Bacon and eggs had risen from 65 cents to 68 cents and coffee had climbed four cents, pork chops another four. He finds no one "holding the line" as advertised.

An insurance company which advertised a security plan had raised the desirable level of security from $200 to $250 per month.

Things had not been so bad during World War II and so it was a puzzler as to why it had to be so bad now. From the failure to control inflation, the country had already cost itself since the previous July as much or more than the President's proposed tax increase. "It is enough to make a man sick to the stomach, except food costs so much now the average guy can't afford to throw up."

A letter writer from Pinehurst commends the editorial, "Frank Graham's New Job", which had found the former Senator's appointment as Manpower Administrator to suit well his experience in labor relations and likely to quell the labor discord regarding wage controls.

The writer finds that Senator Clyde Hoey had voted more with the Republicans than with the Democrats and that during the 1950 primary campaign between Senator Graham and Democratic opponent Willis Smith, the latter was charged with being a "Republican". He thinks it thus gave credence to the statement recently by Senator Karl Mundt that he would be pleased to enter into a coalition with such Democrats as Senators Hoey and Smith to work against the Truman "forces" in 1952.

A letter writer from Alexis—never heard of it—tells of long having discontinued visits to Charlotte because of the crazy driving habits exhibited in the city. But recently he had to return for medical treatment and had been sideswiped twice, the other driver in one instance demanding that the author pay for the other's sideswipe, while in the other instance, the driver had hit him while making a left turn and driven away, though no damage was done. He paid the other "damphoool" because he was too ill to contest the matter. He invites the Charlotte drivers to Alexis where they had one of the finest race tracks for those who wanted "to get to Hades for breakfast".

Where's Hades?

Ed Moss of the Morganton News-Herald retells a story of the bass-catching minnow, already recounted in a recent Bill Sharpe collection of "Turpentine Drippings". What's the matter? Don't the editors read the filler they print on the page?

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