The Charlotte News
Tuesday, March 27, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that American troops had fought through a Communist Chinese regiment on the western front in the slow advance toward the 38th parallel in Korea, killing 350 of the enemy. Nearby, another U.S. unit battled three battalions of rear-guard Chinese troops.
South Korean troops were within five miles of the parallel in force, digging in along the Imjin River east of Munsan.
Allied planes supported the ground action.
An American staff officer said that he did not think the Chinese would fight below the parallel but if hit again above it, they would fight like "sons of guns". Elements of six Chinese armies were reported to be massing north of the parallel.
The Administration reportedly asked General MacArthur to submit to Washington clearance of any future statements containing political significance. It came in the wake of the controversy spawned by his remarks to the press the prior Friday in which he said the Communists were licked in Korea and that he would entertain any peace negotiations the Communists wanted to discuss. The new directive was entered after consultation between the President, the State and Defense Departments.
Harry Anslinger, chief of the Bureau of Narcotics, told the Kefauver organized crime investigating committee that illegal drugs being smuggled into the country from Italy, Turkey, Communist China and Japan had dramatically increased narcotics addiction in the country. He said the increase had followed a wave of juvenile delinquency, as high school students associated with criminals, becoming hoodlums, began smoking marijuana and then graduated to heroin. He urged a minimum sentence of five years for any second offense of narcotics sales and at least ten years for a third offense. He cited light sentences as a contributing factor to the rise in narcotics sales and use. He urged cities to set up local law enforcement units to eliminate street peddlers of narcotics, such as in Los Angeles which had 28 men in the narcotics squad, the only city, he said, with adequate enforcement.
The Treasury advised the committee that it was setting up a special fraud section to check on tax returns of gamblers and racketeers and were investigating 2,500 cases.
Three committee members, including Senator Charles Tobey, said that they had received death threats.
The committee was wrapping up its hearings, transpiring around the country since the previous August, at the end of the week.
Defense Mobilization director Charles E. Wilson told a press conference that the country had in sight the military power to deter any aggressor. He said that while the inflationary spiral had been moderated, the Government might have to impose stricter controls. He said that the Wage Stabilization Board, not operating since the departure by three labor members in protest of the Board's order that wages be limited to ten percent increases over the levels of early 1950, would soon be reorganized and operating again, with Frank Graham and Dr. Arthur Fleming as co-chairmen. Mr. Wilson said that he would welcome a top-level labor adviser on his staff, provided that person would devote full time to the position.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond reversed the U.S. District Court decision and ordered the University of North Carolina Law School to admit Floyd McKissick and three other qualified black applicants on the basis that the North Carolina College for Negroes Law School in Durham, (now N.C. Central University), was not substantially equal to the UNC Law School. The Court followed the Supreme Court case of the prior June, Sweatt v. Painter, in making its decision.
In Raleigh, Governor Kerr Scott was asked about his views on admission of black students to the Greater University and responded that the issue had to be met in accordance with the law. A former legislator of Warrenton had urged the Legislature in a telegram to cut off State funds to schools which broke down segregation. The executive committee of the Board of Trustees of the University had recommended to the Board that applications for admission to graduate and professional schools be determined without regard to race or color. The Board would meet on April 4 to consider the recommendation.
In Chicago, a wrecked oil tanker truck sent burning oil into a church basement destroying the church. The driver was killed in the accident.
In Palm Springs, California, a hungry lioness slipped from its cage at a circus costume ball early on Tuesday and strolled for fifteen minutes among movie stars and socialites attending the event before being captured by a singer, a restaurateur and a photographer. At one point, the lion had leaped over a car in a single bound. It eventually wandered into the kitchen, where the three men cornered it long enough for the trainer to take over. An elephant boy had moved two elephants in front of the entrance to the main tent to keep the lion out. He was hired on the spot by John Ringling North of Ringling Brothers for his quick thinking. Present were Sonja Henie, William Powell, Mervyn LeRoy and Harry Joe Brown.
Not reported on the page, in Minneapolis, this night, Kentucky would win the N.C.A.A. championship in basketball by defeating Kansas State, 68 to 58
C'mon, coach...
On March 17, Brigham Young had beaten Dayton, 62 to 43, to win the twelve-team N.I.T. in New York. St. John's, coached by future UNC coach Frank McGuire, finished third by beating Seton Hall, 70 to 68. The N.I.T. had begun to lose much of its former prestige beginning in 1951, as the better teams began to opt for play only in the N.C.A.A. Tournament, as had Kentucky, Kansas State, Illinois and Oklahoma A&M, whereas previously the teams either played in both tournaments or the better teams were roughly equally dispersed between the two. Brigham Young had been ranked eleventh in the final A.P. poll, while Dayton was 13th, St. John's, 9th, and Seton Hall, unranked. Only St. John's and N.C. State played in both tournaments in 1951, and were the only top ten teams in the N.I.T., N.C. State having finished seventh. The Wolfpack were eliminated in the second round quarterfinals by Seton Hall, 71 to 59.
On the editorial page, "Totalitarianism in Our Hemisphere" tells of the seizure of the independent newspaper La Prensa by the Government of Argentina, at the behest of the dictator Juan Peron. Its editor, Dr. Gainza Paz, had fled the country to avoid being imprisoned on a trumped-up charge of violating national security. The piece finds the rhetoric used to justify the seizure to sound as a Communist ukase, that such dictates sounded the same whether in a Communist country or a Fascist country as Argentina.
Juan and Eva Peron were reported to be shocked at the international outrage over the seizure, apparently not realizing the value placed on a free press. It recommends using every means available to impress upon Sr. Peron that he was in the camp of the enemy.
Herblock
says much on the issue in blank white space
"Battle of the Budget: Round 1" finds that if the Post Office and Treasury Department budget cuts were any yardstick for things to come, the President's dare to Congress to cut his 71.5 billion dollar budget would not be taken. The House had cut the budgets by only 1.3 percent, though they fell into the non-defense category where the economizers in Congress had claimed they would make drastic cuts. And even that cut might not stand in the Senate. It followed the pattern of Congress talking a lot about economy but, when push came to shove, not doing much toward accomplishing it.
"Military Aid for Latin America" discusses the President's new program for Latin America announced at the start of the Inter-American Conference in Washington, under which he proposed increased production of strategic materials and sharing of the burden of hemispheric defense, including joint action for efficient use of scarce supplies, and mutual building up of economic strength. It had been leaked to the press in advance of the speech that he would propose to Congress an unprecedented 80-million dollar aid package to Latin America to help accomplish these purposes.
Those who opposed Point Four technical aid to underdeveloped nations would likely also oppose this part of his Latin American program. But if they did so, it would be penny-wise and pound-foolish, suggests the piece, as increased production in Latin America of strategic materials relied on by the U.S. could be more important than six new infantry divisions or a thousand tanks. It would also have rich dividends after any shooting war.
It points out that the book, Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy by Edward Guerrant, had suggested that the concern over Communism in Europe and the Far East had caused the country to neglect Latin America. The piece urges that it was time to bring the region back into the country's strategic planning, as done during World War II to the nation's benefit.
"What Fools We've Been" tells of a theory set forth in the magazine Why, which discussed modern psychology, suggesting that women were returning to "direct, sexual appeals, as if, unconsciously, to express a desire to perpetuate the species." The ascending skirt and plunging necklines were examples of the theory in practice, all resulting, it contended, from war tension.
The piece concludes: "Imagine
A piece from the Salisbury Post, titled "I Had a Dream, Dear", tells of a dream in which Congress was in joint session and a member from a remote location had allowed a Southerner to introduce a resolution that Mississippi or some other Southern state be set aside as a Federal refuge for society's enemies. It had passed unanimously and within 89 days had a greater population than the remainder of the country.
Dick Young, Jr., City Editor of The News, in the first of three articles, discusses Rowan County's efforts to deal with alcoholism. He tells of there being an estimated one million alcoholics in the country out of four to five million heavy drinkers, the highest incidence of alcoholism in the world.
It was beginning to be understood that alcoholism was a manifestation of deeper emotional maladjustment of the alcoholic. Alcoholics Anonymous and other such organizations had made strides in restoring the alcoholic on a path to sobriety.
In Rowan County, the job of rehabilitation had been undertaken by the ABC Board, financed by profits from the State-run stores. Rowan had voted in the ABC system in August, 1949. The Legislature provided that ten percent of the profits would be earmarked for law enforcement and education on the harmful effects of alcohol abuse. The three phases of the program developed in Rowan were a library and research center which provided up-to-date materials on the study of alcoholism, a department of education which sought to reach every person in the community with objective facts about the alcohol problem, and an information and guidance center to help problem drinkers.
There had been no dramatic results yet demonstrated, as by the very nature of the program none would be expected. But there were positive signs that the program had value. Even the prohibitionists in the community gave high marks to the program and said that if ultimately successful, they would support ABC control.
Drew Pearson tells of returning to New York from his tour of Western Europe to find talk centering on the Kefauver hearings, admiring both Senators Kefauver and Charles Tobey. He recalled the previous summer when Senator Tobey had narrowly won the New Hampshire primary by 2,000 votes after money had been poured in by the China lobby to defeat him. The talk in New York was much different from that of war and preparation for war, so prevalent in Europe.
He provides numerous tidbits about Senator Kefauver, among them that he wanted to become an expert on the Foreign Relations Committee rather than on crime. He had bucked the Memphis Crump machine and won the Senate seat after Boss Crump had sought to defeat him. He had stumped the state in a coonskin cap which he displayed on his office wall in a glass case. He stood for small business against big business and had written a book on a more efficient Congress, favoring reorganization of committees. He had championed low-cost housing and was against the big gas companies when the Kerr natural gas bill sought deregulation of the industry. He also championed a bill to use surplus food to feed underprivileged children. His fellow Tennessee Senator, Kenneth McKellar, had sought to defeat Congressman Kefauver when he ran for the Senate. He was also a great family man.
Joseph Alsop, in Berlin, discusses the implications of the Soviets moving their six armies in East Germany into place for maneuvers near the zonal border two weeks earlier than usual, where they would remain all summer as an open threat to Western Europe. It was not predictable whether the Soviets intended to use the armies to wage war but they would be used as a psychological weapon in the war of nerves. The Soviets had communicated through neutral countries to the West warnings that they would not allow West German rearmament, that it would mean war within the year.
This effort would likely replace the Russian proposal for German unity and demilitarization by withdrawal of all occupation troops. At the Paris Big Four preliminary meeting, Andrei Gromyko had hardly mentioned German unity but had talked only of demilitarization and a return to the Potsdam agreement.
The West faced the dual dilemma that West Germany would need to contribute divisions to defense of NATO for it to work and that the French people remained emotionally reluctant to have Germany rearmed. The Soviets were exploiting this French fear in an effort to disrupt Western unity and destroy the NATO alliance. They hoped that the French would decide that they could not risk war over German divisions.
The Soviets might try to offer at the Big Four foreign ministers conference a plan whereby they would reduce to twenty divisions their troop complement in East Germany provided there would be no West German rearmament and that the other Western divisions would also be limited, stopping the Western defense. Meanwhile, the Soviets could still rebuild the East German armies at the rate of one or two divisions per day.
Robert C. Ruark tells of the
Kefauver committee hearings having been one of the greatest
spectacles
Mr. Ruark finds that henceforth the question surrounding a person to be admitted to politics or big business would no longer be whether that person was competent and honest, but whether they came across well on television.
Senator Kefauver would narrowly defeat Senator John F. Kennedy in 1956 for the vice-presidential nomination after Governor Adlai Stevenson had thrown the vice-presidential choice to the convention to appease the Southern delegates and because he had been the nominee also in 1952.
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