The Charlotte News

Saturday, April 14, 1951

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that fierce enemy resistance had slowed the allied advance on the western and central fronts of Korea, as eighteen additional divisions, about 160,000 men, were reported pouring into the western enemy sector below Pyongyang. The enemy, after sustaining 4,275 casualties on Friday, had withdrawn from these sectors, prompting speculation by Lt. General George Stratemeyer, commander of the Far Eastern Air Forces, that the enemy was preparing for an air assault.

On the west coast, South Korean Marines, supported by U.N. naval units, were in control of virtually all of the Ongjin peninsula in North Korea, driving northward nearly to Chinnampo.

Lt. General James Van Fleet took over command of Eighth Army ground forces from Lt. General Matthew Ridgway, who departed for Tokyo to take command of the U.N. forces headquarters.

General Ridgway, who also took over occupation commander duties in Japan from General MacArthur, said he welcomed John Foster Dulles, who was returning the next day to Tokyo to resume work constructing a treaty with Japan.

General MacArthur postponed his return to the U.S. from Monday until Tuesday to allow more time for rest during a stopover in Honolulu before heading to San Francisco and then to New York on Wednesday. A huge reception was planned in San Francisco for the General, who had been out of the country since 1937.

Republican Senator William Knowland of California, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, before which General MacArthur had been invited to testify, demanded access to secret armed services and diplomatic files regarding Asian affairs, including the secret report of Lt. General Albert Wedemeyer on Korea and reports that 120,000 South Koreans had been sent home when no arms and equipment were provided to them. Invitations for General MacArthur to speak before a joint session of Congress increased.

Correspondent Elton C. Fay reports that jets, RB-45s, were being used for the first time in any war to take reconnaissance photographs, snapping Chinese airfields and other bases along the boundary of Manchuria with Korea. The jets were equipped with new wide-angle equipment capable of capturing an image from horizon to horizon. The pilots were instructed to remain on the Korean side of the boundary but their long-distance lenses could peer well beyond the border and could photograph ground areas from 40,000 feet.

In London, former Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, who had resigned his post a month earlier for health reasons, died at his home at age 70. He had risen from orphaned poverty to become Foreign Secretary in July, 1945 in Prime Minister Clement Attlee's Labor Cabinet and adhered generally to American policy during his tenure.

In Greensboro, the 40,000 striking TWUA textile workers received another offer, this time for an eight-cent per hour increase to the minimum wage of $1.01.5 per hour, without fringe benefits. They were seeking 13 cents. The union was considering the offer.

In Mount Ranier National Park, Wash., Lt. John Hodgkin of California landed his ski-equipped Piper Cub aircraft atop Mount Ranier, at 14,408 feet. He spent the night there and took off the next afternoon, then landed, apparently low on fuel, on a frozen lake at 5,000 feet where he spent the night. He stamped out instructions on the ground to drop him fuel which was done about 6:00 p.m. but apparently his engine was too frozen to start and it was believed he would be able to get it started the next day after it thawed. His squadron commander had warned him not to attempt such a stunt and an investigation by the Air Force was scheduled, as technically he was AWOL.

In Raleigh, Governor Kerr Scott promised a review by the State Highway Commission of the State's truck weight limits on secondary roads, much lower than on primary roads. Legislators had sought the review to gain assurance that the Commission would not approve building of roads with lower weight limits than before they had been paved.

Governor Scott appointed William H. Jones of Raleigh to replace Gurney P. Hood as State Commissioner of Banks. Mr. Hood had been Commissioner for twenty years, appointed by then-Governor O. Max Gardner.

The 1951 biennial session of the General Assembly was scheduled to end this date. The Senate enacted a law which permitted the State to accept a million dollar gift of art from S. H. Kress Foundation.

What's that going to be, a giant nickel and dime on top of a white-only toy?

In the twelfth installment of Dale Carnegie's How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, not on the page, he tells of the relationship between worry and fatigue.

On the editorial page, "Darkness in Argentina" finds that the takeover by the Argentine Government of La Prensa, once an independent newspaper which had told the truth, to be a dark day in the country as it signaled now a newspaper telling the truth only insofar as dictator Juan Peron permitted it to be told.

Its editor, now in exile, Dr. Alberto Gainza Paz, had said that he believed the people of Argentina would never give up their rights and that La Prensa would reappear at some point. The piece finds it a moving statement and says it was too bad that the people of Argentina would not be able to read it.

"No One Is Above the Law" finds that Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer and others in the Government, who were ordered to show cause on April 23 why they should not be held in contempt for defying the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals order to divest the Government of the American President Line and return it to its original owner, the Dollar Co., were not above the law.

It suggests that the people would stand behind the Court in this instance, as respect for the law was a pillar of society and if Secretary Sawyer and the others continued in defiance of the order, they should be fined or jailed.

"Defining the Issue" tells of Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, having framed succinctly the rationale for firing General MacArthur, that the the General favored an all-out effort to destroy Communism in Asia whereas the Administration sought to limit the war in Asia to Korea while strengthening the defenses of Europe.

The Committee had invited General MacArthur to appear and state his policy views and their reasons so that the American people would have a better understanding of the issues. The piece finds it a good idea, to mend the nation's rift over this matter.

A piece from the Durham Herald, titled "More Americanisms", tells of the University of Chicago producing a two-volume Dictionary of Americanisms, with 50,000 entries, reminding of the new slang abounding.

The newspaper's weather service used the words cavu and ebau as acronyms to describe atmospheric conditions, the former signifying "ceiling and visibility unlimited", the latter standing for "even birds are walking".

The Herald headline writer had used the word "trike" for tricycle and, it ventures, one day the word might find its way into general usage.

Never heard that one.

Robert Ruark had investigated the current idiom of Beale Street in Memphis, where "ends" meant money, "rough", a quarter, "deese", a dime, and "playing the dozens" told of running down acquaintances, especially female. "Knifing on out" was to depart and "I ain't got no eyes" indicated that the person refused to do something for its lacking advantage.

There was an argot for teenagers, for the underworld, and for television, such as simulcast. (How about its corollary, "broadvision"? something other than leering at females through binoculars.)

It notes that ostrichism had reappeared as a contemptuous reference to neo-isolationists.

An earlier version, from 1859, is more interesting. It explains, for instance, from whence the now common term "absquatulate" derives, and how therefore the popular mid-60's tv drama, "The Absquatulator", got its name.

Drew Pearson describes how President Wilson in 1917 had faced a hostile Congress which wanted to name former President Theodore Roosevelt as the head of the American Expeditionary Force to France, but headed off the move by announcing that he would name John J. Pershing, son-in-law of a powerful Republican Senator, Francis A. Warren of Wyoming, thus quelling the move to name President Roosevelt. In so doing, President Wilson kept his political hold on the Congress and the Army.

General MacArthur's mother moved to West Point when young Douglas entered the Academy. The daughter-in-law of U.S. Grant at the same time did likewise for her son, U.S. Grant III. Both cadets graduated first and second in their class, with Douglas being first. General MacArthur had never lost the drive instilled in him by his mother.

He had become the youngest Major General in the Army at age 45 in 1925, after pulling political strings to be first named Brigadier General and then to get his promotion.

He had spats with General Eisenhower and Admiral Chester Nimitz, especially with the latter before the landing at the Gulf of Leyte in 1944, General MacArthur's promised return after being forced to leave the Philippines in March, 1942 and set up his command in Australia. The General was planning to make his return landing on Mindanao but Admiral Nimitz opposed the plan on the basis that the Japanese would anticipate the landing and be lying in wait to destroy the American Navy. Admiral Nimitz proposed Leyte and General MacArthur finally agreed, producing one of the greatest victories of the war, for which Admiral Nimitz had never claimed credit.

Marquis Childs states that documents released by the White House showed how impossible it had been to have any coherent policy with General MacArthur pulling in one direction and the Administration in another. But now the burden was on the Western powers within the U.N. to demonstrate that they could carry out a policy which would resolve the Korean war.

Prior to the firing of General MacArthur, the Joint Chiefs had worked out a plan, accepted by Lt. General Matthew Ridgway, the new supreme commander in Korea, which entailed meeting the impending Communist offensive and inflicting more large-scale losses to go along with the half million in casualties from the prior November-December operations, such that the Chinese would be brought to the peace table to sue for terms. It was anticipated that such would be apparent by mid-September, when Korea would be in stalemate. Even if they refused, plans would be based on the stalemated situation, with two divisions remaining in Korea and four in Japan. The latter would be combat-trained and capable of returning to Korea very quickly.

Much of the anger aimed at the President was motivated by the belief that had he followed General MacArthur's advice and used the Nationalist Chinese forces against China, the war could have been shortened and many lives saved. But that was not a realistic assessment as the Nationalist forces were poorly equipped and it was estimated that it would take at least a quarter billion dollars to equip them. Furthermore, the U.S. would have to provide air and sea support to any such action against the mainland and chances were great that it would have resulted in a general war with China, a risk which the President and the Western powers had been unwilling to take.

Stewart Alsop finds that either the President or General MacArthur had to be fired and so that left out General MacArthur under the American system. The President alone had reached the decision to fire him, though with the concurrence of the Joint Chiefs, Secretary of Defense Marshall and Undersecretary Robert Lovett, as well as special adviser Averell Harriman. Secretary of State Acheson had little to say in the matter and was not present when the decision was made the prior Tuesday afternoon.

It had been thought that the ouster was favorable to the position of Secretary Acheson but in fact he had at one point held the same position as General MacArthur on use of Nationalist Chinese forces and on bombing the Communist Chinese bases of supply, but had been talked out of the position by the fact that it would destroy the Anglo-American alliance.

In the Republican Party, the Taft-Wherry wing found the firing to be a central rallying point to muster opinion against the President and Administration foreign policy. If there were a reversal in American fortunes during the spring offensive of the Chinese, then General MacArthur's position would appear to have been borne out as correct and the President the architect of disaster, generating pressure to bomb the Manchurian bases.

A letter writer from Mullins, S.C., comments on the April 9 editorial, "A Proposal without Merit", regarding the now dead proposal to send a State Constitutional amendment to the people of the state to prevent each county from having more than one Senator. The writer agrees with the position and explains how things worked in South Carolina.

A letter writer from Des Moines, Ia., a physician, finds North Carolina fortunate to have an eugenics sterilization law for the insane, feeble-minded and epileptic. The doctor says that no visible change occurred from the procedure. But because many did not know of its availability, it had not been widely used in the state. The doctor hopes to spread the word.

A letter writer praises Mayor Victor Shaw as fair, open-minded and a good neighbor with Christian traits.

A letter writer from Fort Worth, Tex., seeks contact with members of his extended family, the Blewetts.

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