The Charlotte News

Wednesday, May 2, 1951

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that the enemy's spring offensive had been halted by a great victory of the U.N. forces, according to Lt. General James Van Fleet, field commander of the allied forces. He made it clear, however, that he did not consider it the end of the offensive but believed further enemy efforts would wind up the same.

American naval planes had skip-bombed holes in the floodgates of the Hwachon Reservoir, allowing the waters to pour in again to the Han and Pukhan Rivers, run dry by the enemy to permit easy crossing. Now, the enemy would have to build bridges to effect the crossings.

U.N. tank patrols moved north, one going as far as eleven miles above Seoul to the Uijongbu area where it ran into a Chinese ambush. The tanks, however, fought their way back through enemy attempts to block the roads.

In nine days since the beginning of the offensive, 75,000 enemy casualties had been inflicted.

The Defense Department reported that through the prior Friday, there had been 62,799 U.S. casualties in Korea, an increase of 1,055 over the prior week. The total included 9,603 killed, 42,246 wounded, and 10,950 missing. As with all such reports, it included only those casualties whose next of kin had been notified.

Secretary of State Acheson defended the Administration's prewar Korean policies, saying that the Administration had carried out all recommendations of the just released 1947 Wedemeyer report as it pertained to Korea, except the proposal for creation of a South Korean scout force led by American officers. The President, according to the White House, had personally authorized the release of the report and had taken the secrecy label off the documents regarding the President's trip to meet with General MacArthur on Wake Island the prior October.

Controversy swirled at the Capitol over the secrecy arrangements for General MacArthur's testimony starting the next day. House Republican leader Joe Martin protested the closed door sessions.

A permanent increase in the Marine Corps was recommended by the Senate Armed Services Committee, with four full combat divisions and four air support wings plus necessary supporting forces, with a ceiling of 400,000 men, about twice the present complement. The Marine commandant under the bill would become a consultant to the Joint Chiefs, opposed by Secretary of Defense Marshall and the Joint Chiefs. Presently, Marine strength was limited to twenty percent of the enlisted strength of the Navy. Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois, a former Marine during World War II, was chief sponsor of the bill.

Economic Stabilizer Eric Johnston, in a speech prepared for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce meeting in Washington, assured businessmen that the Government would hold against a new flood of inflation anticipated by Christmas when arms production would reach full stride.

White House aide Donald Dawson agreed to testify before the Senate Banking subcommittee investigating favoritism regarding RFC loans. The President, according to the White House, had approved the decision to testify.

Senator Herbert O'Conor of Maryland, taking over from Senator Estes Kefauver as chairman of the Senate organized crime investigating committee, said that dope peddling, organized prostitution and fixing of basketball games and other sporting events would be areas of possible inquiry of the committee in the future.

Secretary of State Acheson said that he knew of no evidence that U.S.-Mexico relations had been harmed by revelations of the Kefauver committee regarding former New York City Mayor William O'Dwyer, now Ambassador to Mexico. The committee report had criticized the former Mayor for allowing organized crime to thrive with impunity in the city while he had been both Mayor and District Attorney. Senator Alexander Smith of New Jersey had said that the President should recall the Ambassador immediately.

In London, the food ministry announced that beginning May 20, the ration of bacon would be increased from four to five ounces per week.

The Senate Agriculture Committee predicted that the Government's new price control order on beef would cause a meat famine leading to early rationing and adopted a resolution calling for repeal of the control order at once.

In Washington, Louise Branston Berman, an heiress who refused to tell HUAC whether or not she had ever been a Communist, was acquitted by the Federal District Court on a charge of contempt of Congress. The Judge ruled that the questions propounded to her were sufficient to cause her to have a reasonable apprehension that the answers might incriminate her under the Smith Act, making it unlawful to teach or advocate the overthrow of the Government by force or violence.

In Raleigh, the State Supreme Court found no error in the trial of the man found guilty of conspiracy in the attempted bombing of the WBT radio transmission tower in January, 1950. The defendant was a former engineer at the station and was an officer of a union. The defendant had claimed he was placed in double jeopardy after part of the case had been dismissed following his conviction in a first trial on one count, on which a new trial was granted by the State Supreme Court.

In Kings Mountain, N.C., a man died and his brother was in critical condition after both were overcome by gas accumulated in the bottom of a well one of them was digging. The other brother had sought to rescue the dead brother but also succumbed.

On the editorial page, "Crime and Society" comments on the report of the Kefauver organized crime investigating committee, released the previous day, revealing that organized crime prospered because of human vice and the "less noble" instincts tempting people to it, such that there was no public demand for laws to curb it.

It was difficult for local government to curb such pursuits as it usually would mean that the crusading politician would be thrown out of office.

People had become aware of the power of the two leading crime syndicates, tied together by the Mafia, the Accardo-Guzik-Fischetti syndicate in Chicago and the Costello-Adonis-Lansky syndicate in New York.

"The fix" was more than just direct bribery of police and public officials. It could entail campaign contributions to political organizations, forming economic ties with businessmen and lawyers, and buying good will through charitable contributions and press relations.

The report had shown an inefficient law enforcement system and a society dangerously weakened by immorality and indulgence. It finds that the committee's recommendations would go far to correct these evils but only if the society became sufficiently concerned with morality to demand efficient law enforcement.

"The City Primary" finds that despite only 13,500 people showing up at the polls for the primary on the prior Monday for municipal elections, the results had been encouraging, as the best City Council members and Mayor Victor Shaw had made impressive showings and the other candidates still in the race for the general election the following Tuesday appeared to be qualified. Still, only ten percent of the population of the city showed up at the polls and if fewer were to show up the following Tuesday, then the result could be that special interests might wind up controlling the outcome. Even if only 13,000 showed, there would be assured a strong City Council and Board of Education from the existing field.

"The Facts—At Last" tells of the "Greater Debate", over whether the war should be contained, as the Administration wanted, or expanded to include bombing of Chinese bases of supply and blockading of coastal areas, as favored by General MacArthur, about to step into the spotlight with the joint Senate committees' investigation of the firing of General MacArthur and Far Eastern policy. While the General would be heard in executive session, his testimony, with appropriate parts removed for security, would be provided to the press each day.

It finds the procedure appropriate, as to conduct the hearing in public would expose the fighting men in Korea to potential danger for disclosure of vital information to the enemy.

The General, it urges, should be thoroughly examined on matters, just as would be the Joint Chiefs, Secretary of State Acheson and Secretary of Defense Marshall. There had been too much loose talk and not enough facts about the foreign policy. Not until all the facts were in, it concludes, could the American people be expected to line up behind the nation's foreign policy.

A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "A Look at Ohio", tells of neither Senator Taft nor his losing opponent in the previous November election, Joseph Ferguson, wanting a Senate investigation of the election campaign, though both had reason to want one. Senator Taft complained of nasty campaign literature coming from Mr. Ferguson's CIO supporters and Mr. Ferguson complained of gifts to the Taft campaign reaching over two million dollars, despite the Senator reporting his own spending at slightly above $1,500 and that of his supporters at $315.

The piece thinks that the Senate ought investigate the campaign to see whether hidden campaign funds had been spent.

Drew Pearson finds that there had been a sincere difference of opinion over whether the joint Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Armed Services Committee hearings on the firing of General MacArthur and Far Eastern policy should be public or not. The chairman, Senator Richard Russell, did not want security leaks, a view shared by everyone else. Some of the military men in the Pentagon did not want military mistakes aired publicly, as it was a tradition dating back to the Civil War not to do so. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Omar Bradley, however, wanted the cards out on the table.

In his current biography, he had criticized General John "Court House" Lee for delaying supplies to the men landing on Normandy and his penchant for luxury while the G.I.'s slept where they could.

Some of the mistakes of the Korean war had never been officially aired, as the failure to allow Lt. General Edward Almond to talk directly to Maj. General Walton Walker, but rather only through Tokyo headquarters, resulting in loss of coordination between the Tenth Corps and the Eighth Army during the November Chinese counter-offensive, able, because of this lack of coordination, to flank and split down the middle the diverging allied forces. Furthermore, no prepared positions had been set up in the rear as the Eighth Army retreated quickly 120 miles, leaving behind valuable equipment for the enemy. The reason for the omission was failure to plan for the intervention of the Chinese. The U.N. troops were not overwhelmed by superior numbers, as reported originally in the press, but faced about 430,000 men, not a million. The military had also failed to observe that the Chinese were building their strength on both sides of the Yalu River in November. General MacArthur's intelligence sources failed to report the presence of 5,000 horses brought across the river by the Chinese.

Marquis Childs discusses the pressure from the war and defense mobilization on the economy and the need to control inflation through controls. Thus far, the controls had been weak. Labor's concern regarding increases for the cost of living contained in many Chrysler-type contracts had not been addressed by the President's recently submitted budget message for the coming fiscal year. The farm price program contained little realism. Business was earning record profits of 48 billion per year, about 20 billion higher than in 1949. Net profits were 43 percent higher in 1950 than in 1949.

But price control was wishy-washy and the program in place was not designed to limit profits as it could be evaded easily. It was thus "pathetically inadequate to do what needs to be done". He finds that it might not be too serious if Congress were willing to "substitute iron for what is mostly rubber."

The House had quickly approved a supplemental appropriation on defense for 6.5 billion dollars. While necessary, it was also necessary to build economic defenses, and months had been wasted with no action on new taxes. The probability was that the new tax bill would be delayed until the late summer and would provide no more than seven or eight of the ten billion dollars which the Treasury had requested, not enough to close the gap between revenue and expenditures when defense spending took hold in earnest during the ensuing two to three months, leaving a deficit of about five to seven billion dollars, producing inflation again.

Robert C. Ruark discusses the huge reception for General MacArthur upon his return to the continental U.S. for the first time in 14 years after being fired as supreme commander of the Korean operations and as commander of Japanese postwar occupation. The celebrations had been spontaneous and unplanned as far as anyone could tell.

Friends of General MacArthur wanted the hearings on his firing to be open, so that he could air his own vindication.

Since his return, he had been placed in an odd position, not anticipating such an outpouring of good will from the public. He had to cope with his fans while also trying to promote what he considered to be the best interests of the country.

Mr. Ruark says that he had never met the General and so had no stock in seeing that his reputation was rehabilitated, but wishes to point out the difficulty the General faced at present. The major point concerned what he would say to the Senate committees later in the week and the documentation he could muster to back it up. Either the President and his policies or the General would wind up "discarded" in the matter. He finds that until the General had his say, it was not prudent to carp at him too much as he had been busy since coming home.

A letter writer tells of a head-on collision occurring the previous Saturday near Statesville, resulting in at least four people being killed, after one driver was being chased by the Highway Patrol at speeds of up to 85 mph when he lost control and skidded into the other car. He urges that the Highway Patrol ought not put people's lives in danger merely to catch traffic violators. The many improvements in radar and radio equipment should enable bringing such violators to justice without such danger.

A letter writer from Pittsboro responds to a previous letter expressing the belief that the "MacArthur doctrine" had been followed in World War II in Europe rather than taking the more difficult course advocated by Winston Churchill of striking through the Balkans, placing the Western allied armies between Russia's army and western Europe, and that the "bitter fruits" of that decision were now being suffered. He takes issue with the analysis. He thinks that FDR had made a fundamental error in trusting the Soviets as a true ally. FDR and not the military had made the decisions, including those of which the previous writer had complained.

He thinks the current offensive by the Communists in Korea might decide the debate between the President and General MacArthur. He hopes that it would wind up in peace but believes it might result in all-out war in Asia.

A letter writer from Spartanburg, S.C., finds in reading the News of April 21 that newspaper editors had been advised to fight "arrogant suppression of the news", but believes that newspapers, themselves, were engaged in suppression of the news. He thinks self-examination was in order.

A letter from the chairman of the 1951 Red Cross Fund Campaign thanks the newspaper for its cooperation in promoting the drive.

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