The Charlotte News

Thursday, June 21, 1951

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that allied patrols ventured far beyond their lines this date on the western front in Korea, where officers predicted that the enemy would launch a limited offensive by the following Monday, the first anniversary of the start of the war. U.N. patrols twice entered Kaesong and a thousand enemy troops in the hills above that city made no move to stop them. It was the most westward push by the allies since the enemy had begun its April 22 offensive. For the most part, the front was quiet as U.N. patrols probed for enemy strength.

Powerful Chinese forces were said to be grouping north of Pyonggang, the apex of the "iron triangle" which had been taken over by the allies.

Air attacks were cut to the lowest of the month by rain clouds, as the Fifth Air Force flew only 186 sorties. For the first time in five days, no enemy planes were seen in the skies. The Far Eastern Air Forces announced that three allied planes had been lost in those fights and said enemy losses were fewer than previously reported, 24 damaged or destroyed, down from 28.

General Omar Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, speaking to the families of eleven Congressional Medal of Honor winners, said that by virtue of Korea, the free nations had gained about a year to prepare for any future attack, that doubtless the fact that the U.N. met the challenge, which could have otherwise caused world war three, had deterred the Communists from attacking elsewhere. Ten of the recipients were dead and one was missing in action. Only three of the 23 recipients thus far from action in Korea were alive when the Medal was awarded.

At Camp Lejeune, N.C., during a routine training exercise, two defective mortar shells fell short of their target and hit a company of Marines, killing eight and wounding 25. Members of the company said that the defects could have been spotted by careful inspection.

Patrick Hurley, former Ambassador to China, continued testifying before the joint Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, saying that the State Department had deliberately sought to disparage him in its 1949 white paper on China. Much of the questioning related to the Yalta Conference in early 1945. Senator Alexander Wiley raised the issue of Alger Hiss attending that conference as a State Department aide to FDR. General Hurley had the previous day denounced the agreement reached at the conference as "immoral and cowardly", amounting to appeasement of Communism. He had said that FDR was sick by the time of Yalta and he did not attribute to him the problems but told Senator Wiley this date that he did not know except by hearsay who dominated the conference.

Howard Blakeslee, Associated Press science editor, reports that the public was confused about conflicting reports on the atom bomb, such as that the area under an atom bomb blast was dangerous for hours or days, perhaps weeks, but that two minutes after the explosion the area could be entered safely; that ships used in the Bikini Atoll tests were so contaminated with radiation that they could not be cleaned; that after each bomb, a radioactive cloud encircled the earth several times; and that the radioactive cloud from a single bomb detonated in the Pacific could destroy all life in the U.S. He indicates that the latter statement was not true, that it was only theoretically posited before the first blast. The other statements could be true or false depending on the circumstances of the blast and the bomb used.

The blast came in three stages, the first emitting gamma rays, the same as X-rays, the second causing objects in the blast area to become radioactive, and the third stage being radioactive dust, or in the case of an underwater blast, rain, falling back to earth out of the mushroom cloud produced by the bomb. Only the initial blast and ball of fire were dangerously radioactive, reaching a radius of about 1.5 miles from ground zero, and that danger was over within a minute. The radioactivity was most acute within a mile, capable of killing a person within a week of radiation poisoning, but after about 1.25 miles, did little harm. The transmutation of radioactivity to objects on the ground was not possible unless the bomb was exploded close to the ground. That, however, did not produce radiation capable of causing death under short exposure times. The dust and metallic hail from a blast was not harmful as long as not kept close to the person. He had personally handled some of that material after one of the Bikini blasts but did not keep it.

In the wake of the Los Alamos, New Mexico, test blast in July, 1945, dust had caused hair to fall out of cattle on which it fell and some of it never grew back, but no human being was harmed as the dust was brushed off quickly. Some of the dust had fallen in Ohio from that blast causing the fogging of photographic film. The Nevada test blasts during the winter of 1951 had caused dust to fall over the Northeastern U.S., producing a hundred times greater radioactivity than normal.

In Tehran, Premier Mohammed Mossadegh won an unanimous vote of confidence from the Iranian Parliament this date amid demonstrations against the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. The Premier said that there would be no compromise with the British-controlled company after the Government had seized control of the refinery and other operations pursuant to the oil nationalization program. No method for compensating the company had been determined.

Congressman Robert Doughton, chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, asked the House to pass the 7.2 billion dollar tax increase which his Committee had just approved. He justified the largest single tax increase in the nation's history on the basis of the huge defense build-up. He said that he could not foresee higher taxes on individuals and corporations than that in the bill as it would be unduly burdensome and difficult to impose. The ranking Republican on the Committee, Congressman Daniel Reed, said that the bill was designed to turn the taxpayers' pockets "inside out" and would "fulfill the dream of the hardcore Socialist planners".

The Senate Banking Committee approved a wage-price control bill which would deny to the President most of the broad new controls he had sought and forbid price rollbacks beyond the average extant in the month following January 24, 1951.

Posting of Government beef prices was delayed for the fifth time, from June 25 to August 1. Prices were originally scheduled to be set on May 14.

In New York, twelve of the 17 arrested Communist lieutenants, rounded up by the FBI the previous day, sought to have their bail lowered in Federal court this date after Judge Samuel Kaufman had set bail the previous day at between $1,000 and $20,000, which the twelve contended was excessive and vitiated the presumption of innocence before conviction. Judge Kaufman refused to hear the case immediately. Four of the indicted Communists remained at large. They were all accused of violating the Smith Act.

In Charlotte, a child was killed and another critically injured when an automobile struck the children in DDT fog on Independence Boulevard at Long Street as they sought to cross the boulevard. The fog was produced for insect control as part of routine City spraying. The driver of the car was held on a manslaughter charge.

Should the City be charged as well?

On the editorial page, "Sordid Business in Mississippi" finds that the only good part of the Hoey subcommittee report on job-selling which had occurred in Mississippi to punish Democrats who had jumped ship in 1948 to become Dixiecrats was that the practice had been stopped. The DNC, while there was no evidence that it received the money paid by the local office-seekers, had turned over Federal patronage to pro-Truman Democrats of Mississippi who then collected $65,000 in two years and distributed such plums as postmaster positions accordingly.