The Charlotte News
Thursday, June 7, 1951
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that the allies were straddling two important mountains guarding the approaches to Chorwon and Kumhwa, two legs of the "iron triangle" of the enemy's redoubt in North Korea. From the top of 2,700-foot Mount Kodae, four miles south of Chorwon, the allies could send artillery fire into Chorwon, and from the top of 3,100-foot Kwangdok mountain, southwest of Kumhwa, the allies had a view of another valley route.
To the east, the allies were driven from one ridgeline by enemy counterattacks and were forced to a halt by fierce enemy resistance at other points, the result of the enemy's largest artillery barrages of the war. The Eighth Army communique for the day reported the smallest gains of the counter-offensive.
Secretary of State Acheson continued his testimony before the joint Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, stating, in response to questions posed by Senator Brien McMahon, that there was no connection between Far East concessions made to Russia at Yalta and the defeat of the Chinese Nationalists by the Communists in 1949. He said that Chiang Kai-Shek had, to the contrary, welcomed the concessions to Russia at Port Arthur and Dairen which allowed entry to Manchuria. The Secretary said that the reason for the early 1945 concessions was to get Russia to join the war against Japan in the Pacific. Senator McMahon read a statement by Senator Alexander Wiley, supporter on the joint Committees of General MacArthur's views, made in July, 1945, at the time of the Potsdam Conference, urging Russia to enter the Pacific war. The Secretary also said that he did not believe the U.S. currently had sufficient military strength to prevent Russia from overrunning Europe.
U.S. Ambassador to Iran Henry Grady said that reports by Iranian newspapers, confirmed the previous night by Iranian Army sources, that there were unprecedented Russian troop movements along the northern frontier of Iran were erroneous though there had been some increase in Russian fortifications in the border areas but nothing significant. He added that the report could be part of the Russian war of nerves.
The House approved this date the compromise draft bill worked out by joint Senate-House confreres to settle differences in the bills passed by the two chambers, reconciling the bill to permit drafting of young men 18 and a half, reducing the age from 19, extending service from 21 to 24 months, requiring registration for all men between 18 and 26, and laying the groundwork for future universal military training. Physical and mental standards for the draft were also reduced, physical standards to those in effect at the start of 1945 and mental standards by three points. The present draft law would expire July 9. The new bill, already passed by the Senate, to be signed into law by the President, extended the draft law to July 1, 1955.
Which three points?
The House Post Office Committee approved postal rate hikes of 138.4 million dollars and knocked out a provision which would have raised the pay of postal workers by 150 million dollars.
Does that mean that postal workers will not be able to afford to mail a letter under the new postal rates, short 11.6 million dollars for stamps?
The House Ways & Means Committee approved a 12.5 percent increase in individual income taxes and a five percent increase in corporate taxes, with ceilings of 90 percent individual tax rates and 70 percent corporate tax rates.
Bernard Baruch, in a letter to Senator Blair Moody of Michigan, urged that removal of price, wage and rent controls would be a "tragic, perhaps mortal blow" to the nation's defense mobilization effort. The Senator, a member of the Banking Committee and appointed replacement for recently deceased Arthur Vandenberg, had solicited Mr. Baruch's views on the topic.
In London, it was reported that two British Foreign Service officials had disappeared, believed possibly to have gone behind the iron curtain. They had been missing since May 25. A late report said that the two men, both possessed of vital State secrets, had cabled their families in London from Paris, but the contents were not disclosed. One of the men had served in Britain's American Embassy in Washington. MI-5, Britain's military counter-espionage arm, was hunting for the two men.
They probably just wanted to see Les
Folies Bergere
According to the dean of the UNC Law School, Henry P. Brandis, Jr., three black applicants, Floyd McKissick, Harvey Beach, and J. Kenneth Lee, had been accepted for the summer term. Mr. McKissick and Mr. Beach had previously sued for admission and eventually had their case upheld by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, reliant on Sweatt v. Painter, on the basis of lack of a substantially equal law school at the N. C. College for Negroes in Durham where they were previously attending. All three men were qualified applicants initially but for their race. After the Board of Trustees of the University had approved admission of qualified black applicants to all professional and graduate schools not offered otherwise to blacks by the State in segregated schools, the UNC Medical School had also accepted a black applicant.
It all sounds very paternalistic
today, but everybody had to start somewhere as none of us were born
geniuses or we could have walked and talked, read whole
encyclopedias, exhibited an understanding of Aristotelian concepts
regarding space
Near Nova Iguassu, Brazil, a jammed commuter train hit a stalled gasoline truck and 51 persons were burned to death by burning gasoline while 50 others were injured. The train was headed from Queimados to Rio de Janeiro. The engineer of the train hit the brakes when he saw the truck straddling the tracks, producing sparks which ignited the gasoline. All of the deaths occurred in the first and last cars of the train, the latter because the train had come to a stop finally with the last car amid the flames.
A freshman chemistry major at the University of Miami confessed to police that during the prior several months he had participated with four other teenagers in a dozen or more dynamiting parties for the thrill of it, resulting in several hundred dollars of damage to two schools and a hotel, though no one was injured. The five youths had carried as much as 60 sticks of dynamite in their car as they went about the city looking for targets. The young student said that he had a grudge against the two schools, a high school and junior high, and had an argument with a woman at the hotel. Two of the boys, twins, had been football stars at their high school.
Page 3-C of the newspaper, carrying the Foodway advertisement, is perfumed with orange blossom scent, in case you want to smell it, resemblant, says the preview, to Hi-C Orangeade. Or you can just go down to the Foodway, pop open the Orangeade and take a luxuriant whiff.
On the editorial page, "Rough Going for Mr. Acheson" tells of Secretary of State Acheson in his testimony before the joint Senate committees having performed well so far, but not with the sensational drama produced by General MacArthur. His answers, however, had been to the point and forthright, refuting those who claimed there was no policy on China and the Far East.
He said that the last year in which the U.S. could have changed course on China was 1948 and during that time, when Congress was controlled by the Republicans, there was nearly unanimity in the country against any armed conflict with the Communists in China. The Congress had even cut the small amount of aid going to Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist Government.
He had also said that the Government believed that the MacArthur proposal for bombing enemy bases in China would almost certainly result in a general war with Communist China or Russia, and that the Government position was to maintain the war confined to Korea, to avoid the prospect of world war three.
The piece quotes from the piece by Joseph Alsop of May 23, repeated three days earlier, wherein he had quoted a high-ranking British official that if war came it would come, that he did not want another Munich, though he hoped it could be forestalled until Britain was prepared to meet it, as presently such a war would end Britain as it was then known.
The piece concludes that there was much in favor of American policy in Korea as the war had not spread and that the end of the fighting might be in sight after nearly a year. If so, it would vindicate Mr. Acheson's position. Nevertheless, it posits, his time as Secretary of State was likely short, as several Republicans and some Democrats wanted him out.
"What Now in Iran?" says that it appeared the Iran crisis might blow over as did the Berlin blockade crisis of 1948-49. It depended on the Iranian temperament, British willingness to accept compromise, and the action of the Soviets.
The press and fanatics in Iran were accusing Premier Mohammed Mossadegh of selling out by delaying the confiscation of the oil after nationalization had already passed. But the Iranians were incapable of operation of the fields and that fact appeared finally to have dawned on them. Thus, compromise appeared likely, as Great Britain, owner of 53 percent of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., also appeared willing to enter a compromise arrangement.
But what the Soviets might do remained in question. Conditions were perfect for intervention as combined British and U.S. strength, with American troops tied down in Europe and Korea, could not contest Russia if it decided to invade Azerbaijan. It would be perceived in the Middle East as a blow against "British imperialism" and so would be welcomed. There was pressure for Egyptian control of the Suez Canal and that might become a hot spot as well if Russia were to intervene.
If a compromise occurred, therefore, the door might be opened for a takeover by the Communist Tudeh Party in Iran or by a militarized coalition of Communists and fanatical Islamic religious sects.
"Chancellor House and the University" tells of Chancellor Robert B. House of UNC in Chapel Hill having celebrated 25 years as Chancellor, developing the University in that time from 2,700 students in the Twenties to enrollment of 7,800 during the Forties. He remained humble about his many accomplishments while Chancellor.
A virtuoso on the harmonica, he was once introduced at a state press convention by an harmonica solo supplied by P. T. Hines, former general manager of the Greensboro Daily News, whereupon Chancellor House took the podium and provided his own harmonica solo before giving his talk. Albert Coates, director of the N. C. Institute of Government, had quoted him as part of a tribute: "I expect to come to Old South Building every morning, ring the college bell, knock the ashes out of my pipe, and lecture to the birds, the squirrels, and the trees on the state of the Universe and the University."
The piece concludes that the highest tribute which could be paid him was that he would do just that and that the birds, squirrels and trees would enjoy it and profit from it.
Come again...
A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "Beating a Path", tells of William Neal Reynolds Coliseum on the grounds of N.C. State being one of the foremost facilities in the country for ice skating and attracting skaters therefore from far and wide, especially as it was one of only three large rinks which remained open all summer.
Bill Sharpe, in his weekly "Turpentine Drippings", snippets from newspapers around the state, provides one from the Asheville Citizen which imparts that someone had said, by way of comparing the Government during World War II to that during the Korean war: "The situation in Washington is the same only the confusion isn't so well organized this time."
The Camden Chronicle tells of it being hard to convince the Russians that life in America was so luxurious, with tens of millions of radios, electric stoves, washing machines, etc., in American homes—not to mention some of the newer eight-dimensional color televisions, abounding in plenty by 1951.
The Twin City Sentinel of Winston-Salem tells of Virginia having beaten North Carolina in a "corn war", but finds that the census of corn might need to include the corn of North Carolina which first went to produce moonshine before going to market.
It also neglected the corn which is injected into Old North State humor many times.
And so on, and so on, on forth, on, off, off and off.
Drew Pearson tells of General MacArthur's trip to Texas the following week being more than a visit with admiring friends. It would assess the viability of a MacArthur candidacy for the presidency. The trip was being prepared by Congressman Al Miller of Nebraska, who had pushed the MacArthur candidacy in 1948. The General had been bitterly disappointed at the Republicans for pushing him into that campaign on the stated belief that he was a shoe-in for the nomination, so much so that the General had begun to make plans for being called to the 1948 GOP convention to be drafted. But his two primary runs were poor and his candidacy fizzled.
Since his homecoming two months earlier, the General had not filled Soldier Field in Chicago or the small stadium in Murfreesboro, Tenn. So the Texas visit would be critical in determining whether he had a realistic chance in 1952.
Chicago businessman Charles S. May had dodged questions about his alleged affiliations with racketeers during his testimony before the Senate crime investigating committee. It had been alleged that he made payoffs to racketeers from the gambling profits of his Tam O'Shanter Club in Chicago. He refused, for instance, to say whether he was a member of a particular golf club. Senator Charles Tobey was particularly incensed at his lack of candor in testifying openly about his associations, given his wealth. He lectured Mr. May until the latter turned bright red, but Mr. May still refused to answer the questions.
Senators had turned down a request by Vice-President Alben Barkley for a new Cadillac limousine, believing his 1949 model was new enough.
The Democrats had kicked Senator Joseph McCarthy from the Appropriations Committee but his replacement, Senator Willis Robertson of Virginia, had since voted right down the line with the Republicans.
Marquis Childs discusses Iran and the nationalization of British oil interests as only one example of threat to British and American corporate interests abroad in countries where the standard of living was generally low.
The International Labor Office of the U.N. had performed a study and issued a report six months earlier on the working conditions of the oil industry workers in Iran and found them generally good, that the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. was genuinely desirous of good industrial relations, with its policy having advanced considerably in recent years. But it also found that the workers enjoyed a much higher standard of living than the rest of the population, causing a potential problem. The oil industry impacted directly or indirectly only a half million of the 17 million Iranians.
That was the situation in many such countries, as in Latin and Central America, leaving them wide open for political exploitation.
He suggests the need for a formula for investment whereby the company could feel comfortable in investing money in foreign countries and all of the people of the country would benefit. If such a means could not be found, then the contribution which business could make to such countries in raising the standard of living would likely be lost.
Robert C. Ruark believes that college graduates were having it too easy in the job market and that hardship bred a sense of understanding of the rigors of any career. He had started as a paste mixer on a newspaper before he ever wrote any copy. "A touch of iron impregnates the soul of a man who has mixed paste in a newspaper office long before he is allowed to smear the paste on copy that is written by his superiors." He provides other examples.
There's the name for the next newspaper movie: "A Touch of Iron". Just the title assures it of a couple of Academy Award nominations. Inevitably, though, its success will spawn another lousy sequel, titled "A Touch of Paste".
There's another one, incidentally: We spell it "bred", not "bread", as the past tense of "breed"—or "bread", as you prefer.
Framed Edition
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