The Charlotte News
Tuesday, July 17, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Communists had raised an as yet undisclosed new point in the ceasefire negotiations in Korea. According to an official communique, some progress was made during the fifth day of discussions, though negotiation on the agenda continued to transpire during the one hour and 35 minutes of meetings this date, set to continue Wednesday morning. Considerable time was taken up in translation and defining of terms.
The U.S. Fifth Air Force flew 116 sorties Monday night on Communist airfields, troop concentrations and supply centers, in the heaviest night raids of the war. B-29s this date dropped more than 100 tons of bombs on rail yards at Sinmak, just 33 miles north of the conference site at Kaesong.
Ground action was at a virtual standstill.
Pyongyang radio claimed that Communist forces had captured a thousand allied troops, sunk eleven warships and shot down six jet fighters the previous day, though no such action was reported by the allies.
Senator Paul Douglas challenged the
President's appointment of two new Federal District Court judges in
Illinois as "worthy men" but not as qualified as his two
selections for the positions, said that he would poll the Chicago Bar
Association to determine who had the better of the argument. The
Senator said that he would await the report before deciding whether
to vote for confirmation of the President's pair of appointees. The
President had made a third appointment from the list of four
appointees approved by Senator Douglas. (We note that while the
presence of this story on the front page, a day after the misdated
editorial page presented an editorial on the subject, might suggest
that the editorial page presented the previous day properly instead
belongs with this date, as it was so dated, that intuitive speculation is definitely
confuted by this date's Robert C. Ruark editorial, datelined
Tanganyika
In Detroit, a Senate Small Business subcommittee wound up two days of hearings, and after receiving a tip the previous night about claimed racketeering connections of a manufacturer who was overcharging on the nation's scarce supply of nickel, the subcommittee subpoenaed the manufacturer who admitted selling nickel anodes for $5.50 per pound when they had a normal market price of 67 cents, but denied any connection with racketeering.
In New York, thirteen Communist lieutenants indicted under the Smith Act were ordered back to jail for the third time after they failed to provide court-approved bail. The Federal District Court had refused to accept bail from the Civil Rights Congress and gave until this date for fourteen of the fifteen defendants, one of whom had already posted bail through his mother, to come up with acceptable bail. Only one was able to do so. The order was appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Apparently, the order the previous Thursday by retired Judge Learned Hand of the Second Circuit, overruling the Federal District Court order revoking the bail posted by the Congress, had, itself, been overruled pending review by the full Second Circuit three-judge panel. Judge Hand had based his ruling on the fact that the full three-judge Second Circuit panel had previously ruled that the Congress could post bail. The report, however, does not bother to explain the discrepancy, perhaps based on the District Court having sought to distinguish its present ruling, based on the failure of Congress members to identify the source of the funds, from its previous ruling overruled by Judge Hand, in which the District Court had found the Congress not trustworthy—in which case it had engaged in distinction without any underlying substantive difference.
In Kansas City, clean-up began following the state's worst flood in history, as flood waters were receding. Flooding, however, began reaching Missouri River towns downstream in Missouri, stretching into Oklahoma. The latest estimates of damage stood at 750 million dollars, the costliest flood to that time in the nation's history. Seventeen persons had thus far been reported dead and more than 70,000 had been forced from their homes.
The President was set to fly over
The Senate passed the House-passed emergency appropriations measure of 25 million dollars for flood relief for the areas. The President was expected to sign the measure forthwith.
In the House, a showdown neared on price rollback extensions, with Administration forces standing fast, sensing a partial victory, as the House, with the support of some Republicans, was planning to vote to retain the price rollback on beef while prohibiting future rollbacks across the board. The Southern Democrat-Republican coalition in the House would determine the outcome.
The Government lifted a ban on putting spare tires in new cars to save rubber. The one-fifth cutback ordered on production of new cars had obviated the need for the requirement.
In Washington, Western Union employees voted to accept a company offer of a 17-cents per hour wage increase.
In Chicago, a paper company executive was shot and killed as he drove to his office on the west side. The shooter escaped in a car driven by another man. Police were unaware of the motive.
In Bainbridge, Ga., a truck line operator shot to death his estranged wife and her radio announcer companion early this date and then shot himself to death.
In a Copenhagen cigar factory, each morning an actress read parts of the book of the week chosen by workers.
In Hull, Quebec, two men found playing rummy for stakes of $1.15 in a tavern were fined $5 each for gambling in a public place.
In Raleigh, the State Supreme Court ruled that heart disease was not an occupational disease for firemen, finding unconstitutional an amendment to the State Workmen's Compensation Act passed by the 1949 Legislature, the Court thereby overruling two decisions upholding claims in Forsyth and Mecklenburg Counties. The Court ended its spring term, issuing seven decisions, and would convene again at the end of August.
Emery Wister of The News
interviews Mae Clarke, who had been made famous by the "grapefruit
punch"
On the editorial page, "38th Parallel Would Hurt U.N." finds that restoration of the armistice line at the original border between North and South Korea would be a victory for the U.N., as it would represent a repulsion of the Communist aggressors back to the starting point of the aggression on June 25, 1950. But more was at stake than merely such a politically advantageous result, as such aggression would need be prevented into the future and adopting the 38th parallel again as a division point would not provide the necessary deterrence.
Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois had proposed establishment of the 39th parallel as a dividing line for a demilitarized zone, forcing the Communist forces to withdraw 50 to 60 miles in some places, and so unlikely of acceptance by the enemy. A line more likely acceptable to the Communists would be that drawn by General Matthew Ridgway, running north of the 38th parallel as much as 30 miles in the east and in the west dipping several miles south of it. It had already been shown to be a defensible line for the allies. The Communists wanted a demilitarized zone 6.2 miles north and 6.2 miles south of the 38th. But General Ridgway would want minimally a demilitarized zone established 6.2 miles above the current allied troop positions.
Thus, the peace talks might founder on this point, but, it finds, such might risk the permanent peace in Korea. Yet, peace agreements with the Communists were only as good as that backed up by strength and no agreement made on a militarily weak position, such as the 38th parallel would render, could be expected to endure.
"The Uncontrolled Raindrop" discusses the record flooding in Kansas, where the flat country over time had become eroded by alternately parched weather followed by heavy rains, such that the heaviest rains in its history in both May and June had not been contained by normal flood-control adaptations. The tributaries feeding the Kansas River exploded on the way to the Missouri.
Floods had always plagued the Missouri Valley, with its all-time high-water mark probably having been reached in 1844, even before the forests had been cut down. There had been major floods in each of the years between 1943 and 1947, save 1946, but none had equalled that of the present flood.
There had been a call for a Missouri Valley Authority, similar to TVA, to control flooding. TVA had prevented a major flood on the Tennessee River in 1946. The current property loss, estimated at three-quarters of a billion dollars, would likely encourage that demand for a flood control system. It believes it would make sense, especially in combination with an extensive reforestation program and other water conservation methods. Whether it would become a reality would depend on Western politicians adopting a sane program, ahead of the pork-barrel politics which normally motivated the Harbors & Rivers appropriations. If pork was to be the rule of the day, the American people, while empathizing with the persons rendered homeless by the flooding, would not wish to foot the bill.
"Smug Contempt Dept." tells of North Carolina's young Communist leader Junius Scales having remained silent for awhile, but having not gone underground as it had previously suspected. The prior winter, he had become upset about a minstrel show at UNC, claiming acts in black-face for the benefit of charity were an insult to black people. He was now exercised about a watermelon festival for the students, circulating handbills which read, "Race Hatred Rides Again", in which he ridiculed the fact that the signs advertising the festival contained a caricature of a black child eating watermelon, displaying, he said, "smug contempt" for black children, presenting them as "comical little animals who go for watermelon like puppies go for bones." He wanted the students to demand that the signs be removed, a public apology issued, and the University never again to allow its property to be used for dissemination of such race hatred.
The piece responds that if Mr. Scales had "never seen a Negro youngster dunk his happy face in a big slice of red watermelon on a hot Summer afternoon, then he's never seen the epitome of ecstasy on the human countenance." It thinks Mr. Scales was envious of any youngster of any color who could get such fun from eating watermelon. It wants to see a cartoon summing up its "'smug contempt'" for Mr. Scales and his "subservience to Moscow" which impelled him to such "ridiculous lengths".
You must've been watching the new
"Amos 'n' Andy"
And it's not even Saturday.
As the University as a whole was not
yet integrated, we assume that all the little boy and girl students
who would be eating the watermelon at the festival in Chapel Hill
would be white, at least for the most part, that which was readily
discernible from family records. But maybe therein lay some degree of
irony. Who knows? But what, pray tell, if there was no hint of
subliminal race prejudice involved in the presentation, would have
been so terribly troubling about the caricature being instead either of
a white child or two children, one white and one black, enjoying the
melon?
"Half-Century of Success" tells of Charlotte taking pride in the 50th anniversary of the American Trust Company's presence in Charlotte and its record of service to the community. When it had started, the city's population was at around 18,000 and the company had $1,739.77 in deposits. Now, Charlotte had increased by more than seven times and the company's deposits were more than 100 million dollars, with four branch offices. Yet, it had retained the flavor of a country bank.
A piece from the Richmond News Leader, titled "Fashions in 'F'", finds, after reading Sylvia Costen's dispatch to the newspaper from the New York Dress Institute, that people who immaculately conceived women's fashions were in love in 1951 with the letter "f". She had written, "Fashion this Fall will mean a full, full skirt." She also described it as including a fitted coat, fine fabrics, French restoration, fine facings, fancy trimmings and fabulous formals, all built around a "false figure".
It says it had thought when the passing fad of "floating bustles" of a few years earlier had expired that naturalness was returning, but concludes it a false hope. "...[A] full figger is fine and no fad lasts forever."
A piece from the Congressional Quarterly tells of Senator Clyde Hoey of North Carolina, during the first half of 1951, standing with his party and against Republicans 70 percent of the time, when the two parties clashed on issues which had a roll-call vote. Senator Willis Smith of North Carolina had sided with fellow Democrats only 54 percent of the time. The average Democratic Senator backed the party 79.5 percent of the time, whereas Republicans averaged 78.2 percent in party-line votes. It presents tables of what the votes represented, as between appropriations, foreign policy and economic policy.
Representative Hamilton Jones of Charlotte voted with the party 61 percent of the time, whereas the average House Democrat voted with the party 79.7 percent of the time. It provides the voting tables also of the House delegation from North Carolina, as parsed on the same categories as those presented for the two Senators.
Drew Pearson tells of the State Department reassessing 500 members of its staff for security clearance in the wake of the two missing British diplomats who had access to secret American and British information, having made it necessary to fly special couriers all over the globe to change the secret codes. Nearly every secret of the two Governments was subject to exposure as a result. The largest manhunt in history had been undertaken to track down the two missing men, searching all over Europe and as far away as Argentina. It was likely that they had disappeared behind the iron curtain.
One of the men, a "diplomatic flunky" attached to the British Embassy in Washington, had been asked to leave the U.S. in May because of a drunk driving charge and strong protest by the Governor of Virginia. An associate had described him as "an explosive mass of frustrations and inner conflicts". The other man, the chief of the American Division of the British Foreign Office and the son of a distinguished father, was of a different caliber. In recent years, however, he had become increasingly unstable, suffering two nervous breakdowns from overwork.
Before the two had left for France on May 25, the first man said he was going to visit the continent for several weeks, as he started six weeks of leave to look for a new job. The other man did not have any official leave and told his wife he was going away for the weekend, would be back by Monday. Neither had mentioned the other man's name. Neither apparently took more than a small amount of money, about $200 each, and took only small amounts of clothing. They had gotten at least as far as Paris, though there was no official record of their arrival or departure. Both had left their bags on the steamer by which they had crossed the Channel. Their trail went cold after Paris, when they were last seen by their cab driver running to catch a train.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss the belief by shrewd political observers, including some Republicans, that the President would run in 1952 and that he would be quite formidable. He had won, after all, in 1948 without 38 Southern electoral votes, lost in four states to Dixiecrats, who had since all but disintegrated. They no longer enjoyed the political organizational hold they had previously possessed in South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama in 1948.
In South Carolina, former Governor Strom Thurmond had been soundly defeated for the Democratic Senatorial nomination in 1950 and Governor James Byrnes, no lover of President Truman, was nevertheless a party regular who would not bolt to the Dixiecrat cause. In Alabama, both Senators John Sparkman and Lister Hill had ground the Dixiecrat party organization into mincemeat. In Louisiana, Leander Perez had been a national Dixiecrat leader in 1948, and had led the fight to defeat Senator Russell Long, who then carried all but one parish in the election, a more sweeping victory than ever accomplished even by his father, the Kingfish. The state organization was now firmly in the hands of anti-Dixiecrat New Orleans Mayor DeLesseps Morrison. And in Mississippi, Dixiecrat control was slipping fast.
Thus, it appeared that the 38 lost electoral votes in 1948 would be restored to the Democrats in 1952. Moreover, the only reason the President had lost the 47 votes in New York was because of the third party candidacy of former Vice-President Henry Wallace as a Progressive, a party which had since dwindled to nothing.
The President also had going for him the prospect of a truce in Korea and the nearly certain departure of Secretary of State Acheson, thought to be a liability to prospects for his re-election.
He had some other liabilities to overcome, such as the farm revolt against the Administration, the farmers having been the sine qua non for his election in 1948. There was the possibility of more scandal in the Administration and, more than anything, the continued mediocrity and small-mindedness, which had characterized the Administration's domestic policy, stood as a potential roadblock to victory.
Yet, the Alsops conclude, the Republicans, beset by their own smallness of mind, had been unable to exploit these weaknesses thus far.
Robert C. Ruark, writing from Tanganyika, tells of arriving in Africa and being informed apologetically by the firm managing his safari that his white hunter, Harry Selby, had been called away by the Game Department to shoot a rhinoceros which had gone rogue and injured one of the locals.
Mr. Selby arrived in town that
evening but was called upon again next morning to shoot a leopard
which was scaring the natives, was able, however, to beg off, allowing them to set
out on the safari four nights earlier
Mr. Selby's Land Rover climbed hills with the "tenacity of a goat" and dug its own roads through the bush, even climbing trees when necessary. They were traveling through the land of the Masai, a tribe which lived off milk and blood and inhabited a huge expanse of territory.
They entered the Serengeti, a huge animal refuge, where they observed 14 lions in 12 hours, one of which approached to within six feet of the Rover. It had looked at his wife and yawned, but she was not bored.
Africa was larger and noisier than
he expected. The hyenas sat just outside their tents, giggled and
growled and whooped. The lions roared and the leopards coughed, the
baboons barked and the birds
Framed Edition
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