The Charlotte News
Friday, July 20, 1951
SIX EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert Eunson, that the weather trumped armistice talks at Kaesong this date, as a flash flood caused a creek to become a raging torrent, preventing jeeps carrying U.N. negotiators from reaching the conference site.
Allied B-29s, utilizing radar to hit targets through thick cloud cover and rain, bombed Communist east coast rail lines and supply centers.
Ground action was limited to patrol clashes at scattered points along the front.
The Defense Department estimated enemy casualties in Korea at 1,213,544 through July 13, an increase of 10,616 since the prior week. Chinese and North Korean casualties were about equal, though battle losses were pegged at 602,453 for the Chinese and 374,000 for the North Koreans.
In Jerusalem, an assassin came from the shadows of a mosque and shot and killed King Abdullah of Jordan this date as the King entered the Aqsa mosque to pray. The King's bodyguards then killed the assassin. The assassination precipitated a crisis in the already tense Middle East. The border between the old city of Jerusalem, held by Jordan, and the new city, held by Israel, was sealed and a state of emergency proclaimed in Amman, capital of Jordan. King Abdullah, 69 at his death, had been one of the stabilizing influences on the region and was considered by Israel as a moderate leader. He had been placed on the throne and was being subsidized by the British after they had given up their League of Nations mandate over Jordan. The King's second son, Prince Naif, was named regent, as the heir apparent, Emir Tallah, reportedly sharply at odds with his father, had been under treatment in Beirut, Lebanon, for a nervous breakdown.
The assassin was Mustafa Shakir, 35, a known terrorist who had contacts with Haj Amin El Husseini, former Mufti of Jerusalem who was living in Cairo and had ambitions to govern Arab Palestine, had differed violently with the policies of King Abdullah, especially after the armistice with Israel.
In Madrid, Generalissimo Francisco Franco appointed a new, strongly monarchist Cabinet the previous night, in the hope of attracting American aid and closer U.S. ties. The Cabinet would likely place a king on the throne, vacant since the abdication of Alfonso XIII in 1931. Other expected changes included greater freedom of press, greater participation by the Parliament in State affairs, and a general amnesty for political prisoners, who were now released on "conditional" liberty. U.S. chief of naval operations, Admiral Forrest Sherman, had just concluded his visit with Sr. Franco and it was reported that a basic agreement was reached regarding use by the U.S. of naval and air bases in Spain. Spain had been suffering economic woes for several years.
The U.S. invited 50 nations to meet in San Francisco on September 4 for the formal signing of the treaty with Japan, ending the state of war. The invitations were accompanied by a draft of the treaty.
Administration leaders planned this date to try to reverse a House action the previous day, which would freeze for four months price and wage ceilings at July 7 levels. House leaders of both parties, meanwhile, were seeking to limit debate on the remaining economic controls amendments so that a final vote on the full bill could occur this night.
Sam Mason, described by Senators as a professional con man with a prison record, testified before the Senate Investigating Committee, admitting allegations made by witnesses the previous day that he had obtained large sums of money, around $350,000 total, from various persons, including $150,000 to $200,000 from a Greek Catholic church, to obtain Government favors through bribing officials with "sewer money". Mr. Mason, however, said that the amounts involved were less, about $67,000 from the church, and about one-third the amounts stated by other witnesses. At one point, he asked Committee counsel what was wrong with entering into a scheme to bribe Government officials, provoking laughter in the hearing room. The Committee never inquired as to whether he ever actually bribed or sought to bribe any Government official. Chairman Clyde Hoey said that he was forwarding the testimony to the Justice Department and the IRB for possible prosecution.
Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee introduced a bill to sell all Government-owned residential and commercial property around the Oak Ridge, Tenn., atomic energy facility and restore local government to the town.
In St. Louis, the Missouri River neared its crest as levees were crumbling against the flood-swollen waters approaching the city, and Army engineers predicted that the levees would be swept away within 48 hours.
In Raleigh, an emergency City Council meeting had been called to deal with a water shortage, but between 6:00 and 9:00 the previous evening, it rained four inches, one of the heaviest downpours in years, flooding many parts of the city. The principal City reservoir remained, however, 31 inches below normal.
In Vicksburg, Mich., four suitors proposed marriage to a woman who had issued an open plea for a husband who could pay her mother's hospital and medical bills. One was a mail carrier, one an electrician, a third, a factory owner, but she did not disclose the fourth. She had been divorced two years earlier. She could cook and sew.
In Charlotte, police were looking for a 21-year old escaped convict from a road gang, wearing brown prison clothes. If you see any young male in brown clothes, contact the police.
On the editorial page, "With the Greatest of Ease" tells of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, president of Eastern Air Lines, predicting a complete changeover in commercial aviation from propeller-driven planes to jets and turbo-prop planes. That change would cut the time for a New York to Miami air trip from four to two hours or less. Captain Rickenbacker said that airlines would need increase their planes threefold to handle the increased traffic resulting from the faster travel.
The editorial hopes that the City would have the perspicacity to pass the proposed million-dollar investment to build a new administration building at Municipal Airport and install new paved approaches to it.
"New Pricing Plan for Foods" tells of the Office of Price Stabilization studying a community pricing plan for foods, finds it would be an improvement over the current system, provided it would be administered fairly.
"Double-Dealing" tells of City Councilman Basil Boyd talking out of both sides of his mouth, on the one hand having voted for a half million dollars in salary increases for City workers, bloating the City budget to a record-breaking 7.5 million dollars, and then voting against passage of the overall budget on the premise that more cutting could be done, citing in particular one item, $1,200 for free water for the Community Chest.
"Pity the Poor Publicity Man" tells of receipt of several company prospectuses which bragged of record-breaking profits and the like to encourage investment. That gave the impression to consumers that corporations were not being hurt by high taxes and so when Congress proposed an increase in taxes on corporations, the public was likely to go along, creating a dilemma for publicity men as to whether to continue to brag.
"Jersey Joe Comes Through" tells of Jersey Joe Walcott
"On Foiling the Chigger" offers advice to the suffering people of Louisville, Ky., regarding their chigger crisis, says that prior experience had shown that if a fertile female was detected after it had embedded itself in the skin, the area of penetration should be washed with strong yellow soap suds and thereafter, ordinary ammonia should be applied to relieve the itch. A Danville druggist recommended Vaseline and the military remedy was to apply calamine lotion.
But to avoid getting bitten, it advises, one should take matches, citronella and extra socks into the woods when hiking. One could also prevent the bites by sprinkling sulfur in one's clothing and shoes.
The problem with that latter remedy, though, is that those crazy people on the radio out in Texas are then going to suggest that you are the Devil and smell like Hell.
Of course, you could always call Cliff and get him to work on the matter.
And, incidentally, to the commenter
on YouTube, if you believe that President Nixon was "pranking the guy" with his buggy suggestions, then obviously you
either were not around at all or not of sufficient age in 1971 to
glean an understanding of the man and his era
Donald MacDonald of The News tells of the positive experience in Charlotte with the "Petticoat Patrol", twelve female police officers who enforced parking regulations, advising of same to the Richmond News-Leader, skeptical of that city's proposal to follow a like policy. In Charlotte, they were issuing an average of 4,000 parking tickets per month, delighting the captain in charge of the force. Police in Alexandria, Va., and Winston-Salem had also made inquiries. Previously, four police officers on three-wheeled motorcycles performed the duty, each paid $263 per month plus operating costs of the equipment. The women officers were more cost efficient. Women drivers complained the most, they reported, about the citations. Tickets had increased about 300 percent since the program had begun, but the number of meters had also doubled from 600 to about 1,200.
Drew Pearson tells of Congressman Carl Vinson, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, having been incensed by the revelation to Mr. Pearson that behind closed doors he had favored building a warehouse for Marines in Albany, Ga., his home district, when the Marines to be served by it were far away at Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point in North Carolina. He blamed Congressman Herbert Bonner of North Carolina for the leak, but it was not him, says Mr. Pearson, and he therefore naturally had bridled at the accusation. Mr. Pearson says that Congressman Frank Boykin then came to Congressman Bonner's defense, saying that he knew that the leaker had been someone else and that such leaks ought be stopped.
Thanks to an alert phone call from Secretary of Interior Oscar Chapman to Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn re the attempt by Congressman Ken Regan of Texas to introduce an amendment to the price controls bill which would have removed controls of minerals, notably oil, from the Interior Department, the attempt was thwarted. Speaker Rayburn considered the Department of Interior to be one of the best run departments in Washington.
Congressman Donald O'Toole of Brooklyn attacked Congressman Charles Halleck for his adroit circumlocution regarding price controls, saying that he congratulated Mr. Halleck for defending minorities, such as the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Real Estate Board, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Secretary of State Acheson had warned all U.S. embassies that the Communists did not appear sincere in their peace negotiations regarding Korea and were instead trying to lull the U.N. armies into inattention and then trap them. Far East strategists for the U.S. armed forces agreed with the Secretary and had submitted a report to the Joint Chiefs to that effect.
The French Ambassador in Washington was urging that the Communists were preparing to attack French Indo-China and thus wanted the question of Indo-China included in the Korean settlement talks.
Marquis Childs provides brief summaries of each of the new Senators in the 82nd Congress and their accomplishments in their first six months in office, or in the case of two, Senator Herbert Lehman of New York and Senator William Benton of Connecticut, each a year longer because of their fulfilling unexpired terms.
Senator James Duff of Pennsylvania had been an unorthodox Governor and was continuing that lack of orthodoxy in the Senate, obeying the tradition of not making speeches as a freshman but also touring the country, drumming up support for General Eisenhower's 1952 nomination.
Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, future Minority Leader, was the chief spokesperson in the Senate for the conservative Chicago Tribune line on foreign and domestic policy. He had been a principal speaker at the Wisconsin State Republican convention and had criticized Senator Joseph McCarthy, whereupon he was met with considerable protestation from supporters of the Senator. Senator Dirksen brought a wealth of experience to the position, having served in the House for 16 years.
Senator Mike Monroney of Oklahoma, not the prosecutorial type, had been miscast as chairman of the subcommittee investigating the Maryland election which saw John Butler defeat Senator Millard Tydings.
Senator Lehman, a traditional liberal and hard-working, had been disillusioned by the conduct of some of his colleagues.
Senator Richard Nixon of California had made his reputation in HUAC exposing Alger Hiss and seeing to it that he was prosecuted for perjury, but with so many investigations of Communists going on now in the country, his chief accomplishment had become overshadowed.
Senator George Smathers of Florida had defeated his old friend, Senator Claude Pepper, in a smear campaign during the Democratic primary, which saw the incumbent suggested as sympathetic to Communists. Senator Smathers had voted with the Administration on most matters, but within about 18 months, once he had repaid his Northern campaign contributors, would likely revert to his House standard as a mild progressive.
Senator Thomas C. Hennings, Jr., of Missouri had been an indifferent member of the House between 1934 and 1940, but was now attempting to shake his playboy image and remold himself as a defender of civil liberties and a champion of the Fair Deal, had taken an active part in the Maryland election investigation.
Senator Benton, owner and successful marketer of Muzak, had a broad knowledge of television for educational purposes and small business, but would have a tough fight for re-election to a full term in 1952.
Senator Butler was a wealthy lawyer who had never before served in politics and had been unhappy and resentful of the Senate investigation of his campaign against Senator Tydings, had made few friends in the Senate.
Mr. Childs stresses that the snapshots were superficial and that the Senate had been known to work remarkable transformations of people. But increasingly, he advises, the system, itself, had tended to dampen the potential of men who might otherwise aspire to greatness.
A letter writer tells of writing to the North Carolina Department of Education inquiring about black teachers and receiving in response the information that between 1940 and 1950 there were in the state 7,567 black teachers and 397 black principals and supervisors, that the teachers were paid an aggregate of 16.4 million dollars annually, the principals, 1.276 million, and the supervisors, another quarter of a million, not including supplemental funding from local sources. She believes that in an integrated system of schools that money would have been paid "exclusively" to white teachers, that if a black person wanted to teach, they had to come to the South to find employment.
She adds that her interest had been stimulated in the subject by the fact that a black teacher worked for her during summer vacation.
She probably assigns her the task of tending her south 40 combination cotton plan'ation and wate'melon patch, watched over by the omnipresent Negro jockey boy statue, all for educational purposes only, a study in participant-observer role-playing.
A letter writer refers to the July 7 Collier's article by Dr. Julian Boyd of Princeton, which contained a refutation of the claim that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, putatively signed May 20, 1775, preceded the national Declaration, hence the date adorning the State flag, claims that Dr. Boyd did not take into account the testimony of eyewitnesses, documentary evidence and contemporaneous history of the time regarding the Mecklenburg document and its provenance. She thinks that he should have at least allowed that Thomas Jefferson had been napping at the time or would have heard of the dramatic effect on the colony after the signing of the document. She concludes that she would endeavor to educate Dr. Boyd anent the true facts but for her observation that, "'None are so blind as those who will not see.'" She adds as a coda that she did not want South Carolina writing the history of North Carolina, referring to Dr. Boyd having been a native of South Carolina.
But at least favor us with one example of that contemporaneous proof you tout and claim that you could marshal but for Dr. Boyd's blindness to true history. Otherwise, shut the hell up. He refuted with accepted and reasoned facts, while you counter with bloated generalities, leaving the reader devoid of opposing facts of any sort with which to do battle with Dr. Boyd's contentions, right or wrong. We conclude that you are afraid to venture even a brief rebuttal, as you know it would consist of nothing more than barnyard fertilizer of the topsoil, anecdotal bloviation from questionable sources who were probably too drunk one July 4 night down at the tavern with the boys weaving this elaborate tale to remember anything from the month ultimo, let alone forty-four years before the time of their claimed recollection.
A letter from the vice-president of the National Federation of Independent Business praises the editorial of June 29, reprinted in the Congressional Record, regarding the sale of the St. Louis Star-Times to the Post-Dispatch, and wishes that more editors would criticize the "vicious cycle of monopolies" engulfing the free economy, destroying hundreds of newspapers, taking away opportunities for youth and impairing the capitalistic system of free enterprise.
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