The Charlotte News

Saturday, July 21, 1951

FIVE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the two Communist Chinese negotiators took the lead from the North Korean negotiators for the first time during the ceasefire talks and obtained a three-day recess until July 25. The move occurred after the U.N. negotiators stuck firmly to their objection to adding to the agenda for the conference the issue of withdrawal of all foreign troops from Korea, as demanded by the Communists. Pyongyang radio said that both sides needed more time to consider the matter.

It was reported from Cairo that in the wake of the assassination the previous day of King Abdullah of Jordan, his anti-British eldest son, Prince Tallal, was upset at the naming of his younger brother, Prince Naif, as regent. Prince Tallal had been recovering in Beirut from two nervous breakdowns but was now reported on vacation in Switzerland.

Britain canceled the passports of a Foreign Office official and of a British atomic scientist who was planning a trip to Moscow with a group engaged in cultural exchange. Neither were identified by the Foreign Office, but other sources identified the scientist as Dr. E. H. S. Burhop of University College in London, who had worked on the Manhattan Project in the U.S. during the war and currently advocated rapprochement with Russia on atomic arms limitation before the West undertook to accelerate the arms race with development of the hydrogen bomb. Dr. Burhop, when contacted by phone, had no comment on the speculation, but later said that he had no access to secret documents during the war and had no connection with atomic development since the war. The cancellation came as part of a tighter British security program in the wake of the disappearance of two diplomats with access to secret information, believed to have defected behind the iron curtain two months earlier.

After the House early this date passed an economic controls measure without most of the provisions sought by the President, differing somewhat from that passed by the Senate, the two bills would be reconciled by a joint conference committee the following week. The House measure extended for one year wage, price and other controls, whereas the Senate bill extension was for only eight months. An amendment to the House measure which would have frozen wages and prices for four months at July 7 levels was defeated. The previously passed amendment which had required price controls on beef to allow for reasonable profits to packers and processors was reversed, and the recent ten percent rollback on beef prices was preserved. The bill appeared to satisfy neither party. Economic Stabilizer Eric Johnston said that it did not give consumers the break they deserved.

The House Armed Services Committee approved a 5.7 billion dollar military construction program aimed at shoring up defenses at home and abroad against potential Soviet aggression.

In Jackson, Miss., a dozen residents of the state, some leaders of the pro-Truman faction, had been indicted in Federal District Court for conspiring to sell Federal jobs. Two of the defendants were also charged with perjury. The job-selling counts carried a maximum sentence of a year in prison plus a fine of $1,000. The indictments grew out of hearings before the Senate Investigating Committee, chaired by Senator Clyde Hoey of North Carolina.

A Korean airlift plane carrying three U.N. officials, 28 U.S. military men and a crew of seven was reported missing on a flight from Vancouver, B.C., to Anchorage, Alaska.

In St. Louis, the Mississippi River was expected by midnight this date to climb to its highest level since 1844, at 40.5 feet. Most of the city was on high ground and so was not in danger of flooding.

According to the chief of the Army Corps of Engineers testifying to Congress, in Kansas City and in Missouri, where flooding had subsided, damage amounted to a billion dollars and thus far, 41 persons had lost their lives.

Violent thunderstorms packing gale-force winds of 100 mph hit central Minnesota and eastern South Dakota, causing three deaths and injuring nearly a hundred people.

In a Denver hospital, a doctor administered the wrong anesthetic to a 23-year old woman, resulting in her death after she had given birth to her third child. The ampules of the two drugs, salyrgen and nupercainal, while marked differently, were of the same size and color, and the doctor selected the wrong one.

On the editorial page, "Abdullah, Friend of the West" finds it lamentable that King Abdullah of Jordan had been assassinated the previous day in Jerusalem, as he had been one of the most moderating forces among the Arab nations in the Middle East. His removal meant more trouble in that region for the West, to add to the oil nationalization dispute in Iran and Egypt's hounding of Britain regarding the Suez Canal. The former Premier of Lebanon, Riadh El Solh, had also just been assassinated.

The State Department was urging passage by Congress of 540 million dollars in aid appropriation for the Middle East, and the instability consequent of the assassination of King Abdullah made such aid the more urgent. It urges a more intelligent and aggressive State Department policy toward the Middle East.

"More about the Franco Deal" clarifies its earlier editorial on U.S. consideration of alliance with Franco's Spain, to dispel misunderstanding evidenced by readers who had sent letters without their names. It believed it was premature for Spain to be considered for membership in NATO because of the risk of breaking up the Western alliance, as France and Britain were opposed to any such alliance with Franco's Spain, and because as a dictatorship which did not recognize freedom of the press, the Franco regime had not demonstrated that Spain was a part of the free nations' struggle against Communism.

But, the newspaper also believed that in a" life and death struggle" with Communism, there would be no objection to unilateral agreements on the part of the U.S. with Franco, Tito or Chiang Kai-Shek, provided those agreements materially strengthened the country's worldwide military position without compromising freedom.

Ultimately, it concludes, military alliances should be left to the sound judgment of the Joint Chiefs. But Sr. Franco, with economic distress and an impotent military at home, was in no position to dictate terms of any such alliance.

"Another Time to Stand Firm" discusses the need to stand fast against adding the remaining point in dispute on the ceasefire talks agenda in Korea, that apparently being the Communist insistence to have all foreign troops removed from Korea. The U.N. command found this point to be political in nature rather than military, and therefore needing to await consideration at a higher level only after a ceasefire was first established. In so standing firm, the negotiators could better assess the sincerity of the Communists in seeking a ceasefire.

"Grasshoppers and Ants" tells of the Senate approving an increase in public assistance benefits for the blind and disabled and dependent children but defeating a commensurate increase in Social Security to maintain parity in the two forms of assistance, as urged by the President. The Senate defeat appeared paradoxically to penalize those who had contributed to the old-age insurance program through their pay checks, while benefiting those who had not paid into the system for their public assistance.

"'Who But Hoover!'" tells of Michigan Congressman Paul Shafer having touted J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI as a potential dark horse candidate for the GOP nomination for the presidency in 1952.

Mr. Hoover had transformed the FBI from a disreputable bureau into a formidable and respected investigatory body. He would also bring to the table as a candidate continuity of Government service across time and therefore an appreciation of the nation's comtemporary history, both in terms of foreign and domestic policy, having served as FBI director since 1924, under four Presidents. But he would have no home state, having lived his entire life in D.C., and had no political experience. Even so, he had a great many admirers, many of whom, however, were not yet 21 and so not of voting age.

It adds that the specter of his last name would also undoubtedly evoke in many voters memories of the Depression and 1932, when FDR defeated President Herbert Hoover, albeit of no relation.

A piece from the New York Herald Tribune, titled "Absenteeism in the Senate", tells of Majority Leader, Senator Ernest McFarland, complaining about Senators being absent from Senate business such that he had threatened to keep attendance records. The desire to play hooky in the summer heat during the long session had proved irresistible for many.

It urges that it was no time for Senators to shirk their duties and that there were worse hardships than sitting in an air-conditioned Senate Chamber.

Drew Pearson tells of a recent secret meeting at Blair House between the President and nine Democratic members of Congress, the most noteworthy point in discussion having been dissatisfaction on the part of some with the efforts of the DNC, as well as discussion of the controversy surrounding the RFC. The meeting included Senators Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Earle Clements of Kentucky, Thomas Hennings of Missouri, George Smathers of Florida, and James Murray of Montana, together with Congressmen Hale Boggs of Louisiana, Samuel Yorty of California, Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, and Wayne Hays of Ohio.

The group happened by serendipity to include, therefore, the final two leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968, then-Vice-President Humphrey and then-Senator McCarthy. It also included the later Mayor of Los Angeles, Sam Yorty, about whom the other leading candidate for the 1968 nomination, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, had joked regarding their having stayed too long in the Ambassador Hotel ballroom, just moments before he was shot, just after midnight, June 5, causing a head wound to which he would succumb 25 hours later. As we have pointed out, Mr. Yorty died June 5, 1998, exactly thirty years after the shooting of Senator Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian immigrant, born and raised in Palestine, upset with Senator Kennedy for stating his support for sending 50 jets to Israel to bolster its military defenses, a sale approved by the Senate in July, 1968, later incorporated as an advisory sense of the Congress resolution in the October Foreign Assistance Act and then subsequently initiated, albeit reluctantly for concern over destabilization vis-à-vis the Arab states and their Soviet pipeline for arms, by President Johnson late in his term. June 5, 1968 marked not only the first anniversary of the start of the Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab countries of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, but also the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the first of two articles by Robert Kennedy for the Boston Post regarding the tension between Arabs and Israelis in the divided city of Jerusalem and the efforts to effect a fragile peace there and across the region. And this report of the Blair House meeting appears, of course, by further coincidence, a day after the assassination in Jerusalem of King Abdullah of Jordan by an individual upset at the King's moderate stand with respect to Israel.

The President urged the group to speak freely about any gripes they had, that he was accustomed to criticism. He said that it was constructive to let the public know about the problems at RFC and remarked that Senator J. William Fulbright, who had chaired the investigation, had written many letters to RFC exerting influence to get loans for his friends.

Congressman Hays complained of the DNC being a "disgrace" and wanted it completely reorganized. The RNC always had ammunition, he said, to use against Democrats, but the DNC appeared to sit on its hands, showing life only at the "cocktail hour". The President responded that while the DNC had its problems, it was not as bad as Mr. Hays suggested.

Congressman Boggs reminded that Congressman Yorty had been one of the President's chief defenders on the firing of General MacArthur, to which Mr. Yorty added that he had been a staff officer under the General during the war and knew that any such insubordination as the General had exhibited with respect to the President would have led to the General court-martialing that individual.

The President defended Secretary of State Acheson, whom he called the best Secretary in fifty years. He said that it was not his duty to have a popular Secretary, but rather one who was smart and able, especially when the U.S. had to deal with the Russians.

He also said that all four of his Secretaries had followed the same basic foreign policy, implying that the State Department put it into motion and that therefore it would be the same no matter who the Secretary was.

Marquis Childs tells of increasing speculation in Washington that the Russians were engaging in a ploy to lull the U.S. into complacency, to cause a slowdown of the rearmament plan and destroy thereby the Western alliance. The peace move in Korea was merely the foremost sign among several such indicators. The shift had likely arisen from the realization that Korea had been a mistake which had backfired by encouraging the U.S. and Western Europe to rearm.

Other crucial errors made by the Soviets were refusal of Marshall Plan aid when offered in 1947-48, which, had it been accepted, could have allowed the Soviets and their satellites to undermine the Plan from within, and the coup in Czechoslovakia which destroyed the remainder of the Czech republic and placed its center of power in Moscow, causing millions of fellow-travelers to realize that the Kremlin would not tolerate even a semi-puppet government in one of its satellites.

The greatest of the blunders was Korea.

The chief danger at home at present was division caused by the peace move, coupled with inflation, all leading up to an election year in 1952.

Robert C. Ruark, in Tanganyika, discusses the image of the tough old, grey-bearded, grizzled white hunter versus the reality. Some were as young as 20. Others were short, drank little and were polite.

Harry Selby, his white hunter, also did not fit the image: not yet 26, but having hunted wild game since age eight and having been a white hunter for six years. He drank only moderately and quit smoking while on safari. He was brave beyond words, recently allowing a female lion, protecting its cubs, to get within 20 feet of the party, after it had charged in response to Mr. Ruark having shot the male lion. Mr. Selby had been prepared to shoot if necessary but chose to wait for the sake of the cubs, and the lion did finally turn away. He had once allowed a charging, wounded buffalo to come within eight feet of him before shooting it in the eye.

He left nothing wounded and would enter the bush, poking his way forward with his shotgun, to find a wounded leopard to end its misery.

His only defect found by Mr. Ruark thus far appeared to be his fondness for buffalo, the most dangerous and meanest of the animals. Mr. Ruark was scared stiff of buffalo.

He promises next to relate of shooting two lions in the first three days of the safari, provided he lived until Monday and was not trampled by buffalo.

Tom Schlesinger of The News, in his weekly "Capital Roundup", tells of the continuing search for a site for the proposed Air Force Academy, with 20 million dollars having been proposed as an appropriation to get the project started. Congressman Carl Vinson, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told Congressman Hamilton Jones of Charlotte that he supported the Charlotte-Huntersville area as the site for the Academy. Six possible sites remained on the list, including Colorado Springs, where it would eventually be located. The Air Force had said no final determination would occur until the appropriations bill passed.

A Congressman from Minnesota had proposed that Paul Green's outdoor drama on the life of George Washington, "Faith of Our Fathers", in its second summer run, be taken to college and university campuses nationwide, had proposed legislation to that effect. The play had earned about $5,500 in its first 36 performances of the season, whereas it lost over $10,000 in its first season.

Congressman Graham Barden, chairman of the House Labor and Education Committee, criticized the Army for caving into an AFL complaint against Forsyth County Schools superintendent Dr. Ralph Brimley and withdrawing his appointment to the Army mission of educators being sent to Japan, because of a speech he had made to teachers disfavoring their joining a union.

Laconic Senator Willis Smith concluded that Owen Lattimore, Far East expert who had been attacked by Senator Joseph McCarthy, was "quite a fellow", after he appeared before the Internal Security Committee as a witness. The Committee was set to start hearings on Communist activities in Washington and the Far East.

Congressman Charles Deane used the News editorial of June 29 on the trend toward monopoly in journalism to make his point that the rapid centralization of the nation's press was "not a good sign". Placing the editorial in the Congressional Record, he said that he hoped such editorials would stimulate the thinking of the U.S. press to create a spirit of mutual cooperation to end the trend.

Framed Edition
[Return to Links
Page by Subject] [Return to Links-Page by Date] [Return to News<i><i><i>—</i></i></i>Framed Edition]
Links-Date Links-Subj.