The Charlotte News

Wednesday, July 25, 1951

FIVE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Communists were said by sources to have offered a compromise at the Kaesong ceasefire talks regarding the disputed point on the agenda, whether to include discussion of withdrawal of all foreign troops from Korea, and indications were that the compromise would be accepted by U.N. negotiators. The compromise proposal appeared to be that the allies would only need promise that discussion would be included of arrangements for withdrawal of foreign troops, to be taken up subsequently after a ceasefire. The allies had insisted that the question was a political matter for higher authorities to determine and thus could not be considered until a ceasefire had been arranged by the military negotiators.

Assuming therefore that negotiations would continue after the agenda was established finally, U.N. negotiators warned, however, that two serious questions remained for determination during actual negotiations, the truce demarcation line between the opposing forces and inspection procedures to insure that the truce, once established, would not be broken.

For one of the few times since the start of the Korean war on June 25, 1950, there was no front page news from the fighting front.

In Palo Alto, California, Undersecretary of the Air Force John McCone, future CIA director under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, speaking at Stanford University, said that the Russians had an atomic bomb capable of being carried a long distance and delivered in a surprise attack. The Russian version of the B-29 was available to them in great quantity and had been for some time. It was not knowable at present how many bombs they possessed or the precise extent of the progress in research but that it posed a grave threat because of the Russian military state and its stress on the program of atomic development. It was known that they had the capability to reach U.S. cities and production centers with long-range bombers.

Senate and House confreres opened discussions on the economic controls bill reconciliation between the House and Senate versions, differing primarily in the length of the extension of controls, eight months or a year, stressing first whether to allow the Government to continue to impose livestock slaughtering quotas which both bills had prohibited. The Administration urged that the quotas were necessary to forestall creation of black markets in beef and the Senators, though opposed to the quotas, said that they would work to prevent black markets in their negotiations.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that William Boyle, DNC chairman, had been paid $8,000 by a printing firm in St. Louis after it received an RFC loan for $565,000, that payments of $500 per month to Mr. Boyle directly and payments of $1,000 per month to a close friend of Mr. Boyle had begun in 1949 soon after receipt of the loan. The newspaper said that Mr. Boyle admitted receiving the payments from the firm for legal fees performed by him but that it had nothing to do with the RFC loans.

Senator James Eastland of Mississippi said that a White House aide had attempted during the war to get an Army intelligence commission for millionaire leftist Frederick Vanderbilt Field, recently held in contempt by a Federal District Court in New York for refusing to disclose the identities of the members of the Civil Rights Congress who had posted $80,000 in bail for four missing convicted defendants who had not surrendered to begin serving their jail sentences, among the eleven convicted top American Communists under the Smith Act. The statement of the Senator came during testimony before the Senate Internal Security Committee, by Edward C. Carter, a trustee of the Institute of Pacific Relations, who said that Mr. Field had contributed about $60,000 to the IPR and that he had recommended Mr. Field for an Army intelligence post. The Senator said that correspondence with Mr. Carter showed that in 1942 Lauchlin Currie, an aide to FDR, and Far Eastern expert Owen Lattimore, an occasional State Department consultant who had been attacked in the prior year by Senator Joseph McCarthy as being sympathetic to Communism, had recommended Mr. Field for the post as well. Mr. Field was scheduled to testify before the Committee the following day.

The House Republican policy committee voted 71 to 33 to support an amendment to the State Department appropriations bill which would ban salary payments to any "policy-making" department head who had been part of a company or professional firm which had done business with a foreign government in the five years preceding appointment. The aim of the proposal was to deny payment of salary to Secretary of State Acheson, whose former law firm had done business with Poland, in the hope of triggering his resignation. A previous plan to have the amendment ban any government official so situated was abandoned as impacting such persons as John Foster Dulles, leading Republican foreign policy expert, adviser to the State Department, and diplomat.

Capus Waynick, Ambassador to Nicaragua, nominated formally by the President this date to become Ambassador to Colombia, was, according to sources, planning to run in 1952 for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in North Carolina unless circumstances changed in the meantime. Governor Kerr Scott had said that he would back Ambassador Waynick if he chose to run. Governor Scott could not succeed himself for another term.

The next Governor would be former interim Senator William B. Umstead, defeated in his 1948 bid for a full Senate term by former Governor J. Melville Broughton, who then died in March, 1949, shortly after the start of his Senate term. Mr. Waynick, who lived until age 96 in 1986, might have thanked his lucky stars that he did not run for governor in 1952, as Governor Umstead would die in 1954, and Governor Scott, whose campaign in 1948 Mr. Waynick had managed, would die as Senator in 1958 after being elected to the Senate by beating in 1954 interim Senator Alton Lennon, appointed by Governor Umstead following the death of Senator Willis Smith in 1953, after the latter had, in June, 1950, defeated interim Senator Frank Graham, appointed by Governor Scott to fill the vacancy left by Senator Broughton. Former Senator Umstead had been appointed by Governor Gregg Cherry following the death of Senator Josiah W. Bailey in late 1946. Senator Scott's successor, B. Everett Jordan, would be appointed by Governor Luther Hodges who, as Lieutenant Governor, had succeeded Governor Umstead in 1954 and would subsequently, in 1961, be appointed Secretary of Commerce by President Kennedy.

And then there was the other troubled Senate seat, as well beset by the death of Senator Clyde Hoey in 1954 ... the rest being history.

In Philadelphia, Rev. Dr. Daniel A. Poling was chosen the Republican candidate for the mayoralty of Philadelphia. Judge Michael Musmanno, a judge at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, was chosen as the Democratic nominee for the State Supreme Court over a Democratic machine candidate. Both nominees were a surprise.

Gambling kingpin Frank Costello, named by the Senate crime investigating committee as the top man in the nation's underworld, was indicted under nine counts by a Federal grand jury in New York this date for contempt of the Senate during the hearings for refusing to answer questions based on the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Convicted gambler Joe Adonis and convicted bookmaker Frank Erickson were also indicted on the same basis, Mr. Adonis under 16 counts and Mr. Erickson under 74. Each of the latter two men was serving two-year state jail sentences. Mr. Costello's criminal record, spanning back to 1908, including a year in jail on a 1915 conviction for carrying a concealed weapon, was revealed by police and is included in the story. Each count carried a potential of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. The charges had been certified to the U.S. Attorney by the Senate committee.

At Cape Girardeau, Mo., the Mississippi River was now receding, having carried its flood waters toward the Gulf of Mexico from this last populated area along its course. The flood stage reading was at 41.7 feet this date, a tenth of a foot less than it had stood 24 hours earlier when it reached its crest after a high of 41.9 feet had been predicted. The Red Cross said that 17,000 persons had been forced to abandon their homes during the flooding since July 13 in Kansas and Missouri. Clean-up was proceeding and things were getting back to normal in the flooded areas, which had been beset by a billion dollars worth of damage.

On the editorial page, "A Code for Business" thinks that in addition to a code of ethics in government, as the committee chaired by Senator Paul Douglas was trying to develop, there ought as well be a code for the tempter, business. It suggests that such organizations as the National Association of Manufacturers, solidly in favor of the code of ethics for government, ought also therefore get behind a code for business.

It again adverts, as in a previous editorial anent government corruption, to Lincoln Steffens who, many years earlier, had, in response to a question by an Episcopal Bishop during a talk in San Francisco regarding who was responsible for the system of corrupt politics in big cities, said that it was analogous to the Garden of Eden where Adam blamed Eve for succumbing to temptation and Eve blamed the snake, whereas, said Mr. Steffens, it was actually the apple.

"End of an Era" tells of it being the deadline for partaking of the G.I. Bill's education benefits, under which eight million veterans had studied at a cost of 14 billion dollars during the previous six years. Only those currently enrolled or those discharged from the military within the prior four years would be henceforth eligible for participation.

Some opportunistic schools had sought to take advantage of the program, forming for the sole purpose of receiving Government-endowed tuition payments from veterans while offering nothing but paper instruction and worthless diplomas in dancing or bartending and the like, enabling at the same time those veterans to goldbrick out of the public trough.

But on the whole, it concludes, the program had provided veterans a great opportunity to aid themselves and improve the country they had served.

"Make It Strong, Senator" hopes that Senator Willis Smith would register as strong a protest as had Senator Clyde Hoey to the withdrawal by the Army of the appointment of Dr. Ralph Brimley, the superintendent of Forsyth County Schools, as part of an educator mission to Japan, after the AFL had complained that Dr. Brimley had addressed a group of local teachers advising them not to form a local union. Senator Smith had said that he intended to file a protest with the Army as well, as Senator Hoey had already registered one which strongly condemned the Army for caving to the AFL to prevent a well-qualified individual from serving on the mission.

"Iranian Operetta" tells of the Iranian oil crisis having its lighter moments, reminiscent of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, The Mikado. Recently, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, the embattled Premier of Iran, had barricaded himself in his room for several days, fearful of being assassinated if he walked about normally. One of his chief enemies had been jailed, however, while walking about dressed as a veiled woman, after police recognized that his gait did not appear feminine.

Another comic incident had arisen when Dr. Mossadegh was sent a letter addressed by the President to British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, suggesting that Averell Harriman be sent to mediate the dispute and urging compromise, while Mr. Attlee received the one addressed to Dr. Mossadegh. The Iranian Premier and the Shah were reported to have taken the mix-up in good humor and no harm was done. But the piece muses as to what might have happened had the President's letter to Washington Post music critic Paul Hume the previous December, in which, upset at his negative review of daughter Margaret's singing, he suggested, among other things, that Mr. Hume might need a "supporter below" after the President got through with him, instead been sent to Dr. Mossadegh. Or, the letter he had written to Price Administrator Mike DiSalle, urging that he continue to hit official Washington with his sardonic wit, as he had in an interview appearing in the New York Times Magazine, the President saying that it reminded him of when they used to use a "trocar on a clovered bull" to relieve its bloating. It suggests that in either case, the results might have been disastrous to continued negotiations.

"Dr. Gallup Must Be Wrong" finds that a Gallup public opinion poll had found that 66 percent of American men did not want women to wear shorts, 75 percent disfavored shorts being worn on the street by females, about 84 percent not wanting to see shorts in eating places, and about 88 percent being against women wearing shorts in the office on hot summer days.

It finds that something had to be wrong with the polling questions for not specifying the type of figure of the woman in question or some other like omission, as, otherwise, it would be forced to consider what civilization was coming to if American males truly no longer wanted to see a shapely female leg.

Drew Pearson tells of the President almost alienating Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson, who had been doing a very good job. The President had insisted that Mr. Wilson accompany him on his inspection tour of the Kansas and Missouri flood areas after Mr. Wilson had suggested the tour. During the trip, the President appointed Mr. Wilson head of flood relief and announced that appointment to Kansas and Missouri crowds.

When Mr. Wilson returned to Washington, therefore, he immediately scheduled a meeting for early the next morning, at which he designated various government officials to carry out particular functions regarding flood relief. During the meeting, one person invited, Raymond Foley, in charge of defense housing, had arrived late, explaining to everyone's considerable surprise that he had been suddenly summoned to the White House after returning from a two-week vacation and given the task of coordinating the flood relief. At that point, he unveiled his plan and began making appointments, as Mr. Wilson remained silent.

After the meeting, Mr. Foley was informed of what had occurred, that the President had forgotten his appointment of Mr. Wilson and appointed Mr. Foley, whom he had assigned to head disaster relief a month earlier. Eventually, the mess was straightened out and Mr. Foley was given the task of local and municipal coordination while Mr. Wilson would handle flood relief at the national level.

Marquis Childs discusses the President's tendency to alienate fellow Democrats who might otherwise seek to compromise with him, by being uncompromising. A recent example was his refusal to appoint but one of four Federal judicial nominees accepted by Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois, a matter of traditional Presidential courtesy to a state's ranking or party Senator, the other being Everett Dirksen, a Republican. The President, instead, appointed political supporters, or in one case the nephew of Congressman Adolph Sabath, to two of the three open seats, while appointing one of Senator Douglas's approved appointees to the third seat.

The President could not possibly win the contest as Senator Douglas intended to submit to the Chicago Bar Association his slate of acceptable nominees along with the nominees chosen by the President for assessment and said that he would abide by the result in his Senate vote for confirmation of the President's nominees.

The President had behaved similarly toward Senator Guy Gillette of Iowa, although initially telling the Senator that he would appoint his chosen nominee to a vacancy on the Federal bench, then appointing someone else whom the Senate later refused to confirm.

When the President was pushing for a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission, a key component of his civil rights program, he had refused to compromise with a proposal made by Senator Richard Russell whereby the bill would have eliminated criminal penalties for noncompliance and made compliance voluntary as a test measure. The President refused to go along and the FEPC bill was dead. (Mr. Childs does not state, however, that the wartime FEPC, as established by FDR pursuant to executive order under the war powers act, had worked smoothly.)

The President had carried Illinois by only 35,000 votes while Senator Douglas had been elected by a much greater margin and Governor Adlai Stevenson, who had been doing an excellent job thus far in Springfield, by a half million votes.

He concludes, presciently, that if the Democrats wanted an able nominee for the presidency in 1952 should the President not seek re-election, then they should choose Governor Stevenson. Senator Douglas had stated flatly that he did not want the nomination.

Robert C. Ruark, in Tanganyika, tells of hunting and bagging a Chui leopard after baiting it, in accordance with the plan of his white hunter, Harry Selby, by setting in a tree a dead Grant gazelle and a wart hog, both of which Mr. Ruark had shot. They waited a couple of days before beginning to observe the tree and saw that the leopard had taken off large chunks of the carcasses, meaning it was a large specimen.

After waiting a few more days while the leopard got used to the scent, he and Mr. Selby moved in for the kill. Mr. Ruark spotted a glimpse of the leopard hidden among the tree branches and was able to catch it with a bullet to its the shoulder using his .30-.06 rifle at a distance of 50 yards. He only had one shot because a wounded or missed leopard could move at the "speed of light" and be on the shooter in no time. After the dead leopard fell out of the tree, Mr. Selby approached with caution as apparently dead animals had sometimes sprung suddenly back to life and killed their assailants.

Mr. Ruark says that he was drunk when they got back to camp, even though he had not a drink. He didn't need one.

A letter writer from Hamlet suggests the verdict of not guilty by reason of temporary insanity in the case of Amelia Helms, following her slaying of her husband's suspected paramour, a verdict criticized in a recent editorial, to have sent a message that extra-marital affairs had their consequences and praises the jury for looking to the reason for the criminal act in passing judgment upon the accused.

A letter writer finds, after reading Senator Estes Kefauver's book and the review of it by Bob Sain of The News, all of the enthusiastic response to Senator Kefauver's committee investigating organized crime to be so much window-dressing. In the end, he ventures, it was all a big show to impress the public while nothing much got done about crime.

He concludes by quoting a colloquy from Hamlet between Rosencrantz and Hamlet in which the latter asked, "What's the news?" to which the former answered, "None, my lord, except that the world's grown honest," to which Hamlet responded, "Then is doomsday near..."

And, faith be it private, lord, that's not all, though ended well it be, if not too stingingly.

A letter writer praises the Hawthorne Center for leaving pleasant memories in those who had garnered its benefits. "So it is."

But what is it?

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.