The Charlotte News

Saturday, August 11, 1951

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that U. N. chief negotiator Vice-Admiral C. Turner Joy had told Communist chief negotiator Lt. General Nam Il at Kaesong that the Communists had "slammed the door on every attempt to make progress" in the ceasefire negotiations, that they had not come to Kaesong to stop the fighting or negotiate an armistice, but rather had entered the talks to state the Communist political price, establishing the ceasefire line at the 38th parallel, for a ceasefire. Admiral Joy said further that the Communists had only engaged in demands and were not seeking to negotiate a solution. Observers said that General Nam left the conference this date apparently angry, after refusing Admiral Joy's suggestion to indicate on a map the Communists' idea of a buffer zone based on the present battle lines and overall military situation.

After the two-hour and twenty-minute session ended, the negotiators agreed only to meet again the following day.

Meanwhile, in the air war, fifteen American B-29s hit Communist supplies stored at Hungnam on the east coast of North Korea, dropping more than 2,000 bombs weighing a hundred pounds each. The planes encountered no anti-aircraft fire or enemy aircraft. During the previous week, the Fifth Air Force flew 2,700 sorties, 385 of which were directed at enemy rail and highway routes.

Ground fighting was bogged down by mud in the western sector and patrol action was sporadic in the central sector. But intense local fighting occurred in the eastern sector for control of three hills southwest of Kansong, where U.N. troops gained controlled of one but an enemy counter-attack, supported by mortar and artillery, had repulsed the allied forces from another and the outcome on the third hill remained unsettled.

In Stockbridge, Mass., former Assistant Secretary of State A. A. Berle, Jr., said that world war three could break out at any time during the coming fall with a Russian attack on Yugoslavia, adding that intelligence experts had assessed the chances of war at about 50-50. But, he said, he believed that it would be yet another year before the climax would come. He indicated that Russia planned a triple drive for world power through Southeast Asia, Iran and the Balkans. The U.S., through strengthening its fleet and air power in the Mediterranean and by encouraging admission of Greece and Turkey into NATO, was moving to block any attempt by Russia to conquer the Middle East. He urged that as a further measure, the U.S. could encourage the Russian satellite countries to bind together, as they were eager for freedom. He said the evidence was inescapable that throughout the satellite countries their armies were as likely, in the event of war, to march against Russia as against the West, provided the U.S. gave them "diplomatic reason and military possibility to do so".

In Paris, Premier Rene Pleven and his new, strongly conservative Cabinet, won the equivalent of a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, after it voted 390 to 222 to postpone indefinitely an opposition request to debate the composition of the Cabinet. It was the worst Cabinet crisis in France since the war. Observers believed that the Cabinet, however, would not last very long past the Parliament's summer recess, which would end October 23.

Former press secretary to FDR, Steve Early, died this date of a heart attack at age 61. Mr. Early had left the Administration after the death of FDR and taken a position as vice-president of the Pullman Car Company, from which he had taken a leave to be Deputy Secretary of Defense during the tenure of Secretary James Forrestal, leaving that post in fall 1950.

Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, appeared to have nixed the possibility of a formal Congressional investigation into the recent dismissal of 90 West Point Cadets for cheating. The chairmen of the other two committees with potential oversight of the matter, Congressman Carl Vinson of the House Armed Services Committee and Senator Clyde Hoey of the Senate's special investigating subcommittee, had also nixed such an investigation. Senator Russell said that the question was whether there had been an overemphasis placed on athletics rather than whether there had been an honor code violation, despite the hardship on the individuals who had been dismissed.

The President said at his press conference on Thursday that he was looking into big-time, big-money football at West Point and at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. He said that when he thought he had a solution he would let the press know.

Disagreement over a proposed 19-million dollar Air Force installation in the President's home county in Missouri had temporarily delayed House action on the record 5.7 billion dollar military construction bill. After a Republican-sponsored amendment to the bill to strike out the proposed project as unnecessarily duplicative of nearby installations was easily defeated, another amendment was submitted to send the bill back to the House Armed Services Committee with instructions from the House to eliminate the proposal.

In Benton, Tenn., voting began in a special election between brothers to decide which of two embattled political factions would control Polk County after six months of government paralysis in the troubled and violence beset county. No trouble had yet been reported at the polling places.

At Simmesport, La., plans were being made for an investigation into the cause of a high-speed, head-on train crash occurring the previous morning between a Marine troop train and a regular passenger train, in which eight men had died amid fiery wreckage and 60 others injured, with one Marine missing. The parish coroner said that the crash was caused by a garbled, forgotten or ignored message received by the crew of the Marine troop train, which had plowed into an oncoming Kansas City Southern streamliner, the "Southern Bell".

Mary Curry of the News tells of the Charlotte Soap Box Derby winner, Betts Huntley, arriving in Akron, O., to compete for the national Derby, to take place the following day. During trials, young Mr. Huntley had recorded the second fastest time down the course. The event would be broadcast over Charlotte radio station WBT at 4:30 p.m. Be sure and tune in.

On the editorial page, "Resurfacing or Widening?" tells of the City Government being short of funds for street work during the current fiscal year because more than a half-million dollars of the budget had been devoted to raising of City employee salaries and retirement benefits. The previous year, the City had spent $276,000 from budget funds to improve the streets. During 1951, the State had contributed $335,000 to the City under a bill passed by the 1951 General Assembly. The City had limited its appropriations for streets to $100,000 because of the salary increases and so the total allocated for street work during the current fiscal year would be $435,000. The problem arose as to how to allocate the money.

It proceeds to list some of the suggested ways proposed by City personnel. The piece recommends adopting the City Engineer's proposal and rejecting that of Councilman Basil Boyd.

You may read what they proposed because we do not wish to spoil the mystery.

Explicit pictures are included.

"No Place to Fly" finds commendable the Junior Chamber of Commerce effort to promote model airplane building and flying in the city as a wholesome and educational hobby, but also finds it to pose the problem of where to fly them.

Bryant Park had been the center of such model airplane activities until area residents had protested of the noise and danger, forcing the model airplane enthusiasts to transplant themselves to Freedom Park, producing, in turn, new protests, such that the Park & Recreation Commission had now banned the use of that park for the purpose. The Jaycees had announced that they would try to get the Commission to revoke the ban.

After the Commission had given consideration to the matter, it suggests, it was unlikely to reverse its decision. The piece is not certain that it should, since the engines of the model airplanes created a terrific noise which could be heard a long distance away.

It urges that some private landowner with a field or pasture might step forward and offer it for the purpose, and so suggests that the Jaycees and the Commission exhaust every effort to find another site.

That is quite as important as the Soap Box Derby and so, wethinks, should also take up half the front page this date.

"Open Abuse of Immunity" comments on the latest episode involving Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, finding that he had never, in his "slippery career", quite so openly abused Congressional immunity as he had the previous day in naming 26 persons associated with the State Department, accusing them of disloyalty. He had first attempted to give the list to newspapers and press associations, but they had refused to guarantee publication because of their being subject to defamation laws. The reporters had asked Senator McCarthy if he was going to hold a press conference and read the list, but instead he had read the names on the floor of the Senate where he was cloaked with immunity to defamation law. Only twelve other Senators were present at the time.

It notes that the 26 names were all that were left of his original list which he had brandished in February, 1950, saying at the time that there were 205 "card-carrying Communists" still in the State Department. He had changed that number frequently, first to 57, then to 81, more recently to 29, and now finally to 26. Yet, he had not come up with the name of a single actual Communist.

The piece finds that while Congressional immunity was necessary to the legislative and investigative functions of Congress, it was a privilege which should have adequate safeguards to protect innocent Americans from being smeared by unscrupulous and dishonorable members of Congress. It hopes that this latest abuse by Senator McCarthy would move the Congress to provide such safeguards.

"Proletarian Pigs" tells of Soviet academician L. K. Greben, who raised hogs for the glory of Stalin, being in trouble because his pigs limped. He had even resorted to putting sandals on the pigs' feet, for which Izvestia mocked him, suggesting that the next step would be to adorn them with silken nightgowns. It had urged that the pigs were too closely related.

The piece recommends that Mr. Greben remove the capitalistic genes from the bloodlines of his inbred hogs by having them associate with good Marxist hogs. It admits that it might be difficult to spot a Commie pig, but that at a hog calling contest, someone could shout "Sooey! Sooey!" and the bourgeois traitors would likely come running.

A piece from the Baltimore Evening Sun, titled "Report on the Butler Campaign", tells of the unanimous report of the Senate subcommittee investigating the campaign of Senator John Butler of Maryland for his fall, 1950 campaign smear tactics against incumbent Senator Millard Tydings, ultimately leading to the latter's defeat. The three Democrats and two Republicans on the subcommittee had joined in condemning the actions of Mr. Butler for being negligent in directing his campaign staff, but stopped short of recommending any formal action against him. The most disturbing part of the report had been its finding that Senator Butler's campaign manager had "directed candidate Butler rather than candidate Butler directing the campaign manager." The campaign manager had later pleaded guilty to a charge regarding failure to report campaign contributions and was sentenced to pay a fine of $5,000.

The piece points out that Maryland had been able to keep itself free from such campaign abuses and many of its citizens would wonder how it was that such a man as Senator Butler, after such findings by his colleagues, could continue to serve as an effective spokesman for the state in the Senate.

Drew Pearson, in a column which the News editors have poetically titled "Elks Hold Sack for Mac's Cadillac", tells of a new Cadillac having been given by the Elks Club of Houston to General MacArthur when he had visited Texas, but that the $5,700 car was still not paid for because the Elks, in their enthusiasm, had thought the money would be easy to raise on behalf of the General and counted on being able to pay it later. But they had only been able to raise $1,286 of the price. He reprints their solicitation letter seeking to raise the remaining funds, containing an assurance to contributors that they would have their names listed on a scroll which would be presented to the General.

If it doesn't pan out before the repossession agents arrive, we know where you might find a 1952 Lincoln for the General, albeit a little used.

Senators Milton Young and Joseph McCarthy had been urging reversal of the Agriculture Department's ban on Canadian rye, a reversal which had suddenly occurred. Senators Hubert Humphrey and Edward Thye of Minnesota had sat in on a meeting regarding rye, but only at the urging of Senator McCarthy, without advocating any change in policy. Senator Young, from the rye-producing state of North Dakota, wanted completely to ban rye imports from Canada but also proposed that, since Canadian rye was already mixed with American rye in Northwest grain elevators, the Government should buy the Canadian rye to reduce the surplus, then ban future rye shipments from Canada, all to the benefit of the American rye farmers. But Senator McCarthy had consistently harangued the Agriculture Department in an effort to have the ban reversed. His intense interest in Canadian rye remained a puzzle and the multi-million dollar corner on the rye market, cooked up by the big speculators, also remained a mystery.

It's a mystery train on rye.

Claude Carter of Texas had gone to Paris and London during the summer to visit Winston Churchill. When he had been president of the Texas Bar Association, he had met and entertained Mr. Churchill, and so the latter had invited him to visit should he ever get to London. Mr. Carter had never forgotten the invitation and apparently neither had Mr. Churchill. When in London during the summer, Mr. Carter had called up Mr. Churchill and was invited to dine at his club. Mr. Carter informed that he had wandered into the writing room of the club and taken some stationery, then utilizing it to write his Texas friends of the former Prime Minister. When guests at the dinner began discussing which of Mr. Churchill's many great speeches had been the most outstanding, most agreed that it was the "blood, sweat and tears" speech. But Mr. Carter, addressing Mr. Churchill familiarly as "Winston", told him that while he had quoted many great authorities, including Rudyard Kipling, he had barely missed giving the greatest speech in all of English history and literature because he had failed to quote the immortal Bard, from King John: "This England never did, nor never shall, lie at the proud foot of a conqueror." Mr. Churchill responded that he wished Mr. Carter had been his ghostwriter during the war and added that the only people who could conceivably conquer England were Texans.

"Pitchmen of the Press", in the sixth article in the series from the Providence (R.I.) Journal, for the second day in a row regards Drew Pearson's weekly Sunday evening radio show. The piece again discusses Mr. Pearson's featured predictions each week, which the series had found during its four-month study of the program, between January and April, 1951, averaged a rate of accuracy of 47 percent, despite the claimed 86 percent accuracy.

On the night of February 19, he had predicted that the coming British elections would be won by the Labor Party, but also predicted that it would be so close that Labor would be forced to offer Winston Churchill a spot in the Cabinet. At the time, the British Gallup poll had given the Labor Government a 45.5 percent chance of victory, compared to a 44 percent chance for the Conservatives. Labor won the election on February 24 and by a slim margin, but Winston Churchill was not invited to join the Cabinet. The next Sunday night, Mr. Pearson's announcer proclaimed that he had correctly predicted the election and its narrow margin, and that new elections might be held soon. He had not made the latter prediction and, in any event, no new election had yet been held. The piece indicates that under the strict analysis of his predictions, that one was considered a failure. But under the more lenient form of analysis, allowing for partially correct predictions, he had achieved a score for being two-thirds correct.

Even when, unlike most of his colleagues, he admitted an error, he did so in a way which also touted a previous correct prediction, such as when he failed to predict correctly that the bill to establish the permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission would pass the House but added to the admission that he had made exclusive revelations regarding the hydrogen bomb.

Also unlike his colleagues, he apparently bore no ill will toward persons with whom he vehemently disagreed. For instance, while he had been good friends with Dean Acheson in the past, the two had not spoken to one another for the previous twelve years. Nevertheless, Mr. Pearson defended Secretary of State Acheson against the attacks by Senator McCarthy. Also, the President had referred to Mr. Pearson in February, 1950 as an "S.O.B." for criticizing Presidential military aide Maj. General Harry Vaughan for his receipt of a medal from El Presidente Juan Peron of Argentina. Notwithstanding that fact, Mr. Pearson, in good humor, had shortly thereafter stated that in honor of Brotherhood Week, he would henceforth provide an award for "Servants of Brotherhood". Moreover, when the President's Kansas City political friends were being mentioned in connection with the killing of the two racketeers, Charles Binaggio and Charles Gargotta, Mr. Pearson was quick to point out that the President had ordered a grand jury investigation of the matter.

Similar to his compatriots, he was an emotional patriot, telling his many listeners, for instance, not to repeat what he was telling them regarding national security revelations because it was highly confidential. One night during the study period, he had told his listeners that the Air Force was starting to build a radar wall completely around the United States to defend the country against enemy airplanes. He instructed, however, that the sites had to remain secret and so stated that if the Government had bought land in a listener's neighborhood, he or she should pay no attention to it, and above all, remain mum about the subject.

Mr. Pearson had scored many notable scoops, such as during his broadcast of April 30, in which he stated that intelligence reports from Moscow informed that Russian fishing boats had located the American Navy bomber which had crashed in the Baltic and that divers were trying to salvage the highly secret radar equipment aboard. Eleven days later, the Associated Press substantially confirmed the story through a Government official. But Mr. Pearson had also stated inaccurately that the crew of the plane had deliberately crashed it in order to prevent recovery of the secret equipment. That was not true, as the Government later confirmed that the plane exploded in midair.

"Congressional Quiz" submits the question as to why most foreign relations problems of the country were settled by executive agreement rather than by treaty, to which it responds that a treaty had to be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate while an executive agreement merely required the signature of the President. Senator Harry Cain of Washington had stated on July 30 during Senate debate that most of the really important and fundamental foreign relations problems of recent years had been resolved by executive agreements.

Tom Schlesinger of The News, in his weekly "Capital Roundup", tells of everyone in Washington, down to the average charwoman—being char of what he does not indicate—, having an opinion on the expulsion of the 90 Cadets from West Point for cheating. Senator Clyde Hoey of North Carolina believed that the Cadets should be given a fair hearing if the investigations showed that they had not already. Senator Willis Smith of North Carolina thought that rash or hasty action was uncalled for. Both believed that the overemphasis by colleges on football had a share in the blame.

Senator Hoey had said that if the victims of the scheme of the swindler who had managed to bilk a quarter million dollars from several individuals, including a Greek Catholic church, had not believed in bribery of public officials, they would not have been victimized by the swindle, which rested on supposed use of their money to bribe public officials to obtain for them government surplus real property for the purpose of renting it out as an investment.

Senator Hoey was still angry about the Army vetoing the appointment to the educational mission to Japan of Forsyth County school superintendent Dr. Ralph Brimley based on his advice to local teachers not to form a local union. AFL president William Green had been adamantly opposed to retention of Dr. Brimley as part of the mission because of the statement. Senator Hoey said that he hoped that the Army could take steps to prevent such outside influence in the future.

Senator Smith had described himself to reporters the previous November at the beginning of his term as a "middle of the roader". And Congressional Quarterly reported that he had backed his party only 54 percent of the time, while Senator Hoey had backed the Democrats 70 percent of the time. Said Senator Smith, he believed himself to be in good company because North Carolina's Congressman Robert Doughton, chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, had voted with fellow Democrats only 43 percent of the time.

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