The Charlotte News
Monday, August 27, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Communist high command had rejected the U.N. reply denying any violation of the Kaesong neutrality zone while, at the same time, leaving the door open to a possible resumption of the ceasefire talks. General Matthew Ridgway, supreme commander of U.N. forces, had responded to the Communist charges Saturday, indicating that they were "malicious lies" but that he was willing to resume the ceasefire talks. In a Peiping broadcast, North Korean Premier Kim Il Sung and Communist Chinese General Peng Teh-Huai had called General Ridgway's statement "entirely unsatisfactory" and accused him of manufacturing incidents to break up the truce talks while "slandering" the Communists. The statement said that once an attitude of "serious responsibility" was taken with regard to the charges, the negotiations could continue. They wanted U.N. liaison officers to join with Communist liaison officers to reinvestigate the alleged bombing of the Kaesong sector.
In ground fighting, an allied patrol clashed with Communist troops in a three-hour skirmish in the former "iron triangle", within sight of Pyonggang. Three other actions had ended before dawn on the east-central front. Along the rest of the front, only minor engagements were reported. Bad weather with low visibility reduced allied air attacks on Communist convoys transporting troops and supplies to the front lines, resulting in only 200 sorties being flown.
Chief U.S. delegate to the U.N., Warren Austin, addressing a V.F.W. convention in New York, stated that the organization of a permanent U.N. peace force to resist aggression was underway and that it was up to the Kremlin to decide whether a coalition against aggression and a coalition against the Soviet Union would be one and the same. He said that 23 nations supported the move and others were certain to join.
Iranian sources said that three British tank-landing craft loaded with tanks and troops had entered the mouth of the Shatt-El-Arab River and were headed toward Basra, Iraq. Hours later, a militant Iranian nationalist, in charge of carrying out the nationalization of the oil, stated, before a crowd of 20,000 persons commemorating the deaths of Iranians during the allied occupation of Iran in 1941, that if British troops were to land in Iran, the country would defend itself, if necessary, with its bare hands.
Correspondent John Scali reports of a new and less benevolent American policy toward India appearing certain as a result of Prime Minister Nehru's refusal to sign the U.S.-backed peace treaty with Japan, saying that India would instead sign a separate treaty with Japan as soon as it achieved independence, referring to a time after the signing and ratification of the pending treaty. The San Francisco conference of 50 nations was scheduled to meet starting September 4 to sign the treaty. The move by India was expected to provide additional ammunition to the Soviets in their opposition to the treaty as representing an American attempt to pit Japan against other Asian peoples and transform it into an American colony.
America's production of strategic copper dropped to a trickle this date as the President was asked to intervene in a strike called by the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in 14 states, involving at least 58,000 workers and 95 percent of the nation's capacity of copper from mine to final production line.
Representative Frank Fellows of Maine, 61, who was being treated in a hospital for a circulatory ailment and abdominal problems, died this date. He had been in the Congress since 1941.
In Miami, the body of a 23-year old female night clerk, kidnapped from a "Gold Coast" hotel five days earlier, was found in underbrush on a dairy farm this date, shot through the head. She apparently fought for her life, though was probably unconscious when shot. Missing from the hotel cash drawer was $925. A Sheriff's deputy said that she had a lot of boyfriends and was separated from her husband.
In Bloomfield, Ind., a ten-year old boy who was "just playing" was blamed for a train wreck which scalded three trainmen to death, after he had placed a 10-inch bolt in a switch shortly before the Illinois Central freight train passed by the location and derailed. A rail pierced the firebox causing the fatal cloud of steam to surround the locomotive crew. An FBI Special Agent in Indianapolis said that the case would be referred to a Federal grand jury the following week.
In Vandalia, Ill., a small plane crashed near the business district, killing all four occupants but only striking an unoccupied, parked vehicle on the ground.
In Joliet, Ill., a 19-year old quadruple amputee of the Korean War, an Army private, would be married the following month to an 18-year old girl he had met through letters she had written him while he was in the hospital in Pennsylvania recovering from his injuries caused by frostbite after he had been captured and left for dead during a Communist Chinese breakthrough the prior winter.
In Istachatta, Fla., a four-foot black snake slowly crawled down the aisle of the Baptist church during a sermon until it reached the foot of the pulpit, at which point the preacher threw a hymnal at it, failing, however, to stop the adder. Several women raised their feet from the floor and one of their number left the church, reentering with a large rock which she handed to the minister, who then killed the serpent and resumed his sermon.
In Dallas, Tex., a father who had taken the family dog to a farm outside Dallas to escape the city heat had been informed that the dog had run away. As he sought to summon the courage to tell his three-year old daughter and six-year old son that the dog was missing, he decided first to go to the dog pound and obtain a similar dog, only to be greeted by the missing dog, Tex, which had been picked up only three blocks from home after having run away from the farm to return to his family. The dog's only damage was to his pawnails.
In the first of a series of three articles explaining the operation of municipally-owned parking lots in Asheville, Winston-Salem and Greensboro, J. Hart Snyder, a staff writer for the Asheville Citizen, reports of that city's municipally-owned parking business, which grossed $1,000 every 15 days.
We hope that Charlotte gets one soon because we are very tired of reading about this subject. If you have an abiding interest, you may read it for yourself.
Had they any real foresight, of course, they would have followed the fin-de-siecle examples of New York, London and Paris and begun planning for the installation of a limited subway system, capable of later expansion, into and through the downtown area from the neighborhoods and suburbs, but that would have been deemed too expensive for the time, even after the Korean War was over and steel made more plentiful for construction projects, and thought, with probity, likely of disuse by residents wedded to their new streamlined motorcars, though predictably much cheaper than it would cost in 2018 or later, even adjusted downward for interim inflation, and probably much cheaper even thirty years ago than the then-constructed labyrinthine freeway system now threatening Charlotte and other such cities across the land, all over again, with arteriosclerosis as more traffic is invited thereby to enter, not just bypass, the cities and commensurate emission of hydro-fluorocarbons, in D.T.-drunken fashion, thus enabled.
On the editorial page, "A Turn for the Worse in Korea" finds the prospects for a ceasefire far dimmer than they had been since latter June when the first discussions of the ceasefire talks began. Peiping radio was now claiming that seven allied planes had flown over Shanghai and other parts of the Chinese mainland, and also accused U.N. "plainclothesmen" of violating the neutrality zone around Kaesong, with the intent of "murdering" Communist negotiators. Wire service reports said that 2,000 "Caucasian" troops were located north of the Yalu River, probably indicative of Russian troops.
Those developments had come in the wake of Communist allegations the prior week that Kaesong had been bombed by allied planes, a claim used to break off negotiations. That had followed allegations of two other incidents. General Matthew Ridgway had investigated the incidents and stated that none of them had involved U.N. forces, that in the case of the claimed bombing of Kaesong, there had been no allied planes in the vicinity at the time and no damage, in any event, was found, that any such bombing had to have involved Communist aircraft. Moreover, he suggested that it was a pretext for breaking off negotiations as the claim had surfaced only a short time before the decision was made to cease the negotiations, indicative of such a high level decision having been reached in advance of the alleged incident.
Communist radio thus far had issued the latest charges, and no official claim had been put forth, leaving the door at least a little bit open for renewed negotiations, which General Ridgway had made clear the U.N. was willing to resume. The piece concludes that it was to be hoped that General Ridgway's firm stand would bring the Communists back to the conference table.
"A Hearing for William Boyle" comments on the upcoming hearing on the DNC chairman, regarding his receipt of fees from a company in St. Louis after that company had received a substantial RFC loan, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Mr. Boyle claimed that the money received was from legal fees and had nothing to do with the loan or any influence he had exerted for the company in getting that loan. The Senate subcommittee chaired by North Carolina Senator Clyde Hoey, it posits, based on his subcommittee's past performance, would do a very thorough and fair job. It suggests that Mr. Boyle should welcome the investigation to clear his name if indeed he was innocent of any wrongdoing. The people deserved a hearing before the 1952 elections, as the party chairmen had sensitive positions from which they advised on patronage, making it essential that they refrain from influencing decisions of appointees once they took office.
"Funny Business in Buncombe" tells of North Carolina Paroles Commissioner T. C. Johnson having displayed refreshing candor in saying that the Commission had bungled the case of a parolee who had been freed in March, 1950 from his four to six-year prison sentence for assault after serving 11 months, on the recommendations of several local officials in Buncombe County. The previous week he had stood trial for two counts of violations of prohibition laws and was given a six-month suspended sentence and fined $50, with the court believing that he was still on parole and that therefore he would be violated and sent back to prison. Instead, he was already off parole and therefore not subject to violation.
While the piece applauds the candor of Dr. Johnson, it also hopes that he would re-examine the system which permitted such an error and find out why it was that the local officials in Buncombe had been able to pull the wool over the eyes of the Commission.
"Culture in the Old Dominion" tells of the music critic for the New Republic, Cecil Smith, having told of a Virginian, Martin B. Hiden, Jr., who had decided to bring musical culture to the state of Virginia, thereupon organizing a Mozart Festival in Charlottesville. He had populated it with a number of quality musicians and Metropolitan Opera soprano Barbara Troxwell, and had arranged to show a film of The Marriage of Figaro, produced by the Berlin State Opera. But Mr. Smith found that only about 400 people on average showed up for the Festival, that Virginians were more interested in horses and bourbon than quality music. He noted that, compared to North Carolina, where a touring company of the State Symphony Orchestra was supported by taxpayer funds, Virginia was "apathetic".
The piece concludes that Mr. Smith should come south to North Carolina, where he would find a great appreciation for quality music across the state, at which point he would never have occasion again to hum, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginy".
Harry J. Anslinger, commissioner of the Federal Narcotics Bureau, substitutes for Drew Pearson, returning from Europe. Mr. Anslinger discusses narcotics peddling to children and teenagers across the country, tells parents that the peddler did not kidnap their children but destroyed them. He explains how, through a tip from a 16-year old heroin addict brought to him by his parents, he and his agents had managed to break a nationwide dope peddling syndicate, following long, patient hours of vigilant surveillance and detailed corroboration. The supply had come from a country which signed the Geneva Convention of 1931, limiting the manufacture of narcotic drugs to medical needs, that country then exaggerating its medical needs by tenfold, thus escaping the attention of the U.N. The Mafia had also played a role in the distribution network.
His bureau had only 195 agents, less than two percent of the Federal enforcement personnel, but they accounted for ten percent of the Federal prison population and averaged a 95 percent conviction rate. In consequence, the whole world regarded the Treasury Department's Bureau of Narcotics as a model.
It was a difficult job requiring artful cunning, was dangerous and mandated around-the-clock constancy, having to track down sellers to satisfied customers who would not snitch. He complains of being severely handicapped by court decisions relating to the Fourth Amendment, having to rely on State prosecutions in many instances.
He favors the bill just passed by the House and which was pending in the Senate, raising the sentence for the drug peddler beyond the present 16 months. Recently, he recounts, a notorious trafficker with five previous narcotics convictions received only a suspended sentence. Such persons would gladly shoot heroin into a 15-year old girl and then send her into prostitution to obtain money for the heroin which they continued to supply her once addicted.
Eight treaties had been signed which limited the manufacture of narcotics and controlled international distribution, and the U.N. was working on a plan to limit opium production to world medical needs. It was a goal he personally had been working toward since 1931, and regards such an agreement as the greatest achievement which could occur at present in the suppression of abuse of narcotics throughout the world.
Marquis Childs discusses the breakdown of the effort to resolve the oil nationalization dispute between the Iranian and British Governments, notwithstanding the valiant effort to facilitate a resolution by American mediator Averell Harriman, who was now headed home, albeit having attempted to prop open the door for future return to the issue. The last proposal made by the British, a 50-50 split of profits with the Iranian Government, had been rejected by Premier Mohammed Mossadegh and the Iranian Parliament, causing the talks to end.
Nationalism was so strong in the Middle and Far East that it had become practically an irresistible force with which to be reckoned. The nationalistic trend in Iran was fueled further by a fanatical religiosity and skillful exploitation by Communists. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, around which the dispute revolved, had in the latter phases of the negotiations shown a willingness to make important concessions, but apparently they had come too late. Had the company, prior to nationalization owned primarily by British private and public interests, 53 percent by the British Government, not been so rigidly stubborn regarding its position against nationalization in the beginning, then perhaps a compromise might have then been effected.
But to justify its adamant position, the company had suggested that the nationalization was only a smokescreen for the large landholders in Iran, who dominated the Parliament, to divert attention from the popular demand for land reform. That contention, observes Mr. Childs, had much evidence to back it up. But to offer it as justification of the attitude of obstinacy was another matter.
He concludes that Mr. Harriman had performed a worthy service in an impossible and thankless assignment, as he had done many times during recent years. He was a man of great wealth and therefore could have avoided such assignments at will, but had accepted them in the interest of the country and deserved great credit for it, notwithstanding criticism from his wealthy friends for serving the Administration, and by others for not combining the diplomatic skills of Talleyrand, Pitt and Benjamin Franklin. Few in modern times had such skills and it was rare to find someone who shouldered such a duty under "difficult, trying and unpleasant circumstances."
Robert C. Ruark tells of Vice-President Alben Barkley having voluntarily stated recently that he was prepared to serve another four years as Vice-President. Mr. Ruark thinks he should reconsider, given his age of 73, meaning that he would be 78 by early 1957 were the President to be elected again with Mr. Barkley as his running mate.
Parenthetically, Mr. Barkley would live until the end of April, 1956, and thus, all things held equal, had he run with the President and had they won, would not have completed the term, and there would, in consequence, have been no Vice-President at all for the remaining nine months of that term, there having been no provision at the time, and until after the assassination of President Kennedy, for the appointment under the Constitution of a new Vice-President when the position was vacated—the only times so far such an appointment of a new Vice-President has been necessitated having been in 1973 when Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned after pleading nolo contendere to bribery charges arising out of his time as Governor of Maryland, resulting in Congressman Gerald Ford fatefully being appointed and confirmed in his stead, and then the appointment and confirmation of Governor Nelson Rockefeller after the resignation of President Nixon in August, 1974 and the consequent succession of Vice-President Ford to the Presidency.
Mr. Ruark finds the Vice-President to have remained free of public quarrels and controversy during the prior two and a half years, and to be a gentleman of "fine breeding, considerable charm, and also considerable inability." He had not expended much effort as Vice-President, mainly kissing the ladies and making lightweight speeches. The widower had been remarried to a wealthy widow in 1949 and it represented a bright note in an otherwise "drab governmental setup".
Mr. Ruark does not want to see, however, a man of little talent again accidentally become President, as had Harry Truman in 1945, who he regards as lacking good Presidential timber. But, he notes, that it was only by a narrow escape that the Presidency fell to Vice-President Truman in 1945 rather than former Vice-President Henry Wallace, who, he believes, would, as President, have caused the U.S. to become a satellite of Russia by 1951.
He suggests that the job of Vice-President was in some ways more important than being President for it demanded the presence of reasonably young, healthy and able persons in the position, not just a trusty party hack being thrown a bone as a reward for past service, or a compromise candidate whose best virtue was being inoffensive to all.
He concludes by saying that he admired Vice-President Barkley and hoped he lived forever but wished he would wait for the country to ask him before volunteering to run for the office again. He thinks the pasture more appropriate for the "old gentleman" despite the liveliness in his step.
A letter writer from Fort Bragg, a platoon leader in the Army, comments on an article appearing in the August 22 edition of The News, titled "'Lowered Moral Tone' Hurts Youngsters", by Associated Press correspondent Relman Morin. He finds that the article was too quick to conclude that youth were "impatient for quick success" or felt that the world owed them something, without marshaling any evidence or authority to back up the claims. He tells of being assigned to work with a group of soldiers who would qualify as "youngsters" during his second tour of duty in the Army, and had found these youngsters showing a genuine devotion to duty once the duty was pointed out. They exhibited esprit de corps and made good adjustments to perform the best job possible. He also finds that results of surveys of adherents to the Protestant, Catholic and Jewish faiths had found that membership was the highest in the country's history. Moreover, only 51 percent of the population of voting-age citizens were among the group of youngsters or the older group. He counts the failure to vote a much greater crime than being impatient for money and quick success. He also remarks on the corrupt practices in high places, including graft and organized crime, asks rhetorically whether it was the teenagers who ran the rackets when they turned to juvenile delinquency.
A letter writer from Pinehurst comments on the August 22 editorial, "More on the Brimley Affair", says he is in agreement with the editorial's stance that the Army had presented a pathetically weak defense for its action in taking Dr. Brimley, superintendent of Forsyth County schools, off of the educational mission to Japan for having opposed formation of a teachers' union in Forsyth County. The writer also agrees with the statement in the editorial that many educators and millions of Americans were opposed to teachers forming labor unions. But he also wonders whether Dr. Brimley had debated the issue with the teachers or sought to dissuade them from forming such a union by applying pressure to their jobs. If, as found by the AFL, he had threatened to fire any such teacher who joined the union and to provide a negative recommendation on future employment, then the writer finds that arrogant and indicative of a desire to control freedom of action. He wonders why none of the newspapers which had commented on the matter had criticized Dr. Brimley for threatening the teachers. He finds the whole affair to have pointed up how weak and insecure the position of public school teachers was.
The 1968 Democratic National
Convention moved into its second day
Enter the "law and order" candidate, Mr. Nixon, whose Administration, itself, would, quite predictably based on his prior performance in office, turn out, ironically, to be anything but...
Framed Edition
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