The Charlotte News
Tuesday, August 28, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.N. military command in Tokyo charged this date that the Communists had sent one of their own planes through the motions of bombing Kaesong the previous Wednesday and then blamed the allies for the attack. The statement said that it was "beyond doubt" that it was a Communist aircraft which engaged in the nighttime "attack", which left no damage, leading to the deliberately bogus charge by the Communists a couple of hours later that it was an allied attack, prompting them to break off the ceasefire negotiations since that time.
The President told the new Czech ambassador this date that the best way to restore cordial relations with the U.S. would be for his Government to free Associated Press correspondent William Oatis, jailed on conviction of bogus espionage charges. The President said that relations with Czechoslovakia had deteriorated since Jan Masaryk, former Czech Foreign Minister, had been "murdered". Mr. Masaryk had fallen to his death in Prague in early 1948 while under house arrest by the Government and labeled a suicide.
The U.S., Britain and France had agreed to provide 50 million dollars in economic aid to Yugoslavia as a "contribution to the security of the free world". The U.S. had already allocated 29.8 million dollars to Yugoslavia under the Marshall Plan, and Britain would add 11.5 million, and France another five or six million. The U.S. had given or loaned to Yugoslavia a total of 150 million for military and economic aid since the regime of Marshal Tito had separated from Moscow.
Administration forces in the Senate were seeking to win approval of a bill they contended would erect a barrier to shipments to the Communists of goods potentially usable in war. A group of Republicans denounced the measure as weak and ineffective, and claimed growing support for a move to replace it with their own version. The House had already passed a bill which prohibited U.S. aid, whether military, economic or financial, to any nation engaged in the shipment of of such militarily useful goods to Russia or its satellites.
Navy Secretary Dan Kimball, in a speech to the 52nd national encampment of the V.F.W., stated that the Navy favored educational benefits for Korean War veterans, but not to the extent granted in the G.I. Bill for veterans of World War II. The Navy also favored the "52-20" benefits for Korean veterans, allowing for unemployment benefits of $20 per week for 52 weeks of the year. A proposed bill before Congress would provide Korean War veterans the same benefits granted to those who had served in World War II.
The FBI arrested seven persons alleged to be Communist Party leaders in Hawaii this date, one of whom was the regional director of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, led by Harry Bridges. The arrest meant that 64 Communist Party leaders in the U.S. had been charged thus far under the Smith Act for conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. Government.
In Toledo, O., two brothers who had worked a combined total of 45 years for the New York Central System faced dismissal from their jobs because they refused to join the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen, on the basis that their religious beliefs prevented it. Union membership was required by a shop agreement made between New York City and the railway unions. The two brothers cited II Corinthians 6:15 as the textual basis in the Bible for their refusal to join.
The AFL withdrew from the United Labor Policy Committee, which had been formed nine months earlier with the aim of presenting a solid labor front during the defense mobilization period. The AFL issued a statement through its president, William Green, urging that the CIO work toward eventual merger with the AFL. Mr. Green said that the U.L.P.C. was organized only on a temporary basis and was never intended as a substitute for organic unity of the two trade organizations.
In Waterloo, Iowa, a freak explosion of a dentist's anesthetic caused fatal injuries to a 20-year old man during extraction of several of his teeth. A nurse suffered arm burns but two other assistants and the dentist escaped injury. The deceased patient had suffered throat and lung injuries and possibly brain damage.
In Raleigh, Governor Kerr Scott said that North Carolina was "not going to take any foolishness from the Ku Klux Klan." He went on to compare the Klan to Communism, seeking to overthrow the Government, and declared both to be "equally obnoxious" to the people of the state. He said that he supposed that the SBI was investigating anonymous threats against two newspaper editors following the recent Klan meeting at Whiteville, the first cross-burning rally within the state in recent years. The Governor said that the original Klan had dealt with problems during Reconstruction, problems which no longer existed. It had, he said, helped at that earlier time to restore law and order when it was a question of survival, but that "law and order" now existed in 1951. He added that he had been invited to join the Klan during the 1920's but never attended any meetings.
Note well that he did not say, as our current "President" did last year in the wake of the Charlottesville tragedy during the white supremacists' rally against tearing down a stone Confederate Civil War memorial statue to some joker on a horse, that "good people" were members of the Klan.
Gene Whitman of the Winston-Salem
Journal and Sentinel provides the second in the News
series of articles on municipally-owned parking facilities in cities
across the state, explaining that the City of Winston-Salem had
obtained its two parking lots by virtue of owning the site for one
and engaging in a revenue-sharing arrangement for the other. The
Marshall Street Municipal Parking Center, with its 113 spaces, was
close to the shopping and theater district, but for awhile during the
summer, had not been able to attract many patrons, who opted, instead
of dropping into the slot a quarter for three hours or fifty cents
for six, to pay a nickel per hour at the parking meter spaces on the
streets, despite that requiring driving several blocks out of their
way. For the remainder of this enchanting and suspenseful story,
however, you will have to turn to page 2-A
They had a parking lot behind Thalhimer's wherein we peeled back the cellophane wrapper and browsed the fold-out cover of "Help!" one warm August afternoon in 1965, but that was not the same lot, now and for many years a small downtown park, to which Mr. Whitman refers, it being across the street from that one, still in being as a parking lot. (If you care to twirl around about 60 degrees to the right in the picture frame, you may see the location, approximately where the black pickup truck is parked, in which we were sitting in a motorcar one afternoon, circa 1961, minding our own business, only to look up, after briefly having observed previously a young man with his foot propped against the side wall of Thalhimer's across the street, puffing on a cigarette, whereupon, on the second glance in his direction, we observed him to be providing us with the Rockefeller salute, still, to this day, the reason for which being unknown. Maybe he thought us part of the press corps, come to observe derelicts on the street. Maybe he later became politically astute and turned up in Chicago in 1968. Or, politically Neanderthalic and joined the Committee to Re-Elect in 1972. Who knows? Perhaps, both.)
On the editorial page, "India and the Japanese Treaty" discusses India's decision to boycott the signing of the Japanese peace treaty and wait until the treaty had been ratified and Japan's independence realized before signing a bilateral agreement directly with Japan. Prime Minister Nehru had rejected the treaty because it gave the U.S. trusteeship of the Ryuku and Bonin Islands instead of returning them to Japan, failed to provide Formosa to Communist China, did not confirm Russia's present hold on the Kurile Islands and Southern Sakhalin, and allowed American occupation forces to remain in Japan.
The piece finds that applying the logic of Prime Minister Nehru's first point to the remaining points meant that Formosa, the Kuriles, and Southern Sakhalin all ought be returned to Japan. Moreover, as to his last point, journalists in Japan had found that the Japanese people overwhelmingly favored the continued presence of American troops.
The Prime Minister was not a Communist, but was in favor of broadening the nationalistic sentiments of his people and their neighbors in furtherance of the policy of "Asia for the Asiatics". He had, however, opines the piece, chosen the wrong issue in this instance for applying that policy. The Japanese peace treaty was a generous settlement which the Japanese Premier had called "fair and magnanimous", and had the apparent approval of other Japanese leaders.
It believes that since the U.S. had borne the heaviest brunt during World War II in achieving the victory over Japan, it deserved to have the chief influence regarding the terms of the peace treaty. The U.S. had consulted 50 nations, many of whose views were incorporated into the treaty. It suggests that if Prime Minister Nehru and Asian leaders took a look at the document, they would find that the U.S. was not the "imperialist power" which they often labeled it.
"Reversal of Policy" tells of the North Korean supply base at Rashin, near the Siberian border, having been bombed for the first time on August 12, 1950 but subsequently ordered by the Joint Chiefs to be let alone. That prior ban, however, was lifted when a group of B-29s struck the supply base the previous weekend with more than 300 tons of bombs.
General MacArthur had been sharply critical of this ban when he spoke before the joint Senate investigating committee, and his defenders were now arguing that the lifting of the ban had vindicated his position on it. The original decision regarding the ban was never clearly explained during the Senate hearings. The drift of the military testimony was that the U.S. position was so weak during the early part of the Korean war that it was believed not prudent to bomb close to the Siberian border on the off chance that the Soviets might use it as a pretext for intervention in the war.
It concludes that the lifting of the ban must therefore be indicative of the U.N. command now being confident enough in the U.N. forces' strength that they were able to take such a calculated risk. It comments that it was best to leave such matters to the military leadership in the Pentagon, who had the most information at their disposal on which to base military policy decisions.
"Reward for Insubordination" tells of the Warden at Central Prison, within hours after being fired by the Prison Director, having been given a new post as Director of Safety for the Highway Commission. Insubordination in one branch of the Commission's activities had been rewarded with a responsible job in another. It finds it not to augur well for the future of other prison reform or the safety of Highway Commission employees. The Warden had refused to submit to the Prison Director's authority and was therefore discharged. Hiring him immediately to another responsible position, however, did not encourage loyalty and obedience to the Prison Director. Nor did the former Warden's new position likely inspire confidence of thousands of Highway Commission employees.
It concludes that the State Government was rife with the "odor of politics" and urges Governor Kerr Scott to undertake some housecleaning—an issue about which he had remarked in press conference reported this date, saying that it was a "difficult question" to answer.
"Christian Precedent" tells of the Good Fellowship Bible Class of the Pritchard Memorial Baptist Church having passed a resolution which it forwarded to the North Carolina Congressional delegation, favoring forgiveness of the West Point Cadets who had been expelled for cheating, and that it take the form, not of reinstatement, but reappointment by the Congressmen who originally had appointed them, then requiring the Cadets to take an examination to prove that they had mastered the subjects covered in the examinations on which they had cheated.
An Associated Press story quoted Senator William Benton of Connecticut as saying that the faculty board which investigated the cheating had been nearly evenly divided regarding the punishment of dismissal, and the piece finds that if that was the case, then some method ought be provided such as that suggested by the students for readmission to the Academy. It regards the suggestion as a Christian precedent which merited consideration by the West Point authorities and Congressional leaders.
A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "A Note to Politicians", regards the controversy in Virginia surrounding the proposed naming of the Buggs Island dam presently under construction, some wanting to name it for Congressman John Kerr of North Carolina. The piece finds it unfortunate that the original Mr. Buggs had to have such a surname, suggests that young persons contemplating a career in politics might want first to consider their last name and how it might look and sound adorning a major project.
Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin substitutes this date for Drew Pearson who was returning from his trip to Europe, discusses Washington as reminding of "a lot of Alices in a fantastic blunderland". He takes issue with the common perception that the Administration was "liberal" and that the Republicans were "reactionary", citing several facts to back up his opposing viewpoint.
He points out that consumers would would soon have to pay more for natural gas because of Democrats, after the President had vetoed a bill, backed by leading Democrats, which would have indirectly resulted in increasing natural gas rates. Many Republicans, including Senator Wiley, had supported the President in that veto. But, as reported by Drew Pearson and others, the Federal Power Commission, appointed by the President, had reversed his veto, and the Supreme Court, by exempting independent gas producers from Federal rate control, had likewise served to reverse that veto. The President nevertheless refused to criticize the FPC action and said that it had no connection with his previous veto. So, he concludes that the Republicans, whom the President had consistently attacked as not being interested in the ordinary people of the country, had tried to protect the consumer in this instance, consistent with the action which the President had taken in the veto.
He next discusses the sabotage of the St. Lawrence Seaway project, endorsed by former Presidents Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Roosevelt, and by Secretary of Defense Marshall, as well as others. But in the Democratic-controlled Senate and House, some of the President's best friends had blocked it, while many of the leading advocates for it were Republicans.
The President had said he opposed favors for special interest groups and yet some of his leading supporters in the Senate had passed, over other Democratic and Republican votes, a bill to create the Central Arizona Project to allocate 750 million dollars "down a rat hole" for the benefit of a few Arizona landholders.
The President had said, correctly, that he would veto any bill which turned over the Federal title to tidal oil lands to the states, a position which Senator Wiley said that he also supported. Meanwhile, Democratic leadership in the Senate and House was seeking to give back the rights to the tidal oil lands to four states.
He concludes that these examples proved that labels for a particular political party, regardless of whether Republican or Democratic, were virtually meaningless, that Republicans, and not just its so-called "liberal wing", had a lot more virtue than the critics were ascribing to them. In addition, he observes, the term "liberal", itself, was often a misnomer, as it was easy for many Democrats to be "liberal" in spending taxpayer money while taking other people's rights away, a form of liberalism which he opposed, just as he opposed any form of "conservatism" or "reactionism" which would try to turn back the hands of the clock or attempt to deny certain progressive steps which the American people favored in the modern age.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss the upcoming Japanese peace treaty conference, set to begin in San Francisco September 4. The fact that Russia, to the surprise of the State Department, had decided to attend, spoke volumes about their intended agenda, to disrupt allied unity by threatening continuation of the Korean War should the Japanese treaty be signed by the 50 nations assembled. Were it not for Soviet attendance at the conference, it would have been a pro forma affair merely to ratify that which had already been approved.
At least three recent occurrences pointed to this likelihood, the first being the Soviet press having classified the Japanese peace treaty as "intolerable", an adjective previously applied to West German rearmament. The second was the fact that diplomatic cables from the Kremlin, intercepted by the State Department, had carried a large number of carefully planted rumors, as satellite diplomats, European businessmen who had dealings with the Soviets, and others of like stance were all saying that, based on the "highest authority", the Soviets would go to war if the Japanese treaty were signed. The third occurrence was the mixture of facts and fiction regarding Soviet military preparations which were being leaked deliberately from behind the Iron Curtain. Reports appeared that the Soviets had brought their divisions in East Germany and Poland from 60 percent of war strength to full war strength, a true occurrence, but reports also appeared regarding great air reinforcement in East Germany, only half true, as modern jet aircraft were replacing obsolete aircraft, but an operation which had been going on for some time. In addition was the Communist-faked napalm attack on Kaesong, laid to the allies as an excuse for terminating, at least temporarily, the ceasefire negotiations.
The Alsops believe that putting these pieces together formed a pattern out of which would come the Russian coercion of the allied delegates at San Francisco not to ratify the treaty with Japan on the ground that the Russians would proceed to war if it were signed and that the Korean War would resume in full force. Such pressure was likely to be accomplished indirectly rather than through any direct ultimatum to that effect. Even if all went well in San Francisco, the pattern was still emerging as an instructive foretaste of the determined Soviet attacks on Western unity, which would come later.
Robert C. Ruark tells of a woman who worked for his family having been discharged for stealing his handkerchief to brighten up her wardrobe, an increasingly frequent practice among women, which included wearing pants and ties. He was drawing the line at this pilfering of masculine adornment, finds it unfair as no males were invading the female wardrobe, lest they be called sissy. He thinks it no more appropriate for women to be thus sneaking into the male closet for accouterments.
He advises women to continue to wear dresses and feathers in their hair, and not complicate the whole matter by smoking pipes or growing beards, just to prove that anything a man could do, they could do better. He issues a final warning to stay out of his handkerchief drawer or someone was going to lose their hand at the wrist.
A letter from the commander of the Queen City chapter number 10 of the Disabled American Veterans says that the post and the national organization strongly approved passage of the Congressional bill which had recently passed and regarding which the House had overridden the President's veto, providing for non-service related disabilities of certain veterans being covered by the Government.
A letter from Campobello, S.C., tells of the majority of people who thought for themselves beginning to realize that the American people were facing a dangerous situation because the statesmen of the country were now having to deal with world affairs, an unfamiliar scenario, and that too many secret sessions were being held in Washington and in state capitols, and even in churches, all antithetical to democracy. He also thinks that there were too many Communists in America holding responsible positions, posing a greater risk to the security of the nation than did Russia.
A letter writer says that he had read with interest the editorial, "War Is Evitable", and that other words could be found also to replace "nod" and "blast", both of which he finds overused.
How about "iconic" and "awesome"? meaning in our new American lexicon ultimately the same thing, that is being used synonymously, even though the words actually have quite different contextual meanings from their incredibly overused and trite utterances these days, to the point where, when one hears someone say either word, one either instantly nods or blasts off to some new blast, like to some new dimension, bound to be iconic and awesome, dude-bro.
A letter writer tells of the quarantine implemented by County health officials because of the preponderance of diseased dogs in the community having been avoidable if a more realistic attitude had been taken toward these animals. Beyond seeing-eye dogs, he finds canine creatures "absolutely useless", remaining a menace to the welfare of the community, even more so than John Barleycorn, debasing its sense of values. The community spent more money each year on dog food and dog handling than on child welfare services. Clothing for dogs was now a big business, with some movie stars even adorning their doggies with minks—which by inference, based on Mr. Ruark's assessment of the female wardrobe, might have been actually "sick muskrat". In some places, the formal burying of dogs was taking place, replete with stone monuments and the holding of special funereal services.
He says that he did not believe the society was ready to destroy all these "nuisances" but should take advanced measures, such as putting a very large license fee on dogs to reduce their number. He also recommends gathering up all the strays and locking them up where they could do no harm, and offers that there had to be millions of people in the country who, like him, wanted this "menace to life and limb" eliminated.
In Chicago, fifty years ago this
date, the Democratic National Convention entered its third day
Former Vice-President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, would, during the ensuing fall campaign, be able to capitalize on the melee and promote himself as the "law and order" candidate of "peace", all the way into the White House—before being shown the door in August, 1974 by the American people, in a bipartisan showing of complete rejection of his version of "law and order".
Framed Edition
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