The Charlotte News
Friday, August 3, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that the U.N. negotiators, led by Vice-Admiral C. Tuner Joy, reminded the Communist negotiators, led by North Korean Lt. General Nam Il, that the U.N. forces had superior air and naval strength, suggesting that the Communists therefore ought agree to a ceasefire zone as demanded by the U.N., along current battle lines. The Communists, while admitting that their ground action had been altered by U.N. naval and air strength, nevertheless remained firm in their insistence that the zone be ten kilometers on each side of the 38th parallel. No progress was made therefore in the two and a half hour meeting. The negotiations at Kaesong would resume the next day.
What it amounted to, of course, was the Gulf of Tonkin incidents of August, 1964—but that's another story.
In air and ground action, F-80 Shooting Stars dropped napalm on a hill being sought by U.N. forces, paving the way for taking the hill. Otherwise along the front, action was limited to patrol clashes, some of which were day-long fights. Warplanes had flown 900 sorties the previous day but were limited this date by clouds and haze, flying 224 sorties.
The Army announced the expulsion
That's a relief.
Now, let's see, who is missing from the roster this fall?
Senator Harry F. Byrd found the scandal appalling, said it indicated a deterioration of "moral fiber" in the country.
The British Cabinet mission bound for Tehran to resume negotiations with the Iranian Government on the oil nationalization dispute left London. Richard Stokes, Lord Privy Seal, who led the mission, expressed optimism for a good result, though adding that not everyone would get what they wanted. The British had accepted in principle the nationalization of the oil.
In Sweden, four young Poles, one a woman, landed in a small, makeshift plane after fleeing gunfire in Poland to seek asylum in Sweden. The incident occurred less than 24 hours after a Polish minesweeper was commandeered by twelve Polish sailors and took refuge in Sweden. Both incidents were thought to be the result of a recent visit to Poland by Soviet Deputy Prime Minister V. M. Molotov, warning of reprisal for Tito-like revolts.
In Beirut, the Grand Mufti of Lebanon, considered a force of peace in the country, died.
The Justice Department asked and obtained a delay in the Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing of Cornelius Harrington, appointed by the President to the Illinois Federal District Court over the objection of Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois. Committee chairman Senator Pat McCarran said that he had seen the FBI file on Mr. Harrington and found nothing objectionable but granted a week postponement so that the Justice Department could further assess his qualifications.
The State Department said that there was nothing out of the ordinary in a transaction conducted by Ambassador to Mexico William O'Dwyer in sending, the prior March, a million dollars from Mexico to New York City. The transaction consisted of lend-lease payments between the Government of Mexico and the U.S. The New York Daily News had called into question the propriety of the transfer and other reports suggesting problems with the matter were then picked up by other newspapers.
The Wage Stabilization Board unanimously recommended to Economic Stabilizer Eric Johnston that cost-of-living wage adjustments be granted to all workers, not just those, as previously had been the case, whose contracts so provided.
A report by the Senate Rules subcommittee investigating the Maryland Senate campaign in 1950 concluded that Senator John Butler, while negligent in his direction of campaign workers, had done nothing which called for Senate rebuke. The campaign had engaged in smear tactics against incumbent Senator Millard Tydings which included a concocted composite photograph of him with Earl Browder, the former head of the American Communist Party. The report said that the "back street" smear campaign was primarily the result of persons from outside Maryland—which included stump speeches by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Near Gastonia, N.C., a bus crashed with a car, injuring three persons. One was a "Negro woman" and so the other two, both males, must have been white, as their race is not stated. Says the report, "The Queen City bus was badly damaged about the rear; the automobile was just about ruined."
Ye of little faith. A good hammer, dolly and a can of Bondo can do wonders with a ruint car or bus.
In London, it was announced that Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip would visit Washington as guests of the President during October 24-26. They would stay at Blair House, the First Family temporary residence while the Big House on the North Forty was being renovated. The Royal couple would arrive after a tour of Canada. It was the Princess's first visit to the New World, part of which, by coincidence, was settled by Sir Walter Raleigh of England.
You better serve up some franks as were provided ma and pa when last Royal family members visited the Colony back in 1939. Perhaps, former Senator Robert Rice Reynolds might be convinced to attend and serve in the capacity of batman, as he was absent on the prior occasion.
In New York, it was announced by A.T.&T. that a coast-to-coast television transmission network would be up and running by September 30, to be achieved through a system of microwave towers stretching from New York to San Francisco. The major networks would begin using the system for transmission of some of their shows emanating from Hollywood. The World Series and Rose Bowl would be broadcast via the network in the future. Previously, the extent of transmission was between New York and Omaha and between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The initial service would be for telephone, to be started August 17.
In Raleigh, members of the UNC Board of Trustees asked the Council of State for an appropriation of $271,000 to expand the graduate programs of the North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham, later N.C. Central University. The appropriations would also be used to improve the undergraduate program. The plea was endorsed by Gordon Gray, president of the University, and by Dr. Alphonso Elder, president of N.C.C. Mr. Gray said that the appropriation was required to prevent the surrender of the formulation of the state's educational policy to the Federal courts. The UNC Law School had been ordered integrated in McKissick, et al. v. Carmichael by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the spring, pursuant to the 1950 Supreme Court decision in Sweatt v. Painter, anent the University of Texas Law School, requiring substantially equal facilities to maintain segregated black and white public educational institutions and thereby pass muster under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
On the editorial page, "We've Seen a Lot Already" tells of Senator Pat McCarran saying that his committee had much more to reveal regarding influence on Government foreign policy. The piece thinks enough had been seen already, that those charged with making observations on foreign governments were being chilled by the threat of being hauled in front of a committee later should they say the wrong thing in reports, in consequence appearing to be tailoring their remarks to what they perceived the Government wanted to hear.
Such appeared to be the case in the report on Spain made recently, as chronicled by Marquis Childs in his column earlier in the week, assessing the Spanish military with more optimism than had trained British and French observers.
Joseph Alsop had related of the case of John Davies, Jr., a State Department official who had been suspended for suspected disloyalty because of his reports on Communist China made after the war, and since reinstated after being cleared. Despite his reports having been accurate and correct, he was punished for telling the truth.
It finds the trend of questioning the loyalty of public servants for recording their honest observations to be a particularly insidious part of the smear technique. Loyalty checks were necessary for such persons but "trial by demagoguery" and condemning them for saying what they saw would only weaken the nation's intelligence gathering.
"A Blow at Czech Trade" tells of the State Department having canceled tariff concessions to Czechoslovakia in response to harassment of U.S. citizens, especially William Oatis, the Associated Press correspondent charged and convicted of espionage and held incommunicado. The piece thinks the sanctions might not be enough as it only affected 26 million dollars of the Czech exports the prior year. It suggests that all trade be ceased and that, given public opinion on the Oatis matter, the Administration would be fully supported in the move.
"After the Charge, the Denial" tells of a man in Wisconsin testifying at a bankruptcy hearing that Senator Joseph McCarthy had once lost $5,500 in a crap game to his son and never paid the bill. The Senator denied the charge, saying that he had never played crap and did not have the money to lose. But, the piece suggests, he got a dose of his own medicine as newspapers had relegated the story of his denial to the inside pages while the sensational initial charge received greater coverage, similar to the way the Senator's smears made front-page news while the denials and corrections were on the inside pages.
"A Look in the Mirror" tells of the director of the N.C. State Extension Service, David S. Weaver, addressing an audience in Raleigh, telling of North Carolina having the land, the know-how, the labor and the climate to produce a market in agriculture for the East, but having failed in its realization.
The average North Carolina farmer earned only half the national average farm income, produced only about one-third the acreage of the national average, two-thirds of the milk for the state's needs, less than one egg per person and less than five cents worth of beef per person each day. He earned less than $30 per acre from three-fourths of his land.
The state had one car for every 88 feet of paved road and yet some farm families slept on floors without mattresses.
Mr. Weaver had suggested better marketing, improvement of labor efficiency through mechanization, increasing the quality of farm products and their packaging, and providing better education in technical skills and scientific knowledge.
Only a third of the state's population lived in urban areas and until the farm population's standard of living improved, the state could not enjoy the "good life" which it deserved.
A piece from the Nashville Tennessean, titled "Wanted: Parking Space", tells of a new five-level, municipal parking deck constructed in Grand Rapids, Mich., relieving the downtown parking crunch there. Nashville, like many other cities, did not yet have so many suburban shopping centers and thus the need remained for downtown parking, which would also prevent dispersal of downtown business to the suburbs.
A series of short editorials appears, one from the Greensboro Daily News commenting on the recent Life article anent the competition between the relatively new Charlotte debutante ball and the established Raleigh ball. It finds that the question raised by the article was whether the balls should be judged on quantitative analysis, whether so many debs or pounds of debs ought be the determinative rule. It says that it would take 16,200 pounds of girls over 3,240 pounds "any day—properly distributed, of course."
One from the Asheville Citizen comments on the News editorial re Southern cooking, which concluded that there was no such thing, finds it mistaken, offers up examples, such as: "Southern cooking isn't spinach—it's turnip greens, and don't spare the potlikker."
"Down your Syllabub, son."
If you lick the pot you don't need spinach, as you will have your iron, though lead poisoning is another issue.
A piece from the Christian Science Monitor asks what was spelled by ghoughththeightteeau, saying that someone thought it "potato" and providing the circuitous explanation.
A piece from the Providence
(R.I.) Evening Bulletin tells of a reporter asking a renowned
clown, Felix Adler, how he viewed reporters and being told that they
were "like a clown, whose gay, uncouth exterior hides a
wistful, tragic soul." The reporter differs, says that Mr.
Adler was projecting his own perceived weakness and attributes onto
the reporter, that the reporter was "confident and strong
though tactful at times to the point of modesty." He was
skeptical because too many clowns outside the circus had tried to
fool him, though some naive reporters were fooled
An old-fashioned editor had once remarked, "What this newsroom needs is a good drunkard!" perhaps an observation based on reporters tending to superannuated maturity because of their air of detachment. The reporter thinks it a good tribute to the sober intelligence of the profession.
Drew Pearson tells of the President having sent a memo to his Cabinet officers instructing them to tell DNC chairman William Boyle of their travel plans so that he could arrange a welcome for them and enable local leaders to appear with them on the speaker's platform. It was a signal that the President intended to run in 1952 as he had never previously issued political instructions to the Cabinet.
Assistant Secretary of the Army Earl Johnson had taken a fishing trip to Newfoundland at taxpayer expense, using as an excuse an inspection of a base there. He and Col. Clayton Hughes, commanding officer of the base, and another colonel went on the fishing trip, Col. Hughes arranging for inspection of an Air Force helicopter which took them to a salmon stream. The Assistant Secretary admitted upon inquiry that most of his time was spent fishing but added that he did not catch anything.
The former Mufti of Jerusalem, whose agent had assassinated recently King Abdullah of Jordan, was acting as agent in the Middle East for the Soviets, just as he had for Hitler during the war. He was believed responsible for the trouble the British were having in Egypt, the assassination of the pro-British premier of Iran and the murder of other pro-Western leaders in the region.
The Marshall Plan bill had hidden components such as a stipulation that West Germany would purchase 45 million dollars worth of U.S. tobacco. The taxpayers were also footing the bill plus 30 million dollars for Greek tobacco rotting in Greek warehouses. Previously West Germany received its tobacco from Greece. So the total bill to the U.S. taxpayers was 75 million dollars to help out the U.S. tobacco interests. He lists the four primary beneficiaries, including L. K. Jenkins of Kinston, N.C.
Marquis Childs tells of Senator James Duff of Pennsylvania returning from a trip out West optimistic for the chances of General Eisenhower to obtain the Republican presidential nomination in 1952, finding the enthusiasm for Senator Taft and his isolationist policies subdued. Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, following a speaking tour through Oregon and Washington, held the same view.
Senator Taft, in a recent speech in Plymouth, Mass., had tempered those views, saying that the Republicans were now in basic agreement among themselves and with the Administration on foreign policy.
Senator Taft and Democrats who supported the President suddenly viewed General Eisenhower as the "indispensable man" in Europe, quite different from the way the Pentagon viewed him. But the Pentagon did wish to know his timetable so that a successor could be prepared to make the transition smoothly to NATO supreme commander. The successor was believed to be General J. Lawton Collins, chief of staff of the Army, and his successor would be General Matthew Ridgway, supreme commander of the U.N. forces in Korea.
But all of that depended on an armistice being effected in Korea and no new war erupting anywhere else, an increasingly implausible scenario given the Communist build-up all around the world.
"But always with that IF in the background, the planners and hopers can project Ike right into the White House with his inaugural speech practically written already."
Robert C.Ruark, in Tanganyika, tells of the native helpers on his safari having a bad habit of giving out nicknames, such as Bwana Big Belly for the corpulent or Bwana Ginny-Bottle for the consumer of inebriant substances. His name had been initially the honored Bwana Simbambili, meaning "white master two lions", after he had killed two lions in his first days of hunting, but had since been demoted to Bwana Canga or Bwana Ndege, meaning "master guinea hen" or "master bird", neither being complimentary, indicating a compulsorily addicted bird-shooter, "no damn good".
His duty was to provide meat
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