The Charlotte News
Tuesday, August 7, 1951
FIVE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that General Matthew Ridgway told the Communist negotiators that the ceasefire talks would not be resumed until they assured him that Kaesong would remain neutral under their prior agreement, that the apology they had extended regarding the presence of armed guards again in Kaesong on Saturday was not enough. He rejected their explanation that the presence of the company of heavily armed Communist soldiers was an "accident" and said that it was not minor or trivial. He wanted a reasonable explanation for the breach.
One lone enemy plane bombed allied lines in Korea this date, while 236 U.N. planes flew combat sorties. Ground action was so quiet that the usual daily communique from U.N. headquarters was not issued.
The U.S. rejected Russia's proposal for a five-power peace pact, the State Department saying that it was a "propaganda trap" as there was no respect in the world for Russian treaties. The real purpose of the proposal, said the Department spokesman, was to lull the people of America to sleep and that the proposal had not been made known so far to the Russian people. At the same time, he pointed out, the Russians were sponsoring a "hate America" youth rally in East Berlin. The offer had been broached in a letter to the President from Russian President Nikolai Shvernik. A similar proposal had been made two years earlier. The President was planning to transmit the letter to the Congress.
Congressman Carl Vinson of Georgia, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, proposed a vast increase in U.S. air power, expanding it to 163 air groups, nearly double the 87 presently in existence. The immediate goal was 95 air groups.
Representative Herbert Bonner of North Carolina said that the President might soon tour armed service bases in the country. President Roosevelt had made such a trip in 1940.
The Overseas Press Club urged the President to take "strong action" to gain the release of Associated Press correspondent William Oatis from his ten-year sentence of imprisonment in Czechoslovakia for alleged espionage. They wanted, among other things, severance of all trade and diplomatic ties with the country.
In Karachi, Pakistan, Pakistani Premier Liaquat Ali Khan accused Prime Minister Nehru of India of being determined to endanger the peace of the Indian subcontinent and the world "for the sake of political farce and forcing through [India's] program of aggression in Kashmir." The Pakistanis accused India of placing troops only ten miles from the border with Pakistan, opposite Sind province, completing a troop line from Kashmir to the Gulf of Kutch. India said it had kept troops 20 miles from the border to prevent incidents. U.N. mediator Frank Graham, meanwhile, resumed his talks with Pakistani officials regarding the dispute with India over Kashmir.
Before the Internal Security subcommittee investigating Communists in the Government, especially focusing on Far Eastern relations, a university professor, who said he was a former German Communist who broke with the party in 1939, identified Michael Greenberg, a former Government official, as being among "Communist friends" he had met in 1934 and had assumed he was one such "friend". Mr. Greenberg's loyalty had been called into question in 1947 and as a result he had been barred from competing in civil services examinations. According to the witness, Mr. Greenberg had succeeded in part Owen Lattimore in a job the latter had held at the Institute of Pacific Relations.
At West Point, the superintendent of the Academy said that any of the expelled Cadets who had admitted under oath the cheating of which they had been found guilty by a special board of inquiry would be given an opportunity to resign with a clean record should they ever desire to join the Army. Otherwise, they would be dismissed. He also said that in cases where insufficient evidence existed to support the charges, they would be dropped. He denied statements by some of the accused Cadets that at least 200 Cadets avoided charges by falsely denying the cheating. At least 29 other Cadets had been investigated in the cheating scandal.
In San Francisco, a popular young accordionist was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $10,000 for evading the draft after his plea of guilty to the charge. He said afterward to newsmen, "It's all right."
How about a tune
We would be remiss not to observe that in 1950's America one could dodge the draft and re-emerge into accepted society very quickly if one had an acceptable talent, but to be an academic or writer, with a talent less visible, and to be branded a Communist for sympathies exhibited in the 1930's and also not to be willing
In Atlantic City, N.J., Miss America pageant entrants were to be allowed for the first time to select their own swimsuits in that phase of the competition after previously being required to wear uniform attire. The individually selected suits, however, had to be one-piece and either black, white or pastel, with shoulder straps.
In Greenville, S.C., Judson William Chapman, executive editor of the Greenville News, died of a heart attack this date at age 51. He had volunteered to serve in World War I, becoming a first sergeant, and had been in the newspaper business since age 11 when he became a delivery boy for the Greenville News.
On the editorial page, "Report to the Taxpayers" tells of the Council of State Chambers of Commerce reporting that of six appropriations measures passing both houses of Congress in 1951, the President had sought about 14 billion dollars whereas the House approved not quite 13 billion and the Senate approved just over 13 billion. Thus, Congress had effected a reduction of less than seven percent from the President's requested appropriations, all in the non-defense category.
Senators Clyde Hoey and Willis Smith of North Carolina had compiled better than average economy records during the term, but, it posits, they could still improve. Senator Smith had voted for economy thirteen times and spending, ten times, in the 31 Senate roll call votes on the subject, while Senator Hoey had voted eighteen times for economy and for spending thirteen times. Senator Hoey had supported seven of ten major economy amendments while Senator Smith favored six.
"Report to the Voters" tells of the Congressional Quarterly, finding that since Senators and Congressmen often sought to avoid roll call votes on controversial issues, having polled the individual members on their views when such roll calls were avoided.
In the 90 roll call votes in the first half of 1951, Senator Hoey had gone on record every time, while Senator Smith had gone on record 80 times. It also provides the score for the North Carolina House delegation.
It suggests that all members ought follow the examples of Senators Hoey and Smith.
"Hasty Hindsight" tells of the Washington Daily News suggesting that the State Department needed a "meat-ax treatment" rather than a "new broom". John P. Davies, recently cleared on loyalty issues, was still with the Department, a fact found by the Daily News to be objectionable because of a stand Mr. Davies had taken in 1944, favoring a coalition government in China. The late Senator Arthur Vandenberg, points out the piece, had also taken the same position as late as 1947.
It concludes that condemning men for advice previously given in a different time was "silly".
"'The Faith We Have in Them'" tells of A. B. Gibson, president of the North Carolina Educational Association, writing to the newspaper, in the wake of the expulsion of the 90 West Point Cadets for cheating, that the failings of young students were usually held up to scrutiny by the public while their more abundant virtues received little attention. The bad things were more sensational.
He believed that the present younger generation could read, write and think better than the previous generation. All that could be expected generationally was a little progress. The children would live up to the faith the society had placed in them.
The piece agrees, that the society could not be measured by its lowest common denominator. For every bad apple, there were many good ones.
"...And It Comes Out Here" tells of two recent editorials, one in the New Orleans States and the other in the Jacksonville Times-Union, having told of New England now being the "nation's new economic problem no. 1", replacing the South's designation as that problem in the latter Thirties. The two newspapers had cited the President's Council of Economic Advisers telling of the slump in New England industrial activity, and had also remarked on the New South.
It quotes from both pieces and says it would not quarrel with the assessments, but that among the assortment of textile companies operating in the South, there were many with Northern capital and Northern brains which had much to do with the new industrial empire in the South.
Drew Pearson finds that one reason General Ridgway wanted to hang onto present battle lines was to establish the ceasefire zone around an area with large, untapped tungsten reserves, in shortage and necessary for jet engines, armor-piercing shells and supply of atomic energy needs. And one of the largest tungsten mines in the world was at Sangdon, 60 miles below the 38th parallel, and thus in need of adequate defense.
Two newspapers, the Capital Times of Madison, Wisc., and the New Orleans Item, had sought to have persons on the street sign a petition consisting of the unidentified words of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, only to find most people refusing because of the content being too subversive. Some of the reactions of the sample are provided.
Congressman John Taber of New York, in favoring a cut of the State Department's propaganda budget, had quoted Ben Hibbs, editor of the Saturday Evening Post, as a foremost critic of the Voice of America. But Mr. Hibbs actually was a member of a committee which advised the State Department regarding the Voice. Mr. Hibbs quickly contradicted Mr. Taber, saying he had not criticized the Voice in any recent times as he had not written about it since joining the committee. He urged that funds not be cut.
This date's second article in the
series on "Pitchmen of the Press", from the Providence
(R.I.) Journal, a series which had won the 1951 Peabody Award for
Journalism, analyzes the content of the radio programs
In one program, he announced that he was the first person to announce the name of the new atomic weapon and then a few moments later, was talking about a Midwestern actress possibly preparing to elope. Both of the items were inaccurate.
He earned about $650,000 per year or $12,500 per broadcast for 12.5-minute presentations. The reason for the high pay was that he had built a reputation for having inside information and broadcast that information on the one day of the week when most of the country received no afternoon newspaper. He could say with accuracy, therefore, that Monday papers would carry the story for the first time that he was then reporting early. Many such stories, however, originated with newspapers and were communicated specially to Mr. Winchell.
During the period of analysis between January and April, 1951, there had been rarely a full program without some inaccuracy, either factual or predictions. But he talked at a rapid pace and filled his short broadcasts therefore with abundant information.
The piece lists the varied content of one recent program, including 35 items. More than half of his typical items had been carried by other organs of dissemination previously, though he claimed exclusive coverage and reporting them for the first time.
Drew Pearson's radio show aired three hours earlier on Sundays, at 6:00, complicating Mr. Winchell's claim to exclusive stories. Both made predictions often that any astute newspaper reader could make. Both often also made erroneous predictions, examples of which are provided.
Mr. Winchell often complained about conflicting statements issuing from the Government, when his own often conflicted.
A letter writer tells of having had it admitted by a City official that the City had known that the poison being put into the Freedom Park lake would kill the fish. He had investigated because unidentified parties had entered his yard several weeks earlier and sprayed, including in his dog yard, killing in the process the birds and poisoning one of their puppies.
He wants the City Council to take appropriate action.
A letter writer from Pittsboro replies to a letter writer on July 31 who had written regarding this writer's previous letter. He says that he had no partisan argument, as Santa Claus appealed equally to Republicans and Democrats. But, he says, the New Deal Democrats had initiated the appeal.
Whatever you want to believe. It's America.
A letter writer finds the News to have adopted the "Yankee agitator line" on racial segregation. He says that the state would side with the rest of the South when the chips were down, just as they had in 1861, and just as they had in 1950 when North Carolina voters narrowly elected Willis Smith over Senator Frank Graham in the Democratic runoff primary.
A letter from Korea, from a Marine private first class and sergeant, solicits mail from ladies who lived in Charlotte, as they had received little in eleven months in Korea. Their address is provided if you are a lady and live in Charlotte and wish to correspond with them in Korea.
A Pome from the Atlanta Journal appears, "In Which A Small Aside Is Uttered With Regard To Milady's Seasonal Millinery:
"Springtime hats the ladies wear
Make their husbands rant and swear."
But, we suppose, better a wild hat,
Than going about with hair bared.
Framed Edition
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