The Charlotte News
Thursday, August 9, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Communists had told General Matthew Ridgway the previous night that there would be no new violations of the Kaesong ceasefire conference site "unless you should deliberately fabricate incidents as an excuse to terminate armistice negotiations." The armistice talks remained suspended pending receipt by General Ridgway of adequate assurances that no further breach would occur following the presence on Saturday of an armed Communist company within Kaesong.
Peiping radio had broadcast late this night that Communist guards again had been ordered to adhere strictly to the neutrality agreement concerning Kaesong, but it also suggested that the allies had acted "rashly and irresponsibly without going through the procedural steps of protest, investigation, consultation and settlement," regarding such an incident as had occurred Saturday. The statement had been signed by Generals Kim Il Sung and Peng Teh-Huai. An English translation, regarded as the official version, was broadcast a little bit later, using the words "deliberately fabricate" in reference to the allies. The version translated from the Chinese said that the Communists had already "solemnly guaranteed strict adherence" to General Ridgway's demands. That latter phrase, however, had been eliminated from the official English version.
A late bulletin informs that "highly placed officials" expected the cease-fire talks to be resumed shortly, but official sources gave no indication as to when the conference might continue.
Meanwhile on the battle fronts, tank-led U.N. forces the previous day entered Pyonggang, the former enemy stronghold in the "iron triangle", to find it abandoned for the second time. The allied force, entering the town for the first time in three weeks, withdrew after an hour. Elsewhere on the central and western fronts, enemy troops resisted allied patrols.
Senator Tom Connally of Texas, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the press that, based on statements by Joint Chiefs chairman General Omar Bradley, the U.S. might have to put more than six divisions of troops into the NATO defense army. In the House, a Republican-backed measure was gaining strength among some Democrats to limit U.S. contributions to NATO forces to six divisions, or 200,000 men, by cutting off funding for transportation of more troops to Western Europe. House Democratic leadership was confident that the amendment to the defense budget would be defeated.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee was reported to have agreed to approve a cut of one billion dollars from the President's 8.5 billion dollar foreign aid program and place both the economic and military phases of the program under a new administrator in lieu of the State Department and ERP. The cuts, according to sources, would be to both military and economic aid.
In London, informed officials reported that Britain had won U.S. and French backing for a Middle Eastern defense system tied to NATO. Dubbed "little NATO", the organization would be led by the British and would include the U.S., France, Turkey and possibly Greece. All other anti-Communist states with a stake in the Middle East, including Arab states and Commonwealth countries, would be free to join the organization. The concession to British leadership was in exchange for it dropping its long-term demand for the supreme command of NATO's forces in the Mediterranean.
Before HUAC, Japan's top investigative officer testified that the Russians had known a month prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor of the Japanese plan to strike at the United States and Britain in the Pacific, including as possible targets the Malay states, Singapore and Sumatra. The Committee was holding hearings into the activities of a Soviet spy ring, headed by Richard Sorge, operating in Japan before and during World War II. Major General Charles Willoughby, aide to General MacArthur, said that in 1949 he had sought to reveal the activities of members of this spy ring but was overruled by the Pentagon. He said that legal advisers in Japan had approved a report naming writer Guenther Stein and the late Agnes Smedley as members of this spy ring in Japan. Ms. Smedley and Mr. Stein had been connected to the Institute of Pacific Relations, central focus of the Committee's investigations, in 1936.
Well, glory be. Russian diplomats in the U.S. could read American newspapers, even in 1941. What a revelation. Will wonders never cease? Some little Commie in the State Department must've been feeding them information on what to read in the newspapers. U.S. newspapers are too big for a Rooskie to digest on his own.
The Senate crime committee announced that it would hold open hearings in Washington the following Wednesday into criminal conditions in New York City.
In Boston, the WCTU made public a denial written by General MacArthur that he owned any stock in a Manila brewery. The denial had come in response to a WCTU representative having written the General asking about such reports, including a statement that he took along beer to his meeting with the President on Wake Island in October, 1950.
In New York, Army football coach Earl (Red) Blaik announced that he planned to continue at the Academy despite the cheating scandal which led to the expulsion of 90 Cadets, the majority of whom had been on the football team.
In Reedsburg, Wisconsin, thousands were obtaining smallpox vaccinations after one farm woman was diagnosed Tuesday with the disease. A quarantine had been ordered for everyone within an eight-mile radius of Reedsburg.
Don't you go up thar. They's red.
In Texas, the current heat wave which had passed through the state for two weeks had taken 15 lives while contributing to at least four other deaths. More than 25 towns reported temperatures of more than 100 degrees the previous day, with the hottest being Presidio, where the mercury hit 114.
In Rock Hill, S.C., ten men, all employees belonging to the striking Textile Workers Union of America, had been arrested in connection with the Monday night dynamiting of property, including an automobile, a home and a barn, belonging to three employees of the Industrial Mill. The men were charged either as conspirators or principals in the commission of malicious destruction of property.
In Raleigh, the Highway Commission chairman announced that 154.1 million dollars had been spent on road construction and maintenance during the prior fiscal year, a record for North Carolina.
Them roads is gettin' smooth as glass. Don't even need no more to carry a shovel on the wagon to dig her out from the ruts along the way to market. It is a mite less comfortable though, 'cause you got to wear ye' shoes in summer 'cause that asphalt gets awful hot, and you cain't go squishy 'tween ye' toes in the rainy time.
In Charlotte, lifeguards at the municipal pool had agreed to care for the children in the baby pool, freeing mothers to attend swimming classes.
On the editorial page, "McCarthy's 'Trust and Duty'" tells of a Senate Rules subcommittee having declared that any Senator who engaged in improper campaign tactics, whether or not he was a candidate in the race, should be subject to expulsion. That rule appeared to be designed to embrace Senator Joseph McCarthy, who, the previous fall, had made repeated stump speeches in the Maryland Senate race between John Butler and incumbent Senator Millard Tydings, attempting to smear Senator Tydings as being sympathetic to Communists.
A strong case appeared to be in the offing for expulsion of Senator McCarthy. The subcommittee which issued the report had unanimously been in favor of it, despite having two Republicans among its five-person membership. The report stated that Senator McCarthy's staff, with the Senator's knowledge, had helped to prepare election materials which included "misleading half-truths, misrepresentations and false innuendos that, without foundation, attacked the loyalty and patriotism" of Senator Tydings.
Senator McCarthy had bragged of
income tax evasion, and used Senatorial immunity to communicate on
the Senate floor Big Lies to defame persons, claims he would not
repeat outside the Senate chamber. He had labeled the Washington
Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and even the
conservative Saturday Evening Post, Communist Party
mouthpieces—maybe because of his Post Toasties
The Senator now wanted to broadcast the names of persons being investigated on loyalty charges by the State Department.
The piece asks rhetorically whether Senator McCarthy had upheld the "truth and duty" of his office, the standard by which the Supreme Court had said Senators ought be judged to determine whether expulsion was warranted. It suggests that by taking a look at the "rotten apple in their midst", the Senators might do a great deal more good than by investigating the numerous other situations which had occupied their attention. The subcommittee had said that the rule should not be applied retroactively, but the piece finds that to be unduly exonerative, as no one should be allowed to break rules with impunity on the notion that a specific rule regarding a particular practice had yet to be placed on the books.
It concludes that Senator McCarthy was a proper specimen for inspection under the "truth and duty" principle set forth by the Supreme Court.
"The Strange Antics of Pat McCarran" tells of the Nevada Senator having the previous year pushed through an anti-subversive measure which had become law as the McCarran Act, providing for the five-man Subversive Activities Control Board to be appointed by the President to determine whether the Communist Party must register as a subversive group. The President had named five distinguished Americans to the Board, but Senator McCarran, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had pigeon-holed the nominations. Finally, the former chairman of the Board, Seth Richardson, resigned in June because of the delay. A few days earlier, Senator McCarran had permitted the confirmation of three of the members but was still holding back that of acting chairman Charles LaFollette. Meanwhile, the Board was continuing its hearings on the Communist Party.
The prior January, the President had named nine distinguished Americans, headed by Admiral Chester Nimitz, to survey the Government's loyalty program. These appointees were volunteers, but a conflict of interest law prevented anyone from drawing Government pay while doing business with the Government or representing clients against the Government. Notwithstanding the fact that the Government in the past had made numerous special exemptions for personnel assigned to special tasks, such as the Hoover Commission on efficiency in the executive branch, Senator McCarran and his Committee had refused to provide this exemption for the commission chaired by Admiral Nimitz.
It concludes that Senator McCarran appeared not to want an anti-subversive program which would preserve the basic American traditions of liberty and justice, but preferred to run the show in his own high-handed, indiscriminate manner. Even more disturbing was the kowtowing by the Senate to Senator McCarran, allowing him full discretion in these matters.
"Progress in Iran" tells of progress made by Averell Harriman as mediator in the Iranian oil nationalization dispute, wherein a slight misstep could cause war to erupt. The British and Iranians had agreed to sit down again and talk, after the British had accepted nationalization in principle and the Iranians had agreed in principle that Britain should continue to produce and sell the oil. Mr. Harriman had convinced the Iranians that they could not run an oil industry very easily, that it took a lot of expert technical personnel at the refinery level as well as those who understood cartelization at the sales level, an exclusive club. Cornered Premier Mohammed Mossadegh believed that he would not receive American aid unless he reached a reasonable accord with the British, and yet he had also come to power denouncing the imperialists. Thus, if he made major concessions to this perceived enemy to Iran, the more extreme Iranians would seek his removal.
If eventually oil flowed again to the West from Iran, it would be another indication of American replacement of British dominance in the Middle East and elsewhere.
"Kashmir Powder Keg" reports that despite the fact that experienced negotiator Frank Graham was seeking to effect a resolution between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the situation was deteriorating rapidly. Both countries claimed Kashmir, Pakistan for its majority-Moslem population, India because Kashmir's prince had technically entered the Indian camp when he, like hundreds of other Indian princes, was allowed to choose between joining India or Pakistan following the end of British control in 1947.
A local Kashmiri plebiscite had determined to cede part of the country to India and another part to Pakistan, but neither country could reach compromise.
Despite the expertise of Mr. Graham, religious war might develop.
Eric Reinemer of the News discusses the widespread support among both Republicans and Democrats for General Eisenhower. It suggested that there was a pervasive expectation that the General would be able to save the country from the mediocrity of both parties. The question remained as to where the General stood on major issues.
In one of his speeches in September, 1949, before the American Bar Association, the General had laid forth his three principles of life, the most important being individual freedom, followed by the freedom to purchase, to save, to vote, to worship, to gather in convention or join in a mutual association, all he regarded as a "single bundle". The third freedom was "to compete vigorously among ourselves" with a readiness to cooperate for the performance of community and national functions. He had also said that the "middle-of-the-road" was the truly creative area in which the country "could obtain agreement for constructive social action". He would not provide the central government with unlimited authority but also would not "bow to the dictates of the uninhibited seekers after personal power and finance, labor, or any other field." He believed strongly in education and in voluntary cooperation between labor and management in the labor field.
His remarks had not been conducive to ready classification of his views on such matters as price control, national health insurance, public power, or other such domestic issues with currency. His reference to "the cloying effect of subsidy" had suggested that he did not regard Administration policies with great sympathy. Yet, some of these subsidies for business, such as the tax amortization program for defense industries, were approved by Republican businessmen, while farmers joined with Democrats in support of agricultural subsidies. Both parties had disapproved various "ham 'n' eggs" subsidies. Thus, his stand on subsidies made it hard to determine with which party he more closely aligned.
On foreign policy, the General was more specific. In a recent speech in London he had said that "Atlantic unity", which embraced organic, political and economic union of Europe, was a necessary component of preserving the peace by defending Western Europe against aggression. He expressed dismay at the "web of customs barriers interlaced with bilateral agreements, multilateral cartels, local shortages and economic monstrosities." He appeared more concerned with promoting Atlantic citizenship than with preserving national sovereignty. Many Democrats and Republicans, however, took a dim view of such internationalism as embraced by the General.
Many conservatives were probably in agreement with him, however, on many domestic issues. The final verdict of the voters in reconciling these two somewhat divergent viewpoints would probably determine whether General Eisenhower would run for the presidency and which party he would ultimately choose.
Drew Pearson suggests that much of the waste in Chinese Nationalist war supplies could be averted were the munitions handled directly by the U.S. Government rather than through a peculiar system of middlemen in which graft and corruption predominated. Part of the aid was believed to be going to the China lobby in the U.S., of which he provides an example involving a San Francisco grocer.
American diplomats in Moscow were almost forced to become mechanics in order to qualify for a driver's license. The Government had decided to make Russian diplomats in Washington take the same kind of test. The reasoning behind the Russian requirement was to cause the diplomats to hire Russian chauffeurs. Because of the fear by the Russian Embassy in Washington that such a test was about to be implemented, they had hired driver-training experts to teach them all the technical details of auto repair.
The
Sertoma Club of Richmond, Va., had contributed $500 to pay for copies
of the Declaration of Independence so that they might be hung in
school rooms. (But would they hang together?) And in New York, Greek-born Spyros Skouras, head of
20th Century-Fox, had developed a newsreel to highlight the message
of the Declaration. The efforts were in response to two newspapers
having asked people on the street to sign a petition to endorse
language from the unidentified Declaration
In the "Pitchmen of the Press" series, the fourth article reprinted from the Providence, (R. I.), Journal, again regards Walter Winchell, for the third day in a row. It begins by quoting Mr. Winchell as saying on February 12, "I realize that a microphone is a great moral responsibility." The 15-week study of his radio program, conducted between January and April, 1951, showed, according to the piece, that this "great moral responsibility" included seeing to it that the United States went to war as soon as possible, merely to vindicate Mr. Winchell's assertion three years earlier. Almost weekly during the study period, he castigated the Government for not beginning a war against Russia as he had advised three years earlier.
Even as officials began to see it his way of late, he continued to lash out at the Government for not saying that war with Russia was inevitable.
When Life devoted an entire issue to war preparations, Mr. Winchell said that Time and Life had heckled him for his call to war in 1947 but that now they were featuring the same warnings using almost the same language he had used three years earlier. He neglected, however, to consider how the Government, Time and Life might have been indoctrinated by Mr. Winchell. And yet, six years earlier, he had been praising the cooperation between the two great democracies, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and criticizing those who differed with him.
By contrast, Drew Pearson, a Quaker, frequently urged people to work for peace, while also warning of the potential of a war in Europe as Russia made war preparations. Mr. Winchell looked with suspicion on those who sought peace.
Mr. Winchell had, in late February, 1951, predicted that Stalin's D-day on a global scale might come in October, 1952. Both he and Mr. Pearson had predicted that the Soviets might start a world war, Mr. Pearson predicting it to come in the vicinity of Bornholm Island belonging to Denmark, while Mr. Winchell found it likely to erupt in the nearby Kattegat Islands between Sweden and Denmark.
The "great moral responsibility" which Mr. Winchell touted included also telling all interested parties of confidential moves by Government law enforcement. He had announced that gangsters were going to a certain Southern state to murder a man and that in doing so, they would certainly get a surprise, apparently assuming that gangsters did not tune in to his program. The following week, on April 16, the gang apparently had not killed the man and had not been surprised. For he said that the Southern state in question was not Florida.
He constantly commented about Hollywood rumor mills, involving various divorces and the like. After announcing that Samuel Goldwyn and his wife would soon celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, he added, "Recommended to all newspapers that play up Hollywood divorces."
Another part of his "great moral responsibility" occurred recently while New York was urging its citizens to conserve water because of the shortage. On April 9, Mr. Winchell had declared that there would be no more attempts at artificial rain-making in New York because the reservoirs were overflowing. The same day, New York officials stated that one reservoir was overflowing but that the total reservoir system of the city was only 75 percent full, compared to 94.7 percent at the same time a year earlier. Numerous attempts were made at artificial rain-making shortly afterward.
On April 16, he had concluded his broadcast by suggesting that when the Russians had shot down one American plane, they cut the U.S. Air Force in half. It was unlikely that his listeners were that gullible, understood that he was underlining the fact that the Air Force was too small. Actually, the one plane in question constituted eleven thousandths of one percent of the Air Force.
The next article in the series would be on Drew Pearson.
The "Congressional Quiz" presents a question as to why there was not a law against labeling a fur coat "mink-blended coney", when it turned out to be dyed rabbit. It answers that a bill designed to protect consumers against false and misleading fur labels or fur ads had been passed by both houses of Congress and sent to the President.
The buyers appeared not to have understood what a cony was, as they apparently had not read too much Shakespeare. It does not answer the more critical question of whether the rabbit was dyed Red after being dead.
It next presents the inquiry as to whether the floods in Kansas and Missouri had caused the Congress to take any special action on flood-control projects, answering that the House Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments had on August 1 urged speedy completion of present projects, and asked for an extensive study of the entire flood-control problem. A subcommittee of the House Public Works Committee had held hearings in the Kansas-Missouri flood-damaged area.
Framed Edition
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