The Charlotte News
Monday, September 10, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that U.S. Eighth Army headquarters in Korea had confirmed that Russian-type rockets used in World War II had landed behind the allied lines on the east-central front and there was speculation, because these rockets required expert handling, that recent reports of "Caucasian" troops, believed to be Russian, spotted along the enemy front, were connected with the rocket launches. No allied installations were hit but official sources would not disclose how many rockets had been fired. The rockets used were erratic in their course but could be destructive when launched in barrages. The allies had used rocket fire sparingly during the war, only to clear out areas in advance of allied troop movements.
In the air war, 30 American F-86 Sabre jets fought with 80 Russian-type MIG-15s over Northwest Korea in one of history's largest jet battles, with two enemy planes being damaged. The previous day, the allies had shot down two MIGs and damaged another. There were no allied losses in either fight. Army sources said unofficially that there was reliable but not conclusive evidence that Russian pilots had been flying some of the MIGs in battle.
U.N. officers traded harsh words with Communist liaison officers in Kaesong after investigating a Communist charge that an allied warplane had strafed Kaesong during the morning. The U.N. officers refused to provide a report of their investigation or concede that an attack had occurred but commented that they had found one bullet mark and a dozen .50-caliber slugs in and around a group of stone houses in Kaesong, about three-quarters of a mile from the site of the suspended ceasefire talks.
The Army announced that all American soldiers who had fought in Korea the previous winter would be brought home before the coming winter. The announcement said that National Guardsmen would be used to meet the "pressing manpower problem", requiring 30,000 replacement men and officers each month.
In San Francisco, Andrei Gromyko had left for home after his failed attempted diplomatic coup at the Japanese peace treaty conference, with the treaty having been signed by 49 of the 52 nations present on Saturday, only Russia, Poland and Czechoslovakia refusing to sign. American diplomats believed that Russia would do everything it could to undermine popular support for the treaty through a propaganda attack throughout Asia and the Far East. It was believed also that Russia, in collaboration with Communist China, would attempt to form a separate Communist-bloc peace treaty with Japan. India, which had not sent a delegation to the conference, had announced the previous day, as it had indicated prior to the conference, that it was prepared, at the point when the treaty became effective, to end its state of war with Japan. After the ceremony on Saturday, the U.S. and Japan formed a bilateral treaty which provided the right of the U.S. to maintain armed forces in Japan and use Japanese bases after the U.S. occupation ended per the treaty.
In the opening meeting of the Big Three Western Foreign Ministers Conference in Washington, Secretary of State Acheson and Britain's Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison discussed their differences regarding Cold War tactics. The proposed new partnership deal for West Germany, the British dispute with Egypt regarding the Suez Canal, and the Iranian and Far East crises were expected by the diplomats to be prominent in the talks, which also included French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. The conference was scheduled to last four days.
The Agriculture Department estimated that the year's cotton crop would be 17,291,000 bales of 500 pounds each, 25,000 bales more than the forecast of the previous month, and about 1.7 million bales less than the previous year's small crop, but over five million bales larger than the average for the previous ten years.
Vic Reinemar of The News, in the first of a six-part series, looks at the Hoover Commission recommendations of 1947, regarding consolidation of agencies and elimination of waste and duplication of services in government, as further commented upon in an editorial below. He begins by explaining which recommendations had thus far been implemented and provides the savings which they had enabled.
In Winston-Salem, William Neal
Reynolds, the tobacco magnate, died this date at the age of 88 after
having been ill for the previous month, having been stricken at the
previous Hambletonian harness race in Goshen, N.Y., of which he was
an aficionado. He was the brother of Richard Joshua Reynolds, founder
of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem in 1888, and a
partner in the firm along with R. J. and Henry Roan. He had been a
member of the board of directors and headed the leaf purchasing
department, and eventually became president in 1918 and chairman of
the board in 1924. In 1933
He had lived for many years on property which was now a part of Centenary Methodist Church in downtown Winston-Salem, (and, subsequently, also the site of the Forsyth County Public Library), before moving to Tanglewood Farms near Clemmons on the outskirts of the city. There, he was able to devote increasing amounts of time to his famed stable of trotting and pacing horses. In 1922, when doctors had suggested fresh air following an operation, he began a routine of working behind harness horses furlong as at least 200 per day. In addition to "Mary Reynolds", other great horses in his stable were "My Shady Bell", which won 15 first-place finishes and two seconds in 17 starts during the period 1909 to 1910, "Meda Volo", world champion two-year old pacing filly over a mile track, "Tar Heel", all-time money-winning pacer as a two-year old, "Solicitor", champion two-year old pacer for a half-mile track, and "Betsy Volo", fastest two-year old trotter of 1950.
We performed the research for our 1967 term paper on memory on his former property, as well some of the research on a paper four years later at the University, for Poli. Sci. 51, the rest having been performed, by courtesy, in the offices of the Winston-Salem Journal, after the library had closed, regarding an issue of our choosing on local politics, our choice having been the Hospital Authority and a dispute which had arisen of some description involving Forsyth Memorial Hospital and Kate Bitting Reynolds Hospital, the precise nature of which having escaped our immediate memory, or been repressed thoroughly, but likely having to do with race
In Chicago, a 1913 Stanley Steamer and a 1911 Stoddard Dayton began a race toward Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, to be concluded a week from this date, at speeds of between 30 to 40 mph, to determine which was the faster form of transportation, the steam-powered vehicle or the gas-powered vehicle. Both of the drivers were employees of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and each was a specialist in the type of automobile he drove. The Museum and Popular Mechanics were co-sponsors of the race.
In Asbury Park, N. J., actor Wendell
Corey
We have to break up that racket
On the editorial page, "The Hoover Report" commends to readers the six-part series starting this date on the front page regarding the Hoover Report on efficiency in government, made in 1947. While the 81st Congress had in 1949 and 1950 approved twenty public laws and twenty-six presidential reorganization plans based on the Report, saving annually about two billion dollars, nothing had been done in the 82nd Congress in furtherance of the plan. Concrete examples of what had occurred included the Military Reorganization Act of 1949, which produced teamwork in the armed services, the Reorganization Act of 1949, under which lines of authority and responsibility had been clarified in seventeen major agencies, and the General Services Administration, consolidating four previous agencies, and rapidly eliminating duplication and waste in Federal purchasing, storage, inventory control, records management and building operations.
The present Congress had before it twenty bills dealing with recommendations made by the Report, but none had yet been passed, and of fifty reorganization plans prepared by the executive branch, only one had yet been forwarded to Congress. These programs, if adopted, would save the Government an estimated 3.5 billion dollars per year. While the Congress had been very busy during the Korean War, every member of Congress and every President stressed economy, and the present Congress had spent much of its time investigating matters involving the past rather than spending that time more wisely looking toward the future and the need for reorganization of the Government to save money and prevent waste. It hopes things would change.
"A Logical Procedure" finds in order Mayor Victor Shaw's suggestion that the City Council members receive a briefing on the truck regulation plan from the City Traffic Engineer, Herman Hoose, who had conceived the plan. It quotes from a letter from the Charlotte Motor Freight Carriers Association, admitting that there was a problem which had to be met realistically, proposing a logical solution, and finding that despite inconvenience to some, the best interests of the people of the city required affirmative action. The piece commends the letter to the attention of the Council.
"A Successful Skirmish" suggests that now that the Japanese peace treaty had been signed and the efforts of Andrei Gromyko on behalf of the Russians to disrupt the effort had failed, the Soviets had suffered a major diplomatic defeat, while, in turn, the West could claim a great diplomatic victory. But there remained other battlefields of comparable importance ahead, such as in Indonesia, Indo-China, Kashmir, Iran, Yugoslavia and Germany. Japan would not automatically be on the side of the Western democracies, as democracy was still nascent and tenuous in Japan and many of its neighbors continued to recall the efforts of expansion by Imperial Japan during the war, had become signatories of the treaty only out of expedience, because of the need to enlist Japan in the defense against Communist aggression in the Far East.
But, for the nonce, high ground had been won in a "brilliantly-executed skirmish in the battle for Japan."
"Ballooncasting" provides kudos to Drew Pearson and his co-workers for floating over Czechoslovakia
balloons with pro-American leaflets attached, in
the "Winds of Freedom" project. The program was apparently
having a good effect, as Radio Free Europe found that many of them
had reached their target, and Czech Prime Minister Antonin Zapotocky
had attacked the program as being filled with American "dirt"
The piece hopes that other such projects would be undertaken, as getting the truth to the captive citizens of Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain was imperative for a true understanding of Western democracy versus the mental imprisonment under the Communist system.
An Anonymous "Bureaucrat", a "high Federal official", substitutes this date for Drew Pearson, still on vacation, tells of Congress causing many bright individuals who might otherwise contribute to Government to quit or stay away because of the intense scrutiny provided them by Congress. The official provides several examples: the bright young executive who took a job in Government at a considerable drop in salary, only to have his prior experiment with Communism during the Thirties thrown in his face, causing him to leave the Government; the man with technical expertise well-suited to his Government position, but who was challenged, nevertheless, by a Congressional committee for having had no prior experience in the private sector, probably causing him to leave the Government; and the various Government witnesses who were disgusted by one veteran chairman of a special Appropriations subcommittee for his "merciless bludgeoning" of them, frequently attacking their loyalty and integrity without apparent reason. Others well qualified to contribute to Government service, reading of this abuse, had decided in advance not to seek Government positions.
"Bureaucrat" concludes by urging Congress to reflect on their own behavior in preventing able and conscientious public servants either from doing their jobs or taking responsible Government positions, with the result that mediocrity often prevailed.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop discuss the need of Great Britain and France for additional U.S. aid to meet their rearmament commitments to NATO. Meanwhile, Congress had cut in half the 300 million estimated as the needed additional aid for France, when it was now clear that France needed between 400 and 500 million, with its hands full in Indo-China. France wanted the U.S. to share in the cost of the latter war, defending, as it did, all of Southeast Asia from Communism.
The British case was even more serious, as the Iranian oil crisis and the changes in the world economic situation caused by Western rearmament had badly affected the British trade balance. During the present quarter of 1951, Britain had lost about 500 million dollars in gold and hard currency reserves. Several months earlier, Aneurin Bevan, declaring that Britain would run into trouble with rearmament, had rebelled against the Labor Party leadership, and sounded the alarum of anti-Americanism. For Congress to refuse the aid presently being requested by Britain would effectively deliver the more moderate and farsighted leaders of the Labor Party, such as Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Gaitskell, to the Bevanites.
Added to the problem was the need expressed by General Eisenhower and the planners of NATO for an additional twenty divisions of infantry and almost twice that many air groups to fill the gap between the available Western defenses and the estimated needs to withstand potential Communist aggression. American negotiators, as a result, had been pushing the French and British to extend their rearmament programs at a time when they could not meet the existing obligations.
The primary danger was that American Government bureaucracy would prevent the simple steps necessary to be taken to provide this additional needed aid, as exhibited by the failure of American policymakers yet to make hard decisions on the issue, such that Britain and France found the U.S. in the position of lacking a policy.
Richard Spong of Editorial Research Reports reviews the history of what Japan had lost in the 1951 peace treaty just signed in San Francisco, virtually all of its acquired territories since 1875 when it had won the Kurile Islands from Russia. That territory included Formosa, ceded to Japan by China in 1895 after defeat in war, the Pescadores, and the Ryukyus, also spoils of the 1894-95 war. Korea, a casus belli for the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, and which, with the blessing of President Theodore Roosevelt, Japan had annexed during the Taft Administration in 1910, was also gone.
At Yalta in February, 1945, Russia had regained the southern half of Sakhalin, which had been ceded to Japan by the Russians after the Russo-Japanese War. Japan also lost the former German islands received under the League of Nations mandate, the Paracel Islands, off Indo-China, and the Spratly Islands between Indo-China and Borneo.
Its greatest loss from World War II was the Communist domination of Manchuria and of mainland China.
The presence of Communist armies acted as an effective deterrent to any future temptation on the part of Japan to invade China or the Russian-held territories. The former naval rivalry with the U.S. and Great Britain appeared a part of the past. In addition, a point of friction between Japan and the U.S., the Oriental exclusion policy, would be relieved by a bill passed by the House the previous February, which extended to Japanese and Korean immigrants quota eligibilities, with the prospect of U.S. citizenship.
A letter writer from Greensboro wonders why the state had more murders per capita than any other state in the nation, and then seeks to answer his question. He begins with an anecdote of a deaf man who was killed three weeks earlier by a train while he drove a car, in possession of a North Carolina driver's license, wonders what chance an individual had on the highways against such a "menace", "as deadly as an atom bomb".
Oh, come on, he didn't have an atomic car. Probably was driving a Stanley Steamer or a Locomobile. We once taught a deaf-mute to drive, and he got his license. What's the big deal? Anyone can have an accident. It was the woman who had an unanticipatedly leaden foot on the brake pedal on the freeway at 55 mph who was the biggest challenge to teach to lay off it, especially so that she did not break our foot trying to prevent depressing of the pedal on our side.
He goes on a bit regarding other
recent tragedies on the highway, the sum of which he equates to
murder. He urges the Legislature to pass a law to prevent issuance of
a license to anyone without minimum liability and property insurance
coverage, placing of correct signs
He means to conclude: "Quod erat demonstrandum", that is, Q.E.D., not, as he says his old mathematics teacher had said, "quad est demonstrati"—which sounds more in the nature of a futuristic four-channel phonograph demonstration at the local appliance store.
A letter writer tells of history often repeating itself, and with that in mind, quotes from Earlier Ages by Robinson, Breasted and Smith, relating to the burdensome taxes and tight controls of the economy just prior to the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. He quotes from page 360, finds it startlingly to describe the path being taken by the U.S. Government presently. He admits that the living conditions of the average person in the country were superior to those of the peasants of 1,700 years earlier, but nevertheless feels it apropos to set forth the quotation.
Why not? Let us quote now from
Shakespeare
A letter writer from Oklahoma City tells of reading of the ban on model airplane flying in Charlotte's Freedom Park, says that he had been building models for the previous 28 years and had never known of a fellow modeler to wind up in juvenile court or nuisance court, thinks it would be "better to make a little noise and be known than to quietly steal a car or break and enter". He wishes the model airplane builders luck in their challenge to the status quo.
Get together with them nuts out in
Texas on the radio and get them to promote your cause to their
millions of listeners. Get them model airplanes up in 'ere and
flyin', as there is nothin' quite like the thrill of vicarious flight
by somethin' you done built with your own two hands—at least 'til it
crashes and smashes into little bitty pieces of wood and dope
Framed Edition
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