The Charlotte News

Saturday, September 15, 1951

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the heaviest artillery barrage of the six-week "Battle of the Hills" had occurred on Saturday against North Korean troops fighting U.N. troops almost to a standstill. Many thousands of rounds were poured into the Communist positions, in an attempt to end the fanatical hill defense of the enemy. In the sector north of Yanggu, allied infantry took one of several peaks but failed to take four others. Some of the battles lasted up to 14 hours.

Air Force Maj. General Frank Everest, commander of the U.S. Fifth Air Force, said in Korea that the first major air attack by the 1,200 jets and bombers which the Communists had reportedly massed in Manchuria could cause current restrictions, which prevented U.N. bombing of Communist bases north of the Yalu River in Manchuria, to be relaxed or eliminated. Such a stance was confirmed by top military officials in Washington. Presently, the Russian-type MIG-15 jets entered Korea only for short periods of a few minutes duration each, in groups up to around 60, and then flew back across the Yalu after engaging American jets. Allied airmen had been anxious for months to pursue these jets. Top defense officials in Washington feared a secret, Pearl Harbor-type attack by the amassed air strength of the Communists.

Communist Chinese radio charged that the U.N. had committed new violations of the neutrality zone at Kaesong during the previous several days, arising since the admitted single mistake by the allies regarding a strafing incident in Kaesong by a single pilot who had made a navigation error on September 12.

The Senate unanimously confirmed Robert Lovett as the new Secretary of Defense, following the resignation during the week of Secretary Marshall.

In Ottawa, Secretary of State Acheson arrived to begin a conference with the NATO Council, which was expected to include Greece and Turkey within its membership, as recommended by the U.S. Already on hand were British Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. All three had just finished participation in the Big Three foreign ministers conference in Washington regarding the participation of West Germany in Western defense of Europe.

An RFC employee of 19 years and chief of its business loans branch in 1949 testified to the Senate investigating subcommittee looking into RFC chairman William Boyle's behavior regarding whether he greased the wheels for approval of an RFC loan for $645,000 to a St. Louis printing firm, which paid Mr. Boyle a fee, which he claimed was only a legal fee having nothing to do with the loan. The employee said that the usual reviewing procedure for the 1949 loan had been completely bypassed and that it had been processed "up there", referring to high RFC echelons. He said that he did not know why normal procedures had not been followed.

The RFC, the previous day, fired the assistant manager of its St. Louis branch office, shortly after he had admitted to the subcommittee that he had accepted a free vacation trip to Wisconsin from the printing firm during the loan negotiations.

Federal Civil Defense workers in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington became students in a "school for survival", as part of an experiment in mass training through television. The lessons were imparted by live actors in front of television cameras, for the benefit of the workers who viewed the lessons in theaters.

In Speigner, Ala., bloodhounds joined a statewide manhunt for twelve convicts still on the lam after escaping from Draper Prison the previous night, along with seven others who had since been recaptured. They had beaten one guard into a coma and overpowered five others. They were heavily armed with weapons taken from the prison arsenal. They had escaped in two cars, one of which had been found. At Montgomery, two men believed to be among the escapees, had hijacked a taxi and taken the driver's wallet after putting him out about nine miles out of town. The State Highway Patrol reportedly had four suspects cornered in the woods near Calera after they jumped from a train. The patrolmen had call for dogs to trail the men.

In Toledo, O., a New York Central Railway section hand, who was snoozing peacefully in a weed patch the previous afternoon, suddenly leaped up and rolled and tumbled onto the ground, then shrieked wildly and bolted into a factory, prompting someone to call police and report a "wild man running berserk". When the police arrived, the railroad hand explained that he thought he had a bug in his ear which sounded like an airplane. Physicians confirmed the intrusion and killed the bug with a liquid, then planned to remove it later in the day after the man had calmed down.

Just goes to show that there may be more to the reticulum than meets the eye.

Governor Kerr Scott elevated Justice William A. Devin, 80, of the North Carolina Supreme Court to be the new Chief, to replace Walter P. Stacy who had died the prior Thursday. Mr. Devin had been on the Court since 1935, appointed by Governor John Ehringhaus. Governor Scott named his friend, attorney Itimous Valentine, to be the new Associate Justice. Both would be sworn in on the following Monday, there being no confirmation process other than by subsequent election.

Vic Reinemer of The News provides the last in his six-part series of articles on the Hoover Commission report of 1947, regarding waste in government offices and its recommendations for remedy of that waste and duplication of services, in this piece stressing the recommendations of the Commission to streamline Government personnel management, resulting in an estimated savings of $600 million annually, a figure which had risen with the increase in Federal employment during the prior four years. Presently, he points out, one in every 75 workers was employed by the Federal Government and current plans called for a 25 percent increase. In addition, about 700,000 new workers had to be trained each year because of the 33 percent turnover rate. About 1.1 million new workers would be employed by the Government during the year, causing the Civil Service Commission, established in 1883, to need an overhaul. About one-third of the Hoover Commission's recommendations regarding personnel management had been adopted, but much remained to be accomplished, including decentralization of personnel operations to permit individual departments to recruit, examine and certify certain types of personnel and providing the CSC chairman with greater authority, plus implementation of procedures to allow discharging of incompetents with less red tape.

A twelve-installment serial presentation of Dr. Evelyn Millis Duvall's Facts Of Life and Love, dealing with the problems of young people, endorsed by both Dr. E. H. Garinger, superintendent of Charlotte City schools, and Dr. George A. Douglas, family life coordinator in the schools, would begin in the News the following Monday. Topics would include "Getting Started in Dating", "Dating Know-How", "Giving and Receiving", "Parents and Dates", "Who Is It You Love—and How?", "How Can You Tell When You Are In Love", "Petting", "Saying No", "Love Out of Bounds", "The One and Only", and "Becoming Engaged". Another chapter was titled "Ten Ways to Forget Him or Her".

Unless you want snickers when the students get ahead of you, "Giving and Receiving" ought include a definite object. We will be especially looking forward to "Petting", as we were always fond of the zoo, as well as puppies and kittens.

On the editorial page, "Parking on Graham Street" says that having stated the proposition the previous day that the City Council should immediately adopt the City Engineer's truck regulation plan, even if it eliminated the section banning curb parking on Graham Street, now states the converse, that curb parking on Graham Street should be banned, even if the Council were unwilling to adopt the truck regulation plan.

Should you be particularly interested in Graham Street or how this dilemma was resolved and what the competing issues and arguments were, you may read it with assiduity. We, ourselves, have none.

"Dean of Reporters" laments the passing of Tom Bost, who covered the Raleigh beat for the Greensboro Daily News for 37 years before his death on Thursday. He had watched governors come and go and covered session after session of the General Assembly, maintaining an abiding faith in the future of the state and the character and stability of its people. It finds that he had been a great reporter, a great Christian layman who provided weekly religious editorials in the newspaper which were provocative and stimulating, and also "a great fellow", "kindly, courteous, friendly" and always deferential to the opinions of others, providing his opinions with pointed and witty anecdotes. His favorite windmill against which to joust was intolerance.

It concludes that Thomas Carlyle's famed phrase re the press, the Fourth Estate, as stated in Heroes and Hero-Worship, might have been written about Mr. Bost: "Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament: but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all."

"Chief Justice Walter P. Stacy" provides praise to the North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice who had died two days earlier of a heart attack at age 66. He had been a member of the Court since being elected by the voters in 1920, during the term of Governor Walter Bickett who had orginally practiced law in Louisburg, and had been Chief Justice since 1925, elevated by Governor Angus McLean, fomerly a founding partner of a Lumberton law firm in which Mr. Stacy's brother, Horace, practiced, serving longer as Chief than anyone else ever had.

It finds him to have been "a pillar of strength to the Court." He had worked harder, even in his later years, than many younger members of the Court, and "his knowledge of the law was profound", coupled with a "deep understanding of human nature". It ventures that "his wisdom, his zeal, and his tolerance" would be missed by the people of the state and his associates on the Supreme Court.

A piece from the Providence (R.I.) Evening Bulletin, titled "No Status Quo in Fashions", tells of the coming winter fashion which would be characterized by a rising waste line and full skirt, halfway down the calf, with several petticoats. As with all new fashions, it was to be expected that there would be a great deal of criticism for the change. It thinks, however, that "you can't beat a long line, purity and simplicity."And, in addition, "the delicate, fleeting rustle of petticoats with their overtones of Victorian romance" would lend "something good and expensive".

Drew Pearson provides more on the money being siphoned from American aid to Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist Chinese regime, through Chinese grafters and American middlemen, all influenced by the China lobby. Senator William Knowland of California, though vigorously pro-Chiang, had been one of the few voices in Congress among the pro-Nationalists protesting such graft or unfair profits. One of the deals he had stopped was the attempted purchase of 5.3 million gallons of aviation fuel for the Chinese Air Force by an American company which at first did not exist and which later was organized by partners already in bankruptcy. He provides the details.

Marquis Childs discusses the ratification process in the Senate of the just-concluded treaty with Japan in San Francisco, likely to be delayed because of other pressing business in the Congress, despite the hope by John Foster Dulles, principal architect of the treaty, that it would enjoy swift ratification to serve as an example for the other signatory nations. The State Department, however, favored caution, as Undersecretary of State James Webb had informed Senate Majority Leader Ernest McFarland that it might be better for one of the other Western powers to take the lead in ratification.

Mr. Webb believed that jamming it through the Senate would deny a number of interests the right to be heard regarding its potential for economic impact. The textile and fishery interests were especially concerned over the provisions of the treaty which gave Japan approval for unlimited competition. The U.S. pottery interest was also concerned. Powerful trade unions foresaw economic competition which would endanger their jobs, as Japan had already made a move to set aside regulations established during the occupation, forbidding or restricting use of female and child labor in industry, which could result in much lower-priced goods being imported to the American market, despite restrictive tariffs.

Those urging speedy action on the treaty included Republicans such as Senator Knowland of California, who had praised Secretary of State Acheson for his part in the treaty conference.

Mr. Acheson had recognized that the path at San Francisco had been smoothed by John Foster Dulles, eliminating the possibility of Soviet interference with the treaty signing, having a more positive effect than anything else in assuring the success of the conference. That type of cooperation was the essence of bipartisanship.

Mr. Childs concludes that if the Administration would move swiftly toward ratification, the considerable gains made at San Francisco, both at home and abroad, could be solidified.

Robert C. Ruark relates of his complaints regarding airports, that the food would "generally gag a goat, if you are lucky enough to find a short-order pigsty open with a surly waitress to serve you" once you arrived at an odd hour, having been delayed by the airline through no fault of your own. The condition of the privy was even worse, no doubt failing any department of sanitation inspection. Seating at the airport was almost always uncomfortable and inadequate.

He favors inclusion of dormitories with simple cots, semi-privacy, and adequate sanitary facilities. He also thinks elimination of the souvenir stands and the "vending bandits" would be an improvement, as one did not come to the airport to buy a memento of "Vagrant Vulture, N. D."

"Overall, the airport situation is a national disgrace, and if we can reform the world with an airplane we can at least clean up the gents-and-ladies rooms for the world reformers."

Dormitories and cots with semi-privacy is not at all a bad idea, or at least a waiting area equipped with reclining, cushioned seats, especially given all of the many inconveniences which the airlines enforce upon travelers just trying to get from one place to another with a minimum of intrusion into their daily lives beyond the high cost of an airline ticket. Designers of airports need to rethink the egg in the modern age of air travel, rather than stressing so much useless, open space above one's head, only serving to form a cacophonous, mind-numbing echo chamber, giving one eventually a headache on top of every other possible annoyance of which the designers could possibly conceive to inflict upon the passengers, to drive home the idea that they are but cattle and chattel of the airlines for the few hours during which they hitch a ride, subordinate, along with their luggage, to the airplane, the airport, the furniture and the arrogant employees who are doing you, no doubt by their demeanor, the courtesy of not shooting you dead on the spot for the sin of daring to exist in their royal presence.

Tom Schlesinger of The News, in his weekly Capital Roundup, tells of Senator Willis Smith having returned from a 16-day, 14,000-mile trip to Europe and the Near East, convinced that the people of the U.S. were more worried about war than those in the immediate vicinity of the Soviet Union. He, along with a number of other members of Congress, including Representative Harold Cooley of North Carolina, had attended the Interparliamentary Union's annual meeting in Istanbul. Along the way, Senator Smith had visited France, Germany, Spain, Egypt, and Israel, and was awarded a medal by Pope Pius XII at the Vatican.

He found that there was more hysteria in the U.S. than was justified regarding the possibility of war and that the country might be reaching the point of overemphasizing defense to the disruption of the entire domestic economy. He believed that foreign aid had gone far enough, that generosity had outrun American judgment. He quoted several observers in European countries who believed American aid was undermining individual initiative there.

He enjoyed meeting the Pope, found him to be "a genial, kindly old man who speaks perfect English." The Pope had expressed disappointment that there was no official delegate from the U.S. at the Vatican.

Senator Smith also said that the French would likely be willing to fight if Russia attacked, that a great deal of resentment was arising from American supervision of distribution of aid, that both Turkey and Spain should be admitted to NATO, and that it was still possible to salvage some goodwill among the Arabs, provided the country acted quickly, referring in particular to a refugee camp which he had visited in Gaza, containing 200,000 displaced Arabs. He intended to make a speech before Congress on what he had observed.

It was believed that Congress was unlikely to meet its goal of adjourning by October 1, that the ratification hearings on the Japanese treaty would likely be postponed until the first of the year to provide time to take up all the amendments to a revised price control law, potentially pushing the session until November 1. He provides the list of pending legislation which the Congress considered to be essential prior to adjournment.

When the Senate Finance Committee, of which Senator Clyde Hoey was a member, recommended the increase of the Federal tax on a gallon of legal whiskey, from nine dollars to $10.50, it probably did not realize that it would aid moonshining, as the higher the taxes went on legal liquor, the more bootlegging abounded. The Internal Revenue Bureau planned to ask Congress for funds to hire an additional 100 agents in the event the tax was approved, as it was likely to be.

Frank Graham, U.N. mediator in the dispute between India and Pakistan regarding Kashmir, was in Geneva writing up his findings to present to the Security Council. Reportedly, he had been shaken by his inability to change Prime Minister Nehru's stance on the issue.

Comptroller General Lindsay Warren of North Carolina had a new General Accounting Office building, dedicated during the week by the President, the largest office building in Washington, which, at his own initiation, was being shared with the Office of Price Stabilization as a cost-cutting measure.

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