The Charlotte News

Monday, September 24, 1951

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.N. command in Korea had informed the Communists that Kaesong was no longer suitable as a site for future ceasefire negotiations. Liaison officers had stated that it was too close to the main Communist supply lines under attack by allied warplanes, that the ground forces of both sides were in constant maneuver around the five-mile neutrality zone, and that uncontrolled partisan groups, accountable to neither command, were active in the area and could take action at any time disruptive of the talks. Liaison officers of both sides met in Kaesong on Monday morning regarding resumption of the talks, the desire for which had been expressed late the prior week by the Communist command. About six hours after the meeting, the Communists sent the allies a memorandum, the contents of which had not been disclosed to the press.

General James Van Fleet, U.N. ground commander of the Eighth Army, disclosed that his forces had killed or wounded 58,000 Communist soldiers between August 18 and September 22. About 80 percent of the losses were in the "Battle of the Hills" in eastern Korea. During the same period, 2,800 Communists soldiers were taken prisoner. During the time frame, U.N. losses had been comparatively light, as the forces had gained up to 15 miles and captured scores of important hills on the eastern front, while not losing any ground at all.

U.N. forces were pushed off the highest peak of "Heartbreak Ridge" for the second time on Monday, two days after the period covered by the report of General Van Fleet. American troops had gained control of the peak late on Sunday night, before "an overwhelming mass" of Communist troops struck from behind grenade explosions.

Senator Herbert Lehman of New York read into the Congressional Record published charges that "false" testimony had been heard by the Senate's Internal Security subcommittee and urged an investigation into the charges published by columnist Joseph Alsop regarding the probe of subversive influences on U.S. Far Eastern policies. He read Mr. Alsop's three columns into the Record. There was in response considerable Republican rancor, alleging that Senator Lehman was questioning the motives of Senator Pat McCarran, chairman of the subcommittee. Senator Lehman at first attempted to put the articles in the Record on September 14 but was blocked by Senator McCarran, who claimed that Senator Lehman was accusing him of encouraging a witness to commit perjury.

The three Alsop columns in question had brought into high relief the inconsistencies between the testimony of Louis Budenz regarding the loyalty of John Service and John Carter Vincent, State Department advisers to former Vice-President Henry Wallace during his spring, 1944 mission to China, which resulted in the replacement, per the recommendations of Messrs. Service and Vincent, of General Joseph Stilwell with General Albert Wedemeyer and the appointment as a personal envoy of the President of Major General Patrick Hurley, considered to be anti-Communist moves. Mr. Budenz had told the Tydings Committee the previous year that he was uncertain of the Communist ties of Messrs. Service and Vincent, but now told the McCarran subcommittee that he was certain of the fact. The President the previous day had released to the public the documents which former Vice-President Wallace had sent to him regarding the mission, in which he stated that he had not recommended any political coalition between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese.

Premier Alcide de Gasperi of Italy told a joint session of Congress this date that a United Europe would be able to take care of its own defense and relieve the U.S. of its sacrifices of men and arms. He reiterated Italy's desire that Trieste be returned to Italy, as recommended by the Big Three in 1948, a part of the country's wish to consolidate its Western coalition in Europe. The Premier, as further discussed this date by Drew Pearson, was in the country for three days to visit with the President and Secretary of State Acheson.

In London, Kenneth De Courcy, editor of a British intelligence tip service, Intelligence Digest, said that Russia planned to explode a hydrogen bomb the following July. He said the bomb was developed by Professor Bruno Pontecorvo, who had left his British atomic research post the previous year and was believed to have defected to Russia. The same journal had announced in August, 1949 that the Russians had exploded an atom bomb, three weeks before the President had revealed it to the nation. He said that the new information came from persons behind the Iron Curtain who were anti-Soviet while having access to classified material.

In Tehran, an Iranian Government official said that British technicians in the former Anglo-Iranian Oil Company refinery would be expelled within a week to ten days unless they signed individual contracts to work for the nationalized company. A spokesman for the Iranian Parliament said that the Government would make no further overtures to the British Government concerning the position of the 300 technicians. The action came after Britain had rejected an Iranian offer for renewal of the oil nationalization talks, because the British Foreign Office had determined that there was no hope for settlement.

A witness formally employed by the Government testified in the Senate inquiry into the St. Louis printing firm and its attempts to influence its receipt of a large RFC loan in 1949, that he had received liquor, hams, turkeys and more expensive gifts from officials of two printing firms, the one in St. Louis and another in New York, both of which were doing business at the time with the Government. He had also received loans of about $6,000 each from each company. The previous March, he had resigned his Government job which paid $6,400 per year and taken a job with the St. Louis firm at $25,000 per year. But he also claimed that he had not influenced or sought to influence the award of contracts to either company. He also said that he had never received any calls from William Boyle, DNC chairman, who had received a large fee from the St. Louis printing firm, but claimed it was only a legal fee. He said further that he had never received any calls from Guy Gabrielson, the RNC Chairman, or anyone else in the national headquarters of either party. Another witness testified that while serving as a Federal alcohol tax unit district supervisor in New York, he had received $750 per month, starting in February, 1949, from the St. Louis printing firm and continued in its employ until his resignation from the Government post the previous June.

In Waltham, Mass., a Halloween-masked, four-man hold-up gang, led by a man armed with a tommy-gun, robbed the West End branch of the Newton-Waltham Bank & Trust Company of more than $25,000 in cash this date, the third suburban bank in Boston to be robbed during the previous two months. One of the four men had remained behind the wheel of a 1941 blue or black sedan while the other three had gone into the bank shortly after it opened. They appeared to one bank employee as kids in their Halloween masks and rough clothing. One was a large man, carrying the tommy-gun, and another was a "little fellow" who carried a .45-caliber pistol. After the robbery, they fled in the waiting car.

In Buford, Ga., six of the state's most desperate criminals had broken out of a new prison designed for incorrigibles, as a guard showered them with buckshot. They had worked in the prison quarry loading rock into a truck, which they commandeered and then abandoned about 1.5 miles down the road. Authorities said the truck was covered in blood. A posse of nearly 50 officers had been organized from three counties and the state patrol to search for the fugitives, and it was reported that the posse had them surrounded in a five square mile section of woods.

In Miami, about 2,500 bathers in the ocean suddenly had to seek refuge from a six-foot shark as it swam in swiftly from the Atlantic, prompting three women in the shallow water to scream and sprint to the shore 15 feet away, while lifeguards quickly ordered the crowd from the water. The shark turned around about five feet from the shore, swam parallel to the shining, sandy beach and then back out to sea. The fishing writer and deep-sea expert for the Miami Herald said that the shark must have been very hungry to come in that close.

Based on the timetable established on September 15 for the twelve-part serialization of Dr. Evelyn Millis Duvall's Facts Of Life and Love, dealing with the problems of young people, this day's installment would be the seventh entry, "Petting". Proceed at your own risk and caveat emptor.

On the editorial page, "There Is Still Hope" tells of the possibility still remaining that the State might widen The Plaza north of Parkwood Avenue and Central Avenue east of The Plaza.

If you wish to know more about this thrilling tale, you may read the rest of the piece.

"To the Victor Belongs the Headache" finds the Herblock editorial cartoon of this date eloquently pointing out the problems facing Britain, plagued by fuel crises, food shortages, trade snarls, power cuts, dollar deficits, inflation, austerity, obstinance in Egypt and disaster in Iran. It suggests that with winter coming, Prime Minister Clement Attlee might wish to step aside and allow the wrath of his fellow countrymen to fall on the Conservatives.

It finds that Mr. Attlee had used shrewd reasoning in calling an election at this time, though he did not need to do so. He had governed the country on a razor-thin majority for the previous 18 months. The strain on that slim majority had been great, as all hands had to be on deck for crucial votes to avoid triggering the requirement of a new election. Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin had died under the pressure and Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Cripps had collapsed. The regular leaders were just as tired and might welcome a respite from the toils of governing. Then, during the winter, Labor might return to power by forcing a new election after grumbling began against the Conservatives.

At Labor's annual conference, beginning the following weekend, there would be an effort to push dissident left-wingers, led by Aneurin Bevan, back into line, and if a united front could be achieved and maintained, Prime Minister Attlee might be able to overcome the pollsters and achieve a victory. The piece finds him, like President Truman, to be a shrewd politician who had come up through the ranks of the Party and remembered his lessons.

"For Every Bribe, a Briber" finds it quite appropriate for Senator Clyde Hoey's Senate investigating subcommittee to examine the roles played by DNC chairman William Boyle, Merle Young, and RNC chairman Guy Gabrielson, as well as every other public or semi-public official, who was in a position to influence RFC loans. The subcommittee's revelations would help limit improper influence being exerted in the future.

It favors also examination of the company which would resort to bribery, gifts and paid vacations to obtain Government favors. If a code of ethics for Government was to be drawn up and enforced, then there ought also to be penalties for the business organizations which dispensed the bribes.

"More Beef at the Counter" tells of the Army having ordered the purchase of up to 10 million pounds of beef from foreign countries after its request for U.S. packers to supply bids had brought offers of only 190,000 pounds. It suggests that by opening the door to the foreign market, healthy competition could develop and packers might determine that beef was not in such short supply as they claimed, the reason for not submitting bids. It also meant that another 10 million pounds of domestic beef would be available to the domestic market, though constituting only a small portion of the annual domestic production, but possibly enough, with the foreign beef, to tip the balance of supply and demand to the side of the consumer.

A piece from the Greensboro Daily News, titled "Those Horrible Handouts", agrees with Senator Paul Douglas that the taxpayers should not be footing the bill for haircuts and shaves for members of Congress and had moved to abolish the perquisite, only to be shouted down with a chorus of "noes".

Senator Homer Ferguson had suggested eliminating chauffeurs, to which Senator Leverett Saltonstall had added the cars that went with the chauffeurs, but both cost-cutting measures had been rejected by the Senate.

It concludes therefore that the next time members of Congress became sanctimonious about economizing by cutting Government handouts, they would be referred to their own neat shaves, shampoos and haircuts or "liveried lackeys".

Drew Pearson provides kudos to Premier Alcide de Gasperi of Italy, visiting the U.S. He recounts five years earlier having been at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris when the delegation representing defeated Italy had entered to chilly silence of the delegates, after which Premier De Gasperi had spoken on behalf of Italy as "striving toward the lasting and constructive peace which you also are seeking." When he had finished, there was no applause and there was no indication that anyone present believed he could remain at the head of the government for long. But now he was in Washington as a friend and partner in NATO and it was possible Italy would not be in such a role had it not been for Premier De Gasperi. He was "drab, demur, modest, and homespun", the exact opposite of Mussolini.

When Fascism was beginning to take root, he helped found the Popular Party, which later became the Christian Democratic Party, based on the principle of applying Christianity to effect social and political welfare. He was jailed by Mussolini, and after a year and a half, was rescued by the Archbishop of Trento and later given a job as the librarian for the Vatican, where he spent the next 14 years in exile before taking part in guerrilla fighting against the Germans. He was elected Premier in 1946.

A dozen cabinets had come and gone in France in the same period and a new election was about to be held in England. But Premier De Gasperi remained in office. His sense of fairness, deep religious conviction and application of Christian principles to politics were primarily responsible for this continuity. He had refused, following a resounding victory for Christian Democrats against the Communists in April, 1948, to fill his Cabinet with Christian Democrats, saying that the victory had been for democracy and not for a political party. He appointed some of the strongest men from the Republican, Liberal, and Socialist parties. He had managed to pull Italy through the postwar period with a pro-American government, despite the fact that the largest Communist Party outside Russia was in Italy.

Marquis Childs discusses the new tax bill just approved by the Senate Finance Committee, taken up by the full Senate only 20 hours after it was issued by the Committee, 349 pages long, with a Committee report of 120 pages, making it virtually impossible for the Senators to familiarize themselves with the measure. The Committee staff estimated that it would provide about 5.5 billion dollars in additional revenue.

Senator Hubert Humphrey, following the report of the bill, approached Majority Leader Ernest McFarland to inquire as to how much time the Senate would have to consider the bill and was told that the hope was to have it pushed through by the end of the week, leaving Senator Humphrey "speechless with indignation—and for the articulate Humphrey that is an extraordinary state."

Senator Humphrey believed that the weakness in the bill was that it raised taxes on earned income of individuals and on corporate income while reducing the capital gains tax. Those able to afford clever tax lawyers could convert ordinary income into capital gain and thus reduce revenue to the Government. Such benefits were generally available only to those with incomes over $25,000 per year. It enabled taking advantage of the 25 percent capital gains rate, instead of the 60 or 70 percent rate for ordinary income and 52 percent rate for corporate income.

Senator Humphrey also objected to an extension of the family partnership provision permitting income to be spread not merely between a husband and wife but also between children and even uncles, cousins, nieces and aunts, to be made retroactive to 1939. It would thereby enable thousands of get-rich-quick patriots and five percenters from World War II to escape the bulk of their past taxes.

Senator Paul Douglas was also concerned about the inflationary effects of the present bill and its loopholes.

The Government was running a deficit of about four billion dollars per month during 1951 and the bill would only raise about three billion by the end of the year. The deficit for 1952 would be even greater.

He concludes that the new tax bill was a perfect example of what pressure group politics could do in Washington, as practically everyone had gotten into the act.

Robert C. Ruark comments on convicted bookmaker Harry Gross and his refusal to cooperate with the New York District Attorney as the star witness in the case against the 18 New York police officers accused of taking bribes from him to protect his gambling syndicate. His refusal was based on his assertion that he and his family had been threatened. He had testified before the Grand Jury, leading to the indictments. Without his testimony at trial, however, the careful work of two years by the prosecutors had collapsed, and Mr. Gross was found guilty on 60 counts of contempt while the police officers he accused went free. "And the graft goes on and on, while the reformed canary sings to himself in jail. And he will twitter for quite a spell, since he is up for sentence on 66 citations for conspiracy and bookmaking, in addition to the 1,800 days Judge Leibowitz bestowed upon him for clamming up."

He regards it as a little difficult to be prideful of New York City, or the State and Federal Governments under such circumstances.

Before the Kefauver Crime Committee, a witness had labeled former Mayor William O'Dwyer, now Ambassador to Mexico, as a tool of gambling kingpin Frank Costello.

The hearings on influence exerted to obtain RFC loans, as well as those regarding the five-percenters who took fees to exert influence, had tarnished the Truman Administration. He concludes that the country did not need an investigation of sports fixing or cheating at West Point as much as an investigation of the "apathy that permits continued abuse of public pride in the men who run the nation." He finds dirt running "from top to bottom, from high-placed cronies in Washington to the cop with a bookie's sweat money in his outstretched paw." Every time there was a start to clean it up, such as charging a crooked cop, something went awry. He believes that he understood why the District Attorney in the Harry Gross case had wept when the trial fell through, crying at the futility of trying to clean up an "Augean stable", "weeping at the bier of honesty in the land."

A letter writer finds that Americans were "gullible suckers", such as when soldiers answered the call for water from wounded enemy, only then to be killed. Russia was at work trying to create friction between the races, creeds, religions and all the people. She finds the spread of narcotics among the youth to smack of "Red leadership".

She advocates, rather than flying a Confederate flag, "which no one will ever cease to remember or love", flying an American flag as a defiant, unified reply to Russia. She reminds: "United we stand, divided we fall."

A letter writer from East Orange, N.J., finds that the President was aiding the Fair Dealers in preventing Senator Taft's nomination by the Republicans for the presidency, proving that if the latter were nominated, there would be a referendum on the New and Fair Deal for the first time since their inception in 1933. Wendell Willkie and Governor Dewey, representing the previous three Republican nominees, had differed little from the Roosevelt-Truman positions on domestic policy. He thinks those who were out to stop Senator Taft were trying to prolong the Fair Deal, which the Senator, as President, would end.

A letter writer from Orangeburg, S.C., comments favorably on the article on the front page on September 10 regarding the Hoover Commission Report and urges the newspaper to keep up the good work.

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