The Charlotte News
Saturday, January 26, 1952
TWO EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that an allied truce negotiator this date had informed North Korean Maj. General Lee Sang Cho that he was "getting a little too big for his britches", during a three-hour and 45-minute session of the subcommittee on prisoner exchange, a session which accomplished nothing. General Lee had provided a list of 48 foreign civilians, the only such civilians claimed by the Communists to be held, saying that his side would unconditionally release and repatriate all foreign civilians held, after an armistice was signed. The U.N. had sought the names of 57 foreign civilians whom they believed to be held. Of those on the list, only 25 were persons about whom the U.N. already was aware.
In the other subcommittee, considering enforcement of a truce, the Communists did not respond to an allied suggestion that action on the controversial ban on building of airfields during an armistice be delayed so that details of the other issues on which the fundamentals had been agreed could be considered. The Communists said that the proposal was still under consideration.
In the ground war, counter-attacking Chinese troops, supported by artillery, mortars and machine guns, early this date drove allied troops from a west Korean hill near Yonchon, which had been captured the previous night by the allies. The fight lasted a half hour before the allies withdrew and headed back to base shortly after midnight.
In the air war, U.S. Sabre jets encountered no enemy jets during the morning hours, after the enemy had lost ten jets on Friday.
In Cairo, mobs roamed the streets this date, burning and seeking revenge against the British. Eight rioters had died and scores had been injured as the mobs had set fire to more than 25 buildings in the center of the city. According to an unofficial report, the Egyptian Cabinet had determined to sever diplomatic relations with Britain. Britain announced that eleven warships had been dispatched to the Suez Canal to help maintain order. Three Britons had been reported killed in an attack on the exclusive British Turf Club in the center of the city, after the place had been attacked by a mob. A state of emergency had been proclaimed in Cairo. Angry police with rifles had joined a mob of 2,000 persons shouting, "Long live Russia, friend of Egypt." Several nightclubs were raided and movie houses where British often gathered were set on fire.
HUAC this date probed Communist activities within the newspaper business in Los Angeles, with one former newspaperman stating that he had attended eight or nine Communist meetings in Los Angeles in 1937 or 1938. Another journalist, who allegedly had attended Communist meetings at the same time, had been summoned to testify after the witness had identified him as being at those meetings. The hearings also dealt with Communist activities among lawyers and doctors, 36 lawyers and 12 doctors having been identified as members of Communist cells. Another investigation of Hollywood was also set to take place, and movie producer Sidney Buchman had been scheduled to testify until his lawyer handed a temporary injunction to the committee chairman, pending a hearing on a motion to quash the subpoena. But then when committee staff members went to the hearing, they found that the judge had denied the petition for restraining order two hours earlier and set a hearing on the motion for Monday.
In Kansas City, at the Midwest Democratic Conference, officials from Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota told reporter Jack Bell that they regarded Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois as the likely candidate whom they could support for the presidential nomination. There was a growing belief that the President would not seek re-election. An anonymous high public official stated that Governor Stevenson soon would reverse his position that he was not running for any office except for re-election as Governor. Democrats at the conference wanted the President and Vice-President to run again, and a conference subcommittee presented a resolution to that effect for vote by the conference.
Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee announced that he would enter the Ohio Democratic presidential primary of May 6.
The President's appointed board considering the demanded pay increase by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen recommended that they accept an offer by the railroads of an increase of 23.5 cents per hour for road service and 38 cents for yard work
Spokesmen for the organized beer sellers and the WCTU agreed this date that youths inducted under universal military training should be protected from alcoholic drink. They favored having the trainees wear a distinctive non-detachable badge by which bartenders could understand readily that they were minors.
What about high school students and junior high school students who looked older than their years? Should they not be required to wear badges for their protection, too?
They no got to have no badges. They did not need no stinking badges.
Rising food prices had caused the cost of living index to reach a record high of 89.1 percent over the 1935-39 base, or 189.1. There had been a 3 percent increase between November 15 and December 15. The index had risen 5.8 percent during the previous year and 11.1 percent since the Korean War had begun on June 25, 1950. Food prices had risen 7.4 percent during the previous year, most of it during the first month of the year before price controls were instituted.
Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson indicated, before the joint committee studying the economic report, that there was a real danger that inflationary pressure could force prices higher during the year.
The IRB, to its surprise, had provided tax instructions regarding a column on Form 1065 which had been omitted in the printing. The Bureau alerted its tax offices across the country of the mistake.
In Spartanburg, S.C., a couple were locked up the previous afternoon after they were found too drunk to leave town to get married. They wanted to know if they could get married after they were released. No, you're too drunk to get married. Wait about five years.
In Raleigh, News editor Pete McKnight, for the second year in a row, won the prize for best editorial from the North Carolina Press Association, "Hoover's Plan for America", from late 1950. Mr. McKnight said that after extensively studying an advance draft of the speech by former President Hoover in December, 1950, before it was delivered via radio, then listening to it, and studying its points a third time, he sat down at his typewriter and wrote the editorial at home in fifteen minutes. He also won the second place prize, for "Log Rolling at City Hall", and his third entry of three, "The Shaky Foundation of Segregation", won honorable mention. It was the first time in the history of the prize that the same writer had won the top prize in two consecutive years. The previous year, he had won the award for an editorial on the Supreme Court desegregation decisions. Vic Reinemer, associate editor of The News, won honorable mention for an editorial he had written the prior summer, two months after joining the newspaper. Governor Kerr Scott was present to present the awards.
On page 2-A, the seventh part of the
serialization of Fulton Oursler's The Greatest Book Ever Written
imparts of the story of Isaac, including, for those so inclined, a little on the "'wild ass man'", freebooter, filibustier, Ishmael—who, no doubt, was also given to laissez-faire
On the editorial page, "Hoover's Plan for America", as indicated on the front page, is the reprinted editorial from December 22, 1950, for which editor Pete McKnight won the editorial prize for 1951 in North Carolina.
Finally, we get about 15-20 minutes off from Christmas a year ago for not having to synopsize the piece again. Thanks, Mr. Robinson...
"Dewey's Warning" discusses a speech on Pacific policy by Governor Dewey the prior Thursday night, finding it worth noting for his prominent place in the Republican Party, suggests that if General Eisenhower were to win the election, Mr. Dewey might become Secretary of State—a position, of course, which would go instead to John Foster Dulles.
He had called for a warning by the U.S. that any Communist aggression in Southeast Asia would result in forceful retaliation, becoming one of only a small number of Republicans who had declared their positions on this issue. Those in Congress who had condemned the President for entering Korea had been reluctant to commit to any policy regarding Indo-China prior to any aggression there. Governor Dewey proposed a Pacific treaty which would fill the void left by the individual pacts with Japan, the Philippines, New Zealand and Australia, believing that such a treaty, with a proper alliance of Pacific nations, would forestall any invasion.
The piece ventures that another such alliance was not needed as badly as a warning backed by military force regarding Indo-China, such as that which the Governor had proposed. Indo-China was the keystone to preservation of Southeast Asia. It also finds, however, that concerted action by all Pacific countries, along with European countries with commitments in that region, was needed. It concludes that Mr. Dewey regarded the future rather than the past, unlike many Administration critics, and that unless his recommended action were undertaken soon in the region, his dire warnings might come true.
Drew Pearson tells of some of his column's claims from the past which had been denied at that point, but subsequently having been proved true, such as a report from November, 1949, when he told of the Washington police chief having bought three new automobiles in quick succession and then reselling them for a profit during the postwar days when cars had been scarce, a story which the chief had denied, but later had admitted under oath after his resignation; and a lieutenant in the department, whom Mr. Pearson had also reported as having traded several new cars, told a Senate committee that he had bought and sold 22 cars.
The owner of the Orient mine in West Frankfort, Illinois, where 119 miners had been killed recently from an explosion of methane gas, had denied that the company was owned by Stone & Webster engineering firm, but the vice-president of the company had now admitted under questioning that the fact was true. Stone & Webster had borrowed 18 million dollars from the RFC to finance a company in Texas in which RNC chairman Guy Gabrielson and Texaco had an interest.
He had reported that Governor Dewey had received 6,000 miles of free transportation from Colonial Airlines plus use of their cottage during a vacation in Bermuda, denied by the Governor. But Civil Aeronautics Authority records showed that on several dates in October 1950, the Governor, during his campaign for re-election, had flown around New York in a special plane owned by Colonial, running up a total bill of more than $4,400, remaining unpaid until Colonial got into trouble with the CAA, resulting in a Justice Department complaint. Only at that point did the Republican State Committee in New York pay the Governor's expenses, almost a year after they had been incurred. Mr. Pearson also presents the facts showing the other favors to the Governor from Colonial.
Congressman Clair Engle of California had recently remarked that Los Angeles was in turmoil, that evangelist Billy Graham had half of the city dangling between heaven and hell, while Congressional investigators were working on the other half, "separating the mink from the sheep."
House Minority Leader Joe Martin had remarked that Prime Minister Churchill, for his years, had shown himself to be "quite a blade with the women" during his recent visit.
Congressman Al Sieminski was the only Korean War veteran in Congress, having won the Bronze Star during World War II and having won battlefield promotions from enlisted man to major.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of Senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma getting ready to deliver the keynote address to the Midwest Democratic Conference, an address which would also be the keynote for his own campaign for the presidential nomination. They think it would be a more formidable campaign than that to be conducted by Senator Estes Kefauver. Senator Kerr first wanted the President to run again, but that if he did not, would likely enter the race. He already had a fairly solid organizational base in the Midwest.
Senator Kerr had made a fortune in the oil business, had a powerful personality and was a dynamic speaker. His candidacy, therefore, could not be treated lightly. His background had been consistent with the Fair Deal, with the exception of his bill to deregulate natural gas producers. He was liked in the South and had taken the lead for the Administration in the debate the previous spring regarding the retirement of General MacArthur as supreme commander in Korea and in the rehabilitation of Japan.
If the President chose not to run, the field was narrowed to Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois and Senator Kerr, the latter of whom was close to the President, who was just as likely to throw his support to the Senator as to the Governor. The Senator's primary obstacle was that he remained largely unknown across the country and had garnered no notice in the large cities of the North and Far West, where, to win, a Democrat had to do well.
Marquis Childs discusses the President's budget as being a prime target for the remainder of the 82nd Congress. The problem was that the shotgun approach would be taken to it, whereas it needed the "sure aim of a high-powered rifle". Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia had his staff working on determining where cuts could be most advantageously accomplished, starting with elimination of the 2.5 billion dollars in foreign economic aid, reasoning that sufficient aid would be given to Europe in the form of American orders for military matériel to offset it.
Mr. Childs indicates that while that might be correct, it was too early to make such an arbitrary assumption and the importance of Point Four technical assistance to underdeveloped nations had to be taken into account.
Another economizer, Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois, believed that five billion dollars could be cut from the budget, primarily in the large rivers and harbors appropriations—given to pork-barrel politics and log-rolling to achieve it.
Taxation needed to be adjusted also, but that would prove difficult in an election year. If business activity were to drop sharply, income would also fall and reduce tax revenues accordingly, by a minimum of about 25 billion dollars. But since the end of the war, the country's productivity had confounded the economists who had predicted a downturn and, he posits, it might continue to do so, as the country was capable of meeting extraordinary demands, as with the rearmament program since the inception of the Korean War.
A letter from a captain in the Air Force, stationed at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina, takes exception to the January 21 editorial, "An Appalling Display", regarding its criticism of the ten percent proposed increase in pay for those in military service. He thinks that if the editors found the pay so good, then they ought join up, thus hopes to see them at the base.
A letter writer comments favorably on the same editorial, saying that despite being a veteran, himself, he did not favor group interest.
A letter writer from Birmingham finds the proposed increase in pay to the military only partially justified, in the lower ranks, but not in the higher ranks, which had received an increase just six months earlier. The highest ranking officers already received up to $2,000 per month and so providing them an increase would not make any friends for Congress.
A letter writer indicates that while he had been a Democrat by tradition, he intended to do all he could to try to help General Eisenhower be elected president. He indicates his ignorance of how each state selected its delegates and hopes the newspaper could enlighten on the subject.
Framed Edition
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