The Charlotte News

Thursday, January 31, 1952

FIVE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that allied negotiators this date proposed that truce negotiators consider the final clause of the armistice, pertaining to recommendations to belligerent governments and the ultimate withdrawal of foreign troops from Korea, issues which the Communists had wanted to discuss since the beginning of the truce talks. If accepted, these issues would join the remaining issues being negotiated, anent supervision of the truce and prisoner exchange. Regarding the final issues, Vice-Admiral C. Turner Joy suggested to the Communists that they submit a detailed working draft for the subcommittee to use as a basis for discussion.

Selective Service director Lewis Hershey this date predicted to the House Armed Services Committee a sharp increase in the number of men to be drafted between the present date and June 30, with an average of 60,000 men per month starting in April. That contrasted with 52,500 to be called up in February and a projected 28,600 for March. The increase was designed to accommodate universal military training.

At a press conference, the President said that he had directed that his name be withdrawn from the New Hampshire presidential primary set for March 11, but said that the fact would not preclude him from running for re-election. He again declined to say whether he would seek another term. He said that if he decided to run, he could obtain the nomination without going through the state primaries, which he described as "eyewash". He gave praise to former Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall, following a conference with him the previous day, after which Mr. Arnall said that it was safe to speculate that the President would run again. The President declined to confirm that speculation. He said that he would be glad to have the former Governor in his Administration but declined to say whether he had offered him a position. He also said that he did not know of any efforts by any of his associates to stop the presidential candidacy of Senator Estes Kefauver. In response to a question, he said that he supported the idea of making all former Presidents members of the Senate for life, a bill for which had been introduced in the 80th Congress but had gone nowhere.

The President, in response to questions, also denounced Senator Joseph McCarthy as "pathological" and a "character assassin". The statement came in response to a question about the Senator's Senate speech earlier in the week regarding Philleo Nash, a White House assistant, in which the Senator accused him of having Communist associations during the 1940's, which Mr. Nash had denied. The President said that he did not know when Senator McCarthy ever told the truth. The President would not allow reporters to place in quotes his remarks, which the rules of press conferences at the White House forbade without his permission. (We don't need no stinking badges.) They had been the most caustic comments to date which he had directed by name to the Senator, coming nearly two years after the Senator had first made his charges of Communists in the State Department during a Lincoln Day address to Republicans, starting the pattern of conduct which became quickly known as "McCarthyism".

The President departed Washington to fly over the four-state area damaged by the flooding Ohio River, which had damaged parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. The flight would not have any stops.

The House approved the President's plan to take the IRB out of politics and place appointment of tax collectors under the Civil Service system, leaving it to the Senate to veto the legislation by March 15, or it would take effect.

The Federal Communications Commission this date ordered an investigation of any use of Western Union facilities in connection with illegal gambling. The FCC directed Western Union to hold in abeyance until May 1 a set of new regulations which had been proposed by the telegraph company to regulate transmission of horse and dog racing news over its wires, so that a public hearing could first take place on March 3.

In Columbia, S.C., State Senators approved, by a vote of 31 to 1 out of 46 members, a proposal made by Governor James Byrnes to remove from the State Constitution the requirement of having a public school system, just enough votes to provide the bill a second reading, as it required a two-thirds majority. The Governor had recommended repeal in his annual legislative message on January 8. The purpose of the repeal would be to enable legislators to be free to enact statutes regarding future policy of the State's maintenance of a public school system, in case the Supreme Court held segregation to be unconstitutional—having first remanded, the previous Monday, Briggs v. Elliott out of Clarendon County for further findings by the District Court panel before rendering a decision itself in the matter. The Governor had recommended abolition of the public school system in that event.

We don't need no schools at all down heya in Sou' Ca'lina. What good a' they but ta stuh up trouble by the Yankee troublemakas and agitatas comin' down heya with theya big city ways insultin' ouwa intelligence as if we ain't got no sense? We folla the natural laws of freedom of choice.

Mediation officials were attempting to settle a month-long strike at an Illinois plant which produced secret shells for troops in Korea, idling 1,100 workers, only about 125 of whom had been engaged in shell production. The UAW was demanding a 17-cent hourly increase in pay, a four-cent annual improvement factor, a cost-of-living wage escalator clause and other improvements, which amounted to a total of 31 cents per hour in benefits.

In Chicago, a student nurse was revived the prior December 12 by heart massage and use of a defibrillator after her heart had stopped beating for one hour and 45 minutes during surgery. The previous day, she spoke about the experience with the press, saying that she suffered from amnesia after the operation and for a time was living two years in the past. (That was before even McCarthyism, though Nixonian-Mundtian Rankinism had already grabbed hold of a segment of the public's imagination.) Doctors said that her memory had now recovered almost to normal. It was the first time that a defibrillator had been used on a human being in Chicago, and only a few prior instances of its use had been recorded. Once she recovers fully, she may wish to regress.

A couple in Mecklenburg County were seeking custody of a two-year old child whom they contended they had cared for since infancy, while the Welfare Department indicated that the infant had been surrendered to Welfare by his real mother and that an adoptive couple had been selected through the process set up by the State. Welfare superintendent Wallace Kuralt said that the child had been placed in the home of the contesting parents on the usual temporary foster-home basis and they had been paid by the County a monthly fee to cover the cost of care. The case would be considered Monday by the Superior Court.

In Dacca, East Pakistan, a launch collided with a steamer in the Bhairab River the previous night and 33 persons were believed dead, while 92 passengers had been saved.

In London, Princess Elizabeth departed with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in a converted British Overseas Airways Argonaut for visits to Kenya, Ceylon, Australia and New Zealand, set to last for a period of five months. King George and Queen Elizabeth were on hand to say their bon voyage. The King, according to the report, appeared to have overcome most of the traces of the surgery on his lung in recent months.

On page 8-A, the tenth segment of the serialization of The Greatest Book Ever Written, by Fulton Oursler, regards the "escape from Israel" under the leadership of Moses—apparently an updated account on the escape from Egypt.

On the editorial page, "For the 22nd Term" tells of Congressman Robert Doughton, chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, every two years going through the same routine, indicating that he was going to retire, until his close friends and associates talked him into running for another term, as they just had. His constituents, as did most people all over the state, held him in high esteem, and it made them angry when newspapers in the state suggested that at 88, he was too old for the job, especially given his role on Ways & Means. But, as long as he was hale and hearty and willing to do the job, it suggests, there was no reason to complain and to do so was akin to complaining about the weather anyway.

"Two-Way Street" tells of Britain's austerity program entailing reduction of imports, including 420 million dollars worth of U.S. imports annually, of which North Carolina tobacco was one of the chief imports. It demonstrated why the economic well-being of foreign countries was so important to the U.S. Trade worked both ways. A lot of the foreign aid money actually inured to the benefit of the U.S., paying for goods which other nations purchased from U.S. businesses.

It concludes, therefore, that what happened in Britain, Iran, Egypt, or Indo-China and other places overseas was important to the tobacco farmer and the textile mill and its workers in North Carolina.

"An Opportunity Missed" tells of Senators being reluctant to censure and remove one of their colleagues and so the proposed resolution by Connecticut Senator William Benton to oust from the Senate Senator Joseph McCarthy had met with little support. A five-person subcommittee had been formed the previous year to study the resolution, but one member, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, had been transferred to another subcommittee and replaced by Senator Herman Welker, who saw eye to eye with Senator McCarthy, had believed the phony smear campaign orchestrated by Senator McCarthy against Maryland Senator Millard Tydings during the 1950 Senate campaign, in which composite photos of the Senator with Communist Earl Browder were distributed by Senator McCarthy, had been "clever".

The piece had not heard of any backroom shenanigans involved in the change in the subcommittee but finds it distressing nevertheless, as Senator Smith and the other Republican on the subcommittee, Senator Robert Hendrickson, had consistently placed statesmanship ahead of partisanship, leading to the expectation that the subcommittee would restore dignity and adherence to the truth as high principles of the Senate, even if it did not recommend ouster of Senator McCarthy. The presence of Senator Welker, however, did not go far to bolster that hope.

"We Need a Strong Delegation" tells of several Mecklenburg legislators deciding not to run for re-election, based on the heavy drain of their time occasioned by the necessity to attend to duties biennially in the General Assembly. Each of the five legislators from Mecklenburg were busy persons. The newspaper is hopeful that some of them might run again. That which mattered most was to elect good persons to public office and keep them there.

"Up the River St. Lawrence" tells of the proposed St. Lawrence Seaway having been in the offing for twenty years as a joint U.S.-Canadian venture, but that Canada of late had become impatient with the U.S. and might build the Seaway on its own. The official cost was estimated at 818 million dollars. Its chief opponents were the Eastern railroads, the Atlantic ports, coal companies, and the UMW. They claimed it would harm the business of the railroads and engage the Federal Government further in the power business. The President supported it, as had every President since Woodrow Wilson, along with labor groups and Midwestern and Northwestern farmers. For the farmers it meant five to ten cents per bushel less freight charges for their grain. Shippers, who had long opposed the Seaway, were now changing their minds in the wake of the discovery of iron ore in Labrador, while the Mesabi ore ranges were almost depleted. Sea transportation would cost far less than rail transportation for moving the ore. Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson also favored it, whereas two years earlier, when he had been president of G.E., he had opposed it.

It suggests that Congress, by not approving the project, might be giving up a large return of revenue from shipping tolls and the sale of power. To avoid going further into the power business, it suggests, it could authorize commercial utilities to build and operate the hydroelectric plant.

Drew Pearson tells of a stop-Kefauver movement ongoing among supporters of the President, as shown by backstage wire-pulling among Democratic leaders in Ohio. He explains the details. As indicated on the front page, the President said that he was unaware of any such efforts.

In Russia, Joseph Stalin was furious at the delays in building his powerful fleet of super-battleships and had visited the Russian shipyards in the Baltic to determine what was causing the problem which had resulted in Russia not producing a single new battleship since 1939. He personally inspected the three large battleships under construction and observed in the process inefficiency and mistakes, prompting him to order a purge of the Russian admirals who were responsible.

The President had almost been court-martialed at one point, a fact of which he was proud. Congressman Dan Flood of Pennsylvania related of the event, which had occurred during World War I when a unit, most of whose soldiers hailed from Wilkes-Barre, was pinned down by German artillery after crossing a river in France and the President, then a field artillery captain, swung his outfit over just in time to "knock hell" out of the Germans. The President remained a hero in Congressman Flood's hometown of Wilkes-Barre. The near court-martial had come because the President's commanding officer had been angry with him for leaving his sector without permission.

The Taft campaign was putting out imitations of the red, white and blue buttons bearing the slogan "I like Ike", for which was substituted, "No Like".

What will they do about the vice-presidential nominee after the convention?

Attorney General J. Howard McGrath appeared to be ready to move on the problems found in the Maryland Senate campaign of 1950, in which incumbent Senator Millard Tydings was defeated. He had been sitting on the Senate report on the matter for more than a year.

Marquis Childs discusses the campaign of Senator Taft for the presidency and his inability to control some of his supporters, such as former New York Congressman Hamilton Fish, who, just prior to World War II, had been one of the leading exponents of the America First movement, and who was presently going about saying that General Eisenhower was unqualified to be president because he had received so many favors from FDR, President Truman and Secretary of State Acheson. Echoing Senator McCarthy, Mr. Fish also claimed that there were 200 to 400 Communists within the Far Eastern division and other divisions of the State Department.

Meanwhile, Senator Taft was undertaking a rigorous campaign schedule for the ensuing month, leading up to the Wisconsin primary, which he expected to win over former Governor Harold Stassen. During his tour of Wisconsin the previous week, the Senator had given his approval to Senator McCarthy and his tactics against Communism, Senator McCarthy being up for re-election in Wisconsin in the fall.

Senator Taft appeared to embrace old guard Republicanism regarding the Truman Administration and its foreign policy, charging essentially treason, along the lines of Senator McCarthy.

Mr. Childs concludes that while the Republican leaders might be able to nominate Senator Taft, it was questionable whether he could be elected in the fall.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of the President, according to authoritative sources, having finally determined not to run for re-election in the fall and to back Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois for the Democratic nomination—that which Marquis Childs had disclosed in a front-page piece on January 19, relying on a Missouri national committeeman close to the President, John J. Nangle, untangled in the mangle of his name. The only basis on which the President would run again, they indicate, would be in the case of a full-scale war.

In so reaching his decision to support the Governor, he had eliminated his first choice, Chief Justice Fred Vinson, because the latter had determined not to run, and his second choice, Senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma, based on his being virtually unknown across the country and damaged by his civil rights record. He had also eliminated Senator Kefauver on the basis that he simply did not like him and also believed he was not capable of running the country.

The President believed that Senator Taft would be bad for the country as an isolationist, and that General Eisenhower, while personally being acceptable for the presidency, would also bring with him into office a host of isolationists in Congress, who, the President feared, would not support the General's foreign policy. Thus, he hoped to be able to back the very strongest Democrat available, Governor Stevenson, whose meeting with the President had gone well. Such a candidacy would assure that the campaign would pertain to the great issues of the day and not get bogged down in the graft and scandals plaguing the Truman Administration.

A letter writer from Concord tells of her awareness of how badly servicemen's families needed the 10 percent raise in pay proposed in the Congress. Her son had been in the service for ten years and had five young children. She signs the letter, "Angry Grandmother".

A letter writer from Pittsboro wonders how much of the news was propaganda. The proposed budget of 85.5 billion dollars was taking something out of the very heart of the American economy, as 15 billion would be added to the nation's debt. It was being justified by the national emergency. But he wonders what would occur when the nation reached its peak of rearmament and then no Russian aggression occurred, thinks it would cause the closing of factories and unemployment in unprecedented numbers, resulting in chaos and final takeover by Communists without firing a shot.

A letter from North Carolina Congressman Woodrow Jones praises the January 21 editorial, "An Appalling Display", as well as "An Old and Familiar Refrain", as reprinted in the Cleveland Times on January 25. He indicates that the failure to economize became distressing at times and wonders whether Congress would ever reduce the "wild spending".

A letter writer from Waukegan, Ill., praises the newspaper for its endorsement of General Eisenhower for the Republican nomination.

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