The Charlotte News

Saturday, January 5, 1952

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that a U.N. truce negotiator had told the Communist negotiators this date that the threat of growing Communist air power in Korea would not force the allies to bow to the Communists' armistice demands. The continued construction of air fields during the period of an armistice remained the major stumbling block to an agreement on how to police the truce, with the Communists contending that such restrictions interfered with their internal affairs. Regarding the issue, the negotiators stated that the Communists had cast themselves in the role of a bandit who says to his victim, 'You have nothing to fear from me so long as you surrender your purse and walk away without creating a disturbance.'" One of the Communist suggestions had been that if the U.N. commander was so concerned for the security of his forces, he should withdraw from Korea. The response was that the U.N. had no intention of walking away under threat of enemy development of air power during the armistice and leaving the South Koreans to the Communists' "tender mercies".

The other subcommittee, still dealing with the prisoner exchange issue, met for over three hours without making headway. A spokesman indicated that the Communists' arguments were for the purpose of killing time while they awaited instructions.

Both subcommittees scheduled meetings again for the following day.

In the air war, 21 American Sabre jets and 40 Communist MIGs battled for 20 minutes over northwest Korea, with neither side inflicting any damage. The jets had been grounded the previous day by snow. During the night, allied fighter-bombers claimed destruction or damage to 80 enemy vehicles in an attack on an estimated 1,200 vehicles moving under cover of darkness.

In the ground war, on the western front, U.N. forces launched a counter-attack west of Korangpo early on Saturday to complete the re-establishment of advance positions lost to the enemy December 28. The forces made limited advances in attacks at three points against an enemy estimated at greater strength than two companies. The remainder of the western front was quiet. On the central front, U.N. troops reported light engagements with small enemy groups during the morning, and on the eastern front, allied troops repulsed a light probe by an enemy platoon after a half-hour fight north of the Punch Bowl.

An Eighth Army staff officer estimated enemy casualties for the previous week at 1,082, adding that allied casualties had been "unbelievably light".

Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington this date with the intent of re-creating the "friendly atmosphere" which had pervaded during wartime with FDR. The President met him at the airport, where the Prime Minister said, in response to a reporter's question, "The prospects for world peace are solid in 1952," without elaboration as to what he meant by "solid". (Perhaps, he was referring to the core of the bomb.)

The Prime Minister had said in New York earlier in the day that the American and British people should not expect "a lot of decisive and startling conclusions" from the discussions, recognizing that the President did not personally conduct his foreign policy as had FDR. He wanted, however, to establish personal ties between America and Britain so that the two countries could deal with "the events of the future with the knowledge of the other's point of view".

Clarence Streit, in the fourth in his series of reports on observations obtained from his attendance of the NATO Council meeting in Rome recently and discussions with military and diplomatic leaders in Western Europe, tells of the U.S. Mutual Security Act of the previous October having included a carefully worded clause which made the Act's purpose to support the "freedom of Europe through assistance which will further the carrying out of the plan for defense of the North Atlantic area, while at the same time maintain the economic stability of the countries of the area, so that they may meet their responsibilities for defense, and to further encourage the economic unification and the political federation of Europe." The British election in October had returned to power Winston Churchill, the great champion of European Union who had proposed a European army. Then, in November had come two propitious opportunities for the U.S. to put pressure on accomplishment of these two objectives, when a delegation of seven Senators and seven Congressmen met publicly for a week with a delegation from the Assembly of the European Council at Strasbourg to discuss the union of Europe, and then, immediately afterward, when began the NATO Council session in Rome, before which General Eisenhower appeared for the first time. The U.S. delegation at Strasbourg had concentrated on putting pressure on the British, Norwegians and other Europeans to unite in some way and to some degree. Especially impressive had been Senator Robert Hendrickson of New Jersey, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Congressman Walter Judd of Minnesota, and Senator Brien McMahon of Connecticut, all of whom had won favor among the Europeans for their eloquence and their awareness of the European side of the problem.

A piece on the front page by Drew Pearson tells of Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee definitely planning to announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination early the following week, regardless of whether the President intended to run for re-election or not. He had informed his intimates that, in the event of his nomination, he would leave it up to the convention to nominate his running mate. He was being urged to accept as a vice-presidential candidate a prominent Midwestern leader, such as Governor Frank Lausche of Ohio, Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois or Governor Mennen Williams of Michigan.

A separate report indicated that the Senator was interested in the presidency only, not in the vice-presidency, contrary to a statement by an Associated Press reporter who had quoted the Senator as saying he was interested in both jobs and was studying the situation.

The Office of Price Stabilization ordered a 5 to 10 percent rollback in the price of white potatoes, one of the nation's major food items. Potato prices had more than doubled since mid-December, 1950, six months after the beginning of the Korean War.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that food prices had declined by 1.2 percent between November 26 and December 15, the first decline since October. The index, based on the 1935-39 average base of 100, was 231.9 for December 15, based on a sample of prices in eight major cities. The largest declines were in the prices of eggs, down 13.6 percent, fresh green beans, down 34 percent, carrots, down 11 percent, oranges, down 8 percent, lettuce, down 5 percent, and potatoes, down 3 percent. Tomatoes and cabbage were up 30 and 12 percent, respectively, and meats, poultry and fish declined on average by .09 percent.

Contrary to hopes, the meat outlook for 1952 was no better than in 1951, and would be even worse for 1953, according to Agriculture Department estimates released the previous day for such grains as corn, oats, barley, and grain sorghums, the combination of which would drop to 18 million tons by the following October 1, about 10 million tons below the previous October 1. With feed scarce, farmers would quit raising livestock.

That means that poor little Texas children will need to go out and slay 1,100-pound steers for their family's provender, only to be prosecuted for rustling. What is the world coming to?

About 100 undercover Federal agents and 200 Government-paid informants were seeking to nab underworld narcotics figures even bigger than the 500 suspected peddlers already seized in a sweeping nationwide dragnet. Narcotics Commissioner Harry Anslinger had indicated that a roundup, which had started before dawn the previous day and continued around the clock this date, was laying the groundwork for capture of some of the nation's biggest drug dealers. A grand jury investigation was already underway regarding these racketeers, though the city in which it was sitting was not identified so as not to provide clues to the underworld, out of fear that the witnesses coming before the grand jury might be killed. The drive was focusing on suppliers of teenage drug addicts. About 50 of those arrested had been women. The raids had started in San Antonio and spread to most of the big cities across the country, with about 100 dealers having been caught in Texas, 50 in New York, 50 in Philadelphia, and 30 in Washington. Some who had escaped were being sought this date by agents with arrest warrants. Because of the secrecy in the conduct of the arrests, no violence had occurred, despite many of the arrestees being killers who were, according to Mr. Anslinger, "quick with a gun or knife".

Off England, the crippled American freighter, Flying Enterprise, was presently under tow toward England's Falmouth harbor, moving at a pace of three knots. Captain Kurt Carlsen, who had stubbornly refused to abandon his listing ship, was confident that he was going to be able to save it from the turbulent seas, as the tow was "riding smoothly". The effort to save the ship and its valuable cargo was now in its ninth day since a hurricane had overtaken it and left it helpless, some 300 miles off the southern tip of England on December 28. Present weather was reported as calm with good visibility, but the Enterprise continued to list to 70 to 80 degrees, with the doughty Captain still on board, determined to stay until the ship safely reached port.

In Winston-Salem, on dark E. Eighth St. and on lonely Mickey Mill Rd., five bullets were fired within an hour and a half, taking the lives of a local taxi driver and a bill collector, both shot in the back by a small-caliber pistol as they were running away from their assailant, with one pleading not to shoot. One suspect, a black teenager, had been taken into custody, but no charges had been filed against him by mid-morning. All through the night, the police had brought persons into headquarters for questioning. It was still not clear whether both slayings had been perpetrated by one individual, awaiting the coroner's extraction of the bullets from the bodies. It had been the worst night of murder in the city which older police officers could recall.

As pictured, examples of military waste were presented to the House Armed Services Committee, showing automotive trouble lights costing the Signal Corps $2.50, while the Army Engineer Corps paid $5.50 for the same light, and 100-watt lightbulbs which cost the Signal Corps 15 cents, as the Department of Transportation paid only nine cents for the identical bulb. For every complete trouble light, the Signal Corps thus paid $3.06 more than did other agencies.

How about them silver hammers, so's you can hit the gizmo a good lick when it don't do what it's s'pposed to under the trouble light? and then, on top of ever'thing that's gone wrong elsewise, the trouble light takes a mind to fall itself down on the concrete and bust its tungsten.

On the editorial page, "Reform Bills Rot in Committee" tells of economy and efficiency in Federal spending to be largely in the hands of Senator John McClellan of Arkansas, chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Department, and fellow members of that committee, including Senator Clyde Hoey of North Carolina.

Twenty bills remained before Congress to enact the remaining portions of the Hoover Commission Report of 1947 and its recommendations for economy and efficiency in the executive branch of the Government. The Senate versions of thirteen of those bills were before the McClellan Committee, some of which, it posits, had no business there, such as the Agriculture Department bill, which, as in the House, belonged before the Agriculture Committee, and that regarding the Interior Department, which, also as in the House, belonged before that appropriate committee in the Senate. Likewise, bills regarding the Treasury Department, the Labor Department, and the Veterans Administration belonged with the appropriate Senate committees rather than the McClellan Committee.

The McClellan Committee was already overburdened with work and, moreover, Senator McClellan, in the grasp of the Army Engineers lobby, and president of the Rivers & Harbors Congress, had, as a member of the Hoover Commission, delivered a strong minority dissent to the Commission's recommendations regarding the Interior Department. He had also dissented from the majority recommendation of the Commission regarding establishment of a united Federal medical administration.

The aforementioned bills were therefore destined to rot in the McClellan Committee, unless the Senate took the unusual step of calling them out of committee by majority vote or pressure was brought to bear on members of the Committee to refer them out for a vote.

The Democratic members of the Committee, in addition to the chairman and Senator Hoey, were Senators Herbert O'Conor of Maryland, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, William Benton of Connecticut, Willis Robertson of Virginia, and Mike Monroney of Oklahoma. The Republican members were Senators Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, Karl Mundt of South Dakota, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, Andrew Schoeppel of Kansas, Henry Dworshak of Idaho, and Richard Nixon—of cloth coats, cocker spaniels and used Oldsmobiles, and, sometimes, Cuba.

It concludes that continued procrastination by this Committee was indefensible as Congress voted billions of dollars for defense and taxes without making detailed studies of the bills. A detailed, bipartisan study was necessary of the Hoover Commission proposals before they were enacted. It finds Senator Hoey's attitude typical, believing that the general principles of the recommendations were laudable, but finding that disagreements arose on the best means of specific implementation. It thinks the situation had been studied enough and that votes were now needed.

"The Hard Truth of Korea" tells of Associated Press reporter Yates McDaniel having issued a sobering statement that the hard facts of the Korean War were that Russia had jet fighters as good as the best of those which the U.S. had thus far designed, and had them ready to fight in quantities that the U.S. could not presently match.

It finds that the explanation for these hard facts lay in U.S. strategy, which called for quick retaliation on Russian cities and industry in the event of world war, thus concentrating on long-range bombers instead of fighters and interceptors, as well as in the fact that Russia had apparently prepared for close tactical support of its armies in Europe and around its borders in Asia, with only secondary emphasis on fast medium bombers and attack planes. It was also easier for a dictatorship than for a capitalistic democracy to direct defense energies toward a given goal.

It posits that if Mr. McDaniel's analysis was correct, the country was far from secure, despite the lessons of Korea. Its strength in modern medium bombing and strafing planes was not great enough to risk them in the Far East, leaving probably obsolete long-range bombers for strategic attacks, coupled with limited medium and short-range jets.

It urges that in the string of Congressional investigations of the previous year, there ought be made room for inquiry into these shortcomings in air strength.

"Slip of the Tongue?" tells of the president of the North Carolina Young Republicans having spoken to his fellow members in Greensboro the prior Wednesday night, divulging some "facts" of which the newspaper had not been apprised: first, that the decision to send soldiers to Korea had been "a slip of the tongue"; and second, that the troops had been sent to Korea at the suggestion of "Truman's darling, Dean Acheson".

It suggests that perhaps this individual had made a couple of slips of his tongue or perhaps "trustworthy and responsible Republican Party leadership in North Carolina is farther in the future than we thought it was."

A piece from the Richmond News-Leader, titled "Call Me Al?" relates of William Henry Chamberlain, in a recent column in the Wall Street Journal, having engaged in "some raptures" regarding General Alfred Gruenther, who, about to return to London from a visit with General Eisenhower's headquarters in Paris, had noticed a seat available on his military plane, which he then offered graciously to British employees of NATO headquarters, anxious to get home for the holidays. Among themselves, these employees nominated a British private named Sidney as having the highest priority among them, to which the General stated, "Okay, Sid, let's go." Mr. Chamberlain thought it wonderful that the General was such an exponent of democracy that he viewed all men as equals, regardless of rank.

The piece, however, wonders what Mr. Chamberlain would have said had the private replied to the General by saying, "Thanks, Al, wait'll I get my bags," suggests that he might have flown to London in frosty company.

Louis Redmond, writing in the January issue of Coronet magazine, discusses Little Girls being a "unique and fortunate occurrence in Nature, like diamonds or four-leaf clovers." After extolling the virtues of Little Girls at length, and imparting how they grew into young women, after being able to talk intelligently to ducks, geese, puppies, rabbits, kittens, and chipmunks, as well as getting along nicely with snails, worms, beetles, and toads, he concludes that the main thing about Little Girls was that they were beautiful.

"No Little Girl can help being beautiful. She is beautiful because she is new and simple, because everything is ahead of her, because she is so ready to be pleased, because she does not try to hide the gentleness and wonder that are in her, because she trusts you, because she looks at you as you if she thinks you are very nice, and because when she does, you are. That is why it is Spring somewhere every time a Little Girl is born."

Well, that may not exactly inhere in the birth of every Little Girl.

Drew Pearson recalls the last time that Winston Churchill had met in an official capacity with President Truman being at Potsdam, with Joseph Stalin, to plan the postwar period and the conclusion of the war with Japan. That meeting had begun with the new President bawling out Stalin for being late to the meeting, indicating that all meetings would start punctually and be conducted with regularity on a definite agenda. Prime Minister Churchill and Secretary of State James Byrnes exchanged troubled glances during this lecture, wishing they could curtail the President and explain that the time to bawl out the Russian Premier was after the conference reached a deadlock and not at its inception. A few days afterward, the British general elections occurred, in which the coalition Government of Mr. Churchill was turned out in favor of Labor and Clement Attlee. That left the President to guide Anglo-American relations over the "uncharted seas of the stormy postwar world." While Mr. Churchill had come to Fulton, Missouri, in February, 1946, at which time he gave his "iron curtain" speech, he was no longer in power and thus was not in a position to discuss great problems with the President, who was then present.

Now, as Prime Minister again, Mr. Churchill had come to the U.S. to meet with the President for the first time officially since Potsdam, and the President had made it known in advance that he would not conduct meetings after 9:00 p.m., that he went to bed promptly at 10:00, precluding the type of hours which Mr. Churchill had demanded of FDR during their conferences at the White House during the war, when Mr. Churchill wandered the corridors in his gold kimono until 3 a.m., sleeping most of the afternoon and conducting his primary business only after 10:00 p.m. and for a couple of hours before lunch.

He suggests that if the President were to bawl out Mr. Churchill regarding the failure to promote unity of Europe, it would be a milestone toward accomplishing world peace, resulting in the President receiving cheers from European leaders and the people. But, more likely, he would lecture the Prime Minister on less important issues, such as the Prime Minister's recent call for a Big Three meeting, to which the President had long agreed on condition that Stalin meet him in Washington.

He finds that, in a way, Mr. Churchill presented a "pathetic picture" in his mission, as the last great defender of an Empire which was no more, without India and grasping desperately to retain the Suez, with British iron deposits exhausted and coal getting lower, thinner and more expensive to mine. Yet, Mr. Churchill still thought in terms of empire and believed in the friendship with the U.S., whereby, sometimes in the past, Britain had called the shots and America paid the bills.

Mr. Pearson suggests that if the Prime Minister could build on that foundation of friendship a policy of European unity, putting aside the interest of the old Empire, then the peace which the world was seeking might finally occur.

The Christian Science Monitor provides an editorial which discusses a statement by Secretary of Labor Maurice Tobin in the American Federationist magazine, that compulsory retirement of workers at the age of 65 was a "bad policy" in a period of labor shortage. Mr. Tobin appeared to imply that the remedy lay with employers, when the most specific steps toward encouragement of employment after 65 actually resided in revision of the Social Security Act. The Act did not require workers to retire at age 65 but made available old-age insurance benefits at that age and did not increase those benefits should the worker choose to extend his work life. In fact, an individual lost money between 65 and 75 if earning more than $50 during any month.

It suggests that the remedy was to increase benefits commensurate with continued length of service, particularly after the optional retirement age, a system similar to that employed by the British social insurance system. It also should enable the worker who continued to work past 65 to keep a substantial portion of his added income. While that could lead to clerical difficulties, the problem, it suggests, was not insuperable, and making these adjustments would enable large returns in industrial production and individual satisfaction.

Robert C. Ruark regards the story of Captain Henrik Kurt Carlsen, who continued to man the Flying Enterprise to try to save the ship and its cargo from capsizing while it was being towed to port. He regards the captain as a "squarehead" of Scandinavian or Teutonic descent, going to sea in ships and staying the course against the odds imposed by the sea. He imparts of some of his own experiences in younger years with such "squarehead" captains and says that he was not worried about Captain Carlsen being alone on the Flying Enterprise. "Squarehead skippers generally make out all right."

Twelfth Day of Christmas: Twelve percent higher cabbages and kings.

Epiphany for 2019: What goes around, comes around.

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