The Charlotte News

Tuesday, October 28, 1952

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Stan Carter, that about 700 Chinese Communists had attacked under the light of a bright moon the main allied lines on "Sniper Ridge" this night on the central front in Korea, absent the usual advance artillery barrage. On the eastern front, about 500 North Koreans hit allied lines twice on "Heartbreak Ridge" and U.N. troops repulsed them with fierce counterattacks after slight penetrations which were quickly sealed. Far to the west, U.S. Marines mopped up the last Communist resistance and restored their lines on the U.S. Eighth Army's left flank, with the destruction reported of a complete Chinese regiment of about 3,000 men. Associated Press correspondent Milo Farneti reported from the front that the Marines were in firm possession of the "Hook", the ridge line northeast of Panmunjom, and two outposts to the north. About 1,500 Communists hit the Marine sector on Sunday night and the Marines had counter-attacked and repulsed the enemy late Monday, before mop-up operations in predawn darkness this date.

In the air war, allied warplanes hit the enemy with bombs, rockets and napalm, and the Chinese responded with sporadic artillery fire.

It was reported by the Army that on Sunday, American guards had killed one North Korean prisoner and wounded 74 others in breaking up a military drill on Koje Island in the prisoner of war camp, when the prisoners refused voluntarily to disperse.

Senator Joseph McCarthy, in a nationally televised and radio broadcast speech the previous night, had charged that Governor Stevenson had given "aid to Communist causes". He said that the central issue of the campaign was whether Communism or America would win. The prepared text for the speech had said that he did not claim that the Governor was a Communist or a pro-Communist, but that he believed something was wrong somewhere, a statement omitted from the broadcast speech. He said that the Governor was surrounded by left-wing advisers, that he would "continue the suicidal Kremlin-dictated policies of this nation", that when he had been assigned the postwar task of formulating policy for Italy, he had prescribed a plan for "foisting Communism" on that country, and that he was "part and parcel" of the "Acheson-Hiss-Lattimore group". After he went off the air following his 30 minutes of allotted broadcast time, he continued the speech, saying then that Governor Stevenson had the endorsement, in effect, of The Daily Worker. He was heartily cheered by the audience of 1,150 diners in a Chicago Loop hotel ballroom during the speech, though halted briefly by a heckler who was quickly taken away by police. The broadcast had been financed by a $50 per plate dinner given at the time of the speech. The New York Times said it had received about 200 telephone calls and numerous telegrams within a half hour after the speech, protesting it and objecting of the newspaper's support of General Eisenhower. The newspaper asserted in an editorial that Senator McCarthy had "made his way to national fame and political fortune via the route of wild charges, gross distortions and assorted forms of demagoguery", and had said nothing the previous night to change that estimate of him, although making his charges in milder terms than expected.

In New York City, at the Queens Borough Hall, General Eisenhower said this date that he had changed "in no way" since the campaign had begun, that his views on national issues were the same as they had been in 1948, despite the charges by the opposition to the contrary. He again promised to go to Korea as President to seek an end to the war. He was scheduled to tour the boroughs and the surrounding metropolitan area for three days, traveled this date by motorcade in Queens and Nassau counties, both of which usually voted Republican. Governor Dewey traveled with the General.

Governor Stevenson said this date that he would not hold out false promises of "an easy way out of Korea … even if the election depended on it." He said that toward the end of the campaign, the candidates in search of votes would make empty promises to raise false hopes, promising things which they knew they could not deliver. He said that he had never indicated that there was an easy way out of the Korean War, as he knew that there was not. He suggested that promises of such things were not only dishonest but "downright dangerous, for it involves great questions of national policy." He said that to win the struggle against Communism, the country had not only to defend itself but also to help other peoples overcome ugly conditions of life and enable them to protect themselves from Communism. He urged continuation of training of South Korean troops to man the front lines, indicating that they had more divisions on the front lines than did the U.S. at present. He expressed confidence that there would be an armistice concluded on fair and honorable terms. The speech was transcribed for broadcast at noon over CBS radio, and was directed at women voters. This night, after touring New York and New Jersey during the day, he would address a mass rally in Madison Square Garden. The previous night, he had received a "wild and emotional greeting" in Harlem.

General Eisenhower and Governor Stevenson were both invited, along with their running mates, to the National Potato Council "make-up" dinner two days after the election, a custom for the Council, wanting to bring former political opponents together after the heat of the campaign to cool down.

The President, touring Minnesota by train this date, said in St. Paul that the Republicans were trying to win the election by the tactics of Senator McCarthy, "smear and fear" and "slander and character assassination". He said that such tactics had been used against Congressman Eugene McCarthy in Minnesota and if they could succeed in his case, "the rights and liberties of all Americans will be in deadly peril." He criticized the "one-party press" for accusing him of "mud-slinging", saying that he told the truth about the Republicans and it hurt. He would speak in Hibbing this night at 9:00.

Near Kansas City, a grass fire damaged the farm of the President the previous day, and two of his nephews, who lived on the farm, put it out before it reached the house.

Samuel Lubell, who had been traveling around the country sampling grassroots reaction to the presidential campaign for the previous four months, states that when he embarked on the project, it had not been with the intent of predicting the outcome of the election but rather to explore the issues important to voters and to give them a chance to speak out on them. During his interviews of voters in 16 farm counties and 26 cities around the country, he had gleaned definite impressions of how the election would turn out and indicates that the remaining articles in the series would sum up his more significant findings. He believed that enough persons who had voted for the President in 1948 had told him that they intended to vote Republican in 1952 that General Eisenhower should win. Governor Stevenson's one hope for victory lay in a possible freak of the electoral college system, by obtaining small margins in the large cities of states with heavy electoral votes, such as New York, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania or Michigan. If that were to happen, he would not be surprised were General Eisenhower to receive more popular votes while losing the electoral college. But if support for the General proved strong enough in three or four of the large cities in large states, then he would achieve a landslide. He finds that in any event, the pattern of 1948 voting would not be repeated.

Governor Kerr Scott, answering questions at a news conference, said in Raleigh this date that he looked for Governor Stevenson to receive a larger majority in the state than received by President Truman in the 1948 election, saying that he believed the Governor was further along with the public than had been the President four years earlier. (The President had received 58 percent of the state's popular vote to 33 percent for Governor Dewey, the remainder going to Governor Strom Thurmond; in 1952, the vote would be 54 percent for Governor Stevenson to 46 percent for General Eisenhower.) He believed that there was considerable support for the President among North Carolina Democrats, including farmers and workers. He said that he did not know what the unusually high registration totals would mean to the election, with an estimated 1.8 million voters registered in the state, the largest number in its history. He said that he was pleased with his gubernatorial Administration, which would end in January, as he was unable to succeed himself, said that he would not want to serve as Governor for another four years.

Most of the nation's 350,000 soft coal miners had returned to work, following orders to do so by UMW president John L. Lewis the previous day, subsequent to his conference with the President on Sunday at the White House. The strike had been called the previous week in protest of the Wage Stabilization Board's cut of 40 cents from the negotiated $1.90 per day wage increase for the miners.

A. P. L. Associates, Inc., a Texas-New York-West Coast financial combine, this date purchased a controlling interest in the American President Lines for 18.36 million dollars, topping two other sealed bids, returning the shipping line, which had been owned by the Government for the previous 14 years, to private ownership. Signal Oil & Gas Company of Fort Worth, Texas, had put up about half of the offering price.

In Kenya, anti-white Mau Mau terrorists hacked a European farmer to death the previous night as he sat in his bathtub on a lonely farm 80 miles from Nairobi. His two young native servants also were murdered. The man was the first white settler killed since the government of the British colony proclaimed a state of emergency and launched a troop-backed, colony-wide drive against the Mau Mau a week earlier. The Mau Mau had sworn to drive all white settlers from Kenya.

Emery Wister of The News tells of brisk winds fanning the raging fire in Pisgah National Forest this date, blowing clouds of smoke to the Charlotte area, reducing visibility to 1.5 miles in the air on an otherwise clear day. No improvement was expected during the day as the winds fanned the flames and the fire continued to burn out of control, consuming forest land in Madison County, in the vicinity of Asheville. Schoolchildren had been recruited to help fight the fire. Cold air from Montana would cause temperatures to plummet to freezing by the following morning, as frigid air from the Rockies had spread over the Carolinas during the weekend, producing a low of 42 during the morning in Charlotte.

On the editorial page, "Russia Is Put on Notice" regards the new Air Force orders to overseas commanders and pilots that they could fire back in self-defense when fired upon by hostile aircraft, and giving commanders permission to send fighter escorts on routine missions.

It indicates that the American people had not liked the repeated violations of international law by the Communist nations or the inability or unwillingness of the Government to use force to stop the attacks. The new orders reflected the growing strength of U.S. air power in and near critical border areas with Communist countries.

Since the first such incident over the Baltic in 1950, there had been numerous such attacks against U.S. aircraft which were either unarmed or with their guns tied down during routine missions. The most recent one in October, involving an Army B-29, resulted in the loss of the crew of eight over Japanese waters. There had been numerous instances of Russian craft firing at or near U.S. planes in the air corridor from West Germany to West Berlin. Yet, there had been no record of any attempt to use force against force, only diplomatic notes. Now, commanders would be authorized to allow countermeasures. It indicates that Russia did not seem to understand anything except force and urges that it was time to try a little.

"And Now Let's Cast 90,000 Votes" praises the work of Joe Josephs and his helpers in the get-out-the-vote campaign in Mecklenburg County. When the registration drive had opened three weeks earlier, there were 62,801 names on the books, and the final total would likely be 91,000, or an increase of 45 percent. Overall in the state, there were nearly 100,000 new voters registered during October, which meant that Mecklenburg had supplied more than 25 percent of those new voters while having 5 percent of the state's population. It suggests that the success of the drive showed that the American people were becoming alert to their responsibilities as free citizens to register and vote. It urges that the goal ought be a 90,000-voter turnout at the polls on November 4.

"Constitutional Amendment—I" indicates that the voters of the state would be asked in the following Tuesday's election to approve three amendments to the State Constitution, each of which the newspaper supported, and would provide its analysis in three succeeding editorials, this one concerning the first of the three, for limiting the amount of total State and County taxes which could be levied on property to 20 cents per $100 of valuation, an increase from the present level of 15 cents, though the wording of the ballot made the question confusing, as the current limit was not stated.

It indicates that the limit currently in place was inserted in 1920, and property valuations had not kept pace with the increases in costs of government in the meantime, requiring many counties to resort to such funds as ABC revenue to continue to operate. It urges that it was not a sound policy and that the limit should be raised.

"Elementary Teachers in Short Supply" tells of Dr. E. K. Graham, Jr., chancellor of Woman's College in Greensboro, having stated the previous May in a speech to the North Carolina editorial writers, published in The News, that the reason for the shortage of elementary school teachers in the state was because of the excessive requirements for certification in the first two years of college, specifying virtually the entire curriculum. There were too many courses required which were of no use to the aspiring teacher who attended college to obtain a liberal education. He had reiterated the remarks in a recent editorial in the North Carolina Public School Bulletin.

Despite salaries being the same at each level, there were plenty of high school teachers but a shortage of elementary school teachers. The solution was to allow the person who wanted to teach in the elementary schools and receive a liberal education during the first two years of college to do so and then meet the specific certification requirements during the last two years.

A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "When Is a Scholar?" tells of Chester Barnhard, retiring president of the Rockefeller Foundation, having said in his farewell report, regarding academics, that "the ivory tower attitude would be as unreasonable as the iron curtain attitude", that while society granted a scholar certain immunities while he searched for truth, when he became partisan in that search, when he accepted "the dictation of external authority as to how he shall interpret the phenomena", he ceased being a scholar, having sacrificed his academic freedom to a party line and thus disqualified himself for research.

University of California dean emeritus Joel Hildebrand also rejected the absolutist concept of academic freedom, telling the American Chemical Society that the best way to deal with men who swallowed dogma of any sort was not through purges or trials but rather by enforcing professional ethical standards which brought down the contempt of their colleagues upon those who did not measure up.

The piece concludes that they were two of the multiplying signs that the scholarly world was protecting its precious academic freedom against the new threat posed by Communism and the resulting purge from faculties.

Drew Pearson indicates that while Senator McCarthy was continuing to go around the country making charges of guilt by association, legal depositions were being taken in Wheeling, W. Va., where the Senator had first made his charge on February 9, 1950 that there were 205 Communists in the State Department, since which the Senator had tried to dissociate himself from that figure, claiming that he had been misquoted, misunderstood, or unfairly dealt with by the press. The depositions of witnesses to the speech, however, showed otherwise. News editor James Whitaker of radio station WWVA said that he was present at the speech and used the preliminary script to check it while making a tape recording, and that both the tape and the script referred to there being 205 names on a list which the Senator said he held in his hand, each of whom was a member of the Communist Party working in the State Department. The program director for the same radio station testified that he had read over the Senator's script on the afternoon before he delivered the speech and it contained the same language, and had also read an account of the speech in the Wheeling Intelligencer the following day which quoted the same language, as further confirmed by his own tape recording. A third witness, a reporter for the Intelligencer, testified that he wrote the news story which had appeared on the following day, containing the reference to 205 Communists in the State Department, and had also seen the script of the speech, which contained the same statement. A fourth witness, the assistant manager of the radio station, confirmed those statements as well.

But on April 24, 1950, before a Senate committee, the Senator swore that he had not used that language, and stated in a Senate speech on February 20 that he had not only not used the language but had not used a written speech. On September 7, 1951, the Senator, in an interview with U.S. News & World Report, stated that he had referred to a 1946 letter during the speech from Secretary of State James Byrnes to Congressman Adolph Sabath, a claim that the four witnesses rebutted.

The fact remained that not a single Communist had ever been discovered by the Loyalty Board in the State Department, despite the Board having been, for most of the time in the prior three years of investigation, under the control of a Republican, Brig. General Conrad Snow, appointed to the post on the recommendation of Senate Republican leader, Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire.

Mr. Pearson neglects to note that it was also in Wheeling where Senator Nixon reunited with General Eisenhower for the first time after the Senator's September 23 speech, in explanation of his $18,000 expense fund collected by California millionaires for him after the 1950 Senate campaign, at which point General Eisenhower embraced the Senator before he disembarked from his plane, telling him, "You're my boy!"

Joseph Alsop, with Governor Stevenson's campaign, recounts a day in the campaign of the Governor, as he whistle-stopped from Niagara Falls to Albany, N.Y., on an invigorating fall day which invigorated the candidate. He made 14 major and minor appearances during the day, with back-platform talks at several little towns, with a major address delivered in Troy at the end of the day, televised and broadcast on the radio nationally. He also gave a serious address on the U.N. in Rochester.

Between speeches, he received about 30 deputations, as each town had at least two. He departed from his usual routine of having lunch alone and working on speeches to have lunch with an editor whose newspaper had switched from supporting General Eisenhower to the Governor. He then later had dinner with the mayor of Albany. During the course of the day he saw several hundred people privately and spoke publicly to about 40,000.

Senator Herbert Lehman had conveyed the news that the race was close in New York, but admitted that he was habitually pessimistic regarding elections. Other politicians in the state, however, were more optimistic.

As was typical for the Governor, he spent time from breakfast throughout the day, until after the Troy speech in the evening, doing what other candidates did not do, drafting, for the most part, his own speeches. He had three competing groups of first-class speechwriters in Springfield and a team on the train headed by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., but the speeches were planned, often drafted and always thoroughly re-drafted by the Governor.

While General Eisenhower permitted television make-up men to cover him with pancake until he had the "complexion of a pink kewpie doll", the Governor refused for the most part their services, permitting only a light application of powder to his high bald forehead. Whereas the General had a large contingency of advance men who set up the crowds and provided programs of entertainment, replete with cheerleaders, to keep the flow of each program moving, the Governor employed none of them. At Troy, the amplifying system was faulty, there were a few empty seats, the program was haphazard, and yet the candidate appeared unruffled. He received an affectionate and admiring ovation and delivered his speech regarding General Eisenhower's claimed surrender of his campaign to the Republican Old Guard, quoting near its end Woodrow Wilson: "I would rather fail in a cause which will ultimately triumph than triumph in a cause which will ultimately fail."

Mr. Alsop wonders whether that was an election prediction, though those close to the Governor said that he did not think about election outcomes. His final impression of the Governor, as he made his last lap of the campaign, was of a "man gallant and resilient, industrious, humorous, self-deprecating and serious. Whether you think him right or wrong, it is pretty hard not to like him, which may or may not turn out to be an important political fact."

The Congressional Quarterly examines the likelihood of Congress going to the party of the winning candidate for the presidency, finds that a split between the House and Senate was likely for the first time in 36 years if General Eisenhower were to win by a close margin. In that event, it was likely there would be a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. Only if the General were to win a landslide victory would it be likely that he would carry along with him both houses—as he would achieve on both counts.

On the other hand, if Governor Stevenson were to win by any more than a narrow margin, the Democrats had a strong chance of retaining control of both chambers.

There were 35 seats at stake in the Senate and the Republicans had to win 23 and the Democrats, only 14, for either respective party to achieve a majority. Of the 35, 21 were currently held by Republicans, meaning that the Republicans had to retain all of their currently held seats and then pick up two more. Thirteen of those 21 seats, however, were listed by the Quarterly's survey as strongly contested by Democrats, who had a good chance of winning several of them, whereas of the 14 seats held by the Democrats, only eight were being seriously contested. The fact that Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon had just announced that he was henceforth referring to himself as an "independent Republican" made the prospect for a Republican-controlled Senate even less.

But in the House, where all seats were at stake, the Democrats presently held 230 and the Republicans, 200, with one seat held by an independent and four vacancies.

The last time there had been a split Congress was in 1916 when incumbent President Woodrow Wilson defeated Charles Evans Hughes and the House went Republican, while the Senate went Democratic. Before that, Grover Cleveland was elected for his first term in 1884 with a Republican Senate and a Democratic House. There were no other instances in recent history of a split Congress chosen in a presidential election year. In 1930, the Republicans had won control of both houses, but several Republican House members-elect died before the start of their terms, resulting in the House being controlled by the Democrats for the last two years of the Hoover Administration.

A letter writer from Albemarle indicates that he was in the Navy, home on leave with his wife and two children, and wished to speak for himself and his fellow sailors whom he knew aboard the USS Midway, indicating that if General Eisenhower wanted to be elected to the presidency, he should not have made the statement regarding reduction of armed forces payroll, that it would likely cost him quite a number of votes. He indicates that he did not wish to return to bread lines and was proud to support Governor Stevenson, whom he believed resembled President Roosevelt, "one of the finest men I think to ever hold that office."

A letter writer from Matthews suggests to former Governor and Senator Cameron Morrison that he "wake up and learn something about Senator Nixon", that what the former Governor had said during a television broadcast the previous Monday night indicated that he did not know much about the Senator. He wishes to inform that Senator Nixon had won over all candidates in both the Democratic and Republican primaries—obviously inaccurate as to the Democratic primary, perhaps meaning that he accumulated more votes in the weakly contested Republican primary than any of the Democratic contenders in the Democratic primary—and that in the general election had won by 700,000 votes, in his 1950 Senate campaign against Helen Gahagan Douglas. He believes the Senator ought announce that vote in his next broadcast.

To achieve the proper effect, to show how he accomplished the feat, he should hold up a pair of pink panties during the course of the broadcast, and say demonstratively, "I earned everything I got."

A letter writer congratulates the newspaper for endorsing General Eisenhower and suggests that Governor James Byrnes of South Carolina was right when he had said that war or peace was the most important issue in the world currently. She says that she had heard of a "very spiritual Christian man", a missionary in India for 43 years, who had written a letter to the President a year earlier asking him to urge Nehru to act as negotiator on a peace committee in Korea and that the President had refused. She cannot see how any mother could vote for Governor Stevenson and the President, says that she had four boys who had fought in World War II, with one having been in Japan for 2 1/2 years after the war.

A letter writer from Concord finds the contrast humorous between Governor Stevenson, touring the country telling jokes of "mediocre quality and trying to confuse the voters by using high sounding phrases", and the President, using his "uncouth methods known to some as 'give 'em hell' oratory, but which is nothing more than smears, malicious lies and distorted half-truths." He indicates that Governor Stevenson had "left-wingers" Wilson Wyatt and Stephen Mitchell in his campaign, and now added John L. Lewis, which he finds to be "strange bedfellows".

And Senators McCarthy, Jenner, Taft, Lodge, Duff and Governor Dewey were not?

A letter writer indicates that the American Legion had in its national convention on several occasions adopted resolutions seeking the dismissal of Secretary of State Acheson, that it was apparent to most Americans that the Secretary had "blundered" in getting the country into the Korean War "with our life-long friend, China", and was now close to losing the friendship of both France and Britain. "Poor little dumb Truman has refused to remove Acheson, but instead removed MacArthur, our only expert on Oriental and Asiatic countries."

A letter writer from Monroe indicates that while the Democrats were "ranting about the prosperity" of the previous 20 years, the moral taught in the story of "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" should be considered, "that a crust of bread and safety is better than fine cake and fear." He says that man cannot live by bread and gadgets alone, quotes Emerson: "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind."

Where were the Republicans during that time of progress, in China?

A letter from the publicity committee of the Mecklenburg Girl Scout Council thanks the newspaper for covering the Girl Scout Regional Conference.

A letter writer urges voting for General Eisenhower and Senator Nixon, "who will bring peace to America", in contrast to the present Administration, "the 20-year war party—which has taken your son and daughter or husband away and sent him to a faraway land".

You obviously would prefer to have as President Adolf Hitler and as Secretary of Defense, General Tojo. Better luck next time…

The editors note that other letters on the election appear on page 5-A. We shall skip those, but if you have an abiding urge to read them, you may go to the library and look them up. We are certain there will be some illuminating ones regarding Senator Nixon and his political future.

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