The Charlotte News
Saturday, November 15, 1952
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that counter-attacking South Korean troops had driven Chinese Communist troops toward the north end of "Sniper Ridge" after winning "Pinpoint Hill" for the 15th time during the prior month, following 26 hours of close-range fighting. The enemy was forced back into its system of caves and tunnels on the "Yoke".
U.S. F-84 Thunderjets dumped thousands of gallons of napalm on a large Communist troop concentration this date, and F-86 Sabre jets shot down two Communist MIG-15 jets over northwest Korea.
The Chicago-Times stated this date that General Mark Clark, supreme commander of the U.N. forces in Korea, had asked the Defense Department to supply three or four more U.S. divisions for Korea. He said that the stalemate in Korea was damaging U.S. prestige. He intended to make the same request to President-elect Eisenhower at the point when the latter visited Korea.
An Air Force transport plane, flying American soldiers back to the Korean War after a brief furlough in Japan, collided with a Korean mountain the prior Friday, killing all 44 men aboard, 37 of whom were soldiers and seven, Air Force crewmen. There were scattered clouds at 1,200 feet at the time of the crash and it was speculated that the pilot may not have seen the mountain.
At the U.N. in New York, a soft-spoken diplomat from Iran, Nasrollah Entezam, was reported this date to be the most likely person to succeed Trygve Lie as the new Secretary-General. Mr. Entezam stated, however, that he was not a candidate. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden were letting it be known that they had no objection to Mr. Entezam. The French reportedly were also receptive. Secretary of State Acheson had not yet indicated his position. Neither had Nationalist China, the fifth permanent member of the Security Council. It was likely that the General Assembly would not complete discussion on the resignation of Mr. Lie until the following month, following the debate on Korea.
In Bonn, West Germany, U.S. officials admitted the previous night that they had paid 200,000 marks for a new history textbook and distributed 1,100 copies of it before they had discovered that its author was a Communist, who had included Communist propaganda within the book. A German Government employee who read the book, had wired American authorities regarding the propaganda content. The U.S. High Commissioner's office then began checking and found that the book's author had been a Communist Party member. The Commission then impounded immediately 9,200 copies, including 1,100 which had already been disseminated to American-sponsored public reading rooms throughout West Germany. The High Commissioner's office was considering whether it would take legal action against the author. It stated that it had not performed a security check regarding the author as he had been endorsed by eminent German educators. The explanation for failing to check the text was that the Commissioner's education branch had been cut from 86 employees to only two by the time the book was delivered.
In Augusta, Ga., President-elect Eisenhower was considering whether to maintain an organization of political amateurs who had helped him win the election, the National Citizens for Eisenhower Committee. He said that Governor Dewey would serve periodically as a troubleshooter for the new administration, but that the Governor had repeatedly reaffirmed that he was not available for any Cabinet position. The Governor conferred with the General for 2 to 4 hours the previous day. Walter Williams, a Seattle businessman who had served as chairman of the Citizens Committee during the campaign, was also meeting with the General, regarding whether the organization would remain in operation. Mr. Williams was reportedly also being considered for a Cabinet position, possibly as Secretary of Interior or of Commerce.
In Tucson, Arizona, Governor Stevenson said that he hoped that the Democratic Party could be a "positive and intelligent opposition", and that he would do everything in his power to make it a useful instrument to the nation. He declined to be specific about his plans for the future or his role within the party. He said that he still had to finish out his gubernatorial term and would state more about his future plans after that occurred in mid-January.
A Gallup poll determined that there was considerable influence on the election caused by the high cost of living. Adults responded to the question regarding the smallest amount of money required for a family of four to get along in their community by indicating, on average, $60 per week. Less than a year earlier, the average figure had been $50. People living in large cities most often stated that the figure was $70, and in small towns and farm areas, the typical response was $50. About 24 percent of respondents who were members of families of four members or more, reported that they had less money to spend than the minimum amount. The prior January, 22 percent had placed themselves in that category.
In New Orleans, 16 Southern Governors were gathering, beginning the following day, to discuss education and politics. Governor Allan Shivers of Texas, chairman of the Southern Governors Conference, stated that they might spend some time re-examining the political scene. One of the topics he said would be discussed informally was the possibility of forming a coalition with Midwestern Democrats, that is a working agreement between conservative and moderate Democrats in the South, Southwest and Midwest, who had already evidenced a friendly feeling toward one another during the national convention and the campaign. He said that he considered the election to have been a repudiation of the "ultraliberal pinko element" within the party, whom he believed had been trying to get the South and Southwest out of the party. He believed that the victory of General Eisenhower, whom he had supported, had "materially strengthened the Democratic Party in the South." He said that the victory was personal, not one of the Republican Party, and that the majority of the voters had shown that they were against President Truman "and everything he stands for".
A dense fog settled over the New Jersey Turnpike early this date, resulting in nearly 40 vehicles being involved in a chain reaction crash, causing the death of a sailor and injuries to at least 36 other persons. Police said that the fog was so thick that it was almost impossible to stay on the six-lane road. Another traffic crash the previous morning had killed two persons and injured seven, involving 25 vehicles.
In Toronto, five persons were fired
upon on the downtown streets by a man wielding a .22-caliber rifle,
wounding four slightly, while the fifth, a police officer, escaped
injury. Police pointed out that a film playing in a downtown theater
was "The Sniper"
In Los Angeles, a retired locksmith had recently deposited $20 for a city business license to resume his vocation, but his wife then threatened to leave him if he did not remain in retirement, and so he applied for a refund the previous day.
In Oxford, England, Oxford
University students retold a story of the "Turkish opium eater",
which had begun Wednesday night when a native of Turkey, a
supposed sociology professor at London University, had lectured the
Oxford Heretics Club on the delights of opium, claiming that opium
smoked moderately was not harmful. British newspapers and news
services picked up the story, but when it reached Turkey, newspapers
there questioned the identity of the lecturer. It was then discovered
that London University had never heard of him, at which point the
Oxford students admitted that the "professor" was actually
the undergraduate secretary of the University's dramatic society. He
had been disguised by a London makeup
On the editorial page, "McCarran Ignores the Real Culprits" finds that the continuing investigation by the McCarran Internal Security subcommittee of the loyalty of Americans working for the U.N. had failed to touch on the essential point of the controversy, whether any responsible official or agency of the Government had ever asked Secretary-General Trygve Lie to clear American applications with the U.S. security agencies prior to their hiring. The question had not been answered and until it was, it was unfair to place blame on Mr. Lie for any American Communists who might have found their way into U.N. employment.
It thus recommends to the McCarran subcommittee that it raise the question and that if it was determined that such inquiry had never been made, then the fault lay with the Truman Administration. It indicates that the Government should insist that U.S. citizens employed by the U.N. be loyal. It posits, however, that it was not the job of the U.N. Secretariat to clear Americans before their employment. It suggests that the McCarran subcommittee had been more interested in discrediting Mr. Lie and the U.N. than fixing the responsibility for any disloyal Americans working there.
"'The Next Step in History'" quotes from a Danish delegate to the Geneva session of nations belonging to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, having stated that it was incomprehensible to him that the U.S. preferred to continue sending aid to foreign nations instead of allowing those nations to pay in goods for dollars they urgently needed to purchase American products.
The Soviets were offering Western Europe essential goods at prices cheaper than the U.S., but the U.S. had made no appreciable moves toward replacing aid with trade. It suggests that bold solutions were needed. Business Week had reported that a proposal being discussed in Washington would cut U.S. tariffs by 10 percent per year for 10 years, with Congress in the meantime appropriating money each year to compensate firms who suffered direct damage.
It indicates that one of the great dangers of the absence of a free world economic policy was its divisive influence among the Allies, something which the Soviets desired. It suggests that events of the previous few weeks had once again indicated that hopes for peace and security had to depend on something more than the U.N., despite its many accomplishments. It stresses that the Communist world had only one economic, diplomatic and political policy, whereas the free world had many, often divergent. It concludes that it was time to form a union of the Western world, and that the new President was eminently qualified for that task. It hopes that the Congress and the people would support bold steps he might take toward that end.
"That Great Old Mecklenburg School" comments on a piece on the page, reprinted from The State, by Walter Spearman, formerly of The News and the chairman of the Journalism Department at UNC, providing a roundup of the North Carolina literary activity for the year. It finds the authors scattered all over the state, in the Piedmont, in Chapel Hill, and on the coast, along the Outer Banks.
It indicates that Mecklenburg County could no longer boast of being home to many authors. It still had LeGette Blythe, Marian Sims, Mary Gillette and historian Chalmers Davidson. But Cam Shipp had departed for Hollywood 12 years earlier. Burke Davis had resigned as associate editor of The News in fall, 1945 and eventually gone to Baltimore, later returning to North Carolina, but settling in Guilford County. Marion Hargrove, who had written for The News prior to the war, and had then become famous for his "See Here, Private Hargrove" columns, later turned into a book and a movie, had turned to writing Hollywood scripts. Harriet Doar had gone to Chapel Hill to write her book. John McKnight, brother of editor Pete McKnight, had moved to Italy. John Harden had become a Burlington Mills businessman. And Tim Pridgen had moved to Jonesboro, Tenn. All of the foregoing, it notes, including "Vic Cash", presumably a misprint for W. J. Cash, had worked for The News, and Mr. Blythe and Mr. Pridgen had also worked for The Observer for a time.
It expresses the hope that more native Mecklenburg writers would remain, and hopes that perhaps, as Red Buck Bryant, one of the best of the native talents, some would return. It also hopes that more young writers would begin to reach the level of the "great old school".
Somewhere between Senator-elect "Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr." and "Vic Cash", incidentally, someone writing editorials this week did not keep their eye wholly on the ball—presumably not Pete McKnight, as he lived down the hall from Jack Cash, or Vic Cash, or Will Bob Cash, or whate'er his name was, during the period 1937-1940, would often go into Joe's room on Saturday nights to lift the needle from the inner groove, where it was endlessly skipping, after Wilbur had fallen asleep, either innocently or, under the more sensational and tempestuous retelling, lapsed into a stupor after too much imbibition of "busthead", leaving his classical 78's, in any event, to run out to infinity
A piece from the Atlanta Journal, titled "Hoist Your Heels", tells of a survey showing that one out of every three businessmen hoisted their heels on their desks, and that if more did so, their businesses would profit therefrom. The reasoning was that business made one worry, producing tension, and that lifting the feet and placing them on the desk was good mental and physical therapy. It advises, therefore, that if the boss caught the reader with his feet on the desk, he should be informed that it was for the good of the business, as long as one had one's eyes open when the boss saw it.
Walter Spearman, writing in The State, as indicated in the above editorial, tells of the North Carolina literary scene for 1952. He regards the most representative novel of the mountains to have been Little Benders, a first effort by Joe Knox of Newton. Graveyard of the Atlantic by David Stick had provided the flavor of the Carolina beaches, telling of the 600 famous wrecks along the Carolina coast.
He finds the spirit of the state best caught perhaps in The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, a three-volume set, with two more set for the future—and yet two more beyond that. (There is your reading for the next week.)
Burke Davis of Greensboro had published a novel, Yorktown, regarding the Revolutionary War, which he had also depicted in The Ragged Ones. Inglis Fletcher of Edenton had written an historical novel, Queen's Gift, completing her seven-volume series of such novels set in the Carolinas.
Three important non-fiction works were A Two-Party South? by Alexander Heard of Chapel Hill, exploring the Republican political advances in the traditionally Democratic South; Gentleman Freeholders by Charles S. Sydnor of Duke University, regarding early political leadership of Virginia; and The Legal Status of the Tenant Farmer in the Southeast, by Charles Mangrum of Chapel Hill, studying the relationship of tenant farmers in the South to the laws of the various states.
You Can Believe, by Frank Hanft of the UNC Law School faculty, was described as "a lawyer's brief for Christianity".
Fifty Years of the South Atlantic Quarterly 1902—1952, by William B. Hamilton of Duke University, provided an excellent summary of the contributions made by that journal and its many North Carolina writers during the first half of the century.
Louise Greer of the East Carolina College Department of English had authored Browning and America.
And he goes on listing a number of
works, including Always the Young Strangers
Drew Pearson tells of Senator Taft telephoning General Eisenhower the previous week, reminding him that he would like to make some recommendations for the Cabinet, although not pressing the matter or going into detail. The General had promised to consider carefully any suggestions which the Senator made and reiterated his intention to work closely with him on a legislative program. The Senator indicated that he believed the new administration should strengthen the judicial system and transfer to the court some of the power presently held by commissions. If the incoming President approved of that plan, it would cause a bitter legislative battle in Congress, as the Senator had in mind a plan long discussed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, to undercut and bypass such agencies as the Federal Power Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission. Most of those agencies were branded as being part of the New Deal, despite all except two, the FCC and the SEC, having been set up long before the Roosevelt Administration, and the foundations of the FCC having been established during the Hoover Administration, in which was formed the Federal Radio Commission.
For some years, big-business lobbyists had proposed shifting power from those agencies to the courts, but most court dockets were too crowded to handle such work and Federal judges did not wish to tackle regulatory questions. Some of those commissions had already been undermined in their power during the Truman Administration. That had especially been the case with respect to the Federal Power Commission, after the President appointed his old friend, former Senator Mon Wallgren, as chairman. After the President had vetoed the Kerr bill to deregulate the natural gas industry, Mr. Wallgren had reversed the President's decision, giving Phillips Petroleum that which the President's veto had denied them. Since that time, Mr. Wallgren had been replaced by Thomas Buchanan as chairman, and Mr. Buchanan had the courage to stand up to the big gas companies. But his confirmation had been blocked in the Senate by Senators who were friends of the big gas and oil companies, led by Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas. In consequence, Mr. Buchanan was serving an interim appointment and was sure to be terminated in the new administration.
He concludes that if President-elect Eisenhower, who had promised to keep the five-percenters, the influence peddlers, out of Washington, also watched the 27-percenters, he could do a very good job for the public, but he would have to appoint good men to the commissions, not weaken them. His reference to the 27-percenters is to the oil depletion allowance.
Joseph Alsop, in Paris, tells of the need for President-elect Eisenhower, as soon as he would take office, to confront the threat posed by France's problems with the Indo-China war and its concomitant inability, without aid in that war, to make a proper contribution to the NATO European Army. That army presently had 50 divisions, including those ready and on reserve, to do the work of 98 divisions, in properly providing for a deterrent to the Soviets. The 12 additional German divisions which West Germany planned to contribute were absolutely vital to the success of the NATO Army.
But the French Chamber of Deputies was virtually certain to vote against the European Defense Community and the German divisions for NATO, as all of the leading French officials had indicated. Secretary of State Acheson had been warned several months earlier that the vote in the Chamber would depend upon whether they viewed a re-militarized Germany as potentially outweighing France in the new European Army and thus dominant in the European Defense Community. The answer to that question lay in whether the French could receive enough additional manpower and arms for Indo-China to free up strength and resources for the European Army.
The French had been led to believe that they would receive 650 million dollars from the U.S. in aid in 1952, but in the end, had only been offered 525 million, the difference determining whether there would be success or failure in the defense of the franc and between the ability to do the job or not in Indo-China and Europe. The cut of the aid had precipitated recent attacks on the U.S. by French Prime Minister Pinay and President Vincent Auriol.
Further harming matters was the fact that the State Department appeared to the French as trying to drive France from North Africa, with its continuation of colonial interests there being vital to its ability to participate in the European Defense Community, as it viewed France without North Africa as having less weight in Europe and being weakened vis-à-vis Germany.
The French Socialists were likely to vote against the European Defense Community unless the British joined.
There was general agreement in France, however, that President-elect Eisenhower could clear the poisoned atmosphere almost overnight.
Marquis Childs indicates that to all who inquired about the feelings of Governor Stevenson in the aftermath of his defeat, he replied that he felt okay, tired but satisfied that he had done his best during the campaign. He reminded inquirers that he had tried hard to avoid the nomination, throwing himself into the campaign with all possible zeal once nominated, but keeping himself within the bounds of his promise made during his acceptance speech at the convention, that he would rather lose the presidency than bargain for votes based on false promises.
The Governor was not sure of his future and, because of his soul-searching technique before reaching any decision, was not likely soon to draw any firm conclusions. He had been impressed by the large volume of mail and telegrams from well-wishers in the wake of the election. Many of those letters and telegrams had urged him to remain on the scene as a voice of reason, understanding, decency and moderation. Many of his volunteers were looking for a way to make permanent the organization which had been formed during the campaign, and they hoped to raise funds with which to pay for a nationwide television broadcast by the Governor at least once every three months, to provide his analysis of national and world affairs.
Many of the people who had written to the Governor had expressed that they voted for General Eisenhower because of their belief that it had been time for a change, but also indicated that they had almost been persuaded to change to the Governor because of his eloquent campaign.
In assessing the campaign, the Governor believed that he had been naïvely innocent in certain respects. For instance, the previous August, he decided that if he won the election, he would go to the Orient for a survey trip prior to the inauguration, especially desiring to visit Japan and Korea, as well as India. He maintained that intention in confidence, however, in contrast to General Eisenhower, who, in the closing weeks of the campaign, had publicly announced his intention to go to Korea if elected.
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