The Charlotte News
Tuesday, November 4, 1952
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that allied soldiers this date had repulsed predawn enemy assaults on the Korean eastern and central fronts. North Korean troops had made six attacks in the "Heartbreak Ridge" sector, each stopped despite unusually heavy Communist artillery and mortar fire. Chinese troops attacked South Korean positions all night on "Sniper Ridge" and were repulsed in the final assault at dawn. The U.S. Eighth Army said that "Sniper" and nearby "Triangle Hill" were quieter this date than at any time since the allies had launched their central front attack on October 14. The temperature dropped to 1 degree along the front.
American soldiers listened for election news via radio. Maj. John Eisenhower, son of the General, was one of those listening.
General Eisenhower spent the day in
New York awaiting the election results
In the General's hometown of Abilene, Kans., 39 of the first 44 votes cast were for the General, and early voting had been heavy. Early returns in Parsons, Kans., showed the General with 299 votes and Governor Stevenson with 164. In 1948, the town had cast 57.9 percent of its votes for the President.
In Tarentaum, Pa., a woman who gave birth to a baby boy voted six hours later, accompanied by her husband in an ambulance, riding to the polling place a half-mile from the hospital, then returning to the hospital after casting her ballot.
In Boston, General Eisenhower suffered a slight cut and swelling to the head early this date when he had been struck by a clock which fell from a temporary stand. He had been posing for pictures in a television studio shortly before leaving for New York when the incident occurred, the clock striking his right temple. He finished posing for the pictures before a small piece of adhesive tape was placed over the wound. He had made his last campaign speech the previous night in Boston, making an appeal to take his "crusade" into the White House. He placed peace at the head of his objectives if elected.
What time was it on the clock of the Old South?
In Half Day, Ill., Governor Stevenson cast his vote and voted a straight Democratic ticket. Because of a crowd of 200 people waiting to vote, the Governor had to wait for 30 minutes before receiving his ballot. While he waited, the crowd quickly grew to 1,000, including many schoolchildren, who wanted to see the Governor. In his final speech of the campaign the previous night in Chicago, the Governor urged supporters to forget the bitter name-calling of the campaign, to close ears to the "cowardly voices of hate and fear and suspicion", to believe in each other and unite behind the winner of the election. He asked that the decision be accepted in the spirit of American sportsmanship should General Eisenhower be the victor and asked the same of Republicans if he were the winner, and, in that event, that the Lord make him "an instrument of his peace".
Democrats and Republicans predicted victory in the Congressional races. In the House, Democrats outnumbered Republicans 230 to 200 in the 82nd Congress. Only twice, in 1848 and 1876, had an incoming President faced a House controlled by another party. Many Republican Senators conceded privately that it probably would take an Eisenhower landslide for the Republicans to take control of the Senate, where the Democrats presently had 49 seats, but only 14 of which were up for re-election, five of those being in the heavily Democratic South. The Republicans had 46 seats, not counting the recently defected Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, who said that he was now an "independent Republican".
In Washington, carpenters worked to build the reviewing stand for the January 20 inauguration of the new President, to seat 15,000 persons. It was planned for completion before Christmas.
In Cataloochee, N.C., the first completed count in the state reported all seven votes cast for Governor Stevenson. In 1948, the President had received all seven votes in the town.
Near Columbia, S.C., the first completed ballot box, at Bell's store in a rural area of McCormick County, gave five votes for the General and three for Governor Stevenson.
Across the country, weather was generally fair, with the only exceptions being snow flurries in western Montana and showers in the southern tip of Florida, northern New Mexico, southern Colorado and coastal areas of Washington and Oregon. Polls would be closing in Rhode Island at 4:00 p.m., and would remain open in California, Oregon and Washington until 8:00 Pacific Time. All signs pointed to a record national turnout, with some predicting between 55 and 60 million votes, which would eclipse the 1940 record turnout of 49,820,312. The result might not be known until around midnight, or, if very close, into the following day.
Record statewide registration promised a large turnout at the polls in North Carolina. The weather was cool, clear, with some scattered showers. State Democratic chairman and future Senator B. Everett Jordan predicted that Governor Stevenson would win the state by between 250,000 and 300,000 votes in a record turnout of 900,000, with the record having been 839,000 in 1936, in the contest between FDR and Governor Alf Landon. Republican state chairman J. M. Baley said that the race was very close in the state.
Tom Fesperman of The News tells of a large turnout locally in the first five hours of voting, suggesting a total turnout of 70,000 or more in the county, with long lines forming at many polling locations. A chilly breeze blew in the city, making the wait uncomfortable. The previous record vote in Mecklenburg had been in 1940 in the race between FDR and Wendell Willkie, when 35,781 voted.
On the editorial page, "The Task after Election Day" indicates that it would soon be the case that the new President-elect and his defeated opponent could take a rest from the rigors of the campaign, and it hopes that the bitterness of the campaign would quickly fade into the background, with attention directed to the new problems which would require action in the coming year.
It regards among those problems to be the formulation and execution of a Korean policy which would determine the most desirable alternative course, control of inflationary pressures, meeting of the Communist threat in its manifold forms, reduction of military waste to bring defense spending under control, the question of continued economic and military aid for allies, the reorganization of the Federal Government to promote efficiency and economy, plus addressing several pieces of specific legislation which would expire in 1953, including the excess profits and income tax legislation, reciprocal trade agreements, the military draft of physicians and dentists, and wage and price controls. There were also the questions of civil defense, the callback of military reserves, universal military training, immigration, revision of Taft-Hartley, civil rights, home rule for Alaska, Hawaii and D.C., and planning for a new agricultural program.
While Congress would be responsible for many of those issues, the burden would ultimately fall on the President to provide the necessary leadership. It indicates that regardless of who would win the election, "he would deserve and need such strength and support as the people can give him."
"The Loyalty of U.N. Employees" tells of U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie having suspended several Americans who had refused to answer questions of the McCarran Internal Security subcommittee regarding alleged Communist activities. The inquiry by Mr. Lie was different from that of determining loyalty to the U.S. Government, as the Communist nations within the U.N. would laugh off any effort to show that U.N. employees were non-Communists. The Americans in question were working for the Secretariat and U.N. agencies, not the U.S. delegation. But American Communists working at the U.N. could serve as links between American Communists and European and Asian Communists, and the FBI was assigned the task of rooting out such persons.
Another problem was diminution of confidence in the U.N. by the American public, which, it suggests, could be eliminated by having such employees of the U.N. first approved by the security agencies of the nation of which they were citizens.
"Best We Play 'Beizbol'" indicates that the New York Times the previous week had explained on its editorial page the situation in Vietnam, had found good news from the Sudan and was annoyed by a Polish election, heartened by the founding of a college in Calcutta and the end of a conference in Manila. But it had been unduly disturbed by a recent event in Sweden, where the Soviets had done well at chess. The Times had lamented the shortage of American chess players of international quality, and hinted that the game ought be subsidized to remedy the problem.
The piece finds, however, that it was merely trying to play the other side's game, which did not work, as was shown when Americans tried to drink more vodka than a "Russky". It suggests that if chess would be required of U.S. diplomats and field commanders, then it was also incumbent upon U.S. weightlifters to beat the Russians at that activity, and that American females should be able to outrun and outjump the "hefty Russian lasses" who regularly won the track and field prizes.
It favors instead challenging the Russians to checkers, as it believes that the back country checker champions could clobber any Russian at that game. It also suggests that since the Russians had claimed invention of "beizbol", America should challenge them to a real World Series in their native game.
A piece from the Greensboro Daily News, titled "A Good Meal Is Hard to Find", tells of a headline appearing in the Atlanta Journal which had read "No Southern Food for Ike During Visit", referring to the General's speech-making tour of Atlanta, Jacksonville and Miami, during which he had eaten all of his meals on his plane. The piece wonders, however, where any real Southern food would have been found in those cities in any event. Food had been standardized in the hotels and restaurants, was no more Southern than in any other part of the nation.
It indicates that most Southern cooking was bad, but not especially Southern, that there were three types of real Southern cooking which were good, outdoor cooking, such as at country Sunday school picnics and barbecues, home cooking, the best in the world, and New Orleans creole cooking, the height of professional cuisine, in contrast to the other two types which were produced by amateurs.
Thus, it concludes that unless people coming to the South had Southern relatives, they were unlikely to find true Southern cooking until they reached New Orleans, at which point they were practically out of the South. It finds it no wonder therefore that General Eisenhower did not partake of any Southern cooking and suggests that he would not have had the time to do it justice had he received it, that if he had, would not have been in any condition to resume his campaign.
Drew Pearson tells of Republicans being confident of winning 213 "certain" electoral votes, plus another 128 "probable" votes, for a total of 341, with 266 needed to elect. The Republican survey had placed New York and California in the "probable" category, though the Democrats also predicted they would carry both states. Governor Stevenson's home state of Illinois was placed in the "possible" category by the Republicans. The border states of Kentucky, West Virginia and Oklahoma were conceded to the Democrats, but Maryland was considered "certain" for the Republicans. Tennessee was regarded as "not too hopeful", though Missouri was listed as "probable". Texas was conceded to the Democrats, and Michigan, though listed as "probable", had been conceded to be slipping during the previous week, while Minnesota, also listed as "probable", had been removed from the "certain" category because of the effectiveness of Democratic speaking campaigns in the state, by the President, Senator Estes Kefauver, vice-presidential nominee Senator John Sparkman and Governor Stevenson, each of whom had toured the state recently.
Massachusetts had a notation from
the GOP survey that it was hoped that the General would run ahead of
the party and drag along Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.,
facing a tough race with Congressman John Kennedy
The Republicans expected to win New York, provided the upstate organization got out the vote.
The President, during a recent personal tour of the White House with John L. Lewis, had asked him if he realized that if the Republicans won and Senator Taft should die, General Eisenhower would be the President, which prompted both men to laugh. Harry Moses, representing the coal operators, who was with them, however, did not laugh. The tour had followed the conference with the President in which Mr. Lewis agreed to call off the coal strike, prompted by the Wage Stabilization Board's cut of the soft coal miners' negotiated $1.90 per day wage increase by 40 cents.
The meeting had been opened by the
Federal mediator with a statement that the WSB, chaired by Archibald Cox, had overlooked certain
facts and been unfair to the miners, pointing out that they worked
only 200 days per year and had no fringe benefits such as paid
holidays or vacation, while, in the meantime, having greatly
increased coal production. He also stressed the hazards
Joseph & Stewart Alsop assess the campaign, finding that General Eisenhower had completely transformed himself from being a military man into a candidate and potential national political leader. He had become "Mr. Eisenhower" and had exuded a quality of human warmth which seemed "to glow like an element in a post". He had learned the "ugly intricacies of American party politics" which any national leader had to know. He had also gained the experience and self-confidence to be himself as "Mr. Eisenhower". They find that the man who had spoken in New York the prior Thursday and in Chicago the prior Friday was the "authentic and recognizable civilian version, big in stature, powerful in utterance, of the military Eisenhower who first captured the country's imagination and affection." That showed that, if elected, he would be able to guide his party and lead the country in accordance with his own outlook and principles and not have to yield to Republican factions who had sought to surround him. If the General were defeated in the election, the Republican Party would be left to the mercy of its own worst elements.
Those who had followed the campaign closely also had to admire Governor Stevenson, who, like the General, had made concessions to expediency, but unlike the General, could not promise the country a new unity. The Governor had talked forthrightly and courageously about the issues and been eloquent in calling the American people to a higher sense of their world responsibility, indulging in a minimum of campaign double-talk and false promises. The Alsops do not believe that the Governor would be the captive of President Truman if elected, or that the General, if elected, would be the captive of Senators Taft and McCarthy.
The Alsops indicate that it was not their practice to support or oppose candidates in national elections, that such was not the province of the reporter. They believe that the balance sheet between the two candidates stood as they had set forth and that the parties had done well by the nation in selecting two such men as their nominees to lead the country for the ensuing four years.
Robert C. Ruark tells of his "dough" having been riding on General Eisenhower all through the campaign, especially as things had closed down to the wire. He seeks to boil things down to their essence, eliminating the nasty back-and-forth charges that had been hurled during the campaign, finding that General Eisenhower had been considered to be a good and competent leader during the war and had an "honest face", an attractive wife, and impressive qualities of friendliness and common folksiness.
He finds Governor Stevenson to be neither homespun nor "ruggedly straight-forward", but rather "a man of great subtlety and considerable indirection of thought and speech", not arousing "the urge to either cuddle or caress in the mass female to the extent that Ike does". He finds the Governor's smile uneasy and "awkward on a rather pursy mouth", that he made great jokes, stated great aphorisms and "slick jingles", but that candidates had been known to "slip on subtlety and break their political necks".
The General had not been saddled with "the mass of Hollywood's pseudo-liberals and saloon society world-molders who early grabbed him only to rush to the arms" of Governor Stevenson later. He had going for him the fact that the Democrats had gotten the nation into "two wars, great inflation, high taxes, corruption in office, and a position of extreme nervousness in the world."
He predicts that there would be "a fetching set of bangs at the White House breakfast table for the next four years" if his reckoning held up—presumably referring to Mamie Eisenhower.
He has been hanging around the bars again.
A letter writer believes that a plan to use the Hill School building and grounds for a "little Smithsonian Institute" in Charlotte should be backed by all citizens to preserve the county's place in history.
A letter writer, a Northerner of foreign parentage, had listened during the campaign to the suggestion that graciousness of living had passed from the American scene and that it had occurred because the North, especially the non-Anglo-Saxon part of it, had been responsible for the decline of good taste and common courtesy. The writer does not deny that "preposterous delusions" about the South existed within the North, finding also that Southerners' criticism of Northern life was honest, accurate and tempered with good humor. He points out that American literature owed a great deal to Southerners, such as O. Henry, who portrayed the North in all its vices and virtues. He believed that the Southern appraisal of the North was fairer than the Northern assessment of the South. He finds that the pressing problem of the North was integration, indicates that the outfield of the Boston Braves the previous year had been comprised of a Jew, a black Roman Catholic and an Anglo-Saxon Protestant, perhaps offending "the finer sensibilities of some as a type of tolerance pregnant with vast dangers." But to the Northerner, it inspired "the hope that men can learn to live, work, fight and die together for a greater cause than their individual differences, without sacrificing the ideals they held in good conscience as a guide to private life." He indicates that the World War II honor roll in his hometown in Connecticut had represented at least 20 different nationalities, showing that such hope was not without basis. But such tolerance also produced "friction manifesting itself in admittedly lower standards of common courtesy" in relatively innocuous ways. He finds that to be better, however, than an "empty gentility" "purchased at the price of enforcing an obsequious mentality", not worth such a price in any section.
A letter from the treasurer of the United Community Services thanks the newspaper for its support and publicity of "The United Appeal", as presented in the newspaper on October 27 via a supplement.
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