The Charlotte News
Saturday, December 13, 1952
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that South Korean troops this date had retaken Little Nori Hill, lost two days earlier, and had driven from it the remnants of the Communist troops, while continuing to hold it despite further Communist artillery fire and infantry assaults. Other South Korean troops had attacked the Communists on Big Nori Hill, about 300 yards to the north. Both hills, gateposts to the traditional northern invasion route to Seoul, had been taken by the Communist in swift attacks early on Thursday.
The Air Force reported that four allied planes had been lost over North Korea during the previous week, but none of them had been lost in air battles with enemy MIG-15s. Sabre jets had shot down 10 MIGs, probably destroyed one other and damaged one during the week.
At the U.N. in New York, a Russian citizen, the personal assistant to the highest-ranking Russian in the U.N. Secretariat, had been barred from re-entry to the U.S. on suspicion of spying, according to an authoritative source. Both men had been in the Soviet Union for months and were long overdue for return to the U.N., giving rise to speculation that the boss might be in disgrace with the Soviet Government and would not return. His secretary, an American citizen, had appeared before the Senate Internal Security subcommittee and identified herself as a former Communist, saying that she had become bored with it and left the party. The subcommittee praised her for her candor.
Senator Arthur Watkins of Utah, a Republican, joined opponents of the proposed Congressional investigation of General MacArthur's plan to end the war in Korea, saying that he believed such an investigation might risk inadvertent disclosures of matters which should be maintained in secret. The Senator had earlier suggested that the President ought to explore as early as possible the plan with both President-elect Eisenhower and General MacArthur. The President, in his Thursday news conference, had rejected that suggestion.
A reliable source in Honolulu said that the President's statement at the press conference that the President-elect's trip to Korea was "a piece of demagoguery" had hurt General Eisenhower and nearly killed any chance of friendly relations between the two men in the future. The source said that the General was shocked and puzzled by the statement and believed it uncalled for, undignified, and should be ignored. The President-elect was preparing to return to New York from Honolulu.
The President was expected to prop up his controls program this date by naming new industry members to the Wage Stabilization Board, after the seven previous members had resigned in protest of the President's order overturning the WSB decision to cut 40 cents from the UMW's negotiated wage increase of $1.90 per day. The Board could not meet until the new members were appointed. The President had appointed Joseph Freehill the previous day as administrator of the Office of Price Stabilization, replacing Tighe Woods, who had resigned on November 24. The new administrator immediately announced that a fourth of his staff had to be laid off because of budget cuts.
In Raleigh, whereas several observers three months earlier were predicting that the 1953 General Assembly session would be harmonious, as the time grew nearer for its start, there were increasing signs of trouble ahead. One of the major issues which promised dissension was liquor, whether to hold a statewide referendum on the question of returning to prohibition or retaining the county options system. Another problem could arise from the veterans bonus issue, whether to submit the matter to the people for a vote. The question of school desegregation, presently before the Supreme Court, also could produce argument. This session, however, was expected not to arouse as much friction between the Governor's office and the Legislature as had the 1951 session, as Governor-elect William B. Umstead had more supporters in the Assembly than had outgoing Governor Kerr Scott.
In Rockland, Maine, a fire destroyed 16 business establishments and two hotels the previous night. A dozen families living in apartments over some of the stores were left homeless.
In San Francisco, two San Francisco police inspectors had arrested in Richmond, California, during the morning, a man in connection with the mass slaying of a grocer and three children in Chester, California. The man's father was also arrested by Fresno police. A three-year old survivor of the attack had told of two men in a blue sedan, one of them masked, having bludgeoned her father, her two sisters and their playmate to death. The brief account does not explain why the two San Francisco police inspectors were involved in the arrest in Richmond, a separate jurisdiction in another county across the bay.
In Detroit, a woman sued a physician for $100,000, claiming that he had removed her gall bladder when he was supposed to have treated an injured hand. That took a lot of gall.
In Charlotte, a police officer was in fair condition in the hospital after having been accidentally shot in the neck by a fellow officer during a gunfight with a man the police were seeking to capture the previous night. The man being sought was shot in the hand, back and chest, and was in serious condition. The officers had been called to the man's home on a report that he was armed with a shotgun and was shooting it, that he was drunk and had chased his family from the home with the shotgun. He had called through the door, saying that he would shoot anyone who came into the house. After the officers then retreated to the street, the man fired the shotgun, prompting the exchange of gunfire.
Also in Charlotte, a robbery attempt at the Sears store had failed the prior Tuesday when a courageous salesgirl had discovered the would-be robber rifling a cash register and forced him to return the $100 he had taken, grabbing him by his necktie after she had gotten the money back and attempting to hold him until help arrived. He had broken away, however, and escaped. She was complimented by the store manager for her bravery, but denied that it took much courage as the man was no bigger than she was and had readily returned the money when encountered.
Voting, as expected, in the 17.8 million dollar bond election this date in Charlotte was light, with no more than 15,000 of the 90,000 registered voters in the city and county expected to turn out. Voters had expressed that the new system being tested with automatic voting machines at seven of the city's precincts, was quick and simple.
On the editorial page, "Too Much Power for One Man" indicates that the new Congress ought look at the Walsh-Healey Act passed in 1936, which gave the Secretary of Labor the power to establish the minimum wage for all Government contracts of $10,000 or more, passed to prevent low-wage competition from companies which took unfair advantage in the bidding process for Government jobs. Under the Democratic Administrations, and especially under present Secretary of Labor Maurice Tobin, the Act had been used as an executive tool to force, by administrative fiat, higher nationwide minimum wage scales than Congress had established. The Wage & Hour law presently in effect provided for a minimum wage of 75 cents per hour for all industries operating in interstate commerce. Yet, Secretary Tobin had recently announced that he was setting a new minimum wage in the textile industry of $1.03 per hour.
It indicates that the wage was not too much pay for the textile worker, that most of them already received more than that amount, but too much power had been vested by the Act in the Secretary of Labor. The Congress had amended the law to allow industries to take the Secretary to court if they objected to his decisions, but it finds that it ought be amended further to prevent such authority to establish minimum wages, normally reserved to Congress.
"Russell Rejects an Unwise Proposal" tells of Senator Richard Russell of Georgia having rejected Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt's suggestion that the Armed Forces Committee, chaired by Senator Russell, take up the matter of General MacArthur's suggestion that he had a way to end the Korean War. It indicates that the Committee, meeting jointly with its House counterpart, had held hearings on the firing of General MacArthur in 1951 and that the evidence had been so conflicting that the joint Committee did not bother to issue a report. It finds that there was no point in retracing those steps at this juncture, with a new Congress set to open in early January, in which the Senate would be controlled by the Republicans. Moreover, the President-elect was a military man with a background fully as illustrious as that of General MacArthur, and he had just completed a trip to Korea. The conduct of the war would be the responsibility of the new Administration, in collaboration with the U.N. allies, and so it would serve no purpose to explore General MacArthur's ideas about the Korean War at this point.
"A Man and a College" praises McAlister Carson of Charlotte, who was retiring as head of the Board of Trustees of Queens College after 24 years in the post. It indicates that he had broadened the philosophical base and improved the physical plant of the College and deserved a rest. The president of the College, Dr. C. C. Jernigan, had found an able replacement in H. H. Everett, and was fortunate to have both men at his side.
"It's Hard To Please Everybody" tells of John P. McKnight, brother of News editor Pete McKnight, having received the North Carolina Mayflower Cup for the year for his book, The Papacy. It congratulates him on the award, after reviewing the various critics, some of whom praised the book while others attacked it as "superficial and bitterly anti-Catholic", a comment by the Boston Herald, or that it "ignores scholarship, invents, twists, indulges in sophistry, descends to the cheapest of shabby tricks, imputes motives, quotes out of context—in short, resorts to just about every item in the calendar of intellectual crimes and misdemeanors", as observed by the Buffalo Union & Echo. But the Christian Science Monitor had said that it was a sincere attempt by an American Protestant "to handle a difficult and controversial theme honestly and objectively".
Leaving the criticism aside, it praises Mr. McKnight, who had once worked for the newspaper on the state desk, indicating that the book showed a flare for the written language, and urges him to remember words of Lord Byron, which it quotes, in dealing with the mixed critical reaction, urging to "Seek roses in December, ice in June", in addition to other things, "or any other thing that's false, before you trust in critics".
A piece from the Deseret (Ut.) News & Telegram, titled "Tough—But Effective", tells of a Federal Judge in the Midwest, former Governor Luther Youngdahl of Minnesota, having during the week called the American who drove his automobile while under the influence of alcohol "as great a menace to the dignity of human life as Communism." He asserted that the traffic safety record of the country could be revolutionized overnight, saving thousands of human lives in the process, by imposing stiff penalties, including license revocation, against drunk drivers, reckless drivers and speeders. The length of the proposed revocation would depend on the seriousness of the offense.
The piece regards the suggestion as sound, with the only question being whether also a mandatory jail term ought be included. A couple of years earlier, a Salt Lake City judge had created a furor in enunciating a policy of jailing for five days anyone caught with an expired drivers license. While there had been question about imposing a jail sentence for such a minor offense, the policy had been effective in getting people to renew their licenses. It suggests that there should be no argument about imposing jail time for those who endangered the lives of everyone on the highway, and feels that such a program would be effective in encouraging safer driving.
Drew Pearson tells of the Hungarian Communist minister to Washington, Dr. Emil Weil, who attended a meeting at the Barbizon Plaza Hotel in New York on November 9, which he believes should constitute ample evidence that Dr. Weil was meddling in American politics. He was encouraging American Communists and Hungarian-Americans to oppose the U.S., something contrary to diplomatic rules, as foreign envoys were not supposed to meddle in the politics of any country, and a diplomat who did so was subject to recall.
For instance, Sir Lionel Sackville-West of the British Embassy had immediately been called home when he wrote a private letter advising an alleged British citizen in the U.S. to vote for Grover Cleveland during the election of 1888 against Benjamin Harrison.
Dr. Weil was a practicing physician who had administered the debilitating drug during the trial of Cardinal Mindszenty in Budapest and had been stationed in Washington for more than two years. Thus far, the State Department had found no evidence under the rules of diplomacy for requesting his recall. But Mr. Pearson recaps in detail the meeting at the Barbizon Plaza, providing extensive quotes against the United States from the main speaker at the event, Carl Marzani, who had worked for the O.S.S. and the State Department during the war, but was convicted afterward of failing to reveal that he was a Communist. Dr. Weil had remained for the entire speech, as any other diplomat would have, but at the end, the theater spotlight had focused on him and other members of the legation staff, whereupon he bowed several times as the audience loudly applauded. He also placed a contribution in a box, to which Mr. Marzani had made reference, urging contributions to undermine the American Government and deliver the American People "out of their slavery".
Mr. Pearson suggests that a lenient interpretation of diplomacy rules might suggest that up to the point of making a contribution, Dr. Weil had broken no rule, but from that point on, he had stepped beyond diplomatic bounds. In addition, at the exit of the theater had been a stack of booklets for sale, among them one called "Hungary's Churches Today", printed by the Hungarian News and Information Service, operated officially by the Hungarian Communist Government. Mr. Pearson assumes that the booklet was brought to the event by the Hungarian legation, indicating that it had given its blessing to the meeting. A cultural attaché of the legation was gathering up the balance of the booklets after the event, and after consulting with Dr. Weil, left for a waiting car.
What about a "President" who solicits from the head of a foreign government a publicly announced investigation of a political opponent in the upcoming presidential election, in exchange for a personal phone call, a White House meeting, both of which to give the new foreign government a boost in prestige and legitimacy in the eyes of its countrymen, and for release of much-needed foreign aid from the U.S.? Does that not give the American people, through their elected representatives, the right to call that "President" home and send him back to New York or Florida, or wherever else he might choose to reside as a private citizen again, especially when it was plainly a bribe?
Stewart Alsop tells of President-elect Eisenhower and Secretary of State-designate John Foster Dulles having been appalled by the manner in which the Government reached momentous decisions on foreign and defense policy. Mr. Dulles had proposed to have a kind of National Policy Planning Staff to coordinate policy prior to it being presented to the National Security Council, which had, since its creation in 1947, served to improve the coordination of policy under the Truman Administration but still left much to be desired. The chairman of the Staff, under the proposal, would be on the NSC.
The problem with the current procedures was that when a policy paper was initiated, perhaps from the State Department, the Defense Department, the Psychological Strategy Board or the National Security Resources Board of the CIA, or some other department or agency, often taking several months to formulate, it only then came to the NSC subordinates, who then reviewed it before providing it to the actual members of the NSC. If the Council approved it, it was then presented to the President for approval. The process led to slow decision-making on long-term policy. Mr. Dulles wanted to streamline that process by having the Staff of distinguished and experienced men who would be under the direct control of the NSC. The Staff members would have the sole job of planning long-range policy in specific and realistic terms.
Mr. Dulles was aware that such a Staff could produce conflicting authority, such as when the Secretary of State might oppose a proposal by the Staff. But it was encouraging that the President-elect and the Secretary of State-designate were thinking in such terms. The Truman Administration had not done badly since the war in facing the tremendous challenges in foreign policy. But there remained enough confusion in coordinating long-range policy that some new organization was needed.
Robert C. Ruark tells of leaving New York behind for five weeks to take a vacation in Kenya where he would go on another safari. His first stop would be in Ethiopia, where he would spend Christmas, then would proceed to Egypt, and if he made it out of there, where he knew a lot of nefarious people in Cairo, with his life, he would proceed to Kenya, where the Mau Mau were eating the citizens more or less raw. He fancied himself to be a likely morsel at the moment and knew a banker in Kenya who proceeded to work every day "rodded up like Hopalong Cassidy". He would write stories if he found any, and not write if he did not. He says he was feeling lazy at the moment.
"Goodbye, bosses! Farewell dogs! So long, mama! Write me when you get steady work."
So long and here's hoping you stay there.
A letter writer comments on the editorial on December 10 regarding gifted children, finding it to be "straight thinking" and laying the foundation for a specific suggestion. His two boys had left private education and entered the public schools the previous fall. The one who was entering high school was adequately challenged and making satisfactory progress, but the other, who had entered junior high school, was bored. Both of the schools were held in high regard and were well-managed. But the high school offered advanced as well as regular classes, whereas the junior high school made no distinction among students, placing the slow students with the normal and gifted children. The parent had discussed with the principal of the junior high the possibility of advanced sections and felt sure that he would do what he could the following fall, hopes that the newspaper might push the matter editorially.
A letter writer from Pittsboro says that when his subscription to the newspaper expired, he would not renew it only because he could not obtain it on the day of publication. But he nevertheless enjoyed the newspaper and commends specifically the editorial appearing on December 9 regarding school desegregation before the Supreme Court. He believes the newspaper approached the subject with "poise and sound judgment" and had reinforced its opinion by reprinting a part of the court opinion of Judge Wilkin on that date, which upheld the separate-but-equal doctrine with respect to a public golf course in Nashville, Tenn. He agrees with the opinion put forth by Judge Parker of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in which he had indicated that parents had the right to a say in how their children were educated. He believes that matters of education were left to the states under the Constitution and that segregation was permissible as long as the educational facilities were substantially equal. He was willing to accept the decisions of the Supreme Court regarding the need for substantially equal facilities for graduate and professional schools, even when there was little demand in many states by blacks for access to such schools. He thinks that blacks, however, were being done a disservice by being told that they could obtain what they wanted "by compulsion rather than by evolution". He ventures that the habits and customs of people were not readily changed by force and the black should be taught to take "a pride in his own race and institutions" rather than being encouraged to amalgamate with the white race. "Purebreds should be the objective among races of people as well as among breeds of cattle." "Only in the barnyards of man do we find confusion of the species." He thinks that people were missing "God's objectives in promulgating the doctrine of one blood and the resulting confusion of the human species. Nature's purity suggests that we may be doing exactly that."
Whatever you say. If you can show us a single instance of "nature's purity" in human history, we look forward to the demonstration.
A letter writer from Richmond, Va., indicates that the Richmond Times-Dispatch had reprinted the newspaper's editorial, "Let's Save the Rebel Yell, Suh", and he says, pursuant to the invitation of the piece, that he knew what the real yell sounded like, that it had been the old fox hunting cry, transferred to the battlefield. It was known to have been used at the Battle of Gaines Mill on June 24, 1862, and was thought to have been used even earlier. He attempts to reduce it to print—which we are not going to replicate, as we are tired of doing so.
If you want to go hunting for foxes
Framed Edition
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