The Charlotte News
Saturday, April 26, 1952
TWO EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that the U.N. command this date had indicated planning of a new and possibly bold move to break the truce deadlock in Korea after the Communists had agreed to a plenary meeting of the delegations on Sunday. There was no indication yet what the allies would propose in this first plenary session since February 19. There remained overall three major issues in dispute, voluntary repatriation of prisoners, the allied-demanded ban on airfield construction and repair during an armistice, and the Communists' nomination of Russia as a neutral inspection nation.
This date, staff officers had met for six minutes regarding the truce supervision pair of issues, the nomination of Russia and the airfield issue. The prisoner exchange discussion had been recessed indefinitely on Friday following the rejection by the Communists of the indication by the allies that 70,000 of the 169,000 prisoners of war and civilian internees held by the allies would be repatriated, that the remainder had decided to remain. The Communists had insisted that at least 116,000 prisoners should be repatriated.
Communist ground fire shot down eight allied warplanes, including one U.S. Sabre jet, during the week, according to the Far East Air Forces weekly announcement. Three other allied planes had failed to return for unknown reasons. The same number of enemy MIG-15 jets had been shot down in air combat by U.S. Sabre jets during the week. The total losses by the Communists were eight jets destroyed, two probably destroyed and eight damaged. Five other Communist warplanes were also destroyed or damaged.
The U.S. Eighth Army, in its weekly report, said that the enemy had suffered 1,832 casualties on the ground.
This date, ground fighting was relatively quiet, with only patrol activity noted.
At the U.N., Harry Anslinger, the U.S. narcotics commissioner, accused Communist China of waging drug warfare against the U.N. in the Far East and stated that he would present fully documented cases to prove the charge before the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs the following week. He told a reporter that the Communists had a two-fold purpose, selling habit-forming drugs to finance party activities and to purchase war materials, and spreading of drug addiction to undermine the morale of U.S. and other troops in the Far East. He said that North Korean and Chinese Communists were involved in growing, smuggling and selling the drugs, chiefly heroin. Japan was the principal target and Japanese Communists were enlisted in the ring, which targeted U.S. soldiers and Japanese civilians in Japan, using brothels as an outlet for the pushers. The British had announced two years earlier that Communist China was attempting to peddle 500 tons of raw opium through Hong Kong. The Chinese Communists had refused the U.N. Commission's request for information about their opium stock. Mr. Anslinger said that U.S. businessmen had been approached by the Chinese Communists with an offer to exchange opium for cotton and that those businessmen had then informed the Government.
Rowland Evans, Jr., reports again on the steel dispute, as the two sides, the Government and industry, awaited a Federal District Court judge's decision on whether or not to issue a temporary injunction against the Government seizure of the steel mills and/or the proposed implementation by the Government of the wage increase for the steelworkers, following argument the previous day. The judge had taken the case under submission and had not indicated when he would deliver his decision. Meanwhile, Senator John W. Bricker of Ohio told a reporter that the comments in court the previous day by the assistant Attorney General, arguing that the courts lacked authority to limit the executive's exercise of inherent power in an emergency, were the "most absurd, most un-American and most dangerous statement ever made by an intelligent person, if he be one." He said that if the President could not be controlled by the courts, the country was on the brink of disaster and American liberty was gone.
Congressman Graham Barden of North Carolina, chairman of the House Labor Committee, announced this date that an investigation of the Wage Stabilization Board would be postponed for one week, until May 6.
A Gallup poll of Democratic county chairmen across the nation showed that most believed that in a showdown between Governor Adlai Stevenson as the Democratic nominee and Senator Taft as the Republican nominee, Governor Stevenson would win easily. They also believed that Senator Estes Kefauver would beat Senator Taft. When shown a list of twelve potential Democratic candidates and asked their preference, those outside the South voted for Governor Stevenson by a 2 to 1 margin over Senator Kefauver, 40 percent to 19 percent. Among Southern chairmen, Senator Richard Russell of Georgia topped the list, followed by Senator Kefauver and Governor Stevenson. The poll had also tapped their views on a race with General Eisenhower as the Republican nominee, the results of which would be published Monday.
Republicans in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia and Utah were electing delegates this date in state conventions, with the battle being between the forces of General Eisenhower and those of Senator Taft. Governor John S. Fine of Pennsylvania stated that it appeared that it was a "two-horse race" in the GOP between General Eisenhower and Senator Taft. Candidate Harold Stassen agreed with that assessment. Taft headquarters claimed 300 delegates for the Senator and 213 for General Eisenhower, with 603 needed to nominate. The Associated Press tabulation, however, based on pledged delegates, showed Senator Taft with 233 and General Eisenhower with 216.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., labeled a petition being circulated, demanding that General Eisenhower respond to 21 questions on major issues, as "picayune", saying that the General would talk when he got home "in his regular way", but not on a "whistle-stop tour".
Senator Richard Russell of Georgia appeared agitated the previous night when one of his supporters, speaking prior to the Senator's campaign speech, hinted at a Dixie revolt. The individual, the Georgia Democratic executive committee chairman, stated, "The South will sit at the head of the table or I will be damned if we will sit at all." At that point, Senator Russell appeared to tug at the man's coattail, at which point the speaker closed his remarks. He had begun by stating that the Civil War had been "the great tragedy of 1865 when the South was stricken down".
Senator Russell, in his speech to the $50 per plate dinner, formally opened his campaign, departing significantly from both of two drafts of the speech which had been submitted in advance to the press, saying that the country had to preserve its constitutional government and protect the sovereign states against "over concentration of powers in the Federal Government". He said that if the South would stand firm at the convention, Democrats from the rest of the nation would come to the Southerners and they would then receive victory. The preliminary draft had included a statement omitted from the delivered version, which said that Senator Russell was the only Democrat who could beat "a certain military person", obviously referring to General Eisenhower. He said that as a "Jeffersonian Democrat", he believed in equality before the law for every American citizen, without regard to race, creed or color, and believed in equal opportunities for every American under the Constitution, but added that he opposed "with vigor" any Federal infringement on the rights of the states. He said that NATO was vital to the security of the American people and also to the security and freedom of the people of Western Europe.
The eighth wife of playboy Tommy Manville, heir to an asbestos fortune, was killed this date in Greenburgh, N.Y., when the car she was driving collided with another car at an intersection near White Plains in Westchester County. The driver of the other car was unhurt. Mr. Manville and his 33-year old wife had been estranged at the time, but he said that they had remained friendly. They had been married since December, 1945 and had been legally separated since February, 1951. She had said that she would never give him a divorce. Mr. Manville had announced the previous month that he would marry a nightclub singer if his wife gave him a divorce. The singer, however, denied that there was any romance between the two.
In Detroit, an Ohio music teacher, who said that she was proud to be a nudist, declared that she was "humiliated and embarrassed" when convicted of indecent exposure after a raid on a nudist camp. She was testifying in a civil suit against Michigan authorities for raiding the camp. She and 17 other persons had been arrested near Monroe in August, 1949, and the teacher, along with four other women and four men, had been fined. She said that she was dressed at the time of the raid. She said that some of the men in the camp were playing volleyball at the time in the nude. She said that as a result of her arrest she had lost her teaching job and had suffered great emotional shock.
In St. Louis, a tavern owner changed the name of his place of business from the United Nations Bar to the White Flag Bar, after the U.N. had advised him earlier in the month that commercial use of the United Nations name was prohibited. The tavern owner mailed a letter to the U.N. saying that it was strange that the organization would waste its time with such petty matters when it had so many weighty problems to resolve. He said also that he hoped they considered themselves justified by their "infringement upon American personal liberties".
On page 5-A, the sixth and final
article in the series by Dr. W. C. Alvarez, "How To Live
On the editorial page, "Easter Week-end in the Holy Land", another by-lined piece by News editor Pete McKnight, this one from the Israeli section of Jerusalem, tells of the two states, Jordan and Israel, being separated by a narrow "no man's land" set off by barbed wire, but that the economic, religious, political and cultural divide between the two was "infinitely wider". He and his group touring the Middle East had spent the first part of the Easter weekend, two weeks earlier, in the old city of Jerusalem, presently occupied by Arab Jordanians.
On Thursday, he had spent the evening at the Syrian Church of John Mark, recognized by many religious groups as the site of the Last Supper in the Upper Room. About 50 pilgrims had assembled there to follow two Anglican priests as they retraced Christ's footsteps on that night of anguish nearly 2,000 years earlier. The procession had stopped periodically during the trek through the now-demolished Jewish Quarter, through the Dung Gate, down the steep hill to the Brook Kidron and across to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, to hear a reading of portions of the Biblical story. One of the young priests then read the story by moonlight and Mr. McKnight found it a moving experience which he would never forget.
On Good Friday, he followed various
Catholic national groups to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, along
jammed, narrow streets, many people having turned out to obtain a
glimpse of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's daughter, who was helping
to carry a cross
They then visited the Place of the Skull, believed by many Protestants to be the site of Calvary and of Christ's tomb. The Place obtained its name from the great cliff above, which appeared as a skull, below which was the tomb.
On Saturday night, they crossed into Israel, going by foot, after being checked at the Jordanian border, through the 150-foot wide no man's land and then were greeted on the other side by a Jewish rabbi. Israel was their last stop on the tour.
They began by attending Easter service at the Church of Saint Andrew and then visited Mount Zion and the Hebrew University, attended a tea given by Dr. Walter Clay Loudermilk, a world-famous soil expert, a pre-dinner conference with Dr. Abraham Biram, Governor of Israeli Jerusalem, and J. Herzog of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and then a post-dinner session with Ted R. Lurie, editor of the English-language Jerusalem Post.
Mr. McKnight indicates that his notebooks were full of facts and ideas and that it was unlikely that he would ever make heads or tails of the "tangled" Middle East situation, that if he ever did, it would have to be after he had left the area where passions on both sides were so heated, such that the "grey area between the black and white comes into focus."
"Our Publicity-Shy School Board" tells of the City Council having abandoned its executive sessions the previous May, while the Board of County Commissioners had violated the law by holding executive sessions the prior December regarding the proposed extension of the runway at the airport. It points out again that North Carolina law forbade executive sessions for local legislative bodies.
The Mecklenburg County School Board had a tendency to discuss its problems in private, and a few weeks earlier, a reporter for the News had been asked to leave one of their meetings while school consolidation was being discussed. The reporter had done so under protest.
The State Supreme Court had ruled in Kistler v. Board of Education that no statute or decision prohibited the holding of such executive sessions by school boards, but stated in dicta that it was probably not wise or expedient for it to do so.
In the case in point, only one part of the Board's recommendations had been made public, that pertaining to black schools. A consolidation survey was to be made and it was not clear, without disclosure of the full report, whether that was necessary or was simply duplicative of efforts already made.
It suggests that there was need for a statute preventing school boards from holding executive sessions and from suppressing reports, and recommends it to the next meeting of the General Assembly in early 1953.
Father Cranor F. Graves, assistant pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic Church, provides a guest editorial titled, "Freedom Flows from Faith in God", in which he finds it a sad age wherein man had to be reminded to give his Maker the worship He deserved. The title of the piece, he explains, derived from the motto of the local Jaycees' current project, reminding the public that social worship was a year-round obligation and that freedom was not an heirloom but was life, that maintaining freedom meant nourishing life, and that freedom flowed from faith in God.
Vic Reinemer, associate editor of The News, in charge of the editorial page during the time that editor Pete McKnight was touring the Middle East, looks at the race for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, focusing on Senators Estes Kefauver of Tennessee and Richard Russell of Georgia, both, he assesses, being fairly "regular" Democrats, often voting together on the issues. An analysis of the issues on which they had voted differently provided a look at how they differed on particular topics. Senator Russell, as things appeared presently, would likely go to the convention in July with more pledged delegates than any other Democrat, while Senator Kefauver would have more primary victories than any other Democratic candidate.
The previous year, both had voted with the majority of the party more often than did the average Democratic Senator, who had a 77.8 percent party-line vote. Senator Russell voted with the party 89 percent of the time and Senator Kefauver, 90 percent. In the previous Congress, Senator Russell had voted with the party 67 percent of the time and Senator Kefauver, 95 percent. In the 80th Congress, Senator Russell voted with the party 82 percent of the time and then-Congressman Kefauver, 89 percent.
The previous year, Senator Russell had voted against the majority of his party 11 times, and Senator Kefauver, 10 times.
He next provides the Congressional Quarterly individual records on ten key votes for each Senator. In 1949, they had differed on four of those ten votes, which he then lists. In 1950, they had differed on five of the ten, which he also lists. In 1951, they had agreed or were not recorded on all ten of the key votes, and had agreed on 16 of the 26 outstanding roll calls. In 1952, thus far, they had differed on four major votes of record.
Among the different votes were primarily labor issues and foreign aid issues, with the only civil rights-related issue on which they differed being the vote on a resolution to amend the Senate's cloture rule, which Senator Kefauver favored, which would have made it more difficult for Senators to oppose civil rights legislation via filibuster.
He concludes that the delineation perhaps over emphasized the differences between the two Senators, as they agreed on many vital issues. He suggests, however, that their differences might be enough to permit wishful Southerners to determine which of the two men they would rather see in the White House.
Drew Pearson tells of newsmen rushing to try to get close to General Eisenhower, believing that he might become the next President, and that he was even experiencing the jealousies already of the palace guard, that same jealousy among President Truman's close advisers which sometimes contributed to his isolation. It had begun with General Eisenhower a year earlier when the Pentagon had to assign a press relations officer to his staff. Colonel Pete Carroll, one of his closest aides, reported that the General wanted Merrill Mueller, an NBC commentator, to handle press relations, but instead got Brigadier General C. T. Lanham, a tough combat officer, wounded during the war in Germany. General Lanham played no favorites, issued no diplomatic denials and had steered clear of politics. But also attached to General Eisenhower's staff was Colonel Jock Lawrence of Hollywood, the former publicity agent for Sam Goldwyn and later for J. Arthur Rank's British movies. Colonel Lawrence was vying for top position in the palace guard, but appeared to have fallen by the wayside after Howard Chase, public relations expert for General Foods Co., had entered the picture as advance political publicity man for General Eisenhower in New York.
Thus far, the object of the attention, General Eisenhower, himself, did not appear spoiled by it, remaining simple and direct, as well as somewhat politically naïve. He believed that the General was reluctant to sever all ties with the Army, which had been his career. Yet, he appeared completely civilian-minded and would lean over backwards, if President, not to encroach on civil, business and human liberties. There would be far less chance, opines Mr. Pearson, of seizure of the steel industry in an Eisenhower Presidency, less so than even in a Taft Presidency, though Senator Taft was in the forefront of the criticism of the President's current seizure.
General Eisenhower also had a healthy respect for the truth, which had been on display at a point during the war when his headquarters issued a denial of the incident in Sicily in which General Patton had slapped a shell-shocked private. At the time, the Army's word was considered gospel and so all newspapers were willing to accept the denial as conclusive, until the next day, when General Eisenhower returned to his headquarters and found out about it, ordering his staff to reverse the denial.
General Eisenhower's mother had been a pacifist and a Jehovah's Witness, a religious sect which crusaded for pacifism to the extent that some local authorities had outlawed its distribution of literature. The General had inherited some of his mother's pacifism, which did not seem strange to Mr. Pearson, as he was convinced that the best soldiers, who understood what war really was, were also the best pacifists.
He indicates that the General would also be militant in his championing of racial and religious minorities, but did not know where he stood precisely on the issue of a compulsory Fair Employment Practices Committee, suspects that he would be against it as he did not like compulsion or government bureaus. He indicates that with regard to the other domestic issues, the General probably had a lot to learn and would be first to admit that point, that he would likely "bump his head many times" before he did learn.
Marquis Childs discusses Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois emerging out of the wreckage of scandals as a central figure on the landscape, though earnestly insisting that he was not a candidate for the presidency. Yet, some Democrats believed that his resistance, similar to that of Governor Adlai Stevenson, might be overcome. Senator Douglas had announced his support for Senator Estes Kefauver, and some took it to mean that he was adopting the proper stance to become a candidate, himself. He had at one point in the year suggested that General Eisenhower be nominated by both parties, and so had to work his way back into party loyalty, which he had done by endorsing Senator Kefauver on television and before newsreel cameras. His loyal followers saw the eventual ticket as being Douglas-Kefauver.
In the steel dispute, he had rebuked the President for his "intemperate and exaggerated" statement that the steel companies were earning $19.53 per ton in profits. He indicated in a radio interview that those profits were before taxes, but then also rebuked the steel companies for asking for an excessive price increase of $12 per ton to compensate for the Wage Stabilization Board's recommended wage increase of 17.5 cents per hour.
Mr. Childs suggests that the steel dispute was likely to become, unless resolved in the meantime, one of the hottest issues of the campaign. He had pointed out in his column recently that steel profits had increased about 66 percent since 1949, compared to 17 percent for other manufacturing industries, that differential being an important factor in causing Economic Stabilizer Roger Putnam to conclude that the steel industry could absorb the recommended wage increase with a three dollar per ton price increase, the most allowed under current controls law. Some of his letter writers had pointed out, however, that the profits of which he spoke were before taxes. But other writers had also pointed out that such profits were not totally meaningless, as those profits could be used for a variety of corporate purposes, including wage increases and bonuses for executives, as well as capital investment, thereby being shielded from taxes. He also points out that it was seldom indicated that the wage increase to be implemented was also before taxes.
At his recent press conference, the President had dismissed the steel issue as being of no consequence, but Senator Douglas understood that it could not be brushed aside that easily. On the issues of economy and corruption, Senator Douglas had an outstanding record and had consistently opposed pork-barrel spending in the rivers and harbors appropriations bills and had also insisted that the Defense Department scale down its huge expenditures without impairing national security.
Robert C. Ruark, still in Fort Worth, tells of being sure of one thing whenever he visited that city, that he would be able to obtain a free haircut, because his barber, James Wright, had been a gunner's mate third class on an old ship, the Eli Whitney, during the late war, and Mr. Ruark had been his boss. Mr. Wright had made a pile of money on the ship cutting hair, but he had always cut Mr. Ruark's hair free of charge, lest Mr. Ruark become cross and cut off his trade. Mr. Ruark had 29 sailors under his watch and knew that whenever he heard that somebody off the ship had slugged the shore patrol or stolen a taxi or busted up a bar or contracted some rare disease or bizarre ailment, the malefactor had come from his ship. He proceeds to list some of their wilder exploits.
But at sea and in trouble, they were the "greatest collection of brave and competent men" he had ever met during the war and were possessed of high morale. He believes there would never be another crew just like them, and it had been nice to see his old barber again, though the years had calmed him considerably since an afternoon in Casablanca—which he does not bother to elucidate.
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