The Charlotte News

Saturday, June 14, 1952

FIVE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Milo Farneti, that more than 150 allied fighter-bombers this date had wrecked a partly rebuilt Communist airfield, following two American regiments having repulsed a Chinese battalion trying to cut off their newly-won positions in the mass of hills on the western front. The U.N. pilots said that they had smashed the airport at 200 points with high explosives and demolition bombs. The Fifth Air Force described the airfield as having been bombed out of commission in the past and had been undergoing camouflaged repairs.

In the ground war, in some of the most savage ground fighting since the prior November, 45th Division troops stopped a Chinese battalion and regained all of the T-shaped group of hills west of Chorwon.

On Koje Island in Korea, U.S. military police drove 500 North Korean prisoners of war out of one compound with tear gas this date, taking away 15 leaders and liberating 273 anti-Communist prisoners. It was the third time during the day that guards had thrown tear gas grenades into new, smaller compounds to quell Communist defiance. The headquarters of camp commander, Brig. General Haydon Boatner, dismissed the incidents as minor and no casualties were reported. The 273 anti-Communist prisoners who said they wanted out of the compound raised the total number of prisoners to 783 who had so declared themselves since the prior Tuesday.

The President, in an address prepared for delivery at the ceremonies in Groton, Conn., for the laying of the keel of the nation's first atomic powered submarine, the Nautilus, stated that a "full-size, working" atomic engine for submarines was almost completed for test runs. He cautioned against efforts to sell the people on the idea that there was "some cut-rate, bargain-counter route" to national security. He said that he had heard of "somebody" recently talking about a 40-billion dollar tax cut, saying that "politics does funny things to people who are seeking office", a reference to General Eisenhower. He said that such a tax cut would leave the country with only about half the money needed to support its forces, even if it did not spend anything else.

The President, the previous day, at a commencement address at Howard University in Washington, criticized racial discrimination and prejudice, and said that civil rights could not be left up to the states to settle but had to be enforced by the Federal Government, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

In Hartford, Conn., Senator Brien McMahon of Connecticut, chairman of the joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee, addressing the Connecticut Democratic convention, this date proposed the manufacture of 1,000 or more "hydrogen weapons", implying that the U.S. had solved the secret of the hydrogen bomb. He said that if he were elected President, he would direct the Atomic Energy Commission to manufacture hydrogen weapons numbered in four figures, preventing war and buying time to wage peace. It was believed that he would be chosen by the Connecticut delegation as their choice for the nomination.

In London, William Martin Marshall, a 24-year-old radio operator in the British Foreign Office, was formally charged this date with passing State secrets to the Soviets. He was ordered held without bail and denied the charge, though had not yet entered a plea. He had been arrested by Scotland Yard the previous night in a London park. The chief inspector refused to confirm or deny a report that at the time of the arrest he was with the Soviet contact, the second secretary of the Soviet Embassy in London, to whom it was alleged he had passed the sensitive information.

In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko was named the new Russian Ambassador to Britain, interpreted by Western observers in Moscow as being intended to stress to Britain and the rest of the world the importance of Soviet-British diplomatic relations. Some observers believed that the move indicated that Russia hoped for improved relations with Britain by appealing to British neutralism in the Cold War, designed to split Britain from its Western allies by taking advantage of sentiment expressed by left-wing Labor leader Aneurin Bevan, who wanted to steer a separate course from U.S. defense policies.

Leaders of the United Steelworkers Union vowed to maintain their 13-day old strike until their cause was won, including all recommendations made by the Wage Stabilization Board. The statement recognized that the strike was shutting off badly needed steel from the war in Korea and it promised all possible help to produce such steel. The union, company and Government officials were presently working on a plan to resume production in some critical plants.

General Eisenhower this date spoke in Detroit, saying that he had a basic concern for and love of America, which was why he was running for the presidency. He did not follow his prepared text for either of two addresses in Detroit. The General would meet with party leaders who would help decide the vote of Michigan's 46 convention delegates.

Tom Fesperman of The News reports from Fort Mill, S.C., regarding the new Spring Mills headquarters, scheduled to open officially on Monday. Pictures of the new, modern building are included with his detailed description.

In Rockport, Indiana, 49 women were interested in meeting a former resident, who said in a letter published in the local newspaper that he would come back from his current home in West Virginia to look for a wife to be the mother for his two sons following his recent divorce, and would provide his new wife $28,000.

On the editorial page, "Too Big for His Breeches" tells of the South Korean Constitution, written in 1948 under U.N. sponsorship, empowering the democratically-elected Assembly to elect the President, which it was scheduled to do on June 23. Dr. Syngman Rhee, the incumbent, did not want to leave office, despite a majority of the members of the Assembly opposing him. President Rhee had threatened to dissolve the Assembly on the excuse that Communist plotters threatened to take over the Government, a claim which was denied by U.N. observers. He had therefore declared martial law and some of his opponents in the Assembly were then jailed, while others went into hiding. His supporters had boycotted the Assembly, such that a quorum was now lacking and no business could be performed. The President had banned Newsweek and the Voice of America broadcasts, which had criticized him.

Protest by President Truman and diplomats had not convinced President Rhee to change his position. He claimed that he wanted direct, rather than indirect, presidential elections. But his control over youth groups, the Army and the police, suggested that he really wanted to perpetuate his own rule.

It posits that but for U.N. intervention in Korea, the President would have long ago been hung, shot or imprisoned by the North Koreans. That did not mean that he should bow to his U.N. rescuers, but he did have a responsibility to maintain civil and military order in the country. The piece trusts that the U.N. would show Asia that it could cut down to size would-be manipulators of democracy, as well as outright aggressors.

"Taft and a Two-Party South" tells of the Christian Science Monitor, in analyzing the dispute over the contested Republican delegations from Texas, having concluded that a nascent Republican Party in the South could only begin by enlisting former Democrats, and it could only remain if those new Republicans continued to vote Republican. It regards it as the problem facing the Southern Republican delegates to the Chicago convention, whether they wanted an effective two-party system in the South and to try to win elections at the local, state and national levels, or whether they preferred to limit their activity to being wooed by presidential candidates every four years on the hope of a Republican achieving the White House and providing their few numbers with political patronage.

It finds that there was a great amount of enthusiasm for General Eisenhower among independent voters and Democrats in the South, and none for Senator Taft and his right-wing Republicanism. Thus, it posits that if the Southern delegates wanted to win the general election in November, they should vote for General Eisenhower.

"Silly Stuff" tells of three supporters of General Eisenhower, Senators Irving Ives, Charles Tobey, and Wayne Morse, having voted the previous week to give the President authority to seize the steel mills temporarily, and, according to David Ingalls, manager of Senator Taft's campaign, the fact having proved that there were grave doubts that General Eisenhower could conduct any kind of campaign against the Truman Administration. It finds the logic strained, as three Senators who supported Senator Taft had also voted to confirm Dean Acheson as Secretary of State, thus showing that there had to be grave doubts that Senator Taft could conduct any campaign against the Truman Administration's foreign policy. It wonders how silly politicians could get.

"Of Skyhootin' and Shibboleths" indicates that General Eisenhower had gone on the record enough to compare his grammar with that of President Truman. John Gunther had once written that the General had fired an aide who could not master the subtle differences between "shall" and "will". He said that the General spent a great deal of time with Fowler's Modern English Usage.

But, the piece finds that the General should spend more time with the book, judging by his Abilene press conference, and particularly his use of "shall" and "will". Fowler indicated that this dichotomy of usage was the "shibboleth" of the English language. The book stated that plain future or conditional statements and questions in the first person should utilize "shall" or "should", not "will" or "would". Webster's indicated that shall usually expressed mere futurity, whereas will expressed volition or willingness.

At Abilene, the General had interchanged the two forms with "gay abandon", saying, "I would say, let's start with the questions," and "I should say this, I am not going … to indulge in personalities," and "I would say this, I believe the struggle … should be stated in the terms of principles and objectives," and "I should say this: by no manner of means have I even given thought to the possibility of the people I should appoint to major positions". It provides yet another paragraph where he swapped the proper usages.

In other respects, it finds, he had displayed a solid grasp of the language, from rare words to slang. Some journalists did not understand his reference to "shibboleth" in describing any connection between him and any political administration. It finds that a man who called a shibboleth a shibboleth was preferable to one who called a mere note to Russia an "ultimatum", as had the President a few weeks earlier during a press conference.

It also could think of no better word than "skyhootin'", as used by the General to describe what would happen to inflation without controls on the economy. It finds it more expressive than the President's consistent references to "hooey"—though spelling the latter word in the column as the surname of the Senator, though pronounced the same way, not typically spelled the same way. It also thought "skyhootin'" was better than the President's reference to "eyewash" to describe preferential primaries. For everyone knew that they were "nothing but hogwash".

Would not that be an accurate reference to this particular piece, too?

And query whether, if the initial party nominee selection process be primary, that makes the general election between the nominees secondary. It is as much to ask that, if one should finish successfully the primary grades, why would one need waste time with the secondary, let alone undergraduate and post-graduate years.

"A Question" tells of section 163-201 of the North Carolina General Statutes, entitled the "Corrupt Practices Act", providing that intimidation of voters by officers of the State Government was a misdemeanor, and wonders whether that included the Governor.

A piece from the Boston Herald, titled "Child's Eye View", tells of accompanying a little boy on a trip to town, and experiencing through his eyes, the wonder of the sights, and, then on the way home, as the boy slept, finding a reason for each day's work, "and perhaps a way to make our Monday mornings high adventure once again."

A piece out of Washington, without attribution to a specific author or newspaper, examines the contested Southern delegations between Senator Taft's supporters and those of General Eisenhower, suggesting that the votes of 74 such contested delegates might decide the Republican nominee. The indications were that the Taft managers intended to take those contests to the floor of the convention, despite the fact that in most cases, the Taft delegates had been elected by fraud, deceit and bribery. Most observers believed that the Taft managers could win their points at the convention. A great deal depended on whether the contested delegates from Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas were temporarily seated at the convention, in which case they would have the right to vote on every issue except the contest in which their own seats were challenged.

It explains more detail, comparing the situation, as had James Marlow earlier in the week, to the 1912 convention, when similar contests had been waged from the South regarding support for Senator Taft's father, incumbent President William Howard Taft, against those favoring former President Theodore Roosevelt, who, disgusted by the outcome nominating President Taft, had bolted the Republican Party and formed the Bull Moose party, splitting the Republican vote, enabling Woodrow Wilson to win by a plurality.

But a crucial difference was that in 1912, the decision on seating delegates had been vested solely in the temporary convention chairman, who supported President Taft, whereas in 1952, the RNC would determine the seating of temporary delegates. The vote of the committee would be in secret session, with the public permitted only a limited view of what would take place.

It concludes that no matter what occurred, the Republican nomination would be obtained "by means comparable to those of Pendergastism in Missouri and O'Dwyerism in New York". It finds it a "millstone of fraud and deceit the Republicans will carry into the fall campaign."

Drew Pearson indicates that there were increasing signs that U.S. foreign policy, which was supposed to be formulated by the State Department with the advice and consent of the Senate, was actually being formed by Washington lobbyists. One skillful lobbyist was Charles Patrick Clark, who had helped obtain money for Spain at a faster rate than Generalissimo Francisco Franco had been able to spend it. During the previous two years, Congress had authorized or appropriated 187.5 million dollars for Spain, despite the fact that the White House and State Department had maintained that the sums were not necessary. Thus far, only about 59.8 million dollars of the total appropriation had been obligated, but Congress, while preaching economy, had continued to appropriate the money for Spain.

He returns to the topic of Congressman Eugene Keough of Brooklyn, who had suddenly, in 1949, become the great champion of dictator Franco after eleven years of his silence as a member of Congress on the topic of Spain and foreign affairs generally. He had taken a trip to Madrid in September, 1949, accompanied by Senator Owen Brewster, who, though of different political parties, had turned up in Spain together with Mr. Clark, just before the big drive for a loan to Franco. The two had also turned up in Venezuela together, also with Mr. Clark, in another country ruled by a dictator, in August, 1951, shortly after Mr. Clark had been paid $10,000 by the Venezuelan Government.

The Spanish lobby had started its major drive to have Spain included in the Marshall Plan in April, 1950, and at the same time Mr. Clark began paying Congressman Keough about $1,000 per month, allegedly for advice on a Federal tax case, though it was against the law for a Congressman to provide paid advice on Federal tax cases. The Spanish Embassy had sent Mr. Clark $5,000 to cover "expenses" in late April, 1950, and on the same day, Mr. Clark wrote a $1,000 check for cash and asked his secretary to cash it in $100 bills, telling her that he had a date to play gin rummy with Senator Brewster that evening, saying also that the Senator would be mad if the check were not cashed by that night. Two days later, Senator Brewster had introduced an amendment to the Marshall Plan appropriations to include Spain. Four months later, after continued efforts by Senator Brewster, Congressman Keough, Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada, who had also visited with Franco, and another lobbyist, the son-in-law of Vice-President Alben Barkley, the Senate added a rider to the appropriations bill approving 62.5 million dollars for Spain through the Export-Import Bank.

When asked about the matter, Senator Brewster said that he had been an advocate for aid to Spain for some time, and that he knew nothing about the $1,000 episode with Mr. Clark. Mr. Clark also denied that he had provided any monetary incentive to Senator Brewster to favor aid to Spain. He said that the reason for his having cashed the $1,000 check on April 25, 1950, was that he did that all the time, to pay for his furniture and other things.

Raymond Moley, in the last of his 12-part series of articles abstracted from his 1952 book, How To Keep Our Liberty: A Policy for Political Action, suggests that the system by which the country had achieved "incomparable economic achievement" was being abandoned for Marxist-style socialism. He indicates that there was a connection between natural resources in the country and the quest stimulated by a free economy to achieve liberty. Liberty and progress were indivisible and "[f]ree choice has delivered the goods". Economic liberty had created a system of self-government and vital creative forces.

But now that system was struggling in the country "to retain its capacity to grow and serve as it has in the past." Liberty remained the established order. But material services had not been and could not be the primary mission of liberty. Liberty had to "meet the need for a progressive growth in the mind and spirit of the individual."

"The lesson of all religion is that we are here because we need to be fitted for a destiny beyond the material world." The efforts of the individual to survive and grow created the energy which moved and sustained civilization. "Liberty, essential for personal effort, is therefore a value per se, a value indispensable for the attainment of spiritual fitness for an unseen but priceless destiny. The fruits of liberty are all around us but its central value is within us. Its preservation should be our business in life."

A short abstract by Senator Paul Douglas, from his book, Economy in the National Government, indicates that there was some confusion over the term "liberal", that true liberalism was a noble faith based upon a firm belief in the essential worth and dignity of human beings, that people should be given a full opportunity to grow and develop, and that it was a proper function of the state to help provide some of the means for obtaining a good life. True liberals, therefore, he suggests, wanted to free the individual from oppression and knew that the moral life was based upon the exercise of intelligent choice. They believed in freedom of the press and speech, religious toleration, and political democracy, while also understanding that the human spirit needed more than the negative virtues of freedom, but also the nourishment of education and opportunity. That had been recognized by such persons as Thomas Jefferson and had been reaffirmed in each generation.

"Gradually we have come to realize that people, and particularly children, need protection against overwork, ill-health, hunger, and slum housing. While the primary responsibility for choice should always be placed upon the individual, the community can help to provide better and better opportunities for exercising these choices. This, then, is the basic faith of a liberal. And, in that sense, I am proud to be one."

Robert C. Ruark remarks on the Koje Island prison riots and wonders whether the world had gone completely mad. He finds that the reporting of the casualties on the island to be in terms of communiqués, as if it were separate from the war in Korea, a war within a war. He had never heard of a war previously in which the prisoners were allowed to forge weapons openly in their blacksmith shops, where the generals were taken hostage and where the succeeding general in charge of the camp signed a separate peace with the prisoners to obtain the release of the general taken hostage.

He indicates that he had known Brig. General Charles Colson, who had made these terms with the prisoners, when the General had been the adjutant of General John Lee in Europe, and he had known him even then to be "more of a valet than otherwise, intent on petty detail." He was therefore not surprised that he had been demoted to colonel.

He also finds fault, however, with Brig. General Haydon Boatner, presently in charge of the camp, who had provided so many strong-man orders that he had gotten the U.N. forces involved in a third front with enemy soldiers already beaten.

He says that he would hate to die regarding any fight in Korea, but especially in one fighting prisoners, which seemed to him to be "the ultimate in idiocy".

He believes the Korean War had been "sufficiently asinine in its noblest aim", after two years of fighting "a kind of parliamentary action, and refusing to prosecute the battle to maximum potential." He finds that a nation which could not control its own prisoner-of-war compounds was in the wrong business of fighting wars.

He indicates that the reader might call it treasonous talk, were it not for the embarrassing facts that the prisoners had kidnapped Brig. General Francis Dodd, had signed a separate peace with General Colson, and were still in the process of fighting battles against special American assault troops. He finds it, from a distance, to appear as "one hell of a poor way to run a war."

Framed Edition
[Return to Links
Page by Subject] [Return to Links-Page by Date] [Return to News<i><i><i>—</i></i></i>Framed Edition]
Links-Date Links-Subj.