The Charlotte News
Tuesday, June 17, 1952
FIVE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Swedish were infuriated over the attack by two Soviet MIG-15 jets which, the previous day, had shot down an unarmed Swedish flying boat, as it searched for a missing transport plane off the coast of Estonia. The search continued for the missing plane this date and jet fighter escorts were sent along with the searchers, with orders to shoot if any Russian planes attacked. It was assumed that the missing plane had also been shot down by the Russians. About 5,000 persons turned out in Stockholm at the Russian Embassy the previous night, jeering and shouting: "We will see Stalin hanged," and "Down with the Communistic warmongers." Editorials appearing in Stockholm newspapers bitterly attacked the Russians, calling it an act of "piracy", "gangsterism" and "ruthless terrorism".
A surprise offer by the Russians to return 186 American ships was regarded by the State Department as advancing negotiations for settling the Soviet Union's eleven billion dollar war lend-lease account. The negotiations regarding the ships had gone on for more than five years. More than 670 ships had been turned over to the Soviets under lend-lease during the war. The U.S. was expected to accept the proposal but would also renew demand for the return of the other ships. The Russians had also offered 300 million dollars for a final lend-lease settlement, rejected by the U.S., which was seeking 800 million plus the ships. The Russians rejected an American proposal to submit the dispute to the International Court.
The Senate preparedness subcommittee, chaired by Senator Lyndon Johnson, called this date for a faster build-up of U.S. air power, citing testimony by the Joint Chiefs in support of the position. The goal of a 143-wing Air Force by the end of 1954 would require such increased production. The "stretch-out" program which had been decided upon by the President and his advisers would seriously reduce the anticipated military capabilities of the U.S. and NATO to withstand any all-out attack by Russia prior to 1956, according to the subcommittee's report.
The House approved legislation increasing Social Security benefits by at least five dollars per month, expected to cost about 300 million dollars per year. The vote was 362 to 22. The roll call had been requested by Representative Gerald Ford of Michigan, as some House members had gotten into political trouble the previous month when a similar measure had been voted down. The new measure had been modified to meet the objections of some members that it had within it the seeds of socialized medicine, by requiring that those receiving permanent disability benefits be confirmed in that status by Government-approved physicians.
The Army disclosed this date that it had sent anti-aircraft batteries to defensive positions in the areas of some strategic industrial plants, big cities and Air Force centers. The announcement said that the move had no special significance, but it came shortly after the Air Force had ordered a 24-hour watch for possible enemy planes. The exact locations of the batteries were not disclosed.
In Maine, Senator Owen Brewster, the fifth ranking Republican in the Senate, had been defeated the previous day for renomination by Governor Frederick Payne, by a margin of 3,000 votes. It was unlikely that a Democrat could win the general election in September, as no Democrat had won a major office in Maine since 1934. Senator Brewster had served two full terms in the Senate and had also been Governor and a Congressman for six years.
General Eisenhower began this date his attempt to woo additional Republican delegates votes from the Western states for the national convention, focusing on Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
The Army this date ruled that General MacArthur was not subject to regulations banning political activity by active members of the Armed Forces, though not mentioning him by name, referring instead generically to the exception made for the small number of five-star generals.
In New York, the Long Island Railroad, which had been shut down by an engineers' strike, creating one of the metropolitan area's largest traffic jams, this date tightened a freight embargo on its 400 miles of line. There was no indication of an immediate settlement in view.
In Pittsburgh, an argument between two brothers over the selection of a bride by one of the brothers resulted in the younger of the two, 24, stabbing himself to death. Both brothers had survived Nazi concentration camps during the war.
In Rock Hill, S.C., an attorney filed notice that he would seek a new trial for Nathan Corn, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of a Rock Hill oil dealer, George Beam, Jr., in June, 1948, the motion to be based on newly discovered evidence consisting of a confession by Mr. Corn's father, who had died the previous May 13. Mr. Corn had been tried twice and convicted both times, sentenced to death after the first trial, but the State Supreme Court had reversed that conviction. The body of the victim had been found stuffed in a crate, in a creek, weighted down with an oil meter.
The heat wave which had beset the Midwest and East Coast was subsiding this date, after being responsible, directly or indirectly, for 128 deaths, including 19 from heat prostration and 109 drownings. Cool air out of the Pacific Northwest had lowered temperatures by 15 to 25 degrees from the Dakotas to the Texas Panhandle.
On the editorial page, "The U.N. and U.S. Foreign Policy" tells of Porter McKeever, formerly chief of information for the U.S. delegation to the U.N. for six years, having tendered his resignation with the warning that the U.N. was no longer the dominant influence in U.S. foreign policy, causing some observers who had been skeptical of the U.N. all along to find his words confirming their doubts, while others, who supported the U.N., were not convinced by his statements.
The piece believes that he had omitted certain qualifying factors in viewing the temporary decline of the U.N. as an influence on the country's foreign policy, the first of those being the fact that U.S. foreign policy during the previous three or four years had been directed toward preparation for war, or at least defense against war, whereas the U.N. was not an instrument for waging war but rather a vehicle for waging peace. As long as war dominated U.S. foreign policy, the U.N. could not be a dominant influence. Also, while NATO and the Southwest Pacific agreements bypassed the U.N. in one sense, they were also regional mutual security pacts permitted under the U.N. Charter. Furthermore, the gap between East and West had been so large that the U.N. had been unable to bridge it. That, it finds, had not been the fault of the U.N. or the result of the Security Council's unilateral veto available to the Big Five members, upon which the U.S. had been as insistent at the formation of the Charter as had Russia. It was rather the result of 20th century man being unable to solve the world's problems without resort to arms or threat of arms.
While the U.N. had its shortcomings, it did constitute a body through which a meaningful expression of the hopes of the American people for a world forum could be realized, where battles could be fought with ideas rather than guns. The U.S. had a solid record of supporting the U.N., and, it suggests, if the organization was presently too weak to fulfill the hopes of the free world, it should be strengthened rather than abandoned.
"An Easy One" indicates that the previous day, the local elections board chairman had directed some of his people to try a new tally sheet in an effort to speed tabulation of election results. But for the previous couple of years, the county had at its disposal voting machines, which were in use all over the nation. For some reason, however, the chairman was reluctant to use them. It favors eliminating human error, as the chairman had promised to do, by simply replacing the tally sheets with the "fool-proof" voting machines.
Well, they are fool-proof, as long
as some fool does not present you with a very confusing butterfly
ballot
"The Republican Issue" lists a panoply of foreign policy measures against which Senator Taft had voted, starting with the draft bill of August, 1940 and the lend-lease bill of March, 1941, the U.N. Charter in 1945, stretching through military aid to Europe and Asia in September, 1949, NATO in 1949 and Point Four in May, 1950.
It suggests that the real issue between Senator Taft and General Eisenhower as the potential Republican nominee had been confused by their respective stands on matters such as the FEPC, taxes, agriculture, labor, tidelands oil, and other such domestic issues, when that actually at stake was whether the Republicans wanted a candidate who had led the forces of freedom, from Normandy to NATO, or a candidate who had led the fight against the unity and progress of the free world.
"Good Riddance" tells of
the Maine Republicans having done their party and the nation a service
the previous day by nominating Governor Fred Payne for the Senate
seat held by Senator Owen Brewster, defeating the incumbent. Senator
Brewster
Now, that comment about Senator Hickenlooper was not very nice. We should never impliedly wish the death of any person, even our political enemies, even morons.
"Half a Victory in the VA" tells of millions of veterans receiving a form letter indicating that in the interest of economy, the VA would discontinue sending receipts for insurance premiums which would become due after July 31. The piece finds it good news, that it would also lighten the load of the Post Office, while the veterans would continue to have proof of payment by keeping their canceled checks or postal money order receipts. The cost-saving measure was not the result of any action by Congress, but, it posits, was the result of the relentless, vigilant effort on the part of the Citizens Committee for the Hoover Report. It suggests, however, that the dismissal of the clerks who would no longer have receipts to stamp or mail, would be the tougher part of the cost-saving measure.
A piece from the Portland Oregonian, titled "Posies in the Fo'c'sle", tells of the loggers of the Pacific Northwest having become settled family men, no longer given to long periods of isolation in the woods, followed by wild sprees in the city. It wonders whether the sailor would follow the same course.
The piece fears that it would be so, based on a press release recently received by the newspaper, reporting that a Danish freighter had sailed the seas for six months with all the cabins and messes decorated with 20 varieties of potted plants. Information on which plants thrived best aboard ship would be furnished to other vessels in the Danish merchant fleet. The shipping companies of Denmark had decided, as a means of reducing divorce among the sailors, to permit wives of both officers and men to take turns accompanying their husbands on long voyages.
It concludes that while the changes were undoubtedly for the good, it would leave little room among the "armchair adventurers" for their imaginations to wander.
Drew Pearson indicates that new Attorney General James McGranery had been in office long enough to make a snap judgment on one of his predecessor's cases, that of the American President Lines, and to settle it in favor of the Senator, Pat McCarran, who had been responsible for pushing through his confirmation. Mr. McGranery had made promises to clean up corruption in the Government, but since his appointment, had made no moves in that direction, had not appointed anyone to handle a clean-up, and had stated that he would continue with the same chief of the criminal division, who should have been prosecuting corruption all along, but had not.
He thus provides free advice to the new Attorney General on matters demanding a closer look, starting with the fact that over 8.6 million pounds of rope, all of the surplus in the national inventory, had been sold to Russia, and that the man who had purchased it from the Army and then sold it to Russia, Walter Lester Henry Beecher Van Dyke, a five-percenter, now had his wife on the Navy payroll and entertained admirals and Navy officers at his home. The rope had been sold in 1947, at a time when relations with the Soviets were worsening.
Mr. Van Dyke had hired American
inspectors to look at the rope, and then re-negotiated the price to
nine cents
Mr. Van Dyke now had been able to cultivate the Navy brass, with the help of his wife, entertaining them at his lavish home. Rear Admiral John Wood, chief of the Norfolk Supply Center, had lived at the Van Dyke home for several weeks the previous fall, as had Captain Fred Hetter, assistant chief of the Bureau of Supplies & Accounts. Captain Hetter, however, when questioned, denied knowing anything about Mr. Van Dyke's business, claiming that he had never discussed business with him or asked any favors from him.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop again deal with the "stolen" Republican delegate votes from Texas for Senator Taft, indicating that the Taft-controlled state executive committee had used its power to decide the delegate contests, so that the state convention could be packed with Taft delegates, who then elected a pro-Taft temporary chairman, who quickly ruled that all of the phony delegates could vote on all contests, whereupon they voted themselves as the delegation to the national convention.
They suggest that it was the way that the Taft forces expected to control the national convention in Chicago, starting July 7. The RNC had nominated a Taft stalwart, Walter Hallanan of West Virginia, for the key post of temporary chairman of the convention. Normally, that post was held by a neutral person, rather than a backer of one of the vying candidates for the nomination. Another gimmick was a rule within the provisional rules for the national convention, which would allow no contests for delegations to be seated except those for delegates-at-large. Contests for district delegates were to be directed to the state organizations. That meant that the Texas and Louisiana organizations would determine which delegations would be seated in those two heavily contested states. In Texas, there were 32 district delegates and six delegates-at-large, while in Louisiana there were 11 district delegates and four at-large. Thus, the leaders of the Taft forces in both states, Henry Zweifel in Texas, and John E. Jackson in Louisiana, would determine who would sit as delegates among the 43 district delegates of both states.
After they were seated as temporary delegates, they could then vote on the permanent rules, which would include the gimmick rule. The convention at large would then determine the remaining delegates-at-large. The phony delegates already seated, however, would be able to vote on the at-large delegates. The phony majority would thus perpetuate itself and gain full control of the convention.
They conclude that what former President William Howard Taft had done in 1912 at that Republican convention paled beside what his son had in mind for the steamrollered 1952 Republican convention.
Robert C. Ruark urges complete physical checkups for each of the presidential candidates after the nominations. FDR, he posits, had been a dying man when he assumed the obligation of running for a fourth term in 1944. It was generally known at the time that when his running mate was being selected by the convention, that person would, in fact, accede to the presidency at the inevitable death of the President. He believes it was the reason why Vice-President Henry Wallace was dumped by the convention. He indicates, by contrast, that Senator Truman had been no "great gift to the world, but he was not such a guy as would give us all away to the Russians on demand." He thinks that had Vice-President Wallace become President in April, 1945, the U.S. would presently be a suburb of Moscow.
You're a moron. Go take another hunt in Africa…
In any event, he goes on to indicate that both Senator Taft, who would die the following summer, and General Eisenhower, looked hale and hearty, but that one could not know until there had been a complete physical performed on each. General Hoyt Vandenberg, chief of staff of the Air Force, had also looked quite as fit as if he were 40, and yet had recently been diagnosed with cancer.
"When you buy a horse you check his teeth for age and you peer around for traces of the glanders and spavin. They make you pass a physical to be a private in the Army. When you buy a slab of real estate you get special lawyers to check titles and preen over the old landmarks. They slap a special brand on the steak you buy and a special grade on the milk you drink, and, by golly, this time I wish no potential invalids as candidates for the most important job in the world."
He favors putting aside what many
had felt was bad taste in favor of the interests of the citizens of
the country in knowing the health status of the candidates running
for the highest office in the land, a "killing task". He
did not favor having the military doctors perform the checkup, as
they tended to listen to what the patient said and report
accordingly. The smart candidate would go to one of the accepted
clinics, such as Mayo, the Johns Hopkins, or the Lovelace—the
latter of which we can reserve for Mr. Nixon when the time comes, a
month down the road
He wants to make sure that "the objects of our political affection are sound in wind and limb, which is a basic precaution we would take if we set out to buy a cow."
A letter writer from Rockingham comments on the editorial the previous week regarding Governor Kerr Scott having directed the building of roads through and around his dairy farm in Alamance County. He finds the piece a part of a chain in which Mecklenburg County suggested to the rest of the state that it was on the short end of receiving benefits while having to pay the lion's share of taxes. He feels that it was time for Charlotte to realize that it had been the rest of the state's industries purchasing in Charlotte and the citizens' wives shopping in Charlotte which had made it great. He suggests that perhaps the problem was that Charlotte and Mecklenburg had not produced a Governor since Cameron Morrison in the 1920's and that Governor Scott would go down in history as "our greatest Governor", having "paved us out of the mud and saved our school system." He had been cussed all across the state, for his outspokenness, not his dishonesty. He thinks that the story out of the Greensboro Daily News, by former News editor Burke Davis, resulted from the latter's desire for a byline. He suggests that those who did not wish to pay for the farm roads not ride.
Wethinks he means: "Take a hike up his blacktops..."
A letter writer suggests that appropriate titles for the stealing of the Republican delegates by the Taft forces in Texas would be "Robbing Robert Raids Again" or "Taft Loots Texas". He finds that in the old days, such persons would be ridden out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered, or planted on boot hill. Senator Taft seemed not to care how he got the delegates, and, he suggests, such a man would not be fit to be President. He indicates that the country wanted a change, not the "same old stuff for another four years with a new party."
Well, don't you worry. You are going to get a new Vice-President who is going to make sure things stay as clean as a hound's tooth.
A letter writer finds that Republicans did not need to go to the North to find "gangster-type Democrats", that they were plentiful in the South, and that "any man who is loyal to a party as corrupt and rotten as the Democratic Party has become, be he Democrat or Republican," was, if he voted for the Democrats, "a traitor to himself and his Country."
Well, don't you worry…
A letter from the president of the Youth for Russell organization in Charlotte, indicates that the non-voting citizens of the city also had a stake in the outcome of the November election, as they were the voters of tomorrow and would pay the bills which the government was presently incurring. He advocates support for Senator Russell, "a Jeffersonian Democrat".
A letter writer comments on the June 12 editorial, "Of Course Taft 'Can' Win", indicating that he believes General MacArthur was the "smartest man" in the country, so smart that he believec Congress would retaliate against him. He also believes Senator Taft to be the smartest politician among the presidential candidates and would be able to get along well with either a Democratic or Republican Congress. He further believes that General Eisenhower could get along with any party and would be a certain winner against any opposition in November. He indicates that his natural drift was to the Republicans, and supported General Eisenhower as a sure winner, but Senator Taft as being most compatible with Congress. He had eliminated General MacArthur because he was too smart for the members of Congress. He adds, however, that if the Democrats were to nominate Senator Russell, he might vote for him.
Framed Edition
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