The Charlotte News
Wednesday, June 18, 1952
FIVE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that after another three-day recess by the U.N. negotiators in Korea, the Communists sent their liaison officers to Panmunjom this date with a complaint that the U.N. walkout was unjustified. The allied liaison officers countered, in seeming non sequitur, that U.N. planes still had found no markings on four Communist prisoner of war camps despite Communist assertions that the camps were properly marked.
In ground fighting, Hill T remained comparatively quiet this date after six straight days of savage fighting for its heights, having been taken by the U.S. infantry from the Chinese the prior Thursday. For five consecutive nights, the Chinese had engaged battalion-sized counterattacks against the Americans holding the three rocky knobs, repelling each attack. The Chinese did not strike, however, the prior night. There had been no contact and very little artillery or mortar fire. Action decreased all along the front, limited to patrol skirmishes.
The allies, for the nonce, could enjoy the fruits, milk and honey, of Victory
In the air war, 22 B-26 bombers hit Communist positions during the night and an enemy supply center.
In Paris, General Alfred Gruenther, Allied chief of staff to NATO, speaking before the French Society of Economic Geography, stated this date that battle plans had been drawn to meet any aggression from the Eastern bloc. He assured that no effort had been prepared for any NATO aggressive action. He said that the utmost use of air power would be made in the event of an attack, rather than heavy reliance on ground soldiers in the area around France.
The Swedish Cabinet met in an urgent special session to discuss the shooting down on Monday by Soviet jets of an unarmed Swedish rescue plane which had been searching for another lost Swedish plane, believed also to have been shot down by the Soviets. The Cabinet had before it the translation of a Russian note which stated that the Swedish plane was over Soviet territory and had initially opened fire. The Soviets claimed that their territorial waters extended twelve miles into the Baltic, when the recognized international limit was three miles.
Economic Stabilizer Roger Putman said this date that the steel industry had been assured of friendly and sympathetic consideration of a steel price increase should the strike settlement be achieved. He told a news conference that he and John Steelman, acting Defense Mobilizer, had discussed a $4.50 per ton increase in the price during the negotiations, which had broken down 16 days earlier, but said that nothing regarding any price increase had been settled.
Congressman Alvin O'Konski of Wisconsin had made the charge the previous month that Henry J. Kaiser had swindled the Government through influence on war contracts, and the industrialist's 85-page response, accusing unnamed enemies of attempting to wreck his businesses, had been placed in the Congressional Record this date, as promised by the Congressman, though Representative James Morrison of Louisiana, who said that he acted on the request of the vice-president of Kaiser-Frazer, actually requested the placement. Congressman O'Konski said that no one had been authorized to act on his behalf in inserting the matter in the record. Mr. O'Konski, in an advance copy of a speech he had planned to deliver the previous day, stated that Mr. Kaiser's statement refuted the charges he had made.
The Senate killed a bill to authorize the U.S. to join with Canada in constructing the St. Lawrence Seaway and power project, returning the bill to the Foreign Relations Committee for further study. The President had urged passage of the bill.
Senator Taft told reporters the previous day that he assumed that Congress would recess for the conventions, from about July 4 to about August 4, and a number of other members agreed with that assessment. Meanwhile, Senate and House leaders were cracking the whip on members to get legislation done prior to that recess.
Senator Taft also said this date that he was willing to pledge a straight 15 percent cut in taxes if he were to become President. He said that he considered present taxes to be inflationary. He also stated that the RNC should settle the dispute over seating the Texas delegation at the convention and objected to allowing the state committee to make the decision. A late bulletin indicates that the Senator said that as President, he would seek the advice of General Eisenhower on military matters.
Averell Harriman won the District of Columbia Democratic primary this date by a margin of 4 to 1, in an upset over Senator Estes Kefauver. He obtained all of the District's six delegate votes to the convention. It was only Senator Kefauver's second loss in 16 primaries, the other having been to Senator Richard Russell in Florida. It had been the first time that Mr. Harriman had submitted his name to the voters. With over 17,000 votes cast, it was the heaviest turnout in the history of the District for any election. Mr. Harriman had been especially successful among the large black population of the District. One black supporter carried a sign to the polling place, which called Mr. Harriman "a second Abe Lincoln". White residents also heavily supported Mr. Harriman, who had endorsed civil rights. No other candidates had been listed on the ballot. There had been a few write-in votes for Governor Adlai Stevenson, Senator Richard Russell, and for the President.
A CIO delegation urged the President to change his mind about seeking re-election, but the President said that it was impossible. He also told the Michigan utility workers making the plea that they had nothing to worry about, as the candidate he would endorse would follow his policies. He also stated to them that after he had made his announcement on March 29 at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Washington, a lot of people had remarked "good riddance", and it was nice to hear that people had appreciated what he had done. A spokesman for the group stated that he believed the President might have changed his decision had there been a louder chorus of "noes" in response to his statement.
In Raleigh, two of North Carolina's previously uncommitted Republican delegates to the national convention said this date that they favored the nomination of General Eisenhower. Their commitment left four uncommitted GOP delegates.
In Chester, S.C., the Solicitor declined statement on the request for a new trial by convicted murderer Nathan Corn, but stated that he would resist the motion. Mr. Corn, who had been convicted twice for the 1948 murder of Rock Hill oil dealer George Beam, Jr., the first conviction, carrying the death penalty, having been reversed by the State Supreme Court, and the second conviction having carried with it only a life sentence pursuant to a recommendation of mercy by the jury. The new trial was being sought on the basis of newly discovered evidence, consisting of the confession of Mr. Corn's father, who had died during the prior May. It was said that the father had summoned three witnesses to observe him placing the letter in a sealed envelope, which was then provided to his wife for delivery in the event of his expected death. The letter reportedly stated that he had shot Mr. Beam regarding a dispute over money.
In Baltimore, a couple complained in court that a knotty-pine club cellar was no place for the Esso Standard Oil Company to deliver fuel oil, alleging that during the prior December, a man working for the company had hooked up his hose to a fuel pipe outside the house and, without warning, pumped fuel oil into the home, unaware that the fuel line had been disconnected inside the house. The couple had not ordered any oil, and they sought $15,000 in damages.
In Rome, actress Ingrid Bergman gave birth this date to two twin girls, as husband Roberto Rossellini was beside her, concerned that the births were two weeks overdue.
On page 2-B, columnist Earl Wilson
bemoaned the passing of a great art, potato
On the editorial page, "The Swedes Mean Business" finds that the Russians had made a big mistake when they shot down one, or possibly two, Swedish planes over international waters off the coast of Estonia, while the unarmed plane known to have been shot down was searching for a missing Swedish plane. Sweden had ordered its Navy and the Air Force to return fire were it to be attacked by Soviet aircraft. The Government demanded that Russia mete "swift punishment" to the attackers and that it cease its espionage activities in Sweden. There had been large demonstrations in front of the Soviet Embassy in Stockholm and editorials in Stockholm newspapers severely criticized the event.
Sweden had the fourth strongest Air Force in the world, topped only by the U.S., Russia and Britain. It also had a well-trained ground reserve, able to mobilize 700,000 men.
The piece suggests that the morale of the free world would be increased and Russian prestige diminished by the action of Sweden, though, not being a member of NATO, not promised support from the West if things turned for the worse.
It comments that it showed how quickly things could turn toward war along the periphery of the Soviet Union and its satellites. Despite a long record of neutrality, Sweden had promptly resisted these attacks. It suggests that until the whole free world was in a position to stand up to Communist aggression, it would be suicidal for the U.S. to yield to the temptation in an election year of relaxing the defense program.
"About Time" endorses the first move by the new commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles, Captain L. R. Fisher, in indicating that he saw no reason why Highway Patrolmen should be arbitrarily transferred every four years, and planned to cut back on the practice as much as possible.
"Where's the Justice in This?" remarks on the routine resignations of three of the six assistant Attorneys General in the Justice Department, accepted, without comment, by new Attorney General James McGranery. The public had not been apprised of what the three had done to cause their forced resignations, but the piece suggests that it must have been serious, as the Department had been loath previously to dismiss serious wrongdoers.
"India Moves Forward and Westward" tells of most of the electorate in India having voted in the most recent election, despite 80 percent of the people being illiterate. Symbols on the ballot indicated the party for which they were voting, and in the end, Prime Minister Nehru's Government remained solidly in power. A sizable number of Communists had been elected to Parliament, giving that party the status of the primary opposition to the Government. But since the party had come into the open, public sympathy for them seemed to have diminished.
India was strengthening its ties to the West economically, having traded with the U.S. in the previous year more than with any other country, amounting to 718 million dollars worth, with Britain next at 639 million, and the Soviet Union way down the list at 16 million. The country's chief exports to the Communist countries were foodstuffs, spices and tobacco, in exchange for vehicles, textiles and cereals. The U.S. had spent very little money in India and was building no military bases there or equipping its armies.
It finds that the trend of Indian affairs was toward the aims of U.S. foreign policy, and the efforts of Ambassador Chester Bowles and those who had been sent as technical advisers for agricultural and industrial development under Point Four had exerted as much influence as had U.S. officials in those countries to which more expensive military aid had been contributed.
"New Phase for MSA" tells of the Mutual Security Program having entered a new phase with the announcement that the U.S. was prepared to purchase complete aircraft from Europe. Some Mutual Security funds would go to European industry for the purpose, enabling dollar-poor European industry then to buy from the U.S., expand its facilities, and supply more of their own defense needs. The system, it suggests, should result in the savings of money, as supplies could be made more cheaply in Europe than in the U.S. and then shipped to Europe.
A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "Lesson at Cicero", tells of four Cicero, Illinois, officials having been found guilty by a Federal District Court in connection with the previous July's racial disorders over open housing. A black family had tried to move into an apartment house in Cicero and a white mob had rioted for three days, wrecking the building and burning the family's furniture. Instead of indicting the mob leaders, a Cook County grand jury had initially indicted six other persons, including the black family's lawyer and the apartment house owner. The charges went nowhere, but did create demand for Federal action, and so the Justice Department, limited to prosecuting government officials who had violated constitutional rights, rather than the mob leaders, caused to be indicted the police chief, two other police officers and the city attorney, all of whom were convicted.
The piece comments that during an election year, much was being said during the presidential campaign about strengthening local authority and restricting Federal power, but in Cicero, the Federal Government had acted only when local officials had neglected their duty, a scenario "too often repeated".
Drew Pearson tells of North Carolina Congressman Graham Barden, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, having a bad temper and that he had been quite angry when his Committee had vetoed his efforts to delay action on a new mine safety bill to prevent coal mine disasters. He wanted the Committee to hold prolonged hearings, even though the hearings had already been held. But the Committee voted 9 to 5 to terminate the hearings after three more days. He told his colleagues on the Committee that he would abide by the decision, but that it was a bad decision, as there were many witnesses who had not yet been heard on the matter. The new bill would give the Government the right to shut down unsafe mines and prevent further deaths.
Texas had come into the union by a special treaty under which its offshore lands belonged to the state, but no real oil had been found within 10 miles from the Texas coast, with the oil lying 17 miles or more offshore. Several years earlier, the California oilman and former DNC treasurer, Ed Pauley, had formed a political deal with the Texas Democratic leader, Myron Blalock, to have Texas join with the other tidelands states, Louisiana and California, in an effort to get Congress to return the tidelands to the states. Speaker Sam Rayburn tried to undo that deal, working out a plan under which the Government would swap one-third of the oil inside the 10 mile limit for a third outside it. But the deal had been upset by Texas Attorney General Price Daniel—set to succeed Senator Tom Connally in the fall. As a result, Texas had lost more than any other state by being constrained to go along with the other two tidelands states. The tidelands oil bill was set for vote in the Senate the following day, and both Senators Connally and Lyndon Johnson would oppose the President on the matter, while understanding that it did not make any difference to Texas as to how they voted, as there was no oil to be had within the 10-mile limit of the tidelands.
The Senate Preparedness Committee had sent to the printers a sensational report on the nation's lagging defenses, charging that the President had ignored the warnings of the Joint Chiefs and put "fiscal considerations" ahead of the nation's safety. The Committee had been working on the report for six months. It indicated that the Joint Chiefs had warned that 1954 would be the year of the greatest national peril and criticized the President for his stretch-out program on aircraft production.
Marquis Childs tells of the McCarran-Walter immigration bill having been denounced as biased and discriminatory across the country by nationality groups. It had been passed in the Senate over the opposition of most Northern Democrats, put through by the Southern Democratic-Republican coalition, with a few Republicans also voting against it. The blame for it, however, was being placed on the Democrats in power by the nationality groups. Both sponsors, Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada and Representative Francis Walter of Pennsylvania, were Democrats.
Recently, Senator Hubert Humphrey, co-author of a liberalized immigration measure, had gone with Representative John Blatnik, also of Minnesota, to visit the northern part of that state, where Mr. Blatnik's district was located. Both were surprised to find the resentment directed at the Democrats for the quota system imposed under the new immigration bill, based on the population of 30 years earlier. Refugees from Poland, Czechoslovakia and other Iron Curtain countries were being kept out of the U.S., despite, in many instances, having relatives in the country. There was such a backlog of immigrants of Polish origin that some would have to wait until 1980 for admission. Quotas applied to Asiatics were also a source of great resentment.
Refugees who had risked their lives to escape totalitarian regimes were being consigned to an endless and nearly hopeless period of waiting.
The votes of these nationality blocks were vitally important to the Democrats, especially in areas such as Pittsburgh, the industrial area of northern Indiana, and northern Minnesota, where they could swing the balance in those states. The success of the Democrats during the previous 20 years had been based on those and other blocks to whom successful appeals had been made.
The new bill had some good points, allowing, for instance, Japanese presently in the country, who could meet other requirements, to become naturalized. But the quota for the Asian-Pacific triangle included the Philippines, effectively nullifying the law of 1943 which gave Filipinos a separate quota for immigration.
Senator McCarran was the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee which determined the size of the appropriation for the State Department and how its money was to be spent. A presidential veto of the immigration bill could bring down Senator McCarran's wrath on the Administration and result in arbitrary cuts to the State Department budget, enabling Senator McCarran to wield a great deal of power.
Senator Humphrey had placed in the
Congressional Record excerpts from newspapers opposing the
bill, from which Mr. Childs quotes a piece from the Michigan
Catholic. Senator McCarran was a Catholic and his sister was a
nun, but he had not been influenced by the Pope's exhortation to universal
brotherhood, talking instead about his bill being essential to the
preservation of the country's way of life. Mr. Childs remarks that
the way of life in Nevada was "slightly different"
Emery Wister of the News, writing from Los Angeles, tells of the people in the motion picture studios, who were extreme liberals and ultra-conservatives working side by side, favoring generally General Eisenhower for the presidency. Darryl Zanuck and Jack Warner were solidly behind the General, though admitting that they might be in disfavor if he were elected.
There was also a great deal of support for Senator Taft, even among liberal Republicans, especially among those in the middle income group of $10,000-$15,000 per year. Surprisingly sentiment ran cool for Governor Earl Warren, with most of the voters to whom Mr. Wister spoke being opposed to him.
The most surprising support was for Senator Richard Russell, among Democrats. West Coast Democrats were usually liberals, not supportive of conservative Southerners. But the Communist purge in the studios had apparently caused many to swing to the right. They were looking for someone who could lead the Democrats, and because Senator Russell's record had been good, he was regarded as an unusually able person.
Senator Estes Kefauver also had a large number of supporters among Democrats, and probably more than any other Democratic candidate. He had received more votes in the recent primary than had Governor Warren in the California cross-voting system, and received more votes than any Democrat in the history of the state's primaries. Many, however, believed that Senator Kefauver lacked the experience necessary to handle the job.
As in the South, California Democrats were prone to vote for the nominee, regardless of who it might be. Mr. Wister had asked a friend, a "good liberal", if he would support General Eisenhower if elected, to which he had responded: "I should say not. I'm a Democrat."
A letter writer from Rutherfordton compares the dismissals by Governor Kerr Scott of three State officials who had supported William B. Umstead for the gubernatorial nomination rather than the Scott-supported Hubert Olive, to the purges in the Soviet Union. Since a great number of people had never read a newspaper at all and a large percentage only read the headlines, sports pages or comics, he could not see much hope in stopping such "Red tactics".
A letter writer indicates that he had read with great interest a letter written to the editors the previous Friday, suggesting the impression that all Republicans in office had been bad, starting with President U. S. Grant. He indicates that the books written by Confederate Generals James Longstreet and John Jordan had praised General Grant. He suggests that General Grant had proved himself a friend of the South and had never tried to force civil rights on the nation. He allows that he had a lot of crooked men in his Administration, more perhaps than the current Administration, but that no one could prove that President Grant, himself, had been dishonest. He had fired the dishonest officeholders, which he finds to be more than President Truman had done. He says that he would vote for General Eisenhower because he believed in a two-party system.
A letter from Maj. General George Acheson, the commanding officer of the Central Air Defense Force, writing from Kansas City, Mo., tells of Major Ozan of the Charlotte Filter Center having written him regarding the cooperation he had received from the newspaper in publicizing the Filter Center, and he expresses his appreciation on behalf of the Air Force and his command for the newspaper's help. The Air Force had to rely on civilian volunteers to man the Filter Centers and Observation Posts. Without the aid of the news media, it would be an impossible task to obtain the necessary volunteers.
A letter writer from Chapel Hill
comments on an editorial regarding the shortage of state-owned beach
frontage property, in which it had ascribed to "Jeff"
Chaucer, the phrase, "Sumer is icumen in". He says that
the phrase derived instead from a Thirteenth Century round
The editors respond: "Our
acumen is icumen in
Framed Edition
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