The Charlotte News
Saturday, July 26, 1952
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Governor Adlai Stevenson, after 2:00 a.m. this date, had accepted the Democratic nomination for the presidency, declaring that he would fight to win the office with all of his heart and soul, though indicating that he had preferred to hear the words uttered by a "stronger, wiser, better man" than himself. He said that he expected to hear during the campaign the inevitable cries of "throw the rascals out" and "it's time for a change", but said that he was not too much concerned with partisan denunciation, epithets and abuse "because the working man, the farmer, the thoughtful businessman, all know that they are better off than ever before". He said that he intended "to talk sense to the American people".
The President had addressed the convention, starting at 1:43 a.m. this date, delayed by the balloting, and spoke for 27 minutes, predicting a victory in the fall, then introducing Governor Stevenson at 2:10, saying that he believed the Governor was the first "real honest to goodness draft" at a convention in modern history. The President said that the fight ahead would not be easy, as the Republicans would spend a lot of money, but he believed that the people would not want to turn the safety of the nation over to a group more interested in cutting the budget than in stopping Communism. He also declared that the party would fight to repeal that "good for nothing Taft-Hartley Act". He also praised all of the Democratic candidates for the presidency.
Correspondent Relman Morin finds that the Governor and the President were two men who were completely dissimilar, so much so that they could have come from two different planets. The President was "the typical man of action—blunt, jut-jawed aggressive, breathing fire and confidence", whereas the Governor was "the philosopher, the ponderer, the sensitive man, consciously measuring himself and his capacities against the towering task he may be called upon to undertake". Mr. Morin reflects back to the 1948 convention when a confident President Truman had strode to the podium to accept the nomination, as if a "captain of a ship heading into a storm". He had then attacked the 80th Congress for being "do-nothing", and expressed anger, spoiling for a fight with the Republicans, vowing to take the fight to the people. He had expressed a similar confidence the previous night, but with far less reason four years later. He said that he would take his coat off and do everything he could to help elect Governor Stevenson. Governor Stevenson, by contrast, appeared ill at ease, with only a brief smile when he came to the rostrum, appearing not as a man triumphant or enjoying himself, as the moment would typically inspire in a party's nominee. He had said at one point: "Your nomination, awesome as I find it, has not enlarged my own capacities." That sort of humble shrinking from the task, while vowing to do everything he could to win, appeared, to Mr. Morin, to characterize his acceptance speech.
The Governor had won the nomination the previous night on the third ballot, after Senator Estes Kefauver had led at the end of both of the first two ballots, but without achieving the 615 votes needed for nomination. Then, after a two-hour break for dinner, the delegates returned and the bandwagon movement for Governor Stevenson was on. A table provides the results of each of the three ballots, with the Governor having finally obtained 617 1/2 to Senator Kefauver's 275 1/2, Senator Richard Russell's 261, and Vice-President Alben Barkley's 67 1/2. By the third ballot, votes for favorite sons virtually disappeared, having split the vote on the first two ballots. Also, the 121 votes on the second ballot for Averell Harriman had been shifted to the Stevenson column. The second ballot total had been 362 1/2 for Senator Kefauver and 324 1/2 for Governor Stevenson, with Senator Russell having picked up 294 votes.
This date, with many of the
delegates having departed for home, the convention by acclamation
accepted Governor Stevenson's choice for the second spot on the
ticket, Senator John Sparkman
Women delegates, as a gesture of honor, had nominated for the vice-presidency both India Edwards of Maryland, vice-chairman of the DNC, and Judge Sarah Hughes of Dallas, Texas—who would, that dark, fateful Friday in Dallas in November, 1963, administer the oath of office on Air Force One to President Johnson after the assassination of President Kennedy.
Judge Hughes, to be appointed a Federal District Court Judge in 1961 by President Kennedy, said that she wanted to be able to move the nomination for Senator Sparkman by acclamation, but the motion was finally put forth by James Farley of New York, former FDR kingmaker. Senator Lister Hill, his colleague from Alabama, had nominated Senator Sparkman. (Judge Hughes, incidentally, raised and educated through college in Baltimore, had taught science at Salem Academy in Winston-Salem, N.C., between 1917 and 1919, right after her graduation from college, which experience would have undoubtedly made her quite familiar with the Belo House in Old Salem, two blocks from what is now Salem College, and, undoubtedly, later, when she moved to Dallas with her husband in 1922 after finishing law school at George Washington University, would have led to her familiarity with its connection to the Belo Mansion in Dallas, whose owner, Alfred Belo, the son of Edward Belo of Winston-Salem, had, with George Bannerman Dealey, established the Dallas Morning News, the offices of which overlooked the south side of Dealey Plaza in 1963, directly opposite the Texas School Book Depository.)
There had also been some ill feeling on the part of delegates who had supported Senator Kefauver for the nomination for the presidency, believing that he should receive the second spot on the ticket, but Senator Kefauver had sent word through Governor Gordon Browning of Tennessee, who made one of the seconding speeches for Senator Sparkman, that Senator Kefauver did not want his name placed in nomination. In 1956, Senator Kefauver would become the vice-presidential nominee, after Governor Stevenson, again nominated for the presidency, threw the choice for the second spot open to the convention, which came down to a contest between Senator Kefauver and Senator John F. Kennedy, who had been instrumental in organizing, through a 15-member Congressional delegation which he led, the movement for Governor Stevenson for the 1952 nomination. Senator Kefauver would narrowly win that 1956 vice-presidential contest over Senator Kennedy, who, of course, would become the 1960 presidential nominee.
DNC chairman Frank McKinney stated that he had been asked by Governor Stevenson to remain in the position as chairman for awhile, despite offering his resignation shortly after the acceptance of the nomination. Mr. McKinney stated that he was eager to return to his banking business in Indianapolis but would stay on for as long as the Governor wanted him.
The nation's steel mills remained idle this date despite the agreement to end the strike which had lasted since June 2, begun in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that date, holding unconstitutional, without Congressional authorization, the President's seizure of the industry on April 8, based solely on inherent executive authority in an emergency. The striking steelworkers were still manning the picket lines, despite the agreement between United Steelworkers president Philip Murray and the executives of the six major steel producers, signed on Thursday. Both sides indicated that they did not expect the impasse to last much longer, but industry officials indicated that they were "amazed and disillusioned" at the unexpected development. The problem was in a companion strike of 23,000 iron ore workers in Minnesota, members of the Steelworkers Union, who had walked off the job also on June 2, demanding the same concessions and wage increases sought by the steelworkers, together with elimination of wage differentials between themselves and the steelworkers, whose wages were considerably higher. The union indicated that the iron ore companies which had not signed the White House agreement on Thursday, were holding out for terms which were not acceptable to the union.
In Cairo, the Egyptian Army announced this night that the 32-year old King Farouk had abdicated in favor of his six-month old son, Crown Prince Ahmed Fuad. The military-backed Government of Premier Aly Maher Pasha, which had taken over earlier in the week in a coup backed by the new strongman, General Mohammed Naguib, had served a six-hour ultimatum on the King, demanding that he leave the country by 1:00 p.m. and that he abdicate in favor of his infant son. The King had accepted both demands and both were put into effect with little trouble. The King had come to the throne in April, 1936, after the death of his father, King Fuad I, having been initially represented by a three-man regency for 15 months until he reached the age of 18.
On the editorial page, "A Worthy Opponent for Eisenhower" tells of the choice by the Democrats the previous night of Governor Stevenson as the nominee, coupled with the "superb choice" of General Eisenhower two weeks earlier as the Republican nominee, assuring the American people that the fall election campaign would be fought vigorously but cleanly, over basic issues rather than personalities, and that no matter who would lose, the nation would win.
It finds that just as the General would bring fresh and stimulating leadership to the Republicans, too long thinking in negative terms as an instrument of criticism, Governor Stevenson would bring to the Democrats a "larger standard for public service, a higher tone for political morality, and a more militant pursuit of peace in the world and progress at home."
The Governor was heir to a family legacy of distinguished public service, his grandfather having been Vice-President under President Grover Cleveland from 1893 to 1897, and having served the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations in various appointive positions before having run for Governor of Illinois in 1948. He had been little known at the outset of the 1948 gubernatorial campaign, but had won by the large margin of 570,000 votes, to become only the third Democrat to become Governor of Illinois since the Civil War. His record as Governor had been one of solid reform, pushing through a reluctant legislature programs via a combination of persuasion, persistence, and good humor.
It finds that the millions of Americans who had watched or heard his acceptance speech in the early morning hours of this date "could not help but be impressed with his humility, his awareness of the vast responsibilities of the office, his understanding of the historical forces at work today, and his determination to respond to the call of duty with his best efforts." He also showed himself to be an articulate writer and inspiring orator.
It finds that since the General and the Governor had roughly the same approach to many basic issues, the areas of disagreement would be reduced, and that those would be taken from the present and future, rather than from the past, with both men exhibiting hope, confidence, and enthusiasm to "lead their parties into combat".
"In Step with the Old Man, or Leading" tells of the Democratic convention having evoked memories of past faces, such as FDR, Jr., appearing as a younger version of his father and sharing his oratorical ability with brother James; Senator Russell Long, resembling his father, Huey, and inheriting the elder's ability to inject drama and repetitive phrases into a speech; and Congressman John F. Kennedy, running for the Senate seat held by Senator Lodge, helping to start the Stevenson bandwagon, and bringing forth memories of former Ambassador to Britain Joseph P. Kennedy, who had served in the post in the critical period from spring, 1938 through November, 1940. Senator Lodge, it notes, had been the pre-convention manager of General Eisenhower's campaign, and, as such, had been instrumental in the defeat of Senator Taft, son of the late President William Howard Taft.
It suggests that the father-son combinations were notable for the changed political attitudes of the sons, to the extent that some of the fathers might be turning over in their graves. Senator Lodge, for instance, had championed internationalism and was working against a Taft. Senator Long was an exponent of "reason rather than rabble". Former Ambassador Kennedy, still alive, had embraced the Hoover doctrine of "rattlesnake" isolation, while son John was a "Fair Dealing internationalist".
It finds that the late elder and younger Taft were probably in agreement over the inefficacy of steamrollers at the conventions, a reference to the 1912 convention at which the forces supporting the incumbent President had sought to steamroll the forces supportive of former President Theodore Roosevelt, only to cause the latter to bolt the convention and run on the Bull Moose Party label, dividing the Republican vote, resulting in the election of Woodrow Wilson. The Taft forces in 1952 had also obtained control of the Republican convention machinery, but in the end had lost the big prize after floor fights on the seating of disputed Southern pro-Taft delegations, "stolen" in rump meetings from the Eisenhower delegates of those states, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
It concludes that "all in all, the younger generation of political bluebloods is carrying on in good fashion. Some are following the old man's footsteps, and others are way ahead of him."
"Southern Agriculture—Looking Up" tells of the total number of tractors in Southern states having increased by 241.5 percent during the prior decade, as had expenditures for livestock and poultry feeds, by 358 percent. During the same period, the number of Southern farms had decreased, both in acreage and number of farm workers employed, but had increased in total acreage. The result was less acreage devoted to row crops and more to pastures and livestock, providing needed diversification, as well as less hired help and more mechanized farming. During the decade, the cash farm income in the South had increased from 2.54 billion dollars to 8.42 billion, with about 4 1/2 times more income going into the bank. Farm tenancy had decreased by 37.5 percent while farm ownership had increased by 12.1 percent.
It refers to some other statistics contained within The Progressive Farmer, edited by Clarence Poe for the previous half-century, including the facts that 219,417 of North Carolina's 288,508 farms were electrified in 1950, with more lines having been erected since that point, in a state having the largest farm population in the country. Those farms also had 73,534 tractors and 60,406 trucks, quite a lot more than in earlier days. The state ranked only behind Texas, among the 16 Southern states surveyed, in farm income, with a 1950 income of $940,645,000, which the editorial breaks down between crops and livestock, with less than one percent of which having come from government subsidies. It suggests bringing in more cattle and other livestock, acquiring the habit of soil conservation and other rewarding farming techniques, and swapping a few more mules for tractors.
"Good Psychology, Sans Spilled Ink" tells of standing continually in awe of practitioners of the profession of psychology, albeit accompanied by skepticism of the art, which it acknowledges might arise from an inferiority complex because of its awkwardness in putting round pegs in square holes before a placement officer. It finds the latest psychological techniques being accepted in some industries to raise an eyebrow, such as that of one company, which had the subject select from a group of adjectives those which he thought best described himself and those which others would use to describe him, from which was gleaned by the psychologist an indication of the subject's temperament.
Then there was the ink-blot test and the "thematic apperception test", the latter requiring the worker to write about a series of pictures, indicating to the psychologist whether the subject was a leader or follower, an extrovert or introvert, or perhaps should not be employed at all. It concludes that the industries hiring people to conduct such tests were falling for some questionable techniques not too far removed from dianetics. It believes that there might come a day when an employee confronted his employer with an appreciation of art and holes full of pegs rather than an understanding of his job. It had called to mind a remark of an old photographer, who, when asked how he went about taking good pictures, had replied: "Put the s.o.b. at f. 11 and be there." The piece thinks it a better answer than a 20-page treatise on spilled ink.
For those too engaged in
smart-phones and point-and-shoot digital photography to recall or
understand the old-fangled f-stops, the detents on the ring on the lens of an "SLR",
single lens reflex camera, by which the lens aperture is opened or
closed to afford more or less light to enter the box, in combination
with adjustment of the speed of the shutter, to produce "proper"
exposures or more artful photography in adjustment of the focused depth of field, that is what "f. 11"
stands for, one of the several available f-stops. The abbreviation "s.o.b." refers to another well-known
photographic term, at least in the old darkroom days, meaning, in
French, "shadowbox"
A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "That Sunlit Hour", tells of Benjamin Franklin having originally conceived the idea of daylight savings time and William Willett, an Englishman, having been its principal pioneer, according to an article in Business Week. Mr. Willett had published a pamphlet in 1907, titled "The Waste of Daylight", indicating that when daylight was present, cheerfulness reigned and anxieties pressed less heavily, with courage being bred "for the struggle of life".
The piece concludes that it took
greatness to love an hour of daylight like that and to express it so
beautifully, but it prefers the way another great man had said the
same thing: "I hate to see the
Congressional Quarterly compares the various policy positions between Governor Stevenson and General Eisenhower, gleaned from various quotes of each, which you may peruse for yourself. Both candidates were so fresh on the scene, with neither having campaigned in the primaries, that these early positions, while not meaningless, would have to be more thoroughly set forth during the fall campaign before being taken as final indicators of where the two candidates stood.
One notable quote from each regarded civil rights, with General Eisenhower having said in mid-June that he did not believe the nation could cure "all of the evils in men's hearts by law" and that compulsory action in "certain phases" would be less effective than leadership in getting the states to perform such functions, but that "the full power, the full influence of the Federal government" had to be used to correct any "unnecessary discrimination of this kind" while "sticking to the jobs for which it was set up to do". Governor Stevenson had said to the Illinois Legislature in early 1951 that if the country was not going to discriminate in demanding the sacrifices to be made in the common defense, it could not discriminate in opportunity, and so urged consideration of fair employment practices legislation in the state.
Some in the Northern press would take exception to the Democratic ticket for the presence of Senator Sparkman, despite his record as a "liberal" Southerner, on the basis of his supposed identity with white supremacist causes. We shall see, as the campaign progresses, how that plays out. We have noted previously the white-supremacy rooster symbol present at the time, and for many years afterward, on the Alabama ballot, to which Senator Sparkman made reference in his above-linked March 7, 1952 "Longines Chronoscope" interview and to which the above-linked editorial makes note, Senator Sparkman having merely ventured that many of the voters in Alabama, despite the popularity of General Eisenhower in the South, would have difficulty voting for the elephant as opposed to the rooster symbol on the ballot. (Perhaps, by inference, he was suggesting that many of them could not read and relied on the symbols for telling them beside which candidate names to fill in the spaces with their "crosses"
Drew Pearson, in Chicago, indicates that there were some tense moments during the battles at the Democratic convention regarding the loyalty oath in the seating of the Southern delegates, the bitterest having involved South Carolina Governor James Byrnes, who at times trembled with rage, as other more moderate Southern delegates maneuvered to keep him away from the rostrum. Almost equally bitter had been Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia. The more moderate Southern leaders picked as a spokesman included Senators John Stennis of Mississippi, Spessard Holland of Florida and Olin Johnston of South Carolina, each of whom realized that if the South bolted from the convention, they would lose their positions as chairmen of key committees in Congress, which had enabled the South to maintain tremendous power in writing legislation or blocking it. Almost every key committee in both houses was headed by a Southern Democrat.
He finds that the most paradoxical development in the fight had been that Senator Walter George of Georgia had turned out to be the author of one part of the originally prescribed loyalty oath, that which had indicated that every delegate subscribing to the pledge agreed to vote for the nominee of the convention. To that, FDR, Jr., had stated that he did not think they could tell delegates for whom they should vote. Yet, because it had been proposed by Senator George, it was initially left in the pledge. Governor Allan Shivers of Texas, however, said that he could take the oath as long as that section were omitted, at which point it was agreed that it would be.
Deals were being made and unmade during the closing days of the convention, with the backers of Governor Stevenson at one point having offered the second spot on the ticket to four different persons, before the nomination of the Governor was finally determined, including Senator Kefauver—who would become the vice-presidential nominee in 1956 to Governor Stevenson—, Senator Sparkman, Jonathan Daniels of North Carolina, and the personal choice of the Governor, Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas.
The supporters of Senator Kefauver had suggested naming FDR, Jr., as the Senator's running mate, in exchange for lining up the Harriman supporters behind Senator Kefauver. At the same time, the supporters of Senator Kefauver were telling Senator Paul Douglas that he was the favorite for the number two spot. When one Kefauver supporter went to see Governor John Battle of Virginia to enlist his support for the Senator, the Governor flatly stated that he was for General Eisenhower.
He adds that as a tribute to the long service to the party by Vice-President Barkley, he would be offered his choice of an ambassadorship in a subsequent Democratic administration, and would probably pick either Britain or France.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop, in Chicago, find one thing to have been proven with finality by the "lunatic" Democratic convention, that the Northern Democratic liberals needed a few lessons in practical politics before they again presumed to lead the party. They find that a "sillier and more illogical display" than had been presented in the previous 24 hours could not be imagined.
Governor Stevenson had been the first choice for the nomination among almost all of those liberals. Shortly after the President announced on March 29 that he did not intend to run again, Averell Harriman had spent three hours pleading with the Governor to become a candidate, and virtually all of the Americans for Democratic Action likewise had made that plea. Few supported Senator Kefauver for the nomination and few imagined that Mr. Harriman could actually win the nomination without the support of the President. Thus, they hoped that there would be a deadlock on the first ballot and that Governor Stevenson would then be drafted, as had transpired.
Nevertheless, when the draft movement actually began, the liberals began exhibiting rage, and, they add, a degree of folly. Mr. Harriman had behaved as the "sensible and honorable man" that he was, continuing his high respect for Governor Stevenson. But the supporters of Mr. Harriman and Senator Kefauver began playing "amateur convention politics, organizing a stop-Stevenson movement." These forces argued that by refusing to rebuff a draft movement, the Governor had been faithless, despite the fact that those accusing him had always intended to back him in a draft-Stevenson movement in the event of a deadlock. There was also a claim that the Governor was too far to the right to head the ticket and that he was the creature of the "Northern bosses and the Southern feudalists". The Alsops observe, however, that the Governor had done nothing to encourage the draft and therefore owed nothing to any group who had pushed it forward.
On Thursday night, during the debate on whether to seat the Virginia delegation after it had refused to sign the loyalty pledge but explained that Virginia law in any event required compliance with the pledge, that is placing the party nominees on the state ballot, some of the Northern liberals had gone along with seating the delegation to encourage party unity. But others liberals, led by Representative Franklin Roosevelt, Jr., Senator Herbert Lehman of New York, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and others, had opposed the seating of Virginia, setting up the possibility of the charge that the draft-Stevenson leaders had gone along with the South in the voting. The same pattern was repeated in seating the South Carolina and Louisiana delegations on the same basis, after their refusal to accept the pledge.
Afterward, the liberals held a rally at the Congress Hotel, where the only sense spoken was by Senator Humphrey, who had reminded those present that there were three candidates acceptable to the liberals, Mr. Harriman, Senator Kefauver and Governor Stevenson. FDR, Jr., however, had interjected that he would place a question mark beside the name of Governor Stevenson.
At that juncture, it was obvious that Governor Stevenson was the only liberal candidate who could win nomination, and that any effort to block it would result in one of the conservative candidates being nominated. The liberals ignored that risk, however, and with it the opportunity to increase liberal influence within the party by taking the lead in the draft-Stevenson movement. Thus, they conclude with their initial observation that a few hard lessons for these liberals in practical politics were in order.
Robert C. Ruark addresses his diary regarding not going to the Democratic convention because it was so simple not to attend, instead spending a lot of time in front of the television watching baseball, also visiting the zoo, attending the movies, seeing "Outcast of the Islands", having lunch with a woman who said that her first reincarnation should be as Toots Shor's dog, turning on television again to see Betty Furness advertising appliances, spending Wednesday in meditation, watching some more television, concluding that the man telling the people at the Democratic convention to rehearse "Happy Days Are Here Again" had made more noise in telling them to sing loudly than the singers singing it.
Framed Edition
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