The Charlotte News

Thursday, September 11, 1952

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Robert B. Tuckman, that the Communists had hit "Capitol Hill" this date with heavy mortar and artillery fire, after failing to capture the hill during the night in bloody grenade and bayonet fighting with the South Korean troops occupying it. In a rainstorm during the night, the enemy had surrounded the hill, but South Korean troops cut through the enemy positions on the north slope and were joined by reinforcements. By early morning, the South Koreans had pushed the Chinese to the base of the north slope and once again were in firm control of the crest. The U.S. Eighth Army said that enemy guns fired 30 rounds per minute throughout the day at the South Korean infantryman, who had chased screaming Chinese troops from the hill at dawn. An estimated 500 enemy troops had been killed during the night battle. In six days of fighting for the hill, an estimated 2,800 enemy casualties had been inflicted.

Elsewhere on the front, only small engagements were reported.

U.N. B-26s, using radar-aiming techniques, flew through overcast skies to bomb enemy western and central front positions. Heavy rains during the previous night and early in the morning had reduced allied airstrike capability.

The President stated at his weekly press conference this date that General Eisenhower proposed an "isolationist Congress" which would not bring peace. He said that if the country elected a Republican Congress, as the General favored, it would be isolationist. He opened the conference with a statement criticizing the "one-party press" for its predominant support of the Republican ticket. He also indicated that it did not matter much what the newspapers did based on past performances. He said that the metropolitan press and the big magazines had become "big business", traditionally Republican. He indicated that only 10.3 percent of the 1,769 daily newspapers in the country had supported the Democratic ticket in 1948 and that almost all of the large circulation magazines had supported the Republicans. He observed that the situation had not changed much in the four intervening years. He echoed statements made earlier in the week by Governor Stevenson, speaking before editors and publishers in Portland. The President said that he did not care what the editorial writers said in the newspapers as long as they gave the Democrats a break in the news columns. He also said that he did not care to make any comment about the primary victory of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and likewise had no comment about the statement of Governor Allan Shivers of Texas, that he would support General Eisenhower, or of General Eisenhower's endorsement of Senator William Jenner. The President also stated that he did not know of any pressure from the White House ever put on former Assistant Attorney General Lamar Caudle while head of the tax division.

Daniel Bolich, formerly the second in command of the IRB, was indicted this date in Brooklyn by a Federal grand jury on five counts related to evading of his personal income taxes. He faced a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a fine of $50,000 or both. The story notes that convictions seldom resulted in the maximum punishment.

The renomination of Senator Joseph McCarthy for his Senate seat posed a question for General Eisenhower's campaign strategists as to how far they should go in supporting the Senator's re-election bid. When asked at Idlewild Airport in New York the previous day whether he would support Senator McCarthy's election in November, the General stated "no comment". A spokesman for the General's campaign headquarters indicated that a statement might be forthcoming later regarding Senator McCarthy.

Governor Stevenson had arrived in Los Angeles the previous night and would examine the question of corruption in government during a Town Hall appearance this date, and then deliver a major address this night, dealing with his views on Social Security legislation. During a whistle-stop in Bakersfield the previous day, his mention of the corruption issue had brought loud applause from the onlookers. He said that he was "tired of ill-tempered epithets, slogans about crime, corruption, cronies, thieves and rascals." He stated that surely there had to be something more important to talk about in 1952, when the whole world was "precariously balanced between war and peace". During a stop in Modesto, he said that he had more experience than General Eisenhower at "throwing rascals out of government" because he had spent the previous four years cleaning up the state of Illinois after eight years of the "most magnificent rascality you ever saw, under a Republican administration in that state". The crowd responded with shouts of "Give it to 'em… Give 'em hell, Adlai." During this first whistle-stop tour, he made eight stops and usually overstayed his 10-minute schedule at each one. At the end of the day, his throat was gravelly and he looked tired, but the crowd reactions had seemed to restore his energy and he continued the pace. Police estimates placed the crowds at between 1,500 and 2,000 at most of the stops, except in Fresno, where police estimated 6,000 spectators.

A report from Mountain View, California, tells of being snubbed by the whistle-stop tour, as expressed by the headline in the Mountain View Register: "Adlai Will Visit MV, at 60 Miles an Hour".

You were supposed to catch him in SF or SJ.

In Washington, the Public Health Service reported that new cases of polio reported the previous week set a third successive weekly record at 3,824 cases, putting the total for the year ahead of the same period in the record year of 1949-50. The total number of cases which had been reported since April had reached 26,039 by September 6, compared with 25,429 for the same period in 1949, and 14,220 cases the previous year.

In Boston, the 57th triennial convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States this date refused women equal rights with men in the Church's top governing body. Admission of women as delegates to the house of deputies, the Church's legislature, would have broken a tradition dating back to 1789. Male lay delegates voted the resolution down, while clerical delegates favored admission of women.

Near Odenton, Md., three thieves entered an isolated tavern and robbed the 61-year old owner, without legs and blind in one eye, of $256. Four hours later, while providing a customer with an account of what had happened, he slumped over in his wheelchair and died of a heart attack.

In Cleveland, FBI agents were looking into a report this date that a group of red fez-wearing blacks in Cleveland had formed a club which advised its members to refuse military service. A man identifying himself as a member of the organization had provided testimony to the U.S. Attorney, who had alerted the FBI. The man had testified that he had a right to refuse the draft because he was a member of the "Moorish nation of North America". He was charged with draft evasion. The organization believed that Moors could never become members and citizens of the union of 48 states and therefore could not be drafted "to fight for the Magna Charta code of white supremacy".

On the editorial page, "What Now in Egypt?" tells of General Mohamed Naguib having become Premier at least for the time being, and placing the Egyptian Army in the political spotlight again. British authorities had expressed fear that a military dictatorship in Egypt might lead to Communist agitation. The State Department was sending a man to Cairo to set forth the U.S. Middle East policy, in the hope of being able to deal with the new Government.

The coup in Egypt had given prestige to an army which never before had staged coups or led movements in the interest of Egypt. It had long been despised as an agent of the British military government and was considered the creature of King Farouk, who had used it to suppress threats against his personal safety or for quelling riots. Now, the army had assumed a more respectable role, having expelled the unpopular King and sponsored the beginning of social reforms. General Naguib appeared to be a man of the people and had their confidence, but had never been known as a champion of political reforms in the interest of the people, regarding such things as land reform, amelioration of the conditions of the peasants, the purge, streamlining, and modernization of the paternalistic Egyptian political parties.

The question was whether the General and the Army would carry Egypt once more along the path of Moslem and nationalist extremism, as the country had gone through at the close of World War II, whether he would permit extremism to fall into the hands of Communist exploiters, or adopt reforms. A clue, it indicates, might be found in the arrangements made between the State Department and the Egyptian Government for satisfying Egyptian claims against the British, without fully approving of the installation in Egypt of fanatics, like Premier Mohammed Mossadegh and the Moslem leader Ayatollah Khasani in Iran.

It suggests that General Naguib and the Moslem leaders in Egypt, if treated with understanding, might prevent the conditions prevailing in Iran from occurring in Egypt. Egypt would not be transformed overnight by the coup, and, it suggests, it would be interesting to see what developed in Egypt, with the help of the State Department.

"One Way Only" tells of the Democratic nominees to appear on the ballot in Texas, but, nevertheless, that many Texas Democrats were heading to the Eisenhower camp. It indicates that the ballot in Texas was as it should be, with one set of electors for the Democratic nominees and one for the Republican nominees. Many disgruntled Southerners in other states were still trying to obtain a set of electors on the ballot for General Eisenhower as a Democrat, increasing the likelihood of his defeat by split votes. It again urges that there was only one way to support General Eisenhower at the polls, to vote for him as a Republican.

"Mecklenburg's Horse-and-Buggy Voting" indicates that residents of the county owed a vote of thanks to the resigning chairman of the County Board of Elections, as the job took a lot of time and not many people with the chairman's ability would have given it so much time, with such little remuneration as a reward. All of the election officials had to have a great sense of civic responsibility to do the job. The former chairman had been devoting more than half of his time to the Board, for which he received only $1,500 the previous year.

It indicates that the County Commissioners would be well-advised to consider a pay increase for election officials in the next budget.

About a third of the voters in the nation already used simple and accurate electric voting, requiring less personnel at elections and thus affording more pay for each Board member. It thus encourages adoption of the modern electric voting system.

"Come on Down, Adlai" indicates that General Eisenhower probably would deliver a major speech in Charlotte during his visit two weeks from Friday, and that Governor Stevenson also was being invited by local and state Democratic leaders to visit the city. It urges that the Queen City was a logical stopping place in the area for presidential candidates, with excellent radio and television facilities, as well the headquarters for the Associated Press in the Carolinas. The seating capacity for Memorial Stadium was 15,000 and the city's population was the largest in the Carolinas. Of particular interest to the Democrats was the fact that the hottest Congressional race in the state was centered in Charlotte, between incumbent Representative Hamilton Jones and his Republican opponent, Charles R. Jonas.

It also indicates that Governor Stevenson had many kin in the area and so it hopes that he would come to the neighborhood, where "lots of 'kissin' cousins' and plain voters" would assure him a hearty reception.

A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "Horsy", extends its sympathies to an Ohio horse named Clayton, which it deems a dignified name for a horse. Clayton had been matched against a one-horsepower tractor weighing 80 pounds and he had out-pulled it ten to one. It questions therefore whether Clayton was a ten-horsepower horse, something it admits made no sense. Thus it questions the formula of one horsepower equaling 33,000 foot-pounds of work per minute. It indicates that it had always been suspicious of automobiles labeled with 180 hp and more, for anyone seeking to hitch 180 horses to a chassis to test the premise would have difficulty.

It suggests that Clayton had done the work of ten horses not necessarily because of his own strength but rather because humans "sometimes look a little silly horse-wise".

Drew Pearson tells of it having proved difficult for the President to deliver a message to Premier Mossadegh of Iran, containing a new concession from the British and the U.S., including a loan offer from the U.S., to try to resolve the oil crisis in Iran. Mr. Pearson indicates that not even the Russians acted that rudely, never having refused to receive a diplomatic note. The impasse in Iran probably indicated that the Russians would eventually take over.

The diplomatic notes had been sent by Prime Minister Churchill and the President the previous week, the British indicating their willingness practically to give up their claims in Iran and to help market Iranian oil if Iran would submit part of its dispute to the World Court, while the President offered a ten million dollar loan to help Iran through its financial crisis. When the U.S. Ambassador, Loy Henderson, and the British Charge d'Affaires, George Middleton, delivered the notes, the Premier read them and decided that there had to be a trap in it. He returned the notes, balled out the diplomatic representatives, and walked away. The President became angry at this unprecedented rebuff, and Ambassador Henderson was directed to redeliver the note even if he had to ram it down the Premier's throat. Prime Minister Churchill sent similar instructions. When the notes were returned, with instructions that the Premier had to accept them, he told the envoys to place them on the table and leave.

In the meantime, Iran's financial situation was going from bad to worse, while the Tudeh Communist Party in Iran became increasingly stronger. Its underground army was well-equipped, and with a little Russian support, could take over the entire country almost any time Moscow provided the signal.

He notes that the President had said privately that it was the last time he would ever write to the Premier of Iran. Mr. Pearson quips that since the White House staff had also implored him to avoid writing letters to music critics and to Bernard Baruch, it left his letter-writing scope somewhat restricted.

Senator Richard Nixon, the GOP vice-presidential candidate, had done a terrific job of campaigning to bolster the Republican ticket in Maine, except in Bangor. There, he was paying tribute to Senator Owen Brewster, who was defeated by Governor Fred Payne in the Republican primary, saying that despite the defeat, Senator Brewster had been a "good sport" and had gone "up and down the state campaigning for the ticket." At that point a voice came from the rear of the crowd, asking, "How can he do that, when he's in Switzerland?"

Mr. Pearson corrects an item from the column the previous month in which it was reported that a former Department of Interior attorney was a partner in a syndicate seeking Indian claims against the Government, based on testimony before a Senate committee probing Indian attorneys. He had now learned that the attorney in question was a member of a firm handling Indian claims but had a partnership agreement specifically providing that he would receive no fees from those Indian claims.

Sam Pratt, writing from Rock Hill, S.C., discusses the question before South Carolina voters in the fall election of an amendment to the State Constitution to permit the Legislature to abolish the public school system to avoid the prospect of desegregation by order of the U.S. Supreme Court. A special three-judge Federal District Court panel had held in the Clarendon County case—to become subsumed under Brown v. Board of Education—, that black students could be denied admission to a white school only if the segregated facilities were substantially equal. In response, the Legislature enacted a law to provide for a sales tax to finance an equalized school system.

The proposed constitutional amendment had not received any publicity in the months since it had been placed on the ballot and the average voter would probably not be aware of it if asked. While white middle-class voters able to afford tutors for their children might vote to abolish the public school system in favor of a system run by church and civic organizations, the average working-class white person might think twice before doing so. The church organizations could not afford to run the school system and no civic organizations had stepped forth to organize one.

The wild card in the election would be the black vote, which would be substantial for the first time. Counter-intuitively, in the 1948 general election, counties with heavy black populations had voted against the President and for the States' Rights ticket of Strom Thurmond, whereas Spartanburg, for instance, with a black population of only 22.4 percent, had given the President nearly 60 percent of the vote. Florence County, with a nearly 50 percent black population, gave Governor Thurmond three times more votes than the President, and Charleston, with 41 percent black population, voted four to one against the President. In the counties with heavy black populations, the white voters tended to turn out in greater numbers. But with more black voters to turn out at the polls in 1952, it was unlikely that many would vote to abolish the public school system.

Joseph Alsop, in Indianapolis, tells of Senator William Jenner of Indiana, "the local imitation" of Senator Joseph McCarthy, having been able to grab firmly to General Eisenhower's coattails during the General's visit during the week, despite the fact that the Senator had once bitterly opposed the General. But now those coattails appeared to be his best hope for victory against Governor Henry Schricker, the popular Democratic nominee for the Senate seat. The Senator had personally assured the General that he would support any policies of an Eisenhower Administration, a promise to change nearly all of his foreign and domestic policy stances, as well as those on a good many domestic issues.

Following the conventions, Senator Jenner had bitterly complained that the nomination of General Eisenhower had cut the rug out from under him because he and the General disagreed on about everything. At the inception of his Senate re-election campaign, however, he discovered that the polls of the Indianapolis Star and News showed the state strongly supportive of General Eisenhower, and that those same polls showed less than strong support for Senator Jenner.

Initially, the Republican state chairman, who had been strongly in favor of Senator Taft for the nomination, had told General Eisenhower to stay out of Indiana, and then opted for a small rally. But the publisher of the Star and News intervened, as did the former American Legion national commander, who had won the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and a big rally was then planned for the General, albeit with Senator Jenner relegated to the background in favor of the gubernatorial nominee. Senator Jenner had called General Marshall a "living lie" and an "eager front man for traitors", and so having him in the background was entirely agreeable to the General. But a few days prior to the appearance of the General, the Republican state chairman intervened to push the Senator to the foreground, naming him to provide the introduction to General Eisenhower.

A letter writer from Gastonia suggests that the members of the Men's Bible Class of the Hawthorne Lane Methodist Church, who had, in a letter, requested from the newspaper information about the religious affiliations of the presidential and vice-presidential nominees, had appeared naïve in doing so. He suggests that they compare the violent crime statistics of Charlotte with the statistics of any city of a similar size with only an average number of churches. He also recommends that they examine Religion in Public Education by V. T. Thayer, published by the Viking Press in 1947, and the report of E. L. Thorndike, the psychologist, showing there to be no correlation between religion and morality across communities. He also suggests that before the Bible class labeled the nation Christian, they should spend a Sunday morning reading and discussing the first 75 words of the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty with Tripoli. He also recommends the writings of Confucius, Ikhnaton, Descartes, John Locke, John Milton, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and James Madison. He suggests that on the basis of the criteria set up by the Bible class, the contributions to the nation of Washington, Paine, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Abraham Lincoln, as well as all Jews, would have to be eliminated. He regards the position of the members of the Bible class therefore to be foolish.

A letter writer finds it disturbing that former Governor and Senator Cameron Morrison had led 200 Mecklenburg Democratic leaders in a loyalty pledge at the Democratic convention, finds it a sad thing that a formerly "real Democrat" had been added to the Fair Dealers.

A letter writer responds to a letter which had indicated that General Eisenhower and the Republicans had contributed to the "mess" in Washington, indicates that the Teapot Dome scandal had been limited to nine members of the Harding Administration and that President Harding had issued orders that the guilty be prosecuted. Two had been acquitted, two had committed suicide, one had died awaiting trial and four were eventually sent to prison. He suggests, therefore, that corruption had not been condoned by Presidents Harding and Coolidge. He finds it a far cry from the "cover up" in which the Truman Administration had engaged. He also reminds that FDR had made General Eisenhower supreme Allied commander in Europe during World War II and that the decision to retreat from Berlin to allow the Russians to capture it had been made jointly by FDR, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. He insists that the Democratic Administration had to assume the responsibilities for its own blunders. He also believes that those who had been guilty of corruption in the armed forces in Europe during and after the war, had not been permitted to resign but were convicted of crimes, which he regards as a far cry from the current resignations and retirements from the IRB wuthout prosecution.

A letter writer, the dog lover being touted as a gubernatorial candidate for 1956, says that when he walked into the Barringer Hotel recently to purchase a copy of the newspaper, he had bumped into his old friend from Lincoln County, who told him that the letter writer of the previous day was okay, but that he would never be elected dog catcher in Lincoln County, regardless of how many times he ran or how much money he spent. His farmer friend had urged him to go ahead and run for governor in 1956. He says that his old friend from Lincoln County was okay but that in all fairness to him and his "little dog friends", he could not, or would not, support him for dog catcher.

You must have gotten into the dog food or something, because you are not making any sense at all, and we are definitely not going to vote for you for governor in 1956. Get over it. Bowwout.

A letter writer indicates that she had noted a front-page mention of Governor Stevenson's criticism of a one-party press, an unexpected bit of reporting on the part of the newspaper based on the fact that it had not made mention of his major address the previous week, which she regarded as "one of the cleverest speeches ever delivered by a political candidate". She regrets that the newspaper had merely become a political organ and finds it "a disappointing commentary on the integrity of our newspapers."

We agree. Let's subscribe to a new newspaper. But all they have as an alternative is that damned Observer, which is even more conservative. Maybe we should move to New York.

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