The Charlotte News
Monday, September 15, 1952
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that U.S. Sabre jets had shot down nine enemy MIG-15s, probably destroyed another and damaged two others in air battles over North Korea this date between an unannounced number of Sabres and 80 MIGs. Allied fighter-bombers had also hit an industrial complex at Sinuiju near the Manchurian border the previous night, including an oxygen plant, an alcohol distillery and a rope factory.
The new kills raised the number of MIGs destroyed in September thus far to 42, with the record for a month being 44, set the prior April.
The previous day, U.S. Navy planes again visited the enemy troop concentration at Hoeryang, also hit on Saturday, leaving several warehouses and a power station in smoking ruins.
In Belgrade, the U.S. had asked Premier Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia for greater cooperation in the joint defense of Southeastern Europe, including the use by American planes of airbases in that country. An American Vice-Admiral, J. H. Cassady, commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean-based Sixth Fleet, had shown the Premier charts outlining how and where carrier-based planes, operating from the Adriatic, could strike at Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, should Yugoslavia be attacked by any one of those Soviet satellites. The Premier had remained noncommittal to the proposal, which came as no surprise. The question of how far Yugoslavia would cooperate with the West would come up at a conference of the country's ruling Communist Party the following month, the first such conference since the Cominform had broken with Yugoslavia nearly five years earlier.
General Eisenhower told a mildly responsive crowd in Ft. Wayne, Ind., this date that he saw nothing funny about the issues of the presidential campaign, responding to the quips and gibes made by Governor Stevenson on the campaign trail. He said that the country was involved in a war in Korea without any plans for winning it, that there had been 170,000 killed and wounded, and that there was nothing funny about that. Senator Frank Carlson, adviser to the campaign, had indicated that a private survey had demonstrated to the campaign that Korea was the most important issue in the eight Midwestern farm states. Senators William Jenner and Homer Capehart of Indiana joined the campaign train at two brief stops. Senator Jenner was not included on the schedule of speakers introducing the General at seven appearances in the state. The General opened a 12-day, 12-state drive through the Midwest and upper South, including Virginia and North Carolina. The General had stated before he had left New York the previous night that he opposed "socialized medicine", indicating that Federal control of medical care would lead to "assembly-line treatment" of patients and that tax bills would increase because of the bureaucracy needed to administer such a program. Governor Stevenson had also opposed Federal control of medical care.
In Springfield, Ill., Governor Stevenson told reporters at a news conference this date that Senator Taft had taken over General Eisenhower's campaign and that he believed many people would be alarmed by that turn of events, occurring after the conference between the General and the Senator the prior Friday. He wondered aloud whose views would prevail, as the two could not be reconciled, also wondering whether the General had abandoned his principles, in light of the fact that the Senator said that he had not abandoned his. The Governor indicated that it must be the first time in a presidential election that the vanquished had dictated terms to the victor, and wondered what had become of the General's "great crusade" of which he had spoken in his acceptance speech at the GOP convention. The Governor also said that he believed that substantial reductions in the Federal budget and in taxes could be expected by fiscal year 1955, depending on the progress of the rearmament program and the international situation. He further stated that he had exchanged several letters and telephone calls with the President since beginning his campaign, most of the letters having been very kind in expressing satisfaction with the campaign to date. He also said that he did not believe he would propose the appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican, did not endorse all Democratic candidates up for election in 1952, but would endorse individuals, and did not know the points of disagreement between himself and Senator Harry F. Byrd Virginia, expressing his utmost regard for the Senator as a public servant.
Another Gallup poll appears, tapping support for General Eisenhower among Democrats and Republican support for Governor Stevenson. Among those who indicated that they had voted in 1948 for either the President, Progressive Party nominee, former Vice-President Henry Wallace, or Dixiecrat candidate Senator Strom Thurmond, 69 percent indicated that they would be supporting the 1952 Democratic ticket, while 25 percent said they would be switching to the Republican ticket, with 6 percent still undecided. Among those respondents who said that they had voted for Governor Dewey in 1948, 90.5 percent said that they would be supporting the Republican ticket in 1952, only 6.5 percent stating their support for the Democratic ticket, leaving 3 percent undecided. Among respondents who said that they had not voted in 1948, 47 percent favored the Democrats in 1952, while 43 percent favored the Republican ticket, and 10 percent remained undecided.
In Edinburgh, Scotland, the U.S. destroyer Coates limped into port this date with a hole in its hull, knocked out of the "Mainbrace" war games in a collision with another U.S. ship in the River Clyde on Saturday, with no casualties resulting. The other ship, the Tidewater, was only slightly damaged and continued taking part in the exercise.
In New York, the AFL's 71st convention heard a bitter opening attack this date on the Taft-Hartley law, leading Governor Dewey, who welcomed the convention, to wonder aloud whether it was a Democratic "clambake". AFL president William Green said of Taft-Hartley that it was "obnoxious, dirty", vowing to muster all of the economic and political strength of the labor organization to obtain its repeal at the earliest possible date. The convention was expected to endorse Governor Stevenson for the presidency, if so, the first time in AFL history that the convention as a whole would have endorsed a presidential candidate. General Eisenhower was scheduled to address the convention the following Wednesday and Governor Stevenson, the following Monday.
In El Segundo, California, AFL pickets began a strike against Douglas Aircraft Co., after the workers at the plant voted 2 to 1 the previous day to walk out over a wage dispute, while the workers in the parent Douglas plant in Santa Monica voted against striking and in favor of the company's latest offer of a nickel increase per hour. The El Segundo plant employed 15,000 persons, of whom 13,000 were represented by the International Association of Machinists, and the Santa Monica factory employed 22,000, of whom 15,600 belonged to the IAM. A week earlier, 25,000 IAM workers had struck at the Lockheed Aircraft Co. plant in Burbank, which employed 33,000 workers. There was still no resolution of that strike.
Don't let them take your wallet in El Segundo. Be who you are, IAM.
In St. Regis, Quebec, an Indian agent on the island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River stated that he did not know "Yalamulankastidanamustsa", "Kim" for short, a blue-eyed, 18-year old girl with white skin, who had been found Saturday in the woods near Fort Worth, Texas. She had told a deputy sheriff that she belonged to a tribe of albino Iroquois Indians who lived on St. Regis. She said that her name meant "Rising Cloud" and that her parents were dead, that she had lived on the island with her adopted father and eight brothers and sisters until hitchhiking to Texas, where she hoped to train horses. The Indian agent said that he had not only not heard of the girl, but that he had never heard of albino Indians.
In Charlotte, Ann Sawyer of The News tells of the plans for the upcoming Carolinas Carrousel, with 35 princesses to arrive from the two Carolinas on the eve of Thanksgiving, then taking a tour of the city and attending a ball at the end of the day. Celebrities would be celebrated and feted on Thanksgiving, and then attend a football game between Central and Harding High Schools. The Thanksgiving Pageant Parade would then be the climax of the event.
We'll look forward to that. Who're the celebrities? Is Norma Shearer coming?
In Tokyo, a three-year old girl made such a fuss that her father let her go to bed without taking her medicine, a neighbor then having pounded on the door a few hours later indicating that he had heard a special radio broadcast that the druggist who had mixed the daughter's prescription for ringworm had made a mistake and the dose he had delivered could kill the child, who had proceeded to sleep through it all.
That will teach the little brat not to go outside and pick up ringworm.
On the editorial page, "Let's Get at Causes, Not Results" tells of the Charlotte Board of Realtors expressing concern over crime in Charlotte and having stated the prior Saturday that it was time to place more emphasis on how persons lived. The piece agrees, indicates that while the crime rate decreased among former slum-dwellers when they moved to low-cost housing projects, there was a need for a much expanded program of social education within the new environment. It disagreed with the Board on its conclusion that there should be less emphasis on where citizens lived, as there was a correlation between where people lived and how they lived.
It also comments on the Board's statement that "beasts" stalked the premises of slum housing under the influence of alcohol, indicating that alcoholism had to be treated as a disease, which required facilities which Charlotte and the entire state lacked. The state had no facilities for the treatment of alcoholics within the black community. But only to seek better control of alcohol or set up a Charlotte crime commission, it indicates, would not be a solution to the problems, as alcoholism and crime were results, not causes, deriving from poverty and ignorance, which could be corrected by education and achievement of equality of economic opportunity. It offers that a local commission which would seek to solve those causes of alcoholism and crime was needed.
"For a Better Symphony
Orchestra" indicates that the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra was
preparing to start its annual membership drive the next day, and
suggests for its board of directors the "Detroit Plan",
whereby a Detroit businessman picked that city's orchestra up from
economic depths and made it a flourishing cultural institution. John
B. Ford, Jr., the industrialist-president of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The conductor of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, James Pfohl, had suggested that perhaps 20 corporations might pledge $1,000 each per year for three years and from that could be started a model for cities of the size of Charlotte, rather than spending so much time having to beg for enough money to keep the symphony barely alive.
In Detroit, the City Government had purchased 40,000 tickets for eight children's concerts, at a total cost of $25,000, and the City provided the children's transportation to the concerts. At each of the concerts, a page of the printed program was devoted to one of the $10,000 sponsors, providing each one an opportunity to state its views on the responsibility of the corporation to the Symphony Orchestra. The plan, said Mr. Ford, worked very well and was applicable to any city.
It concludes that it would be
worthwhile for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra board of directors to
look at that plan
"Scripts Don't Work in Campaigns" tells of the Democrats having laid one of the larger eggs thus far in the presidential campaign the previous week in Los Angeles by providing Governor Stevenson with a script upon his visit to his birthplace. The script had directed the Governor to walk up to the door "with reasonable reverence", as other persons would take their positions on the front porch and shout, "We want Adlai." He was then directed to stand with native sons, with a flag in one hand and his birth certificate in the other, holding them aloft, concluding with a remark to the effect that any man who had all that and the state, too, could not help but win. The Governor and his advisers, however, had, according to a Wall Street Journal reporter, blown several gaskets when they heard of this elaborate staging, causing things to depart considerably from the script.
He was 25 minutes late, was mobbed by cameramen, local residents and female politicians, and instead of walking up the steps with "reasonable reverence" to his birthplace, had ducked behind the interference of former White House bodyguard Mike Riley, finally making his way to the door, where he told reporters, when asked, that he was not doing so good. When he asked for the present resident of the home, who was supposed to say that since she was a little girl she had always had the ambition to fetch a glass of water for a President and ask whether she could now have that honor, she appeared, forgot her lines, shook hands with the Governor, while someone on the front lawn was saying, "Tell us a few words, boy." The Governor then thanked the current resident for putting up with the "cruel imposition" of the political invasion, and then after some pushing and shouting, the candidate and the crowd left.
It concludes that the moral, if any, was that if local Republicans were writing a script for General Eisenhower's impending visit, they should forget it and organize a riot squad instead.
A piece from the Atlanta Journal, titled "And Live Happily Ever After...", indicates that divorces were often caused by neurotic husbands and wives who could not tolerate one another's shortcomings, according to Dr. Frank Caprio, writing in the recent issue of Coronet Magazine. The doctor had listed seven rules to prevent marriages from breaking up, including the avoidance of unpleasant conversation, understanding the psychology of the other sex, straightening out sexual incompatibility, cooperating within the marriage rather than competing for supremacy, limiting the amount of complaint, learning to relate to people and the world, and having additional interests to make married life stimulating.
The piece thinks not all of those rules were necessary, that there was a simpler way to live in connubial bliss, that when the husband arrived home, he should compliment his wife on a new dress or hairdo, and the wife should then indicate, in response, that she was cooking her husband a good supper, with the result that no divorce would ever occur in that home.
Well, what if you don't like the dress or the hairdo, and the supper consists of a pile of burnt beans and little weenies slung in front of you in a rude and abusive manner, despite your kudos to the horrible bargain-basement looking dress and the worse hairdo?
Drew Pearson indicates that gambling kingpin Frank Costello had not thus far been deported probably because he had friends in high places, some of whom were in Congress, as just revealed through a little black book carried by Mr. Costello's Washington lobbyist, whose job it was to defeat the anti-slot machine bill and block other legislation which would intrude on gambling. Mr. Costello could be deported for having lied about a previous conviction when he took his oath as a naturalized citizen, a fact which Mr. Pearson had brought to the attention of former Attorney General J. Howard McGrath. The previous week, present Attorney General James McGranery had finally announced that proceedings would begin to deport Mr. Costello.
Mr. Costello's Washington lobbyist was a former convict and prison mate of Jacob Guzik, who courted members of Congress at a fashionable hotel near the Capitol, picking up their bar tabs, loaning his telephone for long-distance calls and providing shrimp parties for them every Friday night. At the same time, the nation's top mobsters used his apartment for a hangout, and therein racketeer Joe Adonis had hid overnight while the Kefauver crime investigating committee of the Senate had searched for him. In addition, Meyer Lansky parked his car in the hotel garage and charged the bill to the lobbyist's apartment. The lobbyist had also telephoned from this suite Philip Kastel in New Orleans, "Greasy Thumb" Guzik in Chicago, and Morris Kleinman in Cleveland. The lobbyist also had about $60,000 in cash on hand from Mr. Costello to distribute in the right places. Mr. Pearson concludes that it was no wonder that Mr. Costello was still resting relatively easy about the possibility of being deported.
He provides a list of members of Congress and their support staff who had attended the lobbyist's parties or appeared in his little black book, including Congressmen Jimmy Morrison of Louisiana, Louis Rabaut of Michigan, Edwin Willis of Louisiana, Jim Murphy of Staten Island, Chester Gorski of Buffalo, and Phil Welch of Missouri. He concludes that the public had a right to know why certain members of Congress were so close to this lobbyist, even after the Pearson column had identified him two years earlier as a former convict and racketeer who was the lobbyist for Mr. Costello.
Stewart Alsop indicates that the President was eager to hit the campaign trail, because of the attacks on the Administration, especially its foreign policy, by General Eisenhower, whom the President had said many times that he admired. He was also not pleased with certain aspects of Governor Stevenson's campaign, especially the "mess in Washington" gaff, ultimately requiring the Governor to call the President to mollify him. The President also regarded the Governor's defense of the Administration to have been weak since that time, while the General had continued to harp on "corruption", "the mess in Washington", and "Trumanism". The Governor had only said in response that there had been mistakes made by the Administration and that there would probably be more, not regarded by the President as a spirited defense.
The President was reported to be as eager to see the Governor elected as though he, himself, were running. But he also had doubts that the Governor's speeches were reaching the voters and believed that he, himself, could deliver the "give-'em-hell" spirit to supply the missing ingredient which could lead to the Governor's victory and vindicate the President historically.
As a result, the chief business in the White House presently was the preparation of the President's counter-attack, with particular emphasis on foreign policy. There were suggestions that certain papers might be declassified by the Administration to show that General Eisenhower had recommended the withdrawal of American troops from Korea, done prior to the outbreak of the war over the objections of the State Department, to counter the claims of the General that there had been "bumbling" which had led to the Korean War. Likewise, the wartime cables and messages of General MacArthur might be made public to counter the Republican charge of a "betrayal at Yalta" in February, 1945, as General MacArthur was said to have recommended paying an even higher price than that agreed at Yalta to obtain Russian support in the Pacific war, five months before the successful test of the atomic bomb would pave the way for a significantly truncated and abrupt ending to that part of the war.
Mr. Alsop concludes that it was a curious political twist that the candidate was acting like a President, while the President was acting like a candidate, adding, however, that it might work.
Robert C. Ruark tells of having written several books without any social significance, and never having promoted any of them, but deciding to devote his column to his newest one. He indicates that it was no easy chore to write a book, that it required paper, a typewriter, a "certain basic stupidity", time, plus arrogance, that "any bum who sits down and figures he has 300 book pages of importance is an arrant ass". (Would you not wish to inject "to impart" at some point in that latter phrase? We do not mean to arrogate ourselves to such a prolific writer, but...)
He suggests that neither Shakespeare nor Artie Shaw had that much worth saying. He thinks that anyone who wrote books for any reason except for the author's own amusement was nuts, and amusement could be had by simply observing the national scene.
He recounts of Kathleen Winsor having written Forever Amber as her first bad novel, and then an even worse one, Star Money, but that the Government had nevertheless decided that she was due a rebate of more than $20,000 in taxes from the work, as well as a similar amount for her divorced husband based on his community property interests.
Her next husband, Artie Shaw, Mr. Ruark suggests, ought also receive a tax rebate, as he was also obviously writing for his own amusement, after he also had divorced Ms. Winsor. He thinks it would be grossly unfair to treat Mr. Shaw otherwise.
He indicates that his new book had as many pages as most books, and more than some, was dedicated to his liver, "without whose constant encouragement the author would feel no choler, and would also be dead." If the book made any money, it would be taxed, because, he indicates, he had never been married to Ms. Winsor.
"Speaking critically, I would say that my chef d'oeuvre could have been written far better by any one of Billy Rose's ghosts, or even by book reviewers. And so, as the sun sinks over Clifton Fadiman's memoirs, off we go to get shredded by the critics on the TV, press and radio."
A letter from a Marine private in Korea indicates that he had not received very much mail and would appreciate hearing from some "real Southern girls", that mail call was perhaps the most important time of day for the troops, bringing a letdown every day when there was not much mail to which to look forward. He says that his company was the one which had assaulted and held "Bunker Hill" on the western front and that at present, it was the main line of resistance near there.
A letter writer from Pinehurst tells
of the newspapers which he read either supporting General Eisenhower
or leaning toward him, and that all of them were stressing the "mess
in Washington", but none were publishing anything about the
"mess in Maryland", until the Durham Morning Herald
had run an editorial indicating that the Republican Governor,
Theodore McKeldin, who had nominated General Eisenhower, had accepted
gifts of money, reported to be $7,000, from unnamed "old
friends". The Governor had denied that there were any strings
attached to the gift, but had decided, in the wake of intense
criticism, to return the money, while refusing still to identify the
donors. The Durham editorial had gone on to say that the Governor's
indication that there was nothing wrong with the acceptance of the
gift sounded as the President in providing excuses for others, though
never having to defend himself against such criticism. The letter
writer indicates that the matter should cause people to realize that
neither party had a monopoly on corruption. He wonders why there was
such silence otherwise in the newspapers about this "mess"
A letter writer seeks to answer the question of Governor Stevenson and the Democrats as to what people wanted to change in the country, by indicating that he wanted a change from making $200 per month, out of which he had to feed, clothe and shelter his family of four, while paying high taxes and never having a dollar to save or spend on amusement. He thinks that Communism could not be worse in some ways than the "slave-grinding government" in Washington. He indicates that he was a Democrat but that he would try anyone who would provide relief from the heavy taxation brought on by the "big shots, the higher-ups, squandering money for everything and in every way. Mess is not the word for what goes on in D.C. It's h___ for those who foot the bills."
The blank word is "hell".
Why don't you just write it if you are going to suggest it? For some
little kid or teenager, or some teenager for some little kid, might fill that word in with any number of
words they've heard at school or from their parents, some of which
you may not have even heard, and which might be a lot worse sounding
than "hell". Damnit, stop deleting the expletives. Get in
there and do something, Ron...
A letter writer from Cheraw, S.C., indicates that he recalled that in the Twenties and the first part of the Thirties, the Republicans had promised good times just around the corner, and that those times had stayed around the corner until FDR had been elected to lead the country from its "corruption" which had taken place during the 12 years of Republican rule between 1921 and 1933. He wants to know why anyone would believe the present crowd talking about a "mess in Washington" when it had been a far worse mess when the Republicans had control of things. He indicates that the majority of the people had not forgotten the Tea Pot Dome scandal or the starvation of the people during the Depression, being unemployed, ill-housed, and lacking medical care. At that time, there was "only a broom handle Army and tugboat Navy and little Air Force for defense." He thinks that if the people stopped and thought a moment, they would vote for the party which had helped everyone since that earlier time, the Democrats.
Framed Edition
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