The Charlotte News
Thursday, September 18, 1952
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that South Korean troops had driven Chinese troops from the contested southern part of "Finger Ridge" during a predawn battle this date, recapturing central front positions they had lost nearly two weeks earlier. The South Korean troops had been assisted by U.N. fighter-bombers, which had softened the enemy entrenchments with bombs, rockets and napalm before two columns of the South Korean troops stormed the ridge, capturing it three hours later.
The Navy reported that five men were missing and seven seriously injured in an explosion aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Barton, nearly 100 miles off the coast of northeast Korea, the prior Tuesday. Presumably, it had struck a Communist mine, probably blown far to sea by a typhoon.
The Navy reported that on September 1, American robot planes launched at sea had hit enemy targets in Korea, ushering in an age of push-button warfare. An outmoded airplane had been launched by catapult from the deck of an aircraft carrier and guided by radio control to its target, a heavily defended location which no piloted aircraft could approach harmlessly. The flight was observed via a television screen aboard the ship from a camera mounted in the cockpit of the drone. The person in charge of the flight told a news conference that the country had enough guided missiles in store to sustain a large-scale robot campaign in Korea. He suggested that in future warfare, aircraft carriers could launch such robot planes equipped with atomic bombs. He said that the new robot planes were far more accurate than the V-2 rocket employed toward the end of World War II by the Nazis. One of the features which enabled the robot to be more effective was the presence of a guide plane following the robot, which would veer away from the target once the robot got within range.
Former Assistant Attorney General Lamar Caudle told Congressional investigators this date that a price-control violation charge and a $297,991 income tax case had been initiated against a wealthy lumber dealer of his hometown of Wadesboro, N.C., but had never been prosecuted, the price-control case having been dropped in 1944 on direct orders of then-Assistant Attorney General Tom Clark, head of the criminal division at the time, after the latter met with Senator Clyde Hoey of North Carolina before he was elected to the Senate. Mr. Caudle at the time had been the U.S. Attorney for the district. The income tax matter had arisen in 1948 when Mr. Clark was Attorney General and Mr. Caudle headed the tax division of the Justice Department. Mr. Caudle said the IRB recommended criminal prosecution and forwarded it to the Justice Department, whereupon Mr. Caudle disqualified himself. He said that he did not believe the facts warranted sending the matter to the grand jury. The OPA had believed it had a strong case, however, for a price control violation in the earlier case and Mr. Clark had first ordered him to press the matter, which led to the lumber dealer retaining as his counsel Mr. Hoey, who then met with Mr. Clark, who ordered the case dropped a few days later. Mr. Caudle said that he did not object, as he had reached the same conclusion.
Former Attorney General J. Howard McGrath had testified the previous day that he believed that Mr. Caudle had been wrongly treated by the President, when the latter had fired him the previous March for "outside activities". He said that he believed Mr. Caudle was honest and that the President should have permitted him at least to resign rather than fire him publicly.
Senator Hoey, visiting Wilmington, was asked to comment on the testimony of Mr. Caudle regarding the matter and Mr. Hoey said that he had represented the lumber dealer as a private attorney in the price control violation case, at a time when he was not holding public office, saying that he did not believe the prosecution was justified. After meeting with Tom Clark, he was informed that the OPA would bring a civil action against his client rather than a criminal action. He said the case was not brought to trial before his election to the Senate, at which point he had to withdraw from the case. He supported the determination of the Justice Department declining to prosecute the case criminally.
In Bridgeport, Conn., Governor Stevenson resumed his campaign, addressing a crowd of about 500, including the state's Democratic leaders and top candidates, who cheered him as his plane arrived. It was the first stop of a five-state tour, in which he would stress the position that Senator Taft was the new boss of the Republican presidential campaign, claiming that General Eisenhower had surrendered control to him and the Old Guard. The first major speech of the tour would be in Hartford this night, dealing with the implications of the atomic energy age. He would speak to the AFL convention in New York on Monday.
General Eisenhower, speaking from
his train to an assembled crowd of about 4,000 persons in Davenport,
Iowa, asserted this date that the taxpayers' money was going down "a
crack in the floor" because of Administration waste. He again
criticized corruption in Washington, saying that according to a
Congressional committee, five million dollars of Commodity Credit
Corporation funds had disappeared, and that Secretary of Agriculture
Charles Brannan had stated in response that the money was not much to
lose from a ten billion dollar budget. The General said that his
Dutch ancestors had never had that much money to lose but that a
nickel
Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer this date told a group of 60 businessmen, members of the Department's business advisory council, that he favored ending the excess profits tax the following June 30, a position favored by business.
A letter from a housewife in North Wilkesboro, N.C., to Price Stabilization director Tighe Woods, recommending that he come to North Carolina and let the women tell him a thing or two about high prices, had brought acceptance of the invitation in a letter, surprising the woman who had made the suggestion. Mr. Woods would arrive in Wilkes County to meet the women of the community on October 23 and expressed eagerness to hear what they thought about the cost of living. The housewife said that the men of the town would also be at the meeting.
In Somerset, Pa., a Greyhound bus collided in predawn fog with a tractor-trailer truck this date on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, killing two women and injuring at least 28 persons aboard the bus. The two women who had been killed had occupied the front seat of the bus, which took the full impact of the collision.
In Livermore, California, two persons were killed and seven injured when a Greyhound bus collided head-on with a dump truck early this date and then careened down a 150-foot ravine.
In Nags Head, N.C., a waterspout with winds of tornadic force swept through the Outer Banks the previous day, destroying one house and damaging two others. A resident of Manteo said that it was the first time he had ever heard of a waterspout hitting the area in his 77 years of residence. It left only a narrow corridor of destruction, about the width of a single house.
On the editorial page, "Eisenhower States His Labor Views" tells of the General's speech to the AFL convention the previous day having failed to provide details on his views of labor legislation, favoring retention of Taft-Hartley but with amendments to provide against using the existing law as a means of strike-breaking. His position on the subject appeared to place him alongside Senator Taft, who also favored amendments to the existing law. Beyond that, he spoke largely in generalities, saying he supported collective bargaining and making both labor and management responsible to the country, concluding that he wanted the best for the country regarding labor policy.
The piece indicates that there was a notable omission by his failure to offer any formula for handling critical strikes affecting national security, saying only that he favored volunteerism over compulsion, denouncing injunctions and seizures as a method to end a strike, although stating problematically that if the Government did intervene to end a strike in a national emergency, it should also continue to stimulate collective bargaining.
Toward the end of the speech, he had said that the worker was not a member of a special class, but rather a free man who should not be provided special treatment of any kind, either "stern or patronizing", and that to treat the worker as a special case was to deny him his dignity as an American citizen, a position, suggests the piece, antithetical to that of the Administration and more in line with that of Governor Stevenson.
It concludes that the General had probably picked up few AFL delegate votes, but that it remained to be seen whether the labor organizations would control the rank-and-file vote in the election.
"Milestone" tells of John Kenneth Lee, 28, having been admitted to the State Bar after being the first black student to graduate from the UNC Law School, where he had enrolled in June, 1951, after starting his law school studies at the North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham—subsequently, N.C. Central University.
The fact, it suggests, belied the predictions of those who feared that the admission of blacks to the University's graduate schools would wreck tradition and cause agitation and bitterness. It indicates that Mr. Lee would be "a better lawyer and a better citizen for having had access to the superior facilities and the broader cultural atmosphere of the University", and that the black community and the state as a whole would be well served by the fact.
Mr. Lee had been one of four black students admitted to the Law School in 1951, pursuant to the reversal by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals of the Federal District Court decision, finding, per Sweatt v. Painter, decided by the Supreme Court in 1950, that the State did not afford for black students a substantially equal law school to that provided for white students. The subsequently most nationally well-known of the four would be Floyd McKissick, to become head of the Congress of Racial Equality in 1966 and founder of HUD-funded Soul City, N.C., in 1968, intended as a model integrated community.
"A One-Way Track in Manchuria" indicates that a Sino-Soviet agreement announced during the week appeared as a setback to Communist China, resulting in subservience to Russia. The agreement provided that the two nations would continue joint operation of Port Arthur in Manchuria until each signed a peace treaty with Japan. The 1950 Sino-Russian agreement had provided that the Soviets would withdraw from Port Arthur by the end of 1952.
The Russians had maneuvered the Chinese out of the port in 1898 and it had fallen to Japan in the war with Russia in 1904, and then Russia had come back into the picture as a result of the February, 1945 Yalta agreement.
In return for the Russian agreement to remain, the Soviets were promising only to provide the Chinese with the Changchun Railway by the end of the year, the same stipulation made in the 1950 agreement. One end of that railway was in Port Arthur and the other in Soviet territory.
It posits that if the other agreements maintained in secret were as favorable to the Russians as this agreement, the Chinese were on track to become a Soviet satellite.
"Why Penalize the Safe Driver?" tells of automobile insurance rates having increased in 28 states, with a forecast by the State Insurance Commissioner of an increase in North Carolina as well. New York had adopted an insurance classification system whereby a driver with one accident resulting in payment of a bodily injury claim within the previous 18 months had to pay a 10 percent surcharge, and a driver with more than one such accident, 20 percent. New York had figured that about 13 percent of drivers would pay more under the system, obviating the need otherwise for a 1.5 percent boost in rates across the board.
The piece thinks the system sounded reasonable, and despite the objections of the insurance industry, as recorded in Business Week, indicates that North Carolinians ought put pressure on the insurance industry in the state to adopt it.
Drew Pearson indicates that the Republicans had studied the votes in 12 swing states and determined that the black vote could decide the election, possibly explaining why General Eisenhower had recently stated that he would consider appointing a qualified black person to his Cabinet—which he never did.
The General, the previous week, had recorded about 50 television and radio spots for his planned two million dollars worth of advertising in 49 key counties of those 12 key states, to be aired during the last three weeks of the campaign, paired with questions from the public, to be recorded separately.
He provides, verbatim, the Republican survey of those 12 states. In Connecticut, three strong Democratic areas were New Haven, New London and Hartford, but a shift of two percent of the vote in those areas would enable Republican victory in the state. In Maryland, Senator Millard Tydings had been defeated in 1950 because he had lost the black vote in Baltimore, where Democrats were strong. In New Jersey, which had voted for Governor Dewey in 1948 by a small margin, the black vote was also important, with Democratic strength lying in Hudson County, Trenton, Camden and New Brunswick.
In New York, which had voted for Governor Dewey by 60,000 votes in 1948, after former Vice-President Henry Wallace had attracted more than 500,000 votes away from the President, it was considered that the Republican effort would be difficult were they to lose New York City by more than 200,000 votes; in consequence, they had to pick up every possible vote in Queens and Richmond, while fighting to take votes in Manhattan and the Bronx. The black and Jewish votes were vital, but endorsement of the FEPC was not alone the answer.
In Pennsylvania, which had voted Republican by a small margin in 1948, the decline of the Republican Grundy machine in Philadelphia suggested a fight for the state in 1952, with Democratic strength in Scranton, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In Ohio, the Republicans had to duplicate the feat of Senator Taft in his re-election campaign of 1950, cutting into the labor vote in Cleveland and Youngstown. The black vote in Cuyahoga County around Cleveland was critical. A change of 3,600 votes from 1948 would have given Ohio to the Republicans. In Indiana, which had voted for Governor Dewey by a small margin in 1948, the black vote was very important, as was the farm vote. The labor vote in Gary was uncertain, though leaning probably more heavily Democratic. In Michigan, the progressive vote could put it in the Democratic column, with the black vote in Detroit very important and Democratic strength present in Bay City, Flint and Grand Rapids.
In Illinois, Governor Stevenson's home state, which had voted for the President in 1948 by a small margin, the Democratic strength was in Chicago, Decatur and East St. Louis, with the keys residing in the Chicago black vote as well as the downstate farm vote. In Wisconsin, while it was generally believed that it would go Republican on the basis of the 1940 and 1944 votes, that had been based on the state's pro-German, anti-British feeling, which had tapered off in 1948, causing the state to vote 53 percent Democratic, including the Progressive vote. In Iowa, which had voted for the President by a single percentage point in 1948, Democratic strength was evident all over the state and only a campaign assuring farmers of their overall economic future as well as continuation of specific farm policies would enable the Republicans to win.
In California, Governor Earl Warren had stated that it would be a tough fight for the Republicans to win the state, despite the Governor's personal popularity. The state had voted Democratic in the previous six elections, and the presence of Senator Richard Nixon on the ticket did not seem to improve Republican chances. The state had barely voted for the President in 1948, but there had also been a five percent Progressive vote. To win the state, the Republicans would have to wage a strong contest in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Alameda County and San Diego, or the state would again wind up in the Democratic column. The FEPC was an important issue in certain areas, but prompted violent reaction in others. The Republican analysis therefore recommended concentration of appeals as necessary in each local area.
Tell them what they want to hear in San Francisco and then tell them what they want to hear in Los Angeles, and then...
The study had concluded that there were 49 strongly Democratic areas in these 12 key states and that by using the elements outlined in the plan, those voting patterns could be shifted by one to five percent, enabling a Republican victory in the election.
Marquis Childs, aboard the Eisenhower campaign train, tells of being reminded of interviewing General Eisenhower late the prior November, while he was still supreme commander of NATO, wrestling with the question of whether he would run for the presidency. He had told Mr. Childs that it was necessary for the American people to be told that there was a sacrifice ahead, the surrender of self, a return to a kind of old time religion, reminiscent of Billy Sunday evangelism.
In New York, he had compared what he was undertaking to the crusade of Oliver Cromwell, when he had gone about the British countryside cutting off the heads of the Cavaliers. (Give that job to Dick; he has the sword.) Mr. Childs indicates that there was a puritanical strain in the General which corresponded with the hardships and sacrifices of his youth. He had stated that since he had started the political campaign, he had found that he was no longer running it, but rather that the campaign was running him. Mr. Childs posits that it would be simpler if there were only one set of persons running the campaign, but the dualism within the Republican Party was as evident on the campaign train, itself, as elsewhere.
At the first stop in Indiana, Senator William Jenner had boarded, along with Senator Homer Capehart and those running for the top state offices. The appearance of the General with Senator Jenner in Indianapolis had disturbed many of the General's supporters who believed that it was best to jettison extremists such as Senators Jenner and Joseph McCarthy. Those same advisers indicated that the General was also repelled a week earlier by the prospect of appearing on the same platform with Senator Jenner, and had kept his pledge that the Senator would not be on the rear platform of the train with the General and that the General would not mention his name.
Joseph Alsop, in Chicago, indicates that the Midwest was assumed to be Taft country, as well as where the Republican Party was weakest, save for the South. He asserts that time would tell whether those theories proved correct. But he regards General Eisenhower as a "sound investment" by the Republicans, because he was nationally known and respected for his military career, whereas Governor Stevenson was not so well known, and because the General was held in warm regard by all classes and groups, save the small minority of bitter-end admirers of Senator Taft. As soon as the General had begun to hit his stride on the campaign trail, his acceptance began to soar.
No one could yet tell whether he would win the election simply because the people liked Ike and so many wanted change. But those two factors had been the prime ingredients of his success thus far. His speech at the National Plowing Contest in Minnesota on farm policy had been the most specific to date, departing from the Republican platform and adopting the Democratic farm plank. Senator Taft had indicated that he still preferred the Republican plank, favoring flexible farm parity instead of the high, fixed parities advocated by the General and the Democrats. It was not clear what the effect would be of the Taft departure on farm policy.
When the General had been specific, he had cut the ground from underneath many Republican leaders, such as Senator Jenner, who was basing his campaign for re-election on violent attacks against the Korean War as a useless "meat-grinder" for American boys. The General, by contrast, azserted the belief that while there had been early blunders which invited the Soviet aggression in Korea, he supported the President's response and refused to promise any easy or early end to the fighting, as well as rejecting the MacArthur strategy of expanding the war beyond Korea.
Mr. Alsop concludes that the big advantage held by the General was the universal "like" of Ike, enabling him to start ahead of Governor Stevenson in a short fall race.
A letter from a minister of the Unitarian Church in Charlotte indicates that he had been reading with interest the letters regarding the religion of Governor Stevenson and reminds of the presence of the Unitarian Church in the city, which could furnish information about the religion to anyone who requested it.
A letter writer responds to another letter which had indicated the author's disgust with the "mess in Washington", especially high taxes. This writer praises the expenditure on foreign aid, as holding off the Soviets and saving "millions of casualties" in Europe and Asia. He indicates that if the Communists had gotten away with their aggression in Korea, all of Asia would have since become Communist. He also suggests to the previous writer that he consult the income tax tables because if he had to pay taxes on his $200 of income per month, with four dependents, he was misunderstanding the tax laws. He also suggests that the prior writer should be thankful for that much income and that if he disliked the general level of taxation, he should go somewhere where the government took it all and gave back what they wanted the taxpayer to have.
A letter writer comments on an article in the Monday edition of the newspaper regarding the high cost of school fees, causing the writer resentment for having to pay each September increasing extra fees for the books of his three children, this year costing $18. He indicates that he was a native of the state but had been educated in the North where he attended public schools with high scholastic ratings, which never charged for books or other supplies prior to high school, and then only imposing modest fees for art and laboratory supplies. He also indicates that nearly all Northern schools provided a kindergarten as part of the school system, a service missed by many newcomers to Charlotte. He suggests to the newspaper that it delve more deeply into the subject and wonders why the City and County public school systems, possessed of a wealthy tax base, could not pay for the books without adding tuition fees.
That's 'cause they use them big thick books up 'ere. Where you learnt it, they used them little thin ones, didn't they?
Framed Edition
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