The Charlotte News

Friday, September 19, 1952

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Senator Richard Nixon, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, was in hot water regarding the revelation the previous night of a $16,000 to $17,000 slush fund, collected for him by Dana Smith, a wealthy Pasadena tax attorney, who said that he had raised the fund because the $2,500 expense allowance for Senators was not enough for someone representing a state as large as California. Senators received an annual salary of $12,500 plus the expense account, and more than $50,000 per year for office and staff salaries and expenses. Senator Nixon said that he had used the fund for necessary travel expenses, to print and distribute speeches and documents, and for postage, rather than utilizing his Senate franking privilege.

Senator Nixon was traveling through the Sacramento Valley and into Oregon this date, but took time out from his platform speeches to issue a statement denying wrongdoing in the matter, saying that it was "another typical smear by the same left-wing elements which have fought me ever since I took part in the investigation which led to the conviction of Alger Hiss", that those elements had "tried to manufacture and create an air of suspicion over a matter which is completely open and above board in every respect". He vowed that such tactics would not slow his "attack against Communism and corruption", that he would not stop until "the crooks and the Communists and those who defend them are driven out of Washington".

That would take another 22 years, but he would finally get the very last one of them and drive that one out on August 8, 1974, sending him home ignominiously via helicopter.

General Eisenhower, campaigning through Nebraska, said at Nebraska City that he had not yet had a chance to speak with Senator Nixon about the matter, but would as soon as he was able to obtain a telephone. He expressed complete confidence in his running mate, saying that he believed him to be an "honest man" and was confident that the Senator would place all the facts before the American people "fairly and squarely". The General's campaign press secretary, James Hagerty, stated that the General would likely contact Mr. Nixon when the train reached Kansas City later in the day and that some of the campaign advisers had already been in contact with the Senator. The General appeared stern-faced and did not mention the revelations in his addresses to crowds along the train route, continuing to harp on Administration corruption and the need for a house-cleaning "top to bottom" in Washington, as well as contending that the Truman Administration had cost the country prestige abroad.

Many of the General's associates regarded the Nixon matter as a serious political setback and some were suggesting that the Senator should leave the ticket, though that sentiment was not shared publicly by the General's top advisers.

DNC chairman Stephen Mitchell said that the Senator was "morally wrong" for having the slush fund and should resign from the ticket.

Senator Nixon appears in the photograph to be amused about something, perhaps one of Governor Stevenson's jokes, or maybe the nipple story on the page.

Governor Stevenson, campaigning in New England, stated this date that the President deserved "the main credit for the vision and courage" of the country's foreign policy. He stated that to his surprise, the Republicans were presently saying that "the central issue of our time is humor", in reference to the criticism by General Eisenhower of Governor Stevenson's quips along the campaign trail. At the Massachusetts border, the Governor had been joined by Governor Paul Dever of Massachusetts, Congressman John F. Kennedy, running for the Senate against Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., House Majority Leader John McCormick and Lieutenant Governor Charles Sullivan. While the Governor spoke in Springfield, Mass., it began to rain, and people yelled out for him to keep going and not mind "a little rain".

Governor Stevenson, of course, would become Ambassador to the U.N. during the Kennedy Administration and in that capacity would play a vital role in confronting the Soviets with the photographic proof of the presence of offensive missiles in Cuba, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962. And the rain, despite the President ominously donning a raincoat and hat at one point, did not fall...

Another Gallup poll appears, tapping the pulse of the independent voters of the country, representing about one-fourth of all voters, finding that they continued to favor General Eisenhower over Governor Stevenson, by 51 percent to 32 percent, with 17 percent saying they were undecided. The results of a similar poll the previous month had been substantially the same. In 1948 at the same time, the poll had indicated 47 percent of independents favoring Governor Dewey to 38 percent for the President, with 15 percent undecided, whereas by election day, 57 percent of independents voted for the President.

Governor James Byrnes of South Carolina was drawing criticism from many Southern Democrats for his decision to vote for General Eisenhower. Senator Olin Johnston of South Carolina said that everyone was allowed to vote as they wished, but that he would solidly back the Democratic ticket. The South Carolina Democratic chairman had no comment, but the Democratic campaign headquarters in the state stated that the Governor had "turned his back on and deserted South Carolina Democrats". Governor Byrnes said that he would vote for the Democratic slate of electors pledged to General Eisenhower, for which he had been instrumental in gathering the necessary signatures to place on the South Carolina ballot.

Former Assistant Attorney General in charge of the tax division, Lamar Caudle, testified this date before a House Judiciary subcommittee investigating the Justice Department, that Ellis Slack, the central figure in the St. Louis grand jury's investigation of tax scandals, had once sent Mr. Caudle to Nashville to obtain the dismissal of some tax indictments. The Federal judge who was urging the St. Louis grand jury investigation had indicated a belief that Mr. Slack had been instrumental in getting the grand jury to make a partial report which one juror had called a "whitewash". Mr. Caudle said that he was sent to Nashville by Mr. Slack to review the cases and further explain the Department's position, that too many tax indictments were being sought. He said that he had obtained the dismissal of the indictments. In a second matter, Mr. Caudle said that Mr. Slack had traveled to Milwaukee to explain to a Federal judge that if he were inclined to dismiss an indictment against a couple based on the wife's ill health, the Justice Department would have no objection. The judge in that case had refused to quash the indictments and the woman's husband had eventually pleaded guilty, was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine, at which point the case against the man's wife was dropped. Mr. Caudle said that he had heard a lot of rumors that the case would be fixed, but that he had recommended that the Department proceed with the prosecutions. The couple in question had been represented by former Senator Scott Lucas, who had sought the dismissals through former Attorney General J. Howard McGrath.

The Government reported this date through the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the cost of living had risen to a new high in mid-August, the third straight month it had set a new record. It rose to 191.1 percent of the 1935-39 average, 12.3 percent above the pre-Korean War cost of living and three percent above where the index had been a year earlier. Slight increases in the cost of food and other major consumer items were responsible for the increase. Railroad workers, Northern textile workers, auto workers and other labor groups with escalator clauses in their contracts, would obtain an hourly wage increase as a result.

In Petaluma, California, a man driving his truck into his garage the previous day had wanted to make sure that his 18-month old daughter was not in harm's way and so picked her up and carried her into the house, then returned to his truck and was driving into the garage, when his wife suddenly screamed, at which point he slammed on his brakes, too late, for his daughter had run out of the house and become lodged under the front wheel, which had crushed her head.

Elizabeth Blair of The News tells of a two-year old boy who was eating again thanks to 345 readers of the newspaper who had answered his mother's distress call, after he had refused to drink milk or eat for the fact that he had bitten a hole in the nipple of his bottle on Wednesday, for which his mother had no replacement available similar to the one destroyed. The readers had come to the rescue by supplying some soft nipples for the little boy, who looked them over and picked five which he declared as "mine". The mother thanked the many nipple providers among the readers and said that she now had four spares in case he ruined another nipple.

On the editorial page, "For Want of a Nail, Etc." tells of a squabble between the City and County Governments regarding financing of the proposed community-wide tuberculosis survey, under which everyone would be provided X-rays at a total cost of about $125,000, one dollar per X-ray. The U.S. Public Health Service would pick up $100,000 of the tab, and of the remaining $25,000, the local tuberculosis, heart and cancer associations would likely contribute about $10,000, leaving $15,000 for the County and City Governments. The County Commissioners had proposed that the amount be split between the County and the City, but the City Council had balked at that suggestion, indicating that the County ought pay the whole amount.

It indicates that the County ought to pick up the entire bill, providing its reasons, having to do with the operation by the County of the tuberculosis sanatorium. Fighting tuberculosis paid the community back many times what would be spent on this program. It finds therefore that the program was so important that the City should match the $7,500 if the County continued to refuse to put up more than half of the remaining funds.

"Fun with Figures" tells of Senator Taft having told an audience in Springfield, Ohio, the prior Wednesday that 20 years earlier, the Hoover Administration had taken only 6 percent of taxpayer income in taxes while the current Administration was taking 25 percent.

It recalls that the last Republican fiscal year in the Hoover Administration was 1932-33, at the height of the Depression, when it had been tough for taxpayers to pay 6 percent of their income.

Recently, Senator Willis Smith of North Carolina had told an audience in Switzerland that the Government was presently spending 85 percent of its budget on defense and foreign aid, leaving 15 percent for all other functions of the Government.

It suggests that if 25 percent of income was going to taxes and only 15 percent of that was going to the domestic bureaucracy, then only 3.75 percent of income was so being spent, considerably less than the 6 percent spent by the Republicans in their last year of control of the White House, as the military budget at the time had been relatively small.

"No Predictions in This Corner" indicates the newspaper's unwillingness to venture any predictions for the coming elections, with so many unknown variables at work. The first such issue was the impact which television would have on the election, a second, the frustration of the people forced by circumstances to accept world responsibility while not prepared to do so, a third, the impact of record-breaking prosperity on the vote, a fourth, the relative fame of General Eisenhower versus Governor Stevenson being a comparative stranger to the national scene, and the impact of the General's recent gestures to the Old Guard of the Republican Party and whether Governor Stevenson had convinced dissident Democrats that he was truly independent of the President. There were many other factors, it suggests, and it admits not knowing at this juncture how they would play out in the election on November 4.

"Popskull Preferred—It's Cheaper" tells of it being no coincidence that nearly all of the bootleggers who had been arrested in the undercover operation by ABC agents earlier in the week had been caught selling non-tax paid "popskull" or white lightning. The large Federal tax on liquor had caused bootlegging of moonshine to flourish nationwide. It indicates that not until the taxes were lowered and the price of legal whiskey reduced to a more competitive level, would the profit margin for bootlegging be narrowed to reduce or eliminate the trade. It indicates that apprehension of distillers and dealers of non-tax paid whiskey was a Federal responsibility, under the aegis of the Alcohol Tax Unit, but Congress had not given that agency enough funds to cope with the problem. It finds it gratifying therefore that the County ABC officers were turning their attention to the illicit drink dispensers and pint peddlers. It indicates that, notwithstanding that fact, some few of those persons would always be around.

There is, undoubtedly, a connection between this story and the front page nipple story, having to do probably with misplaced surrogates during postnatal care, but you can get the rest for yourself in the still of the night.

Business Week tells the story of Luther Hodges, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor—to become Governor in 1954 at the death of Governor William B. Umstead, and eventually, beginning in 1961, to serve as Secretary of Commerce under President Kennedy.

Mr. Hodges had never run for elective office previously, had been a businessman, starting as a mill hand and office boy at Fieldcrest Mills, a subsidiary of Marshall Field in Chicago, of which Mr. Hodges had become vice-president by 1943. The nomination as lieutenant governor had traditionally been reserved as a political plum for those with experience in government, and Mr. Hodges had been pitted against such candidates. Though even his friends had not given him much chance to win, he had succeeded in capturing the nomination, tantamount to election in the one-party state.

Mr. Hodges said that his formula for the success had been to make himself and his ideas likable.

During the war, starting in 1944, he had joined the Office of Price Administration, where he supervised a four billion dollar textile pricing program, leading to several other government jobs. He retired from Marshall Field in 1950 to work as chief of industry in West Germany as part of the Marshall Plan administration. After finishing that job in 1951, he returned home to Leaksville, without any definite plans. He had seen during his employment government waste and believed that more businessmen should be involved in government. Thus, when a friend had suggested that he run for lieutenant-governor, he took the suggestion seriously, thought about it for a few days and finally, after discussing it with friends, announced his candidacy.

His opponents had been Roy Rowe, a veteran legislator, Mayor Marshall Kurfees of Winston-Salem, and Ben McDonald, a radio announcer. Because the professional politicians preferred Mr. Rowe, it had been a foregone conclusion that he would win. Mr. Hodges then began campaigning among the people, town by town. He said that he had sweated blood trying to muster the courage initially to walk up to someone and ask for his vote. The first time he had tried, he approached a black waiter in a restaurant, prepared to hand him a dignified "vote for Hodges" card, until the waiter turned toward him, at which point Mr. Hodges lost his nerve and walked away. A few minutes later, he tried it on the restaurant cashier and made it through the presentation.

He had advice for businessmen who sought to enter politics, that they had to realize that government and politics required a series of compromises, and that the average businessman was inclined to be too abrupt, would have trouble talking to the average person on the street in terms they would understand. Businessmen also were not accustomed to asking people for favors. The things which businessmen had in their corner, however, were their organizational and administrative skills.

Mr. Hodges had a direct and honest approach in politics, indicating that as a businessman he did not have commitments which tied him to particular views. A businessman achieved position in his company by eliminating waste, the exact opposite of bureaucrats.

The piece concludes that if the public began to identify that ability with businessmen, it might become their strongest plank.

Drew Pearson, providing notes on the campaign, indicates that General Eisenhower's chances in Governor Stevenson's home state of Illinois did not look good. With Governor Stevenson, it was the first time since President Lincoln had run in 1860 and 1864 that Illinois had a chance to put a native son in the White House. Republican chances in Ohio appeared better since the Taft-Eisenhower meeting.

He notes that relations between the General and the press were not too friendly, despite the General being supported by 75 percent of the newspapers and having a terrific advance build-up.

Republican managers continued to be disturbed by Governor Stevenson's gift for eloquence, the reason for the attack by General Eisenhower on the Governor's humorous quips. The Eisenhower strategists were trying to find good speechwriters but were having trouble.

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., was in trouble in his race for re-election in Massachusetts against Congressman Kennedy, as was the Republican candidate for governor, Congressman Christian Herter. The General would do his best to bolster the candidates, but it was doubtful that he would be able to carry the state, himself.

Senator Taft remained upset with Governor Sherman Adams of New Hampshire, the General's top strategist, because the Governor had campaigned through New Hampshire calling Senator Taft an isolationist.

If Governor Stevenson were to lose the race, part of the fault would be ascribed to DNC chairman Stephen Mitchell. A research expert for the Democrats had resigned recently because every piece of research had to be approved by Mr. Mitchell before going to the White House or to Springfield, creating a bottleneck in the research pipeline. The Democratic organization was similarly stifled and Mr. Mitchell had done little to shore up Southern Democratic support, letting Texas seethe to the point that a Republican victory seemed likely, allowing Southern California to continue as disunited as ever, and until recently, setting up no Stevenson headquarters in Boston. He had left Texas in the hands of two persons, House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who had delayed any organizational meeting for Governor Stevenson until three weeks after the Democrats under the leadership of Governor Allan Shivers had announced for General Eisenhower, and with "timid" Senator Lyndon Johnson, who complained because he had not been nominated for the vice-presidency, was so worried over his own re-election prospects two years hence that he was thinking more about 1954 than about the candidacy of Governor Stevenson.

A rumor had been circulated by a Hollywood reporter that Lady Sylvia Ashley, former wife of Douglas Fairbanks and later Clark Gable, had been escorted around Nassau by one Stuart Symington, causing a rumor to flourish that the Stuart Symington who was running for the Senate in Missouri was about to get a divorce. In fact, Mr. Symington and his wife formed one of the most happily married couples in public life. The rumor had started because a British citizen who was an aide to the governor of the Bahamas shared the same name with Mr. Symington. Eventually, the rumor got back to Mr. Symington, when a friend had asked him about the story he had heard of him and Greta Garbo going around together.

Marquis Childs, aboard the Eisenhower campaign train, tells of General Eisenhower having resented Senator Taft issuing public terms of truce after the General had gone out of his way to praise the Senator after defeating him at the Republican convention for the nomination. The General told the Senator that he could only campaign in his own way and that the give-'em-hell style would not fit his personality. He urged the Senator to do everything in his power to help bring about a Republican victory in the fall. The Senator would follow his own style, taking on personalities, especially the President, Secretary of State Acheson, Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan, Social Security administrator Oscar Ewing and others, the same type of campaign he would have run had he been the nominee.

Meanwhile, General Eisenhower was likely to continue campaigning on the larger values of peace, freedom, and the country's religious heritage, interspersed with attacks on corruption in Washington. He would make such a speech in Kansas City, set to remind his audience of Boss Pendergast and the resulting cost in graft and crime.

Some politicians, especially in Taft territory, complained that the General did not rouse his audiences sufficiently, that they sat and listened respectfully in silence, applauded at the beginning and at the end of each speech. The Eisenhower strategists were concerned that once Senator Taft began campaigning, he might steal the thunder of the General and confuse the voters as to who was running for the presidency. Such circumstances could prove problematic in the event of an Eisenhower victory, leading people to wonder who would be determining policy.

The Congressional Quarterly assesses the outlook for the Senate campaign, indicating that the Democrats had a good chance of maintaining control of the Senate for the fact that the Republicans had 21 seats in play versus only 14 for the Democrats, with the Republicans needing to pick up two seats to take control of the chamber, or one seat plus the vice-presidency. It indicates that there were 13 seats which were doubtful for the incumbents, eight Republican and five Democratic, including the seat in Massachusetts of Senator Lodge. In addition, there were six Democratic seats and six Republican seats considered safe, with three additional seats leaning Democratic and seven leaning Republican. Thus the race narrowed to the battle for control of 21 seats in 20 states, 14 of which were occupied by Republicans.

The Republicans were concentrating their efforts on Democratic seats in Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, West Virginia and Wyoming. The Democratic incumbent had the edge in Arizona and West Virginia, but the other five states remained doubtful.

It concludes that the Democrats not only had a good chance of holding the majority but also of gaining seats in the election.

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