The Charlotte News
Thursday, September 4, 1952
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Milo Farneti, that the U.S. Fifth Air Force stated that U.S. Sabre jets this date had shot down 12 enemy MIGs and crippled three more, a near record bag. The 19th ace of the war, Major Frederick Blease, had shot down his fifth enemy jet to qualify as an ace. The best single day performance by the Sabres had occurred the prior July 4, when 13 enemy jets had been destroyed and seven damaged, with one more probably destroyed. The Sabres were flying cover for swarms of fighter-bombers which had struck Communist front line positions. One pilot reported seeing a MIG go out of control and begin to dive without having been hit, the pilot managing to eject. One U.S. pilot was reported to have ejected from his damaged Sabre over neutral territory. The losses to the U.S. contingent would not be reported until the end of the week. The several dogfights had occurred during a break in the bad weather which had prevented virtually all U.N. planes, except B-29s, from taking to the air the previous day, when all bombers had returned safely from a successful raid on the Changjin power plant, hit twice previously.
Winds up to 70 mph and about four inches of rain had hit the battlefront on Tuesday and Wednesday. The enemy had probed 11 times across the front on Wednesday and Chinese troops had explored the "Bunker Hill" area near Panmunjom during the morning of this date, then withdrawing. None of those skirmishes involved more than 25 to 50 soldiers.
General Lewis Hershey, director of Selective Service, stated, in a speech before the 60th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association the previous night, that some men who were presently rejected as a "4-F"classification would have to be called up to meet the manpower requirements of the Armed Forces, 1.2 million during the coming year. He charged psychologists with some of the responsibility for the fact that 400,000 men thus far had been rejected for military service because of failure to pass the qualification tests. General Hershey explained to reporters later that psychologists might have shown the Army how to make use of some of those men in some capacity or how to detect those who were smart enough for service but had purposely failed the tests. He said that 1.5 million men had been rejected for various reasons since the draft program had begun, that medical doctors were to blame for some of it, but that psychologists were also to blame.
In Springfield, Ill., Governor Stevenson's campaign manager, Wilson Wyatt, set forth his itinerary of five major speeches, starting with a reply in Denver on Friday to the Republican slogan, "It's time for a change." In the five speeches, he would deal with the independent vote, the catchphrases of the Republicans and his farm program, the latter to be set forth at the National Plowing Contest in Kasson, Minn., the following Saturday. He would appear in Seattle on September 8, where he would present his views on conservation and public power, would speak in San Francisco the following day on foreign policy, and then in Los Angeles on September 11, the topic for which had not yet been finalized. During October, he would travel through the South, the West and the East. The Governor conferred this date with Senator George Smathers of Florida. Mr. Wyatt declined to comment on charges against Democrats made by General Eisenhower during his tour of the South. He said that the large crowds greeting the General in the South had not worried the Stevenson camp. Some reporters had suggested that the Governor may have been talking over the heads of his audience in Michigan on Labor Day, when crowds had been disappointingly small and the response not so enthusiastic.
General Eisenhower would formally open his presidential campaign in Philadelphia this night, following his tour of the South, in which he had adopted a new fighting personality. The General's chief of staff, Governor Sherman Adams of New Hampshire, told reporters that the campaign would be as hard-hitting and vigorous as any campaign ever waged in their memory. The General had told reporters that he believed he had made a lot of friends in the South during the brief tour. He smiled broadly for photographers. He would outline his views on foreign policy this night in a speech before Pennsylvania Republicans, to be broadcast nationwide on NBC television and radio. The following day he would go to Chicago and then make a speech before the National Plowing Contest on Saturday. From there, he would go to Cleveland on Monday and Indianapolis on Tuesday. During his last stop on the Southern trip, he had stated in Little Rock that the Declaration of Independence said that all men are created equal and that the Founders had made no mention of the color of one's skin. He stated: "We must approach … group problems in the spirit of cooperation and readiness to accept the responsibilities by each of us that are group in character." He went on to say that if that was not done, "then there comes that creeping tide of law, central law, that finally results in the all-powerful state and we do it because we are regimented…" The audience had remained silent at those statements. His primary theme during the Southern tour had been "the mess in Washington". Overall, the crowds had responded enthusiastically, and it was estimated that in the six speeches, he drew a total of 300,000 spectators. There were shouts from the audience of "Pour it on!" and "Give 'em hell, Ike!" whenever he attacked the Administration.
The Government reported this date that deliveries of planes, tanks, guns and ammunition for defense had reached a new peak in July, a slight increase over the two billion dollars worth produced in June. Acting Defense Mobilizer John Steelman said that production would have been higher had it not been for the 56-day steel strike. He said that steel production had been restored to the point that pipelines for turning out military, atomic energy and machine tool items were again being filled.
Former Secretary of State Cordell Hull, 80, was in critical condition at Bethesda Navy Hospital, having been admitted the previous Friday for treatment of a coronary thrombosis. The Secretary had served from 1933 through November, 1944.
In Miami, the question of whether Atlantic Hurricane "Baker" would continue its course toward the U.S. mainland or die out over water remained unanswered. Navy hurricane hunting planes had developed mechanical trouble and had been unable to check on the position of the storm. It was estimated to be 620 miles east of Daytona Beach, Fla., with its highest winds at 110 mph near its center. It was moving northwestward at 12 to 14 mph.
We predict it might go right across Florida into Alabama, sweep up into Iowa and then attack Canada in the Far West, maybe then swoop down into Utah, then across the country to Tennessee and up into Minnesota. Batten your hatches. Baker is wild. But Charlie is going to be wilder.
In Charleston, S.C., the two rising Duke freshmen who had canoed 400 miles from their native Rutherfordton to Charleston, arrived the previous afternoon and attended a movie the previous night depicting life at sea. They had departed on August 23, carrying plenty of supplies for the trip, which had gone well until they reached Columbia where they had to shoot the rapids at Parr Shoals, causing nine planks in the canoe to be broken against the rocks, necessitating a repair. They had then entered the Congaree River and made their way to Wateree, finally into Lake Marion, the upper reservoir of the Santee-Cooper chain, at which point they encountered Hurricane "Able"and headed to shore, where they pitched camp in a pine grove. The wind had howled and trees began to fall, two of which had nearly fallen on them while water rose about them throughout the night, not enabling them to get much sleep. After the storm had passed, that dark and stormy night, they shoved off again and crossed Lakes Marion and Moultrie, arriving at the Santee-Cooper power plant on Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. The prior morning they resumed their voyage and by 2:00 had passed the Naval Ammunition Depot in Charleston, finally arriving at the docks of the Oakdene Compress in North Charleston, where photographers and reporters greeted them.
Did you run into any backwoodsmen? Did you bring a full quiver? You boys are lucky you didn't get blown back to Durham.
In Wilmington, N.C., police had gone to the cemetery the previous day and found a batch of lottery tickets in a flower vase on a grave, and also found two men who had records of previous lottery convictions, charging them with counting lottery revenue in the cemetery, police indicating that they had hidden the lottery tickets in the vase when they saw police approaching.
In Chicago, the parents of a baby kidnapped 22 years earlier were waiting to meet a San Pablo, California, housewife who had reportedly been identified as the missing baby. Now 24, she had been two when supposedly kidnapped in 1930. Police indicated that it was the oldest unsolved case in the Chicago missing persons file. The mother indicated that she hoped that her instinct would tell her whether the woman was really her daughter. The Oakland Tribune had stated the previous day that new scientific techniques had identified the woman as the missing child, based on fingerprints, blood type and teeth of the woman and members of the family. Scientists from five states were employed by both the Tribune and the Chicago Daily News to undertake the analysis. A physician in Martinez, California, had stated, however, that he had arranged for the adoption of the woman in 1927 and that she was definitely not the kidnapped child.
Also in Chicago, a 63-year old man had admitted to police stealing a pickle worth a quarter from a delicatessen, but the justice of the peace reduced the charge to disorderly conduct and fined him $107, to be worked off in jail at the rate of $2.50 per day. Police at the station chipped in and presented him a gift of a dozen pickles the previous night.
On the editorial page, "The Great Awakening" indicates that the Republicans had, at long last, discovered the South, with the visit of General Eisenhower. The people had welcomed him with open arms, in Atlanta, Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami, Birmingham and Little Rock. They liked Ike.
The previous night, RNC chairman Arthur Summerfield of Detroit announced that another swing by the General through the South would occur later in the month, and the state Republican committee chairman said that the General would definitely visit Charlotte and Winston-Salem on September 26.
Thus far during his Southern tour, the General had dealt primarily with corruption in government, with an appeal also to women voters and attention to local issues, such as embalmed beef. He was being himself and he was "clicking". It hopes that he continued in that vein.
"Howdy, Mr. Mechling" tells of Tom Mechling, former journalist and husband of Senator Pat McCarran's former secretary, having come to Nevada seven months earlier with the avowed purpose of beating the Senator's machine. With little or no organization or funds, he had managed to obtain the Democratic Senatorial nomination, beating Senator McCarran's protégé, former State Attorney General Alan Bible, despite the Senator's radio appeal on behalf of the latter.
It indicates that while Senator McCarran, himself, was assured of four more years in the Senate, "unless Providence intervenes", he had probably gotten a good jolt from this attack on his "desert dynasty". The victory would also give no comfort to the Republican Old Guard, as Mr. Mechling's 14,512 votes were more than the total polled by the Republican incumbent, Senator George Malone, and his primary opponent. Because of the state's relatively small population, a few hundred votes might decide the election and, ultimately, control of the Senate in 1953.
Thus, it concludes, the election would likely be interesting, but in the meantime, it welcomes Mr. Mechling to the political arena, "a plain, ordinary taxpayer who went out and did something about a political mess."
"Bigger and Better Schools" indicates that many years earlier, the relative geographical isolation of rural families, poor transportation facilities and the prevailing theory of elementary education had combined to create small, one-teacher schoolhouses. That system had worked as long as the primary emphasis was development of literacy during the elementary grades. But modern education, modern transportation and the growth of the large rural population had changed the dynamics of that system, such that a good elementary school in 1952 did more than develop literacy, also providing an attractive environment, adequate instructional materials and equipment, a curriculum planned to round out the personalities of the children, and close attention to health needs, while teaching basic skills, creative expression, and understanding of the democratic processes, accomplished through teachers with technical qualifications, closely correlated with the community being served.
A recent report of the State Department of Public Instruction had shown how far that process had gone, indicating that there had been a reduction of more than half of the elementary schools in the state, from 5,474 in 1929-32 to 2,697 in 1950-51, that the number of one-teacher elementary schools had been reduced from 987 for white students and 1,153 for black students during the Twenties to 63 for white students and 233 for black students in 1950-51, and that the number of schools with two or three teachers had also decreased.
It concludes that the elimination of that anachronism was beneficial, as the one-teacher school could not possibly provide the rural children a total educational experience. It praises State school authorities for the progress.
"A Suggestion, Free of Charge" indicates that from time to time, the column had urged the State Highway Commission to assign numbers to Governor Kerr Scott's new secondary roads and to inform the various cartographers of those numbers and routes, to enable motorists to get away from the crowded primary roads and ride leisurely on new secondary roads.
It provides an example whereby one could ride from Chapel Hill to Smithfield via Wilsonville, Apex and McCullers over an excellent new road, through picturesque rural areas, with little or no traffic. But because the road was unmarked, one had to feel one's way along, asking an occasional pedestrian whether or not it continued to be the right road.
Another problem was that when these new roads reached intersections, warning signs preceded stop signs, but placed only some 40 to 50 feet in advance, too close for motorists traveling at 50 mph, coming over a hill or around a blind curve, to make a safe and easy stop. It recommends moving the warning signs back to about 150 feet.
But then you're liable to forget while looking at all the bucolic scenery.
A piece from the Rock Hill Herald, titled "A Positive Approach", tells of a friend driving up Highway 1 in Georgia the previous week, minding his own business and the traffic regulations, when a Highway Patrolman motioned for him to pull to the side of the road. He had muttered under his breath, as the officer walked toward his car, "What in the devil is the matter now?" The patrolman stated: "I've been following you for about ten miles. You're a careful driver. I want to compliment you and to thank you for helping us keep our highways safe in Georgia..." The patrolman tipped his hat, walked back to his car and drove away. When the motorist recovered from the shock of the incident, he realized the positive approach to safety.
It suggests that the same approach might be applied in South Carolina, that any technique which would promote safety on the highways was worth a try.
Well, what if you are facing a deadline of some sort, and wind up being two minutes late for the fact of the traffic stop to compliment you on your driving? Then, inevitably, you would have to speed to make up the difference, right? To hell with that. Mind your own business.
Dr. Leonard Scheele, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service within the Federal Security Agency, substituting for Drew Pearson while on vacation, states that citizens of the U.S. had the best health in the country's history, with the death rate in 1951 having been 9.5 per thousand, whereas in 1900 it had been a bit over 17 per thousand, and in 1925, 11.7 per thousand. Life expectancy had increased presently to 68 years, whereas it had been only 49 in 1900. He indicates that the principal reason for this latter jump in life expectancy was the advance in medicine and scientific research during the first half of the 20th Century. Diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid fever, whooping cough, and diarrhea, which once had killed tens of thousands of babies and young children, had been virtually eradicated by advances in the medical sciences and public health practice.
Expectant mothers received much better care during pregnancy and during actual birth than had their mothers and grandmothers, with nearly 90 percent of all American babies being born in hospitals.
Clean water, safe milk, improved sanitation, immunization and better knowledge of infant feeding had also reduced death rates and increased life expectancy. Penicillin, sulfa and cortisone were known as miracle drugs, but lesser known was the equally miraculous preventive work of the state and local health departments. The workers in those departments made it possible for the populace to have more milk per capita than any other nation on earth because they kept it safe. They guarded the water supplies, made it possible for the public to eat in sanitary restaurants, on trains, planes and in other public places. They also prevented communicable diseases which once had afflicted hundreds of thousands of people. Even malaria, which had cost in 1940 the Southern states a half billion dollars in sickness, lost time, and low production, had disappeared as a result of the organized attack on mosquitoes by public health agencies.
Because people were living longer, they were more likely to suffer from such chronic diseases as cancer, arthritis, and heart ailments and so medical research needed to devote more effort in trying to eradicate those diseases. The American Cancer Society, for example, was spending more than three million dollars per year on research and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was spending comparable amounts to conquer polio.
The Government was also spending
more to help conquer disease. In 1930, Congress had created the
National Institute of Health within the Public Health Service, and in
1937, had established the National Cancer Institute. Since 1945,
Congress had created five additional national institutes, in mental
health, dental research, heart disease, arthritis and the metabolic
diseases, and in neurological diseases and blindness
Well, as long as they are not Communists.
Marquis Childs points out that as the Democrats used Senator Joseph McCarthy and his "smear" and "big lie" tactics against the Republicans during the presidential campaign, the Democrats, themselves, were saddled with Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Internal Security subcommittee, who had been more successful than Senator McCarthy in supporting charges of Communism and pro-Communism in Government departments with testimony and conclusions reached by Committee counsel, approved by the Senator and members of the latter subcommittee.
Senator McCarran had endorsed Governor Stevenson after the Governor had written a letter indicating that he had never been a member of the Americans for Democratic Action, the non-Communist, liberal-labor organization, which had been charged with being behind the Stevenson campaign for the fact that his campaign manager, Wilson Wyatt, had formerly been its chairman. If the Governor were to be elected President, he would have to cope with Senator McCarran and his power, being one of the half-dozen or so most powerful men in Washington. His power had been exerted not only with respect to accusations of Communism but also with regard to corruption and influence in the Government.
Mr. Childs indicates that in the present and the following one or two columns, he would explore the Senator's role, as it would be a factor in any Democratic administration. When the President had called for the resignation of former Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, he had to come up with a successor who could win the approval of Senator McCarran and the Judiciary Committee. When he chose Federal Judge James McGranery on April 4, action on the nomination was delayed in the Judiciary Committee for six weeks, during which, it was rumored, Senator McCarran had insisted that the approval of Judge McGranery would require the latter's agreement in advance to do certain things that the Senator wanted.
Mr. McGranery had denied such an agreement, but since becoming Attorney General, persistent pressure had come from the Internal Security subcommittee counsel to bring perjury charges before a Federal grand jury against Owen Lattimore, the State Department consultant on Asian policy, and John Davies, a foreign service officer. Both men had been prominent in the hearings on the Institute of Pacific Relations, charged with being pro-Communist and influencing U.S. policy to sell out Nationalist China. Both men had repeatedly denied under oath that they had ever been Communists or pro-Communists, but on certain details of complicated events, their testimony had differed from other witnesses, most of whom were admitted former Communists.
He indicates that an indictment of the two would not be difficult to obtain in the present emotional atmosphere and it would go a long way toward ruining both of them, even if they subsequently proved their innocence. It would also cause them great amounts of money to fight such charges and probably cost them their jobs, through which they could earn money to pay for their defense.
The Congressional Quarterly tells of the National Association of Electric Companies being at the top of 156 groups which had filed spending reports for the first half of 1952 pursuant to the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act. The Association had listed its six months expenditures as $232,877, close to the $221,470 it had reported in spending for all purposes during the first six months of 1951, then ranking fourth among lobbying groups so reporting. It had ranked fourth for the entire year of 1951, reporting expenditures of $434,325, had also been ranked fourth in 1950, and third in 1949.
The American Medical Association ranked second for the first six months of 1952, often having been first during the prior six years since reporting had been required. The AMA reported $134,560 in expenditures, and $169,327 when it included its National Education Campaign. The AMA had been third in 1951, after being first in both 1950 and 1949, in each of which latter years it reported spending of nearly 1.5 million dollars.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, which had led the list in 1951, dropped to 15th for the first six months of 1952.
Overall, the analysis showed that there had been a downward trend in reported spending by lobbying groups. It lists the groups which had spent more than $50,000 thus far in the first six months of 1952. The other three of the top five were the Association of American Railroads, at $129,843, the National Milk Producers Federation, $86,015, and the United States Chamber of Commerce, at $69,018.
Jack the Ripper was not far behind.
A letter writer from Pittsboro responds to a letter writer who had responded to his previous letter, objecting to his suggestion that GOP albatrosses which hung around the neck of General Eisenhower were trivial by comparison to the country being reduced to the status of a "welfare state" or taking a "socialistic approach" to the solution of its problems. He indicates that during 1951, each member of the American family paid the equivalent of $410 in taxes, that the average urban family in the country spent $420 more than it earned, and that the prospects for future years were not any brighter. Individual indebtedness was, he claims, at an all-time high.
The editors respond: "We will be happy to furnish seconds for a duel between our Pinehurst [the hometown of the responding writer] and Pittsboro correspondents, typewritten or albatrosses at 20 paces."
A letter writer from Belmont indicates that he was proud to be black, as it was the will of God, and believes that neither the President, Governor Stevenson, General Eisenhower nor the NAACP could help a person unless they first helped themselves. He states that a person could not eat in a given restaurant if they did not first try to do so. One had to prove one's self to an employer to better one's position. He indicates that white people would try a black person to see how much sense they had, and so many black people would not let them know that they did have sense. Some would say: "Man, I just play crazy around them", or "Man, I got more sense than he (or she) has." He suggests to "Uncle Tom (or Aunt Lucy)" to keep it to themselves and see how far they would get. Black people did not want them and white people had no use for them. People would complain about what happened to them on the buses, but he bet that most people got what they deserved, for he rode the buses every day and had no trouble, because he knew he was within the law. He did not sit in the back of any bus unless it was crowded, but, if it was, he did not wait until the driver told him to move to the rear, something he would do on his own. Some would say that the police and judges would take the word of white people before they would take the word of a black person, but he did not care whose word they would take if he was right. He indicates that sometimes he was on a bus, and black people would make him ashamed to the point where he wanted to get off the bus, because of embarrassment for what they were saying. He concludes that if blacks gained the confidence of white people, there would not be any discrimination.
Whatever you say, boss man.
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