The Charlotte News

Friday, January 9, 1953

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Forrest Edwards, that several U.S. soldiers had been killed or wounded by an unidentified warplane the previous day, prompting military investigators to study the burned tents and bomb craters left in its wake along the western front. There was still no official report as to the exact number of men involved, and there was no confirmation of some unofficial reports that it was an allied plane or planes which had been responsible for the incident. One soldier, who declined to be named, said that the plane was an F-84 Thunderjet which had come in low and destroyed, riddled or burned ten tents and one building. The soldier said that a truck loaded with fuel was set on fire and a jeep had been riddled with bullets and its driver killed. But the information officer for the Far East Air Forces said that there were no indications that Air Force planes had been involved. A check was still being made, however, of Navy and Marine planes. Surprised officers had dove for cover before being able to identify the plane.

In ground fighting, South Korean infantrymen repulsed four enemy attacks by North Korean troops in the eastern sector, and then chased three of the enemy groups back to the Nam River, chopping one to pieces.

Major James Jabara, the world's first jet pilot to become an ace, with six kills in combat, hitchhiked a ride to Korea the previous day instead of waiting for his scheduled flight from Travis Air Force Base in California, after bad weather over the Pacific had grounded his scheduled flight. He became the lone passenger on a Navy DC-6 cargo plane, after volunteering for another tour of active duty, leaving a desk job in Illinois. His six kills had occurred in 63 missions flown during his first tour of duty.

The President submitted this date a budget to the 83rd Congress, totaling 78.6 billion dollars for the 1953-54 fiscal year, which Republicans called "fantastic" and to which they promised sharp cuts. That, however, had been the typical reaction of Democratic Congresses also, and eventual cuts often fell short of promises. The proposed spending was four billion dollars higher than projected by the President for the 1952-53 fiscal year, and 12.5 billion more than in the 1951-52 fiscal year. Increases were almost entirely for national security programs, with large increases in foreign aid, mostly for military assistance to European allies. The President said in the message accompanying the budget that 73 cents out of each dollar would be for programs directly related to national security, and 14 cents for paying for previous wars—leaving 13 cents for the rest. If enacted, the budget would produce a projected deficit of about ten billion dollars. The proposed budget was subject to adjustment by the incoming Eisenhower Administration.

The President, in submitting to Congress the first volume of a recent report of his special Commission on the "Health Needs of the Nation", called on Congress to establish, per the recommendation of the Commission, a program immediately to "bring adequate health care within the financial means of all our people". He did not call for a comprehensive national health insurance program as previously, but instead urged authorization for a series of Federal grants-in-aid to state plans for comprehensive personal health services. He said that there was an urgent need to provide more physicians, dentists, nurses, and health technicians, as well as additional health care facilities, including medical schools, hospitals and local and public health units. He said that the commission found that most people who lacked adequate health care were in that position because its cost was beyond the individual's control.

The Senate approved this date a new plan for increasing the size of nine committees and decreasing four others. One result of the reorganization was that Senator Wayne Morse, a Republican who shortly after the election had declared as an independent, would likely lose the opportunity to be on two committees of his choice and would become a member only of minor committees. The formal assignment of Senators to committees and the committees' formal organization would transpire the following week. The Republicans had sought Democratic approval of a plan whereby Senator Morse would become a practical member of the minority in terms of committee assignments, but the Democrats had rejected that proposal, as it would have given them the responsibility for assigning Senator Morse to committees. Republicans agreed to the alteration to avoid a filibuster on the issue. By not assigning Senator Morse two important committees on which he already served, Labor and Armed Services, he would not be able to wield the deciding vote therein, as he would have as a member.

From Tokyo, a Japanese patrol ship had reported this night that 33 crew members of the Swedish tanker Avanti, which had broken in half during a gale the previous day, had been rescued and eight more were dead or missing.

In Montpelier, Idaho, hope had nearly vanished for finding any survivors of the C-46 transport plane carrying 40 persons, including three civilian crewmen and a stewardess, plus 37 veterans of the Korean War, which had disappeared Wednesday morning and remained unaccounted for despite a widespread aerial and ground search across Idaho, Wyoming and Utah, where various lights and radio signals had been reported by locals. The search was to be resumed this date. An F-51 Mustang fighter plane was also reported missing the previous night in the same general area.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill departed Washington this date in the President's plane for a two-week vacation in Jamaica, following four days of conferences with President-elect Eisenhower and President Truman. Neither the President nor Secretary of State Acheson saw Mr. Churchill off at the airport, as at the end of previous visits. The Prime Minister waved his black bowler hat to a handful of spectators at the airport as he climbed aboard the plane, smoking a freshly lit cigar.

In Raleigh, legislation to provide another 50 million dollars in aid to counties for building schools was proposed in the 1953 biennial session of the General Assembly this date, with half of the money to come from the general fund surplus for the school building program and the other half through a state bond issue, which could occur without a vote of the people. Another proposed bill, sponsored in part by Representative John Umstead, brother of the Governor, would increase minimum retirement benefits for retired school teachers and State workers. The Governor, in his inaugural address the previous day, had favored both increases. Another measures to be introduced the following week would call for a state-wide vote on whether to pay a State bonus to veterans of the two World Wars and the Korean War. Such a bill had been defeated in the 1951 Assembly. Governor Umstead, during his campaign, had opposed the bonus.

The State House elected a Raleigh magazine editor and radio commentator, Carl Goerch, as its permanent reading clerk for the 1953 session.

The new Governor, in his first day on the job, restored the full powers and duties of the office of assistant budget director to D. S. Coltrane, after former Governor Scott, the previous summer, had stripped him of all of his powers except those which the law specifically required for him to perform, occurring after Mr. Coltrane had refused Governor Scott's demand that he resign, remaining in office but declining to accept his monthly salary. Mr. Coltrane had supported Mr. Umstead in the primary over the candidate favored by Governor Scott, Judge Hubert Olive of Lexington. Mr. Coltrane said that he would consider accepting his back pay of about $3,500 if the Assembly voted to provide it to him.

The worst storm of the season had hit the Northeastern states this date, and a twister had cut a mile-wide swath of destruction through downtown Sarasota, Fla. Freezing drizzle and rain caused icy condition on streets and highways in southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and in Ohio, as well as along the Mississippi River from southern Missouri to southern Wisconsin. Schools had been forced to close in Troy, N.Y., after 15 inches of snow had fallen in the Adirondacks and a foot in Albany, where it was still snowing. New England had the deepest snow, with Massachusetts receiving 7 to 12 inches, with 12 to 18 inches forecast before the storm would subside the following day. Snowfall was general throughout the Northeast, except for sleet and rain in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Emery Wister of The News reports that week-long heat waves during the previous summer had raised the 1952 average temperature for Charlotte to 61 degrees, 2.3 degrees higher than the average of 58.7 and .2 degrees warmer than in 1951, though cooler than 1950, which had an average of 61.6 degrees, and 1949, at 62.8. There had been nine days during the year with temperatures at or above 100 degrees, six of which had occurred in July and three in June, with 103 recorded on July 29, equaling the all-time high local temperature. There had been 50 days higher than 90 degrees, twelve more than the average number of days. Precipitation locally had totaled 46.01 inches, .17 of an inch under the norm. Measurable rain fell on 106 days, 15 fewer than the average. It had snowed only on February 26, accumulating four inches. Clouds had appeared on 241 days, with 125 clear days, and fog on 25 days. The coldest day had been January 30, when the low had been 16. It had been below freezing on 57 days, 12 days more than the norm. On May 10, a 90 mph windstorm had passed through the area, with winds averaging 44 mph that day.

The weather just continued to happen, no matter what they did to try to stop it.

On the editorial page, "Umstead's Program—Go Forward Slowly", a by-lined piece by News editor Pete McKnight, writing from Raleigh, tells of Governor William B. Umstead having remained so quiet about the content of his inaugural address that there had been much speculation in advance of it as to what he would say, whether he would continue the progressive tradition of past Governors of the state in modern times, or would become the exponent of conservatism and economy. His inaugural address of the previous day, however, had made it clear that he wished to continue the "Go Forward" program begun by his predecessor, Governor Kerr Scott, but at a slower pace, with closer cooperation between the executive branch and the General Assembly.