The Charlotte News

Thursday, December 17, 1953

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in London, Prime Minister Winston Churchill told Commons this date that he believed he had convinced President Eisenhower and the French at their recent Bermuda conference to offer Russia security guarantees from the West, to be put forward at the projected Big Four foreign ministers conference in Berlin. The Prime Minister said that he had used the Bermuda conference to emphasize that the Soviet Union was entitled to assurances against aggression after what it had suffered at Hitler's hands. He received cheers from the House when he said that he believed he had been successful at the conference in pressing on his colleagues the justice and advantage of such a course, despite the vast strength of Russia. He said that he had warned the French of the "gravity of the situation" which would develop in the event of failure to ratify the European Defense Community plan for a unified European army. He indicated his support for the statements earlier in the week by Secretary of State Dulles, warning the NATO allies that if France failed to ratify the EDC, then American aid might be reduced or withdrawn. The Prime Minister urged that EDC ought be placed squarely before the French people.

In Panmunjom, a South Korean who had fled from a pro-Communist prisoner compound said this date that among the prisoners who had previously expressed a desire not to repatriate, diehard Communist leaders were guarding three or four Americans and 20 South Koreans who actually appeared to desire to come home. He said that compound leaders had deliberately stalled allied explanations to the prisoners who refused repatriation because they feared defections. He named the four Americans, but the names were withheld by military authorities to prevent possible reprisals. The South Korean prisoner had crawled through barbed wire surrounding the compound the previous day and had asked an Indian guard for repatriation, and was returned to the U.N. Command the same day. The Indian Command, who guarded the non-repatriating prisoners, said, however, that the Americans and the lone Briton appeared to have firm political convictions.

The President told Republican Congressional leaders this date that the American people were looking to the Republicans to continue to enact a forward-looking, progressive program which would serve the welfare of all of the people. It was announced at the White House that the President would give a nationwide radio and television address on the evening of January 4, reviewing the first year of his Administration and outlining the objectives for the ensuing year. He would also personally deliver the State of the Union message to Congress on January 7. The President was beginning three days of conferences with party leaders regarding the 1954 legislative program.

In Moscow, the Soviet Government announced this date that L. P. Beria had confessed to plotting against the state and would go on trial with six key members of the secret police network he had headed for 15 years. The official announcement had been printed in the Government newspaper, Izvestia, and Moscow radio said that the seven men would be tried at a special session of the Soviet Supreme Court, but did not indicate when the trial would take place. The announcement said that Mr. Beria and his associates had sought to use the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs against the Communist Party and the Government "in the interests of foreign capital … to grab power and to liquidate the Soviet worker-peasant regime, with a view to restoring capitalism and securing the domination of the bourgeois."

In Guam, a B-29, which had been forced to turn back because of engine trouble, plunged into a military housing area and exploded, killing 17 persons and injuring 14, two listed in critical condition. The accident occurred in stormy weather, with the plane attempting to land and falling just short of the runway. The dead included three crewmen, five military passengers, six children, two women and an Air Force officer.

In Chicago, at least two persons, one of whom was a fireman, had been killed and five other firemen had been reported trapped this date, in the wreckage of a small west side hotel. Twenty-one firemen and one hotel resident had been injured, all except five of the firemen having been hospitalized. An investigation was begun to determine whether the fire was the work of an arsonist, prompted by a note found on the body of the dead resident. The note said in part: "I am really crazy. I killed 15 people. I also set fire to 12 apartment buildings." The man had recently been released from a State mental hospital.

In Ewing, Va., two armed bandits this date held up and robbed the People's Bank and escaped with about $12,000, the holdup having occurred at the start of the workday. Both men fled the scene.

In Miami, Fla., a man choked to death on a piece of steak the previous night while eating dinner with his wife and eight-year old son. A Fire Department captain, who had rushed into the home with the rescue squad, said that an unchewed three-ounce piece of steak had lodged in the man's windpipe. Knowledge by a family member of the Heimlich maneuver in this instance might have saved a life.

Ann Sawyer of The News reports that the Mecklenburg County grand jury had continued its investigation of the City Police Department this date, after returning four presentments against present Chief Frank Littlejohn. The presentments alleged that he had unlawfully allowed gambling to flourish in Charlotte without effort to suppress it, had unlawfully accepted expensive gifts from officers of the local Moose Lodge, had, on November 10, 1948, unlawfully accepted $2,000 as a reward for finding who had bombed the local Boar's Head Restaurant, and that in 1937 or 1938, had unlawfully harbored and befriended a fugitive from justice, Allen Kantor, who was a material witness to a murder in Washington. Chief Littlejohn denied all of the accusations. A fifth presentment was made against a detective, indicating that from 1941 to the present time, he had unlawfully cohabited with a former wife while she was living next door to him and his present wife. Witnesses for each presentment were also reported.

Donald McDonald of The News reports that Chief Littlejohn had labeled the allegations "a colossal frameup" and that he hated to dignify the "absurd accusations" by even denying them. He said that it was deliberately timed to coincide with the tax evasion trial of Keith Beaty, and that to understand what was going on, one only needed to answer the questions of who had been promoting the matter and who had brought to Charlotte Lamar Caudle, former head of the tax and criminal divisions of the Justice Department and a witness on one of the presentments against the Chief. He said that the reward in question had been offered by the restaurant owner and that it had been divided between the two detectives who had arrested the two men later convicted for bombing the restaurant.

Dick Young of The News reports that Charlotte Mayor Philip Van Every expressed complete confidence in the integrity of Chief Littlejohn, as did City Manager Henry Yancey. Members of the City Council, at whose pleasure the Chief served, cautioned against hasty action prejudging the Chief. Verbatim statements by several members of the Council are provided.

In New York, Dan Topping and Dell Webb, owners of the New York Yankees, announced this date the sale of Yankee Stadium and Blues Stadium in Kansas City, to Arnold Johnson and Associates of Chicago, for 6.5 million dollars.

In Uruapan, Mexico, a movie fight had turned into an actual brawl this date, leaving Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark and Cameron Mitchell with cuts and bruises, Mr. Cooper suffering a sprained wrist, a black eye and a cut lip. The latter said that he was trying to make the movie fight look real and had not heard the order to quit, that he had not intended to clobber anyone. Mr. Widmark apologized to the other two actors in the same vein. When the fight turned real, the 20th Century-Fox cameras had ceased to capture the action.

The publicity agent who placed that piece probably figured that it would be good for a few extra thousand attendance when the movie opened. Or, you can believe everything you read in a newspaper.

In Buffalo, N.Y., the assistant librarian of the local public library the previous day had said that returned books had produced paychecks, gas bills, school report cards and pressed flowers, but it was the first time that they had found a fried egg and strip of bacon inside a returned book.

The book, incidentally, could not have been Breakfast at Tiffany's, as that was still five years from publication. Perhaps, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?

On the editorial page, "National Military Training Is Needed" advocates Universal Military Training to provide a standby force of trained men in the event of war, so that the country would not have to be reliant on veterans of earlier wars to do its fighting. It suggests that the country had not learned the lessons of both world wars and established a military personnel system as sensible as its matériel system. After each of those wars, the country had demobilized, and in consequence of the second demobilization, had been caught unprepared for the Korean War, necessitating the use of green troops and veterans in the early fighting.