The Charlotte News
Tuesday, March 10, 1953
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Forrest Edwards, that allied infantrymen made two raids on Chinese Communist troops this date, while other U.N. troops resisted Communist probing attacks all along the front in Korea. One raiding party battled its way into enemy trenches near "Old Baldy" on the western front and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy for 20 minutes. The raiders then returned to their own lines after the enemy brought in two reinforcing platoons with 60 to 80 men. There were no estimates of casualties. The second raid took a Chinese outpost from its defenders in a close-quarters battle north of "White Horse Mountain" on the central front, and then used the outpost as a base for a fight which lasted all morning, with the raiders killing 61 of the enemy before returning to their lines.
Bad weather grounded all allied warplanes.
In Washington, the Navy reported this date that a dislodged bomb had exploded on the flight deck of the carrier U.S.S. Oriskany in Korean waters on March 6, killing two men and wounding 15 others. It had occurred when a Navy pilot, returning from a mission over North Korea, had attempted to land with one of his bombs still intact after it had failed to release over the target, the bomb shaking loose upon landing, bouncing twice and then exploding. Five of the 15 wounded men were in serious condition. The carrier had been operating off the east coast of Korea. The pilot had escaped death but had suffered burns and minor injuries.
Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson said this date, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, that enough ammunition would be available soon to provide the Eighth Army command in Korea "considerable latitude" in determining whether there should be "a more active type of operations", suggesting hints of expanded operations in the near future. He said that ammunition production had been expanded rapidly in recent months and that supplies in Korea were adequate to meet present needs, but appeared to concede that the Eighth Army had been restricted in possible action by shell supplies, if not from an actual shortage of ammunition. Secretary of the Army Stevens testified that the long stalemate during the truce negotiations had allowed the Communists to dig in so that heavier shells were needed to blast enemy fortifications.
At the U.N. in New York, the Soviet bloc and perhaps India, Norway and Sweden were expected to quarrel with Secretary-General Tryve Lie over their complaints that he paid too much attention to U.S. charges that certain U.N. personnel were disloyal to the U.S. U.N. Assembly president Lester Pearson of Canada had called a plenary session to discuss the matter.
In Moscow, the new Russian Government named Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov, long the head of Russia's trade unions, as envoy to Peiping this date, emphasizing Prime Minister Georgi Malenkov's promise of continued unity with Communist China. Mr. Kuznetsov succeeded Alexander Panyushkin in the position, the latter having been shifted from his role as Ambassador to the U.S. to envoy to Peiping the prior June. In a written eulogy appearing in Pravda, Mao Tse-tung reaffirmed his friendship with the Soviets, saying that together they would "unconditionally continue the cause of Comrade Stalin, advance forward and brilliantly develop the great cause of Communism." The appointment of the new envoy suggested to some observers that the Kremlin was uneasy about the reactions of Mao to the new Government, that they were fearful the Chinese leader would demand a much greater voice in world Communist planning than he had under Stalin. In his funeral oration the previous day, Malenkov had emphasized the new Government's desire for an even closer relationship with Communist China. Mao had not attended the funeral but sent, in his stead, Premier Chou En-lai.
In Nashville, Tenn., a survey conducted by the Nashville Tennessean of local heart specialists had produced general agreement that Georgi Malenkov would be a poor insurance risk, with six of 15 specialists having agreed that he might be suffering from a heart or glandular ailment, based on their viewing of newspaper photographs and limited descriptions of him. He stood 5'7" and weighed 250 pounds, was pudgy, sallow and unsmiling. One doctor commented that he did not look unlike people with Cushing's disease, a disease of the adrenal glands which resulted in high blood pressure and obesity, and often climaxed in cardiac arrest. Five other doctors made similar observations, while indicating that a firm diagnosis could not be made on the basis of such third-party limited data.
HUAC chairman Harold Velde had proposed the previous night during a radio interview that the Committee search for Communists among the nation's clergy, but the proposal faced stiff opposition this date from other Committee members. Congressman Bernard Kearney of New York, the second ranking Republican on the Committee, told journalists that he disagreed violently with the proposal and wanted the matter discussed fully by the Committee. Representative Francis Walter of Pennsylvania, the top minority member of the Committee, announced that he would offer a resolution to make Committee approval necessary before any investigation could be made, to avoid Mr. Velde initiating investigations on his own. Two other members of the Committee, one Republican and one Democrat, said that the chairman had been speaking for himself and not for either of them. Three Washington churchmen criticized Congressman Velde's proposal.
In Congress, proponents of statehood for Hawaii predicted that the House this date would pass, for a third time, a bill to admit Hawaii as a state, but opponents relied on a coalition of Democrats and Republicans from large states for possible success in a move to return the bill to committee for further study. Southern Democrats led the opposition in the House debate the previous day, and only two Democrats spoke in favor of statehood, Representative Clair Engle of California and the non-voting delegate from Alaska. The Southern Democrats based their opposition on Hawaii's geographical position, 2,000 miles from the continent, its size, and the Oriental complexion of its population and the potential for threat of Communist influence in the islands. Four New York Congressmen pointed out that two Senators representing 500,000 people in Hawaii could offset the votes of two New York Senators representing 15 million people.
The Eisenhower Administration this date asked the Supreme Court to strike down racial segregation in Washington restaurants and thus help the nation's capital move toward home rule. Attorney General Herbert Brownell raised both the home rule and segregation issues in an amicus brief filed with the Court in a case which the District of Columbia had brought against the John R. Thompson Restaurants, charging that they had refused to serve black patrons in violation of two anti-discrimination laws adopted by the District in 1872 and 1873, at a time when the District briefly had a form of local self-government. The D.C. District Court of Appeals had held, by a vote of 5 to 4, that Congress could not delegate to a local District government the authority to enact "general legislation". The Attorney General's brief said that the appellate findings were "clearly erroneous". The President had promised, in his State of the Union message to Congress, to do whatever was necessary to ensure home rule for the District and to eradicate segregation in the nation's capital, the language having been quoted in the brief by the Attorney General.
In Las Vegas, the test director for the Federal Civil Defense Administration said that the Atomic Energy Commission would test the notion on March 17 whether, in the event of an atomic attack, one should remain in an automobile or seek shelter in a building.
In Chicago, the FBI this date was planning to turn over to immigration authorities a former German prisoner of war, Reinhold Pabel, a former sergeant in the Wehrmacht, who had eluded capture by Federal agents for more than seven years. He had been operating a bookstore in Chicago under an assumed name since 1949, was married to a local woman two years earlier and was the father of a one-year old son. Agents said that he had come to Chicago in 1945 after escaping from a prisoner of war camp near Peoria, first working in a bookstore and then opening his own.
In Tokyo, former Governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson arrived this date during his trip around the world, saying that it would be dangerous for the free world to be lulled into thinking that the new regime in Russia portended an era of good feeling with the West. He said, in answer to a question, that he was not sure that he would agree with Secretary of State Dulles in his statement that Stalin's death had enhanced hopes for world peace, though he said he hoped it would be the case. The Governor was a dinner guest of the Foreign Minister of Japan, and the following day, would be briefed on the Korean War at General Mark Clark's Far East Command headquarters in Tokyo. The Governor told reporters that he was seeking to learn as much as he could about problems of the Far East, the Middle East and Western Europe during his trip.
In Lenoir, N.C., J. E. Broyhill, a member of the RNC and national committeeman for North Carolina, said in a statement this date that his interest in the patronage problem, between former supporters of Senator Taft and supporters of General Eisenhower during the pre-convention Republican race for the presidency the previous year, stemmed from his concern regarding future developments of the Republican Party. One resolution designed to resolve the dispute would exclude the national committeeman's influence in appointments, and a second resolution called for his approval and was more favorable to Mr. Broyhill's position. Earlier in the year, the question of patronage at the Federal level had threatened to split the state Republican Party.
In Raleigh, a State Senate Education Committee this date approved a bill to establish a driver training program in State public schools and to appropriate $25,000 per year to finance the program. The bill was referred to the Appropriations Committee. A representative of the State Department of Education said that the bill would provide for two field instructors to work with the schools and that the Department would outline suggested standards for the local driver training programs. Many local units already had such programs sponsored by local governments and civic organizations, and the State programs would principally assist them in carrying out their local programs.
Also in Raleigh, representatives of labor unions urged passage of a bill to permit union shop agreements, contending that those agreements would promote harmonious relations between management and labor. Only one person appeared in opposition to the bill at a public hearing before the House Committee on Manufacturers and Labor. That individual asserted that the bill would repeal a "declaration of freedom" in the "right to work" law passed by the 1947 Assembly, prohibiting both closed shop and union shop contracts.
On the editorial page, "The
Fat's
"Mecklenburg's High Honor" discusses the American Heritage Foundation's award to the News for its get-out-the-vote campaign undertaken the previous fall, resulting in record registration and voting in the county. It indicates that the newspaper appreciated the recognition of public service, but that it had not won the award by itself, as the newspaper had only helped organize the campaign and supported it with articles, contests, pictures and editorials. The campaign workers and voters of the county had made the campaign successful. It honors Joe Josephs, who had headed the campaign, along with the hundreds of volunteers who had gone door to door, distributed posters, and transported people to the polls on election day. It also thanks the 77,000 voters who turned out on election day, and indicates pride in those good citizens.
"Virginia Cracks Down on Speeders" indicates that in Virginia, if a person were convicted twice in 12 months of violating any speed law, they had their driver's license suspended, whereas in North Carolina, only if a person had been convicted of two or more offenses of speeding in excess of 55 mph or one offense in excess of 75 mph, would the license be suspended. Virginians had complained about the new law when it had gone into effect the previous year, but figures recently released by the Division of Motor Vehicles showed that during the previous January, Virginia had suspended for 60 days the licenses of 213 persons under the law, and more than half showed one to eleven other convictions in traffic cases, suggesting that when one chronic speeder was removed from the roads, several accidents might be averted. It suggests that the crusade against speeding would likely reduce accidents in Virginia. It favors stern laws rigorously enforced in the area, in particular, controlling the chronic speeder. It thus urges North Carolina to adopt a similar law to that in Virginia.
"Those Minor Headaches Stalin Caused" examines the smaller problems which followed in the wake of Stalin's death, indicates sympathy with the cartoonists who had portrayed Russia for years with a caricature of Stalin, suddenly having to switch to the colorless Malenkov, who had no mustache or pipe, and no outstanding features. It also sympathizes with Soviet historians, who now had to discover that Malenkov was a leading light in Soviet history, while the poets had to lionize him.
Budu Svandize had written a book titled My Uncle Joseph Stalin, which had sold well enough that he was writing a second volume, which would now be of little interest to readers. Magazine writers who had written of Stalin's good health were also out of work.
It also feels for Stalin's son, who had risen to be a general in the Soviet Air Force, and now might suddenly be found to be lacking in proficiency.
It sympathizes with the picture hangers, as well, as now the likeness of Malenkov would have to be raised alongside Lenin and Stalin throughout the Soviet Union.
A piece from the Greensboro Daily News, titled "Watch South Carolina", indicates that North Carolina could learn quite a few tricks from South Carolina regarding the art of obtaining new industry, as South Carolina was doing the most effective job along those lines of any state of which it was aware. A 20-page advertising section had appeared in the Sunday New York Times, beautifully illustrated with brand-new industrial plants in South Carolina, and setting forth the theme in headlines that "Industry Succeeds in South Carolina". The whole effect was that of an old-fashioned revival meeting. It suggests that North Carolina wake up.
The Congressional Quarterly discusses the housing program, starting with the statement by President Truman at the end of his term, that the one-third of the nation which had been "ill-housed" in 1937, as described by FDR that year, had been reduced to one-fifth. But whether the new Congress agreed, and if it did, the steps it would take to reduce the remaining amount were in question. It indicates that 1953 might become a critical year in determining the extent of Federal aid to housing, based on an analysis by the Quarterly. It discusses the various issues and proposals being considered.
Drew Pearson indicates that as a result of Stalin's death, the Eisenhower Administration had decided, at least for the time being, to reverse one of its campaign pledges, regarding Russia, that being to use "every psychological tactic" to free "the nations conquered by Communism". The Administration had reasoned that it should not rock the boat at such a delicate moment in international relations, potentially giving the Kremlin an excuse for drastic action. CIA director Allen Dulles had recommended going slowly, unlike his brother, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who had recommended the prior August 27 the encouragement of a quiet revolution in the satellite countries.
While the new policy might be wise, it was also possible that in the wake of Stalin's death, the people of Russia might be more easily divided from the Kremlin. It could become the most crucial postwar moment, when the free world might take a large step toward removing the threat of a ruthless military power. He suggests that it was also a time when private U.S. citizens working with Soviet refugees could accomplish more than the Government.
It was well known that there was unrest in the satellite countries, as his own personal observations at the edge of the Iron Curtain in Berlin the previous month had confirmed to him. There was also great unrest within the Soviet Union, itself, which was a conglomeration of 14 republics which were overwhelmingly non-Russian, with only two of those republics being predominantly Russian, and nationalism being strong within all 14 republics. The population of the Soviet Union was 54 percent non-Russian.
As time passed, the Russian population increased and the Russian war potential was strengthened, with a new generation rising who knew little of the outside world and had no conception that the Russians and Americans had once been best of friends. The only reason for the Iron Curtain was to prevent that friendship from being manifested anew. There was necessity, therefore, to penetrate the Iron Curtain with effective friendship propaganda to individual Russians. Mr. Pearson had gone to the border of Czechoslovakia during the summer of 1951, and, in cooperation with the Crusade for Freedom, had launched weather balloons carrying 11 million friendship leaflets to the Czech people. The results of that operation were quite good, prompting Prague radio to issue warnings to the people not to read the leaflets, making the people that much more anxious to read them. The press in Prague ridiculed President Truman for launching balloons and the Czech Prime Minister warned that the balloons carried microbes. In the end, millions of Czechs read the leaflets, as they had been reproduced and posted on bulletin boards and telephone poles. A Czech freedom train crashed through the border, and the purge trials and unrest which had since resulted showed that the country was ripe for Western propaganda. Thus, Mr. Pearson believes that the time had come for unofficial friendship messages from groups of Americans, to educate the different groups inside Russia that if they were to give up warlike ambitions, they would have real friends in the free world.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop indicate that the first facts out of the Soviet Union following Stalin's death were that Georgi Malenkov was the head of state but not yet a dictator, that the allotment of other posts suggested an intricately adjusted balance of power which could break down, and that the design had been made with deference to the Red Army, which might play a major role in any breakdown of the balance of power. The new design was considered to be the personal handiwork of Stalin, as it was too complex to have been arranged within the few days since Stalin's death the prior Thursday. More probably, it had been arranged prior to the Party Congress the previous October.
Just as Stalin had remained in the shadows prior to the war, his former subordinates had now emerged in the wake of Stalin's death to take formal responsibility for their respective sectors.
V. M. Molotov had a dangerous responsibility as Foreign Minister but little power, while Klementy Voroshilov, as the titular President, was a front-man only. The younger men in the Government had the real power, with Malenkov at the head, followed by L. P. Beria as the Interior Minister and still head of the secret police, and Nikolai Bulganin as War Minister, controlling the Army, Air Force and Fleet. Malenkov had long been in charge of patronage and undoubtedly therefore had his own men in key positions in the police and defense forces, but was believed not to have the full power over them which Stalin had.
The nature of the structure suggested a triumvirate in which Malenkov was at the head, with attempts to placate the Army by placing Voroshilov in the front-man role, as the soldiers liked him. In addition, Marshal Shukov, a hero of World War II whom Malenkov supposedly detested, had suddenly become Deputy Defense Minister.
Robert C. Ruark, in Isiolo in northern Kenya, continues the saga of his safari, talking about pink elephants. You may read the details on your own, as we have been on safari with Mr. Ruark before.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.