Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE NEWBERRY SUN, NEWBERRY. S. C ■yy.i: :£&:■> •V'.J-1 ■-< >J s- v ' ''"f •;•' ?■ TRUMAN AND MACARTHUR TALKED AT WAKE ISLAND . , . &«/ result tvas only an uneasy truce . . . RED ARMY SPEARHEADS THE MENACE OF COMMUNISM • •. would Mac Arthur's policies have brought total war? . • • THE GREAT CONTROVERSY History Shows That the Symptoms Underlying MacArthur's Dismissal Have Existed for Many Centuries By W. P. SCHOENTGEN WNU Managing Editor There is a kind of universality about Douglas MacArthur that communicates itself to many men, something of the same stuff that leads nearly everyone to believe in his own heart that he can run a newspaper and play Hamlet with a deathless genius. Was MacArthur right or wrong in his belief in the strategic priority of Asia, the bombing of Manchuria, the ultilization of Chi nese Nationalist forces? Did he, in his public and private rejection of administration and United Nations policies in the Far East, express a subconscious de sire toi achieve “martyrdom” for his principles? Did President Truman take the right action but at the wrong time in relieving MacArthur of his mul tiple command? It doesn't make any difference who you are — you undoubtedly have your own strong, definite and perhaps impassioned answer to each of those questions. And ac cording to your answers, you align yourself on one side or the other of the MacArthur controversy—the great American schism of 1951. It is a basic division, a schism of the soul and spirit; and the rock upon which the split has occurred is a military man, a soldier, yea, even a 71-year-old general. Military Men's Drama That in itself is not unusual. It is, in point of fact, a fairly sound historical tradition that great epochs of man’s development are likely to turn upon the personality of a military leader, probably be cause it is easy for the public to locus its attention upon a man who can be identified with the drama of danger and physical ac tion, and with the glamour of mili tary triumphs. General MacArthur follows vig orously in that tradition. It has been his peculiar destiny to help lead this nation in smiting tyranny both right and left within the past dec ade, striking to the right at Jap anese imperialism in World War II and to the left at Communist efforts at dotnination in Korea and the Far East. Thus he has become a political symbol, having stood at the spear head of America’s often inept and fumbling but always intense de sire for peace that patently will not be had for the asking but which may come if we fight hard enough for it. Whether the principles he has advocated are right or wrong, it is MacArthur the symbol, not Mac Arthur the man, around which the very real, very basic foreign pol icy quarrel has gathered. From that point of view, the MacArthur controversy is an old and elemental form of domestic strife that has occurred and re curred within this or that national community ever since man has ben able to formulate and defend an opinion. Without attempting to make any invidious comparisons, a number of historic parallels to the Mac Arthur case become apparent from a quick glance at the records. There is a superficial resem blance, for instance, between the firing of MacArthur by President Truman and Calvin Coolidge’s dis missal of the late General “Billy” Mitchell for defying orders. Mr. Coolidge made it clear, however, that he was in sympathy with the cause of aviation which Mitchell was personifying. But he also made it plain that, sympathy or no sym pathy, he could not overlook the insubordination of which General Mitchell was found guilty. An Assist to Air Power The violent closing of Billy Mitchell’s career, we know now, marked the turning point of the controversy over the future of mili tary aviation, and the pioneering general did much to advance U.S. air power to the mighty peak it reached in time to help win World War II. Whether time and events will vindicate General MacArthur's ideas as fully as they have those of General Mitchell is anybody’s guess. One of the abiding characteristics of many powerful and successful military leaders in the past has been their capacity to capture the imagination and sympathy of the people and carry them along a chosen course—to a point, at least. This makes for power and au thority. And the possession of broad authority is like having a permit to carry a pistol. Keep it in the holster and depend upon its pres ence there to control circum stances, and chances are you won’t get into trouble. The danger of carrying a gun lies in the possibil ity that sooner or later you might start firing it indiscriminately and a lot of people will get hurt, in cluding yourself. Julius Caesar, an overwhelm ing military and political genius, amassed for Rome and for himself a great reservoir of power which he was able to exercise pretty much at will. But there were those who felt he had too much power; they mistrusted it, feared that Caesar might mis-use it. No single man or group of men were strong enough to fire or depose the ruler by legal means. So Brutus and Cas sius plotted, and on a day in March, Caesar, powerful and unsuspecting, walked up the steps of the Capitol to meet the knives of his assassins. Controversy, Then, Too That stirred up a great civil con troversy in Romo, too. Was Caesar right in his principles and policies concerning the Roman empire, or were the men who deposed him by liquidating him right? It might be argued that Rome, under Caesar, reached its peak of dynamic ex pansion and that its decline began after Caesar’s death in 44 B.C. But regardless of the truth of that po sition, the split over the aims and policies of Julius Caesar marked an epochal turning point in the his tory of the Roman empire. Scotland’s immortal Robert Bruce was the storm center of a raging controversy much of his life, while he held to and fought for his ideal of a free and independent na- Julius Caeser tion. He settled that issue himself, however, by decisively defeating the English forces under Edward II at the battle of Bannockburn in June, 1314, and assuring the con tinuance of Scotland as an inde pendent kingdom. Every student of American his tory knows of the quarrels and differences of opinion that flared* after President Abraham Lincoln put General Grant in charge of the Union armies. Some members of Lincoln’s own cabinet not only re fused to support but actively op posed Grant’s appointment. It was, in a sense, a MacArthur situation in reverse. Grant’s Problem And when Grant took command in March, 1864, he found he had to fight not only the enemy but the torpor and passivity of his own generals in the field. The mili tary issue at stake that time was whether or not Meade, Hook er, McClellan and others in the string of Union generals were right in fighting a defensive war, avoiding battles wherever possible, more often to retreat than to fight. Grant favored action and offen sive contact with the Confederate armies. Over the protestations of his subordinates, he decided to attack wherever possible and car ry the war to the enemy. The ultimate surrender of Gen eral Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox proved the rightness of Gran’t strategy. But Grant, who went on to become President of the United States, albeit not an especially popular one, remained the center of a maelstrom of violent opinions all his life. So the MacArthur story is by no means a new one. Call his actions and utterances in Korea insubor- General Grant and choosing GENERAL MACARTHUR be went bis own way dination, or call them an honorable defense of his own principles, they have basic meaning for us as a dramatic illustration of the grim fact that the United States has to choose between two basic and dif ferent courses in this battle against the evils of communism. One way is going to be right, the other wrong. We say that the nation, in its collective mind, has PRESIDENT TRUMAN he lowered the boom split over the issue of which is the best way to deal with Communist aggression in the Far East. But it is not, it cannot be, a fatal split The doubt that has been lurking behind our thinking and our attitude on the question of how best to fight the monstrosity of world communism has been brought plainly into the open and is clearly defined. There is no longer any reason for anyone—be he statesman, mil itary man, farmer, storekeeper or factory worker—to deny the exist ence of that doubt. Now it can be talked aoout and it can be elim inated. That is the great service that President Truman and General MacArthur have unwittingly per formed for the nation and the free world. They have managed to get all the cards on the table. The answer, still to be found, if there sohaewhere. • • • MacArthur's Father Had Troub^ Too Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s father, Gen. Arthur MacArthur, embroiled himself in a bitter dispute with civilian authorities 50 years ago when he was military governor of the Philippine Islands, which the U.S. had just acquired from Spain. William Howard Taft arrived in the islands as head of a presidential commission charged with estab lishing a civilian government in the Philippines. Although President William Mc Kinley was under heavy pressure in Washington to establish a civilian government as soon as possible, Arthur Mac4rthur’s command took the point of view that only the army could do a proper job of restoring order and controL When Taft arrived, MacArttuu coldly refused to see him. BUDGET NOT FUNNY . . . British Chancellor of Exchequer Hugh Gaitskell enjoys comics with his two daughters shortly before he in troduced a “harsh and unpleasant budget” in Parliament. Britain faces a basic tax increase of seven cents in the pound, meaning that 47 ^ cents from every dollar earned will go to the treasury. Gaitskell says the budget is severe, but not crippling. He says he realizes it won’t be popular with the people. NETHERLANDS ROYALTY IN ARGENTINA . . , Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (right) visits the Casa Rosada residence of Argen tina’s president, Juan Peron, In Buenos Aires. The subject of their discussion was not made public. The prince of the Netherlands was making a tour of Argentina. ' , ' < PERILS OF THE ROAD ... A view of real pain upon the face of a human was caught in this picture of a woman whose finger was stuck in a hole on the bottom of a bus seat. Mrs. Lois Soderland, bound for Fresno, Calif., was searching for the gadget that eases the seat back into a semi-reclinging position. The finger entered a hole and she could not release it. She was taken to emergency hospital in San Francisco, where the seat was removed from her hand. DAUGHTER PRACTICES UNDER FATHER . . . Mrs. Nina Rao Cameron, daughter of Judge Paul P. Rao, is sworn in to practice be fore the U. S. customs court. Left to right are jthe Honorable Charles D. Lawrence, judge of the customs court administering oath; the Honorable Paul P. Rao, and Mrs. Cameron, taking the oath. This is the first instance In New York history that a daughter has practiced before her own father. • w - V *.*. '-■» . . MET SINGER FIRED . . . Tenor Robert Merrill (right) was dis charged from the Metropolitan Opera for failure to live up to con tract obligations. With him is Dinah Shore at a Hollywood studio where he is appearing in a movie. ‘INFLUENCE PEDDLER?’ . . . Paul Dillon, St. Louis attorney, was named as “backroom fixer” at a senate investigation in Jackson, Miss., studying scandals on federal job buying In Mississippi. GOP THEME SOUNDER . . . Sounding the Republican party's present theme of strategy against the administration. Senator Robert A. Taft says MacArthur’s dis missal was a “tragic error.” Tru man defends his move as a step to defend civilian control from mili tary control. GETS JOB BACK . . . Dade Coun ty (Fla.) Sheriff Jimmy Sullivan reads telegram from Gov. Fuller Warren which reinstates him as sheriff following his indictment for neglect of duty revealed by the senate crime investigating commit tee. ALY’S NEW INTEREST? ... Re ports from Cannes, France, reveal that Boston socialite, Nancy Clark Masseroni, is the constant com panion of Prince Aly Khan, Rita Hayworth’s husband. Nancy sings, acts, models and flies. The Midnight Statement r WAS not until about 11:15 Tues day night that President Tru man actually decided to issue his 1 a.m. statement firing General MacArthur. The decision to make this mo mentous step had already been taken, but the timing was set for Friday, not Tuesday midnight. And the reason for the sudden noctur nal press announcement was a tele phone call from Secretary of the Army Pace in Tokyo tipping off Truman that MacArthur planned to jump the gun and get out his own statement first. The President was still smarting from an incident around March 24 when MacArthur had jumped the gun on him, so naturally he was leery. He had sent MacArthur a policy statement for his perusal and personal reaction—a policy which the White House planned to an nounce as a peace feeler to China. But MacArthur, without notifying Washington, Issued the statement himself. So when Secretary Paoe called from Tokyo Tuesday night intimating that MacAr thur might rush Into print again, the President called Sec retary of State ACheson and Deputy Undersecretary Dean Rusk to the White House where they, prepared the MacArthur press release. Prior to that, late on Monday afternoon the joint chiefs of staff held a highly secret session al which there was unanimous senti ment that MacArthur must go. Bradley Gets Net - Gen. Omar Bradley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and a most mild-mannered man, was hottest under the collar against MacArthur. Adm. Forrest Sherman, chief of naval operations, and reported by some as favoring MacArthur’s strategy against China, actually threw his weight behind Bradley. Though MacArthur’s tactics in cluded a naval operation against China, Admiral Sherman argued that we can’t afford to get involved in a war with China, and that if you go into China just a little bit— as in bombing bases—you have to be ready to go in all the way. Only military man who dragged his feet on MacAr thur’s ouster was Secretary of Defense Marshall, who has known MacArthur a long time, is 70 years old against MacAr thur’s 71, and who was in France as a World War I cap tain when MacArthur was a brigadier general. Ridgway Can Hold One highly significant exchange of information made between the pentagon and Lieut. Gen Matthew Ridgway in Tokyo was a cable from Ridgway stating that no mat ter what happened, his troops could hold out for 60 days. Regard less of what was thrown at him, Ridgway informed the joint chiefs of staff, he could hold for two months. This cable was in reply to White House fears that following Mac Arthur’s removal, there might be a Chinese attack and a series of American defeats for which Tru man, having removed the supreme commander, would get the blame. Humble Harry President Truman’s usual pep pery remarks have not been in evidence during the MacArthur controversy—not even to his per sonal advisers. The nearest he came to pepper was at last week’s cabinet meeting, just after ex speaker Joe Martin released the MacArthur letter. “It’s time to show the Mac- Arthurs, the Time-Life people and the Scripps-Howard newspapers who is running American foreign policy,” he observed tartly. Day after MacArthur was re lieved, however, Truman re ceived a call from ex-congress man Maury Maverick of Texas, who congratulated him. “What you have done will make sure that my grandchil dren will be free and that civilian government will con tinue in the United States,” Maverick said. The President was neither cocky nor apologetic. He looked a little sad, as if he had made a terrifi cally hard decision and knew that a terrible storm was going to break over his head. “Thank you, Maury,” he replied. And he wept just a little. “I do my best. I have to follow the con> stitution.” Rayburn’s Ghost Troops What Speaker Sam Rayburn had in mind when he told congress that “non-Chinese” troops were in Man- churia, was not Russian troops, but four divisions of Russian-trained Japanese troops . . . there has long been a small contingent of Russian troops in Manchuria used for pur poses of turning Russian equipment over to the Chinese. But there have never been any Russian combat troops in Manchuria. Much more dangerous are the Red divisions massed around Siberia. CLASSIFIED department BUSINESS A INV ^ST. OPPOR. FOB SALE , Portable Skating Rink SO’xlOO. Maple floor, 200 pr. champ skates. 12 pr.shoe rental. Grinder, F. A. system. All 22 mo. old, excellent condition. Write 2601 Warrior Rd., B’ham, Ala. GEORGETOWN Restaurant for rent with seven rooms on second and third floor for rent as small hotel. Situated main business district. Hotel part practically equipped and ready to operate. Small money outlay necessary for restaurant iart. See Morris L. Abrams alace Theater Georgetown. S. C. £ INSTRUCTION Learn Diesel Unlimited opporta- / nity for veterans & non veterans. No previous exp needed. Write for info. Diesel Training lne.,; , J.;SV«^ VETERAN APPROVED LEARN BARBERING or Beauty Culture. G.I.’s free training. Non G.I.’s low cost. Positions plentiful. Earn money on part time Jobs while learning. Florida’s Barbertng A Beaaty Colleges &0I W. Adams St., Jacksonville, Fla. „ MACHINERY A SUPPLIES FULL FASHION Machines, For sale. Ten Reading 51 gauge, 24 section, also seven HSL 45 gauge. 24 section, single unit. Can :nt in quantities to suit purchaser. be boug Terms. Morris Speisman Co. Charlotte, N. C. MISCELLANEOUS A glOO-A-MONTH HOBBY AT HOMEI soliciting. no maU order, no meetir enjoyable pastime. Detai (refundable!. LAURA DICKSON, H Elisabeth Street, Anderson, 8. C. ARMY PUP Tents complete with poles and pegs. S4.95 each. Navy mocks $4.95 each. JONES Snrplas Si 1016 Washington, Columbia, 8. C. — FULL Bake Shop Equipment. Priced quick sale at $750.00 or best price offe H. J. Bucher, Rente 1, Box li9. Lake ( Fla. PERSONAL REDUCING tables for sale from factory. Write Niblaek System of Spot Redaetng, 2600 Bollalre, Denver. Colorado. POULTRY. CHICKS & EQUIP. BABY Chleks that Live and Grow—l Approved. Special. White Leghorn i PuUorum Clean Baby Chfck$. Type New Hampshires, Barred white Rock. Pfrmenter and Rhode land Reds. Pullets, Cockerels and Stx Run. Book now and save the diffet Live delivery guaranteed. Parley Milling Co.. Princeton. N.C. Pfc,,; SEEDS, PLANTS, ET' 2 DOZEN Chrysanthemam plants, lai nice, prepaid by mail, $1. Cut out this and mall. R. C. Hutchinson, Pane ^ Florida. MILLIONS: Sweet Potato Plant Halls and Porto Ricans grown from ed seed. 100-50c; 300-$l; 500-$l.r $2.50. Strong Well rooted plants, fw safe arrival guaranteed. MARGRAVE BROS.Gleason. SERVICES OFFERED I WRITE Jingles, statements for cor $1.00 for service. H. C. Collins. South Omaha. Nebraska. TO RENT OR LEASE FOR RENT, lease or sale, in Ei N.C., large warehouse with cold facilities on R.R. Siding. Write Bex SIS, Klnsten, North CaroUaa For the future 0uy U.S. Defense Bonds first cHoicp 0 PAINT- Outside, snow-white titanium lead and MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE IS not to peel, rub or wash off, or turn yellow ~ < ‘ $2.35 GALLON in 5-gal. cans, f.o.b. Toledo. Over Million Gallons Sold SAMPLE CAN — 50c n* Snow-White Paint Go. 2345 Parkweed TOLEDO. OHIO WNU—7 18—51 CURRENT BATE ANNUALLY 0 INSURED f5 TO $10,000' Accounts May Be'Opened, Increased or Reduced Upon Your Request. SIMPLE—SAFE—PROMPT Member Federal Home Loan Bank System. Federal Savings & Loan Ins. Corp LEGAL FOR TRUST FUNDS pEACHTREE A Medela/ SAYINGS ft LOAKI ASS’N 3045 Peachtree Rd., Atlanta Andy Bowen and Jack Burke fought to a draw in seven hours, 19 mins., in 1893. James J. Braddock won the heavyweight title at the age of 30. Ain’t It So Borrowers are nearly always ill-spenders; and it is with lent money that all evil is mainly done, and all unjust war pro tracted.—RUSKIN. If at first yon don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it.