The Charlotte News
Thursday, July 28, 1955
FIVE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Bulgaria had admitted that its antiaircraft guns had shot down an Israeli airliner, killing all 58 persons aboard, including 12 Americans. It said that the plane was off course by 100 miles over Communist territory, and expressed regret for the tragedy, appointing a Government commission of Cabinet ministers to inquire into the matter. The Government contended that the airliner had departed from its course over Yugoslavia the previous day and entered Bulgarian airspace without warning. The El Al Airlines plane was en route from London, via Vienna and Istanbul, to Israel. A protest had arisen in Commons when R. H. Turton, foreign undersecretary, had informed members that Bulgaria had admitted to shooting down the plane. Herbert Morrison, former Foreign Minister under the Labor Government of Clement Attlee, had called it a "brutal business" and "a terrible thing to do". A Greek military source in Salonika had stated the previous day that the British pilot had apparently followed the Struma Valley just inside Bulgaria instead of his regular route along Yugoslavia's Vardar Valley.
The President expressed disappointment over rejection by the House of the new highway legislation and urged Congress to reconsider the matter before adjournment, scheduled for the end of the week. The President said that differences over financing methods should not be permitted to deny the people the critically needed roads. The House rejected, on a vote of 224 to 193, the President's plan for a multi-billion-dollar program of construction to be financed by a long-term bond issue. It also defeated, by a vote of 292 to 123, a Democratic pay-as-you-go substitute measure calling for increases in gasoline and some other automotive taxes to raise 12.4 billion dollars over the ensuing 16 years. The consensus after the session was that highway legislation was dead for the year, and perhaps also for the following year.
The President's statement at his press conference the previous day that he would make a personal decision on the future of Air Force Secretary Harold Talbott, would apparently have to be made without advice from the Senate, as there was no indication that an early report would be made by the Senate Investigations subcommittee which had inquired into the potential for a conflict of interest by the Secretary in his partnership in Paul B. Mulligan and Co., paying him $132,000 during the 2 1/2 years since he had become Secretary. The company had clients with Government defense contracts, specializing in management engineering. Mr. Talbott declined comment on published stories that he was about to resign, and the White House said it had not received his resignation.
In Charlotte, the proposal for the City to lease additional parking facilities near the Auditorium-Coliseum complex was not dead, despite failure of the City Council to act on it. City Manager Henry Yancey had said this date that he was preparing to send copies of the proposed contract to all members of the Council, after three members the previous day had raised strong objections to the proposed contracts with a private property owner adjoining the Coliseum parking lot, with some saying they did not understand the proposed agreement. At least three members said they could not vote for the contract as it was presently worded, but agreed to give it closer study. No seats, no parking. You might as well stay at home and watch the game on the television.
The State Highway Commission this date held up the job of widening Providence Road in Charlotte, saying that the project was delayed because of negotiations over rights-of-way.
Harry Shuford of The News tells of City Manager Yancey having said this date that the problem of drainage on private property was the sole responsibility of the property owner.
The assistant State health officer said that young people should not be criticized for placing aged parents in boarding or nursing homes, making the statement in a letter congratulating the newspaper and reporter Charles Kuralt on the five-part series published the previous week, devoted to the problems of the aged, those over age 65. He said that he believed it would take a great deal of effort to change the attitude of the public toward many of the problems of old age, that most people thought in terms of chronological age, when instead they should think in terms of physiological age.
Evangelist Billy Graham would sail from London home the following day after conducting his latest crusade for millions of people in Europe, having spoken to an estimated 3.5 million people since opening a six-week campaign in Glasgow, Scotland, the previous March, with many more having heard him on radio or television. He said that the press and religious groups had been more cooperative during the current crusade than they had been a year earlier. He believed there was great spiritual hunger on the Continent, particularly in France and Germany. A Protestant weekly of Stuttgart, Christ and the World, had stated that Mr. Graham was certainly a deeply religious man, "but one must ask whether it is good to include the church in the province of the business promoter and whether it is sufficient to fill as many football stadiums as possible." Lutheran and other Protestant churches had supported the meetings in Germany, but the secretary-general of the annual German Protestant rallies said that the evangelist would not be invited to speak at the next church assembly in 1956, as such great meetings held the risk of "mass delirium and the German people must not be exposed to that", that they had to have time for their wounds to heal. The charge that the Reverend Graham was "emotional" was the one most frequently raised by persons who questioned his approach, but even the doubters conceded that he was no ranter on the platform, and that he stuck with utter simplicity to the word as he read it in the Bible.
After his return, the Reverend Graham would probably stop in Charlotte for a brief visit with his parents before rejoining his family in Montreat, N.C. His mother stated this date that she expected her son to arrive in New York on Tuesday and that he would probably visit Charlotte from New York. She said that she believed that his European tour had been more successful than the one of the previous year and much more extensive. She also believed that he would make an evangelistic trip to Russia if the invitation were extended. She said that she had no fear for his safety on such a trip, that if the Lord took him there, he would take care of him.
Ann Sawyer of The News reports from Rock Hill, S.C., that a South Carolina State Senator, W. Lewis Wallace, who had opposed the South Carolina contraband law being used to stop out-of-state cars for cigarette and liquor searches, had apologized for any inconvenience the law might have caused Mecklenburg residents. He said that the law was not intended to be used against individuals engaged in legitimate business.
On the editorial page, "Slings & Arrows: Undeserved Variety" indicates that it had been open season on the officials of the Auditorium-Coliseum complex longer than anyone at City Hall wanted to remember, that even before ground had been broken in 1953, the builders of the structures were suffering "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", some deserved, some not.
It appeared that the favorite target lately had been the young architect, A. G. Odell, Jr., accused, among other things, of neglecting small details like hot water pipes and shower facilities in the Coliseum. But the accusations were completely false, based on rumors being circulated, dignified, however, by reports in the Charlotte Observer. That had resulted in Mr. Odell being called before the City Council the previous day, at which point he had defended himself admirably. As a result, the Council gave him a vote of confidence for his work.
It indicates that it was a shame that Mr. Odell and the City had been put to such pain and embarrassment, as the false charges had been damaging to all concerned. It finds constructive criticism healthy, but that there was no excuse for criticism based on unsubstantiated rumors and misinformation.
"Everybody Gets Off the Hook" indicates that at the previous day's City Council meeting, regarding the nursing home problem in Charlotte, someone had said that the only thing they were interested in was to avoid prosecution for criminal negligence, the issue having arisen because of a state law requiring that institutional care be limited to one-story buildings if they were of wood-frame construction. The danger of fire had prompted the safeguard and had caused Charlotte to require existing two-story wood-frame nursing homes to adhere to the law within a certain period of time or shut down.
It finds that somewhere along the line, the central issue had been misplaced, the welfare and protection of invalids receiving care in the nursing homes, not the welfare and protection of municipal officials charged with the responsibility to enforce the law. It suggests that the legal responsibility, with which the Council seemed most concerned, was less important than the moral responsibility to see that care was being provided safely to the elderly.
"Tax Bites Man" indicates that according to the Tax Foundation, it took a man earning $4,500 per year two hours and 32 minutes of his eight hour workday to earn enough to take care of his tax bill, that he had to work only one hour and 38 minutes to earn enough for food for his family. It concludes that some days it did not pay to get out of bed.
"The Good Council of Walter George" indicates that the talk in Georgia was that the Senator might never serve in the Senate again, that former Governor Herman Talmadge might be strong enough to beat him, unlike the latter's father Gene, who had been Governor for four terms, that if Mr. Talmadge announced for the Senate race, Senator George might retire rather than try to raise enough of his failing physical strength for the strenuous campaign.
It finds the situation curiously ironic since Senator George was currently at a new peak of statesmanship in foreign affairs, having taken the lead in urging U.S. participation in the Big Four summit meeting just concluded in Geneva, causing Democrats to come together in solid support of the idea and embarrassing isolationist Republicans who had opposed it. The Senator had counseled a bold, fresh approach to cold war problems, while the President and Secretary of State Dulles pondered the question in indecision. There was little doubt that Senator George had played a great part in persuading the President to attend the conference and in assuring him a free hand while he was there.
The Senator's call for a similar meeting with Communist China would go a long way toward destroying the Far Eastern policy which insisted that Chiang Kai-shek was something more than a weak ward of the United States, that he was the true governor of China who someday might return in triumph to the mainland. Out of that latter fantasy had grown the U.S. refusal to discuss what ought be negotiable issues of recognition of Communist China or its admission to the U.N.
In fact, the Communists governed China and, it suggests, it was no more moral to keep them out of the U.N. than it was for the U.S. to remain in that organization with Russia.
Senator George took the position that only a top level meeting, where those issues would naturally arise between Secretary Dulles and Communist Chinese Premier and Foreign Minister Chou En-lai, could bring any easing of Pacific tensions. The Senator belittled the significance of a meeting of the Communist Chinese and U.S. ambassadors at Geneva the previous week, unless the ambassadors were to move toward another summit talk.
It finds the Senator on solid ground and that judging by the rapid shift in European policy which preceded Geneva, he appeared justified in his prediction that a top level Pacific meeting "will be held within a reasonable length of time."
"Too Much Seed" indicates that Senator Kerr Scott had said that if there were not enough watermelons to go around at his Haw River rally on Saturday, they would "finish up with maypops." It finds the latter a homely phrase but believes there was too much seed and not enough meat in a maypop diet, that there was not much time between a ripe and a rotten maypop, especially with all of the rain they were having.
Nevertheless, it finds that it would not mind the taste of a maypop, provided it was wrinkled and yellow enough, and so welcomes the Senator's idea, suggesting that if he would only promise a mess of sour quince and horse apples to counter all the maypops, melons and political talk, the editors would attend "the rally with an empty stomach inspired to grapple with come what may."
A piece from the Shelby Daily Star, titled "'Loyalty Kit'", asks readers whether they were worried that they might be investigated for loyalty at some point and whether they objected to signing a loyalty oath, that if so, they might as well sign one at present, as was being promoted by a firm in Los Angeles which had produced a "loyalty kit" for $1.00, selling like hot cakes. The kit included a certificate suitable for framing, with the pictures of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, accompanied by the statement that the signer was not now and never had been a member of the Communist Party.
It suggests that there might be objection to ordering such a kit, that present members of the Stalwart Society of Shrewd Stool Pigeons, or the Idiosyncratic Order of Odd Informers, or members of the Movement for Mechanized McCarthys could possibly infiltrate the ranks of Volunteer Loyalty Oath Signers, such that the do-it-yourself signers might be suspected of guilt by association.
It concludes that the main reason it was not interested was that the signatures and portraits of Lincoln and Washington were insufficient to prove one's loyalty. That would take, it opines, a picture of Robert E. Lee mounted on Traveler.
Drew Pearson, in Murren, Switzerland, tells of aging Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany having sat on a summit so aloof and alone in Geneva "that only the tenuous strands of a cable hauling a cable car straight up Switzerland's highest mountain linked him with the diplomatic hustle and bustle down below." No one could reach that summit except by cable car and after they got there, they had nowhere to go along Murren's one and only street. The Chancellor sat watching the glaciers melt, admiring the patches of potatoes clinging to the side of the mountain "as precariously as the peace of Europe", gazed up at the clouds like his own hopes for the future of the German people. Twice during the conference, his German observers had sent him a teletype recommending that Germany accept Russian overtures to deal on the side, and twice he brusquely said "no" to them. Newspapers told him that France was rapidly disintegrating, that Morocco was seething, that a hotel in Saigon had been gutted and Indo-China was going Communist "as swiftly as the Swiss skiers shoot down his mountainside in the wintertime." France was retreating to its narrow confines, with its once far-flung empire soon to be no more. But that did not make the Chancellor happy, as it did some Germans. Once, he had hoped that France and Germany could serve under the same flag of the European Defense Community, with their troops wearing the same uniform, and he was sorry that France had turned that prospect down, not recognizing the opportunity to make the once bitter enemies permanent allies.
He also heard news that German goods were flooding Western Europe and cutting into British markets in the Near East and even into American markets in Latin America. At Hamburg, German shipbuilders were constructing 27,000-ton vessels in six months so much cheaper than the British that the British steamship lines were deserting the Clyde for Germany. German shipyards and factories had been so completely decimated by the war that the most modern equipment in the world had been installed in the new factories, so modern that Germany could produce more than the competitors with their old machinery.
Along with that favorable economic news, he received two disturbing reports, one from the Health Ministry showing that German health was suffering from overtime work, with the Germans working night and day in their eagerness to bring about a comeback. The other report had come from the chief of the political bureau of the Foreign Office, who had written from Geneva warning that the Big Four progress toward peace meant less foreign aid, less foreign arms from the U.S. and could lead to an economic slump in Europe should the U.S. curtail its steady flow of dollars to Europe. Such a slump had brought on the great depression of 1932. Thus, it was not a happy prospect.
But other reports from Geneva should have made Chancellor Adenauer happy, as Germany had been the chief topic of conversation among the Big Four, all being anxious to please Germany and barter for its favor, offering tribute for its support. But the Chancellor was not happy, as he wanted unification for Germany, and even more, to ensure peace for his country while there was yet time. He was now 79, and could not wait too long, as there were forces back home which he could control at present, but not after he was gone from the scene. Mr. Pearson suggests that the latent forces of Nazism might gather momentum after he was gone and once again emerge from the shadows to the surface. While that would not occur while he was alive, he could not "help but wonder, as he sat watching the clouds make a halo around the snowcapped peak, what would happen after he had gone."
A letter from the meteorologist in charge of the Charlotte Weather Bureau comments on the editorial, "The Rover Boys Track a Tornado", indicates that they also wished that wild tornado rumors could be stopped, as they were as disconcerting to the Bureau as to the public. When a tornado warning was put forth, it was expected that people would watch a notably severe thunderstorm to see if a rapidly spinning funnel-shaped cloud was present. He indicates that people should watch the direction of movement of the storm and if it was coming toward them, they should go in a direction at right angles to its path, that a large majority of the storms moved from the southwest toward the northeast, that if the storm was moving toward the northeast and directly toward them, they should move toward the northwest or southeast. One could move only two or three blocks and avoid the path of destruction of a tornado. At night, one would observe the area of most intense lightning for indications of a tornadic storm, which would have lightning accompanying it on a practically continuous basis. He indicates that all radio stations in Charlotte and in the eight counties served by the Bureau were equipped with instructive material, prepared scripts and safety rules regarding such storms.
A letter from a CIO representative indicates that organized labor's long, hard fight for an increased Federal minimum wage had ended in victory on July 20, when the House had passed it by an overwhelming vote, raising the minimum from 75 cents to one dollar. Organized labor in North Carolina had sent hundreds of letters and petitions to Washington, urging its passage, and delegations had gone to Washington every day. He wonders whether it was ignorance, stupidity or lack of interest which had caused the defeat in the North Carolina Legislature earlier in the year of a "pitifully inadequate" 55-cent state minimum wage. He congratulates Congress for having raised the national minimum wage for wage earners working in interstate commerce.
A letter writer from Hendersonville
offers some quotes by Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, from a
Senate speech of May 26, 1955, anent the Supreme Court's "modern
scientific authorities" cited in Brown v. Board of Education.
He stated that he had submitted a resolution the previous day asking
the body to endorse an investigation of the alleged "scientific
authorities" on which the Supreme Court had based its decision
in May, 1954, which he regarded as "false propaganda foisted by
alien ideologies", rather than relying on the Constitution as
written. He believed that the origin of the doctrines could be traced
to Karl Marx and that the propagation of them was part of a
conspiracy to divide and destroy the Government through internal
controversy. He included the works of Kenneth B. Clark
Evahbawdy knows that that Fou'teenth Amendment was a Commonest inspy'ed Yankee cawpetbagga imposition put on us down heya to shackle us like slaves in owa own count-ry.
By implication, we'd have to include
A letter writer thinks that President Eisenhower ought be impeached while there was still time to save the country. He bases that assessment on the President's associations with "notorious Communist agents", that he had bitterly fought the anti-Communist campaign of Senator McCarthy, and because he had inaugurated a policy of appeasing Russia, "under the tutelage of the sinister Jewish Socialist Mendes-France", while the Communists shot down U.S. planes, killed American boys and held American prisoners in concentration camps. "Never has a President been so distinguished for lofty phrases and low deeds. Eisenhower does not dare come out in the open in his attack on McCarthy, so he and his little gang of White House Jews try to stab him in the back. The Daily Worker applauds these Communist tactics." He reiterates his demand to impeach the President and wants Senator McCarthy to become President in "this critical emergency", with General MacArthur to be appointed chief of staff. "Arrest the real Communists in America, the Jewish international bankers who finance the growth of world communism from New York City and who crushed Germany when she attacked Communist Russia. Americans must stand together now or disappear from the pages of history."
Who will become the Reichsfuehrer
in your new regime?
Framed Edition
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