The Charlotte News

Saturday, August 20, 1955

FIVE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that flooding had occurred in the Northeastern states for the second straight day this date, leaving 105 known dead and property damage estimated in the billions, the worst such catastrophe ever to hit the region, involving seven states, leaving thousands homeless, roads in shambles and whole communities covered in ruins. The stampeding Delaware River and its tributaries was still hitting towns below New York and New England, where cleanup was taking place. Pennsylvania had taken the worst beating, with 51 known dead and at least 70 missing from water-flooded camps and homes. Connecticut listed 30 dead, Massachusetts, 11, New Jersey, five, New York, four, Virginia, two, and Rhode Island, one. As civil defense organizations, the Red Cross, and the armed forces put emergency units into high gear, an indication of the extent of the misery came in an overnight report of supplies sent by the Army, which is continued on another page.

The President had qualified North Carolina for Federal aid to repair damage caused by Hurricane Diane earlier in the week, after he had declared regions of the state hit by Hurricane Connie the prior week as a major disaster area, allocating one million dollars for relief. Governor Luther Hodges had asked the President for permission to use some of that money to repair damage from the second storm, which the President approved the previous day.

Governor Hodges planned to fly over North Carolina's coastal areas this date to obtain a look at the damage caused by Diane, and later in the day would meet with Representatives Herbert Bonner and others regarding steps to help farmers and small businessmen who had incurred losses from the storms. The Governor had made an aerial review the previous Monday to examine the damage caused by Connie. Senator Kerr Scott announced that the FHA had declared 28 eastern counties of the state, where farm crops were dealt severe blows by the hurricanes, as disaster areas, with emergency loans being made immediately available to farmers impacted by the storms in those counties. The Senator said that much of the damage had been caused by salt water flooding crop lands and that gypsum had to be applied to those lands to eliminate the salt content before they would again support crop growth. The State Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee had a policy of furnishing half of the cost of the gypsum, with the remainder being borne by the farmer.

Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina this date urged against parsimony when providing protection against storms. Brig. General E. C. Itschner, head of the Army Corps of Engineers, stated during the week that any shore, almost anywhere, could be protected from hurricane ravages, but that the cost would be "staggering". Immediately following Hurricane Hazel of the prior mid-October, Senator Ervin had inspected the North Carolina coastal areas and visited farm sections damaged by winds and rain, and was later among the members of Congress who worked to increase appropriations for radar devices to track down and give early warnings of major storms such as Hazel. He said that the improved forecasting of hurricanes saved many lives. Commenting on the recent Hurricanes Connie and Diane, both of which had hit North Carolina, albeit Diane having caused relatively little damage and no reported deaths or serious injuries, Senator Ervin said, "No more attention has ever been given to approaching disaster than the Weather Bureau now gives hurricanes." The Army engineers were drafting plans for construction to minimize property damage and loss of life from such major storms, probably resulting in recommendations that local areas subject to such storms modify zoning laws and impose strict building codes.

In Casablanca, French Morocco, bloody fighting had broken out this date in the "tin can" towns which housed tens of thousands of Moroccan workmen in the outskirts of the city, with one French Army sergeant reporting that at least six had died. The tendency, however, among official sources was to minimize the trouble. At least six others had died in other parts of Morocco. It was reported quiet this date in Rabat, the capital. During the night, some 2,000 Berber horsemen from the Atlas Mountain wilderness had ridden into Khenifra, 122 miles southeast of Casablanca, where 11 Moroccans had been slain the previous day in clashes with the French, but were reported withdrawing to the hills around the town, as French security forces appeared to take control. Two years earlier this date, the French had exiled Nationalist Sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef from the Moroccan protectorate, and during the previous week, the French had moved in extra gendarmes, soldiers, marines and paratroopers to counter possible Nationalist rioting. The first hint of a developing major disorder had come during the night from Khenifra, as the 2,000 half-wild Zaian tribesmen had ridden toward the town of 11,000 people. Public sympathy was running strongly in favor of Ben Youssef, and against the present Sultan, Ben Moulay Arafa, picked by the French to take over after the exile of the former two years earlier. Thirteen Moroccans had been killed and 34 wounded in rioting the previous day, and two French police inspectors had been ambushed and wounded.

The United Mine Workers Union confirmed this date that its national policy committee was being convened late during the afternoon to ratify a new wage contract with the Bituminous Coal Association, with no details being provided, but it being reported that the agreement called for a two dollar per day wage increase to be provided in two increments. The Association represented Northern commercial and captive mines owned by the steel industry, employing approximately 125,000 of the approximately 200,000 soft-coal miners of the nation. UMW president John L. Lewis and the head of the Association, Harry M. Moses, had secretly reached an agreement in 1952 and the rest of the industry had accepted it, although the Southern coal mine owners had done so only reluctantly. The new agreement would replace that agreement. Miners presently received $18.25 as their basic daily wage, and the two-stage increase would raise that to $19.45 on September 1 and to $20.25 the following April 1.

In Red Bluff, Calif., a custody fight loomed over the 2 1/2-year old son of one of the freed 11 airmen who had spent 2 1/2 years in Communist Chinese custody after being shot down during the Korean War, on the trumped-up claim that they had been engaged in espionage. The airman in question, whose wife had remarried after she presumed that he had been killed, had never seen his son until recently. The previous day, he filed a divorce complaint against his wife on the basis of her remarriage and decision not to end the second marriage, seeking custody of his boy, charging his wife with being an "unfit mother" and with "extreme cruelty". The two had recently met in Nevada City, Calif., in an attempt to reconcile their marriage, but those attempts had obviously failed. The husband's attorney said that the wife would not consent to giving up their son. Meanwhile, the wife and her second husband continued living apart, as both considered it inappropriate to live together until the matter was settled. The freed airman had been quoted the previous week, after meeting with his wife, that she had done a "terrific job" in raising the little boy, pointing out that it was not easy for her to bring up a child by herself. The papers would soon be served on his wife, as soon as she was located, as she was presently hiding somewhere in the San Jose area with the little boy, who referred to her second husband as "daddy".

In Detroit, a policeman and his shotgun-wielding assailant were killed in a 15-minute gun battle this date in a Westside rooming house. A report of a drunk with a gun had led police to the scene, at which point a 29-year old patrolman was killed by a 33-year old construction worker, wielding a shotgun, with the construction worker then killed by police. The man had apparently come to Detroit the previous night to kill his wife, who had left their home in Shelbyville, Ind., on August 11, accompanied by their four small children, and moved into a flat with her sister in Detroit. Five police officers had responded to the call at the house, and four had turned one way, while the fatally struck officer had gone the other, hit by the shotgun blast. The other officers tossed in teargas and the assailant leaned out a window, whereupon he was shot fatally.

In Ballater, Scotland, Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth, hid her romantic secrets behind an impish smile this date and joined thousands of curious at a church bazaar on the eve of her 25th birthday, at which point she would be free to marry whom she wished, without the Queen's consent. Wearing a tartan skirt and sweater, she had departed Balmoral Castle in a station wagon, driven by a hatless young man whom no one in the crowd recognized, and sped to nearby Abergeldie Castle to sell knickknacks at a stall for the benefit of Crathie Church. A few minutes earlier, Queen Elizabeth, driving a big black limousine, left the castle. Princess Margaret appeared unruffled by worldwide speculation over whether she would marry Group Capt. Peter Townsend, 40, wartime pilot and divorced father of two children. Birthday cards and telegrams by the thousands poured into Balmoral Castle and British national newspapers, commenting on the rumors of romance, were sympathetic. The young man driving the station wagon was probably Keith Moon. It's all a ghostly tale now…

A series of three photographs show the young David Eisenhower receiving lessons from his grandfather in golf, fishing, and horseback riding in Colorado. Where's Dick, his "boy"?

On the editorial page, "How Much of a Menace Are Actors?" tells of the House Un-American Activities Committee, now chaired by Congressman Francis Walter of Pennsylvania, looking into second-rate actors in New York, with an eye toward how they might be influencing audiences with propaganda straight out of the Kremlin.