The Charlotte News
Tuesday, January 1, 1957
ONE EDITORIAL
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President had presented to Congressional leaders this date, both Republicans and Democrats from both houses, his new Middle East plan for blocking Communist expansion. The White House stressed that no final decision had been reached by the Administration, but the President was understood to have been ready to follow up the briefing with a special message outlining the plan to Congress on its opening day on Thursday, with some Administration leaders expressing the hope that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would start hearings on the proposal early the following week. Foreign aid, defense matters, further assistance to the Hungarian refugees and other foreign and defense problems had been due for discussion, but major interest had centered on the reaction of the Congressional leaders to the President's expected request for emergency authority to use U.S. armed forces, if necessary, to erect a protective shield around Communist-threatened countries in the region from Gibraltar to the Arabian Sea, and his seeking of approval for a two-year 400 million dollar economic aid fund to build up the economies of Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, to help them withstand Communist subversion and penetration. There was some opposition already developing to the plan, with three influential Senate Democrats, Senators John Sparkman of Alabama, Mike Mansfield of Montana, and Mike Monroney of Oklahoma, having proposed a U.N. police action as an alternative to the President's Middle East plan. The three Senators said in separate interviews that they opposed unilateral action by the U.S. in posting a warning sign against Soviet incursion in the Middle East. The proposed U.N. police force, to be provided by the smaller nations, was already present temporarily in the region. Senators Richard Russell of Georgia and Harry F. Byrd of Virginia said that the suggestion was worthy of "full consideration". The latter two Senators were among the 32 leaders invited to the White House briefing.
The combined Christmas and New Year holiday traffic fatality total had reached a record high, and the New Year toll continued to climb this date, with the 102-hour period, which had begun at 6:00 p.m. Friday, set to continue through midnight this date. Thus far, New Year traffic fatalities had numbered 284, with the combined total of all accidental deaths during the Christmas and New Year periods having reached 990, compared with the previous record of 973 set a year earlier. There had also been 37 fatalities from fires and 73 violent deaths from miscellaneous causes thus far in the New Year holiday, for a total of 394. The new combined record was largely the result of the Christmas toll of 706, which had broken the previous record for that holiday. The New Year fatalities had lagged far behind that rate, prompting safety officials to express gratification for a better showing. The record total for traffic deaths during a New Year holiday was 407, set in the four-day period in 1952-53. The National Safety Council estimated before the holiday that there would be 490 persons killed in traffic accidents.
In New York, police sought to stamp out a wave of false bomb threats which they said were hampering the hunt for the elusive "Mad Bomber", who had been setting various bombs for the previous 16 years in New York City. Since the previous Monday, when an explosive attributed to the the bomber had been discovered in New York's Public Library, police had received 41 such calls, forcing them to check each one, while only one had proved legitimate, leading to the discovery of an actual bomb early the prior Friday in the Paramount Theater on Times Square. Police said that the same bomber had planted at least 34 bombs in public places since 1940, with 22 of them having exploded, injuring 15 persons, though without a fatality. Four bomb threats had been recorded this date, with the police commissioner warning that those who were perpetrating hoaxes, if caught, would be liable to imprisonment for up to three years.
In Dallas, Tex., the body of a 12-year old girl was found stripped, raped, beaten and shot in the West Dallas area the previous night, with her 14-month old brother found asleep in tall grass a short distance away. The infant's fingers were smeared with blood, indicating that he had clung to his sister's body for some time. The police chief said that two Latin American youths, 16 and 19, had been arrested, but denied having any connection to the rape and murder. Her father said that she had taken four soda bottles to trade at the store for some candy for the baby, to whom she had been very close. They were discovered about three hours after she had left home. Doctors at Parkland Hospital said that the infant was all right. Police said that he, too, would likely have been killed but for the efforts of a seventeen-year old boy who told police of seeing two boys washing blood from their car and quoted them as saying that they had raped and killed the girl and were returning to kill the boy. Police had sped to the area, known as Goat Hill. They went to the home of one of the suspects and found the boy hiding in a closet and a few minutes later, arrested the other boy upon his arrival at the home.
In Hartford, Conn., a man who had told a policeman that he thought "all priests and nuns should commit suicide" was being held this date for questioning regarding a fire which had destroyed St. Joseph's Cathedral in the city. Police said that the man had been arrested the previous night as he tried to get into a Baptist church about a mile and a half from the cathedral, which had been totally destroyed by the fire. He was being held on $25,000 bond on charges of breach of the peace, resisting arrest and vagrancy. Damage to the cathedral had been estimated at five million dollars. Another Roman Catholic church, St. Patrick's, had also been damaged by fire early Sunday, with an estimated $250,000 in damage. The two fires had occurred 31 hours apart and were within the same area of the city. The man under arrest was one of seven men who had been questioned the previous night about the fires, with the others having been released. The man in custody had avoided providing direct answers when police had questioned him, eventually saying that he had come to Hartford from Maine to do a job, and that they would "find out", adding, when asked why he thought all priests and nuns should commit suicide, that they knew and that the police should ask them.
In Montgomery, Ala., in an effort to halt armed attacks on newly integrated city buses, the police commissioner the previous night had said that 20 more police officers would be added to the 140 men presently serving on outside duty. The decision had been made after a bus had been shot at for the fifth time within less than five days since the beginning of integration on December 21. No one had been injured the previous day in the only daylight attack of the series, but the prior Friday night, a young black woman had been shot in both legs while riding a bus. The police commissioner said that they felt that with the addition of the new officers, they would be able to maintain order. The police chief had told a group of black leaders of the former bus boycott, which had lasted for over a year following Rosa Parks having refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger at the direction of a bus driver, who was seeking compliance with state and local laws prescribing segregated seating on the buses, that he did not have enough patrolmen to watch each bus. The boycott had ended and the integrated riding of the buses had begun following the formal order received from the Federal courts, holding that the City ordinance and State statute were unconstitutional pursuant to the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause, as summarily affirmed recently by the Supreme Court.
New Year's Eve had been celebrated
in many different ways
In Washington, the President and Mrs. Eisenhower had spent a quiet evening at the White House.
In Times Square in New York City, police estimated that a crowd of 450,000 had gathered in the area to ring in 1957. Nightclubs in the city had reported brisk business, while in Washington, nightclub managers noted a smaller turnout. In Hollywood, a Texas oil millionaire had thrown a party at a cost of $125,000, saying that he had done it to prove that Texans were not boisterous, as a movie had depicted them—probably referring to "Giant".
In England, Winston Churchill praised the "heroism of the brave people of Hungary" and called for a healing of the rift in Anglo-American relations. French Premier Guy Mollet said that he hoped that the New Year would find France and Poland bound by closer ties, and in a separate message to Israel, said that France "vibrates with admiration at the deeds of your army and the audacity of your soldiers." West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, in a message, called for his country to stand by his policy of European unity and partnership with the free world. President Tito of Yugoslavia said that that there was "no doubting the future and the victory of peace-loving strivings of humanity because these strivings are gradually being realized." Generalissimo Francisco Franco of Spain said that it had been a mistake to believe that the Soviet Union was weakening. Soviet President Klementi Voroshilov said that "the past year has been marked by the active peace-loving foreign policy of the Soviet state." Prime Minister Nehru of India and Communist Chinese Premier Chou En-lai drank a toast to the continued friendship of the two nations and to world peace.
In Charlotte, firecrackers, loud parties, minor traffic accidents and false fire alarms had given the community a dizzy beginning to 1957, with police and firemen having been kept on the move from shortly before midnight until the early hours of the New Year this date. By the time of sunrise, however, all was quiet, with City police reporting only one accident with personal injury between midnight and early morning.
A telegram sent to John Stickley, president of Lions Club International, named the previous day as Charlotte's Man of the Year for 1956, an annual award sponsored by The News, is printed on the page, notifying him of the award, as he was in Los Angeles for the Rose Bowl and Tournament of Roses Parade. His telegram thanking the newspaper for notifying him of the selection is also printed, expressing surprise at the award and indicating that it carried with it serious responsibility, the challenge to make every possible effort to measure up to the confidence of the committee which had selected him. Mr. Stickley was about to undertake a world tour, to South America, Africa and the Middle East, as part of his duties as president of the Lions Clubs.
In Salt Lake City, a man told police that a man in a downtown drugstore the previous night had held one hand in his pocket while looking at the man menacingly and ordered: "Walk over to that counter and buy me ten cents worth of chocolates." As the man complied and a salesgirl then reached for the wrong bin, the man giving the order said that he did not want nuts, that he wanted chocolates. The man being ordered paid the dime, handed over the candy and watched the man make a hurried exit. The man taking the orders said that he had seen no gun but thought that the man might have had one in his pocket. The man was last seen in Texas, asking a service station owner to call his quarter, heads or tails, though, strangely, it was a 1958 quarter, which had not yet been minted, probably one of the old Spanish coins he got from Kit Caruthers.
On the editorial page, "The Minutes of the Last Meeting", a report to the readers, quotes from Alfred Lord Tennyson: "Ring out wild bells, to the wild sky!/ Ring out the old, ring in the new."
It comments on some of its erroneous assumptions and bloopers, such as its prediction that the President would not seek re-election because of his heart condition, having also been less than enthusiastic about some of his political heirs, predicting dark days ahead for Republican presidential hopes. It comments that its only consolation was that most of the nation's pundits had predicted likewise.
It had chided the Raleigh News & Observer for suggesting that Thomas B. Sawyer might run for Congress in the 10th District, as he lived in the 11th District, prompting the News & Observer to correct itself, whereas later, experts pointed out that there was no state or Federal law requiring a candidate to be a resident of the Congressional district to which he sought election. In the end, Mr. Sawyer had run as a gubernatorial candidate instead.
It had encouraged locally for years the development of a genuine two-party system and expressed genuine concern about attempts to water down the effectiveness of the civil service system at the local level, to which it could point in both instances with pride. It had provided enthusiastic backing for plans to provide juvenile detention facilities and give tax support to the mental health program, and found welcome in the fresh sympathy for both of those causes in both City and County Government. Its long-time interest in adequate library facilities in the city had finally borne fruit in the form of a new million-dollar main library building on Tryon Street.
And it goes on with several more policies, local and national, as well as international, which it had supported.
It concludes that its editorial philosophy continued to be guided by certain principles which it had always held dear, a deep belief in the importance of civil liberties in advancing the dignity of the individual, a profound respect for the system of constitutional government, a confidence in the collective wisdom and staying power of the American people and the firm belief that mankind would eventually succeed in shaping the world without war.
A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "Love Potions Unnecessary", indicates that it was alleged that tribal chieftains in the western part of the Philippines had love potions capable of making total strangers fall in love with each other, with the contents known only to a few tribal chieftains, who contended that it commanded "eternal love" from those who partook of it.
It indicates its doubts that it would catch on in the U.S., as those who were near-sighted, far-sighted, cross-eyed or color-blind would hesitate to drink the potion for fear that they would get a pig in a poke, that those who were already in love would not desire it, and that the working people who were not in love were entirely too frustrated from paying taxes and paying bills to muster sufficient energy or interest one way or the other.
"And the thousands of young ladies who are simultaneously madly in love with Elvis Presley would not need the potion. The magical love potion is one foreign import we can do without very nicely. And in addition to all but these facts, we are reasonably sure the senators from Nevada would really put on a filibuster before the stuff could be imported. What tobacco is to us, Reno is to them."
Drew Pearson pays tribute to some of the people who had worked to make democracy live during the previous year, starting with former Senator Harry Cain of Washington, who had been fired from the Subversive Activities Control Board for having the courage of his convictions in defending the unfairly accused. He next recognizes Leon Ackerman, Florida and District of Columbia real estate dealer, for giving Mr. Cain a job. He indicates that Mr. Ackerman took out full-page "God Is Love" ads, emphasizing what religion should mean to everyone.
Next on the list was Herbert Maletz of the House Judiciary Committee, who had exposed more conflicts of interest inside the Government than any other single individual.
Robert Sarnoff, head of NBC, had worked to put network facilities at the disposal of educational television.
Congressman Wright Patman of Texas had crusaded for small business.
Congressman Emanuel Celler of Brooklyn had crusaded against Government inefficiency.
Almena Lomax of the Los Angeles Tribune, a black editor, had rebuffed the Republican advertising contracts which had so swayed the "Negro press" during the previous election.
Mayor W. Fred Duckworth of Norfolk had worked for his fellow man.
Dave Zinkhoff of the Harlem Globetrotters had shown European and Asiatic sports fans the part played by blacks in American sports.
John Coley of Alexander City, Ala., had crusaded to improve mental health.
Secretary of Labor James Mitchell had done a constructive job of rebuilding the Labor Department.
Harold Stassen had been persistent in his efforts to limit the weapons of war.
Chalmers Roberts of the Washington Post had done brilliant reporting on foreign affairs.
George Harrison of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks had backed free labor unions of Europe in their battle against Communism.
Eric Johnston, head of the Motion Picture Producers, had performed untiring efforts, despite terrific obstacles, to bring peace to the Near East.
Father John La Farge had written humanitarian editorials in the Jesuit publication, America.
Robert F. Kennedy, counsel to the Senate Investigating Committee, had undertaken sometimes unrewarded attempts to investigate corruption and favoritism in government.
Eugene Holman, head of Standard Oil of New Jersey, had worked on behalf of the Crusade for Freedom.
Rose Diamond of Philadelphia had been dedicated to almost every local charity.
Senator Tom Hennings of Missouri had sought to expose the gas-oil lobby and championed constitutional freedoms.
Crosby Noyes of the Washington Star had made penetrating news reports from Europe.
Robert McKinney of Santa Fe and Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico had charted new peacetime horizons for atomic energy.
Dean Francis Sayre of the National Cathedral had invited a Jewish congregation without a synagogue to hold regular services in his Episcopal cathedral.
Ted Streibert and Ab Washburn had put new drive and determination into the Voice of America.
Roswell Perkins had helped bring order out of chaos in the Salk vaccine program administered by HEW.
Nelson Rockefeller had continued his work for better Latin American relations long after he had left the Government.
White House press secretary James Hagerty had been the most efficient among people in that role, even though he did not care much for Mr. Pearson.
With the start of the 85th Congress the following day, he predicts that the President would enjoy a honeymoon with the Republicans, that former Republican critics of him would go along as a result of his landslide, that Senator Lyndon Johnson would seldom buck the President but that there would be some anti-Eisenhower speeches from Northern Democrats who had proved in Oregon that it paid politically to fire at the Administration's heart, and that Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Patrick McNamara of Michigan, and John Carroll of Colorado would lead that attack. He predicts further that Congress would finally pass a school construction bill after four years of delay and would pass a civil rights bill guaranteeing rights of blacks for the first time since after the Civil War. He further predicts that the Senate would not change its rules regarding filibuster.
Julian Scheer of The News tells of the many things he liked best about North Carolina, such as town names like Chunky Gal, Whynot, and Saxapahaw, such as ham gravy at Henry Franklin's near Linville Falls and barbecue from anywhere, the glow of fires in tobacco barns, a hundred fishing holes in 100 counties, lighthouses on the coast, the brilliance of mountain color in the fall, sunrise over the Atlantic near Wilmington, Christmas lights in Charlotte, an airdrop at Fort Bragg, wide highways such as U.S. 29, carnivals and fairs, blue windows on textile mills, black bears in the Smokies, High Point furniture, chimes at Chapel Hill following football games, country schools and yellow buses, damp caverns like Linville, the stately architecture of Duke, Scottish plaids of Laurinburg, impressive Fontana Dam, Charlotte's Coliseum and Raleigh's "Cow Palace", monuments to Confederate soldiers, the late Thomas Wolfe, UNC drama professor and Carolina Playmakers founder Frederick Koch, Hugh Lefler, former UNC president Frank Graham, Olla Ray Boyd, red clay, green fields, orange sunsets, tobacco fields, cotton harvests, strawberry patches, shrimp and menhaden boats, hot sauces, persimmon pudding, homemade liquor, Arthur Smith of Charlotte, the North Carolina Symphony, Wake Forest drum majorettes, Winston-Salem, Asheville, Tryon, Elizabeth City, the smell of cigarette plants, Cannon towels, Drexel tables, Jugtown, Duke-Carolina football, semi-pro baseball, Dixie Classic basketball, Blowing Rock, Grandfather Mountain, Cape Hatteras, Lake James, Pinehurst, Edenton, Mattamuskeet, Ava Gardner, the houses of Biltmore, Marsh and Bellamy, the Sir Walter Hotel in Raleigh when the General Assembly was in session, square dancing, folk music, crooked country roads, picnic tables, and white frame churches.
Marquis Childs indicates that seldom in American history had a President begun a second term with the problems facing President Eisenhower. Those problems had been conveniently filed away during the campaign and it was dependent on the President to assert a positive leadership role to nurture world hope for a constructive approach to determine whether there would be war or peace during the ensuing 2 to 5 years, that is, in the nuclear age, survival or catastrophe. He could not simply delegate power and authority.
A comparison with recent history suggested a parallel between the President's victory in November and that to which his landslide had been second, that of FDR in 1936 against Alf Landon of Kansas. Mr. Childs remarks that in some respects, it was even more impressive than the victory of FDR, since he had cut into the solid South to take electoral votes of all save five of the 48 states, whereas FDR had carried 46 states in 1936, unprecedented in modern times, apparently having been then set to use his power and popularity to help resolve problems at home and abroad. Yet, within less than three years, World War II had begun and the chain of consequences had been set in motion which had resulted in the perilous situation at present. FDR, in 1937, had faced all of the conflicts which ultimately turned into World War II and he was aware of it at the time, but had been unable or unwilling to stop the rapid drift toward disaster.
In the same way, at present, the elements of disaster were plainly evident and it was no longer possible to take refuge in the assumption that with the advent of nuclear weapons, war could be ruled out. With the wavering and uncertain dictatorship in the Soviet Union presently attempting to hold the Communist empire together, even nuclear holocaust could not be excluded.
He allows for the fact that historical analogies were always dubious, as there were as many variables and differences as there were similarities between the situation at present and that 20 years earlier. America's responsibility for world leadership at present was widely recognized and it could not avoid its responsibility, as attested to by the situation in the Middle East, where the potential for future conflict was greatest.
While Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had uttered kind words about the U.S., he had succeeded through shrewd obstructionist tactics in delaying the beginning of the clearance of the Suez Canal of the ships, bridges and other debris resultant of both the invasion by France and Britain and the defense of the canal zone by Egypt. An agreement had supposedly been reached with the U.N. under which the work of clearing the canal would begin, but it was no guarantee that the obstructionism, aimed at checkmating the use of large effective British salvage teams and equipment, would cease. Every bit of delay meant an added strain on the economy of Western Europe, as well as on the nations of the Far East, with the pattern of delay fitting the objectives of the Soviets to weaken Europe, undermine the Western alliance and entrench Communism in the Middle East.
Similarly, in Syria, stalling was preventing the restoration of the three pumping stations on the line from the Iraq oil fields supplying a large portion of Europe's oil, while the Syrian Government denied responsibility for the sabotage. But the stations had been blown up with effectiveness beyond the capacity of amateur saboteurs. U.S. officials had suggested in the wake of the Suez attack that the U.S. position was greatly enhanced in the Arab nations, seemingly a reason for self-congratulation.
Secretary of State Dulles, in a conference with the President, had acknowledged the gravity of the Communist threat in the Middle East. It was rumored that the President would ask Congress for advance authority to use American armed forces to repel aggression in that region. It might only be a cautionary advance warning, as military strength was only one element, and a minimum one, in the responsibility which the U.S. had to assume in the region.
Without the Middle Eastern oil, Europe was bankrupt, which would inevitably lead to an overwhelming victory for Communism.
Mr. Childs observes that the British-French invasion of the Suez had been an act of desperation, as access to the vital lifeline appeared to be slipping away. With the oil a prize in the continuing struggle between East and West, another act of desperation could trigger a major conflict.
A letter writer comments on a piece appearing in the newspaper on November 26, from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "Soft Shoe Coming Back?", indicating that George Washington had performed some fancy dances, as it had then been called. She says that having been in the theater or around dancing all of her life and knowing most of the good dancers of her generation, soft shoe had always been the one most revered by such men as Hi Brazil, Johnny Boyle, Harland Dixon, George M. Cohan and George Primrose. The most beautiful of all steps was called "the Primrose" after the latter, having all the beauty of classical ballet rolled into one step, requiring a straight leg, swung from the hip, a pointed toe, lovely arm work, movement of the head and body which could not be classified with the average step. Each generation of dancers and teachers added something to the dance while also losing a little along the way. She says that she wished she had been somewhat more observant when her father had introduced her to a very dapper old man strolling on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, in a straw hat tipped at an angle and swinging a cane, practically doing a dance, as he had been the great Primrose. She had only been a student of the dance but had been impressed enough to recall his talk on soft shoe, and so was writing to thank the newspaper for the article.
A letter writer from Hamlet indicates that a few days earlier, while visiting the U.S., Prime Minister Nehru of India had said, in effect, that military alliances were not going to bring peace to the people of the world, with which the writer agrees, as military alliances would not bring lasting peace to the people of the world, as they never had and never would.
Yet, they are better than the converse, which surely will, sooner or later, lead to warfare—as will the Trumpy-Dumpy-Do "America First" isolationist policies. Those who fail to accord history, perhaps because they learned little or none of it while in school, will surely be condemned to repeat it. If they only had a brain...
Speaking of which and whom, Herblock this date appears to have been prescient by 64 years, only finding the standoff in the wrong chamber. Of course, he had a reminder from the Puerto Rican Nationalists of 1954.
Perhaps, with all their talk of secession and nationalism, that is what these cuckoos are after in 2024, a State of Trump, in which they can develop their own new constitution. They can surely find some land somewhere for themselves for the purpose, a place for them, a time and place for them, somewhere, perhaps in Patagonia where they can finally rekindle their lost childhood memories of Great America, one of the amusement parks of the 1970's, perpetually living those great moments each and every day on the roller coaster with people happy and laughing, mom and dad jumping up and down for joy, as junior and sis just have the best of times with people just like themselves, without crime or chaos, a nearly perfect world, without those nasty liberals around to mess it all up for them by admitting people unlike themselves to the park.
Eighth Day
Framed Edition
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