The Charlotte News
Thursday, January 10, 1957
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page
reports from London that Harold Macmillan
The President told Congress this date in his State of the Union message that the nation's prosperity was at "an unprecedented peak", but indicated that "a strongly armed imperialistic dictatorship poses a continuing threat" to the free world. He said that "at no time in the history of the Republic have circumstances more emphatically underscored the need, in all echelons of government, for vision and wisdom and resolution." He said that "America alone and isolated cannot assure even its own security." (Pay attention, you dumb Trumpies. Think really hard, for a change, and ask yourselves why it is that Russian officialdom seems to be a big backer of Trump.) The President said that the U.S. was willing to enter any reliable agreement which would reverse the trend toward evermore devastating nuclear weapons. He mentioned for the first time publicly international control against devastating missiles and satellite devices, saying that there should be reciprocal agreements against the possibility of surprise attack, and mutual control of "the outer space missile and satellite development." He said that with a reliable agreement, the U.S. could look forward to "a lower level of armament and armed forces and an easier burden of military expenditures." He did not discuss the possibility of a tax cut, of which there was little prospect for the year given budgetary requirements, which would be covered in the separate budget message set to be delivered to Congress the following Wednesday. The message was broadcast nationwide by major television and radio networks.
In Atlanta, black ministers planned another organized effort against segregated seating on municipal buses this date, while the Georgia National Guard remained on standby alert, ready to put down any "riots, insurrections and breaches of the peace" which might develop, after having been so ordered by Governor Marvin Griffin, "subject to call at a moment's notice" the previous day, after six praying, singing and Bible-reading preachers had staged a somewhat indecisive test of the city's traditional seating pattern. The Reverend William Borders, pastor of the Wheat Street Baptist Church and leader of the "Love, Law and Liberation movement", had told a mass meeting at his church the previous night that blacks were going forward with their plan to sit wherever they wanted on buses at "whatever the cost". He said that only preachers would attempt to ride the buses in a desegregated pattern at the present time, and would try again this date, the following day and Saturday, would try again before church on Sunday morning. He said that either they would ride the buses desegregated or "ride a chariot in heaven or push a wheelbarrow in hell." It was the third attempt, after the successful boycott during the previous year in Montgomery, Ala., and more recently in Tallahassee, Fla., to desegregate municipal buses in the South.
In Montgomery, a mass renewal of violence, with four black churches and two homes of ministers bombed, had left the city without a public transportation system this date, as the bus service had been halted by the City Commission "until further notice" as a safety measure. No one had been reported injured in the bombings, which had occurred less than 12 hours after a city bus had been ambushed by gunfire, the sixth such shooting incident since segregation of the buses had formally ended on December 21, when the Supreme Court order affirming the order issued by the U.S. District Court the prior June had been formally received by the City of Montgomery, finding that the State statute and City ordinance which prescribed segregated seating on the buses were unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause. Thousands of workers in Montgomery were left stranded and had to find rides with friends, in taxis or walk to work. Taxi companies had been jammed with calls. The bombings occurred at the homes of the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, who was away at the meeting in Atlanta, though his wife and two-year old child were at home, and the Reverend Robert Graetz, white minister of a black Lutheran church, whose home had also been targeted the prior August. There was extensive damage to the front of the latter home, where the pastor, his wife and three small children were sleeping at the time. All of the bombings involved dynamite. As previously noted, "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss, later implicated and eventually convicted in 1977 in the September, 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham which left four young girls dead, was a plaintiff in early 1956 in an alleged defamation case against Thurgood Marshall, lead counsel for the NAACP, Autherine Lucy, the first black student admitted, via Federal court order, to the University of Alabama in February, 1956, and other defendants for having been identified in a contempt petition as having been among four specific persons who were part of a mob formed to prevent Ms. Lucy from attending classes.
In Hoboken, N.J., it was reported that a 17,000-ton ocean liner had listed slightly more than 25 degrees early this date as the floating drydock into which it was being lowered had sunk, with eight persons having been injured, two hospitalized. There had been 200 crew members aboard the ship at the time, immediately removed in their nightclothes and quarters provided for them ashore. A spokesman for the Bethlehem shipyard said that the accident had occurred in the early morning hours when part of the 20,000-ton floating drydock had sunk during the lowering operation, but there had been no damage to the Norwegian-American passenger and freight liner. Work on raising the drydock sections had begun immediately. That is pretty exciting stuff, almost as much so as some more traffic accidents. Perhaps some clever songwriter could wangle a tune from a smithy and weave some lyrics around it, with the theme being broken in Hoboken on the drydock with the bottle busted on the sternplate, getting Frankie to give it voice for the airwaves.
In Columbia, S.C., a member of the South Carolina State House of Representatives this date introduced a bill to curb drunk driving of motorboat operators, setting a penalty of between $50 and $100 in fines and between 10 and 30 days in jail for a first offense of operating a motorboat under the influence of alcoholic beverages or drugs, with increasing penalties for subsequent offenses.
In Charlotte, lawbreaking had dropped by 6.6 percent in 1956 despite a large increase in some major crimes, according to City Court records. Most of the decrease was in traffic violations and other minor offenses. But murder, manslaughter, robbery and auto theft were all more frequently prosecuted than in 1955. There had been 17 murder cases in the court in 1956, compared with 11 the prior year, ten manslaughter cases, versus four the prior year, 48 robbery cases, versus 35 in 1955, 157 worthless check cases, versus 120, 35 conspiracy cases, versus 14, and 72 auto theft cases versus 52 the prior year. The court had handled in all 20,015 cases the prior year, compared with 21,427 in 1955. County Court records showed that a 13.8 percent increase in cases had occurred, much of it in traffic offenses. And it provides some other similar statistics, which you are free to read if you are drawing up a term paper on the relative incidence of crime in the mid-1950's. We suppose someone could construct a case for blaming Elvis for all of the higher incidence of violent crimes during 1956, which would make about as much sense as blaming President Biden for inflation and gas prices, assuming, in the latter case, you have any inkling of how the economy and world gas prices work, gleaned outside the world of Fox Propaganda.
Emery Wister of The News reports of a cold air mass having arrived from the northwest this date in Charlotte and across the Carolinas, promising the coldest weather of the season by the following morning. The Weather Bureau forecast a low of 17 for Charlotte, which would be 50 degrees below the expected high during the afternoon of 67, with the high expected not to exceed 36 the following afternoon. The Bureau said that the cold air was being pushed by high winds blowing at 100 mph over Knoxville during the morning at an extremely high altitude. The cold front would bring a sudden end to the spring-like weather of the previous few days and would impact the Carolinas and a large part of the Southeast.
Near blizzard conditions were reported in many Midwest areas in the season's worst snowstorm to date, producing hazardous driving conditions and forcing hundreds of motorists in many cities to abandon their vehicles. Up to two feet of fresh snow had fallen in some Colorado mountain areas and the worst slide conditions in five years had been reported, with 18 slides occurring along U.S. 550. Seven inches of snow had fallen in the Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyo., area and drifts had blocked U.S. Highway 30 near Laramie. The storm was moving this date into the Northeast.
In Oklahoma City, a man was brought into municipal court on a complaint of drunk driving, explaining to the judge that he was not a drinking man but had a bad toothache and had been rinsing his mouth out four or five times, guessed that he had swallowed some. He was fined $60, whereupon he served notice of appeal.
On the editorial page, "Hospital Facilities Must Be Expanded" tells of the hopes and dreams of 11 aroused citizens regarding the health needs for Charlotte having been cordially received the previous day at City Hall, as Charlotte's hospital facilities were dangerously short for both white and black citizens. The primary responsibility was on the 16-year old Memorial Hospital, a superbly operated but woefully overloaded facility.
Plans were drawn for a 250-bed addition, along with urgently needed supporting facilities, to cost 6 million dollars. The previous day, an 11-man hospital task force had gone to Mayor Philip Van Every who was meeting in his office with the City Council, seeking a 4 million dollar bond issue to be voted on by the public at the regular April primary, with the remaining 2 million to be made up from State and Federal grants. The Council had wasted no time in approving the request, first in the Mayor's office and then 20 minutes later in a public session.
It urges that there was no reasonable alternative to approval by the voters of the bond issue, given the urgent need for the facility. The previous day, Memorial Hospital had a waiting list of 54 patients, and patients who needed surgery at the hospital were told that there was a waiting list for that also, taking a week to 10 days for an operating room appointment for all except emergency cases. Eight separate surveys had documented the need for additional black hospital facilities during the previous quarter-century and pitifully little had been done to solve the problems.
It concludes that it was now up to the public to approve the bond issue.
"Eden out, Nasser up: A Bad Bargain" tells of Anthony Eden having resigned from his position as Foreign Secretary in the Government of Neville Chamberlain in 1938 in protest of the Prime Minister's appeasement of the Axis. Winston Churchill, when he had succeeded Mr. Chamberlain as Prime Minister in May, 1940, had brought Mr. Eden back to the world stage, where he had walked in honor since that time. But now, Mr. Eden had gone from the scene, having resigned the previous day as Prime Minister because of health reasons.
It indicates that the actual reason may have been the hastily conceived attack on Egypt in October, of which he had been perhaps the only victim. The invasion had offended the moral sense at home in Britain and abroad, but more damaging, it had failed. The U.S. had condemned the British-French attack initiated November 1, and President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt had been supported, despite being a dictator, by world opinion. The result was that Mr. Eden was gone and Mr. Nasser remained, which it finds a bad swap regardless of the errors of Mr. Eden.
It finds that he was only one of several world figures swept from power by a nationalistic struggle against Western colonialism in which the potentials for good and ill were perilously intertwined. Mr. Churchill had said in November, 1942, at the outset of the North African campaign, that he had not become Prime Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire, but that liquidation nevertheless had proceeded under Mr. Churchill, just as it had under Clement Attlee and Mr. Eden when they had in turn been Prime Minister. But it was Mr. Eden who had been backed into the inevitable corner which Mr. Churchill and Mr. Attlee had escaped. Mr. Eden found himself separated from his primary ally, the U.S., partly by the force of Arab nationalism which he was trying to channel into due respect for the West.
It suggests that if it could be said that world opinion had now outlawed war and that the latest war of Mr. Eden was the last, then his departure from the world scene would be a happy milestone, but if not, it would have to be said that his departure merely marked another defeat in the attempt by the West to keep Nasser-style Arab nationalism from joining with Communism, and, that although Mr. Eden had failed in his ultimate test, the trial had not yet come to other diplomats who would stand on the world stage. Diplomats, it finds, were unfairly judged on their present failures rather than past successes and that by that standard, Mr. Eden was due no salutes, yet by any standard, he deserved a great deal of sympathy.
"The Over-Due Birth of a Nation" tells of a President having spoken gravely of having been ready to welcome independent Hungary into the family of nations but for the intervention of Russia in extinguishing the hopes of the struggling Magyars. That had been in 1849 when President Zachary Taylor had spoken the words.
It finds that history had a way of repeating itself, with only the faces changing.
A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "Football in Stride with the Times", finds that sportswriter Red Smith was a man of fine sensibilities, full of chivalric notions which had prevailed in medieval times when Knute Rockne had been coaching Notre Dame's "Four Horsemen" in football and when it was believed that a one-touchdown victory was humiliation enough, even for Army, Notre Dame's top opponent at the time.
Looking at the previous season's football scores, however, Mr. Smith had concluded that the spirit was dead, that winners were running up scores as much as possible on opponents and that character-building coaches were teaching their players to be relentless and ruthless.
It hesitates to join Mr. Smith in that accusation, suggesting that they might simply be responding to the Zeitgeist of the age demanding that everything be bigger, football scores as well as automobiles.
It indicates, however, that the football powers had not yet tinkered with the rules the way the basketball people had, having not yet cut the field to 50 yards to give the customers twice the scoring thrills, but allows that they might do so at some point in the future.
They actually have tried that with that indoor football jazz, which has not gone over so well, being akin to professional wrestling in its ultimate effect, patronized mainly by morons who are unable to make very discerning distinctions in life generally.
Drew Pearson indicates that a lot of backstage huddles and careful planning had preceded Vice-President Nixon's determination that part of Senate Rule 22 regarding the necessity of a two-thirds vote of the Senate membership for cloture of debate was unconstitutional. Nevertheless, some Old Guard Senators had almost dropped dead with surprise. Mr. Nixon had long been the darling of the Taft conservative wing of the Republican Party, the part which had stuck by him the previous summer when Harold Stassen had sought to have him replaced on the ticket with Governor Christian Herter of Massachusetts, and so the surprise had been understandable. For when the previous attempt to change the filibuster rule had come up at the beginning of the 83rd Congress in 1953, Senator Taft had killed any change, sticking by the longstanding alliance between the Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats formed in comity on civil rights issues and anti-labor issues. (During debate on the amendment to have cloture determined by a simple majority vote, Senator Johnson, in support of his ultimately successful motion to table the motion to amend, had recalled that earlier effort, saying that "if you know you are right, and you just keep a-coming, no gun can stop you"—a bitterly ironic reference when carried forward seven years to the post-assassination effort by the Johnson Administration to get by the filibuster rule to obtain passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964.) But despite having been a Taft disciple, Mr. Nixon had done just the opposite, disregarding the old alliance, notwithstanding Senators William Knowland, Leverett Saltonstall and Styles Bridges having urged him to remain in line. The Old Guard, however, had not realized that Mr. Nixon had been called on by the Northern liberals, some of whom had even come to his home at night, with a committee of six having come to his office, including Senators Paul Douglas of Illinois, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Clinton Anderson of New Mexico, Irving Ives of New York, Alexander Smith of New Jersey, and Charles Potter of Michigan, the latter three being Republicans. Senator Anderson, deemed the leader of the group, had said that they were not trying to put the Vice-President on the spot but that they thought it was outrageous for one Senate, by a majority vote, to be able to bind all future Senates to an immutable rule except by a two-thirds majority vote, which Rule 22 required for its own change. They indicated that they thought it might be unconstitutional, and the Vice-President agreed, saying that he would be ready to rule when he returned to the chair from lunch in the afternoon of January 4. At that point, however, Mr. Nixon summoned Senator Anderson to the rostrum while debate was in progress, whispering that he should not let Senator Humphrey make his point of inquiry until Mr. Nixon received his papers as he wanted to go into the matter very carefully. Senator Anderson then whispered to Senator Humphrey not to make his inquiry until the Vice-President notified them. The debate continued and finally Senator Anderson saw a clerk bring some papers to the Vice-President, whereupon the Senator asked in a whisper whether he was ready and Mr. Nixon indicated that he was, prompting Senator Anderson to give the signal to Senator Humphrey, who then made his point of inquiry, giving Mr. Nixon a chance to advise of his opinion that part of Rule 22 was unconstitutional, though conceding that the matter of its constitutionality was ultimately up to the Senate as a whole.
The probable result of that ruling was, suggests Mr. Pearson again, that Mr. Nixon would attract a large bloc of black votes should he be the nominee for the presidency in 1960, as well to ensure passage of the 1957 civil rights bill regardless of whether the filibuster rule was changed or not.
New Senator Joseph Clark of Pennsylvania was the first to pick up the idea of introduction of a resolution to outlaw Rule 22 on the basis of the ruling by the Vice-President that it was unconstitutional. Mr. Nixon had shown Senator Clark five drafts of his statement, all written in longhand, the fifth having been read before the Senate.
Senator McCarthy had taken a verbal belt at new Supreme Court Justice William Brennan shortly after the Senator had gotten out of the hospital, and Mr. Pearson asserts that it ought endear Justice Brennan to his fellow Justices, as they liked him but did not like Senator McCarthy—who would die four months hence, the same date, incidentally, May 2, on which J. Edgar Hoover would die in 1972, some seven weeks before the June 17 second break-in of the DNC Headquarters at the Watergate.
Judge D. S. Saund, Hindu Congressman from California, had found a seat on the center aisle in the House at the hearing of the message from the President on his Middle East proposal, with the Congressman shaking hands with Chief Justice Earl Warren and various Senators as they walked down the aisle.
Marquis Childs indicates that the question of how long the Democrats would maintain control of the Senate had become the subject of speculation in Washington after Senate Minority Leader William Knowland had served notice on Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson that as soon as the Republicans would have 48 Senators, he would move to take over organization of the body, enabling Vice-President Nixon to break 48 to 48 ties. It had not been true in the 84th Congress, when there was a like one-vote majority held by the Democrats and during which there had been a gentlemen's agreement whereby control would stay with the Democrats even in the event of the death of a Senator or some other event which would alter the balance.
Senator Johnson had told the Democratic caucus, when informed of Senator Knowland's warning, that the White House was tired of Democratically controlled committees nibbling away at Administration proposals, a process now occurring with respect to the President's Middle East proposal in the Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator Matthew Neely of West Virginia, 82, had been brought from a hospital bed in a wheelchair to the Senate floor so that he could cast his decisive vote to organize the Senate. His colleagues had been shocked by his appearance, with reports revived that he suffered from an illness more serious than believed, with his office having said that he was recovering from hip surgery. It had been rumored that he would resign so that Democratic Governor William Marland could appoint a successor, but Senator Neely insisted that the rumors were false. The Governor was to be succeeded by a Republican the following Monday and so the death of Senator Neely would allow appointment of a Republican.
Senator Knowland, in response to questions by reporters, had refused to say what would occur in the event that there were 48 Republican Senators, having pointed out that many states with Republican Senators had Democratic governors and so the converse could occur, causing Republicans to hesitate to take control in that event. Moreover, Senator McCarthy was the ranking member on the Government Operations Committee and would become chairman in the event of Republican control, which would mean he would resume his former method of investigation, antithetical to the Administration's aims. Only the previous week, he had attacked President Eisenhower in a floor speech. Senator William Jenner of Indiana was almost as openly opposed to the President's policies and was the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, from which he could wield great power as chairman in blocking Administration policy.
As related by Robert Donovan in his book, Eisenhower, the Inside Story, the President had found his first two years in office to be a nightmare, as Senator McCarthy and other Republicans had demonstrated irresponsibility when they had been in the majority. He had considered forming a third party but was persuaded it would be futile. He did, however, determine to reform the party in the pattern of "new Republicanism". During his latter two years, with Democrats in control of both houses, he had a more peaceful time.
The President had also named the two retiring chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees, former Representative James Richards of South Carolina and former Senator Walter George of Georgia as special ambassadors for the Administration, the latter for NATO and the former for the Middle East, as a means to restore bipartisanship to foreign policy.
But Democrats in the Senate remained uneasy, convinced that their time in control would be short.
There would be no change in leadership during the ensuing two years.
A letter from Governor Luther Hodges congratulates News publisher Thomas L. Robinson on his tenth anniversary as publisher of the newspaper, commenting that under his leadership, the newspaper had made great progress in serving the best interests of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and the state.
A letter from Senator Sam J. Ervin likewise congratulates Mr. Robinson.
A letter from White House press secretary James Hagerty also extends his best wishes from himself and the President.
A letter from Congressman Charles Jonas continues the congratulations.
A letter from Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John J. Parker also extends his congratulations.
A letter from Mayor Philip Van Every congratulates Mr. Robinson.
A letter from James Farley, former DNC chairman and Postmaster General under FDR, kingmaker of Mr. Roosevelt, likewise extends his congratulations.
A letter from Stowe Moody, president of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, provides his congratulations.
A letter from Frank J. Starzel, general manager of the Associated Press, congratulates the publisher.
A letter from Paul Hansell, chief of the Charlotte bureau of the A.P., likewise extends his congratulations.
A letter from Robert U. Brown, editor of Editor & Publisher, provides his congratulations.
Not mentioned on either the editorial page or the front page, the editorial page masthead the previous day for the first time carried the names of Cecil Prince as Editor and Perry Morgan as Associate Editor, Mr. Prince previously, since October 1, 1955, having been in the latter role while Mr. Morgan had been an assisting editorial writer, as explained the previous day on an inside page.
The flow from the latter page, in juxtaposition to the announcement of October 1, 1955, brings to mind the question as to what the death of James Dean at that lonely, windswept intersection in California on that prior afternoon has to do with the integration of the Bonnie Brae Golf Course in Charlotte in 1957. We suppose it must be that the intervening will was a Ford.
And, speaking of King Kong, that the writing of new rules for the Senate with the convening of each new Congress, according to Senator Knowland, would lead to a "jungle"
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