The Charlotte News
Wednesday, January 30, 1957
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President at his press conference this date had stated that he would not give to the Senators of the joint Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, inquiring into Middle East policies of the Administration, any of his correspondence with other heads of state, that it would betray confidential relations and that Congress had not sought such information. He defended Secretary of State Dulles, saying that he completely approved of his actions taken in the international field, and had approved of those policies in advance of any action by Mr. Dulles. In response to criticism by some Democrats that Secretary Dulles had acted impulsively, particularly when announcing that the U.S. would not join the financing proposed for the Aswan Dam in Egypt, he expressed the belief that the Secretary's decisions were not spasmodic, impulsive, or coming from the top of his head. He indicated that since Mr. Dulles had been six years old, he had been imbued with the idea that the position of Secretary of State was the greatest and most important job in the world, and that he had accumulated wisdom, spirit and knowledge as good as that of any man in the world. He said that he would be the last to deny that he and Mr. Dulles had made some mistakes, but found some members of Congress, who were attacking the Secretary, not to have specified particular errors or offered any constructive alternatives. A reporter had noted, in raising the question with the President, that in voting unanimously for an inquiry into U.S. Middle East policy during the previous 11 years, going back to the end of World War II and thus encompassing the Truman Administration, the joint Committees had questioned what executive documents would be made available, with Secretary Dulles having agreed to provide a report. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas had said this date that Secretary Dulles would be asked to provide details on his talks with heads of foreign governments.
The President also said that Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson had made a very "unwise" statement when he had indicated that draft-dodging had developed in the National Guard enlistments during the Korean War. He said he was certain that Mr. Wilson's primary interest was to try to ensure that the Guard was a well-trained military unit in the event of any emergency. The latest controversy around Mr. Wilson had been prompted two days earlier when the Secretary had said before a House committee that "a sort of scandal", a "draft-dodging business", had turned up in the National Guard enlistments during the Korean War. When asked by a questioner at the press conference whether the President believed that to be true, the latter said that the questioner knew better than that and that Mr. Wilson had made the unwise statement "without thinking". Mr. Wilson, despite the criticism by spokesmen for the Guard and members of Congress, had declined to back away from the statement the previous day, instead repeating it to reporters during a telephone call, stating that he had no reason to apologize for it. He also said that it had not figured into his meeting with the President. The President had said that youths who were between 17 and 18 1/2 could enlist in the Guard, and defended a new Pentagon policy that Guard recruits ought get some six months of basic military training instead of the 11 weeks which the Guard favored.
The U.S. had indicated this date that it had found a way to develop more efficient hydrogen bombs, with the AEC, in its 21st semiannual report to Congress, having disclosed that the previous year's test at Eniwetok had provided important information relating to new design principles which would lead to more efficient weapons which could be more effectively employed. The Commission had declined to amplify on the subject, but presumably, according to the article, it meant that ways had been developed to obtain more explosive consequences from a given amount of bomb material than had been the case previously, to enable more of the bomb's ingredients to produce the explosion before the bomb flew apart. There had been previous scientific speculation outside the AEC that changes in the geometry of design, that is, the arrangement of bomb ingredients, might lead to more efficient use of materials, enabling smaller bombs for a given amount of release of energy. The AEC report said "substantial progress" had been made in the previous six months of 1956 "in expanding the peaceful uses of atomic energy as well as in the basic production of nuclear materials and the development of essential applications for defense purposes." The report had contained a special six-chapter section on "Radiation Safety in Atomic Energy Activities", in which the Commission had detailed the procedures which were designed to protect atomic workers and the general public from overexposure to radiation resulting from work in atomic plants or from testing bombs.
King Saud of Saudi Arabia had arrived in Washington just prior to noon this date and was greeted by the President, along with a 21-gun military salute at the airport. He had flown from New York aboard the President's plane, Columbine III. In a statement prepared in advance, the King told the President that he looked forward to frank discussions which would lead to better relations between their peoples on the basis of "amity and mutual interests". He was set to remain in Washington for three days. A crowd, estimated at more than 4,000, was on hand at the airport to see the King's arrival. The President said that he was valued as "a great leader", just as had been his late father, Ibn Saud. He said he looked forward to the "strengthening and reaffirmation of this valued friendship through the opportunity provided by this visit for fruitful discussions of problems important to both our countries." Secretary of State Dulles was also present for the official reception. The King had arrived with 23 personal attendants, ranging in complexion from jet black to beige, some wearing flowing robes of their native land while others were in business suits. Two were the King's personal bodyguards, each wearing a golden sword, a golden dagger, a bandoleer of .45-caliber ammunition and a pistol in a shiny black leather holster.
In Atlantic City, N.J., the rise of a unique, non-denominational "military church" was being seen as a result of the tendency in the U.S. armed services, the breaking down of denominational distinctions, according to a leading Lutheran authority on the military chaplaincy, stated at the annual meeting of the National Lutheran Council, representing eight Lutheran denominations with about 5 million members. He said that the trend was being viewed with some alarm on the part of churches in the country, being aware of the gradual development of a "service church", reflecting few of the doctrinal characteristics of the individual denominations supplying military chaplains. He said the chaplaincy report had accused no one of a break between the chaplains and their home churches, but rather that there was a gradual drift away from the denominational moorings into a type of religious community which seemed to operate with the least tension in the military service. He listed various influences to which many chaplains were being subjected, requiring thereby a "feeling of independence" from their churches, those influences being that they were asked to preach either Navy religion, Army religion or Air Force religion, that chaplains deviating from the "fairly well-defined worship format" of a "general Protestant program" risked "administrative consequences and criticism", that the hymnal used in the armed services was published and being revised by the three services jointly on a non-denominational basis, that the armed services issued a "component list" of materials for Sunday school use under the sponsorship of the joint chaplain board, that the "utilization of those materials had almost become law", and that large numbers of military personnel, long separated from their home congregations, had their binding religious acts, such as baptism and confirmation, sanctioned in base military chapels, all resulting in basically a "military church" performing all of the functions of the church except training and ordaining of its clergy. Until 1952, military chaplains had to have a re-endorsement by their denomination each year to continue to serve in the armed services. Under a revised system, once a chaplain was approved by his denomination, he could continue to serve until his military retirement.
In Barbourville, Ky., it was reported that Governor A. B. Chandler had this date appealed to the President for Federal disaster relief for Kentucky, one of four states hit by flooding, which had resulted in four deaths and had caused millions of dollars in damage and left thousands homeless. One man had died and another was believed dead in West Virginia. Kentucky had two reported dead, both from drowning. Transportation and communications also had been disrupted in portions of Virginia and Tennessee. Before leaving the State capital at Frankfort to tour the flooded areas, the Governor notified the President that a "large part of eastern Kentucky has been inundated by one of the most devastating floods in history", and requested that the President declare it an emergency area. The Army had used helicopters to rush food and medicine to stricken areas in the eastern part of the state and the Red Cross had dispatched workers to stricken communities. The Governor said that his first stop would be at Hazard in Perry County, where the flood damage was expected to exceed five million dollars. The mining community's business district had been wiped out, as water from the Kentucky River had climbed to 17 feet in the streets. Thousands had sought shelter on higher ground in Barbourville, Pikeville, Neon and Whitesburg. Flooded streams in southern counties of West Virginia had begun falling this date, but crests near or above all-time highs were still expected in central portions of the state. A banker and state Republican leader at Hazard had issued the first report that his town was gone, his message having been relayed by the Civil Air Patrol, which had surveyed flooded areas from the air as a guide to rescue operations. The editor of the Harlan Daily Enterprise had managed to reach Hazard during the morning and told the Associated Press by ham radio that the "town is a shambles", that at a power station where he was located, the water had almost reached the top of the transformers.
In Atlanta, a 15-day reprieve was provided to a man condemned to death for the pistol slaying of a Dekalb County policeman on February 6, 1954. Governor Marvin Griffin had granted the postponement to allow clarification of the latest in a long series of legal moves by the prisoner. The officer had been shot with his own pistol after he and another officer had arrested the man, a former aircraft worker, for questioning about thefts at Clemson and Davidson Colleges in the Carolinas. Six execution dates had previously been set, the last previous of which had been January 14. The current date's reprieve had come only a half hour before the time of scheduled electrocution.
In Rocky Mount, N.C., three persons had died this date and two others had been critically injured in a predawn fire in a four-room frame house, after the fire had been discovered by a cab driver. It had apparently started in the living room of the home, and the fire chief said that it was not immediately known what its cause had been.
In Venice, Italy, the father of the deceased woman whose death was the subject of a manslaughter and aiding and abetting prosecution of a jazz piano player as principal, and the local police chief, a wealthy playboy, and others, as accessories or for alleged false testimony at the original inquest, had testified this date in the trial that his daughter's death had been an accident and that it was absurd to think of it as a crime. The investigation of the case had almost toppled the Government when it had originally begun four years earlier, when the young woman's body was found scantily clad on a beach near Rome, where the wealthy playboy was entertaining a group at his hunting lodge. The father said that his daughter was a "really good girl", too loyal, too honest to lead a double life, as had been suggested, referring to "horrible lies" which had been communicated against her, causing her to "die twice". He said that he believed she had gone to the beach to wash her feet in seawater to try to cure an inflammation she had. He said he had met a nurse who had been on the beach and had told him that she had seen his daughter arrive there alone, able to identify her from photographs. A verdict had originally been entered by the coroner that death was from accidental drowning, but the prosecution now contended that the 20-year old woman had been rendered unconscious at a drug orgy in the game preserve lodge, and that the jazz pianist, the son of a former Italian foreign minister, had left her at water's edge to drown. Her father testified that she had fainted several times between the ages of 15 and 20 and that a doctor had told them that there was nothing about which to worry, that it was some slight stomach disorder and that she would live to an old age.
In Dayton, O., a 23-year old
manicurist had told police she was still married to three of her
seven husbands, and so now she was jailed, charged with suspicion of
bigamy and defrauding the government. She told police and newsmen
that now that she was expecting a baby, everything had fallen apart,
as no one seemed to want her. She said she had been looking for "a
guy who would stand by" her regardless of her past, but it was
hard to find such a person she could trust. She told a reporter that
her first marriage had been ten years earlier and that she had been
married three times between the ages of 13 and 18. She had entered
police headquarters the previous day with two of her husbands, 22 and
24, respectively, with both arguing as to who was the real husband,
at which point she had told police of her seven marriages and four
divorces, having divorced her first four husbands because they had
gone out with other women. Oh yeah...
As to the photographed University of Michigan atomic physics student, who had been missing since January 18 and was located in Washington at a rooming house, and had told her mother that she wished to return neither to her home nor to school, we recommend switching majors to something perhaps a little less stressful, maybe even create her own interdisciplinary curriculum, examining the impact of rock 'n' roll on modern society and whether it could alter the nuclear arms race, whether the gravitational pull toward more classical disciplines in music through time had led to too much emphasis on regimented structure without variation by so much as an erroneous note or paradiddle here, there or anywhere, everywhere, such that the accumulation of stresses needed an equal and opposite relief valve, afforded either by temper tantrums exerted at forces perceived as inimical to the order of musical time and tenor or in other forms of escape from the ritualistic conformance to the preordained particulate frame's existence, such that, increasingly, the cultural mind was rendered unable to think outside the square, in need of shimmying and shaking to obtain release from the despotism imposed by universal equations and laws exacting too much adherence to preexisting boundaries, not susceptible to interpretation, too responsive to the assumed confines of "history", which no one living had actually lived, being governed thus by common perceptions related through generations, sometimes not replicatable in present time and thus of dubious merit and questionable verity.
And, yes, we listened, with rapt attention, this date to all two hours and twenty minutes of the oral arguments in the Colorado ballot access case before the Supreme Court. Well, we warned you years ago, around 2005, if not in 2000, about thinking too much inside the Federalist box, not able enough to think outside it, ultimately producing a vast conundrum, that too much tension on democratic principles through time, subjecting them to the best laid gamesmanship not according to Hoyle, apt thus to go agley, as best elucidated by the McConnell ad hoc "rules of procedure" governing election-year appointments to the Court, one set of rules for Democratic Presidents, another entirely for despots, has led to a form of chaos, not really susceptible to being put back in the bottle by this Court, at least, as presently, ruefully constituted... Expand the sucker, dilute the despotism of the rubber-stamping McConnell Court
In the aftermath of the arguments, we note that the commentariat talked much of the Court seeking an "off-ramp" regarding one aspect or another of the somewhat complicated issue, perhaps having been listening too much of late to a 1965 Gene Pitney song, even if resolution seems rather simply, though deceptively so, to boil down to whether Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to limit to Congress the enforcement of Section 3, prohibiting those who, having taken a previous oath of office to "support" the Constitution, a category which obviously includes the President—unless the parser of words is out to play the Devil incarnate, Pharisaically, and change the plain meaning as intended to a meaning exactly opposite the plain meaning, perhaps fine for the soap-operatic conflicts proliferating in reality tv but not so hot when it comes to interpretation of our Constitution—, have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the Constitution, from holding any office, state or Federal. That language of Section 5, that "Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation," the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, appears, at first blush, to restrict to Congress the ability of enforcement of Section 3, rather than enabling individual states to make the determination, historically basing the decision of whether Congress has the exclusive power of enforcement on a judicially engrafted concept of whether a particular provision of the Amendment is "self-executing" or not, as a rationale for some provisions, such as due process and equal protection, being allowed enforcement by the states, subject then to review in the Federal courts as involving Federal questions regarding whether the assessment by the state of the Federal question was correct, while other provisions may be within the exclusive province of Congress to enforce. But, when Article II, Section 1, Clause 2, providing that the state legislatures are the sole determiners of the manner of selection of presidential and vice-presidential electors, is factored into the equation, an obvious tension between the two provisions results in instances involving a presidential aspirant, elected or not by the electors of the electoral college, a tension which appears reconcilable only through application of a balancing test similar in form, though different in substance, to the old Learned Hand formula in torts. Parenthetically, as to the notion, as argued by the petitioner in the case, that there should be a distinction between a candidate for the presidency being excluded from the ballot and an elected person being then prevented from "holding" office, the distinction devolves to one without a practical difference, provided that the states have the power to make the determination in the first instance and that the field is not preempted in favor of Congress by Section 5, despite the Article II limitations on the manner of selecting electors—this conflict in language, as arising uniquely in this instance, being another reason the country long ago, when Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., and others sought to eliminate the grand anachronism of the electoral college in 1950 through amendment, and again debated it at length in 1956, should have done so, in favor of some form of proportional selection of electors based on the popular vote rather than the winner-take-all formula adopted by most state legislatures, but we digress...
Would not an interpretation, however, that Congress has the sole power of enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the states have none, at least insofar as determining compliance with Constitutional restrictions on qualification for holding Federal office, and particularly the presidency, directly conflict with Article II's restrictions and thus render as surplussage, by judicial fiat, the limitations of power to the state legislatures to determine the manner of selection of electors for the presidency, at least as long as equal protection and due process, not forgetting the provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment, in the manner of selection are not offended, in accordance with the principles enunciated in Bush v. Gore?
Thus, if the Court so rules in this case, cannot a losing candidate in the future, when a presidential election is decided only by the electoral vote, in conflict with the popular vote outcome, claim that the case has effectively abolished the electoral college by rendering Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 a nullity, no longer recognizing state power to determine the manner of selecting electors and thus also to determine whether candidates have met the Constitutional qualifications to appear on the ballot for that election? Can one limitation of power, as to the determination of the manner of selection of electors, really be separated and distinguished logically from the other, the power to determine whether Constitutional qualifications for the office have been met by those candidates appearing on the ballot in a given state? To answer the question by saying, as the petitioner did in the case under discussion, that the state by state determination of meeting Constitutional qualifications could lead to a crazy-quilt result, is no answer, as the present electoral system virtually ensures nothing less as it is and has since the Founding, witness the results of 2000 and 2016, not forgetting 1876. To make that argument is to argue also for getting rid of the electoral college, itself. For there is, under the current system, no assurance of uniformity in manner of selection of electors among the states, it havng become mostly uniform in method, save Maine and Nebraska, by mere happenstance of conformity, not by any rule of Federal law and not by the Constitution. Do you see? But, if that is what the petitioner is ultimately attempting to say, that the electoral college should go by the boards, we wholly agree.
In short, we recommend strongly in this case staying on the freeway all the way across the country, non-stop, and then you may see what we have seen three different times, including at Christmas, 2000. Five Justices did not listen to that advice in 2000 and the result which played out from exertion of plain political bias on the part of the spare majority, as hastily whipped up as Christmas pudding, was not so good for the health of the nation in the short-run or the long-run. Get out and actually see the country you propose to govern, rather than vacationing with the rich at their posh, little hangouts so much of the time. It only takes about 40 hours to travel coast to coast by car, maybe another hour or so added for having to change to the spare along I-40, somewhere east of there, and then having the tire repaired next morning at the Walmart in Flagstaff, and you get to observe all of the particoloured lights of the Christmas season along the way and how different parts represent it.
On the editorial page, "State Must Help Make Murder Known" finds that there was nothing much new about the notoriously inadequate coroner system in the state, with only three counties, Union, Cumberland and Wilkes, having joined the new medical examiner system, which had become operative 13 months earlier. Mecklenburg and some 20 additional counties had physicians as coroners, enabling, in total, about a third of the 100 counties of the state to have fair to good chances of knowing when murder occurred in the investigation of a death.
In most of the counties, the coroner's qualifications amounted to nothing more than a willingness to serve at all hours, producing a system, for the most part, whereby a bullet hole in a man's back would likely be overlooked while the less obvious murder would be ignored, which had occurred previously. It urges that total abolition of the coroner system could provide assurance that it would not happen again, that it should be the goal of those interested in establishing an efficient system of postmortem examinations. The Legislature had, in 1955, shown a longer-range goal by making the medical examiner system voluntary. But in the meantime, much could be done to improve what the Legislature had sanctioned.
It was likely, with a booklet being circulated to county commissions across the state, explaining the provisions and advantages of the medical examiner system, that it would spread, as would the tendency to have doctors performing postmortem examinations generally, with assistance provided by a pathologist. It was likely that there would eventually be an end to the era of the unqualified coroner. To speed that eventuality, the Legislature ought provide for a chief medical examiner of the state and the establishment of a central crime detection laboratory, necessary to instruct and assist medical examiners in medico-legal examinations.
The medical examiner system did little more than provide a physician to act in those cases where medical knowledge appeared necessary, more a reaction to the faults of the coroner system that a positive action designed to bring to bear scientific techniques to solve murders and mysterious deaths. It suggests that a statewide chief medical examiner, equipped with a good laboratory, could provide the impetus for more efficient voluntary local medical examiner offices.
It finds such a system necessary both to remove the innocent from suspicion and to apprehend the guilty, and urges the Legislature to improve on the beginnings it had made two years earlier in making murder known when it occurred.
"Poll Tax Is a Defective Instrument" indicates that the County Commission had suddenly turned its attention during the week to the tangible problem of whether the poll tax was worth its worry, with there being good reason to believe that it was not.
The County tax supervisor reported that thousands of males in the county were dodging the tax each year and that it was virtually impossible to enforce collection, because the efforts to do so consumed a large part of the actual tax revenue collected, the tax supervisor recommending that the General Assembly, about to start its 1957 biennial session, amend the law to read that the commissioners permissively could levy the tax on males between the ages of 20 and 50, to replace its present language, which made it mandatory. It finds that reason demanded that the proposal be given sympathetic consideration.
It clarifies that the poll tax was not a prerequisite for voting, the statewide poll tax having been abolished by an amendment to the State Constitution in 1920, but rather a per capita tax by the local government at a stated rate.
It finds its principal philosophical defect to be its rigidity, with people of all income levels paying the same amount, its basis being that everyone ought pay the local government something, a method of taxing those who owned no personal or real property. But those in the latter category usually did not file a tax form in any event, and so paid no tax.
It finds that the tax supervisor's opinion, that it was an unfair system, was correct, as those who listed their real and personal property were automatically taxed, while those who did not, were not bothered with the poll tax. It urges that it was time that the Commission faced the realities of a defective tax device.
"A Two-Way Street That Needs Travel" tells of a perimeter resident having called the newspaper with a question regarding annexation, realizing, as he had asked it, that an authoritative answer would have to come from the city fathers.
Thus, it finds that there would be at least a minimum of success from the town hall meetings set to discuss annexation, the first of four of which would be at a Methodist church the following night. Mayor Philip Van Every, City Manager Henry Yancey, the City Council, the planning director and the school superintendent would all be present, trying to provide information on the specific and general implications of the proposed annexation.
It urges that a large turnout of residents would be required for there to be informed opinion on the subject rather than stubborn complacency and preconceptions. To the present, proof of the desirability of annexation had rested on the City, as it still did; but it cautions that if proof were offered to empty halls, the burden would rest on the perimeter residents to prove that it was undesirable, that the town hall meetings offered a two-way street to understanding the future of the metropolitan area, and that the street needed to be well-traveled.
"Call It Piety-on-the-Hudson, Now" indicates that in the Roaring Twenties, New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker had considered extending a hero's welcome to Ichy Guk, the famed Eskimo who was probably the most remarkable English Channel swimmer. According to the Paris Herald, he had postponed his swim because the water, too cold for the other contenders, had been too hot for him. But he had never visited Manhattan and was in fact an imaginary character concocted by bored newspapermen partying on the French coast.
But Ibn Saud was a real King, who arrived in New York the previous day only to be provided a cold welcome by the present Mayor, Robert Wagner. There had been no ticker tape parade or welcome at City Hall. "The gayest, gaudiest metropolis on earth consequently earned a brand-new moniker: Piety-on-the-Hudson."
Do yourself a favor and strike a blow for liberty simultaneously by telling a Dumpy-Trumpy you might know that Ichy Guk has sneaked, or maybe snucked, over "Biden's open border" into the country last night from the Yukon, led by his faithful lead sled dog, King, just to show up Americans and how incredibly stupid they are to believe that they could keep such a renowned Channel swimmer out, after the Yukonians had revoked his visa over some little incident involving leaflets passed around last year, saying, "No to Trump, Yes to open international boundaries for all good swimming comrades", and that he was already threatening to sue Trump for the razor-wire cuts ruining his new snowshoes while crossing the border when he jumped the fencing which Trump, and only Trump, had erected to keep "good people" out and the riffraff in. You can embellish your own details at will. Ichy, incidentally—not "Itchy" as the piece and other latter-day renditions of the story had misspelled it—, is pronounced, we assume, as "Ichy" Crane of the New Amsterdam Hollow.
A piece from the Mattoon (Ill.) Journal-Gazette, titled "The Knowledge Box", suggests the need for a "bit of bit oil to bone up a boll weevil on the lingo of the oil business", as not just any "apple knocker" could dig out the "knowledge box" and tell the "Atlantic Ocean from a rat hole". "A brain or a bindlestiff with brake fever may burn a bit on a bronc and make things more confusing than a Christmas tree."
It indicates that a man who shook the trees solicited oil business and one who "shocks macaroni" racks pipe, that "bit oil" was whiskey, that "boll weevils" and "apple knockers" were inexperienced oilfield workers, as were "brake weights, cotton pickers, green hands, oil johnnies and rookies". The "Atlantic Ocean" was a saltwater well and a "rat hole" was a hole drilled with a small bit to prepare for rotary drilling. A "brain" was an engineer or geologist, also known as a "pebble picker". A "bindle-stiff" was a transient oilfield worker who carried a bindle—not to be confused with a mule moving in stealth over the border in another speculative trade, packing gold for the spring peach harvest, as long as either the Federales or the bandidos don't intercede and blow out time—andale, vamanos, muchachos. A "bronc" was a worker with only slight experience and "bit burning" was working too fast. "Brake fever" was an ailment of a roughneck aspiring to be a driller, "symptomized by his constant dashes to grab the brake". A "Christmas tree" was an assembly of valves and fittings at the casing head of an oil well, used to control the flow. The "knowledge box" was a cupboard or desk in which the driller maintained various records pertaining to drilling operations.
It indicates that the list of oilfield argot was endless, including "bird dog, sand smeller, mud hog", all referring to a geologist, a "blue whistler", a gas well, "coffee grinders", a rotary rig, "idiot stick", a shovel with which to dig a pipeline, "sea lawyer", an oilfielder who tried to start trouble, etc.
"The thing can get deep as a tree (which is about all a driller will tell you when asked how deep he has drilled). And with that, it's time to mud off and spud back into the newspaper business."
Just make sure you hain't slud down the well as you then might become the capper.
Drew Pearson indicates that King Saud of Saudi Arabia was 6 feet, 6 inches tall, 55 years old, wearing a light yellow coat, brown suede shoes, had a goatee, eyeglasses and 40 sons, plus a royal household with wives, concubines, slaves, royal retainers, and guards numbering around 10,000. He had brought one of his young sons, five-year old Prince Manshur, on his trip to the U.S. to determine whether American doctors could help the boy's crippled hand. He brought with him none of his wives, with a courtier having remarked that there were beautiful women in the U.S.
There were only 200 miles of paved road in Saudi Arabia, but the country had 250 Cadillacs. The King's annual income from Aramco oil was estimated at about 300 million dollars, but, nevertheless, he had budget problems, spending 36 million on defense, despite the country being surrounded by friendly Arab neighbors, and 24 million on what was called internal security, chiefly for payments to Arabian tribesmen to maintain their loyalty to the King. Another million went to what was called "general development", reportedly the improvement of palaces. Only 10.7 million went to health, education and social services, with most of the balance going to the King's far-flung retinue.
The primary problem facing the U.S. and the President in the talks with the King was the need to combat communism in Saudi Arabia, while the biggest breeder of communism was the poverty of the people. Saudis were heavily tubercular, about 40 percent syphilitic and about 70 percent suffering from trachoma. To combat those problems, the King had established only ten primary schools and two high schools in a nation of nearly seven million people. He suggests that the President might consider it indelicate to make any suggestions to him regarding internal problems, but disease, poverty and ignorance were always the biggest breeders of communism.
It had been reported that the King wanted to obtain some U.S. aid because his royalties had dwindled from Aramco as a result of the stoppage of oil transport in the Suez Canal since it had been seized by Egypt the prior July 26, followed by the Israeli-British-French invasion of late October, early November. Mr. Pearson indicates that how far the President and the State Department would go in suggesting that part of the money be spent on the masses would be important to observe, but thus far, both the Administration and Aramco had shied away from giving too many hints to the King about how he should spend either his oil royalties or U.S. aid.
The Administration had even taken the unusual step of declining to sign a U.N. treaty to outlaw slavery, reportedly based on sensitivity to King Saud. Reports of the U.N. and the Anti-Slavery Society of London showed that approximately 500,000 slaves were being held in Saudi Arabia, most of whom had been recruited from Africa.
Robert C. Ruark, in Ikoma, Tanganyika, tells of having been informed by a friend that Humphrey Bogart was near death and might have died by the time he conveyed the report, which, it turned out, he had, on January 14. Mr. Ruark says that he liked Mr. Bogart, even though a lot of people did not, and for most of the things which others did not. He had not been a close friend, but, "by golly, he was a man who never pulled his punch in his business or in his private life."
Mr. Ruark considers his best picture to have been "The African Queen", which had been made in Africa, two scenes of which he regards as "pure, natural Bogart". One had been when he entered a church where the "reclaimed heathens" were singing, "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam", "or some such with a native beat", and the character's stomach rumbles out of rhythm, embarrassing everyone. The other was the angry look of Mr. Bogart's character when Katharine Hepburn's character tossed overboard his last case of gin and the captain watched it flow downstream. He regards the latter scene as not acting, as "what he felt for that escaping Gordon's essence was pure and real, even in a movie." (This appears to be some vicarious identification and projection on the part of Mr. Ruark to find simpatico predilections in another, even if only vicariously through a movie character, stretching it to encompass some form of reality to rationalize his own plight. We found that movie, incidentally, not so good, not for any technical flaw, but just did not care for the story. Sorry, Bob... It's the same reason we bore quickly with your safari stories. We never liked those kinds of movies either. Tame your own natives.)
"He was even an excellent comedian. He drank his gin, when he wanted to, and in public." He had never appeared to be controlled by public relations people. While his quotes to the press were often rude, he was never dishonest, was never polite to anyone out of expediency. "If he didn't like you, he told you. And he never played up to an autograph-seeker or any café bore just because they constituted fans."
He relates that he had been in El Morocco the night of the "panda doll incident", when Mr. Bogart, apparently somewhat loaded, had taken a giant panda doll with him as a companion, prompting some publicity-seeking model to make an overture to the doll, producing in reaction impolite language and a strong shove. "It is possible that a grown man should not play with dolls, but Bogie took it to El Morocco and it was his own business."
He tells of Mr. Bogart having come from a wealthy family, his father a doctor, not a stockbroker as guessed by Mr. Ruark, and his mother a well-known illustrator, who had used baby Humphrey as a model, "which probably accounted for his malhumors later on." He talked with a kind of lisp, "as if he had a mouthful of mush, which became a great asset as an actor. He was a pretty boy who grew into rather an un-pretty man."
His second marriage, to actress Lauren Bacall, had been very nearly idyllic. He adored her and she accepted him for what he was, "a great gent with certain imperfections. They had nice kids and what seemed from the outside to be a wonderful life." He finds that he had been one of the "few all-the-way honest people" he had ever met, that if he wanted to drink, he drank, if a person bored him, he was rude, "a talent which is hard to come by." He had never played an off-stage part and insofar as anything Mr. Ruark had read, had never offered a "soft or dishonest answer."
John McClain had reported that he refused until the end to alter his basic approach, conversationally or otherwise, although he knew his end was near. Mr. Ruark assumes that he had as many Martinis as his wasted frame would allow and had been as ribald as ever.
"In any case, a lot of people will miss him in the crook of the bar of the saloon we used to frequent when we were both in New York, and I don't mean El Morocco. And I hope that if there are any missionary ladies where he's at, they don't throw a case of gin over the side of the whatever boat he's on."
If you want to give praise to a John Huston directorial effort with Mr. Bogart in the cast, give it to "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" or "Maltese Falcon", and skip the other two, strictly for the birds.
A letter writer discusses annexation, finding it to be perhaps the most important civic question of the decade for Charlotte, given the phenomenal growth of the city in recent years. He finds the people prospering through their willingness to seek new opportunities and new challenges. He believes that no individual or group within the city or in the perimeter areas had any justifiable right to stand in the way of progress and the city's rightful destiny. He says that he resided in the perimeter area presently under consideration for annexation, had modest business and investment interests within the city, that he was unequivocally in favor of annexation, whether the new city limits would include his suburban home or not. He proceeds to go into great detail, indicating that there were 31.2 square miles presently proposed for annexation, with the further extension of the sewer system costing about 3.4 million dollars, that and other improvements to be financed by bond issues. He says that suburban residents in the perimeter areas being considered were in the early stages of development and had their own water and septic tank systems, so would not be interested in connecting to City services, with only garbage collection coming from their payment of City taxes, small against the tax revenue of $500 or more received in many cases. He says that one of the most prominent real estate men had estimated that if the annexation took in the entire amount of proposed perimeter area, some 50,000 vacant lots would go on the market, as people would not want to pay City taxes on vacant land. He suggests that 25 percent of that number would depress the market, to the detriment of the local economy. He concludes that the real question on annexation was not when or how, but how much could or should be sold on the basis of pure logistics.
But how are you going to divert the water to the suburban sprawl which is Los Angeles? For seeding the clouds obviously produces too much in times of plenty, the little boy time, when seeking to supplement those pitiful drops beneficently provided in times of the little girl, saltwater wells being bad for glass.
A letter writer from Greensboro says that a great deal was being said about education in the state, but not much was being done about it, in at least one instance, that of Woman's College in Greensboro. He says that two years earlier, the head of the English department at the College had expressed his opinion that "older" women as students were "a nuisance" and were "too demanding", finding that a regrettable statement. A feature writer for the Greensboro Daily News, in a letter to the editor published on June 22, 1956, had urged that older women be eliminated from the College. He finds both attitudes having been brought to the attention of the acting chancellor of the College and president William C. Friday of the Greater University, with the recommendation that a public clarification be made of the official attitude of the College toward adult education. The recommendation had been repeated in the writer's letter to president Friday in December, Mr. Friday having advised in response that he was referring his letter to the College chancellor, with the request that the latter look into the points he had raised. He had not yet seen any public statement on the subject by anyone in authority in the educational system and had not received any further word from either president Friday or the chancellor. He urges that it was the responsibility of Governor Luther Hodges to make a statement advising the public on the position of the University toward adult education, and suggests that with the second semester about to begin the following week, it was urgent.
A letter writer finds it regrettable that a previous letter writer had attacked the newspaper and the "memory of a great man—Robert E. Lee", suggesting that the letter had served no purpose other than to impede further the progress of "his race", doing more damage than all of the newspaper's published statistics on crime and articles about "Daddy" Grace, the well-known evangelist. He hopes that intelligent black citizens would realize that they could not help their cause through bitter attacks on dead men or past injustices, that only through raising themselves above the pettiness of slander and hate could they present themselves as living examples of acceptable citizenry. "What good will integration do them if they gain it with expediency and force? With the victory they will taste defeat in the venomous enmity of most white southerners."
The previous letter writer had never identified his race, and it is not apparent at all from the contents of the letter. This writer has assumed that he was black, apparently because no one in his universe of experience who was white, except, perhaps, some Commie outside agitator, had ever made such comments. He obviously did not know the previous writer personally, as he takes from the language of his letter that he was "apparently learned".
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