The Charlotte News
Monday, January 7, 1957
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President's plan for blocking Communist expansion in the Middle East, as unveiled in his message on Saturday, had been viewed with misgivings this date in most of the Arab world, while reaction elsewhere ranged from enthusiasm in some Western European countries to cries of "rude interference" from the Soviets, as non-Arab allies in the Middle East welcomed the program. The program coupled the promise of large-scale economic aid to the region with a threat to use U.S. armed forces against overt Communist aggression there. Egypt received the proposal with mild chilliness, as some Egyptians had hoped that the U.S. stood ready to support President Gamal Abdel Nasser. There also had been the feeling that the new doctrine would make it more difficult for Egypt to play the Communists against the West, as in the past, with fear that continued flirtation with the Soviet bloc through arms purchases and other aid could lay Premier Nasser open to the charge of being a vehicle of "indirect Communist aggression". Cairo newspapers, however, counseled restraint, saying that many phases of the plan remained to be explained. Many Arabs throughout the region expressed disappointment that the President had passed quickly over the dispute between the Arabs and Israelis, leaving the U.N. to continue its unsuccessful efforts to solve the problem. In Beirut, there was general disappointment in the doctrine, but a number of Arabs found some good things in it, such as an implication of stronger U.S. support for independence movements. One Arab had expressed the view that the President had put across "an excellent piece of diplomacy", explaining that had he mentioned anything about Israel, Britain and France, he would have scared Congress away from providing him the standby authority he sought, and that once he obtained that power, he could do what he wanted and would do what was right. Newspapers in Israel also expressed disappointment that the President did not offer a remedy to their problem with the Arabs, but welcomed the policy as an entrance of the U.S. into the Middle East.
Secretary of State Dulles would appear this date before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to undergo detailed questioning about the plan proposed by the President. Several members of the Committee had posed questions concerning the proposal, and there was some developing opposition to what several Senators had referred to as "blank check" authority to use foreign aid. Senator John Sparkman of Alabama had said that, in effect, it was declaring war on "a delayed basis—ahead of time." Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee described the proposal as "loaded with dynamite", telling a questioner that there was a chance Congress would not authorize it. There was, however, general agreement that Congress eventually would approve some program along the general outline set forth by the President, but might place some restrictions on the broad authority which he had sought. There had been no indication at the Pentagon the previous day that the Middle East plan contemplated any immediate change in the nation's defense in that area. Committee member Omar Burleson of Texas said that the President already had powers as commander-in-chief to use troops, but that now that the question had been presented to the public, Congress had no choice but to back up the President before the world.
In Budapest, Premier Janos Kadar's Soviet-installed Government showed its promised "new program" to be a combination of old-line Stalinism and an appeal to the West for financial aid. The program had been issued the previous day from the Premier's office in the Parliament building, ringed by protective Russian tanks, and had been broadcast as a 10,000-word statement over Budapest Radio. The piece indicates that the statement probably had been finally drafted the previous week during the visit of Soviet Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev. Among other things, the declaration stated that there was "a dictatorship of the proletariat in Hungary", that the counterrevolutionaries and persons who attacked the legal order and the basic principles of the people's democracy had no freedom even if they masked their counterrevolutionary efforts by democratic slogans, that the law would always punish them severely. Regarding the revolt of the prior November, crushed by Soviet troops and tanks, it said: "People of petty bourgeois thinking or people who were making themselves as Marxists set as their aim the disintegration of social order and the dissolution of it whereby they used slogans like democratization, de-Stalinization and others… It is therefore a main task to strengthen the people's democratic installations and organizations…"
In Fairfield, Calif., the body of an eight-year old girl, mutilated by 115 stab wounds, had been found by a railroad track on Sunday, 12 hours after she had been murdered by a remorseless 14-year old boy who admitted the crime. His "principal concern", according to the deputy district attorney, had been that he might lose the knife he had used to stab the girl. He led authorities to where he had buried the body under a pile of thistles and grass. The boy was the stepson of an Air Force sergeant, stationed at nearby Travis Air Force Base. He told detectives how he had committed the murder and then had gone home to work on his stamp collection and watch television, that he had gone to bed early on Saturday night and was awakened when police called in the mid-morning to ask where he had last seen the girl. He had wept a little while in jail the previous night in talking to reporters and said that he wished the girl were still alive. An autopsy disclosed that the child had not been sexually attacked, although her panties had been removed. Death had been caused by four of the stab wounds which reached her heart. Her skull had been fractured three times, but the autopsy had concluded that those injuries would not have been fatal. The boy had been employed by the victim's mother on several occasions to take care of the victim while the mother worked at a job as a waitress in a beer parlor. Her father was an airman in Japan. The boy said that while he and the girl had been playing on Saturday along the railroad track, he had tripped and the girl had fallen over him, knocking herself unconscious on a rock. He said that he had then beaten her on the head with a rock, then stabbed her repeatedly, removed her pants and then buried them because he had left bloody fingerprints on them when he had turned her over. There is no explanation provided for why he engaged in the violent conduct. (He would, in April, be adjudged insane and committed to Atascadero State Hospital, following a court-ordered 90-day evaluation by psychiatrists at same.)
In Encino, Calif., it was reported that Marie "The Body" McDonald contended that two swarthy men had kidnaped her and set a ransom of $80,000 for her safe return, when she was abducted the prior Friday. She had burst into tears twice as she explained to a press conference in her bedroom the previous day that the men said that they had hoped to ransom her for $20,000 raised from each of four persons, actor Michael Wilding, the estranged husband of actress Elizabeth Taylor and an escort of Ms. McDonald in recent weeks, a shoe manufacturer twice married to and twice divorced from Ms. McDonald, her mother and her business manager. She said that the two men wanted to build up worry with each phone call they had made regarding the ransom in the hope that it would be paid. She had burst into tears as she explained how her abductors had hit her more than once, crying again when a reporter had asked why that was. Her attorney cut her off, saying that she had already given that statement to the police, also telling her not to answer a reporter's inquiry as to whether any vindictiveness had been involved in the kidnaping, the attorney indicating that her response might be misinterpreted.
In Emporium, Pa., an explosion at the Pennsylvania Powder Co. plant, manufacturers of dynamite, early this date had rocked the community, about a half-mile away, according to State police. A fire had followed the explosion, which had occurred early in the morning. Initial reports were that at least three men were missing and believed killed. There were fears that another explosion might yet occur. No cause for the blast is stated.
In Charlotte, a leader of the textile industry in the South, Stuart Cramer, Jr., had died the previous day at a local hospital, having been ill since mid-November. He had distinguished careers as both a soldier and a businessman. At his death, he had been with the Cramer & Cramer real estate firm. He was widely known in textiles circles and on many occasions held important positions in the cotton industry. He had been educated at UNC, West Point and the Philadelphia Textile School.
J. A. Daily of The News tells of a region in the Piedmont which was the bearer of a mystery involving mining, minerals, metals and ultramodern chemistry, related to the persistently secret activities of an Atlanta corporation, Piedmont Properties, Inc., based in Spartanburg, S.C. Available reports indicated that renewable options of about a year's duration were being purchased on farm lands by the company, with a predicted goal of about 30,000 acres in South Carolina and about the same area in North Carolina, with the price of the options ranging up to $200 per acre. Rumors lacking confirmation had associated Alcoa, Du Pont and Anaconda Copper Co. with the activity. Raleigh sources at the North Carolina Department of Conservation & Development and in the Office of the State Geologist indicated that upgrading of clay into a form of bauxite had been the subject of experiments over the years, as a high quality bauxite had never been discovered in North Carolina, while, however, great reserves of clay were available in the state as well as in some sections of South Carolina, with bauxite being a form of clay which contained in combinations various forms of aluminous minerals, processing of which required a great amount of electrical power. Alcoa was undertaking major expansion of its production facilities, including a smelting operation at Alcoa, Tenn. When you sort out the rumors and can produce fact, let us know.
On the editorial page, "Mecklenburg's Few Served the Many" tells of few voters having voted the previous Saturday on the school bond issues, one for 5 million dollars for construction of new schools in the heavily populated perimeter areas of the county and for upgrading of existing schools, plus the assumption of $280,000 of debt by the County from the City to increase the bonded indebtedness potential for the County by up to 20 million dollars.
There were 95,662 registered voters in the county but less than 9,000 had bothered to vote, despite the importance of the bond issues. New classrooms were needed desperately, and that they would be provided was because of the public spiritedness of those who had done their duty. It indicates that they could take a bow, as most of them had voted wisely, with 8,009 voting for the 5 million dollar bond issue versus 735 against, and 7,575 for the debt transfer versus 1,029 opposed.
It suggests that the 90 percent of the voters who had stayed home could go stand in the corner of their own burning consciences.
The vote, however, had not resolved the problem of the need for more schools, only representing a small down payment. To maintain minimum standards of decency in the schools, the people might have to be called on again and it was to be hoped that they would respond with an increased sense of individual responsibility.
"Charlotte Should Complete the Chore" indicates that Charlotte's railroad straitjacket would only be half eliminated when the long-awaited crossline would be opened on Friday, that it would not be complete until the Southern Railroad's mainline tracks were raised from Seaboard Crossing to Dowd Road to permit an even flow of midtown traffic through strategically located underpasses. The crossline, however, represented significant progress, unbottling Charlotte's east side, eliminating Columbia Division trains from tracks crossing 17 city streets.
The principal stumbling block consisted of financial problems, particularly the acquisition of State and Federal funds to match contributions by the City and Southern Railway. It finds that a sustained, resourceful effort to arrive at a fiscal solution would become increasingly necessary as the year proceeded and traffic woes increased.
"As Strange Bedfellows Get Together" indicates that the diehard of the week had been undoubtedly George Dondero, the retiring Congressman from Michigan. Just prior to his franking privilege having expired, he had mailed newspapers reprints from the Congressional Record of an August, 1949 speech linking modern painting to Soviet subversion, arguing that abstract art was part of a disruptive communistic plot.
He had ignored the fact that the Communist Party had traditionally seen modern art as an example of the degenerate influence of Wall Street, the piece finding that patriots such as Mr. Dondero and doctrinaire Commies were allied by their similar demands for realism. In Brazil, when the social-realist Communist painters had wanted to castigate Brazilian abstract art with the worst possible epithet, they called it Arte Americana.
"No Tranquilizers—Just Targets, Please" quotes Hugo Unjaga Villegas as having said that the idea had suddenly come to him to throw a rock at the Mona Lisa.
It indicates that no harm had been done, except for a fleck of paint from the lady's elbow having been knocked from the masterpiece. It suggests that it should be a beacon to frustrated thousands, as tranquilizers were no substitute for a rock in the pocket.
When the Paris police would release
him, it ventures that some charitable foundation might engage him to
show the world the way, hurling rocks at stuffy monuments and
institutions, "the more cherished the better." It nominates
as targets tarnished statues everywhere, with the initial candidates
being generals on horseback, child prodigies, basketball players over
6 feet, 2 inches tall, Jayne Mansfield, young vice-presidents who
said, "Let's shuffle the deck and deal again," when they
really meant, "Let's try to arrive at another plan,"
singers who moved, such as Elvis, movers who sang, such as Mario, and
television sets, just as the master of ceremonies hollered at the
little old widow, 'You have just won…
Charles Poore, writing in the New York Times, in a piece titled "There'll Always Be a Commercial", indicates that the most striking development in books during 1957 would be the introduction of rousing commercials within literature. He then provides likely examples, including one from modern poetry, which he suggests might read:
"Spell not the hieroglyphics of any mind./ You'll find/ Its seedy treasures/ Are measures/ Sphinxed in pencil scrawls and inks/ Sedately./ Have you had your eyes examined lately?/ Go to Blink's/ For contact lenses/ And save expenses."
Drew Pearson tells of White House conferences with Congressional leaders being very different under President Eisenhower from those under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. Such conferences with FDR had rarely lasted more than an hour, with the President doing most of the talking, rarely attended by Cabinet members, and the President wisecracking and jousting with the Congressional leaders. But now such conferences lasted half the day and were attended by Cabinet members and bureau heads, plus the Vice-President, and were basically seminars lecturing the leaders on policy.
The one which had occurred the previous week had been for the most part very somber. The President had begun by praising the Democrats for their bipartisan cooperation in the previous Congress and stated that if any member of his Administration sought to make partisan politics of foreign policy, he wanted to hear about it. He had then explained that Secretary of State Dulles wanted to outline a two-point program to fill the power vacuum in the Middle East, whereupon Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson interrupted to explain that the Senate could not take it up immediately because of the debate on Rule 22 regarding filibusters. The President had mumbled that he did not know anything about the rule battle. Congressman John McCormack, the Democratic floor leader in the House, suggested that they make February 1 the target date for completing action on the President's Middle East program, and before Secretary Dulles could interject a statement, the President accepted that schedule.
Senator Johnson complained about the news leak regarding the "Eisenhower doctrine", before they had a chance to confer on it. The President apologized, saying that in spite of everything he had tried to do to prevent them, there were bound to be leaks. Secretary Dulles volunteered that after the first story had broken, he had provided a background briefing to some newsmen. It was greeted with knowing silence, as the Congressional leaders had previously become aware that Mr. Dulles had leaked the first story to the New York Times, with the approval of the President. They had then learned that he had invited other pet newsmen to his home.
Walter Lippmann finds that it would have been an extraordinary surprise had the Senate voted to amend its Rule 22 on filibusters, requiring two-thirds of the membership for cloture of debate.
The history of the filibuster had been provided by Irving Brant, biographer of President James Monroe—actually, James Madison. It had not existed in the early days of the nation. From 1789 until 1806, debate could be ended at any time by a a simple majority vote of the Senators present. From 1806 until 1917, there was no limitation on debate, and in 1917, on the eve of U.S. entrance to World War I, the filibuster had been used to block war-like measures which the Wilson Administration had been proposing. At that point, a cloture rule was adopted, providing that debate could be ended by the two-thirds vote of Senators present and voting. In 1949, the Senate had amended the rules, making it virtually impossible to limit debate, adopting Rule 22 to require two-thirds of all Senators, whether present or not, thus, as long as there were 48 states, 64 votes. The rule also provided that there was an unlimited right to filibuster against any attempt to amend that rule.
The reason for the 1949 amendment was that the Truman Administration was determined to pass Federal laws regarding civil rights, further causing entrenchment of the filibuster rule. Its effect had been to establish a Southern veto regarding civil rights legislation.
He regards the movement in the 20th Century toward desegregation and against legal and economic discrimination to be one of the most impressive phenomena of the era, but that it was highly unlikely that Federal legislation would be allowed to be much of a part of that movement. It would proceed primarily by local actions reflecting extraordinary change of public opinion in almost all sections of the country.
The President's request for authority to use force in the Middle East also raised the question of the powers of Congress. The Constitution provided that when the President informed Congress that a state of war existed or ought be declared, Congress had the power to legalize the waging of war, and in a case where a President became convinced prior to Congress that war was inevitable or was necessary, the legal authority of Congress acted as a check on the President's prewar actions. President Eisenhower had asked Congress to underwrite in advance his moves, including potential war, to thwart aggression in the Middle East. It was impossible for the President to be specific as to what moves he might believe himself impelled or compelled to make, and therefore that which he was asking Congress to do amounted to a vote of confidence and a commitment to support him in what ensued.
He indicates that not every President would ask or could hope to obtain authority of that kind, but that President Eisenhower would receive it, albeit with an obligation to keep Congress fully informed and closely advised not only as to what he would do but also as to why he would do it.
Robert C. Ruark, in Singida, Tanganyika, indicates that he and his party were just up from Tabora, a blighted part of Tanganyika notable for the vicious tsetse flies, dreary landscapes and a high incidence of sables, an African antelope, a large one weighing up to 400 pounds. He indicates that the two most cherished trophies in African big-game hunting were likely sable and kudu, the latter dainty as a deer, with long horns, weighing up to 700 pounds.
There were a million head of zebra and wildebeests observable in a single day on the Serengeti Plains. One also observed 60 lions per day, plus antelope, birds, monkeys, baboons, elephants, leopards, rhinoceri, making the hunter somewhat gun-happy. A large elephant tusk weighed 75 pounds and one of a shootable bull weighed 60, with a really large one weighing up to 100.
After the hunter had bagged the common wildlife, the decision was made to go after a tiger, and so the hunter ventured to India or Indo-China or even Siberia, as there were no tigers in Africa.
And he goes on explaining the
process of the hunt
A letter writer from Pittsboro comments on the editorial titled "Ike's 'Doctrine': A Bone for the Wolf", finds it puzzling as he did not know whether the writer intended to be serious or facetious. He finds the new doctrine to be a repudiation of that which the President had said during the campaign regarding nations being accorded national sovereignty and the right of self-determination, whether friend or foe. He says that he had voted for the President in the belief that he had meant what he said, could not accept his immediate reversal. He indicates that if the sovereignty of Egypt had to be respected, then when the French and English were trying to recover their property, the Suez Canal, it had to be respected or the President's contention that the U.S. could not have one standard for foes and another for friends had been just so much hot air, reducing foreign policy to an absurdity. He says that Egypt and the other Middle Eastern states would not acquiesce in the U.S. becoming their guardian, that the U.S. had no right to say that Egypt could not accept aid from Russia or permit infiltration, that to assert such a right was very close to a casus belli, which would inevitably result in an air war using nuclear bombs. He thinks that the U.N. should be treated for what it was, a political organization subject to rabble-rousing as any such organization. The Austrians and Hungarians had always been with the Germans as they were at present, and he finds that the Russians were not obstructing the entrance of the "Nazi refugees" into Austria, that those refugees were finding homes in the U.S. He opposes providing the President with any standby power to make war to prevent aid or infiltration to the Middle East by Russia as being more likely to provoke than to prevent a war. He believes that the country had acted foolishly in persuading Britain to withdraw their troops from Egypt, as they had been the stabilizing force in the region for three generations, and the withdrawal had left a vacuum in which Egyptian Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser could exert his authority with impunity. He regards it as only compounding the folly to provide the power to the President to act as guardian for the Middle East.
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