The Charlotte News
Monday, February 18, 1957
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Warrenton, Mo., that men were poking through the smoldering ruins of a retirement home this date for the bodies of at least 70 persons who had died in a fire within minutes the previous day, having thus far recovered 16 bodies. Seventy of the 155 persons, including 45 women, inhabiting the home were reported missing after the fast-spreading fire, followed by a major explosion, with one eyewitness indicating that the entire building had been aflame within three or four minutes, and another witness estimating 15 minutes. Authorities were baffled by the speed with which the flames had spread through the two-story brick building. It was probably the worst fire in Missouri's history, bringing demands for State legislation which would tighten safety regulations for nursing homes and institutions for the aged. Recent inspections had approved the home for fire hazards. None of the 70 missing had turned up during the night to disaffirm the estimated death toll. Officials believed that most of the Sunday visitors had managed to escape, as no inquiries had been received, but just how many were present at the time of the fire might never be known because of the extent of the blaze, virtually cremating most of the dead.
In Lisbon, Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh had moved this date from the relative privacy of their royal yacht into the pomp and glamour of a state visit to Portugal, with the Portuguese, friends and allies of the British for six centuries, being delighted. They had cheered, waved and shot off thousands of small rockets to emphasize their welcome to the royal couple, reunited in Portugal the previous Saturday after a four-month separation. A 21-gun salute had welcomed the Queen, the first British ruler to visit Lisbon since her great-grandfather, King Edward VII, had paid a call 53 years earlier. American-made jet fighters of the Portuguese Air Force had flown overhead and 6,000 men of the armed forces had marched in review. A royal carriage of Portugal's monarchical past, drawn by eight white horses, had borne the Queen and Portugal's President Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes from Black Horse Square along streets jammed with thousands of wildly applauding, gesticulating Portuguese to King Edward VII Park. At one point, the crowds surged up to the Queen's carriage, giving her security contingent some pause for concern.
In Washington, playwright Arthur Miller, husband of Marilyn Monroe, was indicted on two charges of contempt of Congress this date, stemming from his refusal to tell HUAC the names of fellow writers with whom he admitted attending Communist Party meetings in 1939 and 1940. In his testimony before the Committee on June 1, 1956, Mr. Miller had denied that he had ever been a Communist or under Communist discipline, but admitted that he had been associated with a number of Communist-front groups. He said that he "would not support now a cause dominated by Communists." In refusing to name persons with whom he attended the party meetings, he said: "My conscience will not permit me to use the name of another person and bring trouble to him." The Federal grand jury which indicted Mr. Miller had also returned a separate indictment charging Dr. Otto Nathan of New York, executor of the estate of the late Albert Einstein, with contempt of Congress. Dr. Nathan was a German-born associate professor at NYU, who had also refused to answer questions before HUAC on June 12, 1956, telling the Committee that he would not "make any kind of statements about my political and private associations." Among the questions he refused to answer was whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party. Neither Mr. Miller nor Dr. Nathan had pleaded the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Mr. Miller had married Marilyn Monroe the prior June and had informed the Committee of his forthcoming marriage at the time of his testimony. His play, "All My Sons", had been a hit on Broadway in 1944 and had won the New York Drama Critics' Award as the best play of the year. In 1948, his "Death of a Salesman" had won both the Drama Critics' Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
In Raleigh, Governor Luther Hodges said this date that he would not insist on his recommendation that merit be taken into consideration in granting teachers pay increases. He recommended a 9.1 percent pay increase, based on merit, to be determined by school principals. At a press conference during the morning, he pointed out that the superintendent of State Public Instruction, Charles Carroll, had said that there was no way of determining merit for teachers, and so he would not insist on that aspect of his proposal, but added that he believed it was still workable. He said that he opposed suggestions that a sales tax be applied on food as a means of raising revenue for the increases to teacher and State employee salaries. He also stated that the State had not made a decision as to whether Wilmington or Morehead City would be developed as the state's major port. He indicated that his and the Budget Commission's recommendation for three million dollars worth of developments at Wilmington and none at Morehead during the ensuing two fiscal years had been based on the fact that Morehead presently had excess storage space.
Near Raleigh, rescue workers succeeded in freeing a man after he been trapped for more than four hours in sinking coal dust in the coal chute of an industrial plant. The man had been buried up to his neck in coal dust in a 65-foot chute at the Wake Forest finishing plant of Burlington Mills. Rescue efforts had been undertaken by a doctor and two workers before the man had been freed finally from the chute. He was then taken to a hospital in Raleigh, where he was reported to be suffering from shock and chest injuries, the extent of which had not been determined. A doctor said that he believed the man was not too seriously hurt.
In Camden, S.C., the County grand jury considered this date whether to indict six men charged with beating the Camden high school band director, Guy Hutchens, the prior December 27. Charges of conspiring against his civil rights had been filed against two of the men and charges of aggravated assault and battery had been made against the other four. Mr. Hutchens had been beaten brutally by a group of masked men when he had stopped to change a tire on a highway near Camden while returning from a television appearance in Charlotte. He had said that the men had stopped beside his car, kidnaped him, taken him to a wooded area and there administered a whipping. He said that the men charged him with having made pro-integration statements at a Lions Club auxiliary meeting two years earlier, which Mr. Hutchens denied having made.
Charles Kuralt of The News reports on Social Security recipients in Mecklenburg County, one being a retired bookkeeper, 65, whose wife had died the previous year, who received a check each month for $108.50, a major part of his income. Another man, 68, lived with his wife, renting out an apartment in his house for $50 per month, receiving a small amount of income from his life insurance and a check each month for $162.80, more than half of that which he had earned while working as a television repairman. Another man had died in 1949 of a heart attack at age 42, and his widow, with her two high school daughters, lived on an income from two soures, her late husband's securities and a monthly check of $200. All of the checks came from Mecklenburg County's biggest payroll, $500,000 distributed to 10,000 people in the county each month, originating from HEW in the form of Social Security checks. Every day, the number of people who received them rose, and their impact on the economy was greater than that of any single Mecklenburg business or industry. In addition, 80,000 other county residents and their families would receive them in years to come. The year 1957 was the 20th anniversary of Social Security, and nearly everyone now was covered by the program, with doctors being the only large group who were still exempt. The 6 million dollars per year paid out by Social Security to residents of the county had a great impact on its buying power. It took the form of Aid to the Blind, Old Age Assistance, and Aid to Dependent Children, all based on the Federal Social Security Act. To most, it represented a 2.25 percent deduction from paychecks each week.
In New York, it was reported that newspapers had printed reports this date that British actor Rex Harrison had slapped Frank Sinatra in the face twice at a Hollywood party the previous week in a misunderstanding over Mr. Harrison's fiancee, Kay Kendall. The New York Herald Tribune and the New York Daily Mirror ran similar stories out of Hollywood about the incident. Neither Mr. Sinatra nor Mr. Harrison could be contacted in Hollywood for comment on the stories, and other sources had been unproductive. From the reports, it appeared that Mr. Sinatra, his fists clenched at his side during the incident, had not struck back but had walked away, later telling friends that he did not believe Mr. Harrison knew what he was doing at the time and he did not intend to take advantage of him. A friend of Mr. Sinatra said that the latter could whip Mr. Harrison with one hand tied behind his back, that he was outraged that Mr. Harrison thought that he was flirting with his fiancee, but later thought the whole incident was pretty funny. Apparently, Mr. Sinatra had gone to the patio of the home where the party was taking place to get some fresh air early in the morning, and Ms. Kendall—whether related to Eve, who would subsequently become involved in an imbroglio over a "pumpkin" on one of Gutzon Borglum's creations, not being reported—had joined him for a chat, during the course of which, she had admired Mr. Sinatra's shirt, whereupon Mr. Harrison, who had escorted his fiancee to the party, had found her with Mr. Sinatra. She then said to Mr. Harrison, "Isn't this a beautiful shirt Frank is wearing?" Mr. Harrison had grudgingly agreed and asked what color it was, to which Mr. Sinatra had responded: "Just an old shirt. Kind of off-white, maybe yellow." Mr. Harrison had then slapped Mr. Sinatra, and Mr. Sinatra, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, had said, "It's still yellow." At that point, Mr. Harrison had slapped Mr. Sinatra a second time and several other guests had entered the patio, at which point Mr. Sinatra walked away. Mr. Harrison was on a month-long leave as a star of the Broadway musical hit "My Fair Lady". He had been divorced by his wife of 14 years, Lilli Palmer, in Mexico on February 7. Perhaps, by the latter 1960's, he might land a role of some description in "I Am Curious (Yellow)".
On the editorial page, "Take the Clanks out of the Gears" finds that in an era of reform in the state, the "cobwebs of tradition" still inhibited legislative leadership. The Speaker of the State House, when asked whether he planned to trim the number of committees, had said that he did not have the courage to do so.
It finds that the lingering power of the political antiquity of the state had never been better illustrated.
In 1953, Governor Hodges, then Lt. Governor, had trimmed the Senate's committees from 36 to 28, but the House retained its usual number of 47, as it had also in 1955. In the current year, the House had expanded to 48 committees.
It suggests that it could be worse, as the Georgia House had 63 standing committees. But 48 such committees, with overlapping areas of interest and inadequate assistance from experts, made the House an unwieldy legislative body. Education, for instance, was dealt with haphazardly in a half dozen different committees. Four or five others shared an interest in judicial matters. There was plenty of room for consolidation.
It urges taking the clanks out of the gears to make the General Assembly the deliberative body it ought to be, starting with the streamlining of committees.
"Queens' Influence Is Good and Great" indicates that the fourth centennial convocation of Queens College in Charlotte the following day would explore the relationship between the college and the community, that some preliminary exploration of the subject had yielded some poor results, being merely a list of rather obvious areas of community life in which Queens had made a substantial contribution to Charlotte, including art, music, religion, morality, general education, economics and others. Getting at the substance of the contributions was that which was important.
As the college's traditions and teachings had been instilled within students, new and permanent beginnings had been made in each of them toward a richer community life, and where the students were from mattered little, as education was osmotic, with that which enriched the experience of one citizen tending to enrich all. Thus, the boundaries of the Queens community were difficult to define, Charlotte being only a part of it. But that influence was "good and great."
"Brotherhood Week: Don't Let It End" finds that it was being said that observations such as Brotherhood Week, sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, were promoting better human relations everywhere and that the forces of organized bigotry were being routed, as men's minds were being cleansed of hate. But it finds that everywhere it looked, the destructive manifestations of discord, suspicion and bitterness which prejudice bred, still appeared to exist.
It finds that brotherhood, however, did exist amid contemporary pressures and despite what the headlines and television screens revealed. While the latter media were not lying, they drew heavily from the negative aspects of modern living, as conflict was news. "Too often, the peaceful, positive virtues lie undiscovered, or at least buried with the obituaries on Page 12-B."
It finds that civilized man had, nevertheless, laid the groundwork for uglier headlines by notable failures in the field of human relations, and those failures made front page headlines.
It indicates that Americans had no
corner on prejudice, that the world was full of hate. Dr. Gordon
Allport had catalogued many of them for Harvard University's
department of psychology, noting, for instance, that in South Africa
In Hungary, there had once been a saying which went: "An anti-Semite is a person who hates the Jews more than is absolutely necessary." Poles had once called Ukrainians "reptiles" to express their contempt for people they considered wily, revengeful and treacherous. Germans had called their neighbors in Poland "Polish cattle", and the Poles had retaliated with "Prussian swine". Before the Communist coup of 1949, a Chinese scholar was supposed to have referred to Americans as "the best of the foreign devils." Presently, the Chinese were presumably being taught to think of Americans as the worst of the foreign devils.
Dr. Allport told of a dignitary of the Catholic Church who had been riding along a lonesome road on the outskirts of Boston, and, seeing a small black boy trudging along, had told his chauffeur to stop and give him a ride. Seated together in the back of the limousine, the cleric, to make conversation, had asked the boy whether he was a Catholic and he had replied, "No, sir, it's bad enough being colored without being one of those things."
It indicates that prejudice existed everywhere, that to some degree, everyone was a bundle of prejudices, as expressed by Charles Lamb. "Polite prejudice" might be harmless, it ventures, when confined to idle chatter, but was not so when developing into active hate, endangering the ideal of brotherhood, with progress then suddenly lost.
"That is why Americans need the reminders that Brotherhood Week provide. That is why forces in the field of inter-cultural relations must do their part to promote brotherhood, not one week a year, but every day of every week of every year."
A piece from the Washington Post & Times Herald, titled "A Bum for the Bums", indicates that the Brooklyn Dodgers had engaged the circus clown, Emmett Kelly, to amuse customers at Ebbets Field with his pantomimes. It suggests that one of the motives might be to get the minds of the Dodger patrons away from the distressing possibility that the fading galaxy of performers who had brought so many pennants to Brooklyn might now not be able to obtain another in the current year. A second motive, it suggests, might be the hope of enabling the customers to forget that the Brooklyn club was no longer made up of amiable eccentrics who had once been the darlings as well as despair of Brooklyn. Brooklyn residents had come to refer to the Dodgers as "dem Bums", sometimes in exasperation and sometimes with tender pride, but the term had not been appropriate for the more recent accomplished Brooklyn teams.
It finds that the employment of Mr. Kelly might be an effort to substitute a symbol for a vanished reality, as he conveyed the image of a hungry, ragged, futile, dirty and infinitely endearing tramp, the ideal image of a Brooklyn Dodger held in the mind of every well-dressed, hard-working, dependable citizen of the borough.
It suggests that Mr. Kelly as a bum was the essence of everything melancholy, futile and wistful, something more than the symbol of the ideal Brooklyn Dodger, rather the symbol of the "whole absurd, lugubrious, ludicrous yet somehow lovable human species. For at bottom, and in the sight of Heaven, are we not all Daffiness Boys?"
Drew Pearson indicates that Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, who had accused the National Guard of draft-dodging during the Korean War, might well have remembered the old adage: "He who lives in glass houses should not throw stones." One of his sons, Edward Wilson, had just refused to answer direct questions about his own wartime record. Mr. Pearson, having received reports from young Mr. Wilson's neighbors that he had purchased a Michigan farm to be classified as a farmer during World War II, had asked his junior partner, Jack Anderson, to call Mr. Wilson and obtain his side of the story. Mr. Wilson had immediately protested against taking a call from a newspaperman and said he had taken the call by mistake. When Mr. Anderson asked him whether he had received a draft deferment as a farmer, Mr. Wilson suggested that he consult his former neighbors who would give him the facts. Mr. Anderson said that they had already talked to the neighbors and that if Mr. Wilson was willing for them to publish their version, they would do so, but that Mr. Pearson thought that it was only fair to get his side of the story. Mr. Wilson said he had no way to answer the draft deferment question except to say that it was not so and was quite ridiculous. When Mr. Anderson asked him for his specific draft status, Mr. Wilson had interrupted, saying that he would not answer questions, that he did not have to justify himself. He said that he was presently an automobile dealer. When Mr. Anderson asked him whether he had been a farmer during World War II, Mr. Wilson said, "Don't crowd me now," asking Mr. Anderson how low he had to stoop to sell newspapers. When he asked him again whether he was a farmer during the war, he said that he liked being a farmer and that he should ask Mr. Pearson what was wrong with being a farmer. He said that he was both a farmer and an automobile dealer, then ended the interview.
Thereafter, an official inquiry was made to the Defense Department regarding the matter, in light of the Secretary's statements regarding the National Guard, asking how long the Secretary's son had continued to be a farmer after the war and whether he was presently an automobile dealer. The Defense Department had said that Secretary Wilson was out of the city and that they could not obtain the information. Later, a Department spokesman had returned the call and suggested that they contact Selective Service, which then stated that Mr. Wilson's draft record was not in Washington, but back in Michigan. A call to Michigan's Selective Service office had confirmed that a man named Edward Everett Wilson, who had given his address as being care/of Charles E. Wilson, had received a farm deferment from the draft.
Stewart Alsop tells of a pattern having developed thus far in the 85th Congress, with major differences on foreign policy between the Democratic majority and the Administration, but without substantial differences on domestic policy. Northern Democrats were desperate for domestic issues by which to obtain votes as most of the issues which they hoped would be productive, schools, health, social security, the soil bank, roads, civil rights, etc., had been met by the Administration's program of "modern Republicanism". The Administration had consciously accepted the basic thesis of the dominant wing of the Democratic Party, that the Federal Government was responsible for the general welfare of the people. Marion Folsom, the conservative HEW Secretary, had said as much recently in a speech, from which he quotes.
When the Administration had first come to office in 1953 with a domestic program differing in no important respect from the program of the late Senator Robert Taft, such unequivocal acceptance of that basic thesis would have been considered major heresy. Yet what Secretary Folsom had said was true, and his three billion dollar budget made his predecessor in the Truman Administration, Oscar Ewing, look like a piker. Also, four years earlier, one would have expected Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson to prefer death to defending a program first proposed, in essence, amid derision, by former Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace. Yet, the costly soil bank program was just that.
Four years earlier, the Administration had professed concern about the budget being held down to 60 billion dollars. Instead, the non-defense part of the budget had increased by seven billion dollars during the first four years. Four years earlier, there was talk about getting rid of "the New Deal dead wood" in the Government, and yet the total number of Government bureaucrats outside the Defense Department was presently higher than under President Truman.
The facts suggested why the liberal Democrats had virtually nothing left to talk about, and yet conservative Republicans were beginning to mutter that the Eisenhower version of "modern Republicanism" was simply a repeat of New and Fair Deal programs, which continued to be wrong. A difference was suggested by the distinction between men such as Mr. Folsom and Mr. Benson and those like Mr. Ewing and Mr. Wallace. The Eisenhower Administration was staffed with men like Messrs. Benson and Folsom, deeply conservative, suggesting that "modern Republicanism" was a version of the New and Fair Deals, but administered by conservatives. Another difference was that the increased non-defense spending amounted to a smaller proportion of the total national income and thus rendered "modern Republicanism" cheaper than the New and Fair Deal programs.
Mr. Alsop finds it, therefore, resemblant to Britain's Conservative Party having taken over the opposition's program, cut the cost, and administered it conservatively. But another parallel was not so encouraging, that while non-defense spending had increased by seven billion dollars, defense spending had decreased by almost as much, rendering "modern Republicanism" financed largely at the expense of national defense. Britain's prewar Conservative governments had adopted a similar system of prioritizing and almost had destroyed the Conservative interest in Britain in the process.
Marquis Childs indicates that Ambassador Charles Bohlen, who had returned to Washington from Moscow to consult with the State Department, was expected to say that, having overstayed his time in Russia by a year, he felt that it was time for a change. He had done an outstanding job in the post, spoke Russian and had brought experience and knowledge to the position, keeping his mind on the underlying objectives of Communism through the upheavals of the previous four years, during which the Kremlin had appeared to shift the ground and then shift back again, first away from Stalinism after Stalin's death in March, 1953, and now back toward it.
Following the July, 1955 Big Four summit conference and the positive statements emerging from it, Ambassador Bohlen had remained quietly skeptical, though careful not to say anything publicly. During the Big Four foreign ministers conference at Geneva which had followed in November, 1955, he sought to caution those talking glibly about the transformation which could be worked through the cultural and intellectual exchanges then being discussed. Mr. Bohlen had expressed to Secretary of State Dulles his belief that a fourth year in the post would properly conclude his usefulness as Ambassador, that after that time, the prison which was Russia would tend to warp his judgment.
Mr. Bohlen had been confirmed as Ambassador four years earlier only after a savage attack from Senator McCarthy and other Senators of his ilk. At the height of Senator McCarthy's power, his agents had been roaming Europe harassing U.S. embassies and information offices with Wild West tactics, prompting four American retired diplomats with distinguished reputations and beyond reproach to utter a solemn warning of what it would mean in lowered morale, with a premium placed on cautious mediocrity. Mr. Childs finds it evident at present in the timidity, uncertainty and insecurity exhibited as the U.S. sought to steer a difficult course through a dozen crises.
An additional burden was now being placed on career foreign service, with senior officers having been named to virtually all of the assistant secretaryships. When the State Department had been reorganized, it had been contemplated that brains and ability from the outside would be brought in to fill those positions. The career officer, regardless of ability, did not have the independence to engage in give-and-take on policy, but was a subordinate and, in a sense, an employee of the Secretary. With most of those policy-shaping offices filled with career people, the tendency was increasingly for the Secretary to conduct foreign policy.
One of the last of the outsiders, Assistant Secretary Carl McCardle, in charge of public affairs, was reported ready to depart, having received an offer from business which he felt he could not refuse. He had given Secretary Dulles complete loyalty, and during the first Eisenhower term, the Secretary held more press conferences than any other Cabinet officer and made himself available for more background discussions. Mr. McCardle's post was said to have been offered to Philip Crowe, originally from the advertising end of the Time-Life organization, presently Ambassador to Ceylon, but Mr. Crowe was reported to have declined.
It had been contemplated that Mr. Bohlen would be replaced by another career diplomat, Llewellyn Thompson, presently Ambassador to Austria. Mr. Bohlen would then presumably replace him in Austria, where he would still be close to the Communist empire and his long experience could therefore be put to effective use.
The situation was the result of Congress refusing to appropriate adequate allowances for top ambassadorial posts, meaning that they went to the bidder who gave the most to the party in power, as demonstrated by the recent report of the Senate Elections Committee. Occasionally, there was justification for a non-career ambassador, and occasionally the political high bidder who went to the embassies in Paris or London or Rome was able and equipped for the job, a piece of luck for the country, but it was not the answer to the urgent need for brains, capacity, imagination and courage in the task of diplomacy in a divided world.
A letter writer wonders how many homes felt the real presence of Christ, indicating that a home without Christ was unhappy. She imparts that once a rich man had bought a painting of Jesus and could not find a place to hang it, asking an architect to build him a home in which to fit the picture. She says that Jesus did not care for riches and would share any home, looking for lowly spirits and places in need of him. "Life is hard and rugged for so many here in this world. But as we suffer we know that someone keeps us and helps us carry all our burdens and when we all get to our eternal home we won't suffer anymore if we walk with Jesus."
A letter writer wonders where the
censors for movies were, suggests that some of the movies shown
presently ought be banned, that they were dangerous to teenagers and
youth
Movies?
Framed Edition
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