The Charlotte News
Saturday, February 2, 1957
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from the U.N. in New York that the General Assembly had moved into a special weekend session this date to push a plan to get Israeli troops out of Egypt and maintain peace in that region. There was no public sign, however, as the body began taking up the two-part proposal, that there would be acceptance of it by either Israel or Egypt, with the concurrence of both nations necessary before the plan could be implemented, even if it obtained the expected support from the 80-nation Assembly. The main points of the plan were a statement of disapproval of Israel's noncompliance with previous Assembly resolutions and a call for immediate withdrawal of their forces behind the 1949 Palestine armistice line, to make requests of both Israel and Egypt to observe terms of the armistice, and to endorse recommendations of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold for use of U.N. emergency force units to maintain the peace along the demarcation line. The resolution indicated that after Israel would withdraw from the disputed areas of the Gaza Strip and Sharm El Sheikh, observance of the armistice would require the posting of U.N. emergency force units on the demarcation line. The plan was endorsed by the U.S., India, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Norway and Yugoslavia. Disagreement with the U.S. had caused Canada to withdraw from the list of sponsors, with Canadian delegates indicating that the plan ought contain more specific instruction for use of U.N. forces in the disputed areas. An Israeli spokesman had said that his delegation had not been consulted on the resolution and that Israel's attitude on it remained the same, having insisted on guarantees that the Gaza Strip would not become a base for Arab raiders and that Egypt would not again bar Israeli shipping in the Gulf of Aqaba. The proposed resolution had been announced the previous night in an atmosphere of tension, as delegates received information regarding a clash between Israeli troops and Swedish soldiers of the UNEF. An official U.N. announcement from Cairo had said that the Israelis had opened fire on the Swedish troops and that the unit had returned the fire, with no casualties on either side. An Israeli Army spokesman had said later in Jerusalem that an Israeli patrol had mistakenly crossed into U.N.-held Egyptian territory and was fired upon by a U.N. patrol, that the Israelis had returned the fire in self-defense and then returned to their own soil.
In Nickelsdorf, Austria, an American student and five other young Westerners, who had been expelled from Hungary, arrived in the town this date after being held in Hungarian jails since January 12 or 17 for helping Hungarian refugees cross the border into Austria. One of them was the 19-year old granddaughter of the late Stafford Cripps, British Labor Party leader. The Hungarian Government told the British Embassy in Budapest the previous day that the four British students had admitted that they were in Hungary without proper credentials and had been expelled without trial because of their youth and as a gesture of goodwill, having been arrested on January 17 after crossing into Hungary from Yugoslavia to do relief work. All six of the youths had been escorted by Hungarian police in two police cars, and the Britons had driven out in their own Volkswagen, with officials of Britain, Norway and the U.S. on hand to greet them at the border. The American, from New York, told reporters that he had been treated "all right" by the Hungarians but had been maintained in solitary confinement without any legal assistance during the three weeks he had spent in a Budapest jail. He said that he and the Norwegian student had been operating a boat to get refugees across the canal near Andau in Austria when they were arrested on January 12, that they were voluntary workers with the International Rescue Committee out of Vienna. The Budapest radio announced the previous day that the American student was ordered out of the country after confessing that he had helped refugees escape. He was a 1952 graduate of Dartmouth and had been working on his master's degree at the University of Paris, had served two years in the Navy as a lieutenant, j. g. His father said that he had gone to Austria to help the refugees as a means of forgetting the sorrow of the death of his French fiancee. The Communist-backed regime of Premier Janos Kadar meanwhile had released its first statistics on the anti-Russian revolt which had taken place in Hungary in October and November, indicating that repair of the damage would cost at least 125 million dollars. The Government had released no estimates on the number of lives lost during the revolt. Indian Prime Minister Nehru, based on reports from his envoys in Hungary, had estimated that 30,000 persons had died during the rebellion, eventually put down by the introduction of Russian troops and tanks.
In New York, a Northeast Airlines
plane, carrying 102 persons, had crashed
A 22-year old pregnant mother recounted how she had reacted at the point of the crash, pushing her two-year old son, with his clothes on fire, out through one of the holes in the aircraft and then climbed out after him, rolling him in the snow to extinguish the flames. She was reunited with her son and husband in the Bronx after survivors had been ferried from Rikers Island. Her husband had been reduced to hysteria in front of the Northeast Airlines ticket counter at La Guardia shortly after the crash, screaming at ticket agents that he had begged them to remove his wife and child from the plane because of the snowstorm, and that they would not do so. As the stevedore screamed at them, a female ticket agent had broken into tears and fled into an adjoining crew room. He was calmer after being reunited with his wife and child before they had been taken to the hospital for a complete checkup. He said that he had a premonition and told his wife to get off the plane, but she had not wanted to do so. He said he was driving home on the Grand Central Parkway when he heard the crash and saw the flash, and instantly knew what had happened.
Seven plane crashes in three days had killed 44 people and injured more than 150, with three of the aircraft having fallen in cities, one of which, in the area of Van Nuys, Calif., having occurred after collision with an Air Force fighter jet, resulting in the deaths of eight people, including three students at a junior high school on the ground. The piece provides details of each such crash.
In Washington, the Government had moved to restrict aircraft tests over populous areas in the wake of the Van Nuys crash two days earlier. Civil Aeronautics Administration administrator James Pyle ordered his regional officials to work toward immediate establishment of "voluntary local flying areas" for test flights, so that they would occur over sparsely populated areas with light air traffic, pending more formal action. The President instructed his assistant on aviation planning to investigate a means of prevention of more such accidents. The House Commerce Committee ordered investigation of the California crash, with hearings tentatively set for the following Wednesday. While lawmakers from California were urging Federal action the previous day, an Air Force jet had smashed into a house in Mountain View, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area, killing the pilot, albeit not during a test flight.
In Raleigh, preparations were underway for the convening of the 1957 General Assembly and the inauguration of Governor Luther Hodges for his first full term, the first Governor of the state in modern times to succeed himself, having come to the position after the death of Governor William B. Umstead in November, 1954. He would be joined by new Lt. Governor Luther Barnhardt of Concord and eight members of the Council of State in being sworn in on Thursday, following the convening of the General Assembly on Wednesday. Governor George Bell Timmerman of South Carolina and Governor Thomas Stanley of Virginia, plus other officials of neighboring states, were expected to be on hand for the ceremonies. Klan robes for the two visiting Governors would not be worn.
Julian Scheer of The News tells of State Representative Jim Vogler having been talking during the week about campaigning, recalling that once he had been told that he would not carry a precinct because his son wore "loud" pants, responding to the person who made the statement that he knew there was a law saying that he had to wear pants, but had never heard of a law saying what color they had to be, winding up carrying that precinct. Among other local events Mr. Scheer reports that the Charlotte Safety Patrol's drum and bugle corps, which had marched in the President's inaugural parade on January 21, had done so for practice for an even bigger event, the inauguration of Governor Hodges. Marion Marlowe, the television singer of note, would be present at the Governor's inauguration, as she was his distant relative, having been the former wife of his nephew, but would not sing.
In Dunn, N.C., a former Sunday school superintendent charged with embezzling funds from the post office where he had clerked, was set to face trial during the term of the Federal District Court opening April 8 in Raleigh. He had been employed by the Postal Service for 28 years. He waived a preliminary hearing when arraigned before a commissioner on Thursday and had been released on a $500 bond. He was charged with embezzling and converting to his own use $597 in post office funds.
In Petaluma, Calif., Chinese residents would be able to enjoy the sound of 10,000 firecrackers in their Chinese New Year celebration this night, despite it being against the law to set them off. A supermarket operator had set off $50 worth of firecrackers in Kenilworth Park the previous day with the permission of the police and recorded the sound on tape, which would be played to supply the sound of the traditional fireworks.
On the editorial page, "They Walk the Streets in Defiance" comments on the juvenile court judge's statements on the front page of the previous day, indicating that there were delinquent and incorrigible black girls walking the streets of Charlotte because he could not find them a training school to attend, after they had fallen within the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts.
It finds that his frank disclosures had given shocking emphasis to the inadequacy of facilities for maladjusted juveniles in the state, impacting the whole of society, producing young outlaws who, in turn, victimized society. The situation was even worse with the boys. In some cases, black boys had to wait between seven and eight months before an offender could be admitted to Morrison Training School at Hoffman, according to the judge.
Charlotte and Mecklenburg County were attempting to supply stopgap remedies by providing juvenile detention quarters to meet emergency situations, but it did not help the overall problem which impacted the entire state. The commissioner of the state's five training schools for both white and black youths with serious behavioral problems had told the newspaper the previous day that he was appealing to the General Assembly, about to begin its 1957 session, for immediate help. Urgent needs included new physical facilities and staff increases, with the buildings, alone, to cost in excess of 1.7 million dollars. The cost would not have been so high had the state conscientiously taken care of the situation as it had developed. But past legislative appropriations had been too small, breeding the present emergency, with cramped conditions at the training schools for black boys and girls being "acute", according to the commissioner of correction.
The experience of the Mecklenburg authorities in handling juvenile delinquents indicated that, if anything, the commissioner was understating the case. As a result, correction was virtually impossible in many cases, endangering society at large.
It concludes that action by the current General Assembly was a social necessity.
"The Ins Give the Outs the Word" tells of Charlotte municipal officials taking the case for the extension of the city limits to the public with honesty and skill, in the form of town hall meetings, two of which had been held and another planned for the following week. It was impossible to tell yet whether the perimeter residents were being converted on the issue, but an earnest effort was being made to inform the citizenry about the reasons for annexation, its benefits and potential drawbacks.
It indicates that it was a project about which Mayor Philip Van Every and City Manager Henry Yancey had been less than enthusiastic, with many of the top officials of the City approaching the meetings with grave misgivings. But they had done, nevertheless, everything they could to make the meetings informative and effective, selling the future of the metropolitan community with adroitness and candor.
"Mecklenburg's Lures Must Be Bright" tells of Mecklenburg County's effort to rank high in a low-ranking state insofar as industrial development. A UNC report of industrial growth across the state between 1947 and 1954 had shown Mecklenburg running a poor second, however, to Guilford County in numerical increase of manufacturing employees, with Guilford having added 8,756 workers, or a 30.4 percent gain, while Mecklenburg had added 3,311 such workers, accounting for an 18.2 percent gain. Mecklenburg manufacturing, however, was more valuable, with the value added to the economy per employee being $5,948 in 1954, whereas in 1947, it had been $4,421, while Guilford did not rank by that assessment within the top ten counties in the state.
The study emphasized that the battle for industry not only was waged between the states but between counties and cities as well, and it suggests that Mecklenburg should not be content with anything less than the top position in a woefully poor industrial state, for even that position would not fulfill the need of the community for a stronger economy and more adequate community facilities.
The rate of industrial growth in the state was below that of other Southeastern states and that of the nation. Thus, the state had to make even greater efforts to increase its industrial power, not only necessary for the addition of payrolls but also for its benefits to the service, trade and professional parts of the economy.
It concludes that the state would have to polish up its industrial lures and that Mecklenburg should have the brightest of them all.
"Poets Don't Expect People To Run" tells of an editorial in the Raleigh News & Observer which noted that people did not run to the corner bookstore to buy a volume of poems, as the corner bookstore was not present anymore, and to buy a book in most cities, it was necessary to go downtown to a mart merchandising everything from greeting cards to phonograph records, necessitating, to find a book of poetry, prying between "the bosomy jackets of historical novels or behind the bullfight posters" until it was found.
It suggests that poetry would never make a good loss leader, which was just as well, as exertion was a better friend of poetry than exhortation. "The reader of poetry needs to expend in the getting and reading a little of the energy used in the writing. Nothing less than effort is rewarded by the poet."
It concludes therefore that people
running to the corner bookstores
Speaking of poetry, philosophy of the law, and pomes from circa 1967, or maybe 1966
A piece from the New York Times, titled "Mr. Downy", tells of Downy Woodpecker, also known as Tommy Woodpecker, Black and White Driller, Little Guinea Woodpecker, and even Little Sapsucker, though the Downy was not a sapsucker. All of the other alternative names, however, were accurate. By any name, it indicates, the Downy was a shy but friendly bird common to most wooded areas and often seen at or near the bird feeder at the window sill or in the back yard. Three out of every four mouthfuls of its food consisted of insects, worms, larvae or, if it could find it, suet. It was a small bird, just a bit larger than most warblers, and just a bit smaller than a bluebird, in winter appearing even larger because it fluffed its feathers to stay warm, but if appearing as large as a blue jay, it could not be a Downy, rather would be a Hairy Woodpecker.
"Mr. Downy has about him something of the cheerful air of the chickadee, though with a diffidence quite alien to Mr. Chick. He is more self-sufficient, perhaps, and a little less truculent. He is just about the perfect winter guest, one whose swooping flight is a melody of motion and whose tapping on a dead limb is very close to song."
All the news fit to print…
Drew Pearson tells of Senator McCarthy having boycotted the President when the latter had come to have lunch with the Senate Republican policy committee during the week. All Republican Senators had been invited to the luncheon to greet the President, including Senator McCarthy. But the latter had chosen to absent himself, instead ostentatiously escorting two young girls from Wisconsin around the Senate corridors, stopping in front of the committee room where the luncheon was being held, posing for photographers, and then moving on.
Diplomats worried over the sometimes narrow pro-Nasser operations of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, as Mr. Pearson recalls the remark made by his predecessor, Trygve Lie, as he had retired from the position after being a crusader for peace and having taken firm sides against the Communists when they had invaded South Korea, saying that Dr. Hammarskjold was "too Swedish and too neutral" for him.
After former Secretary of Interior Douglas McKay had been defeated by Senator Wayne Morse in the Senate race in Oregon in November, the McKays had decided to give up their Washington apartment in the Greenbriar. About that time, Mrs. Morse had inquired as to whether there was a vacancy at the apartments, and, being told that there was, that Secretary McKay and his wife were about to vacate and would happy to have her come by to look at it, Mrs. Morse identified herself and said that she could not be interested in looking at that apartment because of her husband having defeated Mr. McKay.
Julian Sourwine, a friend of Senator McCarthy and who had begun the witch-hunting probe of the New York Times the previous year, was being taken back as the top counsel of the Judiciary Committee, despite the demise of McCarthyism, with its principal architect no longer in a leadership role in the Senate since his 1954 censure. Mr. Sourwine had left the Committee the previous year to run for the Senate seat in Nevada, where he was severely beaten in the Democratic primary by Senator Alan Bible. Ordinarily, Senatorial courtesy either discouraged or forbade a person who had run against a Senator from receiving reward from the Senate or even from the executive branch, but Mr. Sourwine had the backing of Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a friend of Senator McCarthy, and also of Senator William Jenner of Indiana, another friend of Senator McCarthy. Mr. Sourwine had started the probe of the Times on his own, without a vote of approval by the Internal Security Committee, a move which Senator McCarthy would not even have taken without consulting other Committee members. The probe had been conducted shortly before Mr. Sourwine had begun his run for the Senate and some Senators felt that the timing had been deliberate to help his campaign.
Stewart Alsop tells of an ICBM to be tested during the current year, according to the present Air Force plans, possibly by late summer or early fall, but, in any event, before the end of the year, unless plans changed. He finds that the first test of the ICBM would be comparable in significance to the first test of the atomic bomb on July 16, 1945. The ICBM would transform the nature of warfare and thus the world situation. The missile to be tested was the Atlas, for which the Convair Company had been principally responsible. The Titan missile, another ICBM, was thought to be about a year behind Atlas in its development cycle.
Until recently, it had been thought that the first test of an ICBM would not be before 1960 or later. The ICBM was called the ultimate weapon because, at present, it could not be intercepted, comparable to intercepting a bullet shot at a soldier at short range before it reached its target. It was a staged missile weighing about 15 tons at launch, reaching a maximum acceleration of about 20 times the speed of sound, and a maximum altitude of around 600 miles, with a range of 5,000 miles or more. Thus, it would be capable of reaching targets at that distance within a matter of minutes.
It was a wide-target weapon, capable of destroying whole cities, in contrast to the tactical nuclear weapons which could be aimed at specific targets, such as military bases or key industrial plants.
But despite the imminent tests of Atlas, the U.S. would not be armed with it in the near future, as the tests would be of a prototype rather than a weapon usable in warfare, with the addition of a nuclear warhead complicating the technical problems of creating an operational weapon, especially regarding the guidance system of the missile. Moreover, the initial test could fail, extending the developmental time for the missile. Once made operational, the missile would be quite costly, and the development of large numbers of the missiles and especially of launching sites for them would be necessary before an ICBM weapons system would be truly operational, with the Air Force estimating that the system would not come into existence before sometime between 1963 and 1967.
In the meantime, the capability of inflicting "massive retaliation" by other means, especially manned aircraft, had to be maintained, with the ICBM probably always being an area weapon rather than tactical, because of the guidance problem. Nevertheless, he concludes, the first test of the ICBM would constitute a dramatic departure from existing weapons systems in the future, and it was good that in the race for the ultimate weapon, the U.S. had not fallen behind the Soviet Union.
Marquis Childs finds the current situation of conducting foreign policy under the U.S. system of divided governmental power to be reminiscent of the last year or year and a half of the tenure of Secretary of State Dean Acheson under President Truman. At that time, Republicans, along with a few Democrats, had been trying to place blame on Secretary Acheson for the country's troubles in the Far East. His personality had become irritating, as had become the personality of Secretary of State Dulles at present.
The visit of King Saud illustrated the problems with a foreign policy decision. The highest levels of government, including the National Security Council, had determined that the visit of the King would improve relations with the Arab states and help to solidify the position of the U.S. in the Middle East, and so the invitation had been issued, prompting immediate complications. Word had reached the White House that the King would expect the President to greet him at National Airport in Washington upon his arrival, something which the President had never done before with a visiting foreign leader, always instead greeting them at the front of the White House. But in this case, it was conveyed that the King would take it as an affront if he were not greeted at the airport, and so the President had complied, necessitating that in the future, he would have to greet all such visiting foreign leaders at the airport to avoid henceforth the appearance of snubs of certain leaders.
The perception, however, had been conveyed by the reception that the U.S. approved of everything which King Saud did, which was not the case. Saudi Arabia remained a primitive country where slavery of a type existed and where corporal punishment and true capital punishment, including beheading and the severing of hands of criminal offenders, still occurred. Those practices were quite repugnant to Americans and the visit of the King did not mean that they were now condoned.
Mr. Childs recalls that when Commodore Matthew Perry had first visited feudal Japan and invited a Japanese delegation to the U.S., it was only because of the need to extend America's interests as a trading nation, not to condone implicitly the practices of the Samurai, who had ruled Japan with an iron fist.
One criticism of Secretary Dulles was that he had glossed with self-righteousness the policy decisions made on the basis of a realistic appraisal of the country's own interest, thus creating resentment both at home and abroad. He had enjoyed remarkably friendly relations with Congress during the first term of the Administration, and now that a barrage of criticism of his policies had begun, it would be natural to assume the cloak of martyrdom, as secretaries of state traditionally had done under such circumstances.
Thanks to the behind-the-scenes work of Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, there was unanimous support for a survey of policy in the Middle East over the previous 11 years, spanning back to the end of World War II. That would take the analysis out of the arena of factionalism, and the end sought by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, to find out the errors which had led to the present state of extreme peril in the region where the West had a vital stake, might be fulfilled. The errors had not begun with the Eisenhower Administration and thus going back to the end of the war would provide a realistic and full picture of the problems, without partisanship interfering.
A letter writer comments on singer Betty Johnson having stated her hometown as "Possum Walk", rather than Charlotte, during her recent appearances on the "Ed Sullivan Show". The writer says that it had been some years since she had been in the Possum Walk section, but remembered it as a little dirt road meandering past a few farmhouses. She was all for Ms. Johnson and viewed her as not having a swelled head, having heard her on one occasion when she had appeared on Arthur Godfrey's show, telling him about Grady Cole, whom she said they called the "Arthur Godfrey of the South".
A letter from the executive secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina AFL-CIO expresses his thanks to the newspaper for an unbiased report on the tax issue in the state, demonstrating a sincere interest in the people of the state.
A letter from Mayor Philip Van Every thanks the newspaper for a fine editorial about him, telling of his decision not to run for a third term, preferring to return to his business and spend more time with his family. He says that he had loved the job of being Mayor and serving the fine citizens of the community and hoped that he had served them well.
Framed Edition
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