The Charlotte News

Saturday, January 11, 1958

TWO EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the top Air Force missile chief, Maj. General Bernard Schriever, had said the previous night that the President's plan for a unified space agency would wastefully duplicate Air Force capabilities already extant. He said that the Air Force was ready to undertake "at a relatively early date" such space-age projects as unmanned reconnaissance trips to the moon, Mars and Venus. He had testified the prior Thursday in executive session to the Senate Preparedness subcommittee, and member Senator Ralph Flanders of Vermont this date labeled his statements as "unfortunate". It had been the same day that the President, in his State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress, had said that "all the antimissile and satellite technology undertaken within the Department of Defense" should be concentrated in the new Advanced Research Projects Agency. (ARPA does not seem to have the same ring which "NASA" would, for the fact that the latter embraces the naysayers, who would declaim that man could never get to the moon, some of whom, mainly Trumpies, still do.) The testimony of the general had been released by the Air Force in a departure from normal procedures, generally allowing only the Congressional committee to release testimony. The general was the third high military officer who had criticized Administration defense planning during the week, in what some had labeled "the revolt of the generals". Senator Flanders said that the President had demonstrated leadership in straightening out the armed forces and that if his first move was publicly condemned by one of the services, it was "unfortunate". Other Senators, however, said that the general was just being frank and was airing a serious disagreement. He criticized the Department of Defense decision to use both the Army Jupiter and the Air Force Thor, both IRBM's. He said he thought that greater missile strength could be achieved sooner by concentrating on the Thor. He also said that the Air Force could immediately undertake several space projects by modifying the Thor, including putting a satellite into orbit and making the unmanned reconnaissance trips.

In Cape Canaveral, Fla., in addition to the launch on Friday successfully of an Atlas ICBM rocket, a Navaho ramjet vehicle had been launched successfully by two liquid propellant rockets considerably longer than the missile itself. The rocket boosters had been jettisoned over the ocean after about 40 miles of flight, after which the Navaho had attained supersonic speed as its ramjet was able to take over. Both missiles were believed to have flown several hundred miles, far shorter than their designed range, with the Atlas designed to travel a distance of 5,000 miles. The Air Force was now focusing on putting a satellite into orbit, which would only be 6.4 inches in diameter and weigh about 3.5 pounds, launched by a three-stage, 72-foot-long Vanguard rocket, while the Army was also planning to launch a satellite, a metal cylinder 80 inches long and 6 inches in diameter, weighing 29.7 pounds, to be the final stage of the Jupiter-C missile. Details of the satellite launch preparations were secret, but it was known that both missiles were at the Cape in varying stages of assembly. Persons close to the programs expected the Vanguard attempt to occur possibly the following week and that the Jupiter-C would likely be a week or so afterward. A launch attempt by the Air Force of the Vanguard had failed on December 6 and the Army had not tried to launch a satellite yet. Project Vanguard officials had been criticized for the publicity attendant their December 6 launching attempt and had sent out orders that no information on the program be released subsequently and that all queries had to be referred to headquarters in Washington. Maj. General Donald Yates, commander of the test center, had even gone so far as to discontinue raising on two 90-foot poles on the Cape the red balls or flashing lights which warned boats within 5 miles that dry runs, static engine tests, or actual launches were underway. Both the Atlas and the Navaho were fired without warning the previous day, either in the form of the red ball signal or otherwise, the first time that had occurred. Development of the Navaho had been discontinued because of the faster weapons which had since been produced.

In London, a beep-beep sound was heard over Europe and in Ohio this date, but the Swedish Government had said it was caused by an idling Russian teleprinter, not by a new Sputnik. A BBC engineer had said that a teletype motor, barely powerful enough to run an egg beater, could make itself heard across the continent. The radio impulses were far beyond the reach of household radios, but a little motor leaking a few sparks could accidentally make an impression on highly sensitive scientific instruments many hundreds of miles distant. He said that because of the sensitive receivers, they received strange noises constantly and it was futile to try to identify every one, that a noise could be from a hairdryer in Cornwall. Maybe it was the last faint whimpers of poor, little Laika, cast off into oblivion as a sacrifice to man's need to know.

In Paris, it was announced that French economic expert Jean Monnet would fly to Washington this night with high hopes of raising most of 500 million dollars which France needed in the current year to support its drive for financial stability. He would ask for direct aid from the U.S., which French officials realized could probably not be obtained at the present time. He was likely to seek postponement of interest payments due on existing French debts to the U.S. Government and the Export-Import Bank, and would raise all the foreign credits he could from international institutions where American good will could largely influence success. He hoped to present sufficient evidence that French inflation was at an end and that financing could now be managed through savings instead of inflation.

In Yokosuka, Japan, a general court-martial this date had convicted a Marine sergeant on nine charges of cruelty to prisoners in a Navy brig, acquitting him of 17 other counts of cruelty and two on assault.

In Tokyo, U.S. Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II and Foreign Minister Alichiro Fujiyama this date exchanged notes setting up a new two million dollar educational exchange between Japan and the United States.

The President was expected to send Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin a message during the weekend holding open the door to an eventual summit conference, but rejecting the Premier's bid for such a session within three months.

In Caracas, Venezuela, demonstrators in the downtown area the previous night had demanded "an end to the dictatorship" of El Presidente Marcos Perez Jimenez, as he sought to mollify the Vatican by freeing five jailed priests.

In Tehran, bandit leader Dadshah, accused of murdering three Americans the prior March, had been killed by gendarmerie forces this date in a gunfight near the Pakistan border, according to police.

In Guam, it was reported that typhoon Ophelia continued to lash the islands in the western Pacific on Saturday with 95 mph winds. One island in the Marshalls group had reported that all buildings had been destroyed.

In Little Rock, Ark., a New Year's Eve attempt to bomb the home of the state president of the NAACP had been revealed the previous day.

In Clarkson, Ky., a bank president and teller, 70, had taken out his gun and fired twice, scaring away three would-be robbers the prior Wednesday with an old .45-caliber revolver loaded with 35-year old ammunition. Two slugs later were found jammed in the barrel and a third shot had failed to fire. One of the men fell down after the teller had shot in his direction, apparently believing he had been hit, and the next time the teller had seen him, he was crawling toward the door. He had also pointed the weapon at each of the other two men and fired. None, however, had been hit. Five youths from Indiana had been arrested shortly after the holdup attempt and later were held on Federal bank robbery charges. A police officer looked for the slugs from the gun, but someone had found them still in the gun barrel, the bullets needing to be driven out with a hammer. The man was given a new gun at the bank the prior Wednesday.

Julian Scheer and Bill Hughes of The News report from Rockingham, N.C., that the jury in the murder trial of Frank Wetzel had found him guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment rather than the death penalty for the fatal shooting of Highway Patrolman Wister Reece on the night of November 5. Mr. Wetzel's only comment after the verdict was that he did not think he should have been convicted. He would also subsequently be brought to trial for the fatal shooting the same night at a different location of Highway Patrolman J. T. Brown, which had taken place in Sanford less than an hour after the murder of Patrolman Reece in Ellerbe. Mr. Wetzel also faced a life imprisonment term for a parole violation out of New York for having escaped a mental institution there after being confined as a four-time felon. Before being sentenced, after being invited by the judge to make a statement, he said, "Everyone in this state has been real nice to me and I appreciate it."

Near Lenoir, N.C., a 48-year old woman had been killed early this date when the automobile she was driving had gone out of control on NC 91 a little over a mile north of the town.

In Charlotte, a 48-year old woman had died during the morning when her house had caught fire for a second time within four hours, after a cigarette had ignited another fire following an initial blaze which had been listed as doing only slight damage after having been extinguished by the Fire Department.

In Chapel Hill, officers and student volunteers continued a vigil on the UNC campus this date in the wake of seven suspicious fires believed to have been deliberately set, along with an attempted eighth fire. The police reported the previous night that a second youth had been questioned in connection with the fires which had occurred during a 30-hour period, the worst of which had caused an estimated $150,000 in damage to Swain Hall, housing WUNC-TV. The previous day, while they had been interrogating another boy, 14, who was receiving psychiatric care at Memorial Hospital, a minor fire, which appeared to have been deliberately set with an incendiary, had broken out at the interns' headquarters at Memorial Hospital. The previous night, a graduate student reported that he had discovered two pianos soaked with fuel oil in basement practice rooms of Hill Hall, just across the parking lot from Swain. The student had been maintaining a watch in Hill, the music building, when he thought he smelled a peculiar odor downstairs, then discovered the two pianos soaked in fuel oil. Campus maintenance employees and law enforcement officers were supplemented by student volunteers the previous night in maintaining a vigil over the buildings. Three of the fires had occurred on Thursday night at the Carolina Inn, diagonally across the street in the other direction from Swain. WUNC-TV would be unable to telecast until repairs were made to its studio, but programs would continue over channel 4 from the Greensboro and Raleigh studios. Because of equipment limitations, the station had been forced to cancel plans to televise the speech the following night by Eleanor Roosevelt—which means that Mrs. R. was, after all..., provided, that is, you wish to discuss Art.

The Weather Bureau forecast for Charlotte a low of 30 degrees for this night, enabling it to emerge from an 11-day siege of below freezing temperatures. Starting with a low of 20 on January 1, Charlotte had been suffering through cold every day, which had ranged down to 13 degrees. The morning low of 26 had been seven degrees below the average for the date. The high this date was predicted to reach 59, compared to the high of 50 the previous day, with the high the following day predicted also to be 50, with the possibility of rain late on Sunday evening.

On the editorial page, "War on Dope Masks a Basic Injustice" finds that a great deal of irresponsible talk had occurred regarding armies of "dope fiends" prowling the nation's streets and alleys, neutralized by the AMA's report on narcotics addiction following a two-year study, concluding through its Council on Mental Health that drug addiction was neither as widespread nor as vicious as the public and most police officers appeared to believe. Furthermore, the Council frowned on the punishment of addicts.

It finds that the Narcotics Control Act of 1956 had already done a great amount of harm, increasing the already severe mandatory penalties required by the Boggs law of 1951, which in turn had been an extension of the punitive prohibition-type approach to drug addiction, first established at the Federal level by the Harrison Act in 1914.

The basic injustice of the current statutes was that the penalties fell principally on the victim of the traffic in narcotics rather than on the racketeers against whom they were designed to punish and deter. The Supreme Court had declared in 1924 that drug addicts were "diseased and proper subjects for treatment." It finds that the treatment given addicts at present largely consisted of imprisonment and police harassment, while the real culprits usually went free.

Assistant Attorney General Warren Olney III, testifying before a Congressional subcommittee sometime earlier, had said: "Probably the most serious difficulty with the narcotics laws is the fact that they make no distinction between the violator who is a profiteering racketeer and the violator who in many respects is a victim of the drug itself, the addict. The same laws are applicable to both and they are also subject to the same penalties. Unfortunately the addict and the petty pusher are much more easily apprehended than the major trafficker, who is the source of supply and is several echelons removed from the last seller who dealt with the illicit consumer. The result is that the present rather severe penalties are more often applied to the relatively minor violator than to the 'big shot' for whom they are designed."

Alfred Lindesmith, author of Opiate Addiction and professor of sociology at Indiana University, had noted that on the Federal level, where there was a higher proportion of important peddling cases than in the state courts, "over half of the defendants are addicts."

With the help of the AMA, Congress, it suggests, ought reopen the question of society's attitude toward the drug problem and enact legislation designed to punish the real culprits rather than subject their victims to cruel and inflexible punitive measures in the interest of police expediency, when the addict usually needed help rather than punishment.

The problem, at a practical level, is that quite often serious drug addiction leads to other serious criminal conduct, including robberies, burglaries, and, in extreme cases, violence while under the influence of particularly pernicious, hallucinogenic drugs, quite often beyond the capabilities of those assigned to treat the issue to control. It presents a dilemma. There are, of course, modern efforts during the past 50 years or so to meet the problem through the establishment of drug diversion programs for those who are charged with mere possession, as opposed to possession for sale or sale of drugs, thus diverting the offender out of the criminal justice system and enabling him or her to receive help and counseling. Good defense attorneys will seek to obtain diversion for their clients, even when their clients might not be perfect candidates based on their prior record or the nature of the offense, that being a function of first having to convince the client that they need help to avoid more serious criminal involvement, especially when they are relatively young, and then establishing a dialogue with the prosecutor to forward that colloquy. Looking at the specific guidelines for diversion and then deciding that there would be no purpose in suggesting it to a prosecutor is throwing in the towel without a fight and doing little or no good for one's client, who might be redeemable, even if perhaps in the process padding one's own pocketbook by running up a fee or, if appointed by the courts, running up the charges for one's services by carrying the matter further in the system than necessary.

"So the Novel Was Sputniked, Too?" tells of many complaints having arisen from the library set to the effect that they did not write novels the way they once had in the good old days, wondering where the Thomas Wolfes were and why there was no substantial F. Scott Fitzgerald anymore.

Such criticism appeared to the piece as a typhoon in a teapot. Granville Hicks, in a new book titled The Living Novel, had felt it necessary to defend the contemporary novel. The piece thinks there was no need for such defense as novels and novelists were doing quite well, finding that if they lacked the flavor and form of the old masterpieces by Mr. Wolfe, Theodore Dreiser or Henry James, it was probably just as well, as any work of fiction had to reflect the particular time in which it was created.

As poet David Daiches had said, the generation of novelists which had produced Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison and Wright Morris had no right to complain, that if they were not read enough or appreciated enough, they would be in time. It suggests that defenses were therefore unnecessary, as novels published in 1957 had included By Loved Possessed by James Gould Cozzens, The Town by William Faulkner, On the Beach by Neville Shute, and A Death in the Family by the late James Agee, all of which, it finds, had spoken for themselves regarding the vitality of the novel in the mid-20th Century.

It admits that there had been bad books also during the year but that there had always been bad books. There was no Fitzgerald at present because the jazz age was dead and there was no Wolfe because his age of longing had been dissolved in the New Urgency. There was no Sinclair Lewis because he had won his case and there was no need for retrial.

"But novels—good novels—that tell today's story are still being written. 'Of the making of books there is no end,' sighed the Preacher more than 2,000 years ago. It is a good thing."

A piece from the Richmond News Leader, titled "The First Weekend", indicates that a man had recently contributed a scholarly work to the editorial page of the London Daily Telegraph, in which he had traced the origin of the modern weekend to Thomas Worsdell, an iron master of Birmingham a century earlier. By definition, the weekend comprised "an organization of work by which to Sundays at rest is added that of the preceding afternoon." Until Mr. Worsdell had fallen under the influence of a clerk named Richard Tangye, there had been no rest on the preceding afternoon. The custom had been for the iron workers to quit at 4:30 on Saturdays and then, one by one, to climb to a sort of crow's nest in the loft to receive their wages for the week, such that it was often six or seven o'clock before the last man made it to the yard, causing much grumbling.

Thus, in 1853, Mr. Tangye happened to come across a Glasgow paper in which an anonymous correspondent, who called himself "Common Sense", urged employers to start a practice of paying their men on Friday afternoons and closing their works at 1 o'clock on Saturdays. The correspondent had observed that most workmen took their wages on Saturday evening and proceeded to get thoroughly drunk on Saturday night, and that their wives and children suffered by reason of that failing, so suggested that the men be paid on Friday afternoon and that they be fired if they failed to show up on Saturday morning.

Mr. Tangye had shown the article to Mr. Worsdell who was quite impressed with the reasoning and proceeded to lengthen the mill's workday by a half hour Monday through Friday, paid the men on Fridays and let everyone go home at 1 o'clock on Saturdays. The experiment had succeeded quite well, especially with the wives.

Mr. Tangye had gone on to become founder of the famous engineering firm which still bore his name. "Common Sense" was identified in time as a Glasgow printer, David Maclure, and Mr. Worsdell's iron workers spent their Saturday afternoons repairing fences, helping with the wash, mowing the grass, etc., chores which still left mankind so fatigued that a weekend would need to begin on a Thursday and not wind up until the laborer, seeking rest, could retreat happily to his desk or lathe on Tuesday morning.

Drew Pearson indicates that since the President's health had been shaky for more than two years, he had dispensed with handshaking at the regular Tuesday meetings with Republican legislators, usually simply addressing them with "good morning". But as if to emphasize that he was feeling his old self again, he had given a special greeting to each Republican leader as Congress reconvened, waving his arm and exclaiming cheerily, "Well, we're back again," and then had gone around the table shaking hands with each member, starting with Representative Leo Allen of Illinois. The President had remained in good spirits throughout the meeting, said he had been reading a lot of "nonsense" about the U.S. lagging far behind the Soviets in missiles and satellites and added that he was not worried about such sources which did not know the facts. He stated: "We are in excellent shape in missiles and all other phases of military science to meet any emergency that may arise." He also said he was not worried about the slump in business and unemployment, ignored the warning of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that business conditions would get "much worse" than the previous year. He admitted that business had been off during November and December and that the same would be true during the first two months of 1958, but said that his economic advisers had assured him that there was bound to be a seasonal pickup in the spring. He cited the fact that manufactured inventories were low in many industries and would have to be replaced, also that the Government's road-building program would spur business activity. (But you have those monstrously ugly cars to sell. The public, having been accustomed to two for lo the many years since the beginning, was not ready for four eyes across the board. It flew in the face of the traditional anthropomorphized imagery, causing "she" or "he" suddenly to become only "it" sitting in the driveway.)

When Senate Republican leader William Knowland and House leader Joseph Martin predicted that the proposed 74 billion dollar balanced budget would have tough sledding in Congress, that the Democrats would insist on spending more than the President had sought such that it would not be possible to keep a balanced budget, the President's optimism had waned somewhat.

Before the new session had begun, Senator Pat McNamara of Michigan had written Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson a blunt letter reminding him, in effect, that Democratic Senate caucuses were supposed to be democratic and not dictated by one man. The public was unaware of the fact that since the previous January, the Democratic Senators had not held a caucus, whereas under previous Democratic leaders, caucuses had been held almost monthly to decide policy. When the late Senator Alben Barkley of Kentucky had been Democratic leader during the Roosevelt Administration and the first term of President Truman, he had held caucuses every couple of months. But Senator Johnson did not relish discussion and decided party policy largely on his own.

That was the chief reason why former President Truman, Adlai Stevenson, Senator Estes Kefauver and DNC chairman Paul Butler had set up the Democratic Advisory Committee, not wanting the party dominated by one man, especially one who bowed to the oil and gas interests of Texas. Thus, when Senator McNamara had received Senator Johnson's notice that a Democratic caucus had been called to "brief" the Democrats on the work of the Senate Preparedness subcommittee, chaired by Senator Johnson, it raised some issues with Senator McNamara. He had figured that there were other problems facing the Democrats than being briefed on the Preparedness subcommittee, among them being that more than 100,000 workers were out of work in Michigan, and he had also recalled that Senator Johnson had chaired the "Unpreparedness committee" for two years without doing anything about missiles.

Marquis Childs indicates that after two months of delay, the U.S. was preparing to inform India that more than 200 million dollars in aid would be available to it in the current year, with the total from all sources, including the Export-Import Bank, the Development Loan Fund, agricultural surpluses and scattered amounts, possibly going as high as 300 million. The hope by the U.S. and India was that it would be enough to enable India to get through the ensuing year of its second five-year development plan, already cut back to a minimum essential amount necessary to raise the very low standard of living of its 400 million people. Observers described the situation as desperate.

The President's new budget called for greatly expanded foreign aid, but how much of it Congress would approve remained questionable, as many in the new session had expressed doubts about foreign aid given the need greatly to increase spending to catch up with the Russians in missiles and rockets. It would be popular to call for the conquest of outer space, as Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson had done. But the measures needed to win the hearts and minds of the people would not carry the same glamour. The Administration was fearful that what one of the President's aides had called "missile madness", would prevail in the new session.

India had been seeking under Prime Minister Nehru to establish freedom and Western-style democracy, but because of the underlying hunger of the masses, Communism had already made some headway. Should all of India wind up turning Communist or lapse into the type of anarchy presently threatening Indonesia, the West could write off Asia.

The inevitable complexity of the U.S. Government meant that it would take some period of time to get the necessary aid to India. That was so despite the constant efforts of Undersecretary of State Douglas Dillon—to become Secretary of the Treasury under President Kennedy—who was in charge of economic programs. The credit restrictions set by the Export-Import Bank, which would furnish about 100 million dollars of the total, were strict, and little could be done to speed the process of review.

The previous fall, India's Finance Minister had come to the U.S. to make the case for India's urgent need if the five-year plan was not to be completely abandoned. He provided a reassuring picture of the progress possible with a large amount of freedom preserved in the economy, and U.S. officials had promised to reply by mid-November, a deadline subsequently extended to mid-December.

Many Americans had not yet realized that the Soviets were engaged in a new and intensive competition in foreign aid, having some advantages over the democracies as decisions could be made instantly without delay of debate and controversy. The Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, Vilem Siroky, had arrived in India on a good will visit, and two days after his arrival, had announced that Czech credits would be advanced to India for construction of a foundry costing 63 million dollars at Ranchi in the province of Bihar. The aid would not only provide the financial assistance but also technical aid. Mr. Childs indicates that it was obvious that it was masterminded by the Soviets but performed with dispatch through the smaller power, having great impact. Russia was also financing and directing the construction of a steel mill in India, one of four nations doing so, the others being West Germany, Britain and Henry Kaiser of the U.S.

Making use during the current year of all credit sources which could be tapped in response to India's urgent need, the Administration would have to go to Congress in 1959 for approval of aid for the following two or three years, providing a dramatic test of whether Congress and public opinion would be aware of a form of competition less spectacular than the Sputniks but one which could prove just as decisive in the struggle with Communism.

In both India and the U.S., there were major differences and dislikes. India had a major population problem, an increase of 4.5 million people per year, tending to consume the gains as quickly as they were made. But if the differences could not be submerged in a joint effort, the hopes for freedom both in the West and the East would be dim.

A letter writer from Lincolnton indicates that there was no need to attempt to defend the spirit of God or the idea of an independent savior, that the people of God knew the facts about the power of the universe and where that power was. He responds to A. W. Black, who had stated that science had found no evidence of God, suggesting that science could not do anything without the help of God's substance. He regards evolution as partially fiction, partially fact. "Tomatoes, apples, peaches, and beans uphold the idea of evolution. Radishes, turnips and rutabagas deny this idea. Animals and humans also deny this idea."

Such statements give religion a bad name and should be tucked away and forgotten. Science and religion can go hand-in-hand if properly framed. In the wrong hands, where the Bible, in a literalist rendition, has to take precedence over science or else, the trouble begins, usually winding up in a fatality. Witness the recent pandemic, in an age where one would have thought that people had matured enough collectively to understand that science, where human disease is in issue, must take precedence over Biblical interpretations and pure poppycock divined from poor reading skills by the semi-literate, as well as from corrupt politicians such as Trump, deliberately taking advantage of such fools. That said, the spiritual component of healing, both mentally and physically, is never to be eschewed or underrated, sometimes going beyond what is entirely demonstrable empirically.

A letter writer also responds to Mr. Black's denial of God, saying that the first paragraph of the first verse of the 14th Psalm was the proper answer. "There are thousands of other answers but that one is enough. He may claim to have evolved from a plant or a chattering monkey if that is his desire, but I am so glad that I can with full confidence claim an infinitely higher origin."

He was from the universe, and you know what it's worth.

A letter writer indicates that when a learned man challenged the atheist to prove the existence of God, she was reminded of Paul the Apostle, with Acts in the Bible relating of his enlightening experience on the road to Damascus. She suggests that while jurors had not witnessed a crime being committed, they were in a position to make a decision based on the greater weight of the evidence. (Actually, it requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty, not just the greater weight, a preponderance standard as in civil cases.) "This is a matter of belief through faith in the ultimate Truth of the universe. Ponder Paul's explanation to the Hebrews: 'Faith … is the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. But without faith it is impossible to please him: For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.'" She also quotes David in Psalm 100: "Know ye that the Lord he is God: It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture." She also quotes Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd." She says that God had spoken to her to point the way in a time of trouble and she had known prayer answered.

A letter writer from Hamlet also responds to Mr. Black's argument, indicating that the person who claimed there was no proof of God could not prove the claim and the person who claimed that there was proof could show that there was a God. "Everything is God. God is a spirit that dwells in everything. A man said thousands of years ago that God is a spirit. That was before the Old Testament was written. Thousands of years later it is recorded in the New Testament that a brilliant young teacher said God is a spirit and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth."

A letter writer from Lincolnton, also responding to Mr. Black, who had written directly in response to this writer earlier, challenges Mr. Black to prove that there was no God. He says that he had, in keeping with the rules of debate, taken the negative position, that there was a God, whereas Mr. Black had taken the affirmative position, that there was no God.

A letter writer says if there was ever the need for a man such as Theodore Roosevelt, he was needed at present, as he would rule with the big stick and tell Russia to "step straight". Japan had whipped Russia and destroyed its fleet in 1904. He suggests that President Roosevelt had settled that conflict, whereas now the nation was "squirming, sputtering, shuddering about that Russian boy in the skies. If true, it means no more than a boy flying a kite. The universe is God's kingdom. The sun, the moon, the stars are God's works. Mankind should be satisfied and let it alone. All scientists are nuts."

Thus, by his logic, when one's house catches fire, one should just let it burn to the ground, as it must be God's will. Moreover, who is the boy? We must have missed something.

The boy must have shaved in the dark, trying to save paper, or maybe the steering wheel.

A letter from a captain, the commanding officer of the Third Special Truck Company of the Marine Corps Reserve, thanks the "warmhearted people in the Charlotte area" for the success of the "Toys for Tots" program, enabling many children to have had a merry Christmas in 1957, with dolls, games and other toys. He also thanks the Salvation Army and Cub Scout Pack 33, as well The News and all the people of its staff.

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