The Charlotte News
Wednesday, January 15, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the House was preparing this date for quick consideration of a 548 million dollar emergency Air Force construction bill, with its backers predicting approval with little debate. It would authorize, among other things, initial construction of the country's third base for ICBM's. Various other missile projects, a defensive warning system against missiles, and dispersal of bomber bases also would be authorized under the measure, part of the speed-up program for defense to offset Russian missile progress. The measure was preliminary to a 1.26 billion dollar supplemental money bill which also had to be passed by both houses to become effective. Representative Carl Vinson of Georgia, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that the authorization measure, backed by the President, was true emergency legislation for two reasons, that the items in the bill were themselves of the highest priority, and that a prompt approval of the bill would save up to a year on construction time. He made the statement for the House Rules Committee, which would have to consider the measure. Both Senate and House committees, meanwhile, continued separate probes of the nation's overall defenses, and partisans in and out of Congress were seeking to fix political blame for the situation.
The President said this date, at his first press conference in 2 1/2 months, that he would prefer a reasonable amount of deficit spending during the year to a tax increase, if it came to a choice between the two options. He noted that his advisers were predicting an upturn in the economy from the current business recession. Based on anticipated tax revenues, the proposed budget would be narrowly in balance with a surplus of about half a billion dollars, at least on paper. But a four million dollar deficit was now in prospect for the current fiscal year because tax collections had fallen with the decline in business prosperity while spending for defense had increased. In reply to questions about his health at present, the President said with a smile that he was feeling very good and would like to get out on the golf course for a couple of hours, if only there would be some sun. His face was ruddy and the consensus of the 270 newsmen at the conference was that he had handled himself well. The President had experienced a minor stroke on November 25. There had been one instance, near the start of the half-hour session, when the President appeared to "fluff" a word or two, but that was all, and it appeared there was less of that sort of verbal trouble than before the stroke. The President said that he never had given any consideration to resigning after his latest illness, and touched off a round of laughter by adding that his doctors were assuring him a couple of hours after the stroke, that there had been no damage to the intellectual faculties he had. Turning serious, he said that if his doctors should ever tell him that he was unable to carry out his duties, he would have no recourse except to resign.
Four Senators, all former U.N. delegates, endorsed this date a proposal by Senator Lyndon Johnson that members of the U.N. be invited to join in a program aimed at manning space for peace. They did not indicate whether they thought that Russia would go along with the idea, endorsed by Senators Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, John Sparkman of Alabama, Alexander Smith of New Jersey, and Sherman Cooper of Kentucky. The proposal would also include the exchange of satellite information. Senator Johnson told a meeting of CBS affiliates that efforts ought be made to enlist Russia and all other members of the U.N. to share the endeavor to make outer space an "outpost for peace". There was no immediate reaction from the Administration to the proposal. Senator Humphrey, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the proposal showed the "kind of insight and imagination that is worthy of this country." Senator Cooper said that he was for any move which would advance the prospects of peaceful control of space, dramatizing to the world the U.S. desire for peace. Senator Sparkman said that an invitation such as that proposed by Senator Johnson could be regarded only as "a step forward in the struggle for peace." Senator Smith said that he agreed with the Johnson thesis that a buildup in weapons alone would not be sufficient to maintain the security of the country.
Robert Gross, chief executive officer of the Lockheed Aircraft Corp., told this date the Senate Preparedness subcommittee, chaired by Senator Johnson, that there was an alarming lack of clear-cut space-age defense policy despite a national crisis "as grave as any in our history short of actual war". But the Administration had been more concerned with a balanced budget, reduced taxes and business as usual than with security from atomic annihilation. He believed that it was time that the nation faced the facts. Lockheed was the prime contractor for the Navy's fleet ballistic missile, Polaris. Mr. Gross was to be followed by testimony from representatives of two other missile makers, Dan Kimball of Aerojet-General and Patrick Hyland of Hughes Aircraft. Mr. Gross said in his prepared statement that the launch by the Russians of the two Sputniks in October and November indicated that the U.S. had to increase substantially the emphasis on and accelerate the tempo of the defense effort, requiring a "herculean effort" to "neutralize the advantage" Russia unquestionably held.
The Navy announced this date that two new lightweight torpedoes designed to seek out their targets by following sounds had been delivered to the fleet. Known as the Mark 32 and the Mark 43, the torpedoes were the first of a new series developed by the Navy as part of its increased concentration on antisubmarine warfare. The Mark 43 could be launched from either surface ships or aircraft, and the Mark 32 was designed only for launching from ships. The Navy said that the Mark 43 weighed only about an eighth as much as aerial torpedoes used during World War II and was about 8 feet long and ten inches in diameter. The chief of the Bureau of Ordnance said that the Mark 43 was "actually a submersible guided missile and is capable of searching to great depths for enemy targets." He said it was propelled by an electric motor powered by a battery. The Mark 32 was one of the simplest antisubmarine weapons which the Navy had developed. It could be tossed overboard from an open launcher and as soon as the torpedo hit the water, its built-in power plant and acoustical homing devices took over and carried it at high speed to its target.
The Army said that Lt. General Arthur Trudeau, presently on duty in Korea, would succeed Lt. General James Gavin as chief of Army Research and Development, effective April 1.
In New Delhi, General Maxwell Taylor, Army chief of staff, future chairman of the Joint Chiefs, this date watched an hour-long Army Day parade of Indian troops.
A playback of the testimony of Dave Beck, outgoing Teamsters Union president, before the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct in unions and management, was scheduled this date in the U.S. District Court trial of a lawsuit to void the election of Jimmy Hoffa as the new Teamsters president. Mr. Hoffa had been prevented from assuming the presidency, to which he had been elected at the convention of the Teamsters in Miami Beach in October, by a temporary injunction pending the outcome of the suit, on the basis that the election had been rigged for Mr. Hoffa. The suit was being filed by a group of 13 rank-and-file members.
In St. Louis, the outcome of the local union revolt against a chief lieutenant of Jimmy Hoffa would be decided this night, with control of some 41,000 St. Louis area Teamsters at stake. Harold Gibbons and his followers had been challenged by a rival slate in election of officers for the union's St. Louis Joint Council 13. Balloting by 147 delegates from member locals was scheduled for this night and the results would be known immediately. Mr. Gibbons was a vice-president-elect of the Teamsters and was seeking election to the Council presidency, an office which he had held by appointment since 1953. His opponent was the head of a construction drivers unit, E. E. Walla.
In Auckland, New Zealand, the British trans-Antarctic expedition, led by Dr. Vivian Fuchs, this date was reported 105 miles from the South Pole, with Dr. Fuchs estimating that his ten-man party would reach the American base at the pole on January 18.
In Genoa, Italy, a Norwegian tanker had broken in two in a raging Mediterranean storm this date and at least 28 crewmen had been rescued by a Dutch freighter, the captain of which indicated that ten crewmen remained missing and a search for them was ongoing. The rescue was taking place about 100 miles east of Majorca, the largest island in the Balearic group off the east coast of Spain. A French Air Force plane flying over the area said that the severed bow of the tanker had sunk but that the stern section remained afloat. The plane could not tell whether there were any survivors left aboard the stern. The captain of the Dutch freighter, however, confirmed that all crewmen had been removed or were in the process of being removed from that section.
In San Francisco, the Civil Aeronautics Board opened a public hearing this date to determine why a Pan American airliner had plunged into the Pacific Ocean on November 8, killing 44 persons.
In Nassau, three planeloads of armed troops were flown from Jamaica this date to stand by in case of disturbances in a general strike which had paralyzed the tourist trade. No public services had been interrupted thus far, but vital points were under police guard. Electric power was being maintained by volunteers and executives. The Bahamas Federation of Labor had announced that it would survey government departments in an effort to spread the strike further. The possibility of a breakdown in telephone and telegraph communications was in the offing. The arrival of the troops apparently had produced a calming effect on workers, as a mass meeting of about 4,000 strikers had broken up peacefully. Outgoing airplane flights were jammed with departing tourists while incoming planes were practically empty. All 16 principal hotels which housed the majority of visitors to Nassau announced that they planned to close during the morning if workers had not returned to work. Hotel managers said that fewer than 100 visitors would remain by the time of the deadline. Some hotels operated with skeleton staffs since the walkout had begun on Sunday, while others, including the Royal Victoria, already had closed. BOAC had halted its flights from Miami the previous day, but Pan Am, Mackay Airlines and others continued to operate, carrying capacity crowds home. Four cruise ships had visited the city the previous day. Most employees of the electric company had left their jobs late the previous day and hotel and restaurant owners were concerned about spoliation of thousands of dollars worth of food. The strike, which had started after the Bahamas Federation of Labor had told hotel employees to walk off their jobs in support of a taxi union dispute, had quickly spread to bakery employees, electrical workers, garbage collectors, plumbers, construction workers, airport baggage handlers and others. Don't despair, for help is on the way.
In Falmouth, Ky., it was reported that two armed men with orange-colored stockings covering their heads had surprised an assistant bank cashier when she reported for work this date, and had fled the bank with thousands of dollars. The men had slugged the assistant cashier with a pistol and left her unconscious on the floor of the bank. Police said that the bandits had made off with $75,000, but the bank manager had not fully assessed the loss. The cashier told police that the men were inside the bank when she opened it during the morning, then forced her to open the safe and cash drawers before striking her on the head with the pistol. A teller had found the cashier when she reported for work.
John Jamison of The News reports that East Mecklenburg High School teachers had learned to raise the pitch of their voices slightly so that they could be heard over the chattering teeth and knocking knees of their students, who, for eight winters, since the school had been completed in 1950, had dreaded, along with the teachers, the approach of cold snaps during the winter, as its fancy heating system did not seem to work correctly and never had. The last cold spell which had plunged the temperatures to the low teens had also dropped some classrooms down to 58 to 60 degrees, and as a result some classes had to be shifted to other rooms, while some students were advised to don overcoats and shiver through the day. What little heat there was came from a radiant heating system, whereby coal furnaces heated water which was then pumped through coils of pipe buried in the floors of the building. The County School superintendent, J. W. Wilson, said that the system was very intricate and that they had been having trouble with it all along as it did not seem to stay in adjustment, that they had been able to get it adjusted for a few days, during which they got along well, but then when cold weather came, they had problems. The experts had advised that they needed more skilled persons to tend the heating facilities. The County School Board the previous day had authorized Mr. Wilson to hire an engineer to tend the system, possibly at a cost of $75 per week, more than they paid their janitors. The school principal said that parents had been very understanding about the problem, that they seemed to realize that the school was doing all it could.
Also in Charlotte, another $100,000 would be required to complete and equip the proposed health center, to be included in the ensuing bond election, tentatively set for the spring. Originally, $500,000 in bonds had been approved in an election on May 3, 1955; subsequently, the North Carolina Medical Care Commission had tentatively agreed to allocate $166,000 for the project and formal application for that money had been filed at the end of 1957. City Manager Henry Yancey said, however, that the original $500,000 had been based on construction cost three years earlier and that those prices had increased in the meantime. There would also be an additional expense to fill the 8.9-acre site to raise it two and a half feet so that it would be above the creek overflow level. Paving of the parking lot was another added expense. Mr. Yancey said that the City was under contract to provide space for the County Health Department for 50 years, another reason for not cutting down on the size of the building, as there had to be reasonable provision for expansion.
In Los Angeles, faculty detectives at UCLA were using advanced techniques to discover freshmen with exceptional academic ability. The detectives said that out of 840 freshmen tested since the prior September, 94 had placed among the upper half of one percent in intelligence nationally. They had found two students who could have skipped college and gone into graduate work, according to one official. The dean of students said that there were many gifted students who might go through their four years never realizing their potential. The new program, still in its initial stage, would be a continuous research project to get the most out of students. All freshmen took more than a dozen tests lasting from 14 to 16 hours, testing almost every area of intelligence and aptitude, then comparing their results with national college averages. The dean said that the whole program was designed to broaden, enrich and speed up educational opportunities, indicating that the 94 freshmen singled out by the program had an ability to take courses one to three years above their grade levels, and that every effort would be made to give them as much additional work as they could handle. University officials estimated a tax savings which could amount to as much as $3,000 per student through the application of the new tests. That's a pretty stupid idea, as a large part of the college experience is involved in socialization and maturity after high school in preparation for entering post-collegiate life. Scores on standardized tests do not equate to that experience. Some college administrators miss the point of a college education, that it is not designed to teach people to make better widgets.
In Dallas, a fireman had saved the life of a tiny chihuahua by using one finger to apply artificial respiration after the dog was found unconscious in the flaming home of its masters, a couple. The fireman said that he held the dog in the palm of one hand and turned him on his back while pressing on his chest with the finger and then releasing the pressure, at the same time holding the dog's mouth open and blowing his breath into it. After a minute or two, the tiny dog had revived and scampered off. It is to be hoped, for the sake of the fireman and his significant other when he got home, that the dog had plenty of Milk-Bone in its diet.
On the editorial page, "Tell School Boards You Want Merger" indicates that in a well-documented report, a special Chamber of Commerce committee, led by attorney Richard Thigpen, had illuminated both the necessity and the promise of a single educational system for the entire county.
The voluntary committee had no official standing in the governmental structure of the City or the County, and the burden to act on the recommendations rested entirely with the public bodies. It urges that it should occur at the earliest possible time, to achieve a better and more efficient public education system for all of the children of the community.
"Mint Museum: Art Is Essential, Too" tells of a visitor from Des Moines having come to Charlotte and visited community cultural and recreational locations during the recent holidays, wondering to his host how Charlotte residents ever found time for "such nonsense". He had suggested that it was a business center and that the business of business was business, wondering why there was so much made about culture. His take was that a firm appreciation of the nuances of taste and smell was achieved in "hoisting a few bourbons-and-branchwater upon a Saturday night and the little cultural lift a golfer gets when his well-pegged drive soars straight for the pin on a par-three hole."
It suggests that Charlotte had a broader base for its modes of living, one of the reasons its citizens supported cultural institutions such as the Mint Museum of Art with such dedicated fervor. Through its exhibitions, classes, drama and artist guild activities, concerts, dance recitals, lectures, art film screenings, practical demonstrations and many other activities, the Mint enriched the cultural life of the community immeasurably. It also enlivened a dull, lifeless business community.
During the current week, the Mint was launching its annual drive for new members, enabling it to operate on such a generous scale and offer so many cultural riches free for the entire community. The fees for membership were only five dollars per person and it urges everyone to join, as they would be enabling the museum to contribute much more to the cultural well-being of the community.
"A Few Zounds! For a Startling Future" indicates that the Associated Press had admitted that it had made an error in reporting that the Soviets had already colonized outer space with at least one-rocket powered comrade. It had turned out to be the stratospheric echo of an idling teleprinter or, perhaps, of a housewife's eggbeater.
With the aid of "the new man in tobacco, the scientists", a startling new cigarette had been created, about 3.25 inches long, packed with natural tobacco, without menthol or strawberry jam flavoring, and without a filter at the end. The cigarettes were called "straights" and "cost no more than popular-priced brands."
There was talk that within a few years, automobiles might be equipped with an odd metal bar arising from the floorboard, called a "gearshift", while other reports suggested that advanced research in light bulbs would make it possible within a decade or less for automobiles to be equipped with only two front headlights.
"Things will never be the same, friends. The next thing you know some visionary is going to suggest that homes of the future will have places for putting lamps other than on tables set in front of picture windows. It just might happen, too. Times are changing."
A piece from the New York Times, titled "O Say Comma", indicates that the National Music Council, as reported in the Times, was interested in efforts being made at present to "tidy up" the national anthem. The Library of Congress and the Department of the Army were helping in the effort. Nobody asserted that anything was wrong with the national anthem, except that some people found it hard to reach the higher notes. Thus, the object was to get the words and punctuation closer to what Francis Scott Key had intended and to make them fit better the music written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreonic Society of London, subsequently titled "To Anacreon in Heaven".
It suggests that the revisionists might be wishing to try to recapture some of the exaltation which Mr. Key, held prisoner during the bombardment of the Baltimore forts in 1814, had experienced when he saw the flag flying, after a night of heavy firing, over Fort McHenry. The flag had been made by Mary Young Pickersgill, with the aid of her 14-year old daughter Caroline. The flag measured 26 by 29 feet and could be seen a long way in the distance, having been "spangled" with 15 stars.
It indicates that if moving the commas around and getting an easier flow into the singing would help revive the old rapture and the old faith, so much the better. "We don't care so much for 'triumph' any more—what is triumph, anyway?—but it will do us good to have faith that this still is 'the land of the free and the home of the brave,' and not the unhappy abiding place of millions of people who fall into profound despair because somebody else has an artificial satellite and they haven't."
We might note that today, in the quick-speak, no-thought universe of bloggers and newspeak, the only question which might be asked of that piece, obsessively, would be whether the Anacreonic Society was properly iconic, as the national anthem would undoubtedly be referred to, repeatedly, as that old, iconic piece of national memorabilia, more iconic than even the iconic flag and iconic Fort McHenry in iconic old Baltimore, in the iconic state of Maryland—all of which is pretty iconic. And so how about the Anacreonic?
Drew Pearson indicates that beginning this date, a nonscheduled airline for the first time in history would receive a certificate to fly a regularly scheduled air route. The President's brother-in-law, Col. Gordon Moore, had been the vice-president of the airline receiving that route. For years, the nonscheduled airlines had been battling against American, Eastern, United, TWA and the other large regularly scheduled airlines to obtain regularly scheduled routes. But the Civil Aeronautics Board, which allowed those routes after approval from the White House, had refused.
Thus, it was quite an event in aviation history that a nonscheduled airline was now receiving a certificate to fly regularly once per day between New York and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
He indicates that it also might be significant that the company making the history was Trans-Caribbean, whose president, O. Roy Chalk, had been the close friend and benefactor of the President's brother-in-law, Col. Moore. The latter had frequently been seen around the White House either at exclusive dinners, such as that for Queen Elizabeth, or in the background of the President's telecasts to the nation. In 1952, before Mr. Eisenhower had obtained the Republican nomination, Col. Moore, then a retired Army officer, had great personal charm but not much of a financial future, as a colonel's retirement pay was not great and experience acquired in the Army did not always qualify a person for employment in business. Thus, for a time, it looked as if the Moore family would have to sell their home in Washington, until, in February, 1952, Mr. Chalk, head of the Independent Military Air Transport Association, had offered him a $6,500 per year job in charge of public relations.
Mr. Chalk's Trans-Caribbean had received the New York to San Juan route from the CAB and the White House, despite the fact that several long-established airlines had been bidding for it.
Stewart Alsop suggests that there might have been personal motives in the decision of Lt. General James Gavin to retire from the Army, as he was aware, for example, that the President bitterly resented his outspoken role on behalf of the Army. The resentment inevitably meant that the General could not be chief of staff, at least as long as President Eisenhower was in office.
General Gavin was generally regarded as the Army's most brilliant senior officer, and the feeling of being blocked from the top Army post could therefore not have been pleasant for him. But there had been other, impersonal, and far more important, reasons for the General's decision to retire.
He suggests that one way to understand those reasons was to examine the photographs which had appeared in newspapers and magazines of the Red Army in Moscow on November 7, the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. There had been great anticipation in advance of the celebration, and when the Soviets failed either to hit the moon with a hydrogen bomb or bring the passenger of Sputnik II, the dog Laika, down alive on Red Square, there had been a certain sense of anticlimax, causing the parade to be billed as "unsensational". But to a professional infantry soldier like General Gavin, the parade had not been unsensational.
The Soviets had actively encouraged Western photographers to take pictures of the tanks, troop carriers, tactical missiles and other military equipment on display, much as Hitler had done in the days prior to Munich in September, 1938. The reasons had been similar, as in virtually every category, the ground warfare weapons displayed by the Soviets were decisively superior to anything possessed by the U.S. or its allies. One qualified military specialist, Garrett Underhill, had already described some of the Soviet infantry weapons in an article for the Washington Post, stating that the Soviets had displayed huge "flak tanks", each with a pair of powerful new antiaircraft guns, the only counterpart of which possessed by the U.S. was a light tank with much less powerful guns mounted, designed in 1936. The NATO ground forces lacked even that protection.
The Soviets had also displayed a new, improved heavy tank, with heavier armor and artillery than anything in the U.S. arsenal. They were known to have several thousand such tanks, whereas the U.S. was building 300 heavy tanks, the last of which would not be delivered until 1959.
The tactical missiles on display by the Russians were both more powerful and more mobile than anything in the U.S. forces. The Soviets even had new, lightweight rifles and other infantry weapons, enabling their individual soldiers to be far more mobile than U.S. troops.
Thus, the Soviet ground troops were unquestionably far better equipped than U.S. or NATO counterparts.
As General Gavin had said, there were 27 divisions in the U.S. Army when he came to Washington and there were now only 15. He had not indicated that only nine of those divisions were fully equipped and combat-ready. The official estimate of 175 Soviet divisions was probably exaggerated, but the Soviets undoubtedly had 65 armored and mechanized divisions fully equipped for atomic warfare, plus an equal number of infantry divisions, all fully mobilized.
The Gaither Report and the Rockefeller Fund Report, plus all other competent authorities, had stressed that the ability to fight limited wars was as important an element in the balance of world power as the ability to fight suicidal nuclear war. Yet, throughout the Eisenhower Presidency, the Army had been the Pentagon's stepchild.
Mr. Alsop indicates that it could be charged that the Army leaders, notably General Gavin, had been too eager to expend the Army's resources on such things as space platforms and that the Army's proportion of men to combat units was still much too high. Yet, examining the facts which Mr. Alsop lists, it was easy to understand General Gavin's despair, shared by many other dedicated officers.
He urges that it might be well to remember that the world had not seen its last infantry battle and also not to forget the warning of General Gavin: "These are your sons and brothers. We don't bring them into the Army to die. If anyone is to die, we want it to be the other guy. We've got to give them the equipment they need."
Doris Fleeson indicates that the Defense Department was making some curious moves regarding the service officers who were called as witnesses by the Senate Preparedness subcommittee. She indicates that it was an old dilemma, that the officers could not lie to Congress and yet when they exposed their differences, they often appeared to be in opposition to the President. With the President being a career military man and therefore almost bound to experience an unusually keen emotional reaction to such a situation, it had become perhaps more of a problem at present. He had in the past become very emotional about service testimony before Congress.
Two officers, considered by their respective services to be among their best and most dedicated brains, were now featured in incidents about which there was sober comment ongoing in Washington. One was General Gavin, chief of Army research and development, who had recently retired. After blunt testimony before the subcommittee, he had said that it did not help a man to be "frank and straightforward" in testimony before Congressional committees and that he had decided to retire. At that point, Secretary of the Army Wilber Brucker had moved in a manner calculated to force any man of honor to go through with that retirement, publicly offering General Gavin a fourth star and a choice of two major Army assignments if he would continue.
Secretary Brucker was not viewed as offering competition to Dr. Robert Oppenheimer in the brains department and his public utterances had frequently lacked taste. But it was not considered that his remarkable performance was the purely accidental reflex of a thoughtless man, with the reverse having been true. Senators close to the situation were satisfied that the Secretary had designed the maneuver to force General Gavin to retire, knowing that the General had considered remaining on the terms specified by the Secretary, until a friend had pointed out to him the impossible position in which he would then find himself. Through the grapevine, the comments were that the President had ordered Secretary Brucker to "get Gavin", though there was no evidence to support that assertion and no evidence that there had been any private, discrete effort to save face on all sides, other than to retain the General's services.
Maj. General Bernard Schriever, head of the Air Force ballistic missile program, had the previous weekend testified that he regarded the Defense Department space arms board as a costly duplication of work already being performed in that area. The President had praised the board in his State of the Union message as an example of improved organization, and the contrast between the President's views and those of General Schriever was now being headlined as part of a "generals' revolt".
For a few hours, the Defense Department had attempted to say that it had not cleared General Schriever's testimony for publication, but that the Air Force had done so. Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy first had called it a "mix-up", but after personal investigation, said that the Defense Department had not cleared it after all.
Ms. Fleeson concludes that it appeared at least possible that the Defense Department, after seeing the headlines, had preferred to have the President upset at General Schriever for testifying rather than upset at the Defense Department for releasing the testimony.
A letter writer indicates that he had waited in vain for the reopening of the schools following the Christmas holidays to see some report of the return of Dorothy Counts to Harding High School, to which she had entered in the fall as the first black student there, only to withdraw after having several unpleasant experiences, including having been spat upon on at least one occasion. He suggests that most of the reports of her experiences had missed the point, one being that her reception was hardly polite, but also had not been as bad as reasonably might have been expected. He says that he did not mean to imply that he admired the spirit of the hecklers, only suggesting that it could have been much worse. He recalls having read of Branch Rickey, when he was considering bringing up Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. He had called the star baseball player a "nigger" and abused him in other ways, but Mr. Robinson had sat quietly. Mr. Rickey had finally said: "If you can take that, I think you'll make it." The writer indicates that Mr. Robinson had taken it many times afterward on the playing field, but had probably done more for blacks than any other person of his generation, not only having been a great ballplayer but also having the courage to bear the awful responsibility of being "the first". He finds that the great failure of the integration of Harding High School was not that the students had jeered and spat upon Ms. Counts, nor that the policemen had stood by and watched while the events transpired, nor regarding the school administration, but rather of Ms. Counts, herself. He suggests that if she had not the courage to take a great deal more than she actually suffered, she should not have gone to the school in the first place. He concludes that while she had undoubtedly made her life easier when she had retreated to the relative quiet of a Philadelphia school, she had done "her own race a disservice with her lack of courage."
A letter writer from Monroe says that she had read the "lovely letter" from J. R. Cherry, Jr., about Secretary of State Dulles, saying that she was glad that Mr. Cherry had put "you 'intellectuals' in your place." "We common people, the backbone of America and the supporters of a forceful foreign policy, may be stupid but thank God, we are not crazy. Keep up the good work, Mr. Cherry. Who knows—someday we may scramble the eggheads."
A letter writer from Clinton, S.C., says that the Administration would not engage in peace talks with the Russians as long as the economy was sagging, for it was presently propped up with wars and rumors of wars. "America for the last several years has kept up a semblance of prosperity under a war scare, and to drop that scare now would let the bottom fall out."
It is easy enough in the 12 years since World War II to have forgotten its lessons and to sink into the downy security of "America First" and its concomitant isolationist mentality—which, of course, characterizes the historically challenged Trumpies, most of whom, including the current Cabinet picks, cannot keep up with what happened yesterday, let alone last year or four years ago, with 85 years ago being prehistoric, dude, the ones we have seen still insisting, at least implicitly, that there was massive fraud which influenced the outcome of the 2020 election. Indeed, a dumbbell we heard yesterday in hearings said that Trump had won the 2024 election, the outcome of which she was definitely certain, "overwhelmingly". She had not been aware, however, of the full scope of the statements of Trump in early 2021 to the Georgia Secretary of State exhorting him to steal that state for Trump, and obviously did not want to know about it, being one of the abstemious monkeys, if not all three at once, having never read or heard of it much then or since—probably being fairly challenged in her reading skills or too busy running down all the fraud she witnessed personally in Pennsylvania, none of which she could specify, but that is beside the point because you know you can rely on her to tell the truth.
We suppose we should not be surprised to find that she, being so historically challenged, thinks that a victory by 1.5 percent and 2.3 million popular votes is "overwhelming", especially when one considers the number of voters, almost exclusively Democrats who had historically voted for Democrats, who were peculiarly disallowed from the voter rolls in key electoral states. But, we have to make room for the fact that perhaps she was referring to the electoral college victory, in which case she would also have to admit that President Biden won the 2020 election quite, quite overwhelmingly, by the same electoral margin and seven million votes or 4.5 percent.
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