The Charlotte News
Thursday, January 16, 1958
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President this date had called for lower Government price supports for major farm crops and dairy production, plus an easing of production restrictions, part of his special message to Congress set forth in 14 points of what he termed a progress program to allow farmers to benefit more from their own unparalleled ability to produce. It also held out the prospect of eventual lower food prices for consumers. He told Congress that agriculture in recent years had been experiencing a veritable revolution in productivity, with production per man-hour having double since 1940, there having been more change in agriculture within present lifetimes than in the previous 2,000 years. He said that the rapid changes were largely the result of major breakthroughs in agricultural science and technology, that the revolution could not be reversed or avoided and need not be feared. He said that it was essential that his recommendations be accepted during the current year to improve the status of rural people in greatest need, to aid agricultural adjustment, provide for freedom, expand markets, and, thereby, help raise farm family income. The proposals would require legislative action in some cases, administrative decisions in others, and shifts in appropriations in yet others. They included a change of the 1.25 billion dollar annual soil bank program by abandoning the following year the costlier short-term acreage reserve and strengthening the longer-term conservation reserve.
Newsmen said that the President appeared to have slowed down some since his mild stroke of the prior November 25, that his complexion may or may not have lost some of its ruddiness, and that whether he had more difficulty than previously in expressing himself was a matter of opinion. Those observations had summed the reaction of many of the 270 newsmen who had watched the President the previous day at his first press conference since his stroke. Most of those questioned thought that he had spoken more deliberately, perhaps showing a little less vigor than he had previously. Some believed he seemed at times to be groping for words, fumbling for the name of the Federal Reserve Board, for instance. One reporter said that he had mispronounced the name of Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin. Others pointed out, however, that his thoughts often had raced ahead of his tongue so that his words had not always conveyed what he obviously meant to say. After the press conference, one reporter commented: "There was one instance near the start when Eisenhower appeared to fluff a word or two. But there was no more of that—and quite possibly there was less—than before." White House press secretary James Hagerty said that he had not noticed any unusual hesitancy in the President's manner of speaking, asking newsmen: "Did you ever listen to yourselves answer extemporaneous questions? I've heard some of you people in the past."
In London, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan this date joined President Eisenhower and French Premier Felix Gaillard in indicating that any summit meeting with the Soviets could occur only after the most careful preliminary meetings and negotations between lesser officials to discern whether there could be a realistic basis for agreement on significant issues regarding mutual disarmament.
In Maxton, N.C., near Lumberton, it
was reported to The News that unless responsible civic leaders
succeeded in their efforts to calm things down, some Indians of
Robeson County might go on the warpath against the Klan on Saturday
night. Anti-Klan feeling among the Indian population was running high
this date with some threatening to break up a scheduled Klan rally on
Saturday night. Klan officials said that the rally was scheduled as a
"warning" to Indians against race-mixing. (Someone should have alerted these brain-children that they were about 368 years too late.) The Maxton Town
Board the previous night had passed a resolution condemning the Klan
and opposing the Saturday meeting. A group of ministers had endorsed
that stand this date. Responsible Indian leaders had told the
newspaper by telephone this date that they realized that some Indians
in Robeson County were "stirred up", but that they did not
feel violence would occur at the Saturday rally. Maxton civic
leaders, however, had been going about the area trying to calm down
some who reportedly were ready to stop any attempt at an anti-Indian
demonstration. The trouble had begun in Maxton on Monday night when
two crosses had been burned by hooded men, one in the driveway of a
home in nearby St. Pauls, reportedly as a warning to an Indian woman
"having an affair" with a white man, and the other in
Lumberton, where an Indian family had moved into a white
neighborhood. A Klan poster was being tacked all over the county
advertising a rally "between Pembroke Junior College and Hayes
Pond." The flyer was signed by the Klan, with a Charlotte post
office box as its address. The scheduled subject for the rally and
cross burning was: "Why I believe in segregation." Reports
to the newspaper indicated that the rally Saturday night might be one
of the state's largest, with a number of Klan members from outside
Robeson County set to attend. Other reports said that there were a
number of people from out of town in the section this date,
presumably members of the Klan. The posters were being put up by some men
unknown around Maxton. There was no confirmation of reports that guns
and ammunition had been selling at a brisk rate. A member of the Town
Board had told the newspaper that the Board was trying to "forestall
trouble" with its resolution the previous night, urging citizens
not to attend the rally. Three local ministers, a Presbyterian,
Baptist and Methodist, this date signed a letter backing the Board's
action, the letter indicating, in part: "We oppose this rally
because we want men of all races to love in good will and
understanding and in mutual respect. The action of the KKK causes
just the opposite." The Mayor of Pembroke, J. C. Oxendine, had
told the newspaper that Indian residents of the community were
"stirred up as bad as we have been" in many years. He said
that they considered the source, however, and did not think there
would be trouble, believed that they were more intelligent than that
and felt that the people of the state were behind them. He said he
understood that there were only about ten Klan members in Robeson
County, compared to 30,000 Indians, adding, "We ought to be able
to keep things under control." (Whether some Klan member's reading of a synopsis in TV Guide or the actual viewing of this week's rather strange episode of "Tombstone Territory"
In Montreat, N.C., evangelist Billy Graham announced this date cancellation of a scheduled two-week religious crusade in politically shaky Venezuela, as he prepared to leave for an extensive preaching tour of eight Latin American countries. The Reverend Graham said that he was advised by cablegram this date from the Venezuelan committee working on plans for the crusade that political conditions made it unwise to proceed with the scheduled speaking engagements. The situation in Venezuela had been tenuous since El Presidente Marcos Perez Jimenez had put down by force an attempted military coup on New Year's Day—exactly one year before the rebel uprising in Cuba led by Fidel Castro would topple the regime of El Presidente Fulgencio Batista—and had formed a new Cabinet and ousted the heads of his interior ministry and security police in an effort to save his regime. Rev. Graham was scheduled to speak in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Trinidad, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico between the following Monday and March 15. He said that they were not receiving any opposition from Catholics, that in some places the Catholic Church had been friendly and many priests were planning to attend the meetings. He said that American prestige had been deteriorating in Latin America and that Secretary of State Dulles had told him personally that any contribution they could make in the spiritual realm would help the country. He stated: "We have spread our filthy literature, our sexy movies and our rock and roll music over the world. It is time we let the world know that the United States has great moral and spiritual resources to share with the world."
In Nottingham, England, two RAF Vampire jet trainers had collided 9,000 feet above the city this date, killing four airmen and a female factory worker. Two RAF men, a pilot and a student, had died in each plane. The woman was killed when part of one of the broken jets had crashed through the roof of the plant where she worked.
In Stockholm, officials this date announced the arrest of two businessmen in connection with smuggling operations which had sent at least two million dollars worth of strategic metals to Iron Curtain countries.
The U.S. this date pledged 225 million dollars in new loans to India, in response to an urgent plea for aid to help Prime Minister Nehru's five-year development plan.
In New York, a scheduled strike of conductors against the New York Central Railroad, east of Buffalo, was called off this date a few minutes before the 6:00 a.m. deadline.
In Montceau Les Mines, France, a cold dust explosion early this date had injured an estimated 40 miners working in a shaft, with no deaths having been reported initially.
In Algiers, the captain of a Norwegian tanker and two stewardesses were reported this date to have been washed overboard in a vain dash for safety after the ship had split in two.
Emery Wister of The News reports that acquisition of the Belvedere Hosiery Mill by one of the nation's leading clothing manufacturers, with plans for "diversification and expansion", had been announced this date. The president of Strutwear, Inc., said that the local plant, presently closed, would be reopened on February 17 with approximately 100 employees.
Ann Sawyer of The News tells of Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield having instructed local post offices not to try to win over snapping dogs. Locally, the acting postmaster intended to follow those latest instructions, that if a dog bit the postman, mail delivery to that person's home would be stopped immediately. In 1956, the Post Office Department had even brought in a dog psychologist to high level conferences and toyed with the idea of arming postmen with repellents designed to keep dogs beyond biting range, or with goodies to con dogs into becoming friendlier. Nevertheless, postmen were still suffering more than 6,000 bites per year. Eight local postmen during the previous year had been either bitten, had their clothing torn, or received a bad scare from dogs. The latest announcement from Washington did not mention psychology, only the automatic discontinuance of delivery service whenever a carrier was actually bitten or had his uniform torn by a dog, with the dog owner being advised where the mail could be picked up until a satisfactory solution could be found.
In Philadelphia, a man appeared in domestic relations court under a charge brought by his wife of desertion. He told the judge that if he knew his wife as the defendant knew her, no one would call him a deserter. "I'm not a deserter. I'm a refugee."
On the editorial page, "Another Runaway for Charlie Jonas?" indicates that Representative Jonas had not broken the Democratic grip on the Tenth Congressional District in North Carolina but was doing as much or more than anyone else to restore it.
His announcement that he would seek another term in Congress constituted a standing warning to Democrats that they had to heal party rifts, raise party morale and make strong candidates out of their ample supply of strong leaders. That latter task had special application to Mecklenburg County, which had supplied all three of the victims of the widespread popularity of Mr. Jonas with the voters. Mecklenburg also had a number of Democrats who had the potential of giving him a contest instead of a runaway. One big key to the ease of his past victories had been that Democrats had not put their strongest potential candidate on the ballot.
It indicates that Mr. Jonas deserved congratulations for his willingness to serve the district in Congress and his success in the service was shown by his large majorities in his three successful campaigns. But it reminds that competition in politics was the secret of representative government.
Mr. Jonas, the only Republican in the North Carolina Congressional delegation, was the figure head of hopes for a two-party system in Mecklenburg. He had given Republicans hopes also of capturing seats in the General Assembly and had served as the rallying point for an effective Republican precinct organization. Now he was helping the Democrats by challenging them to put forth more attractive candidates. It concludes that the response remained to be seen, as did any sign that a Democrat would replace Mr. Jonas in Congress in 1959.
"Where There's a Thirst There's a Way" indicates that the news that the Administration of Governor Luther Hodges might abolish "social hours" at political functions had left it limp with incredulity.
Party conventions, legislative sessions, Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners and the like raised a thirst in certain political types. In the past, arrangements to satisfy the peculiar craving had been handled efficiently and generously by the liquor lobby. But public piety had been aroused when that had become a front page item the previous year.
The Governor, who handled a Puritan instinct with all the deftness of a split-T quarterback, had bravely taken his stand, telling the press recently that as far as he was concerned, there would be no alcoholic beverages served at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner or any other affair sponsored by the Democratic Party, except that which was paid for by individuals.
It finds that the exception offered the thirsty set an out. It could conjure a serene vision of at least a thousand old pols rummaging through attic trunks in search of a hip flask kept from the Roaring Twenties.
"Perspective" indicates that ominous rumblings about the short-range consolidation of the City and County school systems had understandably occupied the attention of local taxpayers. It finds worthier of public consideration the long-range cost of not consolidating the systems.
"Eleanor Roosevelt: Laughter & Love" tells of columnist Westbrook Pegler having made few friends because most of his columns dealt with people he did not like. He had called, for instance, former Vice-President Henry Wallace "old bubblehead". He did not like FDR or Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he dubbed la boca grande, meaning big mouth.
For years, he had hurled his sharpest darts at Mrs. Roosevelt, dipped in venom, ridicule, sarcasm and whatever other caustic substance he might have had in his ink well on a particular day. During those same years, Americans routinely named Mrs. Roosevelt as the woman they admired most in the world. The current Gallup poll gave her that honor for the 11th consecutive year.
It indicates that it was not the language which had failed Mr. Pegler in his campaign to laugh Mrs. Roosevelt into obscurity, but rather his assumption that Americans did not like "do-gooders".
It indicates that Mrs. Roosevelt assuredly was in that category and although some Americans had laughed at her along with Mr. Pegler, most apparently loved her.
It says that it had referred to Mr. Pegler in the past tense in the piece, not because he was dead, but because he was largely forgotten, as was a grand pronouncement printed in 1863 in the Chicago Tribune, reprinting the text of a two-hour speech at Gettysburg by Edward Everett, adding the remark: "The President of the United States also spoke and made the usual ass of himself."
A piece from the Baltimore Evening Sun, titled "Artist's Privilege", indicates that Somerset Maugham had told the newspaper that he was having all of his correspondence destroyed, regarding his letters as his personal affair, that he did not want them published after his death, as he could see no useful purpose for it.
It raised the issue of whether an author of fame and stature was justified in denying posterity its closest examination of him as a man as well as as a writer. Some had thought so and, like Matthew Arnold and later, George Orwell, had expressly stated they did not want any biographies written about themselves. But such requests were sooner or later always put aside.
Then there was the issue of deliberate destruction. About ten years earlier, French painter George Roualt had more than 300 of his sketches and paintings destroyed because he believed they did not represent him at his best. But now no one but he could ever judge. John Ruskin had wanted to withdraw all of his early writings on art from circulation and the aged Leo Tolstoy had tried to repudiate his great novels, both having failed at the effort.
It suggests that as a man and a self-critic, the artist had a right to leave behind only what he chose. Yet the question nagged as to whether, as a public figure, he had that right when his work would presumably have an influence lasting long into the future. It concludes by asking therefore whether Mr. Maugham believed he really would be able to persuade all recipients of his letters to destroy them.
Drew Pearson indicates that Undersecretary of State Douglas Dillon, the economic chief of the Department, had visited Senator Olin Johnston of South Carolina recently to discuss plans for paying off Nazi industrialists whose property had been seized during World War II. Mr. Dillon had been accompanied by Jacques Reinstein, director of German affairs, and J. P. White, a State Department lobbyist who carried briefcases and also glanced around furtively. Waiting inside were Senator Johnston and his assistant, Harlan Wood.
The three men from the State Department outlined a plan to have U.S. taxpayers pay an extra 100 million dollars to settle German claims, which would double-cross the Japanese, who had the solemn word of Secretary of State Dulles that German and Japanese claims would be treated alike. The manner in which the State Department had been pushing for the return of German property and the background of the State Department personnel handling it were significant. Secretary Dulles had been an attorney for the Wall Street bankers who poured millions of American investors' money into Germany even while Hitler was coming into power. Mr. Dulles had made repeated statements assuring American investors that their money was safe.
Mr. Dillon, the number three man in the Department, was now pushing for the return of German property. He had been a member of the banking firm, Dillon, Read & Co., which had poured about 200 million dollars of American investors' money into Germany. Shortly after V-E Day, the head of that firm, General William Draper, then in the Army, had become head of German industrial reconstruction and appointed to his personal staff Dr. Alexander Kreuter, a former Nazi and former Dillon, Read representative in Germany. It had been the consistent policy of many of those bankers to bring about the return of German property, and some of them had been in strategic positions to help to do so.
The proposal for rewarding German property owners at the expense of American taxpayers, which former Ambassador Dillon had outlined to Senator Johnston, had been too much even for the latter. He had been most sympathetic to German lobbyists, but even he rebelled at taking money from American taxpayers to reimburse the Germans. Half apologetically, Mr. Dillon explained that "the decision to request a direct appropriation was made at Cabinet level."
Mr. Wood had suggested that former Attorney General Herbert Brownell, who had opposed paying indemnity to former enemies, probably had suggested the direct appropriation as an "obstructive tactic" to keep Congress from passing any legislation on the subject. Mr. Wood had also objected to making any payments to the German Government, which, he said, "would defeat every reasonable argument that has been advanced justifying a return."
Both the Senator and his assistant had stressed that the assets were seized from private owners and ought be returned to them. The issue appeared to arouse Senator Johnston's emotions almost as much as Federal troops in Little Rock. He said, "The press has led the public to believe that the properties under seizure belonged to the Hitler or Tojo governments. Many of the private companies no doubt invested here to escape Hitler's wrath." He was quite indignant but did not mention that the biggest claimants were German munitions manufacturers who had financed Hitler and later manufactured arms for him.
Marquis Childs finds that notwithstanding the President's response to the note of Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, agreeing that nuclear testing be stopped, not for two or three years, but "indefinitely", it was highly doubtful that in the foreseeable future there could be reached any agreement to bring nuclear testing to a halt.
The tests were part of the race which had seen first one bloc and then the other in the lead, with the current thesis being that the U.S. had to catch up quickly in the rockets and missiles contests before any serious consideration could be given to suspension of the tests. That was the actual block to any serious negotiation with the Soviets. But among some observers who had followed the race, the fear was substantial that unless positive steps toward peace could be taken to halt the contest at once, it might be unstoppable. And as with all such arms races, it was almost certain to end in war, with the odds being nuclear war in the case at hand, limited at the beginning but unlimited before it was over.
The Atomic Energy Commission was holding a series of tests the following May to perfect tactical nuclear weapons. The Pentagon had indicated that those tests were essential to U.S. security. There were also tests 2 to 3 years in the future of any anti-missile missile presently in the developmental stage. That defensive weapon theoretically would be able to knock out ICBM's with hydrogen warheads before reaching their targets in the U.S. It was put forward as the ultimate defensive weapon, just as the ICBM was the ultimate offensive weapon.
Even if the U.S. were prepared to stop testing, the British were insistent that they had to have more tests to perfect their weapons series, and in the not-too-distant future, the French would have nuclear raw material for weapons and they would be determined also to test. The Soviets had held one series of tests after another, including a recent one in which hydrogen bombs were exploded with a high degree of fallout.
In April, 1956, Adlai Stevenson, speaking before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, had called for an end to further testing of the hydrogen bomb, saying that he questioned as a layman "the sense in multiplying and enlarging weapons of a destructive power almost incomprehensible." He added that he would call on other nations "to follow our lead, and if they don't and persist in further tests, we will know about it and we can reconsider our policy." Taking up the plea for an end to testing during his fall campaign, he had been accused of being willing to disarm the U.S. without regard to what the Soviets might do. The President and other campaigners had attacked him for the proposal.
But in retrospect, April, 1956, might have been a point of no return insofar as that key element in the arms race was concerned. Mr. Stevenson had not intended a unilateral suspension of testing. Such a proposal had been put forward by the Government and if the Soviet Union had agreed to it, the next step, as Mr. Stevenson conceived it, would have been to call for an end to the production of fissionable material. The important thing was to make a start.
Secret tests could be conducted despite any control system. The Atomic Energy Commission the prior September had detonated a two kiloton explosion 900 feet underground which had produced only a slightly recordable shock wave. That was another strong argument against any agreement to end the testing.
No matter how many reassuring statements the AEC and its chairman, Lewis Strauss, issued, the fear would persist that the earth was being slowly contaminated, with the incidence of deformity and cancer gradually increasing. The continuing tests also spawned another fear, that the nuclear arms race could not be brought to a halt short of disaster. Mr. Childs concludes that the grave question at present was how long the world could live under that intolerable tension.
Doris Fleeson indicates that the Administration's space age budget was too large for most Republicans and such ultra-conservative Democrats as Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia. But for most Democrats and for the Eastern internationalists of both parties, whose views were expressed in the top-secret Gaither Report and the published Rockefeller Report, it was not large enough.
The new budget also contained much politics. The President claimed that it was balanced, but that was based on transparently flimsy assumptions, the intent being to lay the basis for insisting that the Democratic Congress would unbalance it.
There could not be any realistic expectation in the White House that an election year Congress, would meekly enact five-cent postage and stand for economies in farm benefits, veterans' pensions, public assistance grants, slum clearance, reclamation and other such projects. The Administration view that a business recovery would provide enough revenue to balance the budget was challenged by nearly all economists.
The President had thus lost the moral advantage he might have had by being realistic about the impact of the space age on his concept of a balanced budget. He could never make cost-cutting or new taxes popular, but he might have made them a moral issue.
The prospect was instead for a struggle which would include the defense budget. Within the previous few days, members unwilling to accept the President's military judgment, had been heartened by the Rockefeller Report and the testimony of Nelson Rockefeller. It was not that they believed Mr. Rockefeller and his influential associates had necessarily reached the right answers. Several experienced Senators believed, for example, that the group had made a mistake in getting into the controversy over the command system of the services instead of concentrating on the broad task of getting the country to realize its peril.
But Senators felt that Mr. Rockefeller and those associated with his views had removed any partisan stigma from the defense controversy. If those men, primarily Republicans from the business community, were willing to say that the program should be increased by still another 21 billion dollars in the ensuing four years, as they had, the politicians figured that Congress had the green light.
The Gaither Report was said to put an even higher price on survival, as it included both missile and anti-missile programs.
The budget press conferences during the year at the Budget Bureau, the Treasury and the Pentagon had not developed any dramatic controversy such as that of former Treasury Secretary George Humphrey's warnings the previous year against spending. She suggests that apparently the family circle now contained no rebels.
She posits that the public feelings would soon appear, with the White House reporting a favorable response to the State of the Union message, while members of Congress indicated that they had not seen the reaction yet in their mail.
Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain, says that he had yet to come up with a name for the postwar generation, but that a broad description would be the "Hysterical Age" or the "Age of Discontent" or the "Age of Uneasy Self-Inspection." He would not venture what caused it because there had never been a time of such plenty in the country, with so much wealth and employment and so many adjuncts to pleasant living. But there had also never been so much nervousness.
Every newspaper seemed to have several problem columns and psychiatrists had pocketed billions from the sale of divans. Short-order religious advice was also big business.
He was worried about the possible answer, doubts that it was war or threat of war, the atom or Sputnik, as the country had always lived more or less in peril with the prospect of death at hand.
He wonders what had turned the young people into thugs, what had caused the epidemic of alcoholism, heart attacks, multiple divorces, insanity and constant complications. People had all the gadgetry and yet were not satisfied or happy.
There were tremendous fads, from
Hopalong Cassidy to Davy Crockett, from women with bigger bosoms to
Walt Disney
He indicates that occasionally he got rude enough to ask people why they wanted to change. The country people wanted to live in the city and the city people wanted to live in the country. The stockbroker wanted to be a beachcomber in Tahiti and the beachcomber in Tahiti wanted to be a stockbroker.
"It's a strange, strange age, and worthy of mature evaluation a hundred years hence—if there's anybody around to evaluate. And right there I may have shoved a thumb on what's biting us."
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