The Charlotte News
Tuesday, January 7, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President told Republican legislative leaders this date that he would send Congress a balanced budget calling for spending of about 74 billion dollars to help meet the threat of Communist imperialism. Senate Minority leader William Knowland of California reported after meeting with the President that he got the impression that the latter was convinced that the current year would be better generally from the standpoint of business than the previous year. In reply to questions, Senator Knowland told a press conference at the White House that he and the President were thinking of both the 1958 calendar year and the fiscal year, compared with the current fiscal year and the 1957 calendar year. Responding to another question, he said that the President was confident of a better 1958 from an economic standpoint, despite the current business recession. He left no doubt that the President looked for a business upswing in the months ahead. He said that he had no doubt that defense matters would get top priority in the current session of Congress.
Senator Knowland also said this date that Russia obviously was angling for free world "legalization" of the Iron Curtain by its non-aggression pact proposals and announced cuts in its armed forces.
In Tel Aviv, Israel, three Israelis were sentenced to life imprisonment this date for the assassination of Dr. Israel Rudolf Kastner, who was found guilty of preparing the way for mass murder of Hungarian Jews by Nazi police during World War II.
In London, it was reported that Moscow Radio had indicated the death this date of President Petru Groza, 72, of Communist Rumania.
In Auckland, New Zealand, a press report from Scott Base said this date that Dr. Vivian Fuchs, the British scientist leading an overland expedition to the South Pole, did not believe he would get to his destination prior to January 17.
In Hong Kong, it was reported that three American mothers had spent this date in Canton shopping and sightseeing while awaiting an airplane to take them to visit their sons in Chinese Communist prisons.
In Miami, Fla., it was reported that the Air Force had said that a four-engine KC97 tanker plane was down in the Everglades this date about 15 miles west of Miami. A spokesman at Homestead Air Force Base said he did not know whether there were any casualties.
In Rome, the Rome Opera Company told
soprano Maria Callas this date that she could not sing there again
during the season because police feared that her appearance would
disturb public order, in the wake of her walkout of a performance of
Norma
In Los Angeles, a Blackfoot Indian from Browning, Mont., had arrived in town the previous May and started hiking along the Hollywood Freeway, off-limits to pedestrians. A policeman had cut him off before the Cahuenga Pass and given him a ticket. He had returned to town recently and police said that he had hit the firewater and was taken to jail. While there, someone found the old ticket which had not been paid and he was taken to traffic court the previous day and told to pay a $20 fine or spend four days in jail. He did not have the money and when he got out, he was planning to head back to Browning.
In Raleigh, Governor Luther Hodges this date announced the resignation of Thomas Allen of Creedmoor as chairman of the State ABC Board and the appointment of a veteran State Highway Patrol officer, Lt. William Hunt, Jr., of Fayetteville, as his successor.
In Rockingham, it was reported that only one juror had been chosen by mid-morning for the jury in the Frank Wetzel first-degree murder trial in Richmond County Superior Court. The piece provides the name of the juror and indicates that he was a textile worker. When court had recessed shortly before noon, the regular panel of 60 names for the venire had not been exhausted. Attorneys were expected to begin questioning persons from a special 150-member venire later in the afternoon. The majority of those questioned during the morning had been excused because they objected to the death penalty on religious grounds. When court recessed, only three prospective jurors had been questioned by Mr. Wetzel's court-appointed attorney. The defendant was being tried for the November 5 slaying of Highway Patrolman Wister Reece near Ellerbe. Defense counsel had challenged two persons passed by the solicitor. The solicitor had challenged most of the prospective jurors because of their views on capital punishment, using one challenge when a Rockingham cab driver had said that he had formed an opinion about Mr. Wetzel's guilt. Earlier in the morning, the grand jury had indicted Mr. Wetzel on first-degree murder. He was also accused of murdering another Highway Patrolman the same day, but the State had elected to proceed first in this case as there was an eyewitness to the shooting who could identify Mr. Wetzel as the shooter.
Emery Wister of The News tells of a snow and ice storm hitting the Carolinas with the fury of a Yankee winter this date, though most of the snow had melted as it fell, while some formed on streets and highways to cause a number of traffic accidents, leaving a wet coating which could freeze this night in temperatures predicted to get down to 20. The dropping temperatures could bring more snow the following day.
Julian Scheer of The News
reports that at 9:41 a.m., a woman had yelled that it was snowing and
five minutes later had said that it was sticking, causing downtown
office windows suddenly to become filled with people gawking at the
snowfall
Starting the following day, News reporter Ann Sawyer, who had surveyed educational opportunities in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, would begin a three-part series on the higher education scholarship opportunities available to students.
On the editorial page, "Congress Must Forgo Partisan Feasts" finds that in the second session of the 85th Congress there would be made either a good or bad record and the nature of the circumstances had ruled out any possibility for it to escape measurement by stern standards.
If it failed to deal decisively with the great issues before it, there would be little sympathy waiting for it at the end of the session. It was a midterm election year when the natural desire of Congress was to spend less and offer hope at least for a tax cut, to promise ease instead of effort, and to put blame for the problems on the opposition. For the Democratic majority, there were ready-made targets in the President, whose halo had slipped, and in his Administration, which had misjudged or ignored the depth of the Communist offensive against U.S. military supremacy.
It counsels that the partisan feast had to be denied if the nation was to lay the foundation for a broad and continuing effort to make itself and the free world secure. Leadership by the President had to be welcomed and even encouraged. Partisanship diluting his capacity for leadership would rob Congress of its own capacity to legislate effectively.
The symbol of the challenge in the issues before Congress was Sputnik and its implication for huge military expenditures on the part of the U.S. to form a scientific establishment, a school system shaped to broaden scientific endeavor by producing trained and inquiring minds in the face of the Soviet determination to replace the U.S. as the leader of the world.
Congress could not seriously consider a tax cut under those circumstances, as it had to devote new amounts for missiles, satellites, and aid to education and research. It also had to continue foreign aid to undeveloped countries to stem the possibility of Communist aid which could produce quiet takeover from within. It had to provide also for a realistic civil defense program.
It indicates that the Congress ought at least shed light on the organizational failures of the Defense Department and to delve into the conditions which had caused Lt. General James Gavin to resign his post as the Army's chief of research and development. Other steps needed in the defense effort were incentive pay increases for skilled military officers and technicians, a broader U.S. information program overseas, and an exchange of scientific information with U.S. allies.
The response to the Sputniks would provide enough difficulty for Congress, but there would also be domestic concerns, including keeping the economy healthy, a compromise between protectionism and free trade, and legislation to protect rank-and-file union members from corrupt union bosses. There would be new battles over Federal control of natural gas rates, farm price supports and the recurring issue of statehood for Alaska and Hawaii. Congress would also have to face the problem of presidential disability.
It indicates that some of those issues could probably be left for another Congress. There would be no civil rights issue pending in the second session, but the response to the Soviet challenge in satellites, weaponry, economics and education could not be postponed.
It concludes that the record of the 85th Congress would be made based on the thoroughness and wisdom of its response to that latter challenge.
"Tough-Minded Tar Heel Takes Charge" indicates that George V. Allen had headed the United States Information Agency only since mid-November but had already added innovations which undoubtedly caused discomfort in Russia. One of his boldest moves had occurred the previous week when he made public a blueprint of Communist subversion in Indonesia, written by Indonesia's top Communist. The Agency was fighting Communism directly with the enemy's own words.
The President had said that the Agency had been established "to submit evidence to peoples of other nations … that the objectives and policies of the United States are in harmony with and will advance their legitimate aspirations for freedom, progress and peace." It finds that the task went further, that every effort had to be made to seek out and expose the mythology of Communism and the sordid record of Soviet treachery. While USIA had to show clearly why American policies were in harmony with and would advance the legitimate aspirations of freedom, progress and peace, it had also to demonstrate why Soviet policies were not and would not be in that kind of harmony. It suggests that it would require the type of hard-hitting, direct approach for which USIA had not been famous in the past. The cold war had reached an especially crucial stage and it finds it too late for the gentle amenities of Louis XIV diplomacy. The Russians had already rewritten the rule book and it suggests that there was a chance now that Mr. Allen could beat them at their own game.
"Collateral Reading for the President" tells of U.S. Presidents being treated to a big crate of books each year by the American Booksellers Association, all carefully chosen "'to meet the varied interests of the presidential family.'" The latest shipment just arrived at the White House included How To Play Your Best Golf All the Time, Cinderella, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and Harry S. Truman's Memoirs.
It suggests that the golf book might be terribly instructive, and that Mr. Truman's book might contain a few useful hints about the care and feeding of eggheads, but it hopes that the President would not be limited to the ready-made reading lists prepared for him, suggests that he might enjoy going to the drugstore to have a look at the new paperbacks or to the bookstore for an afternoon of casual browsing. While his discoveries might lack the Puritanism and moral asceticism of Cinderella, a little raciness now and then never hurt anybody.
It recommends With All Deliberate
Speed, edited by Don Shoemaker, issued by the Southern Education Reporting Service, America as a Civilization,
by Max Lerner, The Crisis of the Old Order, by Arthur M.
Schlesinger, Jr.
It also recommends the Gaither Report.
A piece from the Manchester Guardian, titled "Wrong Number", indicates that the Budapest telephone exchange reportedly maintained a considerable variety of tape-recorded services for dialing, from bedtime stories to an A note for musicians. As soon as Sputnik II had appeared, its sound had been recorded and made available to subscribers as a matter of interest and as a demonstration of loyalty to the Communist homeland.
But through some misunderstanding, the wrong telephone number had appeared in the evening paper and all night long the night watchman of the city's drainage department received eager inquiries about the dog in the satellite. The night watchman rose to the occasion and replied to the calls by barking vigorously. The Hungarian Information Service reported that the night watchman said he could not disappoint the many children who had called.
It seemed probable that the service had now been discontinued. It finds it a pity since there could not have been much cause for laughter in Budapest during the previous 12 months since the uprising which was put down forcefully by Russian troops in November, 1956.
Drew Pearson indicates that he was wrong if he had implied in his columns from North Africa that hydrogen bombs were constantly in the air in U.S. planes, ready to be dropped. They were in the air and on the runways in planes ready to take off, but were not ready to be dropped. They were in two parts so there was no danger of a premature detonation. The two parts were kept in separate sections of the plane and the hydrogen bomb would not explode unless the two parts were put together. The two parts of the bomb were the bomb casing and the pill, which contained the hydrogen explosive. A member of the crew was trained to put the bomb together and on training flights, he went through the routine. The practice of "marrying" the bomb took place only when the plane was over the ocean or desert areas where no civilian lives could be lost in case of an accidental detonation.
A House committee on public housing would begin working the following day on a half-billion dollar long-range plan for slum clearance and suburban relocation. The program had been frowned on the previous summer and even castigated publicly by the President. But the previous month, he had released the 177 million dollars for public housing which the previous summer he had criticized. He seemed glad to use the money to help offset the building slump and the business recession. Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois and Representative Albert Rains, also of Illinois, planned to push for a minimum of a half-billion dollars over a decade to help cities clear slums and relocate tenement families.
He indicates that it was likely that a Venezuelan-type revolt would be repeated in Guatemala before its January 19 election. The Communists intended to strike before U.S.-supported Cruz Salazar could be elected. Of the Guatemalan Army's 600 officers, it was reported that 200 were Communists.
The President had told aides that he was determined to deliver his State of the Union message to Congress in person, brushing aside the suggestion that he send his message to the Congress and let it be read for him.
Marquis Childs tells of a meeting between Secretary of State Dulles and the President on January 2 in which the Secretary, in response to criticism he had received both at home and in Western Europe, growing especially intense since the telecast in December when the President sat "looking old and bored" while the Secretary gave a routine report on what had occurred at the Paris NATO conference, had told the President that he had previously said that if he were not doing a good job, he hoped the President would ask him to step aside. In response, the President had said that he believed Mr. Dulles was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Secretary of State in the country's history and he did not have any reason to change that view.
The closest associates of Mr. Dulles had reported that exchange to try to end the recurring rumor that the Secretary would resign in February on or about his 70th birthday. It appeared that the President would stick by the Secretary no matter to what extent he received criticism.
But it left the fate of Harold Stassen, who had much to do with shaping foreign policy, at odds with the Secretary. Mr. Stassen believed that the Secretary's reluctance to explore chances for negotiation with the Soviets jeopardized the country's relations with its allies and threatened to turn opinion against the U.S. everywhere. He was convinced that as long as Mr. Dulles stayed as Secretary, there could be no exploratory foreign ministers conference should the Soviets agree to hold one to consider a new beginning to disarmament.
While he was still the President's adviser on disarmament attending meetings of the Cabinet and the National Security Council, Mr. Stassen was in the State Department and thus subordinate to Secretary Dulles.
During the Paris meeting, Secretary Dulles had provided at least one broad hint that Mr. Stassen's usefulness had ended, since in any event it would be at least several months and probably years before any further discussion on disarmament would take place, indicating also that Mr. Stassen, during the negotiations in the U.N. Disarmament Commission in London the previous summer, had exceeded his instructions and gone beyond what the allies would approve. Mr. Stassen's associates indicated that he had the full approval of the NATO allies and that Secretary Dulles had deliberately intervened the previous August to ensure that the negotiation would not succeed.
It was the type of internal dispute which the Administration had zealously sought to prevent or keep out of the public eye, and the feeling was increasing at the White House that it had to be resolved soon. But those around the President who sought to deal in the realities as well as in good will, realized that Mr. Stassen's view in favor of making every effort to negotiate had wide popular appeal at home and abroad. Mr. Stassen's mail was said to be running heavily in his favor on the issue of the negotiations. To dismiss him would be interpreted as a signal that the Administration was definitely closing the door on negotiations. Mr. Stassen, who had threatened to run for governor of Pennsylvania, would do nothing to discourage that interpretation. Thus, Mr. Stassen might stay on and the differences between him and Mr. Dulles might be temporarily papered over, as that type of "solution" had been used by the Administration in the past to obscure temporarily policy differences on issues almost as basic as the one at hand.
Robert C. Ruark, in Rome, Italy, indicates that during his several years as a columnist he had noticed that news died generally on long weekends and over the festive periods, which told him something about the state of the world in general. There were the stories of traffic casualties and of fire and flood, but the people who kicked the world around took a vacation. It told him that there was a lot of man-made nonsense which would not be made if people did not figure they had to make it during working hours to justify their position and pay.
He thus plumps for longer weekends and shorter hours, more holidays and less time for legal mischief-making. He believed everything was magnified too much, whether a heart attack of the President or the failure of another French Cabinet. He also believed that they had gone into a state of high hysteria over the Russians beating the U.S. to the punch on the satellite, when they never became so nervous when the Australians beat the U.S. on the tennis courts. He did not care who climbed the highest mountain anymore.
He indicates that he was exactly 42 years old, looked older and acted meaner, and was making a firm resolution or two which would either kill him fast or ripen him to an ancient vintage. He had firmly decided not to worry about 1959, would sit back and let the Russians handle their own international juvenile delinquency, and if they dropped a bomb, he would not be at home that day, would be fishing someplace else. He was going to read some books, drink some whiskey, get some sleep, light some fires, shoot some birds, draw some bad pictures, write some pieces and be polite to everyone except a year-old boxer puppy which he intended to beat to death as soon as he got home again.
"I don't think it makes a dirty damn's worth of difference whether Ike plays too much golf, or what Mr. John Foster Boredom does, or whether James B. (Scotty) Reston gets the Pulitzer Prize for being scooped on a story he knew about all along. I shall also not be annoyed by the predigested English that Time magazine uses to misinform the people at large."
He indicates that this date he loved everybody, including Arkansas, a state which he hoped would be integrated with the rest of the civilized world someday. "It'll take some doing, but it is not impossible."
He concludes that he did not know what the point of the piece started out to be except that it was a new year and with some time off from the connivers, it might even be a happy one.
Would it were that 2025 could have some time off, about four years' worth, from the Trumpy-Dumpy-Do connivers.
A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., indicates that when the liberal establishment went after somebody's political scalp, it almost invariably happened that he felt sympathy in varying degrees toward the poor devil. He finds that the establishment was again out to get the scalp of Secretary Dulles, that the News had already said that Mr. Dulles had to go, which meant that the New York Times and the Washington Post probably had said the same thing earlier. He indicates that a letter writer of January 3 had joined the scalping party "with some real sporty observations about the type person who should sit down with Communist tyrants and talk about 'peace.'" The writer had suggested Bernard Baruch or Frank Porter Graham because he believed they were unselfish, wise and worked for the cause of peace. He does not believe that Mr. Baruch would be qualified to talk peace with the Communists. He believes that Mr. Graham was too connected with Communist front organizations to be any good at it. He believes that Secretary of State Dulles, while not the best person for the job, was quite a lot better than his predecessors of the previous 15 years, and so he was sticking with Mr. Dulles, as he did not believe the President could come up with anyone better, that to try "might unduly tax his fragile brain and heart and, therefore, shouldn't for a moment be considered."
A letter from A. W. Black responds to a letter writer whom he finds had ignored the principles of intelligent debate and zealously demanded proof of the negative, regarding the existence of God. He finds it "a deliberate attempt to obscure the pertinent issues subsequent to the hypothesis of spirituality, but a futile one." He says that if God were a reality, the reality should have some features upon which men could reasonably and clearly agree, and that there should be something definite and demonstrable about God, that to say God was evidenced by a personal feeling reduced the matter to a mere emotion and destroyed God as an entity. "To maintain that God is evidenced in nature, the supposed design and order of the universe, clearly indicates that the theist is simply calling nature by another name. Using assumption to sustain assumption." He finds there to be no clear, independent idea of God or spirituality, that it was all reflection and analogy, abstract terms which defined nothing and explained nothing. Theologians, he posits, conceded that the Bible offered no formal proof of the existence of God and that no proof was found at the end of a logical process. He concludes that theism was an assumption and idea without a model.
But, given the role of religion in any culture and society, to provide a higher system of moral law
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