The Charlotte News
Wednesday, January 8, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Cape Canaveral, Fla., that cold winds hitting a peak velocity of 30 mph had bothered crewmen this date as they prepared one of the large Atlas ICBM's for firing.
A White House request for 1.26 billion dollars in new defense funding had received top Congressional priority this date, with indications that it would be quickly approved.
In New York, it was reported that a fierce winter storm, which had taken at least 27 lives, had moved northeast toward the Canadian maritime provinces this date after hitting the East Coast from Maine to Florida. Weathermen said that it was "one of the most intense coastal storms of recent years". Skies had cleared this date over most of the middle and south Atlantic states, but there still remained bone-chilling temperatures forecast for New England, where temperatures were predicted to be as low as 15 below zero in northern Maine this night. Wind gusts up to 75 mph drove snow, sleet, and rain, coupled in some instances with lightning. Traffic was snarled in New England; businesses and schools were closed. Augusta, Me., received 16 inches of snow and Atlantic City, 13.3 inches, the largest snowfall at the latter location in nearly 17 years. In New Haven, Conn., 14.5 inches of snow had fallen, a half-inch less than the record of December 19-20, 1948. Snow had fallen in Florida as far south as Lakeland, in the heart of the citrus growing region. It was the first time in the history of the Florida Weather Bureau that snow flurries were included in the state forecast.
In Charlotte, the forecast low was 14, with the temperatures to be in the teens from the western Piedmont to the eastern areas of the state. A high pressure system in Texas was teaming with the onrushing cold from the North to keep the air cold and clear through the following day.
In Los Angeles, a $38,000 pedestrian bridge stood as a monument over busy Rosemead Boulevard, after a schoolboy, 15, had been killed in September, 1956 on the first day of school when the brakes of a heavily loaded truck and trailer had failed, striking a group of students and seriously injuring three others. The parents of the 400 pupils attending the nearby El Rancho High School and Mary Miller Junior High School, in the suburb of Rivera, began picketing the intersection and posted a sign saying that they needed an overpass. A safety committee had been formed and about 30 of its female members had volunteered for traffic control duty at the intersection. Fathers, meanwhile, visited state, county and local officials to demand the pedestrian overpass. They heard in response that it was an impossibility or was not feasible to construct it, generally receiving a brush-off. An official traffic count was promised but was delayed and so the safety committee conducted its own count, showing that 5,000 vehicles passed through the intersection in both the morning and afternoon rush hours. The previous March, county and state officials agreed to share the cost of the overpass. About 40 members of the volunteer committee stayed up until 4:00 a.m. the previous day to watch the 35-ton piece of reinforced concrete being set in place for the overpass.
Also in Los Angeles, a 16-year old boy, the son of a civic leader and school principal in suburban Norwalk, an Explorer Scout who attended church regularly and worked after school in a supermarket, was, according to sheriff's deputies, a killer and a member of a teenage gang of liquor store robbers. His father said that it was out of character for his son and he did not know what to say. The officers said that the boy, with his 14-year old brother, were members of a gang which had taken about $400 in three robberies, in one of which, the store clerk was fatally wounded on December 26. In another robbery, two weeks earlier, a German shepherd watchdog had been shot and finally had to be destroyed. The deputies said that the older of the two brothers was carrying a .22-caliber revolver and $300 in cash when arrested. He was booked on suspicion of murder and robbery and was questioned by a sergeant of the sheriff's homicide detail, who said that he had told them all about it. He said that he had mentioned his younger brother and four other youths as being members of the gang. All of them were arrested and turned over to juvenile authorities. The boy told his father that he did not mean to hurt anyone, that he was just doing it for a lark, that the clerk had told them to get out of the store and he was just going to shoot a bottle.
In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., deputies searching for additional evidence in the killing of a young student engineer said this date that they had found a woman's red leather wallet a half-mile north of the scene of the killing and that it might belong to the 22-year old waitress and admitted dope addict who had admitted the shooting and was being held for a competency hearing to occur Monday. The deputies were also searching for a pair of shoes with a broken heel which the woman claimed that she had thrown away while running from the scene. She had admitted that earrings found at the scene belonged to her. She admitted killing the 24-year old man on Christmas night. He was a former resident of Asheville and had graduated from N.C, State. He had been returning from spending the holidays with his fiancée when he picked up the woman as a hitchhiker. She said that he had stopped to stretch his legs in an isolated area about 32 miles northwest of Miami, and when he got out of the car to do so, she spotted a .22-caliber rifle sitting on the back seat and decided to use it to rob him, thus pointed the gun at him when he returned to the car, refused to surrender it when he asked for it, and, she contended, in a subsequent struggle over the gun, shot him fatally.
In Rockingham, N.C., in the trial of Frank Wetzel, accused of first-degree murder of Highway Patrolmen Wister Reece on the night of November 5 near Ellerbe, a witness to the shooting, who had been hitchhiking with Mr. Wetzel at the time, identified Mr. Wetzel as the shooter of the patrolman. The defendant remained calm and impassive during the testimony, but shook his head slightly when he was identified. Mr. Wetzel was accused also of murdering Patrolman J. T. Brown at another location on the same night, but because there was no eyewitness to that shooting, the prosecution had elected to proceed first in the present case. The witness said that the patrolman had pulled over Mr. Wetzel and that when he slowed the car, he reached into the glove compartment and retrieved a gun as he stopped. The witness said that he started begging him not to do that, but that Mr. Wetzel had said that he had to do it. He said that Mr. Wetzel then got out of the car, and the witness said that he exited the other side at the same time, jumping into a small ditch, when he heard a single pistol shot, whereupon the driver had then re-entered the car and sped away.
In Ruleville, Miss., a 38-year old black man, who had been hunted overnight in freezing weather, had been killed by gunfire in the early morning this date when he was cornered by a posse of about 25 men.
In New Orleans, a Cuban freighter had reported to the Coast Guard this date that it was sinking, the second time in 24 hours that the Havana-bound vessel had reported trouble.
In Portage, Wisc., 11 mail clerks had been injured and 70 passengers shaken up in the wee hours of the morning this date when the Milwaukee Road's Pioneer Limited apparently had struck a broken rail in the road's yards, derailing 11 of 17 cars.
In Washington, three persons, one an elderly woman, had been rescued by ladder from the fifth floor of a hotel while firemen fought a two-alarm blaze early this date.
In San Diego, a general court-martial was set to begin the following day for the first of seven drill instructors charged with having financial arrangements with trainees at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
Dick Young of The News indicates that Charlotte Mayor James Smith this date had announced a 15-point list of municipal objectives for 1958, which he had presented at the City Council meeting. The Mayor had given no order of priority to the items, indicating that all of them were important. The report includes the list. City Council member and former Mayor Herbert Baxter said that he would present his own 15-point plan for civic improvements at the Council meeting during the afternoon, not revealing any details of his plan. Several years earlier, Mr. Baxter had first introduced a 14-point plan and the idea had been associated with him since that time.
Elizabeth Prince of The News reports of snorers and indicates that a spouse of one could make it uncomfortable for the snorer to sleep with nose up, such as by placing a small pillow at the nape of the neck. Dr. Noah Fabricant, writing in the January issue of Today's Health magazine, said that snoring was the result of vibrations in the soft palate and other structures of the throat, occurring during breathing. The solution was to do something about the vibrations. In children, it could be the result of tonsils and adenoids, which could be removed. Sometimes, deformities or polyps, benign masses at the back of the nose, could block the smooth passage of air, which could be corrected by surgery. An allergy or infection could also block the nose and cause the vibrations. The doctor had written that snoring was "repressible, even curable, when a definite cause-and-effect relationship was discovered." He said that ultimately the listener could resort to earplugs if all else failed. Buy a tape recorder and get a six-hour reel, record some ocean waves and play it loud all night. You will sleep soundly and not hear a thing.
Emery Wister of The News tells of Belk Brothers Co. having just opened its new Charlotte store on a fine fall morning in 1956, when George W. Dowdy, executive vice-president and general manager of the store, told a reporter that he did not want to hear what was right with the store but instead what was wrong with it. At the time, Belk's was already the largest Carolinas department store and the new 5 million dollar addition had doubled its size, placing it in among the giants of the Southeast. This date, the board of directors of the National Retail Merchants Association had elected Mr. Dowdy as their president, elevating him from being executive director of the Association, succeeding Atlanta's Richard H. Rich. Mr. Dowdy was the second Charlotte resident to be elected to the post, the late David Ovens having been so elected several years earlier.
On the editorial page, "Kuralt's Salary Cut Should Be Restored" indicates that the reduction of Welfare Department superintendent Wallace Kuralt's salary the previous October had been the result of sound procedure but poor policy. He was entitled under State regulations to receive a $100 per month increase by the City and County for added responsibilities in the planning and supervising of a juvenile diagnostic center in Charlotte. He had not been entitled to a $50 per month automobile allowance he was receiving as a salary supplement. The regulations had been satisfied, however, when his salary was reduced from $850 to $700 per month.
It indicates that because of the weight of his responsibilities and the competence with which he performed them, he was fully entitled to at least the salary he had been receiving before the reduction. The reduction to bring his salary technically within the regulations had meant that Mr. Kuralt might take his skills elsewhere, resulting in a serious loss of efficiency and effectiveness of the Department.
There was a severe shortage of thoroughly trained and responsible social workers at all levels. Some of the responsibilities of the superintendent of the Department had been indicated in an interview with Mr. Kuralt which appeared on the page this date. They included 3.25 million dollars in expenditures of public funds annually, the care of an average of 2,000 children each year, the carrying out of investigations essential to wise administration of juvenile and domestic courts, and efforts to rehabilitate socially and physically handicapped children. Proper discharge of those responsibilities, it finds, required vast experience in human issues and a seasoned knowledge of human problems.
The Mecklenburg Board of Public Welfare had stated recently: "The County Welfare Board believes and has believed that few, if any, county welfare superintendents bring greater ability, efficiency or energy to the position than does Mr. Kuralt. We consider the county fortunate to have such a man in his position."
It urges that the County should do everything it could to keep Mr. Kuralt. The Board had requested that the present unrealistic salary limit be raised and it hopes that State Welfare commissioner, Dr. Ellen Winston, and other concerned officials would rapidly make that change to enable the County to pay Mr. Kuralt what it had found he was worth.
"Only New Ideas Can Save Us Now" tells of a Rockefeller Brothers Fund report on the security of the country which it believes would long echo through the halls of Congress. In plain language, the privately sponsored study group had asserted that unless the U.S. acted immediately, the world balance of military power would shift within two years to the Soviet bloc. It was recommending that the structure and philosophy of the Defense Department be drastically reorganized with "unified commands" for operational military forces. That proposal and several others contained in the 25,000-word report, were bold and controversy.
It finds that it was the type of adventurous thinking which the nation had to have in the current age of constant crisis. The Report, unlike the officially sponsored Gaither Report, had been released in its entirety, but the conclusions reached by each report were believed to be quite similar. Both had access to the same sources and both found reason for "intelligent terror" unless dramatic steps were taken to avert disaster.
It believes that the Rockefeller Report deserved sympathetic consideration as interservice rivalry during the previous several years had been scandalous, with a case to be made for the contention of the report that the development of new weapons, particularly missiles, had caused the traditional missions of America's land, sea and air forces to overlap to such a degree that greater unity of command was now a necessity.
It concludes that a steady stream of new ideas was necessary in such an age, that stagnation would be the first step toward extinction.
"Elephants Make Fine Scapegoats, Too" indicates that House Republican whip Leslie Arends of Illinois, a high-ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, adept at conjuring up scapegoats, had authored a 15-page memorandum to all House Republicans, blaming the Truman Administration for the missile lag vis-à-vis the Soviets, without mentioning former President Truman by name. It had cited dates and figures in an effort to prove that "years of low priority attention and lack of funds" during the Truman Administration had primarily been responsible for the Soviet advantage in the missile field.
It indicates it could not help but wonder whether the facts and figures compiled by Mr. Arends went back as far as 1950 when President Truman had sent to Congress the National Science Foundation bill to speed up research and missile development. Among the House Republicans who had voted against it had been Mr. Arends, Gerald Ford of Michigan, Joseph Martin of Massachusetts, Walter Norblad of Oregon, Charles Potter of Michigan, since having become a Senator, and Richard Simpson of Pennsylvania.
"Of scapegoats there is no shortage, Congressman Arends—and some of them have tusks, trunks and twitchy consciences."
A piece from the Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call, titled "Easy, Miss Williams", indicates that it had seen a picture recently of swimmer-actress Esther Williams looking glum, the caption below it indicating that she was disturbed because woodpeckers had been playing with the roof of her house in Hollywood, prompting her to search for a humane way to discourage them.
In indicates that it was aware of a way to do it, first tested by a friend some years earlier when a woodpecker had repeatedly awakened him at dawn. He had observed the woodpecker until he discovered its sleeping quarters in a nearby hollow tree, and when the bird had settled into sleep, the friend had whacked on the hollow tree with a broomstick until the bird flew away. After three successive nights of that treatment, it never returned. It thus offers the solution to Ms. Williams.
You can also resort to the tape recorder.
Drew Pearson indicates that the divide between Secretary of State Dulles and disarmament specialist Harold Stassen was deeper than had been made public. Mr. Stassen wanted to explore new disarmament negotiations with the Russians in response to the proposal by Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, Mr. Stassen wanting the President to force the Premier to reply for a change. Secretary Dulles not only refused to change his previous position on disarmament, but was unwilling to consider any settlement with the Soviets until they gave some sign that they were sincerely interested in peace. He claimed that the letter from Premier Bulganin was merely propaganda. The President was tempted by Mr. Stassen's arguments, wanting to repeat his success at the Geneva conference of mid-1955 when his "open skies" proposal had resonated with the world and placed the Soviets on the defensive. But Mr. Dulles, who was closer than Mr. Stassen to the President, continued to dampen the President's hopes with his pessimism on the issue.
Many of the subordinates to Secretary Dulles, including Undersecretary Christian Herter to some degree, wanted to try Mr. Stassen's more daring approach, favoring a barrage of new ideas for a change unleashed on the Kremlin instead of waiting for the Russians to initiate matters. Only twice had the President come up with that kind of dramatic idea to take the psychological offensive, the first having been his atoms-for-peace proposal of 1953, announced in December of that year before the U.N., known inside the White House as "Operation Wheaties" because it was approved at a breakfast meeting. The idea had been an outgrowth of a top-secret report written by Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, who had subsequently been purged from the Government by the Atomic Energy Commission and its "McCarthy-minded boss", Lewis Strauss. Mr. Pearson regards that as one of the worst setbacks the Government had suffered, because, since then, it had lacked Dr. Oppenheimer's scientific acumen. The latter had submitted a report to the President on the annihilating power of nuclear weapons, calling for renewed effort to avert such a nuclear holocaust. The President had been so impressed with that report that he had sent it to the National Security Council for study, eventuating in the atoms-for-peace proposal. The President had used much of the report in the first part of his speech announcing that proposal.
The President's second great idea for peace, the "open skies" proposal, was developed at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia by what came to be known inside the White House as the "Quantico Panel", a group of experts brought together in 1955 by Nelson Rockefeller, then the President's specialist on psychological strategy. They had proposed the idea, quickly picked up by Mr. Stassen and endorsed by then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Arthur Radford, both of whom had flown to Geneva with Mr. Rockefeller and persuaded the President to propose the idea at the Big Four Conference.
Now, Mr. Stassen was seeking another equally dramatic idea to free the disarmament talks from the present stalemate, provided he could get around the roadblock put in its way by Secretary Dulles.
As indicated in the above editorial, an interview by the News staff of Welfare Department superintendent Wallace Kuralt, father of former News reporter Charles Kuralt, who had, during the previous year, left the newspaper to join CBS, discusses the structure and budget of the Department, that it dispensed aid to 12,000 persons in the community the previous year and had a case load of about 8,000 persons. He also indicates that Federal, State and social auditors, as well as that of the County Commission, made sure that the funds were being well spent.
It is rather lengthy and you can read it if you have a particular interest beyond that included in the above editorial.
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