The Charlotte News
Monday, October 13, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Pentagon had announced this date that the intended moon probe, Pioneer, launched early Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Fla., had disintegrated upon return to earth's atmosphere somewhere over the south Pacific at about 12:00 p.m. Sunday night, after traveling 79,120 miles in about 45 hours, a record distance into space, about a third of its intended distance of 222,000 miles to achieve a rendezvous with moon orbit about 50,000 miles from the lunar surface. There were no reported visual sightings of the end of its flight. The Hawaiian tracking station, the last to receive data from the satellite, lost contact with it at 11:46 p.m. EDT. Scientists said that, nevertheless, valuable data had been gathered from the flight, one such fact having been that deadly radiation may not have been as intense in deep space as previously believed, potentially affecting positively future manned space travel. The President called it a tremendous achievement which would yield knowledge of great benefit to mankind. Moscow newspapers published progress reports from the U.S. on the probe, but did not go beyond that. The reason for the failure to reach its target distance was believed a lack of sufficient initial thrust, reaching 23,450 mph after liftoff, enough to clear the earth's gravitational pull but not enough to go the full distance to the moon.
In Atlanta, it was reported that police this date were sifting tons of debris in their search for clues to the dynamiting in the predawn hours of Sunday of a Jewish temple, home of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation in a fashionable section on Peachtree Road. Police continued to round up members of race-hating groups known to operate in the area, several members of which had picketed an Atlanta newspaper building the previous summer, carrying anti-Semitic signs at the time. It was the first such incident in Atlanta but the fourth at Jewish centers in the South since the previous mid-March. Workmen gathered shattered concrete columns, plaster and rubbish of other building materials left from the blast to be analyzed for clues. Debris from the blast had scattered over a 150-yard area, and houses had been shaken half a mile away, with no one having suffered injuries. The perpetrators had escaped into the darkness. It occurred a week after three dynamite blasts had wrecked much of the integrated high school at Clinton, Tenn., where damage was estimated at $250,000 at the school which had been integrated to great public attention in September, 1956. Temple Beth El in Miami, Fla., and the Nashville, Tenn., Jewish Community Center had been damaged by dynamite on March 16. A Jacksonville, Fla., synagogue and a black school had been dynamited on April 28, and an attempt had been made to blow up a temple in Birmingham, Ala., failing when the fuse had burned out. The President joined with political and religious leaders in deploring the Atlanta incident, the President having interrupted a speech regarding civil and religious liberties in New York to state: "We must all share in the feeling of horror that anyone would want to desecrate a place of religion, be it a chapel, a cathedral, a mosque, a church or synagogue."
In Vatican City, it was reported that the remains of Pope Pius XII had been interred on this date by the Roman Catholic Church, which he had served as Pope since March, 1939. A brilliant afternoon sun had shone through the massive dome of St. Peter's Basilica and cast a crown of light about the altar as the pontifical funeral had begun. An odd hush enveloped the religious and lay dignitaries present in the Basilica, the world's largest church. The giant bell of St. Peter's tolled slowly and mournfully as the time for the funeral service arrived. In the immediate area of St. Peter's Square, life came to a standstill. Under the great spiraling baldachin above the Altar of the Confession, noble guards in plumed helmets stood at attention. Present were ambassadors in formal diplomatic uniforms, prelates in somber robes and members of religious orders. Among them was the longtime faithful housekeeper for the Pope, Sister Parqualina. The throne bearers who carried the Pope in life slowly bore his body on their shoulders toward the altar. The ceremonies began precisely at 4:00 p.m. with a slow procession of the parish priests of Rome toward the Altar of the Confession. Behind them, in a slow march, walked uniformed members of the papal household. The dignitaries took up their positions in a great circle surrounding the catafalque which supported the body of the Pope. The choir of the Julian Chapel sang a cappella a "Miserere", which legend indicated had been composed by King David. Tall Swiss Guards in high-crowned helmets knelt reverently as the body passed, surrounded by a stately procession of medieval splendor. There were no silver trumpets to accompany the choir, as there had been when in life the Pope entered the Basilica. The body was placed carefully alongside a cypress coffin in front of the altar. Cardinals took up special places before the altar, wearing the deep purple of religious mourning. Msgr. Enrico Dante, prefect of Vatican ceremonies, based the rites on a Vatican manuscript written in 1829 and followed since that time. Msgr. Acanisius van Lierde, the sacristan to the Pope and Vicar for Vatican City, conducted the services, having been appointed by the archpriest of St. Peter's, Federico Cardinal Tedeschini, to bless the papal coffin. Attendants removed a white miter and he began to chant the "Kyrie" before giving absolution to the remains of the Pope. He sprinkled the bier slowly with holy water and intoned in Latin: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." He then read a special "oremus" reserved for papal masses from a book held before him by an attendant. He then pronounced the blessing over the coffin. Three separate coffins, one of cypress, one of lead and one of oak, were blessed as a thurible bearer spread incense over the bier. The body was then wrapped in a red shroud and placed in the red-lined cypress coffin. The choir again sang an ancient chant and the cardinals rose from their thrones. The dean of the College of Cardinals, Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, led them as they filed past the body, each kneeling and praying before the coffin, some having to be assisted as they passed. Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York appeared deeply grieved. A blanket of red was drawn reverently over the Pope's body and a white scarf was placed over his face by two of the cardinals, and over that was placed another red silk shroud, tenderly tucked about the body by the assistants.
The Supreme Court Court this date had denied a petition for writ of certiorari from Louisiana school officials, seeking appeal from a lower court decision striking down a requirement for a certificate of eligibility before admission to State institutions of higher learning.
The high court this date also agreed to review a lower court decision which had voided three Virginia laws aimed at the NAACP.
In Little Rock, Ark., a handful of high school students attended their first day of private classes this date, as temporary academies set up at the Westover Hills Presbyterian Church and the Second Baptist Church announced that they would accept about 60 students for a limited curriculum. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals would decide on Wednesday whether to make a temporary restraining order permanent which had barred the use of public school facilities leased to a private corporation for the purpose of holding classes at the four closed high schools in the city on private, segregated basis, including Central High School, which had been integrated the prior fall and which had been ordered to resume integration in the current school year by the Supreme Court in its decision of September 29 in Cooper v. Aaron, affirming the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision of August, which had reversed a District Court decision to grant a hiatus in integration at the school until the beginning of 1961.
At the U.N. in New York, India, backed by Asian-African co-sponsors, planned to submit a revised resolution this date to have the General Assembly call for "immediate discontinuance" of nuclear weapons testing.
At the Atomic Test Site in Yucca Flat, Nev., the fifth nuclear weapons test in the current series would be fired this date from a balloon tethered 1,500 feet in the air. Another test, also set for this date, had been postponed until the following morning, that scheduled to be detonated from atop a 50-foot wooden tower on Frenchman Flat.
In London, the Air Ministry indicated this date that a British airman was being held on suspicion of leaking rocket secrets.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, the Army information chief announced this date that Government troops had captured the important highway town of Muarabungo in Central Sumatra from the rebels.
In Detroit, 1959 auto production, resuming in scattered plants after UAW contracts had been reached with each of the Big Three automakers, had increased as 15,000 Chrysler workers returned this date, as scattered new settlements were reported in local strikes at General Motors. It was the first time that Chrysler operations had been normal since mid-August when the union contracts had expired at that company and wildcat walkouts had cut 1959 model output at all of the three companies. Continuing strikes regarding local grievances had new-model production down despite the agreement on the new national UAW contracts. G.M. reported that 18 of its 126 plants had resumed operation, with 44,000 workers returning. Although 108 G.M. plants were still closed, with 231,000 employees idle, the company said that more local settlements were expected before the end of the week. The return to work at Chrysler marked the end of recent shut-down of plants in Detroit, Evansville, Ind., and Twinsburg, O. Four local agreements during the weekend at G.M. had allowed about 9,000 workers to return.
On the editorial page, Drew Pearson indicates that four men from Clinton, Tenn., had gone to Washington the previous week to try to see the President, having met in the office of an Anderson County judge on Saturday night to make plans for building a junior high school, and remaining until late in the evening to consider the problem of their overcrowded schools. As they had gone home, they did not know that the problem was about to become aggravated before dawn that morning, when, at 4:00 a.m., three bombs, carefully timed on three-minute intervals, placed apparently by experts, had detonated, ripping the previously integrated high school to ribbons, shattering walls, cracking beams, smashing windows and ripping open the roof, destroying 16 of 20 classrooms at the school.
The four men who had come to Washington learned that the President would not meet with them, however, because he had to greet the new Ambassador from Finland and bid farewell to the Ambassador from Canada, and also attend the swearing-in ceremony of a new special assistant, then taking the afternoon off, leaving the next day for three days in the Maryland hills before flying to New York for a major political birthday party. The four men, however, had been patient and did not complain.
They had been able to see Rocco Siciliano, an assistant to the President, together with Commissioner of Education, Lawrence Derthick, and one of his assistants, all of whom had been sympathetic but not helpful.
They had been told that under Public Law 825, the Federal Government could contribute to a new school, provided the parents of the children worked for the Government and provided their number was increasing, but were informed that the number of children whose parents were working for the Government at the nearby Oak Ridge atomic energy plant had decreased from 1,572 children during the 1956-57 school year to 1,450 in the previous school year. The Office of Education had carefully looked up the figures and found that Clinton High School was thus not qualified for any Federal school construction money, though it could receive a small amount for "maintenance", with Mr. Derthick indicating that he was permitted some discretion and might switch the money from maintenance to school construction, but that it would still be no more than around $70,000, when a new school would cost at least $500,000. Mr. Siciliano asked whether they had tried a public appeal to raise funds.
Mr. Derthick had recently returned from Russia, after which he had pronounced that Russian education was "astounding", with ample teachers, up-to-date schools, and uncrowded classrooms, warning that the U.S. could not sit by and watch Russian education forge ahead at that pace. But he had no solution for the problem faced by the four men from Tennessee. They had returned home empty-handed.
When Mr. Pearson talked to them, a school board member had said that they already had three primary schools moved from condemned buildings and the displaced students were in temporary quarters at local churches, awaiting the raising of money for new primary school buildings. They also needed a new junior high school. He was not complaining, but was awed at the problem facing Clinton, with the overall cost of new school buildings being around a million dollars.
The judge with whom they had spoken before going to Washington had been asked how integration had been working at Clinton High School after 11 black students had been admitted in 1956, and he responded: "As smooth as a man could ask. There was no trouble from the outside last year, and this year it was going even better. We were merely trying to obey the law. Lots of people don't care much for integration, but they do believe in obeying the law. And that's what we were trying to do."
A letter from the teenaged president of the Hawthorne Center Teen-Council indicates that its members objected to the recent series of front-page articles by John Kilgo of The News, concerning juvenile delinquency at the community centers, expressing the feeling that they had made great strides toward the betterment of the Hawthorne Center and the city generally, that any disturbances had been few and far between and that during the previous year, the center had carried on a good program for all ages, not just for teenagers, and that there had been no real behavioral problems. She indicates that wherever a group of people gathered, there would always be one or two who wanted to cause trouble, and that their center was the same as other centers, with such people reprimanded and asked to leave. She asserts that properly supervised community centers were combating juvenile delinquency and that they, as teenagers, wanted to make it clear that they were not juvenile delinquents but sought to be outstanding in school, civic and church work, as well as in their Teen-Council, seeking to live up to the faith which the city had placed in them by setting aside a "Youth Appreciation Week" each year. They believed that their reputation had been damaged rather than helped by the articles, and she extends an invitation to the editors and all adults to visit the center at any time.
They could try hiring a cool, unseeing
pianist
As we have fallen behind, there will be no further notes on the front page or editorial page for this date, as the notes will be sporadic until we catch up.
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