The Charlotte News
Monday, October 27, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Taipei, Formosa, that Communist Chinese guns had fired periodic light barrages at the Nationalist Chinese Quemoy complex this date, the first odd-numbered day of shelling during the stop-and-go cease-fire, the cease-fire applying to even-numbered days on the beaches where the supply vessels landed, by voluntary arrangement by the Communists to enable the offshore islands to receive supplies. The Nationalist Defense Ministry had reported that between midnight and nightfall this date, 344 shells had landed on the offshore islands, not indicating whether the Nationalists had returned fire. At least one Nationalist plane had defied the Communist warning this date that they send supplies only on even-numbered days. That plane had gone to Quemoy and presumably landed safely, as there was no report to the contrary from the Nationalists. The Defense Ministry reported sporadic shelling on tiny Tatan Island in the Quemoy complex and light, scattered shelling elsewhere in the group. But the volume of fire had fallen far short of earlier times in the crisis when the Communists had fired thousands of shells on the Nationalist-held offshore islands every day. Nationalist headquarters reported an increase in Communist military preparations along the mainland coast facing Quemoy and opposite Matsu, 150 miles to the north.
In Tehran, Iran, Defense Secretary Neil McElroy had arrived this date for a short visit, during the homeward leg of a world tour of U.S. defense installations.
In Amman, Jordan, the airlift of British troops from Jordan had continued for the third day this date, with the evacuation scheduled to be completed by Wednesday.
At the Atomic Test Site in Yucca Flat, Nev., the Atomic Energy Commission readied a small nuclear device for firing this date, and rushed plans for three more blasts before the Friday deadline set by the President to begin a one-year moratorium on nuclear testing, provided the Soviets would continue their moratorium begun the previous March.
Incomplete figures for the year's third quarter indicated that the national income had regained much of the ground it had lost during the recession of 1957-58.
As the final full week of the 1958 political campaign got underway this date, the President appeared ready to make more assaults on the Democrats. Democratic leaders were prepared to hit back with more criticism of the Administration in their efforts to repel the Republican drive to regain control of Congress. The President was headed for an airport talk at Charleston, W. Va., before flying to Pittsburgh for a speech which would be televised this night in 18 states. In many of those states in the East and Midwest, Republican candidates were having a rough time. The President's vigorous campaign technique, used in California the previous week, had heartened Republican leaders, with a number of them indicating over the weekend that it had rejuvenated Republicans everywhere and brightened their prospects. The President's aides predicted that he would keep slugging at the Democrats. It was questionable, however, whether the oratory, or that by other top Republican and Democratic campaigners, was having much effect on the voters they intended to sway. A check by the Associated Press uncovered no signs of any sizable switches in sentiment as a result of the late political campaigning, with the momentum still appearing to be largely toward the Democrats, although it may have slowed some in the previous month. One of the most optimistic of the Republican campaigners had been Vice-President Nixon, who was set to stump in Michigan this date. During a Sunday respite in Minneapolis, the Vice-President said that in the previous ten days "there has been a dramatic upsurge in Republican strength and a sharp recession in Democratic strength." He attributed what he called the striking shift of voter opinion to a recognition that "in terms of peace, prosperity, honest government and progress, this Administration has done an infinitely better job" than its Democratic predecessors. Representative Eugene McCarthy, the Democratic candidate for the Senate in Minnesota, had challenged Mr. Nixon's claim of a sharp increase in Republican strength, saying, "If this has happened, no one but Nixon has been able to discern it." Meanwhile, other Republican and Democratic spokesmen continued refrains which had become familiar as the campaign moved toward its end. Ninety-one year old Senator Theodore Green of Rhode Island, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had attacked Administration foreign policy, saying that it "seeks to appease everybody, pleases nobody, and ends by accomplishing nothing."
The New York Times reported this date that Democratic candidates were leading in 20 of the 32 races for governors to be decided on November 4.
In Vatican City, it was reported that the College of Cardinals, meeting to elect a new pope to succeed deceased Pope Pius XII, had not reached a determination this date on their eighth ballot in two days. Black smoke had appeared from a chimney of the Sistine Chapel for the second time this date, and the fourth in two days, meaning that the requisite more than two-thirds of the 51 cardinals meeting in secret conclave had reached no agreement on a single candidate. The Vatican radio did not commit itself definitely, but described the smoke as of such obvious blackness that one might assume there was a negative result. A large crowd, which had grown to about 200,000 in a relatively few minutes, had turned away once more in disappointment at the latest issuance of black smoke. The cardinals had gone through their two morning ballots in an unusually short time, finishing at least 40 minutes ahead of their time on the first two ballots the previous day. White smoke emanating from the chimney would indicate that a new pope had been elected. The previous day, something had gone wrong and white smoke had come out twice, prompting premature and groundless rejoicing. But the smoke this date was unmistakably black.
In Little Rock, Ark., the expanding private school system had prepared this date to admit another group of Little Rock's displaced white high school students.
In Lincoln, Neb., it was reported that Caril Ann Fugate, 15, the companion the previous January, in the three-day killing rampage of ten persons by her boyfriend, Charles Starkweather, who had previously been convicted and sentenced to die the following December 17 in the electric chair, had her trial begin this date with the start of selection of the jury, expected to take at least three days. She was being tried as an accomplice in the same killing on which Mr. Starkweather had been tried and convicted, that of Robert Jensen, 17, of Bennet, Neb., who, while accompanied by his 16-year old girlfriend, Carol King, had given a ride to the couple when they saw them hitchhiking, and then had been subdued at gunpoint by both Charles and Caril, with Charles eventually having allegedly murdered both in an abandoned storm cellar where he had ordered them to enter. The three-day killing rampage in latter January had included Caril's parents and half-sister in Lincoln, three persons killed in nearby Bennet, including the young couple, a well-to-do couple in Lincoln and their deaf house maid, and a final victim in Wyoming, where they were captured. Charles was also informally accused, though not part of his trial, of the killing of a young service station attendant on December 1, 1957. Caril's trial had been delayed because of her attorney's challenge to her being tried as an adult rather than as a juvenile, preventing her from being tried with Charles the prior May. Eventually, in July, the courts determined that she was properly charged as an adult because of the capital nature of the case.
It is too bad that the two could not have joined, perhaps, the highway commission
As we have fallen behind, there will be no further notes on the front page or editorial page of this date, as the notes will be sporadic until we catch up.
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