The Charlotte News

Monday, November 10, 1958

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from St. Louis that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals had directed the Little Rock School Board this date to take positive steps to accomplish integration of Central High School, where integration had begun in the fall of 1957 amid disturbances triggering the federalization of the Arkansas National Guard by President Eisenhower and the deployment of Army paratroopers to maintain order and ensure the safety of the nine black students entering that school, among a total student body of 2,000. The Court had not spelled out how the integration should occur, leaving it up to the District Court judge and the Board. The Court assailed Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and the Arkansas Legislature for their efforts to use public school buildings for segregated schools through the Little Rock Private School Corp., attempting to privatize those schools. The Court directed the District Court judge to issue an injunction against the use of the public school buildings for that purpose, indicating that the Supreme Court had, in its September 29 decision in Aaron v. Cooper, the basic order of which had been announced on September 12, already made it clear that constitutional rights of black children could not be nullified by state executive, legislative or judicial officers "through evasive schemes for integration", that such still amounted to state action implicating the right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and thus the rights indicated in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. The piece indicates that it was not clear what effect the opinion would have on a private senior high school operated in Little Rock in a building purchased from the University of Arkansas, that school being operated with funds from private contributions.

In Little Rock, five of the six members of the School Board had met informally the previous day to discuss the possibility of resigning en masse, according to a report in the Arkansas Gazette this date. The Board president said that they had met at the home of one of the members to discuss many things, declining to elaborate. The absent member, according to the Gazette, was an outspoken segregationist, Dr. Dale Alford, whom the previous week had been elected to Congress in a write-in campaign against Representative Brooks Hays, a moderate on civil rights. Dr. Alford had often been at odds with the majority decisions of the Board in the school integration controversy. The Board had voted originally in 1956 to undertake limited desegregation at Central to be consistent with the 1955 Brown implementing decision that desegregation occur "with all deliberate speed".

In Morgantown, W. Va., it was reported that an integrated school in a small northern West Virginia coal mining town, Osage, had been bombed this date in the early morning darkness. The superintendent of Monongalia County schools said that there was no evidence that the explosion stemmed from racial troubles. The FBI had begun an immediate investigation. The school, located in the town four miles northwest of Morgantown, had exploded in the wee hours of the morning, awakening hundreds of residents. The school building had been empty at the time. It served about 250 pupils in the first three grades and the junior high school grades, with classes for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades being held at a black school. The superintendent said that he would consult with building experts to determine if the building could be repaired or would have to be razed, indicating that it would cost an estimated $350,000 to replace it. It was the first such bombing incident reported in West Virginia. The county had been the first in West Virginia to integrate its schools and the 17-room Osage school was in the fourth year of integration. The superintendent said that there had been no racial problems anywhere in the county and he had sought to squelch rumors that integration troubles had been behind the bombing. He said that there were no complaints, phone calls or threats regarding integration. The sheriff echoed the remarks, indicating, "Whites and colored have lived side-by-side peacefully here for years." The explosion had shattered all windows on the first floor and smashed all first-floor doors. Several partitions had also been knocked out. The superintendent said that damage on the second floor had not seemed so great but added that the second-floor walls appeared to be askew.

In Seattle, the President this date set forth a program of international economic aid for Asian nations, pledging full U.S. cooperation in erecting "barriers against tyranny and the war which tyranny breeds." He placed no overall cost on the program and did not estimate the country's share of that cost, but called on the new heavily Democratic Congress to provide adequate and additional financial resources to help 700 million people in free Asia. In speaking of tyranny, he had not mentioned in so many words the threat of Communist aggression and economic penetration, but his meaning had been clear. He outlined his aid plan in an address prepared for delivery at a meeting of top diplomats attending the 18-nation Colombo Plan Conference on Cooperative Economic Assistance for South and Southeast Asia.

At the U.N. in New York, the U.S. scheduled a private meeting with representatives of Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Republic this date to iron out disagreement over what to do about future U.N. relief to Palestine Arab refugees in those countries.

In London, it was reported that Jordan's King Hussein had told his people this date that jet fighters of the United Arab Republic had attacked his plane over Syria this date and forced his return from a vacation flight to Europe. In a dramatic speech on Jordan radio, monitored in London, the King said that the UAR planes had attempted to force him to land in Damascus, but that instead, they had flown back toward Amman, having been attacked six times before reaching the border. The attacking planes had continued the raid over Jordanian territory but then had turned back. He said that he had summoned a special parliamentary session for Tuesday. He described the planes as Soviet-made MIG's with UAR markings, first attacking his plane 15 miles from Damascus. The King had been piloting the twin-engine Jordan Air Force plane at the time. He returned to Amman two hours after leaving and immediately summoned his Cabinet.

In Taipei, Formosa, it being an even-numbered day, a non-shelling day for the Quemoys was in the offing based on the voluntary cessation on such days by the Communist Chinese to enable the offshore islands to be resupplied every other day. It was the fifth consecutive even-numbered day that the Communists had refrained from shelling, not even bombarding areas outside the Nationalist Chinese islands' supply beaches and airstrip.

In Tokyo, it was reported that Communist China had demanded withdrawal of U.N. troops from South Korea, the demand having been contained in a note this date from Communist China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the British Charge d'Affaires office in Peiping.

In Geneva, it was reported that Russia this date had demanded sweeping nuclear disarmament and elimination of foreign military bases as its price for accepting an international warning system against surprise attacks. (Too bad that the Desoto did not explode as had the Chrysler. At least, the prelim-bum didn't run afoul of this guy, who must have been Klan.)

On the editorial page, Drew Pearson finds that it was time that the American people got over the idea that a Catholic ought not be elected President, and that the previous week's midterm elections indicated that they were doing so. Four Catholics had been elected to the Senate, not because of their religion but because they were good men, while two states, Pennsylvania and Colorado, had elected Catholic governors for the first time in history. Two other important states, California and Ohio, had also elected Catholic governors, State Attorney General Pat Brown in California and former Toledo Mayor Mike DiSalle in Ohio.