The Charlotte News

Wednesday, November 5, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in the midterm elections across the country the previous day, Democrats, as had been expected, had surged to their largest majority of control of Congress since the New Deal. They had also smashed Republican control of California, in both the gubernatorial and Senatorial races, and had made overall gains in the other gubernatorial races as well. But incumbent Governor Averell Harriman in New York, one of the party's national leaders, had been defeated by Nelson Rockefeller. That had been the happiest spot for the Republicans, though they had also ousted Democrats from governorships in Arizona, Oregon and Rhode Island, while losing in California, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Mr. Rockefeller's victory had placed him in the Republican presidential picture for 1960 and beclouded somewhat the future of the leading Republican presidential contender, Vice-President Nixon. It virtually wiped out Governor Harriman's chances for the Democratic nomination. In California, Senator William Knowland, considered a potential contender for the Republican nomination in 1960, had been defeated by State Attorney General Pat Brown, who had become, by his victory, a contender for the Democratic nomination. The election had given the President a record he was far from desiring, the first President in history to be confronted by three straight Congresses controlled by the opposing party. Counting of the votes still continued during the morning and a few races remained inconclusive. Based on returns as of the early morning, it appeared that the Democrats would control the Senate with either 61 or 62 seats, leaving the Republicans with either 34 or 35. The undecided Senate race was in Wyoming, where Republican Senator Frank Barrett was opposed by Democrat Gale McGee, who was leading in the race—and would go on to win. There were also two Senate races to be decided in Alaska on November 25—both of which would be won by the Democratic candidates, former territorial Governor Ernest Gruening and Robert Bartlett, bringing the final majority of Democrats in the Senate to 64, with 34 Republicans, still not enough Democratic votes without Republican votes to effect cloture in the event of a filibuster, then requiring a two-thirds super-majority or 66 votes—before the addition of two additional Senators when Hawaii would join the union later in 1959, bringing the necessary cloture vote to 67. (One Republican and one Democrat would be elected from Hawaii the following August.) In the House, the Democrats would control 284 seats to 151 for the Republicans, with one additional House seat to be determined in Alaska. The Senate majority was the most predominantly Democratic since 1936, at the time of the second election of FDR in a landslide over Governor Alf Landon of Kansas. A table of the results in the Senate, the House and the gubernatorial elections is provided.

The Associated Press reports that Republican dreams of a firm two-party South had ventured one more Congressman away this date, with another House seat still dangling. A surge of Democratic votes in Louisville had unseated Republican Representative John Ronsion, Jr., in favor of Frank Burke. Representative Eugene Siler in that state's other Republican seat had been re-elected. In North Carolina, Republican Representative Charles Jonas had narrowly defeated Democrat David Clark in the Tenth District, the closest race ever in that district, with Mr. Jonas having polled just 4,000 votes more than Mr. Clark, with a turnout of 109,000 voters, believed to be a record for a non-presidential election year. Mr. Clark said that he intended to run again in 1960. With the count nearly half complete, Republican Representative Bruce Alger was ahead of Democrat Barefoot Sanders in the Texas Fifth District, but the outcome remained far from certain. A tight race had developed in Virginia between Republican Representative Joel Broyhill and Democrat Joseph Freehill in the Tenth District, but Mr. Broyhill had won, as did the other Virginia Republican Congressman, Richard Poff. Prior to the balloting, nine Republicans had held House seats in the 12 Southern states, compared with 105 Democrats. All of the Senate seats were in the hands of Democrats except two in Kentucky, which were not up for re-election. Six Democratic Senators had won re-election and the others were holdovers. Democrats occupied the governor's office in each of the 12 Southern states, with six governors having been elected. Other Southern Republican Representatives in the South were William Cramer of Florida, B. Carroll Reece of Tennessee, and Howard Baker of Tennessee, the future Senator and White House chief of staff under President Reagan. Each of them had been re-elected.

The President said this date at his press conference that the electorate obviously had voted for spending advocates in giving the Democrats greater control of Congress. He said that any trend toward bigger Federal spending was dangerous and pledged that his Administration would fight hard against it during his last two years in office. When asked whether he expected to have additional trouble during the ensuing two years in dealing with Congress, he said he did not, adding that he always had managed to get along pretty well with Congress and was confident that Democrats as well as Republicans were motivated by what was good for the country. Questions predominated at the conference about the outcome of Tuesday's elections, and the President had opened the conference by asking whether there were any questions and then joined in the laughter when the first reporter stood up and said: "Yes, sir." Two or three times, the President had refused to be drawn into any prediction or expression of opinion regarding any effect which the vote might have on the potential for the 1960 Republican presidential nomination.

It would be a fight to the finish.

At Cape Canaveral, Fla., a Thor intermediate-range missile, the heart of the moon rocket Pioneer, had blown apart shortly after launch early this date, the fifth straight time that a ballistic weapon had exploded during the previous few months. The shattered sections of the missile appeared to plunge into the Atlantic Ocean just off the Cape. The Air Force announced a malfunction having occurred about 30 seconds after liftoff and that the missile was destroyed by the range safety officer at that time. The 65-foot rocket had gone aloft in the wee hours, but began to veer left and right almost immediately, and after about 25 seconds, had suddenly jerked to the left, at which point the officer had destroyed it. It was hoped by NASA that the launch would provide them a preview of the next Air Force Pioneer moon shot, which was scheduled to take place late in the current week. In an adjacent tower less than 500 yards away had stood a multi-stage Thor which was believed to be the rocket for the third attempt at moon rendezvous. This date's Thor launch had been the first in three months and the 19th in the Air Force flight test program aimed at making the missile operational. Since September 17, when a Redstone missile had successfully been fired across the Atlantic, five ballistic weapons had blown apart shortly after liftoff. In addition to the Thor, they were the Atlas ICBM, the Army Jupiter IRBM, and two naval Polaris missiles. During that time, three satellite rockets had blasted off to good starts, a Vanguard, the successful Pioneer launch and the Army's Beacon balloon satellite.

It would be reported the following day in the Lincoln Star in Nebraska, though not in The News, that Charles Starkweather, 19, convicted and sentenced to death for the shooting death of 17-year old Robert Jensen, one of eleven murders attributed to him, ten of which had been committed in latter January, had taken the stand to testify for the State this date in the first-degree murder trial of his alleged accomplice Caril Ann Fugate, 15, who had accompanied him during the three-day murder spree in Lincoln, nearby Bennet, Neb., and finally in Douglas, Wyo., where she had voluntarily surrendered to a deputy who had happened onto the scene of the final roadside murder of a traveling salesman, after which Charles had led officers on a high-speed chase until he finally surrendered after being nicked on the ear by flying glass from a shot piercing the rear window of the stolen car he was driving. His case was still pending appeal before the State Supreme Court, but he was sentenced to be electrocuted on December 17, subsequently delayed until June 25. She was charged with aiding and abetting Charles in Mr. Jensen's murder. He would continue his testimony on cross-examination by defense counsel the following day. This date, he had testified for 2.5 hours, stating that Caril had been present in the room when he had shot her mother and knifed to death her 2 1/2-year old half-sister and had watched television while he deposited the bodies, along with that of her stepfather, whom he had also killed after the stepfather had become enraged about the other two killings, in a chicken coop behind the family home. He said that Caril had awakened him on the night of January 25 to inform him that two police officers were at the front door to the home, having told them, as adduced in prior testimony, that the family had the flu and had left the home. He said that he had left the home several times between January 21 and 27, when the pair left for Bennet, and that Caril on each occasion had stayed behind alone in the house and was not bound. He said that after having stopped at a service station on January 27 to get gas, rifle shells and hamburgers, Caril had complained that the hamburgers tasted like "dog meat" and that they should "go back and shoot them". He said that they had stopped at the home of a well-to-do couple in Lincoln on January 28 after he had told Caril "to pick a place and she picked that one". He would subsequently stab or shoot to death the couple and their deaf housemaid. Defense counsel told the court that he expected his cross-examination would take about an hour the following morning. There had been no testimony on Monday and on Tuesday several witnesses who were relatives of either Caril's family, Charles, or a farmer whom Charles had slain in Bennet, plus investigating police officers, had testified to contentions which tended to suggest that Caril had been a willing accomplice of Charles and not, as she had contended in pretrial statements, a hostage subjected to his will on threat of having her parents and baby sister killed, whom she claimed not to know were already dead during the crime spree after they departed her home but were being held hostage, according to Charles, by a third-party who would kill them if she did not do as Charles told her.

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.

Framed Edition

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