The Charlotte News

Wednesday, December 10, 1958

TWO EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President at his press conference this date called it reprehensible for public officials to withhold subpoenaed documents from the Civil Rights Commission, conducting hearings in Montgomery, Ala., regarding complaints of black voters in Alabama for being discriminated against on the basis of race and color by county registrars in their attempts to register to vote. The Commission had started legal action on Tuesday to compel the officials to produce the data which was subpoenaed. The President said that he did not feel very well about the defiance from the officials, led by Governor-elect John Patterson, the State Attorney General. The President said that he had picked the Commission very carefully, making sure that some Southerners were included. He said that it was a rather sad sort of thing when such defiance developed and that all around the country, there were refusals to comply with the basic laws of the land which had been upheld as being legal and proper, a reprehensible kind of thing. He appealed for respect for the law and said that there should be no interference with the right of free men to vote. He also said that he knew of no reason to question reports that the Soviet Union had developed an ICBM capable of delivering a warhead nearly 8,700 miles. Regarding published reports that the Soviets had test-flown an atomic-powered plane, he said that the U.S. had received no intelligence which was reliable that they had flown such a plane. It was the President's first press conference since November 5.

In Taipei, Formosa, it was reported by a member of the Chinese Nationalist Cabinet this date that a revolt larger and more powerful than the Hungarian uprising of 1956 was underway in Communist China's southwestern territory of Tibet.

In Atlanta, the judge in the trial of George Bright, charged with planting the bomb in the Jewish Temple, declared a mistrial after the jury members said that they were hopelessly deadlocked 9 to 3 after slightly more than 84 hours of deliberations. The jurors said that the division was the same since they had begun their deliberations on Monday morning. Per the usual practice, there was no disclosure of whether the majority favored acquittal or conviction. All of the jurors agreed that there was no chance to break the deadlock. Including a break on Sunday to observe the Sabbath in accordance with Georgia law and also for sleep, the jury had actually deliberated for approximately 122 hours, the longest time in the memory of court officials. The jurors were so worn out that they were allowed to retire early on Tuesday night in a vain hope that a good night of sleep might help them agree. The prosecution was seeking the death penalty and the report does not indicate when or if the prosecution would try the case anew.

In Chatsworth, Calif., it was reported that a bomb had blown up the headquarters of the Fountain of the World religious cult this date, killing at least six persons. Six bodies had been recovered and two persons remained missing. One body had been identified as an 11-month old boy, one of 14 children asleep in the building. The cult leader, Krishna Venta, who frequently led his followers to aid in earthquake, fire or flood disasters, had been tentatively identified as one of the victims. Police and sheriff's officers of Los Angeles and neighboring Ventura County believed that the explosive device was brought to the headquarters in a canvas bag by a man in the wee hours of the morning. Survivors told officers that they had seen and heard a stranger carrying such a bag and arguing with two members of the cult only five minutes before the explosion. The FBI entered the case, offering its investigation and laboratory facilities to local authorities. Mr. Venta had called himself the master of the WKFL Fountain of the World, the initials standing for the aims of the sect, "wisdom, knowledge, faith and love". He had described himself as having a "life-long dedication to God." A female member of the cult said that she was sleeping in the administration building when she was awakened and looked out to see a man outside in an argument with two cult members, one of whom she believed was a 40-year old man who, along with his wife, was one of the victims. She said that five minutes later the explosion had occurred and she escaped virtually unhurt. Other members also gave accounts. The group practiced communal living in its canyon hideaway and promised a home to "all who want to live the Ten Commandments, regardless of race or creed." The bombing had been the latest in a series to hit religious groups throughout the country. Five Jewish structures had been damaged by bombs in three Southern states during the course of the year.

In Chicago, a blue-ribbon jury of experts called their first of more than 25 witnesses this date to explain what they knew of the parochial grade school fire on December 1, which had taken 92 lives, 89 children and three nuns.

In Denham, England, it was reported that key prosecution exhibits in the trial of a U.S. Air Force sergeant for killing his wife had come under fire by the defense this date. The man's defense counsel, an Air Force captain, told the court-martial that the defense would move for a mistrial on the grounds that the evidence in question could create an impression which was prejudicial and could not subsequently effectively be removed. The prosecution contended that the sergeant, of Hobbsvile, N.C., had poisoned his wife, 43, with arsenic because of his overwhelming passion for another woman. He was also charged with adultery with the 23-year old woman. He had pleaded not guilty to both articles. The defense challenged the admissibility of a human liver and bottles and capsules adduced as exhibits by the prosecution. A doctor, the director of Scotland Yard's arsenic laboratory, testified that he found arsenic in all of the human organs he had received and said that among the specimens he received was what appeared to him to be a portion of a liver. He said that the amount of arsenic he found in the liver, three quarters of a gram, indicated consumption of more than two or three grams, which was a lethal dose. He also said that findings in examination of the kidneys were consistent.

In Brenham, Tex., a five-year old boy told his mother that the toilet was "shooting up like a volcano". She went to it and looked and then phoned the city engineer that wet cement was pouring out of the bathroom fixture. Meanwhile, workers forcing cement into a Santa Fe railroad dump could not understand why so much cement was needed. Once they all got together, they relaized that the pressure behind the cement had broken a sewer line and then backed up the line into the nearby home. Crews worked long and late trying to get the sewer line cleared before the concrete hardened.

Ann Sawyer of The News reports again on the school lunch deficit in Mecklenburg County, indicating that some children who brought two sandwiches to school, shared one with friends. Some saved the milk served with their lunches and gave it to children who got nothing to eat. Without that informal sharing program, many more pupils at Plato Price High School would be going hungry. The principal told the newspaper that they did not have any free lunches and had no revenue for it, but tried to teach their students citizenship. The teachers also helped with the lunches and bought milk for needy children. The hunger problem was duplicated at the county's six other black schools. The 33 white County principals reported that they were able to take care of the children whose parents could not afford to provide lunches. The black County school principals said that they were providing about 20 free lunches at present, but ought be providing between 220 and 245 per day. In the County system, each lunchroom was operated as a separate unit and had to provide free lunches out of its own operation. Black principals said that they could not take care of the need. For example, no free lunches at all were provided at Plato Price, Sterling and Woodland. But the need at those schools was nevertheless great. Principals estimated that 50 free lunches ought be provided at Plato Price, that between 35 and 40 at Sterling and 45 at Woodland. The principal at the latter school said that many children came to school without breakfast and could not bring a sandwich with them for lunch. Teachers encouraged them to bring some food if possible, even if it was only a baked sweet potato. At least 45 children came to school hungry and had to stay in school without proper diet, according to the principal, causing them to be unable to do their best school work. Teachers at the school attempted to help the needy children by bringing sandwiches or buying lunches out of their own limited funds. The only free lunches to needy hungry black school children in the County system were being given at Ada Jenkins School, receiving eight free lunches, at J. H. Gunn, receiving seven, and at Torrence-Lytle, which received five. But those free lunches did not meet the needs, according to the principals. It was estimated that Ada Jenkins needed 10 more free lunches, that Gunn needed between 30 and 40 more, and that Torrence-Lytle needed between 25 and 30 more. The black school in Matthews did not have a lunchroom program, and milk only was offered, with between 25 and 30 percent of the 97 pupils unable to afford even the four cents per day for a half-pint of milk, according to the principal there. The lunchroom program in County schools was operated differently than in the City system, and prices were lower. Rather than a system-wide operation, each principal operated his own lunchroom with the help from a County supervisory staff. As in the City, the lunchrooms received commodities from the Federal Government.

Julian Scheer of The News begins the first of a series of recollections by prominent Charlotte residents on "The Christmas I Remember Best", recounting his own memory of Christmas, 1945 while in the Merchant Marine in Korea. The ship was crossing the barren Yellow Sea to the port of Jinsen and had dropped anchor on a December night. The next morning, he and another man had put a motor launch over the side to go ashore for sailing orders for a return trip to Japan. When they reached Jinsen, they were greeted by an American soldier standing on the dock who offered to help, and after a few moments, the two realized that they knew each other from Charlotte. The other man was not a close friend of Mr. Scheer, as the other had no close friends in high school, for he was known as a "strange kid", kind of "preachy" with grown-up ways. But it had been a good reunion thousands of miles from home on a cold December day and they talked for a long period. Eventually, Mr. Scheer had asked his acquaintance about entertainment, explaining that the men on the ship would be there the following day seeking the usual pleasures of men long at sea and lonesome for home. His acquaintance said that he had "many friends" in the town and that he should follow, and so they began walking through the frozen back streets of Jinsen. They walked for what seemed like miles until they came to a low, dingy frame building on a back street, where his acquaintance opened a door and walked inside. A group of young men and women rushed up to him excitedly, threw their arms about him and talked wildly in Korean. Then he spoke to them, and Mr. Scheer could see them watching him, and one young girl had taken him by his hand and led him across the room. They gathered about him and started to sing and he did not recognize the Korean words. But the melody suddenly became clear and he saw his acquaintance smiling at the recognition on his face of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" and then "The First Noel", finally "Silent Night". Mr. Scheer then realized that time had passed him by aboard ship and that this day was Christmas. The acquaintance turned to him and said it was his Christian mission and that the young men and women were his "flock". "And I stood there on a Christmas morning and watched as Howard received the richest gift of his life."

As we have fallen behind, there will be no further comments on the front page or editorial page of this date, as the notes will be sporadic until we catch up.

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