The Charlotte News
Monday, December 15, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President, at his weekly conference with Republican Congressional leaders, gave general budget problems and defense spending top priority, with the emphasis on the budget for national security having come as somewhat of a surprise as advance indications had been that military spending and foreign policy planning would be left for discussion mainly at another meeting scheduled for January 5, with both Democratic and Republican leaders present, two days before the start of the 86th Congress. The Administration's general legislative program was up for review, with advance hints having been that it might include some controversial civil rights proposals. White House press secretary James Hagerty announced shortly after the start of the conference that it would relate primarily to the Administration's domestic program, including a budget expected to call for spending of about 80 billion dollars. But Mr. Hagerty said that it would be impossible to divorce national security from the rest of the program in any discussion. He recalled that the President had invited the Democratic leaders to sit in with the Republicans for a talk on foreign policy and defense spending plans at around the present time, that the Democrats, however, preferred to hold the two-party conference on January 5. Underscoring efforts to rebuild Republican prestige and voter appeal, RNC chairman Meade Alcorn had sat in on this date's meeting at the request of the President. Also present were Secretary of the Treasury Robert Anderson, Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald Quarles, Undersecretary of State Christian Herter and Budget director Maurice Stans, plus Dr. Raymond Saulnier, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors. Vice-President Nixon joined the President and members of the White House staff for the presentation of the Administration's program. Discussion had dealt first with general budget problems, and was scheduled next to turn to national security programs and the task of providing funding, against the backdrop of the President's campaign to reduce overall spending. The conference was expected to continue throughout the day. (Whether Mr. Nixon and Mr. Stans were observed huddling in a corner discussing some future operation called the "committee to re-elect the president", was not reported.)
In Miami, Fla., a tentative agreement between Eastern Air Lines and its striking mechanics this date had increased hopes that the world's largest passenger carrier would be back in operation before Christmas. Eastern and its flight engineers got together this date in a meeting which could bolster or shatter that optimism. The airline and the International Association of Machinists had agreed Sunday night on a contract, but it still had to be approved by the union rank-and-file. Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, chairman of the board at Eastern, expressed pleasure with the agreement and added, "I am hopeful that continuing negotiations will also enable us to resolve the differences with the flight engineers so that we can resume service at the earliest possible date…" Eastern's 5,500 machinists and the 600-member Flight Engineers International Association had struck on November 24 in separate disputes regarding wages and working conditions. Eastern, which served 124 cities, had shut down the same day, furloughing the remainder of its 16,000 employees. Daily losses,estimated in the millions of dollars, had brought cries from Florida resort interests for a settlement. The chairman of the Miami local had said that the engineers' strike would continue until they got a contract, expressing confidence that the machinists would not cross the engineers' picket lines. The vice-president of the Flight Engineers said, "I hope the airline will be back in operation very soon." The president of the Miami local of the IAM, along with a representative of their New York office, had negotiated the contract with an Eastern vice-president, calling for hourly raises of between 42 and 49 cents for inspectors, lead mechanics and line mechanics, bringing their hourly base wages into a range of between $2.95 and $3.19. An Eastern spokesman said that the increases were retroactive to the previous October 1 and that the employees would obtain lump payments of between $325 and $355 for adjustments back to October 1, 1957, when their last contract had expired. The president of the local in Miami said that the agreement provided a six-cent increase in the hourly wage of apprentices and increases of between $2.27 and $2.64 for senior stock clerks, plus improvements also in rules governing transfers and work-around ramps.
In Oswego, N.Y., the community had measured a full winter's snowfall this date, six days before the official beginning of the season. A U.S. Weather Bureau observer said that 88 inches of snow had already accumulated during the month of December, equal to the entire amount of snowfall the prior winter. Squalls off Lake Ontario added 4 inches during Saturday night to help produce the new total. Snow, ranging from flurries to squalls, was in the forecast for this date for much of the state, including Oswego. Temperatures remained generally low, but nowhere near the readings of 20 and 30 below of the previous week. A coastal storm left a little over an inch of snow on the New York City area before it diminished into flurries. The Oswego police reported the previous night that the city was winning its fight against the incessant battering by snowstorms which had paralyzed it much of the previous week. Most streets were open and downtown stores were jammed over the weekend with Christmas shoppers rushing to make up for lost time. Schools had reopened this date and most factories were working at normal capacity. There were still reports of fresh storm damage, however, with a section of the roof of an old, three-story frame dwelling having collapsed the previous day under the weight of accumulated snow. Two residents, both single men living in their own apartments, had been ordered to move out of that structure and City officials said that the building would be condemned, indicating that the structure had been on the verge of condemnation even before the snow.
In San Juan Capistrano, Calif., it was reported that an estimated 1,000 men, hampered by turbulent winds, struggled this date to check a fast-moving brush fire raging in mountain country 8 miles northeast of the historic mission town. The blaze had erupted the previous day and quickly had consumed 10,000 acres of tall brush, some of it as high as 15 feet. Hopes of early control of the fire were dashed when it jumped the Ortega Highway, a scenic route linking San Juan Capistrano and Lake Elsinore—known by those who had studied Hamlet. Firemen had sought vainly to make a stand at the highway. The area, dotted with resort cabins and occasional ranches, was part of the Cleveland National Forest. Cabins in the community of San Juan Hot Springs were endangered, but firefighters were optimistic that most of them would be saved from the blaze. All inhabitants had been evacuated the previous night. U.S. Forest Service personnel had been joined on the fire lines by prison camp crews, county and state units. Sixty pumper trucks and 15 bulldozers were also in use.
Ann Sawyer of The News reports that local civic clubs and individuals in Charlotte were being urged this date to help feed hungry schoolchildren as the County Commission named a revenue-finding committee. The effort was to help feed the estimated 2,000 schoolchildren within the City and County systems whose parents could not afford to provide lunches for them. On a motion put forward by commissioner Ernest Brown, members Greg Lawing and Herbert Garrison were appointed to study the need and possible sources of financial support, with their findings to be reported within two weeks. Mr. Brown had expressed doubt that the Commission could legally use tax funding to provide free lunches for the children, an estimated 1,750 in the City system and approximately 250 in the County. He said that they could, however, do their best with what money they could find, suggesting that Alcoholic Beverage Control funds might be used in the free lunch program if there were any available at present. In asking for Commission and community support, Mr. Brown had said that he realized the indebtedness of the County.
Ms. Sawyer also provides a separate report again on the anecdotal information available from the schools regarding the problem, with one school principal having said that a 14-year old boy who had been going without lunch, being one of six or seven children in his family, would go to the playground during lunch, not having brought anything to eat. They had investigated the home and found a hand-to-mouth existence, with a poorly-educated father who worked for what he could get as a mechanic. When the boy had finally been fed a lunch, according to the principal, "He gulped his food down, sort of like a wolf…"
The fifth in a series of articles by prominent Charlotte residents regarding "The Christmas I Remember Best" is provided by Patsey Harry Goodwin, well-known in the community for her remarkable energy and talent for having been active for many years on the city's civic and literary scene, relating that she found it impossible to state the Christmas she remembered best as it was "like looking into a kaleidoscope where the many brilliant fragments fall into place, making different designs of remembered happiness." Regarding a Christmas morning long earlier when a china doll named Minnie Harry was sitting under the Christmas tree in her brand-new dress at a time when no one ever thought of wanting a new doll, only a new dress for a beloved treasure, she reflected as to how simple things had once been. Then there was a Christmas of deep snow when a young cousin pulled her on his sled through a world of crystalline delight while his black dog, Ponto, ran along beside them. She remembered a Christmas when that cousin was an officer on a submarine and later when he had achieved miracles with the magic of X-rays. She also remembered being introduced one Christmas through the books under the tree, which was always a green cedar "redolent of the forest's living wonder", to Charles Dickens and Tiny Tim, to the Ruggles family of A Byrd's Christmas Carol, to Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch and her uninhibited progeny at "Mr. Bob" Redding's Christmas Theater party. There was another memorable Christmas when one of them had gone far afield, as far away as Woodberry Forest when all the other boys had always gone to Chapel Hill or to A. and M., presently N.C. State, in Raleigh, and when the wanderer returned at Christmas time, he was wild enough and bold enough to kiss the girls under the mistletoe which each year was tied to the chandelier in the large front hall. She remembered a Christmas of romance in 1917, when she was given her engagement ring and on Christmas Eve learned that the Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels of North Carolina, had selected the man she was going to marry to be editor of the magazine, Navy Life, to be published at the Navy base at Norfolk, such that her husband, Adolph, would not be sent overseas for some time to come. There was another Christmas when her youngest daughter had drowsily murmured, "Santa Claus brang too much." On another Christmas, during World War II "when the glistening gaiety of the Christmas tree and the sound of Christmas carols seemed a paradox and a mockery", until the news had come that her oldest daughter's husband, a captain in the Marines engaged in desperate fighting in the Pacific, was still alive.
In Canton, N.C., it was reported that a man had gone hunting during the weekend in the Standing Indian Refuge and had bagged two wild boars using a bow and arrow.
There being nothing on the pages
this date per se about the "eternal triangle" or hoops
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.
Framed Edition
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