The Charlotte News
Thursday, December 25, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the joyous laughter of well-fed children, the crinkle of discarded wrapping paper, quiet prayers and the inspiring surge of choral voices still beset by want or uncertainty in an uncertain world had been the sounds of Christmas this date. "The glitter of colored lights beneath an almost full moon, the pastoral calm of Bethlehem beneath an almost summerish sun, the stern expressions of armed men of many nations standing watch against war on the birthday of the Prince of Peace." Those were the sights of Christmas. A third of the world's people celebrated their supreme religious holiday around the world this date. Some had special reason to pray, including the 34 persons aboard an airliner which had crashed near Vienna on Christmas Eve, all of them able to get out of the plane before it had exploded. Others prayed for the nine men who had been killed in a training flight of a British airliner, and the 15 mushroom farmers entombed in collapsed tunnels in Belgium. The number of mourners increased by the hour in the U.S. as the number of holiday traffic deaths mounted steadily. Most of the U.S. had only dreamed of a white Christmas, but there were indications of snow in the Rocky Mountains and in a limited area of the Northeast. Elsewhere, it had been cold and dry. Europe also was short of snow. South of the Equator, summer was in full blaze. The Holy Land was hot in temperature, though cool in military temper as pilgrims marked the occasion in the place where Jesus had been born. Religious leaders of many Christian denominations called for the world to remember not only the event but also the spirit of Christmas. Dr. Edwin Dahlberg, president of the National Council of Churches, had urged prayer and religious contemplation, saying that "from this inner peace there could come the wider peace of the world for which all nations now wait".
The striking machinists of Eastern Air Lines had ratified their new contract, but the carrier and American Airlines remained grounded by strikes. Eastern was still in mediation with its striking flight engineers and American striking pilots were withholding approval of a Federal peace pact, already accepted by the company. There was no indication when a decision might take place. The Christmas travel crush on all carriers had leveled off. It was anticipated that it would mount again after the holiday. Eastern's flight engineers were fighting a proposal to force them to qualify as pilots for jet operations. Another negotiation session was scheduled for Friday. There had been no statement by Eastern that it would operate without flight engineers, required in any planes with more than two engines. After the International Association of Machinists had announced on Wednesday that the machinists had ratified a contract which had been negotiated December 14, Eastern's board chairman, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, said that he hoped continuing talks would enable the company and the engineers to reach an agreement. George Brown, president of the Miami district local of the Machinists, said that members of that union would not be asked to cross lawful picket lines of another union. He said that he hoped that the machinists' ratification would show the way toward a speedy settlement of the flight engineers' dispute and an early resumption of service. Twenty-nine Caribbean governments had appealed to the White House for an early settlement of the Eastern strike. Eastern had been idle since November 24 and it had laid off 16,000 employees. The airline ranked third among the nation's airlines on the basis of passenger miles flown. Reports of losses were coming also from Florida, which was served by Eastern. Miami businessmen estimated that their losses in the strike would be a million dollars per day. Wait until New Year's Day, and you will see your losses perhaps trebled to the higher notes.
The Associated Press reports that the nation's traffic death toll was running near normal in the early hours of the holiday period, that generally warm weather and the strike of two major airlines had added to the usual heavy travel on Christmas Eve and this date. The death toll had mounted steadily during the night and early morning and at present totaled 66—as with the route so many traveled in those days of the California Trip. The holiday period had begun at 6:00 p.m. the previous evening and would continue until midnight on Sunday. The National Safety Council had made a pre-holiday estimate that 620 people would die on the highways during the 102-hour holiday. The A.P., for comparative purposes, had made a national survey in a non-holiday period of the same duration between December 10 and December 14, finding that 341 traffic deaths had occurred, that 106 people had died in fires and that 105 had been killed in miscellaneous accidents, for an overall total of 552. The nation's record traffic death toll for any Christmas holiday had been 706 in a four-day period in 1956. The Council had predicted that there would be 620 traffic deaths during the current holiday. Thus far, in addition to the 66 reported traffic deaths, six had occurred from fire and three from miscellaneous causes, for a total of 75.
In Berlin, it was reported that Julius Cardinal Doepfner had driven to Communist East Berlin this date and preached a sermon, attacking East Germany's Communist government.
In Moscow, it was reported that the Supreme Soviet had approved a new penal code this date, retaining the death penalty for a wide range of actions defined as crimes against the state, but lessening the penalties for other crimes—not dissimilar to the current attempt by the Trump Justice Department.
The Supreme Soviet this date had also confirmed the appointment of Alexander Shelepin, former secretary of the Young Communist League, as the new chairman of the State Committee for Security. He was probably going to schlep some enemies of the State into custody.
In Pusan, South Korea, about 100 armed policemen had clashed this date with 500 demonstrators protesting the passage of a tougher national security law. Police had arrested six of the demonstrators after a melee in front of the downtown railroad station.
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi's political woes were compounded this date when three of his Cabinet ministers had offered their resignations amid a deepening party split which endangered his Government.
In Vienna, Austria, as alluded to above, it was reported that an Air France Constellation had plowed into the mud a mile and a half short of the airport the previous night and that the four-engine plane had burst into flames. All 34 persons aboard, however, had been able to get out before the plane had exploded.
In Latta, S.C., it was reported that a bank had its money back this date, but officers had said that the gunman who had robbed it was still at large. All efforts to track the bandit had proved futile since the mid-day pistol-point robbery of the bank on Tuesday. Charged in the case was the 18-year old nephew of the suspect, accused of handling the car in which the bandit had driven from Dillon to Latta and had attempted to make his getaway until it had run into a ditch—apparently having the driving skills in winter equal to Chuck out in Nebraska, the prior January. Police said that they were seeking a named individual whom they accused of taking $23,509 from the bank. The bank said that the thief had dropped $6,200 as he ran barefooted out the back door of the bank, and that the insurer, through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, had covered the additional $17,309.
Ann Sawyer of The News reports that a teenager had been charged with murder in the death of his best friend this date, following a Christmas Eve drinking bout which led to their breaking into a Wilkinson Boulevard fabric shop. An 18-year old boy had told County police that he and another boy had broken into the Queen City Fabric Shop at around midnight and had taken the change from the cash register, saying that he had wanted to leave at that point when he saw a night watchman, but that his 17-year old friend had refused because he wanted to get some bills—some folding money, ye know, some lettuce, some cabbage, some lean green leaves off the tree, not just the jingle-jangle in the pocket like some pre-pubescent schoolboy hanging to his lunch funds. The 18-year old said that he had found a .22-caliber pistol in the shop and had pulled the trigger six times, pointing the gun at the floor, but it had not gone off. His companion refused to leave and the boy told police that he pulled the pistol out and told his friend that he was going to leave. He pointed the pistol at the other boy's head and told him to go, but he said that he wasn't leaving until he got the bills. He said they both thought the pistol was empty and he had the hammer pulled back and then pulled the trigger. The pistol was about two feet from the other boy's head and he believed that he had shot him between the eyes. He said that he had then gone to a girl's house and called an ambulance and that when he returned to the store, his friend was still breathing. County police had arrived shortly after midnight and they said that the 18-year old boy was yelling that he had shot his best friend who was lying inside the store dying. The boy was now in the county jail charged with murder, store-breaking and larceny. He told police that the two boys had been drinking all evening and that at around 8:30 had picked up a girl and then gone to the home of the other boy's girlfriend behind the fabric shop. He said that they were "about drunk" when they left the girl's house and that it had been at that point that he decided to break into the fabric shop to obtain money for Christmas. (Unlike his friend, he apparently aspired only to the cheaper gifts, under a buck each.) They had broken out a back window and entered the shop.
John Borchert of The News tells of six children on Christmas morning who had been born in Charlotte hospitals the previous Christmas Day, getting a two-in-one day of Christmas and birthday presents. Well, aren't we special?
Donald MacDonald of The News reports that it had been the "givingest" Christmas on record in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, and that more money had been collected, more toys, food and clothing had been given to the needy families than ever before. The Empty Stocking Fund sponsored by the newspaper had set an all-time record, with contributions totaling $18,443.50. Members of Charlotte's Goodfellows Club, which held an annual Christmas meeting, had donated another all-time record in contributions, $5,888.20, with still more in untotaled checks. The Salvation Army's Kettle House had collected over $13,500 and provided toys for over 500 families. Mothers and fathers had been invited to the Salvation Army's Toy Shop and were given an opportunity of selecting toys for their children. The Jaycees had collected a record amount of $800 for their annual shopping tour for children at the Alexander Home and Thompson Orphanage. Four black women had sponsored a dance and turned all of the proceeds over to the Welfare Department, enough to provide Christmas to four large families. To aid in the project, Harold Lassiter and his Delicadoes had provided music for the dance, which had been planned by Mrs. Gloria Kendrick, Mrs. Flossie Fox, Mrs. Willie Chisholm and Mrs. Betty Mason. Queens College had sponsored a family, as had the tenth grade at Myers Park High School, and East Mecklenburg High School had sponsored yet another. Many people had sent gifts, Christmas cards and candy to inmates of the Goldsboro Training School for Negroes and the State Hospital for Negroes in the same town, two institutions which previously had been forgotten at Christmas. And it continues with other contributions which had helped to provide the needy a happy Christmas.
On the editorial page, "On Earth Peace, Good Will Toward Men" tells verbatim the story of Christmas from Luke 2:1-20.
"The Publisher's Christmas Message" provides the annual thanks to staff, advertisers and readers of the newspaper from publisher Thomas L. Robinson.
"Empty Stocking Fund Is Brimming with Joy" tells of the annual Empty Stocking Fund having provided in 1958 Christmas for some 2,000 needy families in the community. The newspaper thanks all who had contributed to it and wishes them a Merry Christmas.
Drew Pearson, over Alaska, indicates that flying over the rocky, icy peaks of the new state gave a person a chance to think. "And the boys up here on the winter nights when you scarcely see the sun, also have plenty of time to think." He indicates that naturally they thought of home and other Christmases and things they would most like to remember about home. He says that he had been doing the same thing.
He thought of a gymnasium in Clinton, Tenn., crowded with 3,000 people listening to evangelist Billy Graham, while outside through the windows one could see the shell of the old schoolhouse which had been bombed out by a dynamiter. The 3,000 people were celebrating the fact that about enough money had been raised to proceed with building a new school. The Reverend Graham had said: "This is a time when some people are swayed by hotheads and cold hearts. But it should be a time for cool heads and warm hearts. Only love and understanding can cure the race problem in the South today."
He also thought of the bombed out synagogue in Atlanta, where dust and debris, torn prayer books and little girls' drawings remained. It was another example of hate in a country which was founded by those who wanted to escape hate.
Then there was the schoolhouse in Osage, W. Va., also torn up and reduced to rubble. But nearby in other makeshift schools, children were quietly studying, determined not to be deterred by hate.
He also reflected on talks with leaders in the South, in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee, people who wanted to get along with other people, but had become virtual prisoners of the extremists.
He also remembered talks with leaders in the North who likewise had become victims of extremists. In New York, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell of Harlem, who had been indicted for income tax evasion, along with three of his secretaries who had been indicted or convicted, and who had a terrible absentee record in Congress, had been re-elected overwhelmingly because he had wrapped the civil rights issue around him. With that protection, no one could beat him in Harlem.
In Arkansas, Governor Orval Faubus had wrapped the anti-civil rights issue around him and likewise became unbeatable.
"The moderates, the reasonable men who are willing to listen, to sit down and talk with their fellow men, have become prisoners—victims of the extremists.
"Perhaps what we need most in the USA at this Christmas season is a little people-to-people friendship. We have been working at winning friends abroad—which is necessary. Even more necessary, we need to win friends among ourselves. We can't go on being a nation divided."
Lord Winster, in London, tells of old Christmas in England, quoting James Boswell from his journal on December 25, 1762: "This day I was in better frame, being Christmas Day, which has always inspired me with the most agreeable feelings. I went to St. Paul's Church and in that magnificent temple fervently adored the God of goodness and mercy." He added that in the afternoon he had "played a very bold knife and fork. It is inconceivable how hearty I eat and how comfortable I felt myself after it." On December 28, his journal had noted: "I was rather dull and out of order."
He finds that it all went hand-in-hand with a general feeling of good will and an inclination to think kindly on those for whom generally one felt no use. Once per year, century after century, those feelings prevailed, perhaps because it was only once per year.
He recounts that an early Punch had recommended that those invited to a friend's home for Christmas to pack a mistletoe bough and that the ladies, in view of the sharp-pointed mustaches of the day, ought stock up with lip salve. The favored place for the mistletoe to hang was in the doorway because then every girl would have to pass under it. No female in 1867 "would give cause for the insinuation that she had passed beneath 'the sacred spray' on purpose."
The same magazine, in 1847, had said: "The girl who looked at a young man as if she wouldn't drink dove's milk had no cause for anxiety; it was inevitable that with the aid of the mistletoe he would be her husband within six months." A show of resistance was both expedient and expected, one favorite expedient being for the girl to pause to tie shoelaces, unaware that she was beneath that which "Notes and Queries" in 1858 had called "the recognized emblem of labial salutation."
Regarding Christmas cards, the old favorite, a robin redbreast on glittering snow accompanied by a long sentimental verse, tended to get rarer. Reproductions of pictures of the Impressionist school had largely replaced the robin and bore a stylized greeting. There were also cartoons and characters with a couple of words scrawled in facsimile crayon, the verse still inclining toward Victorianism.
There had been a time in the 1870's when manufacturers of cards had paid big names, such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, who had been paid 1,000 guineas for two "Yuletide stanzas".
Regarding Christmas carols and
hymns, in 1822, the president of the Royal Society had published
eight West Country carols and his choice was so good that five of
them appeared in the Oxford Book of Carols printed in 1922,
among which were such things as "The Lord at First Did Adam
Make", "When Righteous Joseph Wedded Was" and "Let
All That Are to Mirth Inclined", or as translated to song, respectively, "Christmas Eve"
Regarding the Christmas tree, it had come from Germany and was said to have been introduced in England by Queen Victoria's husband. Charles Dickens had written: "I have been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of children assembled around that pretty German toy, a Christmas tree." He had laid the foundations of the modern Christmas tradition in England, but Washington Irving had been 20 years ahead of him in America, with Mr. Dickens having admitted that he had earlier read Mr. Irving in bed. The latter's Christmas sketches were written in England, although published in New York. In "A Christmas Dinner", he had introduced Sir Loin, a peacock pie as a "most authentical" Christmas dish, and the Wassail Bowl "composed of the richest and raciest wines, highly spiced and sweetened, with roasted apples bobbing about on the surface."
Mr. Dickens had not mentioned a Christmas tree at Dingley Dell and the only mention of a Christmas present was five shillings given to Sam Weller.
Now, Christmas had been heavily commercialized and had taken an important place in the economy. It was no longer essentially a home festival but was associated with restaurants, dances, theaters, and cabarets. Earlier had been a time when the festival took them back to the very simplicities of life, to a child and His mother and the shepherds. What was essentially a children's festival, spontaneous and simple, was now an affair of big business. He indicates that looking back to his childhood Christmases, he found that they were essentially a home affair of breathless happiness. He had written to Santa Claus to tell him what he wanted in his stocking and Santa had never failed him. In his memory there had been always snow on the ground and skating with old men to screw their skates into their boots. Now, he had worked through the restaurants and dances and was most happily back at a home day of content.
Meanwhile, Don Diego, Don Ricardo, Anna Maria and El Zorro appear to be spending Christmas Day enmeshed
Inez Robb tells of an uncomfortable experience shared with other passengers on a plane which had taken off from LaGuardia Airport and then quickly had to turn around because the landing gear was acting temperamentally. A second later, the head stewardess was standing at the head of the aisle, saying: "It is just possible that we shall have to make a belly landing. First, remember that there is an emergency exit in the front of the plane as well as the rear door through which you entered. Before we land, you must put your head on your knees, thus," demonstrating to the passengers how to fold their arms across their knees to protect their heads and how to hold around their heads, for additional protection, the pillows which she and her assistant had distributed quickly but without flurry.
Ms. Robb thought to herself that they were telling them that they might crash-land. Amazement was all which she felt, observing her fellow passengers listening intently to quiet instructions from the stewardesses. Outwardly, they had been calm and collected. No one had screamed and no one had hysterics or cried as the chief stewardess and her assistant swiftly collected the hard serving trays from the back of each seat. She felt a swift surge of affection and pride in plain humanity, as ordinary people were doing the best they could and hardly ever collected any laurels for it.
Next, the stewardess had told them to take off their shoes, to put all pocketbooks and heavy objects under their seats, to remove from their pockets all pens, pencils and sharp objects and take off any eyeglasses. She said that if they did make a belly landing, there would be two distinct shocks, the second of which would be more severe. She cautioned to keep their heads down until the second shock was over and to remember that the front exit existed along with that in the rear.
By that point, they were coming in over the bay and the landing could only be one or two minutes away. She had looked around again and everyone remained calm and quiet. The man across the aisle from her had bowed his head and was praying silently. Suddenly, a little girl in front of her, who could not have been more than ten, was violently ill in the most quiet, lady-like manner. They were flying very low and she believed it would only be another half-minute before they would land. She put her head in her lap and arranged the pillows and thought of what a wonderfully happy life she had led and how very grateful she was for it.
"And then the wheels touched the runway in a perfect three-point landing. When I looked out, the fire engines and the ambulance were racing along with us, and, for the first time, I felt slightly ill.
"We taxied to a standstill. Not a word was spoken until the young pilot appeared in the cabin and apologized for the 'tension to which you have been put.'
"Then we filed silently out of
the plane into the wonderful, wonderful sunshine
It prompts the question as to why the Cleavers changed cars on the way to Shadow Lake, from a '52, '53 or '54 Ford to a '57 Ford in the blink of an eye. Was some bandit following them to commit merciless mayhem, maybe ready to push their '57 into the bog afterward, or was Ward suffering again from his PTSD
First Day
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