The Charlotte News

Wednesday, December 3, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.S. would begin firing a series of large satellites from the new Vandenberg Air Force Base in California within the ensuing few weeks with some of them scheduled to carry mice and monkeys. The Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency had announced this date that "Project Discoverer" would seek to place a 1,300-pound satellite into orbit in its first launch attempt late in the year or early in 1959. At least a dozen satellite launches would be attempted, as fast as one per month, according to Roy Johnson, the director of ARPA. Mr. Johnson also said that an attempt would be made the following year to recover a capsule from a satellite, bringing it back through the atmosphere. He said that mice would be used as passengers and that in one such launch they might use a primate. He said that the program, for the present, did not include sending up a human. The satellites launched from Vandenberg would be aimed in a southerly direction over the Pacific Ocean, and their orbit would be around the earth over the North and South Poles. The first attempts would be aimed at placing large satellites at relatively low altitudes of perhaps a few hundred miles, with ARPA estimating that they might make two or three orbits or perhaps stay up for as long as a week. The first Discoverer vehicle would be a two-stage rocket, with the booster being a Thor IRBM produced by Douglas Aircraft Co. The second stage would be a new vehicle produced by Lockheed Aircraft Corp. and powered by a Bell-Hustler engine, the latter being a liquid-fueled rocket. The announcement indicated that the first Discoverer-launched satellites were expected to weigh approximately 1,300 pounds, including the weight of the second-stage vehicle which would orbit as an integral part of the satellite after burnout. Mr. Johnson was asked by newsmen if larger boosters would be used later for even larger satellites, as a proposal had been made to use the Atlas ICBM as a booster and the Army was beginning development of a rocket-cluster engine which would have thrust of more than a million pounds. Mr. Johnson replied that he hoped that the Atlas could be used within the ensuing year. He said that with the Atlas it might be possible to put up a satellite weighing 10,000 pounds or more, using a new high-energy fuel. He had indicated that with the huge rocket-cluster booster, it would be possible to send up satellites weighing "thousands and thousands of pounds".

At Cape Canaveral, Fla., the Army had unveiled its large moon rocket, Juno II, the previous day when the service tower was rolled back as part of the preparations for a launch expected within a week. The powerful rocket, very similar in appearance to the Jupiter-C which had fired three Explorer satellites into orbit, would be used for the Army's first attempt to probe far into outer space. When the tower was rolled away, the base of the Army's Jupiter IRBM was observed. The top of the rocket was covered. For the moon shot, the Jupiter would be used as a first-stage booster rocket in place of the smaller Redstone missile, which provided a large thrust to the Jupiter-C satellite. The Army missile was expected to be a four-stage rocket using clusters of small, solid fuel Sergeant rockets in the upper stages. Its job would be to push a 30-pound satellite payload perhaps farther into space than any previous man-made object.

In Cambridge, Mass., the Pullman-car sized rocket of Sputnik III was expected to burn up and fall to the earth this date. Scientists at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory stated that indications were that it would fall somewhere between Central Europe and the Middle East. The rocket had been orbiting since it was launched by Russia on May 15. The satellite itself was expected to continue to orbit the earth for another year because its more compact shape offered less atmospheric drag. Smithsonian scientists said that probably very little would remain of the carrier rocket as it passed through the earth's atmosphere, as it would burn up through friction upon reentry.

The Federal Aviation Agency this date announced the award of a $381,786 contract for development of a new system for control of aircraft on the ground at airports.

In Washington, Navy officials were called this date to tell inquiring Congressmen why their service was holding 143 million dollars worth of inactive industrial plants.

Mexican authorities were reported this date to have thwarted a Communist plot to stone Secretary of State Dulles in Mexico City during the week. It could have made for an embarrassing headline: "Dulles Stoned in Mexico City".

In Jerusalem, Israeli Sector, it was reported that Syrian and Israeli artillery units had dueled across the border for an hour this date, the shooting having ended in the evening after U.N. truce observers had asked for a cease-fire.

In Washington, a small businessman this date accused Sheet Metal Union official Arthur H. Cronin of extorting payoffs for labor peace and participating in profitable bid-rigging in the Chicago area. Cecil Johnson of the Bond Ventilating Co. of Bridgeview, Ill., had told the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct of unions and management that he had to pay Mr. Cronin $300 "for the privilege of going into business" in 1949.

In Kansas City, negotiators reached a tentative settlement during the morning of the machinists' strike which had halted operations of TWA since November 21. In the mid-afternoon, the negotiators had exited their hotel room and said that they had reached an agreement subject to ratification by members and approval by officers of the International Association of Machinists. In a statement, the TWA president said that the agreement "was at the same rate as had already been agreed to by Capital, National and Northeast airlines and includes for TWA a satisfactory agreement on other issues." The settlements to which he referred had called for wage increases of 30 cents per hour. Union sources had no comment on the settlement. The agreement, if approved, would end the 13-day strike by 6,700 IAM members against TWA, the nation's fourth largest airline. TWA's planes, including those in foreign service, had been grounded during the strike and the company had laid off 19,000 employees as a result. The chairman of the National Mediation Board announced the agreement following a 12-hour session of negotiations. He had been predicting a settlement for the previous three days. There was little optimism, however, regarding the disputes involving the three other major airlines. In Miami, Fla., negotiations between striking flight engineers and Eastern Air Lines appeared to be at a stalemate, and in New York, a Federal judge the previous day had extended a temporary ban on a strike by the Air Line Pilots Association against American Airlines. There were no developments in the dispute between the Transport Workers Union and Pan American World Airways. The union had promised on Monday that it would not interfere with Pan American operations pending mediation of its demands for a new contract. The agreement between the machinists and TWA would have the endorsement of the union's chief negotiator when it was placed before union officers and the rank-and-file, according to the Federal mediator, who said that the IAM's chief negotiator with TWA, chairman of local District 142, had agreed to recommend its approval. Well, we're happy about it. Are you?

In Detroit, a strike of 7,000 United Auto Workers at a key Chrysler Corp. plant threatened this date to idle 50,000 workers in the Detroit area within a week.

In Mobile, Ala., court orders restraining picketing of six vessels at Mobile had left the next step up to maritime unions this date in their boycott of "flag of convenience" ships.

In Carrizo Springs, Tex., a posse beating the brush for a man who had shot at a highway patrolman, had captured nearby a fugitive on a murder warrant out of Georgia the previous night. A 23-year old patrolman, who had fired bullets around the fleeing gunman, had missed. He identified the prisoner as a 32-year old man whom Georgia authorities had advised had escaped from a prison work camp on November 25.

In Malibu Beach, Calif., it was reported that a wind-lashed fire had cut an eight-mile wide swath from the mountains to the sea but that a massive battery of pumpers, virtually one per house, this date had checked a threat to the film colony. Elsewhere, flames 100 feet high had continued to burn unchecked. The blaze, driven by 50 mph winds, had destroyed an estimated 36 homes. Hundreds of residents had fled the area. The fire, perhaps deliberately set by an arsonist, had erupted on Tuesday on the brush and oak-studded inland slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains and winds had quickly whipped it over the crest of the hills and down the canyons to the sea. The assistant county fire chief said that the situation did not look too promising anywhere. U.S. 101 along the Pacific Coast was blocked on either side of the fire zone. The highway, a main north-south route between Los Angeles and San Francisco, ran east and west along the coastline at the Malibu Beach film colony, which was on the ocean side of the highway. The flames had jumped across the highway but the intensive efforts of firemen and their pumpers, plus the residents with garden hoses, checked the threat. Stopped by the Pacific Ocean, the flames had turned toward the densely settled Malibu Canyon, at the mouth of which lay the beach colony which had long been a favorite residential area for movie people. Firemen battled fiercely through the night in an effort to keep the blaze out of Malibu Canyon, but had lost the fight just before dawn when flames 100 feet high spread over the top of the last ridge and bore down on the homes a half-mile below. Directly in the path of the flames were a dozen homes, a Catholic church and school and an elementary school which was being used as fire-fighting headquarters and an evacuation center. The explosive fire had already destroyed several expensive homes, among them the $50,000 hilltop house of actor Lew Ayres. A barn on actor Ronald Reagan's ranch had been burned down and ranches owned by Bob Hope and Glenn Ford had to be abandoned. The latter had trucked out with him several head of prize cattle when he departed. In the Malibu Beach colony, residents, among whom had been actor Jackie Coogan, spent the night spraying water on their homes to keep them from being ignited by sparks. But as the flames topped the ridge at the head of the canyon, many of them had packed their belongings and started to leave. Fire officials said that the blaze might be worse than the mammoth Malibu fire two years earlier which had burned for five days, blackening 42,000 acres and destroying 99 homes. Some of the same ground was being burned again on this occasion, but most of the fire was in the hills running down to the picturesque seashore about 20 miles from Los Angeles. Eight firemen had been burned when a sudden wind shift had sent the blaze roaring back at them. They fought through to safety but were hospitalized with first-degree burns on their faces and hands. Evacuation centers had been set up in three schools along the ocean side of the hills and more than 150 persons had entered them. About 1,000 head of cattle had been brought out of the threatened areas and moved to safer pastures. Less fortunate had been the deer which lived in the hills, as their burned bodies littered roads in the area. The Los Angeles County fire chief, who was directing more than 1,000 men on the fire lines, said, "This thing has gone crazy." A prolonged dry spell which left hillside brush bone-dry, a sudden increase in the wind and a spark from an unknown source had combined to ignite the fire at noon on Tuesday along the main highway 8 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. The possibility of an arsonist having set the fire was being investigated.

In Salt Lake City, a meter reader started down some basement stairs but had quickly reversed himself, telling police that there was a lion in the basement. Police found the six-month old Susie, a lion weighing 80 pounds. They had conferred at a safe distance and decided that city law did not permit people to keep lions in their basements and so called the animal rescue league, which sent out an officer who played with Susie for a bit and then took her away, saying that he hoped that some zoo would like to have her. The man in whose basement Susie had been explained that a man had brought the lion to him when it was 12 weeks old, coming straight from Africa, and was maintained in health with five rabbits fed to it per day. He had left the lion in the caretaker's basement, had taken a rifle and departed his home, ostensibly to hunt for rabbits, but that had been the last seen of the man and his rifle. Susie had been chained in the basement and the docile beast had never given him any trouble, but it kept on eating rabbits and he had been attempting to find a more suitable home for it. The city's Hogle Zoo had all the lions it wanted, but the curator said that he would try to find room this date in which to board the animal temporarily. The neighbors of the man said that they were not aware that the lion had been in the basement.

In Albuquerque, N.M., an unidentified youngster had sent a letter asking Santa Claus to send "Four or five caps for my dynamite."

On the editorial page, "Nixon's Dazzling Ringer: 'A Good Show'?" indicates that it had snorted when it had been first announced that "Sir Richard would hie himself off to London to represent the U.S. at the dedication of an American chapel at St. Paul's Cathedral." But he had taken everyone in tow during his tour, from Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to Queen Elizabeth.