The Charlotte News
Saturday, December 6, 1958
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Cape Canaveral, Fla., that the Army had launched its first space probe thousands of miles into space this date, but hours later, calculated that the vehicle would travel barely a quarter of the intended distance to the moon, about 220,000 miles. Pioneer III had been equipped to return signals when it passed the moon and had it been completely successful, would have gone on to orbit around the sun. Instead, the Jupiter rocket which comprised the first stage of the launch vehicle had cut out 3.7 seconds prematurely, and the probe thus failed by about 1,000 mph to attain the 24,900 mph velocity required to reach or go past the moon. The Army's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had built the instrument-filled nosecone, a 13-pound forerunner to future satellites, only 23 inches high, and ten inches in diameter at the base. Dr. William Pickering, director of JPL, estimated that the nosecone would reach a peak altitude of 64,830 miles at around mid-afternoon on Sunday, which would be 14,000 miles less than the distance attained by Pioneer I, launched by the Air Force on October 11. No one had been wishing the Army bad luck, but since its first attempted launch into space this date had been less than perfect, some Air Force officers could not conceal their relief that Pioneer III had not out-performed the first such attempt. One officer commented, "If Wernher von Braun had put his satellite around the sun the first try, after three Air Force failures to reach the moon, there would have been no living with him." Dr. Von Braun, head of the Army missile science team, estimated in Washington that Pioneer III would remain in flight for about 38 hours from its launch time 45 minutes after midnight this date, whereas Pioneer I had stayed aloft for 44 hours. He guessed that the probe would reenter the earth's atmosphere near Madagascar off the east coast of Africa on Sunday afternoon and said that it would disintegrate at that point from air friction and that no solid parts of it would hit the earth. He blamed a faulty setting of a small fuel valve in the first stage for the improper mixture which would produce the shortened burning time. At Cape Canaveral, Dr. John Froelich, an associate of Dr. Pickering at JPL, said that the next Army space launch vehicle would have to have some "improvements", including better propellants. Dr. Pickering said that while the Army attempt was not completely successful, it had been very close to success from a scientific point of view. Dr. Von Braun called it a "90 percent successful launching."
In Taipei, Formosa, the Chinese Communists had refrained from shelling the Quemoy offshore islands this date, as it was an even-numbered day on which they had voluntarily agreed to refrain from shelling so that the offshore islands could be resupplied from Formosa by the Nationalists.
In Moscow, it was reported that the Soviet Union had hinted to Iran this date that signing a defense agreement with the U.S. would give the Soviet Union the right to send troops into Iran.
In Cairo, delegates of the Arab chambers of commerce had met this date in an effort to give substance to a seven-year dream of an Arab economic union stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf.
In Chicago, it was reported that two attorneys who dabbled in art sleuthing and collecting had picked themselves 1.5 million dollars worth of masterpieces, according to a Vatican art expert. They had expended just $2,200 for the three paintings. The Chicago artist, who had advised them to take a chance on their purchases, said, "Extraordinary luck, just like finding diamonds in the street." Prof. Amadore Porcella, catalogist for the Vatican Gallery of Art, pronounced the 16th Century paintings authentic on Friday, describing them as: "Christ Carrying the Cross" by Giorgione; "Sacred Conversation" by Giovanni Bellini; and "The Massacre of the Innocents" by Raphael Sanzio. One of the two lawyers told a newsman that he had bought the 17 x 15-inch Giorgione for about $1,000 from a Chicago dealer who apparently knew little of its history. The painting, one of the last by the artist before his death in 1510, had been valued by the Vatican Gallery catalogist at a million dollars, as the Venetian artist had painted only about a dozen masterpieces. His other valuable painting was termed by the catalogist "the great lost masterpiece of Bellini." The attorney said that he had bought it in 1955 for $1,000, and the catalogist said that it was worth $300,000. The previous July, the other attorney had walked out of a Chicago auction house with a small 11 x 16-inch painting for which he had paid $170, that one, by Raphael, having been valued at $300,000. An art restorer and sculptor of Chicago had been advising the attorneys, having passed previous tips, though with somewhat lesser results. He said: "I look at the painting and see its possibilities as a great one. Sometimes, it is valuable. Sometimes, the buyer does not even get back what he paid for the painting plus the cost of restoration. That's why so many of these 'finds' are bought at auctions. Dealers cannot or will not pay for the restoration." Asked why he had not purchased the paintings himself for which he had hunches, he said, "I cannot afford to speculate."
Bob Slough of The News reports that the Empty Stocking Fund, to help needy families at Christmas, had thus far received $1,975.55, with a list of the donors and their donations accompanying the piece, indicating that for donations to be received in time for processing applications from needy families, the Christmas Bureau would close new applications on December 17.
Bob Quincy, News sports editor, reports that Charlie Overstreet had been named outstanding lineman in the previous year's Shrine Bowl game, which his side, South Carolina, had won 12 to 6. The Shrine Bowl was a benefit game played by the high school senior all-stars of the two Carolinas against one another, with the proceeds going to the Children's Hospital for crippled children in Greenville, S.C. Mr. Overstreet was now a student at Georgia Military College and said that the Shrine game had originally seemed to him to be just another honor for a good football player, that he was glad to come the previous December and that his coach at North Augusta High School had told him that he would be impressed by all which would take place, but that he had not realized the extent of it. His coach had been an assistant coach of the South Carolina squad the previous year and had chosen young Mr. Overstreet for his dynamic ability on the field during his high school days. The player had borrowed an old suitcase and put some underwear and socks and a couple of sport shirts in it, would have put in more, but that was all he had. His mother and father were separated and he lived with his grandmother in the South Carolina town. On weekends, he worked at a service station to help make ends meet. He said that the Shrine Bowl had changed his life, that he was 19 and shivering from the cold when he had first drawn the attention of Bowl officials the previous year, when the weather was chilly and he was clad only in a thin sport shirt, having been told to put a coat on lest he catch cold, to which he had responded that he could not, not bothering to give the reason. It was not the policy of the Bowl to offer clothing to its participants but it was an unusual case and donations had come quickly, eventually giving Charlie a sport coat, sweater and a shiny new look. The Bowl game to be played this date, as explained in an editorial, was the 22nd annual contest in the series.
On the editorial page, Marquis Childs, in the third in a series of pieces reported from Mexico City, finds that when Vice-President Nixon had been stoned and spat upon while visiting several Latin American capitals during his tour the prior spring, the warning signal had been raised for all to see that something was deeply and woefully wrong south of the border. The type of palliatives thus far put forward, a good will tour by the President's brother Milton and a conference of foreign ministers, could do little to remedy what was a deep-seated malady. The root cause was inflation and the discontent spurred every form of political unrest from Communism to Peronism.
Mexico was one of the comparatively stable countries in Latin America. Discontent existed, but it had no focus and the regime in power exercised close control at every level. The 600,000 tourists from the north, together with the export of more than 400,000 seasonal Mexican farm workers for work on North America's farms, were a big help in steadying the economy. The principal centers of danger were farther south, in Brazil and Argentina.
In the Argentine, El Presidente Arturo Frondizi was relying on the military to hold the line against major strikes touched off by rising prices and an underlying political unrest. The deal negotiated with the American oil companies, after long and persistent pressure, was another troubling factor.
If Argentina was in headlines for the moment, knowledgeable observers believed that the peril of an imminent explosion was even greater in Brazil, where inflation raged like forest fire with no visible means of checking it. While predictions of what might happen varied widely, it was hard to see how the present uneasy balance could long endure.
Any serious upset in one of the two largest powers in Latin America would be felt throughout the hemisphere, and the tremors would have an unsettling effect everywhere. It was an opportunity for which Communism was playing against the background of uncertainty regarding the leadership, or lack of it, being exercised from Washington. The achievements of Soviet Russia, when writ large, as with the Sputniks, had made a deep impression, and the reports of the successful flights of a Russian nuclear-powered airplane had been given prominence in the press in Mexico City.
Latins had traditionally looked to the U.S. for that kind of achievement but were now beginning to ask whether the Soviet system did not provide a shortcut to technological superiority and a triumph over the plagues of poverty and backwardness in an underdeveloped nation. Part of the current unrest was a mounting impatience with the rate of progress, an impatience spurred by the siren voice of Communist propaganda.
Recently, Communist China had invited eight distinguished Mexican scientists and medical men with their wives to tour mainland China as guests of the Peiping regime. Although at least three of the scientists held decidedly anti-Communist views, they had returned with a strong impression of the scientific advances in China and the organization of the masses for intensive labor.
Former President Lazaro Cardenas, leader of the leftist forces in Mexico, was presently touring Russia and was expected to visit China also. The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Robert Hill, had been surprised to find that Sr. Cardenas had never been invited to visit the U.S. Shortly before he departed for Russia, Mr. Hill had urged him on his return trip to tour the U.S. and observe such achievements as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the St. Lawrence Seaway, presenting an example of the type of opportunity which the U.S. had almost deliberately appeared to ignore. But the real threat in Latin America had little to do with the most obvious appeals of propaganda, whether from the East or the West.
In almost every country, particularly in Brazil, the postwar boom brought far too much spending for luxuries and luxury construction, benefiting only a small class and scarcely shared at all with the great underlying mass. Added to that fact was an explosive birth-rate which would mean doubling of Latin America's population within little more than two decades, while the resources for life increased at a far slower pace. In view of that situation, it was futile to pretend that any of the familiar panaceas would effect a cure, and the shocks of the coming year would be no occasion for surprise.
Given those perils for the future, we congratulate the idiots of the Trump Administration for rigging the Supreme Court with anti-Roe v. Wade conservatives, too narrow in their religious views of life to understand the portent for third-world countries, especially those south of the border with heavy Catholic populations, meant to appeal to idiots unable to see beyond the ends of their noses, as well as its "close the border" mentality, with immense self-congratulation, cutting off all manner of undocumented seasonal labor, when it was quite well-documented that most of the "illegal immigration" to the U.S. had always been effected, not across the southern border, but rather by airplane by people with student and work visas who overstay their permitted time. Congratulations for an excellent job well done. How on earth did this man escape receipt of a Nobel Peace Prize? He is the best El Presidente America has ever had. We bow and weep at his exalted feet. He performs just like the best of those El Presidentes south of the border, benefiting only the rich at the expense of the masses. Way to go! Let's hear it: Hip-hip hooray. For he's a jolly good fellow... Oh look, a cake for His Highness and it is not even his birthday yet. See how many people just love and adore him. The throngs come from all around just to touch his cloak. O come, all ye faithful… We just cannot restrain our joy to the world.
The Trumpies still under the illusory spell
Framed Edition
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