The Charlotte News
Wednesday, February 12, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon had said this date that he would demand a Senate investigation of Federal regulatory agencies, in addition to the House inquiry which was presently bogged down in an internal dispute. He said that he was preparing a resolution to set up a special committee for the purpose. He also said that he would return files given to him by an ousted House investigator and had telephoned that advice to House Speaker Sam Rayburn. Dr. Bernard Schwartz, fired as the chief counsel for the House subcommittee, had called the papers his "personal working files" the previous day, while disclosing that they had been delivered to Senator Morse. He said that they could help show that some White House officials had "influenced actions of the regulatory agencies." Senator Morse said that the files showed that the Administration was "honeycombed with political immorality." He had made his comments in an appearance on the NBC television program "Today" and had later talked with reporters. He said that two newsmen had telephoned him after midnight on Monday and said that they had the records, and he had told them that he would take the files for safekeeping. A subpoena for all files had been served on Dr. Schwartz shortly after midnight on Monday. Those newsmen had brought the latter along with them when they arrived at Senator Morse's home and Dr. Schwartz had left the papers. Dr. Schwartz said that there was an effort in the subcommittee to camouflage corruption charges, accusing a majority of the subcommittee of joining "an unholy alliance between big business and the White House to obtain a whitewash" of the investigation into regulatory agencies.
The President this date expressed
concern over unemployment hardship and said that he was confident
that the picture would start to brighten in March. He left open the
possibility that unemployment, which had climbed to nearly 4.5
million the previous month, would get worse before the situation
improved. He said that he was convinced, however, that the country
was not facing a prolonged downswing in economic activity, that every
indication was that March would begin a pickup in job opportunities,
marking the beginning of the end of the downturn in the economy,
"provided we apply ourselves with confidence to the job ahead.
As Americans we have a responsibility to work toward the early
resumption of sound growth in our economy." The Government had
reported that joblessness the previous month had increased by 1.4
million, the largest monthly increase since the Depression in the
1930's, to a total of nearly 4.5 million. The President followed up
the announcement by asking Congress to authorize a 2 billion dollar
program of modernization of post offices and postal services over the
ensuing 3 to 5 years. (The latter point seems to be a bit of a non
sequitur, perhaps designed as a distraction
In Paris, it was reported that Tunisia had declared this date that France had to pull out its troops from that country before friendly relations could be restored. The demand came in the wake of a 339 to 179 vote of support in the French National Assembly for Premier Felix Gaillard after he had defended the bombing of a Tunisian border village the previous Saturday as a "legitimate defense." (An editorial below comments negatively on that action, finding it to have been an atrocity worthy of strong U.S. condemnation.)
In Amman, Jordan, the final draft of a federation uniting Iraq and Jordan had been drawn up this date and a Government spokesman said that a proclamation might be made later this date or on Thursday at the latest. Egypt and Syria had recently formed a federation and invited other Arab nations to join, but there is no indication in the brief report that the Iraq-Jordan united front would join the Egypt-Syria joinder.
In Akita, Japan, a Japanese team this date had launched a plastic rocket, believed to be the first in the world. The inventor said that it had cost about a fifth less than a metal rocket and that it ought give more accurate observations of electrical phenomena.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, the Foreign Minister this date warned the U.S. not to "meddle" in Indonesia's internal affairs, indicating that the Government had "strong objections" to statements made by Secretary of State Dulles at a press conference.
Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, announced this date that he would not be a candidate for re-election the following year, after 25 years in the Senate.
In Clinton, Tenn., an all-male jury the previous night had convicted a 44-year old former convict of conspiring to dynamite Clinton High School, the scene of racial integration and disturbance in the fall of 1956. The judge passed sentence of between two and 10 years in prison, as recommended by the jury. A 20-year old co-defendant had been acquitted. The jury had deliberated for more than six hours. The State had earlier dropped charges against a third co-defendant, 19, so that the latter could testify for the prosecution. All three defendants had originally been charged with conspiracy to dynamite a public building and with illegal possession of dynamite. Two sacks of dynamite had been discovered on the banks of the Clinch River near Clinton on September 29. The sheriff said that the two other co-defendants had told him that they had been offered $250 each to help dynamite the school, where five black students and more than 700 white students were enrolled. The two had implicated the convicted defendant, who had denied the plot.
In Washington, in the court-martial of Master Sergeant Roy Rhodes on espionage charges, the prosecution suffered a setback when an FBI agent was forbidden to testify to what the prosecution described as a confession.
In New Orleans, snow had fallen, and more than an inch had fallen in Lake Charles and Cameron in southwestern Louisiana.
In Rome, a civil court this date postponed until March 12 its hearing of film director Roberto Rossellini's suit for annulment of his Mexican marriage to Ingrid Bergman. It was the second postponement.
Near Conway, S.C., an automobile and a bus had collided head-on on a foggy road and five men riding in the car had been killed. The bus driver said that the car had been attempting to pass another car and rammed into and under the Trailways bus from the front. The bus ran onto the shoulder of the highway and turned on its side. Its only passenger was uninjured and the driver was shaken up. The 1951 Ford was demolished.
In Alliance, O., fire and smoke had destroyed a frame house early this date, killing a father and seven children, with firemen blaming an overheated furnace stoked heavily in the zero-degree cold. The father had gotten his wife and their five-month old son out of the house, but when he tried to rescue the other children, the heat and smoke had apparently overcome him.
In Fayetteville, N.C., four small children had died in a fire which had gutted their frame home this date, officers saying that three of the children had suffocated and the fourth had been burned to death. The four children had been alone in the house when the fire had started. Firemen theorized that one of the children had ignited a bed with matches. The father was stationed with the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg. Two other children were at school when the fire was discovered during the morning.
Donald MacDonald of The News reports that leaks were said to be occurring at Charlotte's Park Center, as well as at the Coliseum and Ovens Auditorium. The Parks superintendent said that it was claimed that 25 or 30 discolored circles on the plaster ceiling above the lobby of Park Center had been the result of condensation of the steel beams in the attic, that the humidity had been worse during the winter than in many years and that they did not know what to do about it. Paul Buck, the manager of the Coliseum, said that its aluminum dome, the largest in the world, was going to be taken off piece by piece at no cost to the City. Representatives of a Pittsburgh firm which had installed the roof had said that each piece of the aluminum roofing would be taken off and reattached with new fastenings, the job expected to begin as soon as the weather permitted, taking approximately 2 1/2 weeks. (Come June, Mother Nature, in the form of a fierce thunderstorm, would remove a good section of that roof again, apparently the fastenings used to replace the aluminum sections not having been too good.) A representative of the company said that new fastenings would include longer screws and expansion parts, insisting that they were going to maintain the roof right. Mr. Buck said that the leaks in the Auditorium would also be corrected by application of waterproofing compound to the concrete wall panels, where recurring leaks had been found. He believed that the leaks had come from high winds driving rain through the concrete.
Dick Young of The News reports that Napoleon might take the place of El Dominante, a cannon which had for years been in a Charlotte schoolyard. The superintendent of the Kings Mountain National Park, said that the National Park Service, which wanted the present cannon, had offered to swap a genuine Confederate bronze cannon, known as a "Napoleon", for the 200-year old Spanish cannon installed in 1929 by the Stonewall Jackson Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to mark the site of the Charlotte Military Institute and to honor Confederate General D. H. Hill. The president of the UDC chapter said that she had arranged a conference with the superintendent for the following week. The Park Service wanted the Spanish cannon to place it in one of the gun positions of Castillo de San Marcos at St. Augustine, Fla., the nation's oldest town. According to Mecklenburg historian, Victor King, the cannon, along with another from El Morro in Havana, had come into American possession when Havana had fallen during the Spanish-American War. The two cannons had been brought to Charlotte in 1906 and had been first installed in front of the post office, and later, when the post office was replaced by a new one, one of the cannons had been switched to the rear of the Federal building. The other had been donated to the UDC chapter, which had installed it on the grounds of the Military Institute, until it had been razed to make way for Independence Boulevard, at which time, the State Highway Commission had moved it to the front yard of the adjoining Alexander Graham Junior High School. Markings on the cannon showed that it was cast in Barcelona on May 24, 1769. The cannon to be swapped would come from a battlefield in Virginia or Tennessee.
Greenland, Mich., had an accumulation of 143 inches of snow so far during the season as of the previous day, the highest in the Northeast, its closest competitor having only 100 inches.
In Memphis, the Cotton Carnival banners which had been used in the previous carnival season would be destroyed, having been made of rayon, with the new ones set to be made of 100 percent cotton.
On the editorial page, "Send in a New Team To Probe the FCC" indicates that the special Moulder subcommittee had lost the confidence of the public in investigating irregularities at the FCC, because of the public bungling and private tyranny which had been exposed. Nothing could repair the damage after reckless charges and counter-charges had been laid unevaluated before the public.
Dr. Bernard Schwartz, the subcommittee's counsel, had been summarily dismissed after preparing a memorandum imputing criminal misconduct to members of the FCC. Representative Morgan Moulder of Missouri had resigned his post as the subcommittee chairman, while retaining his membership on the subcommittee. Individual members of the committee and Dr. Schwartz had engaged in a shocking contest of backbiting and personal abuse.
It finds that there was only one sensible course, for the subcommittee to be discharged and for another to be appointed in its place by parent committee chairman Oren Harris of Arkansas. It indicates that the current subcommittee was not fit to continue the investigation, having embarrassed both political parties and impugned the dignity of the House. But there continued to be a need for a thorough investigation of the FCC.
FCC chairman John Doerfer's own admissions during the controversy's earlier stages had cast serious doubts on his judgment and the FCC's manner of operating. It suggests that any new investigation ought be even broader in scope than the one attempted by the Moulder subcommittee. It ought inquire into the FCC's whole structure and the way in which seven men in Washington were permitted to give away broadcasting channels worth millions of dollars with no clear guidelines except personal whim and political pressure. Congress had an obligation to study and update the statute which created the FCC, providing only that licenses be granted to applicants if "public convenience, interest or necessity will be served thereby." It indicates that it ought establish the principle that when commissioners had an application before them, they were quasi-judicial officers and that Congressmen, high Administration officials, party politicos and other interested parties could not approach them for secret favors.
A House antitrust committee had recently condemned secret discussions of pending cases between representatives of the broadcasting industry and members of the FCC, stating that the practice was "repugnant to fundamental principles of quasi-judicial procedure." But that investigation had gone no further and the Congressmen themselves continued to set a poor example by intervening as usual on behalf of favored constituents.
"U.S. Should Condemn French Atrocity" indicates that Secretary of State Dulles had made a meek response to the French destruction of a Tunisian town and slaughter of its inhabitants, a response which it finds was pitiful.
While Secretary Dulles had to straddle the fence between French colonialism and Arab nationalism, trying to sympathize with the victim without offending the attacker had only managed to make the U.S. appear insensitive to the commission of an indefensible atrocity.
The cruelty of the attack on the town had been matched only by its stupidity, as its object was to put an end to the harboring in Tunisian villages of rebels from across the border in Algeria. The 25 French warplanes had not, however, attacked a known rebel camp, but rather a village in which it was thought that some rebels were hiding.
The result had been international repulsion against the French, which would obscure any legitimate aspects of their long and bloody campaign against the Algerian rebels. The rebels would continue to use Tunisia as a sanctuary and would only increase their effort to drive the French from Algeria.
It finds that the insistence of France in playing the role of a great power when it had lost both the power and prestige of that position was placing an unbearable strain on U.S. understanding. Americans could not continue to supply the arms which France was using aggressively against innocent people, as the cost in conscience and friendship with the uncommitted nations was too great.
"Our 'Backward' Youths Worth Helping?" indicates that it was suddenly fashionable in academic circles to take a dim view of "backward" students who did not respond easily to the crash program in education. Dr. Walter Roberts, director of the University of Colorado Observatory, said that four out of five students at the University ought be flunked out and sent home and wished that the faculty had the courage to do so.
It says that it was for lofty standards at institutions of higher learning, but that haste made waste in education and the job of the educator was to educate, that with a little patience, he could do wonders with seemingly unpromising material. It finds that few young people ought be given up as hopeless on the basis of hasty and imperfect facilities for judgment.
It reminds that the late Albert Einstein had flunked his first entrance exams at Zürich Polytechnicum, having been described by contemporaries as "shy and backward". Dr. Roberts, it concludes, would have probably sent him home.
Eric Sevareid, in a CBS broadcast, titled "Give Me Liberty", talks of Alphonse Dulle, the assistant foreman in the pressroom at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He says that he had once been a copy boy with occasional duties in a similar pressroom and he was not surprised that Mr. Dulle was a pressroom boss, as they were men of a certain breed, "entirely capable of instructing a big-eyed copy boy to tell that lily-fingered managing editor so-and-so to come down and run the so-and-so presses himself if he don't like it."
He had been thinking of Mr. Dulle for several weeks as a lot of hopes were riding with him, engaged in a struggle regarding his front yard mailbox, the outcome of which was every bit as vital to America and its traditional way of life as the outcome of Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy's struggle to reorganize the Pentagon.
A clipping regarding Mr. Dulle had read: "St. Louis, January 3, Alphonse J. Dulle's neighbors filed suit today for $2,000 in damages because his mailbox is white with black lettering. They want the court to force him to paint it black with white lettering like all others in the 22-house development."
Mr. Sevareid had placed a call to the St. Louis residence of Mr. Dulle and got in touch with his wife, who sounded somewhat suspicious, at which he was not surprised, given the amount of publicity surrounding their mailbox. She said that her husband kept saying to her that there came a time when if a man could not call his home his own, he could not call his soul his own and so he had to fight for it.
The court had not yet acted and so it was not yet clear whether Americans had, singly or collectively, been damaged materially, socially or spiritually because one among them had dared to be different. "But we can report that the Dulles are not entirely forsaken in their lonely eminence. They have been getting letters from around the country and, said Mrs. Dulle, 'every one of them is on our side.'"
Drew Pearson indicates that the primary trouble with Dr. Bernard Schwartz, counsel for the Moulder Committee, was that Congressman Oren Harris of Arkansas had hired him in the mistaken belief that he would conduct a dull, academic study of Government regulatory agencies. Mr. Harris was a friend of the large utilities and had never expected a scholarly law professor from NYU to dig. Ever since he had started digging, Mr. Harris had tried to sidetrack him. The final move to fire him had started immediately after he had notified the subcommittee of his intention to pursue the scandals regarding the FCC into the White House.
He reported that the staff had canceled checks proving that a Miami attorney had paid thousands of dollars to FCC commissioner Richard Mack. That attorney had been asked by a Miami judge, whose former law firm had represented National Airlines, to help the airline obtain a television channel in Miami. When Mr. Pearson's column had investigated the story, Mr. Mack claimed that he had "borrowed" money from the attorney.
Dr. Schwartz had ordered two investigators to fly to Boston to look into charges that the Boston Herald-Traveler had pulled political wires to obtain a television license worth an estimated 20 million dollars. White House chief of staff Sherman Adams, Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks and Senator Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts had all gone to bat for the loyal Republican newspaper.
Following the probe of Mr. Mack, Dr. Schwartz had told Representative Morgan Moulder, chairman of the subcommittee, that he intended to investigate White House meddling in individual cases before the regulatory agencies which were supposed to be independent. He claimed that he had evidence that Mr. Adams and White House counsel Gerald Morgan had brought pressure on the regulatory agencies to help top Republicans. The President had sought to brush off the FCC investigation in his most recent press conference by quoting a "White House lawyer" that the practice of FCC commissioners in accepting expense money from both the taxpayers and the radio and television industry was not illegal, in direct contradiction of his own Comptroller-General Joseph Campbell, who testified that double-charging of expense money was in violation of the law and probably criminal.
When the column had asked Mr. Morgan of the White House if he had brought political pressure on regulatory agencies, he refused comment. It was one reason for the frantic desire to sidetrack the investigation.
The charge that Dr. Schwartz had submitted improper expense vouchers was a deliberate frame-up, the truth having been that the vouchers had been prepared by Herman Beasley, whom Mr. Harris had appointed to the committee staff. Mr. Beasley had been giving Mr. Harris daily detailed reports on what Dr. Schwartz had been doing. Mr. Beasley had submitted vouchers for the latter, but originally had made them too high and the professor had reduced them and also accounted for the expenses in detail to Mr. Harris. Despite that, a story that Dr. Schwartz had submitted improper expenses had been leaked to Les Carpenter, a close friend of Mr. Harris who wrote for the Arkansas Gazette and Tulsa Tribune. When the story appeared, Mr. Harris pretended to be surprised by it.
The trips of Mr. Harris, Mr. Pearson indicates, could stand more investigation than the travel of Dr. Schwartz, whose moving expenses were actually higher than what he charged the Government. Mr. Harris took free trips at the expense of the oil and gas industry, though he headed the committee which handled all oil and gas legislation, the Commerce Committee. The president of the Murphy Oil Co. had admitted to the column that Mr. Harris had taken free rides on his company plane. When asked whether the Congressman had offered to pay for the travel, Mr. Murphy had said that anyone who flew on the plane was a guest and that no one paid except the company.
Doris Fleeson indicates that Senator Lyndon Johnson had now firmly staked his presidential hopes on the space program, having selected a new chairmanship of the special committee which would deal with the problems of exploration of outer space, keeping him in the forefront of the news. Whether it could be translated into political support which would be effective at the Democratic convention in 1960 was another matter.
Senator Johnson did not admit that he was a candidate but was following a persistent course which could lead observers to no other conclusion. He was conspicuously wooing some of the Democratic Party's most conspicuous eggheads and was doing so with the same grave charm and determination which Vice-President Nixon was using on Republicans. Reports were that Senator Johnson's tactics were working, at least in some places.
He still faced some obstacles, one being his July 4, 1955 heart attack, which, while not providing any outward lasting appearance of disability, still remained in memory, as the rising debate on a presidential disabilities bill evidenced that presidential illness, or the likelihood of it, was in the minds of Congress, if not yet in the minds of voters. Democrats who thought that the President's illness ought to have been an important issue in the 1956 campaign, would remain sensitive to that issue as it affected Senator Johnson.
He had, as Majority Leader, steered the previous year's civil rights bill to passage by outflanking the more hardened and bitter Southern contingent, but since Texas was part of the Southern tradition, politicians from other sections, mindful of the black vote, might hesitate to commit the party to Senator Johnson.
His biggest hurdle would be his support of the oil industry and the perennial bill to exempt natural gas prices from Federal regulation would be up again in the current session and could not help party support of Senator Johnson as he would once again give his support to the industry. The labor vote and the black vote would loom large in the next Democratic convention. The liberal intellectuals might be small in number but were vocal and would be heard, and to most of those groups, "oil" was a dirty word.
She concludes that how genuine the Senator's intentions were in trying to obtain the nomination could not yet be determined, that possibly, as had been the case with Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, he was lost without a goal toward which he could determinedly drive. "It is doubtful that anyone, no matter how close, could long contain Johnson's vigor, which apparently is great enough to out weight, when challenged, his remarkable intelligence. It would perhaps seem easiest, after all, to let him play out his string come hell or high water."
Robert C. Ruark, in Paris, indicates that if one went along with the haute couture from Paris, that person would look "so silly that the British expression, 'bloody awful,' can be construed as a compliment." Fashions had reverted to 1928 courtesy of Yves St. Laurent, replacing Christian Dior, along with Pierre Cardin and Gavrency.
He finds the new fashions to combine equal parts of Clara Bow, early Myrna Loy and Space Cadet. He had forgotten how silly extremely short skirts looked on a "dame, and the dames are cursing while wearing." A lady could not exit a low-slung car without making a spectacle of herself.
He finds enough space in the back of most dresses to accommodate twin papooses. The sack was dying and only the fact that the legs emerged could possibly identify the wearer as a woman. One could not see the face for sheepdog hair, could not see the head for the hat, and could not see the figure for the sack, "and you get the odd impression that this is a shaggy vegetable which has suddenly sprouted legs."
He thinks that fashions were in for another reign of horror as the younger gentlemen took over the old reins. "I will send a warning. Re-design your cars, gentlemen, and bring back the old high line with the running board, or you will lose the female customer which you prize so highly. Because a lady cannot get either in or out of the car in the mode of tomorrow, unless the lap robe suddenly becomes fashionable again as an adjunct to decorum."
A letter writer says that he was able to pick up the radio signal from the recently launched Explorer satellite, and had made an excellent recording of it for several minutes. He indicates that it was a sound between a squeak and a squall, that he had sought to decode its message, and after considerable research, had been successful. He says it was simply the Russian translation of Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog".
He may have been listening to
"Flying Saucer 2nd", released the previous summer
A letter writer from Clinton, S.C., indicates that the newspaper might be an "egghead", but to be called such in the present decadent world was quite a compliment. He says that he read many newspapers and found the News to be about the most liberal of them all.
A letter writer from Salisbury indicates that the weather during the previous few days had been pretty bright and golden and yet there had been a "tangy coldness in the air that almost froze one at times." That made people step a little faster and thus consume more energy requiring more to eat. "The creator has done a wonderful job during these few days to show off his glory."
A letter writer from Derita indicates that he was a student in a Mecklenburg County high school and had lived a rather unspectacular life with normal parents, teachers and friends. He had carefully observed the lives of his friends and found little difference in them. The education of youth in the country had turned into a standardization process, molding every child into an unoriginal stamp of the model of a proper "respectable" person. He says they were no longer taught how to think but what to think, that parents and teachers carefully imbued their unthinking, unstudied beliefs in their students while instilling a bitter prejudice in racial, religious and social fields against any thing or person which did not conform to their petty beliefs and hypocrisy. "When communism teaches this same way, it is called totalitarian rule. When a democracy does the same thing it is called 'acting on the child's behalf.' Calling a disgusting and completely undemocratic procedure by a nice name does not make it any less odorous." He was disgusted with the absolute lack of respect shown by the elder generation to any beliefs or practices which did not conform to their petty beliefs. "Youth should be taught to think, to live their own lives as they wish, and act according to the dictates of their conscience (not the standard ritual and practices of Christianity) and to respect the beliefs and actions of other people regardless of what that might be."
He needs to attend UNC or a comparable institution and major in philosophy and sociology to restore his faith in mankind and realize that not all adults were insistent on bourgeois conformity, an easy enough assumption at the stage of high school when all of the teachers were required to conform and ensure that the students would also reasonably conform so as not to breed little Commies within the local environs.
A letter from a woman of the Dabbling Diggers Garden Club writes on behalf of the club, whose members at a recent meeting had unanimously resolved to offer assistance in the provision of a park adjacent to the new library on North Tryon St., and commends the efforts on behalf of the park program, requests information which the newspaper might have regarding the committee or solicitation services in which their club could help.
Framed Edition
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