The Charlotte News

Wednesday, March 5, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that a Republican on the House Investigating subcommittee looking at the FCC, Representative Charles Wolverton of New Jersey, had served notice this date that he would press for questioning of Senators named during the hearings as having intervened in the Miami television-channel case. As the senior Republican on the subcommittee, he told its chairman, Representative Oren Harris of Arkansas, that he disagreed with the latter's position that the subcommittee might not address a direct invitation to the Senators to testify. Mr. Harris had already taken a stand that the House had no authority to call the Senators as witnesses, and could not directly invite their testimony, though an open invitation for any members of Congress to testify was appropriate. The Senators who had most often been mentioned during the hearings had been Estes Kefauver of Tennessee and Spessard Holland and George Smathers of Florida. The president of National Airlines, G. T. Baker, had issued a statement saying that the three Senators had used "all the power they could" to coerce the FCC to vote for Frank Katzentine, a rival applicant for the television channel, or to vote against National as the recipient. Mr. Baker had said that he thought the Senators ought resign, just as had FCC commissioner Richard Mack, for the same reason, "because their usefulness in the high positions that they hold have been seriously impaired. Their halos have slipped." He said that if the House could not "call Senators to account" for their actions, then the Senate ought to do so. In separate replies, both Senators Holland and Smathers, presently in Florida, had described Mr. Baker's statement as that of a "desperate man", with Senator Smathers calling it "reckless and irresponsible and unworthy of further comment." Senator Holland had said, "The people of Florida are quite competent to pass on my representation of them in this matter and every other." There was no new comment from Senator Kefauver, who had said earlier that he had sought only to assure an FCC vote on the merits of the case.

The President said this date at his press conference that his disability agreement with Vice-President Nixon did not contemplate that the latter would have to take a new oath to act as chief executive.

The President also said this date that the U.S. never would close the door on any effort to arrange a summit conference with Soviet leaders.

In Paris, it was reported that France this date received the first shipment of nuclear reactor fuel under the U.S. program for sharing atomic energy for peaceful purposes.

In Singapore, the Indonesian Air Force was reported this night to have warned the American-owned Caltex and the Dutch-owned BPM oil companies that it intended to carry out bombardment of their installations at Menado in North Celebes and Padang in central Sumatra.

In Little Rock, Ark., Governor Orval Faubus, who had come to national prominence the previous fall regarding the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, calling out the Arkansas National Guard to try to prevent the integration, announced that he would seek a third term, indicating that he intended to defend states' rights as part of his platform.

In Hoboken, N.J., a series of wood alcohol deaths in New York City, believed to total 26, had been blamed this date on two men from Hoboken who were said to have peddled the poison after one had stolen it from a chemical plant where he worked. They were arrested as they sat in an automobile, though what had led to their arrests had not yet been disclosed. A New York City police lieutenant said that they were responsible for the 23 alcohol deaths recorded to date, and early this date, New York police had added three more names to the fatality list. The Hoboken police said that one of the men had stolen 60 gallons of the fluid from the chemical plant at Carlstadt, N.J., where he worked. The other man, they said, had diluted the alcohol into a drink commonly known as "King Kong" and then sold it in New York, where three alleged distributors had also been charged with homicide. Police had been seeking the source of the wood alcohol amid the growing daily death toll. The latest fatalities were believed to have occurred from drinking it the previous night and early this date. The police said that the men had sold five gallons of the deadly alcohol in The Bronx and 15 gallons in Harlem, had apparently become frightened and disposed of the remaining 40 gallons. The police reported that they had a contact man in The Bronx who was being questioned by Bronx police. They said that thus far they had been unable to learn the identity of the contact man in Harlem. A proprietor of a candy store in The Bronx had, according to police, admitted selling 1.5 pints of the mixture to two of the victims. The police said that the mixture produced a growing feeling of weakness, pangs of agony, and finally death.

In New York, an 11-year old boy admitted that he had pushed a four-year old girl into the Hudson River to drown her the previous June because she had told his mother tales about him. He had also earlier admitted drowning a seven-year old boy, his friend, the prior Sunday. He said that he was mad at the girl because he was blamed for things he did not do and she had always been the cause of the blame. He said he drowned the boy because he had reneged on a promise to pay a dime to go rollerskating with him. He was being held as a juvenile delinquent for a children's court hearing on March 14. Grappling operations continued on the river to try to find the boy's body. His parents, Orthodox Jews, were sitting the traditional "Shiva", a week-long mourning period.

In Hampden, Mass., it was reported that a 17-year old boy was wanted for murder in the shooting death of his father, mother and younger brother, after their bodies had been found the previous day in their modest home, all three having been shot in the head several times with a .22-caliber rifle. Police theorized that the mother had been shot first and that the father and the 14-year old boy had been shot as they entered the house. The alert on the boy believed to have committed the murders had been sent to all Northeastern states when it was discovered that he was missing, along with a gun and the family's 1954 automobile. Police had been unable to determine immediately the cause of the slayings. A milkman had discovered the bodies when he looked through a window after failing to obtain a response at the door, a doctor having estimated that the shootings had taken place the prior Monday afternoon. Two empty wallets had been found near the bodies of the father and son. The father had been laid off from work the prior Friday. The 17-year old son had quit high school the previous year to go to work as a well digger. He had been a Boy Scout for five years before dropping out the previous year, his Scoutmaster having said that he was better than average as a Scout but "inclined to be moody."

In Memphis, Tenn., the stunned congregation of the largest Presbyterian church in the city this date mourned the death of their pastor, who had shot and killed himself the previous day, his body having been found by his wife in the den of their home when she returned from visiting friends. He had been home alone at the time. According to a homicide captain, he shot himself in the chest with a .12-gauge shotgun, found near the body. He had been asked by his associates several months earlier to take a rest after he suffered nervous exhaustion, but had returned to his pulpit the previous month for three consecutive Sundays, missing the previous week because of the flu. He was a native of Sumter, S.C., to which the body would be returned for burial. He had attended Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., and had gone to Columbia and Princeton Theological Seminaries.

In Carlyle, Ill., a west-bound Baltimore and Ohio Railroad freight train had struck a car loaded with schoolchildren at an unguarded crossing this date, with three children, all members of a single family, having been killed, along with a 33-year old passenger who had died an hour later.

Bill Hughes of The News reports from Sanford, N.C., that the start of presentation of evidence in the trial of Frank Wetzel for murder was anticipated for the afternoon, as only one regular juror and two alternates remained to be selected, and defense attorneys had only three peremptory challenges remaining out of its allotted 14. During the morning, seven of the prospective jurors had been dismissed for cause. Mr. Wetzel was on trial for the murder of Highway Patrolman J. T. Brown, killed the prior November 5, the same night another Highway Patrolman, Wister Reece, had been killed, for which Mr. Wetzel had already been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in another county. The prosecution expected to present nearly 30 witnesses, many of whom had already testified in the earlier case. The solicitor in the present case was seeking the death penalty.

It was also reported that the town was unruffled at the preliminary stages of the dramatic trial. The average citizen, while aware of the drama in the courthouse, was following the advice of public officials, especially that of the sheriff, by staying away from the trial. The sheriff did not want things to be as they had been in the prior trial in Rockingham, where there were many people milling about the hallways of the courthouse and gathered outside. The trial was mentioned in conversation only casually, whereas in Rockingham, word-of-mouth had communicated every trial development. The courthouse in Rockingham was near the central business district, whereas in Sanford, it was isolated on the edge of town, tending to produce less of a crowd.

Dick Young of The News reports that revival of the proposal for consolidation of city and county tax collection offices had occurre this date in the discussion of a successor to the City collector of revenue, who had died on Sunday night. The proposal to combine the agencies, however, had not obtained approval of all members of the City Council, as one member doubted there would be much financial savings from the move. Others on the Council felt differently. Mayor James Smith hoped that no Council action would be taken for 30 days.

In Charlotte, a police search which had begun with an anonymous tip that a father had "thrown his kids in the river" ended merely as a scare this date, with the husband and wife reunited after police had intervened to help. The search had become state-wide when police had been unable to locate the man, who was found during the morning, his children safe after having spent the night at the home of an unidentified friend. Charlotte Police Chief Frank Littlejohn said that the entire matter had been "a misunderstanding", explaining that a domestic warrant had been taken out against the man by his wife, but was to be withdrawn. Police were still trying to determine the identity of the mystery caller, which had come from Washington, D.C., from someone identifying himself as "M. Hammer", presumably referring to the fictional character created by novelist Mickey Spillane. Police said that when they identified the caller, he might be charged under a statute making it illegal to provide false information for police broadcast.

That's nothing. We just seen Geronimo down shooting pool in the billiard parlor. If'n you'll hurry, you can catch him before he done kills somebody else.

On the editorial page, "Give the Superhighway Top Priority" urges priority for the North Carolina to Ohio superhighway, though it had been compromised for a time by special interests wanting it to twist and turn to the benefit of a number of communities to the east, northeast and north. The State Highway Commission, however, had stamped its approval on a route which had some geographical validity, making it run from Charlotte in the south to Elkin in the north without wild detours for the sake of political appeal, appearing to be an engineering judgment rather than a political one, wholly commendable.