The Charlotte News
Friday, March 7, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Kohler Co. this date had rejected a new proposal by the UAW for the Government to arbitrate a four-year strike at the firm's plant in Wisconsin, the offer having been made by UAW secretary-treasurer Emil Mazey during hearings before the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct in unions and management during the morning this date. The Committee was seeking to fix blame for the violence which had marked the long labor dispute at the bathroom fixtures manufacturing plant. Mr. Mazey had been recalled for questioning about his criticism and subsequent quick apology to churchmen in the area of Sheboygan, Wisc., and he quickly softened his comments which he had made first about Roman Catholic priests in the area and extended in lesser degree to Protestant ministers. He offered to let the Government arbitrate at the start of the day's hearing. He said that the union was willing to allow the issues to be decided by the Committee, itself, or any subcommittee of it, or by anyone named by Secretary of Labor James Mitchell or the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Lyman Conger, Kohler's general counsel, had been called to reply to the proposal and he had said that while the firm was willing to listen to any advice from outside mediators on what should be done, he could not allow any outsider to write terms of its labor contract. He said that while outsiders might be a lot smarter than Kohler executives, they could not "have too much knowledge about making bathtubs." Under sharp questioning from the Committee, Mr. Mazey had conceded that "use of the word 'integrity' may have been a little bit harsh," in reference to that which he found lacking in the Sheboygan churchmen. He added that "in matters of basic social questions there is much to be desired in the churches of Sheboygan." Several hours after that, he issued a public statement saying that he had not challenged the integrity of the Sheboygan clergy, and apologized for any such inference. The churchmen had adopted resolutions accusing Mr. Mazey of attempting to intimidate Sheboygan courts through an alleged boycott effort directed at a judge who had sentenced another union official for strike violence.
In Moscow, it was reported that Premier Nikolai Bulganin, in a fourth message to President Eisenhower, released this date, had appealed again for an East-West summit conference but made no major new proposals to break the impasse.
In London, it was reported that the Soviet Union had announced this date that it had successfully launched ten meteorological rockets to study upper atmospheric layers in the two Antarctic regions.
At Cape Canaveral, Fla., the Navy had postponed, at least temporarily, this date's scheduled daylight firing of its satellite-carrying Vanguard rocket, the result of technical difficulties.
In Havana, a "National Conciliation Committee" had been set up with the backing of the Roman Catholic Church to work for peace in Cuba.
The House voted to provide Congress more control over unspent funds carried over by Government departments from year to year.
A Southern educator, Dr. Guy Benton Johnson, sociology professor at UNC and former executive director of the Southern Regional Council, told the tenth annual conference of the National Civil Liberties Clearing House in Washington this date that it would take between 25 and 50 years to accomplish general racial integration in the Deep South. The group had devoted a morning session this date to a discussion of the aftermath of the integration crisis the prior fall at Little Rock, Ark., and "ways to acceptance and compliance." Dr. Johnson said that a net good had resulted from the tragic episode at Little Rock. He urged Congress to strengthen civil rights legislation and said that he hoped that the new Civil Rights Commission, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, would be given a fair chance and that the President would take a more direct interest in integration. He indicated that should another Little Rock episode occur, he hoped that the President would move in with more finesse and do a better job of explaining exactly what the issue was. He said that every effort ought be made to protect the rights of blacks to vote and that "non-violent" protest of the type displayed in the Montgomery, Ala., and Tallahassee, Fla., bus strikes could have moral impact.
In Seoul, South Korea, a U.S. Air Force pilot said this date that he did not know whether ground fire which had hit a comrade's F-86 jet near the demilitarized zone had come from Communist or friendly territory. He said that to his knowledge, neither plane had been close enough to be hit by Communist fire. An official Air Force release said that Communist fire had hit the plane the previous day, but no protests had been made to the Communists.
Also from Seoul, it was reported that two American pilots of the airliner hijacked February 16 by Communists and flown to North Korea had told the press this date that the pilots' compartment had been "filled with flying bullets" when the airliner was seized. The civilian pilot said that everything had happened so fast, he had been completely helpless. The Communist agents had grabbed the airliner flown by the civilian pilot and an Air Force lieutenant colonel and diverted it to North Korea from its regular flight from Pusan to Seoul. The Communists the previous day had released the two Americans, a West German couple and 22 of the 30 Koreans aboard. The lieutenant colonel said that the plane was on automatic pilot when he heard a loud banging on the door leading from the passenger compartment, and then bullets had begun flying through the cockpit. The civilian pilot reported having heard 10 or 11 shots as the two pilots hugged the sides of the plane to avoid the line of fire. The lieutenant colonel said that he grabbed the microphone, planning to provide a mayday emergency distress call as the cockpit was literally filled with flying bullets. He said that the men were extremely threatening and that one Korean had pulled the microphone cords. The civilian pilot said that one of the men stood behind with a gun pointed right at his head and when he tried a left turn above Seoul, the Korean ordered him to turn 330 degrees to the northwest. The Koreans, however, had been uncertain where to land once they were over North Korea, finally asking the civilian pilot whether planes on a field 15 miles north of Pyongyang were U.S. Air Force planes, to which the civilian indicated that they were Russian. The agent pointed the gun at his head and said: "If U.S. Air Force—bang!" The occupants were taken to Pyongyang where the two pilots were questioned for more than two days.
Also in Seoul, it was reported that the U.S. Army this date had formally charged two officers and a sergeant with mistreating a Korean boy who had been beaten, tarred and placed into a small nail-studded box after he was caught stealing.
In Paris, railroad traffic in much of France had been hit hard this date as engineers began a 24-hour strike for higher pensions and shorter hours.
In Essex, Conn., former Governor Chester Bowles this date announced that he was running for the Democratic nomination for the Senate.
In Hampden, Mass., a 70-year old woman appealed to her grandson, 17, to give himself up and face police who were seeking him in connection with the triple slaying of his mother, his father and his younger brother, 14. The three had been found dead in their modest home the prior Tuesday. The grandmother, whose daughter was one of the victims, implored her grandson to give himself up or call as soon as possible, promising that they would help him and do anything they could, indicating that she was praying for him, that if he wanted, someone from the family would meet him. He had disappeared on Monday, the day on which his parents and brother had been shot and killed, and the family automobile, in which the boy was believed to have fled, had been discovered in New York City. The grandmother was at a loss to explain the shootings, saying that the boy was her favorite grandchild and she had delighted in baking cakes and pies for him. Federal action in the case paved the way for involvement of the FBI in the search for the youth.
In New York, the body of a seven-year old boy, still wearing his roller skates, had been found the previous day in the Hudson River. Police said that an 11-year old boy had admitted shoving the victim into the river at a spot near where he had pushed in a four-year old girl the prior summer. The boy had been missing since Sunday. The boy charged with the crimes said that he had pushed the boy in because he refused to give him a dime. He said that he had pushed the girl in because she was always causing him to be blamed for things.
Bill Hughes of The News reports that in Sanford, in the murder trial of Frank Wetzel, accused of murdering Highway Patrolman J. T. Brown the prior November 5, having already been convicted of murdering Highway Patrolman Wister Reece on the same night, the same witness who had identified Mr. Wetzel as the driver of a black 1957 Oldsmobile, who had picked him up as a hitchhiker and, having been stopped by Patrolman Reece, reached into the glove compartment and took out a gun, stepped out of the car, at which point, the passenger, having jumped out of the other side of the car, heard a shot and then saw the Oldsmobile speed away, leaving behind the dying officer. The prosecutor handed the witness a .44-caliber Magnum revolver which had been identified in earlier testimony as having been stolen from a gun shop in Pennsylvania, and asked him what type of gun Mr. Wetzel had taken from the glove compartment, to which the witness replied that it was like the one he was being shown, saying that the handle of the pistol looked very similar. During the morning session, it was determined from a ballistics report received from Raleigh that a slug, found the previous day embedded in a tree near the scene of the slaying of Patrolman Brown, initially thought to be the bullet which had killed him, could not be established as the fatal slug. The solicitor asked the witness to demonstrate how Mr. Wetzel had handled the pistol, and the witness's hand trembled so much that he could hardly cock the pistol as he demonstrated. His story, except for the identification of the weapon, had followed closely that which he had told in the earlier trial in Rockingham in January. He did not witness the separate shooting of Patrolman Brown, occuring in a different county about an hour after the shooting of Patrolman Reece.
Donald MacDonald of The News reports that two tired, hungry gunmen, one of whom was a convicted murderer, had been captured by the State Highway Patrol and Union County sheriff's deputies about five miles southeast of Monroe during the morning this date. They had been rushed to Charlotte, where a used car salesman identified them as the two men who had attempted to rob him, kidnaped him and left him tied to the studding of a house under construction. Both of the men were from Georgia. One of them had escaped on December 30 from a chain gang near Buford, Ga., where he was serving a life sentence on a first-degree murder conviction. He had received nationwide publicity when, 48 minutes before he was scheduled to die in the electric chair, he had offered his eyes to a blind woman, resulting in his sentence being commuted to life imprisonment. For two nights and a day, the pair had hidden in woods and once had exchanged gunfire with two prison guards, who had tracked the men into a patch of woods with the aid of a bloodhound. Charlotte police had charged the two men with kidnaping, armed robbery and larceny of an automobile. The two men had admitted "drinking heavily" on the night they forced the used-car salesman into a car on his auto lot.
Elizabeth Prince of The News reports that Charlotte dress shops now had full racks, but that if the New York garment-makers strike lasted, women might be glad to have any old sack during the summer. According to Charlotte ready-to-wear dealers, women of the city could greet an early Easter with new dresses, and spring stocks were also good. But summer orders in many shops were yet to be filled and the strike could affect everyone if it lasted a week or two, according to one retail manager.
As pictured on the page, a 200-year old Spanish cannon which had been a Charlotte landmark for many years might eventually wind up at the fort of Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Fla. The National Park Service had offered to substitute an authentic Confederate cannon for the one which had been in front of Alexander Graham Junior High School, and place the cannon in Elmwood Cemetery. Originally, the Spanish cannon had been set in place by the Stonewall Jackson Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The chapter was delaying a formal vote on the matter but had tentatively approved the swap. The matter had begun when the junior high school was scheduled to be razed to make way for a new YMCA structure at the site. The cannon was believed to have been set in place by the UDC at the turn of the century and had been a landmark in four different locations around Charlotte. It had been cast in Barcelona on May 24, 1769.
In Greenville, S.C., an unidentified airplane, apparently attempting to land, had circled fog-bound airports at Greenville and Spartanburg for about three hours early during the morning, and then had flown off in a southwesterly direction before dawn. It may still be up there.
On the editorial page, "Higher Education's Ragged 'Partnership'" indicates that the State Board of Higher Education had put the UNC trustees straight on the subject of administrative checks and balances. Critics of the Board's action in trimming N.C. State's requests for new married student housing were sent back to the law books for a statute passed in 1957. With its authority thus established, the Board had then patiently explained the reason for the action, which the piece deems plausible.
It finds that the "partnership" which had been described between the Board and the Consolidated University in the Board's report, to be a tenuous one, indicating that it had to realize that its outburst about housing for married students at State was merely symptomatic of larger doubts and fears, appearing inevitable that the matter would come before the General Assembly when it met next in 1959.
It posits that hasty action could result in the obliteration of a laudable scheme to provide for the orderly growth of the state's 12 State-supported institutions of higher learning. The scheme had been poorly defined and sold to the public. There was a widespread feeling that an elaborate bureaucracy had been set up in higher education in the state. Consequently, it was feared that something would have to give somewhere, either that the State Board would have to be abolished, that the Consolidated University would have to be broken up into three separate units with three boards of trustees, or the nine other institutions of higher learning would have to be absorbed into an enlarged Consolidated University system.
It suggests that if those drastic measures were to be avoided, the Administration of Governor Luther Hodges would have to move rapidly, clarifying the role of the Board of Higher Education and perhaps redefining it. Whether Governor Hodges was willing to admit it or not, he had obviously recognized the urgency the previous January when he appointed a joint study committee to assess the situation. The urgency had been expressed on February 26 by the Greensboro Daily News, which it finds to be one of the state's most responsible editorial voices, when it had stated: "… This exceedingly complex question regarding the power structure of higher education ought to be pondered, debated and threshed out now rather than tossed into the maelstrom of 1959 politics… As long as higher education is a vast range of bureaucracy mountains to scale every time it makes an on-campus decision, results will be less than satisfactory… So long as these complex power problems hang in midair the administrators on the campus level will operate in perpetual confusion."
It indicates that the Board had only skimmed several surfaces and slapped several wrists, with the problem remaining to be explored in depth. It urges debating and exploring the matter until a solution satisfactory to the majority could be determined, with or without the assistance of the General Assembly.
"The Better-than-Nothing Disability Plan" indicates that legal nitpickers in and out of Congress had suggested that the "understanding" reached between the President and the Vice-President regarding the potential for a Presidential disability had been "shabby makeshift".
It finds it to be makeshift as there was no clear Constitutional provision on presidential disability and the delay in Congress had provided none. It might also be shabby, though it leaves it to the debate of the legal scholars in Congress. It finds that the Administration plan had one virtue, providing the means by which the reins of executive authority could be picked up and used in the event the chief executive was incapable of handling them. It was to be preferred to the paralysis of the executive branch which had occurred during the illnesses of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and James Garfield, the former after a stroke and the latter after his ultimately fatal wounding by an assassin. It indicates its preference to be based on the nuclear-age necessity of having executive authority functioning constantly. It finds that it would be better for the Vice-President to respond in such an emergency than not to have anyone capable of making such a decision.
Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn argued against the Administration plan, saying that he did not know how they would create an office of "Acting President", and did not see how they could have someone carrying on the duties of the President without taking an oath of office, and if the Vice-President took such an oath, he would be President for the remainder of the term and the President, if he regained his ability, could not continue in office.
It suggests that those might be sound objections and if so, then Congress ought provide a system which would eliminate them. Meanwhile, the President's plan seemed to be the essence of prudence. In the 171 years since the Constitution had been written, Congress had more than sufficient time to split all the legal hairs which needed splitting.
"Sack the Sack & Shift the Shift" finds that a cloud had a silver lining when 105,000 dressmakers had gone on strike in seven Eastern states. Those who had stood in Madison Square Garden and cheered their leaders might also be cheered in their knowledge that they had done an immense favor to mankind and to womankind by delaying the marketing of the "horrors fashion dictators have decreed for milady this year." Their action, it hopes, might have meant "the sacking of the sack, a shift in the availability date of the shift, a long, far away swing of the trapeze and the demise of the chemise."
A piece from the Manchester Guardian, titled "Expose This Plot!" indicates that coffee was an exotic beverage which could be tampered with, while tea was sacred. Many Britons had accepted a "compo" tea during the war, but then they had Winston Churchill's calls for sacrifice to inspire them. In peacetime, even teabags were not tolerated. Their tea ceremony yielded nothing to the Japanese in reverence, although it might in dignity. The pot was almost apotheosised, having to be warmed and cosseted, demanding its own special spoonful.
But now its Colombo correspondent in Ceylon indicated that there was a movement to subvert the cult. Successful attempts had apparently been made to extract the essences of the leaf and crystallize them so that tea-making would be reduced to the status of mixing a dose of salt. It finds that trying to make Englishmen drink the result of that "inhuman chemistry" would be like asking them to build houses with pipes which did not freeze or to share a warm room with the radiator instead of a chilly one with an open fire. The falling price of Ceylon's chief export was a serious threat to the British economy and all of its friends would wish it success in meeting it.
But, it finds, the patience of Englishmen could not be tried too far or they would look for the most sinister motives. Correspondents had been making their flesh creep with stories of growing Marxist influence in Ceylon, with the suspicion being all the more plausible because both Chairman Mao in China and Nikita Khrushchev in Russia ruled nations of tea-drinkers. The Communists knew what strikes, strife and domestic discord could be promoted by undermining the tea routine.
Drew Pearson indicates that the resignation by FCC commissioner Richard Mack had brought up the question of why Congressional committees frequently did not want to investigate until being prodded by the press. The House Investigating subcommittee, chaired by Representative Oren Harris of Arkansas, had not wanted to investigate and was planning to hold a phony punch-pulling, philosophical investigation, having even voted to fire its counsel, until public opinion aroused by the press had become too potent. He says that such Congressional hesitation was deep-rooted and basic, going to the issue of why an alert press was important.
In numerous cases, Congressional committees had not acted until goaded by the press. Charles Bartlett of the Chattanooga Times had forced the Senate Investigating Committee to bring out the conflict of interest of Harold Talbott in the Administration, after Mr. Bartlett had exposed the fact that the Committee was sitting on it. Eddie Folliard of the Washington Post had dug up the letter from DNC committeeman Jack Porter of Texas regarding the Texas gas lobby fund. The old New York World had broken the Teapot Dome scandal during the Harding Administration, leading to the Senate investigation of it. The New York Herald Tribune had broken the story of the five-percenters during the Truman Administration, though the same newspaper had been strangely silent regarding President Eisenhower's brother-in-law.
Mr. Pearson indicates that the digging newspaperman did not always have an easy life, being called names from both sides of the political fence and sometimes having to spend days and weeks, as well as expenses, to undertake the digging. But it was a vitally important function of the press and was one reason why it was given a special freedom under the Constitution.
In the case of Mr. Mack, most people thought that the disgruntled former counsel of the subcommittee, Dr. Bernard Schwartz, was leaking to the Pearson column, while it was the other way around. He indicates that as early as the previous August, his junior partner, Jack Anderson, had gone to Miami and interviewed the attorney who had made loans to Mr. Mack and was also representing National Airlines, the ultimate recipient of the Miami television channel. That was before Dr. Schwartz had begun testifying in Washington. Mr. Anderson had also talked to Mr. Mack and obtained an admission from him that he had received the money from the attorney. He had published it on January 17 and when the column had tipped off Dr. Schwartz, Mr. Mack was interviewed with a wire recorder, providing damaging admissions which had since led to his resignation.
He indicates that one trouble with Congressional committees was that too many Congressmen were out to protect their friends, and too many had intervened at the FCC. It was also a trouble with the Justice Department where the Attorney General had become a political officeholder. The Department, despite an army of FBI investigators, did not move to convict four Congressmen receiving kickbacks until after exposés by the Pearson column. One reason was that the Justice Department had to receive appropriations from Congress and so it did not like tangling with them.
The Justice Department had never moved on some of the cases involving conflicts of interest produced by the press during the current Administration, though there was one prosecution under the Truman Administration. Peter Strobel, the President's public buildings commissioner, had been exposed by the column and subsequently had to resign for influencing Federal contracts with his own firm. Carl Hansen had been fired from the Farm Home Administration after the column had revealed that he was working for a wool company on the side.
He indicates that the Justice Department had the job of catching such conflicts of interest, that it was not entirely the job of the press. The FBI should have reported on the background of Mr. Mack before he had been appointed to the FCC. The column had reported his pro-utility connections on May 27, 1955, before he had taken office. While it was a responsibility of the press, it was not its responsibility alone. But the Justice Department and the FBI frequently did not like to go against the choice of the White House, true in both Republican and Democratic administrations.
He finds that the party in power had little to do with honesty, as both Republicans and Democrats claimed to be honest or they claimed that the opposing party was comprised of dishonest persons. Harry Truman would knock the daylights out of a person verbally if the person stepped on the toes of his influence-wielding military aide, and the Republicans would maneuver and manipulate to cancel the reporter's column if it exposed corruption in high Republican places.
He says that, personally, he did not get any kick out of exposing people just for the sake of it, indicating that it had been no particular fun exposing John Maragon, the influence-peddler in the Truman Administration, whom Mr. Pearson had something to do with sending to jail, while Mr. Maragon was more innocent than some of the bigwigs who were getting away with murder. He indicates that he felt ashamed every time he saw Mr. Maragon.
Marquis Childs indicates that Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy, nearing the critical stage in his efforts to reorganize the Department, was displaying reluctance to make the radical changes which had been urged on him. He had begun to ask, with a show of resentment, why, since he was new to the Department, he should be expected to carry through a revision which had long been postponed.
That attitude had come to light during the recent Puerto Rico conference on defense reorganization, disturbing those who had expected the Secretary to end of the interservice rivalry, duplication and waste. Six months earlier, the Secretary had taken the job with seeming vigor and decisiveness, encouraging the belief that he would bring order out of growing confusion. But the associates who had so believed were now saying that the Secretary had at most two additional months in which he would still have the freedom to take decisions which had long been deferred, after which he would be so committed and so beset by the forces which had successfully resisted change that his reorganization plan was bound to become a watered-down compromise.
Mr. Childs suggests that what was happening to the Secretary was symptomatic of that which was a occurring within a tired Administration, the candid view of those who in the recent past had been participants in the Administration and admirers of the President. They ascribed the condition in part to the President's reluctance to face the plight in which he found himself, not wanting to be told the unpleasant facts of life, causing his immediate staff to shelter him increasingly, causing the blame to fall on them for things which were neglected or were going wrong in the present state of drift.
Regarding the reorganization of the Defense Department and the command system, another factor was that the President had from the beginning been fearful of the accusation that, as a career military man, he was imposing his own militaristic ideas on the country. Consequently, he had bent over backwards to avoid any semblance of asserting his will in such matters.
But if he did not achieve at least part of the goal of reorganizing the Defense Department, he would have failed in what he said in 1952 was a major objective. In a campaign speech in Baltimore in October of that year, he had prescribed a complete overhaul with real unification under the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
Mr. Childs indicates that it was not easy to resist the forces which wanted to maintain the status quo. The Navy, which had a powerful lobby in Congress, was foremost among those forces, as Navy strategists were credited with inspiring the latest maneuver intended to block any Administration plan of reorganization going beyond the mere tidying up of the present set-up. It took the form of a bill introduced by Congressman Carl Vinson, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Republican whip Leslie Arends of Illinois, the ranking minority member of that Committee. The bill would eliminate 29 undersecretaries and assistant secretaries plus 1,800 persons on the staff of the Secretary out of 2,400. The net effect, among those who believed that greater unification was imperative, would be to give the three separate services greater autonomy and leave the Secretary with less power than he presently had. The measure was credited by some as the inspiration of Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gates.
Mr. Vinson had never made any secret of his determination to maintain the status quo in the Defense Department and became angry at any suggestion of authority concentrated in a single chief of staff. Under the relationship he enjoyed with the Navy, his native Georgia had been generously provided with Naval largesse. It was an old game which the Navy had played before. While there was increased doubt over the usefulness of large aircraft carriers, their fabulous cost of 300 million dollars per carrier and perhaps as much for the ships which had to accompany one, had also increased. Recently, the Navy had laid the keel of an atomic-powered carrier, while there was tragic deficiency in American submarines as Russia had 500.
The President had in the past made a vigorous case for what he believed had to be done to gain efficiency and economy, but now he seemed willing to let events take their own course.
Doris Fleeson indicates that Republicans and Democrats were not running against each other at the present time in the Congressional campaign, with both running against the Administration. The first casualty was the Eisenhower budget, with its balance having been cynically regarded from the beginning. Since then, every money bill reaching the floor had been increased and the end was nowhere in sight.
The President had joined in the process with respect to defense spending, for which various supplemental bills had been offered by Secretary McElroy.
Some observers now believed that even without crash programs, the budget deficit might approach ten billion dollars unless some burst of economic activity were to soften the Congressional mood, not presently apparent. Both Congress and the White House had been talking of tax cuts so much that they would soon not be in a position to back out of it. Democrats had set the pace for the present raise, but worried Republicans followed to a degree and sometimes were leading, as with the demand of Republican Senate Minority Leader William Knowland for more water starts.
In the past, the central core
driving the budget, the Budget director, Joseph Dodge, and his immediate
successor Rowland Hughes, former Secretary of the Treasury George
Humphrey and chief of staff Sherman Adams, had put up a hard fight for
it. But two much milder men, Percival Brundage and Robert Anderson,
now in the Budget and Treasury posts, respectively, were not so
disposed. (It should be noted that the Budget Office director would soon change again on March 18, with the appointment of Maurice Stans
Informed sources said that Mr. Adams was shaken by the argument that Republicans dared not risk again being branded as the party of depression, causing him to play much closer to the party strategists than in previous years. Reports coming from the President's weekly conferences with Republican legislative leaders suggested that they consisted chiefly of Senators Knowland and Styles Bridges, and Representative Charles Halleck, explaining the Democratic challenge to the President and describing what ought to be done to meet it. Thus far, the White House had held back on any massive outlays, talking only of what it might do under certain contingencies. The nature of the conferences showed thatcthe Republican leaders were ready to abandon their fair-warning cooperation for self-serving actions if they believed the times demanded it.
She indicates that it was not a case of the Republican Old Guard leaders making life more difficult for the White House. Eisenhower Republicans from industrial areas, such as Senators Jacob Javits of New York and Clifford Case of New Jersey, were in the forefront of those seeking too little too late.
A clear indication that the President had caught the mood of Republicans appeared at his press conference when he said that he would not support any Republicans who did not support the broad issues of foreign aid, national defense and the security of the nation's allies. A broad range of domestic matters, including farm policy, was omitted from the limitation.
Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain, indicates that he had received a pathetic bulletin from a friend who was in the hospital and brooding aloud about how he had made it to the anesthetic. He had gone shopping for a birthday present for his two-year old daughter and spotted a do-it-yourself unassembled doll crib. After purchasing it for eight dollars, he took the toy home and started trying to assemble it. After three days, his daughter, whom he described as being "straight out of 'The Bad Seed'", was displeased and was contemplating pushing him out the window to see if he could fly. Meanwhile, he had to hire a carpenter to try to put together the crib, as he went to the infirmary. He said he was moving from New York City to Rochester immediately since he had read a news item that a New York State Assemblyman, the father of eight, had just introduced a bill after encountering similar difficulties in putting together gadgets for his children, restricting the sale of do-it-yourself toys or at least requiring that they be clearly labeled that nothing complicated had to be utilized to accomplish the assembly.
Mr. Ruark says he was completely sympathetic with his friend because he had also been afflicted by inanimate objects, having been hit by an angry bedstead recently and having gone to inspect a new fish pool of a friend when an interior decorator's dead tree had lunged at him and knocked him in the ice-rimmed pool in the middle of winter. He says that his body was generally a mass of bruises from contact with inanimate objects suddenly possessed of lives of their own. He indicates that the assembly of a beach chair or card table was generally good for a week in the hospital and anything so simple as changing a fuse would blow up the place. The previous day, he had shorted out his car by trying to insert the ignition key into a space generally reserved for the cigarette lighter.
He concludes that he had heard of green thumbs as applied to gardening, but he also had green thumbs, ten of them.
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