The Charlotte News
Monday, April 21, 1958
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Las Vegas that a New York-bound United Airlines DC-7 with 47 persons aboard had crashed and burned in the desert this date after an apparent collision with a military jet. There was no immediate word on the fate of the 42 passengers and crew of five. Witnesses reported seeing a parachute floating down, indicating that the military pilot may have safely ejected. The four-engine aircraft had left Los Angeles in the early morning, heading for New York via Denver, Kansas City and Washington. It had not been scheduled to land in Las Vegas. It crashed in a hilly desert area about 15 miles southwest of the city.
In Warsaw, floodwaters of the Bug and Narew Rivers had finally leveled off, according to Polish authorities this date, after a ten-day rampage in which scores of houses had been toppled and thousands of acres of crops ruined.
In East Berlin, a Communist court had sentenced an East German railway employee to life imprisonment for spying for American and British intelligence. His wife was sent to prison for three years and four months for not informing on her husband.
The FBI announced the arrest in Boston of a 50-year old man on a perjury charge related to the Jack Soble Soviet spy ring case.
In New York, former President Hoover was reported improving this date following a gall bladder operation two days earlier, and his doctors had allowed him out of bed briefly.
In Chicago, some 100 customers in a big Loop drugstore cafeteria had been terrorized the previous night when a gunman fired a half-dozen wild shots before being subdued.
In Junction City, Kans., it was reported that a small tornado had struck a rural area 30 miles north of the east central Kansas city the previous night, but apparently had caused no serious damage.
The Associated Press reports that 17 children had died in four fires during the weekend. One had occurred at Dunn, N.C., at a farm tenant home the previous day, where six of seven children of a family had burned to death while the mother and her husband had been visiting a neighbor. The dead children ranged in age from 1 to 7 years. The fire was of an undetermined cause. In Harlem, a father of seven perished in an early morning fire on Sunday with four of his children and a four-year old girl who was an overnight guest. The children ranged in age from five months to four years. Officials blamed the blaze on careless smoking. In Las Vegas, four children had burned to death the previous day as fire had swept through a home. One of the victims, according to a fire captain, 18 months old, had been playing with matches while the mother was shopping. The other victims were two, four and six years old. Two children, ages two and six months, left alone at their Delta, Colo., home by their mother on Saturday night, had died in a fire, and a third child, five, had managed to escape without injury.
In Washington, a 14-year old boy had been rescued by helicopter this date after being stranded overnight on a rocky island in the rapids of the Potomac River. The boy, of Arlington, Va., had initially resisted efforts of rescuers the previous night to bring him ashore over the roaring currents just above Grant Falls, about 12 miles from Washington. One attempt had been made with a rope sling rigged from a dam 50 feet above the rocky island. During a second attempt, the frightened boy refused to climb into the sling lowered by the same helicopter which eventually effected the daylight rescue. During this morning, the youth calmly allowed himself to be pulled into the helicopter. He had been with four teenage companions, ranging in age from 14 to 19. They had rented a pair of canoes, with the boy who became stranded having paddled one of them. The boy paddling the other canoe had lost his paddle and the rescued boy had paddled over to him in an effort to retrieve it but got too close to the dam, where the swift current had upset his canoe. He hung onto the canoe in the hope that it would surface, but when it was about to go over the falls, he had to let go. He swam and crawled over rocks for about 50 yards until reaching the rocky island, measuring about 30 by 200 feet, about 300 yards above the falls, where two swimmers had drowned the previous year. Meanwhile, the other canoeist had used his hands to paddle his canoe back to the Maryland side about half a mile away.
In Goldsboro, N.C., a bloodhound had led a hundred-man search party to the bodies of three young brothers early this date, the boys having drowned in a sand hole, the second triple-death tragedy for the same family in five months. The victims ranged in age between eight and 13 years old, and the bodies had been discovered a few feet apart in deep water. Members of the family said that none of the boys, missing since the prior afternoon, could swim. An uncle and a neighbor had begun a search for the boys when they failed to return at nightfall. About four hours later, the uncle asked for assistance and the bloodhound was brought from the State Prisons Department in Smithfield. The bloodhound trailed the boys to a small pool where their clothes had been found.
In Salisbury, N.C., it was reported that a woman had killed her husband with a claw hammer this date and then called the police to come to her home. The police chief said that the woman had confessed killing her husband while he was in his bed at their residence. The chief said that she had taken an overdose of sedatives following the killing and was taken to the hospital where she was placed under guard. She had been undergoing treatment for a mental disorder for some time and the chief said that one of her doctors had called him after the woman was arrested during the morning. The victim, a Cuban, had come to the U.S. several years earlier and was a prominent businessman in Salisbury, operating a tile company. The police chief said that the 50-year old man had several head wounds and a broken finger. His wife had no record of previous offenses. She would be charged probably this date with murder. The couple had two sons, both living in Cleveland, O.
John Kilgo of The News tells of an interview he had conducted with a 38-year old textile mill worker in county jail, relating of how a three-year old boy had enjoyed watching a baseball game on television on Saturday afternoon, while he and the boy's mother were fraternizing with one another in a motel room. They were now being held without bond in connection with the death of the boy on Sunday morning. The coroner had conducted an autopsy but the cause of death would not be known for several days. The man said that he and the boy's mother had been "drinking a good bit" and had been together a lot on Saturday morning. In mid-afternoon, they had let her husband out of the car and drove to the motel with the little boy. They had laid him on the side of the bed and turned on the television, and he was "happy as he could be" watching the ball game. "His mother and me was drinking beer and watching TV. She was taking these dope drugs called Red Devils, or Red Birds. I guess she took about seven of them and she was pretty well drunk. The baby looked fine though to me. He didn't cough or sneeze or nothing." That night, he had gone to a grill to buy some beer and sandwiches and had returned shortly before midnight with eight cans of beer, a ham sandwich, three grilled cheese sandwiches and four pickled eggs. By that point, the little boy was sound asleep. When asked by a reporter whether the little boy had anything to eat since they had registered at the motel during the afternoon, he said that he had not, having had only a glass of chocolate milk in the morning. The mother had three other children and police said that she was in such a condition the previous day that they were unable to question her. The boyfriend asked a reporter whether they had found out what had caused the boy's death. He said that he had a good paying job in a mill in Gastonia and had to be at work by 10:00 that night and if he was not, would lose his job. When asked whether he had any idea what had killed the boy, he said: "No, I ain't got no idea at all. He was a good little old thing. He just laid over there on the bed and seemed so happy watching the ball game. I loved him and his mama did, too." He said that he had about three of the narcotic pills in his shirt pocket but did not think the child had gotten into them. He said that after they had consumed the beer and sandwiches, he awakened at around 5:00 a.m. and decided to cover up the boy, but noticed that he was not breathing.
The widow of Joe Blythe, a prominent local road contractor and treasurer of the DNC when he had died on January 23, 1949, died this date in a local hospital at age 56.
Julian Scheer of The News indicates that "The Branchhead Boys" of the late Senator Kerr Scott had declared war on Governor Luther Hodges, following the appointment of B. Everett Jordan by the Governor to be the successor to Senator Scott. The announcement of the selection had been made on Saturday following the Wednesday death of the Senator. Mr. Jordan was a 61-year old Alamance County industrialist, active in Democratic Party affairs for many years in the state. Within 48 hours of the announcement, the Scott forces were rallying behind Terry Sanford, heir-apparent to the Scott organization. It had been long known that Mr. Sanford was a 1960 gubernatorial hopeful, and the seething Scott forces had unofficially now launched his campaign. One key member of the Scott organization said this date that there would not be any relenting until Mr. Sanford was in Raleigh in 1960. Mr. Sanford was also being promoted for the Senate race in 1960. Mr. Sanford would run for governor successfully in 1960, would subsequently become president of Duke University, and would, in 1986, win a term in the U.S. Senate, before being defeated in 1992 by Lauch Faircloth, a hog farmer, at the time the least educated man in the Senate. Senator Sanford, generally popular in the state throughout his political career, had become ill during the latter stages of the campaign. He was also the victim of another smear campaign as a wild-eyed liberal by the forces of Senator Jesse Helms, such smear campaigns having been about the only thing he ever did well.
In Jersey City, N.J., a 16-foot alligator had broken its crate in a railway baggage car this date and its whipping tail had freed a shipment of bees, forcing the car crew to bail out when the train pulled into Jersey City. The car had been put on a siding and a call made to Palisades Amusement Park to come to pick up the alligator. The bees were the immediate problem. A Baltimore and Ohio Railroad spokesman said that the alligator had broken from its crate as the Metropolitan Special from St. Louis neared Jersey City this date.
On the editorial page, "Gov. Hodges Sweetens the Political Pot" finds that the Governor could have done worse in filling the vacant seat in the Senate, following the death of Senator Kerr Scott a week earlier, but finds it a pity that he did not do better.
B. Everett Jordan, whom he had appointed, was unlikely to give offense, having been a party workhorse, serving as the state's national Democratic committeeman and knowing his way around state politics, plus having a great deal of business experience, including a partnership with the Governor. It suggests that after a few years in the job, he ought be able to learn to function effectively in the demanding arena of the Senate.
He had never held elective office and was somewhat elderly to begin that role. He would serve as a caretaker rather than a public servant laying the foundations of a long and fruitful career. Indications were that he would serve at most two years of the remaining term of Senator Scott, stepping aside at that time, provided the Governor wanted him to do so.
It appeared that Governor Hodges had ambitions to run for the Senate and so had appointed a seat-warmer. But even a complimentary appointment could have gone to a citizen possessing more general prestige or at least one acceptable to the political heirs of Mr. Scott. The appointment of Mr. Jordan appeared as a patent insult to the Scott forces because of bad blood between the late Senator and Mr. Jordan. It suggests that a caretaker ought at least be on good terms with all of his constituents. Ideally, the appointment should have gone to a citizen already tested at the polls or to one having a primary interest and actual experience in government, as opposed to party politics. It finds it noteworthy that Governor Hodges, Senator Sam Ervin and others praising the appointment had spoken first of Mr. Jordan's service to the party.
It indicates that what the people needed in the Senate seat, which had seven occupants during the previous 12 years, was a vigorous and concerned person capable of appealing to the majority of citizens of the state and thereby acquire seniority and power in the body.
It suggests that it was perhaps too much to expect, as there was a political game of high stakes ongoing, to which Governor Hodges had dealt himself in. "His appointment of Mr. Jordan apparently is just one of the cards."
Senator Jordan, to the contrary, would serve in the seat for the ensuing 14 years, before being unseated in the Democratic primary by Congressman Nick Galifianakis in 1972, the latter then being beaten by Republican Jesse Helms, the first time since the turn of the century that a Republican had held a Senate seat from the state, winning in the watershed 1972 election, when Jim Holshouser became the first elected Republican as Governor since the turn of the century, a time infected by Nixonian politics, when to be branded a "liberal" was to branded as the devil incarnate—a reactionary time and atmosphere which Trump and his forces of darkness are trying mightily to revivify in this country, only without any checks and balances from the current conservative Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the narrow victories in each body and the 1.5 percent narrow plurality for the White House being that which Trump and his dissembling little stooges are trying to pass off as a great popular mandate, akin to the actual popular mandate for President Nixon in 1972. That one, however, did not turn out so well for the power-hungry Mr. Nixon. And there are mid-terms to come in 2026 when the lies told and false promises made to gain the White House in 2025, all in a desperate attempt to avoid further felony convictions and a real possibility thereby of serving a prison sentence, will inevitably come home to roost. Stay tuned...
Amid the usual humdrum commencement addresses recently in May, 2025, was this one
"So Life Begins at 40? Maybe
Not
Now, however, a Navy scientist had suggested that the armed services consider using middle-aged men as radiation shock troops to protect the younger men from genetic hazards following a nuclear attack. Men in their 40's and 50's would be used for cleanup roles where radiation was a danger.
"Yes sir, it'll be nice to spin those war tales with the rest of the boys—if they live long enough to tell them."
"What Recession?" indicates that a safe deposit company in New York was advertising the availability of private vaults "with use of electric coupon cutter."
"January, February, March, May…" quotes T. S. Eliot that "April is the cruelest month."
It agrees, indicating that April involved too much of which to take note, celebrate, observe, signalize, keep, and do honor to, lionize, extol, magnify, laud, applaud, toast, commemorate, solemnize, drink to and glorify. It finds it to be more than one newspaper could handle without becoming giddy and, eventually, unbearable.
It was enough of a burden to get professional baseball season off the ground. But added to that was National Bike Month, National Hobby Month, National Arts and Crafts Week, National Model Building Week, National Photography Week, National Ladder Month, National Garden Week and National Rug-Cleaning Month. In addition to those were National Comedy Week, National Fun Day and National Laugh Week.
It lists even more such national days and weeks during April, plus April Fool's Day. It thinks it too much and that April ought to be entirely eliminated from the calendar, as May was prettier, less demanding of attention and not requiring endurance of April showers.
A piece from the Portland (Me.) Press Herald, titled "Keeping Women in Their Place", indicates that something funny had happened when a Yarmouth group had been discussing Aristotle's "Politics" at a Great Books discussion session recently. Aristotle had begun his description of the ideal state by putting women in their place, subject to the male, by nature the inferior creature. Nine out of ten of the women present at Yarmouth appeared to agree with Aristotle and for a time, the men present had been quite puffed up about it, until a young housewife explained: "It's this way. Men have their egos. My husband has to think he's superior to me in all things. So I let him—think that. He thinks he makes all the decisions. It's the only way to have peace in the family."
The piece is reminded of the woman who was explaining to her friend why she and her husband got along so well together, by saying that they had agreed that the woman made all the minor decisions in the household and the husband made all the major decisions, and thus they never quarreled. The friend had replied that it was interesting and wondered what type of minor decisions she made, to which she responded that she decided which college their children would attend, when to buy a new car and whether to rent or purchase a home. The friend then wondered what were the major decisions allowed to the husband, to which she responded that she let him decide how to solve the Suez crisis, what to do about the Russians and things like that.
Drew Pearson indicates that conscientious Congressmen who wanted a real probe of the FCC were suspicious that the chairman of the committee, Oren Harris from Arkansas, was coasting. Mr. Harris had made it clear in the past that he did not want a real investigation. The previous summer, he had delayed for weeks before permitting former chairman Morgan Moulder of Missouri to pick a staff. After the staff had been selected, Mr. Harris fired the chief counsel, Dr. Bernard Schwartz. Later, Mr. Harris secretly fired the chief investigator, despite his having dug up the facts on FCC commissioner Richard Mack in Miami, forcing the latter's resignation. When news of that dismissal had reached other committee members, they mounted such a protest in a closed-door session that Mr. Harris was forced to rehire the investigator. Congressman Charles Wolverton of New Jersey was one of the protestors, as was John Bell Williams of Mississippi, both men demanding a thorough probe after having gotten off to a slow start.
Mr. Harris's current tactics were to drag out the investigation, taking up time with unimportant details, holding hearings without sufficient preparation so that the public would get bored and important evidence would be missed.
Moral standards surrounding the FCC had dropped since a few years earlier. The FCC staff, which primarily handled the details of awarding valuable television channels, could recall when RCA had invited a group of FCC officials to attend a demonstration at Princeton, N.J. When the chairman, Wayne Coy, learned that RCA had paid the hotel bill for the staff, he became quite upset and after they returned to Washington, collected a check from everyone who had taken the trip, put them in an envelope and mailed them to RCA.
Now, FCC staff watched their commissioner bosses not only using $18,000 worth of television sets provided them from RCA, but also taking lush trips at the expense of the radio and television industry, charging the public for those trips. That practice had been ruled illegal by Controller General Joseph Campbell, who had been an administrator of Columbia University when the President had been president of Columbia, and was selected by the President to run the General Accounting Office. He was a Republican who believed in enforcing the law no matter whom it affected. Despite his ruling, the Justice Department had made no moves to prosecute FCC cheating on expense accounts. Attorney General William Rogers had been the second in charge at the Justice Department when it had prosecuted Lamar Caudle for "depriving the United States of his best services", despite Mr. Caudle having received no gift, bribe, financial reward or favor.
In contrast, George McConnaughey, the Eisenhower-appointed former chairman of the FCC, had collected $795 in travel expenses from the television industry, and then collected it from the taxpayers. The industry had given $104 for Mr. McConnaughey's hotel suite and another $104 for his convention office at the industry's Chicago convention on April 16, 1956. Yet Mr. McConnaughey had billed the Government for $51 per diem and expenses plus $6.10 in miscellaneous expenses while he was the industry's guest.
At the 1957 Chicago convention, the industry had again paid Mr. McConnaughey's hotel bill for $154, plus an extra $10 for flowers. Yet Mr. McConnaughey had then charged the taxpayers $51 per diem plus $48 in miscellaneous expenses. The West Virginia Broadcasters Association had paid $114 for his hotel suite at the White Sulpher Springs resort on August 15, 1956 and when Mr. McConnaughey had returned to Washington, he submitted vouchers to the Government for $42 per diem and $2.90 in miscellaneous expense. On November 27, 1955, Mr. McConnaughey and his wife had traveled to Columbus, O., where he addressed the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, at which time the Association had paid his $161 hotel bill, and yet he collected $39 per diem and $10.40 in miscellaneous expenses.
Marquis Childs discusses the prospect of the NATO Council Foreign Ministers meeting scheduled for about two weeks hence while France was without a government and likely to be without one for an indefinite time in which almost anything could happen.
A crisis of 37 days had preceded the formation of the 25th French Government since the end of the war, the last having been headed by Felix Gaillard. Observers in Washington predicted that it would be at least that long before a new coalition government could be formed.
M. Gaillard had been a prisoner caught in the trap of the National Assembly, between the Communist left and the Fascist or near-Fascist right, able to do little or nothing to resolve the conflict in Algeria, the immediate source of political problems. No government put together from the unstable elements of the center, with the grudging backing of the right, could do much more. The danger in the current interval was so great that it was hardly even whispered aloud in the State Department. The actual fact was that M. Gaillard and his Government had no real control over the French military in Algeria or over Robert LaCoste, supposedly the agent of the French Government in Algiers.
Now, without a government, the military commanders might take matters into their own hands again, as they had in the bombing of a Tunisian border village. Another incident, such as a small border war, could present Washington with a Hobson's choice. If the U.S. were to fail to stand on the side of Tunisia in the face of such an attack, then what was left of the Western position in the Middle East and North Africa would be lost. But by taking the side of Tunisia, the U.S. would trigger an explosion in France. The French, according to recently returned visitors, refused to listen to reason on moderation regarding Algeria, being determined to find a villain on whom they could unleash their emotions, with the U.S. being the most conspicuous target.
Even without another "incident", Tunisia's President Habib Bourguiba intended to take the dispute with France to the U.N., indicating that while out of regard for France, he would not move at once, he could not wait for four or five weeks. He faced internal pressures which made his own position precarious.
Thus, the American officials, regardless of level, were maintaining an unhappy silence, denied the luxury of the President's dismissal of the crisis as being of little consequence, a gimmick, as they had to try to cope with what would occur next.
The irony was that Secretary of State Dulles, who was blamed for many things, had made a resolute effort to find a way out after the Tunisian bombing. The Secretary sent one of the country's ablest diplomats, Robert Murphy, to join Harold Beeley of the British Foreign Office on a mission to try to reconcile Tunisian demands for immediate removal of French forces from Tunisia, with the French determination to have some kind of patrol established on the Tunisian-Algerian border. On a vote of confidence on the recommendations of that mission, the Gaillard Government had fallen.
During the long crisis, French production had reached an all-time high, with the French claiming that their productivity per man hour was at least equal to, or greater than, that of West Germany. The unification of Europe through such devices as the common market was in the immediate future.
In the present situation, the frail hope was for a government above party made up of former Premiers, Guy Mollet, René Pleven, Edgar Faure, Antoine Pinay, perhaps M. Gaillard, Robert Schuman and one or two other elder statesmen. Whether they could achieve anything in the face of the implacable hostility of both the left and the right, however, was doubtful. The very fact that it was discussed as a possible temporary escape from the problem was a measure of the desperation of the plight of France and the West.
Doris Fleeson indicates that the country was proceeding inexorably toward a summit meeting with the Soviets to discuss the possibility of some form of disarmament, the heart of the disarmament problem being whether or not it was possible to detect the explosion of nuclear weapons anywhere around the globe. If that was not possible, nuclear disarmament was a risk the U.S. would not dare take. It was now admitted that some nuclear explosions within the Soviet Union had been detected thousands of miles from their source. It remained a matter of opinion whether all such tests could be detected. The question was open whether some form of limited disarmament was of any value either in fact or as propaganda. Of all the issues which perplexed the U.S. at present, none was met with such a confusion of sounds.
Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota was conducting hearings in his Disarmament subcommittee. The President would look at disarmament at a summit meeting on the basis of a political decision, one of the most important he would ever make, and after doing so, he and the Republicans would be obliged to defend it before Congress and the people.
None of the Senators who were patiently taking testimony could possibly make a wise political decision with the issue in its current chaotic state. Those Senators included conservative Republicans, John W. Bricker and Bourke Hickenlooper, and liberal Democrats, Senator Humphrey, Stuart Symington and Clinton Anderson. They were aware that they had not yet captured the public imagination or emphasis in the news. Being sage politically, they were also aware that while the public generally appeared indifferent or unaware, the extremes in opinion were beginning to seize upon the issue and might make it harder for the President and Congress to be wise. For instance, within the previous week, the Daughters of the American Revolution had been crying for an extreme form of nationalism and no contact with the Soviet Union, while pacifist groups had been demanding cessation of all nuclear testing.
Admiral Lewis Strauss, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and the President's personal advisor on atomic matters, had told the subcommittee that it was "a matter of opinion, a matter of belief, whether nuclear tests can be detected." He and his favored scientific adviser, Dr. Edward Teller, were the firmest voices opposing the end of nuclear testing. Because of that fact, Senator Anderson had again called up the question of a blatant AEC error operating in favor of the Strauss-Teller point of view.
A letter writer refers to an editorial which had provided praise to the Drama Guild of Charlotte for its fine theatrical presentations, indicating that the Little Theater had been turning away paying customers from distances of up to 40 miles from Charlotte because there was no room inside for them. He says that he would hesitate to call a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Teahouse of the August Moon", frothy. He finds that it had taken frothy vehicles such as "No Time for Sergeants" and "Damn Yankees" playing at Ovens Auditorium for four nights to bring enough money to support the "arty" Guild. He finds it interesting that the people in Charlotte who continually belittled the efforts of little theater were usually connected with other "cultural" organizations which continually sought public funds. He reminds those critics that even in Hollywood, the mecca for entertainment for many, frothy material helped to pay for such box office duds as "On the Waterfront" and "The Red Badge of Courage".
He neglects to recall or realize that "On the Waterfront" had won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1954, along with Best Direction for Elia Kazan, Best Actor for Marlon Brando and Best Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint, plus Best Story and Screenplay for Budd Schulberg, in addition to three technical awards. It was also a box office success.
And, for our price of admission, "The Red Badge of Courage" remains one of the more authentic adaptations of a story about the Civil War yet to be produced on film, far superior to some of the sentimental drivel which has come from Hollywood during the past 35 years or so. The presence of a genuine World War II hero, Audie Murphy, in the role of young Henry, the scared neophyte soldier who needed his red badge to prove his mettle, and Bill Mauldin, who had been a cartoonist on the front in the late war, plus Andy Devine, who had become known for his role as Jingles alongside Wild Bill, reprising a similar role with Roy Rogers, added all the color necessary for that film to come alive on the screen, enhanced by the direction of John Huston. For it is hard to present an authentic story about the Civil War in color, when none of us presently living ever saw it in color and thus have no color memories of it, only gleaned from viewing the black and white stills of Matthew Brady and other photographers of the time who provided the sole visual record of it, a feature which made the documentary of Ken Burns in 1990 so compelling in its overall presentation—even if losing the readings from the obviously demented Mary Chestnut would have been a decided improvement to an otherwise masterpiece of presentation. ("The death of Lincoln I call a warning to tyrants. He will not be the last
President put to death in the capital, though he is the first."—Mary Chestnut, April 22, 1865) Black and white is the preferable film stock to use in any story adaptation regarding the Civil War if authenticity
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