The Charlotte News
Monday, April 7, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Havana that El Presidente Fulgencio Batista's Army this date had claimed that it had beaten one big contingent of Fidel Castro's rebels and was pursuing it and another major rebel band in the mountains of eastern Cuba. The Army also claimed it had shot down a foreign C-46 transport plane bringing arms to be dropped to the rebels. The announcement said that the plane had crashed and burned and that the crew had been killed. But the country of origin and the identity of the plane's crew had not been announced. The general staff said that its forces had defeated a large rebel outfit headed by Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, which had been operating along the northern coast of Oriente Province. The rebel group had been reported scattered, forced back into the Sierra Maestra and "isolated". The communiqué said that seven rebels had been killed and more than 30 wounded or captured. Earlier, El Presidente's forces claimed that more than two dozen rebels had been killed the previous day in Oriente. The Army had said on Saturday that it had isolated Sr. Castro and another big group of rebels in the mountains, but rebel sources had shrugged that off, saying that Sr. Castro had been "sealed off" in the Sierra Maestra since he had begun his revolt 16 months earlier. The Army said that its men were pursuing both rebel groups. El Presidente, visited by newsmen in his heavily guarded farm outside Havana, said that the Army's strategy was to decimate the rebel ranks bit by bit. "The Army strategy is not to go barging into the mountains and killing a lot of innocent people, but to isolate the rebels in groups and capture them all," according to El Presidente. Although Sr. Castro was still at large, the vaunted total war he was supposed to have begun two days earlier still had not materialized. Rebel circles predicted that he might call his oft-threatened general strike during the current week, but in the western province of Pinar del Rio, the rebels issued bulletins telling workers to stay on the job "until you are further advised."
In Tokyo, it was reported that North Korea this date had said that the withdrawal of the first 40,000 Chinese Communist troops had been completed on Saturday. Pyongyang radio reported that three Chinese divisions had crossed the Yalu River border.
Also in Tokyo, it was reported that wartime adversaries of Japan this date had reduced life sentences of ten Japanese major war criminals to the ten years served. All were out on parole, and the clemency action ended their parole periods.
In Jerusalem, Israel's tenth anniversary was celebrated this date by a religious ceremony on Mount Zion, where prayers were recited and 14 Yemenite Jews had blown ancient Shofars.
In Oslo, Norway, it was reported that a Russian herring trawler with two women in its crew had foundered in a blizzard off the northeastern coast of Norway this date. Two crewmen had been washed overboard but the others had been rescued.
In Taipei, Formosa, Nationalist China this date had informed the British Government that one of its air force patrol bombers down in Hong Kong had been forced to land because trouble had developed in its oil system.
In Port Said, Egypt, it was reported this date that the Panamanian freighter Pan Ocean had sunk in the Mediterranean the previous day, 200 miles from the port. The British freighter Persic was said to have rescued all 31 crewmen.
In Nicosia, Cyprus, it was reported that a dozen British Army wives and 25 Cypriots had narrowly escaped a time bomb which exploded during the morning in the store for service families at Famagusta. The incendiary bomb set fire to the store but no one was injured.
In West Berlin, a double-decker bus crowded with Easter celebrants had run off the road and turned over late the previous night, killing four persons and injuring 38 others. The driver, who was uninjured, told police that the lights of an approaching car had blinded him, causing him to lose control of the bus.
In Leghorn, Italy, two Corvettes built for Indonesia by the Ansalder shipyards, had sailed this date for Indonesia,
Near San Antonio, Tex., horrified picnickers had seen a speeding train plow through five children trapped on a lofty railroad trestle the previous day, killing all five. A sixth youngster, a 12-year old boy, had raced to safety at one end of the mile-long viaduct moments ahead of the passenger train, the Southern Pacific's Sunset Limited. The engineer of the train had jammed on the emergency brakes in a vain attempt to stop the train, while scores of the 300 persons gathered for Easter picnics below screamed for the four girls and one boy to jump. The youngsters had been caught about a quarter of a mile out on the bridge past a curve hiding the approach of the train. At that point, the viaduct towered 40 feet above the Medina River. Among those gathered below to eat their noon meal in a park were about 50 relatives of the children. The park was on the riverbanks at McDonna, 15 miles southwest of San Antonio. Three children of one woman at the picnic and two daughters of a couple had been killed, with the mother of the three children being the brother of the father of the other two killed. A cousin of the children killed said that he had yelled for them to jump but that they had panicked and did not know what to do. The train had been traveling at 61 mph as it rounded the curve into the viaduct.
In Sherbrooke, Québec, two families returning from an Easter visit with relatives had been wiped out the previous night when a train hit their car, with seven of the 11 dead having been children. Police said that high wind and wet snow had reduced visibility at the grade crossing. The automobile was wedged under the two-coach diesel and had been dragged about 300 feet. No one aboard the train had been injured.
In Midland, Mich., it was reported that a Capital Airlines Viscount plane had crashed and burned in a spring snowfall the previous night, killing all 47 persons aboard. Holiday vacationers for Easter were among the victims of the disaster. It was reported that there was "no chance" of survivors. The four-engine plane had slammed into a muddy field about 2,300 feet short of a runway of the Tri-City Airport, serving Midland, Saginaw and Bay City. The impact had scattered bodies across a wide area, and charred bodies had been found in the shattered wreckage. The owner of the farm on which the plane had crashed said that by the time they reached the wreckage, they realized that everyone was gone. He said that the plane had come in hard, that it had not fallen but had run directly into the ground. Control tower officials said that it was windy and that snow was falling as the plane had approached for a landing late at night, with visibility being 3 miles and a 900-foot ceiling. An observer at the airport administration building said that one minute the plane's lights had been barely visible through the rain and snow and that the next minute, they had abruptly headed earthward, after which, a second later, there had been a blinding flash of orange flame spurting nearly 100 feet into the air, followed by a muffled explosion.
In Greenville, S.C., a desperate prisoner had slashed his way out of the county jail this date, taking the only key which locked the cell block of some 70 other prisoners. The assistant jailer said that the prisoner had jumped at him "like a tiger" and pressed a knife against him and another prisoner, forcing him to unlock the outer door. The unarmed jailer said that the escapee had left with a set of eight keys, including the only keys which would open the cell block. A locksmith had been summoned to make a new key. The escapee was being held on seven charges of forgery and two cases of worthless checks, pending the arrival of probation authorities from Spartanburg County. He was driving a stolen 1951 black Pontiac, reported stolen soon after the break. Be on the lookout. If you see a black Pontiac, run it off the road.
In Cologne, West Germany, five tons of belongings of former Iranian Queen Soraya had been shipped to the location from the royal palace in Iran, much of it stuffed into 50 large trunks and suitcases arriving by plane the previous day. The Shah's divorce from the 26-year old queen had become final in Tehran on Saturday and two Iranian officials were expected to deliver the papers the following day. Sources at the Iranian Embassy where the former queen was staying, said that she planned to leave sometime during the week for a vacation in Switzerland and later in Italy. Her younger brother and her mother would go with her. The 38-year old Shah had divorced her because she failed to provide him with a son and heir to the throne in their seven years of marriage. Under the terms of the divorce, the Shah could remarry within 100 days but a court source said that he was so unhappy over the parting that he might wait longer.
In Albuquerque, N.M., it was reported that an archery contest would likely be held during the summer between the Indians of Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico and members of the Albuquerque Field Archers plus possibly other archery organizations. Sometime late in April, a representative of the archers would sit in council and smoke the peace pipe with tribal representatives to set up arrangements for the contest. Some of the questions which the representative wanted to settle before the contest included how many Indians would compete, whether a handicap system would be used "and if so how do we handicap the Indians?" plus the type of tournament to be held. A former Taos governor and tribal leader already had answered one question. When asked by a reporter how many at the Pueblo still used the bow and arrow, he replied, as roughly translated: "Man, everyone. The elders are still the most. But we can turn out the whole tribe if there are a few bucks in prizes." There were 900-plus members of the tribe at the Pueblo, give or take a few for those too young or too old to do battle. (The piece uses some long discarded and insensitive stereotypes in its report, which we have omitted.)
James Bacon of the Associated Press reports from Hollywood that the slaying of Johnny Stompanato by Lana Turner's 14-year old daughter on Friday night appeared to have most of Hollywood asking how a known underworld figure could become the boyfriend of a top film star. One close friend had quoted the actress as saying that it was all her fault, regarding her daughter's predicament. Ms. Turner had been married and divorced four times, with numerous boyfriends in between. She had seen in the handsome Mr. Stompanato excitement and new kicks. Mr. Bacon says that it might be hard for people unfamiliar with Hollywood to comprehend, but it could be a dull place for movie queens. "Many a beautiful doll has to sit at home nights for the simple reason there is a drastic shortage of eligible men." Ms. Turner had met the 32-year old underworld figure soon after her rift with Lex Barker, her latest husband, formerly having portrayed Tarzan. The police chief of Beverly Hills had quoted her as having said: "My first contact with John was a telephone call I received from him about a year ago. I didn't recall ever having met him or having seen him before, but he mentioned mutual friends. After that he called at intervals for two or three weeks, wanting to come over for a drink or a chat. He kept pestering, and I finally accepted a date with him." Intelligence reports received by the Los Angeles police on known underworld figures said of Mr. Stompanato: "He acquaints himself with females of wealth. He courts them, and after he is deeply involved, borrows money and never repays the loan." While meeting him had been simple for the actress, getting rid of him had not been. That had led to the violent arguments which culminated in the fatal stabbing by her daughter on Friday night. Her daughter had been fearful for her mother's life after hearing threats from Mr. Stompanato. She had strode up to him and rammed a brand-new kitchen knife, razor sharp, into his right side. A postmortem report showed that the knife blade had penetrated the liver, aorta and portal vein, causing immediate death. She had done the People a favor, and ultimately would be rewarded for it with no prosecution.
Also in Hollywood, the AF of L Film Council wanted Federal subsidies for the movie industry which, according to a professor, had laid an economic egg. The Council addressed letters to 35 film industry leaders the previous day, urging a united effort to obtain subsidies, tax relief and other Federal aid. There were 742 actors under contract in 1946 and in 1956, there were only 229. Production workers had dropped from 24,000 to 13,000 during the same period, and 100 fewer pictures had been produced in that time.
Stormy weather, with snow, rain and strong winds, had pounded the Northeast this date in the wake of wet weather which dampened most of the nation on Easter Sunday. Early spring snowstorms had given a wintry look to sections of the Midwest and accumulations between six and ten inches were in prospect in northern New England. The stormy weather ranged from Maine southward to Virginia and westward through the middle Mississippi Valley and the eastern Great Lakes region. In western sections of northern Michigan there were accumulations of nearly a foot of snow, while drifts ranged up to 7 feet in the extreme western parts of Nebraska. The weekend snowfalls also hit northern and western Wisconsin and southern Minnesota. Rising temperatures in California could cause trouble because of snow hanging on the sides of mountains. At Norden, near Donner Summit in the Sierra Nevada, the pack was 269 inches in depth on Saturday, prior to a weekend storm. High temperatures would cause the snow to melt and swell already brimming rivers. A ten-square mile area near Stockton remained flooded.
In Washington, the annual Easter egg roll on the White House lawn this date had been a soggy affair. After an Easter Sunday rain, the grass was damp and muddy, apparently accounting for a much smaller attendance than usual, with only about 700 people having entered the gates during the first half hour, with White House guards reporting that it was not business as usual. Most of the youngsters and their parents had gathered around the portico of the White House hoping for a glimpse of the President. A chill wind and the sun going in and out behind clouds added to the lack of enthusiasm among the visitors. Although some children carried the traditionally gaily colored Easter egg baskets, most had been standing around empty-handed. Attracting interest because they were the only ones in costume had been four children from Fairland, Md., who appeared as they had the previous year dressed as Easter rabbits.
On the editorial page, "Charlotte Needs that Detention Home" indicates that Charlotte and Mecklenburg County could contribute to the community social health during the week simply by resolving to go ahead with construction of a desperately needed juvenile detention home. The stage was set for action after years of dissension and political pugnacity. It urges that the City Council and County Commission fulfill their long overdue obligations.
Low bids totaling $96,915 had been received the previous week, completing the seemingly endless effort to get the project off the drawing boards. Earlier plans had called for the expenditure of $140,000. The City Council had voted its share a year earlier, but the County Commission had rejected the plans for being too costly, canceling all of the work which had been accomplished since 1956 by a joint committee.
It had taken another year to redesign the project to the tastes of the Commission, keeping it under the $100,000 ceiling. The new design was not all that it should be but it was a start. It finds that Mecklenburg had lagged behind the times too long in failing to provide such a temporary shelter for youths in trouble. It was essential that the home be built at present, as the need was great and immediate.
The County Commission would have the contracts before them when they held their regular meeting the following day and they were scheduled to consider them on Wednesday. It urges prompt and favorable attention to the important facility to the community.
"City's Economic Optimism Is Intact" tells of the enormous success of Charlotte's 1958 Chamber of Commerce membership drive still having the soothsayers of sorrow wagging their heads incredulously, representing a triumphant affirmation of the community's economic confidence.
There had been some Gloomy-Gus talk of the possibility of a membership shrinkage as a result of larger psychological shrinkage of Charlotte's characteristic optimism, but instead, new membership had poured into the Chamber offices, raising its total membership to well over 3,000.
It finds the credit belonging to old members who had served well on the recruiting teams, their unusual success having indicated that the morale in Charlotte's business and professional community was higher than the pessimists wanted to concede.
The Chamber was a vehicle for building progress in a large city such as Charlotte, offering organization which channeled thought into purpose, purpose into action, and action into accomplishment, central to effective community achievement.
"Handy & the Blues: A
Partnership" laments the death the previous week of W. C.
Handy. It indicates he had not invented the blues but had taken the
simple 12-bar patterns which others had created on the plantations,
chain gangs, levee camps and railroads, and had urbanized them. His
touch had been so commercially professional that a few jazz purists
still winced when they recalled that his famous "Memphis Blues"
Mr. Handy's handiness with
traditional folk material had been masterful, though not beyond
borrowing Creole melodies. His "Loveless Love"
It indicates it was not to argue
that Mr. Handy was not truly creative within the framework of an
honorable and ancient form, as he had been. It finds clear proof of
that talent in what Louis Armstrong liked to call the "good old
good ones", "St. Louis Blues"
Abbe Niles pointed out in her foreword to A Treasury of the Blues that Mr. Handy's object in writing his music was "to speak in the language of the folk singers—meeting not only their words and turns of thought, but the musical language."
It finds that the blues, partly because of Mr. Handy's efforts and partly in spite of them, had left a large mark on "popular" music, the blues having formed the lifeblood of American jazz. "Even the determinedly avant-garde practitioners drew inspiration from him. A considerable part of the music of Charlie Parker, high priest of the modernists, was blues-based. The blues today are recognizable elements of the compositions and performances of Jimmy Giuffre, John Lewis, George Russell and Thelonius Monk. They are still interpreted with appropriate gusto by Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Henry Allen, Jack Teagarden, Roy Eldridge, Sidney Bechet and many others of a more rustic bent. They have even been utilized, less authoritatively, in some of the classical compositions of George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Gunther Schuller. They have at least excited the curiosity of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Igor Stravinsky. And, to the utter dismay of the jazz purists, the blues form the structural basis for much rock 'n' roll."
It shares the nation's grief at the loss of Mr. Handy, but indicates that the blues lived on, having become a part of the musical culture of the country.
We pause momentarily to take note of
a curious coincidence in timing of this piece with that on the Friday
death of J. B. Ivey, appearing in the column on Saturday, the latter
quoting from W. J. Cash. Mr. Handy's autobiography, Father of the
Blues, was published July 1, 1941, the date of Cash's death in
Mexico City. Sometime afterward, Frank and Laura McClenagen, who had driven Cash and his bride, Mary, over the border to South Carolina on Christmas Eve, 1940, where they were married late that night before a justice of the peace, would
present a copy of that book either to Cash's widow or directly
to Cash's sister Bertie, with whom the book wound up. Just one of
those things...
A piece from the Greenville Piedmont, titled "Traveling with the Cinders", finds that with the passing of the steam engine, a picturesque era in travel had come to an end, that future generations would be as unfamiliar with the old-time railroad engine as the present generation was with sailing ships and travel by oxcart. Train travel around the turn-of-the-century had been a vast improvement over the stagecoach of the early 19th Century, but it was far from pleasant.
It indicates that when it packed its valises and telescopes to go off to college, they stowed them under the buggy seat for the drive to the depot, that upon arriving at the station, they were soon in the midst of a crowd, as people from the country were bringing their girls to start them off to college, a sprinkling of boys were assembled with their trunks and bags, and everyone seemed to leave for college on the same day. They piled on board and the small cars with plush-covered seats were grand. They did not mind the stifling atmosphere of the soiled seat covers, which could not be kept clean when traveling by train at that time because of the cinders and grime.
In some of the old-fashioned coaches, there were little coal stoves for heating, and sandboxes to serve as cuspidors. "With much clanking and grinding, switching back and forth and musical bell ringing, we were off, to the accompaniment of loud whistling for clearing the tracks. The windows remained raised much of the way except in freezing weather and soon the air was full of cinders. Cinders on the face and in the mouth were bad enough, but when a cinder landed in the eye, here was discomfort for a long period.
"The musical voice of the colored brakeman or the porter as he came through the coach to call out the stations is somewhat sadly missing in this era of the loudspeaker with mechanical calls."
Drew Pearson indicates that the reason why the President had not moved in advance of the Russian propaganda move to counteract the announcement of Andrei Gromyko of ending hydrogen bomb tests was that, while he and Secretary of State Dulles considered an announcement that Russia had just staged the largest hydrogen bomb tests in history, they realized that it would have required a damaging admission that Russia was far ahead of the U.S. In his optimistic speeches, the President had not admitted that fact and therefore he could not come out and admit it the previous week.
U.S. detection posts stationed around the rim of the Iron Curtain had picked up accurate but distressing facts that Russia had tested three hydrogen warheads for use on intermediate and intercontinental ballistic missiles, that it had tested five atomic warheads in the air, and that one of those had been exploded at an altitude of 60 miles, ten times higher than the U.S. had ever exploded an atomic bomb. The principal fact to be derived from those tests was that they had used live warheads on long-range missiles. If one such missile were to go out of control at Cape Canaveral, it could blow up the cities of Orlando, Miami, Rio de Janeiro, etc. The Russians apparently had their long-range missiles so perfected that they were not afraid to test live warheads.
The previous May, the Russians had tested an ICBM from the Arctic to the Sea of Okhotsk, a range of about 3,200 miles, with considerable accuracy, but it had a dummy warhead. The previous month, they had used the live warheads. Unfortunately, U.S. live warheads for long-range missiles would not be tested until this month in the Pacific, and so the President and Secretary Dulles, following long debate, had decided that they could not tell the American people that the country was that far behind Russia.
The Agriculture Department had now admitted that it had burned 2,500 copies of a report on why farmers were relocating to the city. Meanwhile, Senator James Murray of Montana had been studying another of Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson's reports on "Keeping Them on the Farm", which had not been burned. In that report, Senator Murray had come across the case of a Choctaw County, Okla., farmer who operated a 280-acre farm. The Department had reported that to supplement farm income, the man's wife had drawn on her experience as a housewife to get a job cooking in a local café, working each day for eight hours, while her husband worked at a service station each day for nine hours, after handling the farm chores in the morning, which the wife took over in the afternoon. Senator Murray had commented that it was the formula for successful farming under Secretary Benson: "Get your wife a full-time job in town. Get yourself a full-time job in town. If you're lucky, the husband's in-town wages will pay the losses resulting from farming under Benson and you will still have your wife's pay to buy some groceries and clothing."
Joseph Alsop tells of Bernard Baruch having boldly spoken the words in public which were having great influence on the Administration in private, that inflation was a greater danger than depression, continuing as such until prices would come down. He favored an increase in taxes to cover the prospect of rising Federal spending, something which the Administration did not support, but his order of priorities otherwise did have strong support. For that reason, the vision of a large, Administration-sponsored tax cut was expected to prove to be a mirage, at least for the current month.
Word now was from the White House that it would continue with its wait-and-see policy until May produced new statistics on the economic performance, that if those figures proved encouraging, a tax cut stimulus would likely be withheld again. That negative forecast was surprising because a large tax cut had appeared certain only weeks earlier.
The Administration proponents of a prompt tax cut were just as convinced as ever that the economy needed that stimulus, having mobilized important allies such as the President's former chief economic advisor, Dr. Arthur Burns, who had been in Washington during the current week to put forth his views to Secretary of the Treasury Robert Anderson. Those favoring a tax cut would accept without grumbling the President's April decision, as they had accepted his March decision, but when the decision would have to be made, Secretary of Labor James Mitchell, Vice-President Nixon and the others favoring a tax cut would set forth their views at the council table, with such additional authority as Dr. Burns and others having stated their views to the President.
There was, however, one source from which those favoring a tax cut derived very great authority, the powerful and able chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, Representative Wilbur Mills of Arkansas. He had already made known his views with his Arkansas constituents, indicating no great demand for cutting of taxes. Many other Senators and Representatives might return from Easter vacation with the report that their constituents were in bad times and wanted a tax cut immediately. In that case, House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson might have to inform Secretary Anderson that they had to take action on their own, despite their agreement with the Secretary to wait for the Administration. Or, the President might decide to bow to the sentiment of Congress.
Mr. Alsop indicates that as of the present, however, those favoring tax cuts within the Administration had little chance of persuading the wait-and-see faction of the need for action in April. The figures on the performance of the economy in March had not been encouraging. The final statistics would show high unemployment, combined with the rise of 10,000 to 20,000 in the number of those having jobs. Normally, March would show a seasonal increase in the employment total of about 200,000, and the very slight increase in the March total was less significant than the failure to achieve the month's normal seasonal job increase.
Nevertheless, the White House staff was eagerly pointing out that the President had only said he was counting on an increase "of job opportunities" in March, and therefore events were said to have confirmed the President's prediction made at a press conference which had given the impression that emergency action to stimulate the economy would be taken if the March showing proved poor. Such hairsplitting concealed a serious viewpoint, of which the President himself and Secretary Anderson appeared to be the chief advocates, that based on the priorities of Mr. Baruch. Prices had to be adjusted downward unless the business depression was to be transformed into serious inflation out of the present high price level and spurred on by a heavily unbalanced budget.
In recent weeks, both the White House and the Treasury had been additionally disturbed by the higher estimates of the rate of cash expenditures in the ensuing fiscal year which were coming in from the departments, especially from Defense. Thus, the bets were changed sharply from what they had been, that there would be a tax cut in April.
Doris Fleeson, in Chicago, indicates that Midwestern Democrats were reviving the suggestion that the trend of voters to their party made it possible for Adlai Stevenson to run again and win. But they also liked their frequent glimpses during the spring of Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. With one surprising exception, organization politicians, including those from Illinois, showed less enthusiasm for Mr. Stevenson than the people generally. The exception was Wisconsin, surprising because Mr. Stevenson had declined to enter the Wisconsin primary against Estes Kefauver during the 1956 nomination process.
But important Democrats in
Wisconsin, interviewed by the Milwaukee Journal, had given Mr.
Stevenson more votes as their favorite for the 1960 nomination than
any other candidate. That favor was perhaps dimmed somewhat by the
comment from one of them that Wisconsin was the all-time champion of
losers at the national conventions of both parties. The Journal
survey also had shown that Wisconsin Democrats now believed that
Senator Kennedy
That followed the Republican pattern in the same survey, with Republican leaders naming Senator William F. Knowland as their choice, but saying that they expected Vice-President Nixon to prevail.
Senator Kennedy was seeing far more people and doing far more favors for the state organizations of the Midwest than any other Democratic hopeful at present. He attracted good crowds and there was a great deal of public interest in what he was like and what he said. Timidity of his being a Catholic appeared more frequently among Catholics than among Protestants. Some Catholics said that they did not want to go through "the Al Smith thing" again, as they had in 1928 with the Governor of New York. But Protestants generally said they thought that it would not greatly influence the decision.
Despite the hospitality of the Midwest, Senator Kennedy had handicaps to overcome in that region. He had cast a major farm vote which was unpopular and his recognition of that fact had been shown by his recent vote with other Democrats to freeze farm price supports.
Midwestern Democrats tended to take liberal positions and would join with the Mountain and Pacific Coast states to make their weight felt in the next national convention. Very important voices among them had not forgiven Senator Kennedy for failing to take a position on the controversial issue of McCarthyism. Eleanor Roosevelt had spoken for those people when in a magazine article recently, she had ruled out Senator Kennedy as the nominee on that basis. The same group insisted that it found no strong evidence in the record of the Senator of more than token loyalty to the liberal social and economic policies of the previous two Democratic presidents, FDR and Harry Truman. Uneasiness was also occasionally expressed about the amount of money he was spending.
It might be noted that in the above-linked March 30 "Face the Nation" program at the 4:00 mark, Senator Kennedy had been asked a question to which he responded by referencing a blue-ribbon panel, led by Harvard law professor Archibald Cox, formed at the request of the Senator to formulate recommendations for legislation which would not be inimical to labor to prevent the types of abuses which had been uncovered by the McClellan Select Committee of which the Senator was a member. He was also asked right after that about the McClellan Committee's recently concluded investigation of the longstanding strike at the Kohler Co. in Wisconsin. It is intriguing for the fact that in May, 1973, Mr. Cox would be appointed special prosecutor by Attorney General Elliot Richardson—until being unceremoniously relieved of that position by President Nixon, via Acting Attorney General Robert Bork following two resignations ahead of him regarding the President's illegal directive, in the "Saturday night massacre"
Eric Sevareid of CBS indicates that it was the first warm and balmy night of the year in Washington, with the first frogs singing, hardly a night for talking about extension of the reciprocal trade act. So he decides to talk about the moon. "The moon was always measured in terms of hope and reassurance and the heart pangs of youth on such a night as this; it is now measured in terms of mileage and foot-pounds of rocket thrust; children sent sharp, sweet wishes to the moon; now they dream of blunt-nosed missiles."
He indicates that he was getting off the train of progress on trying to send a rocket to the moon, as it would never be the same again once that occurred, and, he suspects, the heart of man would never be the same. He finds it easy to wait for the first photographs of the other side of the moon, for he had not yet seen the other side of Lake Louise or the Blue Ridge peak which showed through the cabin window. He finds himself undisturbed about the front page talk of "controlling the earth from the moon" because he did not believe it. "If neither men nor gadgets nor both combined can control the earth from the earth, we fail to see how they will do so from the moon."
"It is exciting talk, indeed, the talk of man's advance toward space. But one little step in man's advance toward man—that, we think, would be truly exciting. Let those who wish try to discover the composition of the lunar crater; we would settle for discovering the true mind of a Russian commissar or the inner heart of a delinquent child."
He indicates that there was another side, a dark side, to the human spirit also, and that men had hardly begun to explore those regions, finding it a great pity if there was advance upon the bright side of the moon with the dark side of humanity, "if the cargo in the first rockets to reach there consists of fear and chauvinism and suspicion. Surely, we ought to have our credentials in order, our hands very clean and perhaps a prayer for forgiveness on our lips as we prepare to open up the ancient vault of the shining moon."
There being nothing about pugilism
Framed Edition
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