The Charlotte News
Saturday, May 17, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Paris that General Charles de Gaulle's top legislative lieutenant, Jacques Soustelle, had slipped into the Gaullist stronghold of Algeria this date, as Premier Pierre Pflimlin struggled against rightists at home. M. Soustelle had been held incommunicado in Paris after trying to fly to Algeria earlier in the week. His arrival in Algiers at been announced by radio Algiers, and was expected to place new pressure on the Premier to reach a settlement with General De Gaulle's supporters. The General had announced that he would come to Paris on Monday from his country home and hold a press conference, expected therein to clarify his statement the prior Thursday, offering to assume full power in France, an offer which had deepened the grave political crisis. The embattled new Premier, facing the prospect of rioting by rightists this night, had sent a special envoy to General De Gaulle's home village, 150 miles from Paris, the envoy, Marcel Diebold, having talked with the General's military aide but not having seen the General. Presumably, the Premier was seeking clarification of the General's role in the crisis prior to his news conference on Monday. French Air Force Mystere jet planes had repeatedly flown low over General De Gaulle's village as the envoy talked with the aide for an hour. The 19 Social Republican deputies in the National Assembly had issued a statement denying that General De Gaulle would take any step which might plunge France into chaos, saying, "Republican legality can never be put in peril by the one who, himself, re-established it in 1944." The Premier had lost no time in exercising the emergency powers granted him for three months by an overwhelming vote of the National Assembly the previous night. Special agents had been arresting rightists in Paris and throughout France. Two Air Force generals had been reported among those held. Ignoring that show of strength, the National Association of War Veterans had called for demonstrations this night and the following day at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the Arc de Triomph. If the demonstration were to be held in defiance of a ban on all public gatherings, it would bring a clash with the 35,000 police and security troops who had been deployed, turning Paris into an armed camp. The Association had called on all of those who had served with the Free French forces of General De Gaulle during World War II to rally at the tomb. Motorists driving into Paris had found the words, "De Gaulle to power" in six-foot letters and the Cross of Lorraine, the General's wartime symbol, painted across the main highways. A committee of public safety had been organized in Paris, similar to one which had been formed by French civilians and generals in Algiers in support of General De Gaulle. The Paris committee had issued a communiqué asserting that other committees would be organized throughout France, claiming to have contact with the Algerian committee.
Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy had said this date that he expected efforts would be made in the House and Senate to tailor a pending defense reorganization plan more closely to Administration wishes. The House Armed Services Committee had approved 32 to 0 the previous day a defense reshuffling plan based on the President's recommendations. The compromise, however, contained two major provisions which the Administration did not like. Secretary McElroy, talking with reporters, said that he thought some members of the Senate would "want a hell of a lot stronger bill" than the one drafted by the House Committee. There had been no Senate action yet on the Eisenhower plan. The Secretary said that the first effort to modify the House Committee language probably would come on the House floor during debate on the measure. Congressional sources had indicated that the President was willing to sign the bill even if Congress made no changes to the present version. Secretary McElroy did not regard the possibility of a veto. The House Committee's bill would provide the President substantially what he had sought in arrangements for streamlined command of unified forces, but the Committee had turned down several requests for administrative changes. There had been criticism that the Administration proposals might infringe on the prerogatives of the individual services or of Congress. The President had referred to two of those points in a letter to Representative Carl Vinson of Georgia, the chairman of the Committee, indicating: "I hope this language will be suitably adjusted on the House floor." The Secretary said the previous night that the Committee bill "seems to have accomplished most of the President's major objectives." But he had added that he thought some of the language would "impair efficient administration". Republicans had joined Democrats on the Committee in unanimously approving the bill, which now went to the full House for action, perhaps within two weeks.
In San Diego, it was reported that a Navy Constellation had paused briefly this date for fuel, then continued eastward on a mission to culminate in Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, bearing the bodies of two U.S. fighting men, one who had died in World War II in the Pacific and the other in the Korean War. The plane had left from Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu following a short, solemn ceremony the previous day. The Pacific war victim had been selected there from among six who had fallen in the conflict. Four bodies had been flown to Honolulu from the Philippines, two having been taken from the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Honolulu, where Japanese bombs had hit on December 7, 1941, drawing the U.S. into World War II. Similar ceremonies the prior Thursday had selected the Unknown Soldier from the Korean War, his remains to be entombed at Arlington on Memorial Day. The World War II soldier's body would be flown to Guantánamo in Cuba, where it would be placed aboard the U.S. cruiser Canberra, along with a World War II victim from the European theater, whose remains had been selected in Epinal, France, the prior Monday. One would be chosen for burial and the permanent, ceaseless watch of pacing sentries at Arlington, while the other would be buried at sea with full military honors. The ceremony the previous day at Hickam, where the headquarters still bore the scars of the December 7 Japanese bombs, along with the Pearl Harbor Naval Base nearby, had been conducted under cloudy skies. An Air Force atomic bomb flier, Col. Glenn Eagleston, had made the selection from the six coffins.
In Greenville, S.C., an Armed Forces Day open house at nearby Donaldson Air Force Base had been canceled suddenly during the morning, with the public information office indicating only that the observance had been canceled because of a "military exercise directed by higher headquarters". The base was a Military Aircraft Transport Service base, from which C-124 Globemaster planes could fly virtually anywhere in the world, transporting men and heavy equipment. Newsmen, radio and television personnel who had arrived at the base to cover the celebration had been ordered from the base and all planned activities canceled. World War III is obviously imminent.
In Los Angeles, it was reported that Air Force Capt. Walter Wayne Irwin had flown a jet plane the previous day to a new world record speed of 1404.19 mph, 196.5 mph faster than the former record. The Air Force chief of staff had presented him with a Distinguished Flying Cross, and then in an interview, the captain had committed the innocent kind of blunder that only another husband would understand. When asked whether it was the most exciting day of his life, he said, "I would say so—bar none!" His wife then exclaimed with mock sarcasm, "Thanks a lot!" She had been flown to Los Angeles from Novato in Northern California for the announcement of his feat, and she had been thinking, no doubt, of their 1954 wedding ceremony in Arlington, Va. The captain had quickly corrected himself and said, "Make that the second most exciting day!" His wife said that she was proud of him. He had enlisted in the Air Corps in January, 1942, and had a close call when he was staffing a German airfield 90 miles east of Leipzig toward the end of the war, when anti-aircraft fire had crippled his P-47, forcing him to have to belly-land, at which point he was captured. He had been held in a hospital prisoner-of-war camp there for seven days, although he was not injured. He had then gone over the fence whereupon he had seen a bicycle leaning against a barn, had ridden it about 25 miles to the American lines. He had received a previous Distinguished Flying Cross for destroying a trainload of ammunition in the Ruhr Valley with machinegun fire in 1944. He had flown 86 P-47 combat missions, destroying 15 enemy planes on the ground. He left the Air Force in 1945 and had flown charter flights and instructed for two years for an air service in the State of Washington, had then been a crop-duster and instructor in Oregon, until the Air Force had recalled him in 1951. He was presently a flight commander of the 83rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron out of Hamilton Air Force Base near San Francisco.
In New York, it was reported that Representative Adam Clayton Powell of Harlem had called on the people of his district this date to spurn any attempt to "dictate" who their Congressman would be.
In Vientiane, Laos, election returns from rural areas this date continued to show parliamentary election victories for the leftist Neo Lao Haksat Party, successors to the pro-Communist Pathet Lao rebels.
In Tokyo, it was reported that the Japanese Government this date had told the Soviet Union that its possession of nuclear weapons posed a constant threat and cause of insecurity to the Japanese people.
Also in Tokyo, it was reported that U.S. servicemen in the Far East had celebrated Armed Forces Day with parades, receptions and an open house.
In Beirut, Lebanon, it was reported that President Camille Chamoun had seized the offensive this date in a clash with opposition forces seeking to overthrow his pro-Western Government.
In Paris, it was reported that a gasoline storage tank had blown up in a garage this date, killing ten people and shattering windows in the Montmartre section of the city.
In North Wilkesboro, N.C., Superior Court Judge Julius Rousseau, 67, had suffered a heart attack and died in a hospital this date, after being stricken at his home in North Wilkesboro in the wee hours of the morning and rushed to the hospital where he had died two hours later. He had been the resident judge of the 23rd Judicial District since 1934, and had recently announced that he would be a candidate for re-election. He had presided over the recent case of Frank Wetzel, who had been convicted of first-degree murder of State Highway Patrolman W. L. Reece, Mr. Wetzel having been sentenced to life imprisonment after the jury had recommended mercy. The judge had been a graduate of Belmont Abbey College and the UNC Law School, and had been licensed to practice in 1913, opening an office in North Wilkesboro that year. He had been elected mayor of the town and had served from 1930 to 1934, when he had first been elected as a judge.
In Windsor, N.C., a 17-year old star high school athlete and student body leader had been sentenced the previous day to 30 years in prison for slaying a classmate, 16. He had received the maximum penalty for second-degree murder after pleading guilty the prior Thursday to that offense. When he had been arraigned the prior Monday, he had pleaded temporary insanity in the February 12 slaying. The judge had said that if the defendant "did not have the capacity to know right from wrong when he destroyed this life, for his own sake and the sake of society, he should be put away. If he had the ability to know right from wrong, this has been the worst case of murder I have ever tried." Two psychiatrists had testified that the youth suffered from schizophrenia. The girl's body had been found in a lonely area between Windsor and Ahoskie an hour after she had been excused from classes at the Ahoskie High School. The defendant had picked up the girl in his father's car. His father was a State Highway Patrol sergeant.
In San Francisco, evangelist Billy Graham had been asked to provide his views on pornographic literature, but Louis Francis, the California Assemblyman who had subpoenaed him, said that the evangelist did not have to testify if he did not wish. He had been subpoenaed the previous night as he prayed before 15,000 persons at the Cow Palace, having been served on the stage by a deputy sheriff. Mr. Francis said that he was being called as an expert on the danger of pornography and its impact on youth. The Reverend Graham said later that he had never read or seen any pornographic literature in his life. (That statement needed some qualification, as anyone who had ever read the average front page of a newspaper, or the contents of the average news magazine, reporting on the various dissolute travails through which some had to traverse, could claim to have seen and read pornography on nearly a daily, or at least weekly, basis.)
There remained no further news this date in the newspaper on the previous day's proceedings in the first-degree murder trial of 19-year old Charles Starkweather in Lincoln, Neb., for killing 17-year old Robert Jensen on January 27 outside Lincoln, near Bennet. On Monday, two psychiatrists and a psychologist were set to testify regarding the mental status of Charles at the time of the killing, with the defense seeking, pursuant to its plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, entered over the objection of Charles, to show that he did not know that his act was wrong when he committed it because he labored under the delusion that he had acted justifiably in self-defense, not only in the killing of Mr. Jensen, but also in the killing of the other ten victims, including Mr. Jensen's 17-year old girlfriend, Carol King, at least as to those whom, in his several conflicting statements, he had admitted killing by either gunfire or stabbing. In the current trial, he was only charged with the murder of Mr. Jensen, pursuant to a strategy of the prosecution. The 14-year old girlfriend of Charles, Caril Ann Fugate, was charged as an accomplice in the murder of Mr. Jensen, but was awaiting a determination by the State Supreme Court as to whether she had to be charged as a juvenile or could be charged as an adult, as she had been. She was alleged by the prosecution to have been an accomplice in all ten of the January murders, including those of her stepfather, mother and baby half-sister. Charles had also admitted the killing of a service station attendant in Lincoln on December 1. The pair had been captured near Douglas, Wyo., on January 29, Caril having voluntarily surrendered after Charles had killed his last victim, a man he found sleeping in his car alongside the road, awakening him to steal his car, and then had been engaged by a passing motorist who had stopped to see whether Charles needed help in starting what appeared to be his car, Charles then telling the good samaritan that if he did not help him get the emergency brake off, he would blow his head off. A struggle had then ensued over the rifle which Charles had, with the man able finally to commandeer it, finding that it was out of ammunition. Charles had then taken off in the car stolen earlier in Lincoln and was, after a short chase by law enforcement, finally captured when the officers had nicked him on the ear with a bullet and he apparently thought he was bleeding to death. A letter from the defendant's mother to the residents of Lincoln is reprinted on the front page of the Lincoln Star this date, seeking to explain her son's behavior and a statement she had made previously to the press that she had raised "six problems and one catastrophe" as her children.
You can get you a half-gallon of Smokey's Ice Cream, fudge 'n' chocolate, for 89 cents in Lincoln, whether any nuts were added having not been mentioned.
In Flint, Mich., two rifle-toting bandits had appeared in a rural general store owned by a 57-year old woman, wearing handkerchiefs across their faces and brandishing a .22-caliber rifle, demanding that the proprietor place the money in a paper bag. The owner then reached under the counter and stuffed the bag full. The bandits had fled with their loot, which consisted of three or four dozen shoelaces. She must have acquired them out on Highway 61.
In New York, it was reported that the New York Aquarium had continued to get the runaround this date from a travel-minded young harp seal, which, loaded with tranquilizers, had gotten a little nap of about 3.5 hours the previous day after his continuous travel otherwise. The seal had taken a bit more nourishment than earlier, but the rest and food apparently had done little more than renew its urge to get going again. Since Sunday, the two-month old seal, named Number One, had been circling the Aquarium's 150-foot tank, with officials believing that it was an urge of nature compelling the seal to return to the place where it was born off the eastern coast of Canada. It had lost 5 pounds of its total weight of 37 pounds. The officials said that there was a hopeful break in the circling pattern and that the seal had begun to behave more like seals usually did, but they indicated it was too early to tell whether the seal might get back on his merry-go-round kick full time again. The seal would not rest or eat as long as it was in the tank. The Aquarium had acquired six of the young harp seals, which derived their name from the fact that they developed a harp-shaped pattern on their bodies at maturity. They were said to be the only ones in captivity. Thus far, the five others were content to take it easy.
On the editorial page, "Desegregation: The Testing Continues" indicates that four years earlier this date, Brown v. Board of Education had been decided, obligating the South to become a social laboratory, conducting tests of its people and its institutions, and that the tests were still ongoing with there being no reliable means of summing up the results or predicting the future.
The number of states which had laws enforcing segregation had been reduced from 17 to 7, and two of those had integrated public colleges. About 26 percent of the biracial school districts in the South and the District of Columbia had been desegregated, a slight increase over the previous year. But those totals were at most insubstantial symbols and did not measure the impact of the decision on human conscience, attitudes and customs, the status of the law, the personalities of children or the relationships between racial groups. At present, it was only certain that the testing of those things would continue into another year marked by turmoil and struggle.
Most of the desegregation thus far had occurred in border states where it was reasonable to expect some measure of compliance with Brown, and none had occurred in the so-called "Deep South" states, in which it was reasonable to expect bitter-end opposition.
The first open clash of Federal versus state power had occurred in the border state of Arkansas, where some desegregation already had been accomplished peacefully. Little Rock, therefore, should not have taken place, but it had, and although Federal troops were being withdrawn during the current summer, the outcome of that clash as it affected the progress of desegregation and racial harmony remained indefinite. Arkansas could again become a center of the struggle in the ensuing fall.
Virginia, in varying degrees, the leader of the "Deep South" states, almost certainly would become a center of the struggle, as final orders for desegregation of schools in one Virginia locality would provide the first real test of that state's "massive resistance" policy, providing for the automatic closure of racially-mixed schools, providing the first real test of the devotion of Virginians to the public school system. Their reaction to Brown was known, but the lengths to which they would permit the state to go to thwart the decision remained unknown. Developments in that state would have a marked effect on the policies of the other states resistant to segregation.
It indicates that, nevertheless, some tentative conclusions could be drawn from the first four years of the testing, one being that the South would not follow the hate-mongers. Increased activity by the Klan and similar groups had been accompanied by wider perception that those groups were a menace to the South and its institutions.
Meanwhile, there were some indications that the nation generally was recognizing the infinite complexities and difficulties involved in the social adjustments expected of the South. The process had been helped by the efforts of moderate Southern leaders, such as Governors Luther Hodges of North Carolina, LeRoy Collins of Florida and Frank Clement of Tennessee, by the shock coming from the Little Rock crisis, and by the sober second thoughts of some ardent leaders of the integration forces.
There had been a growing and needed recognition that Brown had not ordered racial mixing but had merely forbade school assignment based on race, and it suggests that the greater that recognition, the less power there would be for the extremist groups seeking to twist the decision to serve their own ends.
Across the region, there had been "the usual mixture of heroism and cowardice, wisdom and foolishness, compassion and meanness that any crisis in human affairs brings out. The pattern will continue, demonstrating not only the variety of attitudes in the South but differences in the caliber of leadership."
North Carolina thus far had
weathered the crisis well, turning almost instinctively away from the
spectacular and toward its accustomed moderation. There had been
little violence of word or deed, and no defiance of the
constitutional system of government, no tendency to junk the public
school
Nowadays, it would appear, Clancy can't even sing, not because of "radical, leftist Democrats" insisting on some agenda in public education foreign to the revolutionary past of the United States, but rather, to the contrary, because of the extreme rightist agenda
So much for states' rights among the rightists, now supplanted, when states' rights no longer suit, by strong Federalism, insistence by the Federal "unified executive", in counter to the "radical leftist agenda" projected onto the public schools by the Trumpists and the Magaville goon squads, who want the country turned into an armed camp, pitting "radical leftists" with protest signs against rightists with guns and billyclubs, which they can then, just as Hitler blamed the weak-kneed Von Hindenburg for all the trouble which followed, say, with apparent probity to the Magavillians, was all stirred up, after all, by the "radical leftists" insistent on their Socialist-Communist ways from the New Deal and Fair Deal, New Frontier and Great Society.
Tomorrow belongs to Us. We'll wield the weal, molded to our viewpoint by deals and steel will, to teach it now Our Way or the Highway, buster, effectively says the wrestling witch—oh, but not a wicked one, only a nice, white one, originally of eastern North Carolina—now posing as Secretary of Education, while having the actual agenda of dismantling that Department without the authority of Congress and against decades, since 1953, of legislation to the contrary, while the insane woman from Georgia proclaims, "Elections have consequences," not bothering to note that the election of 2024 was considerably skewed most radically to the right by the systematic exclusion of Democratic voters in Georgia and several other key swing states and Congressional districts targeted by Magaville residents for four years after the supposedly "stolen" election of 2020, when too many people turned out to vote for the satisfaction of the Magaville resi-dents, who just could not have that, an expression of true democracy in action, not here in 21st Century America. No! And "no" means No! This here is the country of "No, We Can't", and don't you forget it, boy, or we'll for damn sure enough club some sense into ye, sonny. We'll bring in here bunker-buster Bronko Lubich if necessary and do a pile-driver on ye, all to the delight of our flag-waving fans in Magaville, U.S.A., who don't need no education, as their common sense tells them all they need to know
"Grier Martin Will Lead Davidson Well" finds the rejoicing which had followed the selection of Mr. Martin as president of Davidson College during the week to have been genuine and general, with students, faculty, staff and rank-and-file Presbyterians joining in acclaiming the popular 47-year old administrator.
It finds that he knew and understood Davidson, was a part of its tradition and was superbly equipped to carry on and even enrich that tradition. He followed an outstanding leader, Dr. John Cunningham, who was now head of the Presbyterian Foundation. Mr. Martin was unique among Davidson's 13 prior presidents in that he was neither a clergyman nor professional educator. Yet, he had a deep appreciation of both the academic superstructure and the religious foundation of Davidson's heritage. His reputation as an administrator, having served as Davidson's treasurer since 1951, had been well-established, and he had a notably successful career in business prior to that, after having graduated cum laude from Davidson in 1932.
It salutes both Mr. Martin and the College for having selected a distinguished new president.
"How's That Again?" indicates that Representative Gordon McDonough of California had found it necessary the previous week to insert his legislative history into the Congressional Record, at taxpayer expense. The Congressman's communiqué bragged that "the McDonough record speaks for itself", and some 250 words later, stated that the record was "outstanding—a record of action rather than words." The total was 2,800 words.
It concludes: "Action rather than what?"
A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "The Garden Swing", indicates that recently a man had been seen helping the season, his family and nature in a friendly way, putting up a swing, an old-fashioned one-seater, on a stout limb of a large and ageless oak tree. "The crashing laughter and the quick spasm the flight induces is a discovery closely akin to the inner riddle of springtime."
But now the garden swing was not so prevalent as when people had built houses only where trees flourished. School grounds had metal swings with chains, but those did not produce the same resilience, as the child swung by the clock and the numbers, and when a vacancy occurred, found the monitored swinging not to be so infectiously buoyant, the child realizing that his fun was sponsored by a benevolent school board or some public benefactor.
"Swinging in the back yard is a superb way to know all of the unspeakable joys of travel without any of the fixations of the tourist. The child is a bird and a philosopher. All the thrill of transcontinental exploration is effected without leaving the shaded security of the yard. All the dancing mysteries of the far places explode in an enchanted arc that describes no more than fifty yards. Springtime is the proper season to bring back to the home precinct all the little delights you think that, foolishly, you have to hunt for, and the old way cry, 'Daddy, please just run under me fast, just once more before supper,' is the tocsin that galvanizes the hearts of all the children and their happy adolescent fathers."
Drew Pearson, in Italy reporting on the elections, has his column this date written by his assistant, Jack Anderson, indicating that the Senate might be forced to declassify secret testimony to settle a feud between Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico and Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, regarding whether the nation was stockpiling "dirty" hydrogen bombs, that is bombs which emitted large amounts of fallout, while talking about "clean" bombs, which did not. Senator Anderson had charged that hundreds of nuclear bombs had actually been made "dirtier" at the request of the Pentagon, but Admiral Strauss had denied that any bombs had been modified for the purpose of increasing radioactive fallout. The Senator's charge was based on secret testimony, before the Joint Atomic Energy Committee, from Herbert York, former director of the Livermore Laboratory in California, and presently chief scientist for the Pentagon's new space agency.
Mr. Anderson indicates that without violating security, the column could report that Mr. York's testimony would support both sides of the controversy, having reported that the Air Force had requested heavier hydrogen bombs which would detonate on the ground and stir up radioactive dirt, probably more dangerous than radioactivity emanating from explosions in the air. Yet the heavier bombs had not been sought for the purpose of increasing radioactivity, as the Air Force had only sought more effective bombs against airstrips, whereas an explosion in the air might not damage a runway when a ground explosion would leave a large crater.
Meanwhile, Admiral Strauss had been so determined to prove that he had developed an hydrogen bomb which, like Ivory soap, was 99 and 44/100 percent pure, that he would permit foreign observers to operate the actual instruments which registered the fallout from the current tests being conducted in the Pacific. To demonstrate his "clean" bomb, the Admiral planned to set off an hydrogen explosion of 5 megatons. It took the intense heat of a smaller atomic explosion to trigger the larger hydrogen explosion, and the trigger bomb spread the radioactive particles which the scientists had now reduced to between five and six percent of the total fallout.
Mr. Anderson concludes that it would be explained in a pamphlet which Admiral Strauss was preparing for the foreign observers, but that what the pamphlet would not mention was that the hydrogen explosion might charge the surrounding elements with radioactivity, which would be just as dangerous as the particles from the trigger bomb.
Doris Fleeson indicates that it was now painfully clear to members of the Nixon party that his journey to South America had been poorly conceived and thoroughly mismanaged. A responsible source in Washington had informed that the idea had not come from the State Department leaders but had been sold to White House chief of staff Sherman Adams by a combination of lesser state officials and private individuals. It was noted that the Vice-President had been reluctant to leave the country while Congress was still in session and vital decisions on recession policy were being taken, having been aware that those decisions might make or break the Republican future.
She finds that weighing the attitudes of Mr. Nixon, political strategists had concluded that the dominant conservatives at the White House, for whom Mr. Adams spoke, preferred to have the Vice-President out of the country so that they might have a clear field with the President regarding economic matters, the Vice-President having already called for tax cuts if necessary, before the White House, which was taking a wait-and-see approach. The story that Mr. Adams, not the State Department, had urged the trip, corroborated that view. The Vice-President now was aware just how bad the timing had been from the point of view of relations with South America. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee intended to explore that angle.
She finds that one lesson was plain, that mere ceremonial visits to distressed countries, no matter where the blame lay, were a poor idea. In such programs as Point Four, the U.S. had attempted to introduce social legislation, which had become an accepted way of life domestically, into its relations with poorer or underdeveloped nations. The effort had sometimes not been large enough or brave enough, as the country had not captured the imagination of those who were demanding an improvement in their lot in South America, the Middle East and Asia. Those peoples were showing that fact in rude, and even disgusting and dangerous ways.
She suggests that if ceremonial visits were attempted, they ought be held strictly to ceremony, with a high degree of dignity and respect for protocol. "The glad hand and the built-in spontaneity are old trademarks of the American politician on the home grounds." Few organized them as efficiently as did the Vice-President, and she suggests that it was no wonder that he had been attempting their export to the foreign countries he visited. He sought to mingle with the people, to argue face-to-face with students, in theory, being only American democracy in action, but in practice, having been proved to be another story when the touring dignitary struck a set of adverse domestic circumstances in the country being visited.
Having announced a schedule of personal contacts, Mr. Nixon had been trapped. Faced with warnings of trouble, he and Mrs. Nixon had chosen to demonstrate their personal courage and had done so. Fortunately, Ms. Fleeson indicates, the cost had not been great, though many people would lament the mere mention of the United States Marines being poised in Puerto Rico to go to Venezuela if they had been needed. The President had played down that prospect at his press conference and had held his edginess under control in the presence of frightening developments all around the world.
James Morris, in a piece condensed from the Manchester Guardian of England—though we fail to detect any actual condensation, even in the tan gotten from the English rain in the good morning, Mr. Leech—, writes from Cranbury, N.J., on his impressions of the U.S., in a town in which he had lived four years earlier, finding people remembering him and being friendly.
"So universally pervasive has become the American Way, so sickly are many of its symptoms, so awful are some American tourists, so irritating are the sycophants of American culture, so maddening are the vagaries of American policy, so naïve or hypocritical are some American attitudes on color and colonies, so boring are some business men, so tedious is American sex, so ubiquitous are Americans from Kabul to the Caribbean, that upon my soul there was a moment after the launching of the first Sputnik when something dangerously approaching a snigger escaped me at the breakfast table. 'Do 'em good!' I very nearly allowed myself to say of our American cousins, but a plate of porridge mercifully silenced me."
He had come back to renew his belief that America was not all "blast and blarney, and that here and there the old values linger on, as horny, kindly, and resolute as ever." He found that in Cranbury, one could "still taste the old Americanism, with its regard for the individual and fair profits, its disrespect for pomposity, its faint niggling reminders of frontier times."
"And like most American communities, Cranbury reflects whatever ephemeral craze, passion, or alarm is currently sweeping the country, fostered by the instruments of mass information. Here, as everywhere, the comments of Time creep blandly into many a spontaneous opinion, and the images of the television pundits lurk dimly behind the armchairs. The present mood seems to be one of self-flagellation, based upon the failure of the United States to induce all its brightest young men and most personable young women to become physicists, like the Russians. Brilliant young Soviet scientists stare menacingly from the pages of the science magazines. Charts and graphs record in baffling antithesis a decline in American educational standards and the orbit of the latest Russian rocket—one going gloomily downwards the other exultantly up. The Americans probably no longer feel inferior to Western Europe; but they seem to have developed a Sputnik complex."
But he finds that the old values had generally triumphed in the past over isolationism and McCarthyism, even slavery, and that if they failed in the present crisis of confidence, there had to be some flaw to the values themselves, "and we of the West, we Christians, we humanists, we of the wide Cranburian fraternity have been deluded all along. 'What do you mean?' I asked one despondent citizen. 'Don't you believe in democracy anymore, just because of a few wretched rockets?' 'Ah, hell, yes,' said he, momentarily embarrassed, 'we've just got a national hangover, that's all—we need a seltzer!'"
He finds that the system of democracy worked in the U.S. and that the people were happy and prosperous enough and decently proud of their heritage, that when he would return again to Cranbury in 1965, another wild fluctuation would no doubt be confusing the sentiments of Americans. "Life will be deploring the national shortage of top-flight classicists, or recording the overwhelming superiority of young Mongolian geneticists, but in essence, when the Cranbury people stop their cars in welcoming recognition, with a swift subsidence of their windows, and a hurried mental search for children's names, and only the gentlest of reproaches from the garbage man behind, they will still be expressing the principles the great revolutionaries intended for them, in the days when Washington ate his turkey in the Cranbury Inn, or shivered with his soldiers down the road at Valley Forge."
He concludes that "old friends is the best friends. Hang together, like the man said, or they'll string us up one by one."
A letter writer from Cellriver, S.C., tells of the tragic news that the 57-year old Galesburg, Ill., Public Library, containing some papers signed by Abraham Lincoln and other valuable and irreplaceable documents, had been completely destroyed by fire, finding it a lesson in the responsibility which custodians of American history had toward the entire country. He suggests that often the guardians of America's heritage found that their buildings were unsafe fire hazards. No one expected smaller communities to give up their valued treasures to more modern institutions, but he suggests that the example of Galesburg, the home of Carl Sandburg, ought make it evident that there was need for either a private agency or some government office to examine, evaluate and report on the risks, hazards and dangers, where such conditions existed.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.