The Charlotte News
Wednesday, May 28, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Paris that General Charles de Gaulle had sped to the city this date after being called by French President René Coty, according to reliable sources. At the same time, 30,000 Frenchmen had demonstrated in Paris against his return to power. The General, accompanied only by an aide, had driven out of the gates of his country home and headed toward Paris, without announcement of the purpose of the trip. The word that the General was going to see the President normally would mean that he would be asked to form a new government. The call from President Coty to the General had come only minutes after the conclusion of a meeting between the President and leaders of three big political parties, Socialist Guy Mollet, right-wing independent Antoine Pinay and Pierre-Henri Teitgen of the Catholic Popular Republican Movement, who had met with the President for an hour and 15 minutes. The three men had been called by the President presumably to obtain agreement on a successor to Premier Pierre Pflimlin, who had resigned in the early morning hours at the height of the rebellion-induced political confusion. During the day, General De Gaulle had talked with two of the country's elder military statesmen, General George Catroux and Marshal Alphonse Juin. Many political quarters believed that President Coty was left with no choice but to call General De Gaulle to ask him to form a new government. The General had announced the previous day that he had already started work on forming a new government, but appeared to be facing formidable opposition in the National Assembly, which had to approve his appointment as premier. President Coty was perhaps seeking to prepare political opinion for a call to the General by his talks with the three political leaders. The Assembly the previous night had given Premier Pflimlin a vote of approval on a constitutional reform bill, indicating that the deputies did not want General De Gaulle. The Premier, however, had quit because he had lost some of his moderate supporters in the Assembly. The demonstration by the crowds stretched for blocks through a working-class quarter of the city famed for its May Day union marches, and had been orderly but noisy. Communists, Socialists and Christian Trade Unionists had called for the demonstrations. The marchers had chanted such slogans as "fascism shall not pass".
The House Appropriations Committee this date had ordered a speed-up in missile and antisubmarine warfare programs by recommending 38.3 billion dollars in new cash for defense spending in the coming fiscal year. Approving 13.6 million dollars more than the Defense Department had sought, the Committee vetoed Administration plans to reduce the strength of the National Guard, the Army Reserves and the Marine Corps. It also provided funding for nine new missile-launching nuclear submarines instead of the five proposed by the President. It allotted 2.7 billion dollars for research and development, including 510 million for space research. All of the recommendations were subject to House approval the following week. The President had sought a large increase in funding for the office of Secretary of Defense, with the bulk of the requests earmarked for the new Advanced Research Projects Agency. The Committee had voted to authorize the Army to use 425 million dollars of its stock fund money for regular activities, and the Navy to use 16 million from a similar fund. Stock funds were revolving accounts built up from sales of uniforms and miscellaneous supplies and equipment. The new cash, if finally approved, would provide for 47.8 billion dollars to obligate during the coming year, counting an estimated carryover of about 7.5 billion from current year appropriations. The Department planned to spend about 40.5 billion during the ensuing fiscal year.
The President this date had asked Congress for an extra 334 million for military and civilian expansion of the atomic energy program.
The President said this date at his press conference that he believed the recession had largely spent itself, and that the country was weathering it well, and so he did not believe that tax cuts were warranted, as they would create further deficit spending. In response to a question, he said that he was not certain that a tax cut could be classified as an anti-recession move, that the tax situation had been a matter for careful and intense study and that he had finally decided that as of the present, the economic situation did not warrant a cut, beyond that already proposed for small business relief. He said that he deplored the idea of any attempt by Government to control wages and prices in peacetime, and renewed his appeal to business and labor leaders to keep wages and prices from spiraling dangerously. He said that sales of automobiles and durable goods were still declining, but that there were other indications that the recession was leveling off. Regarding statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, he said that he respected the Republican Party platform pledge to work for it and that he felt it his duty to do so. The reporter had noted that the House had voted tentatively the previous day to kill the Alaska statehood bill.
In Bonn, West Germany, President Theodor Heuss had left by plane this date for the first visit to the new world by a German head of state, his plane to be due in Quebec in the afternoon for the start of an official visit to Canada and the U.S.
In Berlin, Communist East Germany this date scrapped food rationing cards introduced by Hitler in 1939 and boosted the wages of over three million workers to help them pay higher food prices. West Germany had scrapped the rationing cards ten years earlier.
In Washington, the unknown soldiers of World War II and Korea were brought to the Capitol this date where they would lie in state until final honors at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Friday. Vice-President Nixon and other dignitaries had stood at attention as the two flag-draped coffins were placed side-by-side in the Rotunda. The public was welcome to file by the bronze caskets. Hundreds of spectators were on hand when they arrived at the Capitol. A composite guard of honor from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force escorted the black hearses in the slow funeral procession from the pier. The caskets occupied the place of honor in the Capitol where World War I General John J. Pershing and many other dignitaries, as well as the Unknown Soldier of World War I, had lain in state previously. Both Mr. Nixon and House Speaker Sam Rayburn had placed wreaths on the coffins. The President would take part in the burial ceremonies on Friday at Arlington. The unknown of the Korean War was carried up the Capitol steps first, followed by the casket of the unknown World War II veteran. Two World War II veterans had been chosen, one from the European theater and one from the Pacific theater. A Medal of Honor recipient had chosen between the two caskets the previous day, with one to go to Arlington and the other having been given a burial at sea. Upon arrival in Washington, it was the first contact of the remains of the two soldiers on the ground of the U.S. since their sacrifice on foreign soil.
At Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy scientists were searching this date for a technical "bug" which had brought the second basketball-sized satellite plunging to earth after a brief flight into space. Liftoff of a Vanguard rocket shortly before midnight had carried the 20-inch ball 2,000 miles out in an arc, and then had hurtled it back into the atmosphere. For the moment, the Navy was unable to say what had caused the failure after what appeared to be a perfect launch toward orbit. Meager information radioed from the satellite before it had gone silent eventually might provide the answer. Only a few flaming fragments of the satellite had hit the sea. The chairman of the Vanguard satellite panel said that in all likelihood, most of the satellite had been consumed by friction. The engines of the three-stage Vanguard rocket had all fired as expected, but the satellite had not been boosted into the horizontal direction necessary for placing it in orbit and instead had flown in a wide arc and then fallen back into the earth's atmosphere. It was the fourth failure in five attempts for the Vanguard rocket to launch a satellite into orbit.
The Civil Aeronautics Board this date created three transcontinental super skyways in a move to lessen the danger of aircraft collisions, to be established June 15. As of that date, all flights between 17,000 and 20,000 feet in altitude in the designated air corridors would be wholly controlled from the ground, regardless of weather. The ground control would apply to both military and commercial planes using those skyways. The corridors would be 40 miles wide and within them, planes would be separated by at least 1,000 feet vertically and 10 minutes of flying time horizontally. The CAB said that the airlines which had already pledged that their pilots would submit voluntarily to ground control in all operations above 10,000 feet, had endorsed the skyway plan. The Defense Department had informed the CAB during the morning of its endorsement. It was another in a series of measures prompted by two air collisions within the previous five weeks between military jets and commercial airliners, and reports of increasing numbers of near misses. Collisions near Las Vegas in April and Brunswick, Md., in May had resulted in the loss of 49 lives. The civil aeronautics administrator, James Pyle, had told a Senate Commerce subcommittee of the super skyway plan the previous week, and he would formally designate the routes Friday, June 15. The routes would cross the country roughly between Los Angeles-San Francisco in the West and New York-Washington in the East. The President the previous week had outlined a safety program designed primarily to keep military and civilian planes off of each other's routes. The President's Air Coordinating Committee had also announced the previous Friday that non-tactical military flights below 20,000 feet would be ground-controlled. Airliners flying any distance usually traveled at altitudes near 20,000 feet. Military jets generally flew at higher altitudes. The CAB announcement said that no aircraft would be permitted to enter or cross the super skyways without clearance from the Civil Aeronautics Administration traffic control centers. The CAB said it hoped to expand the number, length and height of the super skyways as fast as the CAA control system could handle them. The CAB said that even the initial plan for three super skyways with spurs would subject the capacity of CAA control facilities to a severe test and that expansion hinged on additional money voted by Congress. The CAB, in creating the skyways, said that it recognized that the kind of high-speed, high altitude operations typical in the air space no longer could be conducted under maximum safety with reliance only on pilot ability to see and be seen. The CAB invited comments on the idea the previous month, setting a deadline of June 25, and the spokesman said that sufficient support already had been expressed to set the plan in motion by June 15.
In Little Rock, Ark., Central High School had awarded a diploma to a 16-year old black student for the first time the previous night in an orderly commencement, protected by 220 City police and federalized National Guardsmen. Shortly after the ceremony, the soldiers had left the school, perhaps never to return, as they would be de-federalized the following day. There were no incidents at the floodlit stadium. The young graduate said that he was happy that it was all over and that he was going to New York to live it up. He said that a New York hotel and restaurant union had invited him to spend a week there beginning on June 12. He said that he hoped to enter Michigan State the following fall and embark on a law career. He had sat the previous night passively with 601 other seniors on the football field and as he received his diploma and congratulations from the school principal, Jess Matthews, an almost inaudible murmur was heard from among the 5,000 spectators. He had arrived at the ceremony in a taxi and had walked unescorted to the meeting point of seniors. Detectives had escorted him to another taxi after the ceremony. About 100 policemen had taken positions throughout the stadium and some 120 Guardsmen had occupied the school building and the underside of the vacant stadium wing where they were out of sight. All traffic around the school had been blocked off at the start of the ceremony.
In Detroit, the UAW this date made a bid for Government help to break a deadlock in contract negotiations with the automobile industry. General Motors had immediately replied that such a move would accomplish nothing. The UAW proposed that the Federal mediation and conciliation service enter the negotiations. G.M. said that it already had met with that group and was convinced that it was too late for the mediators to help. Leonard Woodcock, UAW vice-president in charge of G.M. negotiations, had told newsmen that G.M. had made a farce of negotiations by standing firm in its original proposal to extend the wage formula of the present contract. Mr. Woodcock said that negotiations were continuing, but that it would take a miracle to reach a settlement before the G.M. contract would expire at midnight the following day. He said that the union had offered to modify its original demands and was ready to trim them even further, that the union was prepared to alter its proposals to provide cost-of-living increases for retired workers to meet company objections that the plan would be too costly. G.M. estimated that revisions would increase costs by a dime per hour per worker. Mr. Woodcock's announcement had broken a blackout which had prevailed over bargaining.
In Weldon, Tex., a second group of prisoners had struck during the morning at Eastham Prison Farm shortly after one group of prisoners had ended another sitdown demonstration at dawn. The second strike was by Latin American prisoners. The prison director for security reported that about 242 men had sat down, giving no reason for their strike. The 232 men who had struck the previous afternoon had also given no reason for their strike, except for vague references to dissatisfaction with prison food. The original strikers, hungry, thirsty and virtually sleepless, had silently returned to work at about dawn this date. The prison general manager lectured the first strikers for ten minutes, saying, "You eat better than three-fourths of the people of Texas." Newsmen, who had repeatedly gone through food lines at the prison and its farms, universally praised the quality and quantity of the prison food, most of it having been raised in the extensive Texas prison farm system. About 30 guards had been on duty when the second strike had erupted without warning after the 242 men had been taken into a pasture for brush clearing early in the morning. All available guards had then been called out. There was no mention by the second strikers of food concerns, as there had been by one or two men the previous day. The unit contained about 1,400 prisoners.
In Asheville, an 11-year old girl had given birth to a seven-pound, two-ounce boy on Monday, and both mother and child were reported doing well. The mother, in the third grade, had been brought to the hospital five days before the delivery, according to a physician, in an extremely toxic condition. Reportedly, she was large for her age, but childish otherwise. Hospital attendants said that she read comic books and acted very immature.
In Pittsburgh, the chief clerk of the county appeared before the county commissioners and read a request for an "all-purpose push-button stripper", to which a commissioner had wondered what the taxpayers would think and asked that it be read again. The clerk then said that the request was for "an all-purpose push-button striper", an $8,600 machine used to paint traffic stripes on streets.
On the editorial page, "Must UNC Be a Political Football?" indicates that the UNC board of trustees had, without a dissenting vote, endorsed the prior Monday recommendations which would strip the State Board of Higher Education of its control over the University's affairs. Then, the trustees resolved "to implement, through conferences or other appropriate means" its proposals "without necessarily being bound by the specific statutory changes proposed." That indicated that the trustees were prepared to negotiate their differences with the Board.
It finds that the trustees had honorable reasons for objecting to some parts of the power of the Board, but had damaged their case more than a little by the haste with which they had sought to discredit and rebuke the Board. It finds that the time to negotiate had been before and not after adopting their stern recommendations. A special committee appointed for that purpose had never actually conferred at any length with the Board before submitting its recommendations. It finds that it was not too late to explore the issue thoroughly and make a concerted effort to resolve many of the differences. The leeway which the trustees had given their executive committee in negotiating with the Board would theoretically permit some give-and-take, but whether that opportunity would be seized and whether the two groups would be successful in negotiating their differences would depend on the conscientiousness of the individuals involved.
It finds the issue not solely to be one of money, as much more important was the status and prestige of one of the country's greatest universities. The University meant too much to the state, the South and the nation to be placed in the careless custody of an elaborate maze of bureaucracy. A university needed a reasonable amount of freedom of action to perform its job properly and without it, the institution did not deserve to be called a university.
It finds political knavery fully as bad as bureaucratic suffocation, and that above all, the University ought not be allowed to become a political football. It finds that to be the danger when rival groups viewed it as a prize to be won rather than a cause to be protected.
"The Fourth Republic: Decline and Fall" finds that the second coming of General Charles de Gaulle would be fraught with peril for France and for the Western alliance. The General had insisted that he had no desire to become a dictator or to violate the liberties of the Republic, and it finds his record to leave little doubt as to his sincerity in that regard.
But it also finds that there was every indication that General De Gaulle was the prisoner of forces and events which he could neither avert nor control. Those who had created the circumstances which had brought him back to power included military and ultra-rightist elements who simply could not be trusted to guard French liberty and honor its obligations to the West.
It had only been when the National Assembly had refused to fall in with the demands of the insurrectionists in Algiers that the lesser generals and the "committees of public safety" had advanced General De Gaulle as "arbiter".
It indicates that the danger of an authoritarian regime was real, as Frenchmen were turning to the General in desperation and despair following years of shaky and constantly changing coalition governments. In so doing, they were risking the very thing which they had worked so hard to prevent, a dictatorship. The danger was all the greater because General De Gaulle could not bring himself to admit what was probably true, that party government had faithfully mirrored the divisions and stubborn feelings of the people. He could not admit that because, as a British newspaper had editorialized the previous week, "to him France is not a political organism; it is a mystic entity. Nor is there to him much doubt who embodies it."
It finds that the General's task was great, that he had encouraged those who sought to dictate to France a government of their own choosing, and would find that the solution to the problem of Algeria would require methods more arduous than insurrection and the organization of committees of public safety. He would find, as his beloved Joan of Arc had, that the savior was in need of a good bit of saving also.
It concludes that the well-being of the free world was dependent in no small part on a strong, free and independent France, and so the free world would watch the drama unfold with "sadness, sympathy and concern."
"Politicians Say the Funniest Things" indicates that Florida Governor LeRoy Collins had complained recently of a man in his state running for the office of tax collector on a platform of segregation. It suggests that perhaps the man had gotten the idea from New Yorkers who were running for the Senate on an anti-Eastland platform, that is against Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, or from Southerners who proclaimed their aptitudes for office by running against UAW president Walter Reuther of Michigan.
It suggests that the trick was to pick a target of topical interest. There had once been a mayor of Chicago who had always been threatening to punch King George in the nose when the British Empire was unpopular among Chicagoans. The most topical of targets and the most perennial had been the newspapers. In Georgia, it was something of a tradition for at least one gubernatorial candidate to run against "them lying newspapers", by which he meant generally those which opposed his candidacy.
It finds the tradition being furthered in the current year by William Bodenhamer, a candidate in Georgia for governor, a rebuttal to whom had appeared in the Gainesville (Ga.) Daily Times: "Our main reaction to him is that for a man who so completely damns the lying newspapers, he seems mighty eager to get his name in them."
The piece concludes, "Generally
speaking, that's no lie
Double triple-dippity for dribbling-pibbling Trumpety-Dumpety-Dupety.
A piece from the Richmond News Leader, titled "Who's a Megalopolitan?" indicates that an interim report from the Twentieth Century Fund, full of charts and graphs and a number of census findings on the urban area between Boston and Hampton Roads, Va., had been arriving for quite some time, and each time one showed up, it winced anew at the name which visionary planners fastened to their region. It suggests that if they had their way, their grandchildren would not live in Richmond, Fredericksburg or Providence, but rather in Megalopolis.
The population experts of the Fund were not content to describe the chain of urban areas simply as a megalopolis, but had to name it as such with a city limits sign. It suggests that had they some imagination, they might have called it Atlantis, Tidewater, Seaboard City, Urbasuburbia or East Los Angeles. But it figures that no one would want to live in a place called Megalopolis, except perhaps bug-eyed monsters, little green men, or purple people.
The name would not fit into a
one-column headline and so would soon be shortened to Megap, then to
Mega, then to Meg
It's much too late to complain now, presumably Mr. Kilpatrick, as the doomsday deed, if left unchecked, from urban exogenies and, in consequence, all the rest as well, is too long afoot, since the fin de siecle, nay, since mid-century last, as the horse-lashed carriages now, rather than hay, eat the people
Drew Pearson provides some of the backstage reasons why the country's good neighbors in Latin America had soured on the U.S. While Vice-President Nixon had been advocating sports and culture to win friends in Latin America, the State Department had delayed in sending some of the nation's huge reserves of food to the starving population of eastern Brazil. The blistering drought there had burned up the crops and dried up the streams of the country's easternmost hump, causing terrible human suffering. Poverty-stricken peasants, particularly babies, had been dying by the dozens from malnutrition. He indicates that the cheapest bargain in the five drought-stricken provinces was a funeral, which could be purchased for a few pennies.
Representative Harold Cooley of North Carolina, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, had tried to do something about the situation, calling both the State and Agriculture Departments seeking an emergency airlift to rush food from surplus food stocks to the impacted areas. He had suggested that food shipments might be more welcome than a visit from the Vice-President. He learned, however, that the only thing which the State Department had done regarding the famine in Brazil was to send one cable offering dried milk. That, however, required water and so would be quite useless in most of the drought-stricken areas. The offer had reminded Representative Cooley of Marie Antoinette's classic reaction to the French mobs which had begged for bread: "Let them eat cake." Mr. Cooley had called on the Agriculture Department for a complete inventory of surplus food available for shipment to Brazil, and had asked the State Department to cable Brazil again to clear the way for food shipments, and was also seeking to bring the Brazilian Ambassador before the Agriculture Committee this date to report on the country's famine needs.
When State Department officials had heard of Mr. Cooley's plan to call the Ambassador, however, they cautioned that it would violate diplomatic protocol, as a foreign ambassador did not appear before a Congressional committee. Mr. Cooley responded, "Protocol isn't worth a tinker's damn to starving people." Meanwhile, he had received reports that the Communists were using the famine-disturbed Brazilians against the U.S. Mr. Cooley hoped to counteract the propaganda with something more tangible than good will speeches.
Secretary Dulles might call off his good will trip to South America in July, as his brother Allen, director of the CIA, had warned him that the Communists were plotting riots against him, similar to those which had occurred when Mr. Nixon had visited. Secretary Dulles had planned to visit the other South American nations which Mr. Nixon had skipped.
Mr. Pearson suggests that if the country wanted to send good will ambassadors, it might draft Sumner Welles, the original author of the Good Neighbor Policy.
Premier Nikita Khrushchev had boasted to Western diplomats that the Russian representative to the Argentina inauguration had not been met by mobs in Latin American countries which he had visited, a true statement. The Soviet representative had been talking trade with Latin Americans, whereas the Vice-President had been shaking hands.
Mr. Nixon had returned from his tour of South America furious at the State Department and was now determined to do something even if it meant tangling with Secretary Dulles. He wanted the resignation of Assistant Secretary of State Roy Rubottom, in charge of Latin American affairs, plus a drastic reorganization of the Inter-American Office and the recall of at least four ambassadors. ("Old iron bottom" was seeking the resignation of Mr. Rubottom.)
A letter writer indicates that of all the candidates running for the Legislature, only a couple had impressed him enough to vote for them, as he wanted to know what they would do once they got to Raleigh, whether they would rest or fight. He wants to know how the candidates stood on various issues, including those running for county offices.
A letter writer urges that voters vote in the upcoming primary for incumbent State Senator J. Spencer Bell, and not Jack Love, whose record he finds to be more oriented toward party politics than for the people.
A letter writer indicates that the newspaper had recommended Mr. Bell but had not indicated how he was the best qualified, finds that his only plea for votes was the endorsement of the newspaper. He wonders why the newspaper did not spell it out as did Jack Love, who talked about the issues and had been a representative previously of the county by putting forth several bills which meant something to the people, getting laws passed for increases in teacher pay and for state employees, as well as securing State support for Charlotte College and Carver College. He thus wonders what the newspaper had meant by saying that Mr. Bell was the best qualified.
The editors note that the writer should see the editorial of May 12.
A letter writer counsels voters to look for candidates' cards to be sure they bore the signal known as the union label, in which case the voter could rest assured they were friends.
A letter writer indicates that Jack Love had been raised in Charlotte and had his entire life wrapped up in the city, and the confusion as to whether he was born in Concord or in Charlotte, as stated in various places in the newspaper, was more evidence that those who had ganged up on him refused to come to grips with the issues, afraid of the issues, such as previously when they ganged up on him for being fat. He indicates that neither the editorial page of The News nor that of The Observer had the courage to come to grips with the issues. He finds that Mr. Love's election the following Saturday would be a victory of common sense over blind, unreasoning propaganda.
A letter writer from Salisbury finds that former New York Governor Thomas Dewey was the brightest and most intelligent man in the Republican Party, despite having been defeated twice for the presidency in 1944 and 1948. His wisdom had matured and he had proved that he was a great lawyer by the cases he had handled in recent years. He finds that his personality would no longer be negative but would be a positive quality. He recommends him as the nominee again for 1960, and that either Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky or Senator William Knowland of California would be an ideal running mate for him.
A letter writer indicates that Charlotte ought be proud of singer Betty Johnson for being the kind of person she was, thanking God for His blessings. Ms. Johnson had been raised by Christian parents and had taken God as her partner in her work and life. The writer had read that she had asked the blessing when she ate at a local restaurant, causing the writer to know that she was one who appreciated what God had done for her in the course of her life, and it had been gratifying to read.
A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., finds the newspaper's defense of Cyrus Eaton and condemnation of HUAC chairman Francis Walter of Pennsylvania for calling on him to testify, to be ridiculous, commenting on the May 24 editorial, "How Silly Can You Get Congressman?" Mr. Eaton, a Cleveland financier, ought be an intelligent and responsible citizen, but Mr. Cherry finds that he had not so acted when he charged that the U.S. had "scores of agencies investigating, snooping, informing and creeping up on people with the result that Adolf Hitler never had such spy organizations as we have". On another occasion, Mr. Eaton had stated, "There are no Communists to speak of in the U.S. today except in the minds of those on the FBI payroll." He thinks that the Kremlin would be applauding Mr. Eaton's statements and indicates that Izvestia had already applauded him for what it termed as his "sensible observations" on coexistence. Mr. Cherry believes that his statements were bald face lies and would be proven so when he testified before the Committee. He indicates that if the newspaper had evidence which corroborated Mr. Eaton's "hallucination that J. Edgar Hoover's splendid FBI is nothing more than a Hitlerism Gestapo and corps of witch hunters," then it should volunteer testimony before the Committee, at which point it would become evident who was "silly", a conservative Congressman or a liberal newspaper editor.
A letter from the president of the Charlotte Traffic and Transportation Club expresses gratitude to the newspaper and its staff for its cooperation and support and promotion of National Transportation Week in Charlotte, particularly the stories by Dick Young, through which it believes the people of Charlotte had greater awareness of the part which transportation played in their daily lives as well as for the growth and wealth of the city and surrounding area.
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