The Charlotte News
Friday, May 30, 1958
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Paris that Socialist leader Guy Mollet had left the city to meet with General Charles de Gaulle this date, amid predictions that the latter might take over as premier on Sunday or Monday. The General, 67, waited at his country home 150 miles from Paris after agreeing to take over the leadership, but on his own stiff terms. The atmosphere at the President's palace in Paris was less tense, but the politicians were somber as they left after hearing President René Coty outline the program which General De Gaulle had set forth the previous night. Former Premier Mollet, whose Socialists held the balance of power in the National Assembly as to whether it would ultimately accept General De Gaulle as premier, stayed longer than the leaders of the other political parties. The Socialists, who feared that General De Gaulle would be a potential dictator, were reported to be planning to send M. Mollet or former President Vincent Auriol to confer with the General. The 97 votes of the Socialists in the Assembly could enable the General to become premier, but they had been opposing him in a nearly continuous party caucus, though the opposition was reported to be weakening. Extra police guards had been ordered to the Champs Elysées after tracts had been distributed calling for both Gaullist and Communist demonstrations at the same time, which could only spell trouble. General De Gaulle had reportedly told President Coty that he would take over the government provided his government would receive from the Assembly "for a definite period the full powers necessary to act in the present grave situation." Effectively, he wanted the Assembly to take a vacation for a year, and he had consistently refused to state what the "full powers" were that he wanted, giving rise to widespread fears of a dictatorial regime which might continue after the formal end of a definite period of time. He also demanded that the Assembly authorize him "to prepare and submit to the country, through referendum," constitutional revisions to create a stronger executive and to establish a new basis for the troubled relations between France and its overseas possessions. The General's experience with referenda was bad, as one reason he had quit his post as provisional president-premier after World War II, had been the voters' rejection of his draft constitution providing for a strong executive.
On this Memorial Day, Americans were providing highest honors to the unknowns of World War II and Korea, with the two caskets of the unknowns lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda, as floral tributes piled ever higher for them. A procession of visitors continued to file past the twin catafalques in an unending line at the rate of about a thousand per hour. At Arlington National Cemetery where the two caskets would be formally interred next to the Tomb of the Unknown of World War I, some spectators settled about the amphitheater and the tomb plaza to hold vantage points for the ensuing three or four hours of the ceremony. During the afternoon, the unknowns would receive the nation's grateful homage before the identical bronze caskets would be lowered into twin crypts flanking the tomb of the first Unknown. The President would place upon each casket the Medal of Honor, bearing the word "valor" on a bar above a star. The phrasing of the citation for the medals was brief, with one saying that the unknown American exemplified "the selflessness of all our fallen heroes of the second World War who, in courageous defense of the ideals of democracy against aggression, gave their lives to preserve our noble heritage." The other cited a soldier "symbolic of the gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty of all members of the armed forces of the United States who gave their lives in the Korean conflict while defending the ideals of freedom and democracy." The clergy of several faiths joined the ceremony, as the religious identity of the two men was unknown. On the high stage of the apse at one side of the amphitheater's columned circle had rested the caskets of many famous fighting men.
While unspoken at the time five and a half years later, the thought of this ceremony in 1958 undoubtedly would recur to many as it was repeated with greater immediacy and somber remembrance on November 25, 1963, in the wake of the tragedy the prior Friday in front of 411 Elm Street, Dallas. The original Unknown was entombed on November 11, 1921, three years after the Armistice at the eleventh hour of that date. The previous day in 1958, Senator John F. Kennedy had turned 41.
The President stood in the warm sun and talked over old times with great heroes of past wars, 216 winners of the Medal of Honor, who had gathered at the White House rose garden, where he gave each a warm greeting and a handshake. In an informal talk, the President had paid solemn tribute to the winners of the nation's highest honor for servicemen. Oldest among them was retired Marine Corps Maj. General Randolph Berkeley, 83, of Beaufort, S.C., who had won his Medal for action at Veracruz in the Mexican campaign of 1914. Col. Keith Ware had identified himself to the President as a member of the 3rd Division, 15th Regiment, 1st Battalion, to which the President remarked, "Hell's fire," indicating that he belonged to the same battalion which the President had commanded in the years just prior to World War II. The colonel had won his Medal the day after Christmas in 1944 for heroic action in the Colmar pocket in France. One of the Medal recipients identified himself as having attended staff and command school in Fort Leavenworth, Kans., prompting the President to flash another grin and remark: "I was a hotshot there. I was number one in that class." Vice-President Nixon stood at the right of the President and also shook hands with each of the medal winners. The Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer, Donald Truesdell of Lugoff, S.C., had greeted the Vice-President, telling him: "I'd be willing to give you my Medal of Honor for what you went through," referring to the rioting and stoning recently in Caracas and Lima. Mr. Nixon was reported to be seen dickering with him after the reception regarding a price.
In Arlington, Va., it was reported that a pro-segregation group had drawn up a plan to force the closing of an Arlington County black school for each white school closed in the county by forced integration. The plan contemplated enrolling white children in the same number of black schools as there were white schools with black pupils. Under state law, when a school was integrated, it was immediately closed. The executive secretary of the Arlington chapter of the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties, (DSSIL, or Dumb-S Winder), said that they had about 30 different parents who had volunteered to enroll their children, about 90 in all, in black schools. He said they would not have to use anywhere near that number, that they would need only one for each school and would have a good crowd to draw from. He said that all the children were of members of the group and all lived within the prescribed boundaries for the black schools they would enter. He said the plans called for the enrollment of white children in black schools in the same proportion and to the same extent that blacks were accepted for white schools. He said that the group had asked for the names and addresses of the black applicants and the names of the schools to which they had applied and warned that "continued illegal shielding of those names … will only confound the situation by encouraging more Negroes to apply… If we don't get the proper response from the school board, we will go to [State]Attorney General [A. S.] Harrison for it." Arlington County school officials were under Federal court order to admit seven black pupils to four white schools the following September and in addition, seven other black children had sought admission to white schools.
The National Safety Council estimated that the death toll would be 350 for the 78-hour Memorial Day weekend which had begun at 6:00 p.m. the previous day and would continue through midnight on Sunday. The previous year, the Memorial Day holiday had covered four days, during which there had been 413 traffic deaths, a record high for the holiday. The overall total of 660 deaths from all accidents had also been a record for a four-day Memorial Day, including 134 drownings and 131 fatalities in miscellaneous accidents. During the first hours of this Memorial Day, traffic deaths appeared to be running below normal, but safety experts maintained their estimate. By noon this date, the count was 39 traffic deaths, five deaths by drowning and three of a miscellaneous nature. The Council had also predicted that more than 40 million cars would be on the highways during the holiday.
In Panama, it was reported that President Ernesto de la Guardia, Jr., had made his peace with Panamanian students the previous night by agreeing to ask the Congress to restrict the National Guard and improve the schools.
In Seoul, South Korea, a Korean Air Force court this date had sentenced a captain to death for trying to hijack an Air Force plane and fly it to Communist North Korea. One crew member of the plane had been killed and two others had been wounded in the incident which had occurred the prior April.
In Moscow, the Soviet Union this date unveiled a new version of the giant TU-114 turboprop airliner, the Moscow press reporting that the plane had already flown 5,350 miles nonstop.
In New York, a man, about 40, was found shot to death in a car in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn, the traditional dumping ground for gangland victims. He sleeps with the fishes. He shouldn't oughtta thrown those rocks probably at their winders.
In Seagoville, Tex., a major fire had swept through a wing of the Federal Correctional Institution this date, with officials indicating that it had started in the furniture refinishing department and had spread out of control.
In Afton, Okla., a soldier, who had stopped to aid four men injured in a traffic accident, had been electrocuted early this date when he brushed against a high-voltage line which had been knocked down by the wrecked car.
Near Indianapolis, four persons with tickets to the 500-mile Memorial Day race had been in two cars which had crashed at a stoplight northeast of Indianapolis early this date, two having been killed and the other two taken to hospitals in serious condition.
At the race
In Smithfield, N.C., a seven-month old infant had been killed and seven other persons injured, several seriously, when two automobiles, operating in a heavy fog, had collided head-on in the town early this date.
Dick Young of The News reports that a new City tax rate of $1.96 per $100 of valuation of property, an increase of 18 cents over the current $1.78, loomed large this date, as it would be the rate required to meet the budget estimate for the coming fiscal year, a record 12.6 million dollars, completed during the morning by City Manager Henry Yancey, in collaboration with the city accountant. In arriving at the proposed tax rate, it was figured that 95 percent of the taxes in the coming fiscal year would be collected during the year.
In Charlotte, a Siamese cat and a starling had reversed their traditional roles and become friends. The 17-year old cat had struck up a friendship with the young starling shortly after the bird had apparently fallen from a nest about three weeks earlier. Now they were both regular residents of a woman's home, with the starling having grown healthy and tame after a few days of medicine-dropper feedings. Lotus and Ebony shared the same feed dish and Ebony frequently hitched rides on the back of Lotus.
Hal Cooper, reporting for the Associated Press from London, indicates that it was Ladies' Day in England the previous day, as a woman had been hauled into court on a burglary charge because the elastic in her panties had given way, a girl had pulled the wrong chain and stopped a train carrying 300 passengers, another girl was parted from her bridegroom by the town council, which held that his presence had overcrowded the house in which they lived, and the strongest girl in the world had also lost her grip on her fiancé. The girl with the snapped elastic in her panties sought cover from her embarrassing situation, spying what she thought was a vacant bungalow into which she entered via a window to make emergency repairs, at which point the front door opened and the owner walked in and called the police. She told the judge her story and was acquitted. In East Anglia, a fast train from London had jolted to a halt several miles short of Norwich, its destination, after someone had pulled the emergency brake chain. The conductor had rapped on the door of the ladies' room and a frightened school girl emerged nearly in tears, admitting that she had "pulled and pulled and pulled" and could not make the lavatory go. In Haydock, in Lancashire, the town council had notified a couple that their new son-in-law amounted to one tenant too many in their town-owned house and that he would have to leave, though his new bride could stay. In London, a strong woman, who ripped phone books and such as a vaudeville headliner, learned that her fiancé, a singer, had said that he was quitting the relationship because, following a two-year engagement, his fiancée would not name a date for their marriage and that his friends made too many jokes about his comparative puniness. The woman had once sprained Bob Hope's back in a television romp, demonstrating her power. After being advised of her fiancé's announcement, she said: "I may be the strongest woman in the world, but I'm a woman just the same."
On the editorial page, "Man Battle Stations, Mecklenburgers" discusses the county primary the following day, indicating that now that the candidates had made their cases with the voters, it was now the voters' turn to cast their ballots, with Republicans voting in a primary for County Commission and County School Board candidates for the first time in many years.
It indicates that every registered Democrat and Republican owed it to themselves to go to the polls and vote wisely, as voting was the right which guaranteed all other rights and failure to vote was one of the worst sins a citizen could commit. But voting was not enough, carrying with it the further obligation to vote wisely, requiring knowledge of the candidates and the issues. The newspaper had sought to acquaint county residents with both during the previous few weeks, as well as offering deeply held convictions of its own. It does not presume to tell voters how to vote, as that decision had to be made for themselves.
"The Airiest Teapot Tempest of All" finds the controversy over whether the clerk of Recorder's Court would be a policeman or not to be one of the "airiest teapot tempests to emerge in many a moon." It finds it hardly worthy of Chief of Police Frank Littlejohn's ire, and his talk of resigning if a civilian was named to the post was incredible.
It was understandable that the chief would be protective of the best interests of his department, but he was not a watchdog of the courts, and the detection of crime and apprehension of criminals for trial were the principal duties of the police force, which did not include control over the administration of the courts. While the position of clerk had been held by one police officer for a number of years, the City Council was under no obligation to appoint another police officer as his successor, with the office to be occupied by an individual who could handle it in the best and most efficient way, regardless of whether he was a police officer. The decision was properly with the Council and Chief Littlejohn owed it to the public to accept that decision gracefully.
"Fame and Fortune" indicates that its economic thought for the day came from Grace Metalious, author of Peyton Place, who was informing American Weekly readers recently: "It makes me so mad when I hear, or read about, people who try to tell you what a chore it is to be rich and famous. While it is true that being wealthy and well-known will not solve all your problems, having money will keep you less hungry while you are suffering through them…"
It assumes that she meant that while money was not everything, it was way ahead of whatever was in second place.
"This Straw in the Wind Is Wonderful" discusses the local import of the proposed consolidation of the Union National Bank of Charlotte and the First National Bank & Trust Co. of Asheville, finding that to the average citizen it meant that Charlotte's position as a financial center in the Southeast would be significantly strengthened, giving the entire area a valuable new tool in the campaign for industry and commercial expansion.
Both banks had served their respective localities well and after the merger, would serve a much larger area better. The proposed institution, First Union National Bank of North Carolina, would have total resources in excess of 100 million dollars and capital funds and reserves in excess of 11 million. It congratulates Carl McGraw, the Charlotte News Man of the Year for 1957 and president of Union National, for making the merger possible. He would serve as president of the merged institution.
It followed the recent merger of American Trust Co. and the Commercial National Bank, and was another indicator of the new vitality and strength of Charlotte as a banking center, which was a healthy sign, even for the average citizen of the community.
A piece from the Manchester Guardian, titled "Census-Taking in Darkest Africa", indicates that schoolboys of Zanzibar and Pemba had earned pocket money by acting as enumerators during the recent census. About 70 percent of the islanders were illiterate such that there were not enough form-fillers to go around, and 600 of the schoolboys had volunteered for the job in Zanzibar and 450 in Pemba.
For the ensuing six months, their teachers had drilled them on how to conduct a census, giving the boys a week off from school and enrolling them as temporary civil servants at eight shillings per day, ample time to cover the 53,000 homes in Zanzibar and the 49,000 in Pemba. All they had to do was to check the data already gathered, making corrections where necessary, as they sped from house to house. From the reports, the operation had been a success.
Each boy had been provided a guide to question the older inhabitants, who might have had difficulty answering questions posed by a 14-year old, and so the students merely jotted down the answers.
It indicates that when the report would appear, credit would go to the boys, but it wonders whether any return would be made of the little cups of sweet black coffee and the sticky cakes and dates consumed by them in the line of duty. To decline such treats was considered a grave discourtesy, and by the late afternoon, acceptance of hospitality had to have been strictly on the grounds of preserving the honor of the Statistical Department which they temporarily represented.
Quickly, how many homes had to be covered per volunteer per day in Zanzibar? in Pemba?
Drew Pearson indicates that from information he had obtained while in Paris and since, by trans-Atlantic telephone, it appeared that the U.S. had two serious problems about which to be concerned from the change of leadership in France, that General Charles de Gaulle would probably lean toward Russia and might become the "Nasser of the West", playing the U.S. off against Russia, that if he was found not to be tough enough or anti-American enough, he might be replaced by a group of military men who were the real power in France and were using him as a front. The French Army was determined to stage a comeback, to wipe out the shame of its past defeats, especially true of General Jacques Massu, the paratrooper who was the real power behind General De Gaulle and who might take his place should the generals find him too weak.
General Massu had commanded the French paratroopers during the landing at Suez in October, 1956, and had been on the verge of a great victory which would have erased the humiliation of losses in Indochina, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon, as well as defeat from the Nazis in May, 1940. Then, suddenly, President Eisenhower stopped the French Army on the verge of its comeback, which General Massu had not forgotten and would not forget. He was not anti-American, but he was also not pro-American and was definitely anti-Eisenhower.
Other French Army leaders in many cases were anti-American. The U.S. had clashed with French forces during the landing in North Africa in World War II, with one unit of the French Foreign Legion having been caught in a ravine near Oran and completely wiped out by U.S. forces. The French had wiped out around 900 American troops aboard two ships when they sought to land at Oran. The troops had been aboard two British vessels which were flying the American flag in the belief that the French would not fire on Americans. An American landing force of about 1,000 was below decks, with the hatches fastened. The ships had broken through the boom guarding the harbor of Oran and then French shore batteries had opened fire, sinking the ships and most of the American troops had drowned.
General De Gaulle, who was kept nearly a prisoner in London prior to the North African landing, had not been informed in advance that the Allies would land in North Africa. Prime Minister Churchill, who hated General De Gaulle, figured that Frenchmen around him might leak the information and so when the General read the news in British newspapers, he had been furious, making relations with him no easier. At that time, the General leaned toward Russia and Prime Minister Churchill had even accused him of being pro-Russian.
The previous winter, when General De Gaulle had begun to assume a strong backstage role in French politics, the Russian ambassador had begun calling on him and it was expected that General De Gaulle might now play the U.S. off against Russia to strengthen the position of France, his only interest.
Despite French Communists being against General De Gaulle, it was believed that the Kremlin would be eager to do some political jockeying with him and there were signs inside the Kremlin that the Soviet Government was keeping a careful eye on France, one of those signs being a conciliatory birthday message which Premier Nikita Khrushchev had just sent Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, the latter rating high with the French Socialists, which the Kremlin would like to swing further to the left to align with the Communists.
Mr. Pearson indicates that another factor was that few Frenchmen really understood what General De Gaulle stood for, knowing only that France needed a strong man to pull the nation together. Actually, he was not too strong, but was sincere, stubborn, old and not at all brilliant. Many considered him stupid. But on the question of Algeria, he was moderate and would probably favor a reasonably early independence. If he proved too moderate, the Army clique which was using him as a front would undoubtedly move in and take over.
A letter writer indicates that a letter writer of May 28 who complained that nobody was promising anything in the primary campaign had apparently not been paying attention, as he finds that all of the promises of the legislative candidates could reach to the moon, believing that some of the candidates stood for too much. He was not sure if any of them could deliver half of what they were promising.
A letter writer questions what good qualifications were for State Senator J. Spencer Bell, if they could not be matched by performance, and so endorses Jack Love for the State Senate.
A letter writer congratulates the newspaper for endorsing Mr. Bell and agrees with it.
A letter writer endorses Mr. Bell.
A letter writer endorses Mr. Bell.
A letter writer endorses James Vogler for the State Senate position.
A letter writer endorses Mr. Bell.
A letter writer endorses Mr. Bell.
A letter writer endorses Mr. Love and wonders why the newspaper was not running as many articles about him as they were about Mr. Bell.
A letter writer endorses Mr. Bell.
A letter writer praises the newspaper for its editorial endorsing Mr. Bell.
A letter writer from Cheraw, S.C., indicates that the free world ought awaken to the conditions and violence in the Republic of France, the heart of NATO, with the military appearing determined to overthrow its form of government. France had undergone at least 24 changes at its head since World War II and he urges that friends of France ought to reason why it had undergone so many changes, with the opinion of the majority appearing that it was because of poor leadership and because of outside and inside radicalism. "Where a nation has leaders who are too weak-kneed to wield the authority expected of them in time of crisis, that nation will fail." He indicates that no government should ever relax its power over the armed services such that they might gain the upper hand of control by a few generals and admirals who would set up a dictatorship. He advocates that the free nations ought support France in its efforts to avoid civil war among its people and to back the French Government in keeping the government out of the hands of the military. Japan, Italy and Germany had undergone military dictatorships, leading to World War II. He believes that France needed a Harry Truman at its helm and that they should have acted long ago to discharge some of the military and their associates, that their leaders had failed to take the leadership and demand that those who would destroy freedom be jailed for their rebellious acts of violence against the laws of freedom. He believes that the American people should use whatever force was necessary to restore order in France, that whenever the military took over from the civilian leaders, there arose a military dictator.
A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., protests the slanted caption over his letter of May 28 regarding Cyrus Eaton, with the caption having read: "Does Eaton Have a Right To Dissent?" He says he had written nothing directly or indirectly about Mr. Eaton not having the right to dissent and believes that not only did he have that right, but that thanks to Democratic Congressman Francis Walter of Pennsylvania, he had been offered the sounding board of HUAC to make his case and "further propagandize to the world his rotten attack on the FBI."
The editors respond that the headline had correctly identified the principal issue at stake.
Framed Edition
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