The Charlotte News
Friday, June 13, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the White House this date said that the President had no intention of firing chief of staff Sherman Adams, the target of House investigators. At the same time, press secretary James Hagerty said that there would be no White House reply to an earlier question by a reporter as to whether the good friend of Mr. Adams, industrialist Bernard Goldfine, had once provided Mr. Adams a $700 coat—soon to become the famous vicuna coat actually provided to Mrs. Adams. Mr. Hagerty also said that Mr. Adams had rejected a request from reporters for a news conference at which he would be questioned personally regarding his relations with Mr. Goldfine. Mr. Adams had acknowledged the previous day that on three occasions he had contacted Federal agencies regarding Mr. Goldfine's business troubles with those agencies, indicating that Mr. Goldfine got no favored treatment from the agencies in return and that Mr. Adams had sought none. Mr. Adams also acknowledged that Mr. Goldfine had paid hotel bills for him during a time when the wealthy Boston industrialist was in trouble before the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities & Exchange Commission, indicating, however, that it was only a matter of accepting hospitality from an old friend and that he had thought Mr. Goldfine maintained the hotel quarters on a permanent basis. The matter had prompted Representative Peter Mack of Illinois to say that the President ought fire Mr. Adams, which he said would be in keeping with an Eisenhower campaign pledge for a Government "clean as a hound's tooth". Asked if he could say whether the President had any intention of firing Mr. Adams, Mr. Hagerty stated: "Sure I can. The answer is of course not." At a press conference the previous day, Mr. Hagerty had been asked whether Mr. Goldfine had ever given Mr. Adams the $700 vicuna coat, and he replied that he had no information on the matter but would check into it. When the matter had been raised again at his press conference this date, Mr. Hagerty said that Mr. Adams had set forth his position in his letter the previous day to Representative Oren Harris of Arkansas, chairman of a House Investigating subcommittee, and that Mr. Adams had nothing more to say about the matter. The letter to Mr. Harris did not touch on the question of the coat. Mr. Hagerty was asked whether Mr. Adams and the White House were taking the position that the question of whether Mr. Adams got such a coat was none of the public's business. The response is not provided by the piece.
In Nicosia, Cyprus, it was reported that only British troops walked the streets of the city this date as authorities invoked the first complete curfew in an effort to end communal fighting there. Britain had also ordered paratroopers to the island colony to strengthen its troops trying to end continuing clashes between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, after 11 Cypriots had been killed since the prior Saturday. Since the outbreak of communal rioting, the Greek and Turkish communities had been allowed outdoors separately for several hours each day to obtain food and other essentials. This date, however, even that provision was prohibited and such pass holders as doctors, civil servants and reporters were included in the prohibition. British plans for the future of Cyprus, to be announced the following Tuesday, were expected to intensify the violence by failing fully to satisfy either the 400,000 Cypriots of Greek descent or the 100,000 Turks on the island. The Greeks wanted the island annexed to Greece and the Turks wanted it partitioned if the British were to leave. The situation approached a civil war the previous day with the bloodiest battle yet, after a gang of 300 Greek Cypriots had sought to raid a Turkish village near Nicosia and had been met with gunfire, resulting in three Greeks killed and nine wounded. British troops headed off part of the Greek mob, arresting 30 and disarming the rest, but one group had set fire to crops and had been attacked by hidden Turks. Seventeen Turks had been arrested. In another clash, club-swinging British troops had broken up a Turkish mob seeking to storm a Nicosia police station. Authorities clamped an earlier curfew on the Turkish section of town. Off and on for several years, Greek Cypriots had attacked British troops in a terror campaign seeking independence and a chance to join Greece. Now, the British found themselves in the middle as the Turks struck at their Greek neighbors in opposition to the campaign. The War Office in London said that the situation on Cyprus was deteriorating and that more troops were needed to bolster the British forces. About 500 paratroopers were expected to be flown to Nicosia the following day and other troops in England had been alerted. The Turkish Foreign Minister said in Ankara that he had received a copy of the new British plan for Cyprus and that he understood Athens also had been informed. He refused to reveal the provisions of the plan but said that the Turkish Government would never back down on its demands for partition.
The Senate had passed this date a compromise bill providing for a ten percent pay increase to the Government's 1,021,000 civil service and other employees.
Influential leaders predicted this date that the Senate would approve a defense reorganization plan in about the form in which it had passed the House the previous day, by a 402 to 1 vote.
The Senate moved on this date to more controversial amendments to a bill designed to curb labor union abuses.
A House Government Information subcommittee this date accused the Defense Department of trying to "manage" the news to make itself look good instead of concealing only true military secrets. The dissenting Republican member of the three-man subcommittee, Representative Clare Hoffman of Michigan, in turn charged that the subcommittee itself was managing the news and acting as if it could run the whole executive branch.
In London, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's Conservative Party had suffered further inroads into its popular support in four special Parliamentary elections, according to official results this date.
In Moscow, it was reported that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had said that he wanted a summit conference with the U.S. but that Secretary of State Dulles was trying to prevent it.
Also in Moscow, it was reported that former Premier Nikolai Bulganin had undergone a serious operation but was expected to return to work within a week or so, according to Premier Khrushchev.
In Cape Canaveral, Fla., an Air Force Thor intermediate range ballistic missile had been launched high into the sky this date in a fiery display of power, the latest test in the stepped-up development program for the NATO defense arm.
In Beirut, Lebanon, Lebanese rebel leaders vowed that they would fight on against pro-Western President Camille Chamoun despite the intervention of the U.N. Security Council.
In Bern, Switzerland, it was reported that the Swiss Parliament had approved a constitutional amendment this date to grant voting rights to women for the first time in Swiss history.
In Huntington, England, it was reported that a U.S. Air Force mechanic had stolen a bomber plane early in the morning and had flown off alone on a mystery flight, crashing to his death a few miles away. Left-wing leaders in the town insisted that the presence of American bombers armed with nuclear weapons added to Britain's dangers and that someone might go berserk and accidentally drop one of the atomic bombs on Britain. The plane which crashed carried no bomb of any type and a hurried announcement said that the plane was not combat-ready. The Air Force said that it was an obsolete Tornado light bomber, one of the last two in use at the airbase at nearby Alconbury.
In Darlington, S.C., it was reported that a two-year old boy had died late the previous day after drinking from a bottle of oil of wintergreen. The county coroner said that there would be no inquest, indicating that the child's parents were unaware that the boy had drunk the wintergreen, used for external rubbing and toothache, until he began throwing up blood the previous afternoon. They had immediately rushed him to a Florence hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival. A hospital physician said that the boy had ingested several swallows of the liquid. The coroner said that it was the first such incident in the community in several years. Use it for toothache, but do not swallow. Wintergreen is for gum and Life Savers.
Dick Young of The News reports that strong sentiment was developing in the City Council this date for a grand jury investigation of the disorderly conditions in the clerk's office of the City Recorder's Court. The solicitor of Superior Court had told the newspaper that he would order the investigation if the Council asked for it. Five of six members of the Council contacted by the newspaper said that they would favor such a probe, with the sixth indicating that the situation had to be cleared up.
In Myrtle Beach, S.C., it was reported that a blueprint of a unified court system intended to improve administration of justice in the state had been presented to the state's Bar Association this date. J. Spencer Bell of Charlotte, chairman of the committee which drafted the court reform proposals, had called for a public debate so that the people could "render an enlightened and intelligent judgment" on the program at the polls. The proposals called for a single court system which would bring all of the state's courts, from magistrate to Supreme Court, under a single administrative head, as well as other changes. It did not include a proposal that the Supreme Court justices and Superior Court judges be appointed instead of elected. A tentative proposal to do that had been withdrawn after it had met heated opposition and was returned to a subcommittee for further study. Mr. Bell had asserted that the committee would continue to seek a solution which would remove judges from the pressures of ordinary politics and provide a climate in which those chosen could function with maximum freedom from improper influences. He said that some of the recommendations were designed to reduce the probability of injustices and oppression by ignorance or venal courts at the lowest level. He stated that the committee had sought to provide a court system capable of meeting the needs of the people, to make the courts responsible for the job they did, to give the courts authority to manage their internal affairs and to have adequate administrative machinery, and to assure that the courts were manned by qualified persons.
Martha London, in a special report to the newspaper from Ocean Forest Hotel in Myrtle Beach, indicates that Mr. Bell was reported to be looking for a good lawyer to prevent his wife from awakening him at 6:00 a.m. each morning to go for an early morning swim. His wife said that it was not hard to do, that she just grabbed him by the big toe and said that it was time to get up. By comparison, other Charlotte delegates to the State Bar Association meeting got a late start in the day. The main topic of conversation this date was the Bell report. Otherwise, those of Charlotte were discussing the enthusiasm of a first convention for youngsters, and other assorted topics which she covers in the ha-ha-ha category.
In Carolina Beach, it was stated by an N.C. State professor of the College's department of agricultural economics, chief speaker at the previous day's session of the North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation, that many North Carolina farmers could stay in operation only through greater crop and livestock production at lower cost.
In Alexandria, La., a lovesick
airman, who had threatened a suicide crash in his rented airplane,
was being sought in northern Louisiana and northeastern Texas this
date. The 19-year old airman of Dallas was stationed at Keesler Air
Force Base in Biloxi, Miss. He had flown about 250 miles the previous
day before pursuers lost track of him in northern Louisiana near
Monroe, as he was flying a two-seater Cessna 120, painted yellow with
black trimmings, which he had rented at Gulfport, Miss., about 20
miles from Biloxi. He had less than two hours of fuel remaining when
he left Alexandria and when he disappeared, he had covered about half
the distance from Gulfport to Dallas, underway for about four hours.
In Dallas, a 17-year old girl sobbed that he was the "most
wonderful person in the world", that she wanted to get married,
but had called it off because she thought she was too young. The
airman's mother said in Dallas that her son had lost weight "because
of worry over a love affair." At the base, his barracks mates
had found a note saying that he wanted to die in the air because
"that is the way to go." Authorities at the base had asked
the Gulfport Airport manager to stop the man from taking off, and the
manager said that he had waved his arms like mad, but the man had
simply ignored him and taxied right by him. Officers had almost
closed in on the youth at Alexandria but he had bolted out of a
telephone booth, run to the plane and taken off. A helicopter, a jet
and a B-25 had failed to bring him to earth. Ground searching parties
in Bienville and Red River Parishes, 30 to 50 miles southeast of
Shreveport, had failed to find any trace of a landed or crashed
plane. Somebody needs to get on the radio to this guy and tell him
that she loves him, yeah, yeah, yeah ... but she is just 17, if you
know what we mean. You better slow down as you're moving way too
fast
On the editorial page, "City Hall Must Put Its House in Order" indicates that in suspending the police captain and lieutenant involved in the problems with the clerk's office of City Recorder's Court, Police Chief Frank Littlejohn had only cracked the door. After weeks of indecision, confusion and delay, the caretakers of the city's municipal government had never been able to produce the corpus delicti.
It was not clear regarding the mess in the court, with the true dimensions of the scandal hidden by unconvincing tut-tuts and hoarse outrage. Only a jumble of unevaluated evidence and uncatalogued facts had been presented to the public, much of it gathered by newspaper reporters. It wonders when the City Council would get to the bottom of the scandal, with logic requiring quick resolution and quick action.
It concludes that there was too little awareness in City Hall at present and the absence of it made the "clanking of the skeleton all the more insistent."
"Senate Should Pass Union Reform Bill" indicates that the Senate ought pass the moderate reform bill proposed by Senators John F. Kennedy and Irving Ives with bipartisan support, even though the bill pleased neither the pro-labor nor anti-labor extremists and perhaps only partially those in the middle who were supporting it. It did, however, have considerable merit as a means of putting labor's house in order, and it was that bill or not at all.
The political purposes of both groups of extremists would be served by defeat of the measure. The issue of labor legislation would retain its attraction to votes and campaign funding. More political reputations could be built fighting over the same old ground in subsequent Congresses and the political Galahads could continue their unproductive swordplay and speeches on why the other side represented evil.
But in the meantime, the interests of union rank-and-file members would be left unprotected and the door to further corruption wide open. The McClellan Committee investigating misconduct of unions and management had demonstrated the need for labor reforms, but had not demonstrated the need for legislation so harsh as to cripple the entire labor movement. On that basis, the Kennedy-Ives bill had been drawn, with substantial provisions aimed at assuring union democracy and preventing misuse of funds and power by union leaders. Regarding union elections, for example, it required elections by secret ballot every five years for national unions and every four years for local unions, provided for appeals to the Secretary of Labor by members who believed that elections were crooked and for the Secretary to go to court to seek a new election under his supervision. There were other meaningful provisions covering union financial operations, trusteeships, "shake-down" picketing and the operations of middlemen.
It finds that the bill offered substantial guarantees of greater union democracy and financial integrity, and had a good chance of passage despite the illogical "here-there-and-everywhere" positions of the Administration.
"On Being Barred by Britannia's Gates" indicates that the functionary who had delayed pianist Van Cliburn's admission to London because the latter lacked working papers should have his own birth records examined by proper authorities.
Mr. Cliburn did lack the proper papers indicating that he had permission to work in Britain, and the law said that Britain barred artists without them. It finds, however, that for centuries English laws had been interpreted in such a way as to follow common sense, generosity of spirit and understanding of the travails of humankind.
It imparts a story, recounted by Robert Graves in 5 Pens in Hand, about "an old lady [who] was taking a pet tortoise by train, in a basket, from London to Edinburgh, and wanted to know whether she ought to buy a dog ticket for it, as one has to do in England if one takes a cat by train—because cats officially count as dogs." The ticket inspector said that she did not, that "Cats is dogs, and rabbits is dogs, and dogs is dogs, and squirrels, in cages, is parrots; but this turkle is a hinsect. We won't charge you nothing, mum."
It thus suggests that the immigration official should have regarded Mr. Cliburn as the equal of a brick mason, or, at least, a French premier who had found a permanent job in Suffield. It suspects that the official was not an Englishman at all, had probably received his training in America in some branch of the U.S. bureaucracy, probably the IRS.
A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "Can Mosquitoes Read?" indicates that in Newark there was a housing project being constructed with buildings 14 stories high, with the windows up to the seventh floor to have screens while those above the seventh floor would not, resulting in a large savings. The reason for the cut-off at the seventh floor was because the Newark Housing Authority claimed that mosquitoes and flies did not fly above that level, basing that conclusion on a survey.
It reminds the piece of Rudyard Kipling's story, "Reingelder and the German Flag". Reingelder, a naturalist, had come upon a snake in the tropics, named the German Flag because of its white, red and black markings. He carried with him a large tome on natural history which assured him that the snake was harmless. He snapped the book shut with a bang to emphasize the point, but the snake, alarmed by the noise, bit him. As he was convinced the snake was harmless, he was not alarmed. But, nevertheless, he died an agonizing death soon afterward. The snake had not known what the book had said.
The piece concludes that the people on the eighth floor would have a job ahead in educating the mosquitoes.
Drew Pearson indicates that after Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had discussed at great length with the President during the week, he admitted to friends: "We agreed on what the problems were, but I must confess we didn't know how to solve them." The two men had gotten along like a couple of old-school graduates at a class reunion, the Prime Minister having been on General Eisenhower's staff during World War II. But between the Prime Minister and Secretary of State Dulles, the atmosphere had been much cooler.
During the talks, the Prime Minister had warned that world trade, which he regarded as the West's most urgent problem, had to be expanded during the current year or the free world might lose the economic war to the Russians. He urged that another attempt be made to meet the Russians in a summit conference during the year as evidence to the world that the Western leaders had at least tried to effect peace. He also criticized Secretary Dulles to his face for insisting on "massive studies" before making a diplomatic move. Neither the President nor Prime Minister Macmillan had been enthusiastic about French Premier Charles de Gaulle, but agreed to withhold their judgment until they saw what he would do. The Prime Minister agreed to stop British nuclear testing provided the U.S. would "play fair" in exchanging atomic secrets, indicating also that the British wanted some sign from Russia that the latter would permit atomic inspection, adding that Britain would be satisfied with less assurance than Secretary Dulles was demanding. He also declared, in effect, that his country was willing to pay a high price for a reasonable disarmament agreement.
The Prime Minister's strongest language was used in describing the economic crisis, comparing world trade to a game of rummy which English children played, that if one player collected too many chips and did not put them back into the game, the game could not proceed. He claimed that the U.S. and West Germany were accumulating most of the chips and had to put them back into circulation through foreign investments. He complained that capital could not move at present except through government institutions, and expressed the hope that private enterprise could be persuaded to invest in the free world's economic future. He made it clear, however, that Britain did not intend to forfeit its position in the economic game. He pointed out that the British pound was stronger at present than the American dollar and argued that Britain had the most experience and the best machinery to function as the world's banker.
While the two leaders may have found more problems than solutions, remarks Mr. Pearson, their conference had strengthened British-American relations.
Marquis Childs, in Warsaw, tells of his visit to Paris where the authority of the French Government had completely deteriorated, but where all of the luxuries of a luxurious society had still been available for a price, whereas in Warsaw, where so little was available at any price and where rebuilding was still slowly ongoing on the ruins left by the war, there was nevertheless a coherence and sense of continuity lacking in France. While Poland was a Communist state and a committed member of the Soviet bloc, the authority one sensed did not rest on the apparatus of a secret police and the other elements which made up a Communist dictatorship. Since the violent upheaval of October, 1956, when Poland nearly became another Hungary, the Polish people had achieved a curious balance which somehow worked.
The Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party was all-powerful and the Secretary of the Committee, Wladyslaw Gomulka, was the big boss. But the vast majority of Poles tolerated the party and Mr. Gomulka because he had been able to follow a path at least comparatively independent of Russia. It was the base on which the existence of Poland depended. Mr. Gomulka had lately been having his troubles given Moscow's new attack on Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia and the latter's independent way to socialism in that country. With all the other Soviet bloc states, led by Communist China, jumping on Tito, even silence from Poland was conspicuous.
Although Tito was to pay a state visit to Warsaw at the end of May, that visit was canceled, the initiative having come from Tito, according to the Poles, as he had not wanted to cause his host embarrassment at that time. A special delegation on trade and economic planning had just come from Belgrade, and everything possible was being done to maintain Poland's right to independent action in that, as in other situations, where the sensitivities of Russia had to be considered.
The angriest denunciation directed against Tito was for having accepted American aid, considered a betrayal of the Socialists, with the bait deliberately held out by capitalist intriguers.
Poland had entered into two loan aid agreements with the U.S., and the hope in Poland was that negotiations for a third similar agreement would begin shortly in Washington. The 200 million dollars which Poland had obtained, one-fourth of which having come in the form of Export-Import Bank credits and the balance mostly in surplus food, had not been absolutely essential for Polish survival during the previous 18 months, but had meant the difference between severe hardships and the small margin of comfort and comparative security. It meant an opportunity to make a start at undoing the collectivization of the farms which had played havoc with Polish agriculture. Collective farms, amounting to about ten percent of all agriculture, were presently down to two percent and forced deliveries, one of the primary sources of peasant resistance, had been reduced by half and would be entirely removed during the current year. Food from America had bridged the gap until agriculture could be put back on a basis acceptable to the peasants.
Almost as important as the benefits from the two American loans was the fact that they could be negotiated by an independent Poland, having far-reaching significance for the people who had been proud of their fundamental orientation to the West. Word of the 43 to 42 U.S. Senate vote the previous week on aid to socialist countries had initially been interpreted to mean that such aid would be discontinued, causing much dismay, which was relieved when it was learned that the vote did not alter the law under which the loans with Poland had been negotiated.
Poland might have committed suicide in the upheaval of 1956, but had found in Mr. Gomulka a Communist who could take a middle course. They also had in Andrew Cardinal Wyszynski a great religious leader who understood the necessities of the present. To crowds who entered the streets from the Cathedral of St. John, the Cardinal preached restraints and discipline, holding in check his bishops and priests who would openly combat Communism. The Cardinal understood that in those uncertain times, the future of Poland depended on forces delicately in balance, and also understood that in a country which was 90 percent Catholic, the strategy had to be to wait it out. Patience was not easy to come by for a people who in the past had often defied the fates. The freedoms which came after the 1956 upheaval had gradually been dissipated, but there remained a sustaining pride and an independence dangerously won and perilously held
A letter writer comments on an article in the newspaper, headed "Methodists Appear United on Issue", appearing the prior Monday, indicating that since there were between 1,000 and 1,200 delegates at the conference and only somewhat more than ten percent of those delegates had been present to discuss and vote on the resolution read by Clifford Peace, the writer wonders how the latter could conclude that 140 to 150 delegates could speak for thousands who did not have a chance to vote. The writer says he was emphatically opposed to the resolution, thinks that Methodists should do more regarding the workings of the church as it now stood rather than continuing to reach out and dabble in controversial matters which could bring only discord and ultimate breakdown.
He does not specify what the resolution was about, and we dare not speculate.
A letter writer indicates that with the runoff primary scheduled for June 28 between State Senator J. Spencer Bell and State Representative Jack Love for the State Senate seat, he plumps for Mr. Bell and hopes that people would vote for him, even if they had voted for Mr. Love in the first primary.
A letter writer supports Mr. Bell in the runoff.
A letter writer from Salisbury asserts that there had to be increased awareness by voters of the type of men they were electing to office, listing some qualities for which a voter ought look in a candidate: That he must fit the specifications which the state had drawn up for the office to which he sought election; that his moral qualifications ought be as good as those required for a teacher; that his mental qualifications ought be such that his judgment could be trusted in the field in which he asked for votes; that his emotions ought be under the control of his will and that he ought be able to use his emotions when there was a need for them; that he should be as free as possible from all kinds of prejudice, as prejudice would keep any person from recognizing facts.
That pretty well eliminates Trump
from any local or state office, including dogcatcher. Speaking of whom, the Administrado continues
A letter writer replies to another letter writer who had complained about a neighbor protesting against her 11-year old son, his father and playmates playing baseball in a yard and knocking balls over their flowers, lawns and shrubbery. The writer finds the neighbors correct in their complaints, that one of the things causing so many young people to become juvenile delinquents was adults allowing them to think and do as they pleased, no matter the harm they caused, as long as it gave them pleasure. She suggests that the previous writer go into the country a short distance from town and rent a small place where the children could play ball.
A letter writer indicates that after a stormy opening day the prior September, the 1957-58 term of the public schools in Charlotte had ended peacefully, that had it not been for the prompt and fearless action of an efficient police chief, Charlotte probably would have been another Little Rock, Ark.
Framed Edition
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