The Charlotte News
Tuesday, June 17, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that White House chief of staff Sherman Adams had sworn this date in testimony before a House committee that he had never done any improper favors for his industrialist friend Bernard Goldfine, who had paid his hotel bills and had provided gifts to him. He acknowledged that he had received a rug and a vicuna coat from Mr. Goldfine and that the latter had paid his hotel bills in Boston, New York and Plymouth, Mass. But he said that the rug, which had reportedly cost $2,400, was only loaned to him and he had depreciated the value of the coat, saying that he had checked and that its material cost to Mr. Goldfine's mill had been about $69. The total of the hotel bills, as developed in testimony before the committee, was in excess of $2,000. Before Mr. Adams appeared before the committee, the White House had reported that Mr. Goldfine had given the President some vicuna material but that the President had given it away. Mr. Adams said that his contacts with Federal agencies on behalf of Mr. Goldfine had provided him no benefit that he could not have received had he gone directly to the agencies involved. Mr. Adams had read a 1,500-word prepared statement to the committee, but frequently departed from it, in one such instance asking the Congressmen rhetorically whether an official who made an inquiry or set up an appointment for a friend was behaving improperly, and whether there was any member of the Congress who had not undertaken similar favors.
White House press secretary James Hagerty said that a column by Drew Pearson, which had reported that the President had received a vicuna coat from Mr. Goldfine, was false, but admitted that the President had received the gift of vicuna cloth, having given it away to a friend. He said that seven paragraphs of the column contained at least ten complete falsehoods. He said that the President did have two vicuna coats, one of which he had owned since the mid-1940's and the other since about 1952. Mr. Hagerty did not go into detail about how he had acquired those two coats. He said that Mr. Goldfine had provided the cloth in around November, 1956.
In Boston, John Fox, former publisher of the defunct Boston Post, said that no political deals had been involved when he borrowed $400,000 from Mr. Goldfine.
The Senate was heading into its fifth day of debate on the bitterly fought labor control bill, with final passage in sight. Senator John F. Kennedy, chief sponsor of the bill, had lost his first floor fight on an amendment the previous day, but he and other backers appeared to be in a position to keep the bill largely to their liking. Over Senator Kennedy's opposition, the Senate had voted 66 to 20 to require both employers and union officials to file non-Communist affidavits before they could utilize the services of the NLRB, an amendment sponsored by Senators Karl Mundt of South Dakota and James Eastland of Mississippi, substituting for a provision of the bill which would have repealed the present Taft-Hartley law requiring that union officials only file such affidavits. An amendment offered by Senator Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina to permit a union member to sue for recovery of money embezzled from the union if the union's officers did not bring such a suit, had also passed. A proposal by Senator Charles Potter of Michigan, which would have permitted union members to sue for recovery of any dues spent on election campaigns or any other purposes not connected with union activities, had failed by a vote of 51 to 30, as many Republicans charged that union dues were being used to try to defeat them in political campaigns. Senators Kennedy and Wayne Morse of Oregon had both argued that the amendment could seriously jeopardize many legitimate functions of the union.
The House this date passed and sent to the White House a bill giving a ten percent pay raise to 1,021,000 Civil Service and other Government employees. The President was expected to sign the measure. The pay increase would cost an estimated 542 million dollars per year, and would entail 250 million dollars in back pay to January 1. It also created 599 new top jobs, some 300 of which involved scientists and engineers. The Senate had approved the bill the previous week and the House passage had come on a voice vote. The President had already signed a bill during the year providing for a ten percent salary increase to about half a million postal workers.
The Army this date issued a draft call for 10,000 men in August, the same quota previously announced for June and July.
In Vienna, it was reported that the execution of Imre Nagy, one of Hungary's Premiers during the 1956 revolt, had provoked a wave of shock and surprise in Yugoslavia and the Western world. Three of Mr. Nagy's aides had also been executed, chief among them having been General Pal Maleter, arrested by the Russians while negotiating for the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Hungary. In Yugoslavia, experts on Soviet affairs predicted that Moscow would use the case for new blasts against President Tito and as a clear warning to all satellites that the Kremlin meant to be tough. Those experts expressed the belief that Janos Kadar, Communist boss of Hungary since the fall of Mr. Nagy, was implicated by the trial in such a way that he could no longer remain in power, having been a member of the Nagy Government at one time. Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana predicted that the executions would bring a new wave of resistance in the satellite nations. Britain's Foreign Office said that the executed men deserved the respect of all mankind. After the 1948 break between Tito and the late Joseph Stalin, there had been a wave of arrests and executions of alleged Titoists in the satellite countries. The execution of Mr. Nagy was a special affront to the Yugoslav Government, as its Embassy in Budapest had given him refuge when the revolt had been crushed, the Embassy having released him only on the promise of safe conduct to his home by the succeeding Kadar Government, a promise which Soviet troops had disregarded.
Secretary of State Dulles said this date that the U.S. would use military action under certain conditions to preserve Lebanon's independence, telling a press conference that the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean was watching the crisis-ridden Lebanese situation. He said that fleet elements, including Marines, could take appropriate action, and that it might be necessary to enlarge the force and give it greater mobility. Mentioning that U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and a U.N. security force were in the area, the Secretary said that any proposal by Dr. Hammarskjold in that connection would be supported by the U.S., adding that it included physical support. The Secretary said that there were other contingencies under which the U.S. might send military support to Lebanon but declined to go into them, excusing himself from the press conference at that point, saying that he had to go to National Airport to greet arriving Philippine President Carlos Garcia. During the press conference, Mr. Dulles also stated that Russia apparently wanted to break off diplomatic talks with the Big Three ambassadors regarding preparations for a possible summit conference, that he had drawn the inference from the Kremlin's disclosure the previous day of the previously secret papers of those meetings amid charges of heel-dragging by the West.
In Berlin, negotiations for the release of nine U.S. soldiers held by the East German Communists this date awaited Washington's reaction to a Communist demand for diplomatic rather than military talks.
In Paris, it was reported that sales had begun throughout France this date of a new issue of bonds which Premier Charles de Gaulle said represented a test of confidence of his 16-day old Government.
Also in Paris, it was reported that diplomatic advices said that the all-powerful Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party had opened an urgent session in Moscow this date which could be critical for some of the policies of Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
In Washington, a group of trade and business association leaders rejected this date the notion that some inflation was desirable to help maintain full employment.
In Indianapolis, it was reported that flood crests were moving toward the southern part of Indiana this date as officials in the city were meeting to size up the amount of damage which had been caused by rampaging waters which had inundated thousands of acres in the state.
In Detroit, two Detroit police officers had been arrested this date as the masked bandits who had taken $100,000 in ten holdups of banks and savings and loan associations. The police commissioner said that the two officers had admitted the holdups and had resigned from the department immediately. It was the second time in less than a week that a Detroit police officer had been arrested as a bank robber, after another patrolman had resigned the previous week after pleading guilty to two attempted bank robberies. Police and FBI agents said that there was no connection between the two sets of bank robberies. The commissioner said that the arrests, which had followed an anonymous tip two weeks earlier, had led to the solution of the bank robberies which had taken place over a four-year time span. The two officers reportedly had used a variety of disguises ranging from Army fatigues, railroad worker garb, hunting clothes, rubber masks and sunglasses during the holdups. FBI agents who made the arrests said that one of the two men admitted having begun his crime career by robbing dime stores and supermarkets, then branching out into bank robberies on May 11, 1954, when he had stolen $2,500 from a savings and loan company. The FBI said that the man continued his solo operation until he had read in the newspapers that he had missed $10,000 in one of the robberies. He then enlisted the aid of the other patrolman, his partner, and the two netted $44,000 in three bank and loan company robberies. The first officer had been on the force since 1949 and the second, since 1954, with both having been cited several times for outstanding police work. The two officers had great praise for their fellow officers and the FBI, with one saying: "They must have done one hell of a job to catch us."
In Soledad, Calif., 11 Mexican nationals had burned to death this date after a labor camp truck had caught fire as it was being driven to the harvest fields about 115 miles south of San Francisco. Eight others had been hospitalized of the approximately 25 aboard the truck. The truck was boarded up on the sides and covered with a tin top. Five bodies had piled up against the chain across the back of the truck, with those who had escaped having climbed over the bodies of the others. The publisher of the Soledad Bee said that the truck was owned by a labor contractor and driven by an employee. Coroner's deputies had no immediate explanation as to how the fire had started, appearing to have originated in the back of the truck. The only entrance to the truck was from the rear. The publisher of The Bee said that the first person at the scene had been unable to unsnap the chain which held up the tailgate.
Ann Sawyer of The News reports that three defendants had said in open court this date that they had forfeited bonds through bondsmen, but records of the court showed that the money had never been paid into the court. The defendants had been tried and fined in City Recorder's Court.
John Kilgo of The News reports that Superior Court Judge Zeb Nettles had instructed this date an all-male grand jury to investigate the City Recorder's Court and to "let the chips fall wherever they may." He advised the grand jury that it could call in the solicitor and agents of the SBI if necessary to help with their investigation. There was no indication of when the investigation would begin. The judge had declined to allow reporters to address that question to the grand jury foreman, saying that he had received information that some reporters had talked to the members of the jury about the case, which he found "pretty close to contempt of court", and that if he heard of it again, he would investigate personally. He authorized the jury foreman to issue subpoenas to examine anyone under oath about the matter and that if there was anything wrong with the City Recorder's Court, he wanted them to go into it.
On the editorial page, "Who's Running City Court, Anyway?" indicates that the City Council was obligated to provide the city with an efficient system for the administration of justice and a competent judge to administer it, but it appeared that the Recorder's Court system was not functioning properly and had not been for a long time, with Judge Basil Boyd not knowing why.
It finds it a ridiculous state of affairs which had to be reversed as soon as possible. Mayor James Smith's suggestion that the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill be brought in to look at the court procedures had been refreshing and timely. A police investigation into the court was presently underway, but aside from any question of wrongdoing, there was the necessity of providing the court with procedures which would minimize the possibility of wrongdoing and of any inefficiency in the future.
It finds that it was Judge Boyd's duty to be aware of what was going on in his court, for the City paid him to know and the integrity and efficiency of the court depended on his knowing. It leaves to the City Council the responsibility to judge his performance, but asserts that it was not unfair to suggest that the affairs of his court were in a mess which had to be cleaned up.
Public interest was centered on the possibility that court procedures had been twisted to serve the purposes of knaves and it trusts that convincing and conclusive answers would be forthcoming regarding that concern. It was also not too early for the Council to begin wondering about the question of whether the court's personnel were capable and efficient, whether its procedures were up to date, and whether a vital job was being done properly.
"After One Hurdle, the Race Begins" indicates that State Senator J. Spencer Bell had fervently sold the salvation of judicial reform to the state's assembled lawyers the previous week and the result had been satisfying. Delegates to the 60th annual meeting of the North Carolina Bar Association had given him a prolonged standing ovation for the Bell Committee's bold plan to improve and expedite the administration of justice in the state.
Despite all of the optimism about the chances of passage of the plan, however, the race had not been won but only had just begun. The public needed educating, as most did not realize how much of a mess the courts were and had become since the last State Constitution of 1868 had been ratified. The lower courts were a hodgepodge and the Superior Courts had a tremendous logjam of litigation. The public would thus have to be sold on the plan, shocked into awareness.
The Bell Committee, with the help of the press, could help, but an aroused and active bar could mean the difference between success and failure in putting the plan across. It indicates that the effort had to be successful and the ideal was quite worthy of Senator Bell's evangelical zeal and the best efforts of the bar.
"Tempus Fugit" finds that the month's unkindest cut of all had come from Brevits which reported that 71 percent of America's 170 million people did not remember World War I, that 49 percent could not recall what things had been like just prior to World War II, that 57 percent had no personal recollection of a major depression, and that 42 percent could not remember the Soviet Union as an active ally of the U.S. It wonders whether the reader felt older already.
A piece from the Washington Post & Times Herald, titled "'O Take Those Lips Away'", indicates that an eminent medical authority had once described the act of kissing as "the while in a contracted state, of two sets of the oris orbicularis muscles," which it finds had proved again that precise observation was the foundation of all scientific knowledge.
It indicates that it was well known that certain peoples, such as the Eskimos and, until recently, the Chinese and Japanese, considered kissing, even by kissing cousins, to be one of the unnecessary and somewhat repulsive practices to which persons of European ancestry were incomprehensibly addicted, that in some parts of the world, similar prejudice extended even to the custom of shaking hands as an expression of affection, greeting, congratulations or farewell.
It had been recently reported that Lady Astor and the South African High Commissioner had met in London, and in her official capacity as head of the Royal British Geranium Society, had presented the High Commissioner with a collection of 101 different and choice varieties of the African geranium. So deeply moved had been the Commissioner by the gift that with impulsive gallantry, he lightly kissed the right cheek of Lady Astor, prompting her to make a prim rebuke: "I am firmly against kissing in public, especially between prominent personages. It is one of those pernicious practices introduced and encouraged by those wretched Hollywood films."
It is reminded of the late Max Beerbohm's charming little story about a somewhat analogous incident on Mount Olympus, wherein one day, Pallas Athene had decided to present Clio, the Muse of History, with a complete set of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and to ask her opinion of it, whereupon Clio, after thumbing through the first volume, had put it aside with a yawn, observing, "If that is the kind of thing one likes, no doubt it's the kind of thing one likes." It adds, "vice versa".
Drew Pearson again addresses the phone calls made by White House chief of staff Sherman Adams to the Federal Trade Commission regarding his friend, benefactor, and provider of hotel accommodations and clothing, Bernard Goldfine. He indicates that it was necessary to understand something about the Wool Products Labeling Act, requiring wool manufacturers to state whether their product was made of pure wool, reprocessed wool, or reused wool, the latter being old clothes sold as rags and re-woven. The labeling let the public know what it was buying. If a woolen manufacturer continued to violate the law, it could be prosecuted criminally.
Mr. Goldfine was a major textile operator, owning the Northfield Mills in Vermont, the Lebanon Woolen Mill Corp. in New Hampshire and the Strathmore Woolen Co. in Boston. He had many political friends, including White House press secretary James Hagerty, who had been of late vigorously defending Mr. Adams.
Early in the Administration, in November, 1953, Mr. Goldfine had been caught selling a product labeled as 90 percent woolen, 10 percent vicuna, though actually containing a large percentage of nylon. Mr. Pearson interjects that whether the vicuna coat given to Mr. Adams by Mr. Goldfine had also been mislabeled was not known. After Mr. Adams had called the chairman of the FTC twice, the case against Mr. Goldfine's mills had been closed as of February 5, 1954.
Mr. Adams, in admitting that he had called the FTC, minimized the importance of his intervention. But a call from Mr. Adams was considered almost to be the equivalent of a call from the President. His assistant at the time had been Charles Willis, the son-in-law of Harvey Firestone of the Firestone Rubber Co., of which the FTC's Ed Howrey had been the longtime attorney. Mr. Howrey's appointment had been purely political. After he had become the FTC chairman, an investigation of Firestone and other rubber companies had evaporated. Furthermore, Mr. Howrey's secretary had told investigators of the committee chaired by Representative Oren Harris that her boss had gone to the White House every couple of weeks during the first part of the Administration to confer with Mr. Adams, with whom he enjoyed very close relations. Most of those conferences had been regarding the revamping of the FTC to weed out anti-monopoly personnel.
Congressman Wright Patman of Texas had later accused Mr. Howrey of reorganizing the Commission to favor big business and then resigning to practice law before the friends he had appointed.
All of it indicated why a call from Mr. Adams to Mr. Howrey had gotten extremely quick action, even producing a memo to the White House in one day, and later closing the case against Mr. Goldfine in early 1954. Mr. Goldfine, however, had not carried out his promise not to violate the law again, apparently believing that his political influence had made him immune. Four woolen firms had complained shortly thereafter that he was violating the law. As a result, an FTC project attorney had received a report on August 10, 1954, from an FTC investigator in New York that Mr. Goldfine was once again mislabeling his products, followed by a long investigation and a hearing, which was several times postponed because of the interest of the White House. Finally, 18 months later, on March 13, 1956, a full report had been made and the project attorney recommended that the case be sent to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.
In the meantime, however, Mr. Adams had arranged for Mr. Goldfine and his son to meet personally with Mr. Howrey in the latter's office, after which Mr. Goldfine had called Mr. Adams, and, in front of the FTC officials, had said that he was at the Commission and had been treated very well there, thanking Mr. Adams for arranging the appointment. Mr. Pearson remarks that the advice of the project attorney, a career officer, had been ignored, with upper officials overruling him and the criminal case against Mr. Goldfine having been dropped.
Marquis Childs, in Warsaw, indicates that despite recent alarm, the best information of Western diplomats was that Russia had not yet established intermediate range missile bases either in Poland or East Germany. The same diplomats, however, believed that such bases would be established shortly.
Informed Poles believed that the Soviets would not install missile bases in satellite territory unless and until West Germany's armed forces were furnished with atomic weapons by the U.S., which would signal the need for immediate retaliation causing quickly all of the major cities on both sides of the Iron Curtain to be within the range of nearly instant destruction. Poles, regardless of political belief, universally dreaded that prospect, as they were convinced that when it happened, all hope of relaxing tension would end, with the world living on the brink of terror. The dread of Poland was related to the deep feeling about Germany which ran through all classes of people in the country, having suffered terribly under German occupation during World War II. Of the 30 million total population, 8 to 9 million had been killed during the war, including 3 million Jews exterminated by the Nazis.
When the German Bundestag in March had approved atomic arms for Germany's new army, Polish newspapers compared it to Hitler's rise to power in 1933. A speech by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer recently, expressing a new German determination to have atomic weapons, had started reaction of suspicion and fear in Poland where war between the East and West had repeatedly taken a huge toll. The Polish belief was that American policymakers had encouraged, if not initiated, the German atomic policy. They saw Chancellor Adenauer as a prime pupil of Secretary of State Dulles in the cold war and inevitably saw themselves as paying the price for that war.
When Secretary Dulles proclaimed that the cold war had to continue with no relaxation of tension to give satellite peoples a hope for freedom, the reaction in Poland was one of bitterness and frustration tempered by a type of sardonic humor. To informed Poles, it was obvious that only with the relaxation of tension could Poland begin to enlarge the limited independence and relative freedom which had come after the 1956 revolt. With an intensification of the cold war, the restrictions would be tightened and all hope of gradual evolution toward freedom would vanish.
On balance, it was believed in Poland that the likelihood was for an approach to a settlement which could come only after many starts and stops over a long period of time. The Soviets would make concessions, the Poles believed, to conduct a summit conference with Western powers, a belief based on Premier Nikita Khrushchev's bid to Washington for expanded trade and other recent signs which the Poles interpreted as evidence of determination by the Soviets for "peaceful coexistence". But they could not be sure of those facts and were frank to confess that their conjectures and theories had almost as little basis in fact as the speculation in the West about the intentions of the Soviets. Almost invariably, they returned to the subject of Germany and the threat of atomic armament which, once it would be in place, would forever freeze the menacing posture of hostility and threat.
Recently, one of the mass-circulation British newspapers had carried an interview with German Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss, who many considered to be the heir to Chancellor Adenauer. He was quoted as saying that Germany was certain to become the third atomic power with the help of the U.S. and that if France tried to catch up, the Germans would make at least three strides for every one taken by the French. While Herr Strauss later said that he had been misunderstood and had not meant to say some of the things attributed to him, the interview had made a deep impression on Poles who followed world affairs closely, saying: "You hear a real Germany speaking. This is the Germany that means to dominate Europe and that will again take the world down the road to war."
Mr. Childs posits that the visitor might attribute such things to emotionalism, understandable when seeing the ruins which still stood from the war and in hearing the tales of horror of the occupation. As it was a deeply held feeling, not alone in Poland but through much of Central and Eastern Europe, it could not be simply brushed aside.
Doris Fleeson, in Paris, indicates that France was the physical capital of NATO, the core of its complicated network of communications, the heartland of supply and support for any military effort it had to make. Since the U.S. based its policy for defense of the West on NATO, the latter organization's relations with Premier Charles de Gaulle were as important to Americans as the latter's feeling about the U.S. Though critical, the problem was not presently urgent, as NATO had thus far suffered no breakdown in its connection with France and there had been no effect to date on the costly string of Strategic Air Command bases along the the troubled shores of North Africa.
Premier De Gaulle had exchanged amenities with NATO supreme commander Lauris Norstad, the U.S. Air Force general, but that was all. General Norstad could only stand and wait, which he was doing with an exemplary display of discretion and calm confidence. He was aware that a mistake in relations with the proud Premier De Gaulle could have profound effects, and he was determined not to be the one to make it. He preached patient optimism, basing it on the fact that NATO worked, not perfectly, but well. As with the U.N., it had, with all its faults, been accepted by public opinion as well as by governments and its member nations. He hoped and believed that the Premier, as a military man, would be slow to alter a proven military force, and NATO commanders expected that a man so dedicated to French greatness would raise questions and be tough about the answers.
Those who had been part of the wartime difficulties with General De Gaulle were nearly gone from the scene, with controversial British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery soon to retire. Even the latter was said to have mellowed, although those who had read his soon to be published memoirs suggested that he had not mellowed enough to make them happy, especially at the White House. Ms. Fleeson remarks, however, that considering how many people had criticized Field Marshal Montgomery, it did not seem unfair to let him engage in his own criticism.
Premier De Gaulle, in any event, would have fewer people to deal with in NATO who had a vested interest in the past World War II command. The newcomers would be men who saw firsthand the terrible weakness of the now expired French Fourth Republic and wished Premier De Gaulle well with genuine fervor. The latter was not expected to like the present appointment of German Lt. General Hans Speidel as commander of ground forces on the central front, but otherwise no one knew where his objections might lie, except that they would have the aim of increasing France's NATO voice.
The U.S. at present had about 50,000 soldiers and airmen at French bases, costing around 1.5 billion dollars. About 50 installations, including about a half dozen airbases, were included in that total.
A letter writer indicates that children playing ball in neighboring yards posed a hazard to windows, flowers, gardens and even other people, concluding that a good citizen was always conscious of the fact that his rights went no further than where another's started.
A letter writer from Fayetteville commends the newspaper for its news coverage and editorial page. He says that many millions of people regarded Social Security as the basic foundation for their retirement security as well as for survivorship protection of their dependents. The House Ways & Means Committee had scheduled public hearings on the Social Security Act beginning on June 16, and thousands of boys and girls who had lost one or both parents would be interested in the fate of the pending bill which would amend the Act to provide that the child of a deceased insured could receive insurance benefits after age 18 as long as the person was a student regularly attending school. He regards passage of the bill as helping to achieve society's aim of increasing all educational opportunities and probably at a cost much less than many other proposed measures. He indicates that for lack of sufficient support, a similar bill had died in committee the previous year, and hopes that the current bill would not suffer a similar fate because the public would fail to write their Congressmen to urge its passage.
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