The Charlotte News
Monday, June 2, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Paris that the National Assembly this date had voted 322 to 232 to grant General Charles de Gaulle sweeping powers to govern by decree for six months. The measure had been sent immediately to the French Senate where the General's supporters hoped to ram it through this date and clear the way for the new Premier's trip to Algeria to restore Government authority over the rebellious territory. The vote had been almost identical to the 329 to 224 vote by which the Assembly had voted the General to be Premier on Sunday night. The Assembly had gone back into session during the morning after 24 of the most hectic hours politically in the country's history, with prospects that in another 12 to 24 hours of near continuous sessions, the General's demand for a virtual blank check for six months would be approved. He had made his demand in a six-minute speech to the hushed chamber before their vote the previous night. He said that he needed the emergency powers to avert "breakup and perhaps civil war". He had demanded emergency powers to rule by decree for six months to clear up the current crisis, while the Assembly would take a vacation, demanding that he be given authority to revise the constitution to give a stronger executive, based on the American system, rather than the parade of weak regimes which had been at the mercy of the Assembly, and that constitutional reform be made to reorganize the relations between France and its overseas territories. Both of the proposed constitutional reforms would be submitted directly to the people for approval rather than first to the Assembly. The General did not spell out the constitutional changes he planned, indicating that it would be done in a bill to be submitted soon. The Assembly committee approved the request for six months of full power by a vote of 27 to 17 after an all-night session during which Vice Premiers Guy Mollet and Pierre Pflimlin, who had just resigned as Premier after only three tumultuous weeks, pleaded that the General had to be given a chance to revitalize France. The vote had occurred after bitter debate in the Assembly and Communists rioting against General De Gaulle in the streets of Paris. Another committee voted to extend special power measures which the General's predecessors had for dealing with the rebellion in Algeria, ongoing for three and a half years. Observers noted that the General had successfully passed over his initial hurdles only with the help of of four politicians representing wide shades of non-Communist French political opinion, all four having been chosen as deputy premiers, including, in addition to M. Mollet of the Socialists and M. Pflimlin of the Popular Republican (Catholic) Party, conservative Louis Jacquinot and Felix Houphouet-Boigny of the Rally of African People. The four had been called to testify before the committee at 3:00 a.m. when the vote was 25 to 19 against the General's proposals. (Note to Trumpies: Though it very much mirrors what the Republican Congress has done for Trump in the past six months of 2025, with the Republican majorities in both chambers very much taking a vacation from actual governance, instead bearing down on investigating autopens for constitutionally authorized pardons given by President Biden at the end of his term and such other weighty issues of import to the average American, the French had multi-partisan support for the return to power of General De Gaulle and the Assembly's six-month abdication of power to him, amid a crisis with the country's North African protectorates and former protectorates, wherein the Army had rebelled against the central Government in support of military coups and establishment of committees of public safety to rule in the territories. And the French National Assembly openly declared their purpose by a multi-partisan vote, including a Government which was multi-partisan in its make-up, not operating in stealth behind smoke-screens erected by various Cabinet secretaries, obviously incompetent in the field of actual governance, to distract the not-too-bright and easily drawn to bright, shiny objects being waved before them nightly on State Propaganda channels such as Fox, from which many of the incompetents derived before being asked to perform their first executive jobs ever in Government, none of whom can be said to represent opposition interests in the country, quite the contrary, a bunch of third-rate bootlickers. In short, France, in a hell of a mess, chose openly, and by multi-partisan consent among the people and in the Assembly, to resort to extraordinary measures after a series of unstable, short-term governments since the end of World War II, whereas this country in 2025, having just undergone an election which chose a convicted felon for the first time in U.S. history and a previously defeated occupant of the White House for only the second time in U.S. history by the resounding plurality, not a majority, of 1.5 percent of the popular vote, 2.3 million of 152 million votes cast, in a highly controversial election, before which several swing-state legislatures, dominated by Republicans, had changed the ground rules for eligible voters to eliminate from the rolls Democrats, especially minorities, and favor Trump, casting this country from a position of recovery from the 2020-22 pandemic, exacerbated in its effect by the incompetence of Trump, and the upset to the economy produced by the Russia-Ukraine War, to a hell of a mess at present, alienating in the process longtime allies and favoring despotic regimes in Latin America, Europe and Asia, mirroring His Majesty's fondest desires for his own governance, destabilizing the economy, not improving it one whit for the average consumer, and involving the Government in plainly unconstitutional conduct, including the violent deportation of persons engaged in migrant or domestic work and, in some cases, present in the country for decades, including during the first Trump debacle between 2017 and 2021, after which he was voted by a panel of historians and scholars as the worst head of the Government in U.S. history, a title which he appears bent on continuing to earn here in 2025—your wishful, brainwashed thinking to the contrary notwithstanding, little Trumpie.)
In Vienna, it was reported that three anti-Communist Czechoslovaks, brandishing an old, broken pistol, had forced the pilot of a chartered Czech plane to land in Austria this date, seeking political asylum from the Communist Government. They included a married couple and a male friend. One man was reported to be a mechanic and the other a former factory owner. After landing, they informed police that the gun they had used was broken and would not shoot. The pilot, after landing in Vienna, had sought to take off again toward Czechoslovakia, but the passengers had overpowered him. Police took away all four for interrogation and locked the plane in a hangar. Police said the the pilot expressed fear about being returned to Czechoslovakia because the Communist police there would accuse him of complicity in the plot or punish him for not resisting.
Also in Vienna, it was reported via Budapest Radio that Bulgarian Communists had given Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev a big ovation when they opened their party Congress this date in Sofia.
In Rome, tanks had rumbled and jet planes screeched in a demonstration of Italian armed strength this date, to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Italian Republic.
In Beirut, Lebanon, bomb explosions and sporadic rifle fire had broken a three-day calm the previous night and early this date.
In Amman, Jordan, the Government radio said this date than an Egyptian Army officer had been killed and several others injured during a clash with Syrian officers in a coffee house near Aleppo.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, Prime Minister Djuanda warned this date that the Government would become insolvent unless it quickly put down the 3 1/2-month old revolt in the outer islands.
In Bangkok, Thailand, the death toll in the country's cholera epidemic had climbed to 106 during the weekend. The disease had infected 719 during the previous ten days.
In Honolulu, it was reported that the crew of a ketch had announced it would defy Government orders and sail on Wednesday at noon for Eniwetok to protest the nuclear weapons tests ongoing there.
The House Interior Reclamation subcommittee this date voted down a controversial bill for Federal construction of dams in Hells Canyon, the deepest river gorge on the continent.
A nationwide telegraph strike had been averted by agreement in principle on a new contract between Western Union and the Commercial Telegraphers Union.
In Detroit, it was reported that nearly 500,000 autoworkers had gone to their jobs this date without the protection of a union contract, with no reports of incidents halfway through the first shift at the 275 General Motors, Chrysler and Ford plants throughout the country. For G.M. and Chrysler, it was the first time since 1937 that workers across the nation had produced cars without a union contract, and at Ford plants, the first time since 1941. The UAW's contracts with Ford and Chrysler had expired at midnight the previous night without a new settlement, and the contract with G.M. had expired the previous Thursday at midnight. Despite the announced intentions of both the three companies and the union to continue normal operations without a contract, there was doubt about the future. Walter Reuther, president of the UAW, emerged from last-ditch negotiations with stern orders to UAW members not to strike or provoke incidents which could give the companies an excuse to shut down the plants. The auto companies had cautioned their supervisors to keep a sharp eye out for slowdowns or sabotage. The first no-contract work had actually been performed the prior Friday at three G.M. plants in the Atlanta area, while other plants across the country were closed for Memorial Day. Workers there had their holiday on April 26 in observance of Confederate Memorial Day—presumably honoring, oddly, the day on which General Joseph Johnston surrendered to General William Sherman at Bennett Place near Durham, N.C., the official end of the war and the Confederacy. No incidents had been reported there. (Whether the cars they produced on Memorial Day bore a special insignia, in a surreptitious location, consisting of a replica of the Stars 'n' Bars, is not reported, but auto enthusiasts looking for a hidden emblem to enhance the value of your collector's item retrieved from the junkyard dog might take a good, long gander of the thing on the rotisserie as you clean her down to the substrate, to make sure you don't erase a valuable sigil for marketing that little gem among a certain subset of Trump supporters once you get her all gleaming and shiny again.) UAW contracts with smaller manufacturers still were in effect, with American Motors, which would not expire until June 15, and with Studebaker-Packard, which would extend to July 1.
Traffic fatalities across the nation during the 78-hour Memorial Day weekend, ending the previous midnight, had climbed to 370, breaking the record for the same three-day holiday in 1955. Late reports were expected to increase the Associated Press tally to an even higher total. In addition to 370 killed in traffic accidents, drownings accounted for 127 deaths and 88 from miscellaneous accidents, for an overall total of 585. The National Safety Council had estimated that 350 persons would die in traffic accidents during the holiday. The president of the Council said "disappointment over the size of the toll is all the more bitter because of the steady decline in traffic deaths for more than a year and special efforts of traffic officials to hold down the holiday toll." Officials of the Council said that "impatience, intemperance and indifference" brought death on the highways, especially on holidays. The traffic toll compared with 294 reported during the 78-hour non-holiday period between May 15 and May 18, a count taken by an Associated Press survey for comparative purposes. In that count there had also been 83 drownings and 71 deaths from miscellaneous accidents, for an overall total of 448.
In New Orleans, air and sea units intensified their search this date for five men missing in the crash of a Humble Oil Co. helicopter off the Louisiana coast.
Julian Scheer of The News reports that residents of the county had turned out in good number for Democratic and Republican primaries the prior Saturday, with 22,696 Democrats voting in the State Senate race between incumbent State Senator J. Spencer Bell and State Representatives Jack Love and James Vogler. A second primary might be necessary to resolve the race between Representative Love, who trailed Senator Bell. He provides the vote tallies from Saturday in various races, also covered in an editorial below.
Jerry Reece of The News reports that the County Commission had been informed by its attorney this date that they could levy a two-cent county-wide tax to finance a solution to drainage and flood problems. The Commission, which had been plagued by complaints following recent heavy rains, had heard its attorney read from state statutes that when "non-navigable streams in counties having 100,000 or more population are creating a health problem", commissioners could authorize whatever work was necessary to solve the problem. He also said, in answer to a question of a commissioner, that he presumed the law allowed the Commission to condemn land along streams for drainage work. Following the report, the Commission voted to instruct the County surveyor to make a survey of necessary work to be done on Little Hope Creek in the Longwood Park subdivision.
John Kilgo of The News reports that a 20-year old, who had broken out of the Huntersville Prison camp shortly after midnight the previous night by sawing the bars from a cell door, had been caught by a teacher in the men's lounge at North Mecklenburg High School this date. Several prison officials and bloodhounds had spent the night tracking the young man, but had lost him around dawn in the northern part of the county. During the early morning, a math teacher, who dropped by the men's lounge before greeting his class on the last day of school, sought to open the door but found it was locked, walked away and then the door had opened, whereupon he saw in the lounge a young man who was dirty and scared with long hair. Upon seeing the teacher, he said, "You've got to help me." He indicated that he had escaped from the Huntersville camp. The teacher had then gone inside the lounge and told him he was in enough trouble for escaping and that he had better get back to the prison. They sat down, talked and smoked a cigarette. He was barefooted and talked of the bad time he had been having in the prison camp. The teacher said that he was well-behaved and scared to death, that several other teachers had walked into the lounge, and they called the prison department who came and got him. The principal of the school said that they had cleaned the boiler room the previous week and the young man had picked up a pair of dirty coveralls and discarded his brown prison clothes. A prison official said that he was serving a sentence on an unnamed felony and had been sent to the Huntersville camp ten days earlier, along with three other prisoners, because they had "been raising too much trouble at the felony camp in Albemarle." The prison camp spokesman said that they had intentionally left the young man barefooted because they were afraid he might try to escape. He said the man had played ball in the prison yard the previous day and someone apparently had slipped the prisoner a saw, that their men had tracked him all night with bloodhounds but had lost him. The spokesman said that he had escaped from prison once before and he was "a mean one". Students had already started filing into the building when officials came for the prisoner during the morning. The last day of school saw more excitement probably than all the other days put together.
On the editorial page, "Mecklenburg's Voice: Loud and Clear" indicates that the outcome of the Saturday primary had been a rousing rebuke to the notion that unreliable anthropoids were in charge, as for the most part, Mecklenburg County voters had exercised wisdom and maturity at the polls, with some exceptions.
J. Spencer Bell had a commanding lead in the contested State Senate race, which it finds gratifying to those who believed, as the newspaper, that he was superbly equipped to represent Mecklenburg effectively in Raleigh, with his large vote being an acknowledgment of his superior qualifications.
The sizable vote also received by two newcomers to the State House race, Irwin Belk and John P. Kennedy, Jr., had been a welcome indication of fresh vitality in Democratic Party ranks. It finds both to be promising young men who had run well ahead of incumbents Frank Snepp and Ernest Hicks, who had also won places, however, on the November general election ballot.
The nomination of David Clark of Lincolnton in the Tenth District Congressional primary ensured that Republican incumbent Charles Jonas would have a strong, effective challenger in the general election. It finds Mr. Clark to be young and able, with an outstanding record in the General Assembly, and with unified party backing, might provide the incumbent the stiffest test of his political career.
Although runoffs would be required in the County Board of Education races in both the Democratic and Republican primaries, the County Commission races had been rather cut and dried from the chairmanship down, with experience having counted most among the Democrats.
The vote had been distressingly light, usual for an off-year primary, but those who had bothered to vote had given a reasonably good accounting of themselves.
"The Secrecy Bug Gets Fatter & Fatter" indicates that Michigan Representative Clare Hoffman had recently stated on the floor of the House that he favored letting people know how they were spending money as it was their money, that he was not ashamed of anything he had ever authorized while on committee. There were also in the Congressional Record numerous unsettling glimpses of the intellectual acrobatics performed by many of his fellow Congressmen to obscure the right to know with respect to travel spending and more vital issues.
Ohio Representative Wayne Hays
It finds that he did not want his constituents to know how much of their money he had spent traveling abroad because he was afraid it might be used against him, and because he was afraid that Administration bureaucrats would investigate if he relented. Congress controlled both its own and the Administration's purse strings and election to the House was never intended to carry with it a permanent lease on a seat.
The failure of the Congress to report its travel expenditures was not causing much consternation among the public, but the attitude which accounted for the failure on a relatively unimportant issue did figure in the mania for secrecy which operated both in Congress and the Administration. While it was for security, it was not necessarily for national security. Too often the object of secrecy was merely the security of officeholders against possible opposition in the ensuing election.
Representative Hoffman had put it in plainer terms. Explaining that even he had found it impossible to obtain a breakdown on Congressional use of counterpart funds, he said: "My file shows that on several occasions I have written the chairman of the House Committee on Administration asking for a breakdown on the use of counterpart funds. Every time I have been denied that information… Then I was told that the information was with the Defense Department as to much of the expenditures. So I went to the Defense Department and they told me it was with the chairman of the House Committee on Administration. I went back to the chairman of the House Administration Committee, and he said, 'No. Defense has it.' At that time the general counsel of the Department of Defense was on the stand before the Moss subcommittee, and I asked him and he said, 'No, we do not have it.' I said, 'the chairman of the House Administration Committee says you have. Who has it?' I did not get it: Button, button, who has the button? I cannot find it; even to this date, it has not been available. I have yet to see one report which tells about the expenditure of counterpart funds by a member of this House, past or present."
It finds that the question was,
indeed, who had the button
"Maybe It's an Occupational Disease" indicates that the fractured phrasing of some of the President's press conference pronouncements had been the subject of much knee-slapping and sniggering among certain hostile elements, including English teachers and Iron Curtain diplomats.
The English teachers, it suggests, had better stand by, but it would appreciate it if the Iron Curtain diplomats would wipe the silly grins off their faces, as it had just come upon a translated transcript of one of Nikita Khrushchev's broadcast speeches as it had been monitored in England, reading: "We have taken many steps … er … which are directed in this direction. But, as yet we should not deceive ourselves because all the time, you know, they are twisting and turning instead of… We have sent the decision, the well-known decision, to prohibit nuclear weapons, that is. No, they say control. Well, you know, when one does not want agreement, he will immediately, you know, advance such conditions as are impossible. That is because they do not want it. They do not want it! The issue is clear."
The piece wonders whether it was.
A piece from the Lamar (Mo.) Democrat, titled "For Understanding", indicates that the person who followed the writing profession or engaged to a considerable extent in public speaking had to find himself considerably handicapped without a good knowledge of the Bible. Making a quotation or reference to Jesus, Paul, Moses or Solomon would be checked by even the most unlearned listener or the most narrowly informed reader.
On the other hand, quoting or referring to great figures in secular history would cause readers or listeners to lose interest because they did not know who the characters were. A mention, for instance, of Demosthenes, Cato, Pericles, Pompey, or Machiavelli would dumbfound most.
It thus concludes that speakers and writers ought remain away from mere temporal things and stick to the Gospels and the Old Testament so that everyone would have at least a glimmer of what they were getting at.
Drew Pearson indicates that the most important point raised in the report by Morris Ernst on the strange disappearance of Columbia University Professor Jesus de Galindez was how and where he was able to collect a million dollars, with the questions being whether it actually came from Spaniards or from secret espionage agents. After six months of investigation for the Dominican Republic, Mr. Ernst had come up with some inconclusive evidence, claiming that it was impossible for Gerald Murphy, the freelance pilot, to have flown the professor's body from Long Island to the Dominican Republic at the time indicated by Life Magazine, which had made the chief charge that dictator Rafael Trujillo had done away with him at Columbia. Mr. Ernst concluded that the professor was still missing and that no one knew what had happened to him.
A record, however, of the large amounts of money which the professor had received were on file in the Justice Department and presented an even more important unsolved mystery, indicating that the U.S. had been used for either an espionage or revolutionary conspiracy. Professor Galindez had started receiving money, allegedly from Spanish Basques, in 1950, filing with the Justice Department receipts for $5,441 in February of that year, $24,048 in March, and then receipts of between $4,000 and $8,000 per month until the latter part of 1950, when he began receiving around $18,000 per month. The money continued in amounts ranging between $4,000 and $24,000 per month for the ensuing six years. The money was supposed to come from Spanish Basques in Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Cuba, France, Belgium and Italy, but there were exchange restrictions in most of those countries, making it impossible to send money to other countries.
It was also suspicious that from the moment he had disappeared, the money had ceased. The Basque committee continued to operate, but no money came in. Mr. Pearson indicates that the money had obviously gone to the professor because someone, possibly an apparatus anxious to operate against dictator Francisco Franco in Spain, had confided in him. The professor had two secret bank accounts in Switzerland and had transferred money to those accounts, possibly for paying agents in Europe. It was not known, however, who had paid him and whom he had paid in Europe, the real mystery in his murder, a mystery probably more important than the question of who had taken him from New York, as when that question was answered, it would also likely indicate who had kidnaped him.
Walter Lippmann indicates that the principle was now settled that labor unions were subject to public inspection and regulation, a good thing, as if there were a dispute over the fact, it would cause serious trouble as no special interest could expect to exercise the type of power which the unions had and then deny that there was a public interest in the way it conducted its affairs. George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, had recognized that fact and that if labor unions were not regulated by those who meant well by them, they would be open to assault from those who wished to destroy them.
The question of regulating the unions had been central in the hearings before the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct of unions and management, chaired by Senator John McClellan of Arkansas, though it had only dealt with seven of 200 national unions, the seven having two million members, whereas the national membership was 17 million. But the hearings had demonstrated that there were serious abuses, with temptations to racketeering and corruption such that public remedies were necessary.
During the previous 25 years, the labor unions had accumulated enormous power after decades of often violent struggle for recognition and legal sanction. The unions now enjoyed protection under Federal statutes, were not subject to income taxes as non-profit voluntary organizations and also had special immunity from the anti-trust laws. They wielded power over both union members and, in consequence, consumers and corporations. Individual employees could not negotiate directly with employers for better wages and conditions, but had to work through a union certified as the sole official bargaining agent for a given shop or company. Many contracts required compulsory union dues as well.
Thus, there could be no argument any longer that Federal regulation was not justified in principle and necessary in practice, with the question being the type of regulation which was most likely to work well. There were two general types of regulation on which there was presently general agreement, the first being that financial affairs of unions ought be made public and that their officers would legally be made accountable for the honest administration of those affairs. That was the principle behind a bill sponsored by Senators Paul Douglas, John F. Kennedy and Irving Ives, dealing with welfare and pension funds only, a bill which had already passed the Senate without any serious opposition by anyone concerned. If a similar bill applying to union funds was passed, it would become a great reform not only in protecting the union members from corrupt leaders but also in laying the general conduct of union business open to public scrutiny.
The other type of regulation presently under consideration was aimed at regulating labor unions by compelling them to adopt more democratic procedures, a much more problematic form of regulation as it was questionable whether the Government could enforce democratic procedures on a private organization, and even if it were allowed to enter that field of regulation, whether it could do so practically without creating disrespect for the law. There were 200 national unions and some 60,000 local unions, and it was improbable that the Federal Government could practically regulate their charters and internal elections.
Mr. Lippmann indicates that his view was that the compulsory disclosure of financial affairs by the unions was possible to enforce and insofar as it was efficiently enforced, might help to do many of the things which were supposed to be accomplished by compulsory democracy.
Rowland Evans, Jr., in Newton Township, Iowa, indicates that one of several noteworthy discoveries in a recent political poll, on which he had tagged along with pollster Lou Harris, had been the surprisingly ugly reaction to Vice-President Nixon's good will tour of South America. Among 30 corn and hog farmers in Newton Township who had been asked in the course of several questions whether they wanted to express an opinion about Mr. Nixon, seven had attacked his visit to Latin America, with one indicating, "He shouldn't stick his nose into where he has no business being." An even sharper critic was a prospering hog farmer who had voted for Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956, who said, "They shoulda got him down there in Venezuela." The opinion had set off a noisy remonstrance from the farmer's wife and daughter, but the farmer refused to soften his words.
Although Democrats had been more hostile, three of the seven critics had been Republicans. He finds the surprising thing to have been that only two others of the 30 farmers had mentioned the Latin American trip at all and even those two had obviously been unimpressed by it. One had said sympathetically that the good will tour had been "pretty rough" on Mr. Nixon, and the other had said that "maybe it would have been better if we hadn't sent him down."
There was one other significant finding in the Newton Township poll, disclosing that as of the present, the spectacular hog prices and the promise of a good corn crop for fattening up the new spring pigs had not perceptibly halted the decline in popularity of the Administration. Newton Township, with less than 800 votes, had split almost exactly evenly between the President and Adlai Stevenson in both 1952 and 1956. It was regarded by Mr. Harris as a good barometer for registering political pressures.
Of the 30 farmers who had been studied in the random but representative sample conducted the previous week, 16 had voted for Mr. Stevenson and 14 for the President in 1956, with two of the latter group having definitely switched to the Democrats and planning to vote Democratic in 1960, regardless of the nominee. Another four had said that they were more or less unhappy about the Administration but not to the point of making any firm decision on how they would vote later. Only eight of the original 14 votes for the President still believed that way without reservation.
Mr. Evans indicates that it had to be factored in that there was a normal decline in popularity which almost always overtook the party of the Administration in midterm elections, but the two switches and the four other 1956 Eisenhower voters who were presently undecided might be taken as bad news for the Republicans, flying in the face of their confident murmurs in Washington as a result of a rise in farm prices. Democrats were given a good chance of keeping Governor Herschel Loveless—misprinted, perhaps not without ironic historical significance vis-à-vis the old ghosts of the prints, for 15-16 years subsequent, as "Lovelace"—in office in Iowa and of sending a Democrat to the House to replace the retiring Representative L. E. Compte.
Five of the 30 farmers had a generally favorable opinion of Vice-President Nixon, while 16, including five Republicans, held a generally unfavorable opinion, and nine were undecided. The question which had been asked was: "Do you have any feeling at all about Vice-President Nixon?" One of the 30 farmers said without qualification that he would make a good President, with answers of some of the others being significant for not pinpointing specific grievances against him. Typical had been a comment of a voter for Mr. Eisenhower in 1952 who had switched to Mr. Stevenson in 1956: "I don't like him but I don't know why. He looks too much… I don't know what. It's kind of funny, but I just don't like him." (Perhaps, subconsciously, it was his resemblance to Roy Earle which bothered them.)
Mr. Evans concludes that coming to grips with that sort of formless opinion was Mr. Nixon's primary challenge at present as the emerging leader of his party. It was the view of some political observers, however, that the anti-Nixon sentiment among those Midwestern farmers was less than it had been a few years earlier.
A letter writer protests that columns on the editorial page crowded out the letters from the people, that if a reader had something to say, he should be allowed to say it. He says that he was brought up to say nothing, even about wrongdoing, unless he had to do so, but that life had taught him that keeping anything secret and not bringing it into the open always meant trouble in the long-run.
A letter writer indicates that the day that City Manager Henry Yancey let Chief of Police Frank Littlejohn resign would be a black day in Charlotte history, for he had been one of the ablest and best chiefs to occupy the post. He says he had known him for 25 years and that he had always gone out of his way for the people who paid his salary. He finds him the most polite and gentlest person he had ever known and believed in teamwork. He thinks that Mr. Yancey ought think twice therefore before accepting the resignation of Mr. Littlejohn.
A letter writer indicates that the local Health Department fought germs, insects and bugs, wonders why it did not spray the ugly little bugs called foreign cars. He says that he was a true American, deep-dyed, that with all the beautiful American cars available, he could not understand why anyone wanted to buy one of those "scarecrow foreign insects we see slipping around our streets". He favors putting a tariff of 50 percent on any car which entered the U.S. from a foreign country and says they could not give him one of them. He finds parking places being robbed by the little cars when "two of those little roaches squeeze into one parking space."
Beginning in about 15 years, during the OPEC crisis, you will come to understand the whys and wherefores, Mr. Big-Car Man.
Framed Edition
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