The Charlotte News

Wednesday, June 25, 1958

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Moscow that a crowd of more than a thousand Russians, some angrily shaking their fists and shouting the Russian equivalent of "dirty S.O.B.", had demonstrated this date at the U.S. Embassy. About 150 Soviet policemen had kept the noisy crowd under control and no rocks or ink bottles had been thrown. In a similar demonstration outside the West German Embassy the prior Monday, Russians had shattered ink bottles against the building and stoned every window. The crowd before the U.S. Embassy had included some youths in Red Army uniforms. The Russians had converged on the building almost simultaneously from three directions in what had been clearly a well-planned demonstration. The Embassy had prepared for Russian retaliation against demonstrations by Hungarian refugees the previous weekend at the Soviet Union's offices in New York. Embassy windows had been boarded, the first floor had been evacuated and Russian employees had been given the day off. Several men standing in two big trucks had led the first group of demonstrators which reached the Embassy in downtown Moscow, shouting occasional orders. Placards carried by the shouting demonstrators read "Down with Provocateurs" and "Yanks Go Home" in English and Russian. About 25 Soviet policemen held the crowd back when it first surged across the sidewalk toward the ten-story Embassy building. The number of police was quickly increased to 150. A few members of the U.S. Embassy staff appeared on upper story balconies to watch the demonstrators, prompting people in the crowd to produce pocket mirrors which they used to reflect sunlight into the eyes of the observers. Several demonstrators shouted for the U.S. Ambassador, Llewellyn Thompson, to make an appearance. He was not in the building and was understood to be at his home having lunch. While hopeful that no new retaliatory demonstration would develop, the American Embassy staff had taken unusual precautions. Hoses were laid out in the downstairs halls for use in case of fire. Every window on the first and second floors had been covered with cardboard to minimize breakage. The office staff had been moved into the upper stories of the building. Eight U.S. Marines, normally on duty on the top floors, had been transferred to the ground floor corridors. Furniture in the two lower floors had been moved out. A total of 150 Americans, including the wives and children of diplomats, lived in the Embassy building, primarily in apartments on the middle floors.

In Beirut, heavy firing had broken out late this date shortly after the Government had announced it had asked for an armed U.N. emergency force to seal off the frontier of Lebanon. President Camille Chamoun said that he expected a big rebel push against his pro-Western Government at any hour, but that it was too soon to say whether the present firing was it. The heaviest firing had been heard on the outskirts of the Basta section of Beirut where rebel forces under former Premier Saed Salam were entrenched inside barricades. Shooting had broken out in the post office area about the same time and firing had erupted and bombs exploded in the Christian quarter in the eastern part of the capital. Machine guns, mortar fire, dynamite bombs and small arms fire could be heard as the rebels and security forces exchanged fire. The fighting had broken a long day of unusual calm in the capital. The rebels had called a truce during the visit of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, present to try to bring peace to the troubled nation. The shooting had broken out shortly after he had departed by plane for New York. Even as firing had broken out, rebel leader Salam had told a reporter that the rebels would resist any increase in U.N. forces in the country, indicating that he was speaking for all rebel leaders. He said that even if the number of U.N. persons were as little as 500 and unarmed, the rebels would consider it as a change in U.N. policy. He said that if the U.N. forces would be increased, they would consider it an international intervention and aggression and would resent it as they resented any aggression. He was commenting on a statement by Premier Sami Solh that he had asked for a U.N. force "to seal off completely Lebanon's frontiers" with the Syrian province of Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser's United Arab Republic. The request had been handed to Dr. Hammarskjold shortly before his departure. The Government also charged that its forces had been shelled from Syrian territory.

The Goldfine-Adams investigation had exploded into an angry row this date climaxed by dismissal of a former Securities & Exchange Commission head, J. Sinclair Armstrong, presently an assistant secretary of the Navy, before the House subcommittee investigating SEC handling of cases involving Bernard Goldfine, a Boston textile industrialist and close friend of White House chief of staff Sherman Adams, accused of receiving favors from Mr. Goldfine in exchange for intervention by Mr. Adams with Government agencies which had been causing Mr. Goldfine trouble, a charge which Mr. Adams admitted factually but denied having had any intention to provide preferential treatment for Mr. Goldfine or doing so in exchange for the gifts he had received. Mr. Armstrong had tangled with Mr. Harris from the outset of his testimony. The members of the subcommittee wanted to know whether the SEC had pulled its punches and whether it was influenced by Mr. Adams on behalf of Mr. Goldfine, who was having trouble with the agency. Mr. Armstrong said that he had been outraged at allegations that SEC people could possibly be influenced by anyone. Mr. Harris asked him to step aside and not resume his testimony until Mr. Harris returned from another committee meeting which he had to attend, indicating that he had some questions personally to ask him. Mr. Armstrong continued nevertheless, indicating, "I've been waiting for two years to make this statement." Mr. Harris responded that he had been before the committee at the beginning of every Congress, prompting Mr. Armstrong to say, "Well, what have we talked about?" Mr. Harris then banged his gavel and sent Mr. Armstrong from the witness chair. The subcommittee then turned to some secondary witnesses.

In St. Louis, attorneys had taken another step toward a new trial for Lamar Caudle of Wadesboro, N.C., and another former Truman Administration official, appointments secretary Matt Connelly, both of whom had been convicted in a tax conspiracy case, allegedly showing preferential treatment to a man charged with tax evasion. Lawyers for the two had notified the Justice Department the previous day that they would take depositions on July 1 in New York from a co-defendant in the case, attorney Harry Schwimmer, who had been stricken with a stroke and granted a mistrial, now prepared to testify that oil royalties he had taken out in the name of Mr. Caudle had been done without the latter's knowledge. The Government had charged that both Mr. Caudle and Mr. Connelly had accepted favors, including the oil royalties, to provide the preferential treatment for the tax evader who was fined but served no time in jail, the District Court judge having found that he was too ill to go to prison. Mr. Schwimmer, according to Mr. Caudle's attorney, had also stated that he had never conferred with Mr. Connelly regarding the case of the tax evader, his client. Mr. Caudle had maintained that he made Mr. Schwimmer take the stock back. The defendants asserted that Mr. Schwimmer could now provide testimony affecting their cases which was unavailable at trial because of the latter's illness, rendering him until recently unable to speak.

In Washington, the Federal Communications Commission this date ordered American Telephone & Telegraph Co. to cut its rates for private telephone line service by about 15 percent, to become effective in 60 days.

In Detroit, defiant pickets, facing union action to take over control of their local, blocked traffic at the Chrysler Corp. missile plant for a third straight day. A line of cars eight miles long at times backed up as UAW members paraded before the plant, which produced Army Jupiter and Redstone missiles. A bottle had been tossed into one car and some motorists entering the plant had been poked by pickets reaching through car windows. The county sheriff had 40 men on duty and called for additional help in unsnarling the traffic jam, resulting in some 20 officers from nearby communities responding. Deputies formed a cordon to keep non-strikers' cars moving into the plant as angry pickets jeered the officers. Two pickets had been held for investigation of disorderly conduct, one accused of sprinkling tacks at parking lot entrances and another of excessive abuse of officers. In a move to quell the wildcat walkout, UAW president Walter Reuther had called officers of the striking local before the union's International Executive Board this date to show cause why an administrator ought not be placed over the local. The local represented 450 of the missile plant's 8,500 employees. Officers of the local said that they were unable to keep the members from walking off the job and picketing the plant the prior Monday and the previous day.

In Rome, Amintore Fanfani, a tough anti-Communist, had been asked by President Giovanni Gronchi this date to form a new left-of-center government.

In Paris, Premier Charles de Gaulle this date had placed restrictions on French military commanders ruling Algeria and emphasized that they held civilian administrative powers only temporarily.

In Algiers, it was reported that General Raoul Salan had called on his military governors throughout the country to release as many political prisoners as possible for a Muslim holiday beginning the following day.

In Kumanoto, Japan, Mount Aso still spewed smoke this date after an eruption which had come without warning, killing 12 Japanese and injuring 28, with six of those injured having been in serious condition.

In Tallahassee, Fla., Governor LeRoy Collins, chairman of the National Governors Conference, this date had appointed North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges and Illinois Governor William Stratton to the special committee on federal-state relations.

In New York, a Swedish freighter had rammed a gasoline tanker in the darkness of the East River early this date, sparking a towering blast of flames which had sunk the tanker and seared the Manhattan Bridge high above. Two or three men were missing and 37 had been injured. The sinking tanker had also spewed dangerous unignited fuel into the river and caused the shipping artery to be closed to traffic for several hours. Although a wide area of the river was turned into an inferno of fire shortly after the collision, many crewmen had plunged into the water screaming for help. Numerous rescue craft rushed to pick up the swimmers and one New York City fireboat had been disabled in doing so. Thousands of spectators had been attracted to the riverbanks to watch the drama unfolding. The flames following the collision had reached the superstructure of the bridge 130 feet above and had set off some minor fires which brought to a standstill automobile traffic and subway trains using the bridge. Two of the missing men were crew members of the tanker.

In Salvador, Brazil, a train bringing injured victims to the town from a disastrous fireworks explosion in the north Brazil village of Santo Amaro had been derailed the previous night, killing two persons.

In Santa Barbara, Calif., six weeks earlier, the brakes on a man's truck had failed at the top of a grade in the city. He could have jumped, but instead had stuck with it, continuing to try to steer the truck through eight street crossings, avoiding pedestrians and automobiles until the truck crashed into a creek and the man was killed. At 31, he had left a wife and four children, with the fifth on the way. An account of the tragedy in the News-Press had started a spontaneous flow of dollars until the total approached $13,000. As one contributor had put it: "If he had tried to save himself and jumped, leaving the truck uncontrolled, who knows how many might have been killed or maimed? There are lots of children in that neighborhood. He must've been thinking of that when he decided to stay at the wheel." The man only lived a mile from where the accident took place. Most of the money had come in small amounts of one or two dollar donations from hundreds of donors, many anonymous, the smallest amount having been 28 cents provided by a little boy and the largest, $420. A semipro baseball team had staged a benefit game to help the cause, and schools, churches, service clubs, small businesses, government workers and hospital patients had contributed. A group of children had collected nickels and dimes in a pickle jar from passersby. The YMCA had arranged for three of the man's children to attend summer camps, with the fourth being too young. The man's widow said that she could not thank them all enough and did not know how to express what she felt. She said she told the children how nice everyone had been to console them, but the 11-year old boy had said that he wished he had his daddy.

In Tryon, N.C., it was reported that police had arrested a Polk County man early this date as he slept in an outhouse, a rifle across his knee. The peaceful arrest had climaxed a bullet-punctuated flight through mountain underbrush by three Spartanburg, S.C., cab company employees. The 32-year old man was identified as an ex-convict of the Columbus area and was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, held for grand jury action. The sheriff said that prior to daybreak, the man had hired a Spartanburg cab for a round-trip to his home to feed his chickens and to return to South Carolina. Three cab company employees had made the trip. When they arrived at the man's mountain home, he directed them to assist in his chores and asked two of the men to accompany him into the house to get some money. As he went into another room, the two employees heard rifle fire, looked outside and saw that the man was firing at the third man in the cab. The latter started the vehicle and backed down the hillside away from the home and then drove to town and notified the sheriff's office. The two men still in the home jumped out a window and fled, dodging bullets from the rifle as they ran. The sheriff collected a posse and went to the man's home where the arrest was made. The sheriff said that the man had been convicted several years earlier for threatening a taxi driver and had served a term on the roads.

Julian Scheer of The News reports that the County School Board this date had denied requests for reassignment of ten black children to white schools. The request had been made by four black families on behalf of their children presently attending black schools in Mecklenburg County. Eight of the applications had been turned down on the basis of the "welfare" of the student, according to School Board officials. Two of the students had been denied because they had been mistakenly enrolled in County schools while living in City School district limits. The parents were the same who had applied for reassignment the previous year and they would have ten days from the time they were notified of the denial to file a notice of appeal. The School Board attorney said that the requests had been rejected after "the Board took into consideration the crowded conditions in schools and gave careful consideration to the welfare and best interest of each child involved and based the decision on these points."

In Huntersville, N.C., it was reported that an early morning fire had swept through a garage-store, doing several thousands of dollars in damage. All machinery in the garage had been destroyed and County police said that five cars, including a Cadillac, and a pickup truck stored in the building had also been burned. Police said that all merchandise in the feed store had been destroyed.

In Cheyenne, Wyo., it was reported that light snow had fallen and temperatures had dipped into the 30's, with Laramie reporting a temperature of 45 and an inch of snow on the ground. That's nothing. In 2025 in late August, it has been reported that a record snowfall has hit Washington, knee-deep in some places in and around the White House.

In Saltash, England, a 19-year old girl had started a six-month jail sentence this date blaming tattoos for her troubles. She had the word "Kiwi" on one hand, a skull and crossbones on the other, a blue star on her forehead and a floral design on her chest. But the tattoo which she regretted most was on her leg, stating, "I love men". Because of the latter, she told police, she could not get a job. Prospective employers invariably decided that she was not the working type. She had been convicted the previous day of stealing 5 pounds from her mother, the equivalent of $14. She hoped that plastic surgery while in prison would remove her tattoos. Later, she hit the big time, in the U.S.A.

On the editorial page, "The Silly Business about Spencer Bell" indicates that the incumbent State Senator running for re-election in the upcoming runoff primary with State Representative Jack Love had taken a lot of flak for his support of a plan to change the method of selecting North Carolina judges.