The Charlotte News
Monday, June 30, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Havana that that the Cuban rebels this date had struck again in their campaign to kidnap Americans and other foreigners, this time taking two plant officials in eastern Cuba, as announced by the U.S. Embassy this date. U.S. Consul Park Wollam was said to be negotiating with the rebels in the mountains for the release of 39 other kidnaped Americans and two Canadians. Sherman White, general manager of the big U.S.-built Nicaro nickel plant, and his assistant had been kidnaped by a band of eight rebels. The kidnaping had been in the same pattern as the previous abductions the previous week of ten American and two Canadian engineers, employees of a company which had facilities for mining and concentrating nickel and cobalt. All of the abductions were believed to be designed to draw attention to Fidel Castro's "sputtering revolt" against El Presidente Fulgencio Batista. U.S. Embassy sources had said that Mr. Wollam was still in contact with the rebels in the mountains of Oriente Province, but that there was no indication when the men would be released. Of those held, 28 were U.S. servicemen who had disappeared during the weekend, 27 of whom had been on an overnight picnic excursion from the Naval base at Guantánamo, while the other man had been taken as he walked just outside that base. A spokesman at the base said that the Navy knew nothing of reports published abroad that the men might be freed this date, saying, however, that the Navy did not expect the men to be held for long. After Sr. Castro's "war of nerves" had fizzled three months earlier, the rebels had withdrawn to the hills and remained relatively quiet, with Cuba returning to normal. The previous Thursday night, the rebels had taken the ten American and two Canadian engineers in Moa on the northern coast of Oriente. Two sugar mill executives had been taken in separate kidnapings in Oriente. The 27 kidnaped sailors and Marines had failed to return to Guantánamo on schedule on Friday night and their empty bus had been found Saturday afternoon, with two Cubans, presumably the driver and his assistant, also reported missing. Although the U.S. Embassy had reported that the men had been forced from their bus and driven into the mountains, there had been no public expression of fear for their safety or that of the other captives. Mr. Wollam had been told by a reliable rebel source that the 12 engineers were in good shape. In the past, Sr. Castro's men had been studiously polite to their foreign captives, releasing them unharmed after the kidnaping had created the desired publicity. Because of the current kidnapings, the Cuban Army had curtailed its offensive against the rebels to avoid open fighting which might harm the captives.
In Hong Kong, it was reported that Communist China had demanded this date that the U.S. resume ambassadorial talks in Geneva within 15 days, coupling it with a threat against Formosa. The talks had been halted the previous December 12 when U.S. Ambassador Alexis Johnson and Communist Chinese Ambassador Wang Ping-Nan had held their 73rd meeting and adjourned indefinitely. The talks had begun in 1955, to negotiate the release of about 40 Americans imprisoned in Communist China. Most of the Americans had been freed and the talks had turned to other issues between the two countries. Peiping radio had broadcast the demand for resumption of the talks, but insisted that the Communist regime did not care whether negotiations were resumed, saying: "The Chinese people are by no means afraid of U.S. aggression and there is no reason whatever that they should be pining for talks with the United States. Building socialism with lightning speed, the Chinese people are perfectly strong enough to liberate their territory of Taiwan. No force on earth can stop the great cause of the Chinese people. The reason why China agreed to hold the ambassadorial talks was to try to eliminate, by peaceful means, the armed aggression and threat of force in the Taiwan area on the part of the United States. The Chinese government demands that the U.S. government designate a representative of ambassadorial rank and resume the talks within 15 days, counting from today. Otherwise, the Chinese government cannot but consider that the United States has decided to break up the Chinese-American ambassadorial talks." The U.S. Seventh Fleet guarded from invasion Taiwan, or Formosa as it was called in the West, the Chinese Nationalist stronghold.
In Beirut, Lebanese rebels had occupied hills overlooking Beirut International Airport in a surprise thrust during the morning. Security forces supported by armored cars and a lone fighter plane had struck back in mid-morning and occupied two hills behind a village near Beirut, and the fighting continued. The rebels and Government forces had fought the fiercest battle of the rebellion during the weekend at Tripoli. There had been no reports of whether the rebel activities there had signaled the start of an offensive to capture the whole city. The battle in Tripoli the previous day had centered around the U.S. Presbyterian Hospital, which stood on a hill surrounded by rebel territory. Bullets had nicked the hospital's outer walls and it was shaken by explosions. Inside the hospital were 25 Lebanese patients and 42 Lebanese staff members, who had reported by telephone the previous day that their reinforced patrol of Government guards remained. American personnel had quit the hospital two weeks earlier. The rebels were seeking to capture the hospital to take back their own wounded. Rebel strongholds in the Tripoli area had been shelled by land and seaborne artillery. Government gunboats in the Mediterranean had shelled the El Mena port area, staging point for the rebel attacks on the hospital. Armored cars had continued blasting rebel strong points from land. Casualty figures were uncertain, although 38 persons had been reported killed thus far, at least 12 of whom were rebels. Tripoli had been the scene of the heaviest fighting since the rebellion against pro-Western President Camille Chamoun and his Government had erupted 52 days earlier with riots which had resulted in the burning of the U.S. Information Agency library.
In Nicosia, Cyprus, terrorist violence had continued this date and the leader of the Greek Cypriot underground had threatened to renew attacks on the British unless they negotiated with Archbishop Makarios regarding independence for the island.
Before the House subcommittee investigating the Adams-Goldfine matter, former publisher John Fox, who had once owned the now defunct Boston Post, testified this date that White House chief of staff Sherman Adams had sought to hush up his old friend, Bernard Goldfine, and prevent him from boasting that Mr. Adams had "never let him down". Mr. Fox had thus flatly contradicted the denial by Mr. Adams that Mr. Goldfine had made such a statement in his presence. The subcommittee had heard testimony from Mr. Fox for the third day, refusing to allow him to read a new statement regarding the probe of the Adams-Goldfine matter. Mr. Fox repeated, with details, his story of a conference in the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel in Washington involving Mr. Adams and Mr. Goldfine, and of Mr. Goldfine's subsequent boast to Mr. Adams. Mr. Goldfine was having difficulties at the time, in May, 1955, with the Federal Trade Commission regarding mislabeling of woolen goods produced in his textile mills. Following the conference with Mr. Adams, according to Mr. Fox, Mr. Goldfine had called Mr. Fox into the room for a drink and proposed a toast to Mr. Adams, who "never lets his friends down and isn't letting me down now." Representative Joseph O'Hara of Minnesota, member of the subcommittee, had asked Mr. Fox whether that had been "a kidding remark." Mr. Fox responded that he did not know, but that Mr. Adams had taken Mr. Goldfine by the arm to a far corner of the room and "quite obviously admonished him not to talk too much." The chairman of the subcommittee, Representative Oren Harris of Arkansas, had interrupted to admonish Mr. Fox not to testify about things he did not know himself. But Mr. Fox continued, saying, "From the snatches of conversation I got and Mr. Adams's obvious concern," he had known that Mr. Adams was telling Mr. Goldfine "to keep his mouth shut."
The Senate Select Committee
investigating misconduct of unions and management had set out this
date to show that a powerful underworld syndicate was becoming fat
off helpless businesses and labor unions. The chairman of the
Committee, Senator John McClellan of Arkansas, and its lead counsel,
Robert F. Kennedy, portrayed the probe as being aimed at unmasking
schemes in which they said that organized racketeers, operating
behind respectable fronts, infiltrated and made collusive labor
contract deals with labor unions, thus gaining unfair advantage over
legitimate competitors, that racketeers had quietly muscled into
businesses which they used as fronts, pouring into them profits from
narcotics and gambling, with the objective to conceal unlawful
sources of income and obtain a financial edge over competing firms.
Mr. Kennedy told a press conference: "There is no question that
there is an underworld organization that has leadership, that has
authority, and that takes action against those who challenge it. Some
call it the Mafia, some call it the syndicate." Senator
McClellan said that the hearings would show a continuing tie between
such a syndicate and gangster Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who
had been deported to Italy. The Senator said that it might take four
months or more of hearings to show what new laws were needed to deal
with what he called the American criminal syndicate, indicating that
100 witnesses had been subpoenaed. The Committee had chosen to launch
the hearings with an effort to get at more facts about the alleged
crime convention which had drawn some 65 racketeers, hoodlums and
others to Apalachin, N.Y., the previous fall. Among the underworld
figures to be called as witnesses were Vito Genovese, New York
mobster, and Russell Bufalino
The President's signature this date repealed the half-billion dollar per year Federal tax on freight shipments.
In Geneva, it was reported that a Soviet official had stated this date that the Russian scientific delegation would show up for the opening the following day of East-West talks regarding ways to prevent cheating in any world nuclear test ban.
The Supreme Court this date had unanimously reversed a contempt finding and a $100,000 fine assessed against the NAACP by an Alabama judge.
In Baton Rouge, La., the State Senate the previous night had passed and sent to the Governor two bills designed to bypass a Federal court order to end segregated bus seating in New Orleans.
In Detroit, Plymouth body and assembly plants of the Chrysler Corp. had been closed this date shortly after the start of the day shift, idling 2,700 workers in a recurrence of a dispute which had shut the plants the previous Friday.
In New York, it was reported that the City Transit Authority this date had started a campaign to swap soap coupons for a subway token or free bus ride. Sale of the specially wrapped soap had begun at a Manhattan grocery store, and consumers acquiring three of the coupons could obtain a free ride.
In Corpus Christi, Tex., it was reported that a man had speared his boyhood friend to death in an underwater skin-diving accident the previous day, thinking that his friend was a fish. The 22-year old victim had been skin diving with six other friends in deep water off an oil well rig seven miles south of Port Aransas, Tex., and he and his friend had been diving for fish together. The man who had speared his friend said that he had lost sight of him at a depth of 65 feet and had returned to the surface but still could not see him and said he assumed that his friend was chasing fish in another part of the water. He again dove back down to about 30 feet and shot with his spear gun at what he thought was a fish, the arrow instead hitting his friend in the head. He had pulled on the string attached to the spear and discovered that he had hit his friend and immediately surfaced with the victim, who died in a boat as he was rushed to a Coast Guard cutter. The man who shot the spear was treated for shock by doctors and placed under sedatives. The victim had been a University of Texas student.
In New Orleans, a 31-year old city policeman who had faked his death and disappeared three weeks earlier, had returned to his wife and five children the previous night because, he said, "I miss them."
In London, it was reported that Lady Molly Huggins had said this date that her husband, Sir John, former Governor of Jamaica, had run off to Italy with another woman and that if he would come home, she would forgive him, but that if he stayed away, she would have to think of a divorce. She said that the other woman was the owner of a dress shop near the Huggins home in Farnham, Surrey. Sir John was 66 and a grandfather. The woman with whom he supposedly had run away was in her 40's and had a small daughter. Lady Molly was 50. She said that her husband and the other woman had been traced to a hotel in Rapallo and that to make matters worse, they had spent their honeymoon in Italy 29 years earlier. She said that he was being very silly and did not think she would follow him to Italy as she did not believe he would be there long, that he was "a little old for that sort of thing." She said that some of her husband's friends had seemed to think that the other woman was not of the same class as they were, but she said that was "nonsense", that she did not care if the other woman ran a shop or was a duchess. "I don't care a damn. I'm no snob." The other woman's husband said that he was bewildered, that his wife and he had been married for a long time and had a young daughter, and was puzzled as to how he could explain it to her. They are probably just holding hands, watching the sunsets, talking about dresses. What's the big deal?
In Hollywood, it was reported that Zsa Zsa Gabor this date had canceled the party she had planned to give for General Rafael Trujillo, Jr., of the Dominican Republic on July 8 aboard his yacht. In a telegram to those whom she had invited she said that she was giving up her role as "the hostest with the mostest" and regretted that the party which she had planned to give for her "dear friend" had to be canceled. Sr. Trujillo, son of the dictator who headed the Dominican Republic, had earlier stated that he did not know what Ms. Gabor was doing holding a party on his yacht, of which he had known nothing, saying that he would meet the people who had been invited and would decide whom to invite to his next party, which would be his.
John Kilgo of The News reports that a drunk driving case, originally scheduled for trial in the City Recorder's Court on August 22, 1957, but had not been tried until the prior June 17, after the court investigation had begun, had come to light this date when Police Chief Frank Littlejohn had shown a News reporter a signed statement by a police officer that Capt. Lloyd Henkel had asked him to change the drunk driving charge to reckless driving. The patrolman had said that on August 17, 1957, he had followed a car east on Central Avenue and the driver had made a left turn into another street and had run onto the sidewalk. The officer said that the man then had driven his car into the yard at Midwood School and traveled for about a block along Nassau Boulevard, when the patrolman had stopped him. (Whatever for?) The patrolman said that the driver was definitely under the influence of some intoxicant and he had arrested him, finding about a fourth of a pint of whiskey under his left front seat. (Medicinal stimulant.) The officer signed a statement in which he said that the case had been set for August 22, at which time he was in court, but that the case had not been called. He continued that several days later, Capt. Henkel had the dispatcher ask him to call the captain, who asked him if it would be all right with him to change the warrant from operating under the influence to reckless driving, which the officer said that he would approve if the captain wanted him to do so. (What's the problem?)
Mr.
Kilgo also reports that a woman of Charlotte thought that she
was dreaming
On the editorial page, "'The People Have Lost Their Kings'" begins with a quote from the Bible, Nehemiah 2:7: "Moreover, I said unto the King [of Persia], if it please the King, let letters be given me to the Governors beyond the river, that they may let me pass through 'til I come to Judah."
It indicates that the State Department liked to quote that passage whenever U.S. passport policy was being challenged. It finds that it established an historical reference of sorts for what the Department's Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs had called its "traditional right to deny passports".
But it also finds that it could occur to the Department that the people had lost their Kings.
Grounds for hope had been offered two weeks earlier when the Court had held that a person could not be denied a passport because of his or her beliefs or associations. The decision had knocked down the State Department's unreasonably restrictive regulations and dealt a blow to the policies of Secretary of State Dulles, himself, who had claimed and asserted broad discretion to deny passports whenever, in his judgment, it would be "contrary to the best interest of the United States" to permit the applicant to travel abroad. The decision now forbade the Secretary from denying passports on such an undefined and arbitrary basis. Justice William O. Douglas, who delivered the opinion, had written: "The right of exit is a personal right included within the word 'liberty' as used in the Fifth Amendment. If that 'liberty' is to be regulated, it must be pursuant to the law-making functions of Congress. And if that power is delegated, the standards must be adequate to pass security by the accepted tests."
The Court had held that it was for Congress to establish regulations on the issuance of passports, not for the executive branch to do so with "unbridled discretion", that the ultimate constitutional question of Congressional power to deny passports had been left unsettled, though Justice Douglas had said in the majority opinion that it was dealing with a Constitutional right which was assumed that Congress would be "faithful to respect."
It finds the decision long overdue, as an executive official should not be able to interfere arbitrarily with an American citizen's right to travel abroad, based on mere suspicion. As Justice Douglas had pointed out, the citizens who had been denied were not accused of any crime, much less having been found guilty of same, but were denied their freedom of movement solely because of their refusal to be subjected to inquiry into their beliefs and associations. If a person were a spy or had committed a crime, he could be arrested, put on trial and restrained from travel for years or forever. But mere suspicion was no good basis on which to deny the fundamental right of travel. The average citizen was helpless to defend himself or herself against suspicion.
It indicates that if Congress decided to legislate in the area, it ought to act in accordance with the right of free travel. It suggests that Congress might even take the text of President Eisenhower's advice to the Geneva Conference in July, 1955, urging the nations of the world "to lower the barriers which now impede the opportunities of people to travel anywhere in the world for peaceful, friendly purposes so that all will have a chance to know each other face to face."
"Spencer Bell: The People's Choice" indicates that Mr. Bell was due special congratulations on his election by the people to represent Mecklenburg County in the State Senate, a position in which he was already the incumbent. It indicates that his triumph over Representative Jack Love in the second primary represented not a casually provided vote of confidence for an incumbent who had excelled in baby-kissing, hat-tipping and exhaling hot air, as Mr. Bell had no talent for such small arts of small politics. The remarkable breadth of the vote had to be interpreted as an informed electorate's enthusiastic endorsement of an uncommonly gifted candidate.
The results of the runoff primary had decidedly been good for Mecklenburg and the state and it suggests that the good will would be magnified, provided Mr. Bell took the vote as an expression of public approval of the candid, direct and outspoken approach to issues which had marked his service in the State Senate and in public affairs locally.
It indicates that it was important for the county's representatives to be popular in Raleigh in the Legislature, but that it was more important that they be respected for the grasp of issues and the clarity of conviction with which they discussed them. The ideal circumstance was that a State Senator would be popular for the right reasons at home and be influential for the right things in Raleigh, and it posits that the county had come about as close to that ideal as it was apt to do. It also thanks the electorate for choosing Mr. Bell.
"For Every Silver Lining, a Cloud" indicates that from the North Carolina Prison Department had come the news that there were new policies such that the group assigned the task of keeping people confined had decided prison camps might notify home-county news media of escapes, with the prior policy having been to call Raleigh and have the central office inform the wire services and others of such matters.
It supposes that a news-conscious prison camp director had a favorite rural editor and called that person first, suggesting an imaginary conversation along those lines as occurring in the Charlotte area, which you may read for yourself for the humorous flavor, as the mythical escapee supposedly was serving out the sentence of his great-great-great-great-grandfather, who supposedly had stolen the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.
A piece from the LaGrange (Ga.) Daily News, titled "What's in a Word?" questions when a word was pretty, whether when it sounded nice or when it meant something pleasant, with a class at the University of Georgia having inquired into the matter recently, finding more of a paradox than an answer.
Dr. Robert Wolverton, assistant professor of classics, had asked his 37 students in a class in etymology to list the ten prettiest and ten ugliest words in their view. In the "pretty" column were listed "melody" ten times, "dawn" seven times, "beautiful" six times and "spring" five times. The ugliest words listed were "ugly" and "gangrene", each listed five times.
Listed in both columns on one or more of the lists were "rain", "jazz", "nausea", "parallel" and "marriage".
Drew Pearson indicates that the President, pink-faced with fury, had verbally reprimanded Pacific commander, Admiral Felix Stump, recently at a secret strategy session at the Marine Base in Quantico, Va. The President had strode into the conference room while Admiral Stump was reporting on the Far East, indicating that the Pacific was vital to the security of the country, and adding, aware of the presence of the President: "Asia can be lost, but does not have to be—if we do the right things and do them in time. We have only fringe friends left in Asia and we are not backing them up." He had told of a visit with the Shah of Iran, who had complained that the U.S. tended to go to extremes and could not be depended on. Admiral Stump quoted the Shah as saying that the State Department took a position for or against a matter and then settled on a policy line which permitted no middle ground. The Admiral said: "Our naval forces in the Pacific are inadequate," that the carriers were "wearing out" and yet there were insufficient funds to repair or replace them, that reduction of the Army in the Pacific was unrealistic unless the forces were more than replaced by modern weapons. He had also urged the use of atomic weapons in any future conflicts such as Korea. He stated that the country's allies in Asia feared that the U.S. would not use them or would wait too long, ending with a sharp warning against "our shortsighted disregard for our own security."
That proposition would soon be tested over Quemoy and Matsu.
The President had been listening stiffly in his chair, with the anger surging in a red tide up his face. Deputy Defense Secretary Donald Quarles, who was presiding over the meeting, apparently sensed that the President was suppressing anger and so inquired whether he would care to say a few words. The President had said that he had a few things to say which might take 20 minutes or so. He began by referring to Admiral Stump as "that admiral" who had "narrow, parochial views". "Anyone who takes a narrow view that one area should have priority over another is not thinking right. We have no priorities." Later, the President had contradicted himself by stating that the country only had limited funds and "must let first things come first." He had been so furious that he kept tripping over his tongue and jumbling his words. After about ten minutes of letting off steam, he began to cool off and ended with a plea for teamwork: "Any officer who reaches high rank must put aside his loyalty to his particular service and work for the country as a whole."
Several generals and admirals had come away from the meeting with the impression that, in the struggle against world Communism, the President seemed more concerned about team play than winning.
Joseph Alsop says that in his nearly 25 years of government-watching, he had never seen the Government in such disarray as it was at present. The worst moments of the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations had never been comparable, possibly because neither President had ever enjoyed the prolonged, almost universal adulation which President Eisenhower had in his first term.
He indicates that soon after the first 100 days of the Roosevelt Presidency, the opposition had become vocal and sometimes even vicious, that President Truman also had only a short honeymoon, after which he had to fight strong and determined enemies on every side. He suggests that perhaps a determined opposition was a good thing for an Administration, just as exercise was good for the body. But the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations had gotten through their rough patches without the symptoms of near-demoralization which was being observed at present in the Eisenhower Administration. "There was never any sense of the whole show being out of control. There was never any feeling that the man in the White House would not or could not rally his troops and fight back, giving his enemies as good as he got." Now, however, there was that feeling, which had come about in stages until it was presently fairly overpowering.
First there had been the launching of the Sputniks by Russia the previous October and November, which had destroyed confidence in the President's defense program, and then there had been the recession and the long uncertainty of the Administration's post-recession economic policy. Now had come the matter involving Sherman Adams, which was the worst of all, the sort of thing which was bound to happen occasionally in modern government which had enormous favors to dispense to private interests. The mistake which had been made in the matter was one which officials could easily and often innocently make if they were excessively easy-going, as had been General Harry Vaughan serving under President Truman, or passionately parsimonious, as was Mr. Adams.
The vicuna coat provided to Mr. Adams by his old friend Bernard Goldfine had been a much more deadly blow than General Vaughan's deep freezers provided to him by an influence-peddler at the White House and then distributed to many others, including First Lady Bess Truman. Some of those who ought to know had even argued that the President's health would not stand the added strain were Mr. Adams finally forced to resign, such was the President's dependence on him as an aide.
The President had not wished to seek a second term following his September, 1955 heart attack, but had been persuaded to do so by those around him, with Mr. Adams having led that effort, including those in his party and those who adored him in the press, both of which groups were now bitterly attacking him. He indicates that if the President had followed his own inclination and not run again in 1956, he might have retired to his Gettysburg farm in a golden blaze of glory, but had yielded to the persuasions coming from many sides. During the second term, his luck had run out, and the President appeared unable to respond to the harsh challenge of the new situation, as exposed in his words regarding Mr. Adams, "I need him".
There were gestures made, planned by White House press secretary James Hagerty, such as the visit to Mount Vernon and the reference to George Washington's sword by the President, wondering, sardonically, whether that had been also a "gift". Those gestures, planned by Mr. Hagerty, no longer had the old effect and yet there was no substitute for them.
He suggests that it was not the end of the story, that anyone who had seen the Lebanese crisis firsthand could predict with certainty that the challenges which confronted the President at present were far milder than the challenges which would confront him in the future, that with the defense of the country exposed as being quite inadequate, with the economy still in mid-slump, and with Mr. Adams still in the White House, the long-established system of American foreign relations also appeared to be coming apart at the seams, with even worse to be expected in the future.
Doris Fleeson indicates that the Adams case had, in a political sense, broken too soon for the Democrats, with all the portents indicating that they did not need the issue to increase substantially their Congressional margins to be achieved in the coming fall. One Democratic Senator had said: "Just another classic case of the rich get rich and the poor get poorer. If it came seven or eight months later, it would have made a fine launching for 1960." Some Democrats expressed fear that they would suffer from receiving too much of the vote of confidence from the voters in the midterms and that with such substantial majorities, would be expected to produce that which no legislative body could do.
Southern Democrats had another reason for complaining, because in the next Congress it was a practical certainty that there would be a more liberal bent than the present one, given the people who were retiring from the House and Senate, nearly all of whom were Republicans and nearly all of whom were conservative, with the nominees of both parties running to replace them being more liberal.
As examples, she cites Pennsylvania and California, in the latter wherein Senator William Knowland would be succeeded by either Governor Goodwin Knight or Representative Clair Engle, each of whom was more liberal than the retiring Minority Leader. In Pennsylvania, retiring Senator Edward Martin, who had represented fiscal conservatism on the Finance Committee and had been heard to say that when in doubt on an issue, he consulted the "excellent research facilities" of the Weirton Steel Co., which had been headed by arch-conservative Ernest Weir, would be succeeded either by the Republican nominee, liberal Congressman Hugh Scott of Philadelphia, a battler for civil rights, or Democrat and New Dealer, Governor George Leader.
One Senate Southerner had said, half in jest and half in earnest: "Our majority today is so narrow it's too hard on Lyndon. I figure about four or five extra Democratic votes are just right. The South can get around those. But another one of those Roosevelt majorities in the Senate will make our lives burdened."
It would pep up the liberals, already restive under Southern domination of Congress through the Texas leadership and seniority system, including House Speaker Sam Rayburn, if their ranks were increased in the fall midterms. Open rebellion was still unlikely as long as Senator Johnson personally believed he could sustain the burden of the leadership despite his heart condition, also having suffered a heart attack on July 4, 1955. Liberals were already saying, however, that the following year they wanted to caucus on policy matters and have more to say about what went on the calendar in the Senate. Presently, Senator Johnson carried his office around under his hat. With a real majority, such a highly personal technique of leadership would be far more difficult, if not impossible.
A letter writer from Gastonia responds to a prior letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., who, in turn, was responding to another letter writer, this writer wondering if Mr. Cherry would attempt another logical somersault for the readers by telling every unemployed worker in the state exactly how to proceed in successfully claiming his championed "right to work", or whether the labor bosses were correct when they asserted that the title "right-to-work law" was a deception, a misleading slogan to prevent workers from organizing.
A letter writer comments on the U.S. District Court judge in Arkansas having temporarily suspended integration in Little Rock schools for 2 1/2 years until the beginning of 1960, indicating that a different Federal judge had been hailed as a hero the previous year when he had ordered integration to proceed immediately, in accordance with a plan submitted in 1956 by the Little Rock school board, but on this occasion, the Federal judge had seen the danger still existing and had been called a "heel", a "bigot" and "every adjective the bleeding hearts can cook up." He finds that one local newspaper, which had its policies dictated from a thousand miles away from Charlotte and did not speak for the majority of the citizens of the area, had found itself in the usual position of taking issue with the recent decision—presumably referring to the Observer, as the News had sided with the decision to postpone further integration in Little Rock. He says that the court had reached the decision after hearing many hours of truthful testimony from the local area and finding that it would be necessary for the Government to maintain an armed guard again during the coming school year to keep a few black pupils in Central High School, with the testimony having convinced the judge that the students and teachers had suffered great strain during the previous year with armed troops present at all times at the school, causing academic achievement of all students to suffer. He asserts that not all problems caused in Little Rock could be placed at the feet of the active and militant segregationists, that the national magazines and newspapers had contributed to it also. He finds that when a black female student had been expelled for constantly causing trouble, she had been hailed as a national queen, but when a dozen or more white students had been expelled, they had been damned by the "yellow journals". He finds that Governor Orval Faubus, rather than being slandered, ought be hailed as a man with guts who kept the streets from running with rivers of blood. "It will be many years before the hate stirred up by this stupid blunder of the President aided and abetted by the yellow journals will allow the schools of Little Rock to be peacefully integrated without armed troops."
As indicated, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals would reverse the District Court in August and the Supreme Court would affirm the appellate court in late September, ordering that the previous District Court orders to integrate per the school board's plan be reinstated.
A letter writer indicates that many accidents on the highways could be avoided and many homes would not be broken up by divorce if people were to take God into their lives and trust Him to take care of them through the day, counseling that everyone before leaving home each day should pray and ask God to take care of them all day, and then at night, thank Him for His care and protection. He suggests that husbands and wives who prayed together, stayed together, and that it was a shame that the divorce rate in America, a nation which was called Christian, was as high as it had become, that every problem could be solved through prayer, "a sugar bowl to make life sweeter".
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