The Charlotte News

Friday, June 6, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Secretary of State Dulles had said this date that "we have been encouraged" by some recent Soviet foreign policy moves and believed that significant agreements between Russia and the Western powers were possible. He stated to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "Whether or not a summit conference would be productive of such agreements remains to be seen." He described as encouraging the Soviet agreement to join in scientific studies of policing a nuclear test suspension and also Soviet acceptance of the U.S. proposal to confer on neutralizing the Antarctic. He suggested that the Soviet Communist bloc was in trouble on a number of points, predicting that Russia would either have to grant more independence to the Eastern European satellites or revert to Stalinist terror "with increased likelihood of violent revolt." He said that it was only one of several "insoluble problems" faced by Premier Nikita Khrushchev and the rest of the Kremlin leadership, listing the problems as including education, with the Soviet Government increasing education, particularly in science, while having to face the problem that minds which could penetrate outer space could also penetrate the fallacies of Marxism, in the economic sphere, that the Russian people were demanding more consumer goods, causing the Soviet rulers to have to do more for the welfare of their own people, in the area of personal security, that Stalinist police brutality had been put aside, causing in the more relaxed atmosphere "individualism" to grow. Regarding the satellites, Poland and Hungary had shown that nationalism and individualism were not extinguished even by massive and sustained pressures, causing the Soviet leadership to have to grant more independence to the satellites or increase police oppression and thereby the chance of revolt. Regarding refugees, millions of people had fled from Communist rule to free countries and their flight showed that there was something basically repellent in Communist rule. Regarding foreign policy, he said that since "brute force no longer brings results", in view of the free world defenses, Soviet rulers had switched to more friendly policies and developed "a vested interest in respectability." Mr. Dulles said it was a trend which the U.S. welcomed and encouraged and might bring nearer the day when Soviet leaders would be primarily interested in improving the welfare of their own people and bringing an end to the unnatural exploitation of the ruled peoples by international communism, at which point relations might be dominated by the natural good will and friendship which had always prevailed between the American and Russian people.

The testimony of the Secretary took place after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had its proposal to encourage Eastern European nations to loosen Moscow's grip defeated by a vote of 43 to 42 in Committee the previous night. The plan, which the Committee had proposed to add to the foreign aid authorization bill via an amendment offered by Senator John F. Kennedy, would have permitted the President to use aid money in satellite countries if he determined it would help encourage them to take a course independent from Moscow. The Administration supported the amendment in principle, but the President had stated on Wednesday that he believed it ought be handled in separate legislation rather than as part of the foreign aid bill. Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota attributed the rejection of the amendment to a State Department double-cross.

Representative Patrick Hillings of California said that the White House had advised him this date that John McCone, a Los Angeles businessman, would be nominated to succeed Lewis Strauss as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Mr. McCone, 56, was an engineer with widespread business interests, having been a Defense Department official in the Truman Administration, serving as deputy to the Secretary of Defense in 1948 and as Undersecretary of the Air Force in 1950-51. He was a personal friend of the President and had been a frequent visitor at the White House. Admiral Strauss was leaving the AEC on June 30, when his current five-year term would expire, the announcement of which had been made by the White House the previous day. Mr. McCone was former president and director of the California Shipbuilding Corp., the Joshua Hendy Corp., the Joshua Hendy Ironworks, chairman of the board of the Pacific Far East Line, a director of the California Bank of Los Angeles, the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., and the Industrial Indemnity Co. He was a member of the Burning Tree Country Club in Washington, where the President was also a member and often played golf. Admiral Strauss had given no specific reason for his decision, but had said in a letter to the President that he believed "circumstances beyond the control of either of us make a change in the chairmanship of the commission advisable." The report indicates that it could have been an allusion to speculation that his renomination might run into stiff opposition in the Senate. After the news, some members of Congress had lauded his "great contributions", while others voiced pleasure at his impending departure. He would also give up his post as special advisor to the President on atomic energy matters, but would become the President's special assistant in charge of promoting the atoms-for-peace program. As such, he would lead the U.S. delegation to an international scientific conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy, in Geneva the following September. For the previous several months, he had reportedly been locked in a dispute with Secretary of State Dulles regarding U.S. policy on nuclear testing. The Admiral contended that continued testing was necessary to perfect anti-missile weapons and to produce nuclear weapons with a minimum of radioactive fallout, indicating that tests ought be halted only in conjunction with a halt in production and with a safeguarded inspection system. Secretary Dulles was known to believe that the U.S. ought change its policy, possibly with a temporary halt to testing while efforts were being made to work out a more permanent cessation with the Soviets.

At Cape Canaveral, Fla., a Navy Polaris experimental missile had been launched this date on what was described as its toughest test yet. The rocket had gone straight up for some 20 seconds but then seemed to break apart shortly after it had moved toward a more horizontal course. At least one section of the rocket had fallen into the ocean where crash boats were standing by. The Navy said in a brief announcement that the mission was to test certain components of the Navy Polaris missile system under more difficult conditions than previous launches. The last time the Lockheed rocket had been fired was on May 8, when it burst apart with a huge flash of flame shortly after launch. But the Navy had announced that the breakup on that occasion had been expected and that the test appeared to be normal.

In Oran, Algeria, Premier Charles de Gaulle had told representatives of the All-Algeria Public Safety Committee this date that its insurgent authority had to come to an end and that he would run Algeria. He named General Raoul Salan as military commander of the junta, as his own delegate-general in Algiers, a new post. But Premier De Gaulle would personally assume control of Algerian affairs, acting as his own cabinet minister for the territory. The Premier said that the committee which led the drive to bring him to power had to concentrate on integration of the Moslem and European communities in Algeria. On this, the last day of his tour of Algeria, he told representatives of the Algerian and local safety committee: "You must not trespass or substitute yourselves for legal authority. Your task is to work for a complete integration of souls." He said that authority now existed in the hands of General Salan and that it must not be contested. It amounted to a rebuff to Leon Delbecque, one of the civilian leaders who had plotted the takeover in Algeria by the committee. The previous day Premier De Gaulle had called for unification of all such groups, both in Algeria and in France, to prevent leaders of past French Governments from coming to power. Speaking of the committee's work for integration, he said "this is a great role but there is no question of going any further."

At the U.N. in New York, it was announced by the organization that political upheavals in North Africa were keeping private investment out of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, with Morocco and Tunisia facing serious unemployment.

In Bengasi, Libya, the Arab League had announced this date its failure to solve the angry dispute between Lebanon and the United Arab Republic after Lebanon had rejected the compromise. The UAR was comprised of Egypt and Syria under the leadership of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

At Geneva, Secretary of Labor James Mitchell, speaking to the International Labor Organization this date, said that the U.S. economic situation had shown indications of improvement in recent weeks.

Douglas Starr of the Associated Press—who, along with two members of the staff of the Jackson (Miss.) Daily News, had been the only newsmen to contact Professor Clennon King after he had been jailed for trying to enter the all-white University of Mississippi at Oxford, the three reporters having entered the building undetected and taped an interview with him, shortly after which, the State Police had barred anyone from seeing the professor, who had sought to become the first black student to enter a white school in Mississippi—, reports that the professor had earned an isolated jail cell this date for his efforts to cross the state's rigid racial lines. He had stated that his attempt to enter the University had ended. The 37-year old former faculty member of the all-black Alcorn A&M College had been whisked away by State Highway Patrolmen the previous day after he had sought to enter the summer session at the University. His whereabouts had been maintained in secret until the previous night, at which time the Associated Press had learned that he was being held in a tiny cell on the top floor of the State Highway Patrol headquarters in Jackson, where the exclusive tape-recorded interview was conducted only an hour before the Highway Patrol had thrown a cordon of troopers around the building and refused anyone admittance. In the interview recorded by Newman Bergsma of the Daily News, the professor had said that he just wanted to get out of there, that he did not know what they were going to do, and that he would not bother with the attempted integration anymore. But state authorities had indicated that he would be examined by physicians after the clerk of Chancery in Oxford had filed a lunacy warrant against him, indicating that if they concluded that his mind was "a little off", they would send him to Whitfield, the state hospital, for psychiatric examination. The professor had been taken from a line of students waiting to register for summer school at the University and was told that if he came back onto campus, he would be arrested. He said that the University registrar had told him that the situation on registering was "just about hopeless". The professor had asked that his application forms be returned but was refused and that when he said he wanted to return to the waiting line, was forced out another entrance and carried to a waiting car. He said he was not mistreated. Governor J. P. Coleman, who had ordered troopers to the campus to preserve the peace, said, "All of his legal rights will be fully preserved."

In Charlotte, six applications for assignments of black students to white schools for the following school term had been received at the City School Board offices, filed the previous afternoon. One sought original assignment of a first-grader at Piedmont, others for reassignment of a fifth-grader from Biddleville to Seversville, a third-grader and a fifth-grader from Alexander Street to Piedmont, and a fifth-grader from Myers Street to Dilworth. An assistant principal had said that there was another application requesting reassignment from Northwest Junior High School to Seversville, with no explanation of the grade of the student. Since Northwest was a junior high and Seversville an elementary school, there appeared to be confusion regarding that application, according to the assistant principal. During the previous school year, for the first time in history, black students had been admitted to formerly all-white schools and three had completed the prior school year. Those schools were Central High School, Alexander Graham Junior High School and Piedmont Junior High School. The student at Central and the student at Piedmont had been assigned to those respective schools again for the following year by the School Board. The student at Alexander Graham would attend Myers Street the following year, as Graham was being abandoned at its Morehead Street site and the student's address was closest to Myers Street. The date for filing applications for reassignment was regarded as June 12, although the School Board had not officially set a date. The state pupil assignment law indicated that parents had ten days to file application for reassignment after notification of an assignment. Students in school in the previous term had been formally assigned by the Board to the same schools for the following year, with notice of those assignments having been stated on the children's report cards, distributed on the last day of school, May 30. But some children had not been present and the cards had been mailed. School officials had estimated that all such notices should have been delivered by June 2 and that ten days from that date would be June 12. The previous year, there had been 24 applications for assignment of black students to white schools, but the Board had approved only four, and only three students had actually attended white schools. The student assigned to Harding High School had withdrawn after a few days following significant disturbances to her well-being. We are reminded that exactly ten years hence from this date would be our last day in school in that particular grade, during which we would hear that Senator Robert F. Kennedy, mortally wounded just after midnight on June 5, after having won the California Democratic presidential primary, had died of his wounds. It was a sad and tragic day, one of three in particular during the previous 4 1/2 years.

In Detroit, it was reported that Walter Reuther, president of the UAW, had moved swiftly this date to make certain that incidents involving workers at General Motors and Chrysler the previous day did not disrupt the uneasy truce in the automotive industry contract negotiations. Mr. Reuther, after receiving reports from top aides on the Chrysler and General Motors situations, had repeated his order that the UAW members had to keep the peace at all costs in automotive plants until the contracts could be worked out. Nearly 500,000 UAW members had been working without a contract since the three-year contracts had expired on May 29 with General Motors and on the prior Sunday with Ford and Chrysler. The first incident had occurred on Wednesday night, when pickets had ringed the G.M. Fisher Body plant near Pittsburgh, with Leonard Woodcock, head of the UAW's G.M. negotiating committee, indicating that the dispute had revolved around local grievances. Pickets at the plant had been removed the previous night and production resumed by the overnight shift.

Also in Detroit, Chrysler this date had shut down assembly operations at its Plymouth body and assembly plants, the first such action by any of the automakers during operations without labor contracts.

In Menomonie, Wisc., in the area where a tornado had hit on Wednesday night, impacting especially the small town of Colfax, a young mother had died of injuries this date, while a man believed to have died in the destruction had been found alive, maintaining the total of the reported dead at 30. The grim search for dead or survivors continued. Meanwhile, hundreds of the injured and the homeless poured into an Eau Claire collection station as communities near the stricken northwestern Wisconsin area provided their compassion by the truckload, with more than $3,000 having been collected the previous day alone in milk cans placed on the streets of Eau Claire, as Boy and Girl Scouts and volunteers had sorted clothing, bedding and food contributions at a collection center, 30 truckloads of which had been sent to Colfax. State, Federal and private agencies had offered assistance from headquarters set up in the four-county area. At least 30 persons had died when three twisters had ripped a 90-mile path through the area on Wednesday night, with six persons still reported as missing. More than 350 people had been injured, 119 of whom had required hospital attention and at least 20 of whom had been in grave condition. Damage would be in the millions, according to Governor Vernon Thomson, who inspected the area by plane and car the previous day.

In Barberton, O., two brothers, ages eight and ten, had been killed, while playing with a nine-year old friend on the Erie Railroad trestle late the previous day. They had been looking down at the ties when the engineer of the train had seen them about 25 car-lengths ahead and hit his horn and air brakes on his westbound freight, as the train was estimated to be traveling at about 50 mph. The playmate, who was closest to the end of the trestle, had just managed to reach safety, with the two brothers, just a few steps ahead of him, unable to do so. High steel barriers had prevented the boys from jumping off of the trestle or stepping from the tracks. The boy who survived said that they were playing a game along the tracks to see who could stay on a track the longest, that he had fallen off once, that the older of the two brothers had fallen off twice and the younger had not fallen off at all, that they had walked along the trestle and then had gone down to the creek underneath, had thrown some rocks in the water and then climbed back up, started walking along the trestle, until he heard the younger of the two brothers yell that there was a train coming, toward which they were walking. He had seen its light and turned around and ran, indicating that if the younger brother had not yelled, he would also have gotten hit. He said he did not hear a bell or whistle or anything else.

In Huntsville, Ala., the arrest of two couples on charges of stealing $18,000 in money and checks from the night depository of a local bank had been announced by the FBI this date.

In Miami Beach, Fla., a 20-million dollar lease had been signed for a square block of oceanfront property, clearing the way for construction of a large beach hotel.

In Kathmandu, Nepal, British mountain climbers this date said that a Swiss expedition had failed in an attempt to climb the 226,799-foot Dhaulagiri, the world's highest unconquered peak.

On the editorial page, "The High Court's Integrity Is Showing" finds that the State Supreme Court's reputation for fairness and due regard for individual rights had been enhanced by two decisions.