The Charlotte News
Monday, July 14, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that, according to Baghdad radio, a military coup had ousted the pro-Western regime this date in Iraq, keystone of the Baghdad Pact, and had proclaimed a pro-Nasser Government. It was reported that King Faisal had been overthrown and a republic established, with an Army brigadier named as leader of the coup. It said that Crown Prince Abdul Ilah, the uncle of the King and former regent, was beaten to death by a mob and his body dismembered and burned in the streets. Reports from Cairo, capital of the United Arab Republic of Egypt and Syria, headed by Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser, said that Premier Nuri Said, the pro-Western strongman of Iraq, had also been killed by a mob. There was no direct word on the whereabouts of the 28-year old King Faisal, who was also the chief of state of the new Iraq-Jordan federation formed on February 14, to counter the U.A.R., organized two weeks earlier. The Communist radio in Budapest had reported that he had been arrested by the Army. The Jordanian Embassy in London had announced that 23-year old King Hussein of Jordan, Faisal's Hashemite cousin, was undertaking to reestablish "public security and order on both sides of the union." The Baghdad broadcast had been greeted with jubilation in Cairo, Damascus, Moscow and the Eastern European satellite capitals. In Beirut, upset for more than two months by a revolt against pro-Western President Camille Chamoun, rebels in the Moslem quarter had celebrated with a wild firing of guns. Communist broadcasts said that the coup was carried out because Iraq had planned to give military aid to the Lebanese Government. Baghdad radio had named Brig. General Abdel Karim Kassem as leader of the coup. He was said to have named a 13-man cabinet and a three-man sovereignty council, headed by Lt. General Naguib el Ribaei. The council, it had been announced, would exercise sovereignty until a plebiscite for the presidency could be held. Broadcasts monitored in Cairo said that the new revolutionary command had announced a purge of Army commanders, abolition of the monarchy, and had declared an official holiday. It said that they had decided to form an Iraqi republic which adhered to the full Arab unity, cooperated with other Arab and Moslem countries, observed the principles of the United Nations and honored pledges according to the country's interests and in accordance with the 1955 Asian-American Bandung conference.
In Tehran, it was reported that Iran this date had strengthened its guard along its border with Iraq as a precautionary measure to prevent any illegal entry.
In Paris, it was reported that TWA had said that one of its Super G Constellations bound for New York from Manila with 25 passengers aboard had been delayed during a stopover in Iraq this date.
In Nicosia, Cyprus, it was reported that a round-the-clock curfew was imposed on Cyprus this date to halt mounting communal warfare between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, as terror gripped the island. The British Governor, Sir Hugh Foot, had ordered all persons, except for civil servants and essential public workers, to stay in their homes until further notice. It was the most drastic security action since the shootings, bombings, ambushes and riots had begun on the island three years earlier. The Greeks and Turks had been fighting each other since June 8, since the word had gotten out that the new British plan for the island would not satisfy the Greek majority's desire to unite with Greece or the Turks' demands to partition the island to protect their rights. The Turks had taken the initiative in the communal attacks, but the previous week, EOKA, the Greek underground terrorist organization, which had been generally quiet for months, had announced that it would take the initiative against the Turkish Cypriots. There was a rising tide of Greek attacks on the Turks and of Turkish retaliation. Three Greeks and five Turks had died the previous day, bringing the death toll during the previous five weeks to 31 Greek Cypriots and 20 Turkish. Four Greek stores had been burned out and the Chapel of St. Mamas in Limassol, containing the island's finest woodcarvings, had been badly damaged by fire.
Representative Wilbur Mills of Arkansas said this date that he had no present plans to start a tax inquiry regarding Bernard Goldfine and his gift-giving to his friend, White House chief of staff Sherman Adams. Mr. Mills headed the House Ways & Means Committee, which handled tax investigations. Representative Oren Harris of Arkansas, chairman of the House Commerce subcommittee investigating the Goldfine-Adams matter, had disclosed the previous day that he had talked to Mr. Mills "with reference to any possible income tax evasion." Mr. Harris said that his inquiry was limited to how regulatory agencies carried out the law. His subcommittee had adduced the fact that Mr. Goldfine had charged items, such as the hotel bills for Mr. Adams, as business expenses on his taxes. Both Mr. Goldfine and Mr. Adams had pictured Mr. Goldfine's favors for Mr. Adams as acts of friendship. The subcommittee's investigators, however, said that if that were true, then Mr. Goldfine's gifts could not properly have been deducted as business expenses. Mr. Goldfine said that his accountants had handled the deductions as a matter of routine. Mr. Mills did not rule out the possibility that his group might examine the tax issue at some future time. He said in an interview, however, that he had no plans to do so at the moment. Mr. Mills said that Mr. Harris had not talked to him in an official way on the matter, but had just raised the question briefly without supplying details. He said that he would have to have more details before he could decide whether to undertake investigation of the matter in his Committee. Mr. Goldfine was scheduled to resume his testimony, in his sixth day before the subcommittee the following day. Just before he had flown home for the weekend to Boston, he had criticized the Congressional interrogators for what he called their "smear, pry and spy" investigations into his affairs. The subcommittee on Friday had threatened to cite Mr. Goldfine for contempt for refusing to answer 23 financial questions which Mr. Goldfine claimed had nothing to do with the subcommittee's purpose, regarding regulatory agencies and whether remedial legislation applicable to them was necessary.
In Guantánamo, Cuba, it was reported that Cuban rebels were expected to begin releasing the remaining 29 American servicemen being held captive during the afternoon after holding them for more than two weeks. The evacuation from the isolated encampment in the mountains could take four days or more. Word of the anticipated release had come from U.S. Consul Park Wollam, who had been negotiating with Fidel Castro and his lieutenants in the mountains of Oriente Province for the release. Twenty-eight of the sailors and Marines had been kidnaped on June 26 during a bus ride through the Cuban countryside from the Guantánamo base, and one of them had thus far been returned. The commander of the base said that he was not certain how many men would be freed this date. The Navy helicopters, which had brought back 20 U.S. and Canadian civilians seized by the rebels, usually could carry only four passengers per trip. The helicopters had been the only foreign aircraft allowed to fly over the rebellious province by El Presidente Fulgencio Batista's Government. The previous day, a U.S. Marine Flying Boxcar apparently had strayed off its prescribed course on a flight from Guantánamo to Opa-locka, Fla., and was forced down by Cuban Army fighter planes. The transport had landed in Santiago, the capital of Oriente Province, and the U.S. consul there had quickly intervened enabling the plane to be on its way again a few hours later. The U.S. Embassy at Havana minimized the incident as "unimportant". The official Cuban explanation had been that a misunderstanding had arisen because the jumpy fighter pilots had been "unable to determine the aircraft's intentions." Later, the Navy ordered all planes using the Guantánamo airstrip to fly ten miles off the Oriente coastline. The rebels had been seeking recognition as genuine belligerents, instead of unorganized revolutionaries, hoping to place themselves on even footing with El Presidente Batista's Government so that it might lead to a promise that U.S. aid to the Government would be ended. One benefit the rebels had gained from the kidnapings was a cessation of air attacks by Government forces to avoid harming the captives. The rebels had also gained valuable time to regroup their forces. At the same time, American opinion, however, toward Sr. Castro appeared to be less friendly than earlier and the officers in Guantánamo were indignant and resentful over the prolonged captivity of their soldiers.
In Detroit, it was reported that the United Auto Workers and the automobile industry's Big Three companies had returned to the bargaining table this date, with negotiations for new contracts at Ford, General Motors and Chrysler resuming in an atmosphere laden with questions, chief among which had been the continuing effect of the recession and the role to be played by the industry's backlog of unsold 1958 inventory of cars. Presumably, the UAW and the companies were starting out virtually anew from the point where they had been in late March when the negotiations had begun. There had been no serious concession from either side up to the point when the contracts expired during the Memorial Day weekend in May. The companies had continued operations since that point without contracts. The present talks followed an extended Fourth of July recess, prior to which there had been no signs of progress toward agreement.
In Tokyo, it was reported that a typhoon, after causing at least two deaths and damage in the Philippines during its Asian rampage, had headed toward Formosa this date with a threat of fresh violence.
The State Department urged the Senate this date to restore House cuts in foreign aid funding, lest European allies would fall short of the missiles and aircraft needed to withstand any Soviet onslaught.
The Senate Public Works Committee this date had unanimously approved nominations of A. R. Jones and Dr. Frank J. Welch to be directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
In Balboa, Canal Zone, Milton Eisenhower had embarked on a tour of the Panama Canal this date with his head full of Panama's proposals for economic aid and a plea for recognition of its sovereignty over the vital waterway.
Torrential rains had dumped nearly eight inches of water in communities in north central Illinois for six hours this date. A flash flood poured over the business district of one community, with scores of homes having to be evacuated and more than 1,000 telephones knocked out. Whether they would still ring and where they could get rid of those things is not mentioned.
In Chicago, a 32-year old truck driver who was brought back to life after his heart had stopped beating for 90 minutes Saturday, had died this date.
In Stuttgart, Ark., it was reported that a 74-year old man said that he had warned the victims of a boating accident not to overload their 14-foot wooden boat as they prepared the previous day to end a weekend of fishing on Benson Lake, 12 miles west of the town. The sheriff said that the craft, heavily loaded with seven people and camping and fishing equipment, had struck a cypress stump in the lake, hurling the occupants into seven feet of water where six of them, including three small children, had drowned. Only a woman and a small dog had survived. The sheriff quoted the survivor, from Pine Bluff, as saying that the impact had thrown them all in the water. Volunteers had applied artificial respiration for 90 minutes in vain attempts to revive the three children. The sheriff said that attempts to recover the bodies of the adult victims would continue this date.
In Lexington, N.C., sheriff's officers were investigating two highway robberies occurring in Davidson County during the night. In one, a Winston-Salem taxicab driver had reported that he was robbed of about $12 and beaten by three men before he escaped them. They had chased him back toward Winston-Salem at high speeds in an automobile. The cab driver, about 25, an employee of Blue Bird Cab of Winston-Salem, had told the Davidson County sheriff's officers that he had picked up a man in Winston-Salem shortly after midnight, who wanted to be taken to an address in Davidson County and when they pulled into the driveway of the address, two other men in a parked car had jumped into the cab, one of whom having drawn a knife and then had taken the driver's cash. The three had then gotten out of the cab and the cab driver put his vehicle in reverse and whipped away, while the three men jumped into a parked car and gave chase. The cab driver called for help on his two-way radio and the men had given up the chase as they neared the Winston-Salem city limits. The cab driver checked into a hospital where his injuries were reported to be minor, and was resting at home this date. In the other incident, a Richmond, Va., man had reported that he was robbed of $300 in cash, a $200 wristwatch and an expensive camera by a hitchhiker dressed in a Marine uniform, whom he had picked up outside Greensboro in the wee hours of the morning, whereupon the man had drawn a gun and told him to drive to Lexington, telling him to stop at a location where a 1950 Ford was parked, taking the money which the driver had stashed over the sun visor, plus the other items, then getting into the parked car across the highway and driving away.
Emery Wister of The News indicates that with rain flooding the Charlotte Coliseum during practically every summer storm, repair of the wind-damaged roof might still be weeks or even months away. The previous day, rains had come down in sheets and given the Coliseum interior one of its biggest unscheduled baths. The Coliseum manager, Paul Buck, said that the water was causing little damage but that the rains showered down on the electric lights, causing one to blow out. Aluminum to replace the sheets, which had blown off in a June 15 storm, had been ordered, but production of the material had not begun. A representative of the contractor assigned to repair the damage said that 24,000 pounds of sheeting having a thickness of .041 inch had been ordered for the roof, but that the mill had to be rolling the type of aluminum used for the roof before production could begin. It was not known yet when that would be. It meant that construction might not be completed by the time of the Billy Graham Crusade in September. The representative of the firm doing the construction said that they were conducting a study to determine the best method to adhere the material to the roof, believing at present that it ought be fastened by bolts passing through the roof, the concrete dome, felt insulation and porous material known as Porette, with the bolts to be fastened with washers and nuts on the inside of the dome. The original roofing had been fastened with bolts which extended into the layers, but not into the Porette. Persons at the Coliseum the previous day, where a roller derby contest had been held, said that rain was coming through all parts of the dome, including the roughly half of it where the roof remained intact.
On the editorial page, "What Is Tar Heelia's Secret Weapon?" indicates that Governor Luther Hodges, boasting of North Carolina's progress, had found himself in deep difficulty the prior Wednesday when he paused mid-speech to consider why North Carolina was so wonderful. He had finally said that it was because of an "extra something" which could not be found in the brochures. He said: "Our secret weapon is one that no other state can hope to duplicate… Our secret weapon is the individual North Carolinian—more than four million individuals who know the true meaning and value of genuine hospitality and mutually beneficial cooperation… It is a tangible, yet unique, quality—easy to detect yet difficult to describe."
It suggests that cynics might deny it and the aristocrats to the north and south might be inclined to scoff, but the secret of the state's success was the individual North Carolinian, recognizably different from others. It finds that North Carolinians were militantly individualistic, but that the very individualism had delivered them from both the follies and illusions of some of their Southern neighbors. Unlike South Carolina and Virginia, North Carolina had no dominant aristocracy, no big plantation system and, significantly, no "airs". "There was more of isolation and homogeneity, less of caste and culture in North Carolina," according to the late William T. Polk. "So Tar Heels adopted the somewhat invidious motto Esse Quam Videri, and took perhaps excessive pride in referring to their state as 'a vail of humility between two mountains of conceit.' We were mighty proud of not being proud. We did, however, in such a historical setting, become independent, courageous, resourceful, democratic, gregarious and individualistic, although we would use plainer words than these Latin terms to describe ourselves."
North Carolinians, it finds, could also be stubborn at times, never taking much guff from their leaders and enjoying unseating them on a fairly regular basis. Political machines had come and gone, but none had remained long enough to become excessively corrupt or to spawn demagogues who could be tolerated for longer than a term or two, if at all.
The state's democratic individualism had also produced a progressive strain and outlook in politics unmatched in other Southern states. It involved a social consciousness of sorts and had led to better race relations, deep respect for education, an almost mystical devotion to the University at Chapel Hill, and a determination to work for a better way of life for just about everyone. Yet, as Mr. Polk had observed, North Carolinians sometimes had fits of laziness and indifference which troubled reformers in the state. It was their individualism which rendered them intolerable to some, while at the same time saving them from stodgy and predictable mediocrity.
Jonathan Daniels of the Raleigh News & Observer, had written in 1939: "North Carolina, which has never been very long on history, nevertheless remembers that when it followed the aristocracies into the War Between the States, it provided certainly more privates and probably fewer generals than any other Southern state. It still is a state of privates ready to show scant respect to any who rise pretentiously among them. It even laughs sometimes at its own millionaires and is sometimes glad to get rid of the public officials it has elected. The North Carolinian is, as he has always been, an equalitarian individualist."
It indicates that a state peopled largely by equalitarian individualists, committed in their own stubborn ways to a common vision of progress, was well-nigh unbeatable, suggesting that to Mr. Hodges as the secret.
"Who's Riding the Democratic Tide?" indicates that the Republicans were having trouble raising funds because of the embarrassment over Sherman Adams, disenchantment with the President, defeatism about the fall elections and a new recession-born caution in giving out money for any cause.
The Democrats were doing better at fund-raising for a change, largely because of the strong odds that the tide in Congressional races was running their way. Not even RNC chairman Meade Alcorn differed. In some Republican quarters, it was hopefully being asserted that new crises by election day might cause voters to forget their various peeves against the party, but that was still a hope only.
The Republicans believed that if there would be elected a Republican president in 1960, it would be Mr. Nixon, while the Democrats had difficulty counting the number of their hopefuls. None of them were free of a major disadvantage. Senator John F. Kennedy was young. New York Governor Averell Harriman was old. Senator Lyndon Johnson was Southern. Adlai Stevenson had already been beaten twice, in 1952 and 1956. Governor Mennen Williams of Michigan was bound to UAW president Walter Reuther. All of them, with the exception of Mr. Stevenson, lacked the national prestige which figured in the political adage that it was better to be notorious than unknown.
It suggests that the Democrats might be fortunate in having no favorite at present, as front-runners often fell by the wayside through unforeseen events and shifts in the public mood. And the assurance of the Nixon candidacy for the Republicans was not an unmixed blessing, as he would also have to carry the party record in 1960, including the gifts of Mr. Goldfine to Mr. Adams and the prior record of his own Congressional races, still haunting him.
As always, the parties were primarily interested in nominating a man who could win. His identity was secondary. The voters' problem was not so simple. There was evidence to suggest that they wanted in 1960 a man who would lead the country after he had won an election. The admission by the President that he needed Sherman Adams to run the Government had doubtless strengthened that desire. It suggests that the man they would want might agree with Woodrow Wilson that "the President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can. His capacity will set the limit… The Constitution bids him speak and times of stress and change must more and more thrust upon him the attitude of originator of policies."
President Wilson's standards for the Presidency were, it finds, much to ask of any man, but were the least which could be asked of an effective President in a time of "stress and change" which had no visible end.
"They Found It" quotes from a piece in the newspaper of July 10, indicating that construction had started on the $750,000 health center on the Memorial Hospital grounds south of Brunswick Avenue in Charlotte. It finds that it served as verification that the City Council had finally found a site after voters had approved the bond issue for it on May 3, 1955.
A piece from the Richmond News Leader, titled "Frustration of Papa Garbini", indicates that the problem of naming a baby was often considered months before the birth, with some parents easily agreeing on a name of a close relative while others consulted a dictionary of Christian names, as still others sought to find a name so distinctive as not to invite duplication.
Signor Giorgini Garbini, a shopkeeper of La Spezia, near Rome, had fallen into the third category, torn between doubts and indecision, until one day there came the name to him of his offspring, Genghis Khan, as he liked the romantic sound of it.
But when the birth certificate bearing that name was presented for registration, the father was informed that Article 72 of the state civil code, enacted under the regime of Benito Mussolini, prohibited anyone from assigning a "foreign-sounding" name to Italian babies. Il Duce had the law enacted because, after World War I, many babies had been given Bolshevik names such as Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin.
The father appealed to the courts, but to no avail. The law still stood and the baby thus had been named Paolo, after the Apostle, which it regards as a happy ending.
Drew Pearson indicates that while Sherman Adams was receiving gifts totaling more than $5,000 from one of his "dearest friends", Bernard Goldfine, another case of gift-giving had been dealt with more harshly in the Army. Col. George Kibler, an engineering procurement officer, had reported that Arthur Venneri had given him an envelope containing $1,000. The colonel, attached to the Pentagon, had reported the "gratuity" in May, 1957, and the following July, the Gratuities Board had provisionally suspended Mr. Venneri's firm from defense work. It had not been until March 13, 1958, that the Board had formally determined that the $1,000 was a gratuity for the purpose of influencing a defense contract, whereupon the Board officially notified Mr. Venneri on May 7 that he was barred from working for the defense establishment for a year. Mr. Venneri had then written a pathetic letter to Assistant Secretary Frank Higgins, appealing for relief, explaining that he had come to the country from Italy in 1920, had worked as a carpenter by day and gone to night school until working his way up to become a construction superintendent and finally had formed his own company, becoming active in church and civic affairs, having a fine family, and had not meant the $1,000 as a bribe. He said that he genuinely wanted to help the colonel with the education of his son. He had gone on to explain that almost his entire business was with the Government and that if he were suspended, the business would almost certainly go into bankruptcy. Mr. Higgins had been so impressed with the letter that he had taken it home during the weekend to try to determine what to do.
Mr. Pearson indicates that the situation had some similarities with that of Mr. Goldfine and his gifts to Mr. Adams. As with Mr. Goldfine, Mr. Venneri was an immigrant and he too had claimed friendship with an official of the Government. Mr. Adams, however, had not reported the far more expensive gifts from his friend, as had Col. Kibler. Mr. Adams had also intervened actively on behalf of Mr. Goldfine's company on at least three occasions with administrative agencies who were giving his company problems. Col. Kibler had done the opposite.
Mr. Higgins, nevertheless, had finally ruled against Mr. Venneri, allowing the one-year suspension to stand. Mr. Pearson notes that when Vice-President Nixon had been in the Navy as a contract officer negotiating with the Erco Co. of Maryland, he had borrowed $150 from the company, an illegal loan, and unlike Col. Kibler, had not reported it.
Jack Lotto, the former INS newsman whose new job was to glamorize Mr. Goldfine, had an interesting record, having written much of it himself, showing that those who lived in glass hotel rooms ought not throw stones. In an interview published in Editor and Publisher on December 22, 1956, Mr. Lotto had told in some detail how he and two other newsmen, including the late Bert Andrews of the New York Herald Tribune, had bugged the Hotel Commodore room in which Mr. Nixon was holding a secret conference between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss, in 1948.
Joseph Alsop indicates that confidential polls sponsored by California Republicans had produced an even worse result than the California primary. Particularly in the gubernatorial race, the polls had shown that Senator William Knowland was being beaten by State Attorney General Pat Brown by a large margin of 61 to 39. The Senator had yet to take the stump in earnest, being busy in the Senate, but such a large margin would be hard to overcome. Apparently, the Republican Senate candidate, incumbent Governor Goodwin Knight, was doing somewhat better than Senator Knowland, but even so, the California numbers were in addition to the other confidential poll results.
A poll taken in Massachusetts showed in the Senate race that Senator John F. Kennedy was receiving 80 percent of the total vote. In New York, in the gubernatorial race, Democrats were polling 60 percent to Republicans at 40 percent. In Connecticut's gubernatorial race, Democrats were polling 67 percent to Republicans at 33 percent. In the California Senate race, Democrats were polling 53 percent to Republicans at 47 percent.
Whether the polls were sponsored by Republicans, as in California and New York, or by Democrats, as in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the results were consistent, though it was hard to believe that an election would produce such lopsided Democratic majorities. But unless the pollsters had gone mad, the whole familiar political landscape could be forever altered in the fall.
The permanent Republican control of at least one house of almost every Northern state legislature would likely be destroyed if those numbers held up through the elections. Such control had been immemorial, assured by gerrymandering, by a rotten borough system, or both, depending on the states. In California, for instance, the Republican Party had always held control of at least one chamber in the State Legislature since 1889. But the same official Republican soundings as Mr. Alsop had stated now showed that the Democrats would take both houses by substantial margins. In the lower house, for instance, the present Republican majority of 43 to 37 was expected to be, at a minimum, reversed.
In Connecticut, the ancient system of representation by towns had given the Republicans unbroken control of the lower chamber since 1865, with hardly enough Democrats at present in that chamber to fill a telephone booth. Even in 1954, when Democratic Governor Abraham Ribicoff had been elected by slightly over half the vote, the Connecticut lower house still remained Republican by 184 to 92. In recent years, however, the Republican majorities in many small Republican towns had been increasingly diluted by the spread of suburbia. A town-by-town analysis of the 1954 election had shown that an average increase of 6 percent in the Democratic vote would have put no less than 47 additional towns into the Democratic column. In theory, the Democrats might have thus taken the State Legislature in 1954 had Mr. Ribicoff obtained 57 percent of the vote instead of just over 50 percent. This time around, the Connecticut lower house would be up for grabs if Governor Ribicoff obtained anything like the predicted 67 percent.
Very few people understood the advantage which the Republicans had always derived from those permanent strongholds in state governments, able to shape state constitutions to conservative interests. With those strongholds, the Republican Party had only to get the rest of the state government in a good year. Then the state Congressional districts could be gerrymandered and the Democrats could never counter-gerrymander because they could never gain control of the lower house.
One California Republican had told Mr. Alsop that they had done it the last time, that James Roosevelt's district "would embarrass Elbridge Gerry himself", for whom the term "gerrymander" had been coined. "But now, by God," he continued, "the Democrats will show us what gerrymandering really is."
It begins to sound all too familiar after His Highness, knowing that Republicans are apt to lose the House in 2026 because of their poor performance in office, chasing bugbears of the distant past and spacemen illusions rather than attempting to address the tougher genuine issues in the interest of the American people, coupled with their tiny majority and one of the worst and most ideologically partisan Speakers in recent history, reached down to Texas and sought and obtained gerrymandering which theoretically could provide him five additional seats out of Texas in 2026, though likely to be offset, following the special election in November in California, by five additional Democratic seats, with other states on both sides of the political spectrum still in play. The tactic by the dictator in the White House, reminiscent of any tinpot dictator, is also reminiscent of his attempt in 2020 to try to manipulate the outcome of the vote, especially in Georgia. The man can no more accept defeat than he can the fact that most of the country at this point regards him as a cruel and divisive dictator, unwilling, in singular contradistinction to all previous Presidents, to compromise in the least degree with the opposing party, in this instance representative of at least half the country, eschewing all democratic principles in the process, including the one which most sets this country apart from other countries of the world, freedom of speech and of the press, which he has severely compromised over the course of the last eight months, including during the previous day.
He belabors instead his mythical "overwhelming mandate" for whatever he conjures in the middle of the night
The man is obsessed with himself and his own glorification, and his own power, not with governing and uniting the nation through compromise, insisting on policies which polls indicate are rejected by overwhelming majorities of Americans, dismissing those polls in favor of his lucky-mood watch soundings in Magaworld, where they look to outer space for resolution of their personal difficulties.
He will inevitably be impeached again, this time for multiple offenses and transgressions against his oath of office, following the 2026 midterms. He may go down in history as the most despised person ever to occupy the White House, unless he manages somehow to turn things around rather quickly, which seems highly unlikely given the track record. He is ill-suited to the job psychologically as well as experientially, having been nothing prior to his original term other than a largely failed businessman. As we have said before, he is merely a super-salesman, giving a prolonged pitch to the extremely gullible, who apparently will fall for any carnival huckster they come across. His own understanding of that lack of general acceptance leads to his personal insecurity and the need to compensate by issuing almost daily fiats as if a king or dictator, handed down to the peasants below, and expecting thereby enforced respect through the exertions of intensely loyal personnel held in check by threat of firing, not understanding the history of the country from the Revolution forward, that no President can expect to survive politically under such conditions.
Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain, says that he had given up burlesque and girly shows in Paris since Gorgeous Gussie Moran had introduced lace pants as a new offensive weapon, making their way into tennis at Wimbledon.
And he goes on in that vein, concluding that the next thing which would completely confuse him would be can-can stockings, spike-heeled shoes and possibly Cole Porter calling the shots in the judge's box. The British designer, Teddy Tinling, might not have contributed much to the advancement of tennis as a sport, but he had been informed that attendance at the Folies Bergere in Paris had dropped off considerably as the tourists flocked to Wimbledon to attend the Gypsy Rose Lee Memorial doubles.
A letter writer indicates that last he had heard, the editor of the newspaper was in Europe, and now he had seen where the sports editor was in Canada writing about Peahead Walker, while Julian Scheer was in Florida watching the launch of the Thor-Able ICBM with its mouse aboard. He wonders who was tending the store.
The editors respond that they would ask him when he came in.
A letter writer indicates that it now appeared from the newspaper articles that on the Vice-President's trip to South America, he and his wife had 12 members of the Secret Service, and it appeared from Mr. Nixon's interview in Washington upon the presentation of medals to eight of those men, commending them for their conduct in South America, that he expressed the belief that the Secret Service men had saved his life and that of his wife. He indicates that never before had a U.S. citizen, whether an official of the government, a businessman or tourists, been bothered or even suffered discourtesy in any South American country, and so he wonders why had Mr. Nixon. He had advertised it as a good will trip and wonders therefore why it had taken 12 members of the Secret Service to protect him. He thinks that Mr. Nixon should have informed the government of the countries he visited of the issues so that they could have provided all the necessary protection. He is concerned that all of the protection had to be paid by the taxpayers, apparently based solely on Mr. Nixon's request.
That's simple. Twelve, the number of the Apostles.
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