The Charlotte News

Tuesday, July 22, 1958

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President had yielded to British insistence this date and agreed to go along with a summit meeting of the U.N. Security Council provided it was generally desired by the Western powers and Russia. A White House announcement to that effect shortly after noon this date apparently had ended a dispute with Britain over whether the Western Big Three, including France, ought move openly and directly toward a U.N. summit session or merely indicate indirectly in notes to Moscow that such a meeting might be possible. About an hour earlier, British Foreign Minister Selwyn Lloyd had told the House of Commons that Prime Minister Harold Macmillan would attend such a special meeting of the Security Council. The purpose of the meeting, according to Mr. Lloyd, would be to discuss the Middle East crisis but would not act on any resolution unless there was general agreement that such action ought be taken. White House press secretary James Hagerty said: "A United Nation Security Council meeting of the character suggested by Foreign Minister Lloyd is clearly within the contemplation of the [U.N.] Charter. If such a meeting were generally desired, the United States would join in following this orderly procedure." Meanwhile, it was learned that Secretary of State Dulles had revised the proposed U.S. note to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to bring it more into line with Britain's insistence that the Western powers ought open the way clearly and unmistakably for heads of government to attend an extraordinary session of the Security Council. Mr. Khrushchev had proposed on Saturday a five-power emergency summit conference at Geneva, including India, and had also asked for the attendance of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold. France had objected to the hostile tone of the note from Mr. Khrushchev but generally favored conditional acceptance of the idea of a summit conference.

At the U.N., a Soviet veto was expected to a Japanese plan to take further U.N. measures to protect Lebanon security and ease out U.S. troops.

In Damascus, the Syrian press reported that Kuwait and Iraq might soon join the United Arab Republic federation formed by Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser between Egypt and Syria.

In Beirut, it was reported that a Lebanese opposition leader said that U.S. troops would be pulling out soon because of the Iraqi situation stabilizing. The U.S. envoy sought political compromise.

Also in Beirut, it was reported that a U.S. Marine had been killed prior to dawn this date when he failed to answer a challenge from a sentry at a Marine outpost near the Beirut airport. An officer said that the Marine was returning from a mission and was challenged three times by the sentry, that when he failed to answer, the sentry had fired and hit him in the stomach. The wounded man had been taken to an American warship by helicopter but died before surgery could occur. The name of the dead Marine had been withheld until his family would be notified. He had been laying trip flares in front of a Marine outpost near the airport. Trip flares, similar to booby-traps, were set off by contact with part of a wire on the ground, exploding and illuminating a wide area. Marine headquarters said that investigation was underway in an effort to determine why the man had failed to answer the challenge while running toward the sentry's position. It was the second fatality among the U.S. force in Lebanon. The previous Saturday, a Navy fighter pilot had died in a crash in the mountains nearby.

Also in Beirut, it was reported that individual Lebanese were sick and tired of the entire 73-day old conflict between the rebel forces and the pro-Western Government of President Camille Chamoun, and did not care what type of solution developed as long as they ended it. That was the sentiment, in any event, of a 36-year old purchasing agent for a Lebanese firm, whose office building was under heavy rebel fire, forcing him to phone home frequently and tell his wife, at the time pregnant, that he had to work late. One of his employees had been killed and another wounded, and the man had moved his desk away from the window and felt reasonably safe, but could not tell his wife the actual reason for his working late. Ten days earlier, he had taken his wife to the hospital during the evening, an hour before the streets were cleared under curfew and before the nightly shootings and bombings would begin. The baby had arrived that night and he said that they were very fortunate, that it was hard to say what might have happened if they had to go suddenly through the streets at midnight. His work frequently took him around Lebanon into rebel-held territory and he had been shot at several times on the roads and three times had narrowly escaped exploding bombs. Although he traveled widely in the country, he said that nobody could estimate what percentage of the people were actually fighting or militantly supporting any of the various factions.

In Moscow, it was reported that the Soviet Government this date had rejected a U.S. diplomatic note protesting the downing of an American military plane over Soviet Armenia on June 27, shot down when the plane strayed over Soviet territory in inclement weather. The nine crewmen had recently been released.

A House Armed Services subcommittee would start taking testimony behind closed doors this date regarding the role of Sherman Adams in a $41,284 penalty refund to a New England textile firm. The White House said that Mr. Adams, White House chief of staff, had done no more than relay queries and information on the matter in a routine fashion. Former officials of the defunct company had denied that any White House pressure had been involved. The subcommittee chairman, Congressman Edward Hebert of Louisiana, said that several days of closed-door testimony would be taken prior to any public hearings. The subcommittee had spent the previous day studying the background without calling any witnesses. The new investigation followed lengthy hearings by another subcommittee regarding the relationship between Mr. Adams and Bernard Goldfine, a Boston textile manufacturer and real estate owner who denied that gifts he had provided to Mr. Adams were any more than out of longstanding friendship and that there was no quid pro quo in the admitted phone calls made by Mr. Adams on Mr. Goldfine's behalf to the Federal Trade Commission and, indirectly, to the Securities & Exchange Commission, both of which agencies were giving Mr. Goldfine's textile firms problems at the time. Fresh support for Mr. Adams had come from Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks, who had described him as a "loyal … devoted … dedicated … honest" public servant. He had made the statement as part of a planned speech, saying further that Mr. Adams had been "whiplashed more brutally than any individual in public life in our generation," and had been "cruelly smeared by vindictive hatemongers." He said that when the whole truth was known by the public, he believed that his high opinion of Mr. Adams's rugged New England character and service to the nation would be the verdict of the fair-minded American people and that those who had been persecuting him would be ashamed.

The House Appropriations Committee this date had cut more than half a billion dollars from Defense Department construction funding requests, citing the new Air Force Academy as an outstanding example of "loose fiscal procedures". It cut 511.8 million from the 1.730 billion dollars requested by the Administration for a construction program at military bases across the world. The Air Force had suffered the greatest cut, at 300 million, from the one billion it had requested. The Navy's request for 368.2 million had been cut by 85.5 million, while the Army's request for 341 million was cut by 126.3 million. Such items as officers' swimming pools and elaborate housing accommodations were either cut completely or sharply slashed as undesirable and not essential. Many buildings at the Academy, according to the Committee, were increased in scope and cost without Congressional approval until after binding contracts had been approved, and so the Committee was especially critical of the policies and practices relating to the construction at Colorado Springs, calling it "an outstanding example of costly and inadequate planning, loose fiscal procedures, and a disregard for justifications submitted to the Congress."

The Committee this date had recommended certain appropriations for North Carolina and South Carolina military facilities construction, each of which is listed.

In Managua, Nicaragua, the President's brother, Milton, planned meetings with leaders of all Nicaraguan political factions this date after sidestepping criticism of U.S. support for Latin American dictators.

In Bombay, India, a 4,350-ton Panamanian freighter had sunk in the Arabian Sea, but a British liner had rescued 23 of the 24 crewmen, according to radio messages this date, with the missing man feared drowned.

In Little Rock, Ark., attorneys for Governor Orval Faubus this date had mailed a petition for review to the Supreme Court challenging an injunction which had ordered the Governor to cease interference with integration at Central High School.

In Charlottesville, Va., 20 black children seeking admission to white elementary schools boycotted this date achievement tests set up as a requirement for admission, the second day black students had boycotted the tests.

In Jackson, Miss., trial had begun this date before a special three-judge Federal court regarding the first challenge of Mississippi's voter registration laws which black citizens claimed were written to prevent them from voting.

Julian Scheer of The News reports that it was 156 days before Christmas, 209 days since the beginning of the year, and was sultry, humid, and sunshiny, a great day to splash in a wading pool in Freedom Park if one were a kid, to swing in swings, climb jungle gyms, slide on sliding boards, practice Little League baseball, swat one's best friend, nag one's mother for something to do, play in a soggy sand pile, chase a dog, watch out for bees in the grass, dress a doll, play house, play doctor and nurse, or cry for lunch. If a housewife, then it was a good day to hang out clothes, iron, bake a pie before lunch, shoo the kids from the yard, break up fistfights, go to the doctor's office, etc. "It is midsummer and Charlotteans—and Tar Heels—did it all today." What about catching the neighbor's escaped cat, hiked up a tree in fear of the dog? That is not listed. Why not?

Dick Young of The News reports that bulk sale of whiskey for party purposes was permissible under limited circumstances at Mecklenburg ABC stores. The head of the ABC law enforcement division told the newspaper that a group or person planning a party and desiring more than the gallon limit allowed by law to a single purchaser could arrange for a bulk purchase at a local store by first obtaining a memorandum from the central ABC office. If you are planning such a party, you may wish to read the rest of the article.

In Tulsa, Okla., there originated a 5,250-mile roundtrip ride with 70 female passengers and no complaints about backseat drivers from the two bus drivers, who described the charter trip to Seattle as "the most enjoyable" they had made.

In St. Louis, a woman who was expecting a baby in October watched a tall white bird with long legs and a beak settle on the roof of her home the previous night, staying on the roof while a crowd gathered and began ribbing her and her husband about the stork coming early. It maintained its perch for two hours despite the taunts of children and the efforts of police, until finally it began circling the house, then landed on a nearby lawn, where it was captured in a flying tackle by a police officer. The officer found that it was not a stork but rather a wild crane. It means that the child will likely be as tall as the Empire State Building.

In New York, J. O. Wright, vice-president of the Ford Motor Co., indicated this date that the company would not build a small car in the country for some time, if at all. His prediction would be rather short-lived, proved wrong within a year, following Chevrolet's announcement of its small, rear-engine car. Future Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara would be a prime mover behind the advent of the compact Ford to compete with the imported Volkswagens and Renault Dauphines—or "Dope Fiends" as we once called them by malapropism, anticipating augurially the French connection. As indicated, we also designed the little compact for Ford, which they renamed from our original drawings and specifications, dubbed "Reanek", pronounced, as in the French, "Ree-a-nek".

On the editorial page, "The 'Latest' Is Too Late for Comfort" indicates that 35 days had passed since the City Council had called for an "immediate" survey of the City Recorder's Court procedures by the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill. It had taken 30 days for municipal officials to negotiate an agreement to bring experts to Charlotte for the study, with Mayor James Smith indicating that they would be in Charlotte by September 29 "at the latest".