The Charlotte News

Wednesday, July 30, 1958

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President this date had decided to propose that a summit conference on the Middle East crisis ought be opened in the U.N. Security Council in two weeks, having drafted a note to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev suggesting a range of dates between August 10 and 15, that note presently being discussed with Britain and France. The consultations might result in changes, but it was expected to be dispatched to Moscow within the next day or so. A well-informed U.S. official had said that the U.N. headquarters in New York was the logical place to hold the session but that the President was willing to go to some other city, probably Geneva, if the other leaders preferred. The present note was in response to an angry message dispatched to the President by Mr. Khrushchev the previous Monday. In it, Mr. Khrushchev had accused the President of virtually rejecting the summit conference, of being responsible for aggression in the Middle East and of plotting new military adventures in that region. He had also called again for a five-power meeting, including India, outside the U.N., but the Soviet news agency Tass had said the previous night that it was not intended as a rejection of the U.N. meeting, indicating that Mr. Khrushchev was still willing to attend a Security Council meeting. The U.S. official who declined to be identified called the note from Mr. Khrushchev "a shocking disappointment" to the President and Secretary of State Dulles. The official indicated that they were determined generally to ignore the abusive tone of the note and the accusations in it, instead concentrating on Mr. Khrushchev's insistence on holding a five-power conference to deal with the Middle East situation as representing a policy of big-power rule of the world, a concept which the U.S. rejected, insisting instead that the conference ought actually be an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council and not just a meeting of the heads of the great powers. The U.S. would also stress that it was prepared to enter such a meeting of the Council on any convenient day during the specified period in August and that the President would be agreeable to a later date if the Council believed that more time was necessary to organize the special session.

In Beirut, it was reported that a stream of Parliament deputies had begun calling on General Fuad Shehab this date to congratulate him on election to the presidency even prior to the election.

In Amman, Jordan, it was reported that a time bomb had wrecked the British library and information center, and that a second bomb had exploded outside the garage of a banker the previous night.

The House Commerce Committee held up action this date on the question of citing Bernard Goldfine for contempt of Congress. Representative John Bell Williams of Mississippi said that copies of the hearing record and other documents, which the Committee wanted to have, had not yet been received. He said that the necessary papers might be prepared in time for a vote later this date but that action probably would be delayed until the following day. Mr. Goldfine, a friend of White House chief of staff Sherman Adams, faced possible contempt proceedings because of his refusal to answer 23 questions about business matters which he contended were not relevant to the subcommittee's investigation, aimed at regulatory agencies and whether new legislation regarding them was necessary. If the Committee approved the citation, the House as a whole would have to vote on it before it would go to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

A 12 billion dollar deficit for the Government's current fiscal year had been forecast this date by Secretary of the Treasury Robert Anderson.

The President had led new tributes for Lt. General Claire Chennault this date in advance of a hero's funeral for the old "Flying Tiger" who had died Sunday in New Orleans from lung cancer. He would be buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

In Lakehurst, N.J., a Navy blimp had taken off this date on its historic flight to the North Pole. The 343-foot craft had launched in the early morning and would follow the Hudson River, scheduled to land in Churchill, Canada, late the following night.

In Atlanta, it was reported that Congressional investigators would seek again this date to uncover Communist activities in the South, following a session in which six witnesses had refused to say whether they were members of the Communist Party. A subcommittee of HUAC the previous day had heard from a former FBI undercover agent that the Communist Party had sent organizers into the region, but investigators were repeatedly blocked by witnesses refusing to answer questions, despite warnings that they might be cited for contempt of Congress. Among the 17 witnesses summoned was Carl Braden of Louisville, who had been active in the Southern integration movement. He was scheduled to be heard this date. Those heard the previous day included Jack Hester, Jr., who identified himself as a resident of Chicago and a student, declining to say whether he was a member of the party. A former FBI agent and one-time mill worker in New Bedford, Mass., testified that college-educated agents had concealed their backgrounds and taken menial jobs to infiltrate the textile industry. He had named Fanny Litch of New York as the party's top organizer in the South and said that Junius Scales was North Carolina's district organizer. Another witness, Eugene Feldman of Chicago, was named by the former agent as a former colonizer sent to Alabama and to Winston-Salem, N.C. Mr. Feldman refused to answer about 40 questions, including whether he edited the Southern News Letter. Another resident of Chicago, Perry Cartwright, had identified himself as business manager of that latter publication, which he said circulated among Southern white persons who "do not go along with racism." Both Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Feldman had asserted the First and Fifth Amendments, both represented by lawyer and minister C. Ewback Tucker of Louisville.

In Little Rock, Ark., Governor Orval Faubus had won an overwhelming mandate to resist school integration as he received the Democratic nomination for a third term. Crowds of jubilant supporters overflowed into the street in front of the Governor's downtown campaign headquarters the previous night, as a sound truck played "Dixie" when the outcome of the primary became evident. The Governor defeated two opponents by the widest majority ever recorded for a gubernatorial candidate in the state, with the nomination tantamount to election. With 2,229 of 2,321 precincts reporting, Mr. Faubus had received 255,000 votes, with his two opponents, one a state judge, receiving 57,966 votes, and the second, a meat packer, 56,846 votes. Both of his opponents were segregationists but advocated a law and order procedure to resolve integration issues. The Governor said that the heavy voting "was a condemnation by the people of illegal Federal intervention in the affairs of the state, and of the horrifying use of Federal bayonets on the streets of an American city and in the halls of a public school..." He declared that voters had "expressed their approval of my efforts to retain the rights of a sovereign state as set out in the Federal Constitution." He was only the second Governor in Arkansas history to be elected to a third term. No Republican had held state office since the Reconstruction era following the Civil War.

In Dayton, O., a 13-year old boy, whose temperature had reached at least 110 the previous week from a blood clot on his brain, had died in the Good Samaritan Hospital this date.

In Mexico City, five elephants en route from a Miami zoo to a local menagerie had escaped from a truck this date, killing one man and spreading panic in the city. The victim was killed as he sought to grab a large 30-year old elephant by the tail and was trampled. The animal later had been shot 26 times in the head. The North American keepers, who accompanied the elephants, were arrested. The four remaining elephants were rounded up with the help of police cars, ambulances, fire engines and private cars. The elephants had arrived by train from Laredo, Tex., the previous night following a five-day journey from Miami, being held at the railway station until after midnight so that they would not be alarmed by traffic. But a locomotive whistle had frightened them and they broke out of their van and began loping down narrow streets.

In London, it was reported that Dominic Elwes, the runaway lover who had returned, had been released from prison this date after serving two weeks for contempt of court, leaving, according to a prison official, by a backdoor in the wee hours of the morning.

John Kilgo of The News reports that Police Chief Frank Littlejohn had said this date that he did not know whether he was going to quit the following day or wait until the investigation of City Recorder's Court was complete. He had moved most of his personal belongings from his office at the police station and taken them home, and had filled out his retirement papers. On June 11, the chief had said publicly that he would resign in July. He said this date that he remained ready to take a rest from police work but did not know whether he should leave before the grand jury finished its investigation of the court issues, an investigation which he had instigated in May. The Council failed to act this date either on appointment of a civilian clerk of the Recorder's Court or payment of $500 to an attorney employed by Chief Littlejohn as his personal representative at the civil service hearing for fired police Capt. Lloyd Henkel. Council member Herman Brown said that he believed FBI agent W. A. Murphy would make a good replacement for the chief. Mr. Brown was asked by Council member Martha Evans as to whether Mr. Murphy had given him a personal application for the job, to which Mr. Brown had said that he had not but that he knew Mr. Murphy personally and that he was a fine person for whom he would vote. Mrs. Evans then quipped that since he was doing that, she would enter J. Edgar Hoover's hat into the ring. Otherwise, the session of the Council was a "fizzle".

Chief Littlejohn had also said this date that after his resignation he would "become one of the biggest politicians in Charlotte." He said he would not run for office but was going "to do a lot of leg work and hit every precinct in this town." He said he would do "a lot of talking to people and tell them about this administration." He was presumably talking about the present City Council. He said he would not run for dogcatcher but would "do plenty of talking and telling of what I know."

Emery Wister of The News tells of a 16-year old boy celebrating his birthday this date by making a solo flight in a two-seater Piper Cub airplane. He was not able to do so before this date because the Civil Aeronautics Administration's minimum age for a solo license was 16. With the approval of his instructor, the junior at East Mecklenburg High School had taken off alone in the morning and circled the field for five minutes before touching down. The instructor had called the flight "perfect". He had then made two successive takeoffs and landings, while his mother watched through the viewer of a movie camera. The boy's only gripe was that being up there alone left him with no one to whom to talk. He had received 11 hours of dual instruction, which had begun the previous April. He wanted to be a commercial pilot and thus far, he felt he had graduated from primary school, with the next step being a private pilot's license. The CAA said he had to be 17 before he could obtain such a license. He would have to be 18 before receiving a commercial pilot's license. He deferred to his instructor as to whether he would be ready at age 18 to get that license, and his instructor said that it was more than just a possibility. His mother, however, said that he had to get his automobile driver's license first, which he would seek to do on Friday.

In New York, an 82-year old woman, 5'5" and weighing 103, had punched a man who stood 6 feet tall, weighed 170 and was in his 20's, carrying a razor, demanding that the woman give him her pocketbook, waving the razor at her. Her purse only contained $3.50, but she did not appreciate the man's manners and said she would not provide it. When he grabbed for the purse, the woman hit the hand which held the razor, causing it to fly up and cut the man's nose, prompting him to scream and run away, carrying the pocketbook with him. The woman called police and a patrolman had found the man on an operating table in a nearby hospital receiving five stitches in his nose. The purse remained intact and was recovered in a subway station in the neighborhood. The man was charged with felonious assault, robbery and violation of the New York Sullivan anti-weapons law. The elderly woman had thrown such a hard punch that a physician was called to treat her shoulder, but she did not require hospitalization. She said to police that she had learned how to handle men like that from her husband who had been a police lieutenant.

In Kountze, Tex., a criminal defense lawyer concerned for his partner's bleeding nose, had resulted in a murder trial getting off to a slow start the previous day. The defendant, founder of the National Association for the Advancement of White People, was charged with the shotgun slaying of his brother-in-law. The defense attorney had asked for a postponement until cooler weather because his colleague suffered from nose bleeds, indicating that the colleague had recently spent a total of 15 days in a hospital after an attack. The judge sympathized with the lawyer's condition but denied the motion for a continuance and ordered jury selection to begin.

The Associated Press reports that a woman in Kansas City had reported to the police that she had been bitten by a dog, and the patrolman assigned to investigate the matter had also been bitten on the hand by the dog, which, according to the officer, had gotten away.

In Burbank, Calif., a woman had sought help to locate her missing 12-year old daughter, indicating that the girl had left home on Friday after an argument about washing dishes, stating that she would buy a dishwasher if her daughter would return home.

In Colby, Kans., it was reported the previous day that a customer at the post office had ordered three large books of three-cent stamps and the clerk had reminded her that first-class letters would require four cents after August 1, to which the customer said, "Why do you think I'm stocking up?"

In Ardmore, Okla., it was reported that a defendant had said he was guilty and would waive a hearing. The judge asked him what he had meant by waiving a hearing, and the man said, "I'll plead guilty, but I don't want to hear any more about it." The judge then fined him $20 on a charge of drunkenness.

In Springerville, Ariz., it was reported that a Highway Patrolman who had been alerted to look for a stolen car, stopped a motorist in the town and ordered him out while he searched the car. The man then got into the patrolman's car and sped away, and the patrolman was unable to catch him in the man's car.

In Buffalo, Wyo., it was reported that a rancher said that his second childhood was coming late in life, as several weeks earlier his friends had noticed that he was growing a new crop of hair on his previously bald head and he had then discovered that a new tooth was emerging through his lower gum. The man was 96 years old.

On the editorial page, "Haste Makes Waste in Picking a Chief" finds that City Council member Herman Brown ought to slow down in his campaign on behalf of W. A. Murphy to succeed Police Chief Frank Littlejohn.