The Charlotte News
Wednesday, August 13, 1958
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page
reports from the U.N. in New York that the President this date had
provided a sweeping six-point plan for building an enduring Middle
Eastern peace, including the swift creation of an emergency U.N.
police force and an international economic development program. He
made a personal appearance before a tense, extraordinary meeting of
the U.N. General Assembly, accusing Russia, without naming it, of
stirring up war hysteria with tactics of "ballistic blackmail".
The major foreign policy speech was broadcast by television and radio
across the country and beamed around the world by the Government's
Voice of America radio network. The President compared
Informed sources had reported this date that the Air Force might attempt its first launching of a moon rocket on Sunday morning, that if conditions were satisfactory, the three-stage rocket, more than 100 feet tall, might launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., at around 8:00 a.m. If it did not prove possible to launch within half an hour of that time, the attempt might be postponed to a similar brief window on Monday morning, and likewise through Tuesday. Those were the three most favorable days during the current month for a moon shot. Experts said that it would be possible to make another attempt the following Wednesday, although conditions at that time would be marginal. After Wednesday, any lunar probe would have to be postponed until the middle of September, as every 28 days, the orbiting patterns of the earth and moon were so aligned that conditions were favorable for a shot. It would take 2 1/2 days for the lunar vehicle to reach the vicinity of the moon, approximately 240,000 miles from earth. The rocket would be equipped with a photoelectric scanning device which, if functioning properly, could relay close-ups of the moon back to earth. Should the probe orbit the moon, that equipment would provide the first crude photographs of the far side of the moon, the side never visible from the earth. To escape from the gravitational field of the earth, the missile had to attain a speed of 25,000 mph. Although the chances for successful launch and escape from gravity were believed fairly poor, the probe would have rockets to adjust its proper speed and direction to attain a lunar orbit, provided it could get close enough to the moon to come within its gravitational field, having about one-sixth the force of that of the earth. If you don't like it, stuff it where the moon don't shine.
John Kilgo of The News reports that the City Council during the afternoon had relieved longtime Police Chief Frank Littlejohn, effective immediately, and named Capt. E. C. Selbey as acting chief. Chief Littlejohn had sent a letter to Mayor James Smith during the morning saying that it was his intention to resign on September 1. Council member Herman Brown made a motion during the afternoon to relieve the chief of his duties immediately, and that motion carried by a vote of 4 to 3, with Council members Martha Evans, former Mayor Herbert Baxter and Claude Albea voting against the motion. Mr. Brown said that they were not firing anybody and his motion called for Mr. Littlejohn to be paid his full salary through September 15. Just days before we are set to be moved lock, stock and barrel to an area near Robin Hood and not too far away from an area known as Sherwood Forest, the Charlotte City Council relieves Mr. Littlejohn. Well, he can always move to Winston-Salem and join the merry band. He will need to stock up on tights, however, and practice his archery.
In Sacramento, Calif., dog-pound master George Martin said, "I mean it's a serious thing." Another man had tried to dislodge one of the estimated 500 skunks concentrated in the southwest part of the city, that animal having been in a hole and the man having pulled at it by its tail. He was likely stinking of gin. The newest Sacramento City employee was a professional trapper.
On the editorial page, Doris Fleeson discusses the testimony of Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa before the McClellan Committee, finding that "a dangerous condition of domestic anarchy" had been revealed during the hearing, with nothing having been like it since "Al Capone built a gangland empire on the flaws of the noble experiment of prohibition."
Yet, by week's end, the President was ignoring it and responsible labor leaders were quiet, as was the Department of Justice. The Congress was still pigeonholing its mild legislation attempting to deal with the abuses of the labor's right to organize and bargain collectively. None of them could plead ignorance to the "sickening details of criminality and corruption."
Mr. Hoffa had his gifted mouthpiece, lawyer Edward Bennett Williams, to dramatize the details. Mr. Hoffa appeared completely secure in his command of one of the greatest unions of the country, appearing confident that he could out-talk and out-maneuver those who were portraying his appalling conduct of the union and making efforts to call him to account. At one point, he said, "The public be damned."
She finds the degree of his cynicism to have been complete as he could not be bothered to discipline his ex-convict employees and was unmoved by the human torch death of one of them, Frank Kierdorf. His big money had come from "gambling" of which he kept no record and said that the man who had prepared his income tax returns had thrown out the worksheet.
She indicates that perhaps Washington at present was entitled to some absorption in world problems, but that there were parts of the executive branch, including the Justice and Treasury Departments, which could work effectively against civil anarchy of that type, provided the indignation and will were present.
In the Congress, Mr. Hoffa was taking advantage of a combination of factors, including the anti-labor bias of the far right, which preferred to penalize rather than reform labor unions, and the cowardice of most of the rest, moderates and liberals alike, who said that they believed in the honesty and patriotism of most union members, but feared to put that confidence to the test.
Aiding and abetting the impasse were also elements in business, including the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Retail Foundation and the United States Chamber of Commerce, which preferred no start at all on reform measures unless they got their own way. She suggests that perhaps some of those organizations had a notion that the whole union movement could in that way be made to collapse, not the wish or intention of the majority of Americans, but the possibility that they could be represented the challenge to responsible labor to force internal reform.
As we have fallen behind, the remainder of the front page and editorial page will not be summarized, as the summaries will continue to be sporadic until we catch up.
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