The Charlotte News

Monday, August 18, 1958

TWO EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from the U.N. in New York that the emergency General Assembly meeting this date received a Western-supported plan calling on Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold to work out arrangements to ease tensions in the Middle East. The new plan, embodying several points of President Eisenhower's peace program presented the prior week, had failed to win the support of key Asian and Arab countries, but its sponsors predicted that it would be supported by the necessary two-thirds majority of the Assembly. The initial sponsors were Norway, Canada, Colombia and Denmark, with others expected to join subsequently. The U.S. and Britain, although not formal sponsors, had a leading role in drafting the proposal and were prepared to provide it support. Secretary of State Dulles and British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd had submitted letters to the Assembly president, Sir Leslie Munro of New Zealand, giving formal assurances that the U.S. and British forces would be withdrawn from Lebanon and Jordan, respectively, when stable conditions were restored in the region. A key part of the letters, designed to ease Arab opposition to the Western resolution, had declared that U.S. and British forces would be withdrawn as soon as the Assembly determined that the U.N. had taken action which made their presence unnecessary. Diplomatic sources said that India would vote against the Norwegian plan despite the assurances. Asian and Arab nations objected particularly to the absence of any direct resolution for U.S. and British withdrawal. The main points of the Norwegian resolution were that Dr. Hammarskjold would make such arrangements as he would find adequate to uphold the principles and purposes of the U.N. Charter in relation to Lebanon and Jordan, taking note of the letters from Secretary Dulles and Secretary Lloyd; that the Assembly would reaffirm that all U.N. members ought refrain from acts, direct or indirect, aimed at fomenting civil strife in other countries or subversion; that Dr. Hammarskjold would be asked to continue his studies on a possible standby U.N. peace force for the Middle East and would also be asked to consult with the Arabs on the possibility of setting up an economic regional development agency, points put forward by the President's proposed plan.

In Amman, Jordan, the Government had announced this date the arrest of the head of the Jordan Moslem Brotherhood, Mohammed Khalifi, for security reasons. He was a member of the Brotherhood's four-man delegation in the Jordanian Parliament.

In Taipei, Formosa, it was reported that the Defense Ministry had said this date that the Chinese Communists had increased by eight or nine divisions the strength of their ground forces in the coastal areas of Fukien Province, directly opposite Formosa.

Julian Scheer of The News reports from Cape Canaveral, Fla., that the U.S. was confident of successfully launching a rocket in the direction of the moon, though it might not be for another decade. The abortive 77-second flight toward the moon the previous day had only achieved an altitude of 50,000 feet and so had been a major disappointment to scientists and engineers, who, nevertheless, were far from being disheartened, and confidently said that at least one of the four scheduled attempts, two each by the Air Force and the Army, might prove successful. The rocket which had made the attempt was a Douglas Thor-Able. The scientists likened it to the first attempt to fly by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, N.C. They believed that while the U.S. might not orbit the moon, it would almost certainly be able to launch a rocket soon which would go beyond the presently achieved altitude of between 2,000 and 4,000 miles. The Air Force would make another attempt in 28 days, on September 14, again to be a Thor-Able, which was now 70 to 80 percent reliable. Not including the failed launch the previous day, six of the previous seven Thor rockets had reached the burnout point, which was the distance expected of them, and two of those had been successful long-range rockets with mice aboard. A malfunction the previous day, probably in a fuel line, had caused the failure. Changes in the control system of the rocket had functioned properly, but the new solid fuel third-stage had never gotten a chance to operate. As an indication that the trouble was in the first stage, it had blown up after 77 seconds, while it should have fired for 157 seconds. Data was radioed back to the base for 200 seconds.

The House had called up a Senate-passed labor bill, sponsored by Senators John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Irving Ives of New York, requiring public disclosure of labor union finances and giving union members a bigger voice in union affairs. The procedure on the bill would allow for little debate and no amendments, and require at least a two-thirds super-majority for passage. Supporters of the bill had decided on the last-ditch effort after the House Labor Committee had refused to consider either the Senate measure or a substitute backed by Republican Committee members. It had been passed on June 17 in the Senate by a vote of 88 to 1. The controversial bill had resulted from the hearings before the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct of unions and management. Nine House Democrats had joined during the weekend in a circular letter to other members, urging passage of the Senate measure, which they conceded was not perfect. Representative Clare Hoffman of Michigan called the Senate bill "a quack remedy, not only reckless but harmful," objecting to the procedure for considering it in the House and urging that it be defeated. The bill was given little chance of passage. The House was expected to act soon, possibly this date, on a compromise measure to require public disclosure of financial data on employee pension and welfare funds. The Senate had passed that compromise the previous Saturday.

In Pontiac, Mich., Herman Kierdorf, former Teamster Union official who had been sought for two weeks in the fire death of his nephew, who had also been a Teamster local official in Flint, had given himself up the previous night, saying that he had nothing to hide. Otherwise, his most frequent remark during interviews with police and the press this date had been that he had no comment. The 68-year old ex-convict and one-time business agent for a Teamsters local, had surrendered to authorities at a drive-in restaurant by prearrangement. He said he wanted to cooperate, "but being innocent, I don't think I could be connected." He had disappeared on August 4, refusing to say where he had been hiding. He had been sought on a warrant charging him with possession of a gun equipped with a silencer and had vanished the same day that his nephew, Frank, 56, had stumbled into a Pontiac hospital with burns over 85 percent of his body, initially stating to police, after consultation with his uncle, that he had received the burns from two men whom he did not know who had poured gasoline over him and lit him on fire, the following day having changed his story, indicating that he was burned while trying deliberately to set fire to a dry cleaning establishment in Flint, and that his uncle had been present at that time. Police believed the latter story, indicating that the initial story had been disproved by their investigation. Herman said, however, that Frank had not torched himself, accidentally or otherwise, asking rhetorically why he would have set the place on fire, indicating he believed that his nephew would not do a thing like that. He also said that a second reason he had turned himself in was because the chief assistant prosecutor of Oakland County was "taking a rap" for having released him on August 4 after questioning him. He apologized for having caused so much trouble. He was booked on a formal charge of possession of a pistol equipped with a silencer. During questioning by the press, his statements varied at times, at one point indicating that he had vanished because he was "shaken up by the death" of his nephew, but did not explain why he was missing three days before his nephew had died, four days after the August 3 incident at the dry cleaning establishment, also stating that his heart trouble had made it difficult for him to stay in jail, answer questions and face the general notoriety. He also had not wanted to confront his nephew's wife. Earlier, Michigan Attorney General Paul Adams had called Herman Kierdorf the key to the mystery. But this date, Mr. Adams said that he had no immediate intention of filing a charge against Mr. Kierdorf in connection with the fire at the dry cleaning establishment.

In Unity House, Pa., it was reported that AFL-CIO leaders had met this date to tighten organized labor's quarantine against the Teamsters Union. George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, said in advance that all AFL-CIO unions had to end their mutual aid pacts with the Teamsters, which had been ousted from the labor federation eight months earlier because of corruption. Walter Reuther, president of the UAW, told the press that he was confident that the AFL-CIO executive council would vote to require member unions to sever all ties with the Teamsters. It was a crucial decision, with most AFL-CIO unions' bargaining power dependent on the help of Teamsters in respecting their picket lines by ceasing deliveries and thus making their strikes effective. The Teamsters had been the target of more than 18 months of corruption charges by the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct of unions and management. The Teamsters had continued to operate with AFL-CIO member unions even after its ouster and many AFL-CIO unions had accepted or courted Teamster aid. Any formal cutting of Teamster aid, as threatened by the AFL-CIO leaders, could result in retaliation by the Teamsters which would pit union against union and dilute strike cooperation. The issue was whether the AFL-CIO was willing to risk losing the Teamster help in dealing with employers as the price for the federation's stand against union corruption. At issue also was the status of Maurice Hutcheson, an AFL-CIO vice-president and head of the large Carpenters Union. Mr. Hutcheson was embroiled in an Indiana state highway scandal, charges of fixing a grand jury and frittering away union funds on a book lauding his family, having inherited the position as president of the union from his father, the late William Hutcheson. Mr. Meany and other AFL-CIO leaders had faced the decision whether to oust Mr. Hutcheson from the federation's council, just as they had expelled former Teamsters president Dave Beck a year earlier when the latter had been facing corruption charges. Secretary of State Dulles was due to speak to the group the following day regarding foreign affairs. The leaders this date urged the House to pass the Kennedy-Ives bill. The meeting was being held at the Pocono Mountain summer camp maintained by the Ladies Garment Workers Union.

The Senate had voted contempt citations this date against Maurice Hutcheson and 12 other witnesses who had balked in their testimony or failed to honor subpoenas before the Senate Select Committee.

In Winston-Salem, N.C., the City School Board assigned three black children this date to the all-white Easton Elementary School, turning down requests from five other black students for reassignment from Atkins to Reynolds High School for the coming school year. Reynolds, however, already had one black female student who had attended the previous year and already had been assigned to the school again for the coming year. The Board's action had been the first time racial integration had been ordered in Winston-Salem below the high school level.

On the editorial page, Joseph Alsop tells of Senate debate recently on an amendment to the military appropriations bill proposed by Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, forbidding the Defense Department from spending any appropriated funds on plans for surrender of the United States. The amendment was offered in response to a story published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, by Brig. General Thomas Phillips, who had revealed that the Air Force subsidiary, the RAND Corporation, had been peering ahead into the years when the Soviet Union was due to acquire overwhelming superiority in nuclear strike capability, with General Phillips having stated that contemplation of that eventuality had led RAND scientists to make a study of the circumstances in which the U.S. ought surrender.