The Charlotte News

Friday, August 22, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President had announced this date that the U.S. was ready to suspend nuclear weapons testing for a year starting October 31, provided Russia would meet two conditions, that it would maintain its current ban on nuclear testing, in effect since the prior March, and would further agree to negotiations aimed at a permanent ban. The White House said that Britain also stood ready to join in the one-year suspension of nuclear weapons testing under the same conditions specified by the U.S. The President stressed in his statement that the U.S. was not proposing that nuclear testing for peaceful purposes be halted. He had referred to the technical talks on necessary inspections to enforce a ban, which had been concluded during the week at Geneva after seven weeks of discussions. He stated: "The United States, taking account of the Geneva conclusions, is prepared to proceed promptly to negotiate an agreement with other nations which have tested nuclear weapons for the suspension of nuclear weapons tests and the actual establishment of an international controls system on the basis of the experts' report. If this is accepted in principle by the other nations which have tested nuclear weapons, then in order to facilitate the detailed negotiations, the United States is prepared, unless testing is resumed by the Soviet Union, to withhold further testing on its part of atomic and hydrogen weapons for a period of one year from the beginning of the negotiations." The announcement was a major shift in U.S. nuclear policy. He said that as part of the contemplated international agreement, the U.S. would be prepared also to suspend nuclear weapons testing on a year-by-year basis, subject to determination at the start of each year that an agreed inspection system was installed and working effectively, and that satisfactory progress was being made in reaching agreement on and implementing major substantial arms control measures, as the U.S. had long sought. The implication appeared to be that the U.S. was willing to renew the proposed initial suspension while negotiations toward a possible permanent ban were being conducted. He said that U.S. negotiators would be ready by the end of October to open the negotiations.

In Taipei, Formosa, Nationalist Chinese planes had dropped propaganda leaflets over three provinces of East China early this date in defiance of the increased Communist Chinese Air Force.

In London, it was reported that Iceland had threatened this date to pull out of NATO over its fishing dispute with Britain, its ambassador to Britain having told a press conference that his nation would be compelled "to drop out of NATO if Britain does not behave."

The House Appropriations Committee bowed reluctantly this date to the President's veto of a 589 billion dollar appropriation for the Civil Service retirement fund.

The Government reported, through the Bureau of Labor Statistics this date, that the cost of living in July had set another record high, with the consumer price index having risen two-tenths of a percent to 123.9 percent of the 1947-49 base period. Increases in transportation, food and medical care costs had been chiefly responsible for the rise. Meanwhile, take-home pay of factory workers had also risen to a record high for any July, contrary to the usual seasonal trend. The average take-home pay of a factory worker with three dependents was $75.88 per week, an increase of about 30 cents from June. The rise in cost of living would mean another small pay increase for about 500,000 workers, chiefly in aircraft and electrical equipment industries, whose union contracts were based on the Government index. The index had risen in 21 of the prior 23 months, with there having been no decline since August, 1956. The head of the BLS predicted little change in the general cost of living for the ensuing several months, indicating that food prices would continue down but that the advent of new fall clothing and new model automobiles, both expected to cost more, would offset any drop in food prices. He said that a small factor had been the increase in postal rates, with the cost of a stamp for a first-class letter going from three cents to four cents. He attributed two-thirds of the June to July increase to transportation prices, which had risen by one percent. Gasoline prices had increased by 2.2 percent as price wars ended in several locations. Used cars had gone up 2.9 percent, while there had been no change in the average price of new cars. Transit fares had risen by 1.1 percent because of increases in five cities. Food prices had increased by one tenth of a percent, with higher prices for pork, eggs and milk more than offsetting reductions for fresh fruits and vegetables. The food index by itself for July had been 121.7 percent of the 1947-49 base period, or 3.7 percent higher than in July, 1957. The complete index was 2.6 percent higher than in July of the prior year. We ask in 2025 the little Trumpy-Dumpy-Doer who went out last November and voted for the dictator, a proven dictator and a liar, just what they have gotten from him in the way of lower prices, on which many people apparently cast their votes in 2024. The fact of the matter is that food prices, by and large, are substantially higher on balance, thanks to His Brilliance having imposed the worst tariff policy since 1931, a policy which only intensified the then-extant depression, with gas prices about the same as a year ago, depending on locality, and overall the rate of inflation being higher. And, because he fired the previous head of the BLS because he did not like the report in the last quarter to which she had no input, we really do not know what the jobs picture looks like at present, but, based on the last report, it is and was pretty anemic, the lowest job creation since his first term, in which he practically destroyed the economy of the country by managing the pandemic as a drunken sailor might. But, unfortunately, we're stuck for the next three years with this product of insouciance and ignorance on the part of many voters, who apparently cast their votes on the basis of the cult of personality and Fox Propaganda, or the functional equivalent thereof. Given everything else the dictator is doing across the land, taking over cities run by Democratic mayors in Democratically governed states, we shall be very fortunate to survive the next three years with any democracy left. He is governing the country as if it were a third-world, underdeveloped nation, and, obviously, intends to reduce it to same, because, ultimately, he hates the United States and its democracy, preferring to govern as a corporate autocrat, skipping Congress and ignoring the courts and what he deems to be "radical, leftist judges" who are only applying the laws and the Constitution as written, not as Herr Doktor Goebbels is interpreting them from behind the scenes. Try to keep in mind next time, that once you cast your vote, it is irrevocable for four long years. Try to show, henceforth, therefore greater responsibility in casting it, taking the time to be thoroughly familiar with the issues and the candidates, those of you who fell for the oldest political trick in the book, the creation of a bogeyman which did not in fact exist, "the worst economy ever", all the while intending to rob you blind while unable to improve the economy one whit, indeed making it much worse.

In Little Rock, Ark., the NAACP stated that it would ask the Supreme Court this date to overturn the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals stay which had been imposed on its own decision, which had reversed the District Court judge who had ordered a delay of renewed integration in Little Rock until the beginning of 1961, the stay having been put in place pending the Little Rock Board of Education's submission of a petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court, contesting the Circuit Court's reversal. The school year would begin at Central High School on September 2. Governor Orval Faubus had stated the previous day that he might call a special session of the Legislature for the following week in case the NAACP would be successful in overturning the stay. The School Board was going ahead on the assumption that the high school would be all-white again when classes resumed. Registration would begin this date and if black students applied, they would be told to attend the Horace Mann Negro High School in Little Rock. Thurgood Marshall, counsel for the NAACP, said that he would ask the high court to set aside the stay, which would then allow black students to reenter Central on opening day. The Governor refused to back down immediately on his standby call to legislators to be ready for a session to begin on Monday after the Circuit Court's decision. The Governor had hinted that the state would close Central should the Federal Government force integration as during the prior school year. At a press conference, he said that one possible measure his Administration would submit to the Legislature involved troops, and that closing the school in the event of forced integration was another. The consensus of several Little Rock attorneys was that one Supreme Court justice could vacate the stay, presumably falling to Justice Charles Whittaker, who had responsibility for the Eighth Circuit while the Supreme Court was in recess. Justices also had the prerogative, in particular cases, to refer the matter to the full Court for determination on a stay.

In London, it was reported that the boss at the Tower of London had confessed to Scotland Yard this date that he had deliberately set off the burglar alarm to see how well England's Crown jewels were being safeguarded, and said he was delighted that it it worked extremely well. When asked by Scotland Yard why he did not warn them that it was only a practice, he responded, "What's the use of having a test if it's not carried out properly?" The Louvre might henceforth want to follow that same standard.

On the editorial page, Walter Lippmann, continuing the theme of Joseph Alsop on Monday and Wednesday and Doris Fleeson on Tuesday, regards the speech recently on the Senate floor by Senator John F. Kennedy, critical of the Administration's foreign and military policies, not adjusting properly to changing conditions vis-à-vis the Soviet Union but rather continuing to rely on deteriorating nuclear superiority to afford a deterrent against a first-strike nuclear attack while not regarding other alternatives than either complete surrender or total war. He made reference to public statements by generals which had indicated that the United States would face a "gap" in nuclear superiority and a "missile lag" between 1960 and 1964, when the Soviets would, based on estimates, have the power to destroy the U.S. Air Force and devastate "85 percent of our industry, 43 of our 50 largest cities."