The Charlotte News

Friday, September 19, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Taipei, Formosa, that the U.S. had announced reorganization of the American Advisory Command on Formosa, making it, in effect, a regular combat command. The announcement by the commander of the U.S. Formosa Defense Command, Vice-Admral Roland Smoot, said that the step was taken "to attain an adequate defense posture in the face of recent stepped-up Chinese Communist actions." In Quemoy, meanwhile, Communist and Nationalist guns had engaged in fresh battle this date. The Nationalists said that the Communists had fired 6,613 shells between noon and 6:00 p.m., with the bombardment having been particularly heavy while three LST's were unloading supplies at Quemoy. The Defense Ministry in Formosa had said that the ships had accomplished their mission without damage and returned safely to base, presumably in the Pescadores Islands. Admiral Smoot's command announced that the U.S. had augmented its Army, Navy and Air Force in the Formosa area, indicating that the augmentation "has established a requirement for centralizing operational control of all forces assigned to the Formosa area." The announcement said that the Joint Chiefs had established the U.S. Formosa Defense Command as a subordinate unified command under the commander-in-chief, Pacific, while overall direction remained under Admiral Smoot. Maj. General Leander Doan, chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group, had been designated commanding general of the U.S. Army forces assigned to Formosa. Brig. General Fred Den, commander of the U.S. Air Task Force, had been designated commander of all Air Force units, and Rear Admiral Paul Blackburn, commander of the Formosa Strait patrol, was designated commander of U.S. Naval units. Admiral Smoot, according to the announcement, would have under his direct operational control those forces necessary to discharge his mission of on-the-spot coordination of all U.S. operations in the Formosa area. Reorganization of the Formosa Command had been announced as the Army assigned a Nike Hercules missile battalion to the defense of the Nationalist stronghold in Formosa. The Nike-Hercules could knock down enemy aircraft more than 75 miles distant and could carry either a conventional or a nuclear warhead. We hope that the air raid siren atop the pharmacy is still working tomorrow at noon. We are now becoming somewhat accustomed to it after four weeks.

At the U.N. in New York, the U.S. formally proposed this date that the body postpone action on the seating of Communist China for at least another year. The move had been made by U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., in the General Assembly's powerful steering committee. Ambassador Lodge spoke after Indian Defense Minister V. K. Krishna Menon had urged full debate at the current Assembly session on the controversial issue of giving China's seat to the Communist regime on the mainland. The U.S. proposal was similar to motions adopted by the Assembly in previous years and there was no doubt that it would be approved again on this occasion. Ambassador Lodge told the committee, "this year, of all years, is not the time" to consider ousting Nationalist China and seating the Chinese Communists. He made no direct reference to the Chinese Communist attacks on Formosa, but spoke only of "recent developments" in the Far East. Nationalist China's T. F. Tsiang had criticized the Chinese Communist regime as a product of Soviet indirect aggression and subversion, declaring that it did not represent the Chinese people. He had also pointed out that it had been branded by the U.N. as an aggressor in the current situation.

At the Atomic Test Site in Nevada, it was reported that a tiny, but powerful, atomic weapon had been detonated over the desert this date, as the seventh and possibly last nuclear test series opened at the proving ground. A brilliant flash had cut through the morning sunlight as the device had detonated beneath a balloon at a 500-foot elevation. A light brown cloud, without the usual atomic mushroom shape, had shot up over the floor of Yucca Flat. The sound and the shock wave were hardly noticeable at News Knob, 10.5 miles distant. A ten-shot series had been planned, but it had to end prior to October 31, the effective date of the President's proposal for a one-year suspension of nuclear weapons testing.

At Cape Canaveral, Fla., a Snark guided missile had been launched this date, with a planned 6,000-mile flight across the Atlantic. The 69-foot missile, which had been fired from the Cape more than 50 times, at present was the only U.S. missile capable of traveling a distance equivalent to intercontinental range.

In Havana, the Cuban Government was reported this date to be rushing troop reinforcements into the southeastern coastal area of Camaguey Province to halt the western march of six rebel columns under Fidel Castro. The province bordered on easternmost Oriente Province, which had long been the rebel stronghold. The rebels had just announced their intention to conduct the western march to overthrow El Presidente Fulgencio Batista.

In Algiers, one person had been killed and five others wounded this date when a terrorist's grenade had exploded near the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the city.

In Nicosia, Cyprus, U.S. Vice-Consul John Wentworth was said to be in serious condition this date after three bullet wounds had been inflicted by a young gunman, who may have believed that he was shooting a Briton.

In Little Rock, Ark., it was reported that Governor Orval Faubus had offered the people of the city what he termed a legal plan for private, segregated schools and had asked them to vote for segregated classes. The Governor said that approval of segregated classes in the September 27 special referendum, mandated by state law when any public school was closed, would make the school facilities surplus property. The Little Rock School Board could then lease them to private agencies, and the Governor urged them to do so. One such agency had already been chartered. The plan depended heavily on the special election, which some lawyers said had no legal significance because of the Supreme Court's order on September 12 to proceed with further integration immediately at Central High School. The Board, meanwhile, had arranged for informal televised classes to begin on Monday for students of the four closed high schools. School officials had not decided what credit would be given for any such work.

In Virginia, Governor J. Lindsay Almond, Jr., had closed white schools as soon as the Federal District Court had ordered them to admit black students. He had closed two white schools in Charlottesville under a state law which automatically halted classes wherever integration was ordered. He had ordered the white high school at Front Royal in Warren County closed the previous week. The Warren County PTA had vetoed a move to reopen the school without state funding. It had named a committee to make plans for interim pupil instruction. Six schools in Norfolk apparently would be the next to close, but action by the City School Board might delay it. A Federal District Court judge had overruled a state court injunction against the Board's proceeding with integration plans. The Board said that it would seek a delay of the integration order, and if that failed, appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. State action would await that decision.

An attorney for the NAACP, G. E. Graves, said that he would go into court if necessary to gain admittance of a group of black children to a white elementary school in Miami, Fla. He said that he would appeal to the County School Board and the Florida State School Board, if necessary, to obtain the admissions, and failing there, would take the case to the state circuit court in Tallahassee. The County Board had rejected applications from 14 black children to attend the school.

The cost of living as measured by the Government had dropped in August for the first time in two years, by two-tenths of one percent. The Labor Department attributed the decline to the usual late-summer drop in food prices, as fruits and vegetables hit the market in quantity. The Government's price expert said that no sustained decline in the cost of living was in prospect. He forecast that the consumer price level would stay approximately the same for the ensuing few months. He indicated the belief that the index might show a further small decline when September data would become available, because of continued late-summer food price reductions. The index for August, announced this date, was 123.7 percent of the 1947-49 average, 2.2 percent higher than in August, 1957. The index had hit a record level 21 times during the previous 24 months, a rise of about 6 percent in general living costs in two years. There was no sizable group of workers whose pay rates required adjustment because of labor contracts geared to the August index. The Labor Department reported that spendable earnings of factory workers had risen slightly between July and August. Workers with three dependents averaged $75.90 per week after tax deductions, while a single worker averaged $68.48. Those figures were somewhat higher than a year earlier but represented reduced buying power because of the increase in the cost of living since that point. The decline in food prices in August had been fairly general, with the prices for meats, fruits and vegetables all being lower, and the prices for eggs, milk and restaurant meals having risen somewhat. Transportation, housing, medical care and recreation costs had been higher. The Government expert said that he expected still lower September food prices, which would trend downward for several months, but that there probably would be offsetting price increases as fall clothing came to market at higher price levels and new automobile models reached the market also at probably higher prices than the previous year's models.

On the editorial page, "The Dixiecrats Eye a Dusty Cloak" indicates that the Richmond News Leader, in an editorial during the week, presumably by editor Jack Kilpatrick, had "grabbed up the dusty cloak of Dixiecrat revolt", urging "'a dramatic coalition of conservatives in Congress next January.'" Under the proposed plan, "'roughly 50 senators and 250 representatives would abandon their national party identifications as Republicans or Democrats, and join hands as Conservatives in order to organize the Congress and take command of committees.'"