The Charlotte News

Thursday, September 4, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Newport, R.I., that the President this date had warned Communist China that he would not hesitate to commit U.S. armed forces to the defense of the Nationalist offshore islands if he found it necessary for the security of Formosa. His position had been set forth by Secretary of State Dulles in a statement authorized by the President after they had conferred for an hour and 45 minutes in Newport, where the President was vacationing. Mr. Dulles said that the President would not hesitate to conclude that Formosa, the principal Chinese Nationalist bastion, was threatened with an attack on Quemoy, Matsu and other offshore islands. The Secretary stressed that the President had not yet made any such finding under authority conferred on him by Congress by a resolution passed and signed in 1955. The Secretary stated, "Presidential determination, if made, would be followed by action both timely and effective." Despite the persistent bombardment of the Nationalist-held offshore islands by the Communists and Communist China's announced intention to invade, Mr. Dulles said that the U.S. had not abandoned hope that the Communist Government "will stop short of defying the will of mankind for peace." He said that that the President and he hoped that the Chinese Communists would not again, as in the case of Korea, defy the basic principle on which world order depended, that armed force ought not be used to achieve territorial ambitions. He went on to say that any such development "would forecast the widespread use of force in the Far East which would endanger vital free world positions and the security of the United States." He said that any U.S. acquiescence would threaten peace everywhere. Meanwhile, a high U.S. official in Newport, who desired anonymity, said that the U.S. would intervene swiftly if it thought that the Formosa Strait situation was out of hand, that is if Chiang Kai-shek's forces could not handle the situation by themselves. That official, when asked whether the statement of Mr. Dulles could be regarded as a blunt warning to the Communist Chinese, replied that if he were on the Communist side, he certainly would weigh the consequences of further aggression.

In Taipei, Formosa, it was reported that Communist China had posted a new warning this date to any American ships and planes which might be sent to aid Nationalist China in Formosa and its garrisons on Quemoy and the other offshore islands, with the Peiping regime extending its territorial waters to 12 miles offshore, which encompassed Quemoy and Matsu. The official New China News Agency said in a broadcast that all foreign ships and aircraft would have to have permission to travel in that new zone. It included Formosa, about 100 miles from the mainland, as well as the Pescadores Islands, also belonging to the Nationalists, the supply point about 30 miles from Formosa. Both had always been claimed by the Communists as part of China. The announcement charged that "U.S. military occupation of Formosa is an illegal act of violating Chinese territory and sovereignty. China has the right to recover Formosa at an appropriate time using all appropriate means. This is China's internal affair, in which no foreign interference is tolerated." The news agency defined the starting point of the new 12-mile line as the line connecting the mainland coast with its offshore islands. Quemoy and Matsu were about 18 miles from the nearest point of the mainland. The new inland sea, as the Peiping announcement called it, gave Communist China the pretext to regard any blockade-busting mission to relieve Quemoy as an active invasion. The move likely would be called illegal by most of the Western allies, but the allies had lodged a similar protest recently when the Soviets had extended sea limits, and had gotten nowhere. The U.S. continued to strengthen its forces on Formosa, with U.S. authorities announcing the arrival of more Americans Sabrejets, but not indicating how many. The new force was commanded by Maj. M. H. Frisbie, with his rank suggesting that the force was of wing size, usually numbering about 75 planes. General Curtis LeMay, Air Force deputy chief of staff and the top American exponent of long-range bombing, was due to visit Formosa on Sunday for a look at the situation.

In Tokyo, it was reported that top Japanese military experts had said this date that the U.S. "hard line" in the Formosa crisis had forced Communist China to abandon plans for an invasion of Quemoy in favor of an attempt to starve it into submission with an artillery blockade.

In New Delhi, it was reported that Premier Nehru had said this date that his Government was having border arguments with Communist China along the frontiers of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh states, in the Himalayas northwest of Nepal.

In Newport, the President had picked Lt. General James Doolittle, retired, and three others this date to serve on the council for the newly created NASA, the civilian space agency.

RNC chairman Meade Alcorn and DNC chairman Paul Butler had reached a rare agreement at a press conference this date after formally endorsing a code of fair campaign practices worked out by a national committee headed by Charles Taft, the brother of the late Senator Robert Taft. They had agreed that they did not like the statements and attitude of Democratic Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas regarding school integration, with the Governor having threatened to close any Arkansas schools which were ordered to be integrated by Federal courts. Mr. Alcorn said that the type of statements made by the Governor did not contribute to the solution of the problem, "either from a Republican or Democratic standpoint." Mr. Butler said that the statements of the Governor did not constitute the attitude of the Democratic Party, did not reflect its views, and that the Democratic Party repudiated such statements. Mr. Alcorn had been asked whether he would classify as dirty politics the charges by Democrats that the President was only a part-time President, and he replied that he felt that it had transgressed the pledge against "use of campaign material of any sort which misrepresents, distorts or otherwise falsifies the facts…" But Mr. Butler said that he did not interpret the code as restricting the Democrats for making the charge "with some degree of public acceptance of it as a fact." In signing the pledge, the two chairmen had gone on record as condemning "any appeal to prejudice based on race, creed, or national origin." They promised to condemn also "the use of personal vilification, character defamation, whispering campaigns, libel, slander or scurrilous attacks on any candidate or his personal or family life." Any such agreement since the advent of Magaville, USA, would be considered sacrilege, punishable by banishment from the Kingdom or, possibly deportation to El Salvador, certainly at least indictment on Trumped-up charges to suit His Highness, leader of the Cult, as one of the most sacred tenets of Magaville, its raison d'etre in fact, its sine qua non, is to vilify and defame at every opportunity the opposition, "the radical-leftist-Communist-Fascist-Marxist Democrats". (You can always immediately identify a Magaville resident as they consistently refer to the "Democrat", as distinguished from "Democratic", Party. Perhaps, Democrats should, in response, begin referring to the "Republics Party", as in the various weak-kneed French republics of yore.)

The Federal Government had enlisted civilians to serve as deputy marshals if needed in Little Rock, Ark. Application blanks for the position of deputy U.S. marshal had not mentioned the racial situation at Central High School in Little Rock, but one applicant said that there was no doubt that he was signing up for duty at Central if it were to reopen as an integrated school. The Supreme Court would meet on September 11 for oral argument on the petition for writ of certiorari filed by the School Board of Little Rock to reverse the order of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had reversed the District Court's order delaying further integration in Little Rock for two and a half years, with the Circuit Court having ordered integration to continue forthwith. The Circuit Court had stayed its decision pending the outcome of the Supreme Court proceeding. School would open in Little Rock, having been delayed from September 2 until September 8 and then finally to September 15, to allow time for the Supreme Court to hear the case. Elsewhere, several Southern schools had integrated peacefully, while trouble was reported from Van Buren, Ark., where white students on Tuesday had jeered 13 black pupils entering the high school there. At Fort Smith, Ark., just across the river from Van Buren, two elementary schools had admitted black students, with one of the youngsters having attended school with white children the previous semester in Fort Smith, where integration was voluntary. Hoxie, Fayetteville and Charleston, Ark., also had gone ahead peaceably with integration. Four Kentucky high schools had desegregated for the first time and integration had moved forward a step in one Virginia case, but failed to advance in another. A U.S. District Court judge in Virginia had rejected the Norfolk School Board's plea for a delay until the following year in implementing desegregation. The judge had said that he might reconsider his decision if the Supreme Court granted the delay in the Little Rock case or accepted review of that case. Disorders occurred at Birmingham, Ala., as a result of fears that black students would seek to enroll at a white high school, but no black students attempted to register at that school or in any other white school. During the demonstrations, a policeman had been slugged and one student had been hit on the head with a brick, after which three white men had been arrested. Elsewhere in Alabama, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who had led the Montgomery bus boycott two years earlier, had been arrested there on a charge of loitering. After being held for 15 minutes, he had been released on bond. He accused the police of brutality, a charge which the police commissioner vehemently denied. Police officers said that Dr. King had refused to move when he and a crowd of blacks were ordered away from City Hall, where another black integration leader was accusing a black person of attacking him.

In Van Buren, Ark., it was reported that a group of white youths had loitered about Van Buren High School this date, saying that they would prevent any black students from returning for the school's second year of court-ordered integration. A 17-year old white senior, who refused to provide his name, told a newsman that 41 boys, sophomores, juniors and seniors, had organized a strike to get rid of the black students. There were indications that none of the 13 black students would attempt to enter the school this date. A 16-year old black junior said that he was not going back, indicating, "I don't know, but I don't think any of the others are going back either." He said the previous night that he and seven others could not take any more threats and insults from white classmates. The spokesman for the white students said that his group would block the entrances of the school to keep blacks out. A station wagon occupied by two black persons passed the campus and the white boys had started after it. When it sped off, they said they probably had scared the blacks way. A newsman reported that the school superintendent was seen on campus and that a sheriff's patrol car and a city police car had been parked nearby. The superintendent had declined to discuss racial tension at the high school.

In Montgomery, Ala., it was reported that the Alabama Supreme Court had effectively stayed the execution of a black man sentenced to death for his conviction for robbery of an elderly woman, 82, on July 27, 1957, having allegedly taken between about $2.95 and $3.95 from her at her home by force involving threats to her life and attempted rape before relenting and fleeing when he saw a flash of light through the window. The victim had picked the defendant from a line-up two days later but could not identify him in the courtroom during trial, saying that she did not wish to see him again. He had admitted his guilt to law enforcement personnel following his arrest. The Court was determining whether to grant the defendant's petition for rehearing and when it made the determination, it could either grant the rehearing and change or reverse its prior decision affirming the conviction and sentence or deny it and establish a new date for execution. Because of the small amount involved in the robbery, numerous appeals, some from abroad, had been made to the Governor, Jim Folsom, to commute the sentence. Later in the month, after the Court had denied the petition for rehearing, the sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment by the Governor and the man would eventually be released on parole in 1973.

In New York, it was reported that the district attorney's office had asked for tape recordings and financial records of the television quiz show "21", resulting from a charge by a former contestant, Herbert Stempel, that the program was rigged to provide contestants with the questions and answers in advance. The recordings apparently would be used to match Mr. Stempel's voice with a voice on tape concerning a purported conversation between him and a co-producer of "21", Dan Enright. The co-producer said that Mr. Stempel had been given $18,500 of his winnings in advance when he had threatened to quit the program. He eventually had left the show in 1956 with $49,500, after losing to Charles Van Doren. Mr. Stempel had charged that he was told to lose, an allegation denied by the co-producers, including Jack Barry, host of the NBC show. Mr. Enright said that Mr. Stempel had told him that if he did not receive the money, he would have quit the show immediately and so he had given it to him without questioning him because at that point the show had needed him, as the first contestant who had remained on for a number of weeks consecutively. He had established an identity for the show and, said Mr. Enright, they could not afford to lose him. At the time, Mr. Stempel was ahead $50,000, but on "21", a contestant's winnings were always at stake and could have been wiped out at any point. The contestant was free to quit with his winnings intact at any time. Mr. Barry and Mr. Enright had said that Mr. Stempel, long after he had left the program, had tried to blackmail them by announcing that he would make public charges that the show was rigged. Earlier in the week, they had produced a tape recording in which a voice, presumably that of Mr. Enright, had been heard to say "a blackmail scheme" was afoot and had asked, "Do you agree?", after which a voice purported to be that of Mr. Stempel had replied, "Uh, yes." Mr. Stempel had said the previous day that the tape recording had been doctored, indicating that he had a conversation with Mr. Enright on the specified date, March 7, 1957, but had not said "yes" when Mr. Enright had asked him whether there was blackmail afoot. Asked what he had said, he replied that he did not remember, that he might have said "no" or "emphatically not". Mr. Stempel reiterated that the advance money proved his contention that Mr. Enright had known that he could not lose. It was reported, however, that some quiz shows other than "21" had advanced relatively small amounts to contestants whose assured winnings were greater than the advance. Mr. Stempel also absolved Mr. Barry of the rigging charges in talking to newsmen, saying that Mr. Barry had "absolutely nothing" to do with giving him answers. Asked why he had agreed to the alleged deception, Mr. Stempel said: "I was a poor boy all my life and when the man offered me this proposition, I'm sure that 95 percent of all the people in this country would have done the same thing."

On the editorial page, "Sea Island? Shell It? Why Look Here..." indicates that Senator William Knowland of California and the "China lobby" were not alone in their defense of Chiang Kai-shek's Formosa or in favoring continued patronization of Nationalist China by the U.S. Former Ambassador to Russia George Kennan and Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois had argued that in a shored-up Formosa, the U.S. was keeping up a symbol important for the morale of pro-Western leaders in such countries as India and Japan, and as long as the U.S. bolstered Chiang, whether dictatorial war-lord or shade of the Kuomintang, the pro-Western factions in other crucial Asian countries knew that they were not forgotten or unheeded.