The Charlotte News
Wednesday, July 29, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page
reports from Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union that Vice-President Nixon
had taken on a series of hecklers this date and demanded to know why
the Soviet Union saw fit to maintain troops in Poland, Hungary and
East Germany. The clashes had taken place in Novosibirsk in western
Siberia, just before the Vice-President had taken off for Sverdlovsk.
Several thousand silently waiting Russians had greeted him in that
city in the eastern Ural Mountains. Mr. Nixon's eagerly awaited tour
of the Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences at Novosibirsk
had turned out to be a bust. Soviet authorities had allowed him to
see only a single building, which, they said, was to house their
institute of hydrodynamics. The overall feeling toward him in the
city was warm. He received the previous day the friendliest greeting
of his 11-day Soviet tour. Throngs, curious about Americans, all but
mobbed him at times. But shortly before leaving the city, he had been
subjected to some questions from hecklers. One of Mr. Nixon's aides
said that some of the hecklers appeared to have been planted in the
crowd. Mr. Nixon showed no outward sign of being upset at the sharp
questioning which came as he toured the huge hydroelectric plant and
scientific center. But twice, he had challenged insistent critics of
American overseas bases to "hear the truth" by tuning in to
his farewell speech from Moscow over television the following
Saturday. Once he had replied sharply to a question, "Are you
really for peace?" stating "What do you think?" The
questioner said he thought not. Soviet authorities quickly identified
the person as a bricklayer at the Siberian scientific center. Mr.
Nixon suggested that he read his speeches again "and if you can
get your government to stop jamming the Voice of America broadcasts,
you'll get the truth. You are not getting the truth now." On
several occasions, questioners stood toe to toe with Mr. Nixon,
challenging him to say why the U.S. would not accept Soviet plans for
ending nuclear testing and why it would not trade more with Russia. (Incidentally, the challenge to hecklers was a favorite ploy of Mr. Nixon throughout his political career—a deliberately divisive tactic bequeathed via Cohn and Stone to Herr Trump—, at least once the former launched into presidential politics, starting with his famous confrontation in Peru, as captured the prior year in Life, and continuing stateside, as we once witnessed personally in November, 1972 at the Greensboro Aiport, when he paused and urged the crowd to turn and examine the "kind of people" who comprised a small group of yelling protestors on a sound tower
The President this date at his press conference said that the reception given to Vice-President Nixon in Russia was clear evidence of friendly feeling by the Russian people for Americans. He said that Mr. Nixon had every right to discuss with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev a possible visit by the latter to the U.S., but had no authority to offer an outright invitation. Regarding the steel strike, he said that U.S. Steel Corp.'s profits, as reported the previous night, had no bearing on whether the Government ought intervene on behalf of a wage increase for the 500,000 striking workers. The company's earnings during the first half of the year were said to be at record levels. He said that the Government could not talk about steel wages or profits without appearing to favor one side or the other and that if it did, it was in trouble. He repeated his demand for a settlement which would not create or stimulate inflation and would be achieved by free collective bargaining. Regarding the Geneva foreign ministers conference, he asserted that there still was no progress which would justify the holding of a summit conference, but declined, in response to a question, to provide an opinion as to whether the outlook was so hopeless that the conference ought be abandoned. Regarding foreign aid, he said that cuts in the program made by the House would seriously damage the American position in the cold war and added that he was hopeful that the Senate would restore much of the cut money. Regarding labor regulations, he said that he had provided virtual endorsement to a new labor bill introduced in the House several days earlier by Representatives Phil Landrum of Georgia and Robert Griffin of Michigan, proposing a substitute for a bill reported by the House Labor Committee, and described by union officials as much tougher than the Committee version. He called it a tremendous improvement over earlier and weaker versions and commended the sponsors.
In New York, it was reported that the Steelworkers Union had seized upon a report of record profits by U.S. Steel Corp, the nation's largest steel producer, to charge that the figures made the industry's strike position "utterly ridiculous". Meanwhile, a mediator reported after separate talks with both sides in the 15-day old nationwide strike of a half-million steelworkers that there was no change in the position of either side. A strike threat affecting most of the aluminum industry, scheduled for Friday at midnight, had been postponed. David McDonald, United Steelworkers Union president, said that the "astronomical profits being reported by steel firms" would convince the public that the steelworkers were forced to strike "by a cold-blooded plan of an industry that wanted and planned this shutdown for its own selfish reasons." U.S. Steel's board chairman, Roger Blough, replied that U.S. Steel would hold the price line, unless the Government forced a strike settlement which might change the picture. He made it clear that he expected the industry to follow suit. U.S. Steel had produced 28 percent of the nation's steel, and Mr. Blough said that competition would keep other companies from raising prices. He said that record profits as reported Tuesday had been partly the result of increased buying earlier in the year by steel users who expected a strike and wanted to have enough steel on hand to endure the strike. The company reported half-year profits of 254.9 million dollars, more than any steel company ever earned in a similar period of time. That amounted to a return of a dime on every dollar of sales and equaled $4.50 per share of stock, compared with the previous record of 231.4 million dollars, or $4.07 per share, in the first half of 1957. The steel industry had refused to grant union demands for a wage increase, claiming that any increase in labor costs would force a price increase and contribute to inflation. The union claimed that the companies could afford a wage increase without raising prices and pointed to steel profits in an attempt to prove it. The industry had offered to consider a modest increase if the union would allow it to cut labor costs by changing some plant work rules it considered wasteful, but the union had refused, saying that to do so would be to give up past gains.
Marguerite Higgins of the New York Herald Tribune News Service, in the third and last of a series of reports, indicates that only once during his last days had the late John Foster Dulles permitted himself to indicate to his immediate family that he realized that death was imminent. That had occurred on the weekend of April 25, a month before his death. The occasion had been prompted by a conversation with Mrs. Dulles, in which she said that one of their sons, Father Avery Dulles, a Jesuit Priest, would be flying to Washington soon from Rome where he had been studying. In bringing that news, Mrs. Dulles had tried to keep her voice as matter-of-fact as possible so as not to cause concern by her husband. Mr. Dulles had replied that it was wonderful news and then quietly and calmly asked about his son, John, an engineer in Mexico City, and his daughter, as to whether they were also coming. In confirming the fact that the rest of the family had also been notified, Mrs. Dulles realized that her husband knew the truth. Despite his outward show of hope, it was clear from the evidence that he realized the truth of his condition from the moment that he decided in his own mind that he ought to resign from his post. That decision had first been made in Florida where he had gone on March 30 to rest, recuperate and ponder his official future. During that holiday, he tried to make a physical comeback, resting in the sun and swimming daily. But it soon became clear that instead of growing stronger, he was becoming weaker. Meanwhile, he had a frank talk with his brother, CIA director Allen Dulles, who had been vacationing close by in Palm Beach. He had asked his brother to fly to Augusta, Ga., where the President was vacationing, to tell him of his determination to resign and to explain that the deterioration in his condition had left him no other course. On April 11, Allen Dulles had gone to Augusta and sought to fulfill his mission, but every time he brought up the subject of the Secretary's intention to resign, the President simply refused to entertain the idea, indicating that the only proper course was for Mr. Dulles to return at once to Walter Reed Army Hospital and be examined by doctors familiar with his case. The President said that once that was complete, the matter could be reviewed again, but that until all of the medical facts were in, he did not want to hear any word of resignation. On April 12, Mr. Dulles returned to Walter Reed and that evening it became plain that Mr. Dulles was enjoying a remission as soon as Maj. General Leonard Heaton, the hospital director, entered his room to greet him. In fact, Mr. Dulles was in such an ebullient mood that nearly his first words to the doctor, an old friend, were, "I feel so good tonight, doctor, that I think I may be able to make it after all to the Geneva foreign ministers conference." General Heaton carefully maintained a casual, unsurprised tone and said words to the effect that he was glad that Mr. Dulles was feeling so well.
In Palermo, Sicily, it was reported that Italy's ruling Christian Democratic Party had suffered a sharp setback on Tuesday night as the Sicilian Regional Assembly had re-elected Communist-backed Silvio Milazzo as president of the island government.
A piece reports that a man whose body had been found a week earlier near Monroe, N.C., had been identified as being from Gastonia, the proof coming from fingerprints taken from the body matching those of a man in FBI files. The body had been beaten and was discovered the previous Tuesday. Police had suggested a possible motive of robbery for the killing.
In Cornelius, N.C., it was reported that installation of equipment and hiring of personnel at the Samuel Hird & Sons plant at Cornelius would begin soon, that between 500 and 600 persons would eventually be employed at the plant, which had been purchased this date, the new plant to produce wool and fabrics used in making men's wear.
In London, it was reported that a television program had backfired the previous night when three motorists had done better after drinking whiskey than they did while driving sober. The three Britons, two men and a woman, had volunteered to help a BBC safety program, "How Good a Driver Are You?" in proving that alcohol slowed down a driver's reaction time. The test consisted of negotiating an automobile over a set course, with a lot of reversing, turning and going forward, without knocking down or touching a series of obstacles. The first driver had driven sober through the course in 45.5 seconds. Then the driver drank two whiskeys and negotiated the course in 42 seconds. The female, a 21-year old, had taken 44 seconds before drinking and 38.5 afterward. The third driver's times were 43.5 seconds before drinking and 38 afterward. A professor of University College had hastened to explain that the experiment was carried out too quickly, indicating: "The second test was taken before the alcohol really had time to get into the bloodstream. The drivers also knew they were under test conditions and so they pulled out that extra little bit."
In Chicago, it was reported that a detective who was the police department's champion traffic ticket writer had tagged Mayor Richard J. Daley's shiny, new black limousine on Tuesday, in front of City Hall. The Mayor was not present when the detective wrote the ticket for the car, which he said was in a no-parking zone. The detective, whose normal assignment was a far North Side police district, was in the Loop to appear in a court case at City Hall. After leaving the courtroom, he walked around the City-County Building and tagged the Mayor's car and 23 other cars for being illegally parked.
On the editorial page, "Two-Party Politics for Mecklenburg" finds that the "steady growth" of the Republican Party in Mecklenburg County since 1955 offered little hope for a genuine two-party system for the near future. The astonishing thing about the increase in the number of Republican registrations during the previous four years was not that it was so large but rather that it was so small. Registrations had increased from 10,598 to 12,806 while, during the same period, Democratic registrations had decreased by 1,393.
Yet it had been the golden age for President Eisenhower and Congressman Charles Jonas, whose irresistible appeal had been expected to spark a Republican renaissance. But the appeal of both was predominantly personal, as they had won in spite of their party rather than because of it, and having won, they maintained their own popularity reasonably well but had done considerably less than might have been expected to strengthen the party.
It finds that Republicans could not depend on casual ticket-splitters for party strength, that only when a sizable number of residents of Mecklenburg County were willing to make their loyalty a matter of public record and work openly and earnestly for the party's program and candidates would a system of two-party politics be established, a distant goal.
"In Steel, the Theater Is Tiresome" finds that theatricals within the steel strike had begun to be tiresome, indicating that neither the right to strike nor the right of collective bargaining was the key issue, but rather whether the giant Steelworkers Union, the steel companies and the White House were to be allowed by public opinion to play an old and familiar game.
In 1956, during the previous steel strike, when a five-week walkout had begun to imperil the campaign plans of the Republican Party and its "peace and prosperity" slogan, the President, who assumed the same "hands-off" stance as in the present strike, had taken action. The then-Secretary of the Treasury, George Humphrey, had persuaded the companies to quit rocking the boat and they had then given the biggest wage concession in history, 62.5 cents per hour over three years, and then proceeded to raise steel prices by $21 per ton.
As A. H. Raskin of the New York Times had pointed out: "The national economy is usually obliged to yell 'uncle' before either the steel companies or the union. Uncle in this case always means 'Uncle Sam,' in the form of the President of the United States."
It finds that sooner or later, the President would have to climb down from his high horse and admit that wage settlements and steel prices were not made in heaven, but rather by mortals with interests to serve. While the interests were being batted around, the public's interest in economic stability and vital defense materials ought put in an appearance as soon as Washington found it convenient.
"Megacorpse? Traxle? Bottoming Out?" quotes from Thomas Mann that: "Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact—it is silence that isolates."
It suggests that perhaps that was so but it preferred a little silence to some of the words and phrases which had entered the language in 1958, as presented by the publishers of the World Book Encyclopedia. It finds, for instance, that "megacorpse", a word introduced by science to mean a million dead people as could result from nuclear warfare, was probably the most fearful ten-letter word in the language and it was banning its usage—even if "fearsome" may have been the better adjective to describe it—"ineffable"?
It finds that an example of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear was "informational site", the area at the side of the road where a billboard extolled "Mother Fletcher's Instant Matzoh Balls". It prefers Mother Nature's Instant Scenery and believes that an "informational site" was a site for sore eyes.
It reports that the ridiculous phrase "bottoming out" had also finally made it, meaning to reach the lowest point in a recession. It suggests to economists that they stick to their "supply" and "demand" curves and leave comedy to the comedians.
A "hoopster" was a child who used a hula hoop and a hotel had graduated from motel to boatel to connote an establishment built on a waterfront where people could moor their boats at night. Speeders suffered from "roadomania". If one forgot to return the shopping cart after wheeling groceries to the car, the person was guilty of "cartnaping". A "traxle" was an automobile design in which the transmission was in the rear instead of against the engine. The "pinch effect" was the "contraction that results from the magnetic interaction set up by parallel flow of currents in plasma (highly ionized gas)."
It suggests that some of the added words might survive while others, like "megacorpse", were simply repellent and would mercifully be forgotten by the time any new dictionaries were published. It was reminded of Stuart Chase's story of the ambitious young college instructor who had selected a common sense proposition, that "modern cities are hard to live in" as the subject for a learned monograph, which he began by saying: "Urban existence is perpendicular declivities of megalopolis … etc., etc." He coined some new terms to transfix the reader, including "mega-decibel" and "strato-cosmopolis". He also added a page or two of differential equations, 147 footnotes and a long bibliography, then was able to parlay the wordy business into an associate professorship. In the end, it all meant that modern cities were hard to live in.
A piece from the Greensboro Daily News, titled "A Memo to Charlotte from the Sticks", indicates that the "erudite, sophisticated, urbane Charlotte News had better stick to it citified writing and not tackle strictly rural or bucolic topics." In its outcry against modern gourmets and their swing to such items as "fried grasshopper hors d'oeuvres, pickled octopus and chocolate-covered ants", the News had brought on itself the question of where it ever heard, much less tasted, any such stuff. "If such oddities are served anywhere in North Carolina it must be amongst the country club set and the nouveau riche who have infiltrated the Descendants of the Signers."
It finds that the newspaper's advocacy of "such sensible delicacies as chitlin's, ragout of possum, catfish stew, pickled pig's feet and cracklin' bread", was worthy of criticism. It refuses to recognize chitlin's as a delicacy, finding it to be a dish for stout-hearted men with strong stomachs, and that notably missing from the list were black-eyed peas and hog jowl, turnip salad, cornfield beans and fatback and collard greens.
It had to go to the dictionary to find out about ragout of possum and found that it was straight from France, pronounced "rawgoo" and defined as "a dish made of pieces of meat stewed with vegetables and highly seasoned." It had interrogated several possum authorities and each had said that they had never heard of stewed possum, that it was invariably baked, encircled by sweet potatoes. "Possum and taters are as inseparable as ham and eggs or peaches and cream. Ragout of possum ugh, phooey and a passel of taint'-so's. Git along, city boy, and let us country boys and our vittles alone."
Drew Pearson indicates that Congressman Mel Price of Illinois and the House subcommittee investigating the use of GI's as servants had been careful to steer clear of antagonizing the White House, which was one of the best examples of how enlisted men were used as valets and waiters. A total of 23 were permanently assigned to the President, plus 49 more as White House chauffeurs, despite the fact that the President's personal salary had been increased by Congress to $100,000, and that his expense allowance for operating the White House had been increased to $50,000 plus another $40,000 for travel. The President's personal valet, who pressed his pants and shined his shoes, was Master Sgt. John Moaney, who was on the Army payroll. The Navy also provided 12 mess stewards who waited tables at the White House. None were assigned regularly to the President's Gettysburg farm, but he usually brought along a couple to wait on him during his weekend visits there. The Navy kept another five mess stewards on full-time duty at Camp David in Maryland, the President's mountain retreat. Three more were assigned as servants on his two motor launches, the Susie Q. and the Barbara Ann. On air trips, the President was served by two Air Force stewards, who were stationed aboard his plane, the Columbine. Another 49 Army GI's served in the White House motor pool as chauffeurs and dispatchers.
Those figures, he indicates, did not include the President's three military aides, their 11 secretaries and orderlies, two military doctors on full-time duty in the White House, the Columbine crew and mechanics, the motor launch crews, a large secret Army communications crew, and several military guards, all of whom were charged against the defense budget rather than the President's own budget for running the White House.
The total White House budget for the previous year, exclusive of those armed services costs, had been more than 5 million dollars, more than double what it had been under President Truman's last year in office in 1952.
Word had been passed down from the White House quietly but firmly to nix Senator Hubert Humphrey's plan to revive the Civilian Conservation Corps, presently renamed the Youth Conservation Corps. Senator Humphrey had worked up considerable support for the idea of getting youngsters off the streets of large cities, as during the New Deal days, for work in protecting forests, rural roads, building of dams, and other conservation projects. At first, various Republicans appeared to favor the idea, including Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky, member of the Labor and Public Welfare subcommittee, which had passed on the project. The plan had also met with editorial approval around the country, plus the support of some Republican governors, such as Governor William Stratton of Illinois. Then, suddenly, word had come from the White House that it was opposed to the idea and overnight, Republican Senatorial opinion shifted, as Senator Cooper found that it would not meet the need of the depressed areas and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois raised vigorous objections, despite the approval of the Republican governor of his state.
Doris Fleeson indicates that the seemingly innocent barter program under which mounting surpluses of foreign products were supposed to be exchanged for strategic materials from foreign nations had become a hot controversy between Congress and the Department of Agriculture. The program, which had been endorsed by North Carolina Representative Harold Cooley, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, had been abandoned by Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson in 1957, and the previous year, Congress had specifically included it in a law extending the power of the Agriculture Department to dispose of surpluses. In a conference report on the bill, it had been insisted that the barter program be taken up again in earnest. To the contrary, critics of the Department said, it had been minimized to a nubbin of usefulness.
Mr. Cooley, having despaired of persuasion, was presently trying to get Congress to put into law a mandate requiring the Agriculture Department to increase the use of barter to get rid of excess wheat, cotton and other crops.
The primary official objection to the barter program was that it interfered with cash sales. The House Committee had sought from the Department a single instance in which that had been the case, and the Department had cited two cases, which, upon investigation, had not been accepted by the Committee.
It was Mr. Cooley's position that when surplus sales of farm produce were made for dollars, it drained away foreign-owned dollars which would be spent in the U.S. anyway for something else. He also had concluded that when sales were made for the so-called "soft" currencies of other nations, it merely resulted in building up a surplus of unneeded currencies, often resulting in a loss when the currencies declined in value.
In defense of the barter program before the Committee, Representative Victor Anfuso of New York, who, despite his Brooklyn origin, was something of an expert in agricultural economics, had pointed out that storage of surplus farm products was costing two million dollars per day at present and if the whole surplus could be replaced by stored strategic materials, primarily metals, storage costs would drop by half a billion dollars or more per year.
Failure to use the barter program was permitting the Russians to sell wheat to such U.S. allies as the Netherlands and Japan. Where U.S. wheat exports had declined, Russian exports had increased. The storage of surplus grain was getting to be such a big business, according to Representative Anfuso, that one concern, receiving 13 million dollars per year in rent for its storage bins, was one of the most active campaigners against an effective barter program which would deprive it of some of its tenant bushels.
Possibly because of the enthusiasm of Mr. Cooley, the barter program had always been well received in the House. While it was treated with more reserve by the Senate, it was likely that in the current year, Congress, having been twice thwarted by the Administration in its desire for an active program, would write its mandate into law in unmistakable words.
A letter writer from Gaffney, S.C., finds that Senator Hubert Humphrey's premature entry to the Democratic presidential nomination campaign was the beginning of what promised to be one of the "darnedest political hullabaloos since Teddy Roosevelt deserted the Republican Party"—in 1912. He indicates that just about every Democratic Senator and governor in the country had been mentioned as a possibility for either the presidential or vice-presidential nomination, and with so many aspirants, 1960 ought set a record for "hot air, mudslinging and political dead ducks". He suggests that the Democrats look around for a female nominee. "Sure, 'tis almost treason for a man to say such a thing, but there are reasons. Several of them." He finds that the only thing men had done was to get the country and the world into "one mel of a hess. Since a woman is expert at cleaning up behind a man, it stands to reason that a woman President could do quite a bit of political cleaning-up in Washington. Allah knows, the country needs it!" He believes that in a campaign against a woman, the Republican opposition, Richard Nixon, would not have a chance in the campaign and Nikita Khrushchev could talk his head off and still come out second-best. "Whether we men like it or not, a woman can do anything a man can do—and in many cases she can do it better. 'Tis about time we gave her a chance at running the whole works. She couldn't do any worse than we men are doing. No ma'am."
A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., indicates that he was overwhelmed by the editorial of July 21, "Dr. Graham Deserves a Quiet Welcome". He dissents from the editorial's inclination to invite Frank Graham back to North Carolina delicately, as he suggests that his mediation services at the U.N. would still be needed. "Any day now, tens of thousands of savage blacks will rise up against their civilized white rulers on the African Continent, and there will be much brotherhoodin' and mediatin' to be done. And who can do it better than our own brother-lovin' Dr. Frank? In his inimitable, sweet and lovable conversational tone, Dr. Frank must tell those 'black exploiting' English, Dutch, French, and Belgians that the only real, lasting, and noble solution to the African problem is integration—all of which will be in line with his thoughts to his fellow North Carolinians on school integration. And how in the world can Dr. Frank effectively do this if we bring him back to North Carolina?" He thus favors leaving him where he is. "Tsk, tsk, shame on the thoughtless News for giving birth to the thought, (much less editorializing about) bringing Dr. Frank back to North Carolina."
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