The Charlotte News

Friday, October 9, 1953

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site ed. Note: The front page reports that in Georgetown, British Guiana, Britain had removed the Prime Minister, Jeddie Jagan, and five other Cabinet members this date, to prevent Communists from taking over the Government of the colony. Governor Sir Alfred Savage declared a state of emergency under which the six-month old constitution was to be scrapped, the British charging that there was a Communist plot to turn the rum and sugar colony into a "totalitarian state subservient to Moscow". British troops had arrived at the colony the previous day to maintain order. It was Britain's only holding on the South American continent. Nearly half of its population came from or traced their ancestry to India, with most of the others being either of African or American Indian ancestry. The Prime Minister and the ousted ministers threatened to take the dispute to London, Washington and the U.N. The Prime Minister, married to an American, had denied being Communist or that the left-wing People's Progressive Party, of which he was the leader, was dominated by Moscow. The party had won a majority of seats in the parliamentary elections the prior April. The British, in a statement issued in Georgetown and in London, named the Jagans as being among the ringleaders of a Communist plot aimed at subverting the colonial government and creating "a dangerous crisis both in public order and in economic affairs". The announcement of a state of emergency by the Governor had been received by the population quietly.

In Belgrade, new demonstrations had broken out against the U.S., Britain and Italy, as President Tito and his Cabinet met to formulate new protests against Italian occupation of northern Trieste. Rifle-bearing troops on horseback restrained throngs who swarmed in front of the three embassies in angry protest against the British-American announcement the previous day that they would withdraw their troops from Trieste City and turn over to Italy the zone which they had occupied since the determination of Trieste as a free port after the war, with the remainder of the area continuing under Yugoslavian oversight. The mobs threw stones at the embassies, smashing windows and damaging automobiles, but no major casualties were reported. The Foreign Office apologized to the three Western governments for the violence to their property. Tito summoned his Cabinet into emergency session and the Government was expected to deliver a strong note of protest to Britain and the U.S. later in the day. Yugoslav radio had said that a note had already been delivered to the two countries, warning that Yugoslavia would "take all measures at its disposal to protect its interests and the interests of Trieste Slovenes" within the British-American zone. Reports from Trieste indicated that the Yugoslavs had closed the border between the southern half of the territory which they occupied and the northern part, which was the British-American zone. There was speculation that Tito might rush troops to the border in an effort to delay the British-American withdrawal. Yugoslavia was already planning to appeal to the U.N. The last public statement by Marshal Tito had been that Trieste City, the current zone overseen by Britain and the U.S., should be internationalized and the rest of the territory given to Yugoslavia. Italy had called for a plebiscite by the disputed area's inhabitants to determine their future.

In Bonn, West Germany, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was elected to a second four-year term this date by an overwhelming vote of the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, receiving 304 of the 466 votes cast. Four years earlier, the Chancellor had been elected by a margin of only one vote, his own. He received on this date the largest vote of confidence ever granted to a democratic German chancellor.

A report out of Miami indicates that an experimental polio vaccine developed the previous spring by Dr. Jonas Salk of the University of Pittsburgh, working under a March of Dimes grant, had been approved for nationwide vaccination tests on hundreds of thousands of children, perhaps as early as 1954. The tests would determine whether the vaccine was ready for general use. Additional preliminary research on humans since the previous spring had strengthened hopes that the vaccine would be effective against the crippling disease. Dr. Salk had reported to the American Academy of Pediatrics that the vaccine had been tested in 637 humans, including 13 described in his original report the previous spring, and that the tests had repeatedly demonstrated that the vaccine could produce antibodies theoretically protective against the major viruses of polio. He also reported that the vaccine was safe. He stressed, however, that it was still necessary to determine whether the vaccine could protect against the disease in nature. The announcement prompted the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to begin plans for the nationwide tests, for which the organization had earmarked 7.5 million dollars for the purpose.

James P. Mitchell was sworn in this date as the new Secretary of Labor, replacing resigned Martin Durkin, who had left the Cabinet because, he contended, the President had reneged on a pledge to present 19 amendments to Taft-Hartley to Congress. The new Secretary was a former New York City department store executive with long experience in labor relations. He had been Assistant Secretary of the Army prior to the appointment. Mr. Mitchell declined to discuss with newsmen the Taft-Hartley controversy.

In Kansas City, the funeral was held this date for six-year old Bobby Greenlease, kidnapped and murdered on September 28, his body having been discovered in a shallow grave three days earlier, behind a house in St. Joseph occupied by the two confessed kidnapers. About 100 close friends of the family attended a silent prayer service at a funeral chapel, after which a Requiem High Mass was conducted in the St. Agnes Catholic Church. During the Mass of the Angels, usually said for children, the doors of the church remained open, permitting an overflow crowd of about 750 people outside, with heads bowed in prayer, to hear. About 45 pupils from the Catholic school which the boy had attended and from which the kidnapping had taken place, filed into the chapel in pairs for the service. Meanwhile, at about the same time, the two kidnappers were being arraigned and were ordered held on $100,000 bail each, for the present charged with extortion under Federal law. Both waived a preliminary hearing. The Justice Department announced the previous day that the State of Missouri would be given jurisdiction as it appeared that no state lines had been crossed by the kidnapers. Missouri had the death penalty for both murder and kidnaping, regardless of whether harm came to the victim of the kidnaping. No decision had been reached on whether the suspects would be charged with murder in St. Joseph or kidnaping in Kansas City. Eventually, for reasons yet to be revealed, possibly because of the mixed venue issue and the presence of Federal jurisdiction because of the use of interstate modalities to communicate the ransom demand and to transport the body of the victim, the suspects would plead guilty to murder and kidnaping in Federal District Court, and a jury would be empaneled for the purpose of recommending their punishment. The defense may have also believed that the defendants would fare better in the Federal system than in the state system. Nevertheless, both would be sentenced to death and would be executed on December 18. The FBI had withheld a nationwide alert on a third suspect, pending clarification of inconsistencies in the statements of the two primary suspects. Eventually, the male would admit that he had fabricated his story that the third person had killed the boy, admitting that he had committed the murder. The third suspect had no part in the kidnaping.

In Knoxville, Tenn., a truck driver created a disturbance in a café two nights earlier and was ejected, then returned the previous night, apologized to the restaurant manager and then departed, but returned a few minutes later, shouting, "You're the guy I've been looking for," and fired three times, striking the restaurant manager in the arms, legs and stomach, at which point the manager opened fire with a pistol, hitting the truck driver in the head and side. Both men died.

In Raleigh, a commission authorized by the 1953 Legislature began studying this date the possibility of reorganizing state government. Albert Coates, director of the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill, reported to the commission on preliminary work which the Institute's staff had accomplished regarding governmental reorganization, saying that the Institute had conducted a survey of similar reorganization commissions in other states and the results which they had accomplished.

Gale-force winds of 50 mph and heavy rain hit a wide section of Florida this date, as a tropical force bore down on the Gulf west coast near Fort Myers, with more heavy rain forecast. An advisory on the storm, named Hazel, said that its center was only 25 miles northwest of Fort Myers. The storm should not be confused with the major hurricane of the following October, also named Hazel.

In Albuquerque, a report indicated that throughout the world, professional and amateur astronomers possibly would be treated to the spectacle of a meteor shower, not seen for seven years. The director of the Western world's only Institute of Meteorites, located at the University of New Mexico, said that there were good reasons to believe that a respectable shower would occur this night, but that unlike an eclipse, it could not be predicted for certain. The earth had to be at its node for the shower to be visible, generated by the earth passing through the tail of Giacobini's comet, the last occurrence having been in 1946, when approximately 200 shooting stars were observable within a minute in the Southwestern U.S. between Albuquerque and the West Coast, whereas the average was about 60 per hour. The rest of the country, lying under heavy cloud cover and a full moon, had not been able to observe anything out of the ordinary. Several Eastern universities had prepared for years for the spectacle but had missed it because of the clouds. This time, there would be no new moon to obscure the shower. The comet had first been discovered at the beginning of the 20th Century, and one of the largest showers ever observed had been over Europe in 1933—therefore, perhaps, suggestive of a somewhat ominous portent.

In Adelaide, Australia, British and Australian scientists were reported to be awaiting favorable winds from the southeast to conduct Britain's second atomic test in the south Australian desert, the scientists wanting the winds to carry radioactive clouds away from inhabited areas.

In Salt Lake City, a burglar, dubbed by the local press "Cinderella", had left both of his shoes behind as he fled a home after the occupants surprised him as he was tiptoeing through their bedroom.

In Detroit, a woman testified in her divorce suit that her husband gave her periodic intelligence tests and branded her "stupid" if she scored less than 98 percent. She was granted the uncontested divorce. She said that he was "very proud of his college education". They had been married since May, 1951. Why did he want to marry a stupid person?

On the editorial page, "The Walrus Had a Word for It" suggests that the City Council, just for the novelty of it, ought adopt the agenda of the Walrus in Alice in Wonderland and talk "of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings." Or, it suggests, it might follow the Mock Turtle and take up "Reeling and Writhing … and the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision." It finds that in either event, the session of the Council would be more entertaining and more instructive than listening redundantly to Councilman Basil Boyd's tiresome tirades against Drew Pearson anent the latter's lament about the study of the police department and the earlier relationship of Police Chief Frank Littlejohn to Miami associates of gambling kingpin Frank Costello.