The Charlotte News
Monday, October 25, 1954
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President this date personally welcomed Secretary of State Dulles back from Paris after his success in reaching agreements to enable West Germany to rearm as a member of NATO and the expanded Brussels Pact as well as having sovereignty free of the Allied occupation. The President arranged for this evening the first nationally televised and broadcast Cabinet meeting in history to hear the Secretary's report on the agreements. The President greeted the Secretary at the airport for the first time, shaking his hand and patting him on the back, then walking away about 50 feet and standing alone while the Secretary spoke briefly to newsreel, radio and television microphones, saying: "I do feel I can bring back words of good tidings, not merely in terms of documents signed but in terms of the spirit which animated our discussions, which marked, I believe, the beginning of a new era for Europe."
Samuel Lubell, in another of his series of articles regarding the midterm elections, indicates that it had become a national guessing game to try to determine how many House and Senate seats each party would likely win on November 2. If, as was possible, the trend toward the Democrats proved strong enough to capture both houses, it could mean different things, one of which was that the voters had repudiated the President personally or were in revolt against some of his policies. He asks whether it might suggest a popular mandate for return to the Fair Deal or New Deal policies. Mistaken judgments as to the meaning of the vote could cause drastic changes in policy which could leave the will of the people still frustrated. He indicates that to get at the real meaning of the vote, he had made a separate analysis of his interviews with all voters who had voted Republican in 1952 but had said they would change to the Democratic candidates this year. Few voters had told him that dissatisfaction with the President's foreign policy would be the reason for their shift, though a few had expressed disappointment that the Russians had not been afraid of President Eisenhower and quieted down, while others hoped that he would settle things with the Soviets once and for all. The general sentiment was expressed by one Ohio farmer, whose son had recently returned from Korea, saying that when it came to foreign policy, one could not beat the President, as he had ended the war in Korea. A considerable number of shifts represented little more than a reassertion of habitual party loyalty, with those voters who had been for the President now returning to their old voting patterns. One lawyer in a suburb near Chicago had said that he was not sorry that he had voted for the President in 1952 because the Democrats had been in power too long and the country needed a change, but that it had received the change and he still believed the Democrats were more the party for the little fellow. The largest single cause cited for those changing to the Democrats was the economy. But, he cautions, it would be a mistake to think that a wave of economic protest was sweeping the country uniformly or that it was directed toward a common objective. Among the unemployed, he had found a definite sentiment in favor of inflation and increased Government spending, saying that the Democrats could put the country into debt but at least there was work for everyone.
Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, visiting Moscow, attended a recital by the Red Army Chorus during the afternoon and a ballet performance at the Ballet Theater the previous night. She said that she had received no reply yet regarding her request to interview Premier Georgi Malenkov. She said that she planned to leave the Soviet Union the following Thursday.
From Paris, it was reported that a U.S. Air Force C-47 transport plane carrying 21 airmen, 16 passengers and five crewmen, had vanished during a flight through stormy weather from Rome to Lyon, France, with an unidentified plane having been reported as crashed in the Mediterranean off Corsica this date. The search for the missing plane had begun late in the afternoon on Sunday. The pilot of the plane had radioed the control tower in Corsica that he had enough fuel left for six hours of flight, and at about the time fuel would have run out, an explosion was heard in the area of Mount Mounier.
In Chicago, 13 police squads were conducting a search for a former convict who had gunned down a fellow police officer Thursday in a saloon, and may have escaped through a 40-squad car dragnet the previous night. Police had shoot-to-kill orders and were maintaining a close watch on transportation facilities. The police lieutenant who was directing the search said that they wanted him dead or alive and that officers should shoot first if necessary and not take any chances. An Evanston officer had reported seeing a man he thought was the suspect, and a sergeant of the homicide detail had fired at a man who fled when the detective flashed his squad car searchlight on him, but the man had escaped into the darkness. The suspect had escaped from the criminal courts building the prior June after his girlfriend smuggled a pistol to him, and had shot the detective after he had recognized him and sought to arrest him in a north side bar. The man had shot his way out of the bar and a half hour later had shot his way out again from a police trap.
In Warner, N.H., a farmer shot and killed his 12-year old son the previous night, thinking that his movements in tall grass were those of a wild pig, according to State Police who investigated the matter. The farmer said that he and his wife had returned from a lumber inspection when they saw the grass moving in a field near their farmhouse and heard grunts and snorts coming from the field. The farmer then sent his wife to the house to retrieve a rifle and the farmer advanced into the field and fired, striking his son in the head. Police theorized that the boy had imitated a wild pig to play a joke on his father.
In Hollywood, the three sons of bandleader Bob Crosby, missing since the late afternoon of the previous day, had been found this date shortly after dawn in a rugged canyon near their home, after they had been camping. They were in good condition. The 13-year old son of movie director William Wellman, riding horseback through the area, had found them.
From Raleigh, it was reported that a large contingent of insurance adjusters were at work settling claims resulting from property damage caused by Hurricane Hazel on October 15. Hundreds of such adjusters were working in the areas of the devastated beaches in North Carolina and into the interior to the Virginia border. Many other adjusters were working in northeastern South Carolina. The North Carolina deputy insurance commissioner said that he believed the storm would result in the largest monetary loss the U.S. or the world had ever recorded. He counseled patience in the handling of claims.
Near Charlotte, a broken rail, which had apparently given way because of rust, was indicated as the cause for a derailment of 14 cars of a Southern Railway freight train about 13 miles north of the city. There were no injuries in the accident, and only one of the 14 cars was broken open or heavily damaged.
Also in Charlotte, Dr. Edwin Walker would be installed on Friday as the new president of Queens College, with 75 representatives of colleges, universities and learned societies present. He had formerly served as dean at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., and prior to that had been dean of the college of arts and sciences at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
On the editorial page, "More Patches for the Quilt" regards the five proposed State constitutional amendments on the ballot on November 2, indicates that four were designed to streamline governmental machinery, while the fifth was a "political joker dealt up by rural legislators" seeking to deprive Mecklenburg and other heavily urbanized counties of their proper representation in the State Senate.
It indicates that a new State Constitution was in order because of the patchwork amendments since its ratification in 1868. (In 1971, the voters would ratify a new State Constitution.) It presents a summary of the amendments and explains the rationale for each one, recommending the four procedural amendments, but not the fifth one limiting Senate representation to one Senator per county.
"Taking Creaks out of the Wheels" indicates that for years, the creaking wheels of justice had needed overhaul in the state but legislative attempts to do so had been invariably hamstrung by politics. That had been the case in the 1953 General Assembly when State Senator Hamilton Hobgood had introduced a bill to redraw the judicial districts of the state, causing a major dispute which ended in stalemate and defeat of the bill, as well as one approved by Governor William B. Umstead for replenishing judicial manpower. The State House had desired another bill which would have provided for six additional resident judges in existing judicial districts, while the State Senate wanted Mr. Hobgood's bill. When the two chambers could not agree, State Senator and future Governor Terry Sanford had introduced a stopgap measure to allow the Governor to name 12 special judges, instead of the usual eight, a bill which had passed on the last day of the legislative session.
It indicates that a new effort to pass a redistricting plan would be made in the 1955 General Assembly. State Supreme Court Chief Justice M. V. Barnhill and the State Judicial Council had recommended having 30 judicial districts instead of the present 21, and Mecklenburg and Guilford Counties would be assigned two judges each, with Wake, Durham, Forsyth and Buncombe Counties having one judge each. It finds the plan wise and urges the Mecklenburg delegation to support it.
"One World: A Linguistic Battleroyal" indicates that a segment of the French press was angry because English was creeping in to corrupt the French language.
It questions whether the French realized that turnabout was fair play, as the French language had been invading foreign tongues all over the world for centuries, finds it about time that the reverse was the case. It offers as example that Britons and Americans had used such common Anglicized terms as "apropos", "à la mode", "gallery", "badinage", "bas relief", "hors d'oeuvre", "gauche", "esprit de corps", "cuisine", "eau de cologne", and "entrepreneur", all derived from the French language. The Germans still said blond, brunett, dame, delikatesse, armee, marschall, marine, kavallerie, toilett, politik, romanze, melodie and konzert. Likewise, the people of Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Holland, Italy, Portugal and Spain used words adapted from French.
French had been the dominant language in Europe because the France of Louis XIV, Voltaire and others had become the dominant nation on earth. But now, the French were hearing strange foreign words filter into their language. It concludes: "C'est end de la era."
A piece from the Knoxville News-Sentinel, titled "Too Fast", indicates that before the American Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Dr. Edward Lambert had reported that human nerves communicated their impulses to the muscles at a speed of 120 mph.
The piece suggests that it could think of some mornings after, when the nerves were wasting their speed for the absence of muscles.
Drew Pearson indicates that Prime Minister Muhammed Ali of Pakistan, the most important ally in the Middle East, had abruptly canceled his visit to the U.S. and Canada the prior Thursday and had flown back home because of word of political trouble, as well as because of a series of personal brushoffs in Washington. Despite receiving a jovial apology to some extent from the President, the Prime Minister's entourage had been open about their feelings that he had been snubbed. When he had arrived in Washington, neither the President nor Secretary of State Dulles had greeted him at the airport, nor had Vice-President Nixon, a violation of typical protocol for a visiting head of state. He was given a Saturday luncheon at the White House, but Mrs. Eisenhower had failed to entertain the Prime Minister's wife, who was not even invited. To make up for that snub, the Pakistan Embassy gave a reception in her honor for the wives of Southeast Asian ambassadors. Meanwhile, President William Tubman of Liberia had arrived in Washington and received a formal welcome, including a parade down Constitution Avenue, a special greeting at the airport, plus a tour of the Eastern portion of the country. Because he was black, Republicans believed that he would help attract black votes in the upcoming Congressional and gubernatorial elections.
Prime Minister Ali had also canceled his trip to Canada because the Prime Minister of Canada had told him to wait a few days because he was busy campaigning. Shortly afterward, he heard that he was facing political trouble at home and so flew back to Pakistan. When the State Department realized that he was departing angry, they announced that the U.S. would extend 105 million dollars in economic aid to Pakistan, and, observes Mr. Pearson, it was possible that he received more because his feelings had been hurt, as it was five times the aid provided the previous year.
President Tubman had been advised to decline politely the invitation of Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia to visit the native state of the President's mother. President Tubman would visit Georgia but not as the guest of Governor Talmadge, because of his having made continued segregation of the public schools a major issue, subjecting President Tubman to criticism from blacks all over the country as well as at home, should he accept the Governor's invitation. He would instead receive a degree from Atlanta University, but would not visit with the Governor.
Advertisers might start calling cigarettes made from Maryland tobacco "holy smokes" when they heard that, in the wake of Hurricane Hazel, many southern Maryland farmers were left without any place to store their tobacco because their drying barns had been destroyed. Among the offers of help was that of the Rev. Samuel Robb, pastor of St. Michael's Church in Ridge, Md., who had told his parishioners that they could use the school hall and even the church, if necessary, to dry their tobacco. He said that they had hung up holly and Christmas greens in the church, and that in such an emergency, he believed the Lord would not be offended by the smell of tobacco when they had no other place to dry it.
Lamar Caudle, former head at different times of the tax and criminal divisions of the Justice Department, had gone to Ocean Drive, S.C., just after Hurricane Hazel had passed through and could not locate his former beach cottage, had only found the toilet bowl, as the entire 22-mile row of beach houses had been wiped out, with the exception of row upon row of toilets.
At the National Academy of Sciences the following week, a scientist would unveil the home of the future, made entirely of plastics, plexiglas walls, plastic pipes and fiberglass doors.
James Selvage, a public relations tycoon, was in trouble with his partners for smearing Congressman Clifford Case in the New Jersey Senate race.
The Congressional Quarterly examines labor support during the upcoming midterm elections, suggests that if the rank-and-file workers followed union endorsements, they would vote predominantly Democratic, but union spokesmen would not predict how the workers would vote.
Six labor organizations had compiled the voting records of Congress and made recommendations accordingly, primarily for Democrats, but occasionally supporting a pro-labor Republican. They had based their assessments on such issues as taxes, unemployment insurance, atomic energy policy, farm price supports, amendments to Taft-Hartley, appointment of Albert Beeson to the NLRB, public housing, and legislation against Communist-infiltrated unions.
They found that Democrats in both houses had voted with labor positions 67 percent of the time, while Republicans voted that way only 16 percent of the time. Democrats had voted against labor positions 26 percent of the time, and Republicans, 78 percent of the time. In the Senate, only two Senators up for re-election voted with labor on every issue tabulated, Senators Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. There were 17 members of the House, all Democrats, who voted with labor on all of the issues the organizations deemed significant, including Representatives Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, George Miller of California, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., of New York. Four representatives, all Republicans, were considered to have voted against labor on all of the important issues.
North Carolina Senator Alton Lennon voted with labor on ten of the 26 Senate votes which the organizations deemed important, and voted against labor positions on ten others. Senator Sam Ervin voted four times with labor and eight times against labor on those same issues. Representative Charles Jonas of the Charlotte area, the only Republican in the North Carolina Congressional delegation, had voted three times for the labor positions and 24 times against them.
Robert C. Ruark tells of a young gentleman having asked him what he thought he ought to do to become a great writer, one who would be immortal. Mr. Ruark had responded that perhaps he should go and find out about life, using Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck as examples. But the young man said that he wanted to know the exact steps one took toward becoming a writer, informed that he was studying literature in school and had not yet decided whether he wanted to be a poet, a novelist or a dramatist, also wanted to know whether he should commercialize himself and try to make money or just start out in the smaller publications which did not pay anything but had prestige. Mr. Ruark had responded that first, he would run away and go to sea, then join the Army, then get a job as a copy boy on a newspaper, with the hope of becoming a reporter, and in the course of about a decade, hope that he would know a little bit about the mechanics of writing so that he could sound like people sounded and acted. He recommended understanding constructive use of the word "ain't", and said that he should primarily work for money. He advised the young man to ask him where the bright spots were in town and whether he knew "any nice little numbers". The young man had said, however, that he needed to go to the museum.
He finds the young people a "blueprint bunch" with grave plans and solemn demeanor, going steady with one "babe" and behaving as if they were already married. They talked learnedly of things in literature, art, economics and world affairs, but it all sounded like they had read it in Time.
Mr. Ruark indicates that when he was in college, most of the students he knew did not know Kafka from cornflakes and that anything they read which reputedly would improve their minds was done under duress to pass a course. College, he suggests, was a place where one went to have fun. He says that he could not recall what he studied in the last quarter of his senior year at UNC but remembers that someone dropped the cake of soap in the moonshine, vastly improving its flavor, and that a pretty girl with brown eyes had sent his fraternity pin back to him. He also remembered that the flowers smelled pretty good that spring. He says that he was thankful for his recollections of that past and wondered whether the young people were not making a mistake in thinking that seriousness started before they could actually define the word.
A letter from the chairman of the Tenth Congressional District Convention indicates irritation at seeing some of the finest citizens of the city attaching their names to newspaper ads or stories titled "Democrats for Jonas" or "Registered Democrats for Jonas-Eisenhower". He says that he hates to see good men go wrong, that the Democrats were not relying on subterfuge in the campaign and that the party recommended itself to all Democrats. He indicates his belief that Judge J. C. Sedberry was eminently qualified to be the representative in Congress from the district, in place of Charles Jonas.
A letter writer from Morganton indicates that money appeared to be doing the talking in the Ninth and Tenth Congressional Districts, that Mr. Sedberry wanted to raise farm prices, which she finds grand for the millionaire farmer and absentee landlord but bad for the working class having to scrounge to buy food. She indicates that farm prices seemed pretty fair, as she paid 60 cents for six tomatoes, and paid a carpenter $15.75 for nine hours of work. She wonders whether, if there were only one party in the nation, Democrats would have a Hitler, just as one-party Germany had. She thinks that top state officials who received fat salaries were for themselves and not the little people. She says that she was 70 years old and a Democrat, but that in this year, she would split her ticket and vote for a person not under obligation to big business, who would accept defeat before he would sling mud and descend into gutter-type politics, that person being Representative Jonas.
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