The Charlotte News
Monday, October 10, 1955
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Miami that Secretary of State Dulles had said this date, in an address prepared for the 37th annual convention of the American Legion, that the U.S. would go into the Big Four foreign ministers conference, scheduled to start in Geneva on October 27, with two sets of plans, one to meet any Russian obstruction and the other to exploit genuine Soviet moves toward harmony. He said, in a speech carried by television and radio across the nation, that world opinion eventually would force Russia to relax its grip on East Germany and liberate the satellite peoples of Eastern Europe, that Soviet acceptance of the President's plan for mutual aerial inspection and exchange of military blueprints would provide the basis for further international disarmament control, and that the country could then confidently move toward international measures to reduce and control "the instruments of death". He said that the country had to be prepared neither to rebuff any authentic Soviet move toward easing tensions nor to exposue itself to subsequent "mortal danger". He said that Soviet policy presently was to "appear friendly and to mingle with all the world," and that it was not yet possible to determine whether the apparent change of attitude was genuine or merely a maneuver. He said that history did not justify the conclusion, as held by some skeptics, that changes in the satellites and in East Germany could not be brought about peacefully, citing the recent liberation of Austria as a result of world opinion insistently demanding it as a step representing elemental justice, finding that in the same manner, world opinion would compel the Soviets to relax their grip on East Germany and permit reunification of the nation, as well as to restore independence to the captive states of Eastern Europe.
In Moscow, Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov said this date that he would fly on October 25 to Geneva for the foreign ministers conference, disclosing that intention to Canadian Foreign Secretary Lester Pearson, visiting Moscow. The announcement stopped speculation in Western diplomatic circles in Moscow that Mr. Molotov's recent self-criticism, published in the latest issue of the Russian magazine Communist, might mean that he would not attend. A Western observer in Moscow indicated that the ideological point Mr. Molotov had raised in the letter to the magazine was so obscure that it seemed that his recantation of it could only be a pretext for dissociating Soviet foreign policy from a man with whom the Presidium did not agree. He indicated that there was no apparent reason for such a quick solution as discrediting Mr. Molotov, who had been Foreign Minister for 15 years. In a letter printed in the magazine, Mr. Molotov had confessed that he had made a mistake in a speech to the Supreme Soviet on February 8, when he had referred to the Soviet Union as a country where "the foundations of socialist society already exist," explaining that he should have said that the Soviet Union had already built a socialist society superstructure and was ready to proceed to communism. He said that such an error was theoretically and politically dangerous, representing a contradiction to numerous official party decisions. One Western diplomat suggested that Mr. Molotov had always been associated with a "hard foreign policy" toward the West, while the Soviet Union was now pursuing a "smiling" policy, and that his February 8 speech had proceeded still along a hard line, but that it was not on foreign policy that he had admitted his error.
In Denver, the White House announced this date postponement of Vice-President Nixon's scheduled November trip to the Near East because of the President's illness, so that the Vice-President could continue to be available in Washington to preside at Cabinet and National Security Council meetings during the President's period of convalescence. Mr. Nixon was also to have gone to Africa. The previous day, the President's doctors had disclosed that he probably would remain in the hospital in Denver for at least four additional weeks and possibly five and that it might be the beginning of the year before he would return to the White House. He continued to progress satisfactorily this date, with the latest medical bulletin indicating that he had a good night of sleep, sleeping more than eight hours. It remained impossible to determine whether he would be physically able to run again in 1956. At a Sunday news conference at Lowry Air Force Base, his heart specialist, Dr. Paul D. White, said that the President would not fly to his farm in Gettysburg for at least four more weeks, that he was not completely out of danger, and that it was too early to determine whether he would make a complete recovery, but had passed the period when complications normally would occur. He said that the President was happy at the hospital and would need some work, such as his conference the following Tuesday with Secretary Dulles, to keep him from "bubbling over" and to "protect his heart from the effects of his overactive brain." (He advised Mr. Nixon against any more sudden surprises in the presence of the President, as on Sunday, but they covered that up for the sake of maintaining the appearance of internal harmony.)
In Sikeston, Mo., a proposed "Symington-for-president" campaign was scheduled to be discussed at a meeting of Missouri Democrats on Saturday, with letters having been sent out to the Senator's supporters and state political leaders to attend the meeting regarding his possible candidacy in 1956 for the nomination. The Senator, himself, frequently had disclaimed any presidential aspirations.
An Agriculture Department harvest-time report this date estimated that the year's Government-controlled cotton crop would be 13.9 million bales of 500 pounds gross weight each, more than a million bales over the 12.8 million forecast by the Department a month earlier, compared with 13.7 million produced the previous year and 12.9 million for the 10-year average through 1953, well over the Government's goal of about 10 million bales. Supplementing the year's production was a carryover supply of about 11.1 million bales from previous large crops. Somewhat more rigid restrictions were anticipated for the following year's crop.
In Oak Ridge, Tenn., the Atomic Energy Commission said this date that 30 foreign scientists and technicians would attend a special course in radioisotope, or tracer atom, techniques. Students from 20 countries would take part in the four-week course, to begin the following Monday. It was the second such course set up during the year for foreign students, designed to be in furtherance of the President's atoms-for-peace program. Identical courses were provided six times per year for American scientists by the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies.
In Pinehurst, N.C., Governor Luther Hodges told the state's truckers this date, at the annual convention of the North Carolina Motor Carriers Association, that he favored greater Federal aid to states for highway construction but opposed increased Federal taxes on highway users. He reiterated the hope that at the next session of Congress, it would act on legislation to increase Federal aid for highway construction, that a bill, sponsored by Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee, "would afford us a much more balanced program than any of the other present highway bills which have been proposed." He said that the State Highway Commission believed it would provide as much money as the facilities for the state's contracting industry, materials industry and engineering personnel could accomplish at the present time. He said that he opposed a compromise measure which would increase Federal gasoline taxes, diesel fuel taxes and taxes on motor vehicle accessories, that the practical effect of that bill would be to preempt the field of highway use taxes for the Federal Government. He praised the state's trucking industry and said that he was astounded to learn that Charlotte was believed to be the second largest trucking center in the nation, with the city served by 102 trucking lines operating approximately 3,000 daily schedules. C. Jack Williams of Milwaukee, president-elect of the American Trucking Association, told the group that the trucking industry was engaged in a "fight for survival" in opposing changes in national transportation policy. He said that a change proposed by a Cabinet committee report would allow railroads to enter the trucking business without a showing of public convenience, necessity or anything else, that railroads had been trying to muscle in for years and had achieved some success, even under present law.
In Charlotte, a campaign over the western part of the state to enlist capital for promotion of small, diversified business and industrial enterprises would be launched the following day by the Governor. He would be the guest speaker at a luncheon specially arranged by top management of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, meeting at the Hotel Charlotte, to be attended by officers and directors of the Railway.
In Chicago, the Lincoln Park Zoo said that eight 9-inch cobras had been hatched the previous week, worth between $30 and $40 each, and that they only normally maintained a permanent population of six cobras, with the extras likely to be traded to other zoos. Just let them loose and produce a story like Charlotte had with its elephant, Vicki. Name the extras Eeny, Meeny, and Miny, render them cute, stretch the story out for eleven days, and generate a lot of free publicity for the zoo. It is a tried and true formula.
In Berlin, it was reported that a blaze had consumed the bodies of Adolf Hitler and his newlywed, Eva Braun, while about ten men of the Fuehrer's staff watched in the garden outside the bunker where he took refuge from air raids. The Russians had kept the story under wraps for a decade since the occurrence on April 30, 1945. The story was related by Heinz Linge, Hitler's valet, who had recently returned to Berlin after being held by the Russians since the end of the war. He said that Hitler had shot himself and that Eva Braun had taken poison, that he had personally carried Hitler's body from the bunker, helped to pour gasoline over it and watched as it burned for about five minutes. His uncle, a general who was a former official of the Reichsbank, said that his nephew had told him the story over dinner, saying that he returned to the garden after the funeral pyre had burned out and buried the ashes of Hitler and his wife. Herr Linge and his uncle had been among 1,741 German prisoners returned to West Germany since the prior Thursday as a result of the Moscow conference between Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Soviet leaders recently. The Russians had promised to free 9,626 German prisoners by October 20, with those from East German homes to be released there. The uncle and his nephew were expected to be summoned to testify before a Berchtesgaden court which was expected to rule during the month on whether Hitler was legally dead, which had never been officially declared. The same story which Herr Linge had told had been pieced together years earlier by Western investigators, but no first-hand accounts had been available.
In Santa Monica, Calif., actor Broderick Crawford, 49, had been ordered to pay his wife $1,500 in temporary alimony, pending trial of her suit for temporary maintenance.
In Gaston, N.C., it was reported that the previous May, a man had been cutting his lawn with a rotary mower, whereupon a chunk of the blade had broken off and flown across the street, fatally injuring a neighbor as she sat on her front steps. The prior Friday night, the same man was driving past the Baptist Church in Gaston, when a 19-year old male had darted in front of his car and was killed. The coroner ruled that the man was without fault in both accidents.
John Borchert of The News
reports that 4,000 volunteers had gone to work this date to
raise $929,810 for the 1955 United Appeal campaign, starting
solicitations in offices, stores, factories and homes, with the
campaign set to continue through November 3. A star-studded radio and
television show would air this night at 7:30, featuring Monica Lewis,
Snooky Lanson
On the editorial page, "United Appeal: People Helping People" suggests that there was a national addiction to philanthropy, with Americans demonstrating compassion toward those less fortunate, an attitude that everyone was their brother's keepers, long a part of the national heritage since the time of the early settlers.
The nation had grown large such that people often no longer knew whom their neighbors were or what their problems were, so that it now took a united effort and collective means to provide for those problems.
It indicates that it was why Charlotte and Mecklenburg County were launching this date the United Appeal for 1955-56, to do the vital jobs which had to be done in the spirit of collective neighborliness, too big for only a few people in the county. Unity was the watchword, with united planning for community health and welfare services, united budgeting so that each community service would receive its fair share of community support, and united fundraising, eliminating multiple appeals and assuring support for all worthy community services.
It tells of the Appeal not being designed solely to raise funds for the underprivileged, that the agencies supported by it were needed community services which all citizens joined in providing for the benefit of everyone, the benefits being direct or indirect. The services supported by the Appeal were carefully operated and budgeted, scrutinized by a large, representative group of the community's citizens, with no room for unnecessary expense. Donors could be certain that every penny they gave would be distributed wisely and placed where it would do the most good for the community as a whole.
It indicates its belief in the Appeal and offers its wholehearted support, urges residents to do likewise.
Well, if Snooky Lanson says it's okay, you can take it to the bank.
"Just Out Yonder, the Golden Age" tells of the October issue of the Progressive Farmer having foretold an atomic age in farming, predicting atomic watermakers to bring crops to fruition in dry seasons, suitcase-sized atomic engines to provide power for crop production, spraying and irrigation, "new look" animals genetically designed to ward off disease and withstand hot weather, atomic sky trucks to make the world one large produce market, with perishables harvested one day for sale the next in South Africa, Siam and Australia, and atomic power for handling grain, grinding feed and cleaning the barn.
Plants might look different in the future as it was feasible to compress into a span of two or three years what would have taken a century of laborious breeding and selection to accomplish earlier.
One could look forward to visiting someone 2,000 miles away during the course of a single day with an atomic rocket scooter.
It says it was all revved up and ready for such golden agrarianism, hopes to have "an automatic fox hound that would bust a plastic barking box before he would run a rabbit, a hen so bred in modesty she wouldn't make a federal case out of every egg she laid, and a sweet-tempered settin' hen trained to smile and lift her skirts whenever we come around to admire the nested biddies." It also proposes a cow without a tail, a mule without a will, Johnson grass without roots and a pig named Fauntleroy with equivalent manners.
But it wonders in that atomic farm
future what would happen to the farmer, once freed from the stubborn
clay, sticky barnyards and fighting grass, his stubborn strength
fashioned from adversity, patience learned behind a hammer-head mule
and character formed from hands stained in the soil no longer
necessary. It suggests that the atomic farmer might even drop his
subscription to Progressive Farmer and instead start reading
Mechanics Illustrated
"The Inevitable Death of October" indicates that a blood-letting on the state's highways during the month was as inevitable as the falling leaves, that the death tally for the first week of October the previous year had been 31 and for the present year, ending the prior Friday, had amounted to 30.
It suggests that there had to be something about October which made it historically worse for accident statistics, and that whatever it was, could not be remedied, as October was unchangeable and it prefers to keep it that way. What had to be changed was the driver, who had to use more care, more skill and more responsibility. Despite better engineering, education and enforcement, it was still easier to get killed on a highway than on a battlefield, particularly in October. "Be that remembered by you and by ourselves."
We can tell you from personal experience that it is the leaves on the trees blending in autumnal particoloured profusion acting to obscure those octagonal signs in certain places which, at least, lends to the accident proneness of the month—not to mention incipient Halloween-inspired pranks by college newspaper editors and the radio dj's who then follow on the college prank to promulgate it to unsuspecting, naive high schoolers, as if the thing were real.
A piece from the Baltimore Evening Sun, titled "Beautifying the Male", tells of a disturbing increase being reported in the male division of artificial methods of self-beautification, starting with toupees, the purveyors of which had reported a quadruple increase in business during the previous year, extending down to shoes, where elevators and height-increasing lifts were thriving. Men were now wearing corsets and receiving facial mudpacks as well as applying scents.
It indicates that male self-improvement had always been around, as shown by the muscle-building apparatus with which the ad readers of a generation earlier had dreamed of obtaining Herculean proportions. But that was to become a man among men, whereas now males, with their artificial fragrances and changes of style yearly, were becoming men among women.
It indicates that the original Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone might have called it the sissified age, but that the athletes who were appearing in the lotion ads were more proficient than the old timers had been. It questions whether it was a plot among manufacturers to create new goods and new markets, finds it puzzling. "And while pondering it, fellows, be careful not to scratch too hard on that new cranial divot."
Drew Pearson identifies members of the White House team who had worked largely anonymously behind the scenes, as did most White House teams, taking credit for the errors, while leaving it to the President to take credit for the hits. Usually, he observes, there was a lot of back-biting among the White House staff, but there was less of that in the Eisenhower Administration than in most he had seen. The President, because he had been away a lot, believed in staff delegation, as he had as an Army general, leaving a lot of the major decisions during his three years in office to his staff, who, in consequence, found it no trouble to continue with that system during the President's convalescence from his heart attack.
The head of the team was chief of staff Sherman Adams, who actually ran the White House. General Wilton Persons was the chief lobbyist with Congress and had a charming, quiet way of manipulating people into doing things they did not wish to do. Fred Seaton was the foremost troubleshooter for the President and saw him frequently, understanding practical politics. Maxwell Rabb, secretary of the Cabinet, held an important post as the right-hand man of Mr. Adams. He called members of the Cabinet and told them what to do and they understood that he was talking for Mr. Adams and acted accordingly. Jack Martin, the former assistant to the late Senator Robert Taft, had been hired because of his contacts with the friends of the late Senator, and now handled many minority problems while also lobbying in Congress with the Taft right wing of the Republican Party. James Hagerty, the White House press secretary, had been one of the most effective in that role in many years, knowing when to leak and when not to do so, was a straight shooter who was trusted by newsmen. Bernard Shanley, the White House counsel, was one of the few who still felt the spirit of the Eisenhower crusade of 1952 and still spoke glowingly about great reform. Gerald Morgan, assistant counsel, was an astute lawyer with a lot of experience on Capitol Hill. Harold Stassen, now an advisor on disarmament, had handled a lot of other problems in the past. Nelson Rockefeller had shifted to the White House after he could not stomach some of the reactionary policies of former Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare, Oveta Culp Hobby. Mr. Rockefeller was the chief advisor to the President on psychological warfare, propaganda and cultural activities. Gabriel Hauge was a Harvard economist and former business writer for McGraw-Hill, who advised on the economic outlook, but did not often get very close to the President. Kevin McCann was the former president of Defiance College and author of The Man from Abilene, about the life of the President, and was the chief speechwriter.
Walter Lippmann indicates that enough time had passed since the July Big Four summit conference in Geneva to determine its significance, and he posits that an honest examination had to show that Moscow had taken the initiative at the conference and obtained formidable advantage of the military and political situation. It had adapted its foreign policy to the fact that there was a military stalemate and was exploiting that fact in an astute and calculated diplomatic campaign designed to undermine the Western military system and to neutralize U.S. power in Europe. He suggests that the U.S. would soon be asking itself what was wrong with its own policies and whether they had remained static, in the pre-Geneva mold, and whether, as a result, the nation was coming off second best in the diplomatic duel in Germany, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
He indicates that in retrospect, it was clearer than ever that what had taken place at Geneva was public acknowledgment by the heads of state that they could not wage an atomic war, with the declarations and pledges being that they would not go to war, while the underlying reality was that the U.S. was aware from its scientists and military leaders that in the existing balance of power, war had to be avoided. That public acknowledgment about war was the only thing on which there had been agreement at Geneva, albeit a very important agreement.
On both sides of the Iron Curtain, there had developed during the Cold War military and political structures of alliances based on an expectation of a third world war, an acknowledged assumption since the initiation of the Truman Doctrine in 1946. In the East, the threat of encirclement by the U.S. had long been used to justify the domination of the satellites and police repression within the Communist sphere.
He posits that it was clear at present that sometime the previous winter, the Kremlin, realizing that there was an atomic stalemate, had formed a diplomatic policy based on that fact, with its major premise being that the fear of Soviet military aggression ought be removed from the minds of the people of the Old World, that once that fear was gone, the Soviets would be able to exploit diplomatically the divisions of the non-Communist world, in the two Germanys, between France and Germany and between Islam and Europe, etc. He indicates that the removal of the fear of Soviet military aggression had been easy enough because such aggression was impossible within the existing stalemate.
The policy was to advertise the stalemate, which neither East nor West could alter, and the amiability of the Soviets since the previous spring could reflect a number of things happening within the Soviet Union. On a military level, it had expressed the fact that war was impossible at present, and what the Kremlin wanted from Geneva, which they had obtained, was a demonstration that there was no longer need to fear Soviet military aggression. The removal of that fear made it difficult to keep the democratic parliaments voting military appropriations, producing a reappraisal of their foreign policies and a kind of new order of priorities in many nations.
Among the Germans, for example, reunification had become more important than the military alliance with the West. Greece and Turkey had allowed a quarrel over Cyprus that they would never have dared to indulge had they been still afraid of being conquered by the Soviets. Egypt, and perhaps Syria, were feeling free to maneuver for high stakes, something they would never have risked were they still concerned about the Red Army engaging in aggression against them.
The strength of the new Soviet diplomacy was that in those various conflicts, they had worked themselves into a position where they now held the balance of power, most evident in Europe, where they were presently in a position to play upon the balance between the two Germanys, the balance between France and Germany and the balance of Germany with Poland.
The Western position was inferior because the Soviets now held East Germany and the lost German territory beyond the Potsdam frontier, as well because the Soviet was stronger for it having become more flexible, not bound as Britain and the U.S. to a German policy which was not negotiable. Thus, the prospect in Germany suited Moscow very well as the situation was shaping up for direct dealings with Germany, while the English-speaking peoples were on the sidelines.
The static condition of U.S. policies was the greatest weakness for the U.S. despite its great military, economic and political assets, as it was not in a position to use those assets for bargaining purposes, being frozen by rigid and highly emotional commitments. Mr. Lippmann indicates that before the U.S. diplomatic condition could be improved, its assets had to be made negotiable, which was something which the President had just begun to do when he had his heart attack on September 24.
Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain, is pleased to note that Adolf Hitler was officially dead as of the present month and that Juan Peron had been deposed in Buenos Aires. He was also pleased that the reward for the killer of Serge Rubinstein was only $25,000 and that the last suspect had been seen last in Tangier, a rather loose place for a suspect.
He had learned that nobody was big enough to be as big as they thought they were when venturing outside international decency. Mr. Rubinstein had been outside of any kind of decent compliance with the rules other people followed. He had murdered at home and even the rabbi who had buried him said that he was no good.
He indicates that although he was not a practicing religionist, he had great respect for organized religion of all types, and Hitler and Mussolini had become bigger than God in their own estimation and Sr. Peron had made the mistake of tangling with the Catholic Church, as Pope Pius XII did not put up with two-bit dictators. Very few of the prewar dictators were still around, including Joseph Stalin.
He posits that it was not true that only the evil men did lived after them, that he knew of a tiny Spanish town, Gigon, close to Portugal, which had just erected a monument to Arthur Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, a small town close to Portugal, penicillin's effect there having made Mr. Fleming immortal.
One could not tamper with God and his representatives or the law of the land or freedom of the press. Had he been asked, he could have told Sr. Peron that when he expropriated La Prensa, he was done, even without having tangled with the Pope.
"Hitler, Peron, Rubinstein, Mussolini, Goering, Lucky Luciano, Von Ribbentrop—they were all of a stamp. They were all lower-case crooks who got too big for their britches."
A letter writer from Davidson indicates that in the previous Wednesday issue of the newspaper, he had been interested in a letter talking about flying saucers, indicates that he had an uncle in Project Saucer, the Air Force investigating committee on unidentified flying objects, and that recently his uncle had been allowed to publicize several cases which made the most level-minded persons think. He admits that many such people who saw gigantic apes or little men arriving from outer space were ready for asylums, but that some of the previous incidents were worth some thought. He cites the tracking of an object which had out-climbed a V-2 rocket and a WAC Corporal missile at the White Sands, N. M., proving grounds, wonders how balloons would be traveling at a speed of 18,000 mph or a meteor would travel upwards. He indicates that the long-publicized death of Capt. Tommy Mantell over Godman Air Force Base while chasing an object which had been described by him before his F-51 had disintegrated could not have been the result of a mass hallucination by some 500 responsible persons who also had seen it. Five corresponding radar sets had also picked it up, going approximately 300 mph. Hundreds of commercial pilots and passengers had reported observing strange objects, as had trained Air Force pilots. He suggests that not many comets entered the atmosphere and made right angle banks at fantastic speeds. Under Air Force secrecy, he says, there were films of formations of weird objects which were officially declared as the "real stuff". He suggests that the previous writer was not aware of those things or he would not want such trained pilots thrown in the booby-hatch, or he had no scientific attitude at all.
Go to Pahrump. You can see for yourself. It puts Area 51 and Roswell to shame. But we recommend taking your own box lunch and not relying on the local diners for that Martian food they serve.
A letter writer takes aim at the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners for having drafted a resolution giving unqualified approval to .22-caliber rifles while outlawing the use of "high-powered" rifles of greater caliber. He says there were .22-caliber short, .22-caliber long, plus the .217, having muzzle velocities, respectively, of 1,125, 1,240 and 1,335 feet per second. He also lists some other .22-caliber rifles which, for the most part, had higher velocities than the .30-calibers, such as the .30-30, the .35 Remington and the .30-06, regarded as big game rifles. He finds that approving of .22-caliber rifles was meaningless and showed a serious lack of knowledge of firearms generally and cartridges in particular, both in theory and mechanics.
The report on the Board's proposed ordinance told of the shooting of .22-caliber rifles or pistols being banned within 500 yards of designated buildings while the firing of shotguns was banned within 200 yards of those structures, and so this writer and a previous writer appear to have misinterpreted the ordinance. In any event, they should be spending their time
banning those Martian Ray-guns, don't you think?
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.