The Charlotte News

Friday, October 14, 1955

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from the U.N. in New York that the General Assembly this date had reached a new East-West deadlock after failing on the first three ballots to settle the dispute for a contested rotating two-year Security Council seat, with neither Communist Poland nor the Philippines, the latter supported by the U.S., receiving the necessary two-thirds majority of the Assembly, which had immediately begun balloting again in the hope of breaking the stalemate. The vote for Poland on the first ballot was 34 in favor and the vote for the Philippines was 33 in favor, with 39 votes needed. On the second ballot, Poland had lost 11 votes and the Philippines had gained two. On the third ballot, the Philippines advanced to 38 votes, while Poland only garnered 20. The Communists had asserted that failure to elect Poland to the seat would harm international cooperation and endanger the spirit of Geneva set at the Big Four summit conference the prior July. The U.S. charged that Poland was not qualified for the seat. Cuba and Australia had been elected without contest to fill the other two temporary seats. Each of the Big Five, the U.S., Russia, France, Britain and China, occupied permanent seats on the Council, each with unilateral vetoes.

In Dallas, the State Fair of Texas was under attack this date for its designation of Monday, October 17, as "Negro Achievement Day". The secretary of the Texas NAACP said that such a designation raised rather than lowered segregation bars. He said that General Benjamin Davis, chosen to receive the National Negro Achievement award, had refused to attend the fair, saying that "unforeseen circumstances" prevented his attendance. The manager of the Dallas Negro Chamber of Commerce, however, said that segregation was not practiced at the fair.

In Tunis, the new Tunisian regime issued a directive this date against Government officials kissing one another on the cheek, on the neck or on the hand, a custom among Arab men for many years, but apparently deemed by the Government not to be in keeping with the country's new dignity, as it enjoyed home rule for the first time in 80 years. Henceforth, the only man who would be kissed regularly as a greeting would be the Bey, a tradition being that those gaining audience with him would kiss his hand.

In London, Group Capt. Peter Townsend drove to the quiet English countryside this date, keeping secret whether Princess Margaret, sister to Queen Elizabeth, had promised to marry him or not. Meanwhile, the Princess remained secluded behind the walls of Clarence House, the mansion she shared with her mother.

In Crane, Ind., there were still no clues in the missing three-year old boy, thought to have been kidnaped while playing with children across the street from his parents' home on Tuesday afternoon. Two male suspects, because of their past conduct with children, were to be questioned by authorities this date. More than 2,500 Marines, sailors and civilians had finished searching an area around the Crane Naval Ordnance Depot the previous day, an area near where the boy had last been seen. A German shepherd dog, Spooky, had been utilized in the search of the wooded area. A four-year old girl, who had been playing with the boy prior to his disappearance, said that he had gone off "into the stickers".

The Weather Bureau in Washington reported that a storm with 30 to 40 mph winds was proceeding up the Eastern Seaboard this date and some areas might receive as much as five inches of rain. The storm was centered at daylight near Cape Hatteras, N.C., moving northward at a pace of about 20 mph. The center was expected to reach eastern New York state by the following morning, passing through Pennsylvania, New York, across Lake Ontario and into Canada, with New England and a part of northeastern Ohio expected to be impacted. It was practically the same path which Hurricane Hazel had taken the previous October 15, leaving in its wake 177 dead, 99 of whom had resided in the U.S. and 78 in Canada, and damage estimated at 100 million dollars. The current cyclone was different from a hurricane as it was generated by conflicting warm and cool air, whereas a hurricane began from warm air. A steady five-hour downpour had dumped 3.16 inches of rain on the Washington area by the early morning hours, reaching 4.54 inches by daybreak, the highest rainfall amount since Hurricane Connie had deposited 5.44 inches of rain on the capital on August 12.

At Davidson College, near Charlotte, dedication of W. H. Belk Hall, a five-story dormitory completed during the summer at a cost of $900,000, would highlight the homecoming activities the following day as more than 1,000 alumni would return for the celebration. Mr. Belk had been a Charlotte merchant, churchman and senior trustee of Davidson at the time of his death in 1952. Members of the 1904 and 1905 football teams would be honored at halftime of the game between Davidson and Washington & Lee the following afternoon. A dance would occur this night in the gymnasium, with Art Mooney and his orchestra playing. Basil Rathbone and Helen Gahagan Douglas would star in the stage attraction, "One Plus One", and would provide a series of dramatic readings, the first of eight programs in the Davidson Artists Series, open to the public this evening. Alumnus Walter Robertson, Assistant Secretary of State, would also address the convocation and receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

Donald MacDonald of The News reports that an estimated $3,200 in cash had been stolen in a safecracking the previous night at a food distributing company after the building had been entered through the attic and ceiling and the crackers had broken open the safe with a chisel and wrecking bar. In another break-in, a thief had stolen $50 from a cash bag at the Myers Park Atlantic Service Station on Providence Road, and a piece of tin had been knocked out of a window at a grocery store, from which thieves had taken $56 from the cash register, four wristwatches and two cases of beer. At another service station, thieves had taken $25 in change from a cigarette machine after breaking in through a side window. We could interpolate that the police ought focus their investigation initially in the latter case on the population of students at N.C. State, but that would not be fair and, moreover, injudicious, as that school and its facilities were built less with tobacco money than some of the others in the state.

Julian Scheer of The News reports that a 16-year old student had a bright idea after reading that the Charlotte Employment Security Office had been seeking cotton pickers in the county. The student had called the office to ascertain whether there was any age limit for the employment, finding that there was not, and so proceeded, along with his younger brother and sister, who had seen cotton, and two other younger people, ages eight and nine, to the office to obtain the employment, bringing their lunches with them and wearing their old clothes, planning to earn extra money for Christmas. But when they got there, they were told that it had rained too much the night before and that there was no cotton to pick this day, and so one of the younger boys said that he guessed he would go home and play football, while the 16-year old said that he could have picked about 150 to 200 pounds of cotton, which would have brought him between $2.50 and $3 in income. The younger other would-be cotton-pickers had expressed the desire to learn to pick.

That was certainly a very entertaining story, worthy of front page, center, replete with a large photograph of the pretermitted cotton-pickers. In any event, in keeping with an insistence to make lemons out of lemonade, how much was a 500-lb. bale of cotton at market price, assuming the boy's calculations on his prospective earnings were correct and that he would receive wages commensurate with the wholesale futures price, as determined by the Cotton Growers Association of America?

In Dallas, Tex., three women had, 25 years earlier, anted up $50 each during a bridge game, which wound up with a pot of $137,736, with the money going to their heirs and a pioneer woman oil-well driller who had dug a hole for them. In 1930, the three women, all now dead, had been playing bridge with a fourth companion, whose name had been lost. One of the women said that she knew of a good oil land lease which could be bought cheaply, and the other two players agreed to pay $50 each toward its acquisition. A woman and her husband agreed to drill the well for the women, and it eventually produced, along with three other wells drilled on the 15 acres of land, $600,000 worth of oil in the interim. But the women had not entered into any agreement on how the oil proceeds would be shared, with the case winding up in court. A settlement was reached the previous day. At one time, it was estimated that there had been about 25 lawyers representing about as many clients in various complex phases of the litigation, with one representative of one of the the three original women having spent about 60 percent of his working time during the previous 17 years on the litigation and associated matters. There had been five lawsuits and about 75 hearings since 1931 when the first case had been filed.

In Columbus, Ga., an 85-year old man was headed to his home in Columbus, O., and somehow had landed in Columbus, Ga., with police finding him on a downtown street the previous day moving about uncertainly with $200 in cash, two bank books listing more than $5,000 in deposits, a phone number, an electric razor, medicine, socks and an unused bus ticket from Portsmouth, O., to Columbus, O. When a police sergeant asked him where he thought he was, he said, "Columbus, Ohio, of course." The sergeant had used the phone number in his pocket to call Columbus, O., and talked to a woman who said that she was the man's daughter and that he was believed to be visiting a niece in Florida, that she had no idea how he had wound up in Columbus, Ga., adding that she had never been there. The Travelers Aid Society arranged to escort the man to Columbus, O.

On the editorial page, "No Need for Novices in Airport Job" tells of City Manager Henry Yancey being particular in his choice for the new air pollution control engineer for Charlotte, and it finds that it was good that he would do so after the early morning smudge pot of two days earlier. He had taken a business-like approach to the matter, and the same approach, it opines, needed to be exerted in the selection of a new Municipal Airport manager.

The Charlotte Aero Association, in a statement to the City Council, had stated that Charlotte would, in the future, have a helicopter service and jet transports utilizing the airport, creating new problems of loading and handling, and that there would be increases in air freight, air mail and air express services. The city would also have another major airline servicing it or a revision of routes which would produce an increase in passenger and freight traffic.

It indicates that there was more fact than fancy in those forecasts, considering the growth of the city and its trading area and the general upsurge of air traffic alongside the modern air facilities at the airport. The City was also continuing to press its case before the Civil Aeronautics Board for faster and more widespread schedules. All of those factors militated toward obtaining an airport manager who was thoroughly competent and capable of growth with the airport, suggesting that it was not a place for on-the-job training.

"Coliseum Cry: Anyone for Skates?" tells of sports fans having to settle for ice-skating at the new Coliseum, after a boxing match between Ezzard Charles and Julio Mederos, scheduled for October 18, had been canceled because the Coliseum Authority determined that there was insufficient time to promote it properly. In addition, a scheduled basketball game between the Russian Olympic team and N.C. State had been all but canceled, with the Coliseum authorities indicating confusion with the national AAU management and that the Russian team had been barred from the Coliseum by a "Red Tape Curtain".

It indicates that there were other basketball games scheduled during the winter, but the game involving the Russians was the prime attraction, as the Coliseum manager had said that a lot of people would have turned out simply to see a Russian. Its cancellation had not been caused by the Coliseum Authority, but the cancellation of the fight was based solely on the judgment that the event might be a promotional failure.

It hopes that in the future, the Coliseum Authority would promote sports in the new arena instead of applying cold water to it.

"That's What Conventions Are For" tells of the American Legion convention in Miami having been able to rid its agenda of several items, such as its resolution to have the U.S. withdraw from and then investigate UNESCO on the ground that it was "world government minded". The Legion's own special committee had recently completed an 18 month investigation of UNESCO and found that it was "not favorable toward world government; that the programs and functions of UNESCO are not such as to tend toward world government; that the United States National Commission for UNESCO, individually and as a group, are strongly opposed to world government." The special committee had also found that UNESCO was not atheistic or in any degree communistic. That special committee was comprised of a previous national commander of the Legion, two previous department commanders, a previous department chaplain, a national executive committeeman and a past national president of the Legion Auxiliary, but its report was not even debated at the Legion convention.

The Legion had also criticized the Fund for the Republic, which had provided the funds for a program dealing with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, in which the Legion's Illinois department had been participating.

The Legion had also demanded that Harry Bridges, the West Coast union leader, be stripped of his citizenship and deported, which the U.S. courts had determined, after years of efforts in that direction, was improper.

It finds that former President Truman had perhaps been quite trenchant in saying that the Legion did not know what it was talking about. It concludes that some conventions had to pass resolutions and that as long as they received the amount of attention they deserved, no real harm was done.

"Autumn Has Climbed the Mountain" reminds that the fall colors would be developing during the coming and following weekend, with patterns pleasing to the eye along the Blue Ridge Parkway. "The meadows are trimmed with goldenrod and asters. The sassafras is orange, the sumac scarlet, and the dogwoods are purple. All these are leavened with the bright yellow of birch and maple, and the dark red of the gum tree." It indicates that with October having been dutiful in its work, it deserved attention, as nothing so beautiful could live for long.

A piece from the Carlsbad (N.M.) Current-Argus, titled "We Still Need Brains", indicates that a recent machine tool show in Chicago had been an eye-popper to businessmen, with the presence of an automatic lathe which fed itself metal after the operator pushed a button, and seconds later, produced a beautifully machined piece for an electric motor. The machine also inspected the part to ensure its perfection, swept away the shavings and then received another piece of metal automatically. They had seen another machine which produced valves, rejecting faulty work and readjusting itself to proper dimensions, able to grind, drill and mill an engine crank case. A Cleveland firm had demonstrated a machine which cut the threads on iron pipe fittings at the rate of 85 feet per minute. Another machine drilled tungsten with a cutting edge of invisible electrons.

The show was intended to preview the future of largely automated factories where a small number of technicians sat around in air-conditioned comfort in a control room, while the machines handled all the work.

It points out that a machine had not yet been developed, however, which would conceive of the new machine tools, and so man remained for the nonce indispensable, but says that when industry progressed to the point where it would no longer even need man's brain, it would give up in despair.

Drew Pearson indicates that since Nevada Senator George Malone had returned from his European sightseeing tour, it could be told how he had pestered the embassies abroad to obtain his expense money, badgered Air Force generals for free airplane rides and had telephoned the Senate from Moscow to get the Government to help pay his expenses. His trip was not official and so he had trouble obtaining the funding, though he claimed to be surveying European mineral resources for a Senate Interior subcommittee, which had been disbanded before his departure on the trip. He had gone overseas with his wife and they had wandered together all over the continent, from the Balkans to the Baltic. He had demanded money through the embassy in each capital, money which was supposed to be used only by Congressional committees on official business overseas. But the Senator had no authorization from the Senate Interior Committee, as its chairman, Senator James Murray of Montana, was not anxious to pay for his expenses and his office had told Senator Malone upon inquiry that Senator Murray could not be located. He had also sought money directly from the Committee and had even complained to Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin and Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev during an interview granted to five Senators, and obligingly, the latter two had hurried his travel arrangements so he could get out of expensive Moscow and see the rest of Russia.

Once he had departed Russia, the Senator continued to pester embassies for money until the State Department, in desperation, had prepared a proposed letter of authorization and had hand-delivered it to the Interior Committee. But again Senator Murray's office had refused to ask the Senator to sign it on the basis that the trip was not official. Eventually, the Committee drafted a compromise letter, which did not say that the trip was official but satisfied the State Department and so the Senator finally received his spending money.

He had sought to obtain free air transportation around Europe from the Air Force in Berlin and Air Force officials had cabled the Pentagon for instructions, receiving the reply that the trip was not official and so he was not authorized to receive the free travel. The Senator had to pay his own way to Rome, where he renewed his request of the Air Force officers for a free ride to Madrid, but when they cabled the Pentagon for instruction, the orders again came back that he was not entitled to the free transportation. Mr. Pearson concludes that at least the Senator did not prevail in sticking the taxpayers with the cost of his transportation.

Joseph and Stewart Alsop tell of Assistant Secretary of State George Allen having returned from Egypt with word that there was danger of a renewal of the Arab-Israeli war following the offer by Russia of surplus arms to Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

The Alsops indicate that comparable offers of Soviet arms had been made to Peru and Ecuador and that hints of a possible arms deal had been made to Mexico, with a good possibility of Soviet arms to be offered in the future to Brazil, where a left-wing Government appeared to be coming to power. The offers of arms to South American countries had produced consternation among the Administration's policy-makers, but those offers did not present such an immediate threat as the offers conveyed in the Middle East.

Mr. Allen had hastily been sent to Cairo to try to prevent the Egyptian-Soviet deal, but he had been unsuccessful, returning with the report of war danger. A major test of the significance of that danger would occur within a couple of days when the Arab states were due to determine the fate of a deal for sharing Jordan River water with Israel, a deal which Eric Johnston had been seeking to negotiate as an emissary of the President. If that proposal would be accepted by the Arabs, the war danger would considerably subside, but if the water agreement was rejected, as it had been previously, it was believed that the situation might reach a crisis.

Israeli leaders would be reassured if the water agreement was approved by the Arabs. Tension in Tel Aviv was produced by the Israeli Government's belief that the Egyptians and possibly the Syrians and Saudi Arabians would use the new Soviet arms against Israel. Israeli Prime Minister-designate David Ben-Gurion had already stated privately that Israel could not afford to remain passive under the circumstances. Israel's armed strength appeared to be greater than the strength of its hostile neighbors, but if the Egyptian Army were to be strengthened significantly by Soviet arms, the balance between Israel and its neighbors would be significantly altered. The Israelis thus wanted a showdown at present because they were convinced that their neighbors' acceptance of the arms deal would eventuate in a showdown later and on much worse terms for Israel.

About two years earlier, the Egyptian Government had placed artillery on the small islands of Sanafir and Tiran, commanding the approaches to the small Israeli port of Elath at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Since that time, the Egyptians had on two occasions fired on ships thought to be headed for the port, most recently on a British ship two months earlier. As a result, Prime Minister-designate Ben-Gurion was reportedly considering a demand that the Egyptians demilitarize the two islands. But Egyptian Prime Minister Gamal Abdel Nasser could not meet that demand without a serious loss of face at home, and if a deadlock ensued, it would have the makings of a war crisis.

While the war danger therefore was properly considered serious, it was not considered immediate, as the opposing parties had not yet taken final positions and all of the resources of U.S. diplomacy were presently being used to try to prevent any crisis. There was no longer any plan in place to try to persuade the Egyptians, Syrians and Saudi Arabians to accept U.S. arms instead of Soviet arms, as it was considered weak yielding to blackmail in the first place, and the Egyptians appeared to refuse to provide the usual guarantees that the arms would only be used defensively, required of all recipients of U.S. military aid.

There was some consideration being given to the Israeli demand for a guarantee of Palestine against aggression, in which case, the Israeli leaders would likely feel enough self-confidence to ignore the strengthening of their hostile neighbors by the Soviet weaponry.

The Alsops observe that the Soviets were, in effect, seeking to extract large political dividends from an otherwise valueless byproduct of the Soviet arms program. Since the end of World War II, the Soviet Army, Navy and Air Force had been reorganized and re-equipped from top to bottom, with the Air Force in the process of becoming completely re-equipped for the second time, as postwar MIG-15's were replaced by the newer MIG-17's and the even better "Farmer" fighters and TU-4 bombers giving way to "Bisons" and "Badgers", etc.

Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain, finds certain things in the news convincing him that civilization was in sight, such as the new court for alcoholics in New York, forestry camps for first-time criminal offenders and the proposal to give legal narcotics aid to confirmed addicts. He says that he had known a lot of drunks, drug addicts and bums, that none was much different from anyone else, except for a shortage of whiskey, junk and money.

He observes that a person with enough booze for the following day would not necessarily try to drink it all on the current night, that a person with enough "hop" was not a social menace, and that a person with enough money for decent living did not care to be a bum as it was an uncomfortable way of living.

He urges that if those problems were taken out of the province of the police and placed within the hospitals, they could be more effectively dealt with, suggesting that an addict would be less likely to run amok or rob some establishment if they were placed on narcotics on an easy prescription basis. He says that he knew a lot of employed musicians who were users of dope and that they never showed up in court as criminals because they could afford to purchase the stuff.

He concludes that all of that adjustment would take time, thought, tolerance and overcoming of pride.

A letter from the president of United Community Services tells of there being encouraging signs during the initial days of the United Appeal campaign, the most important being the growth of the number of corporations and individuals who were willing to be guided by the general spirit of carrying their fair share. He provides a tabular guide suggesting what that fair share would be for individuals based on their earnings per week, ranging from 18 cents per week for someone earning $30 per week, on up to a dollar per week for someone earning $130 per week, hopes that people would contribute accordingly.

A letter writer agrees with a previous letter writer that the people of Charlotte should build a new hospital for black patients, indicates that a million dollars or more was raised every year by all organizations and urges that it be used in the cause of the people, with health coming first. He questions why the city needed 20 "so-called" charitable organizations, wonders how many people they really helped, urges that the state and Federal governments should step in and help build a hospital for black patients which would be worthy of the name of the city, reminds that the taxpayers had contributed five million dollars for the construction of the Coliseum for the purpose of entertainment and suggests that priorities ought be straightened out.

A letter from the North Carolina State Automobile Association indicates that the Shell Oil Company's current series of full-page advertisements appearing in the newspaper and endorsed by an earlier editorial, was to be highly commended for promoting highway safety with the presentation of various tests for readers. It finds the ads cleverly and scientifically prepared and believes that such a visual campaign would advance the common goal of reducing slaughter on the highways.

Remember, however, to keep moving when you see that stop sign semi-parallel to the highway, beyond which is only a split rail fence, as wanton danger, undoubtedly, lurks farther down that pig path. And if you're one of those Turnispeeds, study especially gerf on 10-11, as James has zumzi sloogles, 10-4.

Framed Edition
[Return to Links
Page by Subject] [Return to Links-Page by Date] [Return to News<i><i><i>—</i></i></i>Framed Edition]
Links-Date Links-Subj.