The Charlotte News
Monday, April 11, 1955
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the African-Asian conference opening a week from this date in Bandung, Indonesia, might become a large factor in Communist China's decision whether to attack in the Formosa area during the spring or at any time. Top U.S. officials had decided that the Chinese Communists were not likely to attack either Quemoy or Matsu, the Nationalist-held islands a short distance off the coast of Communist China, before or during the conference. It had been disclosed by authoritative sources the previous day that the President had directed U.S. forces to stand clear of any initial attack on the coastal islands until he personally could determine the nature and intent of any assault. Administration sources had said that the Chinese Nationalists would be expected to bear any initial assault, and that U.S. forces had been told to stand in readiness but not to fight unless deliberately attacked. Secretary of the Army Robert Stevens, who had returned the previous day from the Far East, had said that he did not believe the Communists had any immediate plans for an offensive in the Formosa Strait, and that if there were to be an attack, he believed the Nationalist forces could "give a very good account of themselves." At the Bandung conference, involving 29 nations, expected to last between April 18 and 24, the Chinese Communists would be one of the principal participants and the results to them could produce two consequences, that if the Communists found that their demands for possession of Formosa and the offshore island groups were generally supported by the other participants as being justified, then they would be encouraged to use force to obtain them, in which case, the danger of war in the area would loom high during the ensuing week or so after the conference, and that if the Communists found that their threat to use force cost them the good will of the African and Asian nations attending the conference and would subject them to censure, then they might be persuaded to withhold any use of force and the slender hope for a negotiated settlement in the area would be substantially increased. The U.S. was not participating in the conference but U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Hugh Cumming, Jr., and his staff would observe and report back to Washington. One of the leading figures in the conference would be India's Prime Minister Nehru. It was hoped in Washington that the dominant mood of the conference would be one of peace and that it would act as a restraint on the Chinese Communists, compelling them to negotiate a settlement in the Formosa area.
In Chicago, Adlai Stevenson, 1952 Democratic presidential nominee, would air his views on the Far East situation in a half-hour radio talk this night, the first major address of the year for Mr. Stevenson, to be carried nationwide by two networks, CBS and NBC, without charge to Mr. Stevenson, as a public service. Friends said that Mr. Stevenson had received hundreds of letters, telegrams and telephone calls which had prompted the speech, to provide a clearer picture of what he believed the Far Eastern situation might mean to the U.S. His law partner said that Mr. Stevenson believed that party politics should have no place in the discussion of U.S. policy in the Far East, and he had thus not asked the Democratic Party leadership for clearence for the broadcast. Paul Butler, DNC chairman, said that the DNC had not asked Mr. Stevenson to make the speech and had nothing to do with arranging the network time. Immediate past DNC chairman Stephen Mitchell said that Mr. Stevenson's talk would fill a need for plain speech on a serious situation.
In a brief in behalf of black parents regarding the implementing decision in Brown v. Board of Education, counsel indicated that state attorneys general who had filed briefs in the matter had offered only "re-statements in favor of interminable continuation of racial segregation". The brief had been filed only a few hours before the scheduled start of oral arguments on the implementing decision and was a reply to briefs filed earlier by the principal states involved in the case, Kansas, Delaware, Virginia and South Carolina. The brief said that the briefs appeared to be directed against ending racial segregation "in our time" and rather toward desegregation only within a "reasonable time", with the reasons for delay having been the "sole preoccupation of state counsel", while the affirmative problem of ending segregation received virtually no attention. The black parents contended that quick integration should be ordered, probably by the beginning of the next school year or a year later at the outside. The four states involved in the case had generally proposed a gradual process of integration. The new brief had particularly criticized an amicus brief filed by the State of Florida, which it said would have the effect of subjecting black children to denial of rights "on the basis of such a variety of intangible factors that the plan itself cannot be seriously regarded as one for implementing" the May 17, 1954 decision. Counsel contended that the Florida approach would deny black children their rights to attend integrated schools as long as possible without directly overruling the May 17 decision. The brief had pointed out that some of the states had referred to public opinion polls in support of arguments for postponing desegregation indefinitely, but that even if such polls were relevant, they were often inconclusive, and that there was nothing to suggest that an extended delay in ordering the elimination of all segregation would improve public attitudes or eliminate the objections presently interposed.
Edward J. Corsi, ousted as State Department immigration specialist after his job was abruptly abolished 90 days after he had taken it, had rejected, without comment, an offer this date by Secretary of State Dulles for a new post. RNC chairman Leonard Hall had asked Mr. Corsi, a veteran officeholder and Republican Party worker in New York State, to come to see him and talk over the matter. Mr. Corsi had been under fire in Congress at the time his position was abolished, with Representative Francis Walter of Pennsylvania having questioned whether he should administer admission of immigrants, because, according to Mr. Walter, Mr. Corsi had associated with pro-Communist organizations during the 1930's, an allegation which Mr. Corsi had denied. Mr. Corsi was known to believe that Secretary Dulles had buckled in the face of pressure from Mr. Walter to fire him, as Mr. Corsi, Italian-born, had been an outspoken critic of the 1952 McCarran-Walter Immigration and Naturalization Act, co-sponsored by Mr. Walter. Mr. Corsi had described the legislation as "un-American" because it continued to base immigration quotas on an applicant's national origin.
In Pittsburgh, it was reported that the following morning, the results of the study conducted of schoolchildren the previous summer to determine the effectiveness against polio of the Salk vaccine would be announced, with all indications being that the vaccine was effective. Dr. Salk, 40, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, would be personally present in Ann Arbor, Mich., when the report was announced by the chairman of the committee which analyzed the results of the trial, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr. Dr. Salk would not claim credit for the vaccine if it was found successful, but would point to the scientific groundwork laid by others years prior to the start of his work, as well as to the long hours put in by his assistants at the laboratory in Pittsburgh. The anticipation of the report had prompted questions as to whether, if it was successful, there would be a stampede atmosphere to obtain the vaccine, or, if found not to be effective, how it would impact confidence going forward in fighting the potentially crippling disease. If it proved effective, another question would be how effective, whether it would be like vaccines against yellow fever or smallpox, which were not completely effective, though eliminating a great amount of the risk of contracting those diseases. An unnamed, well-known medical scientist, who had asked not to be identified, had told Associated Press science reporter Alton Blakeslee that any vaccine was comparable to fireproofing a building, that it did not prevent all fires, but lowered the risk of substantial damage in case there was one.
In Charleston, W.Va., it was reported that the first contract talks since the middle of March regarding the five-day, ten-state Atlantic Greyhound System bus strike would be scheduled for the afternoon. The 725 bus drivers who had struck the prior Wednesday at midnight were members of the Motor Coach Employees Union. The strike had idled an estimated 1,700 other Atlantic Greyhound employees within the system, which covered all or a part of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and the District of Columbia. The union contended, and the company denied, that the Atlantic Greyhound drivers received lower pay than any other segment of the nationwide Greyhound system, and the union demanded comparable pay.
In Atlanta, it was reported that tension had mounted this date in three states where mobs had battered down a Southern Bell Telephone Co. exchange door, forced the closing of another exchange and had squirted acid into a policeman's eye. There was growing unrest elsewhere in the nine-state Southeastern area where Communications Workers of America members were striking for the 29th consecutive day. There had been widespread violence during the Easter weekend, with the cutting and shooting of more cables and the arrest of at least 17 persons. Company officials announced the dismissal of 19 strikers, bringing to 44 the number who had been fired since the start of the strike on March 14. At Clinton, Tenn., the sheriff said that a mob of about 300 persons had smashed the telephone exchange door after he had read a temporary restraining order banning mass picketing. No injuries or arrests were reported in that incident and the door was quickly repaired. At Birmingham, 15 persons had been arrested as police broke up a noisy crowd, with the police commissioner charging that the walkout had developed into an "explosive situation" and that such gatherings of large crowds could not be tolerated. The police chief said that acid was squirted into the eyes of an officer, who was taken to a hospital where attendants said that the acid appeared to be some kind of paint thinner and apparently had not permanently harmed the police officer's eyes. In Middlesboro, Ky., the exchange there was forced to close, leaving the town of 15,000 without phone service, the fourth exchange forced to shut down because of threatened violence since the start of the strike. Others had been shut at LaFollette, Jellico and Maryville, Tenn. The Atlanta area had experienced a rash of cable cuttings, bringing to 140 the number of such incidents reported in that area. The union continued to deny any involvement in those or similar incidents. A lengthy bargaining session with a representative of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service had recessed Saturday night with the situation unchanged, and might reconvene this date.
In Charlotte, something like a "stink bomb" was placed during the night in the checks depository of the Southern Bell Co. lobby located in the Jefferson Standard Building, with the district offices reporting that it was an "act of annoyance" and that otherwise the situation was unchanged and uneventful in the city as a result of the strike.
In Palo Alto, Calif., a new wingless
"flying platform", was capable of being flown, according
to its test pilot, by anyone who could walk, by simply leaning the
way one wanted it to go. It was developed by Hiller Helicopters
In Montgomery, Ala., it was reported that a young convict imprisoned for robbery in 1948 and who had served most of his sentence of ten years, such that he was eligible for parole in June, had turned down the eligibility so that he could continue singing in the prison quartet. The Kilby prison chaplain said that the singers had been working hard to build their quartet, which frequently made outside appearances.
In Madrin, Turkey, a charcoal seller,
who claimed that he was 128 years old, had died this date. He said
that he had washed only in cold water and had subsisted mainly on a
diet of curdled milk, soup, beans and tomatoes. He had been married
twice and said that he loved women more than anything in the world,
that his soul was "under their feet". Was that a way of
saying that they had walked all over him?
On the editorial page, "Security Vs. Bureaucratic Cover-Up" discusses the White House complaint announced by press secretary James Hagerty the prior Friday, that the President was upset about leaking of "technical military secrets" via the press to the nation's enemies, resulting in a Pentagon policy whereby Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson would have to approve the release of any future military information to the press. Many in the press had complained that it amounted to censorship of newsworthy stories.
It indicates that there was no excuse for a system which allowed military secrets to be aired publicly, but that there was also no excuse for a system which withheld legitimate information from the public. The Administration had an obligation to maintain an informed citizenry about what was going on in Washington.
Much political hay had been made in October, 1953, when the President had removed most of the Truman Administration's security restrictions, with the Democrats having been accused of maintaining unwarranted peacetime censorship by placing sweeping authority to withhold news in the hands of bureaucrats. It posits that the criticism had been, to an extent, justified, as there was much unnecessary security during the Truman Administration, as well as ludicrous snafus, such as in 1951, when a reporter noticed that maps showing secret atomic installations had been hanging on airport bulletin boards, and when the fact was brought up before the President at a press conference, the journalist was soundly rebuked, with the President saying that such talk only attracted attention to the maps which were intended to guide pilots so that they would not fly over such installations. It had raised the question of whether security was jeopardized because of the maps or by asking why they had been hung in public view.
It indicates that there was a delicate balance between the protection of vital defense secrets and the need to keep the citizenry apprised of what the Government was doing. The new Pentagon directive, which effectively banned the release of all information unless approved by the Secretary of Defense, was not likely to maintain that balance. It suggests that an Administration which had been so critical of that sort of nonsense during the Truman years could devise something better.
"How To Prove Practically Anything" indicates that an office visitor had questioned how the newspaper could publish the article the prior week defending intellectuals, expressing the belief that intellectuals were dangerous and that Alger Hiss, for instance, had been an intellectual.
It indicates that it was that sort of "monstrous logic" which never ceased to startle the editors when it was applied, and could usually be reduced to the simple fallacious syllogism: Intellectuals are in favor of free public schools; The Communist Manifesto demanded free public schools; Therefore, intellectuals are Communists.
Stuart Chase had described that verbal trickery in Power of Words, pointing out that every person had almost unlimited characteristics and that every organization possessed a large number of characteristics, that the trick was to determine one characteristic which both parties shared and then leap to the conclusion that other characteristics, perhaps all of them, were thus interchangeable.
It indicates that with such a system of logic, one could reach all kinds of conclusions, all phony. It suggests one such form being: The Pope favors child labor laws; The Politburo favors child labor laws; Therefore, the Pope is a Communist or, therefore, Stalin was a Catholic. Mr. Chase had suggested one which went: My grocer has cheated me; My grocer is a Yankee; Therefore, all Yankees are cheats.
Thus, with that form of logic, one could prove practically anything, employing guilt by association. It recalls a quote, as contained in Mr. Chase's book, of the late Judge John Woolsey: "Before judging a man by his associates, remember that Judas Iscariot traveled in the best of company."
"Power Politics: Young Man's Sport?" suggests that power politics might ordinarily present itself as a young man's sport, but that the news of Anthony Eden, 57, becoming Prime Minister cast a new light on the subject, as he was the youngest Prime Minister in four decades, since David Lloyd George, 53, had assumed the post in 1916.
Preceding Mr. Eden, following Mr. George, were Bonar Law, Stanley Baldwin, who served on three different occasions, Ramsay MacDonald, who served on two different occasions, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, during his first time as Prime Minister, then Clement Attlee, and finally again Mr. Churchill, all of whom had taken office well after reaching age 50.
It indicates that in big-league politics, it took a "wise old head to escape the boiling pots". "Or, as James Thurber once said: 'Youth must be served, frequently stuffed with chestnuts.'"
"R. W. Madry, Man with a Mission" laments the death of the UNC News Bureau director who, it indicates, had issued so much information on the University that hardly a single newspaper or magazine across the country had not used his copy via the Associated Press. He had not used platitudes or smothered the reader in niceties, seldom expressed like or dislike, as one knew by means of garbled communication, known only to "the Colonel". He had been rough on his fellow workers, but few had taken it seriously. He had an uncommon facility of getting things done and getting them done for them, was not one to talk of the philosophy of publicity and public relations, but became the personification of the form. He was presumptuous to the point of shock, would wire a newspaper a long, detailed account on student elections without request, because "they ought to have that stuff." He would then follow up with a phone call demanding an explanation for a poor "play" of it.
His office was in Bynum Hall on the campus and he issued from it a seemingly unending flow of information, alternating between indifference and enthusiasm, minutes apart. He would think nothing of showing up at the office late in the day and then keeping a crew of college students until dawn getting out the day's copy.
In his early days, he had handled football information and loved the role of an All-American maker. He still sat in the press box on Saturdays after his role had been taken over by someone else, and greeted friends from the corner seat on the back row, carrying an armful of newspapers and a pocketful of notes.
He went from UNC president Gordon Gray's office to the barbershop to the post office in a single day, leaving everyone behind except Stonewall Jackson, his loyal dog. There would not be many who would soon forget him, although University historians might record little about his role in the long sweep of history. "But his tomb should read: 'University News Bureau, R. W. Madry, Dir.'"
Drew Pearson indicates that American and British cooperation on foreign policy would not receive any major boost from the ascension of Anthony Eden to the position of Prime Minister, unless the latter dealt exclusively with the President. Mr. Eden and Secretary of State Dulles did not get along, as Mr. Eden considered Mr. Dulles a novice and bumbler, while Mr. Dulles had referred in private to Mr. Eden as an appeaser. Once, during the Indo-China crisis of 1954, Secretary Dulles believed that Mr. Eden was trying to win a Nobel peace prize for himself at the expense of taking a firm stand against Communism. As soon as Prime Minister Eden took office, he showed his complete lack of confidence in the Dulles foreign policy by sending a cable to the British Ambassador in Moscow, asking for the Kremlin's help in trying to prevent war in the Far East, instructing the Ambassador to call on Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov and urge that Russia restrain the Communist Chinese and prevent them from precipitating war. Mr. Eden had added that he was sure that the Russians did not want war and promised that he would use his influence to calm Washington.
On at least three occasions, Secretary Dulles and Mr. Eden had clashed on foreign policy, once prior to the Geneva conference of 1954, when Vice-President Nixon had spoken of sending U.S. ground troops into Indo-China should the Communist Chinese enter that war. On a second occasion, when Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Arthur Radford sought to persuade Prime Minister Churchill to cooperate with the U.S. in sending aircraft carriers to help beleaguered Dien Bien Phu in the spring of 1954, Mr. Dulles thought that he had an agreement with Mr. Eden on a joint, get-tough policy, only to find out that Mr. Eden supported neutralist Premier Nehru of India instead. Other differences had taken place at the Geneva conference, where Mr. Eden rather than Mr. Dulles played the major role in bringing about a compromise peace in Indo-China. The two men had also differed regarding French cooperation in the European defense community, and in the end, the views of Mr. Eden had prevailed. It was more than likely, therefore, that Prime Minister Eden would insist on dealing with the President rather than Secretary Dulles.
Clark Griffith, the "grand old
man of baseball", said that former President Truman was the
best Presidential pitcher who had ever tossed out a ball at the
opening of the season
The Congressional Quarterly tells of Congress having adjourned for the Easter recess, traditional midpoint of the session, with little work completed but plenty outlined. The members had introduced an average of 14.75 bills and resolutions per member, with members of the House having introduced 6,050 measures, and Senators, 1,783, exceeding by 1,213 the bills introduced in any comparable period during the previous nine years. More bills had been introduced in the fields of taxes and tariffs, where 404 public bills had been introduced, and agriculture, where 357 had been introduced, than in any other major categories. Other major categories were in civil rights, including 91 such related public bills, defense policy, 231, immigration, 61, international relations, 90, labor, 125, natural gas, 24, public and private power, 33, and social security, 227.
Senator William Langer of North Dakota and Representative Emanuel Celler of New York led their respective chambers in the number of bills introduced. Senator Langer had submitted 88 measures and Representative Celler had introduced 82 measures. Democrats in both chambers had introduced a greater average number of bills than Republicans.
Nevertheless, only 21 public bills, plus a single private bill, had been passed by both chambers and signed into law by the President since the start of the session the prior January.
Senators had introduced 1,615 public and private bills and 168 joint, concurrent, and simple resolutions. Representatives had introduced 5,461 bills and 589 resolutions. Fifty resolutions and 298 public bills introduced in the Senate had two or more sponsors.
In the eight preceding Congressional sessions, legislation introduced by March 31 had ranged between 2,056 in 1948 to 6,620 in 1953.
Ninety-five proposed amendments to the Constitution, including nine to limit the treaty powers, had been introduced.
Thirty-eight Representatives, including 22 Republicans and 16 Democrats, had introduced no public bills or resolutions, while no Senator had failed to introduce any measure. Senator Alben Barkley of Kentucky had introduced only one measure. Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia had introduced only six. Senator Eugene Millikin of Colorado had introduced seven. Senators McCarthy and Thomas Martin had each introduced eight.
A letter writer indicates that the dénouement of the elementary school report card controversy appeared to be set for the following Tuesday at the Wilmore School, when members of the central committee, consisting of one parent and one teacher from each elementary school, would meet to discuss the matter, and the finale would likely occur on April 19 at the meeting of the Charlotte Board of Education. He suggests that at the meeting of the central committee in March, democracy and freedom of opinion and speech were not altogether in evidence, as a representative of the school administration was present, assuring the members of the committee that the administration wanted to give the parents the type of report card they wanted, but, in the end, having adopted the type of inadequate report card presently in use, not utilizing letter grades. Then, a slightly improved version was offered as a compromise. He says that parent opinion had been engineered cleverly to divide the previous meetings by separating the discussion of grades one through three from that of grades four through six, and other means which he lists. For parents to vote for a letter-grade type report card, they had to resort to write-in voting, as that had not been listed among their choices. He believes the new system would develop a mediocre product in the schools, as parents would only know that their child's work was either satisfactory, improving, needing improvement, in grades 1 through 3, or above the average grade level or below the grade level, without any indication of how much one way or the other, in grades 4 through 6. The new compromise report card included all of the above. He believes it would provide a child with either a superiority or inferiority complex, and to avoid that, the new report cards used numbers to avoid the foregoing expressions. He goes on quite a way regarding the matter and concludes that the parents had been too nice and polite, lacked the time to marshal their facts, were exhausted and tired after a year of deliberations on the matter, and permitted themselves to become divided by personal feelings, thus appeared licked. He advises the parents to wake up and become vocal, and that the curriculum committee of the Board of Education needed to begin to ask questions about how the report card issue had developed. Meanwhile, the next school year would have students in grades four through six receiving a progress report while grades one through three would be assessed by the designation of satisfactory, improving, or needing improvement.
Whatever you do, don't get one of those progress reports
A letter from the executive director of the Home Builders Association of Charlotte congratulates the newspaper on its new real estate section, which had premiered on April 2.
A letter writer from a real estate company also congratulates the newspaper on the same section.
A letter writer from Myrtle Beach, S.C., praises the series being run in the newspaper on the role of religion in present day society. She indicates that the article she had read indicated that it would next discuss Episcopalians and Seventh Day Adventists, but she hopes it would go further and review other faiths as well. She says that she was a Methodist and that there were many things which she wanted to know about Methodism, that there were many people who belonged to churches who did not know exactly for what their church stood. She adds that Dr. Herbert Spaugh's columns were also very good, and wishes they had not dropped the syndicated "Looking at Life" column by Eric Brandeis.
The editors note that in response to many requests, the newspaper would bring its readers more of the articles on the role of religion in the present day world.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.