The Charlotte News

Tuesday, June 21, 1955

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Moscow that Premier Nikolai Bulganin had pledged this date that he would do everything possible to reduce international tensions and consolidate confidence among nations at the forthcoming Big Four summit conference, to start on July 18 in Geneva. He made the statements before 100,000 cheering persons gathered in Dynamo Stadium to honor India's Prime Minister Nehru, who announced earlier that Mr. Bulganin had accepted an invitation from him to visit India. Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev and Deputy Premier and former Premier Georgi Malenkov, as well as First Deputy Premier Lazar Kaganovich and other Soviet leaders were present on the dais. The speech by Prime Minister Nehru was the first by a non-Communist political leader to such a crowd in that stadium since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. He was greeted with enthusiastic cheering, especially when he said that exclusion from the U.N. of "the great Chinese People's Republic is not only an abnormal phenomenon, but also a danger to peace." Most of Premier Bulganin's speech was devoted to praise of Nehru and of India, and to the steps he declared the Soviets would take to relax international tensions. He also indicated that they welcomed the "jubilee", celebrating the 10th anniversary of the founding of the U.N.

In San Francisco, Russia and the Western powers were reported to have reached virtual agreement early this date on arrangements for the summit conference, with informed quarters reporting that Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov had told the Western diplomats at the end of a four-hour meeting that at first sight, he saw no reason to object to a series of proposals on which the Western foreign ministers had agreed in New York the previous week, that he would study the proposals more carefully and give his reply in a day or two. It was reported that the Western diplomats, including Secretary of State Dulles, British Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan and French Foreign Minister Antoine Pinay, had proposed that the purpose of the summit would be to ease world tension and not to negotiate the settlement of specific problems, that the meetings would last between four and six days, that President Eisenhower would be the first presiding officer, to be followed by French Premier Edgar Faure, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden and Soviet Premier Bulganin on a rotating basis, that the meetings would be held in the Palais des Nations, U.N. headquarters in Geneva, and that the U.N. should be requested to service the sessions. The proposal also covered the ensuing planned meetings of foreign ministers.

Senate Democratic leaders this date were reported hopeful of obtaining a roll call vote during the week on a resolution sponsored by Senator McCarthy, seeking enforced discussion of the Communist satellite question at the forthcoming summit conference. A committee decision had been reached to hold a public session on the resolution later this date, with the strategy reported to be to take it to the Senate floor with an unfavorable report for a roll call vote the following day or on Thursday, to avoid the charge that the committee was seeking to shelve the resolution. Senator McCarthy and possibly a State Department official were the only scheduled witnesses at the hearing, which had been called for this date.

In Seoul, South Korea, two young North Korean fliers had buzzed the airport this date in an old, Russian-built Yak fighter, then landed and gave themselves up to cheering South Korean airmen. The two were taken to Air Force headquarters for questioning and it was presumed that they were seeking political asylum. South Korean officers said that one of the two men had been trained in Russia and that the other had been trained in Communist China. They were the first Korean Communist fliers to flee from the North since a lieutenant had landed in a MIG jet fighter at nearby Kimpo Airfield on September 21, 1953, receiving a $100,000 reward for delivering the jet, and also receiving asylum in the U.S. It was not disclosed how the Yak had managed to penetrate South Korea 30 miles beyond the DMZ to Seoul without being intercepted.

In Detroit, Henry Ford II said in an interview the previous day that it would be a good idea for the automakers to get together in the future and seek an industry-wide contract with the UAW, that he had held informal talks with other industry executives about the idea and found that G.M. would be against it, while Chrysler might be for it. Neither the union nor the other companies would comment. American Motors, which resumed contract negotiations with UAW this date, had said that it was against "pattern settlements" across the industry and that each should be tailored to the firm it covered. Mr. Ford said that industry-wide bargaining had been pretty well-established in the steel and glass industries, as well as some others, and so he thought it would work also in the auto industry. Ford and G.M. had recently reached similar contract agreements with the UAW, entailing a plan for providing benefits to laid-off workers to supplement state unemployment compensation, amounting to an aggregate of about 65 percent of regular wages. Some had criticized the new three-year contracts as "creeping socialism". To that Mr. Ford commented that a lot of people called everything they did creeping socialism, including social security and pensions, that every time they did something new, people claimed it was either communism or socialism, but that they had to keep up with the times.

In London, England, an attractive blonde model, 28, was sentenced this date to the gallows for killing one of her two admitted lovers when he tried to leave her. The divorced mother of two swayed on her feet as the judge pronounced the death sentence in the historic Old Bailey court. She had admitted shooting the lover, a racing motorist, but based her defense on a plea of manslaughter, claiming that she had been provoked by jealousy into the killing outside a London tavern. She admitted to having intended to kill him when she shot him, testified that though she paid the rent on their apartment and gave him clothes and money, he still had gone out with other women. The judge ruled out the manslaughter plea, and the jury of ten men and women came back with a verdict after only 23 minutes, with the conviction carrying a mandatory death sentence. Under British law, she would be hanged within three weeks, unless there was an appeal, or unless the Home Secretary granted a reprieve. The case suggests one of the differences in the criminal justice system at the time in Britain from that of the U.S., where, in virtually all states, a defendant would be entitled to an instruction on lesser included offenses upon request, provided any evidence supported such an instruction, even if premised on evidence of questionable credit, provided solely by the defendant. The question is for the trier of fact to determine, not the court sitting with a jury, especially true and given to greater post-trial appellate scrutiny typically in a capital case. In the case in London, there appeared ostensibly to be some ground on the part of the defendant, based on her testimony, for contending that the killing occurred while in the heat of passion, voluntary manslaughter, even if the jury might have rejected the contention on the ground that there was sufficient cooling time to dispel the claim of being in the throes of sudden, provoked heat of passion, a matter which would be a jury question in virtually all states in the U.S. It would typically be considered on appeal to be prejudicial error for a judge to reject such a requested instruction in the U.S. in the face of such evidence, depriving the jury of the ability even to consider such evidence, winding up in the court virtually directing the murder verdict against the accused given the admission of the act which caused the death of the victim and that she intentionally committed the act. In any event, the defendant in question would be hanged three weeks later, apparently, for whatever reason, not filing an appeal. In large part because of the public outcry afterward, she was the last female to date executed in Great Britain, there having been no executions at all since 1964, having been finally abolished by law in 1969. The automatic death penalty for murder had been abolished in 1957, except under certain circumstances. The defendant in the case, by the way, was exactly 14 when John Lennon was born, sharing his birthday. Twenty-eight, if... Nothing to get hung about.

In Jackson, N.C., the trial of a lawsuit contesting the alleged will of a white woman who left the bulk of her estate to a black woman whom she claimed as her niece, continued in Northampton County Superior Court this date. The devise had included $25,000 in cash and considerable real estate. An all-white jury had been selected in the matter the previous day, with the first witness having been a black lawyer who had offered the purported will for probate soon after the death of the testator on March 7, 1954. The testator's sister, however, had contested the will, alleging that her sister's signature had been obtained by undue and improper influence and duress. The lawyer contended that the testator had come to his office in August, 1951 and asked him to draw up the will, requesting that he hold it in his office until her death. It described the contested beneficiary as a person she had looked after and considered her as her foster daughter since her birth, knowing that she was the daughter of her brother. The will had also left $3,000 to a black servant. The sister had received the other half interest in two lots for her lifetime, which the sisters had owned jointly, as well as her sister's half interest in a farm of about 460 acres, with the remainder of the estate going to the supposed niece.

In Morganton, a coroner's jury was puzzled over the circumstances of a highway death which had occurred near Rutherfordton early this date, when a sailor, stationed at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida, had been run over by a truck 12.5 miles north of Rutherfordton near Ruth in the wee hours of the morning, while he had been lying in the middle of the road. The sailor was to be married in South Carolina during the evening of this date. It had been raining at the time of the accident and the truck driver had come over the crest of a hill and saw a dark patch in the road, which he thought was merely a change in the composition of the roadway, not noticing that it was something else until he got closer, then swerved to miss it, but the rear wheels of his truck had passed over the head of the victim, at which point he stopped. A Highway Patrolman investigating the matter was working on the theory that foul play was involved, but there had been no evidence of it thus far found. Another truck driver had reported that he had passed the sailor on the highway about a half hour earlier and that he had been sitting cross-legged in the middle of the road. The driver had stopped to inquire if he was hurt, but he had said that he was not, got up and staggered to the side of the road, with the driver assuming that he was intoxicated and so he left the scene. The county coroner, however, reported that the autopsy showed no presence of alcohol. The sailor had visited his fiancée the previous afternoon and had left his baggage and money with her, had then started out for Morganton, planning to hitchhike, with his fiancée indicating that he had $12.50 when he had left her, with $11.50 having been found in his clothing after his death.

Perhaps, he had been trying at 3:00 a.m., 15 hours before his scheduled nuptials, to descry the answer to the age-old ontological question of why, if there was a Ruth near Rutherfordton, there was not also an 'Erford as well.

Julian Scheer of The News indicates that the City Council was expecting to obtain a report from an expert commissioned by the Council in March to do a complete study of Douglas Municipal Airport, that he would say that they needed immediate expansion of taxiways, but that the air facilities were otherwise adequate for present requirements. He was expected to arrive from Wilmington the following day or Thursday to present his report.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, a cold horse was a happy horse, according to a decision by a court the previous day, the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals having charged that the director of the Edinburgh Zoo had caused unnecessary suffering to five old horses by keeping them out in the snow the previous January. But the president of Scotland's Royal Zoological Society, one of Britain's best known racehorse owners, the Earl of Rosebery, had testified that the horses liked being in the snow, that cold weather was much better for them than warm weather, as they were not so disturbed by flies and insects. The Earl, twice owner of the Epsom Derby winner, said that he kept his hunters and thoroughbreds out all year round, and so the sheriff's court dismissed the case.

On the editorial page, "A Visit from a Race Advancer" indicates that Bryant Bowles, the president of the Delaware organization which called itself the National Association for the Advancement of White People, would soon visit Charlotte. Membership in the organization cost between five dollars and $50. It suggests that leading millions of white people had to be a nightmare, involving great mental confusion.

He disavowed violence in fighting school desegregation, but after he had spoken on the subject in Milford, Delaware, rock-throwing crowds of white people had rioted in the streets. It suggests that perhaps they had been confused because while he had been discussing blacks, he had also attacked the Jewish members of the white race, ventures that surely the results of his efforts to advance the white people had to upset a peaceful man like Mr. Bowles. He had held up his three-year old daughter in front of the crowd and made the peaceful declaration that she would not attend a desegregated school while there was a breath in his body or gunpowder burns on him. It finds that he must have been misunderstood in Delaware.

It urges that his planned visit to Charlotte would bring him among people who did not riot and throw rocks, suggests that he might learn something of value while in the city. It also indicates that the Delaware police would not be around embarrassing him by handing out copies of his criminal record.

"A Hymn of Hope Is Not Enough" indicates that in San Francisco at the tenth anniversary celebration of the founding of the U.N., the hope of international cooperation swirled everywhere, as if the clocks had been turned back ten years. The President echoed that hope eloquently the previous day when he opened the ceremonies in the War Memorial Opera House, where the original proceedings had taken place. It finds that it had been perhaps his most polished speech of his career, indicating the need for all nations to strive anew for "a glorious way of life" in which the dreaded atom would become man's "productive servant".

But at the same time, it finds something strangely frustrating about the speech, as the President had spoken of hope, while offering nothing substantial on which to base it. He spoke of "a peace of such new kind that all the world will think anew and act anew", but offered no concrete, practical advice about how it would be realized. He spoke of a "glorious way of life" which was "steadily and surely obtainable", but again did not explain how it was to be so.

In advance of the speech, it was described as one which would have an important policy declaration, and the piece indicates that it had expected more than merely a "hymn of hope".

While the U.N. had not failed miserably, as its critics claimed, there had been some failures, and if such failures were to be avoided in the future, the U.N. would need some physical overhauling, with its authority strengthened and better tools supplied for obtaining disarmament. It also favors a plan to limit or abolish the unilateral veto of the five permanent members of the Security Council. It thinks that a more democratic system of representation was needed and that the body should work toward almost universal membership. The world needed more than just hopeful rhetoric. It needed action, if peace was to be preserved and "a glorious way of life" achieved. Expressions of faith and hope were inspiring, but needed to be bolstered by realistic plans for the future.

"The High Price of Nonconformism" indicates that no one, not even the creative artists, could escape the compelling pressures of conformism anymore. The Greensboro Daily News had presented an editorial titled, "Enter Art, 'Kicking and Screaming'". The Atlantic Monthly had a story titled, "Are Our Pearls Real?" The Greensboro editor had complained about "the more unintelligible and barbaric manifestations of modern poetry and art." Gilbert Murray in the Atlantic piece had praised the "accepted" standards of "classic", "Christian" or "Hellenic" art.

It indicates that the insistence on conformity had been effective, that pressures had become so great that many artists had abandoned their traditional rebellion and ceased, in the process, to function as creators. Far too many, having lost their boldness and hence their strength, had shown a painful lack of militancy in defending the rights which formed the reasons for their existence. The virtual disappearance of the avant garde in the arts was one such manifestation, whereas a few decades earlier, such artists as James Joyce, Pablo Picasso and Arnold Schoenberg had engineered a remarkably creative revolution, each being nonconformists. But that spirit of adventure had dried up, replaced by the "genteel", the "academic", and the "respectable". Stream-of-consciousness writing, cubism and the 12-tone scale were no longer avant garde and no new giants had come along to blaze fresh trails.

It wonders if the price of nonconformism, with its social pressure and contamination, had become too high.

A piece from the Rocky Mount Telegram, titled "The Manly Art of Cooking", suggests that in the makeup of every man was the soul of a chef, as demonstrated by the outdoor and portable barbecue and broiling ovens causing, in the spring and summer, every man to want to cook outdoors.

It indicates that most of the world's great cooks were men and relates that it was a Frenchman who had discovered crepe suzettes, explaining in detail how that had occurred. The inventor now had his own restaurant as an old man, in which only one meal per day was served, with the food so exceptional that the restaurant was booked solid for five years in advance.

It concludes that if women were jealous of male accomplishments in the culinary arts, they cleverly concealed it, with most wives, adept at using child psychology, encouraging their husbands into the kitchen with all manner of flattery.

Drew Pearson indicates that it appeared that the White House was getting somewhat lax in securing FBI reports on certain vitally important appointments to high office before making them. In recent weeks, it had been revealed that John Brown of Houston, appointed to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, previously had been severely rebuffed by that Court. Former Congressman John Wood of Georgia, appointed to the Subversive Activities Control Board, had been a member of the Klan and had allowed his Congressional office to receive a $1,000 fee for introducing a private bill while he was in Congress. The FBI had also the previous week begun to check on the President's new appointee to the Atomic Energy Commission, Alan Whitfield, who, despite having been appointed on March 17, was only now receiving an FBI check. He provides the record of Mr. Whitfield, a Des Moines attorney, active politically in the 1952 Eisenhower campaign, having been appointed trustee in 1937 for the will of the late R. A. Crawford, the primary owner of a bank in Des Moines, having willed his stock in the bank, after his wife had died, to Drake University, the Methodist Hospital, the Des Moines Children's Home and a school in Mississippi. But instead of winding up in the hands of those institutions, it was purchased by the bank trustees, who agreed to the sale of the stock at what appeared to be a low price, approved by Mr. Whitfield.

As a result, Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico, chairman of the joint Atomic Committee, had written Mr. Whitfield a letter asking about certain parts of his career, with one question being whether his purchase of the stock had not been a breach of fiduciary responsibility. They also wanted to know whether an effort was made to obtain an appraisal on the stock before it was sold, with investigations showing thus far that it had not. They also wanted to know how much Mr. Whitfield had profited personally from the deal, in which he had been a trustee. The Committee already had information that he had received real estate fees from the sale of the bank building, plus a retainer from the bank, and that his shares of the stock had increased from 150 to 869, partly through purchase and partly through splitting of the stock. They also wanted to know whether Mr. Whitfield and his co-trustees had zealously guarded the rights of Mr. Crawford's widow.

A letter writer indicates that the implementing decision in Brown v. Board of Education had found those across the country who agreed with it and those who did not. He says that more than half of the people on earth were colored. He thinks that the question should be settled for all time by nominating Chief Justice Earl Warren for the presidency, such that if he were elected, the will of the people would be expressed, and if defeated, the matter could be dropped and a "Chinese wall" built around the country to keep all other races and people out so that it could indulge in "limitless discrimination against our own citizens to suit whatever party or element holds power." He thinks it would be a relief from the monotonous drumming of hired columnists and newspapers on the theme of hating Russia and if one did not agree, that person was a Communist. He suggests that the country could not have an internal nation of inferior citizens, inviting from the half of the world which was colored dislike, suspicion and hatred. "Some things are evanescent, are observed, experienced, and pass; some are eternal, such as time and truth, and truth is justice."

A letter writer indicates in reply to another letter from a minister regarding segregation, that he understood the will of God, though not having been to law school like the minister. When the minister had said segregation violated the basic law of the land, Deuteronomy 23:2-3 said that a bastard was a mongrel offspring forbidden to enter the congregation of the Lord even to his tenth generation. He suggests that if the schools were mixed, the mongrel breed would be the outcome. He also suggests reading Acts 17-26, and 17:11. He wonders what they were supposed to do, forget the past teachings and fear nothing but the Supreme Court.

Believe it or not, obviously unlike when you were in school, not everyone has sex with each other just because they go to school together. Perhaps, had that not been the rule at your school, you would have learned enough to know that your entire approach to the subject is, to say the least, blasphemous and quite flawed, even if your Grand Dragon of the Flagon claims to the contrary. It might be noted that the verse before the one in Deuteronomy, about the bastard not being able to enter the congregation of the Lord, is preceded by: "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord," which appears to add insult to injury, and then some, and also suggests one of the reasons why Jesus came along to eliminate some of that more Draconian Hebrew law of earlier times. But the Klan, of course, will take scriptural justification, even if out of context, from any source they can, even from ancient Jews.

A letter writer from Cheraw, S.C., finds that the passage in the Senate of a dollar per hour minimum wage was fine, for it would help many workers in the South. He suggests that church groups who helped immigrants should also help American citizens obtain a job to support their families. He says that there were many without jobs and yet people were more concerned about getting jobs for the immigrants. Some people had not received a raise since 1953, while profits had increased and prices had risen. He wonders what had happened to the Governor of South Carolina, George Bell Timmerman, that not much had been heard from him since the Supreme Court implementing decision in Brown on May 31. (He was probably tickled pink, believed that "with all deliberate speed" could be translated in South Carolina as "whenever we damn well please".) The writer says that they needed some more John C. Calhouns, Ben Tillmans and Wade Hamptons in the old South at present, men who were not weak-kneed.

A letter from "Wild" Bill Williamson of Prescott, Ariz., tells of his doctor having told him that he was too fat and had to lose 40 pounds, and therefore he had caught the bus northward and landed in Prescott, once the site of the Arizona territorial capital. There, he found mountains and hills remindful of western North Carolina where he was born, and he was taking a long needed and enjoyable rest. He describes more about Prescott, says that his hunting days and prospecting days were almost over, that now he was enjoying himself so much in taking a rest that he would not walk 100 yards to locate a uranium mine or a gold mine even if he knew where one could be found. He said that he had shed almost 15 pounds, despite apparent inactivity, by cutting down on his consumption of food, especially that which caused fat to form, taking on just enough calories to keep him going at a slow pace without becoming a weakling. He was eating anything he wanted, but in half portions of what he had previously eaten. When he would return to Phoenix in August, he expected to be back to his normal weight and would feel as good as he had at 25, was planning to retire on his Social Security and perhaps then go back to gold prospecting or to locate a uranium mine. He would be 65 in July and had lived in Arizona for more than 40 years, except some time during a couple of the interim wars, was glad that the sheriff had run him out of North Carolina, that he had learned that expression from a Texan, many of whom had been run out and had settled in Arizona. He says that he would never forget his native state of North Carolina even if he never got back, and would always have a soft spot in his heart for it, had heard that there were now schools there.

A letter writer from Lincolnton takes exception to a June 14 editorial regarding the debate over whether to ban Sunday beer sales in Charlotte, as it was already banned in the county—ultimately passing a new ordinance regulating beer sales at drive-in restaurants, restricting the sale to inside the restaurant and forbidding it by the carhops at the car. He indicates that prohibition prohibited sale of alcohol by anyone, whereas the ABC system prohibited the sale by anyone not licensed to do so. The ABC advocates claimed that they kept alcoholic beverages out of the hands of the undesirables and underage, but if they were successful, he wonders why children under age 18 were able to buy beer in Charlotte, as the Charlotte Observer had recently found. He observed ten drunks staggering on the streets of Charlotte for every one which he had observed during the days of Prohibition. There were also now more bootleggers, he finds, than ever before. He thinks that Prohibition had not been given a fair chance to succeed in only 12 years, that it had been just as successful as the law against murder, more successful than the speeding laws, burglary laws, and tax laws. He asserts that the ABC system could not regulate the sale of alcohol, had not during the 22 years since repeal of Prohibition, and would not into the future. He finds the arguments of the ABC advocates foolish. He observes that some drinkers claimed to drink to be sociable, that they were the only ones telling the truth, that when they went to a party and got drunk enough, they began to feel sufficiently sociable to try to make love to some other man's wife, and if she were drunk enough, she would let him. "And her husband is drunk enough to feel sociable enough to be trying the same thing with someone else."

You must be going to the same Republican parties to which that North Carolina Congressman went, or at least was invited.

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