The Charlotte News

Thursday, August 4, 1955

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Moscow that Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin this date had turned down the President's plan for a swap of military blueprints and mutual aerial inspection of each other's territories for defense bases as a means of verification of disarmament, describing the plan as "unrealistic". Deputies to the Supreme Soviet, the parliament, burst into laughter when the Premier said that the real effect of the proposal would not be considerable because "both countries have limitless territories in which one could hide anything." The proposal had been presented by the President at the Geneva Big Four summit conference on July 21, saying that it was designed to convince everyone of "the great sincerity of the United States in approaching this problem of disarmament." Mr. Bulganin had spoken to 1,500 deputies assembled in the Supreme Soviet. He made three principal points about the summit conference, that it had helped to ease international tensions, that personal contact had proved fruitful, and that it marked the beginning of the end of the cold war, pledging that the Soviet Union would do everything within its power to facilitate that end. He said that the Soviet plan for arms inspection and control, as published in London the prior May 10, and repeated by him at Geneva, was "more realistic", but also stating that he agreed with the President that it was necessary to follow a constructive and not a negative line in world affairs. The Premier praised the proposal of Senator Walter George of Georgia for suggesting a conference of foreign ministers, with Communist China's Premier and Foreign Minister Chou En-lai participating.

The Atomic Energy Commission announced this date that the Russians had resumed testing of nuclear weapons during the previous few days and that it might mean the beginning of a new test series. The most recent previous announcement of Soviet tests had been on October 26, 1954 and before that, in August, 1953, when the AEC confirmed Russian claims that it had conducted a thermonuclear experiment involving a hydrogen bomb. This date's announcement did not specify whether the new explosion was a fission-type atomic bomb or a fusion-type hydrogen bomb. The AEC had said on June 24 that it had no evidence of a major nuclear blast by the Russians in almost a year. A nuclear scientist had written, however, that it could be revealed that the Soviets had conducted at least two super bomb tests during the prior spring, with nongovernmental scientists having picked up strong radioactive indications of an explosion in May. The AEC, in commenting on that statement, said that it had consistently followed the policy of informing the American people of its tests of nuclear weapons and of the tests by the Soviets, and that there had been no change in that policy.

In Manila, the 11 American airmen who had been freed by the Communist Chinese after being imprisoned since being shot down 2 1/2 years earlier during the Korean War and charged with and convicted afterward of espionage, arrived at Clark Air Force Base from Hong Kong this date, met by the commander of the U.S. 13th Air Force, Brig. General William Lee, and by U.S. Ambassador Homer Ferguson. They would fly the next day to Tokyo and then to the U.S., arriving near Seattle for a reunion with their families, before being transported to Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco. The spokesman for the group had briefly addressed the press during their stopover in Hong Kong, stating, "Peiping is not entitled to a damn thing" for their release, indicating that his B-29 had been shot down 35 to 40 miles south of the Yalu River border with China while on a routine leaflet-dropping mission over North Korea, that all members of the crew had bailed out and were captured in North Korean territory, effectively denying the Communist Chinese claim that they had strayed over Chinese territory. Two medical checks by three doctors indicated that they were in fairly good condition. One of the crewmen was on crutches, stating that his left leg had been wounded when the plane had been shot down in January, 1953 and that he had then suffered frostbite. They indicated that they did not want to look back anymore at Communist China and the experience they had there. All appeared to be in excellent mental health.

In Geneva, the ambassadorial conference between the U.S. and Communist China took another recess until Monday, with no word being presented as to whether Communist China had agreed to release the 40 American civilians it still held in varying forms of restraint, from imprisonment to house arrest to denial of exit visas. The two representatives talked for 90 minutes on the question of the civilians this date, but neither would indicate what progress, if any, had been made. The additional recess, following an earlier one for 48 hours, suggested that one side or the other had to consult with their government before proceeding.

In Gelsenkirchen, Germany, located in the Ruhr region, 41 German coal miners were believed to have died this date in a fire and explosion, with another 44 miners having been injured, some seriously. Mine officials stated that 25 workers were still missing below ground and were presumed dead. Rescue workers had brought up 16 bodies before the fire had driven them out of the mine.

In Buffalo, N.Y., two men were held without charge this date in connection with the armed robbery of a Brinks armored car carrying racetrack receipts, having been captured after a gun battle following the robbery the previous night. A third man was still being sought by police, and the $160,000 in stolen receipts had been recovered. The bandits, who had been clad in silk-stocking masks and armed with a submachine gun, had broken into the garage and vault of Brinks before the armored car arrived with nearly $498,000 in receipts from the Fort Erie racetrack just across the Niagara River in Canada. Three Brinks employees were on the truck. Two of the holdup men had been captured 30 minutes later after an 11-block running gun battle. One wounded guard said that he had thought he was a dead man. He had pulled his .38-caliber pistol, but before he could fire a shot, he was fired upon and hit.

In Raleigh, Governor Luther Hodges this date urged the people of the state to listen in when he would speak on radio and television the following Monday night on the school segregation issue, saying that part of his talk would be directed to the black citizens of the state. He said that he was "encouraged with the response" to the announcement of the speech, with many radio and television stations across the state having indicated their willingness to carry his message, to be broadcast at 10:00 p.m. He said it would be the longest address he had given thus far since becoming Governor, upon the death of Governor William B. Umstead in November, 1954, the speech scheduled to last 36 minutes.

In Charlotte, the City-County health officer, Dr. M. B. Bethel, issued a warning against drinking raw buttermilk, in the wake of a conviction of a Mecklenburg farmer who had pleaded guilty in City Police Court this date to selling raw buttermilk in the city, receiving a prayer for judgment continued on condition that he violate no city milk laws for one year. Investigation of two recent cases of typhoid in one area of the city had led the Health Department milk inspectors to that farmer living near Huntersville. The investigators had found that the two typhoid victims had been drinking raw buttermilk and that the farmer in question had been selling it to those families. While it had not been established that the raw buttermilk had actually caused the typhoid fever, there was, according to Dr. Bethel, a danger of typhoid infection from consumption of unpasteurized milk.

In Charlotte, shoppers during bargain days the following week would get an extra bonus, as local buses would offer free inbound rides to the midtown area on Thursday and Friday for an hour and a half each morning, making available 8,240 seats. "Shop in Charlotte Days" were set to begin the following Thursday through Saturday. They probably won't have "Another Side of Bob Dylan" yet, which we found in the cutout bin during bargain days in Winston-Salem in August, 1964, along with a record of abstracts of the speeches of President Kennedy. But, hang in there, Charlotte, and one day, you might be as hip as Winston-Salem. Or, did it mean that Winston-Salem was unhip for having those records in the cutout bin at the principal record retailer of the city in those days? Perhaps, one might have had to pay full price in Charlotte because the records were much more popular there. We never conducted the survey. "It's been Reznick's for records for years", but not in a long time.

In Miami, Fla., tropical storm Connie, the third of the year, was moving across the open Atlantic, 2,200 miles southeast of the mainland, with the Miami Weather Bureau indicating that the storm might already have reached hurricane force, warning steamships of its path. An Air Force hurricane hunter plane had been dispatched toward the storm from Bermuda during the day to gather additional information. Two steamships had provided reports the previous day indicating that a storm was forming. The previous night, one vessel reported 45 mph winds and a steadily falling barometer, with that ship still a great distance from the storm center, leading weathermen to believe that winds near the center had already reached the 75 mph minimum for a tropical hurricane. The storm was moving westward or west-northwestward at about ten mph, with its location being 770 miles east of the French West Indies island of Guadaloupe. It was so far away that it was thus far impossible to tell whether it would approach the mainland. Of the first two storms of the year, Alice, discovered January 2, had reached hurricane force but had died in the Caribbean Sea south of Puerto Rico, while the second storm, Brenda, of July 31, out of the Gulf of Mexico, had moved into Louisiana but failed to reach hurricane strength. Connie would reach the mainland eventually, coming ashore near Morehead City, N.C., packing 100 mph winds and doing significant damage in the state, killing 27 people.

In Paris, Christian Dior told a Sorbonne University audience the previous day that "fashion successively exaggerates one part after another of the female body to renew the attention of men." He addressed a French civilization course which had 1,500 students enrolled of 16 nationalities. The amphitheater of the University was packed to the third balcony for the occasion and dozens of photographers surrounded M. Dior on the stage, while police controlled crowds at the doors. He said further that "submission to fashion is not mere conformism," but that it gave women a feeling of security to be in style. He said that as a dressmaker, he had to follow the laws of architecture, that thanks to the secrets of cut, dresses of the present were actually allied to the simplicity of antique costumes, with ornaments and trimmings currently of little importance. To loud applause, his star models paraded as an example of the New Look, which had made his name famous in 1946. M. Dior was dressed in a conservative dark blue suit.

On the editorial page, "Police Censorship: Wrong in Principle" finds that the Charlotte Police Department was to be congratulated for cleaning up the newsstands of crime and horror books on a voluntary basis, with local magazine distributors providing full cooperation. Without that cooperation, officers might be descending on the newsstands pursuant to one of the most objectionable laws ever enacted by the General Assembly, passed in 1955, making it unlawful for any person or firm to sell "crime comic books" or publications which, through the medium of pictures, portrayed, among other things, "mayhem".