The Charlotte News
Friday, August 5, 1955
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Moscow that Premier Nikolai Bulganin said this date that his Government would continue to study the President's proposal for an exchange of military information and mutual aerial inspection, telling the Supreme Soviet that the country naturally preferred its own disarmament proposal but nevertheless would not refuse to consider other sincere plans. He said that the President's proposal remained under consideration and that the Soviets were trying to find ways to get the positions of the two countries closer together so that agreement could be found. The previous day, Mr. Bulganin had told the Supreme Soviet that the plan of the President would be ineffective "because our two countries comprise vast areas on which, if it were desired, one could hide anything one wanted to." The 1,500 assembled deputies at that point had burst into laughter. That statement was therefore taken as a rejection of the President's plan. But the President had said later that he did not feel that Mr. Bulganin had closed the door to agreement on disarmament, indicating that the U.S. would consider sympathetically Russian proposals along the same line, with a determination to find a solution fair to both sides. In an address which would have been considered incredible a few years earlier, Nikolai V. Tsitsin, an agricultural expert who had been director of the all-union agriculture fair and a Stalin prize winner, told the Supreme Soviet, as one of its deputies, that the country had much to learn from foreigners, who could also learn from the Russians, rebuking those who had expressed the belief that the Soviets knew everything and had "no need to learn anything from abroad." He called for a wider exchange of scientific information and personnel between East and West, as did many other deputies in speeches before the parliamentary body. All of the speakers during the debate on the remarks of the Premier the previous day had hailed the Premier's version of what had happened at Geneva and praised what they called the Soviet initiative in bringing it about.
In Kings Point, N.Y., an honor graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, whose mother had quit the Communist Party at his insistence, had been denied a Naval Reserve commission because of his mother's former activities. The 21-year old cadet had received word of the rejection on the eve of exercises at which his 54-year old mother was to watch him graduate with three of the Academy's highest awards. She said that she wished they would punish her instead of her son. She acknowledged that she had been a member of the party from 1937 until 1947 or 1948, when she had quit because of the urging from her son, whom, she said, had given her an ultimatum that she either quit or he would leave home. Rear Admiral Gordon McClintock, Academy superintendent, said that the cadet would not receive a commission in the Naval Reserve unless he received a countermand to the Navy order barring the commission, but he refused to link the action of the Navy to the former activities of the cadet's mother. An Academy spokesman, however, admitted that there was such a connection.
In Concord, N.H., Governor Lane Dwinell was expected to sign into law this date a bill establishing a two million dollar State sweepstakes based on horse racing, after both houses of the Legislature had approved the bill during the previous week. Supporters of the sweepstakes said that the state needed the revenue which the contest would produce, but opponents criticized it as "a sign of moral, political and financial bankruptcy." Sponsors of the bill claimed it would help to eliminate illegal gambling, which had been taking place anyway. The State Senate had killed an amendment to the bill to earmark all income from the program for education. The State Racing Commission would control the operation of the sweepstakes. It was not yet clear exactly how the program would work.
In Albertville, France, the ropes of two climbing parties had become entangled on the "needle of the Thorens" in the French Alps the previous day, resulting in the deaths of three persons who had fallen. A French priest and two female members of one party had been killed, while in the other party, another priest and three women were injured. In another incident, Italy's Alpine death toll for the season had climbed to 18 when a man fell 1,200 feet into a crevice while picking edelweiss near Bressanone.
In Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., a pilot had kept his crippled American Airlines plane aloft for more than 30 miles in a desperate attempt to achieve a safe landing the previous day, but had crashed a half mile short of the runway, with all 30 persons aboard having been killed. An eyewitness said that the plane had come in very low over a housing area, then banked steeply and headed for the fort's airport, with one engine trailing flame and smoke, but that the right wing had fallen off over a wooded area and the airliner crashed on the edge of the Army post. It had been the second time in ten months that the pilot, of Tulsa, Okla., had sought an emergency landing, having been credited with saving the lives of 40 passengers on another crippled plane, also a Convair, the prior November 9. None of the passengers in that incident had been injured when the plane landed at Glenview Naval Air Station, north of Chicago. A stewardess aboard the ill-fated plane was from Salisbury, N.C. Others of the dead included seven women, two children and a Catholic priest. One of the dead was an assistant sales manager of an agency in New York which was the national advertising representative of The News, a frequent visitor to Charlotte where he was known by many in business circles. Investigators had declined to speculate on the cause of the crash.
Near Wilmington, N.C., a 50-year old Charlotte woman was killed in a head-on automobile collision in the wee hours of the morning, while her husband, driver of the car, suffered chest injuries and possible internal injuries, and her 16-year old son had incurred a broken arm and cuts, both listed in satisfactory condition in a Wilmington hospital. The son had been recovering from an accident which had occurred in 1951, in which he had been seriously injured. The car had collided around a sharp curve with a car driven by a Camp Lejeune Marine, whom police said had been intoxicated and was driving on the wrong side of the road. The Marine and a fellow Marine passenger were only slightly injured in the accident. The driver would be charged with manslaughter and drunk driving. A car following the Marine's car for about fives miles prior to the accident said that the car was swerving all over the road at speeds between 15 and 50 mph.
In Charlotte, bus fares would be
increased from 10 to 15 cents the following Monday, after City Coach
Lines had received permission from the State Utilities Commission for
the increase, having made application for it the previous month. The
Commission agreed that the company needed the additional revenue to
eliminate an operating deficit. There would be no increase in the
rates for schoolchildren, who paid a dime or could purchase four
tickets for a quarter during regular school days in normal hours of
travel to or from school, provided they had a school identification
card. Fascist Gestapo...
Julian Scheer of The News tells of State Revenue commissioner Eugene Shaw having told the newspaper from Raleigh this date that his six men hired for a special audit unit in Greensboro were expected to begin work on September 1 to catch those who dodged state income taxes. The unit had been authorized by the 1955 General Assembly and would begin a manual check of Federal returns against State returns among those who were self-employed, while also searching for those among the salaried and wage earners who failed to file state returns.
In Miami, Fla., tropical storm
Connie, the third of the season, had become a dangerous hurricane,
packing winds of 125 mph at its center, moving toward the Leeward
Islands this date, prompting a hurricane alert for Puerto Rico and
the Leewards. The Virgin Islands were told to stand by for such an
alert
On the editorial page, "Driver Training Must Be Expanded" finds that the killing and maiming of motorists on the highways of the state could not continue and that an important test of the sentiment to prevent it would occur on Monday night when there would be a public meeting on driver education to be held at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. At the meeting, citizens would discuss ways to expand the teaching of driver education in the public schools of the city. Ed Scheidt, commissioner of North Carolina Motor Vehicles, Dr. Allen A. Hurlburt, assistant superintendent of the State Department of Public Instruction, John E. Noe, the Department's safety education advisor, and George D. Maddrey, associate adviser on safety, would all be participants.
Education, engineering and enforcement made up the "Three E's" of safety, with the latter two having received enormous emphasis during recent years, while formal driver education had not kept pace. It finds that Charlotte, in particular, had been doing an inadequate job in that area, with too few driving instructors reaching too few students.
At least 6,000 high schools were presently offering complete courses in driver education, including in-car training, to more than 300,000 students annually across the nation. The average cost was only $30 per student. The traffic engineering and safety department of the American Automobile Association had stated that while the results varied greatly and sometimes negatively, there was a clear indication that complete driver education courses reduced traffic accidents by at least half and in many cases much more. For instance, in Arizona, the number of high school students involved in fatal accidents had dropped from 23 in 1944 to only two in 1947, after driver education was implemented in 1944, with 50 of the state's 70 high schools offering both classroom instruction and in-car training by 1950. AAA also reported that a 1950 survey in Delaware had shown that untrained drivers had nearly five times as many accidents and arrests as a comparable group of trained drivers. In Washington, 200 trained drivers had only one accident and eight arrests for moving violations, compared to 11 accidents and 42 arrests for the same number who were untrained. In Bloomington, Ill., untrained boys at a high school had over twice as many accidents as trained boys, and untrained girls had nearly four times as many accidents as those who were trained. Similar results had been found in other cities and states across the nation. While there were exceptions, the rule showed that driver training reduced accidents and arrests.
"The modern automobile is a triumph of engineering. It is a sleek, powerful machine. But it is a killer in the hands of a driver who does not know how to handle its power. Since the automobile is almost an indispensable part of daily life, it is the duty of the community to provide some basic training in the wielding of this deadly weapon. It is, after all, education for survival."
"Ike Off, Russians on the Spot" finds that the President's arms inspection proposal, which he had made at the Big Four summit conference recently in Geneva, had encountered its anticipated and perhaps most fortunate response by the Russian refusal to accept it. It suggests that there was no reason to believe that the President ever hoped for any different result, as it was a device for the purpose of psychological propaganda, at which it had been a tremendous success.
The plan had serious drawbacks for the U.S., as Russian acceptance would have required wholesale revision of U.S. security laws to allow for Russian planes to fly over the country to inspect disarmament under such a mutual inspection program. Penalties for swapping of blueprints and photographing of U.S. military facilities ranged from 30 years imprisonment to death. Asking Congress to amend those laws to make the inspection plan workable would have been an open invitation to the McCarthy clique to begin its campaign anew, when it had been neutralized. There would also have been, however, room for conscientious opposition to such a plan as it presupposed a gamble, the benefit of which was at least equaled by the commensurate dangers. Inevitable bitter debate in Congress over it would have destroyed its appearance of sincerity and resulted in disappointment across the world.
As things stood, Russia got the blame for refusing to go along with it, and its lack of practicability did not damage its success in demonstrating the peaceful intentions of the U.S. It represented the beginnings of the type of bold advocacy for peace which the U.S. had so long lacked. It concludes that until there was a shift of Russian attitudes, there could be no hope of effective disarmament, but that the day for it had at least been accelerated by the policy which kept the Kremlin on the defensive.
"Fowl Threat" indicates
that the cannonading by County Police of an angry little bird flying
at children on Heathwood Drive suggested the need for perhaps a
thoroughgoing investigation of the birds. "Probably this
long-billed subversive is one of many who wait in trees and vines
with sharpened claws and hate-filled eyes to add their weight at
times strategic to the destructive forces of halitosis and H-bombs."
It suggests that delay could be deadly and that stool pigeons
"Pete Ivey: A Colorful Pen for UNC" indicates that since the untimely death of Robert W. Madry, UNC had been looking for a successor as director of the University News Bureau, seeking a man of integrity, imagination, ability and experience, with love and devotion to the University, and, perhaps most of all, energy. Pete Ivey, the Shelby editor and veteran state newsman, 42, met those qualifications and was an alumnus of the University who had maintained close ties to it for 20 years since his graduation. He had been a leading figure as a student, had edited the Alumni Review and had been active in alumni affairs.
It congratulates the University and Mr. Ivey for the appointment, indicates that he would be missed in editorial writing as he had a colorful pen. It indicates that no one could forget how he had raised the lowly persimmon tree to poetic heights of glory on the pages of several North Carolina newspapers, and imagines that he would be glamorizing the weather-beaten old Davie Poplar on the UNC campus, said to be the spot at which the site for the University had originally been chosen, with the same vigor and imagination.
A piece from the Lancaster (S.C.) News, titled "There's A Lot to a Bale", finds it amazing the number of items which could be produced from a single bale of cotton, which it proceeds to list, including 7,500 handkerchiefs, 650 shirts, 2,500 shorts, 8,000 bras, 580 dresses, 4,600 gloves, 3,500 pairs of full-fashioned hosiery, 4,900 panties, 250 sheets, 150 bedspreads, 1,500 bath towels, 105 automobile tires, 2,700 flour bags, 6,000 office machine ribbons, 3,200 laundry nets, 2,400 pairs of men's socks, and 1,840 men's undershirts. Approximately 3.1 million bales of cotton had been used to make wearing apparel the previous year, of which 65,000 bales had been used in the making of girdles, bras and other feminine undergarments. More than 1.2 million bales went into the manufacture of mattresses, pillowcases and other products used for sleeping.
Drew Pearson indicates that the public was most likely to get rooked the most during the closing days of the session of Congress, when bills were sneaked through, as some lobbyists deliberately waited until the last days for that purpose. He indicates that credit should go to Senators Olin Johnston of South Carolina and Thomas Hennings of Missouri, along with Representatives Jack Brooks of Texas and E. L. Forrester of Georgia, for blocking a large insurance company raid on the Treasury regarding the Texas City, Texas, explosion of 1947. Senator Price Daniel of Texas had sponsored a Senate bill which would have reimbursed 41.2 million dollars to the insurance companies which had paid the claims resulting from the explosion, plus about 15 million dollars to Monsanto Chemical, despite the fact that the highest courts, including the Supreme Court, had found the Federal Government not to blame for the explosion of the nitrate in that incident. Congressman Brooks had blocked the bill in the House, urging that small claimants be reimbursed but that the insurance companies who had assumed the risk should not be paid at the expense of taxpayers. In the conference committee between the two houses, Senators Johnston and Hennings had supported Congressman Brooks in that position, eliminating windfalls to the insurance companies and Monsanto but leaving intact payments up to $25,000 to those who had suffered injuries from the explosion and had not received insurance proceeds. Senator Daniel, who had been the faithful champion of big business in Texas, had refused to sign the conference report. Mr. Pearson notes that the Administration had placed itself on both sides of the matter, siding vigorously against the position of Senator Daniel and payments to the insurance companies, while also having appointed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals John Brown, a Houston attorney who had tried the claims arising from the disaster and had been rebuked by the same Circuit Court on which he would now serve, after being shown to have changed the bills of lading on the nitrate shipments after the explosions to make it appear that the Government was remiss in labeling the cargo. The Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, had found against his position and held that the Government was not to blame. At that point, Senator Daniel had introduced the bill to do what the courts had refused to do. The President then appointed Mr. Brown to the Court of Appeals.
During the closing days of Congress, former Congressman John Wood of Georgia had been quietly withdrawn for appointment to the Subversive Activities Control Board after having been approved by the White House and been cleared by the FBI following an investigation, and approved by a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee. When it was revealed, however, that he had introduced a bill to compensate a boy hit by an Army truck for which his administrative assistant had taken a legal fee of $1,000, Senate opposition had developed to the appointment, as neither a member of Congress nor staff was supposed to benefit in any way from introduction of legislation. The Board to which he was appointed was quite important, as it decided which organizations were Communist, Fascist and subversive. Mr. Pearson indicates that Mr. Wood, a former chairman of HUAC, however, had been appointed to the position obviously without careful investigation. In the end, the Administration decided that it was better to withdraw the nomination.
The Congressional Quarterly tells of the President having achieved 64.6 percent of his legislative program in 1954 in the Republican-controlled 83rd Congress, compared to only 46.3 percent in 1955 in the Democratic-controlled Congress. Of 207 requests for legislation by the President to the 84th Congress, including 31 made to the previous Congress and refused, 96 had been approved and 14, or nearly 7 percent, had been rejected with partial progress in one or both chambers having occurred on 51 of the requests and two suffering setbacks in one house while passed over in the other. No action had been taken on 44 of the requests. In the 1954 session of the previous Congress, the President had submitted 232 requests, of which 150 had been approved, 49 rejected, and 33 passed over. The tallies did not include requests made by Administration subordinates.
The President had scored the highest in the current Congress on military and veterans' affairs, with 18 of 27 requests having been passed, four rejected and five failing of approval. Foreign policy requests were the most numerous, with 51 having been made, of which 32 had been approved, two rejected and 17 failing of approval. Prominent in the latter group were ten revisions sought to the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. Of 40 requests made regarding taxes and economic policy, the Congress approved 21, rejected three and failed to approve 16.
Of 36 requests made by the President in the areas of education and welfare, Congress had approved six, rejected one and failed to approve 29. Congress approved one of seven requests regarding labor, rejected one and passed over five. Regarding agriculture, there were five requests, of which Congress passed three, rejected none and passed over two.
As usual, in the closing weeks of the session, Congress helped the pass rate of the requests, as on June 29, the President had only achieved 26 percent of 200 legislative requests.
In 1953, Congress had approved 72.7 percent of the President's 44 recommendations for legislation, making the composite score for the 83rd Congress 65.9 percent approval.
The figures, however, did not reflect the relative importance of the requests accepted or rejected in any of the three years analyzed. In 1953, the President had proposed only a paucity of major legislation in his first year in office, whereas he had proposed a much greater amount in 1954 and somewhat less in 1955. The President's major victories in the current year included the three-year extension of the reciprocal trade program, strengthening of the military reserves, a one-year extension of excise and corporate income tax rates without a reduction in individual income taxes, and enactment of pay raises for members of Congress, Federal judges, civil service and postal employees, as well as members of the armed forces.
Among the programs rejected or passed over were the ten-year highway program to be financed through bonds, a 1.1 billion dollar Upper Colorado River reclamation project, statehood for Hawaii, revisions of the Refugee Relief Act, a health reinsurance program, and a plan to stimulate school construction. All of those programs were subject to renewed debate and action in the second session in 1956.
A letter from the president of the North Carolina Industrial Union Council asserts that the increase of the national minimum wage to a dollar per hour was in the interest of the American people and the welfare of all segments of the economy, particularly agriculture. The sale of 138 million dollars more in agricultural products would be in the offing, as approximately 28 percent of the 497 million dollar increase in mass purchasing power would be spent on food. He provides a table of how the increased wages would be spent, based on statistics supplied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He indicates that, symbiotically, labor was aware that farm price supports were not only in the interest of farmers but also in the interest of wage earners, as the latter could not continue to manufacture goods if the incomes of farmers and their families were allowed to shrink.
A letter writer comments on the recent South Carolina policy of increased enforcement along the border with North Carolina regarding cars coming into the state from other states bearing cigarettes and alcoholic beverages without a South Carolina tax stamp, finding that it would be equally legal for North Carolina to do likewise vis-à-vis South Carolinians, including the transportation into the state of illegal fireworks which could be bought legally in South Carolina. He suggests that such border checks could then spread to other states, until border guards and custom inspections would be found at every state border. He suggests that South Carolina should therefore reconsider its policy.
A letter writer from Rockingham comments on the editorial of July 29, "A Question about the Turncoats", stating that if the Army had given the three men in question dishonorable discharges, he could not understand how the Army had any right to convene a court-martial against them. "If they have to, why not go out to Independence, Mo., and drag old catfish-mouth Harry in for starting World War III without the okay of Congress?" He indicates that the Korean War had cost the Government 18 billion dollars, enough for each man who had fought in World War II to purchase a home or for every farm in the country to have a new tractor, or to pay for the roads needed in the country. He agrees that the three men, taken prisoner during the Korean War but refusing to repatriate at the end of the war in July, 1953, only to have changed their minds in the interim, were a disgrace to the country, but finds that "some others" were also a disgrace.
But, arguably, had it not been for "catfish-mouth Harry" and his Administration's policy of containment, the theory that a series of small wars to stop Communist aggression would prevent another world war, this time with nuclear weapons, while reducing the increased pressure politically by the hawks in the military for the pretextual initiation of a preemptive war utilizing nuclear weapons, you might not have even made it to 1955. Moreover, you have answered your own argument about the Korean War being supposedly unauthorized by Congress with your citation of the 18 billion dollar pricetag. Who would have authorized that expenditure?
A quote of the day appears from the Dallas Morning News: "Mathematically the four-power talks should be equal to the square of the double-talk."
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