The Charlotte News
Friday, September 16, 1955
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Buenos Aires that circles in close contact with Argentina's Army had said this date that unnamed officials within the Army had called upon El Presidente Juan Peron to resign, though there was no official confirmation of the report. Federal police headquarters near the Congress Building had been evacuated, possibly indicative of fear of an attack. El Presidente was reported to have gone to the Army Ministry during the wee hours of the morning, after Government announcements that armed rebellion had flared in three key centers in the interior and had been rapidly crushed. The Government had also declared that a terrorist plot had been smashed in Buenos Aires, with the arrest of 100 civilians. It was the fourth reported plot aimed at the overthrow of El Presidente since the major revolt the previous June 16. State radio had said that it was understood that the chief of the rebel forces was former General Dalmiro Felix Videla Balaguer, accused on September 8 of leading the Rio Cuarto garrison in a coup conspiracy, which had been thwarted. Four days afterward, the general had been reported to be under arrest, but the report was never officially confirmed. Despite earlier Government announcements that the situation had been brought under control, there still appeared to be rebel activity in some areas during the afternoon. The surrender of 300 rebel troops had been announced in one province. A state of siege was extended to the entire country, whereas it had previously applied only to Buenos Aires. El Presidente had proclaimed the state of siege and the House of Deputies, completely dominated by Peronistas, approved the order in just five minutes.
In Hong Kong, it was reported that Communist China had this date released two American civilians, the first of the 22 whom the Communists had promised to free, with one of the two released persons indicating that he was guilty of espionage for the U.S. during the Korean War, collecting information for the Government. That individual was a Fulbright scholar, imprisoned July 25, 1951 on espionage charges, and the other was a priest from Chicago, dean of the Roman Catholic Fu Jen University in Peiping, who had been arrested for espionage and sabotage, also in July, 1951. The Fulbright scholar's wife had been released the prior February, indicating then that she was guilty of spying, praising the Communists highly, which she reiterated this date as her husband was freed. U.S. officials had said the previous spring that the wife appeared to have been thoroughly brainwashed. Both released men talked briefly at the border with an American Red Cross representative and a reporter permitted into the area as a representative for all news agencies, with the Fulbright scholar praising both the Chinese and the American Red Cross. He said that he had confessed to espionage 15 days after his arrest, 13 months after the start of the Korean War.
Both Dick Young and Emery Wister of
The News report further on the continuing saga of Vicki, the
escaped small elephant from the Airport Park Zoo, who had been
frightened by a calf being loaded onto a truck, had fled into a
nearby wooded area next to a trucking terminal, where it had remained
for most of the four days since it had escaped on the prior Sunday
morning. The story this date dominates the front page of the
newspaper, which sports a bold headline: "Angry Elephant Loose
in County", more worthy of a tabloid than a respectable
newspaper, perhaps betraying the New York past of Thomas L. Robinson,
publisher of the newspaper since 1947, who had only recently acquired
virtually all of the stock in the newspaper, apparently with that new
status having gone to his head in the worst kind of way. Mr. Robinson
can no longer see in the dark, blinded by the bright lights
In any event, you may read for
yourself the extensive reportage on this non-story, which indicates
very simply, suitable for one paragraph of coverage at most, that the
elephant had left its hiding place behind the trucking terminal the
previous night and crossed the only nearby traveled road,
disappearing into the area on the other side of it. It had been
reported observed in a number of places, including a service station
about a quarter-mile from where it had crossed the road, but
searchers were not certain where it had gone after reaching the road,
as there were wooded areas on either side. Thus, the better approach
would have been to present the story this date under a small header
in the lower portion of the newspaper, indicating simply: "Escaped
Elephant Crossed the Road Last Night, Still at Large", with a
couple of sentences following, and the rest of the associated
stories on the inside of the newspaper. But it goes on and on and on,
telling of a plan to catch the elephant by building a trap with
bulldozers
Charles Kuralt, who had reported on
the elephant the second day of its escape, adds that, according to
the Mecklenburg County Humane Society president, the hunt for Vicki
was "an example of mob action and a disgrace to the authorities
in our community." He advocated immediate protection for the
elephant from public participation in the chase, saying that the use
of dogs
No one, thus far, had the gumption to suggest employment of a veterinarian, an expert marksman with a dart gun, and a crane operator, to disable the elephant temporarily with a sedative while it was hauled with straps via the crane onto a flatbed trailer and transported back to the zoo. But that, it seems, would spoil all the fun for the people following this stupid story.
Mr. Young reports that two stories
on the elephant had been nationally reported—part of the game
plan, no doubt. He also reports of two prior instances of public
interest regarding elephants in Charlotte, the first of which had
occurred on September 27, 1880 when Chief, a large elephant of the
John Robinson Circus—perhaps a distant relative of the publisher of
the newspaper—, had killed its handler, who was buried in a local
cemetery, with a tombstone bearing an image of an elephant and
imparting the story of the handler's death. The incident had passed
into local lore and for years had been the subject of exciting
conversation among youngsters who had heard the story imparted by
equally excited adults, prompting people to trek to the cemetery to
visit the handler's grave each year when the circus came to town,
with the lore also indicating that Chief would be escorted to the
grave each year and each time bellowed a mournful cry. Eventually,
Chief, having become increasingly unmanageable through the years, was
put to death in Cincinnati, where it was said that its carcass was
cast in metal and remained in a museum there. (At least they did not hang Chief, as the fate which befell Mary, the homicidally maniacal elephant in Erwin, Tenn., in 1916.) The second incident
recounted by Mr. Young had occurred in November, 1941, when 11
elephants of the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus had
become ill during the night of November 3, and had to remain in town
when the circus departed, stimulating local interest and quickly
spreading to the national wires. Hundreds of people had gone to the
circus lot to watch the suffering animals, many of which had been
writhing in pain on the ground. (We are glad to see Mr. Young using
"which" with regard to the animals rather than "whom".)
The Charlotte police, working with investigators of the Burns
Detective Agency, had begun an investigation to trace the source of
the illness, which originally was thought to come from contamination
of hay and other feed, the investigation turning up the possibility
of intentional poisoning by a disgruntled circus employee. If you
wish to know more about the 1941 incident, you will have to turn to
page 6-A, bearing in mind that it occurred just a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. What were the names of the 11 elephants?
In any event, either Mr. Young must have been exhausted by all of his energy expended in that furious, dedicated reporting on Vicki and the past elephantine memories recounted, or his source, Police Chief Frank Littlejohn, must have become confused in the course of having to stop to chat with a reporter in the midst of a locally emergent disaster (movie
Harry Shuford of The News also reports that the County Commissioners said that it was not their responsibility to become involved in the hunt, though they said that the County had an obligation to protect the health and welfare of the citizenry and so would have a hand in the operation via the County Police. There was some speculation that a new law regulating the keeping of wild animals might result from the situation, as one commissioner said that he believed such a law should be passed, both in the county and at the state level.
Also in Charlotte, as reported by Bob Quincy, the News sports editor, whether Charlotte was ready to support college football at Memorial Stadium would likely be determined this night, as Davidson would face off against Catawba. He reports that if enough people turned out for the game, needing attendance of at least around 8,000, then Charlotte would continue to host such football. It was the only game scheduled during the fall, the reason for the sparse football activity going back to a game played in Charlotte in 1948 between Wake Forest and South Carolina, one of 67 football games on the schedule for Memorial Stadium that season, causing the field to have been in bad shape by the time the two teams met, with rain complicating the situation even further. After losing 6 to 0, Wake Forest coach Peahead Walker shook his fist and said that he would never again allow his team to appear in Charlotte, calling the game "the last battle of Hog Wallow". The Park & Recreation Commission, urged by fans who had taken up the issue, decided to make amends for the embarrassing situation and had undertaken improvements to the playing field, providing for better drainage and sowing an abundance of grass, as well as installing the best lighting system available and setting down strict rules for scheduling. They had also bought a tarp for the turf to ensure that it would remain dry during rains. The colleges had gradually returned, expressing their approval of the playing conditions. But the crowds did not return. When a game between Wake Forest and Clemson had drawn only 9,000 spectators the previous year, Clemson coach Frank Howard, in response to a question from the superintendent of the football program at the stadium, said: "We can get that many folks to see my wife hang out the washing in our back yard. We can't afford to come to Charlotte and not make money." (It should be noted that Mr. Howard, noted for his colorful descriptions, also termed the prospect of a tie in football to be "like kissing your sister", as WSOC sportscaster and former "Mouth of the South" voice of the Tar Heels, Bill Currie, used to recount in the 1960's whenever UNC would face Clemson on the gridiron, at least when the score was close in the fourth quarter, as it was in 1963 and 1965.) The situation had remained unchanged and colleges were concerned that there would be a poor turnout in Charlotte if they sought to schedule a game there. Even Davidson had previously refused to play at the stadium, but that could be remedied by a good turnout this night, and so the superintendent of the football program encouraged fans, who wondered why Charlotte did not have more college football, to turn out for the game.
In Miami, a weekend hurricane alert was issued by the Weather Bureau this date for the Atlantic Coast between North Carolina and Florida, as Hurricane Ione, presently packing winds of 90 mph, pushed west-northwesterly at a forward speed of about 12 mph. The storm was expected to move in the same direction and at about the same speed for the ensuing 12 hours, and then swing around to a more northwesterly course, with its movement uncertain beyond the ensuing 24 hours, the Bureau warning that it could impact the coast from North Carolina to Florida prior to the end of the weekend. During the morning, the storm was centered 480 miles east of Nassau and 650 miles east-southeast of Miami.
In Childers, Okla., a set of triplets began the first grade, occupying a class of 12 pupils.
That's all the front page news fit to print this date for the burg of Charlotte.
On the editorial page, "Sharp Thorns on the Geneva Rose" finds that the conference between West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the Soviets had "sharpened the thorns" on the Geneva "'peace' rose", as the Russians had demanded and achieved Chancellor Adenauer's agreement to resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries while not yielding on their opposition to German reunification, suggesting that the upcoming Big Four foreign ministers conference in Geneva would become a diplomatic contest at which any gains for the West would be grudging.
Chancellor Adenauer had obtained a verbal promise of release of German prisoners of war, which had tremendous political overtones in Germany, but it had not been the firm agreement he had set as a condition for resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and even that was still dependent on approval by the West German parliament.
Resumption of diplomatic relations had been a prime goal of Russian diplomacy and so the Russians had expressed pleasure at the outcome of the conference, and it might have represented a tactical victory for the Soviets in their continuing effort to neutralize West Germany.
While Chancellor Adenauer had said in letters that he did not recognize the validity of the present boundaries of Germany or the East German regime, the presence in Moscow of ambassadors from both German governments could be interpreted as tacit recognition by West Germany of the East German regime, though it would be counterbalanced by Soviet recognition of West Germany, which, previously, the Soviets had regarded as illegitimate and unrepresentative.
It finds that the conference had accomplished nothing on the substantive German issues, leaving reunification and borders as they had been, which is what the U.S. wanted, so that those issues might be discussed at the foreign ministers conference. It concludes, however, that Chancellor Adenauer had not obtained the prestige and respect which he had demanded for his Government, and that while the Geneva Big Four summit conference had reduced the threat of war and improved U.S. standing in the eyes of the world, it was clear that it had not smoothed the way toward peace between nations, and that the diplomatic war continued.
"Mr. Yancey, Jack of Several Trades" indicates that City Manager of Charlotte Henry Yancey had become a durable fixture in the ever-changing municipal scene, beginning his tenth year of service the following day with the high regard of the city's residents, both in and out of government. It finds that he had earned that position of respect, that his job was not an easy one, as he had to be a student of government, an efficient administrator, a kind of engineer, and an expert in the handling of fiscal affairs, among other things. He also had to be a diplomat with enough insight into every type of individual and problem to be encountered in his position, while also having to prevent machine politics from gaining a foothold in the community. It finds that Mr. Yancey was adept at all of those different facets of his job.
When he had begun his term of service in 1946, only 26 municipalities in the state had the city manager system of government, and presently there were 50, with increasing numbers of cities in the state recognizing that a professional, nonpolitical administrator was necessary to ensure maximum efficiency in government and to keep costs to a minimum.
Mr. Yancey had served longer than any other city manager in the city's history and it salutes him.
"Well, Modern Barbers Are Efficient" comments on the news that the price of a haircut was going from a dollar to $1.25 in North Carolina, finds, however, that everything else was rising in price as well. It indicates that as much as it hated to do business with barbers, nearly as much as with doctors, and despite its objection to the way hair thinned at the forehead and thickened at the neck, barbers who had plied their art for only a quarter in much earlier times had none of the efficiency of the present barbers charging five times as much.
It recounts that it had once patronized a barber who only charged 15 cents, and he had been very good but also very slow. He kept bees and sold fresh vegetables on the side, and the writer had never received a haircut from him without having it interrupted three times while he left the shop to weigh some potatoes or went back home to raid the beehives for a passerby who wanted honey with their breakfast biscuits.
It indicates that the only objection it had to barbers raising prices was the quality of information they were dispensing in present times, that it had been a long time since the writer's barber had given any real, solid inside dope on politics, weather or baseball, that he occasionally related a supposed panacea for world problems, but such things never worked, as neither did the advice the barber gave on how to keep hair from falling out up front and flourishing at the collar.
"Alibis, Arguments and All-Americans" indicates that it was the time of year for the September song and that no matter what words the romantic songwriter wanted to weave, the real September song was the hoarse recitation of Rah-Rah-Rah on Saturday afternoons. It was the time of year when cashmeres replaced cottons, convertibles gave way to comfort and college kids cried for Choo Choo. (No, he graduated years ago. You're living in the past. Get with the program, daddy-o.)
It finds also that it was the time of year for alumni and alibis, of arguments and all-Americans, for winners and waterboys, of frat parties and pennants, for Wrong Way Riegels and Valdermere Watchowskis, of sensational scatbacks and second string substitutes, of heartbreaks and headlines, bowl trips and "bunting".
It appears to have meant "punting", as "bunting" would normally be associated either with baseball or political rallies. And it was not an election year. But with an elephant named Vicki dominating the front page this week, who knows? Maybe they were also bunting footballs around the field and throwing baseballs to split ends for touchdowns against the fence.
A piece from the Wall Street Journal, titled "The Forgetting Machine", tells of a scientist in England having invented a machine which was troubling, for it could be conditioned by repetition to give the correct responses to certain electrical impulses, and that the more pleasant the rhythmic instruction, the faster the machine learned. But with the lapse of time, however, the machine increasingly struggled to recall the instruction, sometimes completely forgetting.
It finds sympathy with that machine, as the writer was often accused of shirking jobs such as fixing leaky faucets and on golfing days, such chores were completely forgotten, including instructions regarding income tax forms. It also finds admiration for the machine, as it was a rare man who needed to remember both the binomial theorem and the date of the Congress of Vienna, especially when the human could look up either one. Even Albert Einstein had to forget the lesson that mass and energy were different things or he would never have gotten anywhere. The best bridge player the writer had ever met was a person who claimed that he never tried to remember the cards as they were played, as it was simpler to forget four cards after each play, enabling him to have fewer things to recall as the game progressed.
It concludes that it had always thought that the art of forgetting had been grossly undervalued and that if scientists succeeded in developing a forgetting machine, then the competition would become keen for humans.
Drew Pearson, in Havana, indicates that if revolutions were to take place in Latin America, he would rather have them occur under a man like Fulgencio Batista, that when he had taken over the Government in 1952 without any loss of life, a colonel had come to him with the news that President Carlos Prio had refused to leave the presidential palace, to which Sr. Batista responded by asking whether he was comfortable, and when told that he apparently was, said to allow him to remain there. He then told another colonel to take four armored cars and go to the palace, have his men take up their stations at each corner and ensure that nothing happened to the President. Mr. Pearson indicates that El Presidente Batista did not relate to him that story during his interview with him, but rather it had been imparted by an American who was presently the head of the largest textile industry in Cuba and had become a naturalized Cuban citizen, Burke Hedges, who had been offered a position in the Batista Cabinet. The latter told Mr. Pearson that he had once gone to El Presidente with a report of graft on the part of a friend of El Presidente and the latter had told him he would not base a conviction on gossip. But later, when Mr. Hedges produced evidence of the graft, El Presidente said that though it touched "a spot of great affection", he did fire his friend.
Mr. Pearson indicates that he asked El Presidente why he now allowed former President Prio to live in Havana and lead the opposition against him, not customary in Latin American countries, usually resorting to exile of such former leaders. Sr. Prio had lived for awhile in the U.S., where he was twice indicted by the Government for collecting a vast store of weapons with which to invade Cuba, and had admitted publicly that he had collected those arms. Nevertheless, El Presidente had recently allowed him to return to Havana, where he regularly criticized the present regime. Sr. Batista explained that no Cuban ought be barred from his own country, and said that he had been asked whether he would prosecute Sr. Prio, to which he responded that while the latter had spent five million dollars for the arms he had collected in the U.S., which he had obviously not earned while practicing law there, El Presidente regarded the courts as separate from the executive branch in Cuba and personally did not believe in revenge.
El Presidente sounds like just a regular, swell guy. Too bad he was a dictator. He appears to have charmed Mr. Pearson. We shall see…
A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., congratulates the newspaper on its series of articles presented during the week on the front page regarding the lost art of parenthood, finding the author, Howard Whitman, to exhibit "common horse sense", which Mr. Cherry regards as most of the necessary ingredient for producing children of whom the parents and the public could be proud. He says that he and his wife had a four-year old girl, and they had learned long before her birth through observation of "many modern-day brats" that the modern and progressive parenting was just so much hokum, both vowing that they wanted no part of it, and that the result of their efforts would make infidels of most who hated the current crop of children. He believes that their secret was administration of discipline in generous portions, recommends it to other parents.
We hope that it did not include instilling of his politics, his admiration for such things as continued segregation in society and such personages as Senator McCarthy, whom he continued to defend despite everything indicating to the contrary to any reasonable person, apparently not believing in the concept of discipline for the Senator.
A letter writer finds that children could not obtain the education they deserved and needed in "horse-and-buggy schools with backward teachings of race, class and discrimination in defiance of constitutional government and law."
A letter writer tells of having walked during the evening from Trade and Church Streets in Charlotte through Independence Square to about the center of the block on South Tryon and West Trade, and that within 75 feet of one another had been three black people who had stepped in front of the writer and asked for help in building a chapel, each holding a cup, with a fourth such individual coming up to the writer in the first half block of South Tryon. The writer, who withholds his or her name, had found it disconcerting to encounter four such people in such a short space, and so returned to the car, being stopped by the three "beggars" again on the writer's way back. The writer had approached a young police officer and he had checked with the beggars and all had permits, had been from a certain church. The writer believes that such permit holders should be instructed not to gang up on pedestrians and to stay out of the business district. "We're supposed to be a church-going city but an out-of-towner would think he was on skid row."
Perhaps, you need to attend church a little more often and appreciate that such solicitation of funds on the streets of the city may be the only way certain churches and charitable organizations have of achieving adequate funding for their charitable services, even if repeated entreaties for contribution might be somewhat annoying. You could also wear a sign which says, "No soliciting permitted," and make of yourself an even greater jackass. Simply smiling and walking by usually deters the repetition of such activity, if unwanted at the moment.
A letter from the president of the Winston-Salem Youth Council of the NAACP indicates that many young people of both races had felt that it was a "grown-ups' world", but that in recent months, history had suddenly called upon his generation to play a major role in helping bring real democracy into practice in the South, that for the first time, in wide areas, both black and white students were attending school together, in Maryland, West Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, as well as in government projects in Tennessee and in Army camps in North Carolina. He finds that students were proving that, despite prejudice and segregation, the young people of the country, including Southerners, were aware of what democracy was and had the courage and understanding to make it begin to live. He says that the tragic lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi and the bombings and mob threats in the Carolinas showed that students were on the front lines of the struggle for freedom. He assures that the young people did not advocate hate, terror and violence in return, though not afraid to defend themselves if necessary. He believes that if given the chance to work out their problems without outside prejudice interrupting the process and if the full resources of the government were made available to protect and enforce the Constitution, the young people would do their part and show the world that they could make brotherhood a living practice. But if those who advocated segregation and belief in white supremacy would cripple and maim the spirits of black and white children, "lest such people think we are dreamers, we must show ourselves willing and able to join together in the NAACP and in our student and church organizations, in every brotherly way that we can, to work and push and stand up and speak out." He asserts that they should do that until all discrimination in the country was gone, in which event they would never need apologize for the South again, that even if some people had been kidding about democracy for over 100 years, they were serious and would not stop until they had won.
A letter writer from Cheraw, S.C., says that he was happy to have been able to visit the public schools in the city on September 8 when they had opened, visiting several classrooms of an elementary school, finding it a "beautiful scene" with the children sitting in their seats "clean and smiling and listening to the instructions of their teachers." He says that it was the way they intended to keep it in South Carolina, with "no mixed classes with the colored children, because it's the best way and the only way for the best of both races, the white and black. For we of the South believe and will continue to believe that our Lord intended it this way for He made everything as He wanted it and we defy any group of men or man trying to change God's plan." He thinks people who wanted to change "God's way of things" to suit themselves were doing so for "the sake of politics and Communist beliefs to destroy our way of life any way they can, be it good or bad, regardless of whom it hurts." He regrets that so many people of both races had fallen for the ideas advanced by such organizations as the NAACP and that some white people claimed it was the right way. He says he had always been a firm believer in equality of pay and the rights to work, to own a home, or anything else which was right for all people regardless of color. But he also believed that social equality should not and would not be accepted by the white people of the South, "for when they do that's the end of the white and Negro races. We will have nothing but a land of mulattoes if we fall for this line that the NAACP is advocating and trying to get in by the courts to enforce upon our people, which we don't intend to abide by with the help of God, regardless of a court of some unjust men in our land today."
You are one of those who firmly believe that going to school together means having sex together. Again, we instruct, that is just not the way of things any longer, as it was obviously during your youth, where every person had sex with one another simply because they went to school together. It just does not happen that way in modern times, where children attend schools with more than one classroom for all students. We are very sorry that you went to a one-room shack for school, as is evident, but things have changed, and you need to realize that such promiscuous sex practices are no longer permitted to proliferate in the schools. We understand, by the way, before you say anything, that you were not even allowed to say the word "sex" in your school, but it is obvious that it was not necessary to talk about it...
A letter writer from Monroe indicates that most of the major daily newspapers of the South had been quite liberal in defending the principles of democracy and deserved great public approbation for that effort. In many instances, he finds, the Southern press had pleaded the cause of minorities at the risk of disfavor from the majority, and the press had survived that ordeal because, basically, the majority of the people were decent. At times, the press had pleaded for more and better jobs for qualified black people in order to entice the better educated to remain in the communities which had borne the expense for their training, which he regards as a worthwhile project with a progressive outlook. But he also questions whether the press had been subconsciously "a little far sighted", wonders whether many black people were patrons of Southern newspapers and whether very often news copy emanated from black sources. He urges that the time had come for the democratic press to consider democratic hiring policies, that the press should not be opposed to integrating qualified black people onto their staffs, that the consciences of the South and the nation had to be examined and that the press ought lead the way.
A letter writer from Hamlet indicates that in the September 12 edition of the newspaper, there was a letter saying that Governor Luther Hodges would tell anyone segregation would be a subject of the past by 1960, this writer indicating that if the previous writer had talked to the Governor, he would have found that the latter had no such thoughts, and that if the writer did not know that racial integration was communism, "then he had better, for his own good, wake up." He finds that the previous writer sounded like one of the "NAACP agitators" and that the NAACP could take full credit or blame for what had happened lately to the blacks in Mississippi, that the harder they pushed, the more trouble there would be. "Yes, segregation will still be with us in 1960 and very prominent, too. The people are waking up fast to the seriousness of the situation and have just begun to fight. Yours for segregation and decency, [signature]."
Well, in 1960, you or yours will, no doubt, be among those white idiots besieging the black people seeking to integrate the lunch counter at Woolworth's over in Greensboro. And, late in that year, you will no doubt be surprised to learn that President-elect Kennedy will appoint Governor Hodges to become his Secretary of Commerce. How will all that affect your opinion of racial integration being synonymous with communism? Will you regard the President as a "traitor" "wanted for treason"? How will the events of November 22, 1963 impact your opinion?
A letter from the director of religious activities of the Charlotte Jaycees indicates that during the month of August, they were pleased with the enthusiastic support given them by the newspaper for their effort in sponsoring the "Go to Church Month", and he thanks the newspaper for that support.
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