The Charlotte News
Friday, September 30, 1955
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Denver that the direction of the Government had shifted back to Denver this date as the President continued to improve from his heart attack of the prior Saturday. White House chief of staff Sherman Adams had flown to Denver, suggesting that there was an end of possible plans to delegate the President's authority during his illness. One of the President's principal physicians, Dr. Paul Dudley White, a Boston heart specialist, had stated that if he were the President, he would not want to run again, telling a television audience on the "Today" show on NBC that many things were possible which might not be advisable, that it would be up to the President to make the decision, that he might or might not have complete recovery. He said that signs from the bedside of the President were very encouraging and that his morale was good. The President's other doctors said that he had enjoyed an "excellent" night the previous night, the first use of that word since the heart attack, having previously indicated that his nights were "comfortable" or "very comfortable". He had spent his first night outside the oxygen tent, sleeping almost continuously for 9 1/2 hours, and his progress continued to be satisfactory without complication.
In Rabat, French Morocco, embattled Sultan Mohammed Ben Moulay Arafa offered this date to quit the throne if he could turn his powers over to a member of his family. It was the first public break in his determination to keep the post which the French had provided him two years earlier, coming after French Resident General Pierre Boyer de Latour du Moulin ordered the arrest of the Sultan's chief aide, who had sped off in a white Cadillac prior to dawn toward Casablanca with two jeeploads of police in hot pursuit. The resident general had charged the aide with having exercised "inadmissible pressure" on the Sultan. French Premier Edgar Faure's Government promised Moroccan Nationalists that the Sultan would be removed as the first step in a settlement to end the violence in the protectorate and give it some measure of self-rule. The Sultan had been the chief Nationalist target since the French had exiled his nephew, Sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef, and put the old man on the throne. French officials refused to disclose the provisions of the Sultan's letter of resignation, but a reliable source said that it listed three conditions, including that the French Government would have to guarantee that the former Sultan would not return to the throne, that the Sultan's powers would be delegated to a member of his family, which would prevent the appointment of a three-man regency council planned by Premier Faure, a plan which had provoked strong opposition from French colonists and their friends in Paris, and that friends and supporters of the Sultan would be protected against punishment.
In Greenwood, Miss., Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam, who had been acquitted a week earlier of the first-degree murder of 14-year old Emmett Till on August 28, but had continued in custody facing kidnaping charges in LeFlore County, where the kidnapping of Emmett had been initiated, as admitted by both of the half-brothers, were freed this date on bonds of $10,000 each. Both defendants waived a preliminary hearing on the kidnaping charges. The verdict the previous Friday afternoon, following only 67 minutes of deliberations, had, according to the jury foreman, been the result of the jury's determination that the prosecution had not shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the body retrieved from the Tallahatchie River on August 31 was that of Emmett Till, despite identification of the body by Emmett's uncle and mother, and the body having borne a ring on one finger with the initials "L. T.", for Emmett's deceased father, Louis Till, as identified by Emmett's mother who said she gave Emmett the ring. The verdict had spawned rumors that Emmett might still be alive, and Sheriff H. C. Strider of Tallahatchie County, where the murder charges were tried because the body had been found in that county, stated that he had heard that Emmett was in Detroit, but admitted that he did not know anything definite. An extended version of the story in the Charlotte Observer quoted Sheriff Strider as also saying, "I definitely believe he's somewhere but I don't know where." Emmett's mother, Mamie Bradley, called the rumors a "cruel hoax" and said that she was willing to have the body exhumed for examination if necessary to prove that it was that of Emmett. Reports had also begun to circulate regarding abuse of witnesses who had testified for the State against the two co-defendants, which presumably included Emmett's uncle, Mose Wright, who testified to the abduction of Emmett, and a percipient witness, Willie Reed, relocated to Chicago, who testified to hearing the sounds of cries of pain emanating from a shed on the farm of the brother of Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam, and who had also seen the latter come out of that shed while carrying a gun in his pants, go to a well and draw water, and then return to the shed.
Near Rock Hill, S.C., a North Carolina truck driver had been killed this date when his tractor-trailer rig plunged off a bridge into Allison Creek on Highway 49, about 15 miles north of the town. The truck, owned by Holly Farms Poultry of North Wilkesboro, had been loaded with empty feed bags. The rescue squad pried off the door of the cab and removed the body of the driver. Officers said that he apparently had lost control after rounding a curve and heading down a sharp incline leading to the bridge.
In Opp, Ala., three members of a tenant farmer's family had lost their lives in a fire which destroyed their home early this date after all seven members had initially escaped unharmed, until a four-year old girl went back into the blazing ruins to rescue her doll and perished in the flames along with her mother, who rushed in to save the little girl. Another daughter, six years old, who followed her mother back into the fire, had also died. The father had been able to pull the latter girl back from the flames, but with her clothes already on fire, causing him to be badly burned. A boy, age two, who followed behind the father, was also seriously burned, but the father was able to pull him from the fire. A ten-year old daughter and a five-week old baby had escaped uninjured. The sheriff said that the fire had been caused by sulphur-soaked rags burning in the house to drive away mosquitoes.
Dick Young of The News reports that the last four families at Morris Field Homes were moving out this date. From November, 1946, veterans returning from military service and without places to live had stood in line to file applications for apartments in the converted barracks, which eventually became available to 404 families, although it had not been until March, 1947 that all of the units had been completed. The conversion of the barracks had been carried out by the Federal Government to provide temporary housing for veterans, and for about three years, the Government had paid the City ground rent of $6,060 per year and retained the remainder of the rental revenue to help defray the cost of the conversion. On January 1, 1950, the Government had stepped aside and the City took over fully. The first year, the City had received revenue of slightly more than $127,000 in rent, and during the ensuing years, the revenue had dropped, as housing had become available elsewhere and veterans and their families had moved out. Through the end of the previous fiscal year, the City had received a total of $350,000 in rental income. As the buildings had been vacated, the City had sold them to salvage companies.
Ellen Parks of The News reports that a new budget of $406,779 had been recommended this date to the Western North Carolina Methodist Conference being held in Charlotte, an increase of nearly $16,000 over the previous year's budget. She provides the breakdown of the budget, in case you are interested. One of the delegates was sure there was a loose screw afoot causing a squeak. In any event, as the Observer reported, they adopted a resolution the previous day disapproving of capital punishment.
In Los Angeles, part-time actor and
former heavyweight boxer Buddy Baer
In San Francisco, a thunderous blast
jarred a 15-square mile area of the city the previous night, with
meteorologists, physicists and the military indicating that they
could offer no explanation. Thousands of frightened residents had
dashed into the streets and near panic had developed in one
neighborhood, as the blast shook buildings and houses from the Golden
Gate to the north to Daly City to the south. Initial reports
indicated that a dry cleaning plant had exploded, but those reports
proved erroneous. The Army said that there were no jets flying over
the city at the time, as one suggestion had been that it was a jet
breaking the sound barrier. Seismologists at the University of
California in Berkeley said that the blast had not registered on
their seismometer. It may have been the return home to Daly City of the kidnaped infant, having had imprinted on his fresh mind, from having been taken to the prize fights in Stockton by the crazy woman who kidnaped him, how to walk tall and carry a big stick, it being a little known scientific phenomenon that infants, when so imprinted, have the ability to exert gravity exponentially beyond their actual weight and physical bearing, witness the fact that the story made it all the way to Charlotte from the Bay Area—gravitas. Infants, being little survival engines in a gargantuan world surrounding them, unconscious of ordinary restraints imposed by socialization and maturation, are very resourceful
In Denver, the President's taste in
music was proving to be one of the most difficult problems involved
in his illness, as things had reached the point where White House
press secretary James Hagerty was talking about subscribing to a
musical appreciation course for the newsmen. The President listened
to tape-recorded music occasionally in his hospital room. Mr. Hagerty
explained to the press that he was listening to Bach, prompting one
reporter to ask "what Bach?", while another reporter
stated, "That is B-A-C-H," to which Mr. Hagerty responded
that he was listening to the "Air on G String"
In the third game of the World Series in Brooklyn, the Dodgers had taken advantage of the wildness of pitcher Bob Turley to gain a 4 to 2 lead over the New York Yankees after two innings of play, with the Yankee pitcher having beaned Sandy Amoros and walked Junior Gilliam with the bases loaded. Relief pitcher Tom Morgan had forced a run by walking Pee Wee Reese. Earlier, Roy Campanella had hit a home run for the Dodgers and Mickey Mantle had hit one for the Yankees. The Yankees had won the second game the previous day, 4 to 2, to take a two game lead.
On the editorial page, "Protecting a Precious Resource" indicates that most citizens of the state testifying in Raleigh during the week before a Congressional subcommittee studying the Hoover Commission recommendations on water resources had agreed that, nationally, a better job had to be done, with arguments having come over the specific types of remedies discussed.
It indicates that the need for a national water policy was clear and basic and that before wrangling began on minor points, agreement should be achieved on that general principle. The demand for water was steadily increasing, with industrial needs expected to rise during the ensuing 25 years by 138 million gallons per day, and domestic consumption, by seven million gallons per day, while at the same time, water was being consumed at the rate of 180 billion gallons per day. It finds, therefore, that water had become the nation's most precious natural resource.
But Federal development of water resources had occurred under a system of complex and conflicting policies, and unless such policies were straightened out and a consistent national policy developed, the nation would suffer severely. It posits that there had to be closer coordination between state and Federal agencies and that the Federal Government had to learn to assume its full responsibility when national objectives were involved and whenever projects were beyond the means of local or private enterprise because of their size, complexity or potential multiple purposes. It also urges that the Federal Government ought provide advisory assistance to state and local agencies even when they were undertaking their own water resource and power development projects and that Federal regulatory and administrative duties ought be clearly defined, simplified and, where possible, centralized.
The Hoover Commission had recommended the establishment of a permanent Water Resources Board to determine the broad national policies needed, with that body having the additional responsibility of devising methods of coordination of plans and actions.
It quotes from Governor Luther Hodges that whatever was sought to be accomplished with respect to the water problems ought be done on a nonpartisan and objective basis, without seeking to turn the activities of the Federal and state governments to personal ends. It finds it simple enough, but difficult to achieve.
"Keep Busted Signals Off the Street" indicates that Charlotte Police Chief Frank Littlejohn had been distressed during the week by some traffic problems, one of which was the mysterious death of birds around the airport, a problem about which he could probably do nothing, and the other having been the danger to life and limb caused by the mass movement of automobiles to and from football games, which, it suggests, he could probably solve by strict enforcement of the traffic regulations.
It finds that his intention to do that might arouse the anger temporarily of sports fans, but that it should be welcomed by the general public and sports fans alike, as it might save some lives.
It suggests that football had a tendency to dull common sense, particularly when hundreds of people flocked to a game, a quarter of whom were driving automobiles, with one blast of the horn producing another, and, according to the chief, drivers assumed they had official sanction to violate the traffic ordinances. It thinks that the chief ought back up his warning and that if he did, all the fans who attended games could be counted on to show up at the end of the season.
"Stengel, Green & Intellectual Snobbery" quotes Britain's Ivor Brown as saying: "The public as a whole—that is, the public barring the Intellectual Snobs—shows its sensible preference for having its artists in sufficient possession of their faculties to put us all, and immediately, in possession of their meaning." As an example of what he was discussing, he reproduced some "muddy, intellectualized nonsense" from novelist Henry Green: "It was wet then, did she remember he was saying, so unlike this he said, and turned his face to its dazzle of window, it had been dark with sad tears on the panes and streets of canals as he sat by her fire for Jane liked dusk, would not turn on the lights until she couldn't see to move, while outside a single street lamp was yellow, reflected over a thousand raindrops on the glass, the fire was rose, and Penelope came in."
They suggest that Mr. Brown, a living intellectual, might have a point, but would get even more lost with the twisted, turbid prose of manager Casey Stengel of the New York Yankees, quoting from his statement to a reporter for Time regarding how it had occurred that the Yankees were contesting the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1955 World Series: "I put that fella in left and he can't field now, somebody else would use him maybe, but I can't. So I wait, and then my big fella gets hurt because he's going at half-speed and he's got to bunt once in a while because he can't always swing from his heels. Especially when he hits the ball to either side of the other fella he's sure to get on because nobody can catch him. But he wants to hit now and I give him his chance to play center and he does me a good job because he's a strong fella. But some fellas don't know about getting a bat with a thick handle like that Chicago fella does. He knows when you get it on the fists your muscle ain't worth a damn. But do you think these fellas understand that?"
The piece concludes that clarity was beside the point when it was art which counted and that both Mr. Green and Mr. Stengel were "artists of great and enduring stature. They're welcome to all the poetic license they can use. Go ahead. Call us intellectual snobs."
A piece from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, titled "Tar Heel Journey 'Without Breeches'", indicates that nearly all Virginians likely revered John Marshall for his ability as a jurist, his brilliance as an interpreter of the Constitution and his grasp of the vital importance of strengthening the Federal republic in its early years, but that only a minority were actually acquainted with Chief Justice Marshall as a man. It indicates that he had been convivial, companionable, absent-minded, and sloppily dressed, had been a familiar figure on the streets of Richmond for half a century, during 34 years of which he had been Chief Justice. During all of that time he had been a small "d" democrat, who loved to pitch quoits with his cronies or to swap jokes with them over a glass of Madeira. He had traveled to Raleigh on one occasion without a pair of breeches, having absentmindedly left them out of his baggage, remaining in the predicament for several days until a tailor could make him a new pair. When he had written his wife of his plight, he did not explain what he had worn on the journey to North Carolina.
He had met Mary Ambler in
Williamsburg when she was only 14 and he was a veteran of four years
of service in the Continental Army, and the impression she had made
on him could be appreciated by anyone who examined his notebook on
the law lectures by the celebrated George Wythe at the College of
William & Mary. As a student, he had simply scribbled "Mary
Ambler" across the pages of his notebook rather than taking
notes for the course. They had been married some years later—actually only a year or so later, in early 1783, when she had reached the respectable age of 15, or 17
It indicates that the quality of his character had nowhere been more clearly shown than in his domestic life, but he demonstrated his physical courage at Valley Forge and his moral courage on the Federal bench. Were it not for the opinions he had delivered on behalf of a stronger central Government, in the face of bitter attacks from the Jeffersonians, the Federal Government might have disintegrated in its early years. Thomas Jefferson was sincerely convinced that the centralization of the Government was potentially disastrous, with his own achievements for the republic in other areas having blinded him to the essential role which Chief Justice Marshall was playing.
And to hell, incidentally, with the University of Illinois at Chicago and the morons who decided to change the name of their law school last year. Stetes' riiights advo-cates, who never met an amendment they liked save the Tenth, obviously...
We have determined in our assiduous research that "Tar Heel" obviously has racial connotations, the "Tar" hearkening back to Uncle Remus and the Tar Baby—which used to be the name of the UNC freshman teams when they had freshman teams in basketball, after the varsity had been called originally the "White Phantoms" or "Phants" for short, proving indubitably our point. We therefore advocate changing it to "Rainbow Heels". What do you think? Virginia Wahoos do not get a vote. They are plebeians anyway and thus cannot participate in plebiscites.
Drew Pearson indicates that word had reached the Agriculture Department that Russia was still anxious to make a deal for surplus U.S. food, the offer having come from Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev during a private audience in Moscow with five U.S. Senators. The matter had been raised by Senator Milton Young of North Dakota, who asked whether it would be possible for the U.S. to trade surplus American crops to Russia, to which Mr. Khrushchev had responded that it would not only be possible but desirable to do so. Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee then initiated a technical discussion of the problems of the two nations, with Mr. Khrushchev remarking at one point that the U.S. had helped Russia to be self-sufficient by refusing to sell them surplus food, referring to the Soviet program to bring new farm land under cultivation. The U.S. agricultural attaché later confirmed to the Senators that Russia had opened 75 million acres to farming, forced, in part, by the Administration's refusal to sell the surplus food behind the Iron Curtain. The Russians could thank Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had opposed trade with the Soviet bloc, prompting the Administration to abandon its plans for a sale. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson had repeatedly recommended disposal of the surplus crops behind the Iron Curtain, but Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks had fought against it. The Administration, concerned about the political ramifications of Senator McCarthy's objections, sided with Secretary Weeks. It now appeared that those objections had aided the Soviet farm program. Mr. Pearson notes that Mr. Khrushchev also let the Senators know that he was annoyed with the Voice of America, saying that it could hardly be called a friendly voice, asking how many partisans they had found while traveling around Russia who had been converted by the Voice.
More than 40 Senators and Representatives had gone to Russia during the summer and only one had been refused a visa, Congressman W. R. Poage of Texas, who had been promised a visa but did not obtain it at the last minute. He and Congressman Harold Cooley of North Carolina had gone together to the Russian Embassy before leaving Washington, where they were assured that they could pick up their visas in Helsinki at the Interparliamentary Union. But on the same day the visas were supposed to be ready, Congressman Poage had made an anti-Communist speech in Helsinki, speaking on disarmament, saying that the Communists should agree to the President's mutual aerial inspection plan, warning that prior experience of the U.S. made the country reluctant to place its trust in words alone, that the U.S. did not want coexistence but rather cooperation and that the Soviet nations should stop shooting down unarmed planes, should release U.S. prisoners and that he would never take "the bloody hand of the Chinese Communists as long as a single American boy remains in a Chinese jail." That afternoon, Congressman Cooley and the others received their visas, but Congressman Poage did not. When he went to the Soviet Embassy to inquire, everyone there had played dumb, and when he went to the Soviet delegation to the Interparliamentary Union, he likewise got no results. Finally, he had U.S. Ambassador Jack McFall telephone Ambassador Chip Bohlen in Moscow, and the latter had gone to the Kremlin to inquire, where again everyone had played dumb. The Congressman finally had given up and gave to Congressman Cooley the reservation he had secured in advance, and the latter had taken off for Moscow while Congressman Poage returned to Texas.
A letter writer indicates that now that the rebuilding of the old Armory-Auditorium, destroyed by fire, had nearly come to a head, he wished to make some comments on the matter, having been on the entertainment committee when the building had been erected originally in 1929 for the reunion of the Confederate Veterans. He had attended several programs there for 20 years and had served as manager of it for five years, indicating that while the acoustics had been bad, the lighting faulty and the heating poor, it had served a clientele which the new Coliseum would not attract. He says that it had been a place where one could take the family or a few friends for an evening of entertainment and that it made no difference what one wore, where one sat or what one did, that the children had run loose in all directions while the parents milled about talking with their neighbors and friends. Basketball games, college and other dances for either race, barbecues, commercial exhibits, poultry shows and the like had filled the building almost seven days or nights per week. He believes that the new Park Center which would replace it, would fill a demand that no other building would.
A letter writer indicates that while the Park & Recreation Commission and the City Council were planning to lease the heating and air-conditioning equipment for the new Park Center, it would be a good idea to award a contract to fix up some equipment in the parks. He says that his church group had held their annual picnic in Bryant Park on September 24 and the whole group had gotten soaking wet because the rain came through the roof of a shed where they gathered to get out of the rain.
A letter writer indicates that he had received a parking citation the previous day on East 4th Street and that it was possible that good citizens could be caught short on time and violate the parking laws, and that the City committed an unpardonable act by imposing a three dollar fine and the threat of requirement of a bond for appearance in court. He thinks it illegal and unconstitutional as it was forcing a second tax or license on automobiles, favors creation of an association or vigilante group to protect major and minor rights against encroachment by all branches of government.
A letter writer from Black Mountain, president of the North Carolina Humane Federation, comments on a letter which had appeared on September 19 favoring shooting Vicki, the baby elephant who had escaped from the Airport Park Zoo and remained on the lam for 11 days in Charlotte. He also takes to task the writer's comments regarding the president of the Charlotte Humane Society. He believes it inconceivable that anyone outside the Iron Curtain could take such a heartless position against an innocent victim of circumstances, indicating that Vicki had been born in her native land, "where God intended". She had been captured and brought to Charlotte by man and "showing her disapproval and dislike for human beings, she broke for freedom, seeking refuge in God's woods out of sight of man, harming no one." He had never heard of anyone having such thoughts "to blind this poor victim with ammonia and chop her to pieces, piece by piece." He thinks that if there were more Christian-hearted humane workers to help the poor defenseless children and animals who could not speak for themselves against the heartless people who infested the beautiful land, "oh what a world we would have."
Hey, don't equate the children with an elephant.
A letter writer from Monroe indicates that the South, with its textile industry losing ground to the American-modernized mills of Japan, was now singing the "Low Tariff and Poor Economy Blues". He suggests that the South could dish it out but could not digest the contents of its own Southern-styled dishes, wonders whether the South had forgotten complaints of the flood-stricken North crying the blues because the South, with its cheaper labor, was seeking to woo Northern industry away. He says that the South could not have its cake and eat it, too, that its "childish antics" were causing it to be treated as the nation's stepchild. "The reactionary South is dangerously nearing the state of a social outcast. She must become All-American in her deportment or, be disheveled by the maelstrom of social evolution."
A letter writer from Lincolnton indicates that in a recent issue of the newspaper, she had been amused by two letters relating to the opening of the new Auditorium and Coliseum, with one man from Lynchburg having criticized the Mayor and his officials for putting the church first by having Reverend Billy Graham speak at the dedication for a longer time than the Governor and other officials. "Wonder if he knew that all which had been constructed in the building belongs to God, or still better, did he stop long enough to realize who was letting him breathe." Another writer from Forest City wanted Dr. Graham drafted to be the next President, and she thinks he knew a lot about the Bible. She says that two letters since then had criticized the Lynchburg man's letter, which he had deserved, and that he should not make another trip to Charlotte, that if he did, he should not write another letter.
A letter writer from Hamlet finds it amazing that "the desegregationists and integrationists (twin evils) are in such a hurry to get the Supreme Court's decree across for mixing the children of the two races in the schools this fall, never thinking for one moment that it will take time to get the mechanics of the schools rearranged so as to meet their hurried demands, if and when it can be done, or will be done." She thinks there was no true Christian among them, that the white man, being in the majority, would not be pushed around, and that the future would prove it. "It is the white man's civilization, which none can deny, but at the same time he has given aid, comfort and freedom to the minority groups of this land. They can worship as they please, live as they please, without fear of being persecuted as are many peoples of other lands today." She goes on, quoting from the Bible and warning that disobedience brought its own reward, that the tumult and strife besetting the world at present could be summed up in one word, "Satan". She feels that Russia was a modern Babylon and was destined to overturn and destroy the nations of the earth unless they repented and returned to God, the giver of every perfect gift. "May He in His mercy world. [sic] We are told that history repeats itself, and our Bible says that 'God is not mocked.'"
Whatever you say... What do you
think of Mr. Nixon
Framed Edition
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