The Charlotte News
Tuesday, January 17, 1956
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page report that Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana this date had suggested that a Senate inquiry take place into General Matthew Ridgway's statement that as Army chief of staff, he had believed he was "being called upon to destroy U.S. fighting strength", a statement made in the first of a series of articles for the Saturday Evening Post published this date, saying that the Defense Department had tried to silence his criticism of its policies, questioning the accuracy of a statement made by the President. Senator Mansfield said that he thought it would be good to allow General Ridgway an opportunity to document his statements and lay the matter before the people. Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri said to the Senate the previous day that the General's remarks showed that during the Eisenhower Administration, "the security of the nation is being thrown into the marketplace to be traded for political advantage." General Ridgway had written that his superiors had sought to persuade him to fit his views to a "preconceived politico-military 'party line,'" that he felt he was being called on to destroy, rather than to build, "a fighting force on which rested the world's best hope for peace". He said that he was "nonplussed" when he had read that the President's 1954 budget message to Congress was "based on a new military program unanimously recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff," after he had "most emphatically not concurred" in that judgment. He said that three Army budgets on which he had responsibility had been founded on "budgetary considerations, on political considerations, on the advantage to be gained in the field of domestic politics by a drastic reduction in military expenditures." He said further that Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson had cautioned him that to express his views publicly would place him "in the position of taking issue" with his commander in chief, which Secretary Wilson had said would not be good, subjecting General Ridgway to what he believed was pressure "sometimes crudely applied" to force him to drop his opposition to the Army cuts. Secretary Wilson had told reporters in New York the previous night that he could not comment because he had not read the article, adding that he regarded General Ridgway, who had not been named to a second term as Army chief of staff the previous fall, as a "dedicated general who believes very strongly in the Army." Senator Francis Case of South Dakota said this date that while he had great respect for General Ridgway, he believed the General was "thrashing some old straw." General Ridgway had made clear some months prior to his retirement that he disagreed with Administration moves to cut Army manpower.
In Groton, Conn., it was reported that a year ago this date, the submarine U.S.S. Nautilus had become the first nuclear-powered submarine, as it floated down the Thames River and into Long Island Sound on its maiden voyage, since having established an impressive record, released by the Navy the previous day, indicating that it had averaged a dive per day, traveling over 26,000 nautical miles on 75 cruises without refueling, traveling submerged for more than half that distance, visiting six ports, sailing for eight days and 14 hours without stopping, traveling submerged for three days, 17 hours, and making a 1,300-mile voyage from Groton to San Juan, Puerto Rico, totally submerged at an average speed of more than 16 knots. The Navy added that even more impressive statistics regarding the submarine could not be released for security reasons.
In San Francisco, it was reported that engineers and patrols were keeping track of the raging Feather River at Yuba City this date, while other areas of the state had incurred fresh flood losses, with major new damage occurring the previous day at two coastal resort villages, Bolinas and Stinson Beach in Marin County, north of San Francisco, those areas having been included in flood disaster areas declared by the President. The residents of Yuba City had been spared a second flood, but the Air Force engineer on the scene said that the levee where the big break had occurred at Christmas was still "a frail sister". The Feather and Yuba Rivers had crested the previous day at 68.3 feet, failing gradually. Beale Air Force Base soldiers worked in short shifts, stopping leaks with tarpaulins and sandbags as fast as they appeared, with the dike at Shanghai Bend, where the Christmas-week floods had occurred, being so shaky that they could use no mechanized equipment on it. The Christmas-week flood toll had been 62 dead and more than 500 million dollars in damage.
In New York, it was reported that a snowstorm had blanketed all parts of the city and outlying areas except Manhattan, with only a trace having fallen in the center city, while two or three inches had accumulated in parts of Queens, Brooklyn and The Bronx, with as much as six inches having blanketed the countrysides in nearby New Jersey and Connecticut, making roads hazardous, as eastern parts of Long Island received four inches.
Ford Motor Co. stock, to be the subject of a vast public offering the following day, had been assigned by the Federal Securities & Exchange Commission a price of $64.50 per share this date, with an estimated 642.6 billion dollars to accrue to the Ford Foundation in the biggest corporate equity financing in history, the price having been reported by the SEC as the final legal step required before the 10.2 million common shares would be offered the following morning. Some 722 security firms across the country had reported almost unprecedented investor interest in the issue, admitting the public to co-ownership of the company for the first time. Ford had said that its directors intended to declare a dividend of 60 cents per share during the first quarter of the year and that if that dividend would be continued quarterly per share, it would yield the investor $2.40 annually per share, a little more than 3.7 percent yield on the investment. Gut luck with that, come 1958.
Robert Hanes had retired this date as president of Wachovia Bank & Trust Co., the largest banking firm in the Carolinas, having served in that capacity for 25 years, and the board of directors had met in Winston-Salem during the afternoon to select a successor. Mr. Hanes said that after a long rest, he wanted to enter public service and do something for his town and state. The piece summarizes his background, as had a recent editorial. John F. Watlington, Jr., who had been the senior vice-president and head of the Charlotte office of the bank for the previous 15 years, was elected the new president by the directors. Archie Davis, senior vice-president in charge of the Winston-Salem office, was named chairman of the board. Other new officers are also listed.
Ann Sawyer of The News tells of the man, who had shot and killed a suspected interloper to his marriage, after emerging from the trunk of his wife's car in a parking lot of a Charlotte drive-in diner, shooting the other man with a combination .22-caliber rifle and .410-caliber shotgun, having been arraigned this date, pleading not guilty. He had admitted to City detectives the killing and that he had hidden in the trunk of his wife's car. Following the arraignment, the jury box was brought into the courtroom and the names of 50 men and women had been drawn by a five-year old girl. Many of the prospective jurors were women and so the judge, based on past experience that many women asked to be excused from jury duty in capital cases because they did not believe in capital punishment, ordered the drawing of an additional 25 names. It was anticipated that jury selection would take most of the following morning. The man was being tried for first-degree murder, carrying the potential for the death penalty unless the jury recommended life imprisonment. As indicated, ultimately, the following summer, there will be a surprise ending. You will just have to stay tuned. But do not attempt to talk to the jurors or the judge to find out what it is. They do not yet know, anyway.
Jim Banbury of The News reports that the purchase of 11.6 acres of property on Old Sardis Road had opened the way for Charlotte Scottish Rite bodies to build a temple which would cost several hundred thousand dollars.
In Liverpool, England, the British Navy had withdrawn the rear end of a cow this date from a land-sea exercise because the rear end was a lady, a third officer in the Women's Royal Navy Service. A call had recently gone out for two volunteers to play the part of one cow in a forthcoming exercise involving some 700 reserve sailors, soldiers and airmen, in which the make-believe cow would mingle with a herd of real cows and spy on troops coming ashore in Wales, the female third officer having volunteered for the duty and having been assigned to play the rear portion of the cow, while a male bachelor had volunteered to play the front portion. The commanding officer of the Merseyside Naval division intervened, however, saying that the matter had not been submitted to him and that the cow would have to be played by two men or parents might disapprove of a service allowing a woman to be "alone like that all night on a mountain".
In Louisville, Ky., snow and ice had caused delays in the arrival of 22 teachers at an elementary school the previous day, but classes had proceeded nevertheless as usual, the teachers' jobs having been taken over by 22 eleven-year olds who were members of the school's "Teachers of Tomorrow" program, with opening exercises, such as Bible reading, having been completed, and the lessons having been underway at the point when teachers had arrived one at a time.
In Raleigh, the Motor Vehicles Department reported that a lot of people in Rocky Mount did not like the letters "VD" appearing on their automobile license plates, with at least 30 persons having exchanged plates bearing those initials for a different set, after the Department had allotted 999 plates with that prefix, the commissioner, Ed Scheidt, having indicated that those motorists who wanted to exchange their plates could do so. They would likely find "VC" quite acceptable.
On the editorial page, "State Parking Ban: A Shining Virtue" tells of Highway commissioner James Hardison having made an announcement which would probably become a "controversial proposal", in calling for a State-imposed parking ban on State-financed city streets and urban highways. It finds it to have too much merit to be allowed to die from disinterest, explaining further its position and urging the State Highway Commission to consider carefully the proposal, as it was neither economical nor efficient to make multi-million-dollar thoroughfares into parking lots, a country-town practice which eventually had to yield to metropolitan facts of life.
"Ike Sets a Reasonable Fiscal Pace" suggests that the Federal budget submitted to Congress the previous day by the President had been designed not only to balance the budget for the present year and the following year but also to provide some small amount of surplus.
It finds it admirable, expressing the broad philosophy which the President had set forth in his State of the Union message of January 5. It reflected reductions in certain Governmental expenditures and anticipated increases in Federal revenues, recognizing the need for a more enlightened program of foreign aid and the fact that "'defense needs are still overriding and must continue to be met in full measure.'" It had also provided for new and expanded programs for "'enhancing opportunities for human well-being and economic growth'", programs which the piece regards as New Dealish in substance and intent.
The President had also issued an advisory that the margin of estimated surplus in each of the budgets was slim, calling for utmost cooperation between the executive and legislative branches to prevent increases in expenditures or reductions in revenue which would produce a deficit. The piece finds that it therefore had to stand the test of political expediency in an election year.
It urges that it would be justified for the Congress to pass a small tax reduction for low income groups and small businesses. Many members of Congress from both parties had indicated that the President's foreign aid requests would be sharply reduced, which it finds regrettable when there were so many global problems, with the President's proposal for the ensuing fiscal year of almost double the amount in foreign aid of the 2.7 billion dollars approved the previous year having a dim prospect of passing. It also regards the President's proposed school construction and housing plans to be likely to produce sharp controversies, with some alteration of his budgetary proposals in that regard likely.
It finds that all of the President's budgets had reflected a determination to hold steady over the long-haul in the face of massive global problems, and that the reaction of Congress had been moderate and remarkably cooperative. It hopes that despite the political climate, the Congress would again react with reasonable restraint, preserving the general characteristics of the President's fiscal policy, indicating that the nation's goal was not simply a balanced budget but rather a balanced economy, in which both tax reductions and an end of deficit spending could be achieved.
Gut luck.
"Porgy & Bess vs. Gilels & Oistrakh" indicates that when the Russians had invited America's touring production of "Porgy and Bess" to appear in the Soviet Union, State Department officials had called the project politically inept and refused to support it. But the touring company had decided to go on its own anyway and the Soviets had announced that it would be happy to underwrite the tour.
"Porgy and Bess"
It indicates that while those who had attended the Russian musicians' concerts had not been converted to Bolshevism, they had come into personal contact with the fact that Russians, despite their Government's attempts to pervert social and cultural values, were people just like Americans. It thus wonders when the U.S. would begin to appreciate the value of cultural diplomacy, suggesting that it was the State Department which was demonstrating "political ineptitude".
A piece from the El Paso Herald-Post, titled "El Paso Shows the Way", indicates that the majority of those who had attended the White House conference on education had thought it impossible to build new schools without Federal financial aid, believing that the states, cities and school districts could not do so on their own.
It reports, however, that El Paso had set an example for local school construction, telling of its history, that in 1938, the local school district had decided to issue no more bonds and pay cash for all future buildings, at a time when its bonded indebtedness stood at $600,000, whereas now it was $175,000 plus $173,000 assumed from two small adjoining districts annexed to the city. Meanwhile, the city had built $9,727,262 worth of new schools and additions to old ones, all paid in cash.
It provides some more detail and says that El Paso did not want any of the usual Federal aid, having found out what that meant through the school lunch program, which it opines that the school board should eliminate as "paternalistic socialism", for in payment for the surplus foods, the schools had to serve a menu "composed by a spinster in Washington who denies the young Texans the privilege of eating a piece of candy or drinking a bottle of pop during school hours." (That is to preserve for as long as possible their teeth, dufus, to instill in them good eating habits hopefully to carry over to the home, so that they don't have to ask for more Federal aid in the way of matching funds through local welfare agencies to cover dentistry bills, when their families are too poor to pay for them. You ought to go on Fox News and join Peter Dufus at the White House press briefings or Messy Wawtas and Mucker Amoralson back at their shack. Undoubtedly, that about which the writer is really exercised is the fear that desegregation will follow on the Federal aid via the rider proposed by Representative Adam Clayton Powell of New York, pinning the President between a rock and a hard place where, to get his promulgated program of school construction, he would have to sign the bill or appear as a segregationist in an election year, alienating independents who had put him in the White House.)
It concludes that residents of El Paso would rather design their own buildings and have no strings attached, and that any American city could do what El Paso had done, hopes that many would, especially as the Government had no money, but rather a deficit and debt.
Drew Pearson tells of House Speaker Sam Rayburn, despite the President referring to him affectionately as "Mr. Sam", having said during a secret caucus of House Democrats recently that the Administration was "100 percent political", that no administration had been as political or as partisan as the present one, that when the Democrats had held the Presidency, they had consulted the Republicans on domestic and foreign policies consistently, but that now, the Republicans did not consult Democrats on anything, running a "one-party show on everything, even appointments," on which Democrats had consistently consulted with Republicans in appointing "real Republicans" to bipartisan boards and commissions.
Mr. Rayburn had appeared particularly irritated about the ousters of Democrats Jim Mead, former Senator from New York, from the FTC, and Josh Lee, former Senator from Oklahoma, from the Civil Aeronautics Board. He said that both had been trying to represent the people and that they were fired for their efforts in that regard, then were not being replaced by "real Democrats" on those bipartisan boards, but rather by nominal Democrats who were Republicans at heart. Democrats at the meeting agreed that they had not heard the Speaker so agitated since Vice-President Nixon and other Republicans had labeled the Democrats as the "party of treason" during the 1954 midterm campaigns.
The President-elect of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitschek, had no idea that he had played any part in the Senate debate over the regulation of natural gas, but in fact, because of him, a secret debate inside the Democratic policy committee had been abruptly cut off and the question pushed to the Senate floor for debate, even if it would split the party down the middle. The policy committee, meeting behind closed doors to decide whether to vote the gas bill onto the floor, had heard eloquent pleas from both sides, one of the most eloquent having come from Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois. After the debate had lasted for some time, word came that the President-elect of Brazil was in the Vice-President's ante-room waiting to address the Senate, and hastily, so as not to keep him waiting, the policy committee voted to bring the natural gas bill to the floor. Mr. Pearson indicates that the result probably would have been the same anyway, but the arrival of Brazil's President-elect had sped up the decision.
A letter writer says that voters, faced with a President who might not be able to discharge his duties for the ensuing four years following 1956, had to make a decision in the upcoming primaries to inform the Republican Party of their feelings in that regard, this writer urging a restructuring of the Presidential terms to six years for one term. He finds both Senate Majority Leader William Knowland and Vice-President Nixon to be weak potential replacement candidates, both unknown by the people and neither of presidential caliber, that Mr. Nixon had nothing to his credit except that he had appeared as an attorney against Alger Hiss in 1948, (actually as a member of HUAC during his first term in Congress), and appeared to be "waiting to be named by the "regency" of the Republican Party in case the President failed to run again. He regards the nomination of Senator Knowland as bringing to life again the Taft machine, meaning division and retrogression within the Republican Party. Chief Justice Earl Warren was not seeking the nomination, though as the Republican candidate, he would sweep the country and place the Republican Party in power for a generation, eliminating doubt and obscurity in the nation's foreign policy while establishing the deserved prestige of the country among the nations, removing from the national administration the danger of rule by a Republican regency in the re-election of the President. He also regards Adlai Stevenson as a good candidate and that either one would benefit the nation.
A letter writer says that the last time citizens of Charlotte had voted, they thought they had elected a City Council which would protect the tax rate, but now realized, with the hiring of the smog engineer, that they had been wrong, as it would cost the taxpayers between 25,000 and $50,000, all for no solution. He concludes, "We hope to blow the smoke out of the City Hall with less than $25,000 to $50,000."
A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., indicates that a previous letter writer of Pittsboro had beat him to the punch in taking issue with the newspaper's "naïve, retreating editorial" of January 4, "The Case against 'Interposition'", finding that the prior letter writer had presented a sane and logical case, focusing on the function of the Supreme Court within the republic, to interpret the Constitution and not rewrite it or legislate.
Mr. Cherry is up to his usual tricky nonsense, and, if you want to read the garbage, you can, or just clip it, spread it carefully down on the kitchen floor, and let your doggie have at it, along with pages from "Capt. Billy's Whiz-Bang". We shan't waste our eyesight on it.
A letter writer finds that it was too bad that a group of drivers who used Providence Road each day had not gotten together and stood on the side of that road and obtained the names on a petition of those persons favoring imposition of a parking ban on the road, indicating that the City Council had listened to the gripes of three merchants who stood to lose their parking spaces for a couple of hours each day, in a sense telling 10,000 drivers and their passengers who used the road every day to go jump in the lake. The person, who withholds their name, hopes that the voters of Myers Park had long enough memories to remember that lesson when election time arose, stating that he or she did not know whether to be more ashamed of the City Council and the way in which they had treated City engineer Herman Hoose or the citizens of Myers Park for the way in which they had remained silent.
A letter writer, state chairman of the Natural Gas & Oil Resources Committee, finds that the implications of Government control and price-fixing in peacetime went far beyond the natural gas producers, that the basic American freedom of competition was in peril, that if prices on natural gas producers were fixed in peacetime, it would mark the beginning of the end of free competition as it was known.
A letter writer encloses an article sent to him by a friend in Tucson, Ariz., which, despite having a population half the size of Charlotte, was now getting its third television station. He could not understand why a city as great and growing as Charlotte had been held to only one television station for so many years, pointing out that Montgomery, Ala., also half the size of Charlotte, had two stations, with the third on the way, and that Charlotte had its first station long before either of those cities. He asks when the city would get a second and third station.
Go out and buy a better antenna
Framed Edition
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