The Charlotte News

Monday, November 19, 1956

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Budapest that the Soviet Army and its Hungarian Communist allies this date had broken the general strike in Budapest, but silent Hungarian workers had immediately resorted to a defiant slowdown strike. Between 30 and 50 percent of Budapest's industrial workers had reported for work in the city's factories this date, many of them declaring that they had returned not because they believed the promises of the Soviet puppet Premier, Janos Kadar, but "because we realize that winter is here, with its misery of cold and hunger." In the workshops which Western correspondents were permitted to visit, they had found workers standing around in groups talking but doing little, if any, work. A Vienna report that the Russians were replacing their tank troops in Hungary with 20 fresh infantry divisions lacked confirmation in Budapest. Radio Budapest said that despite 45 percent of the work force appearing at some of the nation's major plants, in most cases, production could not be resumed for lack of power, attributing the absence of other workers to "transport difficulties". At Csepel, the Danube island which was Hungary's biggest industrial complex, workers remained defiant, showing up in their work clothes but not performing any work. Even though they predicted more of the workforce would show up the following day, they said that there would be no real production in the island's huge iron and steel works in the near future. A spokesman for the workers said that it was the only sound thing they could do for the moment, showing up at the plant to obtain their wages while sticking together, indicating that if they remained at home, the plant gates would be locked, making it easier for the Government to pick them off individually and deal with them at home than if they were at the factories standing together. Only two men had done any work in the plants visited this date by Western correspondents, and it turned out they were repairing their own bicycles. About half of the workers at the Hungarian optical works and the GANZ electrical works in Budapest appeared during the morning, with each having about 4,000 employees. Out of the 10,000-man workforce of the MAGAG state machinery factory, about 3,000 had shown up, while about 30 percent of the 38,000 workers at the Csepel iron and steel plants had reported for work. Russian Army officers, as well as Western newsmen, had visited those plants during the morning, with the Russians having politely inquired as to what the Soviet Army could do to help, asking how the workers reacted to the Government's request to end the general strike. The president of the workers' council in the GANZ factory had said that they had told the Russians that the only help they needed from them was to be left alone, and that when the Russians had promised some weapons for their factory guards, had told them that they had their own firearms and now had their own guards for the factory. They believed that their contact with the Russians was better than that of the Kadar Government, as they had succeeded in obtaining the release of 68 students and four workers arrested by the Russians. The report indicates that the deportation of student and worker rebels, originally reported the previous week by Radio Budapest and then denied by the same station, had been one of the sorest points with workers prolonging the strike.

At the U.N. in New York, Cuba this date brushed aside Hungarian protests and pressed for urgent U.N. action to demand a halt to reported Soviet deportations of Hungarians. The Hungarian delegate had told the 79-nation General Assembly that the reported deportations were "invented by counter-revolutionary circles" to create distrust in the Kadar Government. He acknowledged that arrests had been made in an effort to restore order but said that none of the persons arrested had been deported. The Cuban delegate said that the deportations were not propaganda but were fact, indicating that the criminals were not those arrested but those who were loading Hungarians on trains for deportation to Russia. He urged support of Cuba's proposal to demand a halt to the deportations. The Hungarian Foreign Minister was expected to deny the charge of deportation, as had Budapest Radio the previous day. In its revised form, the resolutions cited the principle of the genocide convention and noted particularly provisions against subjecting a group to unbearable conditions and against transferring children to another group. The U.S. had never ratified the genocide convention, but Hungary, the Soviet Union and 52 other nations had. Supporters of the conventions said that two U.S. delegates, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. Jr., and Senator William Knowland, had fought to keep the genocide charge out of the resolution, suggesting that U.S. Senate factions feared treaties and entanglements. Those sources said that it was pressure from Ambassador Lodge and Senator Knowland which had led Cuba, Ireland, Italy, Pakistan and Peru to drop a genocide charge from their resolution adopted November 9, which had called for withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary and free elections to be conducted under U.N. auspices. A spokesman for the U.S. delegation would make no comment on the genocide portion of either resolution. The new Cuban draft contained further changes intended to gain the support of countries which had felt that the earlier versions had gone too far based on the available evidence.

In Vienna, it was reported that with chartered airliners slated to begin ferrying of Hungarian refugees to the U.S. during the week, the refugees had discovered this date that they were going to be accepted in the U.S. only "on parole", meaning that they would have no status as permanent immigrants, that they would be subject to further investigation by the immigration services and might have to spend weeks at the Camp Kilmer Reception Center in New Jersey. The first groups were tentatively scheduled to reach the U.S. in time for a "free Hungary day" the following Sunday, with one plane possibly departing Vienna on Wednesday bound directly for Milwaukee, where there was a large population of Hungarian origin. The U.S. had offered to provide visas for 5,000 of the nearly 40,000 Hungarians who had fled to Austria since Russian troops had cracked down on November 4 against the Hungarian drive for independence. Eleven other countries had offered havens for refugees and about 6,000 had already departed for homes in Western Europe. Employees of the U.S. Consulate in Vienna had been putting refugee families through health and security checks for several days in preparation for the first air transport to the U.S. But with issuance of visas started this date, officers of the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service had taken over and begun stamping the travel papers of the Hungarians for entrance as "parolees". The new development meant that only some 20 refugees would be able to leave Vienna on the scheduled first plane to the U.S. this date, and it was anticipated that the plane would make stops at Linz and Salzburg in an effort to pick up enough refugees with papers to form a full load. There was no immediate explanation in Vienna for the sudden change in the procedure. It had been understood that the Hungarians, many of whom had risked their lives to get across the border into free Austria, would be granted regular immigrant visas under the emergency refugee act. U.S. Immigration commissioner General Joseph Swing, was expected to arrive in Vienna later this date, accompanied by Representative Francis Walter of Pennsylvania, co-author of the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Nehru told the Indian Parliament this date that Russia's prestige had been "powerfully affected … in Eastern European countries, and noncommitted countries and even among people in the Soviet Union itself." Opening a two-day foreign affairs debate, he said the details of what had occurred in Hungary were not clear but that it was "evident the government of Hungary is not a free but an imposed government, and the people are not satisfied with it."

Also at the U.N., Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold arrived back in New York this date to tell the General Assembly the results of his talks with Egyptian officials regarding the ceasefire in the Middle East. He planned to initiate arrangements for U.N. help in reopening the blocked Suez Canal, which was a major salvage operation expected to take at least six months. Before departing Cairo, he had said that the Egyptian Government had asked for assistance to clear the canal and he had agreed in principle, declining to discuss other matters taken up with Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser prior to making his report to the Assembly. The chief political aide to Premier Nasser said in an interview that Egypt would clear the canal with U.N. assistance. The Egyptians had already protested British clearance operations underway at the north end of the canal as being in violation of Egyptian sovereignty and of the cease-fire. The Secretary-General talked with Premier Nasser and other Egyptian leaders for three days about the duties of the new U.N. police force, which now had more than 500 men standing by at a base within the canal zone, as well as other details of the ceasefire ordered by the General Assembly 11 days earlier between the Egyptians, the British, French and Israelis, following the invasion of Egypt by the French and British to attempt reopening of the canal following its nationalization the prior July 26 by Premier Nasser and his subsequent refusal to agree with a Western proposal to internationalize it under U.N. supervision. There was no indication that the Egyptians had modified their demand for speedy withdrawal of all foreign troops and stationing of the U.N. forces only at points on the old 1948 armistice line between Egypt and Israel, with the chief political aide of Premier Nasser indicating that Egypt expected the withdrawal to begin during the coming week if possible, without waiting for the U.N. troops to take over. One of the British and French conditions, in agreeing to the ceasefire, had been that the U.N. police force would be competent to "secure and supervise" reopening of the canal, having made clear that they expected the U.N. troops to take over occupation of the canal when they withdrew their forces. At present, the British and French held the northern third of the canal. French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau indicated that he thought the Egyptian appeal for U.N. assistance meant that the U.N. troops would be stationed in the canal zone, despite persistent Egyptian denials. In New York with France's U.N. delegation, M. Pineau said on a television program that the U.N. would not be able to clear the canal unless it had its forces on the canal.

Ambassador to Italy Clare Boothe Luce resigned her post this date, accepted by the President with an expression of "greatest personal regret" and congratulations for "a job superbly done". The effective date of her resignation was left open, but Mrs. Luce told reporters that she planned to return to Italy and to leave her post after the Christmas holidays, that her resignation would presumably become effective when a new ambassador was appointed. She had been Ambassador to Italy since early 1953. In her letter of resignation, made public by the White House, she mentioned her recent poor health and said that she would require several months of rest. The President said that he hoped she would eventually return to government service. Mrs. Luce said, however, that she had no such plans at present. She said there was no mention in the hour-long conference with the President of her becoming ambassador to India.

Attorney General Herbert Brownell this date called a conference to plan a course of action for Federal authorities in the South, in the wake of the November 13 Supreme Court decree striking down racial segregation on public intra-state buses. The Court had not issued a formal opinion but merely affirmed the prior District Court ruling of the previous June, basing the affirmance on Brown v. Board of Education, Baltimore v. Dawson and Holmes v. Atlanta. The meeting was scheduled for December 10 and the Attorney General had asked 34 U.S. Attorneys stationed in 14 Southern states to attend, stating that the conference would consider and decide upon measures most appropriate to secure observance of the Constitution and laws by carriers and all others who might subsequently require segregation of white and black passengers on common carriers. Mr. Brownell instructed the Southern prosecutors to bring with them copies of any local or state law in effect in their districts relating to racial segregation. He said that in view of the November 13 decision invalidating Alabama and Montgomery statutes and ordinances on the subject, it was now clear that any such law, statute, ordinance or regulation had to be regarded as "dead letter".

It had been reported on the front page the prior Thursday that in the wake of the Supreme Court affirmance, 5,500 hymn-singing persons had crowded into the Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery the previous night and voted unanimously to end the boycott which had begun the prior December 5 after the arrest of Rosa Parks for not giving up her seat to a white passenger at the direction of a bus driver. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., had told the cheering group, members of the Montgomery Improvement Association, that the decision of the Supreme Court should reach Montgomery courts within several days and he urged calmness and restraint when it came, that until then boycotters at the church and at a similar meeting on the other side of town had agreed unanimously that they would walk to work or share rides with friends. The prior Tuesday, a State circuit court judge had granted the City of Montgomery an injunction stopping car pooling by blacks, which had provided transportation since the beginning of the boycott, and a Federal District Court judge had refused on Wednesday to issue an injunction blocking City interference with the carpools. Reverend King had urged those at both meetings to be "calm and reasonable with understanding, goodwill and Christian love", that they should not take it as a victory over the white man, but receive it with dignity, urging people not to return to the buses and push people around, that they were just going to sit where there was a seat. He added later that he wished he could say that when they went back to the buses on an integrated basis, there would be no white person who would insult them or that violence would not erupt, but that he could not say that because he did not know. He urged that if someone pushed them, not to push that person back, indicating that they had to have the courage to refuse to hit back. The manager of the Montgomery bus system, the patronage of which had dropped by more than 30,000 per day during the boycott, said that drivers would continue to enforce segregation until formally relieved of the State-prescribed duty. The Montgomery City Commission made no comment the prior week.

Also on November 13, Justice Felix Frankfurter, in the context of the appeal from Ohio of Dr. Sam Sheppard for his second-degree murder conviction entered in December, 1954, had issued a rare, brief statement explaining why the Supreme Court generally refused petitions for writs of certiorari in some cases, while granting in others when four Justices so voted, the Court having that date declined cert. to Dr. Sheppard. The Court, of course, would eventually vote 8 to 1 to reverse the conviction on habeas corpus in 1966, on the basis of the "carnival atmosphere" pervading the 1954 trial, working to deprive the defendant of a fair trial and thus due process, with the second trial then resulting in Dr. Sheppard's acquittal, his defense on both the habeas corpus petition and in the second trial having been supplied by F. Lee Bailey—aided, perhaps, by the intervening power of television, as Mr. Bailey would acknowledge, emanating from the weekly human-interest drama, "The Fugitive", and its depiction of the relentless pursuit of Dr. Richard Kimble by the police lieutenant obsessed with his capture. Unfortunately, Dr. Sheppard, when finally freed, would find little more solace in that freedom than had Dr. Kimble in his "freedom" achieved only by the bracelet-severing, supervening fortuity of a train wreck.

Nine Charlotte men had been released on bond this date following three local raids the prior Saturday on alleged gambling, conducted by special agents of the intelligence division of the IRS against a restaurant, service station and an individual at the Moose Lodge Club. They seized approximately $6,000 in cash and scores of betting cards. They had conducted surveillance for several months and those arrested faced charges of failure to pay special Federal taxes required on gambling.

Julian Scheer of The News reports that Charlotte was strictly small time when it came to big-time gambling, but that there was plenty of small-time stuff going on, with the city having its share of $500 and $1,000 bettors, though no syndicates or mobster gamblers were present, with the larger bets being handled by a small number of local professionals. Most of the gambling was confined to penny, nickel and dime wagers in the butter and eggs numbers racket, traditionally carried on by the black population. Authorities said that Charlotte was a "clean" and "well-enforced" city and that the arrests made the prior Saturday would not set off a wave of new arrests. The local professionals confined their activities to football and other sports bets, receiving bets beginning at one dollar from individuals who sought to pick three or more winners on a card. The bets would zoom to as much as several thousand dollars, betting on almost anything, from presidential elections to Charlotte Hornets baseball games. The odds came from sources in Milwaukee, Philadelphia or New York.

Meanwhile, the newspaper lists next to the story the football card for the prior Saturday, with the slated odds for each game, in case you want to place a bet on one of them the following Saturday. A shrewd bettor could have made some money by placing a bet for longer odds against UNC beating Notre Dame, as they lost by a touchdown plus an extra point. We refrain from comment on the upcoming bowl in Charlotte in 2023 in a couple weeks or so, as UNC's forces will be considerably depleted. Place your bets as you will, or not. Anyone who bets on sports is a prize sucker. It's a sport, dummy.

In Wickenburg, Ariz., an automobile dealer wrote a letter to a customer seeking action on a long overdue bill: "Dear friend, what would all your neighbors think if we came to your town and repossessed your car?" The customer had written back: "I have taken this matter up with my neighbors and they all think it would be a lousy trick."

Speaking of lousy tricks, the day before, as reported a week hence somewhere, one of our dogs got into some poison and wound up dead at the vet, while we were away for the weekend. We think it must have been foul play, as why would the dog get into poison while the family was away, when it never did while the family was present? There is something rotten within the walls of Denmark. Whoever it was may have gotten the notion from reading a TV Guide synopsis in advance of this broadcast which aired that very evening, and decided to test the premise on a poor, helpless doggie that morning. In keeping with the fact that they never tell us anything, however, we never knew that or even noticed that one of the doggies was missing. We cannot say for sure which dog it was, only that it was neither Blackie nor Bambi, and we do not think it was Milwaukee, but possibly Whitey, of whose coloration and form we have no firm memory, leading us to wonder whether Whitey ever existed. It may have been yet another, because the doggie's name was not provided in the reportage of the incident. But whoever you are, we are on your trail...

On the editorial page, "Colonialism: Moscow's Fake Issue" finds colonialism to be the dirty word of the present diplomacy, sticking oddly tightest to the British and French, and, by inference, to the U.S., though the latter was mightily trying to escape the taint through its independent course within the U.N.