The Charlotte News
Thursday, December 20, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed, Note: The front page reports that the President and Indian Prime Minister Nehru had said this date in a joint communiqué issued at the conclusion of the latter's four-day visit, that their talks had confirmed a "broad area of agreement" between India and the U.S. in world affairs. The statement said that the two leaders had gained "greater understanding" of each other's policies, which would promote their efforts to achieve international peace and friendship. They had held their last conversation at the Indian Embassy the previous night, where the President was the Prime Minister's dinner guest, talking together for more than an hour. This date, the Prime Minister was headed to New York for a round of meetings with U.N. officials and American friends in that city, after which he would spend the weekend in Canada before heading home. There was no indication of the specific topics discussed, in keeping with the secrecy surrounding the talks, but U.S. officials familiar with the issues discussed said that the conferences had been very successful from the U.S. point of view. The Prime Minister also appeared to believe that he had achieved his objectives in meeting with the President. The summation of the talks appeared to suggest that while India was neutral between the Soviet and Western power blocs, it was not neutral on the basic issue of Communism, indicating a shared common devotion to "respect for the dignity of man" and support for "the highest principles of free democracy".
In Budapest, the Russian-backed Hungarian Government had reestablished the dreaded international system under which thousands of people had been jailed without trial during the Stalin era. A decree issued by the Presidential Council stated: "Persons whose activity or behavior endangers public order, especially production, can be placed under detention of public security." The maximum detention was for six months. The decree was not published in the Government press but only in the official gazette, which had limited circulation. The practice of detaining persons without trial had been abolished in 1953 when Imre Nagy had become Premier for the first time, a popular move. Because of a severe shortage of coal and power, the Government of Janos Kadar, which had come to power in the wake of the recent revolt, had cut work in the street and machine-building industries to three days per week. Simultaneously, thousands of vital factory workers had been ordered to public construction projects to rebuild homes and business buildings damaged during the revolt. The piece describes the present condition as one of creeping paralysis through the country's industry, while peace appeared to be settling. Russian troops who had smashed the revolt were less evident around Budapest and in the province during daylight hours, but there was no sign that they were withdrawing. The Soviet puppet Premier Kadar was quoted by the Communist East German news agency ADN as telling Eastern bloc correspondents in Budapest that his forces were becoming strong enough to suppress rebellion without Russian assistance. In Oslo, the Hungarian charge d'affaires delivered to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry a note complaining that Norway had given asylum to 130 young Hungarians between ages 12 and 17. Meanwhile, the Kadar Government had won what it considered to be a minor diplomatic victory in that Dr. Meir Touval, the new Israeli minister, had presented his credentials the previous day to President Istvan Dobi in Budapest, indicative of recognition of the new Soviet-backed Government. Hungary was waiting for U.S. minister Thomas Wailes, in Budapest since November 2, to present his credentials, the latter having been reported to be opposed to going through lines of Russian tanks to deliver his credentials to a government which most Hungarians regarded as imposed by the Soviets.
In Dallas, Tex., Federal District Court Judge William Atwell the previous day had held that the Supreme Court, in rendering Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, had not decided the case according to the law, but rather on the basis of what he had called "modern psychological knowledge". He ruled, in effect, that the Dallas public schools need not integrate, at least not immediately, saying that he did so "in order that the school board may have ample time, as it appears to be doing, to work out this problem." He also said: "...[I]f there are civil rights, there are civil wrongs... It seeme to me, in view of the situation, that the white schools are hardly sufficient to hold the present number of white students; that it would be unthinkably and unbearably wrong to require the white students to get out [of the Dallas schools] so that the colored students could come in." He thus dismissed the suit seeking an injunction for immediate integration, without prejudice against renewing it at a later time, to afford school officials time to address the situation. The piece indicates that attorneys had long praised the 87-year old jurist, a lifelong Republican, for his strict insistence on the law. He had long been retired but still sat on nonjury and other cases. On appeal the following July, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals would again reverse, based on the moderate request of the plaintiffs, seeking desegregation "with all deliberate speed", in accordance with the words of the 1955 Brown implementing decision. After remand again, Judge Atwell, without holding the required hearing as directed by the Circuit Court, had consulted with counsel and chose mid-term of the 1957-58 school year as the point when desegregation of the Dallas schools should begin. The Circuit Court would again address the matter in December, 1957, finding that the District Court had ordered the school board restrained from "requiring or permitting" segregation in the public schools, when the Circuit Court clarified that its previous order was to restrain the board only from "requiring" segregation, that there was no affirmative duty to bring about integration.
In New Orleans, the Fifth Circuit held that Harris County, Tex., could not lease its courthouse cafeteria without making certain that black patrons were allowed to use the facilities, affirming the earlier U.S. District Court decision. In a separate decision, the same Court also held that blacks had to be permitted to use the municipal beach and swimming pool at St. Petersburg, Fla., on the same basis as whites.
In Montgomery, Ala., black leaders of the year-long bus boycott asked police to become alert to forestall possible violence when the boycott would end, occurring this date, and black riders would return to the city buses, in the wake of a Federal court order formally ending segregation in intrastate public buses. In a letter to the City Commission mailed the previous night, the leaders declared that there was "that element of violent-minded people, of both races, of which we must be mindful." The Reverend B. D. Lambert reported the previous night to police that two men, appearing to be wearing police uniforms, had splashed his car with acid, but police said that they had dropped the case because of lack of evidence. Intermittent disorders had marked the boycott, including the bombing of the home of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., the prior January 30, though no one had been hurt. Two other bombings of the homes of leaders active in the boycott, including that of a white minister the prior September, had also occurred, in neither of which there had been injuries.
In Denver, Colo., an escaped 16-year old California mental patient who had kidnaped his 17-year old bride at gunpoint and fled north, had been captured in the city early this date after a police chase through deserted streets. Both were in the hospital from injuries suffered when their car left the road and ran into a gulch, with the girl listed in critical condition from a possible skull fracture and internal injuries. Police were looking for an Indian, known as "Chief", whom the teenage boy said had made the trip from California with him, apparently having fled after the accident. The boy said that he did not know whether the Indian was armed, but said that he was "gun-happy". A .22-caliber rifle had been found in the wrecked car. The young couple had eloped the previous month in Montana, and when they returned home to California, the girl had been placed temporarily in a juvenile home and the boy in Napa State Hospital as a mental patient. Later, the girl had returned to her parents' home in Daly City, below San Francisco, and the boy, who had been declared a problem child at age 14, had broken out of the hospital, located approximately 100 miles from Daly City, and had gone to the girl's home, brandishing a gun and taking her with him. The boy had acted violently when an Associated Press photographer had taken his picture as he lay on a hospital table receiving plasma, turning his head away and shouting: "If you don't get out of here, I'll grab that bottle and throw it in your face!" He then made an attempt to grab the plasma bottle, but was restrained by hospital personnel, had then thrown an arm over his face and squirmed. Later, he had told a Denver Post photographer that he was the son of a San Francisco police officer. At least he did not say that he was the Son of the Morning Star, who had once fought the Injuns near a river in southern Montana.
Also in Denver, the embezzlement of nearly $50,000 over six years from a loan company had been charged this date against a female cashier who, according to authorities, had signed a statement admitting that she had taken the money, saying that she did not know why she had done it, that she did not want to do it but had gotten started and could not quit. She had been released on a $2,500 bond following her arraignment. She had worked for the company for a decade at a salary of $240 per month. An investigator for the district attorney said that she had taken between $48,000 and $50,000 at the rate of $10,000 per year until the previous month, when a fellow employee questioned her records.
In Angola, Ind., police had made another attempt this date to question a 40-year old eccentric man blamed for the shootings at nearby Ray accomplished with a rifle and a revolver, leaving three persons dead and two wounded. Two of the victims had not been found until about 18 hours after they had been shot. Police were checking reports of neighborhood grudges, finding the bodies of the other two victims in their home the previous afternoon, having been killed by .45-caliber revolver bullets. A 48-year old farmhand had been found dead in the doorway of his home after the shooting spree on Tuesday night, apparently having had an argument with the shooter. The accused, who had never caused serious trouble previously, was being held without charge in the jail, with State police indicating that he had been crazed by an obsession that "everybody in Ray was out to get him." He sat in his cell mumbling and provided no explanation for the shootings. The sheriff had called him a "mental case", although acknowledging that he had never received any mental treatment. (The surname of the accused, incidentally, is not the basis for the well-known McNaughton legal test for sanity, that having derived from a famous 19th Century case in Britain in which a man had killed a civil servant, Edward Drummond, thinking him British Prime Minister Robert Peel.)
It may not feel quite like it, with
the temperature having reached 59 the previous day in Charlotte,
expected to reach 60 this date and 58 the following day, but there
are only three days left to shop for Christmas
On the editorial page, "The Businessman: Saint or Sinner?" tells of Ogden Nash having written that bankers were just like everybody else, except richer, and imparts that Time had said that the American businessman was just like everybody else, only bolder in his social and economic outlook. The latter publication took its idea from Neil Curry, president of the American Trucking Associations, who had asked where the real radical and revolutionary was to be found in the United States at present, answering that it was behind the desk of any business establishment. Time then presented the image of the modern U.S. businessman as a caricature, "as much a caricature as Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt." That latter caricature presented the businessman as both unhappy and stupid, the latter quality rendering him incapable of seeing in which direction true happiness lay, while his cowardice caused him to be incapable of grasping happiness when it was within his reach and his blind greed sent him chasing after a will-o'-the-wisp, as he "possessed all of the social consciousness of an Irish setter".
Time's "businessman" was dedicated to the "New Conservatism" as a kind of social philosopher, rejecting a dog-eat-dog economy in favor of a "sweeping democratization of society", still taking an "organic view of society", as with old-fashioned conservatives, but also taking a creative role in directing change, having "voluntarily introduced profit sharing and stock purchase plans, launched vast human-relations programs that give the employes all manner of benefits from psychiatry to symphonies." He was also, according to Time, morally materialistic.
It finds Time's views of the businessman to be pleasant myths, in error because they were based on the premise that the "businessman" was a special being, unique and separate in U.S. society, while providing a stereotype which represented no one and certainly not all American businessmen.
It finds the businessman, like other members of the community, to be the product of his environment, dependent on community sentiment for his behavior in social, economic and political matters. If he took on a more liberal attitude toward human progress and assisted in a "sweeping democratization of society", it was because society wanted sweeping democratization and the climate for human progress was favorable. The businessman was a part of society and could not stand alone even if he wanted to do so, in which case, he would be indulging in what Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., called "a romantic nostalgia" for the feudal class system.
It concludes that the businessman was neither automatically virtuous nor automatically villainous, that he was "just like anybody" because he was anybody.
The piece omits to point out that the Time piece had indicated that economist Sumner Schlichter had said that the liberal point of view of this type of "New Conservatism" in business had it as "trickle-down" economics when, in fact, it was not a trickle any longer but rather a river. Mr. Schlichter, however, fails to take into account that one had to be, nevertheless, wary of those whom one might encounter down-river, as some of the modern management might not have in mind at all the workers' deliverance from absolute obeisance to the corporation.
"A Walkie-Talkie for Tar Heel Brass" indicates that Representative Harold Cooley of North Carolina had described the meeting of State officials and the North Carolina Congressional delegation, including its two Senators, as "perhaps unique in the history of the commonwealth."
It indicates that such meetings should become commonplace as an integral part of the administration of the state's affairs, as Federal influence was a thing to be both courted and feared by the states depending upon the area and in what manner the influence was being applied. The ultimate test of legislation from Washington was made on a farm in local areas or in plans for a school bond issue in Mecklenburg County. Good government and efficient administration was served when local needs were made known and elucidated to the Federal Government.
It urges regular communication between State officials and the representatives in Washington.
"It Takes a Full House To Win" indicates that the current year's Carrousel Basketball Tournament was
a "sockdolager
Three teams had come into the tournament unbeaten and all had provided colorful and occasionally frenzied performances. Yet, few had attended the event, which it finds a shame as Charlotte was in a position to become one of the basketball capitals of the South, if not the nation. The previous March, some residents of the city were even talking of bringing the ACC Tournament to the Coliseum—as would finally occur in 1968, having moved from its former perennial home in Raleigh to Greensboro for the first time in 1967.
But because of poor attendance, it was likely that such plans would have to be placed on hold, as only hockey was drawing respectable crowds in Charlotte at present. When asked, most local residents said that they wanted collegiate basketball at the Coliseum, but the city would have to prove its interest by turning out to watch the games before any large number would be scheduled.
"Old Men Know When Old Men Die" indicates that it was said that old men knew when an old man died, and that the same applied with regard to newspapers and magazines when other publications ceased printing.
It indicates it had good reason to be aware of the death of Collier's Magazine, as The News had also been founded the same year, in 1888. It finds that the years had been far kinder, however, to The News. Collier's had its peaks as a quality journal of fiction and informational articles, but rising costs and the lure of more specialized competitors had finally taken their toll. The magazine thus joined other mass circulation magazines which had given up the ghost in recent years.
Liberty had folded in 1950 after 26 years of publication. Survey Graphic, had folded in 1952 after 31 years. Blue-Book had gone under in the current year after 51 years. Scribner's had folded in 1942 after 55 years and North American Review, in 1940 at the age of 125. And Woman's Home Companion would fold in the current year after 83 years. It indicates that all of the publications listed had admirable qualities and had admirers, but not enough.
"Duty draws us to the mourner's bench. But we come with genuine sorrow."
Had The News lived beyond 1985 and not expired along with most afternoon newspapers in the wake of 24-hour news television in the 1980's, making afternoon dailies no longer a staple among current-events hounds, and, unfortunately, leading to a public which no longer reads enough of its news and often, thereby, miss the nuances and interstitial explanations of process which can only be imparted or reminded adequately in print, often omitted or not understood by those who do the talking, often between too much jabberwocking, on television or on radio, it likely would have made such a concluding comment regarding the death of Edwin Yoder on November 30, 2023, whose piece from Oxford had appeared the previous day and who would subsequently become a staff writer for The News, eventually winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for editorial writing with the Washington Star.
A piece from the Baltimore Evening Sun, titled "Collectors' Inflation", indicates that about a century earlier when Sir Thomas Phillips had been busy assembling his vast library of books and manuscripts, he had reportedly purchased a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci for three pounds, the equivalent of less than nine dollars at present, as well as paintings by Signorelli, Carpaccio, and Michelangelo for a pound, the equivalent in 1956 of $2.80. While a pound had been worth more in Victorian times than it was at present, such cheap prices for the works of such masters would nevertheless have been incredible bargains.
Now, such works, when they could be found at all, fetched increasingly high prices. Recently, it had been reported from Paris that a 1906 first edition of Paul Valery's An Evening with M. Teste had sold for more than $1,000, and that a decorated parchment copy, inscribed, of the same poet's "La Jeune Parque" (as partially translated through line 200, page 21) from 1917 had brought about $1,350. A 1930 edition of a work by Colette, illustrated with 30 etchings by Segon Zac, had sold for more than $2,000. Andre Malraux's manuscript of a novel which had appeared in 1927 had brought more than $10,000.
As the masterpiece paintings and the counterparts of first editions in the literary world had become scarcer, they had also become dearer, as had their latter day successors, in a manner never imagined by the collectors of a century earlier who might have expected to pick up masterpieces at ludicrously cheap prices.
Drew Pearson, on his tour of the Far Northern bases, has his column written by assistant Jack Anderson, who tells of Mr. Pearson, while revealing the secrets of others, having kept from the public his own big secret, that he was a "softie" who would be embarrassed at the present column but would be too much of a softie to fire Mr. Anderson for it. He says that Mr. Pearson usually wound up feeling sorry for those he exposed.
While his columns had helped to convict tax-fixer Henry Grunewald, he began writing sympathetic stories about him after a tearful appeal from the man's daughter. After having helped to send influence-peddler John Maragon to jail, he had written a letter on his behalf to his parole board and had helped him obtain a job after his release. He had once revealed that a Pentagon employee had secretly recorded a conversation with NBC executive Frank McCall, after which the Defense Department decided to fire the employee for bad manners, whereupon Mr. Pearson had phoned the deputy secretary at the time, former FDR press secretary Steve Early, and talked him out of doing so. Mr. Pearson had persuaded the Yugoslav Ambassador to the U.S. that freeing Cardinal Stepinac would improve U.S.-Yugoslav relations and in return for the Cardinal's release, Mr. Pearson had offered to print any statement Marshal Tito cared to make. On the Ambassador's recommendation, Tito accepted the arrangement and released Cardinal Stepinac. Mr. Pearson had sought to make the same deal with the Czechoslovakian Ambassador for Associated Press correspondent Bill Oatis to be freed, and neither the AP nor Mr. Oatis ever knew what Mr. Pearson had sought to do. He recounts that most people had also forgotten that Mr. Pearson had discovered the man who had drugged Cardinal Mindszenty, a doctor serving in Washington as Hungarian minister, Mr. Pearson making it so hot for the doctor that he was recalled by Hungary.
Walter Winchell had recently printed a wild, vicious attack on Mr. Pearson, with the latter's friends urging him to sue for libel or at least to strike back, but Mr. Pearson had replied that many years earlier, Mr. Winchell had done a lot of helpful things for him and that he would rather remember those things than his more recent statements, urging viewers of his Sunday television show to tune in to Mr. Winchell's television program on Friday night and give his ratings a boost.
His soft-heartedness did not, however, prevent him from engaging in hard-hitting journalism. During the 1952 presidential campaign, word had leaked to vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon that Mr. Pearson was preparing to attack him, prompting a Nixon aide to phone Mr. Anderson and warn that Senator Nixon would retaliate with a McCarthy-style attack on Mr. Pearson, Mr. Anderson having relayed the message to his boss, whereupon Mr. Pearson said he would change his story about Mr. Nixon, making it stronger.
Nothing distressed Mr. Pearson more than attacks on his veracity, being the first to admit that he had made mistakes. Yet, the best newsmen occasionally were misinformed by sources and the most respected newspapers had made mistakes. Even Time magazine, which recently had sneered at Mr. Pearson's 1956 predictions, had been wrong when it had forecast the week before the 1956 election that the Republicans would win the House. He indicates that Mr. Pearson had done better than most political pundits in predicting. One prediction which Time had derided had come true right after the Time article had gone to press, that "Sir Anthony Eden, whose health is worse than the public realizes, will take a much less active part in the British government."
White House press secretary James Hagerty, who had often tangled with Mr. Pearson in public, had apologized to him in private, having twice telephoned him and admitted that he had been wrong in denouncing certain stories carried by the column.
Mr. Anderson indicates that, right or wrong, Mr. Pearson battled for what he believed was the public good, that while he fought for higher taxes on those in the upper brackets, he was probably the most heavily taxed reporter in the country, that another thing which few people knew was that he had paid the $10,000 in expenses of the French Merci Train delegation when they had come to the U.S. to provide thanks for the Friendship Train, which Mr. Pearson had been instrumental in arranging during latter 1947, prior to the approval of the Marshall Plan.
He concludes that Mr. Pearson's happiest moments were when he was promoting people-to-people friendship, fighting for the independence of a small nation such as Indonesia or offering a plan for world peace, believing literally in making democracy live.
A letter writer, a captain in the Army Rangers, formerly a first sergeant in the Marine Corps, comments on the incident from the prior April 8 in which six Marine recruits had drowned after their staff sergeant, Matthew McKeon, had ordered them on a nighttime forced march into a tidal stream adjoining the Parris Island, S.C., base, the sergeant having thereafter undergone a court-martial, ordered imprisoned at hard labor and initially having been booted from the service, though reinstated by the Marine Corps commandant, albeit reduced to the rank of private. This writer says he had been amazed and annoyed by the numerous editorials and letters attacking the Corps, in which he had served from 1939 to 1945, spending 52 months of that time on foreign shores or on sea duty. He had begun his training at Parris Island and at the time had hated every sergeant until he left. He now believed he had witnessed the passing of an era, that soon the slogan of "once a Leatherneck, always a Leatherneck" would be relegated to the shelf, that no longer would a drill instructor loosen a man's teeth for failing to address him as "sir" or for dropping his rifle. The Corps had begun to look like the Army, acting like it and "(heaven forbid) fight like and with the Army." He finds that the difference between the Army and the Marines was discipline, the "intangible ingredient in any successful enterprise." The Marine recruit learned early that war was horrible, heartless and exacting of physical, mental and moral strength, that a man could live through the human, bug-infested jungles of the Pacific being dependent entirely upon the lessons learned in boot camp, that if the man next to him let the enemy through, he was dead, "and what difference does it make what you've learned or what you're fighting for?" The Army said that they instilled discipline by appealing to a man's dignity, which the writer believes could not be done. He urges editors in the future not to censure a man such as Sergeant McKeon but to write cold facts, instead of human interest drivel, which had caused nearly the whole nation to turn against a man who was doing his duty in the manner of countless non-com's before him. He says that at Fort Bragg a few years earlier, a first lieutenant had overloaded a landing boat which had capsized and nearly 20 men had drowned. Yet, no newspaper had taken up the cry of "hang him", it rather having been called a training accident or "incident" in the Army's official files. He closes by saying that he read The News almost every day and found it a good newspaper with worthy editorials.
A letter writer from Clinton, S.C., comments on an article which had appeared in the newspaper on December 7 written by Jim Becker on Pearl Harbor, which the writer found compelling. He hopes that Mr. Becker would write another article regarding what had taken place in the country since that attack, especially regarding the South, referring to low-priced imports such as textiles, hardwood plywood, etc., presently flooding U.S. markets. He finds that the Japanese were lulling the State Department to sleep while their low-paid industries in Japan were cutting out the nation's guts economically, with hundreds of industries being flooded with imports, prompting the textile industry to lay off hundreds of workers. While the figures showed that less than 10 percent of the cotton goods capacity was being imported at present, that would only increase. He says that the Japanese had advocated the closing of U.S. plywood plants so that they could make plywood in Japan and sell it through American companies, that such action would seal the doom of all American manufacturing and hopes that no one could be so simple as to accept that idea. He indicates that he was the president of a plywood company.
A letter writer from Rock Hill, S.C., thanks the newspaper and wishes it a Merry Christmas for having allowed the writer to use the letters to the editor column during the year, indicating that freedom of expression included sounding off to editors. "Where else can we blow off steam and then see it set up in print, the punctuation and spelling corrected, sometimes adorned with an appropriate picture at no extra charge and all for the lowly cost of a nickel?" He finds it much better than having to use a psychoanalyst's couch for at least $25 per hour. "May jolly Kris Kringle fill your socks with extra bonus tidings. May your homes and families be filled with good cheer and may the New Year find you hale and hearty."
We shall not extend the sentiment, however, because the newspaper is publishing on Christmas Day, despite there being no war afoot, the only usual reason in the past when it has not suspended publication upon the Yuletide. What gives? Just joining the secular herd, we suppose. We may boycott, anyway. We have not decided yet.
The decline of the newspaper from primarily national and international news on the front page, to a decided quota of murder, mayhem and pedestrian local news has been distressing and most boring, leading to our having fallen behind during the year quite a bit, as boredom quickly tires the mind. But, there is not much we can do about it 67 years on. We were warned from the outset of the project by the old-timers of the newspaper that such would eventually occur after Mr. Robinson took over. It does serve as a good reminder though that things have always been tending toward murder, mayhem and rather inhuman behavior on the part of man to fellow man, whether en masse in wars or individually. Such is the primary stock of news, always has been, always will be. Fortunately, it would not be news if it were the commonplace occurrence in the lives of everyone on a daily basis. Such news is the exception which proves the rule that, by and large, human beings relate to human beings on a daily basis in a manner which is cordial and recognizing of the humanity in the other. Still, we may boycott on Christmas Day… That's okay, you don't have to pay us for that day, if we do.
Framed Edition
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