The Charlotte News

Thursday, December 27, 1956

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Cairo that Lt. General Raymond Wheeler, director of the clearing operations of the Suez Canal, had announced this date that the Egyptian Government had agreed that the U.N. salvage fleet could begin clearing the southern end of the canal immediately, indicating further that the operation would begin the following day. Cairo newspapers had said that Egyptian technicians had already started clearing channels at the midpoint of the canal and at its southern terminus, "preparatory to conducting research about sunken ships," the story adding that the statement obviously referred only to the clearing of mines from the channel, which had begun earlier in the week by the Egyptians. A British ship and two French vessels were continuing salvage operations in the Port Said harbor, the northern entrance to the canal, the work having been begun by the British occupation force, which had also cleared a channel through the northern third of the canal to El Cap. An authoritative Egyptian informant had indicated earlier that Foreign Minister Mahmoud Fawzi and U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold had reached an agreement in principle in New York for the beginning of clearing operations, stating that the "necessary instructions have been given regarding this", but providing no details, there having been no confirmation, however, of the information from U.N. headquarters in New York. Two top assistants to the Secretary-General, who had been dispatched to Cairo, were due to arrive this date, seeking to speed work on the clearing operations. General Wheeler and Canadian Major General E. L. M. Burns, commander of the U.N. emergency police force in Egypt, would be meeting with the two U.N. representatives and were also expected to talk with Egyptian officials. One of the two U.N. representatives had indicated that the solution to the problem lay with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's Government. The prospects of any long-range settlement on the canal's future, after it had been nationalized by Egypt the prior July 26, had dimmed, however, with the statement from a reliable Egyptian source that President Nasser's Government would no longer consider negotiating with Britain and France.

Representative Omar Burleson of Texas said this date that he would oppose any legislative proposal to increase the number of Hungarian refugees allowed into the country, while Representative Usher Burdick of North Dakota said that he would favor raising the quota, presently filled at 21,500. Mr. Burdick was a member of the Judiciary Committee, which would consider that legislation, while Mr. Burleson was not a member, but headed a special national security subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Mr. Burleson said that admitting the refugees could not be justified either for national interest or humanitarian reasons, that the large number of refugees allowed to leave showed that the Russians believed it to be to their advantage to have the mass exodus, and that the refugees were not carefully screened, possibly allowing some Communist secret police to be among them. Mr. Burdick said that "any time they're murdering people, I'm in favor of helping the victims. They know more about Communism than we ever will here. They've lost their jobs and risked their lives opposing it." The opposing views, provided in separate interviews, suggested that the President's proposal to ease the refugee problem might not pass the Congress in 1957. The previous day, the President had ordered U.S. agencies to continue processing applications of refugees who wanted to gain entry to the country, even though the present quota was filled. Assistant press secretary Murray Snyder, in announcing the President's stance, made it clear that it was a tentative move pending a final decision on whether to raise the quota, and that the decision would not be made until after the President placed the refugee problem before a scheduled New Year's Day meeting with Congressional leaders of both parties. Vice-President Nixon, who had just returned from a trip to the Austrian-Hungarian border, had met with the President the previous day to tell of his view that America "must do more" to help the refugees from Communist oppression, following the suppressed Hungarian revolt of October and November. The Vice-President said that the President had assigned a "top priority" to the quota matter.

Charles Kuralt of The News tells of an Hungarian couple in Charlotte who had fled six weeks earlier from the fighting in the streets of Budapest to the Austrian frontier. Two weeks earlier, they had been married in Vienna. They had a big breakfast this date together in Charlotte and then had taken a deep breath, as the excitement was over and it was time to meet their new town. They were living in the home of a Charlotte couple until their own cottage was ready. They stopped at a Providence Road food store to ponder a squash, with the male of the couple asking whether it was a fruit, being told it was a vegetable, commenting that it was "a strange thing". At a soda fountain, the newlyweds sipped a Coca-Cola, which the male said he had tasted in Vienna, but not with ice. His wife said to him in Hungarian that it was good with ice, unlike wine. His wife remarked on the churches of the city, asking whether there was an "Evangelist", meaning Lutheran, smiling when told that there were several. The man found familiar things, a Jaguar automobile, a Rolleiflex camera, an American trademark he had seen in Europe. A former fighter pilot who hoped to fly again, he was to be shown the city from the air during the afternoon by the son of the couple with whom they were staying. The only time his wife stopped smiling was when she looked through a magazine of photographs of the revolt in Budapest. Her husband pointed to a picture of a patriot loading his rifle on a cobblestone street, saying that he had been there and had seen the picture being taken. He had escaped from prison at the height of the revolution and wore bits of green, white and red cloth in his lapel to honor the Hungarian flag. He kept turning to his wife and smiling, noticing that she was wearing a new dress, asking, "Who is this girl?" The manager of the grocery store had clapped both of them on the shoulder and grinned, saying: "You'll like it here. You'll see." A woman who lived next door to the house where they were staying had run into them outside a drugstore and they all laughed and shook hands, the neighbor having sent over wedding gifts the previous night. A former refugee, meanwhile, was preparing their new cottage, building a chimney for them, while another man was giving them a heater, a woman was providing sheets and another woman, a blanket. As the woman of the host couple drove them about the city this date, the two sat at the window of the car, watching "the green lawns and neat houses and big trees go by. They leaned back against the seat and smiled at each other." The woman closed her eyes. "The bad dream was over and the dawn had come."

In Malibu, Calif., a gale-whipped brush and timber fire had raised with new fury this date, as two new hot spots had broken out and the perimeter had increased to 22 miles, while the fire burned for the second consecutive day in a scenic area extending from the Pacific Ocean inland to the Santa Monica Mountains, having consumed more than 20,000 acres and a number of substantial homes, with one man having died. Winds up to 50 mph had made fighting the fire at the lower levels difficult for fire crews, while those higher up had reported that they were all but helpless in the face of the winds, which reached 70 to 80 mph gusts. One new fire had raced down Corral Canyon to U.S. Highway 101 on the east, and the other had broken out in Sequit Canyon on the west, first burning to the ocean, then heading back to the mouth of the canyon and flaming north. The stricken area, dotted with expensive homes, beach cottages, large and small trailers and ranches, was located where the coastline ran east and west, 35 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County fire chief estimated that at least 27 homes had been consumed. An uncounted number of small outbuildings had also perished. Frightened deer, rabbits and coyotes fled from the mountains and many had been consumed by the fire. Homes destroyed included a luxury beach house owned by Ralph Edwards, television master of ceremonies for "This Is Your Life", among other programs. Mr. Edwards had returned to his Beverly Hills residence after giving a party at the beach house Christmas evening. Still standing were his neighbors' homes, those of actor Raymond Burr, composer Gordon Jenkins and producer Charles Erskine. The home of movie producer Arthur Freed and its $150,000 orchid nursery had been spared when the wind shifted, but the adjoining $75,000 home of his brother, Hugo Freed, had burned. A reporter encountered actor Jackie Coogan using a residential telephone in the Paradise Cove area, Mr. Coogan saying that he and his neighbors were leaving, although apparently not in immediate danger at that time. Several hundred families had been evacuated as flames roared down one canyon after another, many returning, however, after the flames had passed through their particular area, leaving no more fuel for the fire. The fire had jumped the Pacific Coast Highway in several places, closing it off to traffic.

In Anchorage, Alaska, the Alaskan Air Command had reported this date that a four-engine tanker plane carrying eight men had crashed northwest of Willow, 50 miles north of the city, it not yet being known whether there were survivors, with a ground party en route to the scene. According to the Air Force, the plane had crashed on Bald Mountain just minutes after taking off from the Elmendorf Air Force Base the previous night on a routine training mission. The plane was a tanker version of the B-29 and was used for refueling other aircraft during flight. A huge explosion and fire had been reported in the vicinity of Bald Mountain by residents of the area, seen and heard for many miles distant.

In Houston, a man from New York City was being held under $100,000 bond after being arrested on a New York warrant, charging illegal gold dealings, specifically with conspiracy to defraud the Federal Government of its function in fixing and regulating the importation and export of gold coin or secret bullion. Secret Service agents said that the man had been indicted in New York in August, 1952 and that he had been in Mexico for a year before being deported, that the indictment had alleged six million dollars in gold had been diverted to the black market.

In Charlotte, City police, investigating a fatal automobile crash this date, found 31 $100 bills in the wrecked car, and by noon, still did not know to whom the cash belonged. A 63-year old man had died of multiple injuries during the morning while officers were still waiting to question him about the cash. A female companion, 41, was still under observation at Memorial Hospital, suffering lacerations of the head and both legs. The dead man's car had struck a utility pole at Central Avenue and Eastway Drive shortly after midnight, cutting the pole in two and cutting electrical service to the Chantilly and Monroe Road sections for several hours. Police found the man lying 63 feet from the car, which had slid 61 feet following the collision. One of his shoes was found a few feet in front of the car. Police had not yet determined who was driving the car, and investigating officers had found the $3,100 in a red change purse within the car. Claims on the large sum had been filed by both the injured female companion and the dead man's family, police indicating that they were holding the money until the rightful owner could be ascertained.

Starting December 31, The News would begin a new medical column, "To Your Good Health", by Dr. Joseph G. Molner, one of the nation's outstanding public health authorities, his column having been praised by physicians and medical authorities. A new woman's page beauty and charm feature, "A Lovelier You" by Mary Sue Miller, would also begin as an attractively illustrated weekday column with beauty hints and tips by a woman who had been one of the original Powers Girls and a fashion and glamour model, having appeared in many well-known national advertisements and having taught at the famous Powers School of modeling. The two new features would be the first of a series of additions and changes to the newspaper, in an effort to provide readers with expert medical advice and information in an enlightening and colorful manner. The latter column would include clever notes about "secretary spread", "crepey throat", posture, exercises, dieting and many other topics. That sounds like it may be hush-hush and on the Q.T., something we learned about during the Watergate scandal. You may have to learn some Spanish and Mexican phrases to embrace it properly.

In New York, zoology professor Dr. B. M. Crooks, who taught at Fort Valley State College in Georgia, said that he had seen between 100 and 500 college students make such misspellings as contained in the statement: "A skeeter bit the human bean on the sholder of his boddy, drawing blud, and he called a docer and nerse before he diviliped brane fever." He said in an address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science that he had also seen such renderings as "ginny pig" "colur", "curcle", "somthing", "punkin", "worf", and "anamal", concluding that many college students could not spell common words, that some did not know the alphabet and that something ought be done to correct it. He said: "It is well known that college students do not read, write, nor comprehend as well as they should. This study [over a 26-year period] proves that they cannot spell either." You should have said "or", not "nor", forming a double-negative in context.

On the editorial page, "Courthouse Rumors and Turkey Hash" finds the talk of putting the County Police and the Civil Service Board members under the County Commission to be as turkey hash, there being too much of it served too often without visible reason.