The Charlotte News
Thursday, February 16, 1956
TWO EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Thomasville, Ga., that the President, vacationing on the plantation of Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey, had not been able to shoot any quail during his first hunting trip since suffering his heart attack on September 24. He had been up early and had breakfast, consisting of a small steak, before he and Secretary Humphrey began the hunt. He and the Secretary had gone to the fields aboard a green-wheeled roadster drawn by two white mules, behind which was another hunting roadster with red wheels, carrying the bird dogs and some of the black men who were beaters of the bushes, designed to flush out the quail. After two hours, neither of them had brought down any birds. (Some thirty-six years later, the Clintons would have better success.) White House press secretary James Hagerty said that he would not be surprised if the President played a few holes of golf before the end of the week-long vacation. Since his heart attack, he had not played any golf, other than a few putts and practice of his iron shots.
A closed meeting of the Senate Elections subcommittee had been called this date to discuss a projected broadened inquiry into campaign contributions in the wake of the passage of the natural gas deregulation bill, with the subcommittee chairman, Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee, saying that he would recommend that the subcommittee undertake an investigation into "campaign contributions, federal elections and any evidence of corrupt practices which may be revealed." He said that he anticipated a "far wider" inquiry than only of the contributions or pressures applied regarding the natural gas bill, and that it would run throughout the year.
In London, raging floods and a new cold wave had struck much of Europe and the Middle East this date, following 17 days of freezing weather which had already taken 568 lives. Torrential rains and melting snows had brought Turkey new disasters in its worst winter on record, with the known dead there being 72. Ice jams and a brief thaw had caused the Rhine River and scores of other rivers to overflow their banks in central Europe. Yugoslavia estimated a million dollars worth of flood damage from the Strumica River. The Netherlands reported the coldest night since 1942, with temperatures down to 13 below zero. Spain, normally sunny, had frozen up again following warmer weather the previous day. Famine was also in prospect and crop losses had run into the millions. France still led the list of nations with deaths from the weather, totaling 124, with Turkey being second, Italy and Yugoslavia, suffering 67 each, Britain, 47, and numerous others in several other nations.
In Mont Jolli, Quebec, it was reported that famous pilot, "Whitey" Dahl, who had been a flier of fortune since the Spanish Civil War, was believed missing with three others on a flight over northeastern Canada's frozen wastes and icy waters. He had been flying an American-owned DC-3 transport plane, which had disappeared early Tuesday on a 3 1/2 hour, 400-mile flight from Baffin Island to Fort Chimo, Que. He had been flying supplies for the distant early warning radar line base presently under construction across the Canadian north.
In London, a new rumor was going around that Princess Margaret would soon be converted to Roman Catholicism, but neither Buckingham Palace nor other official sources had commented on the reports, which had been published in some Continental and London newspapers. The Duke of Norfolk, Britain's leading Roman Catholic layman, denounced as "sheer nonsense" the rumors that his audience the previous week with Pope Pius XII had been to discuss the conversion of a "noted English personality" to the Church. It was believed that Margaret's religious outlook had been the major reason for her having broken off her marital plans with Royal Air Force Group Capt. Peter Townsend the prior fall, as he had been previously divorced, and in her statement announcing that she would not marry him, had said that "being mindful of the church's teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before any others…"
Charles Kuralt of The News reports that an informal poll taken by the newspaper among Charlotte elementary school teachers, principals and PTA presidents this date found only one person who favored, without reservation, the proposal of having teacher aides in the schools. All 20 of the teachers randomly polled found fault with the idea, one calling it "ridiculous". A member of the City School Board had proposed a study of the idea the previous day, with the aides taking over routine tasks, freeing teachers to teach. Most of the principals also disfavored the idea, with only one female principal endorsing it wholeheartedly. Another principal had called it perhaps "a necessary evil" but that it was not the answer to overcrowded classrooms, that no teacher wanted 50 students, even with an assistant. He expressed the fear that if it were implemented, people would begin thinking that it was a good system and he did not think it wise. Presently, the largest classrooms in elementary schools had 40 pupils. The assistant City school superintendent said that he would like to see the system tried in one or two schools on a limited basis to see how it would work, an idea also put forward by several of the teachers. One teacher said that while keeping records was a chore, she learned a lot about her pupils that way. A PTA president said that she thought teachers could use aides on the playground but that they might get in the way inside the classroom. All of the teachers agreed that they would like to have less routine work, but most of them said that they spent nearly all of their classroom time actually teaching, with two suggesting that any aides who were hired should begin work only in the afternoon after the children had gone home, when all of the routine work was performed. One person said that recent school construction had made classes considerably smaller at one elementary school and that there was no longer a need for such assistance as there might have been years earlier.
Emery Wister of The News tells of the public ice-skating at the Coliseum the previous night having been a resounding success, and that local skaters were looking forward to the next time the rink would be opened to them, likely to be March 19 or 20, following the end of the Hollywood Ice Revue, scheduled for March 18. A basketball game was scheduled for March 23, and otherwise, the rink might be available for about a week following March 18. By that point, the city would have about 400 pairs of skates to rent. Skaters by the hundreds had turned out the night before, with a random sample showing that 10 of 12 had been from the North, with only two of them native North Carolinians, those having learned to skate in the North. It was impossible to estimate how many had turned out, as people would finish skating and then provide their skates to others, but at times there were as many as 500 people on the ice, with it being so crowded that it melted as fast as it froze, causing anyone who slipped to become soaking wet. One skater had cracked that there was no danger of getting cut by the ice, but that one could get drowned. The Charlotte Life Saving Crew had given first aid to six persons who had taken falls, with one woman having suffered a bad cut and another having skated into her, requiring six stitches at the hospital. Many persons were skating for the first time and spectators could almost see their improvement as they gained confidence.
Most motorists in Mecklenburg County remained on the road this date after successfully meeting the previous night's midnight deadline for obtaining their 1956 license tags, with no tickets having been issued by the County Police for tag violations. A police captain had stated that some people had neglected to remove expired plates from the front of their vehicles, which was confusing to police and a violation of the law. The last-minute crowd of tag purchasers the previous day had been exceptionally light at the Carolina Motor Club on Tryon Street in Charlotte, with the vice-president and general manager having estimated that there had been a line of approximately 100 people waiting at the doors during the morning, but most of them having neglected to register their automobiles or to obtain their title confirmation before purchasing new tags. The total number of tags sold in the county in the current year had been 71,231, compared to 62,188 the previous year.
The Charlotte postmaster said that the three curb-service mailboxes had been returned to their regular locations around the Post Office Building, after having been removed temporarily to receive a coat of paint, and that eventually all of the mailboxes across the city would receive the red, white and blue paint as soon as good weather arrived.
Bob Quincy, on the sports page, reports of a riot following the North Carolina-Wake Forest basketball game in Chapel Hill the previous night, out of which had arisen the question of whether the teams should cancel subsequent meetings, with assistant Wake Forest coach, future head coach, Bones McKinney saying emphatically that they should not cancel them.
On the editorial page, "Give the Teacher Time To Teach: Charlotte Faces up to a Problem" finds that the ghost of "little-red-schoolhouse" doctrines still haunting public education in Charlotte, with the problem being not only one of classroom deficiencies and teacher shortages, but also regarding the inefficient use of teachers, that by burdening qualified teachers with sub-professional tasks which could be performed by less trained and less scarce personnel, the highly trained personnel were being significantly wasted.
The City School Board was aware of that problem and the previous day had authorized an immediate and intensive study of the possibility of employing teacher aides to ease the burden of routine clerical tasks. It finds it an important step, potentially clearing the way for the most significant improvements in basic educational techniques in decades, enabling the teacher to be free to teach.
A study conducted in Bay City, Mich., had found in an experiment that such teacher aides worked well, and the piece urges careful study of that experiment by Charlotte. They had found that elementary school classes, with between 45 and 52 students, had made greater progress with the presence of a teacher aide than other classes with under 30 students taught by an equally qualified teacher without an aide. It had shown that teachers with aides spent less time correcting papers, writing lessons, controlling pupils, taking roll, making reports and performing out-of-school tasks, and spent more time on lesson plans, group planning, counseling, dictation, reading to the group, recitation and in free time.
The aides took care of the routine
tasks, such as keeping records, hall duty, supervising of recess,
playing of the piano, recording grades, helping absentees catch up,
helping during recess, arranging materials, taking telephone
messages, operating the movie projector
It lists several predictable
advantages which the teachers had stated from the presence of aides
in the classroom. According to the Fund for the Advancement of
Education, elementary school teachers at present were spending
between 25 and 69 percent of their time each day on housekeeping, clerical
and other activities which required little or no professional
competence, amounting to four hours each week spent outside the
school on records, report cards and other clerical tasks. (We were
called upon by our mama, a third grade school teacher, routinely to
help her with such tasks at home, including grading of routine
papers, after we had gotten beyond the third grade, where the answers
were objective in nature, which she would then quickly double-check
to ensure our accuracy, which was never challenged—as there is
nothing more disheartening, as in sports, as a bad call, such as that
at the end of regulation in the recent Duke-Virginia basketball game. We do not usually take up any brief for Duke athletics, even if
our mama once taught a later Duke player, whose papers we once
graded, but that one was ridiculous
The piece thus recommends a fair trial of teacher aides, as the facts appeared encouraging.
"A Good, Strong Democratic Sound" tells of restrictions on free speech being largely notable by their absence at UNC, as students held vigorous debates and faculty members lectured without timidity, following the mandate of such an influential trustee as Victor Bryant of Durham, who had advocated following "wherever their search for knowledge leads them." Even townspeople in Chapel Hill had gotten into the act with friendly and lively street-corner discussions on every conceivable topic, such interchange prevalent in the town for a long time.
It notes that a few radicals and bigots, plus more than a few thoughtful persons, had taken advantage of the freedom which "blows along the brick walls of the campus to say out loud whatever happened to be on their minds." It had often produced discordant clatter from the University, but had resulted in a strong democratic sound for which everyone was better off.
Thus, it was glad that the two editors of the Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper, had been given an overwhelming vote of confidence in the recall election held two days earlier. The editors, Edwin Yoder and Louis Kraar, had only been accused of disagreeing with the majority of students on such issues as segregation, inter-fraternity secrecy and big-time football, namely the hiring of coach Jim Tatum, who had said that "winning is everything", though coach Tatum had expressed his desire that the editors not be removed for merely criticizing him and big-time football.
It concludes that it was reasonable to assume, therefore, that among the 1,777 students who had voted to retain the editors, there were more than a few who disagreed with their editorials, suggesting that those were students who understood that democracy was more than a matter of silencing minority opinions, whether from a student newspaper or from anyone else, and it congratulates those students for the way they had voted.
But would it not have made a much sounder point had the exact number of students voting for them totaled 1,776? Ah, well, one can't have everything in a democracy. Maybe they should have a recount. And the losers, perhaps, should start their own newspaper.
A piece from the Louisville Courier-Journal, titled, "You, Too, (Slurp) Can Be a Winner!" states that people had become so accustomed to having the powers of television ignore attempts to improve the medium that people wondered whether it was worth the effort, taking as example the high-minded crusade against commercial eaters, finding nothing more unpleasant than the sight of an announcer grimacing at the camera while smacking his mouth and trying to pretend that he was in borderline ecstasy over some soggy hamburger—which still holds, incidentally, especially regarding those ridiculous McDonald's ads we see during basketball games, pretending to elevate to the level of haute cuisine lousy little processed hamburgers, which now cost an arm and a leg for little better than horsemeat, with proper demographics for the targeted audience in play. The piece continues that not only had the eaters become more numerous but that their fare had even become double-decked. It finds it depressing.
Nevertheless, it is impelled to venture a suggestion, as it appeared that television was out to corrupt table manners of the younger generation, ascribing particular villainy to the makers of breakfast foods and candy bars, which made it appear that no child could appreciate them without smacking of the mouth.
It indicates that in its day, they had been taught to sit up at the table, keeping their elbows at the sides and their mouths shut while chewing, that singing at the table or smacking one's mouth was considered ill mannered and sufficient cause for finishing of the meal in the kitchen, if at all. But now, it finds, "skinny little elbows flying and threatening anyone within a hairbrush reach," the young eater dove into his bowl of Munchies and yodeled approval of the product to the accompaniment of great mouth-smacking.
It finds that the effect it would
have on the young could not be ascertained, indicating that its older
friends reacted to the sandwich eaters only by turning their heads
until the smacking, slurping and gulping had ceased. But the young
were more impressionable and it was getting too old to reach across
the table and back-hand junior each time he started singing
And some people worry about the violence on television... What about the supposedly innocuous fare of the type which the piece considers? especially when the commercials, themselves, appear to condone sometimes practical jokes and "mayhem", like those stupid insurance commercials with that guy who should have been put on waivers years ago, another one often seen during basketball and football games. We do not blame the actor involved, as everyone, we suppose, has to make a living somehow as an actor, but the sponsor and the writers of such tripe ought have their heads examined. The one being broadcast repeatedly now, with the idiot, playing the role of a superannuated child, trying his best to distract adjoining drivers with his cell phone, ought be condemned as potentially a hazard to motorists, masquerading inherent danger with cuteness. Next time someone has an accident because some foolish child in an adjoining car has decided to emulate the commercial and deliberately sought to distract another driver with a cell phone, the sponsor ought be indicted along with the immediately responsible parties as an accomplice. It is not in the least funny. Mayhem… Ha-ha.
Drew Pearson tells of Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee having been selected to carry on the investigation of the gas and oil lobby within the context of the Elections subcommittee normally chaired by Senator Thomas Hennings, who had resigned because he was up for re-election. He says that Senator Gore was young and unimpeachable in his integrity, standing up to Senator Johnson, the Majority Leader, in backstage discussions regarding the gas lobby, Senator Gore insisting that the investigation should be broadened to include the entire gas lobby, not just the limited investigation by the special committee regarding the matter of the $2,500 campaign contribution to Senator Francis Case, which had already held two days of hearings and had then finalized its work.
Senator Gore had gone with Senator Hennings when the latter had been called to Senator Johnson's office to persuade him not to broaden the investigation—as explained further below by Marquis Childs. As the hour had approached for the hearing called by Senator Hennings with Senator Case, Senator Hennings had told Senator Gore that they should leave, at which point Senator Johnson said that they should go ahead as he had not invited them to his office in the first place.
Senators Gore and Mike Mansfield of Montana would be the two Democrats on the regular Elections subcommittee and could be depended on to do a good job, with Senator Carl Curtis having implemented every possible roadblock to a broadened investigation.
Some residents of Washington, especially the lobbyists, indicates Mr. Pearson, had long wished the most terrible fate to befall him, says that they would not mind him being boiled in oil or shoved off the top of the Washington Monument, but that he was indebted to the House Appropriations Committee for showing concern about his physical safety. Some weeks earlier, he had accompanied Alcohol Tax Unit agents on a raid of a moonshine still in Roanoke, Va., where he had encountered no grave dangers during the raid, later portrayed on his Sunday television program, showing that the moonshiners had been fairly friendly and had even consented to being interviewed on camera by Mr. Pearson. But recently, Representative J. Vaughan Gary of Virginia had stated alarm over Mr. Pearson's presence during the raid, questioning Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey behind closed doors, expressing surprise that a reporter and press photographer had accompanied one of the raids, stating that he had concern that such persons might be injured and give rise to a question as to whether the Government ought compensate for any injuries. Secretary Humphrey had said that he was not personally acquainted with the matter, but Congressman Gary had pressed the issue, stating his concern over the propriety of a raiding party going out to raids stills, accompanied by the press. Secretary Humphrey insisted that he knew nothing more about the matter than did Mr. Gary, but believed that there was good reason for it if the press accompanied the raiding party. Mr. Gary said that if there was such a reason, they ought to know about it, and Secretary Humphrey promised to check into it, saying that he would possibly like to go, himself, on such a raid.
Marquis Childs finds that "beneath the outwardly calm surface" there was a growing resentment among Senate Democrats regarding the tight control exercised by Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. He says that it was inaccurate to suggest that a rebellion was brewing, but that it was true that the potential was present in a growing feeling that issues which might be used in the general election against the Republicans were being blurred deliberately.
One such example was the manner in which the investigation of the gas lobby regarding influence of the natural gas deregulation bill, which Senator Johnson had wholeheartedly backed, had been confined to the single instance of the $2,500 campaign contribution offered to Senator Case, who ultimately refused it and voted against the bill. In the past, it was the type of issue which the Democrats in the Senate had pushed to the utmost limits. Despite the latest assurance of Senator Thomas Hennings that his resignation as Elections subcommittee chairman, with responsibility normally over such campaign contributions, would make no difference and that the investigation by that subcommittee would continue into the entire gas and oil lobby campaign, there was little reason to believe that there would in fact be a full-scale investigation, as Senator Johnson had many ways to block it and there was increasing evidence that backers of the gas bill were determined at any cost to prevent a thorough investigation.
Democratic Senators from the North, who had bitterly fought the bill, were aware of what a spot the President would place them in should he veto it, and there remained the possibility that he would do so, with Republicans urging him to reject it with a message which would allude to the Democratic "giveaway". At that point, one of the key issues of the Democrats, aimed primarily at Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, would be mooted.
Regarding foreign policy, resentment was increasing among Democratic Senators unable, under the guiding hand of Senator Walter George of Georgia as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, to call Secretary of State Dulles to obtain a public explanation of what they believed were major blunders in the conduct of foreign policy. But they were unwilling to buck Senator George, who ruled with an iron hand. As chairman of the four-man special committee which had looked into the matter of Senator Case, Senator George had worked closely with Republican Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, head of the Republican policy committee of the Senate and a strong supporter of the gas bill. He was able to apply the same tight controls on the Republican side of the aisle as the Majority Leader did on the Democratic side. The way in which the investigation of the matter had been funneled to such a safe committee was an example of the cooperation between the powers on each side.
Mr. Childs indicates that not long in the past, the Senate had prided itself on its independence and integrity, with incidents such as the $2,500 campaign contribution having in prior years caused stormy and far-reaching investigations. But now, the leaders were maintaining a tight lid on any form of incipient rebellion.
Senator Johnson had made it difficult for Senator Hennings to remain as chairman of the Elections subcommittee, as Senator Hennings was facing re-election and it was traditional for such a Senator not to head the Elections Committee. He had been planning to step aside after a short time longer, to complete work on his "honest elections" bill. But Senator Johnson had told Senator Hennings that his concern about his July 4 heart attack of the previous year was motivating him in that process, as he was worried that conflict regarding a full investigation of the gas lobby was causing his heart to act up, with his doctor having proposed to place him again on digitalis and that he had been ordered to return to Texas to take a complete rest during the week of Lincoln's birthday while the Senate was in virtual recess. As a result, Senator Hennings told friends that he believed he was being placed in the role of Senator Johnson's murderer.
Senator Hennings also found himself in a squeeze between Republican and Democratic supporters of the gas bill within his own Committee, as the big oil contributors had made contributions among candidates of both parties, although Republicans received most of the contributions. Senator Curtis of Nebraska had challenged the right of Senator Hennings to conduct an investigation, talking so long that it sounded almost like a filibuster, and it had been an oil lobbyist from Nebraska who had made the contribution to Senator Case which caused the entire matter to develop in the first place.
The oil issue, he posits, might be the beginning of a rebellion, with 24 Democrats and 12 Republicans having voted against the bill, though he finds such a rebellion unlikely, as, in the interest of party harmony, Democrats had thus far been willing to follow Senator Johnson's lead, with their habit of obedience being strong, even if, in the current instance, it amounted to a dead-end with unhappy Democratic implications for the presidential campaign.
A letter writer from Salisbury says that a careful reading of a letter published on February 11 made it clear that the writer had been loose with the true facts, as he had purported to present them, and that the newspaper also was "definitely slanted", entering "the militant NAACP side of the issue", which he finds to be the base of the "insurrection and hate" which was breaking out every day, that if it continued, it would get a lot worse before it would begin to get better, finds it a time for moderation in handling the issue, as he suggests the "next president, Mr. Stevenson," had cautioned. He finds that the newspaper had neglected to present the view of Mr. Stevenson, a "great leader". He takes to task the letter writer who had expressed amusement and dismay at some of the letters which had been written on the subject of desegregation, especially as they had regarded the issue of slavery and the beliefs of the founders at the time of debate on the Constitution. This writer says that the issue of slavery and slaves had been debated by the Constitutional convention, centering around the continued importation of slaves from Africa and not doing away with the institution, and that it had been led by the New England states, with the support of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, all agreeing that the importation should be continued until 1808. He says that after it was discontinued in 1808, New England had suddenly gotten the "'freedom fever'". He further takes to task the previous writer when he had said that the Civil War had settled the issue of slavery "when the South bucked against constitutional processes." He finds that the "War Between the States" had settled the issue of slavery and is glad that it was settled, but urges remembrance that the war had nothing to do with the slavery question for its first two years, that only when it looked as if England would become involved to aid the South that the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued in 1862, to take effect on January 1, 1863, proclaiming all slaves within the states then in rebellion to be free. He says that the Proclamation had changed the war to a moral war and that England could then not afford to become involved. But he takes issue with the notion that the South had bucked against constitutional processes, suggesting that in 1860, there had been nothing in the Constitution prohibiting a state from seceding from the Union. And he goes on… He suggests that instead of trying to work out problems with moderation, there was a tendency to be too prone to make bold accusations which had no basis or foundation, "just anything to stir up the wind for a hotter fire," with which neither side could hope to reach a satisfactory solution.
The editors note that regarding the second and third paragraphs of the letter, the views of the contributors of letters did not necessarily represent those of the editors of the newspaper, that the letters column was made available so that readers could speak their minds, short of libel, obscenity and inflammatory language "patently fashioned to stir up racial or religious hatred." They also state that because of space limitations, they reserved the right to condense letters and that this letter writer had erred in charging that the newspaper had not presented Mr. Stevenson's views on segregation, that they had been carried both on the news pages and in the editorial columns of the newspaper—an accurate statement.
It might be added that this letter writer would have probably found only cold comfort in Mr. Stevenson's asserted position, as he was clearly not in favor of continuing segregation, only had indicated his belief that it would only inflame already hot emotions to try to enforce desegregation through the use of Federal troops.
A letter writer wonders why so many people went out and drank, cursed and sinned, "when God is so good to watch over us and our life is in His hands." She says that her sister and brother-in-law had almost been killed in an automobile accident when their car had been hit by a train in Albemarle recently, that the car had been thrown 35 feet, that her sister had been hurt, bruised and had suffered several fractured ribs. She says that no one had ever escaped such an accident before and that people said it had been God who had reached out and saved them, finds it wonderful to have a Saviour like that. She concludes that one never knew when leaving home whether they would return or not and that everyone should live every day as if it were their last on earth, and prepare to go out and meet God.
Stop, look and listen at all railroad crossings and don't be foolhardy enough to try to beat the train. The train did not jump the tracks and chase down her sister and brother-in-law. We recognize, however, that there are true accidents, sometimes resulting in death. But we all must die sometime. That one person dies and another survives should not be attributed to God, as it implies that God did not prevent the death of the other and so becomes highly judgmental, that being, in itself, disobedient to the inscrutable will of God.
A letter writer indicates that the new air pollution engineer for the City, Charles Frost, had reported that fog had been reported all over the South, and that no smog had occurred recently. He says: "God's rain washed it away." He questions whether Mr. Frost was also a doctor, having stated that combinations of smoke and fog could irritate the eyes, cause sickness and or even kill. He questions whether Mr. Frost had ever treated anyone for fog sickness or attended a funeral caused by death from it. San Francisco was wrapped up in fog, and the California State Board of Health, following a careful study, had reported that there was no appreciable increase in deaths on foggy days. He insists that the residents should not be taxed for a smoke engineer, or under his new title as an air pollution engineer.
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