The Charlotte News
Tuesday, February 21, 1956
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Moscow that Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin this date had called on the Communist Party to use atomic energy to achieve victory for Communism, claiming that the Soviet Union was ahead of all countries in peaceful usage of atomic energy, urging his audience at the 20th Communist Party Congress to maintain that lead. He formally introduced the sixth five-year plan and assured the delegates that collective leadership of the party would continue. He said that if the 19th Century had been the age of steam, then the 20th Century was the age of electricity and becoming the age of atomic energy, harboring "unlimited potentialities for the development of productive forces." He urged the Congress to approve the new five-year plan for a big boost in industrial production. He praised Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's reference to the peaceful coexistence of socialist and capitalist systems, and the form of transition to socialism in various countries. He said that it was especially true because the cult of the individual, such as had prevailed during the era of Joseph Stalin, no longer entered into the party's work. It appeared that the delegates to the Congress would vote forthwith for the new economic plan, which called for sharp increases in heavy industry and agricultural production, with development of nuclear power stations, asking for a 70 percent increase in steel production by 1960 and increases ranging between 85 and 154 percent in basic food crops.
Democrats in Congress complained this date that the Administration had been neglecting to consult with Congress before making major foreign policy moves, such as the tank shipment to Saudi Arabia, which had first been stopped by the White House and then allowed to go forward the previous Sunday. Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon denounced the course of "foreign policy by secrecy". But Republican Representative Walter Judd of Minnesota, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that he believed the Administration had consulted with them on all matters on which they had a right to expect such consultation. Some Democrats were implying that Secretary of State Dulles might be called to task when he sought to explain the tank deal, probably later during the current week. Representative James Richards of South Carolina, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the Administration was "still of the 19th Century vintage opinion that in the foreign affairs field, the House is an illegitimate member of the family, and a weak-minded illegitimate son at that." He said he had known nothing about the decision the prior Saturday to lift the temporary embargo on all arms shipments to the Middle East, allowing the 18 tanks to be shipped. He said that as far as he knew, none of the House leaders had been consulted in advance. Senators Morse and John Sparkman of Alabama said that the Foreign Relations Committee had also been ignored, and that its chairman, Senator Walter George of Georgia, had not been notified of the original plans to send the 18 light tanks, the latter having been informed only when the Administration ordered the tanks shipped after a restudy of the situation.
In Thomasville, Ga., the President planned more quail hunting for this date with Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey, with whom he was visiting for a ten-day vacation. The President had bagged eight birds the previous day and Secretary Humphrey had obtained five during their fourth day of hunting since the President had arrived the prior Wednesday. The President now planned to remain until the following Saturday morning, having originally intended to return to Washington three or four days earlier. White House press secretary James Hagerty said that the President would probably play golf the following day, having played his first round the prior Friday since his September 24 heart attack, scoring an 11-over-par 47 on nine holes.
Judge Albert Bryan of the Federal District Court of Northern Virginia had received the endorsement of both Virginia Senators Harry F. Byrd and Willis Smith to succeed Judge Armistead Dobie on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the latter having announced his qualified retirement from the Court. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina had said that he had received assurances from the Justice Department that a South Carolinian would be recommended for the position.
In New York, FCC commissioner Robert E. Lee said this date, in an address prepared for delivery to the Radio and Television Executives Society, that the Commission did not want to censor radio and television advertising but that the practices of a few "sharp operators" might force action by Congress in that field. He said that the files of the Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureaus throughout the nation reflected public condemnation of some advertising practices, such as the offering of merchandise not actually intended for sale, the "knocking" of certain merchandise to get customers to switch to more profitable items, the advertising of goods not available in sufficient quantity to meet reasonable demand, and inordinately long commercials. He said that he sensed a groundswell of public revulsion to such practices, making itself known not only within the industry but also in Congress.
In Tokyo, evangelist Billy Graham this date prayed for Christian Prime Minister of Japan, Ichiro Hatoyama, and later preached the gospel to thousands of Japanese and Americans, with police estimating that 15,000 persons had jammed the International Indoor Stadium to sing hymns and hear Rev. Graham warn that "the world will blow itself out of existence" unless it bridges the gulf between God and man. Police said that another 3,000 persons had listened to the sermon on loudspeakers outside the stadium, with several hundred of those persons angrily beating on the doors which had been closed an hour before the scheduled appearance of the evangelist. A spokesman for Rev. Graham estimated the crowd at 40,000. It was the first of two mass meetings which he would hold during a week in Japan. He spoke in English and a Japanese translator interpreted for the audience. There were hundreds of American servicemen in uniform, some accompanied by their wives and children. Rev. Graham was to meet with Japanese Christian ministers the following day and to preach on Thursday night in Osaka.
In Raleigh, the North Carolina Fire Insurance Rating Bureau was renewing its request for increased extended coverage and fire insurance rates, filing the proposals with the Insurance commissioner, Charles Gold, asking for 1.6 million dollars in extended coverage rate increases, instead of the 3.9 million previously sought and rejected.
Also in Raleigh, a Burlington soda shop operator testified this date before the State Milk Commission, looking into unfair trade practices involving three dairies in Alamance County, that he had not provided permission for a tape recording to be made in his place of business to obtain evidence of a cash payment offered to him as an inducement to shift his account between two dairy companies. A State Senator, who was head of one of the dairies, testified that he had arranged for the recording to be made to obtain evidence of the cash payment offered by the other dairy, saying that the owner of the soda shop had not objected at that time to having the recording equipment installed in his office. But this date, the soda shop operator had said that he had refused the installation and that the recording had been made without his knowledge. He said that the State Senator had endorsed a note for $2,000 for him when he had gone into business and that he gave in return a deed of trust on his home. He said that he told the Senator that he had received propositions from other dairies better than that which had been offered by the Senator's dairy. An attorney said that the recording equipment had been present in the man's office for ten days, but the man reiterated that he did not see it.
Emery Wister of The News reports that the Southern Railway Co. had announced that it would build a huge parking lot at the site of its former freight terminal between College and Brevard Streets, and that it was not expected to affect plans to erect three midtown parking garages, plans for which were well underway to accommodate parking for 940 cars, to be built in different areas of the midtown district.
Dick Young of The News reports that the extension of a widened 3rd Street to Caldwell Street had been suggested this date by City traffic engineer Herman Hoose, to help in relieving traffic in midtown Charlotte.
Also in Charlotte, the local Internal Revenue Service office reported that they were out of short forms because people appeared to be filing their income tax returns earlier than usual, the short forms being for people who earned less than $5,000 per year, enabling quick filling out of the return. More short forms had been ordered and were due any day.
In Moline, Ill., a woman's attempt to get her car into a parking space resulted in damage to five cars, including her own, a broken parking meter and a broken street light pole, after, according to police, she had lost control of her car and it struck one car, pushing it into another, her car then breaking off the parking meter and light pole, whereupon the pole fell onto the windshield of still another car and dented the top and broke the rear window of a fifth car.
On the editorial page, "The Senate: Rounding up the Posses" finds that it did not appear that there would be Senate posses trying to get the lobbyists suspected of stealing the Senate's integrity.
Senators Thomas Hennings and Albert Gore, the posse in question, had decided to ride after all, and Senate leaders were talking of forming a bipartisan posse so that the Senators could ride together.
It suspects that the public was not very interested in who particularly went after the lobbyists, but wanted something done. Yet the Senate leadership was more interested in protecting Senators than in revealing the network of lobbyists and pressure groups, an example of which had occurred in the limited investigation of the effort to provide a $2,500 campaign contribution to Senator Francis Case, which he had then publicly disclosed after declining and voting against the natural gas deregulation bill which was supposed to be influenced by the contribution from the gas lobby. Senators whose votes had been influenced by the gas lobby did not want a broader investigation into the general lobbying effort.
It finds such an investigation needed at present, that it was the only way that the Senate could redeem its reputation, called into question by the President's veto of the gas bill because of the specter of bribery having loomed over the chamber to obtain its passage. There was also the need for remedial legislation, as the 1946 Regulation of Lobbying Act was inadequate.
Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts was planning hearings on that latter act prior to the controversy having arisen over the natural gas bill, pointing out that the act failed to assign its enforcement to any single official or agency, that the secretary of the Senate and the clerk of the House were merely charged with receiving information submitted by registered lobbyists, without any effort to evaluate, analyze or publicize that information. At a time when there was an estimated 1.5 million dollars spent in lobbying the gas bill, the amount of money reported under the act as lobbying expenditures had been declining. The act had obvious loopholes, which were being used to circumvent it.
It concludes that if the efforts of Senators Kennedy, Hennings, Gore and those renewed of the four-member special Senate committee headed by Senator George all started their investigations at about the same time, the field might become somewhat crowded, but, it suggests, there was a lot of work to be done and, at present, the field was conspicuously empty.
The field was conspicuously empty that infamous day in Dallas, wasn't it?
As an aside, that October 18, 1953 presentation of a condensed version of King Lear on "Omnibus"—coinciding by dint of later tragedy with a lesser character's fourteenth birthday spent as a disciplinary problem in New York City—, in the portion to which we linked yesterday from Act III, Scene 4, through Act IV, Scene 6, omits the death of Oswald in the latter scene for the reason that Oswald substitutes for Edmund in Act V
"Fuel for the Middle East's Flames" finds that the initially blocked and then approved shipment of the 18 light tanks to Saudi Arabia had made a mockery of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The tanks would not alter the military balance of power greatly between the Arabs and Israelis, but the U.S. position as a peacemaker in the region would be in shambles as a result.
There was suspicion that the State Department hoped to slip the tanks to the Saudis quietly as a down payment on renewal of the agreement covering the U.S. Air Force base located at Dhahran. After an anonymous person had provided a tip to the press that the tanks were in New York ready for loading, the State Department's press officer confirmed the planned shipment, at which point protest had arisen from the Israelis and in Congress, with the White House then intervening to stop the shipment temporarily, until the President had lifted the embargo the prior Sunday and the shipment had gone forward.
The official explanation was that the sale had already been arranged before the current Arab-Israeli crisis had arisen in the Middle East, but the piece finds that unconvincing as a rationale for proceeding with the deal. The U.S. had been too outspoken against an arms race and too bitterly critical of a Communist arms deal benefiting Egypt to go through with the deal, as the U.S. policy of maintaining a rough balance of power in the region had been upset by the Communist arms going to Egypt and an additional U.S. contribution to those arms in the region simply added fuel to the fire. It finds it a dangerous and deplorable act, requiring a full explanation.
"Holding Back the Hosts of Darkness" tells of a friend who said that there was no such thing as the brotherhood of man, that man was born with a pugnacious instinct, regarding the coziness of one's own group as desirable while harboring a natural and deep-seated loathing for anything and anyone outside the group.
It differs from the friend, acknowledging that the brotherhood of man was strained at times by conditions but finding that it was basically immoral to suggest that the whole human race was not human and merely the helpless product of conditions. That concept led to the belief that what is necessarily ought to be.
In brotherhood and unity, men had found safety from the hosts of darkness, as no man was an island. The knowledge that brotherhood was completely necessary and right had given significance to civilization and been the inspiration of many of the noblest achievements of man. The history of the arts depicted man's struggle to reach, to understand, the common spark as an abiding reality.
It was now Brotherhood Week, sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews in cooperation with the Jaycees and other groups, and finds it an important element of that common spark.
"'Am I my brother's keeper?' asked Cain. Today, all of the world's great religions answer this challenge affirmatively." One could scoff at the answer, but it still held back the "hosts of darkness".
A piece from the Goldsboro News-Argus, titled "'No Thank You Ma'am'", indicates that as children they had been taught that when visiting the home of a friend and being offered by the friend's mother some candy or ice cream, good manners required a polite refusal, until the offer had been repeated a third time, at which point it was all right graciously to accept it and then express generous praise of the treat provided. Mothers understood this behavior pattern and so generously made the offer a third time.
The piece recounts of a friend from Pasquotank County, however, who had been courting a girl whose parents lived in Elizabeth City, having come there with the Coast Guard, regarding proper etiquette to include frankness and truth as paramount characteristics. So, when the girl's mother had offered him cake and tea, he had replied, "No thank you, ma'am." At the time, he was actually starving after a long hunt on a cold and windy day. The girl's mother, however, took him at his word and provided him no tea or cake. From that point forward, he understood that when asked, he should graciously accept.
The piece indicates that the rule had apparently gone the way of the dodo bird, as recently the writer and spouse had invited a ten-year old girl who had come home with them from church to come in and have some cake, and after some deep thought, the girl had simply asked, "What kind of cake is it?"
Drew Pearson indicates that the chief problem of the Democratic Party, rebellion in the South, had risen to plague the Dixon-Yates issue, which the Democrats were planning to use during the upcoming campaign. During a secret session of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democratic Senators, led by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, had been pushing for the appointment of a special counsel both to defend the Government in the Dixon-Yates claims suit and to prosecute those guilty of any conflicts of interest in the matter. There appeared to be a clear-cut case of such a conflict of interest inside the Budget Bureau involving Adolph Wenzell, who was placed inside the Government to push and later finance the deal, but thus far, Attorney General Herbert Brownell had not made any move toward prosecution, thus leading the Senators to desire appointment of a special counsel.
But Senator John McClellan of Arkansas, a member of the Judiciary Committee, consistently opposed that move. Every Republican on the Committee, except Senator William Langer of North Dakota, had voted against the effort by the Democrats to have a special counsel appointed, and the Republicans, with Senator McClellan's vote, proved all-important.
Senator Kefauver had argued that the Justice Department ought be disqualified from defending the Government in the damage suit, because it had favored the contract when testifying before the Securities and Exchange Commission. Senator John Butler of Maryland had objected to Senator Kefauver attempting to enter the Justice Department testimony into the record, and Senator McClellan backed him on that objection, urging that all of the SEC records on the matter be obtained and filed for reference in the Committee. That would have made the record so voluminous that it would be too expensive to publish and no one would have read it anyway, observes Mr. Pearson. Senator Butler also wanted to have included in the record all of the hearings in the anti-monopoly subcommittee. Senator Arthur Watkins of Utah came to the defense of Senator Kefauver, asking for fair play, demanding that Senator Kefauver be allowed to state his case, saying that he thought it was wise at least to consider the evidence. But Senator Butler was adamant in his objection, such that Senator Harley Kilgore of West Virginia, chairman of the Committee, tried to change the subject to other business. But Senator Butler persisted and eventually the Committee continued the hearing, with Senators Butler and McClellan still insisting that the record be cluttered with hundreds of pages of extraneous testimony to cover up the real issue.
Joseph Whitney, the "consultant" who provided the "Dear Abby"-type column, "Mirror of Your Mind", for the newspaper, in the second of a six-part series of articles on growing up, this date regards adolescence, tells of it being a period of defiance for the youth and often of exasperation and despair for parents, the intervening time between puberty, which he had covered the previous day, and adulthood. It was a time when previously mild and pleasant youngsters began to behave "like uncouth strangers," taking that form when the "vague, disturbing urges of puberty" developed into "intensified sex feelings of the middle-teens."
He indicates that marked personality changes took place during that conflict between the adolescent and the person's environment, losing interest in games and gadgets, beginning to want things which bolstered his or her budding ego. The adolescent then cherished things which provided the trappings of adulthood, making the person feel important. The failure to attain those goals resulted in defiance, causing the adolescent to show "studious contempt for the things he once was praised for," becoming rude and unsocial, often doing poorly in school, sometimes defying parental rules to test how far he had gotten on the road to personal freedom.
He says that adolescent emotions did not change during that period, but were stimulated by different motivations, with childhood emotional outlets, such as crying, fighting or kicking, giving way to more mature expressions, while the adolescent in the meantime was torn between the emotionally satisfying reaction of childhood and the more impressive conduct of maturity. How the adolescent resolved that conflict determined to a considerable extent the degree of maturity which would be attained in adulthood. All normal teenagers went through that time of adolescent revolt and adjustment, but not all of them responded with outward symptoms of defiance, and those who suppressed those new impulses, maintaining an outward appearance of courtesy and thoughtfulness, were not necessarily those who made the best adjustments. He suggests that the young person who struggled with the conflict was likely to achieve a healthier degree of emotional maturity in adulthood.
He counsels that parental guidance during that time should be applied with understanding, affection and good will, giving the adolescent increasing opportunities to try out adult behavior, with parents determining when and how to apply restraint and when to encourage new endeavors. Serious emotional damage could result when parents held back and continued close supervision. The right compromise would be one which met the teenager's desire for more control of his or her life and still provided enough restraint and guidance to keep the person out of serious difficulties. He suggests that it was wise to treat the young person as a young adult, to take the person into family councils, seeking their opinions and advice on family problems, paying dividends in healthy teenage orientation and adding immeasurably to the young person's self-esteem.
A letter writer from Pittsboro says that he hoped that the President would not seek a second term, suggests that in 1944, the people had elected FDR for a fourth term when he was a "dead man", despite the world having been in a state of crisis, and now it appeared that the people were likely to do the same dangerous thing, finds that the electorate did not act rationally in such matters. He thinks that the President should not permit himself to be persuaded to run again, that he could not be the same mentally and physically as he had been in 1952 and so was much less fit for the office in the wake of his September 24 heart attack, regardless of his normal recovery and present excellent medical prognosis for the future.
A letter from the directors of the Charlotte Variety Club tells of it having been organized and operating for 15 years, and having operated the Charlotte Variety Club Eye Clinic for 14 years, providing numerous gifts to charitable organizations in excess of $150,000 during that time, all done without solicitations from the general public or charitable drives, conducting its efforts only by mail. They explain in great detail how their efforts worked and criticize the release to the press of certain figures by a committee, the City Solicitation and Review Board, and making statements out of context which could be misleading, unless their purpose had been to damage the project and hurt their solicitations.
A letter writer completely agrees
with a previous letter writer regarding the latter's views on the air
pollution engineer being unnecessary for the city and costing the
taxpayers too much money. This writer says that 75 percent of the people
were aware that there was no such thing as "polluting air
A letter writer expresses appreciation for a letter printed February 17, responding to letters of the same letter writer from Pittsboro who had written this date, making the point that emotion was the root of prejudice, this writer suggesting that the theme should be carefully explained from all pulpits within the Bible Belt.
And probably should be included in pattern jury instructions, as it more or less is in many jurisidictions, counseling not to form opinions until all of the evidence has been heard, the arguments of counsel submitted and the jury instructions read, as well to avoid expressions of individual opinions at the outset of jury deliberations as rarely are such expressions productive without first mutual discussion of the evidence and law.
Framed Edition
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