The Charlotte News
Tuesday, February 7, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Secretary of State Dulles had stated at a press conference this date that the U.S. would be disposed to respect the protests of countries which, as Russia, had objected to flights of U.S. weather balloons over their territory. The Secretary said, however, that the U.S. had the right to send such balloons anywhere in the world. He indicated that Russia's protest of the matter would be answered in the ensuing day or so, but would not predict what precisely the U.S. would say. He informed that thousands of what he called meteorological balloons had been released by the U.S. in the Pacific, North America and Western Europe, probably having crossed the territories of 20 or 30 countries, indicating that he did not know what international law might apply, but that the matter might be the subject for consideration among governments. Earlier, Pentagon officials had stated that they did not intend to cease sending up weather balloons just because of the objection by the Soviets.
The U.S., Britain and France would open conferences the following day in Washington on the Middle East crisis, in an effort to find ways of preventing a new Israeli-Arab war. State Department officials had said this date that plans for the conference had been completed, with the first session to be under the chairmanship of Deputy Undersecretary Robert Murphy. The conference was the outgrowth of a decision made in conference the previous week between the President and Prime Minister Anthony Eden to take urgent steps to forestall a new war in the Middle East, with France having been invited to the trilateral conference because the three Western powers had acted jointly for several years under a 1950 trilateral declaration of intention to preserve peace in the Middle East through action either within or without the U.N. Secretary Dulles had issued a pre-conference statement saying that U.S. policy "embraces the preservation of the State of Israel" and maintenance of "our friendship with Israel and the Arab States."
The Senate this date ordered an investigation of whether an offered $2,500 campaign donation to Senator Francis Case of South Dakota had been an effort to influence his vote on the pending natural gas deregulation bill, the vote having been 90 to 0, with Senator Case having voted along with the unanimous majority. The Senate had adopted a resolution offered by Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson to create a four-member committee to inquire into the matter, with Vice-President Nixon having formally appointed the four members, including Senators Walter George of Georgia, Carl Hayden of Arizona, Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, and Edward Thye of Minnesota, two Democrats and two Republicans, respectively, after Senator Johnson had nominated the two Democrats and Minority Leader William Knowland of California had nominated the two Republicans. Senator Johnson said that Senator George had opposed the bill while Senator Hayden had supported it. Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Senator Bridges had supported the bill and Senator Thye had opposed it. The resolution provided that the committee would make a report to the Senate by March 1.
Edmund Mansure, head of the General Services Administration, had resigned in the midst of Congressional and Administration investigations of his official conduct, and the President had announced that his acting successor would be Franklin Floete, presently Assistant Secretary of Defense in charge of properties and installations, until his appointment could be formally approved by the Senate.
In Tuscaloosa, Ala., angry mobs which had caused numerous acts of violence the previous day in their effort to exclude the first admitted black student from the University of Alabama, Autherine Lucy, had vanished from the streets this date, with the school going about its business quietly. Many Alabama State Highway Patrolmen stationed around the campus had nothing to do, as news spread that the University Board of Trustees had excluded Ms. Lucy "until further notice", claiming it to be for her own safety. She had not appeared during the morning on the campus, to which she daily commuted from Birmingham, 60 miles away. A spokesman for her said that her future plans were uncertain. She had been admitted to the school the previous week under an order of the U.S. Supreme Court issued the prior October, prompting angry demonstrations since then, apparently populated principally by outsiders to the campus. The disturbances the previous day had culminated in shouting, singing and marching mobs, before the announcement of the Board's action, with police having used teargas in an attempt to break up the demonstration.
Relman Morin, Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press political correspondent, in the first of a series of four articles on the prospects for the President running again, reports this date that he was rapidly approaching his personal day of decision, with it dependent only on his ensuing physical checkup, following a full month of having returned to work for the first time since his September 24 heart attack. His personal physician had told reporters that no man only 4 1/2 months after a heart attack was in a position to determine his own physical fitness, that he should be given all the time he needed, indicating that he hoped to complete preliminary tests by February 13, with the rest of his examination the following day, after which the President intended to take a brief rest, probably in a secluded forest lodge near Thomasville, Ga., where he would likely work out his decision rather quickly. Some observers in Washington believed that he already knew what he intended to do, but others close to the President were convinced that he had not yet made up his mind, consistent with what the President had been saying, as he had reiterated at his press conference the prior week. Meanwhile, speculation in the capital was rampant, which Mr. Morin equates to the tension in a courtroom awaiting a verdict. Never in the history of the Presidency, he observes, had there been a situation quite like the present one, with some Republicans hoping to obtain the nomination if the President did not run, while 17 Republican Senators, 16 Republican Governors and 203 Republican members of the House seeking re-election during the year, hoped to benefit from the President's popularity, with thousands of other local officeholders situated likewise. Wall Street and the business community generally also were in a state of uncertainty, pending the decision.
In Raleigh, Governor Luther Hodges and DNC committeeman, and future Senator, B. Everett Jordan, this date denied a charge that they had used their influence to get the State Highway Commission to work on a road at a restaurant they jointly owned. The charge had been made by a woman of Norfolk, who had filed a lawsuit in Durham County Superior Court against the Governor, Mr. Jordan and their restaurant, Jorges, Inc., of which they were identified as officers, directors and stockholders. Mr. Jordan said that if the Highway Commission had done any work on the road, it was not known to him or the Governor. The chairman of the Highway Commission, A. H. Graham, had said that he was looking into the charge and expected to have a statement later. The Governor said that he was willing to have such a statement made publicly and that the alleged incident had occurred long before he had become Governor, that he never would use public office or political influence in connection with his personal business. Who were the Georges in the restaurant operation?
In Lenoir, a man from Charlotte was being held in jail under a $2,000 bond, charged with illegal possession of barbiturates for the purpose of sale or giving it away. He had been arrested the previous Sunday at Bethel Colony of Mercy on Highway 18 by a deputy sheriff, who found him in possession of seven capsules of sodium seconal, containing 1.5 grains of barbiturates. The founder and head of the Colony had called the Lenoir sheriff's office on Saturday night after discovering several of the patients passed out.
Dick Young of The News tells of further efforts to untangle the case of a park which was not a park, to be made by officials of the Park and Recreation Commission, with negotiations to be continued with a landowner for acquisition of a portion of what had been thought to be a part of Bryant Park, used for years as part of that park, but situated on land which actually belonged to the private landowner, with no one having been aware of how or when the mistake had been made, having come to light some years earlier, with structures having been placed by the City on that portion of the land for use by visitors to the park, a recent appraisal of the land having been set at more than $7,000. There had been an offer to arrange a swap of other land or directly to purchase the property in question, but thus far no agreement had been reached.
In Charlotte, tightening of the enforcement machinery of the city's industrial waste ordinance had been ordered this date by City Manager Henry Yancey, who called for a report as soon as practical on definite measures for complete enforcement of the ordinance. There had been five years of discussion and postponement of enforcement dates, with the ordinance having been ordered into effect the prior July 1, and the prior December, Mr. Yancey having called for a crackdown on plant operators in the Sugar Creek drainage area, who were demonstrating no evidence of cooperation and compliance with the ordinance. Of the 29 industrial plants in the eastside drainage area, six had complied with the law and were now discharging plant waste into the Sugar Creek sewage outfall, with five others in the process of completing installation of the necessary filtration equipment for approval.
Also in Charlotte, the Coliseum was
booked every day except one between the present and March 20, that
open date being February 15, when the public would be invited to
skate on the ice hockey rink for free between 6:30 and 10:00 p.m. The
manager of the Coliseum said that there would definitely be ice
skating later, and that times and prices for it would subsequently be
set. He also said that the schedule of the ice skating for the
nighttime was because had they scheduled it in the morning or
afternoon, it was doubtful anyone would have shown up. It provides
the schedule of bookings for the Coliseum through March 20, in case
you want to purchase tickets for one of the many types of events,
including an ice show
Emery Wister of The News tells of signs of spring having been observed in Charlotte this date, though it was not warm, but also not cold, with a small hint of a fragrance in the air as well, an observer at the Weather Bureau having said that he had heard the faint croakings of a breed of small frogs, always a sure sign that spring was on the way. The temperature was expected to average between two and four degrees above normal during the rest of the week, with a low of 32, three under this date's low of 35, being forecast for the morning, while 53 would be the high for this date, rising to 56 the following day. No rain was in the forecast for this date or the following day, though there might be up to a half-inch on Thursday and Friday. The six-day rainfall had ended the previous night after 2.62 inches had fallen, nearly an inch more than the 1.68 inches which had fallen throughout December and January.
On the editorial page, "The Highest Hurdles Are Ahead" finds it inevitable that Governor Hodges had decided to run for a full four-year term as Governor, as the call of duty was compelling in years offering a fascinating challenge to a man who was eager to guide the state toward what he considered its "milk-and-honey destiny". The Governor was supported by the rank-and-file in a way few of his predecessors could have imagined, involving a "dispassionate faith" in his essential goodness rather than hero-worship or fanatical devotion. And, meanwhile, the doubters had no other candidate to whom to turn at present.
It indicates that the man they had called "Luther the Lion-Hearted" had performed admirably in many aspects of his job, bringing a hard-headed, practical realism to an office often weakened by petty politics, working very hard to improve the state's economic condition and having fought for better representation in the Legislature, for a minimum wage and a more equitable tax system.
While the views within the state varied widely on the issue of segregation in the public schools, the Governor had "pursued an occasionally wobbly middle course" and it remained to be seen how effective his efforts would be in that area, that if he could protect the public school system from "those who selfishly seek to destroy it", and if he could keep the state from following the course of "arrogant extremism" being pursued by other Southern states, then he would deserve the everlasting thanks of the people.
It says that it would prefer to see a contested gubernatorial primary in May, as opposition insured the vitality of democracy through debate of the current issues, but that if no opposition emerged, it would be a tribute to the "sound, sensible leadership" of the Governor, who would face enormous tests of integrity and wisdom in the years ahead and could not let the people down in facing them.
"So Long, Tarzan; Adieu, Horatio" comments on the piece appearing on the front page by Charles Kuralt the previous day, regarding the effort of the libraries and the public schools to keep from their shelves such "trash" reading materials as the stories of the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys and Horatio Alger.
It indicates that it had always thought that Horatio was a manly, deserving lad, and so was somewhat shocked by the news, but was in no mood to argue about the matter, as schoolbooks were the business of the schools and the elimination of such reading material as Tarzan, the Lone Ranger, Jack Armstrong and the Wizard of Oz was no indication that the schools were not tending to their proper business. But it does find that to label it all as "trash" was an indictment to a lot of the reading on which many people had been raised, including the writer, indicating that it probably also included some of the librarians as well.
"Send Frank Merriwell packing. Tell Tarzan to stop that threshing about with those mangy old animals. But gently, please, and with a sigh. They were friends of ours."
We liked the Landmark series of historical biographies, ourselves. Tarzan... But, of course, by then, the Lone Ranger and such fare had fairly been displaced by television versions of the same sort, eliminating the need to read of such high adventure and exciting trouble.
"Ladejinsky and Talbott: The Same Door" tells of Wolf Ladejinsky, who had been fired after being falsely accused of Communistic leanings by Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, then defended and hired by the International Cooperation Administration, which administered U.S. economic aid, and subsequently vindicated by Mr. Benson, having now been dismissed for seeking to make fast money through investment in a Formosan firm which received U.S. economic aid. Mr. Ladejinsky accepted his dismissal, saying that he acted unwittingly but had been treated fairly.
The piece observes that former Air Force Secretary Harold Talbott and General Services Administration official Peter Strobell had also been dismissed from the Administration for developing similar conflicts of interest.
It finds that all three men had received proper treatment, though perhaps Mr. Ladejinsky's had come swifter and surer, without the intervening necessity of newspaper exposes and Congressional hearings, which had forced the earlier dismissals of the other two men.
It considers it a pity that the Government was deprived of the experience and skill of Messrs. Talbott and Ladejinsky, the latter having been praised by the ICA for "imaginative and energetic" work in Japan, Formosa and Vietnam, but that the standards of disinterested service in the Government were too vital to allow compromise. It also finds that in the case of Mr. Ladejinsky, the Benson accusations had been laid bare as even more absurd, because the supposed "security risk" had turned out to be an investor in a capitalistic enterprise.
"Fog Is Fog and Smog Is Smog" finds the critics of the Charlotte revived air pollution control program to be regarding it as silly, that the smog should be called fog and they should learn to live with it and save the tax money.
It informs that the problem was that such an approach would not work, as the oaks of Sherwood Forest were dying from smog, despite having lived for ages through the English fog and flourishing during the legend of Robin Hood, such that the British Forestry Commission had sought red oaks and conifers from the U.S. to replant large sections of the forest.
It thus concludes that there was fog and smog, and that the latter could kill even the giant oaks of Sherwood Forest, that Charlotte, without the huge smokestacks of London or the forest of great oaks, did have, nevertheless, small smokestacks and saplings to consider, both of which were growing.
A piece from the Wall Street Journal, titled "Of Mice and Men", says that in England, under certain circumstances, it was legal for a woman to appear on the stage naked, a right not enjoyed in the U.S., even in New Jersey. It indicates that it was allowed in England because tired businessmen who wrote the rules had decided that naked women were a form of art, though insisting that it remain classified as still life, as the women were prohibited from moving on stage while naked.
It relates that recently, a woman was standing still in such a situation, maintaining the rules, when a mouse suddenly ran across her feet, prompting the woman to rush to the wings, shaking with fright, causing the patrons at the theater to cheer the mouse and the manager to bawl out the actress, eventually firing her for breaking her contract which required her to remain still. The patrons had demanded redress for the woman, but the manager remained adamant because she had broken her contract and the law, which could result in loss of his theater license.
The piece finds that the manager had acted too hastily, as it was doubtful that a British court would find that the actress had violated the law, as it would, no doubt, recognize that all women, regardless of the state of their dress, were sisters under the skin when it came to mice, and could be expected, at the appearance of one, to move fast.
Drew Pearson tells of North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges having been opposed to the bill to deregulate natural gas, as had been the Public Service Commission of North Carolina. But Senator Kerr Scott of North Carolina, a so-called "liberal Democrat", appeared to have been convinced to support the bill by the efforts of the gas lobby, which had hired lawyers close to certain Senators. Senator Thomas Hennings of Missouri, when approached by one of his lawyer friends, replied that he hoped he would receive a large fee for the brief he had prepared, but that he was going to vote against the bill, and not only did so but proceeded to show that the net income of the 30 top oil and gas companies had risen from 800 million dollars in 1946 to 2.15 billion in 1953, and urged an investigation of the manner in which the oil-gas companies were subsidizing certain campaign funds of Senators who voted for the bill.
Mr. Pearson indicates that it had been whispered around Republican cloakrooms in Congress that the Republican campaign chest would be fattened by several million dollars should the gas bill pass. But he notes that they had made a mistake by trying to woo support from South Dakota Republican Senator Francis Case by offering him a $2,500 campaign contribution, which he had promptly denounced as a subtle bribe—now, the subject of investigation by a special four-member Senate committee, as announced on the front page.
Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana had given fellow Dixiecrats a short lecture on politics, in a recent private luncheon provided by New Mexico Senator Clinton Anderson, at which Senator Ellender explained that Democrats who had been loyal to General Eisenhower in 1952 had been overwhelmed at the polls by loyal Democrats, turning to Senator Price Daniel of Texas, saying that it could happen in his state as well, indicating likewise to Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the 1948 Dixiecrat presidential candidate.
He next tells of the British having won their effort to ease trade restrictions against Communist China, at the recent conference between the President and Prime Minister Anthony Eden, even though it was "carefully fuzzed up" in the official communiqué. The President, as further informed below by the Alsops, had become involved in the matter, and, contrary to the way the Alsops relate it, had made a strong argument against the position of Mr. Eden, but had lost, the President having even enlisted Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson and Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Arthur Radford in an effort to bolster his argument, while Secretary of State Dulles brought in a 35-page report on Chinese trade. But Mr. Eden had remained adamant and in the end, had threatened to lift the trade blockade unilaterally, indicating that it was essential to have trade with Communist China for certain parts of the British Commonwealth, particularly Ceylon and Malay, with their chief product being rubber, no longer a strategic war material which needed to be restricted. He argued also that the danger of Communism existed in those areas unless the economic situation could be improved through easing of the trade restrictions. Faced with that argument, the President relented, albeit with a face-saving provision that the blockade would be reviewed by the 15 participating nations in Paris, which Mr. Pearson indicates would only be a formality. He notes that the President received a concession from Mr. Eden that Britain would stand with the U.S. to block Communist China's admission to the U.N. during the current year, although nothing had been said about the following year, after the elections.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of two exchanges having taken place during the conference of the prior week between the President and Prime Minister, suggestive of what had been and what had not been accomplished in those talks, the first having been an exchange regarding the British desire to lift some of the trade restrictions from Communist China, for the benefit of Malaya and the Asiatic Commonwealth countries. Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd had stated the British case for the relaxation, at which point Secretary of State Dulles began making some comments which were disapproving of the lifting of any of the sanctions, at which point the President intervened, saying that there was no reason why the trade restrictions should be frozen indefinitely and that the benefits to allies from that trade needed to be weighed in the overall balance, suggesting restudy of the trade question with that in mind—a truncated and somewhat contradictory version of that related above by Mr. Pearson.
The Alsops indicate that although the outcome of that issue remained in abeyance, the intervention by the President had pleased the British. On other matters, such as the British dispute with Saudi Arabia, the President had also taken a position seemingly sympathetic to that of the British. There were also a number of issues on which the differences between the British and American positions had been narrowed.
But the conference had never come to grips with the basic, underlying differences between British and American policy which could effectively destroy the alliance, for instance the problems concerning the Chinese offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu, a subject brought up by Mr. Eden, saying that his Government considered the islands racially and geographically a part of the mainland and that the presence of Nationalist troops there constituted a danger to peace, favoring the persuasion of Chiang Kai-shek to withdraw them, with the President having replied that Chiang had said adamantly that he would not withdraw the troops, that there was no way to persuade him to do so, indicating that if the Chinese Communists attacked those islands, a decision would be made at that time based on the situation then extant. The subject had then been tactfully dropped.
The Alsops find that there was no issue, however, more clearly involving the danger of a potentially irreparable break between the U.S. and Britain. Chiang had obviously become convinced that the U.S. would have no choice but to support him should serious fighting over the islands erupt, and his troops had become, especially during the previous week, increasingly aggressive, shelling the mainland opposite the islands and patrolling the main estuary. That aggressiveness had followed on a visit to Formosa by Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Radford. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communists had been acting and talking tough, with a concentration of landing craft having been spotted opposite Matsu and Premier Chou En-lai having threatened to "liberate" Formosa "by war if necessary."
The Alsops suggest that while those developments did not necessarily imply imminent war over the islands, as the Chinese Communists would first have to move much of their Russian-built air force from the north, where it was presently concentrated, to the airfields built opposite the islands before they could engage in attack, not yet having done so, the present situation was enough to suggest that Secretary of State Dulles was not undertaking his doctrine of "clear warning to any potential aggressor" with significant enough firmness regarding the Formosa area, leaving both the Chinese Communists and the Nationalists tempted to underestimate or overestimate, depending on respective perspectives, the U.S. reaction. It was also enough to suggest how matters of vital importance to the Anglo-American partnership had been tactfully disregarded at the conference between the President and Prime Minister.
A letter writer from Lancaster, S.C., wonders why the newspaper believed that "Dixie" was a forgotten song, having read the piece printed in the newspaper during the prior week from the Greensboro Daily News regarding a previous editorial from the Charlotte News, the latter having said that the writer had remained seated while "Dixie" was being played at the Coliseum by the Scots Guard, left wondering what the proper reaction ought be by Southerners when the song was played. This writer thinks that there was only one position for a true Southerner to adopt and that was "ATTENTION!" for those, such as the writer, whose families had lived in and loved the South for generations, cherishing "a feeling of loyalty which runs eminently deeper than would render this, as your Greensboro counterpart would have it, an academic question." He says further that if the "pro-damyankee newspapers would only study the South, its history, its culture, its traditions, in an objective manner, instead of being a 'sitter' or a 'don't knower,' you would soon take your place in the important role of providing intelligent leadership in the encouragement of all southerners to join the fight to retain to the states the rights guaranteed them under the constitution." He concludes that a "profound respect for the Confederate National Anthem is a noble beginning."
Your "allegiance" is obviously to the Confederate Constitution, not that of the nation, and so why don't you pack up your belongings and move on down the road to another century, to the Land of Cotton.
A letter writer from Pittsboro comments on the editorial, "Muzzles Are for Kennel Dogs", from the February 1 edition, finds that Henry George's solution for the ills of man had been the single land tax, that Herbert Spencer's test of the good businessman had been his survival in a competitive age in quest for quality and quantity, that Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson's quip that what was good for General Motors was good for the country had been a "slip that bulges big as an offense in an age when the virtues of the 'horse and buggy' days, such as work, thrift and economy, are obsolescent if not obsolete." He finds that the modern advocate of the theory that society was mechanical and made sound and wholesome by the manipulation of social and economic forces had no patience with the ordinary vicissitudes of life, opines that Mr. Wilson's appraisal of the country's needs had been wrong and politically fatal, indicative of the Administration's sellout to big business. He was fed up with the idea that anything which had stood the test of time was to be discarded as an utopian concept, finds that the day was near when truth, goodness and beauty would be devalued, along with "the advance of the manufactured New Deal way of life". He says that it had started with the devaluation of the dollar and that when it had run its course, there would be nothing left of permanent and enduring value and efficacy, not even the Ten Commandments. He wonders where the welfare-state proponents expected to obtain the money with which to carry on their welfare plans if no one else earned money and paid income taxes on it. He wonders what the difference was between a country reliant on TVA for some of its power and a society or government such as that in Russia, seeing no difference except that one was "non-brutalized Communism and the other is not the raw stuff, but will soon be, as both have a common destination." He warns that freedom seldom disappeared suddenly, but usually only by imperceptible degrees, urging to think it over before it was too late to think effectively.
Your thinking has already apparently reached that point though.
A letter writer from Burlington, N.C., says that he was certain that that the majority of North Carolinians had been amazed and shocked at the Associated Press news item out of Asheville on January 25, telling of a 14-year old white girl from New York, who was attending a combination boarding and day school operated by the Methodist Church, being the only white girl in the 130-student black school. He says that the article had brought forth the information that she had become interested in the school two years earlier when she heard its white principal speak at a Methodist Church center in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, and had decided to attend the school to "let them know what it is like to have a white sister." He informs that the story had been released to the press after the girl had received a letter from First Lady Mamie Eisenhower telling her that she "was to be admired" for "making the road toward integration a shorter one." The story had indicated that no one at the school knew how Mrs. Eisenhower had learned of the girl's attendance or what had prompted her to write. The writer speculates that the fact that the girl's parents were separated and that her father was employed by the Republic Steel Co. in New York provided some explanation as to the girl's motivation for attending the school, as he finds it "a typical example of how white crusaders are using various church agencies to break down segregation and the extent which they are willing to go to bring it about." He believes that the school had taken "an immature and emotionally unstable young girl, probably due to emotional propaganda by integrationists and living in a home in which the parents had separated and in a section of the country where segregation is not a serious problem, and placed her in the unnatural and intolerable situation of living, studying, and having intimate social relationship with 130 Negro young people." He believes that not only Methodists, but all citizens of the state ought protest the "existence of such a deplorable situation" within the state "by every peaceable and orderly means." He says that the same people who were advocating mixing of the races and elimination of all racial barriers had been instrumental in getting the First Lady to approve of that situation "in order that they might use it for propaganda in helping to achieve their objectives." He finds it interesting that in the December, 1955 issue of Arkansas Faith, a monthly publication dedicated to maintenance of segregation in the Arkansas public schools, there had appeared a family photograph of the President's son, Major John Eisenhower, his wife and the President's three grandchildren, underneath which had appeared a caption, saying that two of the grandchildren, David and Annie, would not attend a racially integrated school at Fort Belvoir, Va., that while they lived on the post, they would attend St. Agnes Episcopal School in Alexandria, Va., for whites only, after previously having attended post schools. The caption had gone on to explain that the President had been responsible for the integration of the public schools in Washington and on Army posts, but that his own grandchildren were being sent to a segregated school away from the post to avoid integration, concluding, "'Do as I say, not as I do,' evidently is Ike's motto."
It is not clear whether the latter statement was contained in that caption or added by the letter writer. The publication to which he makes reference was published by the Arkansas White Citizens' Council. The basic story was true, as confirmed by White House press secretary James Hagerty, who sought to explain the situation by indicating that Major Eisenhower and his family lived in Virginia, where the public schools remained segregated, rather than in the District of Columbia, where, at the urging of the President in the immediate wake of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and its companion case, Bolling v. Sharpe, directed specifically at the D.C. schools, the public schools had been integrated peacefully at the start of the 1954-55 school year, to serve as an example for the nation. The story had been picked up by Southern segregationists, including Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, and published in some Deep South newspapers as indicative of hypocrisy on the part of the President. But it is quite unfair to ascribe to any President views associated with the practices of his adult children, which some parts of the press and public nevertheless continue to do to this day. Would it have been greeted with greater satisfaction had the story told of the President constraining his son to conform to his father's desires regarding the choice of education for his own children, just to accommodate the appearance of attending an integrated school? when, in fact, few schools were truly integrated in the sense of more than a handful of students of another race attending a predominantly white school anywhere at this time, suggestive of the notion that there was no racial prejudice involved in the decision of the President's son to send his children to a private church school which happened to be segregated, as opposed to the military base schools which had been integrated during the Truman Administration and which the children, or at least seven-year old David, had previously attended, his younger sister only having started school in the current school year. There may have been a myriad of circumstances entering the decision to enroll the children in the private church school, none of which had anything to do with the race of some of the other children attending the post school.
The insensitive segregationists of the time, however, bent as they were on latching onto anything they could to defend their disappearing cottonized, stratified "way of life" down heya, disappearing by natural and economic elimination in more modern, mechanized times, not because of anything to do with race, were apt not to think quite that far down the line on any subject, and if the political leaders who had perpetuated their brainwashing happened to do so or be reminded of such facts, were likely to blink them on the hustings for the sake of continuing the skein of indoctrination of the blank-faced, often barely literate constituents who had put them in office on the notion of preservation of "pure white culture" and the supposed "traditions" on which the previous letter writer had expounded, the summation of which was the facile never-neverland imagery of white columns and a leisurely life snatched away from them by the Yankee invaders who came to torment them and turn against them their darkies, for whom they felt nothing but the profoundest of paternal love, as they would for any stock animal, unless one of them got out of line, in which case...
The whole complex reminds of these latter-day Republican whackos in the House who think that their "free speech" has been violated because their whacko theories were banned and their accounts suspended by a private company, which is as much a violation of "free speech" as a publisher determining not to publish a book or pamphlet or any other printed thing for any reason at all, the First Amendment only preventing the states and the Federal Government from making laws restricting speech, not private citizens or groups. The idea that a whacko member of Congress was banned for lying and making charges unsupported by any evidence whatsoever beyond lies made up and propagated by a former occupant of the White House and his coterie of sycophants, about a "stolen election" in 2020 and the like, not only does not amount to any restriction on "free speech" but speaks well for the company and is wholly supported by the notion that if a company allowed such libelous communications, some of which were potentially stimulative of violent reaction, to be published on its platform, especially from someone elected to office who is viewed by many as a "responsible adult" and who receives more recognition and publicity for their remarks in any event than ordinary citizens, they could be held liable in a civil suit or at least have their own credibility questioned in the process, and so were only properly defending themselves and their integrity against demonstrated lies or questionable statements averred as proven fact, not merely couched in the form of editorial opinion or argument, being published on their company's platforms.
And speaking of muzzles on dogs, now that some of these whackos have been given committee positions, it has been made painfully clear very quickly to the American people just how whacko these nutbags are, as all one has to do now is reference their names on the internet in relation to statements they make in the course of Congressional hearings, rather than out on the streets, as before, to view or read plentiful examples of their whackoism. And so perhaps it is, after all, good for them to see the light of day, unmuzzled and out of their former doghouses, so that their constituents will not send them back for a third term in Congress, but rather return them to their whacko pals down at the bar in Colorado where the guns proliferate or to their fellow Q-Anon refugees from reality down in Georgia, and to other such people and places where that shoe fits such elected representatives
A letter from the publicity director of the Oratorio Singers of Charlotte thanks the newspaper and its staff for the publicity provided them during the previous several weeks, helping to make their programs successful.
If you were to hold a quick hockey game after each concert, you would probably get even more publicity out of the newspaper, especially if you had the opposing team delayed by three or four hours because of fog enveloping the airport and then had your audience remain, munching popcorn and hot dogs, awaiting the game, perhaps while you sing to them more selections.
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