The Charlotte News
Thursday, March 8, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that White House assistant press secretary Murray Snyder said this date that the President had reduced none of his constitutional duties and had no intention of doing so, commenting on an assertion by Senator John Sparkman of Alabama that the President intended to "shrink" his office duties because of his heart attack the prior September 24, the Senator having suggested that it would upset the balance set up by the Constitution for the preservation of popular government. Mr. Snyder said that the President had made it clear at his press conference the previous day that he had not reduced his constitutional duties, that the only duties he had reduced were those involving hospitality and that he doubted that Senator Sparkman would measure his services by the number of constituents with whom he met. He also said that he did not know whether the President had heard Senator Sparkman on the radio or had read of his remarks in the newspapers. DNC chairman Paul Butler had also advanced similar arguments in a speech in Louisville, in which he had said that the President's health was a major campaign issue for 1956.
Harlow Curtice, president of General Motors, said this date, in testimony prepared for a Senate Commerce subcommittee, that dealers and customers would benefit from revisions in GM's dealer contracts, and that he favored amending the law to permit steps toward curbing "bootlegging" of new cars through un-franchised dealers. GM had announced on February 10 revisions in its dealer contracts, which had become effective on March 1, and Mr. Curtice had indicated that a new post of executive vice-president in charge of dealer relations had been created at the corporation during the week to provide dealers "a direct line of communication to the top management of General Motors." Ivan Wiles, a GM vice-president and general manager of the Buick division, had been appointed to the new post. The subcommittee, chaired by Senator Mike Monroney of Oklahoma, had been studying auto marketing practices by the major manufacturers, and Henry Ford II, president of Ford Motor Co., was scheduled to appear the following Monday. A Senate anti-monopoly subcommittee, headed by Senator Joseph O'Mahoney of Wyoming, had heard numerous complaints from dealers the previous fall during hearings on the subject. Mr. Curtice said this date that those complaints had not been documented or, in his opinion, reasonably established, but that GM had nevertheless made changes in their dealer contracts to address them. The changes included helping a dealer to get rid of his buildings, equipment and stocks in case of franchise cancellation, longer-term contracts and more specific provisions for judging dealer performance, plus more factory help for the dealer. A "high standard of ethics" in advertising was also being demanded, as Mr. Curtice acknowledged that some GM divisional representatives had encouraged ads of the type which indulged in cut-throat tactics and overemphasized price. Mr. Curtice said that GM had sought two years earlier to get the Justice Department's approval of a contract provision to prevent dealer sales of cars at wholesale, which would have required dealers to offer initially the cars at cost to the factory, but the Department's antitrust division had declined. He said that GM's counsel did not believe that such a contract provision would be illegal under existing law, but that the Department apparently believed otherwise. He thus urged legislation which would legalize such a provision and also favored providing dealers with exclusive territorial rights, a provision which had been dropped in 1949 to avoid conflict with antitrust laws.
The International Union of Electrical Workers turned down a Government-proposed plan for settlement of the Westinghouse strike this date, presently in its 144th day. James Carey, president of the union, said that the decision by the 75-member conference board of the union had been unanimous, but that the action should not be considered a rejection or an acceptance of the proposed settlement, rather that it was a finding that the plan thus far was unacceptable. He said he expected to meet this date with the Federal Mediation Service director to discuss what steps might be taken toward further negotiations with Westinghouse. The company had accepted the settlement plan put forth by a three-man mediation service panel, which had now been disbanded after declaring that its job had ended when it came up with its recommendations.
In Wake, Va., a 25-year old woman had spent a half hour the previous day down a 35-foot well clinging to an iron pipe and clutching her two-year old son. She had entered the well on Wednesday morning to try to rescue her son, after her four-year old son had raced into the kitchen screaming that his brother was in the well. The boy had broken through a wooden well covering and was hanging desperately to an inches-wide ledge just above the water. The mother had yelled to the older brother to seek out a neighbor a quarter of a mile away, which the boy did, and the neighbor hurried back in his car, but a quick search failed to produce a ladder or rope, and so the neighbor returned to his home, joined by another neighbor, and the two elderly men eventually fastened a rope to a 14-foot ladder and lowered it into the well, able then to pull the rope, ladder, the mother and son to safety. The mother said that it had seemed like an eternity. The young boy had suffered only minor cuts and bruises and was sent to bed by a physician, the mother being unhurt. Her husband had been away at the time and learned of the incident after returning home the previous night.
Charles Kuralt of The News indicates that Thomas Turner, veteran Greensboro legislator and a UNC trustee, had called this date for the dismissal of Woman's College chancellor Edward Kidder Graham, telling the newspaper during a telephone interview from Greensboro that either they would have to get a new chancellor or a new faculty. A special investigating committee was opening a three-day probe of chancellor Graham's administration of the campus. Mr. Turner said that Dr. Graham was a poor administrator and should be fired, that he could not run the college without having a "constant uproar", that Mr. Turner had been informed that about 30 percent of the voting members of the faculty, 41 teachers, had attended an "anti-administration" meeting on the campus during the week. Dr. Graham had been at odds with some of the faculty members almost since he had arrived at the campus in 1950, with his general education plan having come under early attack. Mr. Turner stated that the issues, however, had changed and that the teachers who disapproved of him were now upset at his hiring and firing practices, that some department heads had been ignored by the chancellor in making personnel changes affecting their departments, and that one teacher had gotten initial notice that he had been fired when he came to his office to find workmen carrying away his books. Between 60 and 70 members of the faculty had requested an audience with the investigating committee while it was on the campus during the week. The committee was comprised of William D. Carmichael, Jr., Consolidated University vice-president, William Whyburn, acting provost, and dean W. W. Pierson of the graduate school, the group to make a report to acting president of the Consolidated University, William C. Friday, after it had finished its investigation.
Ann Sawyer of The News reports that a Charlotte doctor who had reported mistreatment of the three-year old girl who had died the previous Christmas Eve after being assaulted repeatedly by her stepmother, following approval of the home conditions by the Welfare Department, was anticipated to be the first witness before the County Board of Commissioners this date, as their investigation of the matter began in the afternoon. Ten witnesses had been subpoenaed to testify. The report of the doctor who was scheduled to testify had been the basis for the Welfare Department caseworker investigating the home in the first place, after the doctor reported that the little girl, who had suffered a broken leg, had not been returned to him for further treatment. The caseworker's investigation, according to her testimony in the criminal trial of the stepmother, showed, however, that the doctor's information was incorrect and that the little girl had been taken to a Mount Holly doctor for further treatment, and that doctor had reported that the child showed no signs of abuse. Several other witnesses who had testified in the criminal trial would also testify before the commissioners.
Dick Young of The News reports that City Council member and former Mayor Herbert Baxter had proposed acceleration of the movement for extension of Charlotte's city limits, with a plan put forward for a series of "town hall meetings" to obtain approval of perimeter residents for annexation, with the plan to be submitted to the Council for approval the following Wednesday. The plan envisioned earlier extension without having to wait for new legislation by the 1957 General Assembly.
Emery Wister of The News reports that a new cold front, bringing a sudden end to the springlike weather and threatening sudden death to tender plants and blooms, was bearing down on the Carolinas this date, with a predicted low of 30 degrees for the following morning in Charlotte. A quick check with nurserymen and fruit growers had indicated that flowering shrubs were in great peril unless properly protected, while peach trees would likely escape the cold. The impact of the cold front would not be felt until the nighttime, with a high of 60 in the afternoon and bright sun warming the air.
Across the Northeast from Pennsylvania to Canada, rain, hail, sleet, snow, fog and floods had driven thousands of people from their homes, with at least two drownings having been recorded in New York and further danger to widespread areas of New York and Pennsylvania being forecast.
On the editorial page, "Wrong Door Opened in Welfare Probe" indicates that the County Commissioners had hopscotched into an unwise decision on the investigation of the Welfare Department regarding the approval it had provided to the home in which the three-year old girl had been subjected to numerous assaults by her stepmother, eventually dying the prior Christmas Eve.
Initially, the probe was to be limited to that case and closed to the public, but now apparently it would be open to the public and unlimited in scope, the piece finding that the open, limited investigation would have been a wiser course to follow.
Public suspicion that the Welfare Department may have unwittingly contributed to the little girl's death by laxness in investigating the home was a serious matter which needed to be resolved if the Department was to retain public confidence. It finds it hard to understand how the County Commissioners could achieve their goal of restoring confidence by inviting every citizen with a beef against the Department to register the complaint at the same time. By its very nature, any welfare department would alienate people who were dissatisfied with the aid they received, as well as those who believed that welfare generally was a drain on tax money. There was a general, constant complaint that the Welfare Department went about obeying the law, rejecting applicants for aid which the law did not allow.
There was another problem in that the multiplicity of minor complaints which the commissioners would need to handle as part of their duty could obscure the larger issue involved in the case of the little girl. Public restraint could render constructive action from the investigation, but the commissioners had opened the door to the opposite by broadening the investigation.
"Laurinburg's Victory—and a Challenge" indicates that the people of Laurinburg were enthused over the choice of that town as the locus for the new consolidated Presbyterian College, indicates that the town had a rich heritage, was prosperous and Presbyterian. It thus finds the choice to have been a good one.
It indicates that the board of trustees which made the choice had a difficult task in setting aside the impassioned pleas from the other fine communities, Wilmington, Rocky Mount, Fayetteville and Lumberton, each of which it indicates would have been an excellent choice.
But since Laurinburg had a large concentration of church-working Presbyterians, regarded Flora MacDonald and Presbyterian Junior College as traditions, had supported those colleges and Peace College for women in Raleigh, and had indicated a great amount of interest in educational affairs, the town appeared to offer something extra as a good location.
It suggests that the other communities which had vied for the college should not be allowed to do without, however, that eastern North Carolina, as with the rest of the state, needed community colleges and technical schools, and with the interest demonstrated, while that fever was high, the possibility should be explored of proceeding on a local level to establish such schools.
"Mr. Nixon: Decision with High Stakes" finds that the way the President had phrased the matter of his running mate at his press conference the prior day and whether Vice-President Nixon would again be on the ticket, it appeared that he was saying that Mr. Nixon would decide, himself, as to whether he would be the nominee. The President said that he had told Mr. Nixon to chart his own course and that he would not dump him from the ticket, would never presume to tell him what to do.
It finds that it was a gentlemanly and fine expression of the President's affection for Mr. Nixon, but that insofar as it indicated that the President would stand with the Vice-President for re-election if the latter so decided, it also avoided the President's responsibility in the peculiar situation caused by his September 24 heart attack. For the President could become ill again and as a precaution against that possibility, it appeared that the President had a special duty to guarantee to the people that the person who was his running mate, as fully as possible, shared his philosophy of government and his approach to the mechanics of a democratic republic.
But the record showed that no such guarantee could occur with Mr. Nixon's "opportunism and divisiveness". It indicates that it would not presume to tell the President that such was the case, but it earnestly urges him to consider carefully his choice of a running mate, certainly to exercise more care than was suggested by his statements at the press conference.
It suggests that the distinction between the President accepting a decision by Mr. Nixon to run and the President making the decision, himself, was perhaps small, but the latter would imply the President's disinterested consideration outside the realm of his personal regard for the Vice-President. It urges that such objective thinking was essential to a wholesome decision in the general election, that in no other campaign had the stakes been so high regarding the selection of the best person available for the vice-presidency.
"Reducing the Ranks of Make-Believers" says that as with Superman, Peter Pan and Tarzan of the Apes, Smiley Burnette was strictly a hero for youngsters. When one outgrew the nickel-plated toy revolvers on the hip, one also outgrew Smiley.
When he had walked into the newsroom for a visit with News movie editor Emery Wister the previous day, his ancient, black hat on his head, the writer of the piece felt an old nostalgia return, but realized he was just a man, after all, while there had been a time when he was a "humorous, hard-riding, two-fisted god."
Smiley understood that and told the story of a youngster who had asked him recently, "How you manage to get so many shots out of a six-shooter without re-loading?" When Smiley asked him how old he was, the boy said that he was 14, to which Smiley responded, "Son, we're losing you."
The piece finds that it was true and that the cynical youth would realize when he reached mellower maturity that it was a pity, because he would also begin questioning Peter Pan's ability to fly and Tarzan's ability to turn aside stampeding elephants, and then all the magic would be gone.
It seems like old Smiley had forecast
A piece from the Garden City (Kans.) Daily Telegram, titled "Indigestion at $100 a Plate", finds the most unfathomable creation of the political factory at present to be the $100 per plate dinner, suggesting that most individuals with respect for their stomachs, consideration for their home lives, or a decent taste in entertainment, would shy away from all public banquets of any type, except those which their business or conscience obligated them to attend, as the food was always mediocre at best, compared with home cooking, more often abominable, that the social amenities were stilted and artificial, and the speeches were either strings of wisecracks by professional jokesmiths or flat dissertations on the state of the world, which curdled the ham and pumpkin pie.
It ventures that a person who would pay $100 to subject himself to such an evening was either a dedicated soul or a lamb who would follow any sheep which uttered "Baa!" It recalls that the Democrats had inaugurated such dinners at $25 per plate, which later increased to $50, $75 and then $100. The Republicans had promptly countered with a 50-cent chicken box rally for effective propaganda, but now that the Republicans were once again occupying the White House, they were also holding $100 per plate dinners.
It concludes that it was not the politics of the matter, but rather the asininity which prompted its remarks. "Even if Marie Antoinette were baking the cake, to pay $100 for a meal and some speeches is a fine example of insulting the human body."
Drew Pearson tells of a new atomic engine for airplanes which was being tested near Fort Worth, Tex., not yet being used to power the plane but being carried in the plane to see how it reacted to certain altitudes. If anything should happen to the B-36 which carried it, the Air Force did not want the public below to suffer from radioactivity in case of a crash, and so elaborate precautions were being taken. The atomic reactor aboard would be parachuted to earth and ten civilians were flying alongside the B-36 carrying the atomic engine, each having their own parachutes, and if the B-36 should crash and the atomic engine thrown overboard with the parachute, the ten parachutists would bail out alongside it with orders to surround the reactor and keep the public away.
He supplies a "cheerful thought", that airplane accidents of the future were going to be all the more dangerous, as radioactive rays could contaminate passengers in case of a crash or midair collision.
Some significant backstage conferences had taken place before and after Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Herbert Lehman of New York had made their fight against Senator James Eastland of Mississippi to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee, with oversight of civil rights legislation, among other things. One conference had taken place the day prior to the Senate fight, when a group of liberal Democrats sought to dissuade Senator Morse from taking a stand against Senator Eastland, telling Senator Morse that he was sure to lose and was fighting a hopeless battle. They told him that Senator Eastland's friends would retaliate against him by cutting appropriations for public works, and reminded that public works were important to the Far West. But Senator Morse only replied that they were guaranteeing that he would make the speech anyway, that Senator Eastland had virtually accused the Supreme Court of treason and therefore should not be in charge of the Judiciary Committee, that he had also investigated the New York Times when other members of his committee knew almost nothing about the investigation, and that, in general, the Senator had "out-McCarthy'd McCarthy". But of the liberals present, only Senators Richard Neuberger of Oregon and Patrick McNamara of Michigan agreed to go along with Senator Morse on a roll-call vote on the matter. Later that evening, Senator Morse had met with then-acting Majority Leader Earle Clements of Kentucky and Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, who had also urged Senator Morse not to make the fight, with Senator Humphrey stating that he did not blame him but did not think it was a wise move as it would hurt his re-election effort in Oregon. Senator Morse responded by asking Senator Humphrey if he was ready to go downtown and buy him a new bedroom suite if he followed the advice, explaining that if he did so, his conscience would have to remain in his present bed.
The following day, March 2, Senator Morse proceeded with the speech, arguing for an exception to the automatic application of the seniority rule and favoring a roll-call vote on the matter, advocating patience in integration but that outright defiance of a Supreme Court decision in the public statements of a Senator disqualified him for the chairmanship of such a vital committee, not attacking Senator Eastland personally or the right of Mississippi to send whomever it wished to the Senate, but criticizing having a man as chairman of the Judiciary Committee who would presume to be the spokesman of the entire Senate while not representing the Senate. Following the passage of the resolution to name Senator Eastland as chairman, several Senators had come to see Senator Morse, with Senator Clements congratulating him on the speech for keeping it on a "high impersonal plane", and even Senator Eastland commenting to Senator Morse that he felt badly that he was against him, but that both were lawyers and he wanted to thank Senator Morse for the high plane of his legal argument.
Joseph & Stewart Alsop indicate that in recent testimony before executive sessions of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, Secretary of the Air Force Donald Quarles and Air Force chief of staff General Nathan Twining had officially confirmed the darkest unofficial reports about the relative status of U.S. and Soviet air-atomic power.
It had long been reported that the country was lagging far behind the Soviet Union in production of long-range jet bombers, but Secretary Quarles and General Twining had revealed how enormous that lag really was, having stated that the U.S. current output of B-52 bombers was only four per month, in contrast to the Soviet output of the comparable "Bison" bombers at three times that rate. The two men had also admitted that the U.S. would not reach its planned peak output of 17 B-52's per month for at least another year and a half, while the Soviets were working toward a peak output of 25 Bisons per month, planning to reach their high peak considerably earlier than the U.S. would reach its much lower peak.
It had also been reported previously by the Alsops that the Soviets were already flight-testing a ballistic missile with a 1,500-mile range, with no comparable missile having yet passed the drawing-board stage in the U.S. Secretary Quarles and General Twining had admitted those facts and stated that they had certain evidence that the Soviets were testing a 1,500-mile range ballistic missile.
It had likewise been reported that the "Farmer" dayfighter and "Flashlight" nightfighter of the Soviets were advanced designs of high quality and were already being produced in substantial quantities, with no comparable advanced U.S. fighter aircraft having yet entered the stage of serious production. Secretary Quarles and General Twining had also admitted those facts to the Committees. The superior F-104 dayfighter of the U.S. was not yet in production at all and the only good nightfighter, the F-102, was being produced in only small numbers. The unsatisfactory F-100 dayfighter, which might not offer adequate opposition to the Soviet Bison, was officially in quantity production, but the quantities were still very small. Meanwhile, the Soviet output of Farmers and Flashlights would shortly be many scores per month.
The U.S. stock of nuclear weapons remained far greater than that of the Soviets and would likely remain far greater. But the Soviet nuclear stockpile was now approaching decisive proportions and they were presently well ahead of the U.S. in the best type of bombers which were required to deliver the bombs, as well as regarding the fighters that had to intercept bombers of the other side, and in medium-range ballistic missiles, foreshadowing the ultimate weapon, the ICBM.
Under those circumstances, the testimony of Secretary Quarles regarding the Air Force budget was remarkable, stating that the Air Force general staff had originally proposed a minimum budget of 20 billion dollars, that he had cut the request to 18.5 billion, which he appeared to consider rock-bottom. But Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson had cut it yet further, to 16.5 billion, and Secretary Quarles had yielded to Secretary Wilson, although stating to the Committees that the final concession to the Treasury and Budget Bureau made the Air Force budget "very austere indeed." Secretary Quarles also admitted that the budget was crowded with "one-shot savings" which could not be repeated the following year. Because of the election-year borrowing to keep the budget lower, Secretary Quarles said that the Air Force budget would have to be massively increased the following year unless the strength of the Air Force was heavily reduced.
Meanwhile, there was no discussion at all, except by the shocked Senators and Representatives, regarding a great emergency effort to overcome the air lead of the Soviets. Secretary Quarles provided a series of technicalities as excuse and General Twining appeared content that the U.S. still retained greater air-atomic power than the Soviets as of the present, though emphasizing that it was only "as of now". The Alsops therefore question what the situation would be two or four years hence, when it would be too late to catch up with the Soviets, at the point that their air lead really began to produce decisive results.
A letter writer comments on the investigation into the Welfare Department's handling of the case of the three-year old girl who had died after being assaulted by her stepmother, the writer indicating that she would venture that people other than the little girl had suffered at the hands of the Department, favors a general investigation of it, suggests that from July, 1954 through January, 1955, she had been in frequent touch with the Department in the interests of a black citizen, a case which several in the Department would likely recall, the facts of which she had summarized in a letter to Welfare Department director Wallace Kuralt in November, 1954, suggests that if the judgment and reasoning of several social workers with whom she had dealt were typical of the Department's entire staff, it was her belief that much improvement was possible and desirable.
The editors note that County commissioner McNinch the previous day had agreed that the investigation would be extended to "other phases" of Department operations.
A letter writer indicates that while the County Commissioners were at it, they should probe the Mecklenburg County Police Department, which he finds long overdue.
A letter writer indicates that he had, with some surprise and amazement, read in the March 5 edition of the newspaper an article concerning street improvements, which had stated that there was little or nothing to be done in the way of paving streets, sounding strange since almost a mile of Ideal Way and Ideal Way Extension, over which approximately 3,000 vehicles passed each day and about twice that on Sundays, still remained unpaved. It had oil and gravel treatment on it, but that was wholly unsatisfactory since it broke up under the rough treatment of the many cars and trucks which used it as a feeder street from Wilkinson Boulevard and South Boulevard to Park Road and Morehead Street, producing large holes in the street up to a foot in diameter, which were patched every 3 to 6 months by the city. About once per year, the street had to be torn up, regraded and new tar and gravel put down. He finds it needless expense, and damaging to adjoining property owners by producing clouds of dust and inconvenience. He urges that Ideal Way be included in the benefits of the $680,000 bond approved by voters for street improvements a year or so earlier.
Well, in an ideal world, that would assuredly occur. But we do not live in an ideal world. Just write a folk song about it, call it "Sticky Tar".
A letter writer from Pittsboro responds to a March 5 editorial, "Extremists Must Be Answered Clearly", finds that Judge Fred Helms, about whom the editorial in its first section dealt, was a splendid lawyer and an excellent gentleman, but his treatment of the doctrine of interposition had been limited to the earliest period of the nation's history, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, relating to the Alien and Sedition laws. He finds it ironic that the South had been the victim twice of outside interference regarding blacks in the South, in the middle of the 19th Century and now in the middle of the 20th Century. "We took the Negro off the hands of the North where he was worthless as a laborer until he had been conditioned to endure the rigors of the Middle Atlantic and New England climates, coming as he did from the torrid regions of South Africa. He came here from a society of semi-savagery, which his counterparts and codescendants still enjoy, and was given the tools of civilization and taught to use them by the white man of the South. We shared our pittance of livelihood with him during and since Reconstruction days; and have done infinitely more for him in the way of education than all the rest of the world combined. He owns more automobiles, here in the South, though only 14 million in population, than all of the 200 million Russians and 300 million South Africans, his racial brothers." He indicates that because white Southerners would not let blacks push them around, they were characterized as "bigots, extremists, blinded by prejudice and ready to be disciplined by bayonets and bullets by outsiders." He suggests that in all instances where racial barriers had been removed in areas of approximate numerical parity between the races, "amalgamation" had resulted, and that they were fighting to prevent that, "believing that posterity is the most vital and necessary party to this controversy, whom everybody, the press, the pulpit and political leaders have shamefully ignored, maybe forgotten."
No, they did not ignore or forget about the pompous asses among us, as you and yours
A letter writer says that she had read so many different kinds of pieces among the letters to the editor, some criticizing, some not ever happy with the conditions of the world, but finds that there would not be any peace anywhere as long as there were fighting and murders, wrecks and drinking. She is glad that there was a "payday coming for those who live in sin and disobey God's rules, for when He was hung on Calvary's cross and nails were driven through His hands, He suffered and died for our sins, and today it is heartbreaking to see the many who are trampling His blood underfoot."
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