The Charlotte News
Monday, April 2, 1956
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Administration was taking a new look at the legal authority it already had, seeking a means to strengthen its farm program during the election year in the event that the Congress did not pass new legislation. Undersecretary of Agriculture True D. Morse had said that the Agriculture Department "obviously is taking a new look at the whole farm program to determine what more might be done to help improve the farm situation." He said that no decisions had yet been made on what new action to take, but stated that officials were weighing carefully steps which might be taken to hold down production of livestock feed grains which were already in surplus. The Administration was hoping to improve farm economy with a proposed 1.2 billion dollar soil bank program, passed in the Senate version of the farm bill and presently before a joint conference for resolution of the Senate and House bills. Under that program, payments would be made directly to farmers for taking land out of production of crops already in surplus. Agriculture Department officials said that the possibility of such a program helping farmers during the current year, even if passed, was slim. They based that view on the fact that the President might wind up vetoing the farm bill because it contained a return to fixed price supports, opposed by the Department and the Administration generally. Both sides of the aisle were accusing each other of stalling on the new farm bill, with the RNC having stated in a publication for party workers that "farmers will be denied the full benefits" of the soil bank during the current year, blaming the "deliberate slowdown" by the Democrats, led by Senator Hubert Humphrey. Senator Humphrey had replied in a statement that the Administration already had ample authority to put the soil bank program into effect and needed only to ask Congress for money to finance it, that the President had sought the soil bank program to stage "a show for political effect of 'doing something new' for farmers." Secretary Benson had disputed the contention that the President already had authority to set up the soil bank.
The Government announced this date that newsmen and photographers would be permitted to observe and report on an hydrogen bomb test scheduled for around May 1 on Eniwetok in the Pacific, that coverage would be on a pooling basis, with the number of newsmen limited to 15. It would be the first time since 1946 that newsmen had been allowed to see testing of atomic weapons at the Eniwetok proving ground, though permitted to view a number of tests at the Yucca Flat proving ground in Nevada, the last one having been the prior May 5. A joint announcement by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Defense Department did not say specifically that the upcoming test on Eniwetok would be of an hydrogen bomb, but described it as being a "megaton range nuclear detonation", which would place it in the thermonuclear category. It was also anticipated that there would also be state and regional civil defense leaders present as observers during the test. The announcement had also explained how the pool reporters would be selected.
In Nicosia, Cyprus, it was reported that students carrying Greek flags had thrown bombs and stones at British security police and troops in the port city of Paphos this date, with bomb fragments having wounded a schoolteacher and stones having slightly injured several of the British personnel. Three bombs had been hurled in Limassol also, with one injuring an elderly couple and another, a child. A curfew had been ordered in the center of that city, where a Briton had been shot to death the previous day. The previous day had been the first anniversary of the Greek Cypriot underground, EOKA, which sought to drive out the British and unite Cyprus with Greece.
In Seattle, a New York-bound Northwest Orient Airlines Stratocruiser had crash-landed in Puget Sound after takeoff this date and the Coast Guard reported half an hour later that 34 of the 37 persons aboard had been rescued, with the other three persons missing. There were no known serious injuries among the 34 rescued. They had gone out onto the wings of the plane during the several minutes it had remained afloat after the crash-landing. The plane carried 31 passengers and had a crew of six. The pilot had radioed that the plane had trouble and that he would try to return to the airport, but subsequently radioed that he did not know whether he could complete the turn to go back, a few moments after which the crash-landing took place. The crash had occurred between Seattle and Tacoma.
In Pittsburgh, searchers combing an area where a TWA Martin Skyliner had crashed in flames the previous night seconds after takeoff from the Pittsburgh Airport, had located another body during the morning, bringing the complete count of passengers and crew to 14 survivors and 22 dead. Shortly after takeoff, the plane had swerved, a wing had dipped and it slammed into a hillside, bursting into flame. An investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board, police and airline officials was getting underway at the airport terminal. The destination of the plane had been Newark, N.J.
In Louisville, a 35-year old tavernkeeper had baptized a dying intruder the previous day after shooting him during a fight. The tavernkeeper had been alone in the tavern when he heard a noise at the window, and, grabbing his pistol, he had moved into one of the booths and watched a man crawl through the window. He then fired one shot at the floor and the intruder had disappeared into the shadows. When the tavernkeeper had reached the window, the intruder began hitting his shoulders and ribs with a claw hammer, prompting the tavernkeeper to fire again, at which point the burglar had fallen to the floor, where he lay dying on Easter morning. The tavernkeeper, a Catholic, asked him whether he had been baptized, but got in response only a rumbling noise in the man's chest. The tavernkeeper ran to obtain a cup of water, returned and splashed it over the man's face, saying that he baptized him "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." Detectives ascertained that the intruder had been shot four times. His wife said that he was not a member of a church and had not been baptized. The tavernkeeper was charged with manslaughter and released on bond.
Donald MacDonald of The News tells of a pistol carried in a paper bag by a woman having discharged when she dropped it on the floor of the Eckerd's Drug Store on Tryon Street this date, the bullet having struck the woman in her right leg. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital where it was learned that the .38-caliber pistol bullet had gone through her right leg just below her knee. No charge had been filed against her, pending a report of her condition.
In Worcester, Mass., police had halted a young female driver for making a right turn after her turn signals indicated a left turn, the woman saying that she thought the lights told drivers behind her which way they should turn.
In Franklin, N.J., actress Magda Gabor, oldest of the Gabor sisters, was married for the fourth time the previous day and the mayor of the town performed the civil ceremony.
In Oklahoma City, a minister had been unexpectedly interrupted during an Easter service, after he had asked during the course of the sermon, "Who is Jesus?" From the rear of the Presbyterian church, a small boy had replied, "God." The reverend had paused to acknowledge the boy and then continued his sermon, titled "This Awed Silence".
In Lakeland, Fla., schoolchildren had voted for spinach over ice cream as their favorite food. At the elementary school, the students planned their own menu once per week, and lately, spinach had been getting the most votes for the choicest food, while ice cream received the least number of votes. Sound like a bunch of Commies.
In Washington, youngsters and parents flocked to the White House this date for the annual Easter egg roll on the South Lawn, with a crowd of about 500 people, many carrying gaily decorated eggs and colorful baskets, having shown up when the gates opened early in the morning. White House officials were expecting about 20,000 visitors by the time the gates closed in the afternoon. The President would meet with the youngsters and their parents later in the day. Rules indicated that all children had to be 12 or younger, with those older than 12 having to be accompanied by children. The Army band played "The Easter Parade" as the ceremony got underway, with the temperature being 45 degrees, but sunny. No dogs were allowed onto the grounds, as one parent had sought to bring their wire-haired terrier.
On the editorial page, "Truman's Hand in the Convention" tells of Alabama Governor Jim Folsom having said that it would take Harry Truman to bring the Democratic ship back to port in 1956, which now seemed to ring true with the defeat of Adlai Stevenson in the Minnesota primary by Senator Estes Kefauver, shattering the image of Mr. Stevenson as a person who could unite the party.
It had led some Democrats to suggest that President Truman ought run again, as he had managed to unite a very divided party in 1948 and pull out the victory, despite all odds being against him.
Senator Kefauver had presented simple solutions and something for everybody, and the strategy had prevailed over the moderation of Governor Stevenson. Mr. Truman had been able to talk to the people in a way that Senator Kefauver was now managing to do.
But it recognizes that there was more nostalgia than logic in the suggestion that Mr. Truman ought run again, as he was nearly 72 years old and would unlikely respond unless drafted by the convention. He would also heed the opposition from his family. It thus finds it more likely that he would be fashioning the nomination for someone else rather than accepting it for himself, that his influence in choosing the candidate would be great, as he had been a success at his calling and conventions tended to place a premium on that quality.
It might be noted that ordinarily, President Truman could not have served another term, as he had served more than two years of the unfinished term of FDR before being elected in 1948, but the 22nd Amendment, which had been ratified in 1951, had specifically exempted the President in office at the time from its terms, which limited a successor President who served more than two years of the predecessor's term to only one additional elected term. That is why President Ford, had he been elected in 1976 to a full term, could not have run again. By contrast, President Johnson, who served only 14 months of President Kennedy's unfinished term, would have been eligible to run again in 1968 had he so chosen, after having been elected in 1964.
"Death in the Afternoon—U.S. Style" indicates that since the end of World War II, spectator response to automobile racing had been on the increase, even though the sports pages of most American newspapers snobbily ignored it, with the exception of the Indianapolis 500 on Independence Day.
But the News had covered the 12-hour Grand Prix of Endurance at Sebring, Fla., recently, with sportswriter Sandy Grady having reported on it, the piece indicating that in the strictest sense, it had been a "sockdolager". (Perhaps, only Lincoln Capris had been in the running.) It finds that even Mr. Grady, however, an enthusiast and an expert in automobile racing, could not explain its magnetic attraction.
But Sports Illustrated the previous week had asked race drivers to provide an explanation, having little success until they questioned Spain's Marquis de Portago, who said, "Courage, the challenge to one's courage of a fierce competition and awareness of death." It finds the quote comparable to Ernest Hemingway having defined the lure of bullfighting by indicating: "A growing ecstasy of ordered, formal, passionate, increasing disregard for death…"
It indicates that the race car
driver and the torero found passion and beauty in cheating death,
that the driver was "aware" of death, while the bullfighter
"disregarded" it. But the spectators were the same, whether
at the corrida or the track, sharing a curious mixture of dread and
fascinated expectation. Yet, ironically, Americans condemned the
bullfighter as a foolhardy butcher while hailing the race car driver
as a brave technician. In the bullring, the bull, as well as a few
horses, died, and occasionally a bullfighter along with them. At the
track, drivers sometimes died, and at Le Mans
"A curious thing, this
fascination with death
"Plain Talk vs. Turgid Loquacity" expresses delight that a magazine published for municipal officials was featuring a complaint that "many of the terms in common usage at city hall are confusing to the average citizen," suggesting substitutes for such terms as "amortization" and "debt limit", the substitutes being "gradual and regular payment of debts" and "the most the law will let the city owe", respectively. It hopes that Charlotte officials would heed the advice.
But it also hopes that other professions would follow suit, such as doctors, with it having been reported that a physician testifying in a recent trial regarding a fight, had said that one of the parties had suffered from "circumorbital haematoma", meaning simply a black eye.
Explorers also could use amendment, as M. Dollfus-Ausset, upon reaching the top of the Finsteraarhorn, had written in his diary: "The soul communes in the infinite with those icy peaks which seem to have their roots in the bowels of eternity," appearing to have liked the view.
It concludes that editorial writers could also benefit from more succinct language. It points out that in the previous Saturday News editorial column, it had written: "Faith … is the great moving force which has transformed her persuasion and belief into a kind of passionate intuition that has always brought out the best in mankind." It truncates the thought by saying, "Seems that optimism is bliss."
A piece from the Richmond News Leader, titled "The Good Five-Cent Cigar", tells of it being a rare thing for a Vice-President of the country to be remembered unless he succeeded to the Presidency. To be remembered, the Vice-President had to do or say something momentous in his own right. Such had been the case with President Woodrow Wilson's Vice-President, Thomas Marshall, who had said, "What the country needs is a good five-cent cigar." The saying had immortalized him in history.
It indicates that it had been thinking about the quote during the week, as there was still no such thing as a good five-cent cigar, that there were passable ten-cent cigars, but if one smoked four or five of them per day, which it indicates was not an exorbitant number, one had to buy a box of cigars every ten days or so, amounting to more than $175 per year spent on cigars, a fact which would never do, as one's wife was quick to point out.
Thus, a person looked around for an acceptable five-cent or six-cent or even two-for-15-cent cigars. "But the dried-up rope available for those prices is depressing indeed. One selects a five-cent or six-cent cigar, tests to make sure that it is reasonably fresh, and lights up. It emits noxious clouds of heavy, dense smoke. It disintegrates at the chewing end in no time flat, leaving a distasteful collection of bits and tatters in the mouth." It indicates that it was true of all brands of cheap cigars and if a passable five-cent cigar was available in the U.S., it had not yet found it.
It concludes that with all the technological advances of the previous few decades in the atomic age, one would think that someone would have invented a way to grow tobacco for cheap cigars and manufacture them, but it had not happened.
Cuba, move to Cuba, Mr. Kilpatrick, we presume.
Drew Pearson tells of Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson and the President having picked a man with an interesting prewar background to be the new czar for guided missiles. Eger Murphree of Esso had been called before a Senate committee following the attack on Pearl Harbor for working with the Nazis in developing high-octane gasoline and in the process not being entirely cooperative with the U.S. Army Air Corps. Mr. Murphree had been in charge of the gasoline experiments of the large Nazi cartel, I. G. Farben, though the major policy had been dictated by his superiors, Frank Howard, president of Standard Development Co., and William Farish, president of Standard Oil of New Jersey. He had fared much better before the Senate than the latter two had, when the Senate Patents Committee, chaired by former Senator Homer Bone of Washington, had conducted a vigorous investigation of why the U.S. was caught short after Pearl Harbor without enough high-octane gasoline production and no production of synthetic rubber, magnesium and other vital defense products. The Committee had found that various large corporations, primarily Standard Oil and Alcoa, had entered into secret contracts with Farben to exchange patents and restrict use of those patents within the U.S. As a result, Standard Oil, despite Hitler marching forward in Europe, was slow to make available to the armed services of the country its patent arrangements with Nazi industrialists, which would have been a tremendous aid in preparation for war prior to Pearl Harbor, the reason why the Air Corps had no gasoline to spare for some time after the attack. Mr. Murphree had been the contact person on technical matters between Farben and Standard Development.
The Patents Committee had run across a confidential memo written in March, 1935 by Mr. Howard to Mr. Farish and Walter Teagle, heads of the parent company, Standard Oil of New Jersey, in which Mr. Howard had told how the Air Corps had approached him about starting production of 100-octane fuel. As early as 1935, the Army, realizing the importance that aviation fuel would play in future warfare, wanted to get a start on the rest of the world. But Mr. Howard, in discussing the proposal by the Air Corps, said that it appeared that the only practical way to handle the problem was to avoid carrying out the operation of producing 100-octane aviation fuel commercially as long as possible, that they would also have to breach their agreements to render full and complete technical reports to all of the companies associated with them, even to American companies, for fear of leakage, with Mr. Pearson adding that he had obviously referred to Farben and its associates.
Mr. Murphree had been called before the Patents Committee and grilled about the confidential memo at some length, with the Senators having wanted to know why, when the Air Corps wanted to produce 100-octane fuel as early as 1935, Standard had not done so.
Walter Lippmann tells of the Democrats being divided during this election year, as the party had been periodically, as at the turn-of-the-century when William Jennings Bryan was the nominee three times of the party, until Woodrow Wilson was able to unite the party during the Teens, after which it was divided again regarding Prohibition and the Klan during the Twenties, until FDR, in the midst of the Depression, had been able to unite it under the New Deal. Since the death of FDR in 1945, coincident with the end of the war, the tension between the Northern and Southern Democrats had been increasing.
Adlai Stevenson, whom Mr. Lippmann regards as a leader in the line of Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt, had been trying, but unsuccessfully, to reunite the party. There was a major issue between Mr. Stevenson on the one hand and former President Truman, Senator Estes Kefauver and Governor Averell Harriman on the other regarding party policy and strategy, whether there would be a united Democratic front or one in which the Democrats would run, as under President Truman in 1948, as essentially a Northern party, appealing to those interests championed most by Northern Democrats, primarily labor and civil rights.
If the Democrats were to preserve a united front with the Southern wing of the party, in control of Congress, Mr. Stevenson would be their candidate and the only possible candidate. But if they decided to let the Southern wing either to vote Republican or Dixiecrat, while they fought the election as a militant Northern party appealing to the farm belt and to the big cities, they could nominate either Senator Kefauver, Governor Harriman or perhaps others in an open convention in which former President Truman, the hero of 1948, would dominate.
The New Hampshire and Minnesota primaries, won by Senator Kefauver, albeit with no competition from Mr. Stevenson in New Hampshire, had indicated that among Northern Democrats the balance had turned against the policy of a united front under Governor Stevenson, the reason being, Mr. Lippmann posits, that there was not at present any national issue which predominated as in the time of Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt. A united front policy meant giving the local interests something less than they wanted and that could work only when there was a major issue at stake, such as war or a depression, rendering local interests subordinate.
There was no indication that the pattern followed by President Truman in 1948 could again be successful in 1956, that is attacking Republican policies head-on. Since having announced his candidacy the prior November 15, Mr. Stevenson had done much to justify the view that there was not a favorable climate for a united Democratic front. But at that time, the President was only seven weeks away from his September 24 heart attack and the general impression was that if he were to stand for re-election at all, the nation would look very carefully at the vice-presidential nominee, and so conventional wisdom was that Mr. Stevenson, if he were to become the nominee, would be essentially running against Vice-President Nixon, and polling indicated that he would win very easily over the Vice-President. But in the interim, the President had made a remarkable recovery, transforming the situation.
Mr. Stevenson and the united front had received no effective support either among the Northern or Southern politicians of the party, their allegiance being first to the constituency which had elected them, and so a united front policy could never be the first choice of the politicians. Southern Democrats, in control of Congress, had in the current session done nothing to make it easier and a lot to make it harder for Mr. Stevenson to carry on a policy of a united front. The Southern Democratic politicians in Congress had followed a sectional policy which had, no doubt, helped them in their own constituencies but also had divided the national party. They had begun with Senator Lyndon Johnson's natural gas deregulation bill and then followed Senator Walter George's "Southern manifesto", vowing by all lawful means to reverse or circumvent the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Since that point, the Democrats had been so deeply divided that it was almost impossible to imagine how a common platform could be reached at the national convention in August.
Mr. Lippmann allows that the situation could change in the ensuing months, but that assuming that the opposing ticket would be the President and Vice-President Nixon, he has doubts whether any of the leading Democratic politicians in the North or in the South were really interested in the presidency, as the Democrats had only an outside chance to win against the President in any event. But also, the Democrats had done well with President Eisenhower in the White House while they controlled both houses of Congress, and many of the state governments, thus possibly regarding the present division of powers between the two parties as not being at all unsatisfactory.
The Congressional Quarterly looks at the President's Congressional score card at the Easter recess of the current session of Congress and finds that they had passed only 6 percent of the President's agenda, 12 of 201 specific requests which he had presented to them. Among those 12 were corporate and excise tax rate extensions, the school milk and polio vaccine programs, and the Ventura River, Great Lakes channel and Passamaquoddy projects. It adds that it did not necessarily mean that it was a "do-nothing" Congress, as the Republicans were seeking to label it, for at the same point in 1954, when Republicans had controlled both houses, the President's program was less than half as far along as it was at present. The reason was that Congress generally started each session slowly and increased its output as committees finished their work and sent measures to the floor. The President, himself, had noted that fact the previous week, saying it was too early to worry about his scorecard.
It indicates, however, that if the pattern held true from the previous three years, the President would have to be satisfied with an under-.500 batting average for his program. During his first year in office, Congress had passed 72.7 percent of his requests, during the second year, 64.7 percent, and in 1955, 46.3 percent.
Partisanship supposedly was at a peak during an election year, but the Democratic leadership in Congress had not yet sought to block the President's legislation, as it could not really do so in any event, as there were striking similarities between Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson's "program with a heart" and that of the President. Instead, Democrats had, as one Republican had put it, sought to "kill parts of the Eisenhower program with kindness." Democrats had proposed some legislation which went further and cost more than the President wanted, hoping in some instances, as with the farm bill, to present the President with the choice between a Democratic program or no program at all.
Republicans in Congress were in agreement that the decision of the President to seek re-election had strengthened support for his legislative requests, as it would be a rallying point for the campaign to point to the accomplishments of the Administration.
But the program faced bipartisan opposition in some areas, as with the proposal to have long-term foreign aid commitments for a decade in advance, opposed by both Senator Walter George of Georgia, the leading Democrat regarding foreign policy, and by Senate Minority Leader William Knowland. The school aid program was stymied in the House Rules Committee by a bipartisan civil rights bloc threatening to add an anti-segregation rider to it.
In other areas, the President had modified his requests to meet opposition in Congress, as in the highway program, which had failed to pass in the previous session because the President had favored a hard-financing plan for it, while during the current session, the President had proposed it without any proposal for financing, and so it was now likely to be approved.
It concludes that, overall, the status of the President's 201 requests stood at 12 approved, 36 passed by one house or the other or both, and some progress in committee on 88 bills, with five having been either rejected or delayed and 60 on which no action had occurred. It indicates that the ensuing four months would tell much more about the kind of program the President could take to the voters the following November.
A letter from the vice-president of WBT radio, J. R. Covington, finds that the editorial appearing on March 26, "Sing Rock-a-Bye Baby to Rock 'n' Roll", while written in an amusing style, had reflected less than an exhaustive study of the program content of Charlotte radio stations. He indicates that while it was true that some stations broadcast a considerable amount of rock 'n' roll music, the implication that it dominated radio at present was unfair, that during a typical week, radio stations locally broadcast 83 hours of concert music, 32 hours of folk music, 38 hours of religious programming, 54 hours of news, 26 hours of sports, 16 hours of homemaking programs, and 15 hours of farm service programs. He finds it quite probable that several of those categories of programming exceeded the total time given to rock 'n' roll music. He says that it was not the intent of the station to take too seriously something which had been written partly in fun, but wants to impart to readers the additional information.
Notwithstanding your disclaimer, you still misunderstand the increscently upticked rock-atomic trend
A letter writer from Cheraw, S.C., appeals to all of the people of Chesterfield County in South Carolina to realize and admit that the county needed a place for those who needed hospital care and for the yet unborn who would need medical treatment occasionally, as well as for those opposed to a hospital for the county. The hospital board had accepted a site given by the town of Cheraw for the hospital, with money for the building coming from Federal matching funds and from the County, as well as $43,000 in donations. He wonders why some people were opposed to having a hospital at Cheraw.
A letter writer from Rockville, Md., says that it was refreshing to read and come across a letter such as that appearing on March 26, in which a woman had stated that the blood of all men, black and white alike, was the same color. This writer indicates that if more people would write letters with more understanding and sense, as the previous writer had, they would be more appreciated, finds that the previous writer had done the public a distinguished service in expressing herself as she had, and expresses her admiration for such "inspiring thoughts".
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