The Charlotte News
Friday, April 27, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from London that Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev had said this date that the Soviet Union would "welcome" a U.N. ban on the shipment of arms to the Middle East. The statement came as he and Premier Nikolai Bulganin wound up their ten-day tour of Britain at a press conference with some 400 newsmen present, where they answered questions freely amid a warm reception. It was revealed that Prime Minister Anthony Eden had accepted an invitation to visit the Soviet Union later in the year, that Messrs. Bulganin and Khrushchev had stated that they would like to visit the U.S. if they thought such a visit would be profitable, that Mr. Bulganin had appealed for British help in bringing about closer ties with the U.S., indicating that at present relations were "far from sufficiently normal, a fact we regret", that Mr. Khrushchev had denied any intention of attempting to drive a wedge between Britain and the U.S. and that Russia favored even "pulling out the wedges" presently existing, and that Mr. Bulganin had urged that Western embargoes on shipment of strategic materials to the Communist world "be thrown on the rubbish heap". Mr. Khrushchev indicated that Russia did not ship arms to anyone and that they would like there to be no shipments at all, but said that they would answer wrongly if they said that they would not sell arms to states which urged them to do so on the basis that shipments were being made by other countries. He said that if it were possible to agree through the U.N. or otherwise that such shipments would not take place, they would welcome that status and be prepared to take part in such an undertaking "which would help bring about peaceful conditions in the troubled areas of the world." He was responding to questions regarding the earlier sale and barter of arms to Egypt by Communist Czechoslovakia. The press conference was televised from London's great Central Hall near the Houses of Parliament. Afterward, the two Soviet leaders departed the Victoria Station, bidding Prime Minister Eden goodbye, with the Prime Minister indicating that there was no doubt that the talks had been of value to both countries and to the peace of the world, with Mr. Bulganin echoing those remarks.
General Curtis LeMay, head of the
Strategic Air Command, testified this date before a special Senate
subcommittee investigating air power that his assigned mission of
countering any nuclear attack "at a moment's notice" was
being handicapped by lack of skilled and trained personnel, that a
constant turnover in "professional airmen" was his critical
deficiency. He indicated that it took between six and seven years to
design and produce the "new weapons system", while most
persons who joined the Air Force four years earlier had returned to
civilian life. He stated that SAC did not classify its men as
"professional airmen" until they had completed a four-year
hitch and reenlisted. Brig. General Horace Wade, director of
personnel for SAC, aided General LeMay in the presentation with
charts and color slides
House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman James Richards of South Carolina said this date that he favored marking time on the President's 4.9 billion dollar foreign aid request unless the Committee received assurances that there would be no drastic policy change, telling a news conference that he believed a majority of the Committee favored a "substantial" foreign aid program, although not one as large as the requested 4.9 billion. He said that the President, by advocating creation of a nonpartisan group of citizens to study the aid program, had raised the possibility of a drastic change in policy and that, under those circumstances, Congress might regard the pending mutual security bill as only an interim measure and might decide to report out only an authorization sufficient to meet essentials until the new recommendations were ready. He said that the Committee hoped to have Secretary of State Dulles come before it soon for a basic discussion.
Vice-President Nixon this date announced that he would run again for the second spot on the ticket, and the President said that he was "delighted" at the decision. Democrats expressed no surprise at the announcement, indicating that they would direct plenty of fire at the Vice-President, with many of them having bitterly criticized his campaign tactics in the past. It was likely, given the President's continuing recovery from his September 24, 1955 heart attack, that the Vice-President would shoulder a great deal of the campaigning during the year. Senate Minority Leader William Knowland of California said that even the drafting of a platform ought not present much of a problem, as it would be based on the Administration's record, indicating that Mr. Nixon's announcement had clarified the political atmosphere so that the party could close ranks and direct its attention to gaining majorities in the Senate and the House. The decision was announced following a White House conference with the President, who had relayed his reaction through an aide. Mr. Nixon said that he relied on his own judgment and that of his associates regarding what was best for "the success of the President in his campaign for the continued success of the President's Administration in Washington." He said that he delayed announcing the decision because he had to "weigh all the factors involved in reaching a decision that would put the primary goal first." The President had stated at a press conference on March 7 that he had asked the Vice-President to "chart out his own course" on whether he would again run on the ticket, saying that he would be happy to be on any political ticket with Mr. Nixon.
How about a one-way ticket
In Brockton, Mass., world heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano was retiring from the ring, according to his wife, Barbara, who said this date that she had just received positive assurance from him that he had agreed to her wishes. She had reported the news to the Brockton Enterprise, their hometown newspaper, and his local manager had confirmed the story. He would be 33 in September and would retire undefeated. Not only had his wife urged him to retire, but his parents had also done so, with his wife indicating that for three months she had begged him to do it for the sake of their daughter. Friends of the fighter had anticipated his retirement, as he was now 30 pounds over his fighting weight and had given up his daily routine of running, indicating that it was doubtful he could easily get back into shape. Rocky was not getting stronger. He was getting fatter.
In Denver, FBI testimony in the
murder trial of John Gilbert Graham, 24, accused of placing dynamite
in the luggage of his mother and killing her and 43 others in the explosion of an
United Air Lines plane the prior November 1 for insurance money,
established the foundation for presenting his confession to the jury.
The prosecutor asked the FBI agents to provide detail of their
investigation of the crash, which had occurred near Longmont, Colo.
Colorado law at the time required that a confession or other direct
evidence
In Pulaski, Va., a restaurant owner had lit a match to a gas heater and touched off an explosion and fire this date which had leveled a three-story brick building, with the possible loss of ten lives. The blast had rocked the old business section of the town, and in a matter of minutes, the building had gone up in flames, housing a restaurant, two shops and a Salvation Army transient home, with seven families living in upper-floor apartments. Four survivors of the 15 or 16 people believed to be in the building at the time had been hospitalized and one unidentified body had been recovered.
In Chapel Hill, it was reported that News photographer Jeep Hunter had been named the Southern "Photographer of the Year" at the annual Southern Short Course in Press Photography, which took place this date. Tommy Franklin of The News had also won first place in the South in spot news photography with his picture of a city policeman shooting at a rampaging steer. Tom Walters, also of The News, had taken second place in the sports category, with a picture of seconds working on a tired boxer between rounds. Mr. Hunter had taken two first-place prizes, in pictorial and portfolio categories, with his pictorial winner being a dramatic shot of an airplane warming up at Municipal Airport, and the portfolio winner having been a collection of ten photographs which each entrant had submitted as his or her best work of the year. The News photographers had won more top prizes than any other newspaper in the South, with all of the winners employed by Tom Franklin Studio of Charlotte. The story provides the list of all winners.
Donald MacDonald of The News reports that Charlotte Police Chief Frank Littlejohn, declaring, "I know I'm breaking the law—but I'll let the public decide," had held two young boys in the city jail this date, after they had been refused admission to the Morris Training School for lack of space for black juveniles, State law providing that children under 16 had to be segregated from adult prisoners. Mr. Littlejohn told a reporter during the morning that he was not going to turn them loose and have them believe that they were immune from punishment, as they had been declared "delinquent and incorrigible" by the Juvenile Court the prior Wednesday. He said that if psychiatric treatment and lecturing them would not help, turning them loose on the public after they had been so categorized, and turned down at Morrison, would not help, that he would not "allow them to run wild, shoot somebody, steal automobiles and run people down". Establishment of a place for detention of juveniles was one recommendation made during the week by a committee appointed by Mayor Philip Van Every, investigating what could be done about the number of repeat offenders in the juvenile system. The two youths in question had been ordered isolated in cells in the women's division of the jail, with the older of the two, 15, having previously escaped twice from detention homes, had been arrested in February, 1952, for malicious damage to three vacant apartments in the city, and arrested again the prior January for shoplifting. Records showed that on both occasions, he had been placed on probation, and that on April 19, had been arrested again after stealing an automobile and attempting to run over a motorcycle officer who had been sent to investigate a complaint of reckless driving in the neighborhood, the youth having admitted an earlier theft and abandonment of an automobile. On Wednesday, after being declared "delinquent and incorrigible" by the Juvenile Court judge, he had been sent to Morrison for an indeterminate period, which then returned him to Charlotte with an apology for not having room. The younger of the two boys, 13, had been brought to the Youth Bureau of the Police Department by his mother on April 3, telling officers that she could not control him, that he was remaining out of school and had been "stealing everything he can get his hands on." The mother explained that after he had run away from home several times, she found him living with adults in a house long suspected to be one of prostitution. His father was currently serving a life term for murder in South Carolina. Juvenile Court authorities had investigated the mother's complaint and the judge had also ordered that boy sent to Morrison as well, also returned for lack of space.
In Charlotte, a small, wiry 15-year old boy had slipped between narrow bars of the window of a grocery store and was caught by police inside while a 19-year old accomplice maintained a watch outside, spotted by City Street Department workers who alerted police. A police lieutenant said that the boy was about the size of a "two-cell flashlight", permitting him to make the tight squeeze, as shown in a photograph on the page. Missing from the store were a .22-caliber rifle and a single-barrel, 16-gauge shotgun, three wristwatches and assorted cigarettes, the brief story not explaining what happened to the loot—perhaps magically transported from the scene by the "two-cell" boy.
In Hollywood, Bing Crosby's eldest son, Gary, 22, would report for Army induction the following Tuesday, having returned the previous day from a tour of Australia, finding his draft notice in the mailbox.
In Covington, Ky., a judge told a man that he could serve out a ten-day sentence for disorderly conduct on weekends and thereby keep his job, indicating that the penalty could have been $100 and 50 days in jail, to which the defendant said that the judge should just do it, then, which the judge did.
In Los Angeles, a woman had asked a court to restrain her concert violinist husband from removing the couple's community property and to appoint a receiver to take charge of it until their divorce trial. Until recently, the woman was the booking manager for her husband, who was charged by her in the suit with cruelty.
In Angels Camp, Calif., a man from
San Francisco, surnamed Leong, had entered a frog named Won Leong Hop
On the editorial page, "Give 'Human Relations' Official Status" finds that the pattern of race relations in the state was changing too rapidly for Charlotte to tarry longer in providing adequate lines of communication between its white and black citizens. Following the May 17, 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, Mayor Van Every had suggested that an advisory committee be appointed to promote and maintain interracial harmony, but after two years, there was no record of such a body being appointed.
It suggests that it was not too late, that the public interest would be served by such a quasi-official human relations group, with its membership drawn from responsible representatives of both races, acting as a sounding board for reasonable, realistic thought on the subject. It counsels not to wait until there was trouble, that the experience of other communities indicated that the existence of such a group could prevent disorders and ease tensions after disorders arose.
In Rock Hill, S.C., there was such a group which had been successfully in operation for some time, as well as in other cities where there was appropriate fear of interracial strife in such a time of social adjustment and change.
In 1955, a group of private citizens had organized the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Council on Human Relations, but the organization lacked the imprimatur of the Mayor, the City Council, the County Board of Commissioners and the School Boards, or any other public agency, thus hampering its usefulness. Such a group, with quasi-official status, would serve as an effective antidote to chaos, misunderstanding and possible violence, serving as an instrument to promote the public peace and as a means of communication between people who were parties to a common social problem.
"Variations on a Theme by Sandburg" tells of journalists having crowded around Carl Sandburg when he visited Manhattan recently to receive an Albert Einstein Commemorative Award, reporting that he had talked of "fat-dripping prosperity" as the state of the nation, that: "When the goal of the country is only happiness and comfort, there is danger. Albert Einstein said as much… Listen, 'To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me.' You see, he wants the element of struggle in life." In response to a question as to what was life's main purpose, he had said: "Before you go to sleep at night, you say, 'I haven't got it yet. I haven't got it yet…' Take the man who invented the thermostat blanket. I hope he didn't say to himself, 'Now I'll go to Florida and sit around.'"
The piece agrees with Mr. Sandburg, that the struggle was essential, without which civilization would be done, but also suggests that a goal of happiness and comfort was not villainous, that there ought simply be a continuous gap between "is" and "ought to be", the latter being the ideal state of things, which might include peace, plenty and happiness. That gap could never be closed but people could not give up in seeking to close it.
It suggests that the early philosophers may have been correct in assuming that the gap was not an abyss but a relation, finding that the Epistle to the Hebrews had summed it up when it said: "For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come."
It concludes that the struggle had to go on, that men's ideas and ideals had to continue toward the magnificent, the impossible, the Napoleonic, that man could not become so satiated with "fat-dripping prosperity" that he said to himself, "Now I'll go to Florida and sit around."
"No Welcome Mat for Charm Peddlers" indicates that the President's decision not to put out the welcome mat for Premier Nikolai Bulganin and Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev was worthy of cheers all around, as the home front was wacky enough already, as shown by the results from the Pennsylvania primary during the week, where there were three candidates but no losers, with the President accumulating 60 percent of the overall vote and being "astonished" that he had received any votes, while Adlai Stevenson, with 40 percent of the vote, had been grateful, and Senator Estes Kefauver, with a few thousand write-in votes, had also been grateful.
It finds those to be bad jokes, but that as the summer and the real campaign came, there would be more bad jokes and old saws, which were the things feared most from the Russians.
Premier Bulganin had quoted in London "an old Russian saying that Moscow was not built in a day." Secretary Khrushchev had observed at the bomb-damaged St. Paul's Cathedral, "Looking ahead, you won't need a repair job if an H-bomb falls."
It suggests that it would be just like Mr. Bulganin, peddling charm, to get off the boat in New York and say: "Your Republican Party slogan is peace, progress and prosperity. We are for that, too." Then, it suggests, Senator McCarthy would return to the news, switching his allegiance to the Democrats, and someone would produce a few faked photographs, showing Mr. Bulganin with an arm around Senator William Knowland, and Congress would flee Washington, with demands for deportation of Messrs. Khrushchev and Bulganin, followed by cartoons, worried commentators and magazine articles.
It concludes that in the year of a national election, the U.S. did not have time for any other crisis and so the two Soviet leaders should "make their bobbles at home."
"Bedlam in the Woodlands at 3
A.M." finds, with May approaching, that the birdwatchers
had once again let a golden opportunity slip by, as they were doing
nothing other than watching, when birdland needed a close order drill
Nothing could be done about the time when the birds began their chirping, but someone ought to do something about getting them to sing together, possibly with a lullaby between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m., after which, they could swing and sway or rock and roll the rest of the day.
After reading a discussion of woodpeckers and yellow-bellied sapsuckers in the Greensboro Daily News recently, it is certain that the talent was to be had among birdwatchers if they would only quit standing around looking. The Daily News had a solid reputation among birdwatchers and it earnestly solicits their support in that undertaking to achieve more order and good manners among the birds.
It had done what it could by telling a mockingbird, which echoed its whistle for the dog, thus confusing the dog, to get off its property.
A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "So There It Is", indicates that Veronica Nicholson of Britain, who for four years had been the automobile editor of the British edition of Harper's Bazaar, and now, according to the International News Service, had a question for American automobile manufacturers and purchasers as to whether, if they had to have chrome on a car, they wanted it put on more fastidiously, suggesting that the manufacturers ought melt it all together and put it in one place, such as on top instead of placing it in slices here and there.
The piece indicates to Mrs. Nicholson that it was not a new puzzle, though her manner of phrasing it might give alarm to Detroit, as nearly everyone who had to pay for all the chrome accouterments on automobiles or cut their fingers polishing it, had been dismayed by the rust which might tarnish it, giving cause to wonder about all the chrome. Yet, even those who cussed the chrome appeared to be secretly proud of it, as it spoke for itself. Not everyone could afford 300 horsepower and no one could display it, but on everyone's car some chrome had to appear, or so it seemed.
It indicates that if it was not
conspicuous consumption, it was certainly conspicuous, and that
having given that explanation, it hopes that Mrs. Nicholson did not
ask about whitewall tires
Drew Pearson tells of an important detail having been omitted from the story the Justice Department had leaked regarding Trevor Gardner, the guided missile expert who had been such a severe critic of the Administration for bogging down on guided missile development that he had resigned from his position as Assistant Air Force Secretary, criticizing the Administration in the process for placing economy ahead of defense. Attorney General Herbert Brownell and his staff had tipped INS reporter Ruth Montgomery that the Senate Investigating Committee had forwarded its file on Mr. Gardner to the Justice Department, with the implication that Senators wanted the Department to inspect the file for possible violations of the law. But the Department had specifically requested the file, with Deputy Attorney General William Rogers having sent the Committee a formal letter asking for it, meaning that it was the Department, in fact, not the Senate, which was seeking to revive the case.
It was in direct contrast to what the Department had done in other cases, with the Senate Committee having heard conflicting testimony during its investigation of ICC commissioner Hugh Cross, indicating that someone had committed perjury, and yet the Justice Department had shown no interest in reviewing that case. The Department also had done nothing about other conflict of interest cases, including that of former Air Force Secretary Harold Talbott, Public Buildings commissioner Peter Strobell and the farm home administrator in Montana, Carl Hanson. Mr. Pearson thus finds that Mr. Brownell's sudden interest in Mr. Gardner appeared strange. As a result, Senators suspected that Mr. Brownell was retaliating against Mr. Gardner for opposing the Administration's guided missile program.
Mr. Gardner's views were highlighted in the current issue of Look, which had coincided with Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's open vows that Russia would develop before the U.S. an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a hydrogen bomb.
One reason that Senators believed the Justice Department's move against Mr. Gardner was politically motivated was that the Investigating Committee, following thorough investigation, had dropped the case, the Committee having found some evidence that Mr. Gardner had conducted personal business on official Air Force trips, not serious enough, however, to warrant further investigation, not even asking him to testify.
The income tax investigation of Senator Alben Barkley, former Vice-President under President Truman, plus the trial of the former President's secretary, Matt Connelly, commencing May 6, and the income tax probe of eight Democratic Congressmen, appeared to indicate a general pattern of crackdown timed for the election year. Shortly after Attorney General Brownell had taken office, he had cracked down on several Democrats, but that had backfired.
Walter Lippmann comments on the remarks of the President and Adlai Stevenson before the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington the previous Saturday, finding that it seemed that they were being shown what a poor thing was the reading of speeches written in whole or part by others. The prepared speeches of both men were partisan in tone, as neither of them were in fact by nature. He had been reminded of the fact when the President was off the television circuit and then on Sunday, when Mr. Stevenson had been on "Meet the Press". In the prepared speech, Mr. Stevenson had said that the successful foreign policy of President Truman had been followed by the unsuccessful policy of President Eisenhower, as if the latter had not been very similar to the former. The President had read a script which had him say that his policy had been a great success, though in his unwritten speech, he had talked as a person who understood that a change in many policies was necessary and was in the making.
In the partisan speeches, there was really no substantial question of policy in issue between the two men, as both were talking about the same facts, that there had been a great change in the world situation during the previous three years following the death of Stalin, shortly after the beginning of the Eisenhower Administration. Both men in their speeches urged that U.S. policy had to be re-appraised and revised to meet those changes, with both men asking the questions without having prepared definitive answers. Instead of a great debate, as prior to World War II, as regarding the Marshall Plan and NATO after the war, there was a great inquiry, with two sides, one pointing in one direction and the other in another direction. Everything remained tentative, with both candidates agreeing that the country could no longer insist upon or expect that every country would align itself between the two powers, the Soviet Union and the U.S. That was a very important change in the official U.S. view. Both men also agreed that economic aid to underdeveloped countries ought be divorced from military considerations such as bases and alliances. They also agreed that the Western powers had to identify themselves with the trend toward the national independence of dependent peoples. Though there were those new conceptions, neither the President nor Governor Stevenson claimed that he had yet arrived at a clear and established policy out of those new conceptions.
Until recently, the Soviets had been excluded from the power arc extending from Morocco to Japan, having been contained at its frontiers except regarding Communist propaganda and clandestine subversion. But in 1955, the Soviets had passed that containment line and begun to operate openly and with the methods of classic diplomacy to challenge the political predominance of the West. That could not have been done had not the governing classes in the Moslem and Hindu nations welcomed the Soviets, causing panic in the West that Asian and African countries would begin to throw themselves into the clutches of the Soviets, with the cooler view being that those countries would welcome the breaking of the Western monopoly of supply of military and economic aid and be pleased to have two competing suppliers, content to keep the competition ongoing.
Mr. Lippmann indicates that if that
was the new situation, then in the formation of U.S. policy, there
were three choices, to compete with the Soviets by trying to outbid
it, to collaborate with the Soviets in projects of development on the
principle of consortium or concert of power, or, as Governor
Stevenson had suggested, to turn to the U.N. as the main distributor
of technical aid, hoping that it would regulate and limit the
competition
A letter writer says that she had received many inquiries as to whether she had written a previous letter withholding her name, objecting to the differential in the salaries between teachers and truckers, denying that she was the writer, indicating that she had no opinion on Paul Buck's salary increase for his management of the Coliseum and Auditorium, though indicating agreement that teacher salaries were appallingly low, as they always had been in comparison with producers of tangible services. She indicates that all through literature, the teacher was depicted as a threadbare character, of varying nobility, idealism, and stupidity, a firebrand, a fool, or a good, steady influence, as no one who was financially ambitious ever set out to be a scholar or a teacher. But just as the results of good or bad teaching were impossible to measure in monetary terms, so were the intangible rewards of teaching to the teacher, the immediate problem being that the superior young person at present was not seeking intangible rewards, and probably quite rightly. She adds, however, that they should not attack truck drivers as a means of comparison, that while the long-haul drivers made about $5,000 per year, they deserved it, as did the teachers. She reminds that driving a tractor-trailer rig of 30 tons on a long run required considerable experience and mechanical knowledge, excellent physical condition, steady nerves and the ability to meet many emergent circumstances. Danger was ever present and the driver had irregular hours, an upset family life, and short job expectancy, despite which their safety record was quite high. She concludes that she was for giving everyone a raise.
But then, with the consequent inflation, no one would effectively get a raise. Perhaps, you should study some macroeconomics a bit.
A letter writer from Rutherfordton, manager of the Chamber of Commerce, wonders what drivers were doing about the increasing highway fatalities, urging all drivers to unite in a sincere effort to stop the carnage, that they were the ones responsible for traffic accidents, with one moment of carelessness potentially meaning the difference between life and death. He suggests that civic-minded organizations in the state take more interest in safe driving by organizing Safe Driving Clubs, with every driver to take a pledge: "I will drive safely, to protect myself, my family and my fellow man." He urges motorists to "drive safely".
Starting in 1956, the state's license plates bore that slogan. Whether it actually did any good remains questionable, as the state would later abandon it, first in favor of the highly questionable "First in Freedom", and, after considerable complaint about that one, followed by the dubious "First in Flight", which sounds like an escape, which, based on our experience on North Carolina highways and byways, is the way many motorists drive, as if they were escaping from a penitentiary and being pursued by the Highway Patrol and all manner of other law enforcement officers.
A letter writer wonders whether the forthcoming contest for judge of Superior Court was essentially one between a "Democratic type" and a "Republican type", that although Mr. Campbell was running as a Democrat, he appeared to fit the traditional "Republican type" better than many Republicans did, that as an attorney, he represented big business, and in society, he represented the top families of the community. Mr. Goodman, his opponent, seemed to be a "Democratic type", with his popularity among the people placing him on top of the ticket in his election to the State Legislature, and, according to newspaper accounts of his legal work, had represented underdogs, those without influence who needed help. She says that neither candidate would enjoy being placed arbitrarily in any niche, but that she believed it an interesting sidelight on the important election and worth some thought.
A letter from the chairman of the Citizens Committee for Air Pollution Control, states, on behalf of the organization, that he wanted to express appreciation for the support the newspaper had given them, indicating that Charlotte now had a fine departmental director and an excellent air pollution ordinance, but that the real job lay ahead, that with continued support from the newspaper and those interested in making the city a better place to live, in each succeeding heating season, they could show a marked improvement over the past. He also thanks the committee of Professional Engineers of North Carolina, who had assisted in the preparation of the technical part of the ordinance.
A letter writer expresses appreciation to the newspaper on behalf of the Jaycees for the coverage and promotion of their "Jaycee Jollies of 1956".
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