The Charlotte News
Monday, April 9, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Administration this date asked Congress to enact a broad civil rights program, including creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate individual grievances, the proposals, submitted by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, including creation of a new civil rights division within the Justice Department to function under an additional assistant attorney general. A third proposal would provide that citizens who felt their Constitutional rights had been infringed could go directly to a Federal court with their complaint, whereas under present law, they could only do so after they showed that all state administrative and judicial remedies had been exhausted without redress. The Attorney General had sent the text of the proposed bills to Vice-President Nixon and House Speaker Sam Rayburn. Along with other proposals, he had asked that Congress and the projected Civil Rights Commission consider a further statute under which the Attorney General could initiate civil actions against conspiracies where present law limited such action to the injured individual. Conspiracies thus covered would be those designed to deter or intimidate witnesses in Federal courts or attempts to injure persons who had testified in such courts or before grand juries, and the use of "disguise on the highways" to deprive citizens of equal protection of the law. He also explained that the recent decisions by the Supreme Court relating to integration in education and other areas, and civil rights cases coming before the lower Federal courts in increasing numbers, had caused the need for a separate division of the Department regarding civil rights, currently being addressed within the criminal division. He emphasized that the right to vote was one of the most precious rights a citizen had and that it would be a prime field for inquiry by the proposed bipartisan commission, that where there were charges that by one means or another the vote was being denied, they would need to find out "all of the facts, the extent, the methods, the results."
In Montgomery, Ala., approximately 1,000 persons in the city had joined the NAACP after a membership drive had been launched a week earlier, according to the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, a leader of the four-month long boycott of municipal buses in the city. Reverend Abernathy made the statement the previous day, following a rally at the First Baptist Church, estimating that the Montgomery NAACP chapter now had about 3,500 members, with the campaign seeking 10,000 new members. Clarence Mitchell, director of the Washington Bureau of the organization, had addressed the rally, attended by approximately 1,500 black citizens, saying that in Alabama, a black citizen had "less chance of voting in state elections than a white Communist."
The President told Republican Congressional leaders this date in their weekly meeting that the farm bill did not meet "the test of a good bill." They promised to try to change it, with House Republican Leader Joseph Martin of Massachusetts telling newsmen after the meeting that an effort would be made, probably on Wednesday, to send the bill back to the joint conference committee for further amendment. He said that they were quite hopeful on recommitting the bill, but no decision had been made as to what changes would be sought by the Republicans, stating that one aim would be to knock out the high rigid price supports on basic commodities, with the basic instructions to the Republican confreres to be thrashed out at a session of all House Republicans the following afternoon.
The President this date asked Congress for an additional 547.1 million dollars in defense funding for the coming fiscal year, the supplemental funding being primarily for a speed-up in production of the B-52 jet bombers, the mainstay of the U.S. atomic weapons air fleet, and for additional bases for the Strategic Air Command, which flew the large planes. Further development of the Distant Early Warning program and additional ship conversion were also contemplated, together with minor increases in Army and Navy strength. The White House stated that the additional appropriations would not increase estimated expenditures for the Defense Department during the coming fiscal year by more than 400 million dollars and would thus not unbalance the 1957 budget, which had that amount estimated as a surplus. Some Democrats had protested that U.S. defense forces were being tailored by the Administration on the basis of budget-balancing rather than the needs for security, protest notably coming from Senators Stuart Symington of Missouri and Henry Jackson of Washington, having derived from reports that the Soviets were rapidly approaching, if not surpassing, U.S. progress and development of atomic air strength. The President's original request for defense appropriations for the coming fiscal year had totaled 34.9 billion dollars, and the House Military Appropriations subcommittee had completed hearings on that request, the bill having not, however, yet gone to the House floor. The budget which the President had sent to Congress the previous January had proposed 35.5 billion for defense during the ensuing fiscal year, an amount which would be increased by the 400 million if the present request were approved. The Air Force would receive 376.5 million of the request, the Army, 55 million, and the Navy, 65.5 million.
In Jerusalem, it was reported that Egyptian charges of an Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip and retaliatory raids by Arab commandos had maintained tensions at a high level this date along the Arab-Israeli borders, with the latest reported tolls since the prior Thursday in the Gaza area having been 66 Egyptians and nine Israelis killed, 95 Egyptians and at least 23 Israelis wounded, and one Egyptian captured. The violence had continued on the eve of the arrival of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, who had gone to the Middle East on an urgent peace mission. He had sped up his schedule and ordered the U.N. truce supervisor to stay on the scene in Jerusalem. Egypt had reported a one-hour clash at its Gaza outpost, with an Egyptian spokesman saying that Egypt had protested to the U.N. Armistice Commission about the incident. An Egyptian Army spokesman said that Israeli armored cars had approached the truce line after midnight and Israeli soldiers had crossed on foot into Egyptian territory, opening fire with automatic weapons on the Egyptian outpost, that Arab commandos had then struck during the night at a number of southern Israeli points in the Judean Hills, the Negev and near the Egyptian-held Gaza Strip.
In Steubenville, O., Jefferson County authorities this date were piecing together bits of information to try to solve a holdup by several masked men at a gamecock fight in which a man from Norfolk had been shot and about 100 patrons robbed, with an estimate of the loot obtained being about $100,000. The sheriff said that the holdup had taken place the prior Saturday night in a barn on a farm about 18 miles west of Steubenville, with the number of bandits not having been determined. The farmer was jailed without formal charge pending further investigation, as cockfighting was illegal in Ohio. The shooting victim, 57, had been hit in the left shoulder by a .32-caliber bullet, and was reported to be in satisfactory condition at a local hospital. The sheriff said that the holdup had not been reported to authorities and he had not known about it until the hospital had called him to report the bullet wound, that the robbery victims had scattered by the time officers had reached the farm. By piecing together information, the sheriff had learned that seven masked men carrying revolvers, machine guns and sawed-off shotguns had entered the barn and announced that it was a holdup, while an undetermined number of persons stayed on the outside as lookouts, the bandits having placed a bedsheet in the fight ring and told the patrons and those in charge of the fight to place their jewelry on the sheet, as some of the robbers coursed among the crowd taking their wallets. All of the bandits had worn Army-type fatigue clothing, with two wearing black half masks and the others having green hoods over their heads. The man who was shot was hit by one of the lookouts as he tried to jump through a window. A robbery victim, who declined to be identified, told a newspaper reporter that an estimated $100,000 in cash and jewelry had been taken, with his version of the shooting differing from that of the sheriff, saying that the bandits had fired several shots as they entered the barn to announce the holdup and one of the bullets had struck the victim in the shoulder, that several of the patrons had been manhandled by the robbers for pitching their wallets under benches on which they were seated, the holdup men having forced the victims to throw their jewelry into the fight ring and then lined them up and forced them to march out of the barn, taking their wallets as they left. The bandits had stolen a station wagon upon departure, which was later discovered about five miles from the farm after being abandoned with the motor running. The sheriff said that automobiles from ten states were seen around the barn prior to the holdup, with those states including North Carolina.
In Raleigh, it was reported that a wind-whipped forest fire, which had burned approximately 4,000 acres of timberland in Brunswick County, having destroyed at least one home with barns and a year's corn harvest, had now been brought under at least temporary control by some 60 to 75 workers who hoped to confine the blaze to the northwest corner of the county after double fire lanes had been built around it, except in that corner. The fire had started around noon the prior Saturday and had been uncontrolled through Saturday night and Sunday because of the high winds. During the previous night, it had been brought under at least temporary control. Another forest fire in Spring Lake, near Fort Bragg, had burned about 2,400 acres the prior Saturday before being brought under control, with about half the acreage on the Fort Bragg reservation. A third fire between Pinehurst and West End in Moore County had burned about 1,000 acres on Saturday. In South Carolina, diminished winds had brought an end this date to the forest fires, numbering about 48, which had raged over the state during the weekend, with only five still burning.
Ann Sawyer of The News reports that the long-range plan for the development of a "County-City Governmental Center", including the purchase of property behind the courthouse and erection of a five-story modern office building, an architect's drawing of which appears on the page, had been presented this date to the County Commission, outlined in a four-page report prepared after weeks of study by a joint committee, anticipating requirements of the County Government for the ensuing 50 years or more. It recommended that the County purchase the entire block on the opposite side of E. 4th Street from the County Courthouse, that a modern office building be constructed, that the cost of acquisition of the property and erection of the building be met through a bond issue, and that the County and City Governments and other related activities would continue to be housed in the vicinity of their present central locations.
The City and County School Boards this date asked the County Commission for $140,000 to purchase a site for a new joint City-County administrative unit, the request having followed presentation of the report of a joint committee from the Commission and the 26th Judicial District Bar Association, calling for inclusion of such a unit in the proposed new County-City Governmental Center. There was no connection between the two reports, and the school authorities had in mind an entirely separate unit for the schools.
Aboard the S.S. Constitution, actress Grace Kelly continued to sail to Monaco for her wedding with Prince Rainier III, with her father having had a discussion with his daughter this date, among other things, telling her not to allow people to push her around, as they were not giving her anything. He also advised her not to allow the "protocol business" to get to her, that she should be herself and do what she wanted to do, that she was an American and did not have to do what they wanted her to do. Ms. Kelly had slept late after a gay evening of charades, impersonations and singing which had not concluded until 5:30 a.m., the first relaxed evening she had enjoyed since sailing from New York.
In Los Angeles, a dentist, 49, from Placerville in northern California, said that he drove 860 miles round-trip each week from his home to the University of Southern California, where he was taking postgraduate courses in orthodontics, leaving school on Friday night and spending a day and a half with his family, before having to return on Sunday. He had worn out one car and estimated that when the 16-month course of study would end in June, he would have traveled the equivalent of three times around the planet, about 75,000 miles—actually closer to only 60,000 miles, still a lot of teeth.
On the editorial page, "Tar Heel Taxes Should Be Withheld" indicates that on April 16, tax day, every cent which could be "scraped, scratched or borrowed" had to be delivered to the State tax collector, who was not to blame, as he had waited a year to get his share of the citizens' income, while the Federal Government had been getting their share a little each payday, as the Federal Government withheld every week while North Carolina was paid only once per year.
It suggests that it need not be so, that since the IRS commissioner had recommended that state taxes also be withheld, the General Assembly had moved the state tax deadline from March 15 to April 15, this year occurring on Monday, April 16, accomplishing, however, nothing, still having state taxes paid on one day.
It finds three good arguments for pay-as-you-go taxation at the state level, that the modern economy operated that way, that it was less painful for the taxpayer, and helped to prevent tax dodging. During the previous session of the General Assembly in 1955, a State Senator had said that a state withholding system might produce a windfall of taxes totaling 18.25 million dollars, currently evaded under the present system.
Two withholding systems predominated in the several states which had adopted such a program, with one system being to make deductions on a sliding scale according to the income of the taxpayer, and the other to withhold a fixed percentage of income, based on the ratio of state to Federal tax. It suggests that if either system were adopted in North Carolina, April 15 would be "a much springier day for salaried Tar Heels." It finds that the only problem would be filing returns, as the taxes would have already been paid.
It hopes that the General Assembly in 1957 would not remain insensitive to the tribulations of the people who foot the bills.
"At Appomattox, 91 Years Ago Today" tells of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union General Ulysses Grant, the latter wearing a private's uniform, having gone looking for each other 91 years ago this date to stop the Civil War, that General Lee had gone to the rear of the tattered lines to find General Grant while the latter had gone to the front to find the former, that a little after noon, they had been brought together at Appomattox Court House, where they talked in the McLean house, and after four years of bitter war, there was a stillness.
General Grant had quelled any shouts of victory along the Union lines, and he and his officers had doffed their hats as General Lee had departed, sending food to the Confederate troops and allowing them to keep their horses. The next day, at the time appointed for formal surrender, the Confederate troops had marched out to stack their arms and disband, met by Union divisions at "carry arms", the marching salute of the day.
It indicates that what loud voices had started, quiet voices had ended. Historians had noted that "had the spirit shown by General Grant and the officers and men at Appomattox prevailed, the nation would have been spared much of anguish and bitterness." But the spirit had not prevailed, nor had the quiet voices.
"Great virtue and patriotism attaches to loud voices in times of stress. It's left to historians to hear the quiet voices—generally too late."
"Regular Guys: No Time for
Rainier" says that it had nothing against royalty as long as it
remained in its place, but that Prince Rainier III, set to wed
actress Grace Kelly on April 18, was beginning to look like a "real
buttinsky". It says that it had been just as thrilled as
readers about the upcoming wedding and hoped that they would be
married and remain serene ever after. Nor was it upset because it
would not be in attendance at the wedding
It explains that the reason it was peeved was because the Prince did not know his place, referring to a woman's page headline which read that he was a "regular guy." It says it belonged to that club and wanted to know how the Prince had gotten in, that "Regular Guys" were not exactly tony, but there were limits, that no more than 1.2 billion males could belong at any given time and that there had not been room for a new member in years. It wanted to know whether he ate Grape Nut Flakes for breakfast, watched the Wednesday night fights and used a man's deodorant. He had suffered two automobile accidents, but bets that he did not owe anything on either one, and declines comment on his habit of painting seascapes, and watching fish swim in aquariums.
It finds that if that was not enough
to disqualify him from membership in the Regular Guys, the clincher
was: "He ain't seen but one Grace Kelly picture show
"Bring Home the Swaythling Cup" tells of having been asked by an acquaintance how the U.S. was doing in the table tennis championships, and then finding from an Associated Press ticker that the team, competing in Tokyo, had lost two more decisions this date to South Vietnam and India, while Japan and Czechoslovakia had grabbed the inside track for the cup, symbol of world table tennis superiority.
It finds it as a bolt from the blue, that it wanted the cup for the country and that one brooded about such things, as to how South Vietnam or India had beaten the U.S. team, having lost to South Vietnam 5 to 3, a team which the U.S. was favored to beat, and then, "tired and apparently discouraged", according to the report, had lost to India, 5 to 4. The star of the team, a 17-year old boy from Los Angeles, national champion, had lost to his counterpart from South Vietnam and then had been pulled from the match with India. It finds that questions came up as to whether his paddle arm was in good shape or whether they had pulled a "live" ball on him, whether his food had been poisoned, whether the two Vietnams were subsidizing table tennis players, whether there ought be a national rebuilding program in the sport and whether the overseas referees had been fair.
It asks the readers how they would feel if an acquaintance had asked them for the news, that never mind the farm vote, intercontinental ballistic missiles and Grace Kelly, "We've got to bring that cup home."
Indeed, "ping-pong diplomacy" vis-à-vis Communist China would become a genuine method of engendering good will during the Nixon Administration in 1971-72.
A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "The Lesson of the Rabbit Box", tells of a "79-year-old boy" from Lumberton who had written earlier to the Raleigh News & Observer, a letter subsequently discussed in The News, in which he had said he was tired of the words "brink" and "Communism", wanted to change the subject to trapping rabbits, which he had done all of his life, having caught 14 during the current winter, every one of which had been males, wondering if the other boys had the same experience.
The piece recounts that The News had been unable to solve the riddle but thought it a good one, expressing admiration for the man for still being young enough to be able to refresh his mind by taking refuge in nature from the Communist conspiracy or the ever-changing factors of global economic problems.
The piece offers only the suggestion as to why the mother rabbit did not get trapped in rabbit-boxes, finding that as a good housewife, she had to be familiar with the time-honored recipe for rabbit pie: "'First catch your hare.'" It finds that the mystery remained, however, as to why the mother rabbit was able to pass to the males only the implied warning, suggesting that perhaps the males, lacking intuition, could only learn by sad experience. "And the lesson of the rabbit box, like many other lessons, comes too late."
Drew Pearson tells of Simon Sobeloff, the Solicitor General who had argued the school segregation case before the Supreme Court, would, after a delay of more than nine months, finally be confirmed to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, having been blocked by opposition from two Southern Senators because of his successful argument in Brown v. Board of Education. A few days earlier, however, Senator Lyndon Johnson, Majority Leader, had approached Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and told the latter that for the sake of the Democratic Party and its reputation for fairness in the North, Mr. Sobeloff had to be confirmed. Mr. Sobeloff was a Republican from Baltimore, who had taken a forthright stand on other policies with which Democrats were sympathetic, being opposed, among other things, to witch-hunting. Senator Eastland agreed with Senator Johnson's plea, provided that the confirmation would not hurt his friend, Senator Olin Johnston of South Carolina, who was then approached and said that he would not object to the confirmation provided he did not have opposition in the South Carolina Democratic primary for re-election. The previous week, former State Senator John C. Taylor, who had filed against Senator Johnston in the primary, had withdrawn from the race, and it was now agreed that there would be no further objection to the confirmation of Mr. Sobeloff within the Judiciary Committee. Both Senators Eastland and Johnston would vote against confirmation on the Senate floor, as would some other Southern Senators, but would not try to hold his nomination in the Committee. The Fourth Circuit presently had two vacancies and was thus badly in need of Mr. Sobeloff's services.
Senator Theodore Green of Rhode Island, 88, the oldest member in the Senate, had slugged a holdup man on a dark Washington street recently and sent the would-be robber scurrying away. If he finished his term, which Mr. Pearson predicts that he would, he would break all age records for the Senate. At the time of the attempted holdup, he had been walking up 18th Street to a dinner engagement when the man had grabbed his shoulder from behind and stated it was a holdup and that the Senator had to give him his watch and all of his money, to which Senator Green stated, "I'll give you nothing," not budging even when the holdup man warned that he would kill him. The Senator, who worked out twice per week in the Senate gym, then yelled for help, at which point the holdup man put both hands on the Senator's shoulders, causing the scalawag to lose his balance, at which point the Senator swung at the robber's face, which appeared to unnerve the robber, mumbling something about the Senator not being reasonable and then running down the street. Senator Green yelled a couple more times for help but got no response, and so walked on to his dinner.
Stewart Alsop discusses NAACP lead counsel Thurgood Marshall, future Supreme Court Justice, suggesting that he was probably one of the "best hated men" in the country because of his position, being to white Southerners "the living symbol of the Negro upthrust towards equality which has created such bitterness in the South."
Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, one of Adlai Stevenson's primary campaign strategists in 1952, discussed in his thoughtful and intelligent manner the problem created in the South by the Brown v. Board of Education decision, as did Mr. Marshall, who had fought the Communists and other extremists in his organization throughout his career. Yet, the experience of both men suggested the complete impasse caused by the Supreme Court decision and how potentially tragic it was.
Mr. Marshall said: "Sure, it's a tough problem. What you've got to realize is that we know it's a tough problem in many areas. Say you've got a county that's 80 percent Negro. We know it's not going to be easy to change. But what are you going to do? You can't say to a Negro child in one place, sure, you can go to a good school and get a good education like all other Americans, and say to another kid in another place, no, you've got to stay segregated like always. You can't do it."
He was sure the Brown decision would eventually be accepted. He had an annual budget of $250,000 and a lot of volunteers, and intended to bring suit against every school board resisting the decision if necessary to achieve compliance. He realized it would take time, that it was to be achieved step by step, that when segregated counties were circled, little by little, they would fall into line. When asked whether the decision came too soon, and might stir animosities inhibiting progress already made, he became grim and said that there had been 90 years of "gradualism" following the Civil War, and blacks would not remain second-class citizens forever. "Why, we can't stop what's happening even if we wanted to."
Senator Fulbright had the same idea, however, regarding being unable to stop what was happening. He had argued with his Southern colleagues in the Senate against putting forth the "Southern manifesto", read before the Senate and House on March 12, seeking to circumvent or reverse Brown by all lawful means. Unable to do so, he had signed it without even reading it because he knew that he had to do so. But he had done so reluctantly. He said: "The court has no right to change the law. The law should be changed only by Congress, or by amendment to the Constitution." He believed that the theory of revolutionizing race relations by fiat was wrong. "You can't pass laws to make men good to each other. If you sent troops south and put Negroes in every school by force, you still wouldn't change the fundamental problem." He believed that change in race relations would occur when economic circumstances changed.
He pointed out that in the past, tension and violence had resulted from economic competition between poor whites and blacks, that before World War II, when the South was a colonial area exploited by Northern capital, and per capita income in Arkansas, for example, had been $254 per year, there had been great tension, that since the war, per capita income had quadrupled and there had been no violence in Arkansas, even in the "black belt". Meanwhile, real progress had occurred, he continued, as blacks had been admitted to graduate schools and to four Arkansas state colleges without trouble.
But now tempers were rising in the wake of Brown, with such organizations as "White America, Inc." moving into the state, distributing inflammatory propaganda literature, pushing Southern politicians into a corner through demagogy, with some incident, such as a lynching, likely to spark an explosion. Senator Fulbright said that he did not know what would happen, but thought it "very sad".
Mr. Alsop concludes that it was, that the more so because it was impossible to see how there could be a meeting of the minds on the issue even between the most reasonable white Southern and black leaders.
The Congressional Quarterly looks at the status of the superhighway bill, indicating that the highway pressure groups might cause the multi-billion dollar bill to fail again because of their stands on taxes and minimum wage provisions for labor in building it.
It had passed the Senate the previous year but had failed before adjournment in the House because of pressure from the trucking and rubber interests who had protested tax hikes aimed at them to finance the construction. In the current session, the House had assigned the financing and building phases of the project to separate committees, with the Ways & Means Committee having recently approved a bill to tax trucks and cars at the same rate for highways, with one exception, that trucks weighing more than 13 tons would be charged $1.50 for every 1,000 pounds. The American Automobile Association and the American Trucking Associations, the most prominent among the road lobbies, were in opposite corners regarding the $1.50 levy, with AAA stating that trucks ought pay more for the roads and the ATA contending that trucks already paid four times as much for highway usage as did cars, each group being so adamant that legislators saw little ground for compromise.
The other major roadblock to the bill was a provision authorizing the Secretary of Labor to set minimum wages for workers building highways receiving Federal aid, with the National Joint Heavy and Highway Construction Committee, a labor organization, and the Associated General Contractors of America fighting over that question. The labor group had been formed in 1955 to press for prevailing wage clauses in any highway legislation, with its support coming from the AFL-CIO Teamsters, Carpenters, Laborers and Operating Engineers unions. The organization contended that the Federal wage-setting power was necessary to prevent "marauding" and "predatory" contractors from using the interstate highway system as their "private club". Meanwhile, the 6,500-member AGC contended that the provision would "unnecessarily increase" the cost of the highway program by raising wages above their proper levels, claiming also that Federal wage-setting was an invasion of states' rights. In that area also, there appeared little room for compromise, with each group contending that it was fighting for a principle which could not be sacrificed, even in deference to the overall highway program, which both admitted was vital.
Even if the highway bill survived the contest from the lobbies, it still had to withstand other pressure from lobbying organizations against any Federal highway program at all, even though most lobbies approved the notion of an expanded highway program.
Meanwhile, members of Congress in the election year would be seeking a way through the controversy, but several of the lobbies were intending to keep up the pressure through the last minute.
The piece did not note that that the ultimate reason the previous year for the failure of the bill in the House was that the President had sent along with the proposal a desire to have financing of the program accomplished through bonds, which the House had rejected, since abandoned by the Administration during the current session.
Abstracts of North Carolina newspaper editorial coverage of the report of the State Advisory Committee on Education, released the prior Thursday, are set forth.
The Greensboro Daily News finds it an effort "to walk the narrow path between defiance" of Brown, which it accepted as the law of the land, and "defiance of customs, feelings and community attitudes about race." It found it not a perfect answer to the Southern dilemma but better than nothing, deserving of careful consideration by the people of the state. It suggests that the Committee had recognized, as must the people, that some racial breakthrough in the public schools was likely, and that the change had to occur with the least disruption and damage possible to public education.
The Raleigh News & Observer finds that the real danger in the report was whether or not the Committee was "digging up more snakes than it can kill." It acknowledges that the time might come when "intolerable 'situations'" might justify such desperate measures as the Committee had proposed—either public funding of attendnace at private, nonsectarian schools for students who did not want to attend racially mixed schools, or allowing individual school systems to vote to abolish their public schools. The piece continued that at the present time, however, there should be "long, careful, even prayerful consideration as to whether the measures proposed will provide solutions for the fears of many or instead add to the dangers which at this time white people and colored people—and all their children—in North Carolina face together." It finds that the proposed plan would precipitate more intolerable situations than it could ever hope to solve and that it would be well if the two proposed State constitutional amendments, to allow systems to abolish public schools and to allow public funding of private, nonsectarian schools, would be defeated by the people.
The Winston-Salem Journal finds that the program had merit, though also opened a serious question, that undoubtedly it would make possible an indefinite delay in any start toward desegregation, its objective, and that such delay might be necessary to preserve the public schools of the state. It finds that one of the virtues of the report was that it was not written in a spirit of defiance of Brown, although the Committee had left no doubt that it did not like the decision and thought it erroneous. "Whether the assignment and 'financial grant' proposals will stand the test of the courts is debatable."
The Asheville Citizen finds that no one, regardless of viewpoint, could fail to recognize that the proposals of the Committee had been made out of an earnest and realistic facing of facts, recommendations of men "attempting in honesty of purpose to preserve the public school system for education of both races" in the state. It thus finds that the recommendations deserved to be weighed in the same spirit by all of the people.
The Raleigh Times finds that the Committee had produced a "curious document", not conceived in haste, yet containing "elements of panic", written by eminent North Carolinians, showing "in part a lack of confidence in the people" of the state. Being unanimous, it had displayed "obvious evidence of disunity". "Great truths, such as the foolhardiness of defiance, the effects of ignorance, servitude and hatred in any race, are first defined, then ignored and recommendations designed to foster such ignorance, servitude and hatred, and designed to get around, if not defy, the court." It concludes that it was hard to believe that the courts would permit tuition payments to private schools or allow the people to permit the schools to be abolished by one-vote margins.
The Hickory Daily Record completely agrees with the findings of the Committee, that school segregation had to be preserved if the state was to save its public school system. It agrees with the Committee that the changes proposed did not "'pose a threat to public education generally in the state.'"
The High Point Enterprise finds the report "affirming on the part of men of good will to try to work out the school segregation problem in patience and moderation." Ready acceptance by public officials of the report indicated support for the purpose to explore every lawful means to avoid integrating the schools. It finds that it proposed living more to the letter than the spirit of the law as interpreted, that there was as much unsaid in the report as there was said, that if the newspapers trying to cover the story had "felt themselves flailing in a sea of racial developments, this will be more the case as policies shape in a design more to immediate than to long-range objectives in race relations in North Carolina."
The Shelby Star finds the report to have contained a tone of moderation which had been characteristic of the state's approach to the segregation issue from the beginning, that above all, there was the dominant theme that the public schools had to be preserved, agreeing with that vital objective. "The Committee has contributed to its own standard of courage, coolness, tolerance and good will."
The News & Observer and the Raleigh Times appear to have, by far, the better of the argument, especially their recognition, as with the Winston-Salem Journal, that the proposed public funding of tuition to attend private, nonsectarian schools was likely to be struck down as unconstitutional by the Federal courts, as state action in furtherance of segregation, barred by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment under Brown.
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