The Charlotte News
Friday, May 11, 1956
FIVE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Senator Dennis Chavez of New Mexico, chairman of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, had said this date that he would insist on decisive tests to show whether Nike guided missiles, a mainstay of the U.S. antiaircraft defense, were as potent as the Army contended. His subcommittee was conducting public hearings on the multi-billion dollar budget for the armed forces for the coming year. It had passed the House the previous day by a vote of 377 to 0, sending to the Senate a 33.6 billion defense budget, containing exactly what the President had recommended for procurement of new airplanes, six billion dollars. Senator Chavez said that he would call a closed hearing perhaps late the following week to explore with top Air Force and Army officials whether the Talos guided missile, developed by the Navy, was more potent than the Nike, as the Air Force reportedly believed. Senator John Stennis of Mississippi demanded the showdown test the previous day, after Secretary of the Army Brucker had described the Nike as powerful enough to knock down "any Russian bomber we have heard about." Senator Chavez said that he had heard that the Talos had a longer range, required less manpower to fire, and was cheaper, and thus he said he would tell the Army and Air Force that he wanted a competitive test of the two missiles within a reasonable time. General Maxwell Taylor, Army chief of staff, questioned whether the Air Force, with the Talos, was trying to "invade" the Army's traditional role of providing primary ground to air anti-aircraft defenses. The defense appropriation passed by the House would provide for an Army comprised of somewhat more than a million men, a Navy of 1,005 ships and 12,600 aircraft, and an Air Force growing to the target figure of 137 air wings during the coming fiscal year. General Nathan Twining, Air Force chief of staff, had testified this date that he considered the armed might of the country to be so great that no nation would dare attack during the current year. Senator Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts asked General Twining whether the Air Force, in its present status, would, with the appropriation for the ensuing fiscal year, become an Air Force, together with the Navy and Army, which would be so strong that no nation would dare attack. Before replying, General Twining had paused thoughtfully and called it a very difficult question, to which Senator Saltonstall replied that he had hoped that the answer would be yes.
The Nike was scheduled to be produced in the Charlotte Ordnance Missile Plant, presently in the final stages of conversion from the old Army Quartermaster Depot, and would be operated by Douglas Aircraft Co., with the plant to be dedicated on May 22. It was being planned in such a way that if the Nike were to become obsolete or proved inferior to another missile, the more powerful missile could also be manufactured at the plant.
In Washington, former President Truman this date told the ninth annual convention of the Americans for Democratic Action that the Administration was preparing for "another election campaign of high-level presidential smiles and low-level vice-presidential smears." He accused the Administration of three years of "concealment and complacency". He said, "The job of the liberals is to bring the real issues out from behind the smoke screen and help all the people to reach an informed opinion." He said that the President had allowed the grand alliance of the free nations to "fall into decay" when the free world had to be held together in the face of a "new and more insidious Communist offensive." He said that an agricultural "depression" was growing up in the midst of the boom in the country while the President persisted in the "cruel policy of lower farm prices and fewer farmers." He said that liberals had to oppose "socialism of corporate power quite as much as socialism by government." He also said that centers of private power, beyond Democratic control, were "exerting greater and greater influence over our national life, driving small business to the wall, and strangling individual enterprise." He said that the curse of business dominated the press, the airwaves, the amusement industries, and was beginning to shape thoughts and beliefs.
In Rivers' Bridge, S.C., Northern advocates of racial integration had been challenged this date by South Carolina Governor George Bell Timmerman, Jr., "to cast off their hypocrisy and accept the Negro into their communities, their institutions and their families." He called on "the integrationist to prove his sincerity" by supporting a program of voluntary migration of blacks from the South to communities "where racial mixing is acceptable." He said that a Federal program of financial aid to enable those to move north who wanted to mix would cost only a fraction of the billions advocated for foreign aid. He spoke at the 80th annual Rivers' Bridge Confederate Memorial Association ceremonies commemorating a Civil War battle nearby. He had charged that the cause of the "war of Northern aggression" had not been slavery in the South but "the determination of Northern plutocrats to establish national control under which the policies of the North would determine the policies of the nation." He suggested that Gettysburg could become an Eastern mecca of integration, that high officials in Washington could establish their homes there and enjoy the blessings that they advocated for other people. He said that the time had come for the South to assert its political strength, as the current trend in national affairs clearly indicated that the South could expect little consideration unless the states of the region were willing to organize.
In Point of the Mountain, Utah,
volunteer firing squads had executed two Midwestern men at dawn this
date for a murder for which they had been convicted more than six
years earlier. The two men, ages 30 and 25, had been convicted of the
October 22, 1949 slaying of a Beaver, Utah, service station
attendant
In Topeka, Kans., a tornado alarm had sounded on the air raid sirens of the city, causing great disturbance the previous night. A black cloud had approached from the southwest and a little rain had fallen, but nothing more. Some people had speculated that the sirens were blowing because of an atom bomb attack and wondered what they should do, whether they should go into a cellar, with one person wondering what they should do when they had no basement.
Julian Scheer of The News tells of the Democratic Party in Mecklenburg County possibly set to split wide open at the county convention the following day, as the source of disagreement was the selection of a successor to the chairman of the party's executive committee, with the "old guard" pushing one candidate, who was the present campaign manager for former Charlotte Mayor Ben Douglas, running for Congress against Republican incumbent Charles Jonas, while a "people's choice" group was pushing hard for an attorney.
Dick Young of The News reports that Charlotte's new Park Center was an example of the need for planning of parking facilities for any public building project. The new assembly hall had replaced the fire-destroyed Army-Auditorium and was nearing completion.
In Winston-Salem, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. declared the previous day a quarterly dividend of 90 cents per share on the 3.60 series of preferred stock and $1.12.5 per share on series 4.50 preferred stock, with dividends payable on July 2 to stockholders of record on June 8.
In Oxnard, Calif., a performers' walkout ordered by the American Guild of Variety Artists had closed the Clyde Beatty Circus. An advance man for the circus had said that the show equipment had departed Los Angeles by train for a town in New Mexico which was the winter headquarters for the circus, with all future plans of the circus temporarily canceled. A representative of the Guild said that the walkout had been ordered because of $15,000 in back pay owed to the performers.
Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin said the previous day at the White House, as he and the President posed for a photograph in the Oval Office under the glare of powerful floodlights, that television lights sometimes showed the President "looking aged" while, actually, the Senator said, he was "young, vigorous and full of spizerinctum." He said the latter term had often been used by an old banker in his hometown of Chippewa Falls, Wisc., meaning "full of pep and vitality."
On the editorial page, "A Little Firmness & Passion, Please" indicates that the state director of higher education, Dr. J. Harris Purks, had spelled out the facts of political life to residents of the city with significant bluntness during the week, saying that the city had too few colleges, but that there was no sense in putting a college where the people did not want it, that he had no doubt that expansion of college facilities in Charlotte would, in time, take place, but that the city had to get behind the effort.
It finds the admonition timely. He had been in town looking at a site suggested for a state technical institute. But to obtain it, it would take a massive thrust of civic pride and resolution.
It recalls that two years earlier, only six percent of the city's voters had bothered to register for a special election to determine the fate of a proposed two-cent tax levy for the support of the two community colleges, Charlotte and Carver. It urges that the resolve of residents would have to be firmer and more passionate in the future if the city was to escape its status as being "under-colleged".
"Judgeship Race: Stuck in the Mud?" indicates that there was an old bromide within U.S. politics which went something like: "If your opponent calls you a liar, do not deny it—just call him a thief." It finds that it summed up the traditional pugnacity which had characterized politicking since the earliest days of the republic. Many campaigns of the past had appalled sober onlookers, with the smear being a vicious and thoroughly repulsive weapon.
But it expects competition on a higher plane for a judgeship, with the office demanding dignity, integrity and respectability.
Most people in the community despised mudslinging with the same vehemence which the two candidates, Judge Hugh Campbell and his opponent, Arthur Goodman, had expressed that they did, realizing that a smear campaign for such an office could boomerang.
It suggests that there were more serious issues deserving of the attention of the candidates and the electorate and urges getting at them without further delay, rather than continuing to debate fine points as to what constituted a smear, as charged by Mr. Goodman.
"Inaccurate Talk from Charlie Wilson" indicates that Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson, while defending an "austere" but "adequate" arms program, had labeled his critics "fear mongers".
It finds it stiff and inaccurate talk, as the source of the major criticism had come from former and present members of Mr. Wilson's own team, who were military men and not politicians. While the Secretary tended to view those specialists as too dedicated and greedy for their own special fields, they represented considerable skill and experience in winning wars.
Military experts in or out of the Defense Department, it suggests, ought continue to watch the way in which Mr. Wilson played his hand, and if they thought his economizing was cutting too deeply, they ought to say so. That was not fear mongering but insisting on constant re-examination and comparison of the U.S. to Soviet military capacities.
It suggests that if it was fear mongering to report that Russia was outproducing the U.S. in long-range bombers, Mr. Wilson had bought into it to a degree, as he had told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that production of the B-52 intercontinental bombers would be increased from 6 to 20 per month.
It suggests that every Defense Secretary had to be a gambler with the security of the nation, that he could not spend so wildly to have more of everything than every other nation, but had to achieve a balanced, ready force with as much economy as possible. Mr. Wilson was trying to do that and he had to expect criticism, concluding that from his increase in production of the B-52, he was profiting from it.
"What a Neutral!" indicates that before going into a banquet hall during the week to praise Governor Averell Harriman, former President Truman had described himself as a neutral in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination. The former President had been called many things, but his worst enemy had never called him a neutral in any endeavor, and it expects that he would reassure his friends by disproving his claim to neutrality at the strategic place and at the strategic moment.
"After the Classifieds—Maple Milk" indicates that the café was crowded and a hurried waitress had offered a cup of coffee, telling them they would have to wait for her to take their order. The editorialist began perusing the classifieds while sipping the coffee, and when the writer had gotten down to "livestock", she had finally returned to say that there would be another wait.
When the coffee and the classifieds had run out, the writer had turned to the women's section of the newspaper to see what advice American mothers and homemakers were getting. It read of "'chili patties, rhubarb pinwheel puddin', creamy dips, maple syrup milk, coffee apple pie, and tomato roses.'"
When the waitress finally came to the table and asked what would it be, it had told her turnip greens, hashed fried potatoes, cornbread and buttermilk, but no dessert.
What about a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, holding the chicken salad and the mayonnaise to bring a side order of rye?
A piece from the The Reporter, titled "Freedom from Speech", indicates it had proposed an addition to the Bill of Rights, freedom from speech. The Wall Street Journal had reported a contribution to the freedom in a small town in Utah, where the telephone people had added a device to their machines which, on party lines, helped to get people to shut up. Following four minutes of talk, it sounded an automatic warning, which signaled that the connection would be cut within one minute.
It finds it a great idea which ought spread to all telephone conversations all over the country. It suggests that it ought also be installed in every microphone, Dictaphone, Ediphone, and whatever-phone, and should not only shut it off, but emit a pointed, irreverent, disapproving sound. It would occur when a nominating speaker would use the word "integrity" for the third time, or when a candidate said, as had Governor Al Smith, "Let's look at the record," or when a particularly friendly politician referred to his audience as "folks", or an advertising man used the word "so" in place of "very".
It finds that the device could do a great service in a political year, provided it would give out a warning growl at the word "crisis", or the phrases "crucial time" and "nation's destiny".
It suggests that the new gadget was sort of a "Teleheckler", chortling at such references as "the party with a heart", "the middle way", "the party of the people", and "dynamic conservatism", providing an especially loud and dubious sound at all of the forthcoming references to a "great victory next November."
Drew Pearson tells of more leaking out about Murray Chotiner, whom the New York Times had described as Vice-President Nixon's "anchor man". He describes additional close associations he had with the Vice-President. Just prior to the 1952 Republican convention, Mr. Chotiner had sent out 23,000 letters to leading Californians under the franking privilege of Senator Nixon, taking a poll of the support for General Eisenhower versus that for Governor Earl Warren, having the effect of cutting the ground out from underneath the Governor, and paving the way for Mr. Nixon to achieve the nomination for the vice-presidency. During the convention, Mr. Chotiner, according to Pat Nixon's magazine memoirs, had been with Senator Nixon in his hotel suite when Herbert Brownell called to say that Mr. Nixon had been picked as the vice-presidential running mate.
After the election, when Mr. Nixon had asked President Truman to allow him to take a trip to Mexico for the inauguration of Ruiz Cortinas, Mr. Chotiner had gone along as the Senator's assistant after space was made for him on the Government plane at the request of Mr. Nixon.
Before the 1956 Republican convention, Mr. Chotiner had acted for Vice-President Nixon in selecting a third of the California delegates to attend the convention. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Mr. Chotiner had sat in the St. Francis Hotel on the night of March 2, and, with Bernard Brennan of Los Angeles, represented Mr. Nixon in selecting the Nixon California delegates. He had also signed letters acting as the attorney for the Vice-President as recently as March 22.
He provides a sketch of one of Mr. Chotiner's legal clients, Marco Reginelli of Philadelphia and Camden, N.J., who had been arrested 16 times between 1917 and 1942 and convicted six times, sentenced to three prison sentences and three fines. When his citizenship had been challenged, he had retained Mr. Chotiner to block his deportation, but the attorney would not have anything to do with it. Mr. Pearson indicates that the character of Mr. Reginelli was shown by the fact that the deportation proceedings had caused gang warfare in which five men had been killed in south Philadelphia and south New Jersey.
Five men, Joseph "Joe Italy" Suero, Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bellona, Marshall Venezrale, Anthony Benedetto and Emanuel Gottobrio, had been killed in the battle to take over Mr. Reginelli's numbers racket. The Philadelphia Police Bureau, in a confidential letter of July 19, 1949, had reported that the New Jersey Italian mob had been headed by Mr. Reginelli, dubbed "The Little Guy", who was the absolute czar of the Italians in the south Jersey and Philadelphia areas. The Federal Narcotics Bureau had furnished the 1950-51 Kefauver Crime Investigating Committee a list of Mafia members, on which had been Mr. Reginelli. He had also been included on the list of notorious racketeers which the Justice Department had provided to the Kefauver Committee.
As Mr. Pearson had previously pointed out, Mr. Chotiner had been the mastermind behind the Checkers speech of September, 1952, which saved Senator Nixon's wicket on the ticket, and the rest...
Stewart Alsop tells of Senator Lyndon Johnson's victory over Governor Allan Shivers in the Texas convention delegate meetings being an event which had transformed the whole political scene, making the Senator one of the two or three most powerful men within the Democratic Party and rendering the potential for a Southern bolt at the convention far less likely to occur, with Senator Johnson standing firmly for party loyalty. The Senator would have a strong and perhaps decisive voice at the convention, but it left unanswered the question of whether he would be a serious contender for the nomination.
The Senator could have virtually all of the Southern delegate vote at the convention without trying, at least the 294 votes which Senator Richard Russell had attracted as the Southern candidate in 1952, with Senator Johnson's supporters claiming he could get far more than that. He had important support in the West, where he was greatly admired by Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana and Governor and former Senator Ed Johnson of Colorado. Even prior to his Texas triumph, Senator Johnson had received important offers of financial help for a presidential candidacy from Massachusetts, California and other states, which he had politely turned down. Since the victory, such offers had multiplied and the Senator's admirers were presently talking about him going to the convention with 400 delegate votes or possibly more.
Thus, it would not be surprising if the Senator would begin to think long and hard about making a real effort for the nomination, telling people he did not intend to seek it, but that if it came his way, that would be fine. Even those close to him did not know whether he intended to make a genuine effort. His wife, Lady Bird, disliked the idea, mainly because of the Senator's heart attack the prior July 4. His heart attack was a major barrier to him seeking the nomination as it would remove the health issue for the Democrats regarding the President's heart attack of the prior September 24. He also had a reputation as a conservative among the Northern liberal and labor groups, another obstacle. But there was some irony in that reputation, as the Senator had been attacked by Governor Shivers's supporters as a "stooge of Walter Reuther", the UAW leader and second in command of the AFL-CIO, and even as a pro-Communist.
The Senator was a liberal by Southern standards, with his voting record, with the exception of oil, having supported New Deal-type policies, and was one of three Southern members of the Senate not to sign the March 12 "Southern manifesto", for which Governor Shivers had violently attacked him. Nevertheless, Senator Johnson was not an ardent advocate of black equality, and, as a Southerner, would probably alienate a major portion of the black vote, increasingly vital in the Northern industrial states. For those reasons, the Northern liberals would be expected to combine against a Johnson nomination, as in the case of the late Vice-President Alben Barkley in 1952. Most political realists doubted that the Senator could ever obtain a convention majority. And Senator Johnson was certainly a political realist, himself, with the best available guess, therefore, being that his primary object at the convention would be to wield his great power to assure a "moderate" ticket and platform.
That might be good news for Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, the most obvious compromise candidate in the event of a deadlocked convention. Yet, the most astute political observers believed that Senator Johnson's triumph was likely to be better news for Adlai Stevenson, who was the original "moderate", even though he had been sounding less moderate recently.
Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, to whom Senator Johnson listened with unfailing attention, was known to look kindly on the candidacy of Mr. Stevenson. The desertion of Mr. Stevenson by Governor Shivers in 1952 for the Eisenhower ticket had been a key issue in the fight which Senator Johnson had presently won. Mr. Stevenson was more acceptable to moderate Southerners than the other two front-runners, Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee and Governor Averell Harriman of New York. Thus, the triumph by Senator Johnson might turn out to be the best thing which had happened to Mr. Stevenson in a long time, provided that he was not knocked out of the race by the Florida and California primaries.
Robert C. Ruark, in Nairobi, Kenya, tells again of Philip Percival, the professional hunter who was now an old man full of dignity. Harry Selby had enjoyed his 24th birthday in the camp of Mr. Ruark in Tanganyika when he had been just getting underway as a professional hunter some seven years earlier. Now, Mr. Selby was considered the dean of the younger pros and had just set out on his own.
He names some other hunters whom he would not recommend for someone's daughter but who were about the best for bringing the client back alive with his braggadocio intact.
He indicates that the hunting picture had changed greatly in just the short number of years he had been coming to Kenya. Formerly, there had been some 20 accredited white hunters, but now every third person on the street called himself a hunter, while some of them could not find "a mouse in a corn crib." The tendency toward shutting out increasing areas as national park land was manifestly leaving less land in which to hunt.
A letter writer from Davidson College responds to a previous letter writer who had said that he was disturbed by the situation at Myers Park High School regarding the Bible classes. He says that the Charlotte Bible Clubs had "regressed to pot-pourri of fresh 'converts' striving to 'convert' others at all costs." He suggests that it all boiled down to whether a young student would be exposed to the emotional, amateur leadership of the group against the wishes of the student's parents, or whether they would have responsible, ordained men lead those groups in an orderly, realistic manner. He concludes: "Come, let us reason together, saith the Lord."
A letter writer from Roanoke, Va.,
comments on a letter in which the writer had suggested giving blacks
back their "song" and thus providing peace for the South.
This writer expresses sorrow that the previous writer had seen fit to
withhold her name, as he found it one of the finest pieces of prose
he had read in many years, believing the message conveyed to be of
great significance, so much so that it should be required reading in
every school in the South. He believes the writer had provided a
picture of the great predicament of the times, the rapid
disappearance of the dignity and individuality of man, and had come
up with the right answer
A letter writer indicates that the
following Sunday was Mother's Day and that many people had no mother
to whom to present a gift. She says that the best gift to provide a
mother was to love, respect and live a Christian life, and that
mothers ought be honored every day. She knows that her mother was
waiting for the last homecoming in Heaven and that she would not do
anything to disgrace her precious memory, for she had lived a
Christian life and taught her daughter likewise. She thinks of some
precious mothers bearing heavy burdens with troubles caused by their
children, wonders if those children realized that one day they might
not have a mother, someone who stood beside them when no one else
would. She urges on Sunday to give one's mother her gift, love
A letter writer indicates that he
had recently read a letter in which a mother—the same who expresses the sentiment above on Mother's Day—had said that she would not want a
child staying out late at a rock 'n' roll show
A letter writer comments on memory expert Sigmund Blomberg, whose memory column had run in a series in the newspaper, indicating that those who had braved the threatening weather the prior Thursday and Friday evenings had likely been quite enlightened as to what the human mind could absorb and remember if the person had training in "How To Improve One's Memory" from Mr. Blomberg. He found him a most entertaining personality, and in the space of a few hours of instruction, he had been able to improve considerably the memory of those attentive persons who had been present for both evenings. He thanks The News for sponsoring Mr. Blomberg, says that during his visit to their office at N. G. Speir, Inc., for which he was sales manager, he had demonstrated what his memory course could do, and that the several persons, including the writer, who had taken the course, were already reaping the benefits to be derived from it.
He forgot to remember to forget what
he already had to remember before he forgot it. That's the new Elvis
song. You remember
Framed Edition
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